Chapter 275: Aweng is indeed worthy of being Emperor Taizong Wen...

Since Pei Xueqing is pregnant recently, several women from the Wude Hall would go to her place when they have nothing to do to keep her company.

Overall, Li Xiang's women are very harmonious.

The competition for favor in the harem usually only happens when things are peaceful or when the concubine is overly favored.

Li Xiang's preference for the empress was somewhat influenced by Li Shimin's genes.

When filming TV series in later generations, they always like to arrange some strange love for Li Shimin. For example, in a certain TVB TV series, Li Shimin's true love is Concubine Yang, who is more or less seriously ill.

Even now that Empress Changsun is dead, Concubine Yang does not dare to pat her chest and say that she is Li Shimin's most beloved woman.

When Li Xiang walked into the Wude Hall, the three women were surrounding Pei Xueqing and telling her some interesting stories that happened in the palace.

"What are you talking about?" Li Xiang asked with interest.

"I'm talking about some interesting things that happened in the palace." Pei Xueqing said with a faint smile: "You came back so early again today, but have you pushed the affairs of Jingzhao Prefecture to others again?"

Li Xiang scratched his head: "Look at what Sister said, am I that kind of person?"

Pei Xueqing smiled faintly without saying anything, and it was clear that he saw through everything.

"I came back today for an important matter. Just now, Hongling sent an urgent messenger to report that Xueyantuo has already marched south to capture Dingxiang." Li Xiang sighed, "Ah-weng is furious about this and is planning to put aside the conquest of Silla for the time being and resolve the Xueyantuo issue first."

"Is there such a thing?" Pei Xueqing frowned slightly.

"Yes," Li Xiang shook his head and sighed, "Now is a time of trouble... By the way, Aong has appointed me as the Grand Marshal of the Army and the Grand Chancellor of Hebei and Henan Provinces. If nothing unexpected happens, I will have to leave Chang'an temporarily in a few days to supervise the war in the north."

Hearing Li Xiang's words, the four girls were briefly stunned.

Pei Xueqing thought of Li Xiaoxiang's previous record in Liaodong, and was not too worried. Instead, he said, "In this case, the elephant must pay attention to safety."

"Don't worry, I'll just stay in Youzhou and take care of the logistics." Li Xiang said with a smile, "The matters of commanding the battle and leading the troops to fight will be handled by the Prince of Jiangxia and the Duke of Ying."

Speaking of this, Li Xiang smiled.

"Don't worry, Xueyantuo is just a clown, there is nothing to be afraid of."

"Yes." Pei Xueqing nodded, then looked at Feng Yingying and Xiao Yourong, and asked, "If we are in the back, my brother will also need someone to serve him. How about taking the three sisters with you?"

The eyes of Feng Yingying and the other two girls suddenly lit up and they looked at Li Xiang expectantly.

To be honest, they were actually quite anxious because Pei Xueqing was pregnant.

When living in the harem, it is always good to have a child by your side.

"This is inappropriate." Li Xiang shook his head and said, "The soldiers in the front are wrestling in the blood, and I am watching the singing and dancing in the back. How can we have such a commander?"

Hearing Li Xiang's words, the three women's eyes suddenly dimmed.

Ah... I originally thought I could get close to His Highness.

Since Li Xiang had already said so, Pei Xueqing didn't say anything more.

I was originally thinking of creating some opportunities for the three of them, but it seems... there won't be any chances.

That night, Li Xiang still stayed in Pei Xueqing's room, mainly for companionship.

The next morning, after Xiaoxiang arrived at Jingzhao Prefecture, he gathered a group of brothers and officials.

Among the brothers, Cheng Chubi has already left with Pei Xingjian and is currently in Dengzhou; Xiao Shoudao returned to the south after recovering from schistosomiasis and continued to grow sugarcane, and brought people to guide the killing of snails in the local area.

Li Xiang actually wanted to promote the habit of drinking hot water, but the energy in the Tang Dynasty is seriously insufficient now. It is already a struggle to eat cooked meals, and it is a bit too much to not drink raw water.

Now we can only hope for the mining of coal in the north and the improvement of transportation capacity.

If you want to transport coal, it is definitely not enough to use horse-drawn carriages alone; now there are no railways, and the only means of transportation with large capacity and low cost is water transportation.

It is obviously not realistic to transport goods from Liaodong to Chang'an by sea, so the only option is canal transportation.

However, the canal dug by Yang Guang was blocked at the end of the Sui Dynasty, and it was not until the Tang Dynasty unified the country that it was dredged several times.

Speaking of the Grand Canal of the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the biggest reason why later generations put Yang Guang in the Internet temple was that the history textbooks blamed Yang Guang for the construction of the Grand Canal.

