It was the summer of the nineteenth year of Wanli.

Manila has clear skies.

The palm trees lining the Harbor Avenue outside the city are lush and spectacular.

On both sides of the avenue, there are also girls standing with graceful bodies swaying.

Most of the girls were natives bought from other islands on a cheap cotton cloth, and most of them were no more than fifteen or sixteen years old.

And they were bought by the Department of Churches under the Governor's Office of Luzon.

When Zhu Yijun developed Dongxuan, he had already issued an order to allow the governor of the education district to set up his own official office.

This is done in order to facilitate the spiritual needs of the wanderers, and to prevent them from falling into homesickness too deeply and not interested in promoting the cause of kinghood.

Now these native girls from the Luzon Sect Division are sent here, naturally the imperial court wants to leave a very good impression of the Han people who moved to Luzon, and to avoid these Han people from going back because they see that there are many forests and fields here, and they are too backward, and even cause an incident.

Therefore, as soon as Li Jinzhong entered the port with the ship, he saw these girls dancing on the side of the avenue, and they were only wearing thin belly pockets, shallow to cover their shame.

This made Li Jinzhong like it before he got off the boat, and he felt a surge of enthusiasm, and he couldn't wait to jump off the boat now and swim to the shore.

Especially when I see those girls smiling like flowers.

Li Jinzhong had to admit that he had a feeling of entering the gentle township.

Li Jinzhong's companions and other Han Chinese were also in a state of excitement at this time, and after the ship docked, one by one, without the officers and soldiers on the boat, they took the initiative to get off the boat, came to the case, and then stared at the girls with both eyes.

As soon as they got off the boat, they were guided by officials to the governor's palace, where they were to be registered and further disinfected.

Li Jinzhong was walking along the port avenue with these Han people who had moved here to the Governor's Mansion of Luzon in the Ming Dynasty, and saw a tall statue of Deng Zilong standing under the red sun at the highest point near the sea.

This made Li Jinzhong suddenly feel that this scene was sacred, and suddenly realized that he had come here to make a contribution.

The other Han people also looked at the girls with burning eyes, and no longer stared at the swaying and dancing girls.

One east and one west, the statues of Chen Lan and Deng Zilong standing on the two highlands are very magnificent, full of more than ten zhang high.

Both statues stand on the seashore with swords and armor, their eyes like brass bells open round, and looking at the sea level, even from a distance, it makes people feel powerful.

Matteo Ricci, a foreign official of the Ming Dynasty who was ordered to deal with the Xiyi books and various instruments and materials left here, also came here with the ship that Li Jinzhong was on.

He also saw these two tall statues at this time, and couldn't help but say to his companion Wan Hongru:

"Their sculptures are not inferior to ours, and they have a different charm, and I am even more amazed that they are so powerful that they have turned Luzon directly into their own territory and organized such a large-scale immigration movement."

"This is because they already have a lot of great knowledge, and their level of civilization seems to be higher than ours, we should borrow their knowledge as soon as possible, so that we can unite Europa and become as powerful as them!"

Wan Hongru said at this time.

Matteo Ricci said: "I have heard that they have a book called "Yongle Dadian", which contains a lot of knowledge, but unfortunately we have no right to read it, otherwise it will greatly help me in the West!" And now I can only translate mathematical knowledge for him as the Ming Emperor and some Ming officials. ”

"Let's find another chance."

"But what is certain is that this place will undoubtedly become Han land as well."

"In the future, the people here will have to learn their Chinese, read their scriptures, and wear their clothes, just as we did when we went to Mingguo."

Wan Hongru said.

Matteo Ricci listened and bowed his head.

Luzon is indeed becoming a Han land step by step.

Li Jinzhong became a miner as he wished, and began to dig mines in Luzon for the Ming Dynasty.

Luzon is rich in copper and gold mines, especially copper ore that can be mined is much more abundant than that of the Ming Dynasty, after all, the mining volume of the Ming Dynasty has been severely short after thousands of years of mining, so that it affects the currency transactions in the national economy.

Because the wages paid for mining in Luzon were very high, Li Jinzhong used the money not long to buy ten acres of land in the local area, and bought natives from Korea, Japan, and Java as serfs to work for himself.

In order to increase the yield of his cultivated fields, Li Jinzhong also had to hire an old Han farmer here to be his own farmer, manage the farm himself, and teach these serfs how to improve their farming skills by the way.

As a result, within a few years, Li Jinzhong had more savings and began to be able to contract mines from the government and organize miners to mine new mines.

Of course, that's an afterthought.

When Li Jinzhong and others went south, Sun Ying, a young girl who was in the age of cardamom, was going to Jingshi.

Because His Majesty the Emperor's decree to co-opt for the thirty-six Zhaoyi has been sent everywhere, and the selection is hot.

