"There are 3,000 beauties in the harem, and 3,000 are pampered in one"

In Bai Juyi's "Song of Long Hatred", it really writes how Yang Guifei was favored by Tang Xuanzong.

Not only Zhu Youzhen, but it is estimated that most men in later generations are enthusiastic about the words of the three thousand beauties in the harem, but they are a bit of a waste of waist.

It's just that Zhu Youzhen's conjecture about this sentence was shattered when he saw the photos of the harem in the late Qing Dynasty.

Except for a few people who could see it, the other Qing Dynasty concubines simply made Zhu Youzhen want to run away when he saw it.

At that time, he thought that the harem of the Qing Dynasty was like this, and the quality of the beauties of the harem of other dynasties was estimated to be not much higher.

But in the car, Zhu Youzhen's thoughts were changed by Zhu Youxiao's explanation.

"At that time, Emperor Taizu Gao set up an ancestral motto, "All the sons of heaven, after the prince, concubines, palace concubines, carefully choose the daughter of a good family for it, and those who enter will accept it!" ”

Che Yushang and Zhu Youxiao talked eloquently, for fear that his younger brother would not understand the process of choosing a concubine, so he explained to him:

"My Daming's harem concubines are all selected from the people, and then the best after multiple layers of screening, so my brother can rest assured that if there is something that catches his eye, you can tell me."

"Although you can't find a concubine older than the prince in the ancestral system, if your younger brother likes it, you can first choose the beautiful girl who is on the right eye to be an errand in the East Palace, and then marry when she is older."

"I'm not in a hurry yet." Listening to his royal brother's mindless words, Zhu Youzhen was a little embarrassed.

He was only eleven years old, and he didn't want to make himself infertile for a woman.

However, after listening to his imperial brother's words, he recalled that his imperial brother said that today was the sixth level, so he asked:

"What is the process of choosing a concubine?"

"Back to Your Highness......" Wei Zhongxian explained with a smile to Zhu Youzhen on the car:

"First of all, the imperial court sent many people to all parts of the country, the main purpose was to find ladies between the ages of thirteen and sixteen throughout the country, as long as they took a fancy to the parents, they would leave a part of the property for the parents as a dowry, and then order them to send the girls to the capital on a certain day of the month."

"When the appointed date arrives, about 5,000 or so carefully selected girls will gather in the capital, and so the draft will begin."

"These people have to go through at least eight levels before they can finally determine which people will be eliminated, and which people will be left to serve as palace maids or concubines, or even queens."

"The first level is to let the girls line up every 100 people, line up to be reviewed, and the eunuchs personally assigned by Banzai carefully observe their body shapes one by one, and then pick out a thousand tall, short, fat and thin people who do not meet the requirements for elimination."

"The second level is the beginning of the second day, and the girls are also asked to stand in line, this time the eunuchs will carefully observe their facial features one by one, and then select a thousand of them who are not very satisfied."

"The third level is for the ladies to explain their talents, deduce their talents, and then ask questions from the examiners and eunuchs of the draft, and pick out the 1,000 people who are inarticulate or too nervous to deal with them."

"The fourth level is to measure the length of the ladies' hands and feet, and then make them walk a few steps to observe their bearings, and then eliminate a thousand of them."

The fifth level is by the palace of the stable woman on the remaining thousand people again physical examination, after "probing their breasts, sniffing their armpits, their texture" and so on, only about 300 girls are left to meet the standard of "palace maids". ”

As for today's sixth level, these 300 new "palace maids" will be trained in a closed manner to observe their personalities, diets, daily lives, etc., and then select more than 50 candidates to become the emperor's concubines, and those who are not selected can officially stay in the palace as palace maids. ”

"Ten days later, the seventh level is for the queen mother or concubines to select the three most satisfactory candidates from the remaining fifty."

"And the final eighth level is for Banzai to personally select one of these three to become the queen of the world, and at this point, the draft is officially over."

Wei Zhongxian flattered, but Zhu You was particularly speechless after listening.