According to textbooks, the Grand Canal "was excavated in the Spring and Autumn Period, completed in the Sui Dynasty, prospered in the Tang and Song Dynasties, straightened in the Yuan Dynasty, and dredged in the Ming and Qing Dynasties."

But in fact, the Grand Canal opened in the Sui Dynasty is called the Sui and Tang Grand Canal, while the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal was ordered to be dug by Kublai Khan.

He stole a thousand years from the Spring and Autumn Period to the Northern and Southern Dynasties, and then stole the Yuan Dynasty. It was really like Qin Shihuang touching the electric switch - he won.

The steel and coal from the north can be transported by sea to Wuqing (Tianjin), then enter the Grand Canal through the Haihe River, and then all the way to Luoyang, which is also a good choice.

"I'm sure you've all heard about what happened on the grassland." Li Xiang said to the young men, "Now that the saint has appointed me as the Grand Marshal of the Army and the Grand Chancellor of Henan and Hebei Provinces, I naturally have to go north to supervise military affairs. I wonder who among you is willing to go to Youzhou with me?"

After hearing Li Xiang's question, everyone expressed their desire to go to Youzhou together.

"Let's go together, let's go together!" Wei Daijia shouted.

"Since my brother is going to Youzhou in person, then I will naturally follow him." Li Jingren also said with his hands crossed.

"Me too." Yuchi Xunyu raised his hand and said.

Seeing that everyone agreed, Li Xiang said again: "This trip north is not a game. As the people I trust the most, you will naturally be assigned to places with heavy tasks and shoulder heavy responsibilities."

"No problem, brother. Just rest assured and make the arrangements." Wei Daijia patted his chest.

"We will arrange the specific tasks based on the local conditions after we arrive in Youzhou." Li Xiang nodded and said, "You should be prepared. If anyone makes a mistake, don't blame me for punishing you."

Although the words were not spoken seriously, the teenagers listened carefully.

"I will leave Shengzhi and Guanguang in Chang'an to assist Chief Secretary Quan in matters concerning Jingzhao Prefecture." Li Xiang continued, "In the next two days, Jingren, you should hand over matters to them. Hand over matters that should be temporarily entrusted to Aunt Gaoyang to her, and give Shengzhi and Guanguang matters that they can be responsible for temporarily."

"Yes, brother." Li Jingren replied.

After they spoke a few more words, someone outside suddenly came with a message saying that the imperial physician Qian Shu wanted to see him.

Li Xiang asked someone to come in, and soon he saw Qian Shu hurriedly walking in from outside.

"Your Highness." Qian Shu saluted Li Xiang.

"What's the matter, Imperial Physician?" Li Xiang asked. Qian Shu took out a stack of papers from his sleeve and handed them to Li Xiang with both hands.

"Your Highness, this is the data from the promotion of forceps delivery in the Gyeonggi region over the past three months." Qian Shu said, "It also contains data on women who died of difficult labor in the past, and a comparison of the data from these three months."

"Since the use of the obstetric forceps invented by Dr. Sun, the maternal and infant mortality rate has dropped by 50%!" Qian Shu looked somewhat delighted.

In fact, there are two more common types of deaths during the delivery process. One is suffocation due to a large fetal head, and the other is maternal death due to prolonged delivery.

The emergence of forceps can effectively avoid the occurrence of these two situations.

Even in the twenty-first century, there is still no substitute for forceps in certain situations.

Especially in backward, poor and underdeveloped areas, forceps are the undisputed number one.

Everything is determined by data. Compared with sophisticated modern medicine, the medicine of the Tang Dynasty was indeed backward. This is an indisputable fact. Otherwise, the maternal and infant mortality rates would not have been so high.

"Great! This is a great deed." Li Xiang put the stack of papers on the table and said to Qian Shu with a smile, "I will ask for merit for the Imperial Medical Bureau in front of the Saint."

"Thank you, Your Highness!" Qian Shu replied happily.

On the one hand, it is the doctor's benevolence, and on the other hand, he is happy about the upcoming reward.

Of course, what they didn’t know was that the obstetric forceps was not invented independently by Sun Simiao, but was developed at the suggestion of Li Xiang.

The purpose of Li Xiang inventing the obstetric forceps was to increase the population of the Tang Dynasty.

Under the medical conditions in ancient times, giving birth was like walking on the gate of hell.

If obstetric forceps can be popularized, coupled with corresponding policies and sufficient food, the population growth rate will usher in a peak.

In ancient times, policy was only one aspect that affected the population growth rate. After all, even without policy support, farmers would still try their best to have children.

