The Eldest Daughter Is Beautiful and Saucy
Chapter 957: Unworldly feats
Chapter 957: Unparalleled Merit
Xiao Rongyan looked at Bai Qingyan with calm and deep eyes, and spoke from the bottom of his heart: “Allowing women to study, take the imperial examinations, and become officials, this matter… must be done! But not now, and it should not be done by you, the emperor of a country! Your goal is to unify the world, and the most taboo thing at this time is domestic instability! If this… this matter causes chaos and disintegration of the Great Zhou, the Great Zhou will lose the opportunity to compete with the Yan State for the world.”
Logically speaking, as the ninth prince of Yan State, Xiao Rongyan should not have said this to Bai Qing, but he still said it.
His mother, Empress Ji, was a lifelong pain in Xiao Rongyan’s heart, so… Xiao Rongyan also wanted to allow girls to study, take the imperial examinations, and become officials, but there was too much resistance…
Therefore, he chose to wait and see and analyze the situation before taking any action after the country was unified and stable.
After all, once this thing is done, the whole country will be in an uproar.
Xiao Rongyan adjusted his sitting position: “In my opinion, at least Da Zhou does not have the conditions to do this right now!”
Even the State of Yan had better conditions than the Great Zhou. After all, A Li, who ascended the throne of Emperor Yan, could not govern the country personally yet. After the world was unified, he, the regent, would issue such decrees. After they were implemented, A Li, as an adult, would deal with his uncle with harsh means, claiming that he was heartbroken and did not attend the court, thus avoiding the ministers who forced him to cancel the policy of allowing women to study, take the imperial examinations, and become officials.
Once this culprit is “dead”, the officials will no longer push A Li too hard.
Then, after everything has become a foregone conclusion and the people and officials have gotten used to it, A Li will tell the world… allowing women to study, take the imperial examinations, and become officials is feasible, and it will not arouse too much opposition.
This… is what Xiao Rongyan thinks is the safest method.
Xiao Rongyan looked at Bai Qingyan’s tired, bloodshot eyes, and the dark circles under her eyes, feeling distressed. His heart was filled with emotions: “Implementing new policies, improving the status of women, and conquering Xiliang… Each of these is a big deal. Abao, you are pushing yourself too hard.”
Bai Qingyan knew that Xiao Rongyan felt sorry for her, and she smiled slightly, “I have thought about what you said, and General Lu and the others have advised me, but I still have to do this. I didn’t think that the promulgation of this decree would immediately improve the status of women. As you said… it takes time to change the traditional idea that men are responsible for the outside world and women are responsible for the inside world, and to change the idea that daughters will always become wives of other families after they are married off. But… someone has to bring it up first, and use a strong decree as a basis to forcefully make changes!”
“Many new policies will encounter strong opposition at the beginning, but if you persevere, more and more people will abide by them over time. However, if you back down once you encounter opposition, the new policy will face even more fierce opposition when it is proposed again in the future! Because everyone will know that opposition is effective!” Bai Qingyan smiled lightly at Xiao Rongyan, “And if this thing is done, the talents of the Great Zhou… will no longer be limited to men and women, and the various types of talents obtained will definitely be more than those of the Yan State!”
Bai Qingyan dares to think and dares to do.
All beneficial ways go with the times.
She had already made up her mind to allow women to take the imperial examinations and serve as officials, and she would not back down.
Xiao Rongyan could only say: “If this incident causes the Great Zhou to fall apart and Yan takes over the world… will Abao not regret it?”
“Grandfather once taught every descendant of the Bai family that the people are the foundation of the country. If the foundation is solid, the country will be at peace. I deeply agree with that.” Bai Qingyan looked at Xiao Rongyan steadily. “The unification of the world, the peace and tranquility of the sea, whether it is achieved by Yan State or Great Zhou, is good for the people! The competition between Great Zhou and Yan State should be… which country’s national policy can truly achieve the four words of enriching the people and strengthening the country, and which country can truly unify the world.”
When their eyes met, Xiao Rongyan heard the deeper meaning in Bai Qing’s words.
Today, Dayan governs its people in accordance with the national policy formulated by Queen Ji back then. Although slight changes have been made in practice, the principles remain largely unchanged.
Bai Qingyan groped his way forward, outlined the main ideas for the new policies of the Great Zhou, and implemented the new policies in the Great Zhou with extremely strong means.
Most of the national policies and laws of the two countries are different, or even contradictory.
However, both countries have the ambition to unify the world, and after unifying the world, they will surely use their own national policies to rule a country.
“Abao’s meaning is that he intends to… wait until one day, when there are only the Great Zhou and the Great Yan left in the world, use their comprehensive national strength… to determine who will win and who will lose?” Xiao Rongyan asked.
Xiao Rongyan once thought, if there really came a time when only their two countries were left in the world and a war really broke out, how should they balance the interests of their country and their own feelings.
Xiao Rongyan didn’t know whether it was feasible to compete for supremacy by competing to see who could make the people rich and the country strong…
But Xiao Rongyan understood that if that day really came and the two countries united without fighting, if Great Zhou bowed its head and merged into Great Yan, he was not sure whether the officials of Great Zhou would agree. But if the situation was reversed and Great Yan was asked to bow its head and merge into Great Zhou, the officials of Great Yan would definitely refuse to obey even at death.
The unification of the two countries into one country is not just a matter between him and Bai Qingyan, or even between the Murong family and the Bai family, but a major event for both the Yan State and the Great Zhou.
Even though he understood that Bai Qingyan didn’t want to see lives destroyed, didn’t want to see soldiers sacrifice their blood in vain… and only wanted to use this kind of competition to determine the winner because they were both powerful countries with ambitions to unify the world and were fighting for territory, he didn’t dare to agree.
It is true that he is the Ninth Prince of Dayan, but Dayan is not a country that belongs to just his Murong family, but a country that belongs to the subjects of Dayan.
The biggest difference between Yan State and Great Zhou is that the Murong family of Yan State has ruled Yan State for generations… The descendants of the Murong family knew from birth that they were the masters of Yan State. They learned and mastered the art of ruling the people and the country. They were born to rule Yan State.
The Yan State completed the great cause of unification for the sake of the people…but also to establish immortal merits and let the Murong family’s surname remain forever in the history books.
The first emperor of the newly established Great Zhou, Bai Qingyan, was born into the Bai family, a family of ministers for generations. He was taught by the King of Zhenguo since he was a child. It is true that he took it as his responsibility to unify the world, but as ministers, the ambition of the Bai family they learned since childhood… was to protect the mountains and rivers, and to bring peace and prosperity to the people. It was to protect the people and ensure their safety. The teaching they received was to protect the people for a lifetime with just a grain of rice from the people.
Perhaps Bai Qingyan’s original intention to ascend the supreme throne was selfish, so that he could be in this position and announce to the world… that he would let the Bai family members who survived the battle in Southern Xinjiang during the Xuanjia period return home, in order to take revenge on the corrupt Jin court and royal family.
But she also rebelled for the sake of the people, and she also put her heart into how to govern the country. She read the works of various philosophers, Shang Zi, and history…
Second update…