He missed the selection of 5,000 show girls, and now there are only 300 show girls?

Although these three hundred show girls were selected from among the ladies from the ages of thirteen to sixteen, Zhu Youzhen still didn't believe it.

The main thing is that the harem photos at the end of the Qing Dynasty made him look silent, and he almost saw the psychological shadow.

"Here, long live, we have to be quiet, if the concubine's people know that we are peeking, then the slave and maid will inevitably be beaten twice, and Long live and His Royal Highness will also be impeached by the ministers."

Wei Zhongxian looked like he had taken a great risk to do this, which made Zhu Youxiao disgusted: "I know, my brother goes!" ”

After that, he called Zhu Youzhen to get out of the car, and at this time, the two little eunuchs also brought two long bamboo ladders on the red wall and yellow tiles, Zhu Youxiao climbed up first, and then waved his hand to signal Zhu Youzhen to follow.

"You have to look at women so secretly on your own turf......"

With a muttering sentence in his heart, Zhu Youzhen climbed the ladder in a hurry and leaned on the top of the wall to look at the scene in the palace.

At this moment, not far from them, there were hundreds of people standing in front of the palace, they stood very straight, but their eyes were lowered, very ladylike.

In this life, Zhu Youzhen's eyesight is very good, and he swept it over at a glance and immediately swallowed his saliva.

It's not that he hasn't seen women before, after all, the palace maids in the palace are all very beautiful, but those palace maids are slightly inferior to the three hundred beautiful women who were selected from the whole country and have gone through five rounds of elimination.

Before climbing the wall, Zhu Youzhen was still thinking, how beautiful can he be? As a result, when he saw the three hundred beautiful girls, he immediately understood why his cheap father and his great-emperor's grandfather died on the woman's belly.

Clear water out of hibiscus, natural to decorate ......

The three hundred show girls who were killed from tens of millions of ladies across the country did not have any makeup on their faces, but they highlighted their beauty and preciousness.

Zhu Youzhen swore that for the first time in his life, he saw a fourteen or fifteen-year-old girl blushing.

"I'm only eleven years old......"

At this time, Zhu Youzhen remembered that he was only eleven years old, and he looked at his own imperial brother next to him, but found that his imperial brother's face was as white as jade, and he seemed to be tired of these "vulgar fans".

"Gan! It's good to be an emperor! ”

Seeing that his imperial brother looked like these women were all his, Zhu Youzhen was inexplicably angry with a kind of jealousy between men.

"Sing the salute!"

"Long Live the Holy Bow ......"

Suddenly, as a female official spoke, the three hundred beautiful girls shouted "Long live the saint bow", almost making the two brothers Zhu Youzhen think that they had been discovered.

When they came back to their senses, they found that they were practicing the etiquette in the palace, and Zhu Youxiao also breathed a sigh of relief, turned his head to Zhu Youzhen and said:

"How? Did my brother catch his eye? If you have one, send a few to my brother's palace. ”

"Uh......" Zhu Youzhen wanted to say a few in his heart, how is it enough, I want to ...... But he was still afraid of death and said: "These are my brother's, I'm still ...... young"

"Who does my brother think is better looking among the three hundred?" Zhu Youxiao asked Zhu Youzhen in annoyance, as if in his place, Zhu Youzhen's opinion was very important.

"This ......" Zhu Youzhen put his eyes back on the three hundred show girls, and looked at their faces and figures one by one, and soon found a few very conspicuous show girls in the crowd.

Among them, the first person is beautiful and plump, the face is like Guanyin, the eyes are like autumn waves, the mouth is like a cherry blossom, the nose is like a hanging gall, the teeth are fine, the figure is also very good, the willow waist is thin, and the Ying Ying can be held.

"That, that, and that...... It's all good. Zhu Youzhen pointed to seven of the show girls and asked, while Wei Zhongxian also went up a ladder and leaned on the wall.

