"Your Majesty, you are being unreasonable!"
"When did the history books ever say that Ziyi Shi, Hua Xu Shi, and Nuwa Shi were emperors? They were merely tribal leaders.
They were only co-leaders of the alliance, never emperors!"
"Fu Xi Shi is the universally recognized number one emperor under heaven!"
"Hua Xu Shi had no achievements whatsoever. Her greatest contribution was merely giving birth to Fu Xi Shi. At most, she was a regent empress dowager, so how could she be considered an empress?"
"Nuwa ruled when floods were rampant!"
To prevent Emperor Qian Yu, all the civil and military officials and royal family members went all out. Unlike in the past, they did not praise the ancient emperors as flawless saints. Instead, they tried to find fault with them, denying them the title of emperor whenever possible.
For example, Hua Xu Shi and Ziyi Shi.
For those who absolutely could not be denied, like Nuwa Shi, who had consistently ranked among the Three Sovereigns, they deliberately feigned blindness and ignorance to her feat of mending the heavens and her virtue in ruling. They only focused on the disaster of heaven and earth collapsing during her reign, which was not her doing at all. They forcibly steered the narrative towards the idea that this disaster was caused by Nuwa Shi being a hen crowing at dawn.
Zhu Rong and Gong Gong, two men, shattered the heavens.
In the end, they even blamed Nuwa Shi, who mended the heavens.
It had to be said that even Emperor Qian Yu, who had lived for over two hundred years and considered himself knowledgeable, was stunned by the shameless words of the ministers. Good heavens, they had truly thrown all pretense of shame aside!
To prevent him from appointing a Crown Princess.
They dared to slander and criticize even the ancient sage kings and emperors.
"My decision is made. The matter of establishing a Crown Princess, while a state affair, is also my private affair, and it is not for you to criticize and attack as you please, nor to dictate to me.
How can you, of all people, slander the ancient sage kings?
If there is anyone else who speaks nonsense, I will not hesitate to record your words and actions and disseminate them across the land, letting the people judge whether your words are truly reasonable.
And whether Nuwa Shi is truly as unworthy as you say.
Furthermore, if the Holy Land of Creation, which enshrines Empress Nuwa, comes knocking on your door, do not expect me to intervene on your behalf. Everyone must bear the consequences of their words and actions.
Does anyone else have anything to say?"
Emperor Qian Yu chose these three empresses as examples to support his argument that his daughter could also be a Crown Princess. It was not a random selection. Nuwa Shi had the legacy of the Holy Land of Creation, Hua Xu Shi had the legacy of the Holy Land of Lei Ze, and even Ziyi Shi enjoyed ancestral sacrifices and was enshrined in the imperial ancestral temples of various states. Regardless of whether they were truly related, this was the reality.
If they slandered these three, and Emperor Qian Yu managed to spread their words across the land, it was very possible that the two great Holy Lands would take direct action and annihilate them.
After all, in this day and age, if someone slanders another's parents, outsiders would say they deserved to be beaten. How much more so if they slander their ancestors? Not to mention that in the Holy Lands, the status of those two had transcended that of ancestors; they were practically deities.
The more fiercely those ministers and royal family members had slandered and picked faults earlier, the more cold sweat was now beading on their foreheads.
They had only thought of preventing the matter and had forgotten that there were some people they could not afford to slander.
Therefore, not long after Emperor Qian Yu finished speaking, the entire imperial court fell silent. Several of those who had been shouting the loudest quietly took two steps back, hiding behind others.
They were afraid of being singled out by Emperor Qian Yu.
After about a minute of silence, Emperor Qian Yu continued:
"There should be no problem with the existence of empresses in ancient times. The achievements of empresses were no less than those of emperors. Why can'er Yun'er be an empress?"
"Your Majesty, times have changed. Ancient times had their own rules, and now we have ours. How can we blindly copy ancient matters? We are doing this for the good of Great Zhou..."
