Brother Zhu Youxiao

Chapter 418
"Next team!"

On the high platform of the draft square, Wang An opened his mouth without raising his head, holding a booklet that was already filled with page after page.

Wei Zhongxian looked at the document in his hand, and rarely said:

"Although there are few beautiful women in North Korea, they are generally within the standard. You can consider keeping a few of them as court ladies."

"Hmm..." Wang An responded to Wei Zhongxian's words, because the words were about the dignity of the feudal kingdom.

"Sending them all back would hurt the heart of the King of Korea. After the selection, those who can enter the fourth level should be kept."

Wang An was talking, and at this time the concubine selection had almost reached the last group.

The people on stage were all 19-year-old women. For these older women, Wang An and others felt a little tired looking at them.

However, when the penultimate team came on stage, Wang An and the others still expressed a little interest.

Among this team of show girls, a show girl with a cold face caught their attention.

Different from the stereotyped appearance of other beautiful girls, this beautiful girl gives people a sense of coolness that does not eat fireworks.

In terms of appearance alone, she is not as good as Chen Xiangjun and Yuan Xibing, but this kind of coolness is rare.

So after she stepped down, Wang An turned to look at Wei Zhongxian and the others next to him and said:

"This Tian Xiuying is not bad, she can become famous."

"Hmm..." Both Wang Chengen and Wei Zhongxian nodded slightly, and Wang An also raised his head and waited for the remaining two teams of show girls.

It was almost dusk at this time, and the penultimate team did not have any amazing girls, so Wang An had no expectations for the last team.

To put it bluntly, there are few women who are still at home at the age of eighteen or nineteen. Tian Xiuying in front of her is already a surprise.

Thinking of this, Wang An picked up the tea, but it was the last team, who was 19 years old at the time of registration and now 20 years old, as soon as the show girl came on stage, Wang An heard Wei Zhongxian's breathing became heavier next to him.

Wang An has basically mastered the breathing rate of Wei Zhongxian, a man who entered the palace from the palace, but if he breathes heavily, it means that there is a national beauty among the beautiful women.

After making some preparations in his heart, Wang An was very curious about what kind of woman could make Wei Zhongxian's breathing disorder...

When he raised his head, Wang An's lips were dry at the first glance. Even in the inner court for a long time, he rarely lost his composure.

The last time he was like this, he was still seeing Zhang Yan, but now it was Zhou Sujie who was placed in the last team because of his age.

Looking at Zhou Sujie's facial features alone, it doesn't make people think that the owner of the facial features is beautiful, but when they are combined, what they show is the national beauty.

If an ordinary man saw her, he would just feel that no matter whether it was going to heaven or earth, or rain of guns and arrows, or mountains of knives and pans of oil, he would have to marry this girl as his wife.

When Wang An came back to his senses, Zhou Sujie's team had already left the high platform, and the young eunuchs who were in charge of recording also kept watching her back, and wrote down all kinds of things about her until they were far away.

"This is red!"

Wang An picked up the written document without thinking too much, and nodded with satisfaction after just looking at it for the first time.

Calligraphy, painting, Guqin, Guzheng, embroidery...

He looked at Zhou Sujie's talent, nodded slightly satisfied, then raised his head and asked Wang Chengen:

"In your opinion, among the more than ten names in the circle, which one is easy to be loved by His Highness?"

When Wang An was asking, Wei Zhongxian next to him couldn't help pricking up his ears to listen. Wang Chengen thought about it, but he couldn't figure it out for a while.

From his point of view, His Royal Highness doesn't seem to have the habit of being close to women, even when sleeping at night, he doesn't want maids to warm their hands and feet, so he doesn't know what His Royal Highness likes.

Just answering like this may offend people, making people think that he doesn't want to answer.

After thinking about it, Wang Chengen could only nod his head and said, "Your Highness, you should all like it..."

"Like all of them?" Wang An was taken aback for a moment, he didn't expect that His Royal Highness Qi Wang, who seemed to be unfeminine, had such a wide range of hobbies.

From a young girl to a mature woman, from coldness to temptation, from Jiangnan to Hexi, this hobby is so extensive...

"Let's leave it like this for the time being. Tomorrow, Wang Tiqian and Cao Huachun will be replaced, and Li Yongzhen and the others will come."

