Fenghou

Chapter 595
When the pigeon letter from the Son of Heaven arrived in Jingzhao, Zhang Jun, who had been looking forward to a reply, was heartbroken. At this time, there were still five days before the New Year. The last negotiation, the two sides finally reached an agreement.

Chen Qing was granted the title of Xuanfu envoy of Sichuan and Shanxi by the emperor's handbook, but the official canonization will not arrive until a few years later.

Chen Qing obtained the right to garrison, law and order, defense, and militia in military power, as well as the right to transshipment, salt and iron, and mines in financial power.

The two parties agreed that, except for the income from renting out official land and official houses, all other fiscal and tax revenues in Sichuan would be used to support the Western Army, and the salaries of officials in various prefectures and counties and the daily expenses of government offices would be allocated by the transfer envoys on an actual basis.

The imperial court obtained more than a dozen other powers such as governance, personnel, criminal law, and taxation in Bashu and Hanzhong. At the same time, Chen Qing also promised to restrain military discipline and strictly prohibit the garrison from harassing the people.

As for Xiazhou, neither side mentioned it, it must remain the same and be controlled by the Western Army.

On behalf of the imperial court, Zhang Jun signed and pledged on the settlement agreement, and Chen Qing also signed his own name, and then sealed it.

Zhang Jun and others were eager to return home. On the second day after signing the agreement, that is, the twenty-seventh day of the twelfth lunar month, the group bid farewell to Jingzhao and returned to Lin'an.

Chen Qing led the officials to send Zhang Jun and others away. At the gate of the city, Zhang Jun told Chen Qing again, "Don't forget to send [-] barrels of kerosene to Lin'an as soon as possible!"

Chen Qing said with a smile: "Don't worry Zhang Xianggong, I have ordered the army in central Sichuan to transport [-] barrels of kerosene to Lin'an, maybe the kerosene will arrive first."

"Thank you so much. I believe that the court will not treat you badly and will not let the empty ship return. In addition, Liu Guangshi is too ambitious. You must not have anything to do with him. It will damage your reputation. Remember! Remember!"

"Don't worry Zhang Xianggong, but the Lu family, please intercede in front of the emperor."

"I will definitely, well, I'll go first, Chen Dutong, we will meet later!"

"There will be a period later!"

Chen Qing and Zhang Jun bid farewell, watching Zhang Jun and his party go away.

As the New Year is approaching, every household is busy with decorating lanterns and festoons, pasting peach charms, erecting poles, making new clothes, distributing new year money, brewing Tusu wine, preparing sacrifices, etc., and so on.

Chen Qing's mansion is also decorated with lights and festoons, and the decoration is particularly festive. This year's New Year is especially meaningful to Chen Qing's mansion. Not only is there an extra baby, but also three more hostesses at the same time.

The Yu sisters have long been recognized by everyone as the half-hostess in the house. This time, it is just a matter of identity, but Zhao Qiaoyun's becoming the master's second wife has surprised many people. Everyone regards her as the mistress' junior sister Look at it, I didn't expect to marry the master at the same time.

New Year's Eve is also a day that the servants and maids are looking forward to. In the afternoon, the mistress Lu Xiu took the Yu sisters to distribute annual money to more than one hundred servants, maids and guards. The annual money is lucky money for children. , but it is a year-end bonus for adults.

Everyone has been looking forward to it for a year, and they set up stools in the small square of Shuixian Pavilion early to sit down.

The guards moved several large tables, and the tables were full of small cloth pockets, all of which were filled with silver coins. A silver coin was worth [-] Wen. This is extremely rare silver coin in the market, and it was basically collected. On the black market, one silver coin can even be exchanged for six hundred copper coins.

Yu Ying and Yu Lian were going to be brides today, but they still couldn't see anything special about them, they followed behind the mistress as usual.

Lu Xiu waved his hand, everyone quieted down, Lu Xiu laughed loudly: "It's going to be another year, and everyone has worked hard this year. We came to Jingzhao from Chengji County, and there are new people joining in, but whether it's new people or Old people, everyone is a member of the mansion.

According to the rules, everyone will be given annual salary today, and then everyone will have a happy dinner. From tomorrow, everyone will have a five-day holiday. If you want to go home, you can go home to rest. If you are willing to stay, I will pay three times the wages. Everything is voluntary, and the annual money will be distributed next, and one more thing to add, this year is an increase of [-]% compared to last year. "

Everyone cheered, Lu Xiu sat aside, and Tian Steward called her name, one by one, each bag had her name written on it.

"First one, Seventh Sister Tao!"

I saw a burly woman standing up with a face full of surprise, "Why am I the first one? Is it because I have the most money?"

