There must be more people entering the palace this time than last time, but most of them can only climb up from the bottom.
Except for a few special characters, the empress does not intend to give them too high status. As for whether these low-ranking concubines can climb up, it depends on their own fortune.
Concubine Shen and the Empress went to Chuxiu Palace for the final selection of concubines.
After going through layers of selection before, there are only more than 200 people who can still enter Chuxiu Palace and wait for the final selection. Some of these women are from outside Beijing, and some are from the capital and its surrounding areas. But obviously there are fewer women in the capital city. After all, a round of beautiful women has been selected to enter the palace in the capital city within two years, and the number of women is naturally not as good as that in other places combined.
The west side hall of Chuxiu Palace.
A group of brightly colored women were chatting with each other in twos and threes, and some noble ladies were surrounded by the crowd. This scene was somewhat familiar, as if the scene from two years ago had reappeared. It's just that this time, the one who was surrounded by everyone changed from Concubine De to Miss Cao's family.
However, Ms. Cao is destined not to be as glamorous as Concubine De back then, because Princess Huan will also participate in the general election this time.
The princess had already been accepted into the Shoukang Palace by the Empress Dowager yesterday, saying that she had come from afar, and she was afraid that the reception in the other hall would not be good, so she insisted on staying in the palace.
Everyone was clear in their hearts, and the empress dowager's intentions were obvious. It was a certainty for the princess to enter the palace. Not only that, I'm afraid the rank is not low.
Therefore, even if the princess is still in the future, no one dares to mock her for being late. Not to mention King Huan standing behind her, even the Queen Mother who is right in front of her, they dare not talk about it.
After the final selection this time, the selected people had to go home and wait for seven days before entering the palace, unlike the last time they entered the palace on the second day, it was also a kindness from the emperor to allow them to spend more time with their families. Then, only those whose families are in the capital can enjoy this grace.
Last time, only the beautiful girls from the capital and the suburbs of Beijing participated in the election, so the inn arranged by the royal family could still stay here. There were a lot of people this time, and many noble people were arranged to live in the annex for foreign guests. I don't know how many small conflicts broke out secretly in the annex and how many small tricks were used by these women.
"Why hasn't the princess come yet?" Someone was upset by the wait and couldn't help muttering.
This young lady has a high family background, she is a lady from the Luo family, Minister of the Ministry of Officials, she dares to complain about others but not others.
Since the lady from the Huangshang Wu family heard that this Miss Luo was going to run in the general election, she has been flattering her.
The princess Qixue who picked up last time got bored of her not long after, and recruited someone else as a playmate. Everyone is not surprised, the eldest princess has always liked the new and disliked the old.
Miss Wu had no choice but to change her target.
However, she didn't know that Ms. Luo didn't want to enter the palace at all. She liked her cousin, but her mother despised her cousin who hadn't passed the exam and didn't want her to marry him, so she forced her to enter the palace. She had no choice but to beg the old lady who loved her very much, and let the old lady quietly enter the palace and tell the queen that she will be voted down in this general election.
Right now, she can't wait for the final election to start quickly so that she can go home early to see her cousin.
My cousin didn't perform well in the imperial examination three years ago, and last year, my cousin Jiakai Enke couldn't take part because of his poor health. But she doesn't think so, obviously her father praised her cousin for his good knowledge, but it's just bad luck. Anyway, there is a serious autumn this year, just let my cousin take the exam again.
As long as you have fame, you can find a better official position for your cousin. After a few years, you will be able to get ahead. What are you afraid of? It's better to be the wife of a cousin who loves her wholeheartedly than to be a concubine in the palace.
Her mother just thinks too much, and always feels that her father, Minister of the Ministry of Officials, is not much worse than Zuo Xiang, why Shen Yuqing can be a noble concubine and she can't be, Shen Yuqing is so bad.
However, Miss Luo only felt that her mother was thinking too much, did she like this kind of arrogant and domineering tune without seeing His Majesty the Emperor? Concubine Shen is like this, Concubine Mi is like this, and the princess (?) who is about to enter the palace is also like this.
