National Division

Chapter 22 Draft

The holy car went to Penglai to meet the immortals, and then held a ceremony of offering sacrifices to heaven and enshrining Zen in Mount Tai, and finally ended with hunting.

The only one who was unhappy was probably the queen, so after the queen returned to Beijing, the first thing she did was to manage the draft.

The draft in the Sheng Dynasty followed the rituals of the previous dynasty, with a major election every three years and a minor election every year.This year happened to be a general election, and all the daughters of officials above the age of 15, both inside and outside Beijing, could run for the election. For a while, the capital was full of girls who were as delicate as flowers and tender willows.

If it were changed to previous years, there might be some officials who would not want their daughters to run in the election—even though Emperor Jing’an said that he was taking the golden elixir for the permanent youth, after all, he was nearly 40 years old. Not wanting her daughter to be with someone who can be her own father, to put it bluntly, if Emperor Jing'an dies, wouldn't the young girl have to be a widow for the rest of her life?But this year is different, the selection for Emperor Jing'an is still a trivial matter, but the two oldest princes in the palace are going to choose their concubines.As soon as the news spread, who would not want to send their daughter here?

In the Zichen Hall, the Empress and Concubine Ye Gui sat opposite each other. The short table in the middle was full of portraits of beautiful women, and the family background and age were listed in small characters on the bottom, piled up like a hill.Concubine Ye took a portrait and looked at it, then smiled and handed it to the queen: "Look, ma'am, how is this girl? She was born handsome, her grandfather was a bachelor, and her father is now at Yushitai. In my opinion, such a girl can be a princess only if she has a good family education."

The queen glanced at it with a sullen face, and said lightly: "It looks a little weak, it doesn't look like a good child."

She was not happy.It is such an important event for the crown prince to choose a concubine. The crown princess is the future queen, so it should be solemn and carefully selected.As a result, Qizhang won the favor of Emperor Jing'an in the hunting ground, and Concubine Ye Gui blew on the pillow, so Emperor Jing'an decided to choose the prince and concubine for Qizhang this time.In this way, there are more officials who want to send their daughters to the second emperor's uterus. How can the queen be happy?In the portrait that Concubine Ye Gui picked out just now, the girl was born pretty well, but the pointed chin and melon-shaped face clearly resembled Concubine Ye Gui, as long as the Empress looked at it, she would naturally feel disgusted.What's more, what's the use of my grandfather being a university scholar, and my father is just an ordinary censor. If such a person becomes a princess, how can it help the prince?Concubine Ye Gui was clearly making trouble, she was probably thinking of leaving the best-born girl to Qi Zhang.

If Emperor Jing'an hadn't spoken and asked Concubine Ye Gui to "slap his eyes" for Qi Zhang, the Empress really wanted to beat Concubine Ye Gui out.Ordinarily, she is in the middle palace, and even if there are a hundred concubines under her, they should all be considered her children, and she should handle all marriages and concubines.Now Emperor Jing'an excuses that Qi Jun's choice of concubine is the most important thing, and let her just take care of Qi Jun, but entrusts Concubine Ye Gui with the matter of choosing a concubine for Qi Zhang. Isn't it questioning her power as the middle palace?

Shao Yao was waiting on the side, looking at the Queen's face with trepidation.Having been a close maid for so many years, how could she fail to see the empress' thoughts?I'm afraid that the empress could not hold back the anger for a while and said something wrong, and then concubine Ye Gui added fuel and vinegar to the ears of Emperor Jing'an, which made the emperor displeased.She was in fear, when a little maid came up with ginseng tea and nodded slightly at her, Shao Yao was relieved, bent down and whispered in the queen's ear: "His Royal Highness is here."

Besides, as a concubine, Concubine Ye Gui also wanted to avoid suspicion, since Qi Jun came, she got up to leave.The queen exhaled at her back, turned her head and saw Qi Jun coming in, and complained: "No matter what she does, she has to interfere. I wanted to carefully pick a few people for you. Let's see—" pointing Pointing to the portraits on the low table, he sneered, "I'm willing to choose the teacher, and send them all to me. I'm afraid those are really good and I don't know who will send them to!"

"Mother doesn't have to look at it like this." Qi Jun served the tea with his own hands, interrupting the queen's complaints, "The daughters of these civil servants, the mother just chooses two good concubines for the gentle temperament."

