[Qing wear] Harem promotion expert

In the following days, Jiang Heng still stayed in Yonghe Palace for vacation.

Just like a pool of water in Yuanmingyuan, if you don't look at the things below, the surface is really calm, and you are in a state of tranquility.

On this day, Jiang Heng was taking Min Min to see flowers in the courtyard of the back hall.

There are many flowers in the courtyard of the apse. At first, she was worried that the children would be allergic to pollen, so don't cause discomfort.After Minmin learned to walk, Jiang Heng slowly extended the time she spent playing in the yard, and gradually increased her contact with the four seasons plants and trees.

Fortunately, my daughter is always lively and there is nothing uncomfortable. It really fits Jiang Heng's prayer before giving birth to her: as long as she is healthy and happy.

And Minmin is always happy.

She was a child, and when she saw beautiful and bright flowers, she always wanted to ask for them at first.Jiang Heng began to try to say no to his daughter, and explained to his daughter, who was able to understand adults at first, that not everything can be given to her: in life, let alone a princess, even the emperor always has something that cannot be obtained.If a child is used to being coaxed from an early age, he can get everything he wants, and when he grows up, he will encounter regrets that he can't ask for in life, I'm afraid he will get into a dead end.

She will try her best to protect her daughter, but life is so long, no one has any regrets that can't bear to look back, so she has to come out by herself.

And Minmin is indeed a very cheerful personality, even if the flowers she wants are not in her hands, she will not cry and be persistent. The nurse hugs her and sticks the flower stickers she wants, and she is happy. She even hugged a bowl once. After kissing the mouth-sized camellia, he smiled contentedly.

Seeing that his daughter is more interested in the color of natural vegetation like flowers than in balls painted in various bright colors, and recognizing flowers can not only distinguish colors, but also exercise the sense of smell and touch, Jiang Heng often takes her out to meet Nature.

She was teaching her daughter to recognize flowers, and Qiu Xue walked in and reported that someone from the Hall of Mental Cultivation came to deliver things, and was ordered by the emperor to hand them over to Concubine Xin.

Jiang Heng nodded: "Let someone come directly to the back."

The emperor has been very busy recently, before the harvest of wheat from April to early May of the lunar calendar, it is the time when the wheat is not harvested.For farmers, this is a torment that tightens their belts even more than winter: the new grain harvested in summer has not yet come down, but the old year's grain is almost exhausted.

The same is true for Yu Yiguo. The grains of the provinces in Cangyuzhong have not been harvested this year, but the army in the northwest needs to eat.

The experience of the former Ming Dynasty: don’t owe military salary for what you owe.

At this moment, we can see the foresight of the emperor to collect debts to make up for the national treasury since he came to the throne: now he only allocates food and salaries in batches to go to the northwest, but he is still in a hurry.

The little eunuch who came in was dressed in blue Gebu clothes with two black edges, which was exactly the dress of the Hall of Mental Cultivation.

Jiang Heng felt a little familiar, as if he had been to Yonghe Palace, but Qiu Xue recognized it at a glance, and whispered: "Your Majesty, this is Eunuch Su's apprentice." He made a hand-to-hand comparison: I ate in their small kitchen last time. Eight duck egg yolk steamed buns.

This 'Little Mantou' came forward to pay his respects, and respectfully held a locked wooden box and a letter.

In this way, this person shouldn't be a little mantou, but a little carrier pigeon.

"Long live God, please read the letter and box alone, the concubine Xinfei, the servant is waiting here to reply." It was also very mysterious.

It is said that when the emperor went out, he would often bring letters from home to her, but at this time both of them were in the palace, and the emperor sent someone to deliver the letter. It was the first time that Jiang Heng took it and took a look, there was still the Hall of Mental Cultivation printed on the seal The red clay seal pattern is solemnly sealed.

He asked Qiuxue to take the nanny to watch Minmin for a while, while Jiang Heng went back to the house to open the letter by himself.

There are two things inside the envelope, a piece of letter paper with a familiar mountain and flower pattern, on which is the emperor's handwriting, which penetrates the tiredness of the back of the paper, and the handwriting is a little rough, with a bit of complaint: "The memorial book is like the mountains of the five mountains, and it can't be done a little bit." Leave." He told her to cherish herself, and only added a sentence at the end: "It's quite funny to open the wooden box."

