The peaceful sound of the piano resounded in the garden of a luxurious mansion in the middle of Paris, and it was like a spring breeze, and occasionally a glissando, like a swallow skimming the water, splashing a little bit of ripples.

The one who is stroking the piano is a stunning girl with a face as bright as jade, eyes as clear as water, and a charming and matchless. This girl is not only gorgeous, but also has an indescribable elegant and intelligent temperament, smiling when stroking the piano, people can't help but feel like they want to be close.

The one who was listening to the girl touching the piano was a Confucian student in his forties, who smiled and nodded while listening to the piano, as if he was very satisfied with the girl's piano sound.

Then the sound of the piano stopped abruptly, and the girl smiled brightly and nodded lightly at the man.

The man smiled and said, "Minmin, you play the piano well, your mood is better, and it is really difficult to laugh so naturally at this time." It seems that the teacher can rest assured that you can go away to Daming. ”

The girl who played the piano was named Min Min Temur, and she knew by her appearance that she was a flag woman. However, the bloodline is not so pure, just look at the white skin color and the high nose bridge, as well as the graceful figure far more than the Central Plains girl, you know that she has white blood on her body, and this bloodline must be a stunning woman from the white people.

The Confucian scholar in his forties, like this Minmin Temur, also had some vague white blood. This person's surname is Liu, the name is Zhan, the word Baichun, is the grandson of Liu Xiaoyuan, the former minister of the Great Yuan, and now the official worships the red flag and is the prince of Champagne. It is the Qing noble of the Great Yuan Dynasty, and there is no real send-off. However, his poetry, music, song and dance are also famous in the Great Yuan Dynasty, and he also served as a consul of the Great Yuan in Macau, and the former Atlantic Governor of the Ming Dynasty. The current right prime minister Liu Ji has formed a friendship and understands the affairs of the Ming Dynasty. It can be said that it is a rare diplomatic talent in Dayuan today.

However, the article of the Champagne county lord is not very good. When he was young, he also took the imperial examination, but he didn't even get a showman. Nature and clear currents have nothing to do with each other. And he is from a noble background, so he has no good future in the officialdom. Now he is only in his forties, and he is already a semi-retired figure. Except for a capital that has long been hollowed out, there is nothing really missing.

Of course, this Champagne county duke is not without serious things at all. His main errand now is to train the East draft girl.

The so-called show girl is a unique marriage system of the Eight Banners of the Great Yuan.

All banner women (except for the Khan) must participate in the draft. Among them, they are both talented and good-looking, and they can enter the palace to serve the Great Khan, and the second-class ones are married to the princes of the Qing Dynasty. If neither the Great Khan nor the Maharaja looked down on it. Only then can they marry the children of other flag men -- this kind of draft is the "Western Selection". The vast majority of show girls are Western draft girls.

If there is a "Western Election", there will naturally be an "Eastern Election". Unlike the Western Draft, the number of women in the Eastern Draft is not only small, but they are not the marriage partners prepared for the Great Khan of the Great Yuan and the Princes and Qinggui - they are tributes to the Ming Empire!

Although the Ming Empire has produced two good-tempered saints in a row since Chen Dexing, they have not used much foreign troops. But no one dares to treat the behemoth of the Ming Empire as transparent. Even if the Great Yuan Kingdom, which is inseparable from the appearance of the Great Ming, still presents a few beautiful girls every ten years to please the Ming Emperor.

And these women dedicated to the Ming Emperor. It was not selected from the authentic banner women, but from the mixed race girls of mixed race from the flag and Europe who were not from the right background - if the biological father of these girls was a low-level flag person, he would naturally be a "black man" without household registration, and if their biological father was a flag man official. You can fine some money to report the household registration of a flag slave to your child. However, this kind of "flag slave" girl who opens the back door is not eligible to participate in the "Western Election", and can only participate in the "Eastern Election". Moreover, the age of participating in the "Eastern Election" is also young, the oldest is 12 years old. After choosing. It will be trained by a special person from each flag, and it will be passed on to the piano, chess, calligraphy, painting, singing and dancing. Wait until you reach the age of 16 to take a second round. Only the first place in the second round of each flag is eligible to board the tribute ship to Daming.

As the leader of the Red Flag Metropolis, Liu Zhan didn't know if he was panicking. actually took over the errand of training the East draft girl in person. And the biological father of Minmin Temur, a draft girl from the East who he has been training for six years, is not an outsider, it is Chakhan Timur, who was just taken from his post and sentenced to prison because of his defeat in the Battle of Rotterdam.

Min Min Temur gently took off his finger covers, and his expression was calm, as if he was not worried about his father's fate at all.

