Work overtime

Chapter 776

Five years ago, since Jiang Yuebai was crowned as the empress, twenty-four people entered the harem one after another. Including Jiang Yuebai, there were only fourteen left, and only eight people stayed in Ci'an Palace to retire.

Later, nineteen foreign women came in, three of whom committed suicide for love, leaving sixteen. Among them, seven were pregnant, and plus one was adopted, eight were left to be taken care of in old age.

The number of children born to Han Chinese and women of other ethnic groups was evenly matched. This was a situation that had never happened before in any dynasty.

According to Li Beichen's will, those who did not have children had to go to Puning Temple to become ordained and practice Buddhism.

The Han women Xiao Wanyi, Zhaopin, Gu Changzai, Zhou Liangyuan, Yang Guiren, and Ye Guiren went to Puning Temple. Among them, Gu Changzai and Zhou Liangyuan had never slept with the emperor. Zhaopin gave birth to a pair of daughters who both died young. Xiao Wanyi, Yang Guiren, and Ye Guiren had slept with the emperor but never had children. Each had their own misfortunes.

Among them, Concubine Ye was the younger sister of Concubine Hua Shu. She thought that her sister, who was usually high and mighty, would end up with nothing and would end up like her, having to be ordained at Puning Temple and eat vegetarian food and chant sutras.

Who would have thought that the Empress would actually give Concubine Nianxian's child to her sister so that she could live in the palace in her old age? Concubine Ye was so angry that she almost vomited three tons of blood.

"Why? Just because she's the legitimate daughter?"

In addition, there were three people from the Oirat, three people from the Tatar, one person from the Jurchen, and one person from the Persian state. These eight people had only been here for a year.

The Persian beauty Mei Taiguiren knows three languages, Persian, Arabic and Chinese, so her life and daily communication should not be a problem. It is a pity that such a multilingual talent is wasted.

But the ancestral rules were like this, and Jiang Yuebai had no other choice. She thought that maybe things would work out when the time came.

In order to make their life easier, Jiang Yuebai renovated the temple and replaced all the old furnishings with new ones. He asked Mrs. Huan to make a set of design drawings and decorated the Zen room in a fresh, simple and stylish way.

He also ordered Xia Zhi to send half of his salary to Puning Temple every month so that they could live a better life.

People were sent to deliver musical instruments such as the guqin, guzheng, flute, and dongxiao, various paints, brushes, and picture albums for painting, pens, ink, paper, and inkstones for calligraphy, and embroidery threads, embroidery frames, and needles.

He also sent them a bunch of classic ancient books such as "Thousand Character Classic", "Three Character Classic", "Standards for Being a Good Pupil and Child", "The Analects of Confucius", "The Book of Songs", "Three Hundred Tang Poems" and "Three Hundred Song Poems", and asked Xia Zhi to tell them that if they were bored, they could translate these books into their own language.

In short, Jiang Yuebai gave these vegetarian and Buddhist women some fun and solace besides their boring morning and evening classes every day.

It's not in accordance with the rules, but Jiang Yuebai is now the queen mother and her son is the emperor. As long as you don't cross the red line, it's not a big problem.

In order to prevent the teenage girl from crossing the line and making mistakes due to emotional impulse, Jiang Yuebai finally felt uneasy and sent Xia Zhi instead.

Xia Zhi is no longer the little girl she used to be. She is now the head aunt of Kunning Palace. After six years of training, she has become very mature. Jiang Yuebai is very confident in her.

Before leaving, Jiang Yuebai told Xia Zhi that in five years, when she was thirty years old, he would allow her to leave the palace, arrange a good marriage for her, and give her a house so that she could get married in a grand manner.

For the palace maids, it was a happy and fulfilling life that they could not even imagine. Xia Zhi was so moved that she cried and said that she would never marry in her life and would only serve the Queen Mother.

After seeing off the concubines who went to Puning Temple, the palace suddenly seemed much more spacious.

On the third day after Li Beichen's death, on August 18, the day Li Chengji ascended the throne, the Jurchen Yan Tai Wanyi gave birth to the twelfth prince nine months prematurely due to fatigue and worry, and unfortunately died in childbirth. Jiang Yuebai named the child Li Chengxiao, and he was raised by the prince's wet nurse.

On the eighth day after his death, the system reported that Jiang Yuebai was three weeks pregnant.

When Jiang Yuebai heard the news, she put her hands on her stomach and was stunned. This was too unexpected.

