When the little prince heard what his Khan Amma said, he couldn't help but frown and lowered his head to think.
Having been out playing all afternoon today, Yin Xiaozhen was already sleepy and yawning again and again, and his eyes were so narrow that he could hardly open them.
Qingyan reached out to hold him in her arms and patted him to sleep, while she was also thinking about "foot binding" in her heart.
None of them spoke, and the carriage was quiet for a while, and only the light snoring of Yin Xiaozhen, who fell into a deep sleep, could be heard.
Baoqing turned around and looked around to see that everyone was silent, but he couldn't hold it in any longer, so he reached out and tugged on the sleeves of their Khan Ama.
Kangxi felt the movements of his eldest son beside him, so he opened his eyes and lowered his head to look at the tiger-headed Baoqing, wanting to see what he was going to do.
Baoqing raised his head slightly and looked at Kangxi. He curled his lips and said: "Khan Ama, do you think those people with bound feet usually wash their feet?"
"Their feet are broken in the first place, and they will definitely bleed a lot. They don't want to spray medicine on them and then wrap so many layers of cloth around them. Then the cloth will be firmly stuck to the skin.
Well, hey, wouldn’t it smell bad if you don’t smell it?”
Baoqing was frightened by the picture he imagined. He quickly stretched out his fingers to rub his little nose and said loudly with some disgust.
As soon as Yin Ti finished speaking, the eyes of several people instantly focused on him.
Kangxi opened and closed his mouth several times but couldn't think of a word to refute Baoqing.
He originally wanted to say that this Han woman had her feet bound so that she would stagger when she walked, giving her a coquettish look.
But for some reason, a sentence suddenly popped into his mind: "The old lady's footcloth is long and smelly."
In an instant, Kangxi felt so sick that he felt like vomiting.
Yinreng couldn't help but raised his little arm and touched Baoqing's round head several times. He felt that the big baby's head was really magical, and he could say unexpected things every time.
.
Qingyan looked at Kangxi who was sitting by the right window looking deflated, and she couldn't help but sneer in her heart.
Historically, since the death of the Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang, Kangxi ignored the Qing Palace's ancestral precept of "not allowing Han women to enter the palace" and took over beautiful young men with small feet one by one.
After entering the palace, and later his son Yongzheng and grandson Qianlong, the three generations of ancestors and grandsons can be said to have the same love for beauty. They are delicate and soft like dodder flowers. Women of the Han family are their favorites.
What is good from above must be followed by those below.
Precisely because the emperors' preferences were too clear when sitting on the dragon throne, more women outside the palace began to suffer the torture of "foot binding."
In order to send their daughters to the palace and please the emperor, the officials below gradually developed into daughters who came from Manchu noble families. Their feet were severely broken at a young age when they didn't understand anything.
As they cried, the female elders in the family bound them layer by layer...
Thinking of this, Qingyan lowered her head slightly and looked at Yin Xiaozhen, who was sleeping sweetly in her arms and nuzzling her arm with her white face from time to time. She said quietly with emotion and sigh:
"'Foot-binding' was originally a bad habit of torturing women by the subjugated emperor Li Yu of the Southern Tang Dynasty in order to engage in romantic affairs. What a good idea the Empress Dowager has. There are so many Han women in the world. If there are so many Han women in the world,
If you can have a pair of healthy natural feet like our Manchu and Mongolian women, how much work can you do outside?"
"Wouldn't this double the labor force of each household? As long as we work harder, our lives will eventually get better and better."
"Auntie is right!" When the little prince heard what Qingyan said, his eyes lit up like a chicken pecking at rice, and he nodded his little head in agreement.
"If that little flower girl grows up in the future and has a pair of steady walking feet, then she will be as powerful as my aunt."
Yin Reng clasped his little fingers and slowly counted: "I can climb trees and touch bird eggs, I can swim in the water to catch small fish, and I can protect myself when I encounter bad people. How good it is!"
"That's right, Aunt Erwa, you are so awesome! I can't even shoot with a slingshot as accurately as you can throw rocks with your bare hands!" Baoqing also looked at Qingyan with sparkling lychee eyes.
Kangxi originally heard what little Hesheli said. Although he didn't show it on his face, his mind couldn't help but follow her words. A picture of a man and a woman working hard in the fields just appeared in his mind.
, the scene in the picture was instantly disrupted by the words of Bao Qing before it was complete.
"What are you talking about, Baoqing!"
