Work overtime

Chapter 793

When Jiang Yuebai returned, he brought eight young girls with him. Their mothers were all daughters of high-ranking officials in the court who had married into the family, as well as the two daughters of Concubine An's second brother.

The current clan leader is Concubine An’s second brother.

After returning, except for Yesu'er, the granddaughter of Concubine An's second brother, who entered the palace and was granted the title of concubine, Jiang Yuebai married the rest of the girls to wealthy families in the capital. Among them, Jiang Yu's two granddaughters, one married the son of Jiang Yuebai's younger brother Jiang Bingliang, and the other married the son of the Eighth Prince, the grandson of Concubine Huan Wanyi.

Concubine Hua fell ill as soon as she returned, perhaps because she was tired, or perhaps because she was heartbroken by Concubine An's departure.

Jiang Yuebai actually thinks Concubine Hua is quite magical.

One of them died in the womb, and after much difficulty a princess was born, she died too. The seventh princess, whom he loved at first, was poisoned to death. After much difficulty raising Concubine Nian's child, the emperor married her off to Japan, a place that could only be reached by sea.

Logically speaking, life is quite tortuous, but I didn't expect that I could live so healthily for so long.

July 13th is Jiang Yuebai's birthday.

Unlike the birthday celebrations of the empress dowager in history, which were attended by concubines, ladies of state, and princesses, starting with Li Chengji, princes, court officials, and foreign envoys all came to congratulate her on her birthday, with a level of ceremony almost as grand as that of the emperor.

Therefore, the previous concerns of the court officials that she would become the second Wu Zetian were not groundless speculation.

It's not like she hadn't thought about becoming an empress, but she decided not to do so after thinking about it.

Except that she could not have a harem or male favorites, her current status, power, and influence were no different from those of the emperor. Why would she make things difficult for her own son and grandson and become their enemy?

What she wanted was not her personal ambition. What she wanted was the prosperity of the country and the family. She wanted the family and the country to merge and enjoy the dividends of development. She wanted her brother to occupy Singapore, establish himself as king, and then be recognized by the Ming Dynasty and control the Strait of Malacca. That was her goal.

That place is really a good place, the throat connecting the maritime trade between China and the West. It can also be used as a base to radiate political and economic influence to the entire Southeast Asia and even the Asia region.

It truly turned Southeast Asia into the Ming Dynasty’s backyard and a production base for agricultural products and minerals.

With the expeditions of Magellan and Columbus, the global Age of Navigation is about to arrive, and Spain, Portugal and even Britain will attack with guns and cannons.

In order to take the initiative, Jiang Yuebai has arranged for his younger brother, the Fourth Prince who guards Ryukyu, and the Tenth Prince who guards Annan to deploy military forces in advance, establish good relations with the upper echelons of the vassal states in advance, and systematically build overseas military bases.

What's good about being an emperor?
It will cause domestic unrest, disunity among court officials, and alienation between sons and grandsons. It is fine to guard against outsiders, but it is really hard to guard against those who are blood-related and closest to you. It is better to make the cake bigger and stronger and make the country prosperous.

Not only that, it will also lead to a reckoning of one's own family. One day one will die. One day one's grandson will take the throne. The grandson may not dig up the ancestor's grave, drag her out of the grave and whip her corpse. But it is easy to suppress and liquidate her family. Just like the Queen Mother Xuan in history, her later years were quite miserable. She lost power, her sons were at odds, and her brother was banished from the country. The Lü family and the Wu family are similar.

She was born into a merchant family, not a thousand-year-old family, an invincible cockroach. If one branch was destroyed, there was another branch that was highly valued by the court. It was too easy to destroy a family like the Jiang family that had no political foundation.

She has fought hard from the bottom to her current position. She cherishes everything she has now and has a natural respect for fate and power. She holds great power and can accomplish anything she wants as long as she pushes. Becoming an emperor only satisfies her desire for power and actually has little benefit.

This year is both my birthday and my 50th birthday, so I celebrated it with extra grandeur.

The emperor issued a decree to all the princes, princesses, grandchildren and granddaughters who could come back unless there were special circumstances, to celebrate the birthday of the "old ancestor". Each lineage was to send at least one person to pay tribute.

Then, those who could have returned did so. Those who had not returned also had their sons and daughters come.

