April of the sixteenth year of the Kaiyuan era.

It is now the season of spring warmth, blooming flowers, and the revival of all things.

The imperial palace's back garden, in particular, was a riot of color, with many of the world's most precious flowers vying for attention.

A group of children were chasing and playing in an open space in the back garden.

Among these children, the oldest is eight or nine years old, and the youngest is only two or three years old.

These children also have names that have been praised by countless people, such as Zhou Yu, Lu Su, Zhuge Liang, Sun Ce, Ma Chao, Guo Jia, Sima Yi, and Cao Ang.

These civil and military officials, who were originally hostile and fighting each other, are now gathered together, happily playing with Liu Hong's sons.

In the past few years, while busy with national affairs, Liu Hong has not forgotten to expand his family and children.

Today, Liu Hong has four sons and three daughters.

The eldest son, Liu Cheng, was born to the Empress and is eight years old this year; the second son, Liu Xuan, was born to Consort Wang and is seven years old this year; the third son, Liu Jing, was born to Consort Yin and is five years old this year; and the fourth son, Liu Wen, was born to the Empress and is four years old this year.

The three princesses are six, five, and two years old this year, respectively. The eldest and second princesses were born to Cai Yan, while the youngest princess was born to the Empress.

Judging from these princes and princesses alone, Liu Hong's most favored ones were the Empress and Cai Yan.

Of course, for the people, the fact that the current emperor is young and vigorous with many children is undoubtedly a symbol of the growing strength of the Han Dynasty.

Inside a pavilion, Liu Hong held his youngest daughter in his arms, and together with a group of imperial concubines, they watched several children playing in the garden.

This scene looks like that of an ordinary, wealthy family living in peace and contentment.

Zhang Rang and Zhao Zhong, two treacherous eunuchs in history, now had gray hair and beards, and kind faces, and were guarding not far behind with palace servants.

Liu Hong never relaxed his control over his harem.

Over the years, the Empress Dowager and the court officials have repeatedly hoped that Liu Hong would take more women into his household, but he has often made excuses.

To this day, Liu Hong's harem has fewer than twenty concubines.

Liu Hong entrusted the management of the harem entirely to the Empress, while Cai Yan was in charge of the education of the princes and princesses, giving them her complete trust and support.

Therefore, Liu Hong's harem was quite harmonious, without any infighting. The princes and princesses, under Cai Yan's tutelage, were also very harmonious and respectful to each other.

Of course, besides Liu Hong's support for the Empress and Cai Yan, these concubines also knew their emperor's temperament, so they all tried to emulate the Empress and be good wives and mothers in order to win the emperor's favor.

While running through the flower bushes, the Fourth Prince Liu Wen suddenly tripped and fell, bursting into tears.

Liu Cheng, who was standing nearby, quickly stepped forward and helped Liu Wen up. "Fourth brother, don't cry. How can a man shed tears because of pain?"

Now eight years old, Liu Cheng, under Liu Hong's careful tutelage, has already shown a hint of the demeanor of the eldest prince.

"Fourth brother, eldest brother is right. We are Father's sons, and we cannot bring shame upon ourselves!"

"That's right, hurry up and wipe away your tears, so that Xiao Liang and Xiao Yi won't laugh at you!"

The other princes also stepped forward one after another, and began to lecture the fourth prince, Liu Wen.

Looking at his four sons in the distance, Liu Hong smiled.

These sons are all around the same age, and I have already laid a solid foundation for them.

The world is vast, and one person cannot manage it all. Therefore, he hopes that his sons can join hands and work together as brothers to conquer an even greater world in the future.

"Your Majesty, a letter has arrived from Rome!"

Just then, a member of the Imperial Guard, holding a secret letter, arrived at the pavilion.

After handing his youngest daughter to the Empress, Liu Hong got up and walked towards the Imperial Study.

Upon arriving at the Imperial Study, Liu Hong took the secret letter from the guard and carefully read through it.

This secret letter was sent back by someone sent by Liu Bei.

In the letter, Liu Bei also gave Liu Hong a detailed report on the brilliant achievements he had made in Rome.

Five years have passed since Liu Bei arrived in the province of Egypt.

During these five years, through his own efforts and with the support of the Royal Merchant Guild, Liu Bei successfully brought all the nobles of the Egyptian province under his command and controlled the province's industry and commerce by leveraging commercial alliances.

In the province of Egypt today, from nobles to ordinary people, everyone depends on Liu Bei's help to earn money and have enough to eat.

During this period, Liu Bei also assembled a guard of 20,000 men.

Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, relying on their status as the governor's sons-in-law, also controlled two legions in the Egyptian province.

It can be said that the province of Egypt is now completely under Liu Bei's control.

In the letter, Liu Bei also informed Liu Hong about Sun Jian's situation in the Arab province.

During this period, Sun Jian supported an Arab peasant named Al-Arina and launched a vigorous uprising in his name.

With his formidable martial prowess and Gao Shun's talent for training troops, Sun Jian had amassed a powerful army of over 30,000 men after several years of development.

In addition, Sun Jian's land reform movement in the occupied territories won the support of the Arab people.

Therefore, Sun Jian's actions in the Arab province were unstoppable, and he was welcomed by countless people wherever he went.

With popular support and formidable military strength, after five years of conquest, most of the Arab province had fallen completely under Sun Jian's control.

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