The most arrogant in history

Chapter 646: Yin and Yang are out of balance.

Sang Buyi smiled bitterly and didn't dare to make any blind guesses.

Ye Kun said: "Xiahou Chang and Gongsun Erniang have made secret investigations and found a serious phenomenon. The ratio of young men and women is unbalanced, with more men than women.

In addition, wealthy merchants took concubines in large numbers, which resulted in fewer women waiting to get married, and many common people could not afford to marry. "

The imbalance in the gender ratio has historical reasons.

Because China favors boys over girls, many baby girls are abandoned as soon as they are born.

Or even drown.

Ye Kun has repeatedly prohibited the abandonment of baby girls, and has already enacted legislation, but to little effect.

Eighty percent of the orphans in the imperial court's various orphanages are girls.

The children who are sent to the orphanage are lucky.

There are even more unfortunate people who die at birth.

But boys are treated as treasures and most of them survive.

In today's Yizhou and Jiangdong, because they have been stable for more than a decade, a new generation has grown up, and the problem of imbalance in the ratio of men to women has emerged.

There were even wealthy families who kept taking concubines, which made it impossible for poor people to get married and the bride price kept rising.

Ye Kun took out Gongsun Erniang's report and sighed:

"Over the years, we have brought in nearly a million young women from other ethnic groups from overseas to marry with Chinese people. Even so, there are still people in the folk who are still unmarried at the age of 20."

Sang Buyi pondered and said, "Your Majesty, would you consider prohibiting ordinary people from taking concubines?"

Throughout the ages, having no resentful women at home and no bachelors outside has been an indicator of political achievement.

An ideal society would be one where men have wives and women have husbands.

However, the rich have too many concubines and the poor cannot marry, so there are single men and the balance of yin and yang is out of balance.

It is a failure in governing the country!

Ma Zhao frowned and said, "But some women cannot have children after marriage. Shouldn't their husbands be allowed to take concubines? If so, it will cut off their family lineage and the people will be dissatisfied."

Ye Kun tapped the table lightly:

"In peacetime, the imbalance between the sexes will be the norm. This issue needs to be resolved at the legislative level. I suggest that legislation be enacted immediately to impose taxes on the act of taking concubines. For the first concubine, the tax will be ten taels of silver. For the second, the tax will be one hundred taels, and so on...

After ten or eight years, we will see whether to ban concubinage across the board, depending on the situation."

In fact, Ye Kun has another way, which is to export young men through war.

War itself consumes a large number of adult men.

Ma Zhao also thought of this and suggested:

"The taxation that the emperor mentioned is one way. I have another way, which is to conscript older unmarried men into the army and send them to Jiaozhi and the Tianzhu Peninsula to marry wives of other races."

Sang Buyi added: "Guan Bao is in charge of the gentry in Jiangdong. He can marry unmarried women of marriageable age to the local people who stay behind. The men from the gentry families will immigrate overseas."

Ye Kun thought for a moment and said, "Both of your suggestions are good. Especially Lord Sang's suggestion, which can be implemented immediately."

The gentry in Jiangdong are in dire straits at this moment, and everyone is in danger.

Because Guan Bao was so ruthless and resolute, he executed the names one by one according to the list that he had secretly checked in advance.

Some of the large families had tens of thousands of people, so Guan Bao sent out Lu Kaijiang and Yao Caidie, who led troops to directly control them. They forcibly relocated the wealthy families and left only the poor people.

Rich families with daughters would naturally be willing to keep them in their hometown and marry poor men nearby.

Otherwise, if you immigrate overseas, your life or death will be uncertain.

Ma Zhao smiled bitterly and said, "Guan Bao, Lu Kaijiang and Yao Caidie have been making drastic changes in Jiangdong, causing a lot of noise. The gentry in Jiangdong are wailing. Many officials in Jiangdong have reported that Yao Caidie is ruthless and often kills people to establish his authority, with blood splattering every five steps."

Ye Kun's eyes were firm: "The gentry in Jiangdong controlled the area, concealed the land and population, oppressed the people, and almost openly opposed the court. Yao Caidie and Lu Kaijiang, without such means, I'm afraid they would not be able to complete the task."

Ye Kun knew about Yao Caidie's situation in Jiangdong.