Even the Kingdom of Korea and the Kingdom of Japan sent people to send their queens back to their countries to celebrate their mothers' birthdays. After the death of Queen Yuan, the 12th Princess was made the successor queen under the pressure of Jiang Yuebai and the King of Ryukyu. Because Queen Yuan had no sons but only daughters, the eldest son of the 12th Princess was made the crown prince.

"Congratulations to the Queen Mother, may you live forever and have as much happiness as the East Sea and as long a life as the Southern Mountains."

"Congratulations to the Imperial Grandmother for a long life!"

On this day, she met her first great-grandson, a nine-month-old boy with a chubby head and very cute. He chatted with Jiang Yuebai in "baby talk" and was not shy at all.

As a modern person, Jiang Yuebai couldn't imagine meeting his great-grandson. It was too outrageous.

The eldest grandson of Concubine Xie's daughter, the Fourth Princess. The Fourth Princess married Zhao Yuhang, a commoner who was the Minister of Agriculture, and stayed in the capital. She gave birth to three children, two boys and one girl. The two boys were sixteen and nine years old. The girl was thirteen years old.

The main reason is that Zhao Yuhang is away from home all year round and has no chance to have children. He has been leading his subordinates to study agricultural technology and agricultural policies all over the country. He is now a 100% gold-content agricultural expert and a super breeding expert, and the talents he has trained are all over the world.

Most high-ranking officials in the court have concubines, but Zhao Yuhang doesn't. He clearly told Jiang Yuebai that he didn't want to marry a concubine because he was out all year round and couldn't delay her. In fact, he just didn't want to marry, and it had nothing to do with being out or not.

He always felt that he was lucky to marry a girl from the Xie family, the granddaughter of Mrs. Xie, a great hero. In the eyes of the world, everyone actually understood what happened. The Xie family was a famous military family with generations of loyal officials and generals. No matter why General Xie disobeyed the emperor's order, it did not affect the respect of the common people and court officials for the Xie family. The same was true for Zhao Yuhang.

He also felt guilty that he had neglected the family for years, and that his wife had been raising the children alone. He owed her too much.

So he was particularly caring for the Fourth Princess and obeyed her in everything. When he came back, he didn't let the Fourth Princess do anything. He was the one who served the First Princess, doing the laundry, cooking, taking care of the children, warming the bed and massaging her back. How could he marry a concubine? He couldn't love his wife enough.

So even though the Fourth Princess is already a grandmother, she still looks very young, and her eyes are smiling when she speaks. I guess her marriage is particularly happy. The pride and confidence of the princess temperament in her words and deeds must have been inherited from Madam Xie, and also nurtured by Zhao Yuhang.

Concubine Xie would never have thought that her daughter would live such a happy life. Concubine Hua said, "It seems that fate is too unfair." Concubine Xie did so many evil things, but her daughter still had such a good life.

Jiang Yuebai smiled but said nothing. Perhaps the greatest merit of the Xie family was that they risked their lives for this country. Saving so many people from suffering was a great merit. How could they be wiped out just because of a little evil of Concubine Xie?

In fact, the children of the Xie family are really excellent, and their loyalty can be seen. Perhaps not to the royal family, but to this country and this land. When they were exiled to a remote place, they took it calmly, did not give up or think of revenge, but sympathized with the people and worked diligently to develop the local area.

Jiang Yuebai promoted Xie Yizhong to Sichuan Province to serve as a councilor, a third-rank official; Xie Yixiao was promoted again to the central government, serving as a deputy minister in the Ministry of Revenue. They were both high-ranking officials of the Ming Dynasty.

Concubine Xie is really a piece of shit.

But her aunt, her grandmother, her father and brothers sacrificed their lives for the country.

Personal grudges are personal grudges, and national affairs are national affairs.

At this birthday party, Jiang Yuebai met Shang Lu, the top scorer in the imperial examination who was from Chun'an, Zhejiang. She liked him very much and after asking Sarina, the daughter and granddaughter of the fifth eldest princess, for her opinion, she decided to marry her to the top scorer.

*
On the Mid-Autumn Festival, Jiang Yuebai and Concubine Yang accompanied the sick Concubine Hua to eat mooncakes and admire the moon.

The weather was clear, without a single cloud, and the moon was as clear and cool as the night Li Beichen left.

Jiang Yuebai drank some wine and looked up at the moon. "We have been in the palace for nearly thirty years. The emperor has been gone for twenty years. That day, the emperor took us to appreciate the moon, but he fell asleep and passed away. It was so fast and so slow."

Yes, thirty years. How many thirty years do we have in a lifetime?

