Ming Dynasty man

Chapter 405 Guess the Riddle

But Li Jing's order doesn't work in the palace.

Li Jing could manage the local officials, but he couldn't manage the queens and concubines in the palace.People spend their own money to have fun, and Li Jing has no way to control them.

Speaking of which, Li Jing himself was to blame for this.

Originally, life in the palace was not easy these years, but in order to win over Zhu Youjian, Li Jing handed over a lot of expenses in the palace to the Ministry of Finance.

In addition, Li Jing also allocates 100 million taels of silver to Zhu Youjian every year. Compared with previous dynasties, 100 million taels of silver does not seem to be much, but this year the emperor's burden is much less, and 100 million taels cannot be spent at all.

In addition to the income from the palace and the Huangzhuang, the money is actually used by the concubines. These concubines have money in their hands and want to spend it for fun, so naturally Li Jing can't take care of it.

When Li Jing and Zhu Youjian came to Kunning Palace, they saw that lanterns were lit everywhere in the palace, which was more lively than the day of the New Year.

Seeing Li Jing frowned, Zhu Youjian said with a smile: "The concubines spent their own money to get these lamps. I will keep the money you gave me to set up a factory."

Listening to Zhu Youjian's explanation, Li Jing smiled and said: "It's rare for everyone to be happy. It doesn't matter to enjoy the lanterns, but you must be careful when setting off fireworks, and don't catch fire."

Zhu Youjian smiled and said: "Don't worry about this, I didn't let them set off fireworks. After all, there were several fires in the palace during the previous dynasty. I will never forget the lessons learned from the past."

Hearing this, Li Jing immediately felt relieved: "Actually, it doesn't matter at all to find a safe place to put it. After all, it's a festival. It's better if it's lively."

Upon hearing this, Zhu Youjian laughed and said, "Then I'll tell them to relax a bit and have fun."

Li Jing was speechless for a while, and prepared to set off the fireworks, but because he was worried about safety just now, Zhu Youjian said that they would not let them set off the fireworks.

Kunning Palace is located behind Qianqing Palace and Jiaotai Palace, and is the residence of the queen.The reason why it is named Kunning Palace is to imply the peace of Kundi.

Although the Kunning Palace is not as large as the Qianqing Palace, it is not small in scale.It is nine rooms wide, with a door in the middle, and warm pavilions on the east and west sides.

When Queen Zhou and other harem concubines greeted Zhu Youjian at the main gate of Kunning Palace, they never expected that Zhu Youjian would come to Kunning Palace with Li Jing to enjoy the lanterns, so when they came out to meet them, they suddenly saw Li Jing, an outsider They are all somewhat unnatural, and the most unnatural among them is Zhang Yan, Empress Yi'an.

Different from the clothes of the concubines, most of the concubines who came to greet them wore white or pink cloaks and white or pink satin jackets. Only Zhang Yan and Queen Zhou wore purple and red The big cloak, and the big red silk jacket inside.

As the saying goes, if you want to be pretty, you should be filial. These concubines are indeed charming and charming in their white silk and brocade jackets.However, the sudden appearance of two red clothes among the eyes full of white and pink highlights the radiance of Queen Zhou and Zhang Yan.

Li Jing didn't know much about the clothes women wore, but seeing the colors of these women's clothes, he knew that the two of them chose such colors to show their identities.

Because white clothes are mostly worn in summer, and white in winter, and it is for the Lantern Festival to wear white for the moonlight. To put it bluntly, it is to attract men. Wearing clothes for this purpose will naturally appear frivolous. (Note: The Lantern Festival is actually China’s Valentine’s Day. The ancients had many restrictions on women. Usually, they were not allowed to go out for free activities, but during the Lantern Festival, they can go out together. Young men and women can find a partner by themselves, and lovers can take advantage of this festival Dating.)
As for Zhang Yan and Empress Zhou, one is the former empress and the other is the current empress. It can be said that their identities are precious, how can they be coquettish in front of the emperor like other concubines?In particular, Zhang Yan is Zhu Youjian's sister-in-law. She was invited by Queen Zhou to come to Kunning Palace to enjoy lanterns and guess riddles.

In fact, Zhu Youjian's concubines did not expect that Zhu Youjian would bring Li Jing to Kunning Palace. If they knew that Li Jing would come, they would not wear white coats if they were killed.

Because they are all married women, it doesn't matter if they wear white at the family banquet, but it is very inappropriate to wear it in front of outsiders.

But Zhu Youjian obviously didn't care about it, and first said to the concubines: "This is Li Jing, the Xingguo Duke of our Ming Dynasty, I guess you have heard of his name in the palace."

Pointing to Empress Zhou, she said to Li Jing with a smile: "This is my empress, virtuous and virtuous, worthy of the word "model of the harem."

Li Jing hurriedly bowed and said, "Li Jing sees the Empress."

"Li Aiqing was alive, and my palace often hears His Majesty talking about it. It is all thanks to Li Aiqing that the Ming Dynasty can have today. Please accept this palace's gift, Duke Xingguo." As Queen Zhou bowed, she was blessed.

Li Jing hurriedly said: "The empress please come up, how dare I accept the gift from the empress."

Zhu Youjian waved his hand and said, "Okay, we will be in-laws in two years, and my family doesn't need to care about it."

Then Zhu Youjian pointed to Zhang Yan and said, "This is Empress Yi'an, my sister-in-law. Empress Yi'an has contributed a lot to my being able to become emperor."

Hearing Zhu Youjian introduce Zhang Yan to him, Li Jing looked quite embarrassed, but he didn't want to think too much at this time, and hurriedly bowed to Zhang Yan again: "My minister sees Empress Yi'an."

