Meng Zhaiyue hugged Aiai, put the white cat in her arms, and observed the chess game from the side. Queen Wang on the side laughed and sighed: "Yingying is right, my son is really not as good as me, so I have to admit defeat now."
　　Dong Lingjiu said: "Losing chess is common. When I was young, I also lost."
　　She put down the chess piece and stopped before Wang Wanrou was about to have no chance of turning around. She ordered people to clear the chess game, drank tea to moisten her lips, and tilted her head to glance at Yingying: "You came very early this year. In the past, when it was the twelfth lunar month, you could not let go of the eating, drinking and having fun in the capital. Your royal brother had to urge and send people over, and our princess was willing to return to the palace for the New Year."
　　Meng Zhaiyue's cheeks were slightly red, and she said softly: "It's all because of the prince consort in the past. Yingying had to accompany him, otherwise she would have flown back to the palace to accompany my mother."
　　Dong Lingjiu just smiled and didn't point it out to her, Then he asked, "Is your foot injury completely healed?"
　　Meng Zhaiyue stood up and turned around in front of her mother. Her movements were light and graceful. Although she was still very careful and might still feel pain occasionally, she was basically healed.
　　Dong Lingjiu said, "It will be healed in a few days. With such a small injury, you still have to hand over a letter with your eyes wide open and write a letter to complain in an exaggerated way?"
　　Meng Zhaiyue said, "I am not exaggerating. It was very painful at the beginning, but later... Later, they took good care of it, so it healed quickly. By the way, please let Xu Xiang and Xuan Jingyun go down. I have something to tell you."
　　Dong Lingjiu nodded slightly.
　　Meng Zhaiyue asked them to go down, not to keep it secret, but because she felt sorry for Xu Ziqian who had been kneeling on the ground for too long. She couldn't say it directly, so she could only use this excuse. Then she moved the chair and rubbed against Dong Lingjiu's side, and put her hands on the armrest and chair cover on her right side.
　　"Mother," she said, "The Great Yin Code was compiled by the late Mr. Zhou. I heard that when my father was alive, he asked Mr. Zhou's disciple, Mr. Wang Mingyan, the current Dali Temple Minister, to compile 40 volumes of The Great Yin Code. I flipped through the first 15 volumes that have been compiled, and there are many ideas that are beneficial. Why didn't you use it, mother?"
　　"What ideas do you think are beneficial?" Dong Lingjiu asked.
　　"For example... well, abolishing the harsh discrimination against merchants in clothing, housing, transportation, and taxation, and..." She listed a few of them, and at the end, "Reducing the penalties such as exterminating three clans and making the whole family slaves. People often say that the five mournings are distant relatives, so we will also abolish the collective punishment outside the five mournings."
　　Dong Lingjiu glanced at her and said, "Do you know why I didn't use it?"
　　"Isn't it because Mr. Wang Mingyan hasn't finished it yet?" Meng Zhaiyue said this, and suddenly remembered that The Great Yin Code had been stagnant for two years. What she had seen was only the unfinished fragments, so she asked again, "Yingying doesn't know."
　　"Wang Mingyan's writing is not bad, but too good." Dong Lingjiu said, "He is knowledgeable and has broad insights. Apart from other things, he is selfless and considerate of the people in the world when it comes to compiling memorials. It's just... many times, the implementation of the law must be based on a solid foundation. Let me ask you."
　　She paused and said to Meng Zhaiyue, "When the world is peaceful and prosperous, if businessmen are unrestricted and buy land and properties on a large scale, and acquire and merge land, with so many people in Dayin engaged in farming, how much of the output from the good land can reach them?"
　　Meng Zhaiyue was stunned for a moment, speechless.
