Southern Ming Rebel Army

Chapter 269: Memorial

October, the second year of the Yongli reign.

Ever since Lu Zhenfei's petition for the appointment of a queen was circulated, it caused a huge uproar. Not only were officials at all levels of the shogunate talking about it, but the common people in Jinling City were also very interested. They commented on the girls of marriageable age in each family. It was such a new thing that King Zhou was going to get married. After so many years of war, it would be nice to have a happy event to cheer up.

The letter from the Queen requesting a consultation made the shogunate officials even more anxious, and even the tense atmosphere caused by preparing supplies for the war was relaxed, not to mention the old lady. Many gentry tried their best to curry favor and present portraits of their daughters of marriageable age to the old lady.

These days, the old lady was so busy that she didn't even have enough time to worship Buddha. She was busy examining the portraits all day long. If she liked one, she would ask Huan'er to show it to Meng Jun. However, after countless visits, Meng Jun only replied with a few words: "Well, it's good. Leave it there and take a look at it later. It's OK."

For two consecutive days, Meng Jun did not mention ordering the shogunate to select a woman, and he did not comment on the old lady's portrait. This made the old lady really impatient, so she decided to go find Meng Jun in person.

It was a rare occasion for Old Lady Zhou to walk out of the back house and into the front hall. The first thing she saw was Meng Jun with his head buried on the table, writing something.

"Jun'er." The old lady called softly.

Meng Jun looked up, a little surprised, but still put down his pen, stood up, and said, "Mother, why are you here today?"

"Alas, you are doing great things, and your mother does not understand and will not interfere with you. Two years ago, you said that you were insecure and did not think about the affairs of your family. Now you are a prince, but you have not yet married. Isn't it a joke?" The old lady said in a somewhat reproachful tone.

Before Meng Jun could speak, the old lady continued, "The Meng family has only one son for three generations. I no longer care what kind of family my wife comes from. As long as she gives birth to a child, I will die without regrets."

After saying this, she turned around and left. The maid Huan'er who was accompanying her bowed to Meng Jun and left with the old lady.

Meng Jun sat down, chuckled, spread out the unfinished letter, and started writing. About a quarter of an hour later, Meng Jun blew away the ink, sealed it, and then ordered Yu An to send someone to deliver it to Han Xiong in Fujian.

Meng Jun did not have too many requirements for marrying a wife. According to his mind, he could choose any daughter of a gentry or a wealthy merchant. However, when Yang En revealed this, he immediately refuted: "Your Majesty, although those women were chosen by me on my own initiative and I had no choice but to do so in order to raise military funds, these women may be concubines, but they cannot be queens."

Meng Jun was stunned and asked, "Mu De, why do you say that?"

Yang En said sternly, "It has been said since ancient times that one should marry a virtuous wife and a beautiful concubine. Your Majesty is now too noble to marry a family that offers their daughter for power. The queen must be dignified and virtuous, manage the harem, be well-educated, distinguish right from wrong, set an example for the people, and have a noble character. Your Majesty must be cautious."

After Yang En left, Meng Jun sat at his desk and thought alone. Throughout the dynasties, there were many reasons for the fall of a country, such as land, finance, warlords, corruption and so on. However, if the last ruler was capable, he could still maintain the country. If he was incapable or was simply a foolish ruler, the country would fall faster.

This is the drawback of rule by man. Thousands of decisions depend on one person. Since ancient times, most emperors have short lives. On the one hand, pleasures are readily available, and on the other hand, there are too many affairs to attend to. The combination of the two means that without a strong physique, it is impossible to be an emperor.

The vast empire had affairs every day. To a vast empire, some matters might be trivial, but to the local areas they were top priorities, such as floods, droughts, earthquakes, nomadic invasions, rebellions by chieftains, or local officials bullying the people, levying heavy taxes and leading to civil unrest.

If all these affairs were gathered together and handled by the emperor alone, among hundreds of emperors, perhaps only Zhu Yuanzhang could do so much work, and he was also such a workaholic. Meng Jun was extremely busy just handling the affairs in various parts of Jiangnan, not to mention a vast empire with plateaus in the north, rainforests in the south, the sea in the east, and deserts in the west.

If in the future, the country is unified and prosperous, Meng Jun will consider whether to establish a system so that his descendants can rule the country with ease, with a cabinet system of ministers and the wisdom of the people rather than one person ruling alone. However, this is not without disadvantages. There may be powerful ministers, or power struggles between the emperor and the prime minister.

Meng Jun had too many thoughts in his mind, which made him feel a little headache. He patted his head and said softly, "The Qing army is still in Jiangbei, and Huguang is still fighting. It's too far-fetched to think about these things."

But there were more and more discussions about this, throughout the shogunate, in the city of Jinling, and even as time went on, the people in Jiangsu and Zhejiang were also talking about it. Seeing how much criticism there was, a group of officials in the shogunate jointly wrote a letter to the king, asking him to issue an edict to select a virtuous woman to be the queen in order to reassure the people.

This commotion made the warriors in Jinling City dumbfounded. Qian Biao pursed his lips and said puzzledly: "Why is the king making such a big fuss about marrying a wife who is nowhere to be found? Why are these scholars more anxious than marrying their own wives? They are crazy."

Deputy General Guo Hu patiently explained to Qian Biao: "The king is not an ordinary family. He may become the emperor in the future. At that time, the queen will become the empress, and the child born will be the prince. Who wouldn't be tempted? It's just that my daughter is too young, otherwise I would also like to make a choice."

"What do you mean by maybe? That's for sure. You know nothing. Besides, you are so ugly, and you still want to be the emperor. You are just daydreaming. I won't talk to you."

Guo Hu was speechless when he heard this.

When Meng Jun saw that the matter had become a big deal, he agreed to let the shogunate choose a queen for him, but he strictly ordered that the people should not be disturbed and military preparations should not be delayed.

After giving the order, Meng Jun forgot about the matter. These people just didn't understand the big picture. The war couldn't be won and everything was an illusion. Only by taking over Huguang could they lay the foundation for hegemony.

Meng Jun already had absolute control over the Yangtze River. When he turned his attention to Huguang, he no longer had to worry about the city of Nanjing being attacked by the Qing army. Today, every move of the Qing army on the water on the Yangtze River was completely within the sight of Zhou Jun's navy. Within a year, the Qing army would no longer be able to carry out large-scale crossing operations in the north of the Yangtze River.

While the whole city of Jinling was discussing the matter of the queen, Jin Shenghuan had already been escorted to Jinling. Also arriving at the same time were Hu Zhan, Zhang Yingwei, Wang Deren and more than a dozen former senior generals of the Jin army.

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(Writing a chapter about getting married, the protagonist can’t be single, right?)