[Qing wear] Harem promotion expert

The emperor took the loose-leaf book that Jiang Heng handed over, and saw the dark pattern of mountains and flowers that the two of them would use when they communicated.It's just that he often draws with a vermilion brush, while Jiang Heng uses a light blue, just like the thin blue of "the whiteness of the East".

He couldn't help looking up at her, with a smile on his face.

Look down at her account again.

This is not the first time that the emperor has looked at the accounts and treasury records of the Yonghe Palace.

He was quite happy to read the various account books compiled by Jiang Heng himself. It was clear and simple, and it was not something that required him to make a decision.

But this time he looked more attentively.

Because the first sheet of the workbook is a color bar graph.

It is not the one-line bar chart corresponding to the time and event she drew back then, but two vertical bars with different colors and contrasts, with the words "noble person" and "婚" written underneath, and the height of the bar represents the silver taels spent.

So the emperor found out the problem at a glance: "When I was a concubine, I spent so much more money than when I was a nobleman?" The bar of concubine was much higher.

Turning back casually, I saw that the next few pages were densely packed details.

Comparing the easy-to-know comparison chart with the small print on the next few pages, the emperor can't help but feel that this kind of comparison bar chart is very convenient to look at, and you can use it to compare the annual expenditures of various ministries...

On the other hand, Jiang Heng uttered the common feeling of modern parents: "Your Majesty, it's all because of raising children. The concubine found that raising children is the most expensive. As long as you have children, you can't save money."

Although it is the common emotion of parents all over the world, it is really not the emotion of the royal family, especially the emperor with few heirs, who never thinks that children are such a big expense.Even if the prince wants to enclose land and open a mansion when he is old enough to allocate more than 20 taels of silver to An's family, this amount of money is nothing compared to the huge expenses spent every year to support the royal family and maintain the daily operation of the Forbidden City.

So the emperor didn't take it seriously, but Zhi Yi just sat and listened to her.

Jiang Heng felt so sincerely, and the accounts also showed that: Before Minmin, her income was always greater than her expenditure.

But after Minmin... Although Minmin's basic necessities, food, housing, transportation, and nursing mother and babysitter are all the princess's own duties, but the rewards given to Minmin's people around her every year and festivals are naturally from Jiang Heng as a mother. Can't be less.

Moreover, Jiang Heng often handed over the design drawings to the manufacturing office to make small things and toys for Minmin. All the costs and processing fees had to be paid by himself.

The little that adds up is really a considerable expense.

Hearing her eloquence, the emperor actually calculated the cost of raising a child so clearly, and found it even more interesting, so he let out an "oh".

Jiang Heng: ... Do you want me to explain the salary increase so clearly?Where did the leader who saw through my mind go?

Moreover, although the emperor said that he was so ruthless when asking for debts, he was not a stingy person.Belong to the kind of people who deserve to spend money in this province.For example, this Mid-Autumn Festival, the emperor ordered to build four courtyard houses next to the capital for the military aircraft Jingzhang, so that they could live nearby when they were on duty in the morning shift of the military aircraft.

Now the military plane is up.

In addition to Zhang Tingyu Ertai, who led the Han and Manchu military aircraft and was known as the "Kui Shou", there were also about thirty "Military Aircraft Jingzhang" in the Military Aircraft Department who were in charge of minor tasks, all of whom were young. A courtier, the official position is not high.And those who can be selected by Lord Yongzheng to work in the military aircraft department are destined to be quite honest and capable. Young people with low official positions are destined to have low income (at least gray income is not high).

As a result, most of them could not afford to buy a house under the imperial city. Most of them lived in the suburbs of Beijing. , had to rent a house to live.

In order not to delay the mistakes, if these Beijing officials are on duty in the morning shift, they will inevitably leave early in the morning to enter the Forbidden City to work on errands.And the emperor's temperament destined them to have to work overtime from time to time, and sometimes they could only leave the imperial city in the middle of the night.

After a long time, it is inevitable to work hard and lose energy.

No need for other people to submit papers, the emperor cared about their difficulties, and built a "collective dormitory" for them alone, which shows that he is definitely not a stingy person to his subordinates.

