Bringing the Railway to Daming

Chapter 82: Coal Administration Bureau, Imperial Decree Bans Foot Binding [Seeking Follow-up Reading]

The next day.

Liu Kuan met the emperor in Fengxian Hall.

Zhu Biao was also there.

After Liu Kuan recounted the relevant matters of his business trip to Liuhe Iron and Steel Plant, Zhu Biao brought up the coal issue discussed yesterday.

Finally, I asked, "What do you think, Vice-President Liu, should we establish an organization to oversee all the coal plants in the country? And how should this organization be established?"

Liu Kuan thought for a moment and said, "I believe that a 'Coal Resources Management Bureau' could be established under the Ministry of Industry. This would not only manage coal plants opened in various regions, but also be responsible for the approval and planning of coal mining qualifications in various regions."

"As far as I know, the coal mines of the Ming Dynasty are now open to the people, and the government only collects a small amount of tax. This is very detrimental to the future industrial development and resource exploitation of the Ming Dynasty."

"First, most coal mines are not registered with the government and are considered illegal. Not only do these mines prevent the government from collecting taxes, but they also traffic people into mining slavery, harming innocent civilians."

"Secondly, coal will be an extremely important energy source for hundreds of years to come. If it's not planned and allowed to be mined recklessly by certain individuals, it would be like using national resources to enrich those local tyrants."

"These people, driven by their own selfish interests, will inevitably waste coal resources, leaving the country facing the possibility of coal mines running out when it needs to use coal on a large scale in the future."

After hearing what Liu Kuan said, Old Zhu and Little Zhu both nodded slightly.

Old Zhu exclaimed in admiration, "Your words are truly insightful. This is how coal mine affairs should be handled!"

Afterwards, the king and his ministers discussed the specific matters of establishing the "Coal Mine Resources Management Bureau".

After discussing this, Liu Kuan was about to leave when Zhu Yuanzhang asked, "You have finished the steelmaking, but how long will it take to build the train?"

Liu Kuan was not surprised when Zhu Yuanzhang asked about this matter - Zhu must have known that he had taken three boilers to the power project team yesterday.

He said, "Your Majesty, when the train can be built depends on when the steam engine can be built - there is no rush."

"I estimate that it will take at least until next year to be completed."

"Next year..." Zhu Yuanzhang pondered for a moment, suppressing the urge to hurry up, and said, "Well, next year, next year. There's no rush anyway."

Liu Kuan bowed and said, "If there is nothing else, I will take my leave."

"Go."

After Liu Kuan left, Old Zhu and Little Zhu continued to handle government affairs in Fengxian Hall.

At the beginning of noon, everyone went to have lunch.

Zhu Yuanzhang still had lunch with Empress Ma.

Although Zhu Yuanzhang advocated frugality, he was not stingy with food - before he started his career, he did not have enough to eat, and he rarely ate meat. Now that he had the ability, he naturally ate whatever he wanted.

In fact, his appetite wouldn't cost too much.

Today, his and Queen Ma's lunch consisted of three meat dishes, three vegetable dishes, two soups, and two fruit plates.

This was the result of following the advice of the imperial physician - before Liu Kuan came, the couple had at least seven or eight meat dishes in their lunch, and they only ate fruit occasionally and would not put it on the table during meals.

After lunch, Zhu Yuanzhang prepared to chat with Empress Ma, then take a short rest in Kunning Palace before going to handle official business.

Unexpectedly, just as he changed into a comfortable sitting position, he heard Queen Ma say, "Hui Lan came to the palace today and told me something very important."

"What's the urgent matter? Could it be that Liu Kuan bullied her?"

"What are you thinking?" Empress Ma gave Zhu Yuanzhang a speechless look. "How could Kuan'er be the kind of person who would bully me?"

"How can I say for sure? But if he dares to bully Huilan, we will make him pay."

"He didn't bully Huilan, but told her something that happened in the future..." Then, Queen Ma told her what Zhu Huilan had told her about foot binding in the morning.

Finally, he said with great emotion: "I lost my mother at an early age, my father at a young age, and lived in turbulent times. Whether I was with my father or my adoptive father, I walked a lot."

"My family wasn't well-off to begin with, so naturally I couldn't have my feet bound. As a result, I grew to have large feet, which I always regretted privately."

"So, when you establish the Ming Dynasty and make Nanjing the capital, and our family is settled, I will find a foot-binding woman who binds the feet of daughters from wealthy families and have them bound by my daughters when they are old enough. I don't want them to have big feet like mine."

"I never thought that this idea was so wrong - it was fortunate that the girls were not too young when their feet were bound, and the foot-binding women did not dare to let the princesses suffer too much, so they did not bind their feet too tightly."

"If it's like in later times, where feet are bound to the point where walking is impossible and even affects health and future fertility, then I, as a mother, will have committed a grave sin."

Zhu Yuanzhang frowned slightly and said, "If Liu Kuan hadn't said it, who would have thought that foot binding would later develop into such a deformed and outrageous custom?"

"In my opinion, it must have been the excessive admiration of bound feet by those scholars, gentry, and powerful people over the past few decades that gave rise to this strange phenomenon!"

Empress Ma said, "Kuan'er, through Huilan's mouth, wants you to issue an imperial decree banning foot binding, but that's a bit presumptuous. Foot binding is a private matter for the common people, and it's usually hard to see. How can it be so easily banned?"