The other thing is a fine copper finger-sized key.

At first, Jiang Heng didn't understand what the emperor had sent, and it was complicated. When he opened it, he couldn't help being surprised: there was a notebook inside.

No wonder the emperor encrypted it layer by layer, and asked people from the Hall of Mental Cultivation to wait outside to take it back. It turned out to be a booklet.That really can't make people look at it.

The zhezi was from the foreign affairs yamen, and the name of the zhezi was also very familiar to Jiang Heng, and it was her second brother Jiang Yuan.

Jiang Heng was refreshed when he saw it: It seems that there is a follow-up to the incident of George II claiming to be the "future King of France".The emperor really didn't have time to come over these two days, so he simply asked her to read the newspaper first.

The report is quite long, written in detail, and it is indeed very enjoyable to read.

Let's talk about the British duke who lives in the Western Guild Hall, because the emperor has not summoned him, he is very short of breath.But in the capital of this big eastern country, he didn't dare to do anything wrong - he knew that after the drug incident, some English businessmen were left behind and still locked in prisons, and some were directly escorted away.

Although he has a different status as a duke, he doesn't think that His Majesty the King will completely break up with the distant country of porcelain, silk and tea just because of him.

Because the relationship between the Qing Dynasty and England has dropped to a freezing point in the past year, the price of goods to England has been high and the quantity has been halved. Now there is a shortage of inflation in England, and some nobles have even begun to buy Oriental porcelain and satin from neighboring countries at high prices. More money was flowing out, which annoyed George II.

So this time the Duke came with a mission. His Majesty the King expects him to open up the drug trade between the two countries. If he can't, he has to go back to the original state, and he can get the same quantity and price from the Qing Dynasty as in previous years. goods, and allowed English caravans to freely board the port to do business.

The task is very clear, but the reality is also very clear, the emperor of the Qing Dynasty refused to see him at all!

Westerners have different faces and identities, and there are very few places in the capital where they can go. After the Afurong incident, wherever Westerners go, they need to be accompanied by a small official from the foreign affairs office to record all the places they pass and everything they see. people.

One of the places you can go is the Western Commercial Hall.

A while ago, the Duke of England went to the Western Merchant House again, and the more he looked at it, the more aggrieved he became: the reason why they bid for this merchant house from Western countries was not to occupy a place where they could sell their own goods to the dignitaries in the capital, but to buy goods from the Qing Dynasty.

Master Jiu is really a business genius. He is unwilling to reduce the price of silk tea and other items sold in the West, but in order to attract these Western businessmen to compete for the business hall, he repeats the old trick: You can't lower the price, but I can increase it for you. A royal label!

Although it is the same silk and satin, if it is stamped with the seal of the Qing Dynasty House of Internal Affairs, doesn't it immediately look more noble?

He said to the Duke of France: When you go back to the country and sell them, tell me that these are not ordinary silks and satins, but silks and satins used by the Qing court, and the selling price must be at least several times higher?

He has experience in this matter, and that's how he sold the flowers and plants in Shisan Garden to make a fortune.

Sure enough, this royal label has attracted Western merchants: if the same silk and satin porcelain is pulled back, as long as it is stamped with this complicated and fascinating royal seal of mysterious oriental characters, its value will skyrocket.

Master Jiu also learned hunger marketing without a teacher, and only a small number of high-quality silk and porcelain are willing to use the seal of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (this is also to maintain the dignity of the Qing Dynasty overseas, and it must not make people think that the royal family uses inferior goods), and Seventy percent of these "royal goods" were only sold to the Western countries that settled in the Western Commercial Hall of the Qing Dynasty this year.

Isn't this a head start?

The Duke of England knows that many nobles in his country have secretly started to buy high-priced oriental goods from France—just ask, and buy the best. We are nobles, and we want to wear oriental royal clothes!

His Majesty was so angry with them that his liver hurt, and he really wanted to take over the right to settle in this Western business house. No, he wrote a personal letter to the Qing emperor, showing off that he belittled France, and hoped that the Qing emperor would change his mind.

This time, the Duke of England was wandering around the Western Commercial Hall, and happened to meet Lord Shi to go shopping.

