"My father is the life of the world, and the queen mother and the imperial concubines will definitely understand my father." He raised his head and looked at his father with excitement, "The sons will definitely take their father as an example, always be diligent and thrifty, and share their father's worries as soon as possible!" ”

"This kid, I didn't invite the master in vain, he is so good at talking!" The emperor laughed, then patted him on the shoulder.

In the evening of the next day, the emperor took the prince and drove into the city and entered the palace, which was only two days before the New Year.

Although it is an imperial palace, the area from Donghua Gate to Huiji Gate in the Forbidden City has been given to the cabinet by the emperor as the office space of important government agencies, so the area occupied by the imperial family is much smaller and cramped than before.

After a large number of Praetorian Guard soldiers were stationed, the palace was already under martial law, with three steps, one post, five steps and one sentry, and there was a slaughter inside and out. However, in the midst of the killing, the guards and attendants patrolling around also brought some long-lost vitality to the palace.

As we all know, the emperor is simple, and he has always been reluctant to live in the palace of the former Ming Dynasty after he settled the world, and the emperor said so, the royal family naturally cannot be overcome, so the royal family members generally do not live in the palace, but live in the residential courtyard not far from the military camp. However, during major festivals or gatherings, because the houses are small after all, the royal family members will gather in the Forbidden City, and prepare to accept the pilgrimage of the inner and outer courts while living and living.

The emperor is not particularly close to women, although he is the king of a country, the number of wives and concubines is not much, and the title is very simple. After the establishment of the new dynasty, Xu Zhenzhen, the emperor's wife when he started in Xuzhou, was naturally named the queen, and the eldest son Zhao Long she gave birth to was named the crown prince, the second son Zhao Hu was named the king of Qi, and the eldest daughter Zhao Feng was named the princess of Xinping.

Mu Shulan was named the imperial concubine, and she should be treated with the queen without distinguishing between Xuan Xuan, her son Zhao Qi was named King Liang, Zhao Rui was named King Zheng, and her daughter Zhao Yan was named Princess Xiping, and her status is also very high. This special treatment is not only because the emperor and her are childhood sweethearts and have a deep relationship, but also because the imperial concubine has a very high influence.

In order to unify the minds of the Chinese people and hold the religious weapon in his own hands, when he started in Xuzhou, the emperor carried out a religious reform, incorporated the system of smelling incense into the religious reform, and vigorously promoted it to the army. After years of hard work, the army's news incense sect has almost established a complete set of theories and political systems, which has greatly helped the emperor's ideological rule and command of the army -- as a saint before the Wenxiang sect, in the hearts of the religious officials of the Han court, Mu Shulan has always had a very high status, so the emperor named Mu Shulan as the only imperial concubine in the harem, and the treatment was extremely high, and it was also a part of the desire to appease this group of people.

The emperor often stays in the barracks to deal with military affairs, so the internal affairs of the royal family are mainly taken care of by the queen and the imperial concubine, the queen is from a giant family, and the wooden emperor concubine also learned a lot of things in her early years, so the two of them are very handy in handling the affairs in the family house, plus the tempers of the two of them are very modest, so the royal family of the Han Dynasty is calm under the management of the two of them.

Under the queen and the imperial concubine, there are several concubines, among which the relatively high status is Meng Ziqi, her title is Concubine Hui, and she has a son Zhao Sheng and a daughter, and now Zhao Sheng has been named the king of Yue, but although he has been crowned king, but the status and treatment are still worse than the first two sons, and her daughter has not yet received the title of princess because she is too young.

Concubine Meng Hui's elder brother is Meng Zhiqi, the veteran general of the artillery, and now he has been named Uncle Handan by the imperial court, and he is also one of the nobles that the imperial court relies on, so Concubine Meng Hui is also the highest status among the concubines.

The other three concubines, all of whom were married by the emperor in the process of starting and setting the crown, they entered the Zhao royal court relatively late, so the children born have not yet been titled, and their status and treatment cannot be compared with those princes and princesses before.

The court emperors of the former Ming Dynasty had a lot of concubines, and the titles of various ranks were mixed, and the emperor was not particularly keen on this kind of thing after the establishment of the new dynasty, so there were only these six wives and concubines in the palace, and there were not many people who needed to serve them, and the scale of the court servants was greatly reduced compared to the former Ming Dynasty.

