save the bachelors

After Qiu Moyan came back from the northwest, she entered the palace and became a female official.

As for Jinbao and Yuying, the Yang clan will take care of them on their behalf. Both of them now have titles and have taken back Yang Yuxuan's property, so their future lives will be fine.

Female officials in the inner court are also called palace officials. They have a certain rank and receive a salary. Their scope of work includes managing lower-level maids, training new maids entering the palace, and taking care of princesses, princes, etc.

The system of female officials has a long history and has been recorded in "The Rites of Zhou". In subsequent dynasties, there were female officials in the palace.

The origins of female officials are also different. Either they were recommended to serve in the palace, or they were promoted by palace maids. Zhu Yuanzhang, the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, also repeatedly recruited widows who were determined to observe integrity to serve in the palace.

As a civilian girl, if Qiu Moyan wants to enter the palace, in addition to drafting women, she can also choose to be a female official or a palace maid.

However, the age range for female draftees in the Ming Dynasty was set at thirteen to sixteen years old, and she was obviously beyond her age. And being a palace maid is naturally not as good as being a female official.

And with her status as a well-known family, she is absolutely qualified to be a female official in the palace.

After Qiu Moyan entered the palace, he was arranged to serve in Xiang Nan Palace.

Ten days later, Xiang Nan visited her and named her Jieyu.

The harem system of the Ming Dynasty was formulated by Zhu Yuanzhang, which included one queen, one imperial concubine, four noble concubines, six concubines, and eight concubines. As for Zhaoyi, Jieyu, Guiren, Meiren, etc., the number is uncertain.

The harem of the Ming Dynasty was much larger than that of the Qing Dynasty. During the Jiajing period, there were more than [-] eunuchs and more than [-] maids in the harem.

Zhengde, Wanli, Longqing, etc. were all greedy and lustful people. They not only recruited girls in private broadcasts to enrich their harems, but even went out of the palace to search for beauties.

For example, historical records record that Emperor Zhengde walked every night. When he saw a tall house, he rushed in and either asked for a drink or searched for his women. The people suffered. Emperor Jingtai in history also took Li Xi'er, a popular concubine, as his concubine, and named her brother Li Shu the title of Jinyiwei Baihu.

Compared with them, Xiang Nan was lucky enough to be a female official and was adopted as Jieyu, so it seemed less out of the ordinary.

……

After Qiu Moyan entered the palace, she also enjoyed exclusive favor. She was quickly promoted from Jieyu to Xianconcubine, and then to Xianconcubine half a year later. When it comes to the fastest promotion in the harem, it must be her.

During the past six months, Xiang Nan continued to make moves.

On the one hand, they sent out palace maids and eunuchs to save palace expenses. There were over [-] eunuchs and over [-] maids in the palace of the Ming Dynasty. The expenses for so many people were huge.

In comparison, the number of eunuchs in the Qing Dynasty palace was no more than [-], and the number of maids was no more than [-]. The number alone was a lot less.

Therefore, during the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty, frugality was practiced, and the palace's annual expenses were only more than [-] taels. In comparison, the current monthly expenses of the Ming Dynasty palace are more than this amount. This also led to huge expenses in the palace, so that the national treasury was in deficit all year round.

So Xiang Nan had to drive people away. The eunuch gave him severance pay and allowed him to make a living on his own. Palace ladies over the age of 25 are allowed to leave the palace and get married.

On the one hand, unnecessary expenses such as meals, clothing, spices, accessories, headdress, etc. for the emperor and concubines were reduced.

Most emperors of the Ming Dynasty lived a luxurious life. Even those as frugal as Zhu Yuanzhang had to have twelve dishes for breakfast, such as stir-fried mutton, pan-fried goose, stir-fried pork with cabbage, vegetarian soup with clear sauce, steamed pork trotters and tripe, and two cooked pan-fried Fresh fish, braised pork, noodles with chopsticks, soft chicken soup, fragrant rice, bean soup, tea, etc.

