[Qing wear] Harem promotion expert

Jiang Heng was assigned the task of taking care of the banquet scheduled for Zhan Huaitang.

It is said that it is a family banquet in the harem, but the participants are not only the concubines of the Forbidden City, but also Jin Zhier Fujin, Chuan Fujin, and even the noble daughters of the clan in Beijing. I'm going to the back to attend the harem banquet.

And the palace man in charge of Zhan Huaitang's banquet is also an acquaintance of Yonghe Palace, and he is Chang Qing, the head of the dining room.

Chang Qing heard that the affairs of Zhan Huaitang's banquet belonged to Concubine Xin, so she jumped up and down the next day to pay her respects.He was worried that he couldn't find a reason to make an extra trip to congratulate the empress!

You must know that Zhang Yuzhu went to the open and open hall to greet and congratulate him on the day when the imperial decree was just issued on the grounds that "the concubine is promoted to the imperial concubine and the palace needs to use more eunuchs".

Chang Qing didn't want to fall behind either.

This is the first big project that Jiang Heng has received, and of course it must be done well without any problems.Therefore, seeing the old acquaintance Manager Chang who has always been good to her, I feel relaxed and satisfied, but I am also a little puzzled: "Shouldn't Manager Chang be mainly busy with the banquet in front of the court? I thought it would be the deputy manager of the dining room."

Chang Qing thought to himself that if Concubine Xi or Concubine Yu were to take care of this matter, I would have the deputy chief come over, but you can't here.It's so easy to have business affairs to be able to communicate in a fair manner, but you have to seize the opportunity.

So he just smiled and said: "The slave is in charge of the front and back. Since it is the errand of the empress, the slave dare not slack off! The deputy steward is not flexible, if the empress tells him to pass the wrong message, it will be disappointing. The slave is dedicated to doing errands for the empress Loyalty! It’s better for the servant to come and listen to the mother’s orders by himself.”

Jiang Heng was overwhelmed when he picked up the tea and took a sip.

However, although Chang Qing was slick and sweet-talking, but to be able to work steadily under the emperor for several years as the head of the kitchen, his professional quality must be excellent.

Jiang Heng was very willing to listen to professionals, so he asked Chang Qing to sit down: "What went wrong between the Mid-Autumn Festival banquet and the dining room in previous years?"

Jiang Heng also read the process of the Mid-Autumn Festival banquet before, but it didn't mention what went wrong in previous years. They were all official work reports, recording the names of the dishes, the expenses of the banquet, and the clichés for the final successful completion.

Chang Qing was familiar with it, so he told Jiang Heng about the messy places in the dining room in the past.

In fact, this kind of grand banquet, it is not very busy for the emperor to entertain all the ministers. The grand banquet is all standard dishes, and there are rules. You can prepare the ingredients and things needed for the plate many days in advance.

Whether it's delicious or not, the emperor and the courtiers basically couldn't eat much that day.

Chang Qing's focus was originally also placed in the back, the clan ordered wives to often go to and from the palace, and the dining room was ready to serve the dishes, they could tell at a glance.

Chang Qing said for a while before resigning from Su Xin Tang, and naturally received a red seal when she left.Jiang Heng smiled and said, "I've come here, I can't leave empty-handed."

Chang Qing specially came here to show her kindness. She understands that she also needs to give a little response.

After leaving the open and open hall, Chang Qing quickly poured out the rewards in the red envelope to read.As the chief manager of the dining room, he was used to rewarding him with red seals.Sometimes purses from various palaces roll in during the New Year's Eve, and he doesn't even bother to open them one by one, so he piles them up in the corner cabinet in his house, and piles up several cabinets—but the rewards from the concubine Xin are different. , Chang Qing looks forward to it every time he opens the red envelope.