Before Grand Tutor Zhang could finish speaking, he was interrupted again by Emperor Qian Yu: "If I remember correctly, you are always the one who speaks most favorably of restoring ancient ways. Do you need to talk about restoring ancient ways when it suits you, but then say 'ancient times had their own rules, and now we have ours' when it doesn't? You are truly hypocritical, saying one thing and doing another!"
"Very well, then I will tell you about the current rules. Minister of Revenue, up to this point, how many households headed by women are there in our Great Zhou? This data should be easy to find."
"Your Majesty, there are approximately three hundred thousand households."
When Emperor Qian Yu asked this, the Minister of Revenue already knew what he was implying. However, since the data existed, he could not claim it was zero.
He could only state the facts truthfully.
"Yes, three hundred thousand households. If I remember correctly, the laws of Great Zhou clearly state that after a woman establishes a female-headed household, she can inherit family property, take a son-in-law, and the offspring will take the woman's surname. No one can deprive them of this right.
Even commoners can establish female-headed households.
They can hand over their family property to their daughters who have established female-headed households.
Am I, as Emperor, inferior to commoners? Are you implying that you want to demote me to the status of a slave, that the imperial clan of Great Zhou is worse than ordinary citizens? Is that what you mean?"
At this moment, Emperor Qian Yu undoubtedly held the absolute advantage. After all, when citing precedents, he had the support of the three great ancient empresses. When citing current laws and regulations, he had the basis of three hundred thousand female-headed households under heaven. As long as they did not resort to sophistry, this was entirely reasonable, logical, and legal.
The civil and military officials and royal family members were momentarily speechless. Most of them did not have to worry about the issue of having no heirs, and some even feared having too many children.
Which would dilute their family inheritance.
Therefore, they did not know much about these matters.
Now that Emperor Qian Yu dared to mention this so openly, the laws and regulations concerning this matter must be fine. They were definitely something that could be cited as evidence.
But they were not reconciled.
Finally, the宗正 (Zong Zheng - Head of the Imperial Clan) stepped forward and continued to advise:
"Your Majesty, the principle is indeed as you say, but our imperial clan is different from commoners. Commoners inherit a few mu of land, a few houses, and a few hundred taels of silver. Even if the inheritor lacks ability, it is of no great consequence; at most, they will squander the inheritance.
However, the Crown Princess needs to inherit the nation, this vast Great Zhou. She needs to bear the livelihoods of billions of people in Great Zhou. If she lacks sufficient ability, it will not just be a loss of land and money.
It will lead to billions of people.
Falling into dire straits.
I am not looking down on Princess Yun Xia, but she has not shown outstanding martial talent over the years, nor has she demonstrated any governing ability. If she were to rashly inherit the throne, how would you face the ancestors?"
Alright, the rationality of the succession was reluctantly addressed, making it reasonable. Then, the宗正 began to attack and obstruct based on ability. They truly would not give up! Da Feng Novel Network
However, this was also within Emperor Qian Yu's expectations.
Because he had never expected things to go smoothly. The宗正's statement was actually an indirect acknowledgment that his daughter had an equal claim to the succession.
This was equivalent to obtaining a ticket for the succession race.
And currently, he only had this one daughter. Now that the宗正 said his daughter was not capable, he could simply spend more time cultivating her. Therefore, the next moment, Emperor Qian Yu smiled with a slight curl of his lips and took a step back:
"No need to worry. I can still live for more than ten years.
There is still time for cultivation.
Since the宗正 feels Yun'er is not capable, the decree to establish the Crown Princess will be temporarily postponed. When Yun'er is qualified to be the Crown Princess, we will discuss this matter again."
When he said this, the宗正 immediately understood what he had overlooked. However, since the words had already been spoken, he could not refute them. Moreover, how could an imperial daughter possess the ability to govern an empire within a mere decade or so?
"Yes!"
At this point, the matter was temporarily concluded.
The royal family prevented Emperor Qian Yu from immediately establishing a Crown Princess, while Emperor Qian Yu smoothly obtained their acknowledgment of Ding Yun's right to succession.
This was probably the so-called art of compromise.