Jinghong Tower

Chapter 387 Sisters

Like before, Zhou Jian took out the article he wrote and presented it to He Ran respectfully, humbly and politely.

His writing had not improved compared to two years ago. When in Jinling, He Ran read almost all the test papers of the top three candidates in each county in the spring examination. He had read so many good articles that his vision had improved. When he read Zhou Jian's articles again, he could only read a few lines and could not continue.

He Ran sighed silently in her heart. Although she had not let Zhou Jian participate in government affairs over the years, she had never lacked in reading.

There is no need to mention Bai Yan, who is now famous all over the world thanks to the Morning Post. Even the teachers selected for Zhou Jian later were all talented and knowledgeable, but Zhou Jian did not make any progress.

Whether it was reading or writing these articles filled with gorgeous words, they were all written for He Ran to see.

Everything is deliberate.

He Ran laughed at herself, or maybe Zhou Jian was deliberately hiding his shortcomings and didn't dare to show them in front of her?
If this is the case, then his brain is not completely filled with water, and it is not in vain that I have raised him for so many years.

He Ran asked about Zhou Jian's daily life again, and Zhou Jian replied that everything was fine.

After dinner, He Ran left the palace.

Seeing that it was not too late, she asked Xiaoli to take the gifts she brought from Jinling to Lao Mansion.

Ever since she knew she was back, Madam Shangguan had been looking forward to it. When she saw He Ran, she held her hand tightly and said, "You're back. It's good that you're back. It's good that you're back."

In the past two years, the Lao family has had a new baby. After Lao Fengyun recovered from his injury, he got married. He married Mao Yunzhen, the granddaughter of Mao Qidong, the former Grand Secretary of the Hanlin Academy.

Now Mao Yunzhen is pregnant. She stands behind Madam Shangguan and looks at He Ran with curiosity.

Lao Guanghuai was the Prime Minister and in charge of the Ministry of Revenue. Countless people in the capital were eyeing the marriage of Lao Fengyun, the eldest grandson. But in the end, the position of the eldest grandmother of the Lao family fell to Mao Yunzhen. No matter how you look at it, the Mao family was marrying up.

However, He Ran knew why Lao Guanghuai did this, it was all because of her.

As her in-laws, the greater the achievements of Lao Guanghuai, the more low-key the Lao family will be. A scholarly family like the Mao family is the most suitable marriage partner at present.

He Ran smiled: "This must be my cousin's wife."

Mao Yunzhen's cheeks flushed slightly. She stepped forward to salute and called out, "Cousin."

After saying that, she took a small box from the maid and handed it to He Ran with both hands: "It should have been given when we recognized each other. It has been delayed for two years. Please don't despise it, cousin."

He Ran thanked them, took the box, exchanged greetings with the female relatives for a while, presented the gifts she had brought one by one, and chatted with Mrs. Shangguan for a while before saying goodbye and returning to Laomofang Hutong.

After returning, she opened the gift sent by Mao Yunzhen, and saw a pair of exquisitely embroidered satin shoes and an elegant hairpin.

This is the most common gift a new daughter-in-law gives to her sister-in-law. It is just more refined and sophisticated, but not deliberate.

He Ran had a good impression of Mao Yunzhen. This was the fate between people. Some people had a good impression of each other after only meeting once, while others still felt disgusted with each other after more than ten years of getting along.

Xiaoli smiled and said, "The boss is too busy, so he may not know that Grandma Lao is a talented woman. She has many fans in Jinling now."

"Oh? So amazing?" He Ran became interested.

Xiaoli rummaged through the newspaper basket, found a few newspapers, pointed to a name on it, and said to He Ran, "The person who signed as Ghost Arrow turned out to be Grandma Lao."

He Ran smiled. Mao Yunzhen’s surname was Mao, which means spear. The ghost arrow in traditional Chinese medicine has another name, which is Euonymus japonicus.

He Ran picked up one of the articles and started reading. It turned out to be an article criticizing Gao Lu, a famous scholar in Qiantang.

Gao Lu has recently become famous for proposing that unmarried people should pay a single tax. Even He Ran summoned him in person. Gui Jian's article criticized Gao Lu for taking a young girl as a concubine and being unworthy of being a teacher.

The words were sharp but humorous, describing Gao Lu as worse than an animal.

He Ran frowned. This was an article published in the evening paper. Looking at the date, it was ten days ago. She was on her way at that time, no wonder she had not read it.

He Ran said to Xiao Li: "Go check this matter."

The next day, Xiaoli told He Ran what she had investigated. Although Gao Lu was far away in Qiantang, the matter was no secret and had already spread to the capital. No wonder Mao Yunzhen knew about it.