Well, the princess doesn't count, but the appearance of the princess doing whatever she wants and not caring about others is quite similar to the first two.
Miss Luo took the fan and fanned it irritably. This year it gets hot fast, and the sun is scorching in March. The side hall is not very ventilated, and there are so many people, it is really stuffy.
"Go to the window to get some air." Miss Luo moved around with a few attendants, and came to the window next to the door.
From here, you can directly see the courtyard outside.
Chuxiu Palace is not as elaborate and complicated as other palaces. It is a very simple courtyard with a huge courtyard in the middle, a cross-stone road in the middle, and four pieces of greenery at the four corners.
Ms. Luo's position was just covered by the shade of the trees, and the breeze was blowing, which made her feel much more comfortable.
After feeling better, Ms. Luo was willing to joke with her followers. She was easy to get along with, but she was a little spoiled because she was spoiled by her family. However, her cousin liked the way she acted petty, and she couldn't bear to change it.
After chatting for a while, Miss Wu suddenly pointed at the door of Chuxiu Palace: "Huh? Is that the princess?"
Miss Luo looked along, but she couldn't see clearly from here. There are many trees in the middle, and some scenery can only be seen through the gaps, but even so, Miss Luo is also interested.
Originally, the general election could have started, but because the princess who was going in as the first team hadn't come yet, the empress said she had to wait. Anyway, it doesn't matter what auspicious time it is, the queen has the final say, no matter how dissatisfied everyone is, they can only endure it and wait quietly.
Now that the people are here, it's finally time to start.
When the other ladies heard the movement, they all looked at the door of the west side hall, and finally breathed a sigh of relief after seeing the iceberg beauty who came in.
It can be counted.
After the people came, they didn't talk nonsense with them. The princess girl, who had no dust in her eyes, stood there, accompanied by a few maids dressed as court ladies. Although he didn't have a sword on his body, his aura looked as if he could draw a sword to cut people at any time.
I heard that there is a team of martial arts maidservants around the princess, it seems that these are the people.
It's just that I didn't expect that everyone was not allowed to bring a maid when they came to the draft, and the princess was an exception. Not only that, but the maidservant has already changed into a court lady's attire, and the meaning is too obvious.
The cold beauty was surrounded by a group of domineering and indifferent maidservants, making even those who wanted to seek a relationship frightened. What's more, the maidservants are not bad-looking, perhaps because of the princess's face control, many of them are not inferior to some young ladies in the palace, which makes people feel ashamed.
"This princess..." Ms. Wu opened her mouth, not knowing how to describe what she was thinking.
Miss Luo didn't bother to care about the princess, she waved her fan to make people shut up. It's none of her business what the princess does, the election is the real thing.
Miss Wu suddenly dared not speak.
She is a merchant woman, even if she is an imperial merchant, she is only a slightly higher class merchant, and cannot be compared with an official lady. Her status here is extremely low, so she should be quiet before entering the palace.
Miss Wu suppressed the strange feeling in her heart, but she still felt that the princess was weird. Everyone wished that the maids around her were not outstanding, so as not to rob her husband, but she was lucky, she didn't know whether it was self-confidence or stupidity, she actually picked out all the good-looking ones.
Before she could think for a long time, the chief aunt and chief eunuch of Chuxiu Palace came, took the roster and started roll call, and five people went in five by one. In the first team, the princess and Miss Luo are impressively in line.
Basically, they are ranked according to the order of the family's official positions. Although Miss Cao is in the limelight, her father's rank is not comparable to that of the first-rank officials and the super-rank King Huan. General Cao is now a general of the second rank, so although she is very competitive, she can only be reduced to the second batch.
However, most of the first batch were unwilling to enter the palace, so they didn't need too much attention.
There are many fools in this world, but there are also many smart people. There are those who are anxious, and those who can see clearly. Many high-ranking officials of aristocratic families did not want their women to enter the palace. They could clearly see that His Majesty the Emperor was a wise king, and women could not be controlled at will.
