Concubine Shu is probably the richest in the harem besides the empress and concubines, not because the emperor rewarded her a lot, but purely because of the deep family background.
Other concubines may have high official positions in their natal families, but these days, high-ranking officials are either admitted by their own imperial examinations, or promoted by their predecessors. Unless you become a corrupt official, your family will not be particularly rich, and no amount of filial piety from the subordinates can compare to what the founding nobles earned by robbing the treasury of the previous dynasty and the stock of the big family.
Not to mention, recent generations of emperors have been very strict with corrupt officials.
Jiangnan was originally a rich and prosperous place, and it is easy to breed corrupt officials. And the capital is located in the south of the Yangtze River, the emperor's own territory, of course he has to be optimistic. There must still be people who are corrupt in private, but they are all small troubles, and there are not many big corrupt officials.
Concubine Shu showed off her treasures in her private treasury, and after attracting the coveted and jealousy of a bunch of women, she left with her head held high like a victorious rooster.
"The Longevity Day will be in a few days, and I have to prepare a birthday gift for His Majesty."
At noon on the Wanshou Festival, all officials are entertained, and at night there is only a family banquet inside the palace. Since outsiders are not invited, the concubines can perform their talents at the banquet to attract the emperor. In addition, the weather is hot, so fewer and fewer concubines go out now. Instead of going out to suffer and not knowing whether you can meet the emperor by chance, it is better to practice your talents in a room with an ice basin, and wait for the family banquet to win the emperor's attention in one fell swoop.
Concubine Shen thought so deeply, so she decided to sneak out of the palace to play during the past few days except to cultivate feelings with Empress Fu. I just had an excuse to stay in the room and not go out, so I didn't use it to waste it.
It was the birthday gift that troubled Concubine Shen very much.
— Don’t get me wrong, this birthday gift has nothing to do with the emperor, it’s purely Concubine Shen worrying about what kind of birthday gift the Queen gave to the Queen at the Thousand Years Banquet.
She doesn't care about the emperor, but the queen's birthday must be taken seriously.
After a meal in the queen's palace, Shen Yuqing struggled for a while but still didn't ask the queen what she wanted. A birthday gift should be a bit of a surprise, Shen Yuqing thought about it and called Man Xing over.
Man Xing is in charge of managing the warehouse of Jian Jia Palace, and she is the one who draws up the gift lists for concubines and concubines. Shen Yuqing was very relieved of her, and directly ordered her to choose some birthday gifts at random, the ones that were more than the best and less than the next, to deal with the emperor's birthday, and then ordered her to pick some valuable and good things for the queen.
Of course, these good things are just birthday gifts on the bright side. Both the Thousand-year-old Banquet and the Longevity Festival have to present birthday gifts in public, mainly for others to see. Shen Yuqing decided to prepare a thoughtful little gift by herself, but she didn't know if Fu Qiushui would like it.
There are so many delicious and interesting things outside the palace, and you can always find rare things in the palace.
After deciding, she let Man Xing arrange it. Man Xing was speechless: "Your Majesty, what you prepared for His Majesty is too..."
The emperor doesn't want to lose face! The most beloved concubine will give this thing, it's even better than giving it to the queen! To be reasonable, are you the emperor's concubine or the queen's concubine
Shen Yuqing waved her hand impatiently: "That's it."
The dog emperor has no face to meddle in her affairs, she just doesn't want to see that treacherous guy happy. The imperial concubine was very poor, and she didn't even have a piece of warm jade, so how could she have the money to buy good things for him.
The imperial concubine just said that, and the girl Man Xing also listened casually. On the contrary, Bi Yan, who was waiting next to her, her eyes lit up when she heard the words, and when it was late at night, she quietly left the room without disturbing Bi Ge, who was in the same room.
The rule of the Yan Dynasty was that the empress and concubine could have two court ladies and chief eunuchs, five second-class court ladies and second-class eunuchs, and 20 third-class court ladies and eunuchs each. Compared with the previous dynasty, there are already a large number of people. However, there are droughts, droughts and floods, and all the eunuchs and maids around the low-ranking concubines may not be more than ten in total, which is incomparable.
Shen Yuqing lives alone in Jianjia Palace, and the emperor would not arrange for others to live in the side hall of Jianjia Palace because of her face, so the huge palace is her private domain. Then, the east and west side halls would naturally be taken by the imperial concubine to do other things.
Each of the two side halls has a small house, which became the residence of the court ladies and eunuchs. The low corner bungalow originally arranged for the court ladies and eunuchs was used for other things. It was not suitable for people to live there, not to mention the bad orientation, and it was remote and dark.
The four first-class eunuchs of the sun, moon, and stars each have a single bedroom. Although there is only one room, it is very large, and it is like a suite after being separated by a screen. As for the second-class court ladies and eunuchs like Biyan and Qingqiu, there are two people in one room, which is also very large, and after being separated by a screen, it is not much different from a single room. In the third class, there are only Chase shops for five people.
Bi Yan and other five second-class maids, except Bi Ran, who kept a cat, lived alone in a room, and the other four made up two rooms. Because of the screen barrier, it is much more convenient for Bi Yan, who lives near the door, to go out at night, as long as her hands and feet are light, she will not be noticed.
She walked in the shadows, there were third-class court ladies and eunuchs on watch at night, and lanterns were lit in front of the side hall and the main hall, so she didn't dare to get too close for fear of being discovered.
