Ming Zhengzhi, I am Zheng Kezang

After dealing with Brunei's coming to North Korea, Zheng Kezang was busy moving.That's right, the Phoenix Mountain Palace has finally been built.

Fenghuangshan Palace is located in Fenghuangshan, beside the East Lake outside Wuchang City, about 25 miles away from Wuchang Fucheng.

Fenghuang Mountain is small and not high, the highest point is no more than fifty feet.Because the main peak is too steep, there are no buildings. The slightly lower east peak has a facing balcony for Zheng Kezang to watch the beautiful scenery on the lake and enjoy the sunrise and moonset.

Under the facing balcony, according to the trend of the mountain, there are six main building complexes, the tallest of which is the Royal Academy where Zheng Kezang reads and collects books, and the Buddha Bathing Hall separated from it by an artificial lake-although Zheng Kezang does not believe in gods and Buddhas, But the process of his crossing was so bizarre that he had to believe that there was another ruler in the dark, so he built a Buddhist hall for concubines and palace people to worship and pay respect. Served after becoming a monk with the palace maid.

On the left side of the Bathing Buddha Hall, there is a winding but gentle carriageway leading down to the "Liugong District" where the concubines live. Of course, the so-called Liugong is just a general term. In fact, all the palaces are set up after the Anping Castle. Called "court".The number of houses in each "courtyard" varies. The least, such as nobles and beauties, live in only two halls but no more than seven or eight halls; ordinary concubines who are more advanced live in courtyards with four or five halls; The entrance courtyard has swimming pools, baths, ornamental rockery ponds, and a unique small dining hall; as for the "courtyards" of the queen and imperial concubine level, there may even be as many as more than ten entrances, seventy or eighty palace rooms, and all kinds of facilities are unique. Not included, there are more famous Thai-Western style gardens and Chinese classical gardens.There is also a shared building in Liugong District, which is the place where Zheng Kezang usually eats with his wives and concubines. Zheng Kezang intentionally named it "Joint Canteen".

Except for the maids who serve the queen and concubines who live in each "courtyard" with their masters, the rest of the female officials and maids live in the third building complex "Ladies Office"; The slightly lower position of the "Six Palace District" itself is a sloping land with a drop of one or two feet. It covers an area slightly larger than that of the "Six Palace District". It will be used for future expansion; in addition, there are deep wells, canals, small waterfalls and small ponds formed by the introduction of mountain springs and flowing water in the "Waitress's Office". Youmei is not inferior to the "Liugong District", but there must be no fewer mosquitoes in summer.

According to different ranks, the living conditions of the female officials, female officials, and maidservants in the "Lady's Office" are also very different. Senior female officials and female officials can have private huts and have low-level maids to clean and serve them, while low-level ones can only be crowded in the row. In the courtyard of the house, we share the bathroom with other people, and the lower class even requires several people to share a room; fortunately, eight of the kitchens are open continuously for twelve hours, so you don’t have to start a kitchen yourself, and you can cook at any time Hot meals can be eaten, and hot water for washing can also be obtained nearby anytime, anywhere.

On the right side of the Imperial Study Room, there is a climbing path and a flat concrete road winding up the mountain, which can lead to the sleeping hall where Zheng Kezang lives and the Jiaotai Hall, which is necessary for marrying the queen. However, the overall area of ​​these two buildings is not large, and the space It is also relatively new, so it cannot be regarded as one of the six main building complexes in the Phoenix Mountain Li Palace.

There is a road connecting Zheng Kezang’s bedroom and Liugong District. This two-way cement road can accommodate three carriages in parallel. It is one of the most important traffic roads in the entire Li Palace. Forking at a certain node, the main road leads downward to the "Prince's Residence", and the branch road extends to the "Ladies' Office" and the "Internal Servant's Office" where eunuchs live.

The "Internal Servant's Office", which is equal to the "Lady's Office" and smaller in size, is the fourth large building complex in the Li Palace.

As for the branch line carriageway that reaches the "Waitress's Office", it goes around the periphery of the entire building of "The Maid's Office" and continues upwards to reach the "Liugong District". In addition to this branch line carriageway, there are only three turns and forty steps on the footpath.

In the process of leading to the "Prince's Residence", the cement carriage main road leads to a branch road at a certain node leading to the "inner warehouse" of the fifth largest building complex in the Palace. The "inner treasury" stores all the daily necessities of the Li Palace and the offerings of Huangzhuang and Huangdians in various places. Most of them are sealed in the form of gold and silver coins, as long as a few are real objects - these are used for rewards by the inner court, especially for the New Year. During the festival, a large amount of imperial gift items will be brought in and out of the warehouse.

After passing through the square in front of the inner warehouse, this branch road that can be used by two freight carriages is also divided into two parts, one goes down to the west gate of the palace, and the other goes up and circles until it returns to the "internal servant's office" ——Supplies needed to be supplemented in the palace and a number of garbage vehicles transporting sewage and stolen goods are all transferred through this road.

There is a gate between the "Prince's Residence" and the inner court, so it can be regarded as a private area. There are not many buildings in the interior, which can be regarded as a transition between the inside and the outside. Zheng Kezang's adult but unmarried daughters live here. And it is the place where the young princes who have studied martial arts study occasionally live in Beijing; those who are younger than them live with their mothers, and those who are older are either married or have been awarded titles. Generally, one's own mansion is not arranged to live in the palace, because it is difficult to cook a woman.