There are 24 dishes for lunch, such as shrimps with pepper and vinegar, roast goose, roasted sheep head and hooves, goose meat dumplings, salted drum and mustard sheep tripe plate, garlic vinegar white blood soup, five-flavor steamed chicken, yuan juice lamb bones, spicy vinegar kidneys, Steamed fresh fish, five-flavor steamed gluten, mutton crystal horns, silk goose powder soup, three delicacies soup, black bean noodles, minced pepper mutton, fragrant rice, garlic cheese, bean soup, tea, etc.

In comparison, Emperor Kangxi was much more frugal. He only ate one dish at a meal and only one flavor for each meal. For example, if he ate chicken, he would get chicken, if he ate sheep, he would get sheep. Under his vigorous promotion of frugality, the palace's expenses were reduced by more than half. It originally cost 200 million taels of silver a year, but after some frugality, the annual cost has been reduced to 80 taels.

Xiang Nan plans to catch silverfish in the palace again and strive to reduce the amount to about 50 taels per year.

In addition, he set up the South Study Room to provide strict education to his sons.

The education of the emperor in the Ming Dynasty was not legal because the Ming Dynasty adopted the system of establishing direct descendants and elders.

Even though Zhu Di was so willing to let his second son Zhu Gaoxu take over, he had to choose his eldest son Zhu Gaochi due to ancestral etiquette and the advice of ministers.

Even though Emperor Wanli liked Prince Fu Zhu Changxun so much and argued with the cabinet for more than ten years, in the end he could not withstand the pressure of the cabinet and was forced to make his eldest son Zhu Changluo the crown prince.

Therefore, only the prince can receive the best education, and the other princes are not controlled very much. Because of this, there were so many foolish kings in the Ming Dynasty.

After all, no matter how wise and capable you are, if you are not as good as getting a good child, then who will work hard? And now that he has been reborn and established as a prince, who will continue to struggle?

What Xiang Nan is doing now is to let all the princes receive education. Moreover, he received a very strict education. He got up at six in the morning, read until twelve o'clock, and then learned riding and shooting in the afternoon... just like the princes of the Qing Dynasty.

The reason why the Qing Dynasty did not have too mediocre kings is inseparable from such high-intensity education. After all, this is how I survived as a child.

……

The courtiers quite appreciated Xiang Nan's strict thrift.

After all, the wise kings of all dynasties have always behaved in this way, abstaining from extravagance but practicing frugality and practicing economy.

For example, during the reign of Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty, he wanted to build a high-rise building. Later, he learned that building this high-rise building would cost the property of ten families, so he stopped building it. Hence the Wen-Jing rule.

Another example is Yang Jian, Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty. He did not wear silk or gold or silver jewelry. He only wore linen clothes and copper and iron accessories, so he could rule the world.

In addition, there are Emperor Wu of the Northern Zhou Dynasty, Yu Wenyong, Taizu of the Later Zhou Dynasty, Guo Wei, Emperor Xiaozong of the Southern Song Dynasty, Zhao He, Emperor Guang of the Han Dynasty, Liu Yuan, Emperor Wu of the Southern Song Dynasty, Liu Yu, etc. They are also famous sage monarchs in history, and without exception, they are all known for their frugality.

Therefore, the emperor set an example by refraining from extravagance and adhering to frugality, which seemed to them to be a good thing. It didn't bother them anyway, so they naturally didn't care.

Moreover, in order to save money, Xiang Nan expelled the eunuchs from the palace, which greatly reduced the number of eunuchs and the power of the eunuchs also greatly declined.

It is no longer possible to imagine forming cliques and controlling government affairs as before.

As courtiers, they were naturally happy to see the power of the eunuchs damaged, so how could they say anything to stop it.

As for the fact that all princes receive education, there is no problem in their opinion.

After all, it is also a good thing for these courtiers that the prince will receive a Confucian education and become a wise emperor and a loyal and filial prince in the future.

So they also highly praised this, but no one expected that Xiang Nan's fight was actually Li Xian's idea.