[Qing wear] Harem promotion expert

In the blink of an eye, another year has passed.

In early September of the ninth year of Yongzheng.

If someone walks into the current East Hall of Yonghe Palace, they will see a rather strange scene.

I saw two rows of tables and chairs neatly arranged, each with four large tables, and the tables were covered with account books.Eight maids of honor are sitting behind the table and burying their heads in their abacus to settle accounts.

Sitting at the end of the two columns were two little maids. After dialing the abacus beads to add up the numbers of the small items on a page (representing a day), they handed this page to the front desk like passing an exam paper.In front are two third-class court ladies who are two years older and have more experience in accounting. They will be responsible for quickly reviewing their accounts, and after confirming that they are correct, they will pass them on to the two second-class court ladies.

The two second-class maids put every small item of each day into the monthly account, and then calculated the monthly expenses.

After that, he passed it forward again, and this time it was Qiu Xue or Qiu Shuang who took it.

They will compare the expenses of each palace this month based on the expenses of the previous months.If the discrepancy is very large, then trace the source to the daily account and indicate the reason.

In this way, the accounts for this month are considered complete.

At the front of the two rows of seats is a long ebony table and a swivel chair.Jiang Heng was sitting at the top, waiting for Qiu Xue and Qiu Shuang to hand over the monthly accounts, and she was in charge of doing random checks.If there is a mistake, the team will have to do a lot of rework.

This is Jiang Heng's 'Accounting Assembly Line'.

When this assembly line was first built, it was inevitable that there would be mistakes, omissions and poor turnover. After a few days of running-in, it has now turned very smoothly, like a lock that has just been coated with graphite powder. The process is very silky.

Jiang Heng took a sip of tea and looked towards the back of Qiu Xue's team.

The little maid sitting there had a serious face, as if she was going to get into the ledger.

Jiang Heng was very relieved that it was the little maid Xiuxiu who she took away from Nian Shi last September.

According to Qiuxue, Xiuxiu studied very hard, and her progress was better than that of the maids who entered the Yonghe Palace for two or three years, and she was also very clever in calculating accounts.

No, this time the accounting assembly line, Xiuxiu made an exception to enter, and the rest of the palace people who were able to enter the accounting team took a lot longer than her to learn to read and count in Yonghe Palace.

The crisp sapphire chime sounded, and Xiuxiu raised her head while dialing the abacus, and saw the empress was playing with a small hammer in her hand and said with a smile: "It's time to rest, and I have counted the last number in my hand." , Get up and rest your neck and eyes."

Xiuxiu hurriedly marked the calculated place with a graphite pen.

Feeling the thickness of the remaining account paper, there was only a thin layer of accounts to be settled, Xiuxiu was still a little bit unsatisfied.

The familiar rolling sound of wooden wheels sounded, and all the maids from Qiu Xue got up to say hello: "Hello, mother."

Nanny Yu turned her wheelchair and came in, said with a smile: "The old slave was going to the door to wait for elder brother to finish school at noon, when the manager of the imperial dining room came to ask to see the empress, the old slave came in to pass a message for him."

Jiang Heng smiled and said, "Then Mr. Chang is taking care of his face."

Nanny Yu took out a small suitcase from the back of the wheelchair as if conjuring: "I can't help it. The cannibal's mouth is short. Manager Chang specially gave this old slave a box of Double Ninth Cakes." He hurriedly said: "My lord, don't worry, this old slave knows that he has diabetes, so he can't eat too many of these desserts, and he didn't purposely use them to eat with these children."

Jiang Heng seriously instructed: "That's exactly what I said. Grandma should eat more coarse grains and less fine rice, not to mention desserts." Diabetes is diabetes, which is not good for Grandma herself. If you have bad blood sugar, you will suffer more in the future.Jiang Heng's grandma is diabetic. At first she didn't think anything of it and she didn't want to eat it. Later, when various complications came out, she felt uncomfortable everywhere. She accidentally cut her hand, and because of high blood sugar, it was slower than others.

Nanny Yu agreed again with a smile, and watched Jiang Heng take Qiu Xue to the main hall to meet Chang Qing.

After staying in Yonghe Palace for a long time, Nanny Yu would often be in a trance. The imperial concubine was like a daughter she had never had before, and then she secretly thought that she was overstepping. Is this also conceivable?But every time the imperial concubine asked her to take care of her body seriously, Mammy Yu couldn't help but feel that way.

Turning her head again, looking at the assembly line of the Yonghe Palace, Mammy Yu felt a sense of pride again: the empress has always been smart, and she saves trouble and doesn't tire herself.