She and Jiuru had only admired the moon together for five Mid-Autumn Festivals. Because it rained one Mid-Autumn Festival, there was no moon to see.

The three of them talked and drank osmanthus wine. They talked about the past years and the children's stories at the Wanshou Festival, and they all felt a little melancholy.

Concubine Hua looked at Jiang Yuebai and suddenly started crying, "I'm so happy to meet you. Empress Dowager, I'm lucky that you helped me back then. I didn't go astray. Don't forget me in the future. Alas, I don't have a son. When I'm gone, I don't know if anyone will burn paper for me during festivals. They say that people who don't have a son to burn paper for are very pitiful."

"Don't be afraid. I'm here." Jiang Yuebai comforted her with a smile.

Concubine Hua was very concerned about her affairs after her death. "Don't forget it when the time comes. I heard that it would be very miserable if you have no money to spend over there."

"I won't forget. When I ask my old man to make some for me, I'll make one for you as well."

Yang Taipin spread her hands and said, "When a person dies, he is dead. There is nothing left."

"Stop, stop." Jiang Yuebai interrupted Yang Taipin's words quickly, "No one has ever died. No one knows what it's like after death. If someone is really dead, they can't come back to tell us. So it's better to keep some thoughts in mind. Just in case. Right."

Concubine Hua Taishu felt comforted and smiled.

After a long time, she said very softly, "I'm leaving, please don't forget me."

"You can't leave. We agreed that when you recover, we will go to the Summer Palace together. We will visit once in winter, once in spring, and once in summer." Jiang Yuebai held Concubine Hua's hand, "You have to cheer up and don't be pessimistic. If you leave, what will I do? Right? I will definitely not be able to survive."

There is a large area of ​​beautiful mountains and rivers in the north of the capital, but it is not used, which always feels like a waste. The emperor, concubines and princes usually have no place to go for a walk or a breath of fresh air except the palace.

Thinking of the Summer Palace in the future, Jiang Yuebai started to build it five years ago. It will probably be completed by the spring of next year.

Jiang Yuebai downloaded the blueprint of the Old Summer Palace from the Internet and described it to Wan Tai Wanyi bit by bit. She drew it based on her imagination. It turned out to be very close to the Summer Palace in reality, and even more beautiful. This was because Wan Tai Wanyi's brushwork was so powerful. She could draw anything that could be imagined.

Just because Jiang Yuebai said that if Concubine Hua died, she would not be able to survive, Concubine Hua slowly came back to life, and through daily recuperation and nourishment, she gradually regained her vitality.

Many times, a person dies not because of a terminal illness, but because he has no desire to live and no expectations for the world. Now he has something to worry about, and he has a little reason to live.

There were five of them when they went to Jiangnan in the eleventh year of Jiashun, but only two of them were left when they visited the Summer Palace in the spring of the twelfth year of Jiashun. Yang Taipin also left.

Yang Taipin probably had a heart attack. As she was talking, she suddenly covered her chest and fell to the ground with a pale face. But an hour passed. She didn't leave any last words.

When cleaning up the relics, Yang Taipin's room was full of study treasures and the walls were covered with calligraphy and paintings by famous artists. They were all given to her by Jiang Yuebai.

Yang Taipin was obsessed with calligraphy and was a calligraphy enthusiast. Jiang Yuebai's birthday gift to her was naturally a painting by a famous calligrapher. Anyway, there were plenty of them in the storeroom, all of which were authentic works of calligraphy masters from past dynasties. They were hung everywhere in the palace, but no one treasured them.

Yang Taipin created a font of her own. The horizontal strokes are super thin, and the vertical strokes are super fat, which is very personal. At the beginning, when it was not stable, it looked ugly. With the help of Huan Tai Wanyi, she modified it many times and formed the current style, which looks lively and interesting.

Jiang Yuebai collected all the calligraphy and paintings, kept a painting of "It's a Rare Thing to Be Confused" for himself, and put the rest in an exquisite rosewood box. He summoned Xiao Shisan to the palace and gave him his mother's painting as a commemoration.

It was only at this time that Li Hongyuan remembered his uncle from the Ministry of Rites who was proficient in many foreign languages.

Ever since Master Han and the Third Prince encountered pirates when they returned from Europe, the Ming Dynasty has limited the fleet's activities to the coast of Southeast Asia. Silk, tea, and porcelain are first circulated to Southeast Asia, and then Jiang Binggong and his men connect with merchants from Persia to sell them to Europe.