Because the gold and silver cartons given by the Yonghe Palace are different every time, they are not the Fulu Shouxi or Yuanbao-shaped cartons that are uniformly made in the palace.The silver prizes issued by the Yonghe Palace are all gold and silver and patterns sent by the palace to be struck by the building office.

Just like in the past, the imperial concubine gave little goldfish everywhere.

Xinfei Empress Palace also has its own style, but it is not fixed to one style, basically it changes every two or three months.For example, Changqing has received Western puppy style (adult dogs and puppies have different weights), mango style (one tael is a cut half mango, and two tael is a whole mango), and even received I passed a fried egg-shaped golden and silver-coloured egg. This is a limited edition that appears occasionally. Up to now, Chang Qing has kept this fried egg well and will never spend it.

He and Zhang Yuzhu, Hu Xiaoshun and others would also compare in private: to see who has the most complete collection of gold and silver gongzi in the Yonghe Palace.

Zhang Yuzhu likes to pick things up very much, when the two met, Zhang Yuzhu often took the initiative to say: "The former son Xin concubine gave a new silver key to the mushroom, look, I got a big mushroom. "

Silver is much cheaper than gold, so the silver curly is also much bigger, and it really looks like a small mushroom in the palm of your hand.

Chang Qing really wanted to pick the mushrooms for him.

In order to collect all the styles and to compare, the two would go to the other palace people to charge high prices for the Yonghe Palace gold and silver coins that they did not catch up with.

Collecting the whole collection, especially the limited edition, is indeed an irresistible temptation.

If Jiang Heng knew it, he would sigh with emotion: Since there is a price increase, can I, the founder, directly make a profit from this premium.

Speaking of which, besides being interesting, she poured out all kinds of gold and silver ladles, not only for the convenience of accounting - each shape of gold and silver ladles has a different weight, but the number is fixed, Jiang Heng only needs to look at himself The surplus of Kaizi Box can roughly estimate the recent expenditure.

Speaking of living in the palace, the biggest expenditure is rewarding silver.

Especially for such a major event as Jin Feng, not only the gifts from the palaces come in, but also the rewards from her flowing water go out.

Fortunately, it has been three days since the imperial decree was issued, and the congratulations and greetings everywhere have finally come to an end.

So after Jiang Heng sorted out the "Report on Frequent Accidents at Banquets in the Palace" that Chang Qing had just mentioned, he spread out another piece of light blue bamboo paper and began to concentrate on making his own financial statements.

"Financial Summary of the Concubine's Working Stage" - another leapfrog promotion, and it is also time to calculate the overall income and expenditure during the concubine period.

The title of Jiang Heng's report on paper this time is in Latin.

She wanted to learn Latin, not only because she wanted to read more books by Westerners, but also so that she could memorize things casually without worrying about being read.The emperor has never learned Western characters before, but looking at the emperor's daily work plan, he is not worried that the emperor will learn it in the future. He is busy enough to operate at the limit every day and carry out multi-line government affairs.

After learning Latin intermittently for nearly a year, Jiang Heng was able to write report titles or simple short sentences in Latin—if he really couldn’t write, he used Chinese pinyin to make up.

In short, in the eyes of the people of Yonghe Palace, it means that the empress has begun to write tadpole prose proficiently.

Qiuxue couldn't help studying harder in private, and said to Qiushuang and the others: "We have learned to read since we arrived in Yonghe Palace, but my mother is a new learner of Western languages. I can't say that my mother is proficient in Western languages. We are better." I don’t know how to write characters yet, but I have to write the character ‘Ding’ in a booklet, and I have to write it myself.” So I took the people in the palace to learn characters more diligently.

Next to Jiang Heng was a loose-leaf booklet specially used for keeping accounts, and a stack of waste paper used for calligraphy practice, which she turned around as draft paper.

She is not used to the abacus, and she still thinks it is the most refreshing to settle accounts in a vertical way, and every transaction is recorded, which can be checked back.

At this time, while doing calculations, he sighed with emotion, the expenses in this palace are really astonishing.

