I am Emperor Wanli

Chapter 345: All the people of Chonghua Palace are dispatched

In the first month of the third year of Longqing’s reign, the entire capital and the Forbidden City would be bustling with activity for a whole month.

In the capital, Shuntian Prefecture set up tents and hung colorful banners in six spacious open spaces in the south, east and west cities. The Shaofu Supervisor invited jugglers from all over the country to perform their unique skills in the tents, and each tent was occupied by a juggling troupe.

The people of the capital were scattered everywhere, surrounding the tent, watching their favorite acrobatics and applauding.

He was so excited that he threw the bamboo chips in his hand into the square wooden barrel outside the shed. As he watched more and more chips were thrown in, the boss's face was smiling like a chrysanthemum. He bowed and thanked the boss profusely.

The acrobatic troupe could take these bamboo chips and exchange them for money at the Shaofujian, earning extra income on top of their original remuneration.

This is a new thing created by the Shaofujian.

They sent people to guard the entrances and exits of the six places where circus performances were held, and distributed bamboo chips to the people who came to watch the fun, one per person. If you wanted to take more, you could, at one penny per chip.

Holding bamboo chips, you walk around and when you see a circus troupe that performs well and catches your eye, you throw chips at it.

The owner of the circus troupe would take bamboo chips to the Shaofujian to exchange for money. The price of each chip was determined, and every day a count was made to see which troupe had received the most bamboo chips. The top two, three troupes would be ranked and given generous rewards.

This is similar to watching online articles in later generations, voting for monthly tickets and rewards, and competing for the monthly ticket list.

In order to get more bamboo chips, each circus troupe showed off their unique skills. Some of them didn't have enough unique skills, so they had to work hard from morning to night. Others performed two or three shows, but he performed four.

This is called explosive updating, just to get more bamboo chips, which can not only make more money but also bring honor to the face.

There are Guangfufang outside the city at Guangqumen, Dongzhimen, Andingmen, Fuchengmen, and Guangningmen, where the Shaofujian distributes Wanshou Guangfu bags, which can be a bag of tea, a bag of sugar, and a bag of rice, or forty coins and a piece of cloth.

All you have to do is kowtow to the Forbidden City and wish the emperor a long life and happiness, and you can take a pack. Starting from the first day of the lunar year, 10,000 packs will be distributed every day for 30 consecutive days.

At night, the Shaofujian set off fireworks on the city walls of Guangqumen, Dongzhimen, Andingmen, Fuchengmen and Guangningmen. There were such brilliant and colorful fireworks every night that attracted people from all over the city to go out and watch this rare prosperity in their courtyards or on the streets.

The capital city is bustling, and the Forbidden City is also bustling.

There are good shows performed in Xiyuanli every day.

The stone workshop, the Dagaoxuan Hall and the Guanghan Hall on the Qionghua Island to the north of Xiyuan and the east of Beihai were transformed into the Peony Garden, the Liyuanfang and the Qionghua Palace, which are divided into three places for watching Kunqu opera and other operas such as Yiyang opera.

The Peony Garden was where the ladies of noble birth watched plays, the Liyuanfang was where the concubines and empresses watched plays, and the Qionghua Palace was where the emperor and empress watched plays.

Emperor Longqing went to watch for a few days at first, but found it boring after watching for a while. He thought it would be better to listen to his beloved concubine singing alone for him in the Forbidden City, which was more erotic.

After the twelfth day of the first lunar month, Emperor Longqing went there less often, so the Qionghua Palace became a place exclusively for Empress Chen to watch operas, and she would invite nobles, ministers, and ladies of honor to watch together.

Chonghua Palace is located southeast of Donghua Gate. The word Chonghua comes from Book of Documents: Shun Dian: "This Shun can succeed Yao and uphold the glory of his literary virtues."

It was the place where Emperor Xuande lived when he was the Crown Prince.

Zhu Yijun was named the Crown Prince, and this place was given to him according to the rules, but he had always lived in the West Garden and had never lived here.

When Emperor Longqing ascended the throne, Chen became the empress and began to select a crown princess for Zhu Yijun.

More than a dozen beauties were carefully selected, and finally four were chosen: Xue Baoqin, Zeng Wan'er, Xu Youlian, and Wang Lan'er. Later, Yang Jinshui recommended Song Liuli, making a total of five.

Chen placed these five beautiful girls in Chonghua Palace and selected ten knowledgeable palace ladies to teach them carefully. She herself would come here from Kunning Palace every day to check the homework of the five girls and was very attentive.

On this day, the five ladies came from their respective residences to gather in the open space behind the main hall of Chonghua Palace. A palace lady stepped forward and reported: "Five ladies, the queen has gone to the West Garden. Please get on the sedan chair."