"Liangdi?" The queen was a little puzzled, "What about the crown princess? There are also Liangyuan and Chenghui, can they all be picked at random?" According to the regulations of the Sheng Dynasty, the prince can have one concubine, two concubines, four Liangyuan, and Chenghui. Ten, according to the Queen's intention, that is, not to choose all at once, but to choose at least half. It is rare that the daughters of all the officials' families are running for the election this time, so it is natural to choose enough.

Speaking of this, the empress became happy again, and took out a dozen portraits from behind her: "Look, fortunately, the empress has already inquired about them, these are all good, come and see—"

"Empress—" Qi Jun raised his voice slightly, then suppressed it again, with a bit of unconcealable helplessness in his expression, "The first concubine selection is to choose the main concubine, and it is enough to choose two good concubines. If you want to come to the second younger brother, you just pick two or three people." How can there be a package that can choose all the positions in the East Palace?If there are more than ten people in one election, how will the outside world talk about him as the crown prince?Could it be that he can't be like his father in other places, but he can only be like his father when he is female?

The queen was still a little unconvinced: "You are a prince, how can he compare with you!"

Qi Jun shook his head, no longer tried to persuade the naive mother, but said: "Mother just listen to me."

Although the queen didn't understand very much, whenever her son spoke so solemnly and unquestionably, she could only obey, then nodded, and spread out the portraits in her hand one by one: "I only pick a few, and I want to live well." Look. This is Ling Shi, the eldest granddaughter of the Minister of the Household Department, she is only 16 years old, and she is quite talented." The Ministry of Household Affairs is the place that manages money, and it is only when you have money in your hand that you can do things well, otherwise the prince will sound nice. But he has no private property, and he may not have enough money to reward his servants on weekdays.

"There is also this one, Meng Shi, the young daughter of the servant of the Ministry of War." In charge of the Ministry of War, it is a place with real power. Isn't Ye's prominent party only when he has military power?

Qi Jun lowered his eyes slightly, and sighed secretly: "Father has already seen Mrs. Meng, and intends to call her a beauty."

The empress was shocked: "I've already seen it?" All the beautiful women entered the palace and lived in the Qunhui Hall, and they were not allowed to move around at will. How could Emperor Jing'an have seen it?

"It was early this morning. Mrs. Meng was walking by the Hundred Carp Pond in Qunhui Hall. Seeing the new lotus blooming in the pond, she sang Jiangnan ditties on the spur of the moment. His father heard him passing by and called him out to meet him." Naturally, what happened suddenly? There are things like Xing, God knows if it is true or not, otherwise Emperor Jing'an would have passed by sooner or later, why did he pass by at that time?

"I, I didn't know!" The queen pressed her chest angrily, "This girl behaves so badly, how can she enter the palace!"

Qi Jun waved his hand wearily.What are you talking about?No matter how misbehaving, if Emperor Jing'an wants to be crowned, what can the empress do?Could it be possible to quarrel with Emperor Jing'an for a beauty?It is the person who can make trouble, and Emperor Jing'an is interested, can he be the son to fight for it?Is there any human relations left!Besides, if you look into it carefully, the empress, who is in charge of the harem, is also to blame for the misbehavior of the beautiful women entering the palace.

The empress also understood now that even the Meng family could be favored by Emperor Jing'an, those girls with high status must have been targeted long ago: "Then the Ling family—"

"Ling's body is weak, and the Minister of the Household Department has pleaded guilty to the father. I am afraid that the granddaughter is not fit to bear children, so please depose her specially." A woman who is weak and difficult to bear children is indeed very difficult to have a future in the palace.It is said that mothers are more expensive by their children, and that those who serve others with their color will lose their love when their color fades. No matter how proud you are when you are young, if you have no children, you will inevitably have a miserable evening when you get old.But if the royal family wants to be elected, unless the girl in the family suffers from a serious illness, she must definitely participate in the election. With Ling's background, as long as she is talented and good-looking, she will be elected in nine out of ten.Of course, there are special cases here, it is really not suitable for entering the palace, if the official loses face in front of the emperor, the emperor will take care of him and depose him in the final round of selection, so as to prevent the girl from entering the palace and not hurt the official. A girl's face and identity do not prevent her from getting married later.Hubu Shangshu really loves his granddaughter by doing this, but it doesn't mean that he wants to stay out of the matter - Ling's daughter, whether she is the concubine of the crown prince or the second concubine of the emperor, she is an excellent candidate... Empress Gazing at the pile of scrolls he had picked out, he gasped for a few breaths, threw all of them to the ground with a shake of his hand, and said in a trembling voice, "You bastard, Mrs. Ye!" To be heard by Emperor Jing'an, there must be hands and feet done by Concubine Ye Gui.

