The onlooking commoners who had gathered to watch the commotion were discussing amongst themselves in animated voices.

Bai Qingyan gazed at the common people who were chatting and laughing while wiping the sweat from their faces with handkerchiefs.

Earlier today at the Imperial Academy, those students had also asked Bai Qingyan such questions—why encourage widows to remarry?

To those scholars, Bai Qingyan had spoken very clearly. In fact, for hundreds of years, the various nations had been fighting back and forth, competing for… land and population. More people meant greater productivity, and with productivity came prosperity for the people and strength for the nation.

Bai Qingyan only needed to hint slightly, and the students immediately understood that her encouragement of widow remarriage was to increase the population, with the ultimate goal still being to enrich the people and strengthen the nation—still in preparation for unifying the world.

But while these students could understand, that didn’t mean the common people could grasp it.

“No one forced me to remarry! I want to remarry of my own accord! I don’t want to spend my entire life alone like this!” The young woman who had nearly been drowned earlier had already changed into different clothes. Her hair was still dripping wet, but upon hearing her mother-in-law shouting that the new law forced widows to remarry, she couldn’t contain herself and emerged from the carriage.

The young woman stood at the front of the carriage, disheveled all over. Seeing that quite a few commoners had already gathered by the riverside under the trees to watch the excitement, she was afraid… afraid that after such a commotion, Bai Qingyan would think this new law was difficult to implement and would change it… No longer permitting widows to remarry! Then there would be even more women like herself trapped in cages, and even she wouldn’t be able to escape!

So she was willing to step forward.

The young woman got down from the carriage and hurried forward, kneeling before Bai Qingyan with tears streaming down her face: “Your Majesty, no one knows how difficult a widow’s days are. When my husband died… the child was gone too! I don’t want to live like this for the rest of my life. I still want to have my children! I still want to be a mother! I can’t just waste away my entire life in the Bai family home like this! So when the new law encouraged widows to remarry, I… I truly wanted to kowtow and give thanks to Your Majesty!”

“We women are not objects that men place in their homes! We are people too! We have feelings, too! How can we spend our entire lives guarding memorial tablets? If we had children, it would be one thing—at least we’d have children to live for and the days wouldn’t be so unbearable! But these current days… are simply worse than death!” The young woman wept bitterly. “I was locked in that house, not allowed to go out, not even allowed to see the male servants in the household! They said widows’ doorsteps attract gossip! So I was confined day after day in that small courtyard…”

“Why can’t we women with children remarry?” A widow carrying a hoe who had come to watch the commotion heard the nearly-drowned young woman speak thus. She set down the basket on her arm and the hoe from her shoulder, saying indignantly, “I lost my husband and have to work the fields while also caring for children. You’re a wealthy lady… with maids to serve you, yet you dare say it’s worse than death. We poor widows who’ve lost our men can’t even dare to die—if we died… there’d be no one to care for the children, and they might very well be devoured alive by others! Those who really can’t go on… all die together with their children!”

The woman heading out to work reached the painful part and wiped her tears with her sleeve, choking with emotion: “I’m still doing well—I have two sons at home, so the clan is still willing to help. But my cousin, who married into the neighboring county, lost her husband and mine both on the battlefield, but her husband only left her with a daughter. The family’s fields and house were all seized by the clan. Unable to survive, she threw herself into the river with her child!”

Bai Qingyan watched as the commoners who had come to watch the excitement fell silent because of that woman’s words, then slowly spoke: “In these years of frequent warfare between nations, whether soldiers or commoners, countless have died… There are many young women of childbearing age who, because of old moral teachings, were bound by constraints. Many never even saw their new husbands before spending their entire lives holding memorial tablets.”

Her words struck a chord in many women’s hearts, and numerous women could be seen nodding their heads.

“There are also many women who, after their husbands passed away, couldn’t manage the physical labor of farming alone and died from overwork… leaving behind orphaned children is even more common.” Bai Qingyan’s gaze swept over those men with numb expressions. “Only by encouraging widows to remarry, ensuring households have strong laborers and men to help widows raise children, can we reduce the tragedies of mothers taking their own lives together with their children! This ensures that young children who have lost their fathers can grow up safely.”

Having said this much, some men were already slowly nodding.

Even if the bloodline they left behind was only daughters, those were still their bloodline. If they were truly gone… naturally they would hope their children could grow up safely.

Speaking more broadly, only when widows remarry and bear children can the nation’s population increase. With more people in households and more laborers, idle farmland decreases… only then can common families have surplus grain! When the people are prosperous, the nation is strong—this is why the new law encourages widow remarriage.” Bai Qingyan’s voice was measured and steady.

The implementation of new laws stood with the people. Only when the people were prosperous could a nation be strong!

After Bai Qingyan finished speaking, her gaze fell upon that clan elder who had wanted to drown his daughter-in-law.

“During the implementation of new laws, to openly defy them and treat human life as worthless—send him to the Magistrate of Jingzhao’s office and have the magistrate investigate and handle this severely!” Bai Qingyan looked toward Bai Qihe. “National law and clan law—nation comes before clan. Clan laws should be based on national laws. Where changes are needed… they must be made.”

“Yes! Bai Qihe receives your command!” Bai Qihe quickly bowed formally.

Bai Qingyan stepped forward and helped the young woman from the Bai clan who was kneeling on the ground, then instructed Lu Ping: “Lu Ping, first settle this lady at the Bai mansion in the capital. Her wedding… the Bai mansion will arrange it!”

“Yes!” Lu Ping clasped his fists and accepted the command.

Bai Qingyan looked at the young woman before her and gently patted the woman’s hand: “Rest assured, remarrying after losing one’s husband is reasonable, rational, and legal. The wrongs you suffered today will be compensated by the Bai family in double measure. We will ensure you have a grand wedding!”

“Thank you, Your Majesty! Thank you, Your Majesty!” The young woman knelt and bowed again.

Even the maid behind the young woman knelt and kowtowed heavily to Bai Qingyan: “Thank you for saving my young lady, Your Majesty! Thank you, Your Majesty!”

Before sunset, Bai Qingyan’s debates with the students at the Imperial Academy had spread throughout the capital.

Combined with the Bai family guards making a great show of escorting both the Bai clan elder and the elder’s wife to the Magistrate of Jingzhao’s office, drawing crowds of onlookers, the guards who delivered the Bai clan elder and his wife declared openly that Bai Qingyan hoped the magistrate would investigate and handle the matter severely, to make all those who opposed and violated new laws learn from this example.

The Great Zhou Empress’s determination to protect the new laws became clear to the commoners when the Bai family guards delivered Bai clan relatives to the Magistrate of Jingzhao’s office, demanding severe punishment. The new laws were inviolable.

And precisely because this recently widowed woman from the Bai family dared to take this step and wanted to remarry, with Bai Qingyan also promising to ensure this Bai family widow had a grand wedding…