Chapter 99: After a whole year of hardship, I can finally feel at peace...
Shen Zhiwei had already thought about what she should do after ascending the throne.
Among them, unified standards are of utmost importance. If the people of the world cannot reach a consensus, then the implementation of laws and the issuance of policies will encounter endless difficulties.
This has always been maintained well in the area around Shengdu. As the capital, the people of Shengdu have always been the first to enjoy the benefits of various reforms. Due to the frequent reforms, the people of Shengdu have developed extraordinary adaptability.
Therefore, Shen Zhiwei likes to promote her ideas in Shengdu the most. The people of Shengdu are obedient and docile, and they are generally smarter because they are at the forefront of education. They are closer to the people Shen Zhiwei is familiar with, rather than the numb people who were ruined by the wars of the Warring States Period.
However, if we want to unify the standards this time, we certainly cannot start with Shengdu. Shengdu doesn’t even need to change anything. What needs to change is the vast world outside.
First of all, Shen Zhiwei needs a lot of grassroots staff, that is, minor officials in the officialdom.
Petty officials are the grassroots personnel who make up the officialdom. Shen Zhiwei has always said that there is a shortage of senior officials, but in fact there is also a shortage of people at the grassroots level.
Officials who have received higher education and entered the officialdom through the imperial examination would not be able to serve as ordinary clerks in the local area. The candidates for clerks are mostly local people with good character, literacy, and the ability to read the law.
Fortunately, compared with senior officials, the majority of people are capable of serving as petty officials. With just a little training, a large number of qualified petty officials will appear at the grassroots level.
So Shen Zhiwei decisively enrolled in a professional school. After much thought, he decided that professional schools could train talents faster. It only took one year for the graduates to be able to work. Who wouldn't talk about efficiency?
Before unifying standards, standards must be established first. Laying the foundation for some things at the beginning can save a lot of effort.
For example, the thing Shen Zhiwei has always wanted to do is to abolish slavery.
At the same time, burying people alive with their dead will be labeled a bad custom and strictly prohibited to avoid the tragedy from happening again.
In fact, the whole world had a common standard before, which was the implementation of slavery. Everyone believed that hard work existed and was reasonable.
This is because the previous state system has not yet been completely transformed from slavery. Now that the new country is just being established, Shen Zhiwei naturally has to lay the tone for the new country.
Resolutely preventing the restoration of slavery is the tone of this new country. Only when there are no more slaves in the world will people learn to have a little self-respect and understand that they are human beings rather than animals.
It is impossible to make everyone understand their rights as human beings. In feudal society, there were upper and lower classes. This was not the modern era where slogans of equality for all were shouted.
Shen Zhiwei can only push forward a little bit, she can only give those poor people at the bottom a chance to be human.
The abolition of slavery. As soon as Shen Zhiwei mentioned this new system, some officials in the court opposed it. The one who jumped the highest was the one with the most slaves at home. Before, Shen Zhiwei did not confer titles of nobility and fiefdoms, and this group of officials desperately opposed it in order to fight for the interests of future generations.
Now they oppose it for their own sake.
Shen Zhiwei's reputation is no longer as good as it was when she first unified the world. If it weren't for the newspapers supporting her, these nobles might have tarnished her reputation to such an extent.
It can be seen that these nobles are not just here to eat for free, each of them has some means.
But Shen Zhiwei didn't care about this matter. If she cared about the so-called reputation, then why would she be an emperor in this life? It would be better for her to be a king of a fallen country, or perhaps like the King of the North, die for her country before her death and leave behind a "good name for eternity". Besides, how should one talk about true reputation? It is difficult to distinguish it from the nobles at the moment, and future generations will have to judge it.
Shen Zhiwei was completely unaffected by the reputation attack, which made many nobles feel helpless. For the nobles, there were not many ways to control the monarch of a country, and reputation was the most useful method. When the monarch did not pay attention to reputation, they had to think of other ways.
Other methods would inadvertently touch the bottom line of the current emperor, and then the emperor would give them a gift package to exterminate their entire family and let their entire family reunite underground. This would make the nobles even more uncomfortable. Could they just watch the emperor do whatever he wanted?
It seems that there is no other way for the time being. If they don't want to die, they can only watch. The key is that even if they risk everything they have, they can't compete with the emperor, and their death will be in vain.