Wang An stood up. After sitting for a long day, his buttocks were a little numb, so after moving around a bit, he explained the draft for the second round tomorrow and pointed to the brochure.

Hearing this, Wang Chengen and Wei Zhongxian glanced at the document, then got up and left.

The three eunuchs left, and as a person selected by Zhang Yan from the inner court, Wang An returned to Kunning Palace with the documents, where he met Zhang Yan who was tutoring the five children with their homework.

She was holding a volume of books, her eyebrows were slightly frowned, and she was wearing a light green sleeved gown. She sat dignifiedly on a chair, looking at Zhu Ciran and the other five who were doing their homework from time to time.

Seeing Wang An coming in, she closed the book, stretched her brows, and asked with a smile:
"how?"

"This time the show girls are selected well. All the girls from all the prefectures and countries are selected, and even the national beauty has more than a dozen people..."

Responding, Wang An presented the documents on his hands, and Zhang Yan frowned slightly when she heard the words: "Ten people?"

She took the file and read it, and sure enough, she saw a lot of names with red circles, and most of them had ordinary families.

The word "national beauty" cannot be used casually in the draft, even Zhang Yan's original batch, there were only five national colors.

"All countries and governments pay attention, and the concubine and His Royal Highness have raised the age limit, so the country's beauty will be easier to show."

"Although there are more than a dozen people, they are not as good as those in Hongwu years."

Wang An replied honestly, while looking at Zhang Yan's face, he did not forget to say at the end:
"There is only one national beauty in North Korea. For the sake of the vassal's dignity, I am afraid that I will occupy the place of a concubine. Therefore, the slaves are bold and want to ask His Highness and the concubine to increase the number of concubines to seven. According to a Zheng Ergui Siping to choose..."

"Three wives and four concubines?" Zhang Yan frowned slightly when she heard what Wang An meant.

The so-called "three wives and four concubines" do not represent three wives and four concubines, but represent first wife, partial wife, and second wife.

The first wife, also known as the main wife, is the first wife that a man is married to. There is only one first wife and the highest status.

Although the partial wife and the second wife are called "wives", they are actually concubines. It's just that the husband's family has a strong background and they have been dubbed these two titles, but in essence, they are still concubines according to the government's regulations.

As for the four concubines, in essence, as long as they have money and power, this does not violate the law.

After all, the ancient marriage system was monogamy and multiple concubines, but in the Ming Dynasty, although Zhu Yuanzhang recognized the custom of taking concubines, not all people could "three wives and four concubines". In principle, only princes and nobles could take concubines. Common people can only have one wife in their lifetime.

The same is true for Zhu Youjian as a prince. Three wives and four concubines are not considered a violation of the rules, but in order to ensure the number of legitimate children, he has to rest with his first wife regularly after marriage, and the number and order of sleeping with concubines are regulated of.

According to the rules in the "Da Ming Hui Dian", this rule will restrict the prince to sixty, and then he can do whatever he wants. However, at this age, most people may be powerless.

Zhang Yan did not object to the regulation of three wives and four concubines for his little uncle, but if he chose so many concubines at one time, he might be gobbled down and ruined his little uncle's reputation.

"It's better to choose the fifth concubine, and leave some to be concubines."

Zhang Yan did not agree, but agreed to leave some beautiful girls to Zhu Youjian as concubines.

Hearing her words, Wang An nodded slightly to express understanding, and then took the document from Zhang Yan.

At this time, Zhu Ciran who was doing homework suddenly looked up at Zhang Yan, and then said:

"Mother, if Uncle Qi Wang is married, can I still go to the inner court of Qi Wangfu?"

"It's okay now, but it won't work after you're ten years old." Zhang Yan turned her head to respond to Zhu Ciran, and Zhu Ciran could only reply with a little regretful "Oh".

But as soon as he finished his answer, he hurriedly said:
"If I can't go, then Li Dingguo can't live anymore, right?"

"Naturally, but he is getting old, and your Uncle Qi should arrange for him to live in the outer court of the palace." Zhang Yan said, and reopened the manual, signaling Zhu Ciran to do his homework quickly.

Seeing this, Zhu Ciran rolled his eyes, not knowing what he was thinking, and after a few seconds, he lowered his head.

