Forty-eight years of Qianlong

Chapter 381 Preparations for the wedding and buying a boat in Siam
Before leaving to negotiate with the Qing Dynasty, Zhao Xin made a special trip to bring Director Liu back from another time and space, and asked about the progress of preparations for his wedding with Shen Xuan.

When a person reaches a certain social status, many private affairs become official affairs.Beihai Town is different today, and the marriage between Zhao Xin and Shen Xuan is no longer their affair.

Last year, Zhao Xin wondered if he could make it simpler, because the picture was so lively.As a result, Shen Xuan's face became ugly before he said a few words, let alone Shen Jingdan, who directly shook his head to express his disagreement.

As the only descendant of the Shen family in Dongtai, Shen Xuan needs to comfort her relatives through a ceremonial marriage ceremony; but for Shen Jingdan's family, it is not a good idea to travel all the way here to suffer in the cold and bear the infamy of rebellion. Is it the name of Renlun Dao!If you want to have a meal, you will get married. Do you think my Shen family is marrying a daughter to be a concubine?
Alas, this really doesn't make sense.Who made Zhao Xin call himself His Highness at the beginning, now that the tide has risen, the Shen family demands that at least follow the "prince's etiquette".

It wasn't until this time that Zhao Xin regretted a little. It was really stupid for him to set up a banner with the word "Ming" at the beginning, and he was really self-confident.

After that, Liu Siting, who heard about this, came to the door and volunteered to help.Now, this man is now euphemistically saying that he wants to take care of his body and prepare to have a child. By helping Zhao Xin's wedding, he only works half a day every day since more than half a year ago. The specific affairs in the hospital are all handled by a large group of subordinates.

Zhao Xin was very grateful for someone who could help, so he entrusted Director Liu with full authority to help.So the "marriage preparation team" looking for the big boss was announced to be established.There are three main leaders, Shen Jingdan, Director Liu and Wang Zhong, and there are many others who help with miscellaneous tasks.

The problem is that the "prince's wedding" matter, whether it's the Shen family or Director Liu, both of them think it's easy.

According to the wedding rules of the Ming and Qing dynasties, the marriage of a man and a woman needs to go through six items, namely, accepting the color, asking for the name, Naji, accepting the levy, asking for a date (the emperor called it "telling the date"), and welcoming in person, which are the so-called six rituals.Up to the emperor, down to the common people can't avoid it, and the rules of each class are just different in details.

Shen Xuan's biological father, Shen Chengzhuo, is just a small country gentleman from southern Jiangsu, let alone Shen Jingdan's family, they are not even considered a wealthy businessman in Yangzhou.With their little knowledge, they don't know what a "prince's gift" is.

Not to mention Director Liu, she and her husband Dr. Hong's poor historical knowledge, they thought it was just a lively ceremony of worshiping heaven and earth in Hanfu.

However, when Wang Zhong heard Shen Jingdan's thoughts, he shook his head again and again, saying that Yu Li was not suitable.Seeing Shen Jingdan with a ignorant face, Wang Zhong, who claims to read everything, directly took out a copy of "Da Ming Hui Dian", turned to No. 60, nine volumes "Prince's Wedding", pointed to the words on it and said to Shen Jingdan: "Yes Brother Tong, first you have to see what is the gift of a prince."

Shen Jingdan was stunned after reading it, and Director Liu who came after hearing the news was also dumbfounded.

At the beginning, Shen Jingdan was anxious, and in a hurry, he just asked for Zhao Xin's horoscope and asked Wu Xianning to temporarily act as a magic stick to close it. He felt that there was no major problem, so he accepted a simple gift and exchanged the red book and green paper.But now after watching "Da Ming Hui Dian", I realized that the princes and the royal family didn't play like this at all, and the rules were cumbersome!
Just the engagement gift, the twenty bolts of silk, one box of pearls, two gold rings, one pair of gold earrings, and two jars of white wine that Zhao Xin gave back then were nothing but child's play.

In ancient marriages, Nacai and Nazheng were arranged side by side, but the ceremony had to be prepared twice.The so-so gifts that Zhao Xin gave were only enough for the winning lottery procedure. As for the receiving rewards, there were still more, and they were far more than the first time.

Not to mention anything else, since it is done according to the standard of marrying a princess, a Yugugui is a must.

According to the "Zhou Li": Gu Gui is seven inches, and the emperor uses it to hire a daughter.This thing should be made of white jade, and it is rectangular as a whole. There are no words or patterns engraved on the surface below the upper tip. It is just that within a circle of neat raised edges, there is a whole surface of evenly sized raised circles that are neatly arranged. point.

Whether it's the emperor or the prince, shouldn't you use dragons and phoenixes to marry a wife? Why "valley"?University questioner Wang Zhong gave a perfect answer: "Zheng Xuan of the Han Dynasty said it a long time ago. The so-called Gu Gui is also the auspicious festival of the king. And 'valley' means 'good' in ancient times."

