Jiajing Chengming

Chapter 27 Choosing a New Year Name
Zhu Houcong was not lustful.

But he has a bottom line and self-control.

What's more, in this era when life expectancy is not high and infant mortality rate is very high, early marriage and early childbearing are common, and people basically get married at the age of fourteen. Concubines and maids are generally no more than thirteen or fourteen years old.

But Zhu Houcong came from later times, and in his impression, girls of this age were basically still middle school students.

Therefore, even if these girls are born beauties, he would not lose control when standing in front of him.

Furthermore, as he was familiar with the history of the Jiajing Dynasty, he dared not treat these palace maids as anything less than human beings.

After all, these people were the main force in reorganizing the court in history.

As for why it was the main force to rectify the palace?
Learn about the beautiful girl’s midnight neck-strangling package.

Because of this.

Even though, she was already fifteen years old and had secondary sexual characteristics.

Moreover, as the prince, he has no shortage of beautiful maids around him.

But he hasn't indulged in it yet.

It is said that the grandmother that Zhu Houcong was going to meet now was his father’s biological mother, Shao, who was conferred the title of noble concubine during the reign of Emperor Xianzong.

Zhu Houcong often heard his father Zhu Youlang mention this grandmother.

In Zhu Houcong's impression, the Ciqing Palace where Shao lived was a very luxurious palace. Historically, it was the bedroom of Empress Zhang of the Tianqi Dynasty during the Chongzhen period.

Of course, according to what Zhu Houcong learned from the eunuchs, Shao did not originally live in Ciqing Palace, but in a more remote palace.

Because Zhu Houcong was about to become emperor, and because of her ancestor's noble status, Shao was moved to Ciqing Palace by Empress Dowager Zhang. Empress Dowager Zhang also began to care about Shao's condition and knew that Shao could not see.

Zhu Houcong was naturally pleased to see Zhang being so tactful and taking the initiative to show goodwill to him as the emperor.

In this way, he would not have to risk being criticized by the world for treating Zhang harshly in order to establish his authority in the palace.

In any case, in the eyes of the world, Zhang was an old widowed empress dowager who had lost her husband and son and who had helped Zhu Houcong to successfully become the emperor. She was a weak person, and Zhu Houcong could not be too harsh in "eating up the family's resources". He should at least be more civilized and benevolent when he got the family's resources.

After all, the emperor is a role model for all people in the world. The degree of his benevolence determines whether the scholars and officials in the world respect him, take him as the guideline, and trust that all his edicts are issued with good intentions.

In fact, many scholars and officials no longer believe in destiny.

Therefore, Zhu Houcong was unwilling to treat Zhang badly unless it was absolutely necessary.

When Zhu Houcong arrived at the Cining Palace, he saw Shao, with snow-white hair, hollow eyes and gorgeous clothes, sitting on the stepping stone with both hands outstretched: "Is my grandson here?"

"Grandson sends his regards to grandmother."

Although it was the first time that Zhu Houcong met Shao, he was moved by Shao's smiling face and immediately bowed deeply.

Subsequently.

Zhu Houcong walked up to Shao, sat beside her, and let her touch him as much as she wanted.

Shao really touched Zhu Houcong from the top of his head to his ankles, as if he wanted to engrave Zhu Houcong's appearance into his mind in this way.

After touching it, Shao's eyes sparkled with tears: "It's as tall as your father was when he was enfeoffed!"

Zhu Houcong couldn't help but smile: "Grandmother, my father often thinks of you. Let your grandson honor you in the future."

Shao was even happier when she heard Zhu Houcong say this, and she couldn't help but nodded: "Good, good, my grandson is really filial, and he will definitely become a good emperor in the future, just like your royal grandfather."

Others may not like what Shaw said.

Because the grandfather of Zhu Houcong mentioned by Shao was Emperor Xianzong of the Ming Dynasty.

But Zhu Houcong was not displeased by this, and continued to say to Shao: "Don't worry, my grandson will be a good emperor."

Then, Zhu Houcong asked some more questions about Shao's health.

However, Zhu Houcong also learned that Shao's health was not good. Because she had failed to take good care of herself before, her old illness had lasted too long and had become more serious.

of course.

Zhu Houcong knew that this was also related to the fact that the medical care in the Ming Dynasty court had always been not very good.

According to the Wanli Yewaibian, not to mention that the imperial physician was one of the "four most unreliable" people in the capital, the quality of many medicinal materials was also questionable due to corruption, so naturally there were very few authentic medicinal materials.

In addition, when many female members of the palace fell ill, they could only "ask" in the four steps of diagnosis, which resulted in many of them having to take medicine based on their symptoms.

According to medical logic, each person is specific. Even if two people have the same symptoms, they will have different treatments and different symptoms. Therefore, doctors often need to make more accurate judgments in order to prescribe the right medicine to cure the disease.

This also resulted in a high mortality rate among palace ladies who fell ill, especially among the neglected palace ladies and ordinary palace maids.

At the same time, this also led to many palace maids being beaten to death in the Ming court.

Many times, palace maids might be appropriately caned for making mistakes, but due to the poor medical level in the palace, many of them would die, and the palace dignitaries who caned them would be branded as mean and unkind.

Historically, the story that Jiajing was strangled by a palace maid was related to the fact that the maid had killed his sacred turtle and was afraid of being punished, so she decided to kill the king.

