Chapter 554 – The Unabashed Lord
Using the live stream audience’s own words to self-deprecate, they merely regarded themselves as a bunch of dried fish who just shouted “666” at the main show, while the side gig involved gathering gossip like curious onlookers. However, being a dried fish doesn’t mean lacking brains; their suggestions could indeed inspire Jiang Pengji.
For this instance regarding the political commissioner, she had considered it seriously and was somewhat tempted, but when mixed with reality, her enthusiasm waned, and it just wouldn’t go into action.
【Good Choice Country Crisps】: Why not? This suggestion isn’t bad at all! I think its feasibility is pretty high.
【Salami Drumstick】: Don’t rush, alright? The streamer just said it’s unfeasible now, not that it’ll forever be unfeasible. It’s probably just that the conditions aren’t mature yet. Do you think anyone can just become a political commissioner like a housekeeper? The most basic requirement—political commissioners cannot be illiterate!
Once this comment was posted, many anxious dried fish in the chat calmed down.
Right, they forgot that in the streamer’s world, ninety-nine out of a hundred people were illiterate.
The position of political commissioner, while not necessarily needing to be a polymath, definitely couldn’t be filled by an illiterate. How could they brainwash people or enlighten them otherwise?
Simply put, Jiang Pengji still needed people!
So how could she get more people?
First, recruit talent and attract refugees to settle with various benefits to increase manpower. Jiang Pengji was already working on this; Wei Ci had sent out dozens of letters to some amicable classmates, but so far, received no replies.
Second, cultivate talent herself. Speaking of cultivating talent inevitably brought up the academy, which was the cradle of talent.
Previously, Jiang Pengji had coaxed Shangguan Wan to be her teacher. She had her people build a small academy in Xiangyang, the military stronghold, planning to attract about a hundred clever students, and the construction was nearing completion; admission plans could be put on the agenda.
With just a year or two of training, she could harvest a batch of quick-growing grassroots talents.
Not to mention, at least they could serve as political commissioners to read scripts and brainwash the soldiers…
Third, procreate! Procreate! Encourage women of childbearing age to have babies. After all, new life is the future; too many deaths in battles would drastically reduce the population. If the number of newborns isn’t adequate, the population could decline, which harms long-term development.
Speaking of this third point, Jiang Pengji couldn’t help but scratch the wall in frustration. Why were the birthing conditions here so backward!?
“I really don’t want to issue this decree; it feels totally against my principles, yet I have no choice… sigh!”
After scratching the wall, Jiang Pengji solemnly complained to the audience.
Having spent several years with the streamer, the audience gathered a bit of context from the offhand remarks she made, understanding why she felt this way.
In the streamer’s world, giving birth to new life relied entirely on hard-working scientists. Men and women donated sperm and eggs and then went home waiting to cuddle the babies.
Even then, men and women found childbirth troublesome, resulting in a period of negative population growth.
Thanks to the clever government initiating a population growth plan, the total human population that had once been in decline was barely stabilized.
You think uteruses can nurture and naturally produce new life?
Honey, a few years in prison are waiting for you.
Ten years, minimum. Life sentence at most!
Now, having a federation bigwig issue a decree encouraging women of childbearing age to pop out babies seemed enough of a crime to get shot!
Sighing aside, this matter still had to be dealt with.
With the terrible drought in the north this year, the fields were nearly dead, and both the Green Garment Army and the Red Lotus Sect were starting to struggle as well.
If they couldn’t hold out, the situation in the north would stabilize a bit.
At least before the spring plowing next year, there would likely not be large-scale conflicts; it was a good opportunity to recuperate.
Jiang Pengji planned to seize this chance to let the common people recuperate, like having a baby or something.
However, even though this policy aimed to encourage population growth, Jiang Pengji slipped in some of her own ideas.
The ideal childbearing age for women is between twenty-five and thirty, a period when their bodies are fully developed, bones fully calcified, and pelvis widened—this is the best state for childbirth. This was also one of the reasons Jiang Pengji set the retirement age for female soldiers at twenty-four.
If encouraging childbirth, she decided to offer some incentives and benefits to pregnant women in that age range.
Of course, given the era’s high likelihood of abandoning baby girls, if they encouraged childbirth, who knew how many newborn girls would be discarded or harmed? To counter this, she introduced an additional regulation: if families didn’t want to raise birthed girls, they could send them to the nursery instead of abandoning or harming them. Households willing to take in girls would receive certain conveniences.
Sure, she had great intentions, but many, including her advisers, were a bit confused.
The common people generally married between thirteen and eighteen; waiting longer would make them “hard to handle.”
Thus, their childbirth also clustered around that age. Why was the lord suddenly rewarding pregnant women aged twenty-five to thirty?
Considering the current social atmosphere, a thirty-year-old pregnant woman could easily give birth alongside her daughter-in-law!
In response to this query, Jiang Pengji blinked and said, “Lack of culture—read more books.”
Wind Jin, criticized for lacking culture, promptly asked back, “Which book?”
“Of course, medical texts,” Jiang Pengji replied with a smile. “I read a lot of various books, including some medical texts. Medical books state that having babies at too young an age is not good for health. Have you not noticed that those young couples who had seven or eight children usually only have a couple that survive, while the previous ones either get sick or die early for other reasons?”
Wind Jin was slightly taken aback. Really, is that so?
Indeed, many young doctors knew this well but couldn’t say it; whoever spoke would get scolded.
Which family doesn’t hope the wife would quickly bear children for the household?
The Wind family’s education was strict; whether boys married or girls wed, the age was generally around seventeen or eighteen, sometimes even later, faring much better than those who married and had kids at thirteen or fourteen. Hence, Wind Jin doesn’t have much feeling regarding these matters.
However, if he were to carefully understand the common people, he’d find out how genuine Jiang Pengji’s words were.
Jiang Pengji continued, “I’m not saying it’s forbidden for very young women to give birth, just that I encourage those who are a bit older to have more children.”
Rather than having kids at thirteen or fourteen and bearing seven or eight pregnancies by twenty, with only two or three surviving, it’s better to wait a bit longer, let the body develop a little, and raise the survival rate of the children.
In this era, medical technology was very primitive, and the risks of childbirth were high; having children at an inappropriate age posed even greater risks.
Jiang Pengji’s current power was still too weak; she wouldn’t go against the societal norms, but she could adapt. She aimed to achieve her goals while conforming to contemporary trends, striving to find a balance and gradually change this world.
Wind Jin felt his thoughts were in disarray and eventually expressed helplessly, “In that case, the lord should sneak around with a few young doctors to explain the reasoning behind this. Otherwise, once your decree goes out, who knows how many commoners will curse you!”
Why would they secretly curse Jiang Pengji?
Because she led the charge in encouraging women, who could still be “grandmas,” to have babies—wasn’t that just inviting trouble?