You must know that even if you are promoted to the position of concubine, the annual salary is only 300 taels, but the number of single rewards in each palace throughout the year is far more than this.

Therefore, the concubines in the palace do not live on the meager basic salary every year, but the "subsidies" (both hard currency such as silk, gold, silver, etc.) that are regularly distributed by the Ministry of Internal Affairs during the holidays are the most important.

Of course, even if there is an allowance, you have to plan carefully.

On Jiang Heng's side, there is a mother's family who always takes the route of Qiu Xue to give her money, lest she will be wronged.Especially after having Minmin, Jue Ercha brought money to her daughter more frequently, and said the famous intergenerational relative's words: "It's okay if the empress is wronged for a while, but the princess is a child who can't be wronged." .”

Therefore, Jiang Heng has more money in his hands.

But as far as she knows, Concubine Yu and Concubine Xi's family can't help much. The annoyance is that when newcomers enter the palace, many come out and many enter, and it is easy to be in vain." For example, the reward given to the Ma Jia family back then was not in vain, and it is impossible to receive one in this lifetime A gift in return.

After Concubine Yu had told the truth, she remembered that Jiang Heng was also one of the rookies who let her 'come out', so she laughed and said, "I was too quick to say it, but I forgot that I was still in front of a rookie!"

Concubine Xin was promoted so quickly and held so much importance in the palace, even Concubine Yu often forgot that she was just a newcomer.

These messy thoughts passed in Jiang Heng's mind like a lantern, but it didn't affect her to settle accounts.

After she calculated all the income and expenses during the concubine period, she couldn't help frowning: when the nobleman was promoted to concubine, she had calculated the accounts during the nobleman's period, and there was a lot of balance at that time.On the contrary, being a letter concubine is actually the result of balance of payments!

It is equivalent to that she has not saved any assets for more than a year.If the money sponsored by the family is removed, it is equivalent to nothing.

Such a result made Jiang Heng, who worked hard, feel a little uncomfortable.

Promotion and salary increase, although promotion is placed before salary increase, it does not mean that promotion is more important than salary increase.Everyone hopes that promotion will bring salary increase, not free salary.

Jiang Heng couldn't help but began to review the accounts, preparing to draw a pie chart for himself to see which part of the expenditure accounted for the most.

Bisheng Qiuxue came over to add insult to injury: "Your Majesty is settling accounts? Then don't forget to add the ones you lost in the bird game yesterday."

Jiang Heng felt a pain in his heart: "Qiu Xue, your name is absolutely right."

Qiu Xue:?

Qiu Xue also thought of another thing: "My lady, it will be the fourth elder brother's birthday in three days. This year, my lady didn't ask the construction office to do something in advance, but she has a plan?"

Jiang Heng nodded: "Yes, I won't bother the Zaobu Office this year. The Zaobu Office will be busy enough throughout the year." Just take her order.

The Emperor Piansheng also ordered the head of the manufacturing office not to slack off, and not to reject any orders from the Yonghe Palace.Even if it's an embarrassing utensil, I just order the Zaoban Office to find a way to make it, saying that if I don't think about anything, what kind of Zaoban Office is called.

So this time for Hongli's birthday, Jiang Heng didn't plan to make it difficult to make an office, and planned to find some exquisite things from the Thirteenth Treasury to give to Hongli.

Seeing that the empress had already made up her mind, Qiu Xue stepped back and did not bother the empress to settle accounts: every time the empress did financial calculations, she was very devoted and focused.

Hongli's birthday is August [-]th.

Originally in the emperor's plan, he was supposed to come back on August [-]th.It was raining on Jingshan Mountain, which delayed Yujia's one-day itinerary. It was not until the early morning of the fourteenth that the emperor arrived at Yuanmingyuan.

