"What? You don't want to?"

Seeing Liu Hong standing there unwillingly, Dou Miao couldn't help but question him with a stern face.

"No, Your Majesty, I am willing to obey your orders!"

Liu Hong quickly waved his hand and respectfully agreed.

Dou Miao nodded in satisfaction: "That's good. You'll be twenty after the New Year. I don't know how many more years I have left to live. Right now, your mother and I have the greatest wish to see you give birth to a prince as soon as possible, so that our Han Dynasty can continue to flourish."

In that case, when I'm gone, I can give an account to the previous emperors!

As she spoke, Dou Miao wiped her eyes, playing the emotional card.

Upon hearing this, Liu Hong felt a headache coming on and immediately assured her, "Mother, what are you saying? You are sure to live to be a hundred years old. Please rest assured, Mother. At the latest, next year, I will make sure you and Mother hold the imperial grandson!"

"Okay, that's for the best!"

With Liu Hong's assurance, Dou Miao smiled happily, and Dong Shi nodded with satisfaction.

"By the way, Your Majesty, what brings you here today?"

With the matter of the imperial grandson settled, Dou Miao steered the conversation back on track.

Liu Hong said with a smile, "Mother, do you still remember Princess Lanzhi of Gaochang?"

Dou Miao nodded: "Of course I remember, hasn't she moved to the Imperial Clan Court now?"

"Yes, Mother, I have come here to request that you issue an imperial decree to formally accept her as a member of the imperial family and bestow upon her the title of Princess of the Great Han, thus giving her the identity of a daughter of the Liu family."

"sure!!"

Dou Miao nodded and agreed immediately.

She knew that Liu Hong was planning to take over Gaochang Kingdom, but she didn't want to ask any more questions.

Soon, an imperial edict was issued from Chang Le Palace, and several eunuchs and palace maids, carrying all the rewards, rushed towards Liu Yu's Imperial Clan Court.

Liu Hong also brought Song Yue back to Weiyang Palace, and then dismissed everyone in the palace.

Although it was broad daylight, Liu Hong had no choice but to work hard to fulfill the wishes of his two mothers.

...

West of Luoyang City, the garrison of the Imperial Guards.

Since the emperor reformed the military system, the Imperial Guard has been expanded to 30,000 men, and the number of Imperial Guard officers has increased to 4,000.

The soldiers of the Imperial Guard were all elite soldiers from the Five Battalions of the Northern Army, Dunhuang Battalion, Yuyang Battalion, and Chang'an Battalion.

Those Imperial Guardsmen were all selected from the Imperial Guards to serve as junior officers in the Imperial Guards.

After several years of fighting, replenishment, and training, the Imperial Guards have now regained the glory they once were during the reign of Emperor Xiaowu, when they were the pillars of the nation.

Moreover, the armor and weapons worn by the soldiers of the Imperial Guard were all meticulously crafted by the Imperial Workshop, and the horses were also excellent warhorses from the Danyang Military Horse Farm.

In terms of equipment alone, the Imperial Guards of today are unmatched in the entire Han Dynasty.

With the improvement of the Han Dynasty's national governance and the abundance of food supplies, the soldiers of the Imperial Guards also conducted small training sessions every two days and large training sessions every five days. Their combat effectiveness was undoubtedly ranked first among the million-strong Han army.

Inside the training ground, the Imperial Guards, along with their respective soldiers, were conducting daily training exercises, including lining up, horseback riding, archery, combat, and charging.

The shouts of the soldiers rose and fell.

The residents living around the drill ground did not find it noisy at all; on the contrary, they felt extremely at ease.

Wearing official robes, Xi Zhicai walked along the edge of the training ground, looking at the soldiers who were training with a smile on his face. He couldn't help but recall the scene when he first met Liu Hong's guards in Hejian.

Xi Zhicai once said that Liu Hong's methods of training soldiers were limited by various reasons and could not be promoted throughout the army.

But who could have imagined that in just a few short years, the emperor would actually achieve it, and even far exceed the expectations of that year.

In Xi Zhicai's view, the Imperial Guards before him far surpassed all armies of all previous dynasties.

Of course, there was an even more formidable force in the northern part of the training ground: the Imperial Guards.

Xi Zhicai walked through the training ground and arrived at the place where the Imperial Guards Cavalry were training.

Looking up, one could see a thousand cavalrymen lined up in neat rows, staring intently at an open space two hundred paces away, where scarecrows clad in armor were placed.

Those cavalrymen, except for their eyes and the eyes of their horses, were all clad in heavy armor made of fine iron.

Under the sunlight, the iron armor gleamed with a chilling light. From afar, the thousand cavalrymen resembled a Great Wall of steel, inspiring awe and fear.

In Xi Zhicai's view, no army in the world could withstand the charge of this Imperial Guard Cavalry.

"Imperial Guards, attack!!"

Just then, Tong Yuan, who was in charge of training the Imperial Guards, roared and waved the command flag in his hand.

The soldiers of the Imperial Guards also urged their horses to gallop. Their warhorses moved slowly with small steps, gradually increasing in speed until they reached sprint speed after running a hundred paces.

The warhorses they rode were all carefully selected from tens of thousands of excellent warhorses at the Danyang Military Horse Farm; each one was a top-tier steed.

Only such warhorses could bear the weight of heavy armor and launch a charge.

The clanging of armor and the thunderous roar of horses' hooves echoed throughout the training ground like rolling thunder.

Even the Imperial Guard soldiers training nearby turned to look over, their eyes filled with envy.

Although these Imperial Guard soldiers were the most elite troops of the Han Dynasty, they knew that the cavalrymen covered in heavy armor were the real elite force.

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