Perhaps for the palace maids at that time, even being beaten with a stick would mean death, so they might as well fight.

Zhu Houcong felt that he should improve the palace's medical system in the future, even for his own sake.

Because Shao was in poor health, Zhu Houcong did not stay with her for long. After talking for a while, he left Ciqing Palace.

Wait for Zhu Houcong to return to Qingning Palace.

The night was already quite late.

The female historian Wang Chunjing came over and asked, "Sir, are you ready to rest?"

Zhu Houcong nodded.

So Wang Chunjing went to call the maid who was on duty that night, and asked her to help Zhu Houcong go to bed.

Although female historians like Wang Chunjing were selected by local civil officials through imperial decree, the final decision on who would be selected was still made by the royal palace. Therefore, most of the women selected as female officials in the royal palace were reliable women. They were either the daughters of hereditary military officers of the royal palace or the daughters of wealthy families in the local area with whom the royal palace had good relations.

Wang Chunjing was originally an orphan of a guard in the Prince Xing's Palace. Before she was selected as a female historian in the 14th year of Zhengde, she had already been adopted in the Prince Xing's Palace Charity School and taught books such as "Leaders for Women". She also served Zhu Houcong as a maid for many years. Naturally, her loyalty to Zhu Houcong was reliable.

However, Wang Chunjing is already 20 years old, which is considered an older leftover woman in this era. It will naturally be difficult for her to marry into a good family in this life.

The final destination of these people is to spend their old age in the palace.

Of course, there were also those who were lucky enough to be favored by the emperor and become his concubines, or even become empress dowagers because of their sons.

As for Wang Chunjing and two other female historians, Ma Qiuxiang and Zhang Xuemei, who grew up with Jiajing, Zhu Houcong remembered that they were later directly conferred the title of concubine by Jiajing as an exception in history.

It is worth mentioning that.

Because in the Ming Dynasty, these female historians and palace maids were selected from the middle and lower classes of the people, so many of them were given down-to-earth names. For example, the main culprits who strangled Jiajing's neck in history were all named Jin Ying, Cui Lian, and Xiu Lian, and the people around Zhu Houcong were no exception.

But precisely because Wang Chunjing was already twenty years old and more mature, Zhu Houcong felt a little distracted in front of a palace maid like her. While Wang Chunjing was serving him, he couldn't help but sneak a glance at the bulge under her panties and sniff the faint fragrance on her body.

However, Zhu Houcong did not act rashly.

Since female officials like Wang Chunjing were carefully selected to serve as his maids and then were chosen as female historians, they were naturally women who were thoroughly brainwashed by the norms of ethics and morality.

Therefore, if Zhu Houcong really wanted to have sex with a woman like her, although she would not blame Zhu Houcong, she would kill herself suddenly because she wanted to prevent her master from indulging in lust. In this way, she would establish Zhu Houcong's character as someone who was not interested in women and was loyal and strong-willed.

After all, before his wedding, at least when the late emperor had just passed away and he had just come to the capital and his foundation was not yet stable, it would be against the rules if he visited Wang Chunjing.

Of course, Zhu Houcong himself was not very old, and for the sake of his physical development, he did not plan to come into contact with sex too early. He decided to exercise restraint when he was young, and after he was strong and energetic, he would have more concubines to extend his offspring.

Because as an emperor, it is not easy to have children, otherwise, the country will be unstable and the people will be uneasy.

And precisely for the sake of having children in the future, he needs to restrain himself temporarily. If he engages in sexual intercourse at a young age, it will be difficult to successfully give birth to a child. In addition, the development and physical health of the concubines are also very important. After all, if they are in poor health or are small and incompletely developed, it will be difficult to fertilize them.

Zhu Houcong, who knew more about reproductive science, would just stare at mature palace maids like Wang Chunjing instead of doing anything indecent.

But Wang Chunjing would always blush because of this, and wonder why the prince could refrain from looking at a beautiful maid in her prime, but always had a naughty look in his eyes towards her?
After Wang Chunjing helped him to sleep, Zhu Houcong turned his attention to the important thing he had to do at the moment.

According to the procedure, he has to determine the reign title and the basic content of the enthronement edict tomorrow, as well as determine where he will ascend the throne.

The meaning of the reign title and the content of the enthronement edict are generally in line with the political inclinations of most scholars and officials of that era.

In general, it is to restore order, cut costs and quotas, pass on benefits to the people, and bring grace to the people of the world. It is an edict to win the hearts of the people of the world.

Zhu Houcong was not opposed to showing kindness to the people of the world, nor was he opposed to giving benefits to the people.

But he knew that this enthronement edict, which was in line with the political inclinations of most scholars and officials, would sooner or later become wishful thinking.

The Tartars who have been eyeing this precious land of China will intensify their plundering if you cut military spending and weaken your military strength, which will aggravate foreign threats and thus increase military spending.

Because you do not invest enough in public management such as disaster relief and flood control, the people will rise up in rebellion when they are desperate, which will aggravate internal troubles and therefore you will have to increase spending.

However, it is too early to say this. Zhu Houcong can only avoid these problems one by one in the future.

The next day.

The cabinet first sent the alternative reign titles they had prepared for Zhu Houcong to choose from.

The first reign title was Shaozhi.

The second reign title was Jiajing.

(End of this chapter)