Seeing the appearance of the mother and child, Wang An wisely took the document and prepared to leave, but Zhang Yan asked:
"Did Cheng En say when Long Live and His Highness will return to Beijing?"

"It is said that I will come back at the end of August..."

Seeing Zhang Yan's question, Wang An stopped and wanted to retreat, and bowed respectfully to answer, but Zhang Yan was not very happy when he heard the words.

It has been three months since Zhu Youxiao and Zhu Youjian went to Dading Palace to escape the summer heat. During this period, no one sent a word back. Zhang Yan had to send Wang An to the Qi Palace to inquire about everything.

The concubine Xuan did not come back this time, but only sent Wang Chengen back. Judging by the posture, it is estimated that they may not return to Beijing at the end of August.

"Stand back..."

Knowing the answer, Zhang Yan could only suppress the irritability in her heart and signaled Wang An to back down.

Wang An returned a salute upon hearing this, and then left Kunning Palace.

When he withdrew from Kunning Palace, Wang Chengen also returned to the Imperial Horse Supervisor in Prince Qi's Mansion with a day's exhaustion.

Back here, he finally saw Cao Huachun who had been away for a long time, but compared to before the big Shaanxi case, Cao Huachun looked a little tired and old.

"Come back? When will His Highness come back?"

Seeing Wang Chengen walk into the study, Cao Huachun asked a little tiredly, and Wang Chengen couldn't bear to see him like this:

"It is said to be the end of August, but judging from Long Live's interest, I am afraid it will be the middle of September, and instead of returning to the capital, it is very likely that he will go directly to the Midsummer Palace in Fangshan to escape the winter."

"Don't worry too much. The Imperial Horse Supervisor has dealt with a lot of unruly people since the beginning of the year. His Highness is just out of anger."

"You still have to take good care of your body. When His Highness calms down, you and Lu Wenzhao will be fine."

"Hmm..." Cao Huachun didn't say much. After working together for ten years, he naturally knew Wang Chengen's character and temperament.

Being dull, he might be easily deceived in the palace, but not in the Qi Palace.

Wang Chengen is in charge of the officialdom, and there are limited things that can be corrupted in the officialdom, nothing more than food and livestock.

However, the passages of the officialdom are guarded by soldiers and horses, and it is as difficult as the sky to be corrupt.

His Royal Highness, it can be said that he put Wang Chengen in the most right place. He was happy in that place, and His Royal Highness was also happy. Naturally, nothing will happen, and I...

Cao Huachun looked at the booklets on the desk in front of him, and felt physically and mentally exhausted.

It has to be said that Cao Huachun is alert and insightful, and he sees Zhu Youjian's needs clearly.

With Wang Chengen and Zhu Youxiao around, Zhu Youjian felt that he was not alone.

Ever since the Qi royal party changed to Gu party and the Yanshan faction broke out in a corruption case, except for these two, Zhu Youjian looked at everyone with a little bit of suspicion.

The closer Wang Chengen is to him, and the more he speaks for himself, the lesser his position in Zhu Youjian's heart.

Cao Huachun is also very clear about this truth, so he persuaded Wang Chengen who was sitting at the bottom:

"In the future, if you follow His Highness around, it's better not to say anything for me. His Highness won't be happy to hear it, and it's useless for you to say it."

"If His Highness is happy, His Highness will be happy even if you don't tell me."

"Well..." Wang Chengen listened to persuasion, nodded and stood up, and Cao Huachun also confessed:

"Don't be in charge of choosing a concubine, just let your godfather be in charge."

"But will His Highness be unhappy?" Wang Chengen was a little worried.

"Alas..." Cao Huachun sighed, only feeling that this friend of mine really didn't understand His Royal Highness.

He looked into Wang Chengen's eyes, frowned and said:
"Do you think someone as talented and strategic as His Highness would care about those women?"

"Throughout the ages, people who care about women's family background just need to use their strength to balance the court and the family."

"Currently the civil servants above the temple are like clowns, His Highness wants to get rid of them, it's nothing more than a matter of thought."

"The reason for letting them go is nothing more than the fear that after taking them down, a group of people who are not as good as them will come up, which will not only add to His Highness's own burden, but also make the court's program unjust, and intensify the conflict between the court and the gentry."