Kangxi recalled how those two ugly men, who looked like fat pigs, stretched out their hands to cover their bloody crotch pants and fell to the ground, twisting and wailing in disgust, and his face turned an ugly green.
Qingyan turned around and saw Bao Qing staring at her shining star eyes, and she raised her hand to touch the bridge of her nose with some embarrassment.
She was so angry at the time that she just threw it away. No one cared about it at that time, but now she was in this small, closed space and felt the cold look from Kangxi, and she realized it later.
I feel that my behavior has damaged her good image to the outside world. No matter how you say it, she is a noble concubine!
Kangxi caught a glimpse of the embarrassed look on little Hesheli's face, and simply closed his eyes. Out of sight, out of mind. Anyway, this is the temperament of this woman. She will definitely dare to do this next time she encounters such a thing.
!
It's better to think about how to turn it up when you go to bed next time.
"Khan Ama, Baocheng hasn't finished speaking yet!" Yinreng saw that Kangxi had closed his eyes again, and hurriedly reached over Baoqing's body and shook Kangxi's arm to draw his attention back.
"What else do you want to say?" Kangxi asked helplessly.
"We haven't found a solution to the foot-binding issue yet. Since just giving orders doesn't work, why doesn't Khan Ama think of other solutions?"
"When Baocheng was a kid, Khan Ama lied to Baocheng and told Baocheng that he couldn't eat the meat in the imperial meal. If he ate it, he would get stomachaches. So Khan Ama took away those people's meat too.
, if there is no 'meat' to eat, don't they have to go out to work to buy meat?"
Yinreng touched his chin with his little hand and said these words. In fact, even he himself didn't understand what he meant by his messy words. However, Kangxi had a flash of inspiration and suddenly got some inspiration from his son's confusing sentences.
If there are no benefits from foot binding, will those Han people still let their female relatives have their feet bound?
Just when Kangxi lowered his eyes and frowned in deep thought, Baoqing took out his slingshot from the cloth bag, pulled out the leather bag and said, "Khan Ama, do you think that little Tang Monk today was just trying to save his little sister?"
Coming?"
"He is so smart. Baoqing couldn't understand some of what the aunt said, but the young master seemed to be able to understand it. What did the aunt mean by "extreme household"?" Baoqing stretched out his hand to rub his own.
Zhibuzi asked casually.
Kangxi originally wanted to tell his silly son that Wuzhishan and Sunhou Hou actually did not exist.
However, seeing that Bao Qing still looked forward to meeting the young monk again, he felt that it was better to leave his eldest son some room for imagination, so he picked his questions and answered:
"Do you two know why the village we just left is called Chenjiazhuang?"
The two brothers shook their heads in confusion.
"Because almost all of them are families with the surname Chen. Their ancestors were from a large family. Now as the descendants multiply and the population increases, the power of the 'Chen family' has developed in that village."
"There is a saying: the imperial power does not extend to the county, but only to the clan."
"To put it bluntly, in that little Chenjiazhuang, their patriarch does the same job as me. It's okay to exaggerate and call him a 'local emperor'."
When Yinreng heard this, Ruifeng's eyes widened instantly, and he asked in disbelief: "Isn't Khan Ama the most powerful person in the world? How can such a figure like the 'Tu Emperor' be allowed to exist?
?”
Although Kangxi was somewhat unwilling to admit his shortcomings, he did not want his precious sons to have wrong perceptions, so he explained to his two sons in a serious tone: "Although I am the emperor and the emperor, I have to admit that there are many things.
I can't just do whatever I want." "Like your uncles and elders in the clan, they are all the ones I need to win over in order to consolidate the imperial power. Sometimes I have to consider it when issuing orders.
, the idea of taking care of them will also be subject to many restrictions."
"You are still young and have not been exposed to government affairs. You cannot imagine how powerful the clan is today. If a family is like the mother and daughter Zhang today without a husband and son, then their family's property will be ruthlessly destroyed by the clan.
Others in the house are forcibly occupied, which is called 'eating the entire household'!"
This was the first time that the little prince heard their Khan Amma personally admit that he had problems that he could not solve. He was extremely surprised. His understanding of the emperor was overturned for a moment and he did not know what to say next.
Qingyan sat by the left window, stroking the touchable little curls on the top of Yin Xiaozhen's head, and listened to these words quietly with her ears angled.
She was very measured, and the foot-binding thing she just mentioned could be regarded as her own sentiments. If she rashly joined the conversation between father and son, what if Kangxi suddenly got mad and said that he was "involving in politics in the harem" in the future!
