Brother Zhu Youxiao

Chapter 420
Time flies, Zhu Youjian is hunting in Yanshan Mountain, Huanglong is fighting fiercely in South Asia, Hong Chengchou is in charge of the Southwest, Sun Chuanting is studying hard with books, rare leisure...

There is a way to live with the big trend, and there is a way to live with the small trend.

For example, the selection of concubines in Beijing, although it is a small trend, can't stop even a step.

One day passed, and with the arrival of the third day of concubine selection, Ke Shi led people to start a more detailed inspection of the remaining nine hundred beautiful women.

According to the standard of the third level, they first took a ruler to measure the hands and feet of the show girls, and then let them walk dozens of steps, and eliminated those with shorter wrists, bigger toes, or less irritable behavior.

Because the quality of this draft was too good, not many people were eliminated in the third pass, which made Zhang Yan and Liu Taifei, who were firmly seated in the middle palace, somewhat anxious.

The first test ended at dusk, and the original 520 people passed the three stages of the first test, and finally [-] people remained.

These women who passed the primary election were brought into the palace by the Hakka clan with a clean army on the fourth day, and what greeted them was a deeper inspection.

When the Donghua Gate of the Imperial Palace opened, the eight hundred and three beautiful girls were very nervous.

This is especially true for the 27 women standing in the first row.

Zhou Sujie, Tian Xiuying, Yuan Xibin, Chen Xiangjun, Li Shaoxi...

The five girls stood in the first row, from left to right, from oldest to youngest.

The eldest, Zhou Sujie, is 20 years old and three months old, while the youngest is Li Shaoxi from North Korea, who is 14 years old and five months old.

Li Shaoxi is not the same as a Korean in the traditional sense. She looks very delicate, with big eyes and high nose bridge, thick eyebrows matching those eyes and nose, and she looks very heroic.

The reason why she can perfectly avoid the general appearance of the Koreans is also because her ancestors were a family that migrated to the Korean Peninsula at the end of the Tang Dynasty.

Although it is inevitable to marry with Koreans, since the beginning of Ming Dynasty, the Li family has often married with some families in Shandong, so Li Shaoxi is slim and tall, and Chen Xiangjun has grown to the level of five feet.

According to the situation of normal women, maybe two women of similar age will grow an inch or two taller.

Compared with them, the other three who are about five feet one inch feel the pressure.

"Don't look around when you enter the palace, observe the etiquette, and you will be sent directly to Chuxiu Palace later, where there will be someone waiting for you."

Ke Shi's voice broke the silence outside Donghua Gate, and the show girls were grouped into groups of 100 people by Ke Shi to give lectures.

After finally waiting for her lecture to end, the show girls were also led into the Donghua Gate by the elderly female officials.

The majestic Forbidden City is out of reach for most beautiful women, even if some of them will leave tomorrow, but to enter this palace, which symbolizes the supremacy of the Ming Dynasty, is already a step up to the sky for them .

Even though some of them will be eliminated, the show girls who can enter the Forbidden City will be worth a hundred times even if they are eliminated.

Before they set foot in the Forbidden City, some beautiful girls with small and medium-sized landlords and gentry backgrounds were at best matched with small officials of the seventh or eighth rank.

But once they stepped into the Forbidden City, when they came out again, they would be the high-ranking children of Huijing Middle School...

Thinking of this, many beautiful women, greeted by the female officials, began to walk step by step into the Forbidden City with red walls and yellow tiles in accordance with court etiquette.

When they entered the city and stepped on the laid floor tiles, there was still an incredible sense of trance in their hearts.

Since they entered through the Donghua Gate, after crossing the long corridor and stepping onto the Jinshui Bridge, the first thing they saw was the Ciqing Palace, also known as the East Palace, located in the southeast of the outer court of the imperial palace.

Next to the gate of the East Palace is the Wenhua Hall where the cabinet, six ministries, six divisions and other ministers deal with political affairs.

"The biggest palace is the Ciqing Palace, which is also the East Palace. His Royal Highness is currently young, so no one lives there yet."

"The place next to it is the Wenhua Palace, which is the place where officials and important officials handle government affairs."

The Ke family brought Zhou Sujie and others into the palace, and began to introduce the outer court.

This is a process. Normally speaking, women are not allowed in the outer court except for the East Palace.

