[Qing wear] Harem promotion expert

In the eighth month of the lunar calendar, osmanthus seeds are fragrant in the Old Summer Palace.

Osmanthus fragrans has always been a common tree in the palace because of the homonym of "gui" in the name of the flower.

In the Old Summer Palace, there are mixed varieties of golden osmanthus, silver osmanthus, and osmanthus osmanthus. The flowering period is scattered in the morning and evening. The fragrance of osmanthus can float from July to the end of September.

When Jiang Heng went out to pay his respects to the Empress in the morning, he often saw little court ladies carrying bamboo baskets, and silver scissors with open blades but blunt heads were placed in the baskets.I think I was ordered to come out to cut the osmanthus branches and go back to pick osmanthus flowers.

Because sweet-scented osmanthus flowers are small and delicate, they cannot be picked directly one by one.I can only take advantage of the early morning to cut off the branches with sweet-scented osmanthus, and go back and slowly choose the flowers.

If you want to get the fragrance of sweet-scented osmanthus, you can directly choose a well-arranged vase, or take off the blossoming sweet-scented osmanthus and put them floating in a crystal basin filled with water, so that the room will have more fragrance of sweet-scented osmanthus.

If you want to make sweet-scented osmanthus cake, sweet-scented osmanthus lotus root, sweet-scented osmanthus glutinous rice balls, etc., you need to pass the flowers through a fine sieve again, and then slowly wash them off little by little.

What season to eat and what to eat, the little maid of Suxintang also went out to cut osmanthus a few times, and the small kitchen even made a small jar of osmanthus honey to seal.

Time is soaked in the sweet-scented osmanthus fragrance day after day.

In the midst of this scent of osmanthus, on August [-]th, the emperor suddenly issued an imperial decree to canonize the concubine Xin as concubine Xin, and then ordered the Ministry of Internal Affairs to prepare the concubine conferring ceremony before the princess's first birthday ceremony.

The news came without warning, like a big stone was suddenly thrown into the calm water.

Immediately reached the top of the hot search list in Yuanmingyuan.

Everyone's first reaction was astonishment, and then they subconsciously broke their hands and counted: How long has it been since Concubine Xin was promoted to concubine?No, to put it this way, how long has she been in the palace?

But no matter how much she broke her fingers and how she counted, concubine Xin entered the palace for less than three years!This, this Jinfeng is too fast!

It has always been a rule that drafts are held every three years, and the second round of drafts since the emperor ascended the throne will officially start next year.Therefore, strictly speaking, Jiang Heng is still considered as a rookie in the first draft—as long as she does not enter the next batch of rookies, she will be the one with the lowest qualifications, a real rookie.

But what kind of newcomer is this?The rate of promotion is too fast!

However, no matter how unbelievable the people who heard the news are, the imperial decree has been issued and it is a certainty. I heard that Concubine Xin is now receiving the decree.When everyone meets tomorrow, they will really change their names to Concubine Xin.

Jiang Heng received the order in the frank hall.

After she received the imperial decree, Su Peisheng, who had stood in front of her on behalf of the emperor to proclaim the decree, hurriedly stepped aside, not daring to accept the concubine Xin's gift.

Jiang Heng stood up holding the bright yellow imperial decree.

The person in the palace who was least surprised by this concubine was actually Jiang Heng himself.Ever since she talked with the emperor by the goldfish pond, she knew that this concubine would not be too far away.

The emperor is the kind of person who treats people well and is scary.

For example, for the Thirteenth Lord, the emperor kept not mentioning all kinds of considerate and excessive rewards, and even wanted the Thirteenth Lord to be buried in the imperial mausoleum with him in the future, and to give the highest posthumous honor-the sacrifice for the descendants of Aixinjueluo in the future When worshiping yourself, you can't forget to worship Prince Yi.The thirteenth master was so scared that he didn't know what to do, so he had to pick another place for his mausoleum in a hurry, and firmly rejected the emperor's kindness.

Jiang Heng handed the imperial decree to Nanny Yu who was next to him.

Today, Nanny Yu did not use a wheelchair, but changed to a crutch, and put on the solemn embroidered waistcoat of the nanny in charge, and accompanied Jiang Heng to receive the order.