This year just after the mid-autumn festival on August [-]th, the empress suddenly fell ill, and she immediately dropped the affairs of the first palace.

The empress dowager is in charge, and all palace affairs are handed over to Yonghe Palace, and the noble concubine is in charge of the six palaces.

Mammy Yu was afraid that the empress would be overwhelmed with taking care of the princess and elder brother, and suddenly had to take over so many palace affairs, but the empress quickly set up a small accounting team, sitting there by herself practicing calligraphy and reading as usual, and only doing random checks Accounts, at the end of the month and the beginning of the month when the accounts are most busy, there is no rush.

Moreover, the empress not only combined work and rest, but also paid great attention to the rest of the palace people. Every five or ten minutes, she always knocked on the sapphire chime to let the maids who settled accounts stop and rest.

Speaking of which, this sapphire chime was given by the emperor on the mother's birthday in March this year.

It is the same style as the one used in the Emperor's Hall of Mental Cultivation, except that there is no dragon pattern on it, only auspicious clouds and wishful patterns.

People outside always wonder why Jun En has been stationed in Yonghe Palace for several years, but Madam Yu thinks it is very natural. I never left, and I don't want to leave.

"Mammy can't bear it? But the mother told us to watch that mommy doesn't eat too many sweets." Qiushuang saw that mammy was in a daze holding the food box, so she stepped forward half jokingly and half seriously to stare at Yu Mammy was relieved when she handed over the sweets.

Only then did Nanny Yu come back to her senses, alas, when one gets old, one tends to lose one's mind.

It's easy to think of a bunch of things when you look at everything.

She put the food box in her hand on a table, and let everyone come up to get snacks.Seeing that Xiuxiu only dared to take a piece of Double Ninth Cake from the corner when she came over, he stopped her and brought her a piece of cake filled with crisp dates and dried fruits on a thin paper pad: "You child, the leftover cake is made of cakes over there." What's more, take the good ones and eat them."

Xiu Xiu hurriedly thanked her, and then left with her hand.

The place to eat is on two separate benches at the back of the hall, so that the crumbs and grease from the pastry will not stain the accounts.While sitting in the corner, Xiuxiu gnawed on the pastry, and quietly settled the accounts in her heart: the empress would never let them work for nothing, and there was more work to settle the accounts in the past half a month.

Xiuxiu understood more and more what Aunt Qiuxue meant when she said that she could feel at ease just by knowing how to read.

Indeed, even though the empress asked Aunt Qiuxue to write down their workload every day, she also posted it for publicity, and gave it to them once every five days.Of course, Xiuxiu is the one who relies on Qiuxue the most, and I believe that my aunt will not give her a little less.But trusting others is different from the peace of mind that you can read words and understand the money you earn.

Before Jiang Heng entered the main entrance, he saw two 'mountains' in the yard

It is no exaggeration to say that it is a mountain.

Chang Qing, the head of the imperial dining room, stood at the bottom, smiling and beckoning Qian'er: "Greetings to the imperial concubine, the servant specially brought the tower cakes on the Double Ninth Banquet for the empress to have a look at."

The Chongyang cake, built into nine layers, is as tall as half a person.

It really looks like an exquisite pagoda, each layer is filled with various cakes, and the top is sprinkled with snow-like white sugar.

Jiang Heng felt that his blood sugar had risen at a glance.

"The imperial dining room has been made in two styles. One is rich and lively, which is in line with the celebration of the Double Ninth Festival, and the other is elegant with the chrysanthemum appreciation on the Double Ninth Festival. There are only some chrysanthemum petals pasted on the outside for lining. Please choose one."

Jiang Heng asked Qiu Xue to go to the Empress's Empress Zhongcui Palace to see if she was awake and whether she had the energy to meet someone.

If you like, please invite your empress to choose the Double Ninth Cake.

Qiuxue agreed to go - the superior location of the Yonghe Palace was once again reflected, it was next to the Queen's Zhongcui Palace.This advantage was not obvious when Jiang Heng was a nobleman, but when she became a noble concubine and often needed to find the queen, it became very necessary. The short commute time is really an invisible benefit.

Even if the Emperor's Hall of Mental Cultivation is exchanged for her, she won't be able to live.

Sure enough, Qiu Xue came back soon: "The empress just woke up and took the medicine, and said to invite the empress to come over."

So Jiang Heng took Chang Qing and the two 'towers' carefully pushed by several young eunuchs, and moved them to Zhongcui Palace.