Seeing Li Jing salute herself, Zhang Yan was taken aback, and hurriedly said: "The Duke is flattened." After saying that, he returned the salute lightly.

Zhu Youjian didn't care about Zhang Yan's title, looked around, and then smiled: "I won't introduce these, Ai Qing doesn't like these vain courtesy, so let's just avoid it."

Li Jing hurriedly bowed his hands and said yes, this stall must give Zhu Youjian enough face no matter what.

Seeing Li Jing's cooperation, Zhu Youjian was delighted, and immediately smiled and said to Queen Zhou: "I and Li Aiqing haven't eaten yet, so I come to you for a meal, and then we will watch the lanterns and guess riddles together."

"Please, Your Majesty, please, Duke Xingguo!" Queen Zhou hurriedly said.

At this time in previous years, Zhu Youjian would definitely come to Kunning Palace to have a meal with Queen Zhou, and Kunning Palace had already prepared the meal.

Holding Li Jing's hand into the palace, Zhu Youjian took the seat at the head seat. Li Jing originally wanted to sit in the courtier's seat, but he didn't want Zhu Youjian to pull him to sit next to him. seat is occupied.

Generally speaking, other than the queen, the emperor is not qualified to sit at the same table with the emperor. Even the most beloved concubine, unless the emperor wants to keep her in bed at night, she is allowed to eat at the same table, otherwise she will not sit at the same table with the emperor. table.

Zhang Yan is the former queen, and normally she would not sit at the same table with Zhu Youjian.However, during the holidays, when the family eats together, Zhu Youjian and Queen Zhou will always invite Zhang Yan to eat together. As Zhang Yan, Zhu Youjian and Queen Zhou will not set another table for her, but Arrange to have dinner at the table of Zhu Youjian and Queen Zhou.

Usually, Zhang Yan sat on Zhu Youjian's left hand side, but now Li Jing sat on Zhu Youjian's left side, and Zhang Yan could only sit opposite Li Jing.As for the opposite of the emperor, no one would sit there, as that would block the view of the emperor and queen.

Originally, the emperor would have a song and dance performance when he was having dinner, but today during the Lantern Festival, all the concubines had dinner together in the Kunning Palace, so there was no song and dance performance.

China's food culture is extensive and profound, and it pays more attention to etiquette. In the "Book of Rites", there is a saying of Confucius, "The beginning of a husband's etiquette begins with food." There are so many rules when eating, it is astonishing.Western eating etiquette is far from being comparable to that of China.

Li Jing came from modern times and didn't know that the ancients had many rules for eating.When he was in Hongshanling, he was the leader of the bandits, and everyone drank a big bowl of wine and ate meat together. These people would never consider the etiquette of eating.

When they arrived in Pingyang Mansion, everything was complicated, and they often had to deal with official business while eating, so they didn't care about etiquette, so that Shen Ying and Zhu Huiyu didn't care much about those etiquette details now.

After entering Beijing, Li Jing became even busier. Most of the time, he just dealt with it simply. Occasionally, when he had dinner with Zhu Youjian in the palace, it was only when he was hungry that he remembered that he should eat. How could he talk about etiquette at this time?
And when Li Jing took the initiative to ask for a meal, Wang Chengen ordered the imperial dining room to serve the main course directly, lest Xiao Wu and his guards think that the eunuchs in the palace deliberately starved Li Jing. It is self-evident what will happen to the eunuch.

It can be said that for so many years since Li Jing came to the Ming Dynasty, he did not really eat a meal in accordance with the ancient eating etiquette.

But this time when eating in the Empress's Kunning Palace, all kinds of etiquette and rules were laid out, which made Li Jing quite flustered for a while.

For example, Li Jing took a sip of the tea that was served before eating, and then found that Zhu Youjian, Queen Zhou and Zhang Yan just rinsed their mouths, and then spit it into the gargle served by the maid next to them.Only then did Li Jing realize that this cup of tea was not for drinking, but for gargling.

Then the maid brought another copper basin, which was half filled with water. This time Li Jingxue behaved well, and washed his hands in the basin like Zhu Youjian and others.

Then the tea was served again, but this time it was for drinking. After drinking the tea, the food was officially served.However, most of the side dishes served were appetizers, and there was no main course. When all kinds of side dishes were served, everyone used them for a while, then took them all away, and the main course came.

Eating like this was really tormenting for Li Jing, but everyone was silent during the banquet, except for the slight sound of chewing, there was no noise at all.

After finally finishing the meal, Queen Zhou ordered people to serve wine.

In fact, at this time, is the real feast.All the concubines also let go of drinking and guessing, doing riddle guessing.

Seeing that Li Jing was sitting uncomfortably, Zhang Yan suddenly said, "My lord, I have a riddle for you to guess."

Li Jing hurriedly waved his hand and said, "I don't know how to guess any riddles, so please don't make a fool of me, my lord."

Seeing Li Jing's refusal, Empress Zhou smiled and said, "It's rare that the emperor's wife is interested, so let Xing Guogong guess one. If she fails to guess correctly, she will be punished with a glass of wine, and if she guesses correctly, the emperor's wife will have a drink."

The two empresses were very excited, Li Jing badly spoiled their interest, so he nodded lightly.

Seeing that Li Jing agreed, Zhang Yan smiled and said: "My lord, listen carefully, your body is upright, your body is hard, even if you can't speak, you will answer what you say. Use something."

Li Jingwen listened, pondered for a while, and finally shook his head slightly.

(End of this chapter)