Although the emperor was not in the Old Summer Palace, the Ministry of Internal Affairs did not dare to neglect the fourth elder brother. As usual in previous years, he gave birthday clothes, shoes, socks and accessories, and the dining room gave 99 bundles of long-lived silver silk noodles.

Since the Queen Mother in the palace, birthday gifts have also been sent to Concubine Xi.

The Empress Dowager gave her grandson a little more birthday gifts than in previous years. It was a comfort that the emperor was not at home, and that Hongli would not see Huang Ama's loss.

When Concubine Xi's mother and son went to thank the Empress Dowager, the Empress Dowager also said: "After this birthday, we Hongli will be ten years old, and we can be considered adults."

As he said that, he counted with great interest: "Next year's draft, your third brother will get married, and next time it will be Hongli's turn."

Now the Empress Dowager puts her son's thoughts purely on her grandchildren, and feels that the future can be expected: she doesn't expect to have more grandchildren, but she can start counting on her grandchildren!Four generations walk together.

The queen mother also made the decision: "Today, Hongli will stay with your mother for a while, and it will be difficult for you to enter the harem later." She couldn't help but sighed to Concubine Xi: "It can be seen that this son has grown up, and being a mother is also very difficult. Joy and pain."

According to the rules of the Qing court, after the princes were ten years old (false years old), they would not be able to walk back and forth in the harem by default like they did when they were young.

For example, when Jiang Heng first entered the palace, Hongli Hongzhou could hide in the imperial garden and play. If he wanted to go back to his elder brother, he could walk through the imperial garden, but Hongshi, who was over ten years old, could not.The older prince will start to take a long detour to avoid the entire harem and avoid bumping into the young mothers and concubines.

Correspondingly, the number of times the prince returned to the harem to visit his biological mother became less and less.

When the prince grows up, it is the process of drifting away from his biological mother.These are all complicated emotions experienced by the Empress Dowager.

After Concubine Xi and Hongli thanked the Empress Dowager for her kindness again, they returned to Hushan, where Concubine Xi lives now.

Concubine Xi really cherishes every minute and every second she spends with her son: Isn't it, it will become more and more difficult to meet each other in the future.And once the prince got married and left the palace to open the mansion, he would really have his own family, his own Fujin and children, and he would no longer be with the Erniang's family in the palace.

Thinking of this, Concubine Xi couldn't help but envy Concubine Xin.

That's right, if she had a daughter, maybe she would be more generous and let the Queen Mother often take it up for her, after all, the princess has stayed with her mother for a long time.

The dining room sent a rich meal to Concubine Xi's Palace.

Concubine Xi is usually a trouble-free person, and rarely goes to the dining room to order food alone like Concubine Xin Yufei.For her, she can eat almost anything, eat two more bites of what she likes, don't eat what she doesn't like, and just leave it to the palace.

But when Hongli was coming back, Concubine Xi naturally took her son's taste into consideration, and specially ordered a few dishes from the dining room that were always pleasing to her son.

However, Hongli didn't eat much, obviously he didn't have a good appetite.

Concubine Xi understood why, but could only sigh inwardly, and then pretended to be relaxed and said, "Should Hongli go to the side hall to see what gifts he received this year?"

Hongli had no appetite at all, so he just put down his chopsticks and got up to leave.

It was his birthday at this time last year, and Huang Ama accompanied him to eat with Er Niang.At that time, Hongli still felt that Huang Ama's presence made their mother and son very cautious, so it was better to eat alone and eat casually.

But this year, the emperor was away because of some business, so Hongli realized that it was only their mother and son, really lonely and empty.

He walked to the side hall, and saw the gifts that had been sorted out by the palace staff, piled up festively but neatly.

But it's only a year later - last year he was still interested in watching his birthday gift, but this year he felt as if he had grown up suddenly, and he was not interested in these "childish gifts".

But the subordinates still had to do something to calm their minds, so they stepped forward to look.