"Gao Lu was originally a romantic man. He had two concubines who were from Qinhuai River. After he was summoned by the head of the family, he became more famous than before. He took in five concubines in succession. One of them was a talented courtesan, and two were from Yangzhou. The other two were from good families, twins, both eleven years old. He was very proud of this and wrote a poem about his two young concubines.

He is now very famous, and his poems and essays quickly became known, and people in the capital learned about this from his poems and essays."

He Ran slammed the table with a bang, her face gloomy: "Good family girl? What's going on?"

Xiaoli said, "It is said that there is a matchmaker and a betrothal present, and all the formalities are complete."

He Ran sneered: "Go check the families of those two concubines and see what kind of despicable people would send such young daughters to be concubines!"

She and Feng Xieying spent a year revising the new law, which clearly stated that the minimum age for a woman's first marriage was fifteen years old. Regardless of whether she was married or not, the minimum age was fifteen years old, which was also in line with the folk conventions of the time.

The new law was implemented in Jiangnan in the first month of this year. Calculating the date, Gao Lu took a concubine after the first month of the year.

Within a few days, the matter was investigated clearly. The sisters were really from good families and also from a scholarly family!

Their father was a scholar who had failed in many imperial examinations. He admired Gao Lu very much and once invited Gao Lu to his home for a drink. Gao Lu saw the pair of sisters in his family and praised them. The father then asked Gao Lu to stay overnight at his home and sent his two daughters to Gao Lu's bed that night.

Gao Lu's way of repaying his cheap father-in-law was to add his name to a new book that he had helped to compile.

He was also invited to participate in literary gatherings held by the four major academies, although he was originally not qualified due to his fame.

He Ran was furious and wrote a letter to Feng Xieying who was still in Jinling, saying, "Don't pretend to be dead. This matter has even spread to the capital, and I don't believe you don't know about it."

No matter whether you are tolerant and understanding of such things or not, those who violate the law should be punished!

After Feng Xieying received He Ran's letter, he was overwhelmed.

To be fair, he did not agree with this kind of thing, but he loved talent and Gao Lu was indeed talented, so after seeing Gao Lu's new poem, he instinctively ignored the story behind the poem.

He Ran's letter made Feng Xieying feel ashamed. He recalled that many years ago, he and He Ran had argued heatedly over the new law in that simple study in Jinyang.

At that time, he believed that boys should marry at the age of 16 and girls at the age of 14, in order to increase the family labor force and ensure that the property would have successors and pass on the family line. However, for those in power, early marriage and early childbearing could increase the population and collect more taxes.

However, He Ran thought that boys aged 16 and girls aged 14 were too young and not conducive to eugenics. During the war years, boys aged 14 to 16, both boys and girls, were more or less stunted. How could they give birth to healthy offspring when they were not yet fully grown as parents? If things went wrong, there would be two deaths, so how could we increase the population?

To this end, He Ran asked people to find 30 young men and women from the city and asked doctors to take their pulses and examine their bodies. In the end, it was proved that what He Ran said was right.

Therefore, in the new law, the legal age for marriage was set at 17 for boys and 15 for girls.

Originally, He Ran wanted to set the age at 18 for males and 16 for females, but when they visited many people, they were worried that they would not live to see their children grow up, and that they would get married too late. If they died, their children would have no one to take care of them. In desperation, He Ran decided to temporarily set the age at 17 for males and 15 for females. When the country is peaceful, the people live and work in peace, and the national living standards have been significantly improved, then they can change the age at 18 for males and 16 for females.

The more Feng Xieying thought about it, the more ashamed he felt. The boss was right to criticize him, and it was he who forgot his original intention.

Not long after, the news that Gao Lu, a famous Qiantang scholar, was beaten with forty sticks, fined one hundred taels of silver, and sentenced to three years of hard labor reached the capital, causing a lot of discussion in the court and the public.

Along with this news, the cheap father-in-law was also spread. In addition to being beaten with the cane forty times, fined one hundred taels of silver, and required to do three years of hard labor, he was also stripped of his title of scholar.

His other four daughters and one son were all sent to the clan to be raised by the clan.

In Jiangnan, once the news that Gao Lu was taken away from his home spread, the entire Jiangnan literary world was in an uproar.

Scholars spontaneously took to the streets to appeal for justice for Gao Lu. Some conspiracy theorists even believed that Gao Lu was framed. What young concubine? That was nothing. It was just an excuse.

Not only Feng Xieying, who handled the matter, but even He Ran, who was far away in the capital, was criticized a lot because of this incident.

He Ran remained motionless.

