met free Chapter 877 Rules are rules, reality is reality
Chapter 877 Rules are rules, reality is reality
Li Shanchang almost laughed out of anger at Yang Shaofeng.
Two to three hundred thousand people per prefecture/county?
That's like a toad yawning; you have quite the nerve!
Take the Ming Dynasty as an example.
On the surface, there are more than 70 million people, which averages out to about 70,000 people per state and county.
The problem is that this algorithm can only exist on paper.
The reality is that some prefectures and counties may have a population of 100,000, while others may have less than 10,000.
Others may not understand this, but surely you, Yang the Madman, understand it?
Have you forgotten that when you were the magistrate of Ningyang, the entire county only had about two thousand people?
Therefore, problems that humans can solve are not problems.
The problem is there's nobody here!
Li Shanchang said with a dark face, "How about this, if the Prince Consort has any way to rapidly increase the population of our Great Ming to 200 million, I will go to the higher authorities and ask for the title of Marquis of Champion on your behalf, how about that?"
Yang Shaofeng's eyes lit up, and he asked, "Really?"
Just as Li Shanchang was about to agree, Zhu Biao hurriedly exclaimed, "Don't take it seriously! Everything else is fine, but the matter of the Marquis of Champion is out of the question!"
What if he really does have a solution?
If he really comes up with a way to rapidly increase the population of the Ming Dynasty, should the title of Marquis of Champion be granted or not?
Not to mention that he is now the Duke of Ying.
Even considering the fate of the champion marquises throughout history, it was destined that no one would dare to give him the title of champion marquis.
The Ming Dynasty could not afford to take this risk, nor could it bear this loss.
Yang Shaofeng clicked his tongue with regret, but still snorted and said, "The simplest way to increase the population is to let people have more children."
Li Shanchang and Zhu Biao exchanged a glance and then mocked, "Even if the people are willing to have children, they can only have one a year. Does the Prince Consort have any other way to make the people have three children at once?"
Yang Shaofeng was slightly taken aback.
What does it mean to allow ordinary people to have three children at once?
Do you think I have the ability to make anyone pregnant just by glaring at them, and even give birth to triplets?
Yang Shaofeng clicked his tongue and said sarcastically, "This humble official certainly cannot make people give birth to three children at a time, but I do have a way to make them give birth to three children in a year."
Ok?
Three born in one year?
No need for a ten-month pregnancy?
What kind of divine power is this?
Seeing that Li Shanchang, Zhu Biao, and Hu Weiyong all looked completely bewildered, Yang Shaofeng immediately said smugly, "A young and strong man can marry a wife, and of course, they can only have one child a year."
"But what if we take two more concubines?"
"One wife and two concubines, three children a year, not difficult, right?"
"If we had a few more concubines, wouldn't we be able to have even more children?"
As Yang Shaofeng finished speaking, Li Shanchang, Zhu Biao, and Hu Weiyong were all dumbfounded.
Theoretically speaking, that seems to be the case?
The Ming Dynasty currently has a population of 70 million. If we calculate based on half being male and half being female, that's roughly 35 million.
Assuming that 20% of the men are of marriageable and childbearing age, that's roughly seven million.
If there are seven million men, each with one wife and two concubines, and they have three children a year, the number will reach twenty-one million next year.
Let's calculate it at 20 million.
If we persist for three to five years, the population of the Ming Dynasty can easily exceed ten million.
This speed is much faster than slow growth.
Li Shanchang pondered for a moment, then suddenly frowned and said, "No, I almost got led astray by you again."
After a slight pause, Li Shanchang continued, "Let's assume that there are seven million men of marriageable age in our Great Ming Dynasty, and each of them has one wife and two concubines."
"That means we would need a total of 21 million women of marriageable age."
"The problem is that there are seven million men of marriageable age, which roughly means there are around seven million women of marriageable age, maybe one million more, maybe one million less, but it is absolutely impossible for there to be fourteen million more women than men."
"And you've overlooked one thing."
Yang Shaofeng looked at Li Shanchang with a bewildered expression.