The ninth prince was born in March.

Li Beichen held it in for ten days and then had sex for three days in a row, including the early morning of August 15th. She was pregnant again?

"Speechless. She's almost turning into a sow." Jiang Yuebai couldn't help but sigh.

After saying that, she touched her still flat belly and smiled.

On the twelfth day after Li Beichen's death, Han Ziqian returned with the eunuchs and envoys who accompanied him.

The little emperor sat in the middle, while Jiang Yuebai, dressed in plain clothes and with a solemn expression, sat beside him.

When they met again, Han Ziqian was still excited and had many things to say to Jiang Yuebai, although he didn't show it on his face. Jiang Yuebai's heart was calm again. Just like many people's secret love in their youth ended in vain.

"This time, I led a fleet of 255 ships to patrol the Western Ocean in accordance with the imperial order. We sailed more than 23,500 miles and visited 15 overseas states including Champa, Java, and Guli. We established friendly relations with 12 kings and leaders, and 21 envoys on board returned to visit the Ming Dynasty."

After listening to the report, Li Chengji nodded and said, "Master Han, you have worked hard."

Although his voice was childish, he already had the bearing of a supreme ruler.

Afterwards, Han Ziqian presented the exotic items he brought back from this voyage to the West, such as more than 800 kinds of frankincense, longyan incense, Guanyin bamboo, pepper, pearls, corals, rubies and sapphires... as well as various rare animals and countless exotic flowers and plants.

Li Chengji was very excited when he heard this, and asked Han Ziqian to take him to check it out. Jiang Yuebai followed his son and listened to Han Ziqian's report on the specific donation and purchase of these rare treasures.

This time Han Ziqian brought back rare animals such as zebras, yellow-black tigers, camels, black bears, black apes, white deer, lions, giraffes, leopards, large western horses, long-horned mahas, ostriches, camels, elks, white elephants, six-legged turtles, etc. Li Chengji was amazed and praised him repeatedly.

Jiang Yuebai thought that he could find a place to open a zoo so that the people of the whole city could go and see it and broaden their horizons. He immediately assigned the task of preparing to build the capital zoo to the left and right prime ministers and the Minister of Industry.

Tianxiang Tower happened to be unused, so Jiang Yuebai ordered Han Ziqian to hold a sales fair for the common people. Ordinary items like pearls were clearly marked with prices, and everyone was treated fairly. Rare and precious items were offered to those who paid the highest price.

Jiang Yuebai called the concubines from Ci'an Palace to come and watch with their children.

The children looked at these new things excitedly, listened to Han Ziqian's explanation, and held their mother's hands and chattered non-stop.

The third prince's eyes sparkled, and he wanted to touch and ride everything he saw. When he rode on the white elephant, he screamed in surprise, as if it was Chinese New Year.

The fifth princess pulled Jiang Yuebai aside and kept asking questions, while the second princess quietly leaned over to Han Ziqian, trying to hear more clearly.

When Han Ziqian asked the second princess if she wanted to touch the giraffe, the second princess looked at her mother hopefully.

Jiang Yuebai's eyes happened to meet Han Ziqian's. She lowered her head to look at the second princess, smiled and nodded.

The second princess was picked up by Han Ziqian and gently touched the giraffe's neck, with a smile on her face as bright as the sun.

Jiang Yuebai was stunned for a moment. The Second Princess hadn't laughed so happily in a long time.

She felt pain and embarrassment in her heart.

Then all the other princesses and princes wanted to be hugged by Han Ziqian and rushed to touch the giraffe.

A few days later, the trade fair in Tianxiang Tower caused a sensation in the whole city. The streets were deserted and almost all the people in the city crowded in to take a look and pick out some reasonably priced small items to take home.

The rare birds and animals in iron cages placed along the street attracted people to stop and watch.

The giraffe was regarded as a Qilin. Because of the superstition that Qilin can bring good luck, Han Ziqian set a price of five taels of silver for each touch. A long line of people formed in front of the giraffe, and he made a lot of money.

After a few days, I earned 50,000 silver coins just by touching the giraffes, which means that the two giraffes were touched 10,000 times in total. Fortunately, giraffes don't bite people.

The exhibition was very successful and brought in astonishing financial revenue, which offset all voyage costs and made a huge profit. This shows the benefits of trade.

