Brother Zhu Youxiao

Chapter 11 Nightmare Start
"Dang-dang-dang..."

During the afternoon nap, when the [-] bells and drums stopped, and no one woke Zhu Youjian up, he woke up naturally.

This is a habit developed in the army in his previous life. He sleeps very lightly. After getting used to the frequency of the surrounding sounds, he will wake up actively once the surrounding sounds change.

"Come on!"

Rubbing his eyes, Zhu Youjian felt a little thirsty, glanced at the dazzling sunlight outside the window, and called out to the bedroom.

Two young eunuchs walked into the palace with their heads bowed one after the other, slightly bowing their upper bodies: "Your Highness..."

"Ask the Dianshan Bureau to prepare some spicy meals, and get some cold drinks to cool off." Zhu Youjian kneaded his brows, greeted the two eunuchs, and did not forget to ask at the end:
"Has the national mourning begun yet?"

One of the eunuchs got up to write the script, and after saluting to Zhu Youjian, he was going to the Dianshan Bureau of the Eastern Palace to ask the cook to prepare the meals. The other eunuch nodded in response:

"Reporting to Your Highness, the cabinet said that the late emperor passed away suddenly, and the officials of the six ministries have not yet reacted."

"In addition, the Ministry of Rites and the Ministry of Rites do not have national funeral reserves, so it is necessary to postpone the national funeral for one day."

The eunuch answered clearly, and Zhu Youjian understood it, and he couldn't help being speechless.

Often the various things for the national funeral are prepared for the national funeral in January after the death of the former emperor.

It's just that Zhu Youjian's grandfather, Wanli, passed away just over a month ago, and Zhu Changluo passed away. Neither the internal official supervisor nor the Ministry of Rites had prepared anything.

It is estimated that there are not so many things for the national funeral. It is estimated that the meaning of the Ministry of Rites is to wash and clean all kinds of things that are used in the Wanli national funeral, and then use them for Zhu Changluo first.

There is no way around this, he died in a hurry, the coffin is okay, there are always two sets of this thing, and he can use Wanli's backup.

But other kinds of utensils and silks and satins are useless, and they can only be used for cleaning.

Thinking of this, Zhu Youjian also said:

"When did Cheng En go out? Has anyone brought news back?"

The little eunuch saluted and responded: "Eunuch Wang left the palace at three o'clock in the morning, and someone brought back the news of the Ministry of War at six o'clock in the afternoon."

"The Ministry of War said that Sichuan soldiers have arrived in Luoyang and are expected to arrive in Tongzhou in one and a half months."

"Zhe soldiers have arrived at Hejian Mansion and are expected to arrive in Tongzhou in ten days."

"Okay, I see, you go down and ask someone to come into the hall to wash and change my clothes." Hearing the news of Bai Ganbing and Qi's army, Zhu Youjian nodded, and waved his hand to make the man retreat.

The little eunuch bowed and retreated, and within less than an hour of incense sticking out of the bedroom, a female official led four maids, carrying all kinds of washing things, into the bedroom.

Zhu Youjian, who has adapted to this world for a month, just sat on the couch.

The female official brought the maid to salute him, but he just nodded without saying anything.

After the female officer and others got up, first two maids carried the wooden shelf for the copper basin and placed it beside Zhu Youjian, poured water for the copper basin, and tested the water temperature.

The female officer stepped forward to remove the hosta for Zhu Youjian, and her hair was disheveled.

The remaining two female officers were mixing water for another wooden barrel, and after testing the temperature of the water, they knelt on the ground and took off the socks for Zhu Youjian.

The two of them knelt on the ground and carefully sprinkled water on the back of Zhu Youjian's feet. After making sure that the water temperature would not make Zhu Youjian unhappy, they carefully washed his feet.

The female official knelt behind Zhu Youjian and combed his hair carefully with a comb. In addition, the maid in charge of washing his face and brushing his teeth was also familiar with it.

After one of them wrung it dry with a towel and warm water, they carefully wiped Zhu Youjian's cheeks, while the other maid sprinkled the tooth powder in a small box on the wooden toothbrush.

This toothbrush was invented by Ming Xiaozong Zhu Youtang, and tooth powder is some powder used for cleaning.

