After more than one hour of work, all the palace maids have been registered. After statistics, a total of 1,215 palace maids were registered, according to the origin of the palace maids, including: 612 people in Manqi, 325 people in Han Banner, 83 people in Mengqi, and 195 people in Han nationality.

At the beginning of the founding of the Qing Dynasty, the palace maids were selected from the 13-year-old daughters of the families below the three banners, and later expanded to all the Manchu Eight Banners. In the middle of the Qing Dynasty, many banner people with good family backgrounds were reluctant to send their daughters to the palace, after all, most people knew that life in the palace was not easy, and if something happened to their daughter in the palace, maybe it would affect the entire family, so they tried their best to escape, anyway, the selection of palace maids was handled by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, as long as the dots were in place, they would be able to get through. Most of the people who entered the palace as palace maids from their daughters were poor families. Therefore, the selection of palace maids has also been expanded to Han Qi, Mengqi and even the school-age daughters of the Han people, but they are still dominated by Manqi. And the Han palace maids in the palace can only do some heavy work, serving the queen mother, the emperor, the queen, the little masters, Gege and other things can only be Manchu palace maids, but there are actually a large number of Han people in the Eight Banners, so in fact, the palace is still dominated by Han court maids.

In terms of age group, the youngest of the palace maids is 14 years and 10 months, the oldest is only 31 years and 5 months, and there are 973 people under the age of 20, but only 6 people are over 30 years old. The overall age is young, 17 or 8 years old accounts for the majority, it can be said that from the perspective of age structure, it is indeed very suitable, even if it is more than 30 years old, it is not too big, because in the crossing group, there are many people aged 4 or 50, who can be sold completely.

After all the work was done, Zhou Ping asked the palace maids to pack their luggage immediately after they went back, gather and set off in front of the Taihe Hall early tomorrow morning, and eat breakfast on the train. And luggage as little as possible, it is best to bring only personal clothes, jewelry, gold and silver and some small items, coarse and bulky items do not bring, tomorrow to the train station, everyone's luggage is carried by themselves, if you pack more things, don't blame others for not being able to take it.

In the evening of the same day, a special train drove to Beijing, with a total of 15 carriages, of which 12 were passenger cars, a coal and water truck, a dining car, and one was a soldier escorted by the car.

The person in charge of the full management of the palace maid with the car is a female officer who has crossed over, called *, who was originally the squad leader of the steering squad on the Kunming ship, and is now a lieutenant colonel after being promoted. The crossing group attaches great importance to this mission, and arranges 2 female crossers and 4 naturalized female natives in each carriage, while * personally leads 6 female officers and 10 naturalized female natives who are responsible for the management of the whole car and handles emergencies. In addition, the car was accompanied by 1 company of soldiers.

In fact, the whole journey from Beijing to Tianjin is basically under the control of the crossing group, and there are garrisons of the People's Army along the way, and there are at least 4 trains coming and going from Beijing to Tianjin every day, and there are no soldiers accompanying the escort at all, but because the personnel transported this time are relatively special, the security work is also relatively tight.

Early the next morning, before the sky was fully dawned, the palace maids took the big bags and small bags they packed last night in front of the Taihe Palace, and stood in accordance with the large group assigned yesterday, although the queue was not neat, but it was also orderly, but yesterday Zhou Ping repeatedly warned the palace maids to bring as little as possible, but everyone still brought at least two burdens, and the vast majority of people are carrying three burdens, generally carrying a smaller one, and then carrying a larger one.

Although the life in the palace is not good, but the material life is still very rich, food, clothing, housing and transportation are not harsh, although most of the palace maids do not even dare to eat enough, but this is not not not enough to eat, and the palace maids who do not have to serve in front of the queen mother, emperor, queen, various small masters, and Gege do not have this scruples, and can eat as much as they can.

And the palace maid's clothes, rouge gouache and so on are supplied by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and the regular clothes and shoes throughout the year, rouge gouache jewelry and other items are distributed as usual, and the Internal Affairs Office generally does not dare to be easily harsh, and the degree of use of the palace will naturally not be bad, even if it is used by the palace maids, it is a first-class goods in the people. And the palace maid still has a certain amount of monthly money to get every month, every New Year's holiday, or the queen mother, the queen's birthday, the emperor's wedding and other festive days, there will be routine rewards, serving the queen mother, the emperor, the queen, the little masters, the palace maids often have additional rewards. In addition, the palace ladies can also use their leisure time to make needlework red, entrust people to sell outside, and can also subsidize income. Therefore, after a few years in the palace, each palace maid will accumulate some clothes, jewelry, money, and personal belongings, and sometimes family members can hand them over to their families to bring back, and some of them can be left by themselves and taken away when they leave the palace, as the basis for the life of the next half of the generation

Now that the palace maids are leaving the palace, naturally they are reluctant to throw anything away, and as a result, most of the palace maids have made three packages, tied to the body is filled with gold, silver and valuable small items, clothes and shoes and then a bag, and then other items and a bag, a few palace maids even hit four burdens, so they also specially brought a stick to carry it.