Before the exhibition, Jiang Yuebai looked up the detailed information of the exhibited animals on the system, wrote it down, asked Huan Tai Wanyi to add illustrations, and ordered the Ministry of Rites to ask the Imperial College to print it into booklets, which would be distributed free of charge to the people who came to visit.

This trade fair diluted the sadness of the national mourning and enveloped the entire capital city in joy and novelty.

The people talked about what they saw and heard at the fair with great relish, and they still remembered it vividly many years later. This shows the significance of increasing knowledge to the people.

In particular, the free booklets distributed by Jiang Yuebai's organization were regarded as treasures by the common people, who used them as picture books to teach their children to recognize birds and animals.

Soon, the images of these rare animals, flowers and plants entered the daily life of the people in the capital, such as on quilts, horse-faced skirts, utensils, and hair accessories.
Li Chengji summoned Han Ziqian into the palace every day and asked his younger brothers and sisters to listen to Han Ziqian's stories about his voyage to the West.

Han Ziqian told the story vividly, making people feel as if they were there. Especially the process of fighting pirates was so thrilling that the children clenched their fists nervously and broke out in a cold sweat. The younger ones all hid in their mother's arms, pulled her arms, and poked their heads out, but they had to continue listening even if they were afraid.

Han Ziqian became an omniscient hero among the princes and princesses, and they worshipped him endlessly.

Although Jiang Yuebai could check the system to supplement and correct Han Ziqian's explanation, she just stayed quietly aside, being a loyal listener like the children, sighing or wondering with them.

Knowledge in books and systems is dead. Han Ziqian is alive, an experiencer and witness. He combines his knowledge and temperament, and tells stories in a very personalized language, which makes them so credible and interesting. This is exactly where AI cannot replace humans.

The Third Prince even dragged Jiang Yuebai's hand, clamoring to take Han Ziqian with him the next time he sailed. Jiang Yuebai listed all the dangers and difficulties that might occur on the voyage, and the Third Prince had only one sentence, "Don't be afraid!" Jiang Yuebai finally said cunningly, "Then you have to learn at least three languages ​​and be as knowledgeable as Master Han. I just want to ask you, are you afraid?"

The Third Prince looked at Han Ziqian in confusion, "Lord Han, is this necessary?"

Han Ziqian lowered his eyebrows and smiled, "Your Highness, this is the case."

The Third Prince held his breath and did not speak for a long time, as if he was trying to make up his mind. Finally, he uttered two words fiercely from between his teeth, "Don't be afraid!"

From then on, the "poor student" Third Prince began to work hard. Every day he would go to the foreign teachers in Chongwenguan to practice spoken English, ask about vocabulary and grammar, and exchange ideas with James, the fourth prince's study partner who could speak four languages. After returning home, he would ask the Queen Mother for advice.

Driven by the Third Prince and the enlightenment of Master Han, the princes and princesses started a trend of learning foreign languages. Concubines from other races became popular.

An unprecedented national integration has emerged in the harem. On weekdays, adults are reluctant to visit the harem, so the children have become a bridge. The concubines have strengthened their exchanges and contacts with each other, and the children are even more so.

On October 17th, the Tatar Concubine He gave birth to the sixteenth princess, who was named Li Ziyuan.

The second day of the twelfth lunar month was supposed to be the birthday of the emperor, but it was a period of national mourning, so everything was kept simple. Jiang Yuebai then realized that there was one bad thing about father and son having the same birthday. It was that it would make people particularly sad.

Jiang Yuebai cooked a bowl of longevity noodles with eggs for each of the four little ones who were celebrating their birthdays, as well as the fifth princess and the young prince.

"Happy birthday to my sons and second daughter, and a healthy and safe new year!"

"I wish Qi'er and An'er happiness, and may they be happy every day."

As he spoke, Jiang Yuebai turned his head away, and each of the children came over and kissed Jiang Yuebai on the face with their greasy mouths.

The prince replied respectfully, "I wish your mother good fortune as vast as the East Sea and a long life as long as the Southern Mountains."

She cooked a bowl of noodles and added two poached eggs to the side. This was for Li Beichen.

"Here, this bowl of noodles is for your father. Let's wish your father a happy birthday together. Let's sing Happy Birthday to your father together."

"Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you" a melodious child's voice sounded, making Jiang Yuebai's eyes moist.

On previous birthdays, Li Beichen would clap his hands and sing this birthday song with Jiang Yuebai to them.

