Chapter 260: 258 Taking a Concubine Is a Political Task (For Big Boss Penguin)

The Eight Rows Yao sent a delegation of thirty-two envoys.

One from each of the Eight Rows and Twenty-Four Valleys.

Pan Maiwei of Youling Row was chosen as temporary leader and was received in the main hall of the Regional Commander's residence.

Four rows of stools were arranged in the hall, and Pan Maiwei sat at the very center of the first row. From time to time, he exchanged low murmurs with the headmen from Nangang Row and Hengkeng Row, glancing forward after a few words to see if Heavenly King Zhao had arrived yet.

Suddenly, a young man emerged from the doorway. None of the Yao envoys paid him any mind, assuming he was just an ordinary clerk of the Regional Commander's residence.

Even an ordinary clerk was so tall and handsome — truly worthy of Heavenly King Zhao's mansion, a place brimming with talent!

The young man walked a few steps inside, then abruptly said, "Move the chair down into the hall. What sort of appearance is it, sitting high and lofty above everyone?"

At once, people sprang into action, moving the chair from the dais down into the hall, placing it at the same height as the Yao envoys' seats.

Pan Maiwei asked the interpreter in Cantonese, "What did he say?"

The interpreter immediately relayed the words.

Pan Maiwei smiled and nodded, saying to the person beside him, "This young man is very good, not looking down on us the way other Han do. When I meet Heavenly King Zhao, I must praise this young man and hope he can become an even greater official in the future."

Suddenly, the young man clasped his fists and smiled. "I am Zhao Han — the Heavenly King Zhao of the rumors. I welcome all our Yao brothers to Ji'an as our guests."

The interpreter repeated it in Cantonese.

Heavenly King Zhao?

Pan Maiwei was instantly stunned. He looked around and saw the same disbelief on the faces of the other headmen.

Everyone hastily rose to their feet.

Zhao Han smiled and said, "Please, all of you, sit and speak."

"We pay our respects to Heavenly King Zhao!"

Pan Maiwei took the lead in kneeling and bowing, and everyone knelt in unison. They had often been forced to kneel by powerful Han officials before, but this time no one compelled them — they knelt willingly and wholeheartedly.

Because Zhao Han had taken the initiative to move his chair down, placing it level with their seats — this one small gesture was enough.

Zhao Han said, "Everyone, please rise quickly. Under my rule, so long as you obey the law, there is no high or low, noble or base. Han and Han are equal, Han and Yao are equal. You and I, we are all brothers."

These words stirred Pan Maiwei, and with a touch of seizing the opportunity to press closer, he called out anew, "We pay our respects to Brother Zhao!"

"We pay our respects to Brother Zhao!" everyone shouted in unison.

The interpreter said, "Regional Commander, they are addressing you as elder brother."

Interesting. Zhao Han's face held a smile as he couldn't help but regard the man with greater respect.

Worthy of being chosen as the envoy leader — this fellow's mind turned fast indeed, instantly drawing the two sides closer and locking in the principle of equality between Yao and Han.

"Sit," Zhao Han said with a slight smile.

Everyone sat down in perfect unison — their discipline was strong.

After some casual chat, Zhao Han asked, "How was the harvest this year?"

Pan Maiwei answered, "This year's harvest was average. Last year's harvest was very poor. The heavens dried up in a great drought, the terraced fields had no water, and life in the rows became unbearable. The dog officials still came pressing for land taxes, demanding more year after year, but we drove them all away."

Zhao Han sighed. "Corrupt officials are just that wicked. I, too, was driven to rebellion by corrupt officials. I understand your hardships."

"If Elder Brother becomes emperor, then everyone will have good days ahead," Pan Maiwei flattered.

Zhao Han then asked about the Eight Rows Yao's electoral system. He listened for a long time, then suddenly asked, "Do all the Yao people of Guangdong elect their leaders this way?"