The Empress is sick and still in bed, Chang Qing and other inner eunuchs are not allowed to enter the inner hall, only the maids of Zhongcui Palace push the two cake towers in, and after a while she comes out and says: "The Empress chose the one with chrysanthemum petals on it." Double Ninth Cake. It will be suitable for the occasion when paired with chrysanthemum wine. The emperor is so happy and elegant, and the cups should be replaced with blue chrysanthemum patterns. Don’t get some red and gold ones.”

Chang Qing took the order and left.

Naturally, these two samples were left in Zhongcui Palace, waiting for the fresh ones to be made again on September [-], Chongyang.

The queen in the room was leaning on the couch, with a windy forehead on her head, apparently afraid of the wind, looking at the two pagodas in the room, she said with a smile: "This Chongyang cake pagoda is not a common practice at home. , I'm afraid the children find it interesting, and I will ask someone to push it back for you later, so that the children can play."

Jiang Heng looked at the Double Ninth Cake, which looked like it could fit two children, and couldn't help laughing.

Seeing her smile, the queen couldn't help but also frowned.

Then he said with concern: "This illness of this palace, all the burdens suddenly fell on your shoulders."

Jiang Heng couldn't say that it's okay. She built an assembly line and retreated by herself, saying: "My concubine feels a headache looking at those account books, so I have to ask the palace staff to help with the calculation. Besides, the accounts are nothing, only the daily palace There are people coming and answering about things big and small. There were two days when the concubines went to sleep at night, they only felt busy, but they couldn't remember how they got here one day."

The queen felt the same when she heard the words: "Since the emperor came to the throne, I have come to the Forbidden City. Only after I got sick these days did I sleep through the night."

And annoyed: "Now is the ninth and ninth Chongyang Festival, which is the ninth year of the emperor's enthronement. It should be the big Double Ninth Festival, but my palace can't get up. I really failed the Long Live Lord."

Jiang Heng saw that the queen was really anxious. Although he was sick and didn't apply makeup, his cheeks turned red when he talked about it, like a cloud of fire.

Jiang Heng hurriedly comforted him, "Don't worry, ma'am. The emperor originally planned to take the prince and princess to climb Longevity Mountain this year, and there will only be a family banquet in the palace."

When she heard that the emperor was going out, the queen couldn't help but heaved a sigh of relief.

Jiang Heng said softly again: "For the family banquet in the palace, the ministers and concubines all come according to the rules prepared by the empress last year. Only the palace people who have already left the palace and the chef of the dining room had to be changed. The ministers and concubines looked at today. The empress's spirit has improved a lot, and I will bring the changed personnel list to the empress for a trial later."

The queen then leaned back and smiled: "You must be doing things properly. But I can't afford to be idle. Anyway, we are close. If you have any doubts, just ask me."

If it is said that Jiang Heng likes to work, it is for promotion and salary increase, for wealth, freedom and beautiful retirement life.

Then the queen really regards palace affairs as a sustenance, and regards being a famous and virtuous queen as a criterion.So Jiang Heng took over the palace duties, just holding on to the ground so that he wouldn't fall to the ground, and he didn't do any of the rest of the innovations and reforms that showed his face.

What's more, the most important thing in Jiang Heng's heart recently is not palace affairs...

And the queen just happened to mention it.

Seeing that although the imperial concubine was in charge of the sixth palace when she was ill, she had no intention of seizing power, she felt relieved, and she couldn't help but cared: "Let's not talk about these festivals, just say that the room where Minmin was vaccinated is ordered by you." Has it been cleaned up? Have all the people who should serve have been arranged?"

Jiang Heng agreed: "Everything is fine."

Originally, Minmin had been vaccinated after the Wanshou Festival last year.

It's just that Jiang Heng proposed to replace human pox with cowpox.

The next day the emperor summoned Jiang Fang to inquire carefully, and then summoned Imperial Physician Liu to sit in on the matter—the emperor thought the matter was unreliable, but after hearing Jiang Fang's explanation, he was a little moved and sent someone to investigate in person.

Jiang Fang is worthy of being a senior official of Dali Temple. His speech is short and rigorous, and he pays attention to evidence.It was the emperor's favorite way of answering. In the past, when there were important cases, the emperor chose Jiang Fang to answer.

This time Jiang Fang talked about cowpox in the same way, starting from finding a village doctor who was accidentally infected with cowpox in order to receive milk for his child, and then visiting various "milk villages" by himself.

All the dignitaries in the palace have a share of milk every day. It can be seen that the imperial family and ministers of the Qing Dynasty loved to use milk, and even the number of people who raised cows in the private sector also increased rapidly.

