After the winter solstice, Yanjing City is really cold and frozen, there are few people in the imperial city, and there are stone bricks everywhere, and there is more frost than elsewhere. The eunuchs on duty in the Qianqing Palace were huddled in the duty room on the side of the Qianqing Palace, waiting to be on duty in front of the palace, like a group of feathered quails gathered to keep warm.

As soon as the three cats came in, the eunuchs hurriedly stood up.

"Grandpa Three Cats, sit here and get warm!"

There was also a little eunuch who pulled a few roasted chestnuts from the ash heap with a fire hook, and held them in front of the three cats with a cushion of cotton sleeves:

"Grandpa Three Cats, eat a chestnut?"

"Okay, Sensei pretend to toss in front of grandpa and me, let's sit honestly!" Where did the three cats, who served His Majesty's meal every day, see that these chestnuts who didn't know where they were hidden were interested, waved their cat's paws, and did not sit in the place where the eunuchs let them go, but sat directly next to a few young eunuchs.

A group of eunuchs sat honestly, grabbed the pot sweetly and poured a cup of hot tea for the three cats:

"Grandpa Sancat, and he was honored by his grandson's tea."

The three cats didn't answer, looked around, and called a tall and thin eunuch to come to him:

"What's your name?"

"Back to grandpa, grandson's name is Lu Shouxi."

"Do you want to pour tea?" Pour us a cup of tea."

Lu Shouxi hurriedly took the teapot and cups from the eunuch just now, poured the water in front of the door, carefully poured a cup of tea, and bent down all the way to the front of the three cats:

"Grandpa Three Cats drink tea."

The three cats seemed to have forgotten about drinking tea, and were still asking a young eunuch:

"A while ago, I said that the charcoal bought at the end of the Langxia family was not good, but now it is better?"

Langxia's house is the gathering place of the eunuchs next to the elephant room under the Xuanwu Gate, and some of the little eunuchs who are not mixed with the grade can't even get into the inner palace, and when they are not on duty at night, they have to go out of the palace to live there before the palace gate is closed.

The little eunuch was also newly replaced by the Qianqing Palace in the autumn, and he stumbled when he spoke to the smiling cat face of the three cats:

"Grandpa Xie Sanmao is worried, the new, new charcoal, everything is fine."

"That's good, grandpa, it's rare for me to have blood on my hands, if I can't stop those who stretch out their hands after beating ten people in a row, I might as well pick up this cat skin on my body and spread it at the gate of the palace to wipe people's feet."

The three cats spoke and smiled, and others trembled when they listened.

These days, the second dog was first degraded, and then the emperor reused female officials, and even a chicken in charge of the ceremonial supervisor rarely appeared in front of the emperor, and the eunuchs were rarely unpopular, some of them were bold and wanted to lean forward, and some of them were bold enough to rely on money, and there were 30,000 catties of coal on the side of the Langxia house, which was wet and broken and mixed with soil, and it was a night of north wind, even the smoke and frozen, and dozens of people were sick in the past night, and a few simply couldn't stay.

This matter was reported to the celebrant eunuch, and the eunuchs of the celebrant wanted to suppress it while the two dogs were away, but they were touching the paws of the three cats.

He was not polite, and instructed the eunuch who did not move the eunuch to take out two rows of people with big shoulders and round waists from the kitchen of the Shang Shan Supervisor, and took them to the inner court to buy the inner eunuch and dragged out all the people who handled the charcoal in the corridor.

The internal official supervisor Yin Song came out of the pig to stop him, and was slapped to the ground by the paw of the three cats.

Song Cong went to Yiji with an injury on the pig's face, Yiji first persuaded him a few words, and then turned his head and cleared up all the money and money that the celebrant had taken to help him hide the matter.

There are only three cats, not only is there nothing wrong, but they also won the emperor's reward yesterday.

After this experience, everyone in the palace also knew that this three-cat eunuch who had nothing to do and had a poisonous mouth was not easy to get along with, and he was also a person who could grasp power and carry things in his hands, and he respected him as if he were a chicken and two dogs.

"Thank you Grandpa Three Cats, Grandpa Three Cats is in charge of our children and grandchildren."

"I'm a slave, how can I be the master?" The three cats excused themselves and waved their paws, but their eyes were already narrowed.