Many female officials led a team to explain, but Keshi was obviously not that patient. Instead, after the introduction, he led the beautiful girls through the Zuoshun Gate, crossed the Neiwulong Bridge, Huangji Gate, and arrived at the Huangji Temple Square superior.

Due to the collection of enough wood, the Huangji Hall built by Zhu Youxiao himself is one-third larger and one-third higher than the later Taihe Hall.

The show girls stood on the square, looked up, and saw a resplendent and resplendent palace standing in front of them.

The yellow glazed tiles are shining, and the majestic Danbi stone on the white marble steps makes people take a deep breath.

"This is the Huangji Hall, the first of the three halls built by Long Live."

Ke Shi gave a simple explanation, and then, without waiting for Zhou Sujie and the other beautiful girls to recover, he took them to Qianqing Palace.

During the period, they saw the Hall of Central Harmony and the Hall of Preserving Harmony, and the exclamation words in their hearts poured out in an endless stream. If they were not worried about offending the Ke family, they would all want to stop and take a good look at these three halls.

But before they could get out of their sighs, Keshi led them to the gate of Qianqing Palace guarded by Jingjun.

Compared with the three main halls, the Qianqing Palace looks a little more "ordinary". Although the ladies are still sighing, it is not as good as when they first saw the Huangji Palace.

Since the Ke family's principle is to take a quick look at the flower, so she quickly led the beautiful women out of the Qianqing Palace.

They bypassed Jiaotai Hall and Kunning Palace, and then came to the Imperial Garden.

Entering the imperial garden, Zhou Sujie and the others first saw a pavilion.

The lush trees in the imperial garden set off the red walls and glazed tiles of the pavilion, and beside the pavilion is a rockery made of stone.

Although it is just a glance, it makes people feel beautiful.

It's a pity that beauty is always short-lived, before they could take a good look, Ke led them out of the imperial garden and headed for Chuxiu Palace by detour.

"Okay, I will let you wait here, and they will take care of you."

Walking to the gate of Chuxiu Palace, Ke Shi turned around and spoke to the group of show girls she was leading. When Zhou Sujie and the others looked up, they saw two three-year-olds who could vaguely see that they were very beautiful when they were young. Xun female officer.

"go in."

Keshi indifferently explained the last sentence to the show girls, and then turned and left with the two female officials beside him.

As for the show girls, they were brought into the Chuxiu Palace shortly after she left, and after entering the Chuxiu Palace, the two female officials gave them a lecture:
"Today's business is complicated, so let you relax for a day."

"Tomorrow Maoshi, you all need to take a bath and change clothes, and accept the inspection of entering the palace."

"Those who pass the inspection will stay for a month to learn etiquette in the palace. After that, someone will select 30 maids who are "beautiful and intelligent" according to your temperament, style, wisdom, ignorance and virtuousness, and five will be maids. concubine."

After the two finished speaking, the maids of Chuxiu Palace distributed wooden plaques to the beautiful ladies respectively.

They were allocated by the female officials according to five people per room, and after receiving the sign, they were taken away by the maids.

This scene was clearly seen by Zhang Yan and Concubine Liu who were far away in an attic with their clairvoyance, but they did not interfere, but left after watching all the beautiful girls enter the Chuxiu Palace.

For them, this is just some pastime in the boring inner court, and for the common people in the world, although they know that King Qi chooses a concubine, many people forget about it after the heat of the draft in each government has passed.

People are more concerned about the small things in the fields, in the market, and in the neighborhood, streets and alleys.

Of course, there is an additional thing among such trivial things, and that is family affairs.

"drive!"

"Li Dingguo, you kid, ride slowly, if you fall, we will be scolded by His Highness, see if we will let you ride a horse next time!"

On the fourth day of July, Li Dingguo, who rode out of the market town outside the northern city of Beijing, reined in his horse as Tiance guards shouted and scolded, and he turned around with a grin and said, "Your Highness can't scold!"

Twelve Tiance Guards came on horseback and protected Li Dingguo in the circle. The Chief Banner Officer headed by laughed and scolded:

"If His Highness knows that you ride so fast, see if His Highness scolds you."

"Hey..." Li Dingguo smiled and didn't reply.

Today is the tenth day of the official school holiday, because Zhu Youjian stipulated that the holiday homework of the government school should be one book per lesson, and one book should not exceed [-] pages.

Therefore, it took Li Dingguo half a month to complete the homework of the five subjects, and then he finished all the homework, and now he is going to Yanshan County in Duoyan Mansion.

