Of course, the grassland people of Saibei in this era are not more than the Spring Festival, but when it comes to the Spring Festival, the palace is so lively and joyful, which also makes Hai Lanzhu and the two maids she brought all the way from Horqin, Su Rina and Ulan Tuya, very excited. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

They are all eighteen or nineteen-year-old young people, and of course they all like to be lively and festive.

From Chinese New Year's Eve, the Imperial Palace begins to be lively.

Today's Emperor Chongzhen has the appearance of a tyrant in the hearts of the people of the world, but in the palace, the cold impression caused by the killing of eunuchs in the palace at the beginning of his ascension to the throne is gradually dissipating.

Especially now this young Empress Zhou, approachable, very kind, with Emperor Chongzhen into the palace has been more than a year, compared with Emperor Chongzhen's coldness, in the palace and outside the palace have established a generous and benevolent image, by the palace eunuchs and palace maids loved, but also by the courtiers of the foreign court.

Queen Zhou's ancestral home is Suzhou, born in a family of doctors, but when she was born, the family background has declined, her father Zhou Kui lived in Beijing to practice medicine, and once practiced medicine on the streets of Beijing, and even helped people to tell fortunes for a living.

Therefore, Emperor Chongzhen's Empress Zhou belongs to the kind of girl from a very humble background, and she is also a queen who knows the suffering of the people.

This simple nature formed due to poor background has not changed much after becoming Princess Xin, and even if she has become the queen of the world of motherhood, she still maintains it well.

Historically, Zhou married Zhu Youzhen, a letter king of a similar age, at the age of fifteen, became the empress of the Ming Dynasty, and hanged herself in the palace at the age of thirty-three.

In her short life, she basically did not enjoy the dignity and happiness that Empress Daming should enjoy, but lived a hard life in the palace with Emperor Chongzhen for seventeen years.

In order to reduce the cost in the palace, the Empress of the Ming Dynasty once cooked for her husband and children.

As for weavers, that's even more commonplace.

There is a clear record in history that Emperor Chongzhen's empress Zhou had twenty-four taels of spinning wheels in the palace, and she led the palace maids to weave and make clothes, shoes and hats for Emperor Chongzhen and his children.

It is precisely because of this that Empress Zhou has been unswervingly respected by Emperor Chongzhen, and has also won the loyalty of a large number of eunuchs and maids in the palace.

After the fall of the capital, Empress Zhou hanged herself in Kunning Palace, and the number of palace maids who volunteered to commit suicide with her reached hundreds.

These ordinary palace maids, when it comes to the national crisis, are more dignified than those civil servants and nobles who eat inside and out, and it cannot be said that this is also an outlier in the late Ming Dynasty.

Among them, Queen Zhou's benevolence and generosity, as well as her example and charisma in the palace, should be said to have played a great role.

Now the financial situation of the Ming Emperor is very different from that in history, although again and again from the internal funds to the outside of the appropriation of military salaries, the construction of factories and mines, and even out of their own pockets to protect the palace Ouchi Tiance Guard, Yulin Wei soldiers pay military salaries, etc., all of this although the cost is huge, but the palace Ouchi treasury is still very full.

Of course, all this silver was stolen by the emperor from the eunuchs, salt merchants, clansmen, and nobles.

Although he has only been on the throne for a year and a half, he has fallen into the name of an emperor who has copied the family, but looking at the full treasury of the Ouchi Mansion and thinking that he will not have to worry too much about the silver in a few years, Emperor Chongzhen still feels that the things he has done before are worth it.

For an emperor, although a good reputation is important, when the army is hungry, the emperor's good reputation cannot be used as silver or food.

In the end, in the face of thieves and prisoners, no matter how good his reputation is, he can't save his life and his family.

As a result of the abundance of the Ouchi treasury, not only did the army of the nine sides stabilize, but the treasury under the control of the household department also recuperated, and even the life of Ouchi with the Imperial Palace Ouchi was much better.

The tide is also rising, and there are also the rewards given by Queen Zhou to the harem concubines, maids and miscellaneous eunuchs.

Among the harem concubines today, in addition to the newcomer Lan Concubine Hai Lanzhu, other concubines such as Empress Yi'an Zhang, Emperor Chongzhen's Concubine Tian, and Concubine Jing Yuan, are already rich women with a certain amount of savings.