Instead of letting the matter rest, Boyan and He Yamin stepped up publicity for the incident, making it known to everyone.

Ms. Ghost Arrow Mao Yunzhen was overjoyed and picked up her pen to write several articles. When He Ran saw this, she simply asked Bai Yan to start a debate in the newspaper and initiate a vote in both Beijing and Nanjing.

After the vote in Jinling came out, it is conceivable that the majority thought that Gao Lu was treated inappropriately, and only a small number thought that Gao Lu had violated the law and should be punished.

But what was unexpected was that with the same vote, the results in Beijing and Nanjing were completely opposite.

Eighty percent of the voters believed that Gao Lu should be severely punished, and only 20% believed that the handling was inappropriate.

The morning and evening newspapers in both places published the voting results, and there were also street interviews.

Interestingly, when interviewing a scholar, the scholar was filled with righteous indignation and shouted at the top of his lungs in support of Gao Lu.

The result was asked: Do you have a daughter at home?

The scholar nodded: My little girl just turned one year old.

Question: When she is eleven years old, are you willing to give her away as a concubine?

Scholar: If anyone dares to take advantage of my daughter, I will fight him!
Yan Bi was greatly embarrassed and left in a hurry, covering his face with his sleeves.

This incident lasted for more than a month and finally ended because of a village woman.

The village woman's daughter was kidnapped and was found dying. She could not be saved and died.

The little girl was bought by an old bachelor and tortured to death.

The village woman beat the drum in front of the government office to appeal for justice, and she touched the ground with her head, bleeding profusely.

As soon as this incident happened, there was an article by Gui Jian in the next day's morning newspaper, comparing this incident with the Gao Lu incident. This time, Gao Lu's supporters all became silent.

He Ran asked about the sisters' current situation, only to find out that the sisters almost lost their lives.

Although Gao Lu was forced to write a letter of resignation, they had nowhere to go. They were already married and could not return to their parents' home, and they did not dare to return to their clan, as going back would mean death.

The two could only stay in the Gao family temporarily. Of course, they were no longer concubines. Now they were maids. They were often bullied and beaten all over by Gao Lu's original wife and concubines.

Feng Xieying had no choice but to ask Xiu Gu for help. Xiu Gu went to Gao's house in person and took them out.

Qiantang is more than 500 miles away from Jinling. Although this matter is known to everyone, not many people have actually seen them, not to mention that those who have seen them are only in Qiantang.

Xiu Gu sent them to Renyi Academy and handed them over to Ji Shujun. They changed their names and became students of Renyi Academy.

This brings us to the issue of enrollment at Renyi Academy.

Although the college was established, the enrollment situation was very troublesome.

After a whole month, only five students were recruited.

These five people all came from official families. Some were sisters or daughters of newly promoted officials sent from the capital to Jiangnan, as well as female relatives from the families of officials who went south at that time.

None of them came from the common people, and certainly not one of them came from a Jiangnan family.

After hearing about this, He Ran asked officials from all regions to intensify publicity efforts, and especially to promote the idea that women of non-official families could study in academies, where they would be exempt from tuition fees, and would be provided with four sets of clothes each year, as well as food and accommodation.

However, even so, only ten more people were accepted. Eight of these ten people were merchant daughters, and the other two also had fathers and brothers who had official titles.

Now, there are a total of seventeen students in Renyi Academy, including the pair of sisters.

This is also the first class of Renyi Academy.

Regardless of the number of people, He Ran believes that this is worth recording in history.

During the days since returning to the capital, He Ran took some time out of her busy schedule to think about the various problems encountered by Renyi Academy and finally discovered the crux of the problem.

Why are ordinary people unwilling to send their daughters here even though it’s free?
This is because they felt that it was useless for girls to study and sending them to academy to study was a waste of time.

A woman only stays in her parents' home for a dozen years, and can only really help with work for a few years. During these few short years, she also has to go to school. Then who will collect grass for the pigs, and who will cook, wash clothes, and take care of her younger brothers?

what?
Now women can also take the imperial examinations to become Jinshi and officials?

Are you kidding me?
My ancestors have all been peasants. Do you think there is any smoke coming out of my ancestral grave?
Instead of wasting time studying, you might as well learn embroidery. Maybe you can even work in an embroidery workshop and earn money to support your family.

He Ran's eyes lit up, she was really confused.

There are many kinds of learning.

Studying and taking the imperial examinations is learning, and learning a skill to make money is also learning.

Half a month after returning to the capital, He Ran called Dong Jinzhen, Li Jinxiu, and Lu Chang over.

She wants to open a vocational school!

Yes, but of course not by that name.

A school that does more than just teach people to read and write.