So Jiang Heng did the calculations for a long time, and looked forward to looking at the emperor: Give me a little more salary, the main thing is that the child belongs to both of us!

Unexpectedly, the emperor said "Oh".

The emperor wanted to see what she had to say.

I saw that she seemed to be taken aback by her 'oh', and then changed her words: "Your Majesty, my concubine has discovered something."

The emperor suppressed a smile in his belly: "Let's listen to it."

Jiang Heng explained his income and expenditure from another angle: "The courtiers look at the old rules in the palace, many of them are the rules set by the Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang at that time, and the same is true for Yueyin. It's just that the expenses in the palace are much higher than in the past." Your Majesty, you have to look at the level of inflation to raise wages.

Unexpectedly, the emperor was serious: "It can be seen that the trend of exaggeration in the palace is gradually fading - the price of rice outside has not fluctuated much these years."

Jiang Heng: ...Then I don't eat the rice from your house, but the rice from outside?

Outside, how can anyone reward people with golden scorpions at every turn?

The emperor looked very interesting at her expression, and was waiting to see what she could say, but Jiang Heng gave up.

Forget it, wait until later to bring up the raise: you've just got a promotion, and the next raise seems a little rushed.

Seeing that she stopped talking, the emperor wanted to tease her again, so he took the initiative to ask: "You just said that the extra money spent on the concubine is mainly because of Min Min?" But I think it's okay, and Minmin didn't spend much."

Jiang Heng got up: "Your Majesty, wait a moment, the concubine has already figured it out, and I will show it to you."

Jiang Heng saw that the emperor took the initiative to ask, so he tried one last time, turned around and went to the study room to get a new chart on the table - a pie chart representing the proportion of various expenses at a glance!

She originally wanted the emperor to give her a 'salary increase' before taking out the pie chart.

Now that the emperor asked about it, she took it out first: "When the concubine was settling accounts, seeing that she spent so much more money than when she first entered the palace, she couldn't help but wonder where all the money went. So after calculating the total amount of silver, I calculated the various categories and drew them on a map according to the proportion."

She pointed to the part that took up half of the pie chart and specially painted it in bright red: "Look, Your Majesty, more than half of this is spent on Min Min."

Of course, Minmin accounted for such a large proportion, mainly because Jiang Heng put all the money spent in the manufacturing office on his daughter...

The emperor was attracted by the pie chart: this picture is very convenient to see the proportion of various expenses.She likes to draw, so she always draws things out, unlike courtiers who are used to expressing in words.

Although the picture is simple and not detailed enough, it is clear enough to quickly let people grasp the general direction.

Maybe it's also a family background.

The emperor recalled that in the past, he summoned important ministers to discuss matters in the Hall of Mental Cultivation. When it came to accounts of the Ministry of Accounts, the observation and insurance calculations were very fast, and the accuracy of the answers was also high, almost as good as Prince Yi—but Prince Yi was personally taught by the emperor. Mathematics, and when the emperor was young, it was the time when Lord Kangxi was obsessed with Western mathematics and forced every prince to do math problems.Therefore, the emperor has a good foundation in mathematics.

Generally, courtiers study for the imperial examination. Although "numerals" is also a gentleman's six arts, its importance is naturally lower than that of the four books and five classics.

Guan Bao's ability to count so quickly shows that he is naturally dexterous in logarithmic calculations.

Just like some people are born with a mess of logarithms - the emperor still remembers that the third brother and fifth younger brother who were in the study at that time were very painful when faced with arithmetic problems, and taking math classes was like going to a grave.Especially the third master, whenever Huang Ama had to do calculations in exams, he was not at all as comfortable as when he was usually composing poems and essays. Asking him to do the math seemed like he was so worried that he wanted to pull out his braids.

It can be seen that the perception of numbers is different from person to person.

From this point of view, Guanbao and his family are considered to be "numerical thinking" people.

He looked at the pie chart once, nodded and said, "Well, the picture is pretty good." He still didn't answer Jiang Heng's words.

At this moment, Jiang Heng has already realized that the emperor is probably not trying to deceive her on purpose, but is really teasing her because he has seen through her desire for a salary increase.

So he stopped talking and just looked at the emperor.