And now Zhu Yijun has won the love of the people, coupled with the way that many palace maids communicate with their families by writing letters, it also lets the people know that it is not so terrible to enter the palace now, if their own girls cannot become concubines, they can also become female officials in the palace, and at worst, they can apply to leave the palace, so the people are not so reluctant to choose a concubine for the emperor now, but they respond very positively, and want to send their best daughter to the palace and want to learn about their background.

When Sun Ying and the girls came to Jingshi and saw the majestic Forbidden City towering in front of them, they couldn't help but look up, looking at the solemn world composed of white marble steps with vermilion walls and walls, and wondering what kind of character the Son of Heaven was in this palace.

Sun Ying has a general understanding of Zhu Yijun, and knows that when today's son is less than thirty years old, although he has repeatedly implemented benevolent policies, he is really ruthless and makes people feel chills when he thinks about it.

Like Sun Ying, the other girls who came to the palace all heard of Zhu Yijun a little, and knew that Zi Enwei was unpredictable today, and they all only looked at Zhu Wall Baitai and didn't dare to speak, but their eyes were full of fascination.

On the day when these girls entered the palace, Zhu Yijun also came to the palace wall of the Huangji Gate and looked at these girls.

When he watched these girls, most of whom were equivalent to junior high school in later lives, walking towards his field of vision under the leadership of eunuchs, what ignited in his heart was not physical desire, but curiosity about what kind of people these people would grow up to in the next court life.

He hopes that these girls can learn something after entering the palace, whether it is to be his woman in the future, or to marry someone out of the palace, they can represent the best in the new era.

You know, whether a person can mature enough, the influence of the mother is great.

Many outstanding people who have been able to make meritorious contributions to the country and the people are inseparable from their mothers' good teaching, and there are even more wives and husbands who are less than evil.

Although the rise and fall of a country cannot be blamed only on women, it is also not possible to link the rise and fall of a country to women, after all, women are also an important part of the nation.

"As soon as the results of these girls' entrance exams come out, let the queen show them to me."

Zhu Yijun therefore gave an order to Huang Xun, the eunuch who was the master of ceremonies, at this time.

Huang Xun said yes.

The current concubine selection system is different from before.

Because Zhu Yijun expanded the ministry for the palace in the name of choosing a concubine, the focus was no longer on selecting appearance and posture, but on screening the level of education, consciousness and wisdom, and the entrance examination system was set up.

That is, after these palace maids have gone through the basic family investigation and appearance screening, they will do a physical examination when they enter the palace, unless they have physical diseases, they will basically not be eliminated, and then they will directly conduct an entrance examination to determine the ranking, and the outstanding ones will be directly arranged by the emperor for status and ministry.

The entrance exam was unexpected by Sun Ying and other girls, and the key point was that most of their parents did not pay attention to their education.

According to the old etiquette, a woman is virtuous if she is not talented.

Therefore, only slightly more enlightened families will let their girls know some words and read some books, and there are naturally fewer families who are really enlightened enough to let their girls read all kinds of books that help broaden their horizons and wisdom.

But what is certain is that the more enlightened the family, the more likely it is that the head of the family is a true supporter of the new rites.

In this way, Zhu Yijun is actually screening the family behind them.

Because the entrance exam is actually a test of some simple math problems and some simple geography and history knowledge, and the other is to write poems and songs.

Sun Ying did well in the exam, because her brother Sun Ding'an had taught her mathematics, geography, history and other knowledge, and also popularized the current new rites, so she was also comfortable in the exam.

But those girls from families who openly support the new rites but in their hearts still reject the new rites and pursue the old rites of the weak people, they have a headache when they see the test papers.

It's not that they're stupid, it's that unless they take the initiative to get in touch, it's hard to get access to this knowledge with their family environment.

Because there are girls from too conservative families who can't even write, just like Wang Xifeng in "Dream of Red Mansions" wants to write a few bills, and when she sees Jia Baoyu, she also asks Jia Baoyu to help write them.

Although Yu Bailu, the girl who entered the palace with Sun Ying, was from the Jiangnan of outstanding people, she had a headache about the exam papers in front of her.

It's not like she's uneducated.

Her father was a teacher of the Fuxue, and she was also enlightened, but her education was the education of the four books of women, so let her list the martyrs of Zhenxiao in history, she can say that the head is the Tao, but now when she encounters these arithmetic questions and common sense questions, she feels very embarrassed, and she can't accept that the imperial court wants to test them with these knowledge.

She was even more worried that she would be eliminated if she wanted this first level, so she had an idea, stood up on the spot, came to the female officer Huang Min who was invigilating, knelt down and said:

"Madame! Such an examination paper, the folk girl is really difficult to answer, and the folk girl also dares to think that the imperial court should not only choose a concubine, but should be based on the lack of talent and morality, how can there be a reason to test the talents in the boudoir such as poetry and songs? ”

(End of chapter)