He also instructed the little eunuchs, who were only a few years younger than him, "You have come to the palace

You have to do a good job, don't know how to be lazy every day, look at those female officials, reading and writing in class every morning and evening, and their hands are frostbitten and they don't stop."

The little eunuch who had just rushed to hold chestnuts for the three cats flattened his mouth and said, "Grandpa the three cats, where can we compare to those female officials? They are all masters who are determined to stand in the court, we want to get there, and people still don't look down on us eunuchs!"

The three cats didn't scold immediately, and looked him up and down a few times first: "Yo, don't call us grandpa when you say this, entering the palace to serve the emperor still wear out your ambition?" Who would dare to have such a grandson? If you can write and read and enter the celebrant supervisor, after saying this, our family still thinks that you are a little confident, and now that handwriting dog does not know the cat and does not recognize only a maggot dares to come up to recognize the family, and dare to sell vinegar to the female officials? You look at yourself, can you weigh the backbone of two taels when you are burned to ashes?"

The little eunuch was scolded, and he craned his neck and did not dare to speak.

Suddenly, there was a crisp sound, and the tall and thin eunuch who had been waiting with a cup of hot tea couldn't stand the heat and smashed the cup on the ground.

The three cats glanced at him, as if smiling:

"What, this can't stand it? What do you do when you fix others?"

The eunuch already knew that he was the one who took the lead in bullying the little eunuch and was known to the three cat eunuchs, so he shrank his hand and begged for mercy:

"Grandpa Three Cats, I'll ...... in the future"

"After you mentioned it to our family, how did you fix Ning Xizi and their little eunuchs? By the way, you made them kneel on the broken porcelain."

The tall and thin eunuch was trembling, and it was really impossible to imagine the rampant appearance of him not long ago, which made people hold hot cups and kneel on porcelain tiles.

Seeing that he refused, the three cats looked away and waved their hands.

Immediately several eunuchs stepped forward:

"Lu Shouxi, you'd better kneel by yourself, and save us from doing it."

Lu Shouxi begged for mercy to look left and right, only to see that the little eunuchs who had flattered him and begged for mercy before were just looking, and then looked at the three cats with pleading eyes.

Three cats are looking at their paws.

After a moment, he was discouraged and fell to his knees.

The three cats sat on the kang and looked over one by one from the faces of a group of eunuchs in front of the palace: "In the past, the front of the palace was a four-corner gold and wood cabinet, which was stable, but now some people are serving less in front of the palace, and you feel that this cabinet is missing legs, and you don't estimate your body, you think you can support your legs. As everyone knows, those who really want to hold up their legs are those who have spent hard work and endured great grievances, and they only know every day that looking at the dignity of the female officials in front of the emperor and the dignity in front of the courtiers, the two eyeballs can't wring out the vinegar! And what's the use? How much better can you be than others? The children and grandchildren have all cut off their roots and still think that they are a master?!"

He stood up and kicked Lu Shouxi's body:

"As far as you have the ability to put it on the table, do you think the emperor can not know, can he not see it? But if one of you can stand up to the high female officials, he has already climbed onto the four heads of our family, and he still has to wait for the female officials to pick peaches?"

The three cats really hate iron and steel, he himself is a eunuch, how can he not expect the eunuchs to win the favor of the emperor, but what are these eunuchs doing? In addition to forming a party for personal gain, it is corrupt and perverting the law, not only with dirty intentions, but also with inferior means.

"Don't blame our family for not telling you, the houses in the West Garden have been cleaned, and the female officials who came out of the female show examination outside the palace are about to enter the palace, and for the first time this year, there are one hundred and fifty female officials, who can write and calculate, obedient and sensible, not to mention our internal officials, those foreign ministers outside are afraid that they will rob them of their errands. The emperor wants the palace to be thrifty, and next year's internal supervision and selection has stopped, hmph, in a few years......

He scolded and frightened these eunuchs so much that he forced them to break out in a cold sweat around the hot stove.

Having said that, a eunuch stood outside in front of the curtain of the door:

"Grandpa Three Cats, Grandpa One Chicken called you."

"Got it."

The three cats stretched, raised their feet and walked to the door, and pointed at Lu Shouxi with their chins:

"Let him kneel for three hours and drag him out

Don't put it in the palace again."

