[Qing wear] Harem promotion expert

The noble concubine is looking for the person in the respect room, because she is going to do some work on the palace servants of the Yonghe Palace.

Speaking of the respect room, Jiang Hengyuan also thought that it was just the place where the emperor turned over his cards.It wasn't until he entered Chuxiu Palace and attended the "Hope Elementary School Funded by Concubine Nian" that Jiang Heng realized that this respect room is the inner palace department under the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and it can be regarded as the personnel department responsible for managing the eunuchs in the palace.

Presenting the plaque to the emperor is only a small part of their job duties.

The court lady Gan Tang beside the imperial concubine, heard the imperial concubine's order, and hurriedly responded: "Eunuch Chen has always been filial to the empress. If the empress has orders, he will do his best."

"Let's start with the eunuchs in the Yonghe Palace and see if there are any in their families who are struggling."

The midsummer in the capital is over, and the heat is getting worse day by day.

Jiang Heng was studying clothes styles with Qiu Xue today.

In her previous life, she had read the portraits of the concubines in the Qing Dynasty's Carnival Picture, and the homely attire was not all the complete bannerman's attire. .It can be seen that in the Forbidden City, the requirements for women's clothes are not strict.

It is said that officials and eunuchs outside the palace dress more casually, and the dresses of pre-Ming women are more popular in the south.Women's love for beauty is the same as ancient and modern: the clothes should look good.

Of course, you can't dress indiscriminately on formal occasions in the palace.But isn't it going to be outside the palace soon? Jiang Heng thought about making a few different clothes to wear.

"Master should also make two four-sided skirts for horseback riding. They should be good-looking and convenient." Qiuxue was born in a clothing supervisor. She is good at needlework, but she is not yet a top embroiderer. material instead of clothes.

At this time, I recommended professionals to Jiang Heng: "There is an aunt named Liu Xi'er in Shangyijian. She never talks about needlework and embroidery, and she especially changes her clothes. Sometimes she just pinches the edge somewhere, or Where did you close your mouth, but the clothes and upper body are different."

Jiang Heng expressed his understanding: Sometimes the clothes that look similar while hanging there are much less effective on the upper body.Clothes with a good shape can reveal the advantages and cover up the disadvantages.

It's just that pattern making is a technical job that tests aesthetics, and not every embroiderer who is good at embroidery can make clothes well.

Jiang Heng wanted to meet this typographic master.

While the two were talking, they saw Qiushuang walk in, looking a little depressed.

Jiang Heng asked, "What's the matter? Is there something going on outside?"

Qiu Shuang was a little bit aggrieved: "Just now, this servant girl went to the South Fruit Room to get the fruits in the share. She wanted to ask for some more citrons for the master, but I heard from Eunuch Hu that since yesterday, this citron has become a precious thing. , all the palaces are vying to get it up, and it’s not that the main empress is still there—the citron tea made by the nobleman himself, the emperor likes it, and now all the palaces know about it.”

Hu Xiaoshun knew how to be a man, and he didn't want to offend the nobles of Yonghe Palace, so he left a small basket for him in private, and then passed the news of the tight supply of citron in the palace to Qiushuang.

Qiu Shuang returned to the Palace of Yonghe with a basket of fruit, feeling depressed that her 'intellectual property rights' had been seized.

Jiang Heng smiled and said, "What did I think it was? It was this."

She counted the days in her mind: "It's been a long time since I gave the tea recipe to the emperor. It's already slow to spread in the womb."

The imperial tea room next to the Hall of Mental Cultivation was staffed in three shifts day and night, and there were 30 palace ladies and eunuchs in total.

When a new thing like lemon tea arrived in the imperial tea room, it was beyond Jiang Heng's expectation to keep it under wraps for so long before leaking out.

The king of Chu is so thin-waisted that many people starved to death in the palace.It was originally the concubine's duty to pay attention to the emperor's clothing, food, housing and transportation. Information about what kind of tea the emperor likes to drink, what kind of food he likes to eat, what style of ordinary clothes he likes to wear recently, etc., will soon become popular in the palace.

In this palace, the emperor is the leader of the trend.

Especially in the past few months, although the number of flops has dropped sharply, the emperor will go to visit concubines with sons and seniors such as Concubine Qi and Concubine Xi once a month, and even stay for a meal.

For the sake of their children, the concubines must of course serve the emperor well in terms of basic necessities of life.