The Duke of France originally heard that the English had arrived, so he was too lazy to come out to socialize, but now there are distinguished guests, so he had to come out, and the tenth master left after the entertainment, the two dukes met. Choked up.

The two quarreled from Latin to Chinese, and then the Duke of England failed completely-he didn't learn enough, and was scolded by the Duke of France who studied hard.

So he used a trick to call the parents: "You wait, our king's iron hoof will soon step on your king's Palace of Versailles!"

As soon as the words came out, it was over.

The Duke of England ran away after speaking harshly.

In the evening, he went out to eat out to relieve his depression: For the Duke of England, the happiest part of the day after arriving in the Qing Dynasty was eating. There are so many delicious foods here, and everything is delicious.

However, he hadn't walked out of the foreign affairs yamen yet, and it was dark at the side door.

It is true that God covered the curtain in front of his eyes - he was covered with a head, and then he was kicked down and whipped with a 'stick'.Not only him, but the two accompanying English guards were also knocked down and greeted in the same way.

It was the officials of the Foreign Affairs Office who came hearing the screams and released them.

The Duke of England was put in a sack inside the foreign affairs yamen, and his whole body was covered with bruises. Although he was not seriously injured, according to the official statement, the diplomatic impact of this incident was bad, and the perpetrator must be found out.

Jiang Yuan also has very powerful foreign aid, her elder brother is an official of Dali Temple, so she immediately asked her elder brother to settle the case.

As soon as Jiang Fang arrived, he first raised a question: The Duke of England said he was beaten with a stick, but where did the long stick come from?Before Westerners enter Beijing to live in a guild hall, they have to go through everything. They can't even carry a knife longer than a finger, let alone a stick like this.

The two brothers were still discussing, when they heard that there was a fight in the guild hall.

To say that the old enemy knows the old enemy.The Duke of England's intuition told him that it was definitely done by the French!

The Duke of England was young and vigorous, and he felt that the Qing Dynasty was neglecting himself, and he always shielded France, so he would definitely be sidelined, so he didn't wait for the Qing officials in the Foreign Affairs Office to investigate the case, and ignored his bruise and pain, he led his men When I broke into the courtyard of the Frenchman, I didn't need to search for it. I happened to watch the Frenchman cutting baguettes to eat.

Just under the window lay a few baguettes that had obviously been drying for days.

The Duke of England rushed over, picked up the bread and threw it on the table, only to find that the bread was as motionless as gold and stone, it was definitely the murder weapon!

But this time is the era of great exploration in Western countries. Not only the French have this durable hard bread that is almost a weapon, but the English also have hard goods: it is a kind of bacon called salted bones-just look at this The name tells how tough the meat is.

When sailing at sea, it is necessary to supplement meat, but it is also necessary to compress the space occupied by food as much as possible and extend the shelf life. Every country has its own tips.

The French are good at making bread, but the English are good at making cured meat. The meat is as strong as a bone. You have to use a knife to split a piece when you want to eat it. A small piece can cook a big pot of broth. The shelf life is as long as several decades.

After all, the Duke of England was young and nimble. He took out the bricks he had prepared, no, bacon, and slapped the Duke of France unconscious.

The people of the two countries fought in a scuffle in the French courtyard of the Western Guild Hall.

After the Jiang Fang brothers led people to hold down the two fighters respectively, and hurried to the nearest doctor to wake up the Duke of France, they wrote a note and asked the emperor to adjudge the matter.

Jiang Heng finished reading the book by himself in the room, and when he looked up, he saw the reflection of a glass clock, and he saw a smile on his face.

Well played and rolled up.

The more they quarrel, the more ruthless France can be to show off.

It would be difficult for them to make up their minds if they didn't have a few ruthless medicines: After all, the skills of Western countries follow the same path. Although France sells a lot of ships and artillery, there are also various pocket watches and clocks in the Western commercial halls in the capital. , perfume and other items for sale.

If the Daqing can produce its own watches and clocks, their sales of luxury goods will also be affected, and it will also increase the trade deficit with the Qing Dynasty, which is not what the French want to see.

Only when the country is really threatened and there are concerns about survival can they put their money back and pay part of the price to win over this distant country.

In their eyes, this eastern country is vast and rich in land and resources, not to mention its vast territory, and earns a lot of silver from the West every year. A country that can lend money and food to them when necessary has a lot of confidence.