"His Royal Highness wants to reform, which affects the roots of the gentry. The two have never been in touch with each other. Among the beautiful girls selected, which one is not supported by the gentry? Which one is not from the gentry?"

"Even if you choose to be the princess, if something happens, your dismissal is just on His Highness's whim..."

"This..." Hearing Cao Huachun's words, Wang Chengen did not expect that in their eyes, Princess Qi, the future lord of the inner court of the Qi Palace, would be so worthless...

"After all, she is under the middle palace of the inner court in the future mansion, and the birth mother of the future son. How could Your Highness..." Wang Chengen hesitated, but Cao Huachun raised his hand to interrupt him:

"Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty dared to kill Gouyi and set up Fuling, His Highness is so talented and powerful, how could he care about a woman's life or death?"

"Even if the princess is chosen, don't get too close to her."

"Accompany His Highness well and be obedient, only you, the "chief steward" of Qi Palace, can sit safely..."

Cao Huachun was explaining well, but Wang Chengen said stubbornly: "Your Highness values ​​friendship, and it is common to be in love with a princess. How can Emperor Wu compare with His Highness in his brutality and bloodthirsty?"

"You..." Cao Huachun didn't know what to say, he even doubted his own ears.

Wang Chengen actually thought that Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was cruel and bloodthirsty, but Zhu Youjian was not cruel and bloodthirsty?

If he wasn't in Prince Qi's Mansion and Daming, Cao Huachun really wanted to ask Wang Chengen:
"A person who doesn't care about the life and death of tens of millions of aliens, who frequently destroys the country and the family, kills more than [-] officials and subordinates, and exiles millions of people in six years of power, how can it not be cruel?"

You know, it's easy for a person to brag about how many people he wants to kill, but when he puts everyone in that position, when he actually orders, no matter who it is, he will show a little softness.

The closer the people are to the people, the harder it is to give orders.

After the order is issued, the killed civilians of other countries will appear in the mind from time to time as images, and gradually deepen as time goes by.

According to your words, millions of people are buried, tens of millions of people are exiled, and millions of families are scattered. If such people are not cruel, then there will be no cruel people.

Cruelty is bad for ordinary people, but good for kings.

In Cao Huachun's view, Zhu Youjian is a person who is courteous and kind on the surface, but cold-blooded and cruel on the inside.

This is true when you are young, and even worse when you are old.

It is said that Zhu Youjian's pure benevolence was believed by Cao Huachun ten years ago, but as the years passed and step by step, he no longer believed it.

Even if there are some stupid people among the people, I am afraid that Zhu Youjian will order them to be arrested and exiled in order to make the policy work through reform.

As for organizing the relocation of people, did the people below really clap their hands and applaud when they heard about it, happily abandoning their hometown and taking people north?
what nonsense...

The family has five acres of Susukida, located in the hinterland of the Central Plains. Although there are seven or eight people in the family, the wife and mother raise mulberry and weaving cloth, and they earn two taels of silver a year.

In addition to my father farming, I went out to work, and I could actually save more than a thousand catties of rice and wheat and seven or eight taels of silver a year.

If you go to the north, not to mention whether there are jobs to be found, just raising mulberry and weaving cloth will not work.

The imperial court issued farm cattle. Although the family increased by eleven or two mu of land every year, seven or eight people could take the imperial court’s food stamps and eat the imperial court’s grain to reclaim a hundred and fifty or sixty mu of land. There are more than a hundred shimimai, but the problem is that it takes too long to wait.

Each household has one cattle, seven or eight people, and an increase of eleven or twelve mu of land every year. This seems good, but at this speed, it will be more than ten years after the [-] or [-] mu of land is fully reclaimed. .

Over ten years……

According to the situation of this family in the customs, even if there is a grain shortage of one or two thousand catties every year, they can spend four or five taels of silver to buy food every year, and they can still have two or three taels of silver left over to add new clothes and buy new things.

The bitterness in the pass is the mental fatigue.

Suffering outside the customs, suffering in the flesh.

Accustomed to the comfort inside the pass, no one wants to cultivate fields in the bitter cold outside the pass.

Perhaps Wang Cheng'en believed that the people who migrated to the north were from poor families, and most of them were hungry.