After leaving the "Prince's Residence", through a tightly guarded gate, you will arrive at the sixth largest building complex in the Li Palace, namely the Qinzheng Hall used by Zheng Kezang in the last dynasty, the outer study for handling government affairs, the Li Palace Square and the Laiyuan Palace where ceremonies are held. Temple, Zichen Hall, Inner Court Manager's Office, Branch Office, Office Area and Cabinet of the Internal Construction Bureau, Tongzheng Yuan, Imperial Hospital, Imperial Academy, Secretary Supervisor, Zongzheng Mansion, Bute Yuan, etc. The office is also the Academy of Kaimeng for the prince and princess.

After crossing the Jinshui River surrounding the Ligong Square, there is an irregular inner palace wall built around Phoenix Mountain. The total length is about 22 miles and the height is four feet, but the wall is not thick. The bottom is only one foot wide and the top is only four feet. , after setting up the inner and outer wall stacks, it is only enough for one person to go straight or two people to exchange sideways. Therefore, no enemy towers and watchtowers are set up on the inner palace wall, but two east and west archways are set up in roughly corresponding positions. Tang style gatehouse.

Outside the inner palace wall is a circle of artificial lakes formed by the flowing water from Phoenix Mountain and East Lake. The widest part of the lake is about [-] feet, the narrowest point is [-] feet, and the average depth of the lake is two feet. The low-strength inner palace wall provides a certain guarantee, but in order to ensure traffic, there is a long embankment at the east and west gatehouses that can accommodate four carriages in parallel to communicate with the outside world.

Outside the moat lake is a series of small and miniature bastions that cover each other. As the real defense system of the entire palace, even if 10,000+ enemy regiments surround it, the defending guards can use it to resist for three months to half a year. It is said that each bastion can resist the direct bombardment of a five-inch cannon, and there are also special warehouses for storing rice, noodles, beans, salted fish, condiments and horse feed, Various military and living supplies including gunpowder and lead bullets.

Outside some of the bastions, there are waterways connecting the inner moat lake and the East Lake to provide additional protection. Of course, there are also some bastions that do not have any. None of them can escape the surveillance of the bastion, and they have to pay a huge price to pass through in wartime.

Then there is the outer palace wall. Like the inner palace wall, it is just a form. It is even incomplete because it is connected to the East Lake. However, in order to prevent outsiders from intruding intentionally or unintentionally, in addition to setting up a guard post on the lake embankment , and used thorns, bamboo sticks and broken glass to make obstacle areas behind the lake dike, and also set up a pier on each wing, stationed with a number of East Lake patrol boats and a few imperial boats for swimming in the lake.

In fact, Zheng Kezang's bedroom and imperial study room each have a secret passage leading directly to the hidden pier by the East Lake. In addition, there are more than ten mountain secret rooms for hiding inside the palace, but Zheng Kezang believes that Well, when these last resorts are really going to be used, the Huaxia Dynasty he established by himself is not far from being destroyed

The huge palace with a radius of more than ten miles naturally requires a large number of people to tidy up and take care of it. Before moving into the Fenghuang Mountain Li Palace, the Huaxia Palace only had more than [-] female maids and more than [-] internal servants. One-tenth of it could not be taken into account, so Zheng Kezang had to expand the scale of the court against his original intention.

Since Zheng Kezang did not wish to castrate the Chinese, he did not intend to further expand the number of servants in addition to the castration of a thousand young black slaves.So in order to ensure the operation of the palace, Zheng Kezang ordered girls aged 14 to be recruited from families above the meritorious family to serve in the palace.This is not a talent show, and women with bound feet are not welcome, and this is not just a rough servant girl who only recruits sweepers. Zheng Kezang has prepared a whole set of court etiquette courses for them so that they can work part time.Speaking of which, this system of maidservants is more similar to the one implemented by European courts, except that the Sun King of France only selected maidservants from nobles, but Zheng Kezang expanded the scope to the entire meritorious class and above.

Zheng Kezang hopes to achieve two subtle effects through this system of maidservants. First, it will affect the custom of binding feet among the people, making foot-holding the mainstream; second, he hopes to delay the marriage and childbearing age of women to a later date. The needs of farming and warfare that he has always advocated are in conflict, so he half-disguisedly controls the meritorious people, the nobles, and the nobles.

With maidservants, it is natural to manage their female officials. Zheng Kezang does not want to permanently restrain these girls in the court, so they cannot be directly promoted to female history and female officials from among the maidservants. For this reason, Zheng Kezang ordered the recruitment of princes above 40. The wives and mothers of officials above the fifth rank in Beijing are female officials in the palace. Of course, in order to avoid certain accusations, Zheng Kezang stipulated that the age of female officials in the court must be over [-] years old. Obtaining an extra salary is another way to benefit the officials.However, Zheng Kezang knew that the palace was the place with the most filth and conspiracy, so he repeatedly emphasized that the harem should not interfere in politics, and female officials, female historians, and female servants who discussed state affairs and personnel affairs without authorization would be severely punished