The Eldest Daughter Is Beautiful and Saucy
Chapter 945: two countries
Chapter 945: Goodwill between the Two Countries
What is the difference between opposing women’s admission to school, taking the imperial examinations and becoming officials and opposing Bai Qingyan’s ascension to the throne as a woman?
The officials of the Great Zhou Dynasty did not dare to object, but this imperial edict caused huge waves in the hearts of the envoys of Dayan and Xiao Rongyan, as well as the envoys of Xiliang and Li Zhijie.
Li Zhijie tightened his grip. In Xiliang… the status of women was higher than that of women in Jin. But despite this, after ascending the throne, the Xiliang Empress did not dare to risk the disapproval of the world… and had no intention of employing women as officials.
Bai Qingyan dared to make such a move when she first ascended the throne. With such courage, did she really have a sure victory, or… was she acting on impulse, thinking that she could challenge the etiquette by becoming the Empress of the Great Zhou?
Xiao Rongyan, who was standing behind the “Ninth Prince of Great Yan”, looked around calmly and saw that almost half of the officials of the Great Zhou Dynasty had unhappy expressions. He broke into a cold sweat for Bai Qingyan.
Bai Qingyan seemed too hasty in employing women as officials…
Being anxious is not a good thing. Xiao Rongyan’s mother, Queen Ji, once wanted to improve the status of women and allow them to serve as officials in the court. However, she ended up being opposed by the students of Yan State. The students even gathered at the palace gate to protest and curse their mother, the witch queen, for ruining the country.
King Hedong lowered his eyelids, with the corners of his lips slightly raised. As expected… Bai Qingyan still had the idea of employing women as officials.
In this way, the efforts he had put in among the students during this period of time were not in vain, and he could do something about this matter.
After the imperial edict was read out, all officials of the Great Zhou knelt down to express their gratitude.
“Thank you, Your Majesty! Long live Your Majesty! Long live the Great Zhou!”
The coronation ceremony ended amid the shock of envoys from various countries.
After the ceremony, there was a banquet to entertain envoys from various countries. The wives of the important officials had already entered the palace and arrived at the Xuanming Hall where the palace banquet was set up. They sat obediently in the seats where the attendants took them, and greeted each other with low smiles.
Some well-read ladies from noble families heard that Bai Qingyan had issued an edict today to open girls’ schools, allow girls to take the imperial examinations, and allow girls to serve as officials at the court. Their hands were shaking with excitement. Years of good family education and reserve allowed them to hold back their surging emotions. They sat in their seats with smiles, imagining that they could serve as officials at the court with their fathers and make their fathers proud.
The noble ladies were all knowledgeable and knew that Bai Qingyan was planning to improve the status of women. This was understandable, after all, Bai Qingyan herself was a woman.
The entire Xuanming Palace was discussing Bai Qingyan’s new policy and the matter of allowing women to take the imperial examinations and become officials.
Previously, there was a clause in the new policy that encouraged widows to remarry. If a widow had children, her clan could not seize her husband’s property if she had not remarried. If the widow’s parents-in-law were still alive, the woman could remarry with her children and had to give half of her husband’s property to her parents-in-law, regardless of dowry. If the woman left her children behind and remarried alone, she had to leave her husband’s property to her children, regardless of dowry. When this new policy was announced… many scholars angrily denounced it as violating the Three Bonds and Five Constant Virtues, and it also caused a huge uproar among the people.
But all the officials knew that Bai Qingyan did this in order to increase the country’s population. After all, with the wars among the nations, many soldiers died on the battlefield, adding to the number of orphans and widows.
Women have to take care of children and do farming. Many families have left fertile land to waste because there is no labor force at home.
How many women were driven out of their homes by their clans, who seized their property and expelled them from their homes because their husbands passed away, leaving their widows and young children starving to death on the streets? Even a family of noble birth, such as the Bai family, almost suffered the same fate.
Every time Bai Qingyan issued an edict, it was a provocation to the old customs and was a grand event.
Li Mingrui personally explained to the common people that encouraging widows to remarry was to enable widows and their young children to make a living. Everyone understood the truth, but who in the world would want their wives to remarry with their children and property after they died?
The women in the hall were discussing heatedly, and each of them was eager to try to take the imperial examination and see if they could win a place.
There is a widowed woman from the Bai clan who came to attend the palace banquet today as a royal relative. She twisted the handkerchief in her hand back and forth, her eyes lowered and her heart was pounding.
Before, when the new policy came out to encourage widows to remarry, she thought it was just a lot of noise with little action. But today, as soon as Bai Qingyan ascended the throne, he wanted to open a girls’ school, allow girls to take the imperial examinations, and appoint girls as officials. It seemed that he was serious about it. Should she take this opportunity… to leave the Bai family? Her cousin has never remarried since his wife died, just for her. If she can marry her cousin… it can make up for their regrets for many years.
Mrs. Bai’s hands were covered with sweat. She wiped them with a handkerchief and reminded herself not to be impatient… This matter should only be brought up after it is 100% certain.
Soon, envoys and ministers from various countries entered the hall. The ladies covered half of their faces with round fans, leaving their eyes exposed, and looked curiously at the masked Ninth Prince of Dayan and the Ghost-faced Prince of Rongdi.
The reason they were interested in the Ninth Prince of Yan was that they had seen the peerless Yan Emperor Murong Yu, at least so far… These ladies had never seen a more stunningly handsome man than Murong Yu, and they wanted to know whether the masked Ninth Prince of Yan had the same outstanding appearance as his brother.
The reason they were interested in the Ghost-faced Prince of Rongdi was that they heard that he looked extremely ugly. Curiosity drove these innocent noble ladies to see how ugly the Ghost-faced Prince of Rongdi looked under his mask.
As for Li Zhijie, most of the noble ladies who could come to Xuanming Palace today had already seen him and were not very curious.
However, Li Zhijie took advantage of the fact that Dayan had previously allowed Xiliang to read the covenant they had signed with Rongdi to show goodwill to the Ninth Prince of Dayan and discussed with him the new policies of Bai Qingyan, the Empress of the Great Zhou.
“The Queen of the Great Zhou has just ascended the throne, and every new policy she promulgated is a challenge to secular etiquette and the interests of the aristocratic families. She is too radical and does not consider the overall situation. If she did not have the military power in her hands… I’m afraid it would be difficult for her to keep her position!” Li Zhijie knelt in front of the desk, unfolded his iron bone fan, and fanned himself from time to time.
The masked Ninth Prince of Dayan sat upright and spoke slowly, “Whose throne is not secured by holding military power? During the rebellion in Yunjing… if it weren’t for Prince Yan leading troops to protect her, I’m afraid the Queen of Xiliang would not have been able to secure her throne.”
Li Zhijie chuckled and looked at Xiao Rongyan who was sitting behind the Ninth Prince of Great Yan. “I heard that… Mr. Xiao is engaged to the Queen of Great Zhou. Did the Ninth Prince bring Mr. Xiao here today with the intention of forming a marriage alliance? If so, why not let the Emperor of Yan confer a title on Mr. Xiao and raise his status to build friendship between the two countries?”
Li Zhijie tried to curry favor with Xiao Rongyan and nodded to him with a smile.