"Binding feet" and "eating out households" are both feudal bad habits. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, women had low status and were the most oppressed. These two bad habits were also at their most severe. She traveled through this experience and sincerely hoped that the butterfly wings she brought with her would
Being able to fan out all these bad things, she hoped that the father and son could really discuss something different today.
Baoqing also continued to ask curiously: "Khan Ama, is it true that only people with poor families will be deprived of their homes?"
"Not necessarily. Even if the family has a prominent family, if there is no son in the family, the family will be forced to adopt the children of the branch family. At that time, the family property will be inherited by outsiders, which can be regarded as being exterminated in disguise.
Kangxi shook his head and said softly.
Qingyan also half-closed her eyelids and began to pat Yin Xiaozhen's back gently. Kangxi's words were correct. No matter what kind of family, they could not escape being exterminated.
Even those in power can't stop the children of other people's step families from continuing the family tradition, right?
"But it can't be like this. If everyone is like the little sister and her family today, their family's money is forcibly taken away, and the mother and daughter are kicked out of the house, then how are they going to survive?
"
The little prince's two little brows were almost tangled together, and he said in a somewhat urgent tone.
Kangxi saw that his precious son had really imprinted the experiences of the mother and daughter on his heart. He paused for a moment, then comforted him and said:
"There are actually many ways to exterminate a family in this world, and the people in Zhang Niangzi's tribe are too cruel to do so. They obviously don't want to leave a way for the mother and daughter to survive."
"But fortunately, that little woman can be considered a strong-willed person. If she had accepted the clan's arrangement and adopted a son before she met us, then perhaps this would not have happened today.
There is no chance that Ziqing will take her to establish a female household and live alone."
"Yeah, well, since that's the case, then Khan Amma will send more people to check among the people. If the same thing happens to my little sister and her family, I must help them." The little prince said seriously with a small picture.
Face, looked at them seriously and Khan Amma ordered.
Kangxi looked at the four-year-old child with a fair and tender face. He felt happy at first glance. He couldn't help but stretched out his hand and grabbed the small white jade crown on his son's head. A smile flashed in his eyes. If
If those in power do not have the common people in their hearts, then sooner or later the throne under their butts will be unstable.
The corner of Qingyan's mouth couldn't help but turn up into a smile, she stretched out her left hand and pinched Yinren's fleshy right hand, her aggrieved mood instantly relaxed a lot. Although there are still many bad things in the world today, but it
There is also hope that the future will become better and better, right?
…
A few days later, when Kangxi was listening to the government at the Imperial Gate, he recounted what he had encountered during a private visit to Chenjiazhuang incognito.
"If I hadn't happened to meet that mother and daughter, I'm afraid that the Qing Dynasty would have added two more drowned souls." Kangxi sat on the dragon chair and glanced at the civil and military officials of the Manchu Dynasty below, with a cold tone.
said.
Although everyone didn't understand why the emperor left other important military matters unattended, and instead chatted with them about this as if it were commonplace, they all hurriedly leaned over and praised the mother and daughter for their good luck.
Met the emperor.
"My dear friends, they praise me to the heavens!"
"I'm thinking that since things like 'eating out households' are unavoidable, then the officials in the yamen must work conscientiously and take the matter of 'establishing female households' in mind, and don't see that it is a matter of women.
I just want to postpone it!"
Kangxi suddenly stretched out his hand and slapped the handrail beside him hard, shouting.
An official standing below was so frightened that he kept wiping the cold sweat from his forehead with his hand.
He knew that the emperor was talking about himself. A few days ago, when the next shift was approaching, a woman suddenly came to the Yamen to register for a female household.
When his subordinates came to him with the filled-in documents to have their seals stamped, he was a little impatient and wanted to go back home quickly, so he postponed it until tomorrow.
Unexpectedly, as soon as he stepped out of the room, he saw the emperor's confidant Guard Cao standing with the woman holding a saber. He was so frightened that he quickly turned around and ran back to complete the woman's paperwork.
Kangxi glanced at the official standing on the left who was about to shake into a sieve, then leaned his back on the dragon chair and said with a leisurely look:
"The Queen Mother really doesn't like women with small feet. She feels that such women are weak and not as healthy as Manchu and Mongolian women. Even if they enter the palace, they will not be able to give birth to healthy heirs. She said she wants to increase the size of her legs in the future.
The military flag and the number of beautiful women entering the palace with the Mongolian military flag."
