Bringing the Railway to Daming

Chapter 164 Promotion and Reward! The Trend of Early Marriage

Su Quan was promoted to the position of Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Works, and received a number of rewards including banknotes and cloth.

Wang Buqun and Qiu Qichi were both promoted to the position of Yuwenlang of the Ministry of Works. Wang Buqun was responsible for assisting the affairs of the Ministry of Engineering and Camp, while Qiu Qichi was responsible for assisting the affairs of the Ministry of Science and Technology.

Guo Tianwen and Yu Xian continued to serve as directors of the Ministry of Works, but they received more rewards in terms of money and other items than Wang Buqun and Qiu Qichi.

The Qinglongshan Coal Plant was upgraded to the Coal Bureau, with Yu Xian as the director; Guo Tianwen was recommended by Liu Kuan to be the director of the Machinery Manufacturing Bureau.

Other officials such as Zhang Jinrao, Liu Yan, Ma Mengyang, Qi Damu, etc. who participated in the "train construction" and "Xu Dan section railway opening" were either promoted, rewarded with money, or both.

Since Zhu Yuanzhang established the Ming Dynasty, such large-scale rewards have only been given to military generals, and civil officials have never received them.

On the contrary, there were two or three large-scale punishments - the main subjects of the Empty Seal Case and the Guo Huan Case were civil officials; although the Hu Case was mainly about several military officials closely related to Hu Weiyong, some civil officials were also involved, and they were punished by Zhu Yuanzhang with beheading, confiscation of property, and exile.

In addition, the salaries set by Zhu Yuanzhang for civil servants were far lower than those in the Song and Yuan dynasties, and he often demoted and deducted salaries from them. This made the civil servants feel that Zhu Yuanzhang was a person who treated civil servants harshly, and his prejudice against civil servants was ingrained in his bones and impossible to change.

Now, seeing that the officials of the Science and Technology Department have almost been promoted and rewarded collectively, I am naturally very surprised.

Although Liu Kuan and other officials from the Science and Technology Department did make great contributions, it also shows that Zhu Yuanzhang was not so prejudiced against civil servants. As long as the contributions were sufficient, it was not a luxury for civil servants to be granted titles!
···
The commendation and reward of Liu Kuan and others was carried out at the end of the court meeting, and the court was dismissed after the reward was given.

As soon as Liu Kuan left Wuying Palace, he was stopped by a young eunuch standing nearby.

"Prince Consort Liu, the Empress has summoned you to the Rouyi Palace to speak."

"It seems that it is probably about taking a concubine."

Thinking this in his mind, Liu Kuan followed the young eunuch to Wuying Palace.

Empress Ma sat on the phoenix chair as usual, looking at him kindly.

Liu Kuan bowed and said, "Your humble servant pays respect to Her Majesty the Queen."

"Flat body."

"Thank you, empress."

After the ceremony, Empress Ma went straight to the point and asked, "Kuan'er, do you know who told me about taking a concubine for you?"

Liu Kuan smiled bitterly and said, "It should be Huilan, right?"

Empress Ma smiled and said, "You guessed it right—Hui Lan has been married to you for over a year and still hasn't conceived. She's worried it will affect the continuation of your family lineage, so she brought this up with me."

"After discussing with His Majesty, I will take advantage of this great opportunity to commend you for your merits and grant you the honor of taking me as your concubine."

"Although Su came from a humble family, she entered the palace at a young age and was trained by me. Not only is she skilled in business and household management, she is also proficient in women's work, poetry, and music. She can be said to be both talented and beautiful."

"If she had not volunteered to stay in the palace, I would have allowed her to marry long ago. Although she is already twenty-three years old and a little old, she is a good concubine for you. You must treat her well."

At this time, twenty-three years old is definitely an old left-over woman.

You must know that when Empress Ma married Zhu Yuanzhang at the age of 20, she thought she was an old maid who could never get married.

