Xiao Rongyan’s calm, profound eyes gazed at Bai Qingyan, his words coming from the heart: “Allowing women to study, take imperial examinations, and serve as officials—this matter… must certainly be done! But not now, and it shouldn’t be done by you, the ruler of a nation! Your goal is to unify the world. What you should most avoid at this time is domestic instability! If this time… this matter causes Great Zhou to fall into chaos and collapse, Great Zhou will lose its chance to compete with Yan for dominion over the world.”

By rights, as Prince Jiu of Yan, Xiao Rongyan shouldn’t be saying these words to Bai Qingyan, yet he still said them.

Empress Ji was a lifelong pain in Xiao Rongyan’s heart, so… he also wanted to accomplish the matter of allowing women to study, take imperial examinations, and serve as officials, but the resistance was too great…

So he chose to wait until after the world was unified and the nation was stable, to observe and analyze before acting when feasible.

After all, once this matter was undertaken, it would certainly cause national uproar.

Xiao Rongyan adjusted his sitting posture: “In my view, Great Zhou currently lacks the conditions to do this!”

Even Yan had better conditions than the Great Zhou for this, since A’Yan, who had ascended to the Yan imperial throne, couldn’t yet govern personally. After the world was unified, he, as regent, could issue such policies. After implementation, when A’Li came of age, he could use severe methods to deal with his uncle, claiming heartbreak and refusing to hold court, avoiding the sharp edge of ministers forcing him to cancel the policy allowing women to study, take examinations, and serve as officials.

Once he, the chief culprit, “died,” the ministers would certainly not press A’Li too hard.

Then, dragging it out until everything became a fact, until common people and officials grew accustomed to it, A’Li could announce to the world that allowing women to study, take examinations, and serve as officials was feasible, without stirring up too much opposition.

This… was what Xiao Rongyan considered the most secure method.

Xiao Rongyan looked at Bai Qingyan’s bloodshot eyes showing fatigue, at the dark circles under her eyes, his heart aching as emotions surged within: “Implementing new policies, improving women’s status, and also campaigning against Xiliang… every single matter is momentous. A’Bao, you’re pushing yourself too hard.”

Bai Qingyan knew Xiao Rongyan was worried about her, her lips bearing a faint smile: “I’ve considered everything you’ve said. Grand Marshal Lu and the others have also advised me, but I still must do this. I never expected that issuing this decree would immediately elevate women’s status. As you said… changing the established pattern of men managing external affairs and women managing internal affairs, changing the centuries-old notion that married daughters are like spilled water and daughters will always become wives of other families—this requires time! But… someone must first propose it, first use forceful laws as a foundation to make strong changes!”

“Many new policies face strong opposition when first implemented, but gritting one’s teeth and persisting, as time passes, more and more people will comply. But if one retreats upon meeting opposition, when this new policy is proposed again in the future, it will face even fiercer opposition! Because people will know that opposition is effective!” Bai Qingyan smiled gently at Xiao Rongyan: “Moreover, if this matter succeeds, Great Zhou’s talent pool… will no longer be limited by gender, and the various talents obtained will certainly exceed those of Yan!”

Bai Qingyan dared to dream and dared to act.

The way of all benefit is to move with the times.

Having made up her mind to allow women to take examinations and serve as officials, she would never retreat.

Xiao Rongyan could only say: “If this matter causes Great Zhou to collapse and fragment, allowing Yan to gain the world… would A’Bao have no regrets?”

“Grandfather once taught every descendant of the Bai family that the people are the foundation of the state, and when the foundation is solid, the state is stable. I deeply agree with this.” Bai Qingyan looked steadily at Xiao Rongyan: “Unifying the world and achieving peace—whether accomplished by Yan or Great Zhou, it’s good for the common people! The competition between Great Zhou and Yan should be… whichever nation’s policies can truly achieve these four words: prospering the people and strengthening the nation, that nation can deservedly unify the world.”

Their eyes met. Xiao Rongyan heard the deeper meaning in Bai Qingyan’s words.

Current Great Yan governed its people according to the national policies established by Empress Ji, with slight modifications in practice but no major changes in general direction.

Bai Qingyan was exploring her path, providing overarching principles for Great Zhou’s new policies, and implementing new policies in Great Zhou with extremely forceful methods.

The national policies and laws of the two countries were largely different, even opposed.

But both countries had the ambition to unify the world, and after unification, they would certainly use their governmental policies to govern the nation.

“A’Bao means to intentionally… wait until someday when only Great Zhou and Great Yan remain in the world, to determine victory through comprehensive national strength?” Xiao Rongyan asked.

Xiao Rongyan had once wondered—if it truly came to only their two nations remaining and they faced each other with drawn swords, how should they balance national interests with their personal feelings?

Whether using a competition of who could make the people prosperous and the nation strong as the method of competition was feasible, Xiao Rongyan didn’t know…

But Xiao Rongyan understood that if that day truly came, for the two nations to unite without bloodshed—if Great Zhou submitted and merged into Great Yan, he wasn’t sure if Great Zhou’s ministers would agree. But if the situation were reversed, making Great Yan submit and merge into Great Zhou, Great Yan’s ministers would certainly fight to the death rather than comply.

The merger of two nations into one wasn’t a matter between just him and Bai Qingyan, or even between the Murong and Bai families, but a great matter concerning both Yan and Great Zhou.

Even though he understood that Bai Qingyan didn’t want to see lives lost, didn’t want to see soldiers sacrifice and bleed in vain… just for territory disputes between two strong nations both harboring ambitions to unify the world, which was why she wanted to use this competitive method to determine victory, he still dared not agree.

He was indeed Prince Jiu of Great Yan, but Great Yan wasn’t the nation of the Murong family alone—it was the nation of all Yan’s subjects and people.

The greatest difference between Yan and the Great Zhou was that Yan’s Murong family had ruled Yan for generations… their Murong descendants were born knowing they were Yan’s masters, learning and mastering the arts of governing people and nations. They were born to rule Yan.

Yan’s completion of the great unification enterprise was for the people… but even more to establish unprecedented merit, to ensure the Murong surname would forever remain in the annals of history.

But the newly established Great Zhou’s first emperor, Bai Qingyan, was born into the Bai family that had served as ministers for generations. Raised under Duke Zhenguo’s knee, she indeed took unifying the world as her responsibility, but as a minister’s daughter, the Bai family’s aspirations she learned from childhood… were to protect the realm and give the people a peaceful, prosperous age, to protect and secure the people. The teachings she received were: having eaten the people’s grain, protect the people for life.

Perhaps Bai Qingyan initially intended to ascend the supreme throne out of selfish motives—to be able to proclaim from that position to the four seas… summoning the surviving Bai family sons from the Nan Jiang battle of the Xuanjia years to return home, and to take revenge on the corrupt Jin court and imperial family.

But later she also rebelled for the people’s sake, putting her heart into governing the nation. She read the various schools of philosophy, read “The Book of Lord Shang,” read history…