In addition, one Yanju crown and four sets of Yanju uniforms are required.This is the so-called Fengguanxiapei (for details, please refer to the unearthed objects from Ming Dingling Mausoleum in later generations).The biggest difference between the Yanju crown and the dress crown is that there are two strings of pearls held by golden dragons on both sides of the dress crown.As for other jade belts, shoes and socks, and head and face jewelry, there are a lot of them, each of which not only stipulates the style, but also has requirements on the weight.

The above is only for the woman, and the man is more troublesome.

The first thing is to prepare a fur suit, that is, court clothes, also called "onyx clothes"; then you need to prepare a mansion, which goes without saying; The fourth is to have a band playing "Zhonghe Shaoyue".

If the clothes and music are relatively easy to deal with, the ancestral hall Fengxiandian and the like are not things that can be dealt with sloppily.The ancients talked about names and disciplines. When you get married, you must tell your ancestors, and the new daughter-in-law must also go to the ancestral hall to offer incense and worship, so that you can enter the family tree and have a name.

The question is, even if there is a Fengxian Hall, who will be worshiped in it?Put a large group of Zhu family members who can't compete with Zhao Xin, and then kowtow to them, isn't this a joke!
When Director Liu sent a telegram to Zhao Xin asking how to solve it, Zhao Xin said that this matter is too simple, if you want to build it, it is better to build a big Mingtang, and make offerings to heaven and earth before getting married, and we will return to Zhenyuan Daxian.After getting married, put the tablets of those who died in Beihai Town over the years into it, and change it to the Hall of Valor.

Afterwards, Liu Siting discussed with the other cross-travelers, and everyone felt that this trick was really good; as far as Zhao Xin's supernatural style was concerned, he really couldn't say anything if he said that it was only for the ancients of heaven and earth.

So five months ago, a large building covering an area of ​​[-] square meters, with a steel-wood hybrid structure inside and a Chinese-style Mingtang on the outside, broke ground on an empty field north of Beihai Town, and now it has entered the interior description. Paint stage.

The Fengxiandian matter is settled, and the next step is the band.With the level of Beihai Town, it is very simple to set up a band of 200 drummers, but the problem is that folk drummers can't handle "Zhonghe Shaoyue" at all.

There is no place to learn this thing, unless you go to the Taichang Temple in the Qing Dynasty to catch a few officials in charge of court music. Oh, yes!The eunuchs of the Shenyue Department at the east gate of the Temple of Heaven also had to arrest a few.

Because playing Zhonghe Shaoyue requires not only 72 musicians, but also more than 130 civil and military dancers.The musicians return to Taichang Temple, and the dancers return to the Kagura Department.In addition, more than 90 kinds of musical instruments have to be prepared, and a set of chime bells and chime chimes is required.

Forget it!Let's play the recording, it's the easiest way.

Before Zhao Xin left for Khabarovsk, he sent Director Liu back to another time and space, and he flew back to China to find a studio to order clothes.Anyway, Boss Zhao is a local tyrant, and there are many gold mountains, so Director Liu went directly to the Yunjin Research Institute in Nanjing.

When I got to the place and took a look, wow~~ Director Liu was elated, this is too expensive and so beautiful!
Liu Siting put on an attitude that we were not short of money, and hurriedly placed an urgent order. In addition to the specially-made ones for Zhao Xin and Shen Xuan, there were also two sets for Director Liu and Dr. Hong himself.

After that, she found another jade shop, chose a piece of mutton fat jade, and asked someone to make a seven-inch-long Gu Gui according to the photos of cultural relics unearthed in Dingling.Then I found several studios that made Hanfu in succession, and bought Diancui's "six dragons and three phoenix crowns" and Tongtian crowns at a high price.In addition, I also bought a lot of various jewelry.

Shen Jingdan was not idle there either. Before he went to Guangzhou, he made a special trip to Jiangning, and asked someone to spend a huge sum of 500 taels of silver to get a few bolts of brocade from Jiangning Weaving.

The output of ancient Yunjin is very low, and the price is extremely expensive, mainly because its weaving process is very complicated and cumbersome.The two weavers are dizzy after a busy day, and they can weave a brocade of about 5 centimeters at most.

It is said that after Shen Jingdan went to Guangzhou, he met the members of the Cai family very smoothly.Now the Cai family owes Zhao Xin a gift, not to mention losing their position as a general merchant, and being fined a large sum of money by the Guangdong Customs.

When he learned that Mr. Shen, who spoke Yangzhou dialect, came to inquire about the progress of buying a ship, the boss of Wanhehang, Cai Shiwen and his son, quickly explained it. Only then did Shen Jingdan know that buying a ship was not that simple.

After Zhao Xin made a big fuss in Guangzhou, he and Liu Zheng never returned.And the Cai family wanted to communicate with him the market price they inquired from the shipyard, so there was nothing to say.