Empress Ma gave this instruction because she was worried that Liu Kuan would dislike Su Caiwei's age. Although she had heard Liu Kuan say that people in later generations generally married late, she did not take it to heart.

Besides, Liu Kuan is now in the Ming Dynasty, not in the future.

If his status as a rich prince consort was not an obstacle, with his talent, it would have been no problem for him to take in as many concubines as he wanted, who were under the age of 28 (at this time, Zhu Yuanzhang had not yet imposed strict restrictions on taking concubines).

What she didn't know was that in Liu Kuan's habitual cognition, a 23-year-old woman was a standard young girl, just the right age for falling in love, getting married, and having children.

In addition, Su Caiwei's appearance is not inferior to Zhu Huilan, and she has her own temperament. After getting along with her for more than a year, Liu Kuan is quite satisfied with this candidate for concubine.

Liu Kuan originally wanted to think of a few words to express his feelings, but then he thought that if he showed that he liked Su Caiwei too much, it might make Empress Ma and Zhu Huilan unhappy.

So he simply agreed, "Yes."

Empress Ma smiled and nodded. "Then what about the date for taking a concubine and how to arrange it? Do you have any ideas?"

"It's all up to Her Majesty the Queen."

Empress Ma was even happier and said, "Indeed, Your Majesty and I are like your parents here, and we should take care of things like this for you."

That's the end of the conversation.

Liu Kuan took his leave and left the Forbidden City.

When he returned to the mansion, people from the palace had already sent him rewards.

Liu Kuan received another imperial edict. After sending the people from the palace away, Liu Kuan took the list of rewards and studied it for a while. He was a little speechless.

This time, Zhu Yuanzhang granted 800 hectares of land, or 80,000 mu, which was almost the maximum amount of land that a Ming Dynasty official could receive in one go. Before that, only the princes could be granted more than 1,000 hectares of land at one time.

Zhu Yuanzhang's reward of land was a great honor for Liu Kuan, but the problem was that these 800 hectares of land were not in Zhili, but in Taoyuan County, Changde Prefecture, Huguang.

These days, Hubei among Huguang is still better, but Hunan is as sparsely populated as Henan.

Hunan also has many ethnic minorities such as the Miao people, and is a place where Han and barbarians live together. The barbarians are fierce and often rebel, making the area much less safe than Henan.

"Old Zhu finally rewarded me with more land, but he chose Hunan as the place. I might as well exchange it for banknotes."

Despite his complaints, Liu Kuan had no intention of selling the land. Firstly, the value of land in Hunan was low and it could not be sold for much money; secondly, he understood that Zhu Yuanzhang's reward was to tie him down to the land.

So, even if he didn't care about these fields, it would be difficult for him to sell them just like that.

"Fortunately, these 800 hectares of farmland are all in one place. I can send someone there to build a farm and manage it. When I have some free time in the future, I can take my family to experience the rural scenery of Hunan."

This time, Liu Kuan was not only promoted to Langzhong of the Ministry of Works, but was also conferred the title of Earl of Science and Technology. He had a lot of things to do after returning home.

Fortunately, the Science and Technology Department is on holiday today, so he can concentrate on handling government affairs.

Liu Kuan was busy until the evening. After dinner, a shower and lying in bed, he finally had the mind to talk to Zhu Huilan about some private matters between husband and wife.

"My dear, I am responsible for your failure to get pregnant in the past year."

Zhu Huilan was lying on Liu Kuan's chest with a satisfied look on her face. She was surprised when she heard the words, "Why did you say that, my husband?"

Liu Kuan said: "According to our later research, if a woman becomes pregnant too early, it will cause great harm to her body."

"The best childbearing age for women in the future is between 22 and 30. Even if women today do not have the conditions of the future, the best childbearing age should be between 20 and 28."

"So, I want you to wait two years before having another child—this will be better for both you and the child."

Although Zhu Huilan did not have as much knowledge about fertility as people in later generations, after listening to Liu Kuan's words and considering some of Liu Kuan's behaviors during sex, she understood.

