Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

The truth was, Meng Hun was not sure, either. In his opinion, female servants usually got married after they reached a certain age. Jiang Pengji was probably the first master to suggest that her servant should practice kungfu instead. What if she regretted it later?

The man mentioned his concerns, but Jiang Pengji simply shook her head. “No worries. It’s actually a part of my plan to have girls acquire combat skills,” she insisted, trying to persuade the ancient men with an acceptable excuse.

Then she continued, “From studying history, I’ve drawn a funny conclusion.”

This intrigued Xu Ke, who instantly asked, “What is it?”

She said, “Women have always been considered subordinates of men, or even commodities. Their social status was the lowest before the Period of Sixteen Kingdoms. According to records, one king could keep up to thirty three thousand women in his palace. While that’s certainly an exaggeration, we can still take a glimpse through it of the royalties’ selfish indulgence at that time. As a result, many male commoners were unable to find a wife for themselves, and thus, they started the practice of sharing a wife between brothers or between uncles and nephews.”

Xu Ke nodded. He had read the same book at the Liu’s.

“Before the Sixteen Kingdoms, the last Emperor of Xia used up the empire’s wealth for his personal enjoyment. Sixteen nobles then rebelled and declared themselves kings in their territories, which marked the beginning of centuries of war. Women were robbed and raped, and eaten in times of famine.”

Xu Ke knew that, too. The barbarous, ignorant acts had led to a ninety percent decrease in the total population, compared to that in the pre-war times. The number of civilians did not recovered until the Xia Dynasty.

“There were some well-known female generals during this period,” said Jiang Pengji. “Don’t you see? Women can do much more than just giving birth and becoming food for starving men.”

Xu Ke nodded. “They’ve contributed much to the growth of population.”

“More than that,” added Jiang Pengji. “In the sixth year of the war, when the mobs were setting fire in Yu District and robbing households there, it was a woman named Changpu who killed their leader and cleared the rest of them. She is remembered for bringing peace to the region––not for giving birth.”

Xu Ke recalled, “As written in the books, Changpu never conceived, although she had a husband who treated her very well.”

“Do you remember the passage in Eccentricities in Xia about a golden phoenix arriving in Mei County and the girl born that day was thus named Phoenix?” That was a famous historic story in the current world and Xu Ke had no doubt heard about it.

“Do you mean the pillar of early Xia? The Count of Guannei, General Xu, the other legend along with General Meng.”

Jiang Pengji then mentioned other famous female figures before she concluded, “Women are not necessarily weaker than men. Don’t you think we’re imposing more and more restrictions on the other sex like people in the Sixteen Kingdoms did? They say that Zhongzhao are now promoting a book called Women’s Caution, which advocates timidity, obedience, discreetness, fidelity, attention, repression, and prevention. You may want to read it for leisure.”

“…” That was obviously a book for women. Why would he want to read that?

“I flipped through a copy before, and the only opinion I could think of was: the author’s brain must have been kicked by donkeys.” She snorted, and then continued, “But then the merchants told me that it was written by the Queen in Zongzhao with the aim of educating women in the five kingdoms. As a result, there have been scholars suggesting to the Zhongzhao king that General Xu should be condemned by her shameless deeds of joining battles and that she should be deprived of her noble title.”

Xu Ke was shocked. “How could they say that? General Xu was no less respectable than General Meng! The Xu’s could have become another Meng house if her offspring was as active in the court as the Meng’s!”

Meng Hun touched his nose as the youngster mentioned his old master.

General Xu and General Meng had been the heroes of the people, and both later became members of the five best known generals in Xia. There was a time when General Meng, who could not leave drinking even in the battlefields, almost made a fatal mistake. It was General Xu who led her force to assist him.

Interestingly, General Xu was one of the most unpopular figures among the Meng’s. She became the Count of Guannei only after her decease because the Emperor deemed the award inappropriate in the male-dominant court, and he was also unwilling to offend the Meng’s.

“There are a great deal of scholars in Zhongzhao supporting the proposal.” Jiang Pengji smiled sarcastically. “Xia Dynasty would not have existed were it not for General Xu, who had won battles, territories, and people’s hearts for the empire. But what did they give her in return? Because of her gender, she could receive the title only after death, and now people are even trying to strip her of that pitiful name! Are we moving forward to a more open world, or are we declining back to the beginning of the Period of Sixteen Kingdoms?”

Xu Ke contemplated deeply. Jiang Pengji was right. In the past few years, even Dongqing, the most open-minded kingdom, was imposing more and more rules to females. Was it necessarily a good trend?

He asked, “Langjun, are you going to change this?”

“I’m starting from Nongqin,” replied Jiang Pengji. “Since Xia was established, the birth rate has recovered a little, but it has recently dropped again because of the ceaseless tension between the five kingdoms.”

Worse still, the Queen in Zhongzhao was strongly opposing re-marriage. Population growth therefore slowed down further.

Still, how would others agree with Women’s Caution and ask their families to read it? What had the kings been doing? They could have come up with ceasefires and encouraged agriculture and marriage, but instead, they had let the situation deteriorate until now.

And those were the men whom the System had required her to entertain! Had it lost its mind?

System: “Hey! I’ve said nothing!” Stop involving the innocent computer!