Hearing the emperor's words, the eyes of the Han officials below widened. Basically, the female relatives in their families have their feet bound. There are already very few Han military flag empresses in the palace. If there are no Han empresses in the harem in the future,
Then wouldn't these Han ministers have to be bullied to death by the Mongolian ministers and Manchu ministers?
When they still didn't know how to persuade the emperor, Kangxi pointed at the handrail with his finger and said: "The Empress Dowager has worked hard for the Qing Dynasty all her life. Now she is getting older. She has given Han women two free reins before but failed to do so.
In order to honor my elders, I also want to comply with Madam Huang’s wish, but I also know that the bad habit of foot binding is very important in the minds of the Han people."
"I won't force you. It's just that from now on, a woman with bound feet will not be able to be his wife. If within three generations of students there is a female elder with bound feet, then don't think about taking the imperial examination and becoming an official."
"I'm tired too, so I'll just do this today and retreat from the court."
Kangxi casually dropped another bomb and hurriedly turned around and left with Liang Jiugong without looking at the reaction of the courtiers below.
The Han ministers standing below were bombarded by the emperor's casual words and were a little confused. They looked at each other with big eyes and small eyes.
The Manchu ministers also looked at each other. Although their daughters did not have bound feet, many of their favored concubines were girls with small feet!
Now even the emperor says that "foot binding" is a bad habit, so who dares to openly and openly pick up the little-footed women in their own family?
When the emperor's oral edict was transmitted from the court to the people, another uproar was caused.
Many Han women couldn't help crying. Only they know how painful it is to walk when their good soles were broken when they were young and have now grown into deformed three-inch golden lotuses.
Although their feet have been fixed and nothing can be changed, thinking that their daughters and granddaughters will not have to endure such inhuman suffering in the future, they still shed tears with excitement.
However, there were also some women whose feet were entangled, and their brains were also entangled. They kept crying and cursing the Tatar Emperor at home for all his crooked ideas.
In their opinion, although footbinding is painful, it can make them look like weak beauties. In order to be more beautiful, they have endured this pain since childhood, but now they are told that they cannot be the first wife of others.
It will also affect the future of the men in the family, and they will cry till they are black and dizzy for a moment.
Even if some pedantic old ladies with small feet still want to secretly bind the feet of their daughters and granddaughters for the sake of ancestral etiquette, the men in the family will immediately jump up when they find out and wave their hands to refuse.
Many things in this world are not something that can be done immediately and have immediate results. Everything has its pros and cons, and the announcement of a corrective policy will inevitably harm the interests of some people at the moment.
But as long as this matter is fundamentally crooked and wrong, then those in power will go to great lengths to correct it, dig out all the rotten roots, and expose them to the bright and bright sunshine.
Maybe there will be a lot of curses in one or two years, and there will still be people scolding them in ten or twenty years, but there will definitely be people praising them one hundred or two hundred years later... Everything has pros and cons, and the announcement of a corrective policy is bound to
It will also harm the interests of some current people.
But as long as this matter is fundamentally crooked and wrong, then those in power will go to great lengths to correct it, dig out all the rotten roots, and expose them to the bright and bright sunshine.
Maybe there will be a lot of curses in one or two years, and there will still be people scolding them in ten or twenty years, but there will definitely be people praising them one hundred or two hundred years later... Everything has pros and cons, and the announcement of a corrective policy is bound to
It will also harm the interests of some current people.
But as long as this matter is fundamentally crooked and wrong, then those in power will go to great lengths to correct it, dig out all the rotten roots, and expose them to the bright and bright sunshine.
Maybe there will be a lot of curses in one or two years, and there will still be people scolding them in ten or twenty years, but there will definitely be people praising them one hundred or two hundred years later... Everything has pros and cons, and the announcement of a corrective policy is bound to
It will also harm the interests of some current people.
But as long as this matter is fundamentally crooked and wrong, then those in power will go to great lengths to correct it, dig out all the rotten roots, and expose them to the bright and bright sunshine.
Maybe there will be a lot of curses in one or two years, and there will still be people scolding them in ten or twenty years, but there will definitely be people praising them one hundred or two hundred years later... Everything has pros and cons, and the announcement of a corrective policy is bound to
It will also harm the interests of some current people.
But as long as this matter is fundamentally crooked and wrong, then those in power will go to great lengths to correct it, dig out all the rotten roots, and expose them to the bright and bright sunshine.
Maybe there will be a lot of scoldings in one or two years, and there will still be people scolding them in ten or twenty years, but in a hundred or two hundred years, there will be people praising them again and again...