The emperor asked her to look at it and laughed, cleared her throat before pointing to the pale yellow piece on the pie chart: "Not to mention Minmin, just look at your daily expenses on the dining room, it's not a small sum."

Jiang Heng was speechless: the Engel coefficient in her palace was not low, because she ordered something she liked almost every day.

Even if the dining room led by Chang Qing never dared to open their mouths and ask for money from the Yonghe Palace, Jiang Heng couldn't let the kitchen masters work overtime for nothing. Naturally, he had to pay for extra meals.

Seeing that the daily expenses are small, but just like ordering takeaway, the accumulation of small amounts becomes more, and it is really quite a big piece when calculated throughout the year.

Jiang Heng said in a low voice: "When I was a concubine, my concubine happened to be pregnant, so I ate for Minmin."

The emperor couldn't help laughing out loud.

Then he pulled her over and said, "Okay. I know, it's been hard for you to raise your child, and thanks to your ability to live, you can't make ends meet, right?"

"That's good, I'll subsidize you."

The national treasury and the emperor's private treasury have always been two different things.

While the emperor was committed to increasing the revenue of the national treasury, he did not forget his private treasury: most of the money in the emperor's private treasury came from the royal estate and the corresponding land stores under the emperor's personal name. In other words, the emperor is the country's largest landlord Even merchants.

The emperor is also very strict about his own private house, and it is absolutely impossible for the farmer to fool him with bad weather and bad harvest, so that the harvest is not good.

Therefore, the emperor's private treasury is quite thick.

"The salary of the concubines in the palace is a bit low. Even the queen mother only has 2000 taels. You are even more pitiful. 300 taels of silver is really not enough to do anything in the palace."

"Emperor Niang didn't point to the 2000 taels of silver. Her old man has a dozen or so high-quality Zhuangzi and a lot of land property, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs will directly tie the money to Huang Erniang." The emperor said again: "The queen is Fujin's son At that time, she also had a private house under her name, and now she is also being looked after by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and she only collects money at the end of each year."

It was pitiful to think of Jiang Heng when he entered the palace. At the request of the Nian Shi at that time, he didn't even bring in a maid from his own family. What's more, this kind of continuous output industry basically entered the palace empty-handed.

If she had been hired by herself back then, and she wanted to come to Su Yibo's mansion to marry a daughter-in-law, she must have a generous dowry for her.

The emperor felt uncomfortable thinking about it like this: if she stays by her side, she can't live a worse life than marrying someone else outside.what is this?

So he said: "Now I will pick a few Zhuangzi for you." Then I directly figured out how to use the money for her: "When the time comes, I will directly send someone to send you gold and silver. . " Knowing that she likes to change different patterns of zizi: "When the time comes, you can just let the palace maid deliver the patterns to Su Peisheng."

After Jiang Heng successfully raised his salary, he suddenly felt that he was doing well again, and started spending what he needed.

Soon the Yuanmingyuan Building Office received the drawings and deposit from Concubine Xin and Niangxin.

The craftsmen in the manufacturing office are like court painters, most of them are not internal eunuchs, but serious craftsmen.But the reception department in charge of communicating with the ladies in the harem is naturally the internal supervisor.

Mr. Chen, who was sitting drinking tea in the lobby of the manufacturing office, saw Qiuxue coming in, he hurriedly stood up to greet her, and said: "Oh, Miss, it's been a long time. Our family was still talking about it yesterday."

While talking, he smoothly handed a delicate hand mirror to Qiu Xue: "This glass is the side cut off when making a large fan mirror, and a total of four small glass hand mirrors were made. Our family specially reserved it for the girl. I bought one." Glass is a rare item, made into a small mirror that is carried around, it is one of the most valuable items that can represent the dignity of palace people.

He stuffed it very skillfully, and then delivered it to Qiu Xue, and promised not to touch her skin: Who among the eunuchs in the palace doesn't remember why Chen Debao disappeared?Concubine Xin couldn't bear the old custom of eunuchs bullying palace maids and always trying to take advantage of their words and limbs.

Mr. Chen took the map and money from Qiu Xue: Although he is not a top craftsman, he is able to sit in the manufacturing office, and he has some crafting skills, and he is also from a family of carpenters.

So I can understand the drawings.

