bookcurios Chapter 259: If you are not called Qingping, you can’t be happy (28)
Chapter 259: If you are not called Qingping, you can’t be happy (28)
Lu Changqing thought that Yelu Zongzhen would just go all out, or at worst lead his troops to deal with her like he did with Li Yuanhao. As a result, the other side just sent more troops to the border and then became quiet.
Afterwards, Yelu Zongzhen sent envoys to ask for peace. In order to show his sincerity, he wanted to ask for a princess from the Song Dynasty to marry his son Yelu Hongji.
The child born to Zhang Yihuan died of illness last year. Currently, there is only one living and unmarried princess in the Song Dynasty, and that is Princess Fukang, who is only seven years old.
The ministers were surprisingly unanimous in opposing the marriage.
Don't get me wrong, they didn't feel sorry for Princess Fukang, but they simply thought that the act of marrying a foreign princess was shameful.
Whether from the economic or cultural perspective, these scholars looked down on the "barbarians" to the north and southwest from all angles.
To use a more exaggerated internet term to describe it, in their eyes, the difference between the Song people and the Liao people may be greater than the difference between humans and dogs.
Therefore, in the eyes of the literati, marriage between the Han regime and the minority regime was an act of "humiliating the country", and this idea continued until the Southern Song Dynasty. The later moralist Zhu Xi even regarded intermarriage between the Han regime and the minority regime as "self-humiliation."
Lu Changqing shook his head. After dealing with them for so many years, Yelu Zongzhen actually still didn't understand how much the court officials of the Song court valued their face.
At present, the Liao Kingdom is not very peaceful. The previous wars against Song and Xia have caused the Liao Dynasty's national strength to decline a lot, resulting in increasingly acute domestic conflicts. If it were her, she would directly cease fire and seek peace, restore economic trade between the two countries, and develop slowly first.
Yelu Zongzhen was also aware of these problems. He originally wanted to start another battle against the Song Dynasty to divert domestic conflicts, but more ministers suggested that he seek peace with the Song Dynasty and continue to "deepen the feelings of brotherhood and safeguard the interests of future generations."
They had a good plan. If the marriage was to be arranged, the Song court would certainly give a large dowry in order to show its great power. However, the Song court did not accept it at all, and the wish of becoming a "son-in-law" was dashed.
Now Song and Liao have reached a strange "peace" mode. There are constant small-scale wars on the border between the two sides, but no one dares to start a major war at will.
The Song court used the same tactic to sanction the Xia State, unilaterally closing the market and stopping trade between the two countries, making Yelu Zongzhen experience the feeling of Li Yuanhao being at a loss at the time.
Yelu Zongzhen knew that it would be disadvantageous to the Liao Kingdom if this continued, but he was unwilling to submit to the Song Dynasty. After all, they had enjoyed the respect from the Song court for more than 30 years.
It is really hard to adapt from being a grandparent to suddenly being a grandchild.
Lu Changqing stayed in the north for more than a year, gradually reducing the number of soldiers by nearly 200,000.
At present, the number of troops is still too large and needs to be further reduced. Later, Wang Anshi reduced it to only 600,000, and that was when there were no horse farms in the Northern Song Dynasty.
Thanks to Cao Danshu's strong support, Lu and Fan's reforms are still continuing.
The land measurement at that time came in handy now. In terms of land reform, Lu Changqing copied the Qing Dynasty's system of allocating land tax, abolished the poll tax, and simplified taxation.
As soon as this decree was implemented, the result was that large landlords in many places rebelled.
The people would revolt only when they could no longer make a living. The policy of equalizing the tax rate based on the amount of land used was clearly in the interests of those farmers who had no land or little land.
In feudal society, the largest group of people were often those without land or with little land.
Therefore, in today's world where land annexation has become increasingly serious, it is relatively difficult for these big landlords to gather the people for a large-scale rebellion.
Therefore, every time landlords revolted, they were almost destroyed.
Originally, there was no reasonable reason to seize the land of these landlords at the beginning, but now, the big landlords have taken the initiative to share the worries of the court and provided reasons that are enough to make people chop off their heads.
Anyone who dares to rebel will be suppressed by force, and then the landlords will be beaten and their land divided.
Seeing that the tax reform had achieved results, Lu Changqing prepared to reform the imperial examination system next.
In addition to copying the part of Wang Anshi's reform that "abolished the Mingjing examination, and the Jinshi examination was based mainly on classics and policy essays, and the law examination was added", Lu Changqing submitted a memorial to set up the imperial examination for women.
To be honest, the ministers in the court have become immune to Lu Changqing's ideas that would go against the will of the world. After all, it happens once or twice every year.
But immunity is immunity, which does not mean they do not object.
In the court, Lu Changqing innocently questioned the ministers: "The national law does not explicitly stipulate that women cannot take the imperial examinations, so why can't women take the imperial examinations? Moreover, it is a separate imperial examination for women, and the test questions do not conflict with those for men.
Let's take a step back and say, can you guarantee that you can give birth to a boy? If your boy is not as good as your girl in studying, then can't your girl also bring honor to your family?"
Lu Changqing patted his chest confidently, "Am I not the best example? I know that all my colleagues hate me and secretly envy me, but you have to admit that I have the vision and ability. If your daughter could stand here like me, wouldn't you feel proud?"
Someone retorted: "How can it be the same? Daughters can't continue the family line. When they reach a certain age, they have to leave the family."
Lu Changqing said as a matter of course: "It would be fine if we don't have a family, or we can marry a son-in-law and get rid of the father and keep the son."
Several old ministers were so angry at Lu Changqing's words that they fumed and glared. How could a woman say such words as "kill the father and keep the son"?
On the topic of the imperial examination for women, Lu Changqing argued with a hundred people for more than half an hour but failed to reach a conclusion.
After the court meeting, Cao Danshu summoned Lu Changqing alone and asked her why she wanted to allow women to participate in the imperial examinations.
Lu Changqing said: "My queen, please think about Empress Dowager Zhangxian. Why didn't she go that far in the end?"
Cao Danshu's heart skipped a beat. "Fuying, there are some things that cannot be said."
"My Lady, do you think the people in this world are suffering?"
Without waiting for Cao Danshu to speak, Lu Changqing asked himself and answered: "Compared to us, they have a hard time, but among them, women have the hardest time."
"My lady, you should know about the folk practice of 'pawning a wife', right? But have you ever heard of the practice of 'pawning a husband'?
No. So we are all human beings, why can only wives be sold but not husbands? "
"There are also the so-called 'Seven Reasons for Divorce'. Why are the requirements for women's moral conduct so strict? Why is there only divorce for a wife but not for a husband?"
"And the issue of inheritance. We are all children of our mother and father, so why do men get a share of the family property, but women get nothing?"
“I thought about these issues of inequality between men and women for a long time, and later I realized that it was because women had no power.
Just like my mistress, she is my father's legal wife. She does not participate in social labor and cannot create "value" in the eyes of men, so she has no right to speak and is unable to compete with my father. She can only endure my father's anger everywhere. "
Afraid that Cao Danshu did not understand the meaning of social labor, Lu Changqing explained in more popular terms: "So-called social labor means walking out of the backyard, like me, like those ministers in the court, like those men in the world, to participate in various labors and work, to earn money or power.
Only in this way can we be seen by others, break free from our shackles, and not be locked up in a small square courtyard waiting for charity from men who are superior to us. "
"I want all women in the world to break free from these dogmas, but we have been bound for too long and must seek help from outsiders."
"My lady, someone who can help women all over the world has now appeared." Lu Changqing looked into Cao Danshu's eyes and said seriously, "That person is you."