Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Using the words of the audience in the streaming room to mock themselves, they were just a bunch of losers whose main task was to shout the word ‘awesome’. Their secondary job was to be onlookers. However, apart from being onlookers, losers had brains. Their suggestions could also inspire Jiang Pengji.
For example, she had also carefully considered the political commissar this time. She was somewhat conative, but she was spiritless when it was combined with reality. It could not be implemented.
Shanghaojia Tianyuan Shupian: “Why? Isn’t the suggestion pretty good? I think it’s very feasible.”
Salami Jitui: “Don’t worry. The streamer is just saying that it’s not feasible now. She’s not saying that it won’t work in the future. I think the current conditions aren’t mature yet. Do you think that a housekeeper can become a political commissar? The most basic requirement is that the political commissar must be literate!”
When the bullet screen was posted, many losers who were jumping with nervousness had calmed down. They forgot that there were 99 illiterate people out of every 100 people in the streamer’s world. The political commissar did not have to be knowledgeable, but he must not be illiterate. Otherwise, how could he educate people and eliminate illiteracy?
To put it bluntly, Jiang Pengji was still short of talent! How could she have enough talent?
Firstly, she had to recruit talent, use various benefits to attract refugees to settle down and enlarge the army to become stronger. Jiang Pengji had been working hard on that. Wei Ci had also sent more than 10 letters to classmates whom he was close with. He had yet to receive a reply. Secondly, she had to nurture talent herself. When it came to nurturing talents, schools would be involved. Schools were the cradle and the birth of talent.
Jiang Pengji had previously bluffed Shangguan Wan into becoming a teacher. She ordered someone to build a small school in Xiangyang District where the military force was the strongest. She planned to recruit hundreds of clever students. The construction of the school was about to be completed. The plan of recruiting students could also be put on the agenda. Just by training them for one to two years, she would be able to amass a batch of talent for low-level positions.
Not to mention anything else, they could at least become a political commissar who would echo what the books said, tell stories, and brainwash the troops…
Thirdly, she had to encourage women who were of a suitable age to give birth to children! After all, newborns would be the future. There were too many people who died in wars which could cause a sharp decline in population. If there was not an adequate number of newborns, the population would show negative growth which would be unfavorable for long-term development.
Speaking of the third article, Jiang Pengji could not help but scratch the wall by herself. Why were the child-bearing conditions there so backward?!
“I really don’t want to promulgate this law. I feel that it’s contradictory to my own principles, but I have to do it… Sigh!”
Jiang Pengji was done scratching the wall and ranted to the audience with a serious look on her face. The audience in the streaming room had gotten along with her for years. By listening to a word or two which she occasionally uttered, they knew why Jiang Pengji had said so.
In the streamer’s world, pregnancy was completely dependent upon the hardworking scientists. Men and women would donate their sperms and ova respectively and wait for the birth of their children. Even so, men and women still thought that it was troublesome to have children. The population had once experienced negative growth. The total human population which had been declining was only barely stabilized by relying on the human reproduction program launched by the intelligent government.
Did one think to bear the child in one’s uterus and reproduce a newborn naturally? Years of imprisonment would await. The minimum sentence was 10 years and the maximum was a life sentence!
Now, in her opinion, the criminal charge of letting a federal mogul promulgate the law to encourage women who were of the suitable age to have children was enough to shoot someone dead! A rant was a rant. She still had to do it.
During the drought in the north that year, the crops in the fields had almost withered to death. The Tsing Yi Army and Red Lotus Group who had been fighting fiercely had also somewhat ceased fighting. As they could not continue fighting, the situation in the north had become more stable. There would be no large-scale conflicts in the north at least until the next spring ploughing. This was a good opportunity for rehabilitation.
Jiang Pengji planned to seize the opportunity and make the people under her governance rehabilitate, for example, by giving birth to children. However, although it was a policy to encourage population growth, Jiang Pengji had also added some additional clauses.
The best age for women to give birth to children was between 25 and 30 years old. Their bodies’ basic development had matured. Their bones had completely calcified and their pelvises had become wider. This was the most suitable state for childbirth. This was also one of the reasons why Jiang Pengji had set the retirement age of the female troops to be 24. If childbirth was to be encouraged, she decided to give appropriate encouragement and welfare to pregnant women of this age group.
Of course, given the high probability of the abandonment of baby girls in this era, if reproduction was encouraged, many baby girls would be abandoned or murdered when they were born. For this reason, she had added additional regulations. If each household did not want to raise the baby girls who were born, they could send the baby girls to the nursery. They were not allowed to abandon or deliberately murder them. People who were willing to raise the baby girls would be given some benefits.
However, although her idea was good, many people, including her subordinates, were somewhat puzzled. Most of the people were married between the ages of 13 and 18. Getting married later would make it difficult for them to get married. Therefore, their pregnancies were also focused in this age group. Why did the lord reward pregnant women between the ages of 25 and 30?
According to the current ethos, a 30-year-old pregnant woman could basically have children at the same time as her daughter-in-law.
In the face of such a question, Jiang Pengji blinked her eyes and said, “You’re uncivilized. Read more books.”
Feng Jin, who was accused of being uneducated, asked rhetorically in a swift and natural manner, “What book is it?”
“A medical book, of course.” Jiang Pengji said with a smile, “I read a wide variety of books and I’ve read some medical books of various kinds. It’s mentioned in the medical books that giving birth to children at a young age is bad for a woman’s body. Didn’t you realize that among the seven to eight children whom some of the young couples have given birth to, the children who are born later are basically the ones who can manage to survive and that those who are born earlier have either broken health or have died due to other reasons?”
Feng Jin was a little surprised. Was it really true? Of course it was. Many physicians knew about it as well, but they could not say it. Whoever who said it would be cursed. Was there a family who did not wish for their daughters-in-law to quickly give birth to children after marriage?
The upbringing of the Feng family was strict. Be it a man marrying his wife or a woman getting married to her husband, they were all about 17 to 18 years old. Some even got married two years later than that. It was much better than those who were married at the age of 13 to 14. Hence this did not really make Feng Jin think deeply.
However, if he understood the low-level commoners carefully, he would know the truth of Jiang Pengji’s words.
Jiang Pengji added, “I’m not saying that women who are in their early teens aren’t allowed to have children, but I’m encouraging those who are slightly older to give birth to more children.”
It was better to have children at an older age rather than having children at the age of 13 or 14 and only two or three children managed to survive in the end when the woman who was pregnant seven to eight times had reached her twenties. When women’s bodies were more developed, the survival rate of children would also be higher.
Medical technology was very backward in this era. Childbirth was highly risky for women. It would be even riskier if women gave birth to children at an inappropriate age.
Jiang Pengji was still too weak now. She would not act against the whole social trend, but she could adapt to changing circumstances. She could achieve her goal and conform to the current ethos. She strived to find a balance between the two and slowly change the world.
Feng Jin was somewhat confused. He spoke helplessly after a while, “In this case, it’s best for you to work with the physicians and talk about the reasons. Otherwise, when the law is promulgated, many commoners will curse at you.”
Why did they have to curse at Jiang Pengji in secret?
She took the lead in encouraging women who could be ‘grandmothers’ to give birth to children. Was she not looking for trouble?