At this moment, he immediately said: "This thing is not complicated, if it is not afraid that the empress will not appreciate the craftsmanship, our family can make one."

Then I asked about the size again.

What Jiang Heng wants this time is really not complicated. There are many homemade tutorials using paper shells on the modern Internet-simple version of the gashapon machine.

It is basically a vertical wooden box, with a rotary knob underneath and a channel that only allows one ball to roll down at a time.

Qiuxue laughed and said, "Please ask my father-in-law to do it more carefully and use some good wood and varnish. This is what the empress made for the princess to play with. If you don't have enough money, just send someone to our Suxintang to pick it up."

Manager Chen laughed: "That's that, it's for the princess, so it must be fine."

Because the thing was really not complicated, and Jiang Heng's deposit was enough, the manufacturing office simply didn't make any money, and made a very delicate and pure wood grain half-person high gashapon machine.

Jiang Heng specifically asked not to make it too big, otherwise Minmin would not be able to reach it.

The difference from the gashapon machine is that the top is not transparent, but a piece of wood.

Jiang Heng plans to make a really large gashapon machine with a transparent top half when Minmin grows up.Now the main thing is to let Minmin learn to do finer movements like 'twisting'.In addition to the gashapon machine, Minmin also has a colorful abacus for her to learn to dial the beads.

This small gashapon machine is not filled with capsules that can be opened, but wooden balls of various colors, to teach Minmin to recognize colors.

Sure enough, after Minmin discovered that every time the nurse twisted the button, a beautiful ball would roll down, so she tried her best to learn to twist it.

And when the emperor came again, he saw this new toy that occupied a large area.He couldn't help laughing and said: "It can be seen that people who have made money have started to look for manufacturing offices to do stuff."

With the salary increase, Jiang Heng is completely immune to the emperor's jokes, and he is completely tolerant to the money owner. You can joke as you like, as long as the money is in place.

I also asked the emperor to try this ball twisting machine - she couldn't explain the meaning of gashapon to the emperor, so she simply changed it to the ball twisting machine.

The emperor twisted a golden ball down.

Jiang Heng couldn't help but lamented the emperor's luck: there were more than 40 wooden balls in it, and there were only two golden balls, and the emperor turned it for the first time and dropped the golden ball.

Sure enough, when Minmin saw the rare golden ball, she began to pull it from the emperor's hand, trying to pull it into her arms.

The emperor handed it to his daughter with a smile, but he saw that the golden ball was ruthlessly snatched away by his mother-in-law just after Min Min got it in his hand.Jiang Heng opened the top cover, and threw the ball he took from his daughter back into the ball twister.

Seeing the emperor's eyes, Jiang Heng explained: "The emperor doesn't know, she has to put everything in her mouth now, and now she has two people watching her when she is playing - otherwise she would even taste the cushions."

The emperor turned his head to look at his daughter again, and saw that although Minmin was robbed of the ball, he was neither angry nor anxious, but slowly climbed to the front of the ball twisting machine, helped the machine to stand up, reached for the button and wanted to twist another one for himself .

The emperor couldn't help sighing: "Minmin has such a good temper."

Jiang Heng silently added in his heart: Fortunately, I don't follow you.

The emperor looked at the ball-twisting machine again: "It's just too small. Wait two years before making it bigger. You can put more things in it for her to play with."

Jiang Heng said with a smile: "The emperor and his concubine want to go together. This ball twisting machine can be played for a long time."

After she graduated and went to work, every time she returned to the shopping mall, she couldn't help but open a blind box or smoke a gashapon, feeling like she could play forever.She had already thought about it at the time: at that time, she would use her pension to clean up a wave of machines, and make the children next to her cry with envy.

"It's not just Guangming, even Hongzhou likes to play with this ball twisting machine when he comes." Jiang Heng said calmly to the emperor: "The concubine almost promised to give Hongzhou one, but thinking about it, if Hongzhou is addicted to playing, the emperor just wants to play with it." I was afraid that I would not be happy, so I didn't promise it to Hongzhou, what does the emperor think?"

Sure enough, the emperor flatly refused: "Hongzhou doesn't need to play this, he is more playful than Hongli. I am ready to wait for the new year to arrange for their respective masters - they can't read well, how can they play these things .” Although the emperor said so, he twisted with his daughter several times.