"Master, the apprentice is not in a good mood, but he really doesn't worry about his father. Since the defeat of Chengzong, the discipline of the imperial court has become more and more relaxed, and the officials have sentenced them to behead and wait for prison, and no one has really been stabbed. My father and brother are rare brave generals, and the court has to use them if they want to level the bandits. It is estimated that in a few days, it will be sent to the front of the army to serve and make meritorious contributions. ”

Liu Zhan just smiled and shook his head, "I didn't tell the truth!" ”

Min Min Temur smiled: "Sure enough, I can't hide it from my master, Min Min is not worried about my father, because the Great Yuan Dynasty still needs Min Min to go to Chen Zongdao's pillow to blow the wind." ”

"The wind on this pillow is not blowing!" Liu Zhan shook his head. "Chen Zongdao is different from Ming Taizong (Chen Changan) and Ming Shizong (Chen Youwen). He was not a prince, but a naval soldier, who had been in the army for more than ten years, from a non-commissioned officer to a rear admiral. It wasn't until he was thirty-two years old that his brother died of a heart attack and had no son, so he got the opportunity to become a prince. He's not the kind of good kid who was manipulated in the palace when he was a child......"

Hearing Liu Zhan describe the emperor of the Ming Empire as a "good boy", he puffed and laughed: "Master, isn't this Chen Zongdao well-behaved?" ”

"What else do you need to say?" Liu Zhan frowned slightly, "As soon as he ascended the throne, he ousted Han Shantong, the left prime minister who had been in the auxiliary government for ten years, from power. Chen Youliang (grandson of Chen Qianyi), the former president of the Naval Academy, was replaced, and the military budget was greatly increased, and the so-called military reform was promoted...... Look, I'm looking for someone to fight! ”

The situation of the Ming Dynasty is not much of a concern in the Dayuan country, and even the prime minister is not very concerned. However, Liu Zhan is an exception, and several major Chinese newspapers are published in Hong Kong and Macau, and he will ask someone to collect each issue. Therefore, I still have a little understanding of the inside story of Daming.

And the style of the Ming Emperor Chen Zonghai, who recently came to power, has already made Liu Zhan smell a little bit of H medicine.

Minmin Temoor's beauty frowned slightly: "Master thinks...... This time the bandits were supported by the Ming Dynasty? ”

"It's hard to say...... Liu Zhan shook his head, "After all, the old man is far away in Paris." It's just a distant view of the things of Daming, like seeing flowers in the fog...... Dayuan did not send envoys to the Ming Dynasty. It's not right in the end. ”

Minmin Temur asked, "Is the master going to be the eyes and ears of Da Yuan?" ”

"Ears and eyes?" Liu Zhan still shook his head, and his tone was already lower. "I can't do it...... There are many foreign women in the Daming Palace, including the holy daughters of the Holy Heavenly Dao Kingdom, the holy daughters of the Japanese Heavenly Dao Kingdom, and many the sect daughters of the Chinese countries, and sometimes the princesses of the Holy Roman Empire. Among so many women, only the woman sent by Dayuan is the most untrustworthy. ”

Today's Ming Dynasty is a world empire, and the Chinese world is almost equal to the whole world. This Ming harem is naturally similar to the United Nations, and there are women from all countries. But those foreign women are not the same as foreign women...... The proportion of Han women in the Ming harem is still the highest. In the non-Chen dynasties of the Chinese kingdoms, the princess would generally marry the princess into the Ming Dynasty or other Chen dynasty. And most of their queens are also surnamed Chen. Of course, these dynastic marriages were carried out in strict accordance with the principles of "no marriage with the same surname" and "no marriage of close relatives" stipulated in the "Chen Li".

And these women of the Chinese Dynasty have the highest status in the Daming Palace, of course, and they are the queens and concubines. The second-class ones are the daughters of the nobles of the Ming Dynasty and the female Taoists of the Heavenly Daoist Sect, including the holy women of the Holy Sect. Again, the first class is the woman offered by the "foreign vassals" (the Great Yuan, the Mamluk Dynasty, and the Holy Roman Empire are all foreign vassals), and among them, the show girls of the Great Yuan Kingdom have the lowest status and are the least trusted.

"So even if you find out something. Can't send a message to the master? Minmintemoor frowned slightly, "So...... How can the disciples help the court? How can the apprentices gain a foothold in the Daming Palace? ”

Liu Zhan smiled: "I can't teach you this as a teacher...... This harem dispute, a bad old man doesn't understand it. As a teacher, I can only tell you the rules of the Ming harem now. The biggest difference between this Ming harem and the Dayuan is that the queen has a very high status. Almost half an emperor. According to "Chen Li", the queen has the status of a worthy king, and once the king cannot govern. The queen is the regent of course. Therefore, if you want to gain a foothold in the Ming harem, the queen must not be offended. And the current queen of the Ming Dynasty is different from the previous three. The birth is not noble.