It is said that at the end of last year, Yao Caidie arrived in Wu County and beheaded seventeen local tyrants who were full of evil. The number of heads rolled down and Jiangdong was shocked.

Years later, Yao Caidie arrested dozens of local tyrants and beheaded them in public.

Yao Caidie was kind-hearted enough not to punish the entire clan or involve the entire family.

Ma Zhao was worried: "But the gentry in Wu County have been uprooted. I am afraid that the gentry in other places will feel grief for the loss of the rabbit and join forces to cause chaos."

Ye Kun sneered: "Half of Jiangnan is under the rule of Jiang Laowu. If there are gentry rebelling, I'm afraid Jiang Laowu will kill people, which is even more powerful."

Ye Kun only killed the gentry and distributed their property to the people.

The people are very happy to organize militia to help fight the gentry. How can they rebel?

Lu Kaijiang and Yao Caidie were in charge of militia work before. They knew how to mobilize the emotions of the grassroots people and fight against the local tyrants and divide the land together!

Moreover, through Ye Kun's education and reform over the years, most young people support Ye Kun and hate the local gentry.

Sang Buyi was also relieved about the situation in Jiangdong. He smiled and said, "It's unnecessary to worry about the people rebelling. Guan Bao is brave and resourceful. Shouldn't he be able to handle this little matter with ease?"

The three of them discussed for a long time and finalized some decisions. Then Sang Buyi and Ma Zhao said goodbye.

Ye Kun called Huang Jingzu and asked, "Zu'er, you are not a child anymore. The Queen Mother asked me to arrange a marriage for you. What do you think about this matter..."

Huang Jingzu bowed and said shyly, "Thank you, Your Majesty, and Your Majesty, for your concern. Actually, I am only... eighteen years old."

"Eighteen years old, is that still young?"

Ye Kun smiled and said, "When you go to the battlefield, you are not afraid of facing thousands of troops and fighting the enemy. Why are you shy when talking about marriage?"

Huang Jingzu's face turned even redder: "My child... has never experienced this before, so..."

Ye Kun waved his hand: "Your mother and the Queen said that you fell in love with a commoner's daughter, is that right?"

"Your Majesty, I just have feelings for that woman, and I have no private feelings for her."

"Since you are interested, why don't you propose? In this kind of situation, you have to act first. Otherwise, your sweetheart will be married off by someone else and you will regret it."

Ye Kun looked at the time and said, "You eat here. After dinner, I will accompany you to propose marriage."

"Your Majesty, but I haven't prepared any betrothal gifts."

"We can prepare the betrothal gifts later. Let's decide on it first."

Ye Kun asked Huang Ye to serve the meal without further ado.

After lunch, Ye Kun washed his face, took a rickshaw, and took Huang Jingzu to the Kangfu vegetable market in Xicheng.

The vegetable market was still bustling at this time.

On the left side of the vegetable market gate is a honey and fruit shop with a big sign on it: Guo Er Snacks and Preserved Fruits.

A girl of about sixteen or seventeen was busy in front of the door, packing snacks for customers with dried lotus leaves.

The little girl is not very pretty, but she is pure and has a few freckles on her nose, which makes her quite cute.

Ye Kun stood ten feet away and asked Huang Jingzu: "Is it this little girl?"

Huang Jingzu's face flushed and he nodded.

Ye Kun smiled, walked forward slowly, and asked, "Little girl, how much are these candied dates?"

"Two cents per pound of candied dates..."

The little girl looked at Ye Kun and suddenly turned pale, she was excited and scared: "Guest, you are the emperor, the emperor..."

Ye Kun often appears around the Spring Festival every year.

Ye Kun’s portrait often appears in newspapers, and his head can also be seen on coins.

Therefore, many people in Zhuo County know Ye Kun.

Ye Kun smiled: "Yes, I am Huang Jingzu's elder, come and take a look."

Huang Jingzu and the little girl obviously knew each other. He rushed forward and whispered, "Xiao Cui, don't tell anyone. We came here incognito and don't want anyone to know."

Xiao Cui was still excited, nervous and at a loss as to what to do.

Ye Kun smiled and said, "Miss Xiao Cui, is your father at home? Can I come in and sit for a while?"