First of all, what Zhao Xin wanted was an English-style three-masted sailing ship, but Siam could only build Tang ships, and English-style ships could not be built at all.The Macau shipyard actually inherits the traditional craftsmanship of Guangdong. If you really want to buy a British-style ship, you can only buy it from India through the British or Portuguese, and the price will be quite expensive.

Cai Zhaoping told Shen Jingdan that he thought the Siamese Tang boats were very suitable. The maximum load was 770 tons, the medium one was 500 tons, and the small ones were more than [-] tons.Moreover, the shipbuilders in Siam are all overseas Chinese, and what they are best at is building red-headed ships with three masts and hard sails.

至于价格上，暹罗船厂的造价倒是不贵，每吨不过15两白银。一艘五百吨的三桅帆船总价也就是7500~8000两白银之间，而时下福建船厂一艘1600担（95吨）的中型海船造价要到3000两白银。

In addition to the very cheap price, the shipbuilding period in Siam is also very short. A 580-ton Tang ship can be completed in only three months from laying the keel to launching.

So as far as the current situation is concerned, the load capacity of the Siamese ship can definitely meet Zhao Xin's requirements, but the Cai family does not dare to decide whether the ship is suitable or not. What if Zhao Xin does not want to make an order?
Besides, there was another biggest problem. After the ship was built, Beihai Town had to send people to drive the ship back. It was impossible to stop in Guangdong.

As a former sea trader who went to Japan, Shen Jingdan knows this well.

In the 42nd year of Kangxi, the Qing government stipulated that merchant ships built by coastal shipyards were allowed to use two masts, but the beam head of the ship could not exceed 28 feet, and the number of sailors could not exceed [-].

That is to say, the thousand-ton ship bought by Beihai Town from Siam can stop at Tam Tsai Island at most.But Tanzai Island has so many berths!

After some earnest talks between the two parties, Shen Jingdan decided to buy the Tang boat from Siam.Five for 770 tons, five for 7 tons.Before Zhao Xin gave the Cai family a deposit of 5 taels, this time Shen Jingdan took out a [-] taels of bank note issued in Yangzhou.

Seeing that Mr. Shen is so forthright and understands the market, Cai Shiwen and his son were very happy and gave him a warm welcome.After finishing the work at the Cai family, Shen Jingdan took a boat to Liyumen to meet Zheng Lianchang of the Red Flag Gang.

Since Zheng Yi followed Zhao Xin to the north, Zheng Lianchang was in a bad mood, and even the number of times he went to the flower boat every month changed from ten to eight.Ever since he heard that the imperial court gathered a large army in the north, he was even more worried, worried about his son's safety.

Shen Jingdan went to Liyumen, and after exchanging pleasantries, he first handed over Zheng Yi's letter to his father, and then talked about the situation in Beihai Town.When Zheng Lianchang heard that his son was already an apprentice captain of a thousand-ton British ship, he couldn't help feeling relieved, but then he looked sad again.

Shen Jingdan comforted: "Brother Zheng can rest assured, Wen Xian is smart and eager to learn, and now he is mainly responsible for the commercial trade with the Japanese country. He is familiar with the shipping routes and gaining experience, which will be of great use in the future."

Zheng Lianchang sighed and said: "Master Shen, you are a veteran of the sea. I am a rough man, so don't mind what I say. My Zheng family is just such a single seedling, and that bastard Wen Xian doesn't even have a son. Although the big ship in the North Sea is stable , but the wind and waves on the sea are really unpredictable!"

Shen Jingdan said: "You don't have to worry about that, bro, we are already very familiar with the needle route to Japan. We have experience when the weather is bad and when the wind blows. Besides, Ah Yi's big boat is not driven by sails alone. After mastering Beihai Town's mechanical secret technique, it only takes three to five days to go back and forth."

"Oh? Then I must see and see some other day." Zheng Lianchang changed the subject and continued: "To be honest, the Xu family of the Black Flag Gang has already mentioned it to me several times, and you have to keep faith. Now that it's decided Darling, then you can’t say what you say.”

Shen Jingdan said: "Then what is Brother Zheng going to do?"

Zheng Lianchang said: "Let Ah Yi come back and get married. When my daughter-in-law is pregnant, I will let him go back and help you guys."

Shen Jingdan originally meant to propose to Zheng Lianchang that Hong Qi help the sailors bring the boat back from Siam.But if Zheng Yi was asked to drive Beihai No. [-] back, he would feel more at ease about taking the boat back.

Even if the Cai family sent someone to Siam to place an order to start construction, it would take four months. Taking advantage of this time, let Zheng Yi come back to get married, and he can return with the boat in February or March next year, killing two birds with one stone.

Thinking of this, Shen Jingdan said: "This matter is on my shoulders, I will explain it to King Zhao when I get back."

So when he returned to Beihai Town in October, he told Zhao Xin about the situation. Zhao Xinxin said that he was really sleepy and met the pillow, and he was thinking of sending someone to open a tea road in the south!

　An inch in the Zhou Dynasty is calculated according to the top section of the thumb, which is about 1.99 centimeters.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)