Chapter 1135: Intent

“You should know that although aristocratic families and some well-established families will arrange for handmaids for their descendants, it’s usually after they turn 14. Also, marriage usually won’t happen until they turn 17. Moreover, even if they have handmaids, the elders in the family will restrain them. But why did the royal families typically arrange for a handmaid for the princes at the age of 12? Why did the royal male descendants take one or two secondary consorts at an early age?”

“In order to spread the branches of the royal family,” Little Treasure lowered his voice and said, “It’s also to prevent what if…”

It was to prevent the Emperor from having no successor after his death. Only when the Emperor had children early could the people’s hearts be at ease, their subjects be at ease, and their own hearts be at ease.

After all, life was unpredictable. Who knew what would happen tomorrow?

One of the important reasons why the royal family arranged for palace maids to serve the princes after he ejaculated for the first time was to prevent such accidents. Moreover, people in the royal family didn’t typically live long. The sooner they had children, the sooner their children would be able to hold up the family when they died.

However, the earlier one had sex, the shorter one’s lifespan would be. The shorter one’s lifespan was, the more anxious one would be to have children, and the earlier one would have sex. This was an endless cycle.

It wasn’t that Qi Xiuyuan and Qi Wenchen didn’t know this, but they didn’t want to break the norm. If it weren’t for Little Bear and Little An, they probably wouldn’t have taken it to heart and would have followed the rules of the palace.

“It’s the same for the previous generations of the royal family. That’s because they never made any changes from generation to generation. But does that mean our Qi family have to follow their example in letting the male descendants start doing the deed at a tender age and give birth to children early? Children born from such fathers are either miscarried, died early, or were sickly. Because they start early, it tends to lead to an indulgence in sexual matters. Royal descendants clearly have access to the finest medical resources, yet their average lifespan is less than 50.”

At this point, Mu Yangling felt endless regret. In her opinion, the average lifespan of the commoners was low because of poor living conditions and scarce medical resources. However, in the case of the royal family and upper-class folks, their short lifespan was due to overindulgence.

The first and second generation of the royal family were still alright and could still be considered to have some restraint. Meanwhile, the founding Emperor typically had suffered many injuries and generally did not enjoy a long lifespan. However, signs of indulgence would begin to show in the second generation. By the third and fourth generation, the descendants of the royal family would become completely unrestrained and gradually wasted their health. Even if there were occasionally a few who paid attention to health, such cases were few and far between.

Mu Yangling felt extremely nauseous at the thought that her descendants would one day become like the descendants of the previous dynasties’ royal family.

However, it was impossible to just pin her hopes on the family rules she had set, against the backdrop of the macro-environment. Even if one was good by nature, they could still be led astray. Therefore, Mu Yangling hoped to fundamentally improve the macro-environment.

She would not set a lot of rules for her descendants because they might not abide by them, which meant her efforts would be wasted. It was better to educate this generation and let them educate the next generation so that these things would become common sense. This way, even if there weren’t official rules in place, there would be rules they effectively abided by of their own accord.

“Your Royal Father was severely injured and poisoned in his early years. His health has indeed been damaged, but the imperial physicians have been nursing his health for many years. I can’t say that he’s completely fine, but he should be relatively healthy. Little Treasure, how many more years do you think he can live?”

Little Treasure was surprised by his Fourth Aunt’s straightforwardness, but he still thought about it seriously and said, “If Royal Father keeps on paying attention to his health, he should remain robust for another 20 to 30 years.”

In 20 to 30 years, Qi Xiuyuan would be in his sixties, and Little Treasure would be in his thirties or forties.

“What about you?” Mu Yangling asked. “How long do you think you can live, assuming no illnesses or accidents?”

“50 or 60 shouldn’t be a problem.”

“That’s it, then. Considering your son should be at least 20 by then, I think you’re worrying for nothing. If you start doing the deed at the age of 12, how many children conceived before you turn 16 do you think will live into their adulthood?”

Little Treasure said solemnly, “Fourth Aunt, I’ve never had a child.”

“Then investigate. Investigate the information on the previous dynasties’ royal family. When you’re done, come and tell me. How old were the parents of those children who survived into adulthood? We’ll talk again when you’re done doing your research.”

As the Crown Prince, it wasn’t difficult for Little Treasure to check this information. With many men at his disposal, with just an order from him, he received several papers containing the information the very next day. Not only were the ages of the parents when the child was born listed, but there was also the lifespan of their parents, their own lifespan, the age of their first child, and so on.

Mu Yangling was right. The papers recorded the lifespan of nearly five generations of royal descendants in the previous dynasty. Overall, the number of offspring was very high. Even in the worst case, the prince had more than 16 children. Alas, out of those 16, only eight survived past the age of 12. This did not even include the miscarriages or stillbirths. After factoring in those, the survival rate was extremely low.

In the form, most of the children who could live past 12 years old were born to fathers above 16 years old. Just as Mu Yangling had said, when the fathers were too young, their sperm were too weak. Most of the children born to overly-young fathers would not survive into adulthood.

Little Treasure copied two copies of the papers. One was sent to his Royal Father, and the other was given to his Royal Mother. He took the original and left the palace to look for Mu Yangling.

Mu Yangling said, “That’s why I suggest that the palace abolish these rules. It’s best to arrange handmaids for the princes after he turns 17, and let him marry the main consort after he turns 18, after which he can take secondary consort. This way, not only will it be beneficial to their offspring, but it will also be good for the relationship between husband and wife.”

Little Treasure pondered and said, “I’m afraid the ministers won’t agree.”

The issue of the royal family’s descendants was not only a family matter, but also a national matter.

Smiling, Mu Yangling said, “I didn’t say that we would change the rules with great fanfare. We’ll just do what we have to do. We’ll just set the rules when the ministers of the previous dynasty mention it. As the first Emperor of Great Qi, your father’s words make the rules. Who said that we have to abide by the rules of the previous dynasty?”

What she said made sense, rendering Little Treasure speechless.

Little Treasure asked, “Fourth Aunt, since you told me so many principles yesterday, are you thinking of changing this rule of the royal family?”

Mu Yangling smiled and took down “The Laws of Great Qi” from the bookshelf. She flipped to the marriage section and pointed at one of the paragraphs. “I think it’s time to change this.”

That was the law’s age requirement for ordinary people to marry. Girls were allowed to marry after they turned 13, and if they remained unmarried past age 18, a fine would be imposed.

That was according to the laws of the previous dynasty, and the laws of Great Qi did not modify it.

When Emperor Shizong was still alive, this law stipulated that women were to marry after the age of 15 and before the age of 20. Later on, when foreign enemies invaded, the country’s population withered, and the age of marriage was repeatedly lowered. If it weren’t for the fact that it wasn’t possible for a woman to have children before the age of 13 or that it was too dangerous to have children any younger than that, the age limit of the previous dynasty would have been lowered further.

The reason why the laws of Qi followed suit was because the population was indeed low at that time. After more than 20 years of war, when Great Qi was founded, the population was only slightly more than 40 million. After more than 10 years of recuperation and recovery, the Ministry of Revenue had estimated that the population had reached 50 million. Though for the vast Great Qi, the population was still less than ideal.

Hence, the age requirement for marriage remained unchanged.

Little Treasure looked at this law and fell into deep thought. If they wanted to change this law, they would meet with even stronger resistance than changing the rule for the royal family. This was because if they did change it, the speed of population growth was bound to slow down immensely.

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