Doting so much on Concubine Shen over the years, on the surface she did a lot of "excessive" things for Concubine Shen, but in fact it was just to beat some restless factions. They would not foolishly think that His Majesty the Emperor was really bewitched by Concubine Shen Gui, so they obeyed her.
Those who really think so are fools.
The first batch passed quickly, and the second batch hit Ms. Cao. Miss Cao smiled gently at the women beside her: "Then I'll go first."
"Sister Cao, hurry up." Everyone pursed their lips and looked at each other with a smile, "I wish my sister all wishes come true."
Miss Cao wasn't shy, she smiled openly, and left with the manager aunt.
As soon as she left, these young ladies couldn't help talking to each other just now.
"Sister Cao is such a good person, she will definitely get what she wants."
"Yeah, it's a pity that Sister Cao entered the palace late, otherwise even that seat... would be fine." The man said in a low voice.
Everyone nodded, feeling sorry for Miss Cao.
When Miss Cao first entered Beijing, none of them knew her well. After all, her family used to be in the Central Plains, and she only came to live with her grandparents in Beijing for a few months every year, and she rarely interacted with them.
But since Ms. Cao's father was promoted because of the war, Ms. Cao has lived in the capital. She has been staying in the capital until now, but she has slowly developed friendship with everyone.
There are few noble girls in Beijing who are stupid. They have a good eye for seeing people. They can see through who is pretending to be magnanimous for fame and who is really easy to get along with at a glance. At the beginning, many people thought that this virtuous and generous Ms. Cao was also a faux pas, but it was too difficult for a person to be able to act in front of others and act in front of others.
After a long time, everyone felt that she was not pretending, so they were willing to get close to her. After being so close, I became more and more attracted, and felt that this young lady is really a nice person.
At this moment, the pretty Miss Cao is standing in the main hall of Chuxiu Palace, being examined by the three big bosses.
Why three? Because there is also Wei Jieyu among them.
A month ago, the empress was framed by Mrs. Shu, Wei Jieyu stepped forward regardless of her own safety, and His Majesty the Emperor was very moved. Within a month, Wei Jieyu was promoted two levels in a row, and now she has been promoted from Jieyu to Wei Concubine, and from Wei Concubine to Mrs. Wei.
In the harem, apart from the empress and noble concubine, there is only Madam Wei left, and below that are Concubines Fu and Concubine Xi. In this general election, Mrs. Wei also got an errand to help the two empresses choose a concubine with good looks and good looks.
Ms. Cao greeted all the empresses with neither humility nor condescension. At a glance, although she was not the most beautiful among the five, she was the most eye-catching. It has a kind of virtuous and dignified aura that makes people feel comfortable just looking at it.
"My daughter, Jingshu Cao, pay my respects to the three empresses."
Shen Guifei looked at her with a half smile but didn't speak. The queen empress is dignified and dignified, and she also doesn't say a word.
Facing the aura suppressed by the two bosses, Ms. Cao could bear it, maintaining a perfect smile, standing there respectfully with lowered eyebrows and nodding her head. After waiting, Mrs. Wei suddenly smiled: "The Cao family's daughter is indeed as outstanding as the rumors say, so don't be restrained, and raise your head for Bengong to take a look at."
She and Concubine Shen sang one for the red face and the other for the bad face, and finally let the empress make a decision, adding sweet dates to the big stick, which made many noble girls lose their temper. But Ms. Cao didn't like this, but at this moment she respectfully raised her head according to Mrs. Wei's words, but her eyes didn't wander, and she still looked down at the ground.
"She's a nice lady, and His Majesty must like it." Mrs. Wei said softly.
After finishing speaking, Concubine Shen Gui sneered, but she didn't say anything, she only expressed her disdain.
Ms. Cao didn't feel embarrassed, she accepted the praise and ridicule calmly, and stood there without saying a word, expressing neither joy nor sorrow.