Zhou Ping was also a little crying and laughing, thinking that there was still a long way from the palace to the train station, and when she got on the road, she would know that it would be hard. However, Zhou Ping also knew that most of the things taken away were the hard work of the palace maids who had served in the palace for several years, so it was not easy to stop, thinking that if someone couldn't take it, it would be better to arrange someone to help them, after all, these things were all bought by their blood and sweat.

After each large group had finished the roll call and confirmed that all the personnel had arrived, the palace ladies set off in a group under the command of the traverser, and left the palace under the protection of the army and headed for the Temple of Heaven station.

From the palace to the Temple of Heaven to pass through the Zhengyang Gate, at this time the sky has just brightened, although there are not many people who get up early, but there are still some, and a large number of young women march in line, and there are armies on both sides to defend, such a scene is not common even in the previous Beijing city, and some knowledgeable Beijingers can still recognize that these women are wearing the clothes of palace maids, so they are more interested, and they have stopped to watch on the roadside, and there are discussions.

However, the team ignored the crowd of onlookers, and marched very quietly, and even the palace ladies rarely spoke. And Zhou Ping thought that many palace maids would be unable to carry their luggage, but they knew that these palace maids were carrying or carrying or picking, and they all took their own things, and no one seemed to be struggling or unable to hold them, so no one needed help.

Zhou Ping's heart is also quite emotional, most of the palace maids are 17 or 8-year-old girls, in the old time and space, or the age of junior high school students and high school students, they are all spoiled by their parents at home, and they are usually tired of carrying a schoolbag, so compared with these palace maids, it seems that the palace is indeed a place to practice people.

The procession marched for about 40 minutes until it reached the Temple of Heaven station, where a green train was waiting on the platform, black smoke was rising from the chimney of the locomotive, and the traversers and followers who were responsible for transporting the palace maids were standing in front of their respective carriages. The soldiers stood in a line along the platform.

Seeing that this group was coming, someone immediately came over, led the palace ladies to stand in front of the doors of their respective carriages, and instructed them to put down their burdens, take a breath for a while, and rest for a while. It was only at this time that the palace maids showed a little excitement, because most of them saw the train for the first time, so they were very curious, and many of them pointed to the train and whispered in low voices. However, it still seemed very measured, not only did they not speak loudly, but everyone just put their baggage on the ground, but no one sat down or kicked down.

The * who led the team was wearing a combat camouflage uniform and carrying a gun belt diagonally, looking very capable. came to Zhou Ping and raised his hand to salute, and said, "Director Zhou." ”

Zhou Ping returned the salute and said, "Lieutenant Colonel Zhao, you have worked hard. ”

It turned out that this task was a temporary arrangement, and the time was urgent, the train arrived in Beijing last night, and the Temple of Heaven Railway Station did not have time to arrange housing for the accompanying personnel, so all the accompanying personnel slept on the seats on the train last night, and this morning they got up before dawn to prepare to welcome the palace maids on the train.

* said: "Actually, we are fine, the conductor is much harder than us, this morning they got up first to add water and coal to the train, and now all the preparations have been done." As he spoke, he looked at the palace maids, and said in surprise: "They have already lined up? ”

Zhou Ping said: "Yes, this is all trained in the palace, probably no worse than the students of military training." As he spoke, he took out a stack of papers from his bag, handed it to *, and said, "This is a list of all the palace maids, they are grouped according to each carriage, and they have been called once when they leave the palace, and now it is best to order them again and then let them get on the train." ”

* nodded, took the list, saluted Zhou Ping again, and then handed the list to the managers of each carriage according to the distribution of the carriages, and asked them to name the palace maids.

About 10 minutes later, the roll call ended, all the staff were there, and there was no shortage, so * also officially said to Zhou Ping that the handover of the palace maids was completed, and then ordered all the palace maids to get on the bus.

The person in charge of each carriage opened the door, and the palace maids picked up their baggage again, according to the arrangement of the group, got on the train in turn, and after entering the carriage, under the guidance of the responsible personnel, put the luggage on the luggage rack or under the seat, and then sat down on the seat, the whole process was not only very orderly, but also very quiet, all the palace maids were silent, silently acted in accordance with the instructions of the responsible personnel, only when the responsible personnel helped, they would bend their knees slightly, and said: "Thank you, sister." "Sit upright in your seat, with your waist straight, your eyes not squinting, your hands folded, flat in front of your lower abdomen. When the responsible traverser saw it, he didn't feel very much admiration for these little girls, because this is the posture that can't be done without 2 or 3 years of training.

In a short time, all the palace maids boarded the train and took their seats, and the doors of the carriages were closed one after another. * Only then did he salute Zhou Ping again and said, "Director Zhou, let's go." ”

Zhou Ping also nodded, returned the salute, and said, "Thank you for your hard work, have a smooth journey." ”

* Then I stepped on the train, and after a while, the train let out a flute, started slowly, and carried a car of palace maids out of the station, and then gradually accelerated, until it disappeared into the distance of the railway line.