The core of the law of Zhaoguo is actually only one - ploughing and warfare.

How can we let the common people concentrate on farming during farming and fight desperately in wartime?

Wei Jun believes that as long as the eyes of the common people are blindfolded, their ears are plugged, and their mouths are blocked, they can be a tool person who can farm and fight, and does not listen, ask, look or talk.

Therefore, he advocated "heavy punishment for minor crimes" to deter the people.

However, such a strict law will definitely have problems in the process of implementation, and it is indispensable to delete, remove, supplement, add, add, and change in the course of a hundred years.

It's just that no matter how you change it, there is one thing that won't change.

That is, those who have constant birth have perseverance.

"Everyone is greedy for life and afraid of death, except for the outlaws, how many are really willing to set foot on the battlefield and use their lives to gain fame and wealth?" Zheng Gao elaborated on the reason for the law, "Men have families, possessions, wives and children, and in order not to lose all this, they will be in peace and obey the laws of the court. ”

Yin Ji frowned slightly.

She finally understood the logic of the Legalist bureaucracy.

Legalists believe that whether the people are slaves or slaves, or run to do business, it is an unstable social state.

In the former, they are the personal slaves of others and cannot fight for the country; The latter, they are adrift, and they have a little money in their hands, so they will not honestly join the army to fight.

From this point of view, the Zhao Kingdom changed the people from slaves and maids to yeoman farmers, in fact, using the land to firmly tie the people to the chariot called "ploughing war".

Don't want to fight? Okay! Run!

Leave behind your wife and children, the land at home, drill into the deep mountains and old forests, and become a thief, no one can take care of it, right?

The price is that your land is confiscated, and your relatives become criminals, and they will pay for what you have done with the rest of their lives and even their lives.

Aside from people who are ruthless, wolf-hearted, and selfish by nature, how many people would really do this?

It's a not-so-clever but useful invisible kidnapping.

To further this end, the laws of the Shokoku included fields, homes, livestock, wives, children, etc., as part of a man's assets.

The state must have these for the vast majority of men, so that they are reluctant to give up everything they have and will obediently go to war.

In order to marry a wife, people in the countryside often have to empty their families. Moreover, some women's families are greedy for dowry gifts, which will evolve into a series of comical operations such as cheating marriages and fairy jumps.

Therefore, the law stipulates that the divorce of a wife must be approved by her husband, in order to prevent too many people from being cheated and bankrupt, causing a big mess in the countryside, and affecting social stability.

But in the same way, the Legalist bureaucrats also understand that the consequence of marrying a daughter-in-law with a high dowry is that after the woman marries in, the husband's family will often pervert and abuse them, making them cows and horses, as if this can offset the money they have spent, and even punches and kicks at every turn to vent their frustration.

When many women get married, they are still young, and if they have to work hard and have scarce rations, they will easily be lost if they are beaten every day.

How can this work?

If a woman dies at the age of fifteen, she may not have a child; But if he dies at the age of thirty, he may be able to give birth to ten children.

Even if it's all boys, that's ten more laborers, and if there are girls, they can have more children and add more labor to the country.

Population is wealth, and it is the capital of everything, especially for a country like Zhaoguo, which was an expansive country in the agricultural era.

Therefore, the laws of Zhao Guo have very distinct characteristics - they do not involve the life of women, and all of them are biased in favor of men; The issue of women's lives is definitely biased in favor of women.

Hearing this, Yin Ji understood that the legalists and bureaucrats who formulated this law did not treat the common people as a living person from beginning to end.

In their eyes, the people are tools, with very different functions according to the division of labor according to gender.

Men are tools for farming and warfare, and their assets must be kept stable;

Women are instruments of procreation, and they must be guaranteed to live without worry.

"Kunimu hopes that Akikuni will open up women's households, but the basis for the existence of women's households is that women should also have their own fields and houses. Dare to ask Lord Guowu, where does all this money come from? ”

Of course, Yin Gao knew that Zheng Gao was not asking about a noble woman, but an ordinary person.

She had thought about this question for a long time, and without thinking: "Naturally, it is to create more jobs, so that women can obtain assets through labor." ”

Without waiting for Zheng Gao to continue to ask, Yin Cheng said: "I have carefully observed that with the promotion of improved rice and the implementation of the policy of fake cattle and horses, the pressure on the people to cultivate acres of land has been greatly reduced. In the past, a family of five governed a hundred acres of land, but now when the farm is slack, two or three people can do it, and when the farm is busy, the whole village can take turns to help. ”

"How do we settle the extra population? Naturally, they were sent to the city to create more jobs. Men are suitable for farming, they can spin and weave, make clothes and shoes, and are not women in the business? ”

Speaking of this, she paused for a moment, and then said: "Besides, in the countryside, it is not uncommon to rely on the power of the clan to occupy other people's fields. Many people go out to fight, and if they die unfortunately, their wives and children's acres of land will be swallowed up by their clans. is full of grievances, and there is no way to appeal. ”

"If their wives can find a job in the city, will the clan dare to come directly to the county seat to arrest people? Even if they dare, the rail transit is becoming more and more developed, can't they come to the royal capital? ”

While the law stipulates that a man is the head of the family, it means that if the man dies, all his possessions (including his wife and children) become ownerless, and others can easily plunder them if they want.

In particular, women are not allowed to be widowed, which exacerbates this oppression.

As soon as the husband died, the wife was forced by the clan to remarry the brother of the same clan, and in the name of "taking care of the children", it was already the norm to embezzle property.

If you ask a man if he is happy...... Nonsense, who would be happy!

It's one thing for me to entrust my wife and children to my brother; I don't want to, you forcibly give everything I have to my so-called brothers after I die, that's another matter.

From this point of view, Yin Ji is indeed right.

Moreover, she also considers the stability and development of the country.

Other women, not to mention princes and nobles, princesses, families, and even young ladies of wealthy merchants, are often frightened when they see the people facing the loess with their backs to the sky.

In their eyes, those who have no clothes, are covered in mud, and their hair is full of dirty lice and insects, and they have a stinky smell when they open their mouths, they are not human beings at all.

The "people" in the hearts of the aristocracy should also be neatly dressed, have clean nails, and talk appropriately - but at least they are all from small landlord families.

Yin Cheng can think of the plight of the people, and instead of blindly criticizing the law for being unfair to women, but sincerely believes that this is unfair to both parties, and thinks about ways to solve the problem for women, hoping to fight for them some property rights and create jobs to support themselves, which is indeed a good deed.

Zheng Gao admired Yin Cheng's open-mindedness, but did not accept Yin Cheng's point of view, the reason he gave was: "If a woman has a job, she will neglect her family, and even don't think about marriage and childbearing, Zheng Guo is a lesson from the past." ”