As soon as Zhu Youxiao saw the few women his brother was referring to, he glanced at them and frowned:

"In addition to the first and second ones, the faces of the other show girls are too thin, and their buttocks are also small, I heard the stable woman in the palace say that it is not good to have children with small butts."

After that, he said to Wang Chengen: "What is the name of the first person?" ”

"It seems to be ......" Wei Zhongxian said uncertainly: "It seems to be surnamed Zhang, but I am not sure what it is called......

"Really? That's her! Zhu Youxiao clapped his hands and immediately decided on one thing.

When Zhu Youzhen heard Wei Zhongxian say that the show girl's surname was Zhang, he immediately knew that this person might be his future sister-in-law Zhang Yan.

"No wonder it's called the Five Great Queens......" Zhu Youzhen glanced at his sister-in-law twice, and then prepared to look at the others.

As a result, when he looked east and west, several female officials walked out of the long road with a smile and a smile, and saw three people lying on the wall.

"Someone peeked!"

A few screams instantly triggered Zhu Youzhen's nerves, he just wanted to ask his imperial brother to reveal his identity, but he heard the sound of the ladder falling to the ground, and looked sideways, his imperial brother had already run away with Wei Zhongxian.

You two are really sixth......

"Why do you have to run away when you look at your own woman in your own territory!"

Zhu Youzhen yelled in his heart, and then when he heard the sound of Jingjunjia's stomach, he also hurriedly jumped off the ladder and ran away.

He didn't know why he was running, anyway, when he saw that his imperial brother and Wei Zhongxian had run away, he ran with him.

Because of his proper training in the Yanshan camp, he quickly surpassed Wei Zhongxian, and then surpassed his own imperial brother.

However, at this time, his royal brother seemed to see a life-saving straw, and hurriedly grabbed Zhu Youzhen's belt.

Although he has good vitality and health because of being a carpenter, how can he compare with Zhu Youzhen, who runs at least seven or eight miles every day in the Yanshan camp?

Zhu Youzhen was dragged by his belt, and hurriedly prepared to grab his imperial brother and run together, but he didn't want his imperial brother to speak directly:

"My brother stayed to stop them, you are young, and the concubine will definitely not blame you if she knows about it."

For a while, the words "brother on the surface" appeared in the back of Zhu Youzhen's head, and he didn't bother to refute his imperial brother, so he simply dragged his imperial brother and ran away.

Seeing that he was about to go to the inner garden, but the gate of the inner garden was locked, Zhu Youzhen could only pull his imperial brother to stop, and then said: "Brother over the wall!" ”

"Good!" Zhu Youxiao did not contain a lake at all, and under the support of Zhu Youzhen, he directly climbed over the wall and entered the inner garden.

After going up the wall, Zhu Youxiao didn't have the strength to pull Zhu Youjian, so Zhu Youzhen took three steps and two steps, stepped back to run, jumped up and grabbed Zhu Youxiao's hand, and jumped over the wall into the inner garden.

It's just that poor Wei Zhongxian was left behind, and the two brothers rested for a few seconds, and immediately took a detour from Kunning Gate and swaggered out of the inner garden.

At this time, Jingjun happened to come to Kunning Palace, while Zhu Youzhen and Zhu Youxiao sat on the main seat of Kunning Palace, and asked without waves on their faces:

"What's wrong?"

"Long live, Chitose, just now someone peeked at the show girl draft, and escaped after being bumped into by the female officials, Wei Zhangyin said that he saw the thief running to Kunning Palace."

The head of the Jing army knelt down and replied, and Zhu Youxiao played an actor-level performance at this moment, he frowned and reprimanded:

"Can the show girl's draft be peeked at? What do you guys do?! ”

"Long live forgiveness, slaves and maids will die...... the captain suddenly knocked on the ground with his head, and hastily admitted his mistake.

"Okay, find out the peeking person as soon as possible, and clean this Kunning Palace well, and after the draft is over in a few days, the queen will be able to move in."