Pan Maiwei shook his head. "Yao people are not all the same. We Eight Rows Yao are close to the Han and must perform corvée labor for the government. The Han sometimes scornfully call us 'Summoned Yao' or 'Mobilized Yao,' as if we were tamed dogs. There are also many Guo Shan Yao in Guangdong. They don't know how to farm terraced fields; they always set fire to the mountains to grow grain and must change to a new mountain every year or two. The leaders of the Guo Shan Yao are not elected."

"Why do you elect your leaders?" Zhao Han asked again.

Pan Maiwei answered, "Without electing a leader, how can we arrange the water distribution? How can we manage the rows and valleys?"

Zhao Han understood instantly. The terraced fields were the lifeblood of the Eight Rows Yao, and the irrigation of those fields demanded a high degree of discipline. If any family's fields defied management, it would harm a vast area. A hereditary leadership system would inevitably lead to favoritism and neglect.

Therefore, their leaders needed to be elected, to ensure that every family's terraced fields could sustain normal production.

The Guo Shan Yao were different — they practiced long-term shifting cultivation, constantly migrating. That mode of life and production certainly could not sustain elected leaders, or endless chaos would erupt.

There is no best system, only the most suitable system!

Just as after Zhao Han founded his state, he absolutely could not adopt a constitutional monarchy, because China was simply too vast. Once a constitutional monarchy was in place, the emperor would be a hundred percent sidelined, the civil official clique would begin to swell madly, and then they would devour every interest in the localities — the common people would be swallowed whole, not even bone fragments left behind.

Zhao Han asked further, "As the Eight Rows Yao population keeps multiplying, are the terraced fields enough?"

"Not enough," Pan Maiwei shook his head. "Before, we could still open new fields, but now there are no places left to open new fields. Clansmen without fields can only go down the mountain, become tenant farmers for the Han, or go to the county seat to become drifters. There are also some Yao outside the mountains who have grown rich — they are just like the Han, turned into great landlords who bully others."

After hearing their account, Zhao Han decided to treat them differently.

For the Eight Rows Yao, who practiced an electoral system, he would not touch their internal structure. Because sending Han officials to manage them would likely upset the balance and disrupt the Yao people's normal production and livelihood.

As for Yao landlords and Yao tenant farmers — land would be redistributed exactly as it was for everyone else!

But the Eight Rows Yao must establish schools. Ordinary Yao people must also learn to speak Han language, study all kinds of cultural knowledge, and those with outstanding results could come out to take exams and become officials.

And those Guo Shan Yao — ah, civilize them bit by bit. First teach them how to farm.

Even primitive tribes can be civilized. When Wang Yangming was exiled to Longchang Post Station, the nearby Miao people were still practicing slash-and-burn farming. Wang Yangming got on very well with those raw Miao; the Miao brothers even helped Wang Yangming build a thatched hut, and thus the first "Longgang Academy" was born, where Miao children also studied and learned to read.

Suddenly, Pan Maiwei cupped his hands and said, "Brother Zhao, please take as your bride the most beautiful sa-mei of the Eight Rows Yao. Then we shall truly become one family."

The interpreter explained, "An unmarried man is called an a-gui, and an unmarried woman is called a sa-mei."

"This matter, I need to discuss it," Zhao Han did not agree at once.

The Yao envoys, though somewhat disappointed, were at least not met with an outright refusal from Zhao Han.

After sending the envoys back to their lodgings, Zhao Han summoned the ministers of the Regional Commander's residence to deliberate.

Li Banghua spoke first: "Taking one Yao woman — if it can settle the Eight Rows Yao, then it should be done. I ask the Regional Commander to put the affairs of state first."

"You should have taken more concubines long ago," Pang Chunlai sighed with emotion, hoping Zhao Han would quickly marry more and produce more sons.

The other ministers all urged him in succession as well.

Zhao Han asked, puzzled, "Do you not look down on Yao women?"

"Why would we look down on them?" Li Banghua countered, then added, "The Eight Rows Yao are cooked Yao. Many of the Yao who have come down from the mountains are already no different from Han."

