Ming Dynasty: I am truly not the Emperor of Longevity

West Third Study Room.

Lu Chen stood in front of the map of Yunyang Prefecture and found the location of Huanglongtan.

Not long after being granted the title, Lu Chen ordered Yang Bingzhong to have a huge map of Yunyang Prefecture made and hang it in a side hall of the third western annex of the Xingwang Mansion, which he had chosen as his study.

Yunyang Prefecture was its own fiefdom, so it was perfectly reasonable for the Prince of Ying's residence to produce maps.

Huanglongtan was located west of the main urban area of ​​Shiyan City in later generations, adjacent to the Du River.

Here lies a rare flat area in the mountains, covering over a thousand acres, more than enough to house a prince's mansion of about three hundred acres.

Near the dock close to the Du River, a town with a permanent population of over a thousand has been formed, and a patrol station has also been set up.

Lu Chen estimated that the place was similar to Wadian Town in Nanyang Prefecture, where he had visited with Ma San Kui and met Sun Dexiu and Yuan Xun.

However, the town is mainly concentrated in the wharf area on the east bank of the Du River, while a large area further east is mostly farmland.

At the eastern end of this small flat area in the mountains, about three kilometers from the dock, is a place called Jiuqingping, which, as the name suggests, is a contiguous flat area of ​​about nine hundred acres.

A small tributary called Jianghe flows from east to west across this flat area and joins Duhe near Huanglongtan Wharf.

The Ministry of Works' considerations here are indeed reasonable.

By slightly diverting the Jiang River, a flat area was created large enough to accommodate a standard Ming Dynasty prince's mansion, measuring 480 meters from north to south and 384 meters from east to west.

The Jiang River is just a small river, only thirty or forty meters wide at its widest point and three to five meters deep at its deepest point, so the project of artificially diverting its course is not very difficult.

The diverted Jiang River can then become the moat of the Prince of Ying's palace.

Lu Chen also looked at the area on the south bank of the Han River, which faces the city of Yunyang on the north bank. Indeed, there was no continuous flat land; there were small hills between the few small flat areas.

If a royal palace is to be built here, the amount of work involved will be much greater than that near Huanglongtan.

Besides being a waste of resources and manpower, Lu Chen also did not want to be too close to the prefectural city.

But why didn't the Ministry of Works consider building the Prince's Palace in Shiyan?

As a time traveler, Lu Chen naturally knew that after the Danjiangkou Reservoir was built in the future, most of the old city of Yunyang Prefecture had been submerged by the Han River.

The new main urban area was moved to Shiyan, 20 kilometers south of the city, and the place name Yunyang, which had been used for hundreds of years, was changed to Shiyan City.

Judging from the map, Huanglongtan and the later main urban area of ​​Shiyan were about the same distance from Yunyang Prefecture. There must have been a reason why the later generations chose to build the new urban area in Shiyan instead of Huanglongtan.

"Yang Ban, draft a memorial for me."

This was his own royal residence, so Lu Chen took the location selection very seriously.

"I need to go to Yunyang Prefecture and have the Ministry of Works send someone there as well. It's best to take a look at the site selection for the Prince's residence in person."

. . .

Mid-July, Fancheng.

Inside a private room of a teahouse near the Gongguanmen Wharf.

"Aunt Chen."

A maidservant of sixteen or seventeen asked Chen Yunniang,

"Why did His Highness Prince Ying stop at the dock in Fancheng instead of entering Xiangyang City when he was passing through?"

"Chuntao, you don't understand."

Chen Yunniang picked up her teacup and took a small sip.

"The Ming Dynasty also has its rules; it is a major taboo for vassal kings to meet privately."

Xiangyang Prefecture was the fiefdom of King Xiang. King Ying was on his way to his own fiefdom, Yunyang Prefecture, and was just passing through here.

The reason for docking at the pier in Fancheng was also to avoid suspicion.

If we enter Xiangyang City, things will get complicated, and we'll definitely be impeached by the censors.

After saying that, Chen Yunniang sighed softly.

Her father had served as a censor, and was the most powerful of the six censors, holding the position of Supervising Secretary of the Six Ministries.

"When the Prince of Ying's fleet arrived, the official dock was completely full."

The maid Chun Tao was a little worried.

"Will this affect the master's schedule?"

"Your master is quite capable; if the waterway is difficult to travel, can't we at least take the land route?"

Chen Yunniang had full confidence in the man who redeemed her, after all, she was no ordinary woman who had never seen the world.

She grew up in an official family. She not only received her first education with her two older brothers, but also often heard her father and brothers talk about matters of the court and even the royal family and nobles.

Unfortunately, her fate was unfortunate. When she was a teenager, her father got into trouble, was beheaded, and her family property was confiscated. The women in the family, including herself, were all forced into prostitution.

My two older brothers were exiled to the border regions to serve in the army. So many years have passed, and I don't know if they are alive or dead, or if we will ever see each other again in this life.

Having worked her way up in the world of brothels, she gradually went from being a top courtesan to being ignored by many as she grew older.

Chen Yunniang was increasingly worried about her future fate.

Almost a year ago, the Bodhisattva finally blessed him.

A young master, six or seven years younger than him, was actually willing to redeem him from his servitude!

Although this young master named Lin Chaoxi had made it clear that his main reason for redeeming her and taking her as a concubine was to have her take care of the properties he had acquired in Biyang County.

But for me, this was undoubtedly a ray of light shining into a hopeless life, something worth fighting for with all my might.

After becoming Lin Gongzi's concubine, Chen Yunniang accompanied her husband to purchase a house in Biyang County, bought more than ten servants, and hired a steward.

When the young man left, he left her more than two hundred taels of silver, asking her to take good care of the family.

Although she was only a concubine, she was actually the head mistress of the household in the Biyang County mansion.

Although her husband had said that he had not yet married a wife, Chen Yunniang never dared to hope that she could be made a wife.

Because she knew very well that she was a female relative of an official who had been beheaded and whose property confiscated, and there was absolutely no possibility of her being released from her official status. As a woman registered as a concubine, she could never be a legal wife.

After leaving Biyang County last July, my husband never returned, and for half a year, he didn't even send a single letter.

Although Biyang County is small, there are gangs such as the "Dahang" and "Fanghang" gangs.

Without a male head of the household, a weak woman guarding a family business worth thousands of taels of silver would be targeted by others.

Two or three months after her husband left, people began to have designs on her, wanting to gain both her and her money.

However, none of these people expected that their former top courtesan at Cuihua Tower, the largest brothel in Biyang County, could suddenly become chaste and indifferent to any man who tried to get close to her.

Having long been accustomed to the ways of the world, Chen Yunniang could see through these men's intentions at a glance.

After leaving the environment of Cuihua Tower, Chen Yunniang gradually rediscovered the mindset she had been taught when she was a daughter of an official in the capital: how to be the mistress of a wealthy family.

If her father hadn't been convicted, this would have been the trajectory of her life.

With her husband away for a long time, Chen Yunniang was naturally lonely, but she preferred to deal with it herself and never thought of anything else.

Because she knew very well that being able to become a concubine with the power of managing the household in a wealthy family's villa was already the best outcome she could hope for in her life.

Having once fallen from heaven to hell and barely managed to regain her human form, she was determined not to destroy it all again.