Although such a small scale of the harem seems to be a little inconsistent with the royal system and specifications, the ministers first thought that this was the emperor's family matter, and secondly, they felt that it was a good thing that the emperor did not like to indulge in harem pleasures, and the emperor's children already had a lot of children who did not have to worry about the risk of not having an heir, so the prime minister and other ministers just casually advised a few words and stopped interfering in this kind of matter.

The northern night in winter came very early, when the emperor finished bathing, the sky was already dark, and at this time the palace has been lit up everywhere with red lanterns, and the red palace wall together, the palace is dyed like a red world, the palace has been painted before the arrival of the emperor, everywhere is fake flowers made of silk, male and female attendants wearing the new uniforms issued not long ago laughing and laughing.

Because Yunshan Xing and the imperial villages of the former Ming Dynasty have been transferred to the cabinet, although the income of the Han royal family cannot be compared with the court of the former Ming Dynasty, it is also a huge amount.

When the emperor came to the Qianqing Palace surrounded by attendants, the harem concubines and concubines led by the queen and the imperial concubine, as well as the children of the heavenly family led by the crown prince, were already dressed up and waiting here.

In addition, in addition to these royal people, the younger brother of the current empress, Minister of Industry Wei Guogong Xu Housheng and his wife and eldest son, Xu Hecheng, who has been canonized as the prince, are also in the palace today, and their family was specially summoned by the emperor and the queen to accompany the banquet - because of the relationship with the empress, the relationship between the Wei Guogong family and the royal family is extraordinary, and it is even closer than the prime minister.

According to the royal system, the prince's attendants are all young people selected from various nobles, and they can also communicate with the prince while accompanying them to study, so that the next generation of the nobles can be used by the prince.

When they saw the emperor come in, they all saluted the emperor very happily.

In a voice of "The emperor is blessed!" "Blessed father!" "Long live my emperor!" In the midst of the salute, the emperor walked to the table with a smile, at this time he was a husband and a father, not like an emperor who ruled a large empire of thousands of miles.

After the ceremony was completed, the concubines, the family of Wei Guogong, and the princes and daughters all gathered to the table, and then sat down one by one in the order set in advance, ready to start tonight's dinner.

In the former Ming Dynasty, the Qianqing Palace rarely held banquets, the emperor and the concubines rarely ate together, and the prince and the royal family members of the clan could not have dinner with the harem concubines, even on New Year's Day or the emperor's longevity and other festivals.

After the establishment of the new dynasty, the emperor streamlined the scale of the palace organs on the one hand, and on the other hand, he also reduced the red tape rules in the palace, whether it was in the private house where he lived on weekdays, or in the palace of the Forbidden City, he always let his wife and concubines and children get together for dinner, and there were not many rules. He felt like a family.

Moreover, because part of the palace was assigned to the cabinet for office use, when in the Forbidden City, the royal family members in the palace were mainly concentrated in the three major halls of the back court, so it became the proper meaning of the question to eat together in the Qianqing Palace during meal time.

However, compared with the poor and extravagant royal banquets of the previous dynasty, the royal family of the new dynasty was not particularly particular about eating, and did not have any delicacies from the mountains and seas, generally serving some meat dishes such as chicken, duck and fish with some finely made vegetables, pursuing fineness and simplicity.

After the emperor sat down, in order to prevent his wife and children from waiting for a long time, he directly picked up chopsticks and clamped the dishes in the bowl in front of him, "Everyone eat, don't be hungry!" ”

After the emperor began to eat, the concubines and the princes and daughters moved their chopsticks, and after the royal family members began to eat, Wei Guogong's family also began to use chopsticks.

The royal family banquet was originally based on seriousness, but the emperor was not such a particular person, he often talked and laughed at the family banquet, and joked with his wife, concubines and children, and today is no exception.

"Today is a good day, when I was in a meeting, I told the ministers that the New Year will be in a few days, and I will give them a holiday for the entire court, and those who can rest can have a good rest. Hey, they're so happy. The emperor laughed as he spoke, causing several children to laugh too, "Hey, I can also take advantage of this time to rest, I really hope that the world is peaceful, let me rest in peace." ”

"The emperor is responsible for the world, and he has really worked hard." The queen looked at the emperor with some distress, "I'm usually busy, and this season is only once a year, so take a good rest, the ministers are all working hard, and most of them are calm today, so you can rest for a while." ”