Li Shanchang stroked his beard and chuckled, saying with a mocking expression, "Your Highness, you probably haven't heard of the term 'impotence,' have you?"
Ok?
Soft and ineffective, effective but not firm, firm but not lasting?
Is this some kind of bus to kindergarten?!
Yang Shaofeng secretly complained, but Li Shanchang continued, "Throughout history, except for the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, which dynasty did not favor the birth of sons or daughters?"
"Whether they are ordinary people, local gentry, or high-ranking officials, there are often cases of female infants being drowned."
"Therefore, there was a rule that those who did not pass the imperial examinations could not become officials."
As Li Shanchang finished speaking, Yang Shaofeng finally understood what the so-called impotence was all about.
It has nothing to do with whether it's strong or not, and it has even less to do with how long it lasts.
The term "inability to perform sexual intercourse" refers to the practice of drowning female infants after they are born.
This situation is especially prevalent among the poor and destitute in rural areas.
Ultimately, it all comes down to low productivity – having a son, regardless of whether he could study for the imperial examinations or become an official, at least meant the family had an extra strong laborer.
But if you have a daughter, it not only means you have to support one more person, but also means you have to prepare a dowry for her.
Pay attention!
The bride price and the betrothal gifts are two different things.
The betrothal gifts are used to marry the principal wife, and the woman usually has to return a larger dowry in return.
For example, Yang Shaofeng's betrothal gifts for the two princesses consisted of only two wild geese and items such as acacia, acacia, donkey-hide gelatin, calamus, red reeds, double stones, cotton, longevity threads, and dried lacquer. Moreover, Chen Zhong and the others helped prepare all of these items.
The true value of all these things, all put together, is less than a thousand strings of cash.
But the dowry that Old Deng brought back was much bigger.
From daily necessities to the intricately crafted canopy bed with hanging flower pillars made of nanmu wood, and even the coffin, the entire dowry stretched for ten miles, hence the name "ten-mile red dowry," which was priceless.
And that doesn't even include the two separate mansions for the imperial son-in-law, or the special gifts that Old Deng bestowed upon Yang Shaofeng as a special imperial son-in-law.
Of course, weddings in ordinary households cannot be conducted according to this standard.
However, in traditional Chinese weddings, the dowry often exceeds the betrothal gifts.
During the Song Dynasty, not only ordinary people worried about their dowries, but even the emperor would have worries.
As for the situation where the groom gives more betrothal gifts and the bride doesn't return any dowry?
Don't be ridiculous, that's not what getting married is all about!
Taking a concubine?
Taking a concubine is essentially a transaction, and a concubine's status is hardly better than that of a large livestock in the household!
Otherwise, there wouldn't be the saying that favoring a concubine over one's wife is a serious crime.
We also need to emphasize this point.
In ancient times, taking a concubine was not something that could be done casually.
Whether one can afford to take a concubine is only one of the underlying criteria for doing so.
The real hard rule was that "men who are forty years old and have no children may take one concubine."
Do you understand?
Ordinary men were only allowed to take a concubine if they had not had a son by the age of forty.
If you cannot have another child, it usually means that you are destined to be childless, and the government will not allow you to take a second concubine.
Even in special circumstances, such as when someone still holds some status in the local area, they still need the testimony of the clan elders before they can take a second concubine.
Moreover, there were strict requirements regarding economic strength for taking a concubine; one had to own five fen (a unit of land area) of land in order to ensure that one could support the concubine and her children.
Even the emperor could only have one empress, three wives, nine concubines, twenty-seven ladies-in-waiting, and eighty-one imperial wives.
The empress was the official spouse, while the others were concubines.
Based on comprehensive calculations, an emperor could have one principal wife and one hundred and twenty concubines.
At the level of the imperial clan, such as heirs and princes, those who had no sons by the age of twenty-five could take two concubines, and those who still had no sons by the age of thirty could take up to four concubines; generals and lieutenants, etc., had the number of concubines increase with age.
(From the Ming Dynasty's Collected Statutes, Ministry of Rites)
As for the officials... they're a different story.
After all, rules are rules, and reality is reality.
If officials aren't allowed to take concubines, then they can keep pageboys.