He went to Yanshan County not only to find Zhu Youjian, but also to meet his parents whom he hadn't seen for half a year.

"If we ride like this, how many days can we reach Yanshan?"

Li Dingguo asked the chief banner officer, but the chief banner officer thought without hesitation:
"It's 380 miles from Beijing to Yanshan County. If you run a hundred miles a day, you can get there in about four days."

"Four more days?" Li Dingguo frowned, and then complained unavoidably:

"If it wasn't for the prince's entanglement and delaying me for a few days, I'm afraid I would have had dinner at home now."

"Ha ha ha ha--"

As soon as he said this, the Tiance guards next to him burst into laughter.

Li Dingguo's words are not bad, compared to him who would rather finish his homework before going home to play around, Zhu Ciran is not so particular about it.

Although he also does official homework, this guy belongs to the kind of person who plays until the last few days and then writes hard.

Due to the matter of concubine selection, Zhang Yan was unable to supervise Zhu Ciran's homework, so Zhu Ciran always slipped out of the palace and came to trouble Li Dingguo every day, causing the homework that should have been completed in five days to be delayed for fifteen days. sky.

"I can't say more, I have to go back quickly...drive!"

Seeing that he was being laughed at, Li Dingguo could only shake his horse's rein and gallop away quickly to the north.

When they were thirty miles away from the capital, they clearly felt the scene of "sparsely populated".

Although there are rice fields on both sides of the government road, there are very few busy people, and it is often two or three men who manage ten or twenty acres of rice fields.

"This road is suitable for draft horses and rough horses, but not for cavalry."

"It is true that the cavalry still has to go on the horse path."

The Chief Banner Officer and the others on horseback were teasing the "horse path" beside the mansion road, but the bridle path was no more than two feet wide, and it was a simple dirt road, attached to the left and right sides of the mansion road.

For war horses, if they just walk slowly or fast, walking on concrete roads without water or ice will not do much harm.

The horse-drawn carriage cannot be fast, so it can walk quickly on the government road, but for the cavalry horses, due to the frequent trotting and running, the horseshoes are very slippery when they come into contact with the hard ground.

And walking on the cement road for a long time will not only make the horse feel uncomfortable, but also cause damage to the joints in the long run, and the faster you run, the more serious the damage and the more dangerous.

Therefore, when the government road was being laid, in order to take care of the horses, Zhu Youjian started to design the "horse road".

For the cavalry, the horse road is suitable for them to run quickly, while for the infantry, the mansion road is very suitable for their way of traveling no more than eighty miles a day.

"Hand drawn horses pull a fully loaded carriage on this mansion road, and they can run twelve or three miles in an hour. This mansion road is actually quite good, suitable for the army to travel."

Li Dingguo interrupted while galloping on horseback.

"Your boy is right." The Tiance guard next to him heard this, and approved him with a smile.

"Should it be a railway construction site over there?" Li Dingguo looked at a construction site where railway tracks were being laid in the distance, and asked curiously, and the chief banner officer of Tiance Guard also said:
"It's a railway construction site. The laying started yesterday. It is said that the roadbed has been repaired to Duoyan. It will pass through Liaohe, Liaozhong, Daning, and finally arrive in Shenyang."

"This railway should be prepared for carriages. It is estimated that the carriages will be able to travel thirty miles per hour when fully loaded, and forty miles per hour with people."

"If you can run forty miles, it will be convenient to go to Liaodong. Counting the rest time, six days is enough to reach Shenyang."

"That's right, if there was such a thing in the campaign to restore the Liao Dynasty, the hundreds of thousands of civilian laborers would not be needed to transport food and grass in the early stage."

"Ugh……"

The soldiers of Tiance's guards began to growl, and it was rare for Li Dingguo not to interject during this period.

For the soldiers of Tiance Guard, although they have seen railroad tracks, they basically saw them in mines in Fangshan and other places, and what they saw were horse-drawn carriages.

As for the steam engine, although the third version has already been used in the mine, its horsepower is actually not enough to pull a dozen ore trucks weighing tens of thousands of catties, so its function is mostly used to pump water.

Except for those in military-administered areas such as the Armament Academy, the Mint, and the steam engine factory, who knew that the fourth version of the steam engine was about to enter service, there were less than 20 people in the world, including Zhu Youjian and Zhu Youxiao, who knew about the fourth version of the steam engine.