Zhu Youxiao said that, he got up and walked towards the Qianqing Palace, and Zhu Youzhen hurriedly followed when he saw this.

However, after the commander of the Jing Army got up, the Jing Army eunuch next to him spoke: "Long live them and Wei Zhangyin......

"Shut your mouth and don't talk nonsense!" The Captain glared at him.

Obviously, when they caught Wei Zhongxian, they knew who the peeking person was, but how could this kind of thing be said?

If the concubines knew about this, they would be praised at most, but when Banzai and Chitose wanted to take revenge, they wouldn't have enough heads for ten heads.

While they were thinking so, Zhu Youxiao and Zhu Youzhen had already returned to the Qianqing Palace.

After arriving here, what caught Zhu Youzhen's eyes was a small boat placed in the main hall of the Qianqing Palace.

No, not so much a small boat, but a miniature version of the warship he had drawn.

The ship is three feet long, four feet high, and about five feet wide, so it can be said that it is a large model.

"Brother made it?"

Seeing this three-masted sailing ship, Zhu Youzhen stepped forward to look at it in surprise, and his surprised expression could be said to greatly satisfy Zhu Youxiao's vanity.

"Although there are still some post-coating oiling and waterproofing that have not been done, it is also so-so......"

Zhu Youxiao held his hands behind his back, looking like this kind of thing was not difficult, perhaps only the eunuchs and palace maids of the Qianqing Palace knew that it took nearly half a year to get this model of her own long live.

"When can I get into the water?" Zhu Youzhen turned his head to look at Zhu Youxiao happily.

"Uh...... It's about two or three months later......" Zhu Youxiao scratched the hair on his sideburns, and roughly estimated a time.

At this time, Zhu Youzhen also saw Wei Zhongxian who walked into the Qianqing Palace with his head down, so he said to Wei Zhongxian: "Wei Zhongxian, where did the teak from Siam go?" How much? ”

"Yes!" Wei Zhongxian was taken aback, and without saying a word, he answered yes first, and then reacted and replied:

"The old king of Siam died of illness last year, and the new king of Songwan heard that teak was needed, so he ordered to cut down 1,000 teak trees, and mobilized 7,000 people to transport them, about 300,000 materials."

"At present, the teak has been delivered to Songjiang Prefecture, which is faster than expected, and it will arrive in Tianjin Wei in about two months."

Wei Zhongxian explained everything, and Zhu Youzhen heard that it was only two months, so he set his eyes on his own imperial brother.

"It's only been two months, whether the three guards of the navy can be formed, it's up to my brother now."

"Uh...... Hehe...... Brother, rest assured, this matter is just a trivial matter......" Zhu Youxiao was a little embarrassed, thinking that he would have to make up more classes in the past two months.

It's just that the joys and sorrows of people are not connected, Zhu Youxiao is uncomfortable, but Zhu Youzhen happily walks around the appearance in front of him.

The material is almost 325 catties in later generations, and 300,000 materials are almost 48,750 tons, even if some waste materials are removed, 2,000 tons of 20,000 tons of warships can be made, with a total tonnage of 40,000 tons.

What is this concept? You must know that the Spanish Armada is only more than 58,000 tons of tonnage, and the flagship St. Philip is only 1,000 tons.

If his own imperial brother can build a two-thousand-ton warship, then only twenty ships are needed, and the Ming Dynasty will be enough to dominate all the oceans east of the Cape of Good Hope.

However, according to the current tonnage of this ship, the tonnage of 2,000 tons can be placed on hundreds of guns of different weights.

Twenty of these wooden battleships with sails, all of them were second-class battleships by British standards more than fifty years later.

If Zhu Youzhen equips them with other thousand-ton fourth-class battleships, then it is completely possible to make the Ming Dynasty a dynasty on which the sun never sets in this era.

It's just that such a huge fleet is not needed for Zhu Youzhen at the moment, and he only needs a fleet to deal with the possible Battle of Penghu.