The abolition of slavery was debated from the beginning of the year to the end of the year, and finally the nobles took a step back. They insisted on not allowing Shen Zhiwei to grant civilian status to this generation of slaves. Starting from the next generation, the slaves could be restored to civilian status after obtaining the consent of their owners. Shen Zhiwei finally agreed to this and gave the slaves the same right to education as ordinary people, that is, the opportunity to go to school and learn to read.
Seeing that Shen Zhiwei had given in, the nobles thought that they had not lost the war completely and that they had left themselves a chance in the future, so they stopped making trouble.
However, they did not know that giving slaves the right to education would doom them to failure in the future. They thought that as long as they did not allow slaves to return to civilian status, they could control those slaves for life and ensure that they would always have loyal slaves available. However, they did not know that when a person gets the opportunity to study, his soul will be awakened and he will understand what it means to be a human being. As long as he is a human being, he will yearn for freedom and independence. No one will yearn to be a slave who can be beaten and scolded at will and may lose his life at any time. Even if that person is fooled and his mind becomes stupid, his human instinct will always guide him towards the light.
The first year after the founding of the country was really busy. Shen Zhiwei not only had to compete with the nobles, but also with her people, especially those in remote areas, to make them abandon everything in the old days and adapt to the new standards of Jingguo. This was a long and tedious task that required Shen Zhiwei to spend a lot of patience and energy.
Shen Zhiwei was not afraid of spending her patience on her people, because she knew that this was a path with positive feedback. As long as she persisted, there would always be a day when the clouds would clear and the moon would shine. This was different from fighting wits and courage with the nobles. As for that group of nobles, Shen Zhiwei thought that fighting with them would only drag the entire country into the quagmire.
Although they were all her subjects, it gave her a completely different experience. Being an emperor was really great. She could meet new people every day.
Shen Zhiwei was not the only one who was constantly busy. Her confidants were also busy in their own ways. Among them, Wen Tao was the busiest one. Because Shen Zhiwei needed a lot of grassroots officials, Wen Tao opened a technical college. She was not a teacher, but a principal. As a result, she had to manage several schools and thousands of people. She was so busy all day that it could not be said that she worked day and night, but that she worked without sleep.
She seemed to sleep only four or five hours a day. When Shen Zhiwei had nothing to do, she would ask several doctors who were good at conditioning the body to check on Wen Tao, fearing that Wen Tao would die from overwork like her.
By the second year, there were fewer things to do. The technical school was closed, and other subjects were offered. Wen Tao was finally not so busy anymore, and she even had some free time to meet with her junior sister whom she hadn't seen for a long time.
Qiong Yu was transferred back to Shengdu this year and directly joined the Ministry of Personnel as a minister. Seeing that his future is bright, when the old minister of the Ministry of Personnel resigns, Qiong Yu should directly take up the position of minister of the Ministry of Personnel.
A first of its kind work, very substantial.
"Senior Sister, long time no see."
On the third floor of a restaurant facing the street, in a private window seat, you can see the bustling market just by turning your head slightly.
This is Wen Tao's favorite place to stay. She likes this kind of bustle, which is full of the unique warmth of the world. It makes people feel calm and peaceful, and also allows her to stop for a moment in the busy life and enjoy the fruits of her hard work.
Wen Tao looked up and down at her junior sister whom she hadn't seen for a long time. Compared to before, her junior sister seemed much more mature. Not only was she mature in appearance, but she was also steady from the heart, which was different from before.
"It's been a while since we last met. You've grown taller and gained some weight. It seems you haven't treated yourself badly in the Cloud Land."
At first, Qiong Yu went to Biandi, and later was transferred to Yundi. She was good at managing internal affairs. No matter how chaotic the city was, it could be quickly stabilized in her hands, so Shen Zhiwei liked to use her very much.
"Senior Sister has lost a lot of weight. You should take care of your health. You have a lot of official duties and it will take more than one day to finish them."
Qiong Yu also looked at Wen Tao, and her first reaction was that Wen Tao had lost a lot of weight. The senior sister in her memory was always as gentle as jade, lively and charming, but the senior sister in front of her looked much more tired than she remembered.
"I know that official duties are not accomplished in a day, but even a day's work is tiring enough. The emperor has exempted me from many chores recently, otherwise it would be even more tiring. After you come back this time, I believe you will not leave Shengdu for a short time. The house I bought before can finally be lived in."