　　"Exploiting farmers and competing with the emperor for profit. This is the Confucian view." Dong Lingjiu mentioned casually, "The so-called demotion, harsh policies and heavy taxes of the Legalists seem direct and crude in the 'Debate on Virtue and Punishment', but in fact, Confucian scholars who advocate moral governance are also trying their best to suppress the status of merchants. We, yes, you and me, as well as your royal brother and sister-in-law, are the highest objects of loyalty that Confucian scholars dream of. These people ask the court to hold the lucrative industries in their hands for the sake of ruling, so as not to shake the foundation."
　　Meng Zhaiyue's breathing stagnated. When Dong Lingjiu said "you and me", she felt an unusual sense of heaviness.
　　"Salt policy, horse policy, cast iron. These are all things that the government has already controlled. However, the private sale of salt and the private stockpiling of armor and weapons are still emerging one after another. As long as there is profit, many things will continue despite repeated prohibitions. If things that cannot be suppressed are released, what will happen? How could Yingying have expected it?"
　　When Dong Lingjiu said this, not only Meng Zhaiyue, but also Wang Wanrou, who didn't quite understand what was said, couldn't help but hold their breath and listen attentively.
　　Meng Zhaiyue was silent in thought, with his eyebrows tightly gathered together.
　　"I said he wrote well, I really think so, it's not appropriate, but it's true." Dong Lingjiu said, "If there is really soil for it to develop, the gold and silver profits that merchants can create will be comparable to the local luxury families in a state or county, and it may be feasible in the future. At present, the benefits and disadvantages of eliminating the policy of suppressing business are still unclear for the farmers in the world, but for the stability of the current dynasty, the disadvantages are still greater than the advantages."
　　The market environment in Dayin is relatively relaxed. After the ruler of the sage Emperor Mingde, there is actually a eulogy of "no famine in the world".
　　Meng Zhaiyue took a breath, she realized what the "stability" in her mother's mouth meant, what she meant was: at least for the current more stable form of rule, it is harmful and has no benefits.
　　She said in a low voice: "Lord Temple Minister is also an orthodox Confucian scholar, no wonder his academic reputation has been damaged and controversial because of the "Da Yin Law Commentary"."
　　"As for what you said, collective punishment." Dong Lingjiu said here and paused for a moment. She has advanced vision and insights in many things, and is very tolerant. Just like the "Shuyi" harms interests, she still thinks there are many good ideas in it.
　　But on the issue of abolishing collective responsibility, even Dong Lingjiu feels that it is too superficial, like floating on a duckweed without roots and foundation, just an empty talk.
　　She tried to speak gently: "Looking back on all the dynasties, this dynasty has not considered it a severe punishment. As long as collective responsibility is abolished, crimes such as breaking the law, treason, corruption, treason... and so on will emerge in an endless stream, and the world will be difficult to correct. Apart from anything else, there are many people in the world who want the Great Yin to no longer have the surname Meng."
　　Meng Zhaiyue felt a chill on his back and tentatively asked: "What if, as your son said, we should first reduce the collective responsibility outside the five mournings?"
　　"Then if the servants or neighbors at home break the rules, then it is no longer the master's business?" Dong Lingjiu said, "If we know that our neighbors and friends are plotting treason but do not report it, it is because they are innocent. Han Feizi's "Zhifen" says: Those who report the wrongdoers will be exempted from punishment and rewarded, while those who catch the traitors will be punished together. In this way, the traitors will be exposed. The traitors will not be tolerated in the slightest, and private reports will lead to the punishment."
　　After that, the queen mother laughed softly, with some helplessness in her tone: "Does Yingying think that the order in the capital is so good and treason is rare because everyone has a moral heart?"
　　Meng Zhaiyue She held her face with both hands, pinching her soft cheeks until they turned pink, with a slightly depressed look: "Then what should we do to ensure the majesty of the law and protect more innocent people from being humiliated."
　　As soon as she said this, she immediately realized that something was wrong. Dong Lingjiu's expression changed slightly, and she turned to Queen Wang and said: "Rou'er, how is the embroidery you mentioned last time? Why not bring it to me to see."