Qi Jun sighed softly, bent down and picked up the portrait: "Mother, it is good for the princess's natal family to be strong, but there is no need to force it, as long as the girl is dignified and stable, and knows the general situation. What's more, if the princess's birth is too prominent , It’s too obvious.” The crown prince’s position is difficult to sit on, if it’s not conspicuous, it’s useless to teach people to comment on the incompetence of the prince, but if it’s too conspicuous, it may not arouse the emperor’s suspicion.

The empress sat in a daze for a moment, and her eye circles turned red: "Well, what should I do!"

Qi Jun smiled, and casually browsed the portraits of beautiful girls picked out by the queen: "The ones my mother picked are naturally good, and they won't all be calculated by others."

The queen wiped her tears and said: "It's just that the family background is low, how can I get it out? At the Hall of Liangyi, I'm afraid I'm going to try my best to pick people with noble backgrounds..." She hated again as she spoke.

In fact, although the queen was the daughter of a noble family, the family has long since declined, so there is nothing to brag about.After Qi Jun persuaded her gently for a while, the queen finally stopped her tears and spread out several portraits: "Speaking of which, this is the daughter of a general in front of the Sipin Palace. She looks like a good-born girl, and I wanted to bring it in for you to be a good wife." , now that I do the calculations, I can be considered to be of good background..." As she spoke, she became sad again, although she didn't care much about political affairs, she also knew that the general in front of the palace was just a false title, with neither rich salary nor real power. If you want to choose a helper for your son, you don't want to choose an empty crown princess.

Qi Jun raised his eyebrows slightly when he heard the words of the general in front of the hall, "Is it Zhao Di's daughter?"

The queen had to look carefully at the small characters on the bottom of the portrait, and Shaoyao next to her had already answered, "It's Zhao's daughter, and her maiden name is Zhao Yue."Shaoyao doesn't have much knowledge, but she is hardworking and has a good memory. There are six or seventy beautiful women like this hill, and she can remember them roughly, and she can answer them immediately.

Qi Jun took a closer look, the girl in the painting was sixteen or seventeen years old, wearing a cherry red dress, holding a branch of white plum, smiling like a flower, although she could not be called a stunning beauty, she was still youthful and bright.The artist draws the portraits of beautiful women to try to resemble them, so as to avoid the situation that the portraits do not correspond to real people. The girl in this portrait is slender and fit, which is quite different from the slenderness of ordinary beautiful women. It really fits what the women say. Birth figure.

But this is not what Qi Jun saw: "The general in front of the palace, Zhao Di—my son remembers that Zhao Di had made military achievements in the southwest, but after the Ye family took over, he was squeezed out, so he returned to the capital and took a idle job." When he came in just now, he had already asked Feng En to send everyone outside, so there was no need to be too taboo about speaking at this time.With the ability to lead the army and has a grudge against the Ye family, at this time, when many high-ranking officials are standing on the dry shore, it is not easy to choose such a person who can lead the army.

The queen's eyes lit up immediately: "In this way, this girl is very good! Although it is an idle job, but if the daughter becomes the crown princess, he will not be idle." The father of the crown princess is also required to be rewarded as usual.

"Mother—" Qi Jun coughed lightly, reminding the somewhat excited queen, "You still need to carefully examine the temperament and character of the daughter of the Zhao family, after all, she is a concubine. Besides, the other concubine Liang should not be too high-born. , and even more docile, so as not to overwhelm the concubine and make the house restless."

"Understood." The Queen held the portrait and looked around, the more she looked the better.The corners of Qi Jun's lips twitched slightly, and he reasoned that he would go to the Hanying Hall to listen to the government, so he withdrew from the Zichen Hall, leaving the queen alone to rejoice.

