Chapter 410 My Son
How many children should they have? Qi Jun had never even considered this question.
If we disregard other factors, then the more the merrier. As an emperor, how could he possibly complain about having too many children?
But he was no longer a clueless young man who knew nothing about childbirth. Over the course of the year, he had consulted the imperial physicians many times about pregnancy and childbirth, and the answers he received were invariably the same:
Throughout history, there have been numerous examples of women dying during pregnancy. Even in the imperial palace, which had the most precious medicines and the most skilled doctors in the world, concubines could not be prevented from dying in childbirth.
Qi Jun had made up his mind that he would only have Qi Yuxuan as his wife for the rest of his life, and there would be no other woman in his harem. This was not only because he was confident in his abilities and did not need to maintain his power in the court through marriage, but more importantly because he loved Qi Yuxuan. He loved her so much that he did not want her to suffer sharing his care and attention with others, he did not want her to silently shed tears in the dead of night without him, and he did not want her to regret marrying him one day.
His mother once told him, after getting drunk, that she regretted marrying Qi Jun's father.
He was only six years old at the time, but he remembered this incident for more than ten years.
If Qi Yuxuan were to die in childbirth… Qi Jun felt a sharp pain in his heart at the mere thought of this possibility, his breath caught in his throat, and he almost instantly exhaled a breath of stale air. In a moment of impulsiveness, he said:
"It's fine to have as many children as you want, or not to have any at all. There are quite a few children among our relatives. If you like children, we can choose a young, intelligent, and well-behaved one to raise. In any case, we won't see what happens to the Qi Kingdom after we pass away, and I don't care who is on the throne."
That sounds incredibly treasonous.
Qi Yuxuan glanced at him strangely: "How can that be? Qi Xiuyuan, you've changed. You've started saying these sweet things to coax me now?"
As empress, bearing imperial offspring is a responsibility, just like managing the affairs of the inner palace.
It's one thing for ordinary families to adopt children to carry on the family line, but how can the children who sit on the throne be treated the same? If children are chosen from among the imperial relatives, without being taught from birth and with the potential threat of their biological parents, the people of Qi may once again be in a precarious situation.
Qi Yuxuan thought this through and then said it aloud.
Qi Jun knew, of course, that she cared more about the people of Qi than he, the emperor, did. He smiled, took his wife's hand, and kissed her lips.
"You're right, then we need to work hard."
It was midnight again.
It wasn't until dawn the next day that Qi Yuxuan slowly woke up and remembered something she had forgotten: the matter of the girls' school that Zheng Yanling had told her about the night before, which she hadn't had time to tell Qi Jun.
Today is the first day of the Lunar New Year, and both the Emperor and Empress are extremely busy.
The court officials would pay homage to the emperor, the imperial harem would offer sacrifices to heaven and ancestors and distribute New Year's gifts to relatives, and in the evening there would be a grand New Year's banquet for the emperor and his ministers to enjoy together. After the banquet, there would be a family banquet in the palace.
After everything was over and the night was quiet, she remembered to talk to Qi Jun about it.
It is now the first month of spring in the second year of Yongning.
After listening to what Qi Yuxuan said, Qi Jun showed no expression. Just as Zheng Yanling thought, establishing a girls' school would benefit the present and future generations. If women could also serve the court, the number of talents in Qi would double. This was a win-win situation.
Of course, everyone has their own expertise, and women who wish to stay at home to be good wives and mothers can remain as they are. The court's move is simply to encourage women with other aspirations to serve the country.
Qi Jun: "This matter needs to be considered carefully. I remember that during the reign of Emperor Taizu, there was also an attempt to hold a women's imperial examination. There are still some records from that time. If you are interested, you might as well take some time in the next few days to go to the Zichen Palace to take a look. When spring comes and the weather warms up and the ice on the ground melts, we can invite Dean Zheng to the palace to discuss it together."
Upon hearing this, Qi Yuxuan's eyes lit up.
So, Emperor Taizu had tried to conduct imperial examinations for women before? That was much more difficult than she and Zheng Yanling had imagined in terms of getting women to study and establishing girls' schools. Since there was a precedent, there must be something to follow.
She followed up with, "So, if this matter goes smoothly, maybe women's examinations will be allowed later?"
Qi Jun: "Of course, otherwise how did Yuxiu Academy come about? But don't think this is too easy. What the founding emperor couldn't accomplish, we may not be able to achieve."
He didn't forget to pour cold water on his enthusiastic wife, trying to calm her feverish mind a little.
It lists some of the obstacles that women faced in the imperial examinations, such as obstruction from their parents, husbands, and their own families; the constraints of having children at home; the difficulty of being searched before the examinations to smuggle illicit goods; and impeachment by pedantic and pedantic scholars.
Qi Yuxuan did calm down, but she still couldn't sleep well all night, tossing and turning over the matter.
It wasn't until three months later.
The weather has warmed up considerably. Before Qi Yuxuan and Zheng Yanling could promote the girls' education program, the State of Qi was undertaking another major task.
The states of Qi and Yue went to war once again.
Qi and Yue, having conserved their strength, used the pretext of a year and a half ago when they kidnapped the then Crown Prince and Princess Chang Le, to demand that Yue cede territory and cities, and to exterminate the remnants of the Duan King and the Wu tribe involved.
However, Xuanyuan Shun agreed to cede cities, pay reparations, and move the capital, but he deliberately distorted Qi's intentions and massacred the entire Wu tribe, which aroused the anger of the Yue people, and war between the two countries was imminent.
The border region was once again in turmoil, and the people were filled with anxiety, as were the court officials.
This morning at court, an official pointed out that the emperor had been on the throne for over a year, but the empress was still not pregnant. Fearing instability in the country and turmoil in the court, he requested the emperor to select candidates to produce heirs for the royal family.
Qi Jun, dressed in an imperial crown and court robes, sat upright above, and upon hearing this, he glanced coldly at Lord Fei, who had spoken.
At the end of last year, the Qilin Guard reported that Lord Fei had several daughters of marriageable age, but he had not yet formed a marriage alliance with any of them. His intentions were obvious when he brought this up now.
A cool, detached smile curved his lips.
"To have more offspring? Do you all want to see the fate of Qi Shen and Qi Huan repeated, and the State of Qi repeating the same mistakes? If you are worried that the State of Qi will have no successor, my son with the Empress will surely be the most outstanding and beloved heir in the world. I do not want to see the scene of forming cliques and killing brothers again, so my harem will only have my wife."
The Emperor and Empress's son?
This short sentence, uttered by the emperor, caused a huge uproar, shaking the entire main hall of Hanyuan Hall.
Could it be that the Empress is already pregnant?
In the past, Qi Jun would have been too lazy to pay attention to these officials who were just looking for trouble, but he had been in a good mood lately, otherwise he wouldn't have written such a long and detailed rebuttal.
Seeing the astonished expressions on the faces of the hundreds of people below, Qi Jun felt a sense of satisfaction. Once the court officials had calmed down, he continued speaking slowly and deliberately:
"The Empress is now pregnant with twins. You should all keep your own petty thoughts to yourselves. I do not want any more nonsense to reach the ears of the Empress and me."
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