"But..." Qiushuang was still indignant, she gestured and said, "It's different from what Long Live Lord praised this year for what flowers bloom well this year, and what kind of decorations are placed in every palace. The master was the first to find out and was the one who got the tea."

Jiang Heng smiled and said: "Okay, I also saw Citron having a whim, and making tea recipes is not an important matter."

In her position, it is the imperial tea room's business to study the refreshments that the emperor likes, and her job is to study and improve herself.

And... "It's actually useless to leak out this tea recipe."

Lemon iced tea is the best time to drink it in hot summer. It tastes cold and sour, and it is a seasonal limited edition.

Now that it's getting colder today, it's too late for the palaces to do it again.

Moreover, Jiang Heng could feel that the emperor was curious about the lemon iced tea and other fruit tea recipes, and he was very fond of them for a short time, but he was not very keen on them in essence.

Especially the various pomegranate juices made by Jiang Heng later, the ingredients of tea are less, and the ingredients of fruit juice are more.

It is estimated that the novelty has passed.

Jiang Heng was right.

In the next few days, the emperor found that no matter where he went, he would get a cup of lemon tea.Moreover, the recipes of each palace are not perfect, some put too little sugar, and the almost original lemon juice mixed tea is served, so that it is really sour.

On this day, the emperor drank another half cup of fruit tea from the queen mother, feeling tired and disliked.

When I arrived at the queen's place, I saw that the two cups of tea served by the palace servants were also very sour citron tea. The emperor felt sour water starting to rise in his stomach, so he waved his hands directly and said: "The queen has a new Dahongpao this year, right? Give it to me. Get another one."

Directly ask for serious tea.

The empress hurriedly ordered someone to change the top-notch Wuyi Dahongpao. The emperor smelled the mellow tea aroma and looked at the amber-colored tea soup, feeling comfortable.

By the way, I gave back to the queen for popular science and health preservation: "This citron tea was originally from the Yonghe Palace. I saw that the nobles made it fresh for fun, so I drank it occasionally. It's all for appetizing in summer. She is a young girl, and the taste is novel. It doesn't matter. But the citric acid is too strong, the queen has been working all year round, and her spleen and stomach are not very strong, so it is not suitable to use more acidic and astringent things such as plums and citrons."

The queen listened to the knowledge of health preservation, and was in a fog.Xindao: Actually, I don't eat sour at all, and I never drink sour plum soup.If it wasn't rumored in the palace that the emperor loves to drink the citron tea made by the nobleman recently, she wouldn't have specially prepared it in the palace.

The day the citron was brought, the queen asked the palace servants to add a little to the tea and was shocked: Is this drinkable?Even an expert in tea tasting like her wouldn't be able to fix it.

The emperor drank serious tea and began to talk about serious things.

"There are two things. One is this year's Mid-Autumn Festival. I think that although the one-year mourning period for the imperial examination has been announced, it is still within three years. The palace banquet is still simpler and does not need to be wasted."

The queen agreed, saying that she would never waste money.

Let's say that the emperor himself is a particular person, and everything should be fine and high-quality, and he has never reduced the quota of the harem, or asked the queen to save money from the quota of the concubines in the harem.

At most, he asked not to waste money on everything, but probably the emperor was desperate to pursue debts, and the repayment of debts in various places was not enough money to cover, which left a deep impression on the court and harem.So when the emperor mentioned not to spend extravagantly, the empress solemnly stated that she would run the house well and never waste money.

After that, he waited quietly for the emperor's second matter.

"Secondly, after the Mid-Autumn Festival, on August [-]th, I will go to Chengde Hunting Garden, what is the queen's plan?" At this time, there is no big deal, the emperor thinks that the queen is willing to follow the hunting garden.

Without waiting for the queen to answer, the emperor continued: "As you like, if you want to go out and relax, go, if you are lazy - then arrange for a more senior leader to follow me."

The emperor originally wanted to say that it would be fine if the queen was too lazy to go, but he turned a corner halfway.The main reason is to think of what the Empress Dowager said before, that is, she is not going to take young concubines with her.

It seems that to bring him enough options, it is estimated that he will start with ten or eight.

The emperor felt impatient when he thought about Zhou's promised face-off. If the queen didn't go, someone had to go and restrain the young concubine temporarily.

The queen thought for a while, then decided not to go by herself, and let Concubine Xi follow.

"The concubine and the concubine should stay and watch the house." The queen suggested cautiously.

Seeing that the emperor nodded casually in response, the empress felt relieved.