At this time, solemnly collect the imperial decree for her.

Jiang Heng smiled at Su Peisheng and said, "I wanted to stay with my father-in-law to drink tea, but the emperor is going out soon and you are very busy, so I don't want to stay here for nothing." Now the tacit understanding between Jiang Heng and Qiu Xue is no longer needed. Her eyes widened, she didn't turn her head or signal at all, Qiu Xue had just handed over a palm-sized red silk purse just right.

Jiang Heng took it and handed it to Su Peisheng himself: "But Su Adada still has to hold the red seal."

Su Peisheng lowered his head and lifted the red seal with both hands, with a clear smile on his face: "The servant will be happy and be the first one to thank the concubine Xin for her reward."

Afterwards, he really hurried to leave: "Your Majesty is sympathetic, this servant will go back to Jiuzhou Qingyan."

He had to be busy with the palace servants of Jiuzhou Qingyan to pack the emperor's luggage and daily necessities for going out.

The emperor will go to Jingshan to pay homage to the mausoleum of the first emperor before the Mid-Autumn Festival.

Although the Ministry of Internal Affairs prepared the necessities, food, housing and transportation of the Long Live Lord according to the usual practice, Su Peisheng still had to remember the details, otherwise, if the emperor was not happy for a while, it would be due to the dereliction of duty by his closest chief eunuch.

This evening the emperor went to Suxin Hall for dinner, intending to see their mother and daughter before leaving.

The emperor followed the voice of the inner eunuch and entered the door.

Jiang Hengyuan was watching Minmin play in the east room, and when he heard the sound, he happened to bump into the emperor.Before she greeted her, the emperor nodded directly: "Is Minmin here?" Then he gently supported her arm and went straight to see his daughter.

Minmin is sitting and playing on the big kang by the window. The edge of the kang has long been surrounded by a thick soft screen, like a large crib, so that she will not roll off no matter how much she plays on the bed.

The only opening of the soft screen was blocked by two wet nurses.

After the emperor came, the people who blocked the gap became the emperor and Jiang Heng.

"The concubine is watching Minmin fishing for flowers."

There is a rather heavy crystal bowl filled with water in front of Minmin. Small sweet-scented osmanthus flowers are floating on the water surface, and the water waves caused by the rippling flowers are swaying together with the light of various colors refracted by sunlight through the pale pink crystal bowl. , Even the walls and roofs reflected several colors of rainbow light.

The bright and jumping colors attract Min Min's attention.

She stretched out her little hand to catch flowers in the water.

The sweet-scented osmanthus is so small that she can't do such fine fishing. Every time the sweet-scented osmanthus leaks cunningly from the fingers of her little hands, Minmin will look at her empty hands suspiciously.

The emperor and Jiang Heng watched her from the sidelines.

Jiang Heng just smiled and watched his daughter work hard, but the emperor was a little anxious. Jiang Heng saw his hand resting on his knee, and his index finger was moving up and down slightly. impulse.

Minmin stopped reaching out after the sixth time the monkey fished for the moon and seemed to be unable to find anything.

Instead, sit there and stare at the water.

The two thought that Minmin would burst into tears if she couldn't catch it, and the emperor was going to hug his daughter to coax her. Unexpectedly, she sat and looked at the water for a while, then turned around and crawled to the other side, lying on her stomach. On her cloth tiger, she found a comfortable position and soon fell asleep.

The emperor was a little dumbfounded.

After a long while, the emperor turned his head and looked at her with some hope and said with a smile: "The looks follow me, but the temperament does not follow me."

But in his heart, he was very relieved: it would be nice to follow her temperament that can afford and let go.Whether a person is happy in this life is not necessarily how much he has gained, but more importantly, how much he has let go.

It would be nice if Minmin had the same temperament as her.

After a simple dinner, the emperor did not stay overnight: "I will leave early in the morning, and I will go to bid farewell to the empress first, so I won't stay here tonight... I will go for four or five days at most. , you stay at home with Minmin, and wait for me to come back to eat mooncakes during the Mid-Autumn Festival."

