Ouyang Xuan and Cao Ergou are not much different in age, and they regard each other as brothers with different surnames, and they have a close relationship on weekdays.
It's just that today, Cao Ergou changed his usual careless demeanor and acted coy. When he was asked to sit down, he only sat down half of his body and refused to speak for a long time.
This made Ouyang Xuan even more anxious, and he said angrily: "If you have something to do, just say it, if you don't have anything to do, get out. I'm still busy."
At this moment, he was doing an important chemical experiment, and the white coat he was wearing was stained with glycerin and dilute hydrochloric acid.
His voice startled Cao Ergou and turned him back into the General Cao who was not afraid of danger on the battlefield.
He said seriously: "Brother Xuan, I want to get married, and I want to ask for your consent." It turned out that Cao Ergou met a pretty Qian girl while escorting the Qian clan to Hengyuan Fort. He secretly found out that this Qian girl was Qian Lao Er's fourth daughter, whose nickname was Qian Choumei'er. Then he thought about it.
It can be said that Cao Ergou is a thief. Hearing that Qian Chong's sister was not yet married, he went to Lu De to make peace.
Qian Lao Er, Qian Lao Er, was naturally very happy to marry a girl from his clan to the young and promising General Cao, and Qian Chou's sister was also very happy.
The matchmaker's words are the parents' orders! Cao Ergou's parents died early, and now he is alone in the army with no relatives or support. Brother Xuan is also his superior, so he came here to ask for his permission.
In the nearly one year since he traveled to this world, Ouyang Xuan has also actively or passively thought about marriage issues. After the incident of Pan Luohuan raping a local girl in Yanfeng Village, everyone realized that Brother Xuan was still alone at such an old age, so they pushed Lu Dezhi to talk tactfully about his marriage.
From Ouyang Xuan's perspective, he is actually not very old in his twenties, and in this troubled world like Shura Field, he really has no interest in falling in love, so he reasoned that although he has returned to secular life, his parents are far away. In the Jinghu area, it is not appropriate to talk about marriage.
Later, seeing that everyone refused to give up on this issue, he announced that he would imitate Huo Qubing, the great general of the Western Han Dynasty.
"The Huns are not exterminated, so why should we take care of our family?" If the Mongols are not driven out of Shu, they will not talk about marriage. This is why everyone gave up the idea of tying up their marriage.
Although he didn't talk about marriage, he couldn't object to everyone else's marriage. He immediately agreed to Cao Ergou's marriage.
Cao Ergou's marriage reminded Ouyang Xuan that the marriage system is the stable foundation of society and that principles and rules must be set during the initial stage of the career, so a joint military and political meeting was held to discuss the matter.
At the meeting, Ouyang Xuan put forward four principle requirements for the marriage system: first, voluntary marriage and freedom of divorce; second, both men and women must be over 16 years old; third, premarital examination and marriage registration; fourth, monogamy.
These terms, which Ouyang Xuan thought were common sense, unexpectedly aroused opposition from everyone, especially Lu Dezhi and others. Du Fu, the head of the newly established medical clinic, also quoted scriptures and expressed his opinions euphemistically. Objections.
Everyone especially has opinions on Articles 1 and 4. In the eyes of Lu Dezhi and others, it is natural that children's marriage should be decided by their parents.
Freedom to divorce? Is there any reason in the world for a woman to divorce her husband? As for monogamy, it is not appropriate. Since ancient times, let alone royal relatives, that high-ranking official and wealthy businessman does not have three wives and four concubines?
Ouyang Xuan was really speechless about this kind of patriarchal thinking, but he also knew that marriage customs were closely related to the level of productivity development, and the inertia of traditional power was huge. It would not happen overnight if he wanted to change it, so he explained it again, also on the relevant clauses. After making concessions, the new marriage system was reluctantly adopted.
The new marriage system is still four. As for the first clause on voluntary marriage and freedom of divorce, Ouyang Xuan reluctantly passed it at Ouyang Xuan's insistence, and added a clause to protect military marriages. The woman was not allowed to file for divorce without the consent of active servicemen. This won the support of most people.
Article 2: Marriage at the age of sixteen is not controversial. Although people in the farming era pursued the concept of getting married early and having children, most of them got engaged when they were around ten years old or even earlier, but most of them did not officially get married until they were fourteen or fifteen years old. , it doesn’t hurt to wait a year or two more.
Article 3 It is reasonable for marriage to be officially registered, but everyone does not understand the terms of pre-marital examination. After Ouyang Xuan explained the principles of eugenics and eugenics, everyone actively supported it, and it was agreed that those with serious genetic diseases, congenital disabilities and intellectual disabilities Those in this situation are not allowed to get married and have children, so as not to increase the burden on society and their families.
The current level of productivity cannot support idle people. Ouyang Xuan was completely surprised by the number of people who opposed the monogamy controversy.
In addition to Lu Dezhi's reasons, others raised a question that he could not answer: that is, the long-term war has caused serious losses to young and strong men. Now there are more boys and girls. If polygamy is not allowed, how can weak women survive without marriage?
This question made Ouyang Xuan speechless for a moment. He also knew why sons were favored over women in the farming era because the land needed labor.
In desperation, he had no choice but to make compromises and concessions. Therefore, the fourth article was revised to say that in principle, the marriage was monogamous, and the principal wife must be Han Chinese. This last sentence was added at Du Fu's request.
He had seen too many interracial marriages in his many years of business. He explained to everyone that there might be interracial women under the rule of the Perak Army in the future, and the interests of Han women must be guaranteed.
Unexpectedly, this explanation angered Dang Shijian and other mountain elders who attended the military and political meeting, and made them angry.
If Ouyang Xuan hadn't been present, they would have cursed and even taken action. You must know that this mountain was originally a mixed community of Han, Tibetan and Qiang people, and there were even Shatuo remnants.
This clause proposed by Du Fu seemed to them to be blatant discrimination against mountain people. Upon seeing this, Lu Dezhi cited the Huayi Debate in the pre-Qin period to defend Du Fu.
"As long as you speak Chinese and wear Hanfu, you are Han." This statement was supported by Ouyang Xuan, and everyone stopped arguing.
In Ouyang Xuan's mind, all ethnic groups under the rule of the Pili Army are equal and will not be discriminated against based on race or blood, but the prerequisite is that cultural customs must be consistent.
Marriage issues are not trivial and involve the governance structure and political balance of the Perak Army. China has always attached great importance to the family. Over thousands of years of inheritance, many prestigious families have emerged, and many powerful families have emerged, and these are mostly achieved through marriage.
The powerful and intertwined relationships of aristocratic families seriously restricted the flow of social classes, resulting in class solidification that broke the political balance and accelerated the collapse of various dynasties. The same was true for the society of the Southern Song Dynasty.
When Cao Ergou told him that he wanted to marry the Qian family, Ouyang Xuan had the idea of standardizing the system. In his opinion, this was very critical to the future development of the Pili Army, even more important than winning a few battles.
When discussing marriage issues this time, Lu Dezhi raised another system of marriage issues at the meeting - the inheritance system, but Ouyang Xuan deliberately ignored it. In fact, this system is more important.
There are three types of inheritance systems, namely the eldest son inheritance in Western Europe, the Mongolian system in which the youngest son keeps the stove, and the Han people's egalitarian system.
Ouyang Xuan prefers the eldest son inheritance system, which will make children without inheritance rights more adventurous and society more energetic to expand outward.
In Ouyang Xuan's view, the Pili Army is still in its infancy stage, and it is not the best time to discuss the inheritance system.
He planned to discuss the system of land granting due to military merit and the system of equalizing land when there was a stable governance area in the plain area.