Therefore, Tiance Guard's soldiers did not know that this so-called railway was built for trains.

"After the train is repaired, it should arrive in Shenyang in two days..."

Li Dingguo was a precocious young man, and he only calculated the speed of the train when it was fully loaded and the distance to Shenyang from outside the customs to calculate how long it would take to travel from the capital to Shenyang.

When the soldiers of Tiance Guard still felt that six days was fast, Li Dingguo had already begun to lament the power of the "Military Armament Institute".

"How many civilians did this railway use?"

Li Dingguo asked curiously, and the Chief Banner Officer responded without thinking:

"It is rumored that there are 30 people. People from Shuntian and Duoyan prefectures have participated in the slack season. The daily wages are fifteen cash, say more or less."

"The wages in Shanxi and Shaanxi are ten yuan, and the wages in other places are basically around ten to fifteen yuan. If you are full of slack, you can get three or four taels of silver in a year."

"Although it's not as good as ours, it's not bad considering Zhongtian's property."

"I don't know how many acres of land are allocated to those who stay in Changping and Miyun."

The chief banner officer was thinking, but Li Dingguo didn't know what happened ten years ago, so he asked curiously, "Is there any difference in dividing land?"

"Of course!" The chief banner officer subconsciously responded loudly:
"Ten years ago when I was a recruit, over 100 million people in Changping and Miyun shared more than 300 million mu of land equally."

"Two years ago, I heard from an official of the Ministry of Household Affairs that there were only less than 60 people in Changping and Miyun, but there were more than 400 million mu of arable land left. Calculated, eight mu per person is enough."

"I'm afraid that if we continue to move, ten acres per person, fifty or sixty acres per household is not impossible."

"You seem to be in your hometown of Yan'an Mansion. I heard that there are currently less than 10 people in Yan'an Mansion, and each person has more than [-] acres of land at the moment."

"That means there is a severe drought, otherwise the remaining 10 people may not even be able to grow the land."

Li Dingguo heard about his hometown from the General Banner official, but he did not expect that the fields in Yan'an Mansion are so abundant right now.

He still remembers that when he was young, a family with three acres of land was considered a "big family".

For example, his family has only two acres of land for a family of three. Every year, the whole family can survive only because their father finds some labor errands at the gate of the city.

It's not that he doesn't have brothers and sisters, but most of them died of starvation or illness.

"Although this relocation is good, it's always a bit of a shame..."

"Ahem! Well, stop talking and continue on your way."

When Li Dingguo was contemplating riding his horse, a cavalryman couldn't help but speak, but was quickly covered by the coughing of the chief banner officer.

Li Dingguo didn't understand why, but everyone kept silent.

Obviously, the matter of forced relocation is actually not unheard of in a peaceful and stable place, but it is well known to everyone.

Many Yanshan officials and people from the Bingma Division have become black gloves in Zhu Youjian's "immigration and real border" policy. Millions of people were forced to demolish their houses and move north with food stamps, even if they didn't want to.

In front of such a power machine as the imperial court, personal power seems insignificant.

Li Dingguo didn't know about these things, because he rarely went out of the house alone to observe the folks, but he still smelled tricks from the conversations of everyone.

"I heard from some students in the government school that they will go to Duoyan's mansion for classes next semester, and they don't want to. Is it the government..."

Li Dingguo was deceiving people. In fact, the students who were his classmates were all selected, and most of them were the children of ordinary people living in the capital.

Migration is all about moving to the countryside. He has no classmates from the countryside at all, or in the government schools in the capital, there are basically no rural children to study, because the rural children are concentrated in the government schools in the towns.

"Ugh……"

When the chief banner officer heard Li Dingguo's words, he thought he knew it too, so he couldn't help sighing:

"Officials in Beizhili and various prefectures are driving people away in order to complete the affairs arranged by the court. Before, they were unwilling to drive people away because of bad rules."

"The more people there are, the more bad rules there are, and the more money they are greedy for."

"Currently the bad rules are cancelled, and most officials are on anti-annuity salaries, so they would rather be idle."

"If you want to be free, there are fewer people in that prefecture, so you can be free, so they emigrate."

"Over there, the prefectures and counties with the largest number of immigrants are said to be giving an extra reward, which is quite a lot. The officials, yamen servants, and military commanders of a county are divided, and each of them can get three or four taels of silver."