Jiang Heng sighed for Hongzhou in his heart: Poor child, new teacher, new homework, new pain.

It was too early for her to sigh, and the emperor said to her again: "Although Hong Zhou has a heart of filial piety, he will grow up after the new year. I want to reduce the number of times he and Hong Li enter the harem, just in case he comes over." There is less time to look at Minmin."

Jiang Heng nodded: "The concubine heard from Hongli."

This time, after Hongli received the birthday letter, he still responded with poems.Jiang Heng once again liked to mention the two poems written by Hongli himself, and Hongli explained to her by the way: "Miss Concubine Xin, I will not be able to visit my sister often in the future."

The emperor told Jiang Heng that there was another reason for this matter: "Naturally, there will be fewer grandchildren in the Queen's mother's place. You can often take Min Min to comfort the Queen's mother's heart."

Coincidentally, after returning to Qingyan in Kyushu, the emperor picked up a copy of "Mencius" and prepared to review the exam questions for his sons.

This overturn is to think of something.

"Let the Manufacturing Office make a ball twisting machine for me here too."

Su Peisheng agreed to go.

The manufacturing office delivered one on the second day, along with a hundred unpainted wooden balls—Jiang Heng asked the manufacturing office not to color it at that time, and she wanted to use the pigments in her palace that had been inspected by the imperial physician for coloring. .

The manufacturing office didn't know what the emperor wanted the twisting ball machine for, so they also sent the original wooden balls.

It is in line with the emperor's wishes.

The emperor happened to have something to discuss with Prince Yi, so he asked Su Peisheng to go to Prince Xuanyi, and at the same time called an official from the household department who was good at writing.

Su Peisheng didn't understand what the emperor was going to do, and Prince Yi didn't understand either, but he followed the emperor's instructions and picked a handsome Yuanwailang to come to see him together.

This Yuanwai Lang had never faced the Long Live Lord privately before, and passed out without nervousness all the way.

And it is very common for Prince Yi to face the saint. After entering the hall and saluting, he spontaneously came to see the new things on the emperor's case: "Brother, what are you asking the younger brother to see?"

The emperor threw a few balls in and showed him a ball twisting machine.

In front of Xiao Yuanwailang, Prince Yi didn't ask, but after seeing this object, it should be the handwriting of Concubine Xin - Brother Huang will not handle these things by himself.

The thirteenth master knows the emperor very well.Brother Huang spends his free time making design drawings, all of which are to further study the aesthetics of the existing porcelain or furniture in the palace, and change them into a subtle and beautiful style that suits his aesthetics.The emperor would only fiddle with the finished products to amuse these delicate toys, and he never gave much thought to them.

The emperor ordered that Yuanwailang to take away a large box of wooden balls: "Write all the titles of chapters in the Four Books and Five Classics on it."

Yuanwailang started to write in a daze.

They are all talents who have passed the imperial examination. Maybe now the emperor casually tests him and he can’t remember a detailed text comment, but he still remembers the titles of chapters and chapters such as the Analects of Confucius, and then he can’t help wiping his sweat when he goes out: Fortunately, the basics His skills are solid, and he still often reads classics, otherwise, if he can't even write the titles of the four books and five classics today, he may lose his official position on the spot.

Prince Yi and His Majesty often shared the same mind, and they understood immediately after hearing it: "Brother Huang is going to use this... ball twisting machine to test the princes?"

The emperor nodded.

Because the number of wooden balls was not enough, the emperor first manually deleted the "Book of Songs" and "Book of Changes", and also deleted some chapters in the Four Books and Five Classics that he didn't like to read back then.

To test his own son, of course, he must draw the scope of the test according to his thinking.

He hoped that his sons, not just the final chosen heir, but all sons would follow his lead.

When Hong Zhou came to the Hall of Mental Cultivation, he saw that Huang Ama had a ball-twisting machine here, and he couldn't help but be pleasantly surprised: I heard that the Mulan paddock has suffered from cattle and sheep disease recently, so I won't go to the paddock this year. To make up for our inability to ride a horse to relieve boredom, so we made a ball twister for us to play with?

It has to be said that Hong Zhou really doesn't understand his dear Huang Ama at all.