Local officials did indeed discriminate against minority peoples, but when it came to intermarriage, few truly made an issue of it.

The Empress Dowager of the Zhengde Emperor was very likely of barbarian origin, said to be the daughter of a native chieftain in Guangxi. Zhu Jianshen dispatched troops to suppress the barbarians of Guangxi and brought back a batch of orphaned children; one of those girls grew up and gave birth to the Xiaozong Emperor.

Returning to the inner quarters, Zhao Han discussed matters with Fei Rulan.

Fei Rulan sighed and said, "If my husband still refuses to take concubines, the entire prefecture of Ji'an will say I am a jealous shrew."

Fei Rulan was also anxious. After giving birth to a son, two years had passed and she had not conceived again. They had called in a famous physician, who diagnosed that the previous childbirth had caused some blockage in her meridians and prescribed a formula to regulate them. Fei Rulan had been taking it for over half a year.

Zhao Han said, "The moment I take a concubine, countless officials will follow suit, and public morals will deteriorate from there."

Fei Rulan said, "Ever since my husband rose in revolt, your approach to concubines and prostitutes has been: the authorities do not pursue unless someone brings a complaint. Even if my husband does not take a concubine, those who wish to take concubines will still take them in secret."

Zhao Han was left speechless. It seemed that his taking concubines had already become something the entire populace eagerly anticipated.

It was not only the vested interests; even the gentry who hated him felt that Zhao Han ought to have more sons. Otherwise, if his sole son died young and Zhao Han himself met with misfortune, Jiangxi would inevitably descend into chaos again, and no one could say how many would perish in the ensuing warfare.

Zhao Han was not yet even an emperor, yet his private household affairs were already being scrutinized by countless eyes.

The day he became emperor, the inner palace would cease to be a home and would become purely a political appendage.

Zhao Han was not opposed to taking concubines. He was a normal man, and a taste for feminine beauty was only natural. But he had always been very cautious about this — or rather, ever since he raised his army, Zhao Han had been very cautious about everything.

So cautious that his pace of expansion was unbearably slow. His officials and officers could no longer stand it and had been pushing Zhao Han to hurry up and accelerate the expansion.

He was a helmsman navigating a ship, and he had to steer his crew clear of the wind and waves.

Ah, forget it. If I must take concubines, so be it. It was bound to happen sooner or later anyway.

Zhao Han chatted a while longer with Fei Rulan, then went alone to his study to draft the Patent Law. This thing was unprecedented and had to be formulated by Zhao Han himself; no one else had any idea how to go about it.

The Song and Ming dynasties also had monopoly systems, but they were fundamentally different from a patent system.

The monopoly system emphasized state control, for instance, the monopoly on commodities like salt, iron, tea, and alum. Mixed in among these were a few technical monopolies, which came closer to patents.

A patent system, by contrast, emphasizes encouraging research and development and safeguarding the interests of technical innovators.

First, a Patent Bureau must be established under the Bureau of Works.

Examination standards must also be drawn up — that is, how to determine what qualifies as a patent. One cannot simply stamp anything brought in at random.

All these things would have to be worked out gradually. They would use the water-powered spinning machine as a test case, making adjustments step by step as the patent system was put into practice.

As for the term of patent protection, Zhao Han decided to set two options, from which the patent holder could choose freely.

The first: a term of ten years, calculated from the date the patent was approved.

The second: a term of five years, calculated from the date the patent first generated profit.

With the drafting of the Patent Law completed, a few days later, Zhao Han finally gave his answer to the Yao people, agreeing to take a Yao woman as his concubine.

Just at this moment, Zhao Han received a letter from Fei Ruhe.

Fei Ruhe was already garrisoned in Guangzhou, but the merchant power there was too great. He dared not move rashly to deal with them, fearing it would provoke a chain of unforeseen reactions.

Thinking of Macao, Zhao Han decided to go to Guangzhou in person.

He would not only deal with the Guangzhou merchants but also meet with the Portuguese and Zheng Zhilong.

(End of chapter)