The empress listened indifferently to the conversation of the two left and right, neither commenting on the concubine's dissatisfaction nor caring about Mrs. Wei's praise, as if she hadn't heard anything. She didn't speak slowly until the two had said enough, "Leave a sign and give a sachet."
But it doesn't say what grade it is.
Ms. Cao smiled slightly, saluted generously and thanked her, took the sachet and left, without any reluctance or pretentiousness.
After this group of people were left alone, the expression on Concubine Shen's face changed, and she narrowed her eyes slightly: "This woman is indeed difficult to deal with."
They tried for a long time, but Ms. Cao didn't move. It is the most difficult to deal with people who do not like oil and salt.
It seems that the outside rumors are not all exaggerated. This Ms. Cao's evaluation is not watery.
Mrs. Wei looked at the two big brothers with some concern: "You really want to let her into the palace?"
"What are you afraid of?" Shen Guifei leaned back lazily, "She dares to enter the palace, I have plenty of ways to deal with her."
What does this woman dare to do with her claws, even if she can't find evidence, why can't she sneak in and kill her? Even if it can't be killed directly, it is extremely simple to cast a poison.
"Miss Cao comes from a family of military generals, and I'm afraid there are maids with strong martial arts by her side." The empress's tone was serious.
The reason for this is that there are two maidservants with extremely high martial arts beside the princess. The other maidservants may be slightly inferior in martial arts, slightly inferior to the emperor's hidden guards, but those two are evenly matched.
As soon as the two maidservants entered the Shoukang Palace, they discovered the hidden guards protecting the Empress Dowager in the Shoukang Palace. After learning about this, His Majesty the Emperor gave up the idea of putting the hidden guards around the princess to monitor, and instead provided the maids and eunuchs to go there for ordinary monitoring.
The princess did not object, but these people were not allowed to approach the princess' bedroom and small kitchen. His Majesty the Emperor agreed to these conditions. Although he sent people to monitor the situation, he did not intend to harm the princess. Cooperation requires sincerity.
Therefore, these people went to the side of the princess, and only received irrelevant errands, and did not intervene in other things.
Since the princess has a maid who can detect the hidden guards, there is no guarantee that Miss Cao is not around. Concubine Shen Gui decided to look back and find an opportunity to test it out. If she could find out, she would withdraw the hidden guards. But without the hidden guards, they would not be able to figure out what Miss Cao did in time.
The existence of the hidden guards can detect 99% of the conspiracy. Although the matter of Mrs. Shu was missed last time, it was only a mistake. Mrs. Shu was too cautious to lead to this result, it does not mean that the hidden guard is incompetent.
"Let's not mention this for now." The Queen waved her hand, "Let the next batch come up."
Within a day, the final election was over.
There were less than thirty people who passed, and most of them would only enter the palace with a rank of sixth or seventh rank, and they were not even qualified to greet the empress, so there was nothing to worry about. It is worth noting that there are only a few people.
One is Ms. Cao, the empress means to give a fourth concubine the position of virtuous concubine, to appease her father, General Cao, and to grant the main hall of Feiyue Palace. Feiyue Palace was originally Madam Shu's palace, but now that Madam Shu is dead, it is vacant, and there are no people living in the side hall.
In order to get rid of Miss Cao, Concubine Shen took the initiative to point out the two new low-ranking concubines. These two concubines are still rare to get fifth-rank points. The other newly promoted concubines are all six or seven-rank, only these two are from fifth-rank Ronghua, and the other is fifth-rank grooming.
In addition to Ms. Cao, there is another Ms. Wu who is an imperial merchant, who conferred the title of Mrs. Lan to the main palace of Yong'an Palace. This is the place where Qingxi's birth mother, Mrs. Wan, used to be, and now there is no owner, but there is an unfavored He Xiurong in the palace, who usually doesn't attract much attention.
One of the two side halls lives, and Concubine Shen Gui casually points to it, she seems to be safe.
Then there was the princess, who named Concubine Yun and lived in Concubine Mi's Xianlu Palace. It's a way to save face by not pointing her out.
