usatvline Chapter 795 Prosperity
Chapter 795 Prosperity
Su Mingtang was under tremendous pressure. On the one hand, she appeased the people, and on the other hand, she accelerated the implementation of new employment policies to help them find ways to make a living again. In this storm of reform, Su Mingtang gradually emerged and became a force that could not be ignored in the court. She and Jiang Yanbai and others formed a reformist faction and launched a fierce struggle with the conservatives. Every court meeting was a war without gunpowder. With the deepening of the reform, Su Mingtang's influence became greater and greater, and she was getting closer and closer to the center of power. However, her success also attracted more jealousy and hatred. Some people secretly investigated her life experience and tried to expose the secret of her disguise as a man; some people slandered her in front of the emperor, saying that she formed a party for personal gain and had bad intentions. The most dangerous time was when an anonymous letter was sent to the emperor, which described Su Mingtang's female body in detail and attached some old things from her early years in the Gu family as evidence. Zhao Chengjun looked at the letter, was silent for a long time, and finally burned the letter. He summoned Su Mingtang and asked only one question: "Do you regret it?" Su Mingtang's eyes were firm: "I have never regretted it. If I have to give up my ideals because of my female body, it would be a real regret." Zhao Chengjun laughed: "Okay! I will protect you to the end!" After that, Zhao Chengjun appointed Su Mingtang as the chief minister of the cabinet against all odds. When the news came out, the whole country was shocked. In the court, the ministers were excited and wrote letters to oppose; in the folk, the people talked about it and were full of curiosity and doubts about this female chief minister. Facing heavy pressure, Su Mingtang did not back down. She was dressed in official uniform, wearing a black gauze on her head, standing in the Jinluan Palace, her eyes swept across the hall of civil and military officials, and her voice was firm and powerful: "My lords, why can't women be officials? Governing a country and maintaining peace depends on talent and strategy, not gender. If I, Su Mingtang, am not competent, I am willing to die to apologize!" During her tenure as chief minister, she implemented a series of drastic reforms involving various fields such as politics, economy, and culture. She rectified the administration of officials, selected talents, and broke the nepotism in the officialdom; she encouraged the development of commerce, opened up maritime trade, and made the economy of the Dayin Dynasty flourish; she attached importance to education, established schools, and gave more children from poor families the opportunity to study. With her efforts, the Dayin Dynasty ushered in unprecedented prosperity. The people lived and worked in peace and contentment, and the national strength was growing stronger. And Su Mingtang, from a woman abandoned by her family, became a generation of female prime ministers who went down in history. Many years later, when people talked about Su Mingtang's legendary life, they always remembered her resounding words: "This world wants to eat people, but I want to bite its teeth and break a sky belonging to women in this world of male superiority and female inferiority!" This story shows the road to counterattack for women in the feudal era. If you have different ideas about the plot development, character relationships, or specific reform details in the story, please feel free to tell me.
Jingru trapped in the loess
When the alleys of Beijing were still filled with the fragrance of locust flowers, Qin Jingru's world was shattered into pieces. Her cousin Qin Huairu held her hand, her knuckles white: "Jingru, I'm sorry for you, Xu Damao has done something really bad, we have no other choice..." That morning, two donkey carts rolled over the bluestone road and stopped at the gate of the courtyard. Qin Jingru was dragged into the carriage by her aunt. Through the red cloth covering her head, she heard her aunt smile apologetically to the visitor: "Brother Liu, don't worry, Jingru is a diligent girl, and she will definitely take good care of your family!" The moment the curtain fell, she saw her cousin leaning against the door frame wiping her tears, while Xu Damao stood aside with his arms folded, with a sneer on his lips. After three days of bumpy ride, Qin Jingru was taken to Huangtupo, a hundred miles away. After getting off the car, she could see her "new home" clearly: three adobe houses stood crookedly on the slope, two skinny donkeys were tied in the yard, and uncut wheat straw was piled in the corner. The man was called Liu Tiedan, his skin was as dark as the bottom of a pot. When he saw her lift the red veil, he grinned, revealing half of his gold teeth: "You are handsome, but too thin, it is difficult to give birth." That night, Tiedan climbed onto the kang drunk, and the smell of alcohol and sweat hit her face. Qin Jingru huddled in the corner of the kang, and Tiedan pulled her arm: "Why are you pretending to be serious! I spent thirty dollars, and you are still afraid that you can't get it?" While struggling, Qin Jingru's head hit the edge of the kang, her eyes went black, and she fainted. The next day, when the rooster crowed for the first time, the mother-in-law's scolding exploded in the yard: "Lazy! The sun is shining on your butt and you still don't get up!" When Qin Jingru got up, her whole body seemed to fall apart. She pushed open the door, and the cold wind rolled sand into her throat. In the kitchen, the mother-in-law threw half a bowl of stale porridge on the stove: "Hurry up and sweep the pigsty, then go to the back mountain to collect firewood. If you don't come back before noon, don't eat!" Life in the loess slope is like cutting meat with a blunt knife. Qin Jingru got up before dawn every day to feed the pigs, cook, and go to the fields, but Tiedan and her mother-in-law would beat and scold her at any time. Once when she was washing rice, she scooped half a spoonful of rice too much, and Tiedan picked up a rolling pin and beat her, scolding while beating: "Money-losing stuff! I married you to work, not to raise ancestors!" The rolling pin was still stained with pig food, and it hurt so much when it hit her back that blood oozed out, staining her coarse cloth shirt red. What made her most desperate was the eyes of the villagers. The women gathered at the entrance of the village to gossip, and when they saw her passing by, they lowered their voices: "I heard that the daughter-in-law from the city is not decent at her parents' home." The children chased after her and shouted "slut". She turned around with the sickle she used to cut pig grass, and the children scattered in a hurry, but their laughter was like poisonous needles, piercing her eardrums. At night, Qin Jingru lay on the cold kang, staring at the cracks in the beams in a daze. She thought of the days in the courtyard, the braised pork made by Sha Zhu, and the time when she and her cousin made shoe soles under the locust tree. Tears flowed silently into her ears, and she bit the corner of the quilt, not daring to cry out loud - the last time she cried and was heard by Tiedan, she was beaten even harder. The rain in late autumn came as expected. Qin Jingru was breaking corn in the field, and suddenly she had a severe abdominal pain. She held her waist and wanted to go home, but Tiedan grabbed her: "Why are you pretending to be delicate! Widow Wang is about to give birth and is still threshing!" The rain mixed with cold sweat soaked her clothes, her eyes went black, and she fell into the mud. When she woke up again, she was already lying on the kang. Her mother-in-law threw a bowl of cold water at her with a gloomy face: "It's a miscarriage, it won't kill you!" In the cold winter, Tiedan lost all his money in gambling and sold everything he could sell at home, not even leaving any cotton-padded clothes for the winter for Qin Jingru. She huddled in front of the stove to warm herself by the fire, and heard Tiedan and her mother-in-law discussing: "Sell her to the cripple in the next village, and you can get two sheep in exchange." Qin Jingru trembled all over, and her hand holding the fire stick was sweating. That night, she waited until everyone in the family fell asleep, and then went out in the dark. The north wind scraped her face like a knife, and she ran barefoot in the snow, her soles scratched by gravel, and blood left winding traces on the snow.