I just don't know what France can come up with to impress Da Qing to support him when necessary, instead of standing idly by.

Jiang Heng is looking forward to it.

She took out the paper to write a reply, then locked the box and handed it to the little carrier pigeon for him to take back to the Hall of Mental Cultivation.

Just as she could see fatigue in the emperor's handwriting, the emperor can now see joy in her handwriting.

I feel that joy is about to jump out of the paper.

The emperor couldn't help smiling during the tedious government affairs.So I ordered someone to go to the Foreign Affairs Yamen to fetch the 'weapons' from the two countries and send them to the Yonghe Palace for her to have a fresh look.

Don't forget to say: "These things are dirty, tell Concubine Xin, you can't enter them."

Three days later, the emperor was free to come to Yonghe Palace for a meal.

As soon as I entered the door, I saw a stack of extremely hard mustard biscuits on the table.

Jiang Heng said: "My concubine heard that our soldiers would carry this kind of cake." The emperor picked up one and tapped it on the table, then nodded and said: "It's almost this kind of heat, bake the water dry, It’s not easy to break.” Of course, it’s also difficult to eat.

At first, Jiang Heng regretted that Hubing couldn't be like a baguette. When he didn't have a weapon, he could use it for self-defense.But after hearing from the emperor, most of the soldiers carried the mustard cakes on a string, so they felt that it was also a murder weapon. If they were thrown out in a situation, it would be just a nine-section whip.

After the emperor had eaten, he ordered the palace people to retreat, and then asked her to sit next to him and leaned against him, and asked her in a low voice: "I have someone come to tell you about the rumors of the Punishment Department, just to let you have something in your heart." After all, if you suddenly hear a sentence or a sentence outside, or if someone deliberately mentions it in front of you, you won’t be caught off guard.”

His voice was very low, but there was a firmness as firm as a mountain: "But you don't have to worry, I won't take these lies to my heart."

"When you had Minmin back then, even though there was an omen in your dream, you kept silent and refused to say it. In the past two years, I have watched with my eyes. You are not the kind of person who would use children as a cover."

Jiang Hengwen said: "With the emperor's words, the concubines will not be afraid even if they hear something."

The emperor held her hand: "You just need to take good care of it in the palace, and I will ask people to investigate that matter again, so that you won't be wronged for nothing."

Hearing what the emperor said, Jiang Heng sat up straight, looked at the emperor and said, "Your majesty, my concubines can protect myself and this Yonghe Palace."

The emperor looked back at her: "What?"

She got up, took out a small key from the hidden compartment inside the makeup box, and then brought a sandalwood box to unlock it, and showed the emperor the letter hidden inside.

These are all the family letters or flower notes written by the emperor to her over the years.

Jiang Heng picked up a few letters: "The emperor's hard work, the concubines can see from the lines. The previous dynasty has caused the emperor so much trouble, and the concubines can't bear the emperor to think of the Yonghe Palace. They are endlessly worried, for fear that one of them will not be able to take care of it." If something happens to the concubine and the child—wouldn't that make the emperor even more worried?"

If it goes on like this, the emperor will eventually feel tired.

She put down the letter: "The emperor is trying to believe that the concubine can protect me and Minmin, okay?" Then she smiled again: "Besides, the emperor can rest assured that if the concubine feels embarrassed, he will definitely send someone to invite the emperor as soon as possible." savior."

The emperor looked at his own letter she had received, and listened to the understanding and assurance in her words, and felt quite moved.

"it is good."

"Hiss—" Jiang Heng looked at his daughter and said seriously, "Minmin, biting is wrong."

Speaking of which, Minmin started teething in six months, and has grown a lot of small teeth one after another. But this time, the teeth were extremely itchy or something, and Minmin suddenly started biting.

It turned out that she liked to kiss her mother very much, but now she would kiss her first and then take a bite.

Don't say I don't have many teeth, but it still hurts to bite.

Jiang Heng didn't think so, the habit of biting must be changed.

It happened that there were pancakes in the palace, so Jiang Heng hung a pancake around Minmin's neck, and poked her cheek carefully: "My good boy, if you want to bite someone, just lower your head and bite the pancake and grind it."

Minmin felt that the cakes were fresher than human beings, so she sat obediently hanging the cakes for a while, and lowered her head to grind them for a while.