「…… Yes."

Moving their muscles and bones, the three cats shook their heads and came out of the house, first being blown by the cold wind and shrinking their necks.

When he raised his eyes, he saw a person guarding the door of the duty room on the other side.

He walked over, and as soon as he lifted the curtain, he smiled: "Boss Chicken, you are a rare guest in the palace now, and you follow the four rats outside every day...... What's wrong with you, Boss Chicken?"

Looking at the little blood stains on the pants he had changed, Yiji smiled and said, "I haven't ridden a fast horse for a few months, and my butt is tender."

Hearing this, the three cats really wanted to poke the chicken boss's tender buttocks, and their hands were raised, remembering that it was the chicken boss's ass that he couldn't touch and put it back.

"Boss Chicken, even if you leave the palace, you can't ignore anything, now that you're not here, Ergou is also pretending to be there every day, and the little ghosts in the celebrant are also let me bear it, although we are a cat, there is only one life in the end, and if you are tired, you will be gone."

A chicken changed his clothes, threw his blood-stained pants into the brazier, and pointed to the table:

"The emperor has ordered, we have to bring you some gadgets when we go out of the palace, so that you can be an errand steward in the palace honestly, this is Lao Chenfang's almond cake, which is said to be extremely delicious, but it is not famous outside."

The three cats leaned over to take a look, opened the oiled paper bag and tasted a piece, and their eyes couldn't help but narrow.

"It's so delicious when it's cold, it must be a must when it's hot, Chicken Boss, since your reputation is not obvious, how did you hear from people?"

A chicken's hand that pulled his hair was paused, and he raised his foot and kicked the feet of the three cats:

"Something you can't eat to fill your mouth?"

The three cats smiled and said, "These few pieces of pastry, that's really unfillable."

Yiji remembered that after the woman changed his horse, he held back a sentence to ask for snacks, and felt that the clever tongue he had practiced in the palace over the years had really been fed to the chicken's intestines.

If in the past, he and the three cats were not so close, among the four people, he and the two dogs were in the same party, the three cats were only loyal to the emperor, and the four rats were also loyal to the emperor, but in the past few months, the three cats first interceded for the two dogs, and it was he and the four rats who witnessed the emperor together...... The Emperor's Meng De...... The little trivial matters of the emperor, the barriers between the four of them are clearly gone.

"There's nothing I can't say, when I was a child, I had a sister next door, and recently I ran errands for the emperor, and I had time to meet that sister a few times, I rarely go out of the palace, and your snack is what she said was delicious."

"Yo?!" The three cats widened their eyes, and suddenly felt that the dim sum in front of them was even more rare, "Boss Chicken, how does your girl next door look?"

Yiji thought for a moment and said, "It looks very similar to when I was a child, and I recognize it at a glance."

The three cats tilted their heads and thought, "Boss Chicken, I remember that your father used to be a showman, but the family suffered a disaster...... How's your sister doing? If life is not good, I have recently been forced by the emperor to read books and learn some recipes, how many of us will pool some money to help her open a dim sum shop?"

"Not necessarily." Yiji shook his head, "She is now a slave to others, and the master's family treats her well, and she is also loyal...... She has been chivalrous since she was a child, and now she is the same as a slave and maid, but she follows her father and mother, and she is a good martial artist."

"Good martial arts?" The three cats, who grew up in the palace since childhood, really haven't seen a woman who knows martial arts, and the cat's eyes are round and purring, "Boss Chicken, your sister is a Mulan Mu Guiying-like character? This is really rare, but it's a pity that our emperor only recruits female talents, not female guards, otherwise you can take care of her if she enters the Jinyi Guard."

A chicken put on a gauze hat and looked at the three cats.

He wanted to tell people about his complicated feelings when he was forced to give up the horse by his sister next door with a knife when he was a child, but he was ...... to this cat

Any emotion seems superfluous!

"That's it, don't talk about these trivialities, is there something going on with the emperor today?"

"It's basically the same things in the court, by the way, the results of the selection of female officials in Zhili have been announced, a total of five hundred female talents, one hundred and fifty people have become female officials to be selected, and three days later, they entered the West Garden and began to learn the rules, and another round of selection is the inner book

The lady of the house is gone. The rest were sent to the girls' schools that were running in various places."