Old Zhu pondered for a moment and said, "Sister, our royal family must set an example in this matter - from now on, no princesses or daughters of the royal family are allowed to bind their feet. Violators will be severely punished."

"Also, when we issue the imperial edict banning foot binding, we will explain the reasoning behind what Liu Kuan said."

"Foot binding is harmful to the body and is detrimental to women's health and fertility. Therefore, those who bind their feet are being unfilial just for the sake of a pair of pretty feet!" "If you equate foot binding with unfilial piety, I don't believe this bad habit can't be eradicated!"

"I also want to inform the world that from now on, our Zhu family will not marry women with bound feet! Officials' wives and concubines who have bound feet will not be granted imperial decrees!"

"With these three measures, we will surely be able to eradicate this bad habit!"

After hearing this, Empress Ma's eyes lit up and she said with a smile, "Zhongba, you still have brains!"

"Hahaha," Zhu Yuanzhang laughed heartily, "That's right. If we didn't have any brains, could we have established the Ming Dynasty?"

Two days later.

The imperial edict and related notices prohibiting foot binding for women in the Ming Dynasty first appeared in the capital, and in the villages under the jurisdiction of Jiangning and Shangyuan counties.

This immediately caused a lot of discussion in the court and the country.

Liu Kuan was very concerned about this matter. In order to understand the public opinion, after leaving office at noon that day, he went to a restaurant for dinner, wanting to hear what the people thought about this matter.

He found a private room on the second floor of a restaurant not far from Liren Street, sat down, ordered two signature dishes, asked for a pot of tea, and began to eat slowly.

The voices of guests in other compartments and private rooms on the second floor gradually reached my ears.

As expected, many people were discussing the issue of "banning foot binding".

"This emperor is really strange. He suddenly intervenes in the issue of women's foot binding."

Someone laughed and said, "What's so strange about this? I heard that Empress Ma had natural feet. No, it should be said that she had big feet. The current emperor likes big feet!"

The third person said, "That's not what I heard—it's said that the current ruler was able to achieve great things thanks to Empress Ma, so he's a bit henpecked."

"Empress Ma saw that the concubines favored in recent years were all those with bound feet, and she became jealous. So she came up with the bizarre theory that foot binding was detrimental to women's mobility and that lack of mobility was detrimental to their health. She wanted to unbind all women's feet."

"Think about it, now that women all over the world no longer bind their feet, and all have big feet, where can he find a concubine with bound feet? Hahaha..."

Perhaps he thought the fact that Zhu Yuanzhang had no concubines with bound feet was very funny, so he couldn't help laughing as he spoke.

There were also a few people talking in another box, but their conversation was much more serious.

"Whether the imperial edict states that foot binding is detrimental to movement and that lack of movement is detrimental to health is not entirely correct, let's not discuss it. Even if it is, the court went too far in banning foot binding based on this."

"That's right. If women don't bind their feet and grow big feet, how bad will that be for their appearance?"

"Queen Ma, come quickly and be virtuous. Why would you bring up this matter with the Emperor? Has she become senile and confused?"

"Who knows? My worry now is whether or not to unbind my daughter's feet. My precious daughter has had her feet bound for less than a year, and there's been no improvement. She keeps complaining about the discomfort of having them bound."

"Now I hear the imperial court has issued an imperial decree that she must openly unbind her feet. My tigress has severely reprimanded her for this."

"She said, 'If you don't bind your feet and grow big feet, how will you marry into a wealthy family in the future?'"

"My daughter is also a person of character. She said she wanted to marry into the royal family, or marry an official from a humble family. Even if she couldn't become a princess, she would fight for an imperial decree."

"Hahaha..." The two people in the same box laughed after hearing this, "Your daughter is quite ambitious."

The man smiled bitterly. "What do you mean by ambition? It's just an excuse to avoid the hardship of foot binding. My family is in turmoil over this matter and they're waiting for my decision."

"So what exactly does Brother Zhou think?"

"Alas, the world ultimately belongs to the Zhu family, and you and I are officials, so we must obey the imperial decree. I've made up my mind, and I'll persuade the tigress to let my daughter unbind her feet."

One person laughed and said, "Brother Zhou really loves his daughter."

Another person recited a poem with regret:

"Don't worry about the perfumed lotus flowers following your steps, I'm always worried about your silk stockings floating on the water. You only see them dancing in the wind, without a trace of where they went."

"Stealing through the palace is auspicious and steady, but standing with both feet together is difficult. It is difficult to describe the delicate beauty, so you have to look at it from the palm of your hand."

"Mr. Dongpo's poem is truly beautiful, but the imperial court has issued an edict. I'm afraid that in twenty years we won't be able to see the delicate feet described in the poem again. What a pity, what a pity."

On the other side, Liu Kuan shook his head as he listened - he really couldn't understand these people's obsession with bound feet.

Also, Su Dongpo actually advocated bound feet. It seems that most of the ancient literati were of the same quality, and Su Xian was no exception.

···
Fengxian Hall.

A thin middle-aged man took out a memorial and Li Gui presented it to the imperial desk.

Zhu Yuanzhang flipped through the book quickly, then slammed it on the table and snorted, "These civil servants, not only do they criticize the emperor in private, but they even allow their daughters to continue to bind their feet. They simply don't take me seriously!"

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(End of this chapter)