It is not like the palace has its own pasture and special personnel to raise it.Many people in Beijing want to drink milk, so they order it and have it delivered.

Demand drives industry. In many villages in the suburbs of Beijing, the men raise cattle to plow the land, while the family keeps another cow, and the wives and daughters milk the cow at home to subsidize the family.

Cowpox is naturally born in the udders of cows, and there are no isolation gloves at this time. If cows get vaccinia, it is inevitable that people will also get it.

At first, some people panicked, thinking that the acne looked like smallpox.Later, more people got cowpox, and they found that the mild ones would be cured in two or three days, and then the serious ones would gradually recover after lying down for half a month. It should be known that few people in the countryside take the medicine for half a month, which is definitely a burden. Unbelievable expense.

For the villagers in these milk villages, they only felt that they had cowpox, and it was fine, and no one went into it.

Until Jiang Fang came to ask them with a goal, the village has been infected with cowpox these years, has anyone ever had smallpox?

The villagers suddenly realized that it had been many years since they had heard that a child in the village had died due to flowering.

Because cowpox is also contagious, there is no awareness of hygiene and isolation in the countryside. Most of the time, one person gets the pox, and the whole family follows the infection and then becomes immune, which is a blessing in disguise.

Jiang Fang replied seriously in front of the emperor: "Since that day, I have taken people to visit the milk-producing villages in the suburbs of Beijing, and asked more than a thousand households. Those who have indeed had cowpox have never had smallpox again. I have also seen the appearance of two people with cowpox, which is similar to the fever and pustules of flowers, but much lighter."

In fact, when Jiang Heng wanted to find the pox cow, when he asked Jueercha to spread the news, the whole Su Yibo's mansion felt that the empress had read some Arabian Nights from somewhere, and although she would look for it, she didn't take it seriously It's just a matter of coaxing the empress to play.

Only Jiang Fang took it seriously.

Firstly, he has such a temperament and is serious in doing things. Secondly, he has been in Dali Temple for many years, and he has developed an attitude of not questioning anything but seeking proof no matter how unbelievable it is.

He felt that the first time the empress asked the family to do something since she entered the palace, it would definitely not be a child's play.

So I seriously searched for people who had had vaccinia, and followed through the investigation. The more I visited, the more convinced and excited I became: maybe having vaccinia can really stop getting smallpox!

Jiang Fang was sent to Shanxi to serve as an official.

At that time, there happened to be a pox epidemic.

In the land he governed by the severe pox plague that time, more than half of the children died in infancy. In many families, the whole family died.

Shocking everywhere.

Although vaccination was already popular in central Beijing at that time, there were too few good doctors who could do it, especially when mature seedlings needed to be raised, and the sales were extremely expensive, which was beyond the reach of ordinary people.

If you don’t pay attention to it, just use the scab powder of ordinary people who have had smallpox to vaccinate, it is no different from a smallpox, and it is still extremely dangerous——Beijing Zhongtai Hospital vaccinates princes and young brothers from various prefectures, and the mortality rate can reach [-]%. It is down to one out of a hundred children, but among the folks, maybe one in a few children can't resist it and die young.

In this way, the enthusiasm for vaccination among the people is not too high: if the child is lucky, he may not be able to produce flowers for the rest of his life.If you spend a lot of money to inoculate the pox, you may be killed.

Due to the low vaccination rate, countless lives were harvested once a plague swept through.

In the past two years, Jiang Fang has been supporting Jiang Fang in his work, and he has hardly taken a break to visit various villages. It is when he was in office that the tragedy of those who were killed by smallpox and the pain and wailing of the remaining survivors were separated. For many years, it is still ringing in his ears and beating in his heart.

If cowpox could really be...

Jiang Fang's expression was very upright. On the day when Yuqian answered, even the emperor didn't notice that his hands in his sleeves were trembling with excitement.

Thanks to the empress in the palace, she not only raised the issue of cowpox first, but also gave him the opportunity to report it to the emperor.

No matter how good cowpox is, it cannot be carried out by a courtier leading a village doctor—this will greatly hurt the dignity of the Tai Hospital. Jiang Fang has handled cases for many years and knows what people can do for profit.If the hospital is dissatisfied and "authoritative certification" of vaccinia is not enough at the beginning of the implementation of vaccinia, then I am afraid it will not work anymore.

And although Jiang Fang is not very familiar with medical skills, but only by analogy with the mature vaccine of human pox, we can know that this vaccinia may also need to be raised for vaccinia, and it can be used until the symptoms are lightest. OK.