Other than that, the rest are low-ranking concubines, which are inconspicuous.
It is worth mentioning that before the other concubines entered the palace, there was a person who was ordered by the queen mother to enter the palace. The other newly promoted concubines are all waiting to enter the palace in seven days. Not only will she enter the palace ahead of schedule, she will also be going through the canonization ceremony soon.
As soon as she enters the palace, she is a noble concubine, who is in charge of the Shengxiao Palace.
This one is the eldest daughter of the original Grand Master Su, the Su Qiaorong who was taken away from home.
Because of this incident, all the ministers were shocked.
They didn't expect that the emperor would marry a second-married woman into the palace, and even made a noble concubine directly. However, His Majesty the Emperor had no choice but to take out the Queen Mother's order, expressing that everything was the Queen Mother's will.
The Empress Dowager's edict clearly stated that Su Qiaorong once accompanied the Eldest Princess Qixue as an accompanying reader, and the Empress Dowager was grateful for her care for the Eldest Princess, and also loved this junior very much. At the same time, the queen mother couldn't bear to see her being bullied by her husband's family, and lamented the decline of the Su family. After all, the Su family had done a lot of meritorious service for the late emperor, so they finally gave the Su family a favor, allowing the only remaining heir of the Su family to enter the palace as a noble concubine.
It is said that she entered the palace as a noble concubine, but in fact it was the queen mother who asked her to enter the palace for the elderly, so as not to be bullied outside the palace and have a bad life.
Once Yizhi wrote this, Su Qiaorong changed from a second-married daughter who was missed by the emperor for no reason, to a poor little girl who was cared for by the empress dowager. She did not enter the palace to compete for favor, but to have a place to settle down and live, so that she would have no worries for the rest of her life.
Everyone knows that the Empress Dowager loves the eldest princess irrationally, so it is normal to pull the eldest princess's previous companion reading. So the courtiers didn't have any objections after hearing Yi's decree, and they didn't have the face to embarrass a poor weak woman.
I heard that Miss Su's health is not good. During this period of time, there have been rumors that Miss Su was tortured at her husband's house, and her husband's family was still instructed by her biological mother and sister. This made everyone very sympathetic to Miss Su, who was loved by no one, and was even more embarrassed to cut off her last life.
Originally, Heli was miserable enough, and her own natal family is not a good one, maybe she can save her life if she enters the palace, anyway, she doesn't compete for favor, she just takes a seat.
With the will of the Empress Dowager and the pressure from His Majesty the Emperor, the Ministry of Rituals moved very quickly, within six days the matter of the canonization ceremony was handled, and on the day when all the concubines entered the palace, the canonization ceremony was held in public.
As long as the concubines of the Great Yan Dynasty reach the concubine position, they can perform the canonization ceremony. But today the world despises such a toss-up, waste of people and money, so only noble concubines and empresses have the treatment of canonization ceremony. Therefore, even if Ms. Cao became the first concubine of the four concubines, she would not have this honor.
Just entering the palace, there was such a disarming power, even though they knew that this Concubine Su was not a real concubine, the faces of the concubines were still unnatural for a moment. On the other hand, Xian Concubine Cao's smile remained unchanged, and she was still willing to kneel down and salute in the middle of the ceremony, congratulating her.
Shen Guifei glanced at her and frowned slightly.
Can anyone really be this perfect
However, it is too difficult and tiring to pretend to be in front of others and pretend to be behind.
According to the information she received, this Miss Cao was taught very well since she was a child. They also secretly found some married slaves of the Cao family, and some of them were even close confidants of Madam Cao and Ms. Cao. After controlling it with drugs without side effects, the result is the same. Ms. Cao is also so virtuous and dignified behind her back.
However, these things can be explored slowly in the future, today is a good day for Su Qiaorong, let's ignore this virtuous concubine.
The author has something to say: Thanks to Landmine: Splendid China, Liuyao
Thanks for the nutrient solution: "" +80, good dream +2