First, the empress is willing to stay in the Forbidden City, which is her own territory. If she is unfamiliar with the grassland, she has to worry about whether something will go wrong in the palace, and she is very tired; second, the empress knows that the imperial concubine does not want to stay In the Forbidden City, he definitely wanted to accompany the emperor, but he left her behind.

The queen herself is satisfied, and thinking about the dissatisfaction of the imperial concubine, the two are superimposed, and the queen is even more satisfied.

On the contrary, the emperor heard that the empress had arranged for Concubine Xi to go, so he added another one: "I will take Hongli and Hongzhou with me this time, if that's the case, let Concubine Xi and Concubine Yu accompany me."

The emperor has personally experienced the rules of separation of mother and child in the palace.Ancestral rules and family laws cannot be changed, but there are more human feelings outside the legal principles.The emperor also remembered the time when he was lonely and missed his mother when he was a child.

Going to Mulan Hunting Garden, there are not so many rules. Concubine Xi and Concubine Yu follow, so you can see more children.

The queen didn't care whether Concubine Yu was going or not, but she was startled when she heard the list of elder brothers who accompanied her: "Isn't the emperor taking Hongshi with him?" Hongshi is now the eldest son and the only elder brother over ten years old.After three years had passed by the first emperor, Hongshi had reached the age when he could get married and be named a noble and start a mansion.

So the queen was surprised: this time I went to the hunting garden to meet the Mongolian prince, why didn't the emperor bring his only eldest son Hongshi with him?

The emperor still felt a little choked up when he thought of Hongshi.

After coming back again, the emperor thought that both the queen mother and the fourteenth had changed, and perhaps his son had also changed.So he paid a lot of attention to Hongshi, the eldest son who had been expelled from the royal family by himself and severed the relationship between father and son. He wanted to teach him well so that he would not be separated from his father and son again in this life.

However, Hongshi still ran very lively on the way to get along with Ba Ye and others, just like some stupid courtiers, who thought that Prince Lian was elegant and easy-going, and he was a very nice person.

That day when Lao Ba was made to kneel at the gate of the Hall of Mental Cultivation, the emperor not only wanted to punish him for tea, but also called Hong Shi to see how the child judged the matter in his heart.

Hongshi is only thirteen or fourteen years old now, and he has not lived as long as the emperor has been an emperor. What is on his mind, the emperor looks at it at a glance, like a mirror, and he can't hide his thoughts.

The emperor could see that even if Hongshi didn't dare to intercede for Prince Lian in front of him, the child still had deep dissent and sympathy for him for blaming Lao Ba.

If it hadn't been for a life-and-death experience, the emperor thought that his temper would not be so bad, and he would have almost told Hongshi to get out and kneel with Lao Ba.

I also thought that I had only been here for less than half a year, and Hongshi had never taught him seriously before, so he directly changed his status as a prince. I still couldn't bear it, so I thought about going to the trouble of teaching Hongshi myself for two more years before keeping him for a while. effect.

This time the emperor is going to take Lao Ba and others to the hunting garden, so it is natural for Hong Shi to stay in the Forbidden City.Don't go to the hunting garden, where the mountains and forests are vast, he won't be able to keep an eye on them for a while, and it will be more convenient for the old man to lead Hongshi down.

It's just that these things can't be explained clearly to the queen.

The emperor only casually mentioned: "Hongshi is old, but he is not diligent enough in his homework. If you don't take him with you on hunting, you won't be too playful."

After finishing their business, the two of them had nothing to say.

For couples from ordinary families, if the husband is going on a long trip, the wife will also prepare clothes, shoes, money and luggage, etc., but when the emperor goes on a long trip, the Ministry of Internal Affairs will take care of it all by himself, and the empress, the official wife, will only watch and kneel to see him off.

The queen pursed her lips, and when she was trying to find a topic, the emperor had already got up.

When the emperor went out, he didn't even need to lift the sedan chair, and walked directly to the Yonghe Palace.

In Chengqian Palace, Xueya hesitated for a while, but still mentioned something to the queen, the emperor went to Yonghe Palace, and said in a low voice: "Long live Lord is not in a bad mood today. Down for dinner."

The empress is really in a good mood today, she can leave Concubine Nian in the palace and stare at her!Especially since I still have those big eyes, I can stare at the imperial concubine all the time without worrying that the emperor will scold her when he sees it, he feels really relaxed.

So it was rare to say a few more words of heart to Xue Ya, and said to her with a smile: "So what if the emperor stays for dinner?"