　　Wang Wanrou stood up tactfully and saluted: "I will go back to the palace to get it now."
　　Ruixue on the side saw her off. After Queen Wang left the Cining Palace, Dong Lingjiu repeated it in a playful tone: "Humiliation?"
　　Meng Zhaiyue's back was stiff, and she couldn't help pinching the white tail. The royal cat "meowed" and twisted its body to jump out of her arms.
　　Dong Lingjiu said: "Who is innocent and humiliated, and makes Princess Zhaoyang so concerned."
　　Meng Zhaiyue watched the cat prince walk to his mother, twisting his handkerchief in his hand: "I just...thought of it for a moment...not all for him..."
　　But to a large extent, the reason for her transformation was the shock she received in the inner prison that day. Those things about punishment, cruel officials, laws, those dried and new blood, those silk threads that the feudal dynasty bound everyone, all deeply shocked her originally carefree soul.
　　Dong Lingjiu stared at her face and suddenly said: "I will remove Xu Xiang from his post and send him to your house, allowing Yingying to play with him, how about it?"
　　The princess was shocked, at a loss, speechless, facing her mother's gaze like a knife, she felt that if she told a lie, she would be cut in half and her heart would be taken out alive.
　　Meng Zhaiyue's throat moved, and her tone became serious: "I am not a person who loves a caged bird."
　　Dong Lingjiu's eyes stayed on her for about a moment before he retracted them. He drank a sip of tea, and his expression and tone relaxed again. The oppressive force that was as powerful as the sky faded from her bit by bit. She said: "You only have this chance."
　　Meng Zhaiyue said: "I will not regret it. I am a princess. Can't I take him down?"
　　Dong Lingjiu was amused by her and said: "Is the princess okay? If the princess is okay, you have been enjoying yourself in the princess's mansion happily. Why did you come to the palace so eagerly?"
　　Meng Zhaiyue was slightly embarrassed, but still said stubbornly: "That was Xu Xiang who didn't know how to show respect. I will give him another chance."
　　Dong Lingjiu said: "He'd better not know how to show respect, otherwise this matter can't be concealed. The court officials will scold you and your brother. If they know that I condoned it, they will also scold me."
　　"How dare you!" Meng Zhaiyue stood up suddenly, pinched her waist slightly, and said in a coquettish and cute tone, "Whoever dares to disrespect my mother, I will beat him up."
　　Dong Lingjiu said: "I have said this, but you still don't change your bad habits. Sit down."
　　Meng Zhaiyue also knew that her mother actually wanted her to give up and said this deliberately, but she was always unwilling to learn her lesson, which made her mother and brother worry, so she had to sit down awkwardly.
　　Dong Lingjiu flipped through the desk at hand and pulled out a document from it, but it was not a memorial, but a letter. She handed the letter to Yingying.
　　Meng Zhaiyue took it and heard her say: "This is written by Wang Mingyan, the Minister of the Dali Temple, to me. In his personal capacity, he hopes to accept you as his closed female disciple and join the group of students who followed him to compile and draft the "Great Yin Law Commentary"."
　　Meng Zhaiyue was stunned. She seemed to have been hit hard on the head, and her whole body suddenly shook. She looked stunned and couldn't believe it.
　　"I once asked him why Wang Siqing, who has students all over the world, wanted to accept the princess as his student. After all, you are a woman, and you once studied the teachings of Laozi and Zhuangzi, which is completely different from the Legalists.
　　"Wang Siqing said in the letter that although he had many students and former officials, they were all men who studied Confucianism, doing their jobs and seeking benefits, and they all had the same heart. There are tens of millions of men in the world, and there are tens of millions of women. If there were no women like the princess who are of noble status and can open their eyes to seek benefits for the lower-class people, I am afraid that all the women in the world would be stuck in the mud and no one would speak for them."
