Waited for the imperial palace and changed the palace car in front of the Anqing gate.

Along the way, Cui Ling carefully followed the instructions of the old lady and hid among the sisters-in-law, neither making a sound nor looking at her.

I don't think I'm sorry.

In her previous life, she visited the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace, and many places of interest.

Wear to a person who has experienced modern civilization. As far as the Yue Nu is concerned, the so-called imperial palace is really just "wow", and I think it is so majestic and magnificent.

She wasn't envious, she wasn't even curious.

On the contrary, this Emperor of Heaven, who has gone through five dynasties, is gloomy and depressed, and the biting cold wind in December occasionally penetrates through the cracks in the curtains, which always makes her goosebumps stand up.

Some are not very comfortable.

Fortunately, this lengthy palace alley has finally been completed.

After changing the palace sedan chair, in the shaking of the frustration step by step, the ladies of the Zhenguo General's Mansion all arrived at Queen Jiang's Kunning Palace.

Cui Ling had forgotten how she greeted the noble ladies who arrived first.

In short, she strictly adhered to Su Zihua's words, hiding behind her sisters-in-law and drawing gourds in the same way.

When someone asked her alone, she laughed.

Humans and animals laugh harmlessly.

Anyway, there are always sisters-in-law who take the words for her.

In this way, he successfully waited for Queen Jiang to arrive.

Empress Jiang is about thirty years old, she is not beautiful, and compared with the pampered ladies in the palace, she is not even as graceful and ruddy, and she looks a little thin and old.

But she exudes a majesty that cannot be ignored.

There was a smile on his face, but the hall was silent, and no one dared to laugh and make noise.

Empress Jiang seemed to be satisfied with this authority. She raised her chin slightly, "Today is my birthday." The prince said that he wanted to have a banquet, and I didn't like such extravagance. But thinking that this was also an opportunity to meet with everyone, I had no choice but to agree. ”

She acted vigorously and resolutely, refusing to drag mud and water.

After finishing the opening words, he went straight to the topic, "I think everyone has also heard that the Queen Mother is worried about the society and the country, and she is thinking about the cold and warm soldiers who fought for the country in the northwest, and she is a little sick these days. ”

Empress Jiang paused, and her sharp gaze scanned the audience.

She paused for a moment before continuing. "Her old man should be in peace to live in peace, but she is still worried about national affairs, how can I sit idly by? All of them are ordained women, and if they want to come to love their country and family, they all feel the same way as me. So ......"

Someone immediately took over the words, "The soldiers are defending the country in the northwest, and the courtiers can't do anything, so they can only take the queen's mother as the head of the horse and follow your orders." ”

Talking. is Queen Jiang's maiden sister-in-law, and now Mrs. Chengenhou.

Everyone already had a little understanding of Empress Jiang's intentions, but now that Mrs. Chengenhou has said it so clearly, who would dare to continue to pretend to be stupid?

There was hardly a moment's pause. The noble ladies chimed in.

Empress Jiang was very satisfied, and the smile on her face became even happier.

"That is so," she said. I took the lead in donating 1,000 pieces of fine cotton clothes and trousers, and 1,000 pieces of light and warm furs. A thousand fur hats, the rest. Let's make up for it! ”

Of the 100,000 soldiers in the northwest, Empress Jiang only produced 1,000 pieces, and the remaining 99,000 pieces had to be made up by the people below.

Cui Ling was dumbfounded.

She thought, this one is too ruthless!

In fact, she didn't know much about the prices outside, but a set of high-quality cotton clothes, cotton pants, leather fur hats, and a set also required a lot of silver.

Rao is a large number of noble women in the temple, but even if it is evenly divided, each family will get a lot of blood.

How much does their husband have a year's worth of money, can he afford such a squander?

Not every family is like the Yuan family of the Zhenguo General's Mansion, taking the opportunity of the war to make some extra money, and some income other than money and rewards.

For example, her mother's home An Ningbo Mansion has a bit of a tight life.

Not to mention that there are also those nobles who have long since declined, although they still have the title of lord on their bodies, they have long lost their real power.

Queen Jiang is like this, won't she be too embarrassed?

Who knows, the noble ladies did not show the slightest embarrassment.

They seemed to have expected it, and they seemed to have become accustomed to it, and they all accepted the task very calmly, peacefully, and even happily.

In this way, the fundraising process was successfully completed.

At the luncheon, Empress Jiang invited the old lady to sit under her and asked some questions about the details.

During the whole process, she didn't look at Cui Ling.

Cui Ling breathed a sigh of relief.

However, she still didn't dare to relax, and still hid among her sisters-in-law, and when something was delivered, she took a bite lightly, and sat quietly with her head hanging when there was nothing.

The royal banquet is a certain amount of complexity and gorgeousness, but it is not the best in taste.

Cui Ling couldn't help but think of an anecdote she had heard in her previous life.

It is said that the things that are paid tribute to the emperor are generally not taken as the most haode, whether it is tea, or the specialties of various places, they are all second-class tributes.

The main reason is that the quality of many things cannot be guaranteed, the year is good, the things are good, if you encounter a bad year, I am afraid that you can't even find things of the first class.