What he needs most now is a civilian cargo ship of more than 3,000 tons.

Therefore, he turned his attention to his imperial brother and said: "Imperial brother, I just don't know, can we develop a cargo ship with nine thousand materials?" ”

“……”

For a while, Zhu Youxiao was a little speechless, or rather, he had already tasted the price of bragging, and he didn't dare to brag for the time being.

"You can try it......" said weakly, and Zhu Youxiao coughed:

"Ahem! By the way, there's one more thing I want to talk to my brother. ”

"Brother, but it doesn't hurt to say." Zhu Youzhen nodded.

"I want to transfer the 1,500 Han generals of the Jinyi Guard and the 6 Wei 2nd Battalion inside and outside the city to train the soldiers together, what does my brother think?"

Zhu Youxiao said his thoughts, obviously he wanted a soldier and horse that could defend the inner court.

Although the Xiao Cavalry Guard, Tiance Guard, Yulin Guard, Long Xiang Guard, Daxing Camp, and Wanping Camp were all transferred by Zhu Youzhen to defend Shuntian, and would change guards every day to take over the Imperial City of the Outer Court, Zhu Youxiao still wanted a team of his own people.

The three guards of the imperial city are good, but they are still too few, and they can't be transferred to fight the Wenchen board, in comparison, the Han general of the Jinyi guard is good.

Naturally, there is no reason to refuse his own imperial brother and Zhu Youzhen, the more people in the outer court, the better it will be for him.

Thinking of this, Zhu Youzhen nodded and said, "Yes, wait for the imperial brother to give an order, and then transfer the Han general to the Wanping camp in Dongcheng to participate in the drill." ”

"Good!" Seeing that Zhu Youzhen was not unhappy, Zhu Youxiao breathed a sigh of relief, and then said to Zhu Youzhen:

"Now the situation in Liaodong is not good, do you want to follow what my brother said, first transfer 20,000 soldiers and horses from Xuanda and Xuanda to aid Liao, and then after repelling the old slaves, rectify Xuanda and Xuanda?"

"Brother Chen's thoughts are the same!" Zhu Youzhen replied:

"The reason why the ministers want to rectify Xuanfu and Datong is that they have taken a fancy to the military tuntian in their hands, and they want to further rectify Taiyuan Town after rectifying them."

"Xuanfu and Datong combined, a total of twenty-nine guards, thirty-three, twenty-one battalions."

"If you add the seven guards, five institutes and four battalions in Taiyuan Town, it will be thirty-six guards, thirty-eight guards, and twenty-five battalions."

"Judging from the inventory of the southern field of the Imperial Horse Prison, as well as the Shuntian Mansion and Yongping Mansion in the north field of the Imperial Horse Prison, the 36 Wei and 38 houses are 239,600 military households and nearly 12 million mu of military tun fields."

"The three towns of Shanxi spend more than 3.3 million taels of military salaries every year, so the minister's brother thinks very simply, that is, to directly recover the Hetao, abolish Taiyuan and Datong towns, and set up Fengzhou Town!"

Zhu Youzhen's words were very bold, and the two towns of Taiyuan and Datong were abolished, which would undoubtedly make the nine sides turbulent.

But if it can be pressed down, it will be simple to deal with Liaodong Town later.

Moreover, if the Hetao is recovered, the Fengzhou Beach is reclaimed, and the Fengzhou Town is established, then it is equivalent to the four towns of Datong, Taiyuan, Yulin, and Guyuan can be abolished.

Because the Hetao is already in the Ming Dynasty, the battle line has been pushed north for more than 500 miles, and the military pressure has been reduced, which can also reduce the soldiers and horses in the two towns of Yulin and Guyuan, and reduce the military salary in disguise.

Hearing this, Zhu Youxiao got up and walked.

To be honest, he was very moved by what his brother said, but it was too fast.

The plan and scale of the three towns were eliminated at once, and finally troops were sent to attack the Hetao and the northern captives of the Tumo River, which was almost comparable to the Battle of Ningxia in the three major expeditions of Wanli.