As he said that, he couldn't help but sighed with a smile: "Really, everything is crowded together. It was decided two months earlier that I was going to Jingshan to visit the mausoleum, and I was selected for the concubine position calculated for you by Qin Tianjian and Zhongzheng Hall. The auspicious day is also today—they bumped into each other.”

Originally, as soon as the concubine's imperial decree was issued, the emperor always had to come over twice.

"That's all it takes."

The emperor finally chose metaphysics, and issued an imperial decree according to the auspicious day, without delay.

Jiang Heng put his hand on the emperor's arm, and gently comforted him twice: "Minmin was not yet one year old, and the emperor promoted the concubine to the concubine." She paused: "I remember what the emperor said that night. I will never disappoint the emperor's will."

The emperor also raised his hand and pressed it on her hand, feeling a different sense of peace from holding a vermilion pen to criticize the world.

Suddenly the palm moved, and the emperor saw that she was about to withdraw her hand, so he couldn't help but gestured with his eyes: "What's wrong?"

Jiang Heng said: "The emperor just came in and looked at Minmin together. The concubine has not yet thanked the emperor with a big gift."

Tell my daughter to disturb, the process after promotion and salary increase has not gone yet.

After Jiang Heng withdrew his hand and straightened his sleeves, just as he was about to move, the emperor supported him again: "Forget it, do you really want to salute? You don't have to do this in private. Let's wait until the day of the canonization ceremony, and let everyone wait and see." .”

So after a thunderstorm from Concubine Feng was left behind, the emperor went out.

Fun House.

Holding a teacup, the Queen asked Xueya who was squatting on the ground to sort out the list: "Have you found the one I mentioned?"

Spread out on the floor were individual sheets of a loose-leaf book.This is a treasury booklet specially used to reward concubines and wives inside and outside the Queen's Palace.

This meeting is asking Xue Ya to find a suitable reward for 'Xin Concubine and Concubine Concubine'.

No matter how sudden the matter of the concubine was, the emperor would never be able to keep the queen silent.The queen knew about it two days in advance, but she couldn't help being surprised: it was a matter of time before the concubine became a concubine, but it was a bit beyond her expectation that it was so early.

While sorting out the list on the ground, Xueya said: "The bonsai that the empress said about the bonsai wearing pearls and plums, but the servant did not find it. Could it be that it was put in the booklet in the warehouse of Chengqian Palace? The servant will go get those loose leaves again. Book here..."

It was Gong Mei who remembered: "I remember that there is a bonsai of plum blossoms, and the empress seems to have given it to Twelve Fujin as a congratulatory gift for the birth of a child."

The queen also thought of this, and said to Xue Ya: "Yes, I forgot. Then go and see if there are any other similar gemstone bonsai - pick a few more good ones, and I will choose again later. .”

This time it was a reward for Concubine Xin's concubine position, so it can't be taken lightly, so the queen had to look at it in person before sending it to the frank hall.

Mentioning the married woman of Twelve Fujin, Xue Ya couldn't help but said while sorting out the list: "When the imperial decree is spread, those Fujin and Gaoming wives will enter the palace again, and there will be less gossip in front of Concubine Xin...concubine Xin."

Since the Ministry of Internal Affairs began preparations for the next year's draft in July, "draft" has become the most talked about topic in the mouths of wives inside and outside.When you meet, you can't help but talk about it, and discuss with each other whether there are any sons in your family who are waiting to be married, and whether there are daughters who are of suitable age to run for election.

Very lively.

Naturally, there are also quite a few people who deliberately bring up the matter of the draft on various occasions where there is a concubine Xin, and what they say is a bit yin and yang, such as, "Newcomers will be admitted next year, and the palace will be lively again"; "I don't know next year. Will there be a great fortune among the newcomers, who can add another prince to the emperor.Speaking of which, the emperor has been on the throne for nearly five years, and he hasn't added a prince yet' (the one who said this was reprimanded by the queen for making a disgraceful plea for the royal heir).

Just a glimpse of the leopard can be seen, among the wives inside and outside, there are many concubines waiting to fall out of favor after next year's draft.

Among them, there are interests involved, and they hope that their own or relatives' daughters will be favored in the palace, so they hope that the concubine Xin will fall out of favor, and there are also those who are not too serious to watch the excitement.