The five women looked at each other, smiled slightly, and got into their own sedan chairs.

Song Liuli just sat down and frowned slightly.

Everyone knows why the five women were chosen to enter the palace.

Princess!
The future queen!
But there is only one position. No matter who sits on it, the other four will be concubines and will be at a disadvantage in the future.

Xue Baoqin is the daughter of Yangwu Marquis Xue Han. She is the most beautiful, but she is carefree, innocent and cute. She looks innocent, but who would be chosen to enter the palace without some scheming?
Zeng Wan'er was the daughter of a scholar from Shuntian Daxing. She was beautiful and dignified. Although she was of excellent appearance, she was slightly inferior to the other four.

Xu Youlian and Wang Lan'er are both daughters of officials. One is extremely beautiful and as fair as jade; the other is elegant and has a noble temperament.

Xue Baoqin can talk to the other four, and has the closest relationship with Xu Youlian.

Wang Lan'er and Zeng Wan'er were inseparable. I was the only one who was all alone, with only Xue Baoqin and Zeng Wan'er occasionally talking to me.

Xu Youlian and Wang Lan'er would just smile at each other when they met, and never have any contact with each other again.

They despised themselves for being the daughters of merchants, and were only able to enter the palace through the recommendation of Eunuch Yang.

Merchants and eunuchs are the two types of people that these scholarly families hate the most.

snort!
You look down on me, but I have to fight for this position. I can't sit in that position, and you two don't want it either. Otherwise, no matter which of you sits in it, I will have a hard time in the future.

Five sedan chairs, surrounded by five palace ladies, ten palace maids, ten eunuchs, and guarded by thirty soldiers, entered the Donghua Gate, crossed the open space in front of the Huangji Gate, exited the Xihua Gate, and entered the Western Garden.

Going north, it passes through the former Shangbaojian, Bingzhangju, Neijianku and the Guandi Temple, which was the favorite place for eunuchs to worship. Now all of them have been converted into Silijian Jiageku and Xiyuan Library.

When we arrived at Qianming Gate, which opened to the Peony Garden and Liyuanfang, the sedan suddenly stopped.

Song Liuli was curious, so she lifted the curtain of the sedan chair and asked the maid next to her: "What's wrong?"

The maid said excitedly: "Your Highness, the Crown Prince is here."

Ah!
where is he?

It’s funny to say that the five girls had been in Chonghua Palace for about a year, but they didn’t know what Zhu Yijun looked like. They had only seen his procession from afar a few times.

With a clattering sound, the palace maids, the chamberlains, and the eunuchs all knelt on the ground. Song Liuli's hands trembled, the curtains fell, and her heart beat rapidly.

Empress Chen had already issued an imperial decree long ago that the five daughters were not allowed to meet the crown prince, and were not allowed to enter or leave Chonghua Palace without reason. They had to ride in sedan chairs when entering or leaving, and did not have to come out to greet the crown prince's entourage.

Soon, the sound of footsteps was heard coming towards them, and Song Liuli guessed that it must be the Jing army leading the way ahead.

"Jinshui, keep an eye on the silver dollar matter for me. Lao Gao is indeed good at collecting and spending money, but he still lacks in how to make money." A young man's voice floated in.

Crisp and hearty, with a hint of unmistakable flavor.

"Yes, I'll keep it in mind."

Song Liuli was familiar with this voice: Yang Jinshui, the eunuch of the Imperial Household.

"Well, who are you?" the boy asked.

The leading eunuch immediately replied, "Your Highness, we came from Chonghua Palace."

"Chonghua Palace, one, two, three, four, five, everyone move out. What are you going to do? Mother, would you like to see a show?"

"Yes, Your Highness. Her Majesty has ordered that you come over to watch the show together."

The sound was right next to her, as if only two or three body lengths away. Song Liuli didn't know where she got the courage from, but she lifted a corner of the window and took a peek.

I saw a tall young man wearing a vermilion dragon robe, walking quickly with his hands in his sleeves.

Yang Jinshui, dressed in a bullfighting suit, followed closely behind. He suddenly realized something, turned around abruptly, saw Song Liuli peeping, smiled slightly, and nodded gently.

"Jinshui, they go to watch a play, and we go to sing."

"Your Highness, I don't quite understand. What kind of play do you want me to sing?"

"Silver dollars set the stage, and the economy plays the show! You are the protagonist, and I will beat the gong and clap the board beside you, da da da! Haha!"

Zhu Yijun looked up and laughed happily, then walked away without looking back.

When they walked away, the eunuchs, palace maids and monks all stood up.

"rise!"

The sedan chair was lifted up again and moved tremblingly towards Qionghua Island.

(End of this chapter)