"For the money, the officials are anxious to drive people away. It is rumored that the population of Beizhili may not even reach 700 million this year."

"You have to know that six years ago, people from the household department said that there were at least 800 million people in Beizhili. It's only been a few years..."

The chief banner officer was a little bit embarrassed, but he reacted immediately, and said carefully to Li Dingguo:

"You can just listen to these words. If you dare to tell His Highness, I will definitely kick you twice."

"Aren't you afraid that you won't even have the chance to kick me?" Li Dingguo was a little surprised, but the chief banner officer glanced at him contemptuously and said:

"What do you think His Highness will do to me? Let me tell you, His Highness doesn't say anything else, but he is very good to us big soldiers."

"Even if the words I told you were passed on by Jin Yiwei, His Royal Highness probably sent me to the guard camps of the governor's mansions in various places to serve as a garrison."

"Do the defense?!" Li Dingguo was surprised and said: "Don't the defense of the Gongwei Battalion lead more than 500 troops? You only lead more than fifty soldiers, and you can also do the defense?"

"Bah!" The chief banner officer spat and shouted, "What kind of soldiers do you think Shangzhi's soldiers are?"

He straightened his chest and said proudly:
"We are all ten-year veterans and veterans. Anyone who is sent down can be promoted to a higher level, not to mention that we are still members of the Four Horse Guards."

"Although the military system of Shangzhiwei and Gongwei battalion is different, even if I am transferred to the general banner, I can lead 90 people, and if I am promoted to the first level, I will have more than 500 people."

"How about a two-level promotion?" Li Dingguo was very curious, but at this time the chief banner officer showed embarrassment:

"If you get promoted to two levels, I, Old Zhang, won't be able to do it. If you get promoted to two levels, I will be a general. If I had that ability, I would have been an official of hundreds of households."

Li Dingguo saw the embarrassment of the chief banner officer, he smiled and said:

"I'm curious, why doesn't His Highness directly unify the military system?"

"The timing wasn't right at the time." The Chief Banner Officer heard Li Dingguo's inquiry and explained to him:
"At that time, the battalion soldiers didn't have a good reputation, and His Highness started his business with Tengxiang Four Guards. The officials in the temple were powerful, and His Highness didn't have the power to change the military system."

"Later, the temple was weak, but at that time Shangzhi was used to going out with heavy troops, and it was then divided into guard battalions, and the commanders were a little embarrassed."

"In addition, there are many soldiers and horses in Shangzhiwei, because we have experienced many battles. Originally, we were the field army, and the Gongwei battalion was the Turkish army."

"Later, the imperial court fought in all directions, and Shangzhi's troops were not enough to conquer the north and south, so the twelve guards of the navy were split up, and the three guards of Daning were absorbed."

"In other words, the Twelve Guards of the Navy are the sons of our Shangzhi Sixteen Guards."

"You think Shangzhi doesn't send troops to fight very much, but the navy has been fighting outside. Have you seen the "Daming Kunyu General Map" in the Chengyun Hall? Two-thirds of my current territory in the Ming Dynasty was captured by the navy. of."

"The land laid down by the navy is actually the land laid down by me directly."

The Chief Banner Officer snarled triumphantly, while Li Dingguo said silently:
"so……"

"Shangzhi and the navy have a close relationship?"

"Of course!" the Chief Banner Officer said with a smile, "Captain Huang also went out from Shangzhi. Usually, when the Navy sent back overseas gold and silver, people would keep a third of the retained one-third and give it to Shangzhi. Dudufu."

"Although our Shangzhi is paid 15 taels like the other Gongwei battalions, when this small part is divided, each person also gets three or four taels of silver, and when there are more, we can get five taels."

"Actually, our military salary is around 20 taels, otherwise why do you think it is so difficult to get into Shangzhi?"

"..." Li Dingguo really didn't know about this, so he asked curiously, "Doesn't Your Highness know?"

"Your Highness naturally knows that the silver was distributed by His Highness." The Chief Banner Officer said, and Li Dingguo nodded half-understanding.

"In short, whether it is combat power or experience, the superior is superior to the other five soldiers and horses in the governor's mansion. If you can become a superior and a general in the future, don't forget that my old man will take care of you."

The chief banner officer made a joke, and Li Dingguo responded with a smile and nodded.

Before they knew it, the group had already run for more than fifty miles...

　There will be a meeting this afternoon, so the evening update is estimated to be delayed until nine or ten o'clock.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)