Even Concubine Jing, Yuan, who has never liked to be lively and unwilling to participate in any mundane affairs, is now worth more than 100,000 Chongzhen silver dollars because the emperor gave her half of the treasure and the company's dry shares before.

But if a person is greedy for money like his life, or he regards money as dung, it is a happy thing to have a large amount of money in his hand.

So a year ago, after Fang Zhenghua sent the dividends of Baohe Company to the palace in proportion to the equity, even Concubine Jing's indifferent temperament became happy.

And Empress Zhang of Yi'an, who accounted for a higher proportion of shares, and Empress Zhou of Emperor Chongzhen, of course, were even more happy.

On the first day of the Lunar New Year, Emperor Chongzhen took a group of close attendants to the Huangji Palace to participate in the annual New Year's Day court, and the queen accepted the visits of other concubines and servants in the harem in the Kunning Palace.

While accepting other harem concubines to worship, they should also distribute various rewards, red envelopes or something, the etiquette of the royal New Year, although there are some differences with the customs and rules of ordinary Han people, but the basic truth is the same.

Hai Lanzhu, who has never had a New Year, and her two maids, who are also from Horqin, are also dressed in Hanfu, followed behind Concubine Tian and Concubine Yuan, and bowed to Queen Daming in turn.

Su Rina and Ulan Tuya found that they kowtowed to the nobles in the palace for a hundred years, said a few auspicious words, and took red envelopes, and at the moment they worshiped the queen and the princess, worshiped the princess and the waiter, as well as the female officials and palace maids with longer seniority in the palace, and harvested more than a dozen large and small red envelopes, and their hearts were really happy.

Emperor Chongzhen was busy with the affairs of the previous dynasty, changed into home clothes, and arrived at Kunning Palace, seeing that all the concubines came to greet the New Year, and hurriedly asked Wang Chengen and Chu Xianxian, who were following him, to bring the rewards and red envelopes prepared in advance, ranging in size, everyone has a share, and after the rewards were issued, the concubines were left to eat together in the Kunning Palace.

All of a sudden, the Kunning Palace was happy and happy.

At the end of the meal, the other concubines retired one after another, leaving the emperor and empress to talk together.

Emperor Chongzhen looked at the Empress Zhou for a moment, and saw that the Empress Zhou's face was still thin, and said to her with a smile: "Ordinary people, if they are rich, they will inevitably wear gold and silver, and they will have three sumptuous meals with meat and vegetarian food. ”

Empress Zhou also smiled when she heard this: "Your Majesty said it was funny." Now the days in the palace are many times better than when the concubines first arrived. This is all the credit of His Majesty, so how can I say that I am at fault?

"It's just that the concubines are used to saving on the day of their mother's house, and now they are rich, but they can't be extravagant for a while.

"Besides, now it's not as good as when I was in the Xinwang Mansion, the concubines and Queen Yi'an take care of the harem together, but I know that the population in the palace is tens of thousands, although the family is big, and there are many expenses for various expenses, how can I do it if I don't save a little?"

Hearing what the queen said, Emperor Chongzhen said with a smile: "Okay, okay, you are my virtuous helper, you have the final say in the affairs of the harem, think about how to come, and take care of it according to your wishes." ”

At this time, Empress Zhou said: "Since Your Majesty has said this, the concubine has something she wants to mention to Your Majesty. The concubine talked about this matter with the imperial sister-in-law, and the imperial sister-in-law also said that it was reasonable. Your Majesty to see if it is feasible. ”

Speaking of this, seeing that the emperor was listening carefully, Empress Zhou continued: "Around the concubines, including the side of the imperial sister-in-law, there are some palace maids and female officials who have reached the age of marriage. Some of these female officials have followed their concubines for several years and are like sisters, and some have stayed in the palace for many years and are not allowed to return home.

The concubine thought, anyway, there are many idlers in the palace, if the emperor doesn't like it, is it better to choose some old ones who should be married.

"First, it reduces the population in the palace, and it is good to save a penny, and secondly, these women have left their cardamom years in the palace, and there is no merit and hard work, so that they can go out of the palace to marry, but also to be responsible for them women, and at the same time, it can be regarded as accumulating virtue and doing good deeds for His Majesty and his concubines. What does Your Majesty think? ”

When Emperor Chongzhen heard this, he immediately agreed with it, and immediately said: "Not bad! The queen has a good idea. I agree! ”