Prince of Song Dynasty

Chapter 425 The Origin of the Oiran Contest

I thought Yu Qingyan was shy, so she would just go out like this, she would either pretend to be asleep or really fall asleep and there would be no more things to do.However, when he was about to leave, a soft voice came from the bed: "Ye Lang."

Turning her head to look, Yu Qingyan had already woken up, holding the corner of the quilt with her hand, and was lying there looking at him affectionately.Ye Chen smiled gently, and said softly: "I was too tired last night, you should sleep a little longer."

What Ye Chen said was very casual and true, but it fell into Yu Qingyan's ears. The latter blushed immediately, shrank her head, and covered her face with a quilt.

The clouds in the sky are still thick, but the space between the sky and the earth has become clear.It's mid-October, and it snows occasionally in Kaifeng.But Jinling just feels a little cool, and it is even the most comfortable few days of the year.

Seeing that the weather in the south of the Yangtze River is also gradually changing from cool to cold, the lively atmosphere has quietly risen inside and outside Jinling. This is not like a festival is coming.Rather, Jinling City has been maintained for more than 20 years, and the annual autumn oiran selection for brothels around Jinling is about to begin.

If it is said that Jinling's annual festival poetry fair, the Mid-Autumn Festival and the Shangyuan Festival are mostly carnivals for talented scholars, but the oiran runoff in October should be a grand event for beauties.Of course, most of the ladies, or the real "beauties" who are already married, are often not very happy these days, which is naturally not difficult to understand.But there is no need to criticize it. This is the fashion of this era, especially the Southern Tang Dynasty. If there are stories involving wind and dust, more people will only be considered elegant, rather than dirty and dirty.But in the view of Ye Chen, who has received the orthodox education and influence of the world, although it is not dirty, this kind of thing has nothing to do with elegance.

As one of the most elegant events in the Southern Tang Dynasty every year, how could the Southern Tang court, which regarded itself as elegant, not participate in it. In fact, there was support from the government and even the court behind this event.

There is no distinction between poetic talents, and the smoke among talented scholars is not too strong, but more of the free testimony of literary no-one. Therefore, the government only needs to maintain basic order, but this time it is considered to be a real competition. To decide the four leaders, and then decide the oiran from among them, a judge who is as fair as possible is needed. This relatively fair judgment is actually carried out by the government to prevent cheating and many gossips.Of course, the reason for the government to come forward is that apart from the elegant factor, it is because this matter is very profitable.This can be seen from the regular pattern of selecting oirans.

The rules of the entire competition are actually quite simple to say, the oiran, after all, is out to make money, as long as he can attract people to spend money to support.But if you talk about it in detail, there is also a complicated side. For six days, the brothels in Jinling almost let go of welcoming guests, canceling a lot of drink fees, or letting the girls in their yards perform on the prepared terrace. , if you like it, you can send money over there. These money are proof of your popularity.During this period, there were actually many hype techniques, how to mobilize the emotions of the spectators, how to set off the warm atmosphere of the election, how to add elegance to it to increase the status of the girls, such as asking talented people who are good friends to write poems to praise In short, it all depends on the means of each brothel.

In fact, the original intention of the annual autumn oiran election in Jinling area more than 50 years ago was not what it is now.Ye Chen remembered that Liu Zongyang said to him yesterday: 28 years ago, disasters were everywhere in the Southern Tang Dynasty. That is, Li Yu's grandfather, Li Min, the founding king of the Southern Tang Dynasty, knew that the rich merchants and gentry in the south of the Yangtze River had a lot of money, so he ordered to raise money from the people.Of course, the manipulation of this process will naturally not be a simple matter.The imperial court invited many wealthy businessmen and noble gentry to participate in this oiran competition. In fact, they wanted these big households to contribute money and produce, and those talented scholars to write some poems and write about the spirit of sharing the difficulties of everyone. At that time, many people were invited. The senior officials of the Great Confucianism in the South of the Yangtze River helped to strengthen the momentum. It is said that the first oiran contest at that time raised 70 taels of cash and countless properties at one time.Now Li Min has passed away, but because the oiran competition in autumn was very profitable, it has been preserved with the strong support of the court, and it has always been hosted by the government and the court. Of course, the money earned later is far away. It cannot be compared with the first Oiran Competition, for example, the money earned last year was only 11 taels.And except for some brothels that participated, most of them naturally belonged to the pockets of the imperial court and the government.

After Ye Chen heard about this incident, he thought in his heart that if Da Song was in a disaster, he could use this method to raise property in Kaifeng, and the effect should not be bad.

Qinhuai is ten miles away from Jinling, and there are about [-] to [-] brothels, large and small, in the city. The first three days are actually just the beginning, and the atmosphere is heated up.At this time, all brothels will continue to promote tacitly, but the hardest performers on the stage are actually those women who are not very famous on weekdays.Some of them are just performing arts, and some are also selling themselves. Whether they have a foundation, they can always attract a lot of popularity by relying on their performances in the past few days, and attract some customers for their future business.