The top one is naturally from the aunt, the empress.As in previous years, the empress gave the study materials such as Baoyan and Shuisheng, which were the same for every prince, the only difference was the material, the meaning was to make the princes good at their studies.

Inside the room stood the maid of Concubine Xi and his own little eunuch.

So Hongli respectfully put the birthday gift of Huang'eniang on the desk with both hands to show respect.

However, the next gift made Hongli's heart sink.

The next one is the gift from Concubine Xin.

Has the palace already tacitly agreed that the gift of Concubine Xin should be placed on top of Concubine Yu?

Hongli opened the box.This time he received a mechanical ship with French characters engraved on the hull, equipped with a mechanical hub, and even a picture version of the description underneath.

This is not an ordinary ship model, but a ship model that can float in the water, and even glide on the water after being wound up.

Hongli asked the palace man to bring a basin of water, and watched the palm-sized boat slide.

When he came back to his senses, he realized that Er Niang was sitting beside him, and the palace servants had already retreated.

"Hongli, you've been worrying too much recently, you look so thin." Concubine Xi's tone was very distressed.

It happened to be the age when boys started to draw bars, and the chubby cheeks on Hongli's face had disappeared, and he had changed into a different look from the still chubby Hong Zhou.

"Emiang, my son is just studying hard in the summer." He told half the truth: "The last time the third brother couldn't write an article in the "Book of History", he was scolded by Huang Ama in front of his son and Hong Zhou, and even in front of Hong Zhou. The eunuch was punished to stand in the corner and memorize the book, which is really embarrassing, and my son is afraid that he will be punished by Huang Ama, so he must pay more attention to his studies."

Concubine Xi sat for a while, and finally asked: "Hongli, you are getting older, so naturally you have more and more things in your heart. Maybe Erniang won't be able to guess everything in the future, but I can still see it now—you Do you think that your Empress Ama will take you to Jingshan Yeling this time?"

Surprise appeared on Hongli's face, and this momentary expression proved that Concubine Xi was right.

He didn't hide anymore, just nodded slightly.

Although the matter of A Furong was banned in the palace, it was not publicized to the outside world. Hong Zhou didn't know where it happened. He only knew that the people around him and their residences had been searched in turn. Hong Zhou didn't know anything, and thought that something important had been lost in the Old Summer Palace.

But Hongli inquired carefully and heard some.

He even found out that the third elder brother almost gave this Western poison to Huang Ama to eat!For this reason, the third brother has already become sick from fright, and he is still weak and can only go to the study for half a day.

Hongli knew that the eldest son, the third brother, was finished.

Unless something happened to him and Hong Zhou, Huang Ama would never let the third brother be the crown prince.Even if they were all gone, Hongli doubted whether Huang Ama would adopt a child of Uncle Thirteen as the prince with the attitude of Huang Ama who treated Prince Yi's mansion favorably. I don't like the third brother more.

Then it will be me next, and every time Hongli thinks about it, his heart beats faster.

When he learned that Huang Ama was going to pay homage to the mausoleum in person before the Mid-Autumn Festival, Hongli was very much looking forward to it: Huang Mafa would often send an adult prince to pay homage to his ancestors instead of him. If he came personally, he would choose his favorite The princes followed.

I am not old enough to pay homage to the imperial mausoleum on my own, but who else is more suitable than myself to accompany Huang Ama to worship Huang Mafa?

In addition, August [-]th is also my tenth birthday.

If Huang Ama still remembered this matter, it would be considered as an encouragement to bring him along.

Only with anticipation will there be disappointment. Not only did the emperor not mention anything about taking the prince with him, he even issued an imperial edict to enshrine the concubine as a concubine before leaving.

These two things stirred up in Hongli's mind, making him uneasy.

"Hongli, if your Huang Ama is willing to take you with you, then you should thank you, and if you don't mention it, you shouldn't complain." Concubine Xi didn't want to break her son's mind. The older a boy is, the more self-esteem he has. The birth mother may not be happy about it.