Everyone laughed, she quickly stepped forward to take the cloth bag, counted the number, jumped up with joy, and ran away like a gust of wind, halfway through the run, she suddenly remembered something, and ran back to salute and thank the mistress.

Seeing her funny, everyone couldn't help laughing again.

Yu Ying and Yu Lian stood behind Lu Xiu, Yu Lian whispered: "I remember Seventh Sister seems to be forty silver coins!"

"No, the seventh sister has sixty coins, and the eighth sister has forty coins. The two wild dogs in Chengji County got in and almost bit the young master. Seventh sister saved the young master at a critical moment, so the madam specially rewarded her." Twenty silver coins."

The stewards called out their names one by one, very fast, everyone took the money, and went forward to thank the mistress Lu Xiu, and then went down happily, everyone gained a lot.

The one with the highest annual income is not the housekeeper or the guard, but Chen Ji's wet nurse Wang. She took care of the little master very hard and devoted herself. Lu Xiu gave her a reward of [-] silver coins, which was also [-] coins. .

This reward is probably the highest in Jingzhao Mansion.

Seeing that the table was empty, Yu Lian couldn't help muttering in a low voice, "Don't we have a share every year?"

Yu Ying was so frightened that she quickly touched her, Lu Xiu turned her head and smiled and said, "Don't tell me, you are really rich today, I will give it to you, but not now!"

Yu Lian smiled and said, "Ma'am, how many are there?"

"Wait! It's time for the New Year's Eve dinner, hurry up and put on your makeup, tonight is a good day for you, you can give up if you don't want to!"

"Let's go now!"

The two hurriedly ran to put on makeup, and a special bridal bride did it for them. Lu Xiu smiled and told the housekeeper, "Everyone can leave, the old time of the New Year's Eve dinner is the old rules, and the place is Hongxi Hall. In addition, Uncle Tian, ​​please prepare the offerings and sacrificial clothes."

"Don't worry, ma'am, I've made arrangements."

Lu Xiu got up and went back to the house surrounded by a group of maids to see her daughter.

Even concubines have different ranks. First of all, according to etiquette, there are differences between marrying concubines and taking concubines. This mainly depends on the family background of the other party. The other party has a family background, so you must give the other party enough face. There are also weddings that are held in a beautiful manner, and there are also weddings that are performed by worshiping heaven and earth, but there will be no such ceremonies as hair knotting and wedding wine, which are only for regular wives.

If you marry a concubine, your status in the family should be higher than that of ordinary concubines and concubines. There are sayings of ordinary wives and second wives. This mainly depends on the status of the natal family. Be a concubine.

The situation of marrying a concubine often happens when the woman is extremely beautiful. Although the family is an ordinary commoner, in order to marry her, she will agree to many conditions, and there are requirements for entry into the concubine and family status.

But even taking a concubine has certain rules and ceremonies. Generally, it is not so glamorous to get married. Instead, it is quietly sent to the man's house in a small sedan chair or a small boat, and then worship the heavens and the earth and worship the mistress. , Respecting in-laws tea, the ceremony is relatively simple.

The worst status is the concubine, mainly the promotion of the maid, without any ceremony, directly promoted from the maid to the concubine.

Hongxi Hall is the main hall of the back house, a small hall of the palace, and is divided into inner hall and outer hall. There are more than a dozen tables of banquets in the outer hall. Then a green cottage was set up, wedding candles were placed, the word "囍" was hung, and the tables were filled with melons and fruit wedding candies.

Everyone knows that there will be a happy event at the house tonight, so everyone dare not drink too much at the New Year's Eve dinner. Even Tao Qijie and Tao Bajie, who drink fiercely, have become very quiet. I don't know if they feel sad or dare not annoy The mistress, anyway, sat quietly eating meat and drinking, and did not dare to pinch the necks of the servants and pour wine into her mouth like in previous years.

This time the concubine was very quiet, no guests were invited, all of them were present, but Chen Qing still invited two couples to observe the ceremony, one was Zheng Ping and his wife Yang Liu, the other was Lu Wei and his wife Li Mei, and then Li Qingzhao, she was the witness of the marriage, and of course, there was also the mistress Lu Xiu, who was holding her daughter Chen Xue, and the nanny was holding her son Chen Ji, they sat at the front of the table.

Chen Xue, who was almost three months old, didn't sleep either. She hugged a big apple and was giggled by Li Mei.

At this time, the hall became quiet, melodious music came from the lakeside, a group of musicians walked like fairies, playing musical instruments in their hands, behind them were bearers dressed as guards from the Twelve Inner Palaces, Carrying three bridal sedan chairs, he walked slowly towards the inner hall.

"The auspicious day has arrived, the newcomers are ready to enter!" the master of ceremonies shouted loudly.

(End of this chapter)