open sea

Chapter 1037 Ordinary
Bordeaux ushered in another ordinary morning, and the enemy had not yet receded, still gazing at the outside of the city.

On the comfortable velvet bed in the Governor’s Mansion, it was just dawn, and the sound of ink grinding made Margaret open her eyes. She saw that Chen Jiujing had already put on white satin loose long sleeves and trousers, and was sitting on a chair quietly writing with a brush. What is written, the candlelight emits a faint light, the man's straight spine and broad back are infinitely beautiful under the excellent material texture.

The hands of Chen Jiujing's pocket watch were placed on the bedside table. It was just after five o'clock, and the sound of soldiers sprinkling water to clean the courtyard came from outside the window.

This city, which has experienced a sleepless night, is about to come alive.

Margaret stretched out her comfortable waist, put on a thin blanket and walked to Chen Jiujing's side and asked softly, "Why didn't you go for a run?"

In the courtyard of the Governor’s Mansion, there were already the sounds of soldiers running around the courtyard. When they were in Bilbao, they would run around the barracks or the street every morning, and they would not go back to eat until they were tired.

"Are you awake? Tell the maid, I'll finish writing this letter, and the baggage ship will set off for Spain this afternoon, and ask them to bring this letter back for me." Chen Jiujing didn't hide Margaret's thoughts, He smiled slightly and said, "How to make a mercury mirror."

Chen Jiujing didn't hide Margaret's thoughts, but Margaret didn't care about it. She lost interest and curled her lips. Wrapped in a blanket, she walked halfway to the door before being called back by Chen Jiujing: "Get dressed before going out."

Get dressed before going out?
Margaret spread her hands helplessly, and went back to get dressed while asking: "What's the use of writing these, you should go to Venice to see, everyone knows how to make mirrors and glass, but only Venetians can do it well."

"You don't understand, anything." Chen Jiujing had already finished writing the letter, he blew on the wet ink, and turned around and said, "Da Ming can do it just by looking at it, and he can do it better than anyone else in the world."

"Our god must be asleep."

Margaret smiled and went to look for the maid outside the door. After a while, the maid brought by Chen Jiujing from Japan led two soldiers and two Margaret's maids came in with their toiletries.

Chen Jiujing's maid brought a copper basin containing warm water, on which were exquisitely carved pictures of braided children playing football, and a large wooden box painted in black and gold with trees, grass, long knives, warriors, fans and women, It was a gold box with Tang style paintings paid tribute to Tokugawa Ieyasu, the commander-in-chief who was loyal to him on the Japanese archipelago.

Her maid came, too, with a tin basin of cold water, and a thick buckskin roll, and two little tin boxes with carved crosses.

Chen Jiujing's young maid spread the straw mat blanket on the ground, knelt aside and put the copper basin and lacquer box on the left, and asked Margaret's maid to put the tin basin, tin box, and buckskin roll on the right, and opened the gold-painted lacquer box. There are nine lacquer boxes with the same gold painting or round or square inside. Open them one by one. First, put a Sura long scarf next to the copper basin, and then take out two teacups with cracked patterns and put them next to it. , the lids of the two teacups are different, one is a little tiger head, the other is a little lion head.

Except for a jade-handled toothbrush and a jade-handled shaver among the nine small wooden boxes, the other seven wooden boxes are filled with powder, ointment and other utensils.

After finishing all this, the maid turned to the direction of the desk and knelt and bowed silently.

It was much easier for Margaret. The two yellow-haired maids unrolled the buckskin and opened the tin box, and it was over.

I still learned these two movements from Chen Jiujing's maid.

Barefooted, Chen Jiujing walked over and sat down cross-legged. He first picked up the tiger-head teacup and poured it into his mouth, then slowly spit it into the lion-head teacup. Then he picked up the toothbrush with a jade handle and stained it with white tooth powder Brush slowly.

In fact, Margaret always felt very frustrated at this time. She puffed her mouth and knelt down awkwardly. She took out a chewing stick that could last for two weeks from the sheepskin roll and stuffed it into her mouth to chew. Xiang Chen Jiujing's toothbrush eyes are full of envy.

When Chen Jiujing picked up the jade handle, with three rows of [-] uniform holes drilled on one end, [-] pinches of toothbrushes made of horsetail, pig bristle, deer hair, rabbit hair and other soft and hard animal hairs were fixed in the holes to brush his teeth gracefully. And she can only hold this small wooden stick and stuff it into her mouth to chew?
She sees no point in spending years at court learning how to walk gracefully, burp, maintain her weight and blow her nose.

And of course, after chewing on the stick, she had to put her finger in her mouth and put the ashes of deer antlers, horse teeth, shells, and burned nuts in her mouth, and feel it all over her teeth.

Then Chen Jiujing began to wash his face. This was the most tormenting moment. He saw a man who was active in the war with a face that was more delicate and shiny than a woman, using a variety of fragrant and complex cleansing soaps. Under three different processes, the beard and oil stains on the face are cleaned up, and then the beard is carefully cut out.

And she, princess of one of the noblest families in Europe, the Valois family of France, had nothing but a darn cold soap and a tub of cold water.

Who is the noble nobleman?

What made her especially sad was that Chen Jiujing was too gentle and considerate. When Chen Jiujing, who had washed his face, walked towards the big wooden bucket that had already filled hot water for him, he comforted Margaret softly, saying: "It's okay, Margot , when the merchants of Ming Dynasty arrive in Seville again, they will bring you these things, and you won’t have to wait too long.”

Can't you just pretend you don't see my envy?
The same happened when they led their troops into Bordeaux, where the bad habit from Paris made the people open the windows early in the morning and shout three times, "Be careful, be careful, be careful!" ’ Then the wooden barrel mixed with excrement and urine was poured down on the street with a clatter, so that the street was always muddy and smelly, all of which embarrassed Margaret.

Especially Chen Jiujing, who was riding on a horse, frowned slightly behind his visor: "I heard that Bordeaux is not your small city, why are the people?"

Margaret, who didn't know what was going on at first, replied with a silly smile: "It's the same in Paris. The palace tried to tell the people not to do this, but it didn't work. Later, they were allowed to shout three times before falling down."

What can Chen Jiujing say?He could only say softly: "Because the south city of Beijing was built without a good sewer, the streets will be a bit dirty, but the people are much more polite. It doesn't matter, Margo, I will educate them."

Later, when the Ming army entered the city and went door-to-door to check the weapons of the people, they issued the first decree of the Ming army so far: it is forbidden to dump excrement on the street, and pay for a manure picker to let the people put the excrement and urine buckets before dawn every day. Put it at the door and someone will collect it.

It was only later that Margaret learned that in Daming, no one dumped manure on the street, and naturally there were no high-heeled shoes... Manure was also used as fertilizer in Europe, but which king would send someone to collect manure and distribute it to farmers?They wish they could never deal with dirty things for the rest of their lives.

Margaret couldn't take a bath, so she could only barely scrub herself with water, spray on perfume, and wait for Chen Jiujing to soak herself comfortably in the big wooden barrel before welcoming a new day.

On a new day, Henry woke up.

　Good morning!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)