PDLP Chapter 162 How can one word describe this? (1)
Chapter 162 How can one word describe this? (1)
Yun Che looked at the mountain of memorials on the table. Either they were about the war in the north or the various uprisings in the south. Every time he went to court, the ministers in the court quarreled over these two matters.
Several court officials had suggested that the Queen go to Jiangnan Road to negotiate peace with the King of Jiangnan, but Yun Che rejected their proposals on the spot.
There are people in the court, and if he asks the empress to negotiate peace, how can he, the emperor, put his face on the spot?
Another minister suggested directly issuing an imperial decree to confer the title of noble concubine on the King of Jiangnan, allowing him to enter the harem directly. This way, the court could take back Jiangnan without wasting a single soldier.
Yun Che rubbed his temple. He had certainly tried this method before. During the talent show, he had someone send the first imperial edict to the south. However, Shen Rou, who had jumped up and down in front of him to get his attention, didn’t even bother with him. Not long after, she even led her troops to seize his seventh uncle’s territory.
Yun Che found that he was really helpless against Shen Rou. If he had known that such a huge disaster would happen, he should have beaten her to death.
I really regret it!
Yun Che dragged his tired body to Shen Yin's palace. More than half a year had passed, and Shen Yin was no longer the sickly look she had been before.
At this moment, she was seen holding a spear, looking heroic, and performing with great vigor in the not-so-wide courtyard!
However, the many flowers, plants and trees planted in the courtyard somewhat hindered her performance - every time the tip of the spear was thrust out, it would always be blocked by branches and leaves; when the gun was swung, it would often be entangled by the tree trunks.
Faced with these obstacles, she did not hesitate, picking, stabbing, sweeping, and chopping...her body was covered with branches and leaves that she had cut off.
There was applause behind her, and Shen Yin knew who it was without even looking.
Shen Yin stopped and stood with the gun in hand, looking at Yun Che and asked, "Your Majesty, why are you here today?"
Yun Che smiled and walked closer to Shen Yin, reaching out to remove a leaf hanging from her head, "I came to see you."
Shen Yin subconsciously turned her head away to avoid the other person's touch, "I am fine, thank you for your concern, Your Majesty."
Yun Che withdrew his hand and said casually, “I don’t have any other intentions. I just want to help you pick the fallen leaves off your head.”
Shen Yin had a perfect smile on her face. "It's just a small fallen leaf. I can do it myself."
Yun Che frowned, looked at her helplessly, and sighed softly, "Yin'er, why do you have to be so distant with me?"
Shen Yin looked confused and asked doubtfully, "Could it be that I did not pay my respects to Your Majesty just now? But Your Majesty promised in person that you would allow me to waive these formalities."
"Can we not be like this? I'm very tired. I'm really very tired. I just want to have a good chat with you."
Shen Yin looked at Yun Che's aggrieved expression, and her heart was calm. "Your Majesty, you have found the wrong person. I can't even leave my own palace, so I really can't help you."
"Are you blaming me for confining you? Am I deliberately ignoring you?"
"Don't dare."
Yun Che was a little anxious when he heard this, and he quickly explained: “That’s not my intention, but… it’s just that the situation is urgent, so I have to do this. Do you know where Shen Rou has attacked now? Most of the territory in the south has fallen into her hands, and the people in the court are even more excited. Everyone wants me to depose you as the queen and execute you! If I hadn’t pretended to be indifferent and ignored you to shut up those ministers, you would probably have lost your life long ago!”
After hearing these words, Shen Yin couldn't help but sneer in her heart, but a look of gratitude appeared on her face. She said softly: "So that's the case. Thank you very much, Your Majesty, for your love and care." There was a barely perceptible sarcasm in her tone.
Because Shen Yin didn't treat Yun Che well, Yun Che left her palace not long after staying there.
Shen Yin returned to the bedroom with a gun in hand. Just as she sat down, a palace servant came to report that Yun Che had gone to the imperial concubine.
It was always like this. She didn't want to know which concubine's palace Yun Che went to, but that person insisted on having the palace servants come and report her itinerary. Did he think that she would be jealous if he did that?
Shen Yin didn't want to embarrass the palace servant who reported the news, so she asked him to leave.
Shen Yin sat down at the table and looked at the square sky outside the window, lost in thought. She didn't know how long she would be locked up in this prison.
Shen Yin was under house arrest for three years.
During these three years, Lu Changqing unified the entire southern territory, reshuffled the southern officialdom, assigned all the people she had trained in recent years to important positions, and began to fully implement new policies.
The first thing Lu Changqing did was to overturn the table of the aristocratic families and beat the "landlords" to divide the land. She and her subordinates fought for her kingdom with every shot. If anyone dared to challenge her and steal her things, she would kill him.
The next step is to crack down on corruption and tax evasion, reduce taxes and rents, recuperate the economy, and encourage agricultural production.
The next step is to give full play to the subjective initiative of the time travelers to build factories.
Shen Rou is good at making soap, glass and white sugar, while Lu Changqing is good at improving looms, shipbuilding, papermaking, etc.
The most important thing is to let women step onto the political stage. Since Lu Changqing occupied Jiangnan Road, she had already started to work on the imperial examination for women. At that time, the male students in the country thought that Lu Changqing was just playing around. After all, in their eyes, no matter how powerful Lu Changqing was, she was just a woman. A woman could not make too much waves, and her achievements in this life were probably over.
It turned out that Lu Changqing was not kidding them. All those who were shortlisted for the first women's imperial examination were given official positions this time.
Those who rank high and have outstanding abilities will stay in the palace directly as reserve officials in the capital, waiting for a chance to rise to prominence in the future; the others will be transferred to various prefectures and assigned jobs based on their exam rankings and abilities.
All the questions in that exam were set by Lu Changqing. The Four Books and Five Classics accounted for only 10%, and the remaining 90% were related to agriculture, sericulture and handicrafts, especially agriculture, which accounted for as much as 60%. Even the final palace examination tested agriculture and sericulture strategies.
Lu Changqing has always known that being a good writer does not necessarily mean being a good worker. If an official who is ignorant and lazy goes to the grassroots level, it will not benefit the people, but will make things difficult for them.
Lu Changqing didn't ask these candidates to know how to farm, but they at least had to know the order of farming.
There was a lot of opposition to the imperial examination that time, and because they were trying to grab territory, Lu Changqing didn't have much free time to deal with those who wrote articles to curse her.
This time it's different. The whole South belongs to her now. She has plenty of time to deal with those men who are born in misfortune and don't know how to appreciate it.
She didn't deprive men of the right to take the imperial examinations like she directly deprived women of the right to take the examinations. She has been so kind, why are these people still not satisfied?
She had the three men who danced the most happily and cursed the most fiercely in front of her arrested, and broke the right hand of the man who was writing. All the men in the family within three generations and within three clans were not allowed to take part in the imperial examinations.
This killing of the chicken to scare the monkey has little effect. The people in the south cannot participate in the imperial examination. At worst, they can cross the river to the north to participate. Who is afraid of who?