To achieve immortality, I cultivate using Qi Luck-Chapter 661 - 300: Jinguang Palace City
Chapter 661: Chapter 300: Jinguang Palace City
Chengdu Prefecture, Jinguan City.
A spirited army came from the east, bringing an unparalleled momentum, and poured into the city.
Lu Yuan rode his horse, surveying the world-renowned fortress from left to right.
The mottled city wall was heavily damaged, and some faint dark red stains remained, vaguely telling of the terrifying wars this city had once experienced.
The original bluestone streets were now pitted and uneven, and most of the houses on both sides were damaged. Some had even collapsed directly, and no one cared to fix them.
From time to time, glances came from the houses, but after just two looks at the fierce soldiers on the street, they withdrew like frightened rabbits, not daring to look again.
Lu Yuan noticed all of this and shook his head disappointedly.
The once world-renowned capital, on par with Baling, had declined to such a state in just over a decade, making people sigh.
Today, Baling city has become the capital of Great Chu, with a population of 1.5 million and nearly 700,000 permanent residents.
As for Jinguan City, the prosperous days when it had 100,000 families were long gone. It was questionable whether the city could even gather 5,000 households now.
War was indeed the most devastating thing to a place, and in some ways even more terrible than natural disasters.
They quickly arrived at the royal palace in the heart of the city.
The royal palace of Jinguan City had a long history, said to be thousands of years old.
In the beginning, the palace had been built by the barbarians who lived in the Xichuan region and used as the capital of the local barbarian kingdom for a thousand years.
Later, the barbarians were defeated by the Qiang people, who ruled the Xichuan region and made Jinguan City their capital.
The palace was naturally inherited and preserved, and with the growth of the population, it was also expanded and renovated.
Seven hundred years later, the ruler of Golden City was the Great Wu, a dynasty before the Pre-Yue.
At that time, the Great Wu Emperor launched an army of 500,000 infantry, 200,000 navy, who sailed up the Shuo River to conquer the Xichuan Qiang Kingdom.
After three years of fierce battle, they annihilated it and established Xichuan County.
As the newly expanded county needed stability, and as a way to win over the hearts of the local people, the Great Wu Heavenly Son often traveled west to stay in the city for nearly a decade.
The palace in Jinguan City became the imperial palace of Great Wu Heavenly Son and was kept preserved.
In later dynasties, emperors would occasionally travel west to stay in the palace, whether it was for war or leisure.
When Li Xiong revolted and Lu Yuan led the Changsha army to recapture it, and the Nanzhao army attacked, the palace buildings were not heavily damaged, they only looted some of the treasures.
As a result, compared to most of the damaged buildings in the city, the palace, which had been occasionally maintained, became the most complete structure in the city.
Now that Lu Yuan had recaptured the Xichuan Prefecture and entered Jinguan City, he naturally took over the palace as a Great Chu mansion and moved in.
There were not many people left in the palace.
The beautiful palace ladies that Li Xiong had plundered from all over Xichuan had been taken away by Lu Yuan during his Northern Expedition to Xichuan ten years ago.
Over a thousand beautiful women of Xichuan, almost half of the best ones, were taken into the Chu Palace and became his concubines. The majority of the others had been given as rewards to the court officials and generals.
Later, the Western Chu State was established by the monks of White Phoenix Temple. Even those monks who had established the Buddhist state had their own rules and disciplines, and they could not be close to women, at least not openly.
So, even though Jihui lived in the palace, it was only occupied by monks and the eunuchs left by the previous masters.
There were about a hundred eunuchs who were pitied by Jihui and not driven away. Instead, they were left in the palace to clean and maintain it.
All these were the information collected by the Imperial Palace’s foreign affairs office over the years about the situation in the western region’s palace.
After Lu Yuan entered the palace,
In the square in front of the main hall, a group of slender and graceful nuns, dressed in gray, were escorted by the personal guard into Lu Yuan’s presence.
Seeing their king, the leading personal guard quickly stepped forward and saluted, before reporting, “Your Majesty, I have been ordered to clear the palace. There are more than 500 palace ladies captured inside, who were taken from various places by the Nanzhao Army after they invaded Xichuan last year.”
“There are also more than 300 monks. These were captured by the Nanzhao Army and originally lived in the palace. However, after being captured, they were all castrated by the order of the South Called Crown Prince, and made eunuchs, responsible for cleaning.”
“In addition, there are more than 100 nuns, some of whom lived in the palace originally, while others were seized from various temples by the Nanzhao Army after they conquered Xichuan.”
“Finally, there are more than 100 eunuchs left, all old men of the palace.”
“In total, there are 1,093 people. Please instruct us on how to deal with them.”
After listening to the report, Lu Yuan looked at the crowd of people herded from various parts of the palace who were now in the square. They included palace girls, monks, nuns, and eunuchs, all of whom were surrounded by the army and looked afraid and anxious as they faced him.
He glanced at the group, his gaze lingering a moment on the palace girls and nuns.