Jiang Heng asked the nurse to watch Minmin outside first, and she went in to wash her face.

Coincidentally, the emperor came here at this moment.

The emperor was annoyed when he saw it at first sight. While picking up his daughter and taking off the rope around her neck, he asked the nurse next to him in a serious voice: "Bastard! If the princess is hungry, she should take care of her and feed her. She is so lazy and lazy. Dare to put the cake on the princess's neck! I see that you don't want the thing on your neck."

The nurse really wants to cry.

At that time, when Concubine Xin put a hard palm-sized beard cake around the princess's neck, these wet nurses almost fainted, okay?

But the lessons learned from the past are engraved in their hearts, they dare not persuade the concubine

Fortunately, Jiang Heng arrived in time when he heard the sound, and was about to step forward to admit that he did it and rescue the innocent wet nurse, when he heard his daughter betraying him loudly: "Ama, Erniang hung the cake for me."

Jiang Heng: ...Good boy, why are you so diligent in filing a complaint?

The emperor turned to look at her, showing a serious expression after a long absence, and even called her title: "Concubine Xin."

But Jiang Heng is not so afraid of the emperor now, she is used to being cold-faced or arrogant - she treats the emperor as she treats Minmin.

So Jiang Heng just smiled and said, "Why did the emperor come here suddenly?"

Then he stepped forward and teased his daughter's little nose with his own fingers. Minmin's nose was the most ticklish, so she quickly giggled and leaned back to hide. The emperor could only focus on her daughter, for fear that she would lean back. He lost his balance in his arms and fell downside down.

After the mother and daughter had played this nose-pointing game, the emperor's anger also subsided.

The tone became a bit helpless: "Tell me, why did you give Minmin a cake."

Jiang Heng said in a more helpless tone than him: "I don't want to, but Minmin didn't have it before, but this time she teethed, she suddenly had the problem of biting people."

The emperor didn't take it seriously: "Children are all like this, and the new teeth will grow back in two days. It's nothing serious."

Jiang Hengxin said: It wasn't you who was bitten by the co-author.

She changed the reasoning: "Your Majesty, the end of April is the Empress Dowager's birthday, and May is the Empress Dowager's birthday. There must be a banquet in the palace, and all the imperial servants must enter the palace. Minmin is a little older this year. The only princess in the palace will naturally go to pay her respects. The Empress Dowager and the Empress Dowager love to hug her, if she develops a habit of biting and does not change, she will bite her in front of the inner and outer wives, what can I do?"

Speaking of which, the empress dowager and queen are not people who like to celebrate birthdays. The empress dowager does not want to remind everyone that she is one year older. The empress dowager does not want to make a big fuss and get a reputation for being extravagant because of her reputation.

Therefore, every year is a simple one-day banquet. The married women inside and outside enter the palace to kowtow, and half a day of drama and wine will be over.

Sui Minmin was still a baby last year, so naturally she didn't attend the two banquets.But this year will definitely not work. Minmin can talk and walk, and she will gradually appear as a princess in front of married women.

The emperor put his daughter on his lap and coaxed her, and casually said to Jiang Heng: "Why, Minmin won't bite the queen's mother."

Jiang Heng didn't want to communicate with the emperor who dotes on children anymore, so he turned around to serve tea, and just as he turned around, he heard the emperor's hiss.

She turned her head immediately: "Is it biting again?"

The emperor covered up for his daughter: "No, I knocked my hand on the kang table."

Jiang Heng groaned, and then only looked at the emperor, Min Min biting people in bursts, now his teeth are itchy and he wants to bite something all the time.Sure enough, Minmin, who had no beard to grind her teeth, bit the hand holding the emperor as if no one was there.

After being treated as a teething stick for a while, the emperor surrendered in a rare way. He silently took a new mustache and let his daughter hold it in his little hand: "Good boy, eat this." Don't eat Ama.

Jiang Heng laughed until his stomach ached.

It wasn't until Min Min and Hu Bing were taken away by the nanny that Jiang Heng remembered to ask the emperor why he came here all of a sudden.

The emperor said: "The Duke of France sent something up privately, saying that it is a treasure that the English people still refuse to sell out."

"I took a look at it, but I think it's interesting, so I'll take it with you to have a look."