But how can there be so many hungry people right now?

When the number of hungry people in the world was the most, indeed, at that time, the hungry people all migrated outside the pass in order to survive.

But now the number of hungry people has been greatly reduced. According to the situation of the provinces, after Xu Guangqi's water conservancy construction, more than [-] million mu of cultivated land in Qinchuan, Guanzhong, Shaanxi, which is never short of water, has been irrigated, and there is no fear of severe drought at all.

At present, there are only more than four million people in Shaanxi, one-third of them are scattered in Hetao, and two-thirds stay in the Guanzhong Plain.

In fact, they have settled down, and they can even harvest food in September. Each of them has five acres of arable land per person, and they don't want to move at all.

Besides, Shanxi is indeed short of water due to severe drought and has a large population, but they are also a large household that migrated to Liaodong.

In ten years, nearly 200 million people from Shanxi moved to Liaodong, and more than [-] people moved to Hetao.

Nearly 4000 million mu of arable land in Shanxi is in the hands of the Yumajian and the local government. The gentry who died or were injured because of the San Niangzi case occupied no more than [-] million mu of arable land.

For Shanxi, which currently has less than 700 million people, the 4000 million mu of arable land is enough to cover four acres per capita.

Therefore, although the severe drought is continuing, most of the people are unwilling to move, which can be seen from the slowly growing population of the three prefectures of Taining.

People in Henan, Huguang, Sichuan, Guangdong, and Fujian provinces still think so.

Even the foolish people can see that as long as the drought is over, they can get tens of acres of arable land for each household without leaving their homeland.

They are unwilling to leave. If the imperial court's "immigration plan" cannot continue, the imperial court will blame the local government, but the local government has no choice but to resort to violent means to forcefully relocate the people.

Not to mention the situation reported below, Cao Huachun alone has personally witnessed the intimidation and lure of some poor people by the officials who organized the relocation in Beizhili.

If they don't move, they send some gangsters to harass them, make people dig off the water source of the village, make the fields dry, and then keep putting pressure on them, and finally let them abandon their hometown and move north.

Jin Yiwei reported these things as early as the sixth year of Tianqi, and it was a joke to say that His Royal Highness didn't know.

His Highness knows these things better than anyone else, but has he said anything?At least Cao Huachun had never heard of it.

If it is said that in the first year of the apocalypse, or four years before the apocalypse, Zhu Youjian at that time could still deserve the praise of the four words "shenrenhouze".

But from the fourth year of Tianqi, Zhu Youjian began to go to the temple and embarked on the road of being lonely and widowed.

Such a Zhu Youjian is even more terrifying to the officials, unreasonable to the common people, and a little sleepless to the people around him.

But is this change good or bad?

The victims who received the relief food stamps said he was good, while the poor farmers who were driven away from their hometown said he was bad.

Honest officials who have increased their salaries say he is good, and corrupt officials who take bribes and take bribes say he is bad.

People in China who enjoyed government roads, cement and other products said he was good, and those laborers who were imprisoned in the cement field for daily labor said he was bad.

You can't just say good or bad when evaluating a person, and the same is true when evaluating your highness.

At least in Cao Huachun's view, he has never regretted serving Zhu Youjian.

Being able to serve such a talented and generous person as Zhu Youjian, Cao Huachun will definitely be added to the history books in the future.

Just staying by such a person's side, with daily fear, it is difficult to live a long life.

Thinking of this, Cao Huachun looked at Wang Chengen, and couldn't help thinking enviously:

"I'm afraid he is the only dull person who won't be affected by it..."

People like Wang Chengen couldn't understand Cao Huachun's thoughts, and Wang Chengen also showed a very ugly expression when facing Cao Huachun's words that Zhu Youjian was "cruel".

He endured it for a long time, and when he saw Cao Huachun stop, he said with a dark face:

"Don't talk about things anymore, Your Highness is kind, I won't talk about today's affairs, tomorrow you remember to change shifts and go to the draft."

After finishing speaking, he turned and left, and Cao Huachun also looked at his back, sighed, then lowered his head and continued to deal with various matters of the Imperial Horse Supervisor...

　Second more at eight o'clock in the evening
　　
　
(End of this chapter)