It wasn't until the emperor asked them to take turns to twist the ball, and Hong Zhou twisted to "Wei Ling Gong", that he suddenly realized that this is an answering machine!

The emperor took a look and felt that Hong Zhou was lucky.

The Analects of Confucius "Wei Linggong" is the chapter where Confucius and Wei Linggong discussed the way of governing the country. There are many epigrams that the emperor still rereads in it, such as "Don't use words to raise people, don't use people to waste words" and so on.

But Hong Zhou who got this "lucky ball" was about to cry: This is much longer than the "Gao Tao Mo" written silently that day!

But he had no choice but to draw, so Hongzhou had no choice but to go to his desk to write silently while holding his small wooden ball.

After a period of recuperation, Hongshi was able to get up (in the eyes of the emperor, being able to get up means that he can take the exam), and he is here at this meeting, and he is silently writing his own topic.

But Hongshi was still pale.

And it turned out that he was afraid of the emperor, the kind of fear that any son in the world would be afraid of his father, but now when he sees the emperor, he is as frightened as a bird.

In terms of exams, before the emperor stood next to him, although he scratched his ears and sweated profusely, he was nervous like a normal person, but now when the emperor approached him, Hiroshi's face turned pale and his body stiffened, as if he was about to faint. The emperor had no choice but to go away.

Needless to say, the test scores are naturally poor.

The silent writing is a mess.

But there is no need for the emperor to punish him as before. After Hongshi handed in the dictation paper, he began to tremble by himself. The sound of his teeth chattering up and down could be heard in the entire side hall, so that the emperor sighed and let his sons all gone.

Prince Yi watched the whole process.

"Emperor brother... Hongshi is like this..."

The emperor waved his hand: "I know, Hongshi is like this, I will think of a way." If this continues, I'm afraid it will scare him to death in a real sense.

Seeing that the emperor had plans, Prince Yi stopped talking.

Then I went to play with the twist ball machine, and found that like most people, I also liked the novelty of opening the blind box.

At this time, there were no outsiders, so Prince Yi smiled and said: "I think it is the handwriting of the concubine Xin, so please ask the imperial brother's order, and the ministers will also go to the manufacturing office to ask for a success? The boys in the family should also be tight-knit." gone."

The emperor naturally agreed.

It just so happened that Prince Yi had just brought it back, and the Lord Jiu who had gone to his residence saw it.

Master Jiu also went to ask the emperor for it.

And if there are several, one for him, one for elder Eleven, Master Jiu will send an expensive long-distance courier at his own expense, and wants to send one to his starling as far away as Annan.

The emperor frowned and asked him at that time: "Hongwang is in Beijing, and Lao Ba has no other sons, why are you giving him this?"

Lao Jiu said: "I heard that King Annan is now learning both Manchu and Chinese, and he has recognized mynah as his master. It is not bad to use this to test King Annan."

Your Majesty: ...Annan Li Shi, it's really the end of 'recognizing the thief as your father', isn't it?If this continues, Annan may soon become the "Jiaozhi Province" of the Qing Dynasty, as he did in the previous Ming Dynasty.

In short, this ball twisting machine has become popular in Beijing in a way that Jiang Heng had never expected before, and it has become a nightmare for the clan and the children of the aristocratic family.

Or when the Fourteenth Fujin went to the Old Summer Palace to greet the Queen Mother, and when he came to see Minmin, he saw Jiang Heng's ball twister and said, "Your Majesty also has this? Long live God doesn't even let a daughter as young as the princess go?"

Jiang Heng:? ?

Fourteen Fujin twirled the ball with his hands, seeing that there were no topics but only colors, he said in relief: "I just said, the princess is so small, it can't be an article when it turns out."

Then he explained to Jiang Heng: "Our master has been in Qinghai all the time. The emperor, who is his own uncle, was worried that the children in the family would neglect their studies if Ama was not at home, so he specially called the children to the palace to take the exam himself. It's this ball twister!" Fourteen Fujin hinted vaguely, and the emperor made all the children in Xunjun's mansion cry in the exam.

Only then did Jiang Heng know that the emperor had turned his happy gashapon machine into a ball-drawing system for exams, and he was speechless: Your majesty, you really know how to hurt children's childhood.