Xue Ya was dumbfounded by the question, didn't everyone expect the emperor to stay?

The queen picked up the tea and smelled it, but didn't drink it.The emperor stayed for dinner, so what if he was happier?She wanted to fight for favor 20 years earlier, why is she still fighting for a meal and a smiling face?

Xueya saw that the queen had stopped talking, so she knew she had made a mistake and withdrew.

Gong Mei, who was tidying up the teacup next to her, said softly: "Your Majesty, is this servant going to Yikun Palace?"

The queen couldn't help opening her face and showing a smile: In fact, among these court ladies, only Gong Mei understands her thoughts best.Although the queen no longer wants to fight for favor, people can not fight for favor, but they can't not fight for breath.

"You go, I'm so lucky to tell the imperial concubine the news."

Tell the noble concubine that the emperor will go to Chengde in August, and he will take many young concubines to visit the mountains and rivers, but he left her in the palace to look after the house with him!

Every time the emperor came to Yonghe Palace, he had to enter from the main hall of Yonghe Palace, bypass the screen wall, and then go through the front porch to the main entrance of the back hall.

In the palace without the main seat, and there are no people in the halls on both sides, the front hall and the front yard are all quiet, only the little eunuch who guards the gate silently salutes.

The emperor thought: In fact, it is better to let her live in the front hall, after all, the back is smaller.

Wait a little longer, she has not been in the palace for a full year, and there is no precedent for her being directly promoted to the main position.Unless... the emperor couldn't help thinking, would he still have children?

Another Great Qing Dynasty, who ascended the throne ten years earlier, will he have another child?

The emperor's thoughts were temporarily put aside in the apse.After passing the quiet first half of the hall, the smoke and fire rushed to the face.

It's really smoky.

The emperor saw a stove burning in the courtyard, a young eunuch was making sugar paintings, and Mrs. Xin brought several court ladies to watch.

Now Jiang Heng is the only one in the second half of the Yonghe Palace, and no one will follow her when she does anything. Of course, she is more relaxed and at ease.This sugar painting was not something she wanted suddenly, but she had been thinking about it since the last time she saw it. It happened that there was a young eunuch named Xiao Fengzi who knew how to do it, so he set up a pot to make it.

Let's say that during the Ghost Festival on July [-]th, there are sacrifices in Kunning Palace.

Ghost Festival has always been an unlucky day when the gates of hell are wide open and lonely ghosts go out to wander.

The Forbidden City has been around for hundreds of years, and it has experienced a lot of bloody places, so it is naturally more serious than the other places. This kind of Yin and Yang theory of ghosts and gods is more important, especially the harem belongs to Yin, and the sacrifices in the harem are more grand, trying to keep the lonely Feed the souls and wild ghosts, don't cause harm to the world.

After the food sacrifices are held during the day, various sacrifices will be burned at dusk.

The concubines of each palace do their best.

Jiang Heng, as a member of the harem, also wants to participate in this kind of public welfare activities, especially on Ghost Festival, how many incense candles are offered by each palace, and how much gold paper and silver paper are received to make gold rhinoceros fake belts, all the concubines keep an eye on others .

Sometimes faith and public welfare cannot escape the comparison.

It was at the solar eclipse festival that Jiang Heng saw hundreds of sugar paintings, with patterns of various colors, neatly arranged.Today, as soon as she mentioned to Qiu Xue that she also wanted two sugar paintings, Qiu Xue immediately remembered that Xiao Fengzi could draw sugar paintings, so she boiled a pot of caramel.

Seeing this, the emperor couldn't help shaking his head: her temper can be played with children.

Priests in the palace often make sugar paintings, and sometimes they even make civil and military officials, known as the sugar prime minister.

When he was a child, he met his brothers and wanted to eat sugar paintings.

But the sacrificial supplies will be burned in the end, and they will not be given to them.The emperor remembered that when he was still young, Huang Ama once specially asked the eunuch to make sugar paintings for the princes who went to the study room twice.That's it, the little pot was directly placed in the courtyard, and the brothers were all waiting happily.

It's just that it was when Lord Kangxi was young, and there were few children who had such thoughts.

By the time they went to the study at 34:[-], there were already so many princes that Lord Kangxi didn't care much about them anymore, and there was no such thing as sharing sugar paintings with the princes himself.

The emperor thought about it, and asked someone to make a sugar painting for Hongli and Hongzhou another day.