She couldn't help but ask, "Why didn't my husband tell me about this earlier?"

"I'm worried that you want to have a baby sooner and won't cooperate."

Zhu Huilan thought that if she knew about this, she might not cooperate.

Because in her mind, women's childbearing is the most important thing - over the past year or so, every time she and her two married sisters talked about childbearing in private, she felt very uncomfortable.

In addition, many women she knows gave birth to children at a younger age than she is now, and they didn't see anything wrong with it.

At this time, Liu Kuan said again: "When you go to the palace next time, tell the Empress about the optimal childbearing age for women. Nowadays, women in the Ming Dynasty marry and give birth too early, which is not good for the health of women and children."

Zhu Huilan nodded at first, then frowned and said, "I'm afraid my father may not accept my husband's suggestion."

"Why?"

Zhu Huilan said, "Many places are experiencing population decline, and it's time to restore production. To this end, the imperial court not only instructs local officials to encourage childbirth, but even encourages widows to remarry, and imposes heavy taxes on families with older unmarried women."

"Under such circumstances, whether it's the Emperor or the local government, they all want women to marry early and have more children. Why would they publicize your idea that this is the best childbearing age for women?"

Liu Kuan said, "The idea of ​​having more children early sounds good, but if you have more children but fewer to support, what's the point? If fewer women suffer from premature childbearing and die of illness in their twenties or thirties, wouldn't that also be a way to increase the population?"

Zhu Huilan listened thoughtfully.

Liu Kuan added, "Just relay my words to the Empress. Her Majesty will make her own decision after hearing about it."

Zhu Huilan nodded, "Okay, I'll listen to my husband."

···
Two days later.

Kunning Palace.

When Empress Ma and Zhu Yuanzhang came to chat with her in the evening, they told her everything that Zhu Huilan had relayed.

She finally said, "Zhongba, I think what Kuan'er said makes sense. Even if it's for the sake of population growth, we can't ignore the harm that early marriage and early childbearing can cause to women. Moreover, according to what Kuan'er said, early pregnancy is not good for the child either."

Zhu Yuanzhang laughed and said, "According to what that guy said, it was the right time for my sister to marry me."

Empress Ma slapped Zhu Yuanzhang's arm and said in feigned anger, "I'm talking to you about serious matters, and you still have the mind to laugh at me?"

"How dare I laugh at a girl?" Zhu Yuanzhang admitted with a smile, then pondered for a moment and said, "The Ming Dynasty is different from later generations. We certainly cannot formulate policies based on later standards."

"Well, before, weren't women taxed if they didn't marry until they were sixteen? Now, we'll tax them only if they don't marry until they're twenty."

"Also, have the government gather local noblewomen, midwives, and female doctors to promote the idea that eighteen to twenty-eight is the best age for women to conceive, and that the children they give birth to are healthier. What do you think, sister?"

Empress Ma nodded at first, then sighed, "The custom of young women marrying and getting pregnant early has been a common practice since the late Tang Dynasty. The imperial court cannot forcibly curb this trend, so it can only guide it."

"Zhongba, the royal family must set an example in this matter. As for Funing and the others, I want them to wait until they are over 18 before getting married."

Although Zhu Yuanzhang did not value his daughter as much as his son, he did not want his daughter to die early due to damage to her body caused by early pregnancy, so he nodded and said, "Let's listen to you on this matter."

Zhu Yuanzhang then thought of something and said, "Sister, do you think Liu Kuan deliberately concealed this matter before, making Huilan mistakenly believe that she was infertile so that she would take the initiative to find a concubine for him?"

Empress Ma said bitterly, "How could Kuan'er be as gloomy as you think? He didn't say it before because he was worried that Huilan wouldn't cooperate..."

Then, Empress Ma told Zhu Yuanzhang some things that could only be said between mother and daughter, or between husband and wife.

After hearing this, Zhu Yuanzhang smiled, not knowing whether he believed it or not, but he did not mention the matter again.

　First update.

　　
　　
　
(End of this chapter)