Chapter 438： interest first

Chapter 438 Benefits first

The officials who were responsible for Ye Anlan remained silent, but Ye Anlan took the initiative to stand up and accepted the verbal criticism from those male officials.

She expressed curiosity, "I proposed this article, and I only wrote it with His Majesty's permission, but I don't know where you adults can see that I've disregarded the principles of ethics, and I can be punished for being a rebellious person"?"

The male officials who were asked by her thought to themselves, "I knew it must be your demon again!"

Headed by Feng Yushi, he spat impassionedly, "How can a woman marry Fu Nashi? Duke, are you ignoring ethics?"

Ye Anlan moved away nimbly, "Why can't women marry Funashi? Our ancestors went through the stage where they only knew their mother but not their father."

Feng Yushi's blood pressure soared from her innocent face, "Women should be demure and chaste, obey the three virtues and obey the four virtues! The Duke doesn't even know this, does he?"

He looked contemptuous, but Ye Anlan didn't react much, maybe she was insinuating that she was a country boy with no knowledge and education, and it wasn't the first time she was said so.

Rather than arguing about this, she wanted to argue with the other party why women can't have three husbands and four servants. She let out a long "oh", and then put on a humble and learnable attitude, "If I remember correctly, the three obediences and four virtues The concept only existed in the Eastern Han Dynasty, right? Why, the woman who proposed this concept, could it be possible that she became an empress later? No, according to how much you admire her, even if she became an empress, she might not be too good Enough. Ah, then she should be the Emperor of Heaven, right?"

Feng Yushi's old face was flushed, "I admire her because she is a model of women in the world, and it has nothing to do with her status!"

Ye Anlan gave another meaningful "Oh~~~", she said:

"I understand. From your point of view, her identity is really not important, and what she did is really not important."

"Although her father died early and her husband also died early, she has not been able to feel the endless suffering that women in the world have suffered for thousands of years, so she used the "three obediences" as a matter of course to push all the women of later generations into the fire pit."

“Although she was a lady in public, she studied like a man, walked outside, and even wrote a book, but she did not achieve her so-called ‘four virtues’ at all by intervening in government affairs through the hands of the Empress Dowager Deng at that time.”

"But what does it matter? Anyway, her "three obediences" and "four virtues" have benefited you as a man."

"To put it bluntly, your interests are paramount. If you have milk, you are a mother. I understand!"

Feng Yushi was speechless, he rolled his eyes immediately after being **** off by her, and fainted on the Golden Luan Hall.

Ye Anlan won a complete victory, and she proudly puffed out her small chest, "Who else wants to say that I, Ye Anlan, disregards the principles of ethics and is a rebel? Come on, stand up, and let me see where I am disregarding the principles of ethics. , The great rebellion will be punishable."

Everyone: .

The courtiers who were filled with righteous indignation just now, most of them wish they could just shrink back behind the pillar so that Ye Anlan could not see their trembling little figures o(╥﹏╥)o

The few who are still standing upright, their momentum is not as good as before.

One of them bit the bullet and pushed forward, "You, you actually took control of His Majesty, isn't this a big treason and one who can be punished?"

Xie Yuan would answer this question. He cleared his cough and said with a righteous face: "I should set an example and set an example in front of the people of the world."

People: .(╯‵ ′)╯︵┻━┻

Didn't the emperor feel jealous of Ye Anlan? Didn't she rob half of her credit and reputation to Han Rong? Why did he suddenly start helping Ye Anlan again?

All courtiers who feel they have been tricked: Liar! Scumbag!

The dispute over the law of overriding concubinage ended in this way, and Ye Anlan and Xie Yuan won a big victory.

Ye Anlan gained what she wanted, the improvement of women's status in a patriarchal society, while Xie Yuan opened up a new way of thinking, and found a way to raise taxes in a fair and honest manner.

The two of them worked together for a win-win situation, but those men who wanted to take advantage of their wealth or power to get concubines were entrapped by them.

A large part of them reluctantly gave up the idea of ​​donating concubines, but more people still took chances.

They can't control their middle leg, but they don't want to pay high taxes to the country as stipulated by Daqi's law, so they raise concubines under the banner of "maid".

But the problem is that not everyone can use maids casually.

During the Great Zhou Dynasty of the former dynasty, the law stipulated that only scholars, Juren, (same) Jinshi, and officials of the ninth rank or above could keep slaves.

In Daqi, the law not only stipulates that only Juren, (same) Jinshi, and officials above the ninth rank can keep slaves, but also stipulates in detail the upper limit of the number of servants they can keep.

As long as the number of servants who have signed a death contract in the family exceeds the upper limit, the master family who raises more slaves must pay more taxes in the form of "fines" to the yamen every year as if they had taken in more concubines.

If they don’t want to pay more taxes, they can only sign employment contracts with ordinary people of good status like ordinary people.

Common people who sign employment contracts instead of death contracts can at least control their own life and death.

Even if they did something wrong, the master who hired them could only punish them through the law, instead of beating them to death like a slave who signed a death contract.

Restricted by the social environment, Ye Anlan could not abolish slavery. She could only tell Xie Yuan, "Population is also a resource, an indispensable and important productive force for the prosperity of Daqi. We must try our best to ensure the number of good citizens so that They and their descendants continue to pay taxes to the country, rather than allowing them to be the private property of individual people."

Xie Yuan deeply agrees with this. If it weren't for the lack of population that would indeed affect the development of national power, why would he encourage widows to remarry with great fanfare?

In Xie Yuan's view, being able to increase the population in this way is more cost-effective than encouraging widows to remarry.

After all, if a widow remarries, it will take at least fifteen or sixteen years for the child to be useful. However, the number of servants in each family is limited, and the extra people can be used immediately.

He agreed, and this law was naturally the same as the one on overriding concubines, and it finally fell firmly on paper.

In this way, the common people cannot keep slaves, and the gentry can only keep limited slaves, and the number of people reduced to slavery will naturally be controlled.

The number of people who have fallen into slavery has been controlled, and those who want to keep concubines under the banner of "servants" will naturally be subject to more restrictions.

(end of this chapter)