Wen Tao didn't want to talk much about the affairs of the court. After all, the hard and tiring days were over, and every day would be better than the previous one. Instead of talking about those boring things, it would be better to talk about family matters.
Qiong Yu nodded, thinking of her house that had been empty for several years, and said helplessly, "The house has been uninhabited for too long and needs some repairs. I wonder if I could stay at Senior Sister's house for a few days? Senior Sister's house should be convenient, right?"
Qiong Yu's words seemed to have other implications, and Wen Tao immediately understood. She shook her head helplessly, raised her hand, pointed at Qiong Yu, and said, "It's convenient. The backyard is empty."
After receiving a positive response, Qiong Yu smiled with satisfaction, but then she asked, "Sister, why don't you choose a few beauties to accompany you? When will I be able to see my nephew again?"
"I didn't have time before. I was so busy. Let's talk about it later."
Wen Tao was a powerful imperial tutor, and her talent was well-known. If she nodded and said she wanted someone, countless beauties would flock to her like moths. She could get whatever she wanted.
But she had never thought about these things. As she said, she was too busy and had no free time to think about those things. Whenever she had time to rest, she just wanted to be alone. Even watching people coming and going on the street for a whole day was better than finding a few beauties to accompany her.
"Shengdu has not yet completely stabilized. As the emperor's trusted minister, you must be cautious and not easily reveal your preferences, so as not to be exploited by others."
Wen Tao was afraid that Qiong Yu had not returned to Shengdu for too long and would bring back some of her habits. Compared to Wen Tao, Qiong Yu had many beauties in Yundi and Biandi who were involved with her. The reason why she wanted to renovate the house was because some of the people who followed her back had no place to live.
When I bought the house, I didn’t think there would be so many people, so the house was relatively small. Now I have to accommodate dozens of people, so I have to expand it.
After hearing her senior sister's warning, Qiong Yu immediately nodded in agreement, and then talked about what she had done outside over the years. When talking about the beauties in the back house, Qiong Yu's expression was cold, and it was not obvious how enthusiastic she was about this matter.
Wen Tao then realized that perhaps she had misunderstood her junior sister, who was not a lustful person.
Qiong Yu seemed to see Wen Tao's confusion and explained gently, "The Bian land is not as good as the area near Shengdu. The nobles here in Shengdu have been suppressed by the emperor many times, and no matter how much they try, they can't make a big move. Meanwhile, the local nobles rely on the princes and kings to dominate the area. If we don't accept those people and rely on the power of the nobles, how can we stabilize the area?"
Wen Tao understood Qiong Yu's helplessness. She sighed slightly and advised, "Marriage between aristocratic families has always been a good way to leverage one's strengths. However, the rules of Shengdu are mostly set by the emperor. The emperor does not like this. Until now, there has not been a single person in the harem. You had no choice in the past, but from now on you need to close the door to the backyard and don't let them join forces again. If something goes wrong and you are implicated, it will be bad. Also, it is not easy for a woman to get pregnant. You..."
"Don't worry, Senior Sister. I asked Qingzhu for some medicine and asked the men in the backyard to take it. How could the father of my child be those flattering, incompetent men with only beautiful looks?"
Qiong Yu made no secret of her contempt for the men in the backyard. Wen Tao seemed to have seen her own father talking about the women in the backyard, as if he had raised a bunch of little pets, treating them carelessly and without any affection, except for a little pampering when he was in the mood.
"You still have to be careful. The fighting in the harem is also hard to guard against."
Wen Tao had seen too much in the Wen family, and she was worried that those people that her junior sister didn't care about at the moment would hurt her.
Seeing Wen Tao's serious expression, Qiong Yu also took it more seriously, obviously taking Wen Tao's words to heart.
Wen Tao was satisfied to see this. As long as Qiong Yu paid more attention, those people did not have the ability to make the high-ranking officials of the court suffer losses. Those who could climb to high-ranking positions were full of scheming and means.
The two sisters hadn't seen each other for a long time, so it was inevitable that they felt a little unfamiliar. Now that they had talked a lot, the friendship of the past came to their minds. They tacitly agreed not to talk about anything unpleasant. It is very easy for people with high emotional intelligence to bring up topics, so the atmosphere between the two was very pleasant.
At this moment in the palace, Shen Zhiwei was listening to Gui Yang's complaint.
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