Chapter 332 The New Order
Li Qianyuan led his troops to the southwest to quell the rebellion.
Without the Crown Prince's checks and balances in the capital, Li Ganxu became increasingly reckless and acted more aggressively.
She was born during the Zhaoming era, and from the time she was old enough to understand, all she saw was her mother, the Empress, holding great power and ruling the world.
In recent years, the number of female officials in the imperial court has been increasing.
The proportion of women among the newly appointed Jinshi (successful candidates in the highest imperial examinations) each year has increased from 20-30% to 60-70%.
Nowadays, most of the officials in the imperial court are women.
Moreover, both prime ministers were women, and women comprised four of the six ministerial positions.
Even in the military, there are quite a few female generals who hold military power.
In Li Ganxu's view, the Great Qi Dynasty is now a world where women hold power and dominate the world.
The Empress Dowager is benevolent; she allows men to serve in the government and hold office alongside women, which is already an extraordinary act of kindness.
These men, instead of being grateful, dared to use the banner of "killing the Empress and saving the Great Qi" to collude with foreign enemies and incite rebellion. They deserve to die!
Since they are ungrateful and have ulterior motives, there's no need to give these men a friendly look anymore!
An old, male-centric order has been overthrown and completely collapsed by the Queen Mother.
Therefore, a new, more "rational" order should be clearly established and consolidated.
These men should, like women of twenty years ago and even for thousands of years, go home, be good wives and mothers, and manage household affairs. They should not meddle in court politics, much less covet women's power.
Therefore, only by completely excluding men from the core of power, firmly "taming" them, and making them recognize their own place, can the country return to stability and peace as before, where everyone is in their proper place and does their own thing.
Therefore, she and Tu Qing began to openly and unequivocally oppose male officials.
Under the guise of investigating Xu Jingze's accomplices, they launched a massive investigation in the court, fabricating charges against any male officials who had previously interacted with Xu Jingze, dismissing them from their posts and subjecting them to investigation.
Even several high-ranking male officials of the fourth rank were implicated and imprisoned for "suspected treason".
This move naturally resonated strongly with and garnered support among some female officials both inside and outside the court.
No one understands the value of power better than these women.
At first, after finally gaining entry into the imperial court, they faced contempt and harassment from the male officials.
During discussions, one's speech is interrupted without cause; when offering advice, one is ridiculed for having "womanly views"; and mistakes are magnified and ridiculed even more.
It was His Majesty's decisive action in breaking with convention and his diligent governance that brought about national prosperity and strength, which severely humiliated those men and gradually increased women's voice.
Those once high-ranking male officials finally restrained their arrogance and had to face up to and accept this half of "heaven" in the court.
Therefore, as the first women to taste the power, they naturally no longer want to go back to the past.
This is why they are almost instinctively wary and resistant to any sign that might shake the foundations of women's rights.
They believed that Xu Jingze's rebellion proved the "unreliability" and "potential threat" of male officials.
Do those seemingly harmonious male colleagues still harbor resentment?
Are they all waiting for the right moment, trying to push them back into the inner quarters?
Therefore, Your Majesty should take this opportunity to "eliminate the pernicious influence and deter the villains," leaving those men no chance to turn the tables.
As a result, many male officials in the imperial court were walking on thin ice, being extra cautious in their words and actions, for fear of inadvertently bringing about undeserved disaster.
In an instant, the atmosphere became extremely tense and apprehensive, with rumors circulating and people feeling terrified.
The turmoil quickly spread from the imperial court to the outside world.
It started in the Hongwen Hall.
Previously, Ru Bai had served as the Crown Prince's study companion, accompanying the princes in their studies.
However, ever since rumors of a purge of male officials began circulating in the court, Li Ganxu has openly forbidden him from attending classes with them.
The reason given is that "men and women are different".
Li Ganxu's action was quickly imitated by other women.
The Imperial College was the first to be affected.
In the past, although the Imperial College also had separate dormitories for teaching, male and female students studied in the same institution and learned from each other.
This is the norm after His Majesty implemented new policies and advocated for learning regardless of gender.
Now, the atmosphere has changed drastically.
Some female students began to openly ostracize their male classmates.
They were forbidden from sitting at the same table as female students or sharing a desk.
Even worse, some declared that men were not worthy to study in the same room as women, and began to jointly petition the court to order the complete expulsion of men from the Imperial Academy.
Over the past few decades, as women have entered various industries, the social division of labor has undergone significant changes.
Some professions that require meticulous attention and patience, such as accounting, embroidery, service industries, and handicrafts, have gradually become the domain of women, with women making up the majority of practitioners.
The men mostly engaged in physically demanding jobs such as craftsmanship, freight transport, mining, and metallurgy.
Men and women each excel in their respective fields, and although there is overlap and competition, they generally coexist peacefully.
However, with the changing trends, this balance has gradually been broken.
Women have also gradually begun to openly reject men.
The most famous guilds in the capital, such as the Brocade Guild, the Booksellers Guild, and the Herbal Medicine Guild, had their female owners secretly collude to discuss and establish new rules to restrict men from entering the trade.
Even more shockingly, in the streets of Beijing where female merchants were concentrated, there were direct divisions between "women's markets" and "men's markets," with men prohibited from entering the women's market to trade.
Even in marriage, the traditional view began to require women to be in charge of external affairs and men to be in charge of internal affairs, and men were required to possess qualities such as gentleness, family-orientedness, and non-competitiveness.
However, this increasingly radical purge has made many people uneasy.
Su Qingci was one of them.
She was well aware of the difficulties women faced in wielding power and agreed that traitors like Xu Jingze must be severely punished as a warning to others.
But she still felt that such indiscriminate implication and suppression would only exacerbate antagonism and suspicion, and create panic.
After all, the world is not just about women.
These men are not like the women of twenty years ago, who have been disciplined and made obedient.
If this goes too far, it may really drive many people to the brink of despair, prompting them to stand up and openly resist, thus shaking the foundation of the country.
However, what puzzled and worried Su Qingci even more was that His Majesty seemed to have been tacitly allowing these things to happen.
Su Qingci wondered if His Majesty was really using the Second Prince to completely drive the men out of the court and eliminate any future troubles.
After all, she knew better than anyone that His Majesty had been navigating the male-dominated court and struggling to survive since he was a prince.
They endured countless open and covert battles, bloodshed and turmoil, before finally conquering the world and changing the course of history.
After ascending the throne, Your Majesty overcame all opposition, implemented new policies, and promoted female officials, which led to the current situation where "female prime ministers hold key positions and female generals guard the frontiers."
This glorious era was achieved by His Majesty through half a lifetime of hard work.
What Her Majesty cares about most and cannot tolerate most is that men covet her position and attempt to overthrow the dynasty she built, causing all her efforts over the years to go to waste.
This rebellion is the best proof of this "threat" and the perfect pretext for His Majesty to purge male officials.
So for the time being, she did not object and could only watch helplessly as things continued to develop.
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