Unlike modern people, the ancients did not consider whether they could afford to raise their children. Few farmers' children went to school. Generally, when they were five or six years old, they had to help their family with some chores within their ability, such as holding a small basket and picking wheat in the fields.

On the other hand, even if the child dies, they will not take it seriously like the rich families.

The main reason is that in the countryside, having many children is the family's confidence.

Of course you can have fewer children, but you will also have to endure the bullying from neighbors who have many children, especially mostly boys.

You have only one son, while your neighbor has seven or eight burly sons. It's reasonable for nature to move the boundary markers two or three points more towards your side, right?
What? You're going to argue?

When seven or eight sons of your neighbor's family stand at the door, holding weapons in their hands and looking at you ferociously and with ill intentions, can you still reason with them?

Even in modern society there are complicated neighborhood relationships, let alone in ancient times?
In most cases, having more people means you are right.

Not having children because of poverty is the modern people’s idea.

But in ancient times, the poorer you were, the more you had to have children. After all, if you didn't have children, you would be even poorer. As for children? Just give them food to eat and don't starve to death. Don't worry about their grades. If they die of illness or starvation, it's because they are not strong enough. Just have another one.

Parents don’t need to take care of the children. They only need to take care of one or two, and the rest of the children can be left to the eldest son and daughter.

To be honest, if you can't raise a child, you can sell it to human traffickers...

After getting off work from Jingzhao Prefecture, Li Xiang went directly to Lizheng Hall.

After meeting Old Li, Li Xiang handed the stack of papers to Li Shimin.

"What is this?" Li Shimin took the stack of papers, looked up and asked Li Xiang.

"This is the data on forceps-assisted deliveries given by the Imperial Medical Bureau." Li Xiang answered truthfully: "According to Qian Shu, with forceps-assisted deliveries, the mortality rates of infants and mothers have dropped by 50% compared to before."

"Really?" Li Shimin took it seriously after hearing this.

After reading it carefully, he said with emotion: "If there had been something like this earlier, Hua'er... and your mother..."

"My grandson thinks that the Imperial Medical Bureau should give a generous reward." Li Xiang changed the subject: "After all, the invention of such a good thing will significantly increase the population growth rate of the Tang Dynasty."

"Significantly increased?" Li Shimin raised his eyebrows and glanced at Li Xiang: "Why do you say that?"

"Just think about it, Uncle, if all the people of the Tang Dynasty used this thing..."

Before Li Xiang could finish his words, he was interrupted by Li Shimin.

"It is impossible for all the people in the Tang Dynasty to use this thing. Most of the people who can use the forceps are citizens in the city. As for the farmers who make up the majority of the population in the Tang Dynasty, it is unlikely that they can use this."

"Why?" Li Xiang opened his mouth.

"Why?" Li Shimin smiled. "There is no way there is a doctor in the village, let alone a midwife. If a woman has a difficult birth, she will generally leave it to fate. A slightly educated woman may burn some magic water for the woman to drink. No one will travel dozens or hundreds of miles to the county town to invite a doctor to assist in the birth."

Li Xiang opened his mouth and found that he had indeed taken it for granted.

Not only is it taken for granted, it is also somewhat out of touch with the times.

There were professional doctors in the village, but that was a thing of later times. Doctors in this era are a scarce species. They are generally based in county towns or big cities and will never condescend to live in rural areas.

He looked up at Li Shimin again and found that Aung was looking at him with a leisurely look.

"Auntie can think of this, he really deserves to be the Grand Master..." Li Xiang gave a thumbs up and was about to say the 'Emperor Zongwen', but suddenly remembered that Auntie was still alive. If he said the temple name and posthumous title, it would be a bit like urging him to hurry up.

Not only that, but it's also easy for an angry Lao Li to break his legs...

Apart from Cao Rui, who was an abstract sage, few people would give themselves a temple name or posthumous title while they were still alive...

However, Li Xiang sincerely admired Li Shimin. As a prince of Taiyuan who was born rich, he was able to have a deep understanding of the situation of the people. In this respect, he was far better than most emperors.

He is indeed worthy of being the man who initiated the Zhenguan Reign.

"Too what?" Li Shimin didn't think about it in this direction.

"I made a mistake." Li Xiang quickly corrected: "You are worthy of being the Heavenly Khan. Your grandson admires you."

“Haha…” Li Shimin stroked his beard and laughed.

As an emperor of great power, he had a strong ability to read people's expressions and of course he could see that Li Xiang's admiration was genuine.

As an old man, how could he not be happy that his eldest grandson admired him so much?
(The couple downstairs fought from day till around nine o'clock, throwing things and cursing at each other, making it hard for me to write... so annoying... one chapter today)
(End of this chapter)