These spectators may not have any hostility towards Concubine Xin, or even know each other well, but it is interesting to watch the change of favorite concubine in the palace.At that time, the process of Nian Guifei's fall from the altar became one of the freshest and exciting gossips among the women in Beijing when they went privately.

The imperial decree of the emperor must clearly and clearly break the minds of many spectators.At least for now, the emperor believes in his concubine, no, concubine Xin's mother and daughter are very important people in his heart.

"Are there still a lot of gossips in their mouths? If there is no one, there will always be another." The queen didn't care about it lightly, and places with many people always have a lot of gossip.

Sure enough, many wives quickly stopped watching the excitement, and instead shifted their gossip hearts to next year's show girls.

The Eight Banners Noble Girls said that there were quite a few, but if they said more, they would never be too many for people to count.Considering the age, the eldest son of the emperor, Fujin, will be born next year.

The enthusiasm of the imperial orders shifted to betting on the first prince, Fujin.

On the day when the concubine was granted the imperial decree, the empress finally chose a golden vase of pearl flowers and trees for Concubine Xin.

"Send the things to the manufacturing office first, and ask them to tighten the gold thread on top. The princess is at a lively age, so don't let the gold and silver leaves fall off and scratch her."

After Xueya obeyed her order and left, the queen shook her head and said to Gongmei beside her, "After the draft next spring, there will probably be more discussions outside."

Next year's draft will not keep anyone in the harem, and now it is a secret for four people (gongmei and the queen are considered one).

The emperor, empress dowager, and Jiang Heng found out about it on the same day, and later the emperor talked about it with the empress alone: ​​as the master of the harem, she must always have a bottom line in her heart.She needs to preside over the process of the draft, but since there are no people left in the harem, you can spend less energy preparing newcomers to enter the palace.

The emperor is very clear about the queen's temperament, she likes to take care of everything, and if she doesn't arrange everything in advance, she may not be able to sleep at night.

If you don't tell her that there will be no newcomers entering the palace next year, the empress will definitely arrange the newcomer's house in advance and prepare all the arrangements, which will waste the empress's time and energy in vain.

The queen was of course a little surprised that there were no newcomers in the harem.

But with the background of the imperial concubine in the past, the queen will not be too surprised when the emperor makes decisions in the harem—let alone newcomers when the emperor ascends the throne, the old people who originally hid in the mansion and those who could not enter the palace can be watched at Prince Yong’s mansion What about the gate!

But this time, the emperor would tell her privately in advance, apparently to understand her hard work in handling palace affairs.

The queen felt that enough was enough: what she wanted was the respect the emperor should place on her status, and understanding was a surprise.

So the queen was very happy.

"I just don't know. When the time comes, I will just have someone clean Chuxiu Palace and put on a show. Don't worry, otherwise I have to think about choosing some old-fashioned nuns to teach Chuxiu Palace—in fact, the rules They are all taught in the same way, but who can teach them how to live in this harem? They entered the palace with Concubine Xin back then, and now two of them are still learning to cultivate soil in Hengchun Nursery. They went to the same place back then. class!"

Gong Mei also smiled: Yes, this is something that cannot be taught.

It's not that Jiang Heng doesn't know the thoughts of some wives.

But to live, one must live in the eyes of others and be talked about by others.

She has also experienced it in the workplace.

The most important thing is to live your own life well, and it is not a big deal for others to watch the excitement.Her real joys, sorrows and joys, whether she is living a good life or not, except for her family, will really care about it. To others, it is just a few gossips after dinner, which is not important.

Since she is not important to others, then others are not important to her.

Jiang Heng has always regarded these wives' flirting and gossip as passing wind.

Anyway, now no one dares to dance in front of her and directly yell at her.Speaking of which, she was still a bit lonely - after the battle on the imperial concubine's birthday, there was no one who wanted to face her face-to-face, only to have a yin and yang in the air.

For Jiang Heng, the discussions behind others' backs are not as important as winning an extra chance this time.

After all, it was the first time in many years that she played mahjong again!

The day after the concubine's edict came down, the emperor left the palace, and Jiang Heng received the rewards from the queen mother and the queen's palace.