The draft has been tossing for more than two months, and the dust was not settled until early June.Contrary to everyone's expectations, among this group of beautiful girls, some of the most noble backgrounds were deposed, or brought into the harem by Emperor Jing'an, and there was a daughter of Zuodu Yushi of the Metropolitan Procuratorate who was accused of The second prince, Qi Zhang, and the crown prince, Qi Jun, picked the crown princess, but she was the daughter of a fourth-rank idle military general. It was said that the empress had specially picked this woman because she liked this woman's bright temperament and strong body.Of course, some people said that His Royal Highness was afraid that his relatives would cause trouble, so he deliberately picked a woman of ordinary background to be his concubine.Others said that it was Concubine Ye Gui who had blown the pillow wind and picked the noble daughter to her son, lest the crown prince would get a powerful Yue family.Among them, the last one is more popular. After all, it seems a bit unlikely that the crown prince is willing to find a woman of ordinary background to be the crown princess, but it is very possible for Concubine Ye Gui to use the emperor's favor to choose a good one for her son. I don't see, besides the main concubine, the second prince even has the two side concubines, the father of the lowest family background is also a fourth rank, is it equal to the crown princess's father?

Emperor Jing'an leaned against the pillow, closed his eyes slightly to enjoy the cool breath from the iceberg behind him, and asked slowly, "Did the prince pick it himself?"

Wang Jin stood in front of him with a bowed body, and replied respectfully: "Yes. Your Majesty thought that the daughter of the Ling family was both talented and beautiful, but--afterwards, His Highness chose the daughter of the Zhao family. The empress thinks that the daughter of the Zhao family is too low-born. Originally, I only wanted to choose Liangyuan, but His Highness said that since you are choosing a concubine, you can’t choose too many people, and the princess concubine should be dignified and stable, and her background is the second. Please look at Zhao’s daughter, if the character is really precious , it is possible to become a concubine."

"Well——" Emperor Jing'an nodded slightly, "How old are you, and you are more sensible." He is a womanizer, but he doesn't think it, and it doesn't mean that he likes his son and hugs him, especially Qi Jun. It is the prince. If the future prince is a lustful maniac, what future does the country have?

Seeing that he was in a good mood, Wang Jin apologized and said with a smile: "Your Majesty is right." Glancing at Emperor Jing'an's expression, he boldly said, "It's just that if the princess's natal family is too mediocre, it would be a bit humiliating to His Highness's identity, and—yes The reputation of the noble concubine and the second highness is also somewhat—”

"Huh?" Emperor Jing'an opened his eyes, "What's going on outside?"

"Your Majesty—" Wang Jin smiled, "For such a major event as the draft, it is inevitable that some idlers will make wild guesses without knowing the inside story..."

"They should all be killed!" Emperor Jing'an raised his eyebrows, but there is no way to kill this kind of thing, so he calmed down, "Forget it, you have thought well, the princess's background is too low, I am afraid it will be difficult in the future Convince the public. Zhao's father is—"

"It's Zhao Di, the general in front of the palace." Wang Jin quickly replied, "I heard that there was a war in the southwest before. Later, General Ye protected the southwest, and General Zhao returned to the capital."

Emperor Jing'an became a little interested: "So they fought in battle? These generals in front of the palace are all idlers, and there are still some who have been on the battlefield. It's not easy, but I don't know how talented they are?"

"This—" Wang Jin didn't dare to reveal what he already knew. "The servant only knows that General Zhao was transferred back to the capital in the third year of Gaiyuan, and the rest is—"

"It's useless!" Emperor Jing'an kicked him lightly, but he thought about it, "I remember that in the second year of Gaiyuan, pirates invaded the southwestern coast, and they fought for half a year..."

"Yes, Your Majesty still remembers clearly. Having said that, the slaves also remembered. Later, after General Ye passed by, he calmed down the southwestern coast within a month, and even offered prisoners to Beijing."

"It was settled in the past month..." Emperor Jing'an narrowed his eyes slightly, "Although he commanded well, the credits of his predecessors are indispensable. In this way, this Zhao Di must have some talent."

Wang Jin said with a smile: "At that time, I still had some contact with people outside, as if I heard that the southwestern coastal defenders were good. It was because the pirates were forced to go to Shanghai for several years, and these pirates couldn't survive. It’s just a desperate effort.”

Emperor Jing'an gave him a sideways look: "You slave, I remembered it now, and you also remembered it!" After thinking for a while, "I remember that a few days ago, the book on the northwest side said that the war was not good? The people who have been employed in the Northwest these years are also useless, which makes Jie Nu gradually become arrogant."

Wang Jin didn't dare to answer these words. He stood aside with his hands down, and after listening to Emperor Jing'an talking to himself, he suddenly turned his head and told him, "In this case, let Zhao Di go to the northwest to see how he is. How many catties? Pass the decree, promote Zhao Di to be the second-rank hussars general, and go to the northwest to lead the army!"