She will also remember the guests who have supported her in the past few days. Those who patronize feel that they don't have much literary talent or money. It is impossible to get the favor of those famous women, so they will naturally choose these women, such as Ye Chen. The group of cousins ​​in the Chen family pretending to be Chen Qing, although they think they are literary and elegant all day long, and most of their mouths are thinking about Bi Qiaoer, Su Yifei and other famous oirans, but in fact they are good friends in the brothel. Naturally, they are all women with lesser reputations. They have even started saving money a few months ago, probably for the sake of being able to come to cheer these few days and show their faces for the women they like.

Then the next three days will be the highlight. Although the daytime is the same as the first three days, a large party will be held near Bailuzhou in the evening. Some adults, nobles and many celebrities in the Southern Tang court will also be present , to participate in this elegant event, and this time is the moment Ye Chen is looking forward to the most. Of course, what he is looking forward to is not the birth of the oiran, but the opportunity to do business.

According to the results of the first three days, basically each brothel will have one or two quotas. On the first night, a total of more than a hundred girls will perform here, and sixteen of them will be selected. On the second night, sixteen will be selected. The four heads of the line came out, and the third night was the day when the oiran was born. Those who were able to participate in the grand event in these three nights were probably rich people, and the oiran was naturally born with their support.

"The selection of the oiran is handled by the Jinling Mansion every year. The first thing to do is silver. But last year, the lord of the country said that it should be elegant and not too smelly of copper, so he changed the silver into a bouquet, and it was a bouquet. Two silvers for one flower is the most expensive place in the world for flowers. Of course, these bouquets are all prepared by the Jinling Mansion, and only the Jinling Mansion is allowed to bring them into the venue. Naturally, these flowers need to be bought with money. To put it bluntly, the truth is There is no difference from the original."

"Of course, the so-called gifting of flowers is just to make some money and face, but I heard that there are people behind the scenes manipulating and betting in advance. Last year, some people even gave away ten thousand flowers at once. Hehe, that's ten thousand taels of silver. As rich as our Liu family, how can we just give away tens of thousands of taels of silver like this? To put it bluntly, it is of course profitable, but these things are also done beautifully. They can’t do this with brothels alone. They can only be lively through the government. Buying flowers The Jinling government collects [-]% of the money, and the monthly profits and taxes are still calculated. The [-]% is obtained out of thin air, and this amount of money every year is quite a lot for the government.”

On the banks of the Qinhuai River, at noon, Ye Chen and Liu Zongyang were coming down from the restaurant. Liu Zongyang had already reported to Ye Chen in the box the arrangements for the oiran competition in the past few days.According to the strength of the Liu family in the past few days, and Ye Chen is also famous now, Ye Chen was fortunate to be invited by Liu Jinyu's son Liu Linxuan to sit on the same boat in the oiran competition.It seems that Liu Jinyu is one step closer to his goal, but Ye Chen still feels a little slow, so according to the plan for these few days, some things will happen to deepen the relationship between Ye Chen and Liu Linxuan in a very short time, so that Create a chance to win Liu Jinyu through Liu Linxuan.

On the way, Liu Zongyang smiled and talked to Ye Chen about the election of the oiran, which has been hotly debated recently.Gu worms are extremely miraculous, if Ye Chen doesn't give any orders to Liu Zongyang, the latter's demeanor and behavior will be as usual, and there will be nothing wrong.

Today is October [-]th, and the first day of the Oiran Competition has already begun. Many brothels in Jinling City have been set up in a grand manner. The sound of silk and bamboo can be heard in the distance. , a small boat was propped along the bank of the Qinhuai River, besides the boatman, there was a beautifully dressed woman on the boat, who suddenly waved to this side: "Young Master Liu, Young Master Liu" but he recognized Liu Zongyang.

"It's hot in the afternoon, if the two young masters have nothing to do, would you like to go to the boat to have a cup of tea and rest for a while?"

Ye Chen looked at Liu Zongyang strangely, but Liu Zongyang smiled when he saw his expression, and waved his hand to the girl on the boat to refuse, the girl said a few words, and finally she didn't force her anymore.After walking a little further, Ye Chen smiled and said, "Haha, Liu Shibo has a lot of friends!"

"I've been there before, so she wrote it down." Liu Zongyang smiled proudly, "If Zhongshu is interested, we go up and sit down, and the other party has to respectfully greet him. There is no need to spend money. If you can write a poem Poetry praises a certain girl, and there is even a gift of embellishing pens there, and the more famous talented person, the other party is also willing to recommend herself as a pillow."

(End of this chapter)