After Jiang Fang finished his reply, he also presented a list of transcripts: this is a list of households he has personally visited over the years: "I don't dare to say half a lie, Long Live God can order the medical officer to verify it."

When Jiang Fang talked about cowpox, the Fourteenth Master happened to be in front of the imperial court.

He thought it was reliable, but he was caught off guard for a while, and directly told the Queen Mother as something new.

When the queen mother heard about this incident at the beginning of last year, she strongly opposed it: her granddaughter wants to be vaccinated, how can she use the pox from the cow? !It seemed unbelievable to the Queen Mother.

The fourteenth master was not guarded when he spoke, but after returning to Beijing last year, he stayed with the ninth master for a long time, so he talked more.

She persuaded the queen mother from the side: "What is the pox on the cow? Er Niang didn't know. At that time, in the army, if someone was shot by an arrow, what kind of medicine would be used to kill the arrow-the number of dead dung beetles, and the number of dead dung beetles. One earth dog, both of which are hard-shelled insects that can fly. They are ground into powder and applied to the wound. After a day of itching, the arrow can be pulled out. Compared with cows, the pox on the body is much faster. gone?"

The Empress Dowager naturally dislikes all kinds of flying insects, which makes the fourteenth master's hair stand on end.

This is not over yet, the Fourteenth Master gave his mother a critical blow: "Er Niang still hates cowpox? Do you know what the night bright sand you drink to treat your eyes is? It's bat droppings."

When the emperor heard the urgent call from the queen mother, he arrived at the door and saw Fourteen kneeling there crookedly.

Seeing him, he hurriedly shouted for grievances: "Brother Huang, don't forget to intercede for me when you go in, the empress queen suddenly kicked me out and knelt down."

The emperor was still puzzled, but after listening to Fourteen's explanation, he felt nauseated for a while, not to mention brother Shu got up, and straightened his face and said: "What kind of words do you kneel like this? Kneel up and straighten me!"

Then he went in to persuade the queen mother.

What the emperor said was well-founded, and doctor Liu from the imperial hospital said that it might not be feasible, so the queen mother turned around.But he still postponed Minmin's vaccination for a year, and said: "If you want to inoculate Minmin with vaccinia, you have to go to the hospital to raise the pox for another year, and then someone else will inoculate it, so the family can rest assured."

"I think so too. Minmin is not too old, so it doesn't matter if you wait a year, as long as nothing goes wrong."

So Minmin's vaccination date was postponed for a year and changed to after the Double Ninth Festival this year.

The queen was also very concerned, and asked Jiang Heng, "Are you really planning to inoculate Minmin with vaccinia, instead of the human pox vaccine from the hospital?"

Jiang Heng said with a smile: "Don't worry, ma'am, now Imperial Physician Liu of the imperial hospital has also screened out the mature vaccines for cowpox."

In the past six months, whenever the Tai Hospital went to the prince's family to vaccinate, it would make people choose between human pox or vaccinia.There are still many ways to choose human pox.

This is normal, people are more inclined to familiar things.

In the beginning, only Su Yibo's family and several imperial physicians from the imperial hospital who screened vaccines would choose vaccinia for the children.It wasn't until Prince Xun inoculated the elder brother of his palace with vaccinia, and Fourteen Fujin also said that the symptoms were better than ordinary varicella, and the symptoms were also mild, and gradually more people chose vaccinia.

It is estimated that cowpox will gradually become the mainstream after the Minmin planting.

Jiang Heng still remembered that his sister-in-law entered the palace during the Dragon Boat Festival and told her that on the day Prince Xun's mansion chose vaccinia, it was rare for Jiang Fang, who followed the rules and followed the steps, to get drunk.

Jiang Heng also admired this elder brother Jiang Fang very much. Without his perseverance and traveling all over the village to find his relatives, the emperor would not have accepted cowpox so quickly.

On September [-]th, Empress Dowager Pox was placed everywhere in the palace.

The four princesses moved to a quiet courtyard for vaccination.

Although the gate of the courtyard is closed, the news can be delivered.The empress dowager sent people to visit her again and again.

Three days later, Imperial Physician Liu reported the best news: The princess's low fever has subsided now, and the pimples she planted are full of ruddy, which is a very smooth sign.Next, you only need to continue to raise it in this courtyard for about ten days, and then you can go out in good condition.

On the day when Minmin left the vaccination courtyard in good health, the emperor decreed that Su Yibo was promoted to the third rank of nobility again, from first-class uncle to first-class marquis.