Before he finished singing, the fourth prince rubbed his eyes and said in tears, "Mother, I miss father, wuwuwu~~~"

The Third Prince: "I miss my father too. Goose, goose, goose~~~"

He still looked up and howled, “Goose, goose, goose, I’m hungry!”, no different from before.

The Second Prince: "I miss my father so much."

He wiped away his tears and lowered his eyes. He had learned to restrain himself.

The second princess: "I miss my father too."

She was still the same as before, lying on the table, burying her face in her arms, crying but very quietly.

The fifth princess: "I miss the emperor too."

She cried, rubbed her eyes and asked for a hug.

There was a burst of crying immediately.
The young master beside him was stunned for a while, and then he also started crying. He thought of his father. This kind of sadness was the same.

The Ninth Prince was held by his nurse. He was only eight months old at this time. He looked at his brothers and sisters in confusion, looked left and right, pouted his lips, and then started to cry loudly. The one crying the loudest was the Ninth Prince, completely overshadowing the Third Prince.

The wet nurse immediately picked up the ninth prince and walked back and forth to coax him.

Jiang Yuebai did not hug the Ninth Prince. She was already four months old at this time and had always been very careful.

She stared at the bowl of longevity noodles on the table in a daze. Her heart was sour and bitter, her eyes were a little wet, but she couldn't cry. She couldn't help but ask in her heart:

"Jiuru, are you doing well over there? Do you still think of me and the kids? We all miss you very much. Happy birthday."

After saying this, she seemed to see Li Beichen smiling at her, and she couldn't help but smile too.

She turned the diamond ring on her hand, stood up, touched one person's head, then that person's head, and comforted them softly.

The prince had stopped crying, but his face was tense again. Jiang Yuebai smiled and pressed his shoulder, and when they looked at each other, the prince couldn't hold back his tears, but he held back his tears and smiled.

"Mother, you gave birth to us and raised us. Thank you for your hard work."

"Mother, you have worked hard."

……

The children's voices echoed in Jiang Yuebai's ears one after another. They gathered around her and looked up at her.

The third prince scratched his head and said with a blushing face, "Mother, you are so beautiful!"

A bunch of parrots behind him said, "Mother, you are so beautiful."

Jiang Yuebai didn't cry at first, but after hearing the children shouting at her, she couldn't help but shed tears.

"Mother." The second princess called softly, hugging Jiang Yuebai's legs and whispering against them, "I miss my father so much. I dreamed of him again last night."

"Mother misses him too." Jiang Yuebai squatted down and held the second princess in his arms.

The Ninth Prince had been coaxed into laughing by his wet nurse. He clapped his hands and shouted "Ahhh" happily to the Crown Prince.

The prince reached out his hand, and with the help of the wet nurse, carefully hugged the ninth prince. The ninth prince began to chat with his brother in babbling voice.

The children were attracted by the Ninth Prince and started talking to him, teasing him by responding with “ah ah” and “oh oh oh”.

The joyful atmosphere diluted the sadness just now.

Jiang Yuebai also had a smile on his face, but the longing was like wine, growing thicker and thicker in his heart.

When night fell, I couldn't help crying on my pillow.

Since Li Beichen passed away, she began to suffer from insomnia. Because she was pregnant, she dared not take medicine. She could only relieve it by drinking milk, soaking her feet in hot water, and smelling incense. But how could she relieve her longing?
Looking at the moon, whether it is as thin as a hook or as round as a pancake, it will bring back memories of watching the moon with him.

When the night deepened, she hugged the pillow he had used, covered herself with the quilt he had used, buried her head in the quilt, breathed in his scent, and shed silent tears.

She knew she shouldn't do this, but she just couldn't help crying and missing him.

That night, she dreamed of him.

He told her that he missed her so much and thought about him every day. He asked her to take care of herself, be happy, and take good care of the baby in her belly. Maybe one day he would suddenly return to this world.

In her dream, she hugged him tightly and kissed him deeply, just wanting to tell him all her thoughts.

"Jiuru, I miss you too."

Li Beichen lifted her chin, kissed away the tears from her eyes, and said gently, "I love you, Jiaojiao."

"I love you too." Jiang Yuebai murmured, leaning her face in his arms.

I woke up suddenly and found myself hugging the quilt, pressing it under my body, with a large area of ​​it wet with tears.

She couldn't help but call his name again, "Jiuru."

I closed my eyes and tears welled up.