　　Meng Zhaiyue choked slightly. She raised her hands to cover her face and said softly, "My son is ignorant and arrogant. How can I be virtuous and capable..."
　　"Wang Siqing has this idea, not because Yingying's ability is so outstanding." Dong Lingjiu knew that she was smart, but the princess had only been involved in this matter for a short time, and there was still a long way to go. It would be false to say that she was chosen for her "ability". "He values ​​your status and your kindness. Great Yin... you are the only legitimate princess."
　　Meng Zhaiyue wiped the tears from her eyes with a handkerchief, her eyes and nose were red, and she whispered: "My mother once said that the women of the royal family are role models for women all over the world."
　　"Yes." Dong Lingjiu said, "Because I can participate in politics, there is no such prohibition in the harem, and the women of the aristocratic families will not be insulted or despised when they talk about government affairs. Because the queen is virtuous and the emperor and empress are deeply in love, women living in the inner room are still respected by their husbands, and husband and wife are one body. If the concubine is favored and the wife is abandoned, the censors can impeach the officials for their misconduct."
　　Meng Zhaiyue said: "From now on... because of Yingying, will the law make men and women equal, so that women can also have a foothold?"
　　"Yes." Dong Lingjiu looked at her and replied, "But it depends on Yingying's efforts."
　　Meng Zhaiyue wanted to cry again, but she was ashamed, so she wiped her tears and held them back, saying: "Mother, I am afraid that I have failed Mr. Wang and your expectations. "
　　Dong Lingjiu touched her hair and said with a smile: "You are a princess, supported by the whole world. You are a princess of wealth, what can't you do?"
　　In the past, Meng Zhaiyue always said these words, but today, she felt terrified and ashamed. She calmed down and said: "Even if you and sir are involved in this matter, I am afraid that the officials in the court will report it once they hear about it, right?"
　　"Oh... of course. So you might as well take Xu Xiang back and never ask about the government laws from now on, so as to save me the trouble." Dong Lingjiu made a joke, stretched out his hand to signal, and said slowly and leisurely, "In this way, I will directly appoint you as the prime minister of imperial edicts as a princess, let you supervise the imperial edicts in the Secretariat, and then grant you the title of Princess Zhenguo. By then, all the ministers will be outraged and will die in the Golden Palace for their remonstrance."
　　"...Ah? "Meng Zhaiyue looked at her blankly.
　　"When the time comes, I will calmly accept the advice and revoke the order. I will let you become Wang Siqing's disciple and only participate in following him in compiling the "Great Yin Law Commentary". This compromise will be feasible."
　　Meng Zhaiyue swallowed her saliva: "Mother, will this work?"
　　Dong Lingjiu said: "If you go crazy, they will stop you, but if you are only a little crazy, they will think, hey, the empress dowager listens to the ministers so much, and now she has revoked the order and let the princess participate in assisting in compiling the law. What's wrong with that? What can she understand? At this time, they can't stop you from saying or doing anything. "
　　Meng Zhaiyue vaguely understood something, pondered for a long time, and said: "Is this... a method of checks and balances?"
　　Dong Lingjiu laughed out loud and said: "According to the folk saying, this is called...'asking for a high price and paying a low price. '"
　　The author has something to say:
　　The author's knowledge is limited, so the views of the characters are not completely correct and complete, and there are also limitations of the times, so everyone should just read it and don't delve too deeply. Thanks to qaq (I tried my best to write it
　　, but the knowledge didn't enter my brain!!) Note ① Those who report the wrongdoers will be exempted from punishment and rewarded, and those who fail to report the treacherous will be punished together. In this way, all kinds of treacherous people will be exposed. Even the smallest treacherous behavior is not allowed to happen, which is the effect of secretly informing and implementing collective punishment.
　　Little Emperor: ??? Don't you need to ask me about this? QAQ, Mommy, Little Sister QAQ... (The throne under the butt suddenly became hot)