The gifts for the rest of the concubines have to be delivered one day later, so it is not good to compete with the empress dowager.

It was also because from the moment the concubine's imperial decree was issued, the three concubines in the palace could only give her congratulatory gifts of the same level, and they were no longer rewards, and they had to deliver them in person one day later.

On the second day, it was still Concubine Xi who arrived first.

Even if she is as stable as Concubine Xi, she is not without emotion: this is the third time she has prepared a gift for the Guarjia family.

The first time she came out from the Chuxiu Palace, as a newcomer, received gifts from the empresses of the palaces. At that time, she casually asked the palace people to prepare the clothes. , just give more according to the empress dowager's example.

For the second time, the nobleman Xin became a concubine Xin, and she was the official master, so she also carefully selected some materials and sent them to her.

Unexpectedly, not long after, it was no longer a reward, but a congratulatory gift between peers.

After Concubine Xi said what she should have said, she quickly left without staying.

After she left, Jiang Heng asked Qiu Xue to make preparations: "Let's change tea for snacks. When Sister Yu Concubine arrives, I'm afraid she won't just sit for a while."

Sure enough, Concubine Yu came after Concubine Xi, but not only did she come with congratulatory gifts, the big court lady Huang Yang beside her was also carrying a whole set of agate mahjong!

"The emperor has gone out of the palace. We are all fine today. I just want to take advantage of your happy event to play a game of bird cards! I have been addicted to cards recently." Concubine Yu was very excited, and asked Jiang Heng repeatedly: "Would you like to play cards?" ? No, I will teach you."

Jiang Heng touched the mahjong block with nostalgia: "I can do it a little bit."

Concubine Yu directly turned to the guests and asked Qiu Xue to lead people to prepare a square table. In order to fear that Jiang Heng would have no bargaining chips here, she even brought the chips for winning or losing.

And Concubine Yu not only came by herself, but also brought a bird card, she even brought a card partner.

Guo Guiren followed Concubine Yu, smiled and went forward to salute her: "I have seen Concubine Xin."

Jiang Heng really misses Mrs. Guo a little bit.

Ever since she became pregnant, the number of times Mr. Guo interacted with her has dropped sharply. First, Mrs. Guo wanted to follow Concubine Yu, and she was not easy to run here when Concubine Yu was avoiding suspicion. Second, Mrs. Guo was ordered by the emperor. She was so frightened by her actions that she didn't dare to come to the Yonghe Palace at all, for fear that the emperor would think that she had bad intentions and take advantage of the concubine Xin's pregnancy to win favor.

Because when Jiang Heng was pregnant, the emperor not only disposed of Nian Gengyao and Longkodo, but also packed up Concubine Qi and Nian concubine and sent them to Yuanmingyuan.

This incident left a deep psychological shadow on Guo - even the birth mother of the eldest son of the emperor and the former imperial concubine could be moved to the Old Summer Palace. Once the emperor became ruthless, it would be so scary!

Even if Mrs. Guo didn't know what mistakes the two made, Mrs. Guo still knew about their glorious past.

She felt that she could not compare with the two at all.

If you make a mistake, you may not even be able to go to the Old Summer Palace.

To say that in the Mulan paddock that day, Guo shunned and did not fight for favor, partly because he was afraid of the emperor, partly because he felt unwilling to take advantage of others' danger and did not want to have quarrel with Jiang Heng.

So now, she is totally afraid of the emperor like a mouse is afraid of a cat.

And it's not that she hasn't shown her face in front of the emperor - she has demonstrated her riding skills in the Mulan paddock, and even won the empress dowager's own praise for her good riding skills.But after that, the emperor still didn't turn over her sign, and didn't even announce that she had met personally, so Guo Shi gave up.

After the matter of Concubine Qi's concubine, Guo Shi didn't want to compete for favor at all. In fact, she had seen people competing for favor in front of the emperor. They were either allocated gardens or planted flowers, and none of them ended well.

So much so that Guo's psychological shadow was so great that Guo didn't dare to follow Concubine Yu to visit Jiang Heng again until the emperor went out of the palace to pay homage to Jingling, and stayed to play mahjong with peace of mind.