Jiang Heng went forward to pay his respects, and when he got up, he did not forget to tell the nervous Xiao Fengzi to watch the fire and pay attention to potential safety hazards.

The emperor took a sugar painting handed over by Jiang Heng, and just turned it around in his hand: "I don't like sweets."

Jiang Heng also discovered that the emperor's taste is actually very traditional. The standard Beijing dishes are very common for sweet and sour tastes, but he is more keen on spicy food.

After the emperor entered the house, he saw several women's riding clothes hanging in the east wing.

"Is this the clothes for hunting?"

Jiang Heng nodded, and asked Qiuxue to fetch the pattern map on the case: "The emperor will help the ministers and concubines take a look?"

The emperor was relaxed when he came today, and he was already leaning on the big welcoming pillow with a bit of laziness. Hearing what she said, he beckoned: "Come here, I will watch with you."

Jiang Heng leaned sideways on the other pillow, and the two of them looked at the atlas together.

There are many patterns in the palace. In order to please the concubines, the Shangyi Supervisor will draw a lot of flower and auspicious patterns, sew them into books, and send them to the palaces for the concubines to choose.

Originally, the emperor just glanced at it lazily, but after receiving it, the appearance did not attract him, but the book caught his attention.

Different from the butterfly pages, folding pages, thread-bound, and back-wrapped books that are common in the palace, there are several fine copper rings embedded in this pattern sample.

"This is?"

And what Jiang Heng wanted to show the emperor was not a fancy book in the first place, but this fancy book—a kind of her favorite book, which looks tiny but is actually a very genius invention, loose-leaf book!

The loose-leaf book is Jiang Heng's favorite among all the books.

When she was in college, she had a lot of elective courses. If she had a notebook for each course, by the end of the semester, she would not be able to tell the difference between the dozens of notebooks.

That's when she fell in love with loose-leaf books.I only bring the same notebook to class every day, or even only a pack of loose-leaf papers.Go back and then sort them into categories according to the order of the courses.

If you are afraid of confusion, you can also paste labels of various colors on the side to distinguish them.

In short, the loose-leaf book is Jiang Heng's dream book.

Now, she is going to share this dream book with the emperor, she knows that the emperor will like it.

And this loose-leaf book itself is not complicated in craftsmanship, so it's just this idea.

She asked the little eunuch in the palace to find a familiar little eunuch working in the manufacturing office, and made some of the simplest copper rings that could be opened and closed, and then punched holes in the paper with an awl, and fastened the paper with copper rings , the roughest and original loose-leaf book is ready.

Jiang Heng took the 'sample' and began to show the operation to the emperor.

She broke open the copper ring (due to the limited workmanship, it still takes a little effort to break it apart), and took off the patterns one by one.

"When Shang Yijian's pattern booklet was sent to my concubine, it was mixed with flowers, birds, fish and insects. It was a pattern booklet that was pasted according to the time when the embroiderers drew the pattern. The concubine thought, if the flowers As long as they are in one place, it is good for the birds to be in one place.”

"No, Chen Qie asked someone to make a few copper rings, then cut the booklet into pages, lined them up in order, and hung them on the copper rings. If the Shangyi Supervisor sends new flowers in the future It’s just like drilling a hole in the paper and adding it into this book according to the category.”

Looking at the emperor's expression, she knew that there was no need to say any more.

The emperor's eyes lit up.

These copper rings may seem simple, but they are actually very convenient.

Sometimes when he looked at Chen Shu, especially the accounts of various household departments, he often had to go back and forth to check the accounts in his heart, which was very annoying.

If you use this kind of booklet with copper buttons, you can take down all the relevant accounts you need and spread them out on the table, and you can see them at a glance.

Of course, with this kind of copper button booklet, there may be disadvantages such as missing a certain page or disordering the order.

But the flaws did not conceal the advantages, the emperor still saw the convenience of the office at a glance.

Jiang Heng stopped talking after the emperor's eyes lit up: Don't be too busy when reporting work, give the leader some time to think, and don't try to think of all the details, leave some white for the leader to put the finishing touches on.

She thought, with the emperor's aesthetics, and the craftsmanship of the craftsmen in the palace building office.Presumably, the simplest copper buckle book will be improved soon.

In fact, she is also looking forward to how exquisite the loose-leaf book of the Qing imperial family will be.

It must be better than the one she bought with a discount of 20 yuan before.

The emperor brainstormed for a while, and suddenly sat up straight: "Call the steward of the manufacturing office to come over!"