After saying that, the three cats looked at a chicken.

A chicken looked back at him, "What are you looking at?"

"Look at the chicken boss, you are not panicking."

Yiji smiled, "What's there to panic about in our family? When is it not a hundred ships competing for a thousand sails around the emperor? Is it difficult for Sun Niande and others to fall down by themselves? In the past, the emperor liked to be obedient, but now the emperor likes to do things, the emperor likes to be obedient, let's be obedient, and if the emperor likes to do things, let's do things, if we don't know that the emperor's preferences are compared, then we deserve it."

"Hey, Boss Chicken, I feel comfortable listening to this!"

The three cats narrowed their eyes and ate the few remaining pieces of snack:

"It's a good snack, I'll ask the thief to bring it back to me when I get back."

Yiji sorted out his appearance, and took advantage of the fact that there were few people in the Qianqing Palace to go around the back door to the front of the palace, and saw the emperor talking to the eldest princess of Yueqing.

No, wearing a blue shirt and red dress, this is now Zhao Mingyin, a scholar of Duanji Temple.

In addition to her, there were also several female officials standing in the hall, although they were also wearing plum branch hats on their heads, but their faces were plain, which made the main hall of the Qianqing Palace more solemn than usual.

"Your Majesty, in the matter of cooperating with the three divisions to revise the law, the ministers only have one sentence, and there is a shortage of people. Even if all the 150 female officials selected for this examination are left in the Duanji Palace, it will not be enough, let alone be assigned to the inner study......

Before she could finish speaking, she was interrupted: "Master Zhao, these one hundred and fifty female officials were originally selected to enter the inner study to be masters, how did they become separated from the Duanji Palace? Now that the Duanji Palace has checked the accounts of the Taifu Temple, all the literate palace maids and female officials in the palace have been dispatched, and the establishment of the inner study has stagnated.

It was Xu Gongling who spoke.

On the same day, she received the order to assist the queen to let the palace maid enter the inner study to study, but she didn't expect that things would get bigger and bigger later, Zhao Mingyin took the initiative to ask Ying to take her female account room outside the palace into the palace to settle the accounts of the Taifu Temple, and the queen naturally helped and let the female officials of the palace go to help, but the matter of the inner study was temporarily put on hold.

"Scholar Zhao's act of asking for help that day, the official is also deeply admired, but the inner study is also the foundation of the Duanji Palace, the foundation of the internal and external female officials, and must not be delayed, besides, assisting the queen to build the inner study is also the responsibility of the Duanji Palace, how can Bachelor Zhao favor one over the other?"

Shen Shiqing sat on the throne and watched the two female officials arguing, watching with relish.

All the things in front of her, but she walked step by step on a road that no one had walked before, although it was only a few small steps, it also made her feel very proud.

Zhao Mingyin looked at Lao Cheng's solemn Xu Gongling, knowing that he couldn't say it, and turned his head to look at His Majesty who was sitting on the throne:

"Your Majesty, Duanji Hall is now also lacking in skills, setting up an inner study, settling the accounts of the Taifu Temple, and cooperating with the three divisions to cultivate the Fa, all of which are major events, but there are only more than 170 registered female officials in Duanji Palace, and more than 100 people have been borrowed from all over the place...... I beg Your Majesty to allow the three hundred and fifty female talents who have been admitted to the Duanji Hall as scribes this year."

Shen Shiqing looked at Zhao Mingyin, and at this time he already understood, Zhao Mingyin knew that the one hundred and fifty female officials were untouchable, so he hit the idea on the female Xiucai.

"But female talents also have to learn to be masters in Zhili, I have already built 20 women's schools in Zhili this year, and next year I will push the selection of women's schools and female talents to Shandong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Lianghu, and Guangzhou."

When Zhao Mingyin heard this, his heart was half discouraged.

There was so much to do, and she couldn't just focus on the present and the future.

"Your Majesty, then when will we take the female talent exam again? If we wait until the end of next year, I am afraid that the matter of amending the law will be postponed."

Shen Shiqing lowered her eyes and smiled, looking at the holy decree being written in front of her.

"You don't have to wait until the end of next year, and you can't just be kept busy like this. I am writing a will, at the beginning of next year, let the Ministry of Rites select 1,000 female officials from all over the country, not much, use them first

on."