When I came to a corner of the palace, there was a tree here, which was not high. Even if I climbed up, I couldn't use the tree to climb out of the palace wall, but it was enough. Bi Yan swiftly climbed up the tree, stuffed a ball of paper into a cloth pocket and threw it over the palace wall.
If she was standing under a tree, she would definitely not be able to throw it, but it would be much easier on the tree.
Outside the palace wall of Jianjia Palace is a very narrow path, only people with extremely thin bodies can get in. On the other side is another small palace, and beyond that is the palace road Longyuan Road. Next to it is the Sheng Xiao Palace. Throw things here without fear of being discovered.
It is not easy to place people in Jianjia Palace, Bi Yan is only responsible for passing on news, and will not give her news from outside to ask her to do anything, unless there are special circumstances, so as not to abolish this eyeliner who has finally become a second-class court lady.
After throwing away the things, Bi Yan quietly went down the tree and went back to the house.
It rained a little at night, and the corners of the palace walls were not paved with bricks, so the ground was muddy and naturally a little muddy. Bi Yan carefully checked the soles of the shoes against the dim moonlight and candlelight, and found that there was not much mud, so she was relieved, took off her shoes and went to bed to rest.
On the second day, Bi Yan followed Concubine Shen to Fengyi Palace as usual.
Bi Ge was in charge of the imperial concubine's grooming and daily life, and got up very early. After Bi Yan and the others left, she would be free to go back to the house and rest for a while. When I entered the house, I suddenly saw a little mud at the door, which seemed to be dried after the wet mud was stepped on there.
She suddenly became suspicious, but there was only such a little mud and nothing could be seen. After entering the room, she carefully checked Bi Yan's shoes, but found no mud prints, and thought that maybe the shoes Bi Yan wore today had mud marks on them.
Although the road to Fengyi Palace is all stone-paved roads, there must be no eunuchs and maids who came out of the imperial garden passing by, leaving mud marks on the ground. Therefore, Bi Yan can completely explain that she stepped on the mud marks left by them, and thus denies that she has been to places with mud.
You must know that although the paths in the Royal Garden are also paved with stone slabs, there are also many roads that are deliberately spaced apart, leaving dirt in the middle. This kind of trail looks interesting on weekdays, but walking on rainy days is very annoying. If you accidentally step into the mud, if the rain is heavier, even the lonely stone road will be covered with mud, and then it will really turn into mud. the way.
Bi Ge immediately got up to look for Man Chen, and explained her discovery.
Man Chen nodded slightly: "Let Qingluan take some young eunuchs to the courtyard wall to see if there are any footprints."
The rain fell lightly in the first half of last night, and stopped quickly, and continued in the second half of the night. When I first went out, the lights were dark, and there was no way to find wet mud and footprints. When she came back, she looked at the mud prints on the shoes that were about to dry, and Bi Yan didn't even think about the footprints.
With such a little rain, there will be no footprints left.
Manchen is just trying, maybe he can find it. The first- and second-class maids and eunuchs basically knew that Bi Yan was a spy, but the imperial concubine didn't say that she was going to be watched, so everyone pretended not to know. This time it just happened to happen, and Man Chen was still very curious about how she got in touch with people outside.
Qingluan was in charge of sweeping and greening the courtyard of Jianjia Palace, and he was in charge of the most eunuchs. He doesn't have to do anything himself, he just needs to serve the noble concubine and empress's dozens of potted plants every day, and the people below will do the cleaning and the like, and they also know the situation in Jianjia Palace best.
After walking half a circle, when we reached the northwest corner of the palace, a young eunuch in charge of this area stood up and said there was a problem.
If you let someone else come, you won't be able to see it. However, there are so many people in Jianjia Palace, Qingluan's subordinates are responsible for cleaning and tidying up a certain area, and they know their own area very well, so they can tell at a glance that something is wrong.
"Here." He pointed under the tree, "Someone jumped from it, so this area is a little more sunken."
It has rained so the ground has softened a bit, and some marks are more obvious.
Qing Luan nodded slightly, climbed up the tree and looked out, but he was not tall enough to see. He jumped down and asked, "What's outside?"
"The path between Jianjia Palace and Pu Lanxuan next door is very narrow, and ordinary people can't get in."
"Okay, I got it. Go, tell Sister Manchen."
On the other side, after paying their respects to the queen, all the concubines went to the Queen Mother's Shoukang Palace together.
Every ten days, I have to pay my respects to the Queen Mother. One ten days is ten days, and one month is thirty days. It is divided into early, middle and late ten days. There are often activities on the first day of the new year, which is naturally inconvenient, so it is stipulated that it will be on the fifth day of every ten days, that is, the fifth, fifteenth and twenty-fifth hours of the first day.
Today happens to be the fifteenth day of the sixth lunar month, and I want to pay my respects to the Queen Mother.
I can't miss the queen's breakfast, so today it is rare for the imperial concubine to go out after eating in Jianjia Palace.
The author has something to say: Bi Yan is a spy. When Bi Liu and Bi Ge chatted before, "The girl doesn't know about your mother's skills, but you don't know?", that girl refers to Bi Yan.
Thanks for the nutrient solution: Bei Yuxianqing +1, Jinye Weiyang +10, Shoushou +10, Wumu and others? ⊙▽⊙+6, Dream Filling +1