The military salary that needs to be used for this is definitely more than one million taels, and the follow-up investment also needs millions of taels.

But!

Zhu Youxiao stopped, if he can recover the Hetao and develop the Fengzhou Beach that has been developed in Beiyu, then this is to open up the territory, and it can also reduce the military salary of tens of millions of taels of silver in the Ming Dynasty to seven or eight million taels per year.

Zhu Youxiao was hesitating, he was young and vigorous, so he naturally hoped to expand his territory and add a strong merit to the history books, but he couldn't make up his mind.

Not only is he thinking, but even Zhu Youzhen, who put forward this idea, is also thinking.

Fengzhou Beach, that is, Hohhot in later generations, from Baotou, can even spread westward to Bayannur.

Although precipitation was greatly reduced during the Xiaoice period, it was possible to feed millions of people if cultivated properly.

The reason why Zhu Youzhen wanted to conquer here was not only to reduce the military salary in Jiubian, but also to the people of northern Shaanxi.

The Xiaoice River drought is coming, if Zhu Youjian is not mistaken, Fengzhou Beach was not affected, the first affected was northern Shaanxi, and then spread to the whole territory of Shaanxi, and although Shanxi was also affected, it was still under control.

The people of Shanxi, Zhu Youzhen is preparing to go to the northeast in the future with the people of Beizhili.

Therefore, to solve the problem of the people in northern Shaanxi, it is very simple to give the people fields and relocate them, and there are three targets for migration, the first is Fengzhou Beach.

After the development of the Mongols themselves, there are already more than 200,000 acres of cultivated land, and there is a foundation after the migration.

The only question is how to solve the problem of Ordos Mongolia on the south bank of the Yellow River and Tumut Mongolia on the north bank of the Yellow River.

The Ordos Mongols are not difficult to solve, their troops only have 20,000 or 30,000 people, and there are only more than 10,000 men who can go on horses to fight, or even more than 10,000, and only a battalion of soldiers and horses can defeat them.

This is not Zhu Youzhen's arrogance, but the current Mongols in the south and north of the desert, who have been weakened by the Ming Dynasty, are not as good as some big toasts in the southwest.

Their only threat is mobility, but as long as Zhu Youzhen builds fortifications in the south of the Hetao and Fengzhou Beach, and then defeats them and absorbs them, this problem can be easily solved.

At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, it could not be solved because there were too few people in the north to meet the conditions for immigration, and the people had more land in their hands and were unwilling to leave.

But at present, the number of people in Shaanxi is probably going to exceed 8 million, or even reach 9 million, or even tens of millions

The imperial court occupied a lot of land in Shaanxi, and only more than 28 million mu of private land in Shaanxi was given to the people, and they could only barely feed them.

In the event of a major drought, the people of Shaanxi will not be even as capable of resisting drought as the people of Gansu.

Therefore, if Zhu Youzhen wants to solve this problem, it is to develop Fengzhou Beach!

Thinking of this, Zhu Youzhen looked up at his imperial brother, and his imperial brother also frowned and glanced at him, and then hesitated again and again:

"Let me think about ......"

"Okay, the younger brother will retire first." Seeing that his imperial brother couldn't make up his mind for a while, Zhu Youzhen wanted to withdraw from the Qianqing Palace and give his imperial brother a little personal space.

But he didn't want him to quit yet, but his royal brother suddenly spoke:

"This can be done, but it will have to wait for Taicang to be abundant, and it will be necessary to wait for Taicang to have enough food for the people to reclaim for more than three years!"

"Hehe......" Hearing that his imperial brother had made an idea, Zhu Youzhen smiled and saluted:

"This matter, my brother will see how I can earn enough food for my brother on private salt......

"You slippery ......"

Seeing that Zhu Youzhen went out after saying this, Zhu Youxiao also laughed and joked, and then shook his head and walked back to the Heart Cultivation Palace......

"The First Evolution"