Now, Mrs. Guo wants to live a good life with Concubine Yu, and then build a good relationship with the newly released Concubine Xin. In the future, it is best to be the main position based on her qualifications, and she will start the old-age care mode on the spot in this palace.

Compared with poker, the heaviness of mahjong and the distinct touch in the hand endow entertainment with a solid pleasure.

Jiang Heng also took a break from his busy schedule.

She is very busy now: she has to go to the Queen's Palace every day, not to mention the morning and evening, and spends time interacting with her daughter, taking care of her own palace affairs, and accompanying the emperor. The queen mother even asked her to sort out the historical stories Interesting coincidences and legends', at the same time, she did not forget to learn some Latin, so that she can read Western books later.

It was a rare relaxation for her to be able to spend half a day concentrating on playing mahjong in this kind of leisure.

Concubine Yu felt even more happy when she went to the table to discuss card skills with her: "In my palace, only Xiao Guo and I can play bird cards seriously. It's no fun to win, so I have to play cards as a pastime."

Here, Jiang Heng was serious about defeating them, and the other one, Nanny Yu, who was the fourth person at the table, was a palace official, but her qualifications were here. Playing cards with the concubines is naturally not timid, and it is fun to play seriously.

Playing mahjong is the best occasion for chatting.

Concubine Yu said to Jiang Heng: "I heard that when your elder brother came to the foreign affairs office, there were people who thought that it was better to be an imperial guard, but it has only been a while, and they have been replaced! Now it is a hot job! Because Jiubeile is in charge Over there, when Jiufu Jin entered the palace, she was more confident than in the previous two years, and many wives from inside and outside went to chat with her to beg for favors, and wanted to put her own children in as errands."

The department that the emperor valued was good work. After the A Furong incident, the emperor really wanted to build a foreign affairs office, systematically review the business and exchanges with Western countries, strictly guard against what should be prevented, and increase what should be entered.

So it became popular there immediately.

Ju Jiangheng got the news from the family that now her grandfather spends more time in the yamen than her uncle, Su Yi, and has become the busiest one in the family. It can be said that this retirement and re-employment has aroused the old man's interest.

Ama of the Guo family is the assistant leader of the Han army banner, and is in charge of many bannermen and coats, so he can pass a few words through people and daughters in the palace.

Mrs. Guo was curling her lips at this moment: "I, Ama, even asked the eunuch who went out of the palace to buy something to bring in a word, saying that your brother entered the foreign affairs office, and now the foreign affairs office is booming, urging me again Go to the emperor and see if you can find an errand for my brother in the foreign affairs office."

"That is to say, my mother doesn't know, she knows that she must show Ama's face! What brother do I have? My mother's eldest brother has gone to the northwest to guard the frontier with King Xunjun, isn't it good enough? I There is also a younger brother who is studying and has just passed the examination for scholar! But Ahma himself has not moved his official position for seven or eight years."

Guo said it freely, which shows that he doesn't treat them as outsiders.If I really have something in my heart, I'm embarrassed to say it.

Mrs. Guo said: "I couldn't hold it back, and asked the messenger to bring me another message, Ah Ma: Don't just look at the face of other people's daughters in the palace, but see that Ah Ma has been promoted several times to become an earl." .Ama, you have to do more business outside, and my daughter is waiting for your good news inside."

His father wanted a chicken baby, but Guo didn't accept it, so he came back with a chicken dad.

Concubine Yu laughed so hard that all the cards in her hand were wrong, and she wanted to get back the three of a kind she had played by mistake, but Jiang Heng held her down and had no regrets, so she had to give up with regret.

Afterwards, while playing cards, Concubine Yu talked about what she had heard, the rivalry between the princes of the palaces, or who had a new concubine in their family.

Jiang Heng smiled and listened: In life, you look at me and I look at you.The wives inside and outside like to watch the excitement in the palace, no, the concubines in the palace also like to watch the house fights outside the palace.

After only four laps, someone from the Empress Dowager's office suddenly came to invite, saying that there was something important to do, so all the concubines should go over.

Concubine Yu didn't even throw the white board out, she squeezed it in surprise and said, "Ah? Could it be that the Empress Dowager has clairvoyance? It hasn't been long since we set up the table here!"