The courtiers below were afraid that the emperor would blame them for not being dedicated enough, so they simply did not present the most haode things.

Cui Ling didn't know if this was true or not, but after eating this palace banquet, she seemed to believe it a little.

In her opinion, Master Liu's craftsmanship is far stronger than this.

But Master Liu said that when he was in the imperial dining room, he was excluded from the palace because he was useless.

It can be seen that the cooks in the imperial dining room are also afraid that the masters' mouths will become bad when they eat good things.

Therefore, it is better to take some complicated and gorgeous food to pay tribute, lest if you can't make this taste another day, you will be held accountable by the master.

If the cooking of ordinary people is not delicious, it is just a dismissal and another one.

If the cook in the imperial dining room has a dish that is particularly not in line with the master's taste, it is light to drive him out of the palace.

If you can't say it, you have to explain even your head.

Cui Ling stared at the dishes on the table in a daze, and suddenly heard Queen Jiang mention her name on the seat.

She was startled, and hurriedly looked up at the phoenix seat in the middle.

I saw that Queen Jiang's eyes as sharp as ice were directed at her as if out of nowhere, with cold eyes and vague hatred.

She didn't know what to do.

But I heard Queen Jiang say with a smile, "Zhuqing has always been decisive in handling things, and if you want to come this time, you will definitely be able to raise clothes soon." ”

She sighed faintly, "The cold winter in Shengjing is falling, and I don't know what the cold will look like in the northwest." I just hope that everyone can have more snacks, so that our warriors will not freeze for too long. ”

Naturally, there was another echo.

Empress Jiang turned her face to the old lady and said, "Shi Xiaosi from Muyang Bofu has been making trouble for many days and is going to the northwest battlefield, this time I plan to ask this kid to be in charge of escorting, what does the old lady think?" ”

Empress Jiang's mother and Shi Xiujin's deceased mother were distant cousins.

I haven't been in touch for a long time.

But since Empress Jiang married the emperor that year, she recounted this relative.

Later, Queen Jiang's mother always called Shi Xiujin's mother a cousin, and she also regarded Shi Xiaosi as her own nephew.

Shi Xiujin and the Nine Kings are close friends.

He also had a good relationship with the crown prince.

Therefore, when Yuan Jiajun went to the northwest to fight, he begged Empress Jiang several times, and he also wanted to fight the horse field.

The old lady didn't know Queen Jiang's intentions for a while.

Muyang Bofu is now the head of the second room, and Shi Xiu was originally here, and it was already very powerful.

If Shi Xiujin left Shengjing City, he didn't know what to do.

However, there are benefits.

Shi Xiujin is to serve the imperial court, as long as the things are successfully delivered to the northwest soldiers, it will be considered a great success.

In the future, when he returns from the victory of the Northwest War, he will also have a share of the reward for meritorious deeds.

This can also be regarded as Queen Jiang's waist for Shi Xiu's support.

The old lady groaned a little in her heart, but she smiled very humbly on her face.

She nodded and said, "The fourth child of the Shi family is good, the queen said that he can use it, so naturally he has to use it." ”

The corners of Queen Jiang's eyes showed a slight edge.

She looked at Cui Ling, who was silently eating with her head down, and said with a smile, "Actually, I have another candidate." ”

After a pause, Empress Jiang moved her gaze back to the old lady's face, "Wulang is newly married and will go on an expedition for the country, leaving the new daughter-in-law at home alone. ”

She narrowed her eyes slightly, "Why don't you ask Gorou's daughter-in-law to go to the northwest with you this time." Escorted by Shi Xiaosi, it is also reliable! ”

The old lady was stunned.

If in the past, when she was young, her husband went on an expedition and her daughter-in-law went with her, it would not be a big deal.

At that time, the requirements for women in the market were not so strict.

She could lead troops to fight at that time, but she went to the northwest, what was it?

It's just that, for some reason, public opinion has suddenly become harsh on women in recent years.

Mo said that he asked the fifth daughter-in-law to follow Shi Xiaosi's escort to the northwest alone to escort the collected winter clothes, which is thousands of miles away, and it is a place where there is a shortage of soldiers, so it is inevitable to cause gossip.

Even if a woman doesn't go out with her elders, she will also be talked about.

Now that Empress Jiang has proposed this stubble in front of everyone in the Kunning Palace, the old lady really doesn't know how to answer.

In all fairness, to be able to give Xiao Wu and Xiao Wu's daughter-in-law a chance to meet and reunite, she is naturally happy to be a grandmother.

But she thought that if someone made irresponsible remarks about it, she couldn't bear it.

Empress Jiang didn't wait for the old lady to answer, so she smiled again and said, "Your little fifth daughter-in-law, even if she is a famous lady representing our Shengjing City, the soldiers must be even more grateful to have her personally escort such a cotton cloth and fur fur to the northwest." ”

She looked at the noble women in the hall who were talking with her eyes, and asked in a solemn tone, "What do you think?" ”

When it comes to this, I feel weird in my heart, but who dares to object?

This matter was inexplicably settled in Queen Jiang's arbitrariness. (To be continued......)