Brushing your teeth is called Xilonggou, you must be careful, even if Zhu Youjian is just a prince who has not been crowned king, it is enough to punish them.

Most of the maids who served Zhu Youjian were in their early [-]s, bright eyebrows, white teeth, and fair skin.

Even the female officer is only twenty-six or seven years old, and her skills are very sophisticated.

Their arrangements have standards, and generally the most uncomfortable combing of hair is done by experienced female officials.

The second brushing teeth is done by the oldest maid in the palace, followed by washing the face, and finally the maid who washes the feet.

Under their operations, Zhu Youjian was cleaned up in less than a quarter of an hour.

The maid took away the ladle shelf for washing, and the maid also got off the bed.

Zhu Youjian stood up, and at the same time as he opened his hands, a few pairs of rough hands began to change his clothes.

These hands are rough due to work, forming a clear contrast with the looks of these court ladies.

Zhu Youjian didn't care about this, anyway, he was still a ten-year-old child and couldn't do anything.

He opened his hands like this, waiting for the female officer to take off the clothes on him one by one, and finally began to put on new clothes.

After all, it was a national funeral. Zhu Youjian was dressed in plain white clothes, with a wooden hairpin on his head, and then he was put on a black Yishan hat without any gold rim

Although he is still young, Zhu Youjian is already four feet and eight inches. According to the tailoring ruler of the Ming Dynasty, one foot and 32 centimeters, he is already [-] meters.

In this era, even some twelve or thirteen-year-old children are not so tall.

The average height of men in the Ming Dynasty was only [-] to [-] meters.

Looking back at the [-]-year history of Chinese height, Chinese people are the tallest in East Asia for most of the time. Even in the world, the height of Chinese people can almost always be regarded as outstanding, and it did not begin to decline until the Qing Dynasty.

If Zhu Youjian remembers well, the standard for recruiting soldiers in the Ming Dynasty in this era was five feet two, which is about 167 centimeters in later generations.

At the same time, the standard height for recruiting soldiers in Northern Europe was only 162 cm, and that in Southern Europe was only 158 cm.

In various countries in Southeast Asia, it is not bad to be over 145 meters tall, and the Japanese shogunate is considered a high-quality soldier if it is over [-] centimeters.

But if there is no accident, the height of the European race will continue to increase in the next three hundred years of plunder. From the beginning of southern Europe, the standard height for recruiting soldiers is 158 cm to 165 cm.

These things Zhu Youjian is very clear, but because of the excessive exploitation of the Qing Dynasty, the people's malnutrition led to the decline in the height of the Han people.

All dynasties need to exploit the people, it just depends on who exploits them ruthlessly.

As far as the tax system is concerned, the central court of the Ming Dynasty did not exploit the common people harshly, but due to the lack of salaries of officials, it led to corruption.

When the imperial court increased the tax by one per acre of land, local officials dared to collect one and a half cents, and then transferred the taxes of the local gentry to ordinary people, which directly increased to three per cent.

As an emperor in such an era, if you don't know why the people are suffering, then the collapse of the dynasty is normal.

Just like the Chongzhen Emperor in history, he may not understand until he dies, why the people rebelled when he only raised a little tax, and an acre of land yielded two hundred catties, but only received a dozen catties of grain.

For now, Zhu Youjian is very aware of the shortcomings of the Chongzhen Dynasty.

To save the Ming Dynasty, it may be possible from the Tianqi period, but from the Chongzhen period, it is better to join the bandits directly.

If Zhu Youjian remembers correctly, probably starting from the first year of Chongzhen, the severe drought that broke out during the Little Ice Age would last for [-] consecutive years, affecting areas including Ganshan, Shanxi, Henan, Shandong, Beizhili, northern Huguang, etc... …

Except for Liaodong and Yunnan, the other two capitals and twelve provinces will experience a severe drought affecting the whole province or even half of the province.

Hebei, Henan, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Shandong, these areas have been drought for more than 5 years.

The [-] consecutive years of drought, floods, and plagues have actually affected more than [-] million people.

Under such a natural disaster, even if Zhu Yuanzhang, the ancestor of Zhu Youjian, came, he would probably allow the world to decay, and finally send troops from South Zhili and North Zhili to fight the world again.

　A map of the distribution of drought during the reign of Chongzhen will be released later
　　
　
(End of this chapter)