And this Chen Zongdao was not originally the crown prince, and the title was just an empty county king. Therefore, he was not very particular about marriage, and did not marry the princesses of various countries, but married a scientific female Taoist named Zhou Zhiruo. It is said that the two had an excellent relationship, and they had six children after ten years of marriage, three boys and three girls, and all of them survived. ”

"Zhou Zhiruo?" Minmintemoor whispered the name of the woman who would probably hold her down for the rest of her life, and nodded his head as if he had made up his mind.

Liu Zhan then said: "According to the past practice, all the show girls sent to Daming must be given a Chinese name. Minmin, you can name it yourself. ”

Min Min Temur nodded: "Master, the apprentice has already thought about it, and the apprentice wants to be called Zhao Min." ”

Liu Zhan frowned, "Zhao Min? Do you want to have the surname Zhao? ”

"Well," Min Min Temur nodded, "I heard that among the kings of the Chinese kingdoms today, the surname Chen is the most, twenty-eight. The surname Zhao is second, and there are three, which can be regarded as the second surname in Huaxia. So I wanted to be surnamed Zhao. ”

……

Daming, Jiangdu.

The night was still thick, and the Ming sage Chen Zongdao got up, first combed his hair and washed his face, and then put on a brand new dragon robe. He straightened the placket, pulled the sleeves that were wide and long, almost hanging down to the top of his feet, and held the black gauze crown in front of a floor-to-ceiling glass mirror, looking left and right, still feeling a little awkward.

In the mirror is a tall and strong man, his face has become thick and black due to years of wind and sun, and he has a thick beard, how to trim it always feels a little messy. Compared with his prince brother who died young, this honor is really a little lacking in the imperial appearance. However, the inheritance rules of the Ming Emperor have nothing to do with appearance, but are based on the principles of first concubine, eldest before young, male before female, and adoption by close ancestors. The first prince had no children, and he was the second son, so he could become the crown prince and inherit the throne.

Now that he Chen Zongdao has been the emperor for two years, he is a little bored -- this Ming Emperor and the great leader of the people of the world is not as interesting as his original errand in the navy in Chen Zongdao's opinion. Because there is actually nothing serious to do in the emperor's job, and the major affairs of the state have their own left and right ministers, the heads of the four armies (the army and navy department and the army and navy staff department) and the council to worry about. The emperor's main job is to regularly replace the left and right ministers and the heads of the four armies, so as not to let them sit in these powerful positions for too long...... According to the usual practice, the term of office of the left and right ministers and the heads of the four armies is at most six years, and they can be dissatisfied, but they must not be exceeded.

Moreover, after the officials who had served as the left and right ministers and the heads of the four armies retired from these six posts, they were the so-called important ministers, and they took a seat in the upper house of the council (the meeting of important ministers) and received a preferential salary, and their whole job was to elect new left and right ministers and the heads of the four armies.

However, it cannot be elected at will, and the left and right ministers must be the leaders of the main parties in the Council. For example, the heads of the four armies need to be ranked in seniority, for example, how many periods of the Army and Navy Military Academy, how many terms of the Army and Navy University, when they will be promoted to general, when they will be the commander of the army division and general, and when they will be the admiral of the navy fleet...... In short, there won't be many people who qualify.

In addition, the emperor sometimes had to be the absolute choice of the religious leader of the Heavenly Taoist Sect. The chief celestial envoy of the Scientology school is appointed by the emperor, but the chief celestial envoy is lifelong, and once appointed, he will not be replaced in the middle of his death, and the appointment and dismissal of the celestial envoys must be approved by the emperor.

The Ming Emperor could theoretically intervene in the selection of the Divine Sect's Right Envoy of Light, because Chen Chang'an, the second emperor of the Ming Dynasty, was angry and ordered a holy woman who was not at fault to seppuku because he opposed the Otani family's monopoly on the Japanese Great Sect!

But when the eighteen-year-old saintess stabbed the blade into the lower abdomen with tears and trembling hands, Chen Changan's heart softened, and the order was interrupted, and the saint only cut a little skin. However, her status as a saint was still exempted and she spent the rest of her life as Chen Changan's concubine. After this "Holy Maiden Seppuku Incident", the Ming Emperor could abolish the position of the Holy Maiden of the Japanese Heavenly Dao Kingdom. In order to avoid the recurrence of the saintess being deposed or killed, the Otani family simply handed over the choice of the saintess to the Ming Emperor, and sent twelve girls with the blood of the Otani family at one time, so that the Ming Emperor himself could choose one to be the saint......

As for the candidate of the Holy Bright Left Envoy, the Ming Emperor has no right to ask, but the Ming Emperor can still get the holy woman sent by the Holy Bright Left Envoy. Today, Chen Zongdao got up early in the morning and put on his court clothes in a serious manner, just to accept the saints, the alternate saints, and the East draft girls. The official meeting place is in the Daming Palace in Jiangdu City, which is not too close to the Changle Palace where Chen Zongdao is now. (To be continued.) )