Sure enough, Hongli's face turned red, and he quickly distinguished: "Emiang, my son is just a little disappointed, but I dare not complain to Huang Ama."

Concubine Xi's voice became cold, so cold that Hongli felt strange.

"You have no intention of complaining? But the emperor never mentioned that he would take you on a trip, so what are you missing? Your loss has been seen by someone who cares. If you mention it in front of the emperor, is it greed? Is it resentment? Isn't it? Contrary to the emperor's intentions, secretly making a move for the position of the crown prince!"

Hongli's face turned pale from the surprise of these few questions.

After a while, he said: "Emiang, I know I was wrong."

Only then did Concubine Xi soften her tone, because she would not have many chances to see her son in the future, she simply explained her speculations about the emperor for many years on this matter.

"Hongli, what Er Niang said, you can only put it in your heart and think about it slowly."

On this point, Concubine Xi is still at ease with Hongli - if she raises Hongshi, she will absolutely shut up and not talk about it, that child may sell herself at any time without knowing.

"When you were in the palace, you were still young, so you probably can't remember clearly. But at that time, your Huang Ama's temperament was different from now... Presumably it was after becoming the emperor that his heart became so unpredictable."

"But there is one thing, the emperor has always been like this: treat people with heart, once he thinks a person is good, unless that person does something that steps on his bottom line, otherwise he thinks people are good anyway."

"Similarly, if he sees that a person has a grudge, he will do nothing wrong."

"Hongli, your majesty will be very cautious when dealing with you princes, and you will not choose someone or reject someone just because of one or two things. Now when you are at an age when the important things are important - next year there will be a separate Master teaches you that you should no longer just learn a few collections of classics and history, but start to learn how to manage common affairs and even get in touch with government affairs."

"You can't make mistakes from the very beginning, making your Huang Ama feel that you are a dissatisfied son, a greedy son."

It is true that being the son of an emperor is honorable, but he also bears the burden first if he wants to wear the crown. To be a prince, he must always accept the scrutiny from his father.

If you can't pass the trial, it's not a golden hat but a golden shackle.

Always be content and grateful, always take the emperor's father as the first criterion, and never be ambitious (at least in the eyes of the emperor).

Concubine Xi thought for a while before carefully giving her advice to her son: "You can learn more from your Thirteenth Uncle, and you will know what kind of courtiers your Emperor Ama values."

Hongli didn't hold back until he got here and interjected: "Er Niang, but I'm not just a courtier."

Concubine Xi said indifferently: "A prince is not as good as a courtier. The closer you are to the emperor, the less chance you will make mistakes."

That night, Hongli was still distracted when he left.

Concubine Xi still carried the lantern herself and sent her son out.

But seeing her son's figure who lost a lot of weight recently disappearing around the corner, Concubine Xi suddenly felt a little flustered: What she taught just now was her own experience in life, and with this experience she didn't suffer in the harem, and she was safe until she became a concubine. .

But can Hongli be a prince?

For a moment, Concubine Xi almost wanted to call her son back, make him forget what he said just now, and be a prince according to his own ideas.

In this way, if something goes wrong in the future, the son may not blame her.

Due to a one-day delay in Jingshan, the emperor was busy with the Mid-Autumn Festival banquet after returning to the palace.

The emperor did not come to Suxin Hall until after the Mid-Autumn Festival.Seeing Emperor Jiang Heng, he first smiled and asked: "How is it the first time you are in charge? Did you feel any difficulties?"

From the emperor's point of view, before she was in charge of the Yonghe Palace and Jingyang Palace, she was not called the head of the house, at best she was called tidying up her own private house, and only the grand banquet in the palace was considered a serious start to contact the head of the house.

Jiang Heng responded with a smile: "A concubine knows how difficult it is even if she is not in charge of the family."

As he spoke, he took out his account book and showed it to the emperor.

Just waiting for the emperor to come back!