The Empress often slipped out of the palace recently and ate some of the roasted lamb from Zuixian Tower and steamed fish from Xinghua Tower. Not only did she taste the freshness, but she also aroused some appetite for the food sent by the Secretary of Food. It's not as indifferent as it used to be. One moment, I felt that the mutton soup served was not refreshing enough, and the next moment, I felt that the milk cakes eaten as snacks were not soft enough.

It's like a person has come to life again and knows what joy, anger, sorrow, and joy are.

Today she called "Zhao Su Rui" and had food carefully prepared in advance. A dish of chicken stewed with hazelnut mushrooms was made from hazelnut mushrooms that her brother brought back from Liaodong, which her mother brought to her when she entered the palace last month. Ten kilograms, used to stew chicken and meat, is very fragrant. If "Zhao Su Rui" hadn't seen how hard he was working these days, she would have been reluctant to take it out for her to eat.

Now, the hot chicken was brought to the table by the palace maid wearing a dark blue cross-collar shirt. She looked at it blankly and suddenly sighed:

"Forget about other things, I can't agree to this."

Shen Shiqing sat across the table and saw Lin Miaozhen with her eyes lowered and holding the piece of autumn ginkgo-colored embroidered satin in her hand.

"I know you are angry with the civil servants." Lin Miaozhen took a breath before speaking again, "It really doesn't work. My brother travels all over the country to do business. I asked him to get some shop stewards to settle the accounts for you. Who doesn't want to be Officials, if you give them a ninth-grade admiral and a family background, they can check the account clearly for you. But the palace ladies can't do it. They are already miserable people with no way out and will never see their parents in their lives. Forget it, just don't push them out when you come and go in the court."

Afraid that "Zhao Surui" would be angry, Lin Miaozhen raised her head and glanced at "him", then looked at the confidants standing on both sides of the door:

"It's not like you don't know the virtues of those civil servants. They are the best at cutting people's throats. I took advantage of it. You're right. I am the queen who handles palace affairs and promotes virtue. You are your majesty through these maids. The reputation of those officials was slapped in the face, what about these palace ladies? When this gust of wind passes, even if they can read a few words in the study with me protecting them, in the end there is still no hope. On the contrary, they can be beaten by those The civil servants will hold grudges. If anything goes wrong with me in the future, those civil servants will definitely not let these maids go when they take advantage of this. What will they do then? The men fought fiercely in the previous dynasty, and all they saw was money and power. Fame and wealth are all on the upward climb. Even if the eunuch is missing a bit, he can still dominate the government. What can the maids gain? They have neither a future nor a way out. As long as they are not blessed by you, they will be indispensable. If you die of old age in the palace as a white-headed palace maid, don't torment these poor people."

After saying that, Lin Miaozhen looked at "Zhao Surui" again. She thought she could see an angry younger brother trying to comfort him, but she didn't expect to see a smiling face.

Shen Shiqing held up her chopsticks, picked up a piece of chicken leg meat with a smile and put it in Lin Miaozhen's bowl:

"Sister, you can't just talk without eating. This hazel mushroom stewed chicken is so fragrant, don't let it down."

"Aren't you angry that I violated your wishes? If you want to make a quarrel, I'll hit you, but don't hide your knives in front of me."

"You are right, why should I be angry?" Shen Shiqing still had a smile on her face. There was a queen like Lin Miaozhen in the palace who was willing to "disobey the emperor's order" for the sake of the ladies. It was not too late for her to be happy. .

She picked up a piece of hazelnut mushroom filled with chicken soup and ate it with rice. Shen Shiqing said slowly:

"What if I give them a future?"

Lin Miaozhen suddenly raised her head while holding the chicken leg in her mouth. The chopsticks in her hands fell to the plate and then to the ground with a "pop" sound.

Future? What is future?

If you are promoted to an official position, you will be able to attract many ministers, and if you amass wealth, you can rival the country. If you go forward, you will build a temple for your ancestors, and if you go backward, you will bring blessings to several generations.

This is the future.

A future that makes people blush and risk their lives.

A woman who is talented cannot be an official, and a woman who is rich cannot establish a career. As soon as she lands, she is destined to be a woman from another family. She gives up half her life to give birth to a child but does not leave her name in another family's family tree.

Naturally, there is no future.

Lin Miaozhen was still stunned, but Shen Shiqing had already sat up straight:

"Today's chicken dish was pretty good, but was it made by Shangshi Bureau?"

The maid guarding the door quickly said: "Your Majesty, this dish should be made by a baker named Wu from the Department of Food and Beverage of the Shangshi Bureau. She was born in Daning Prefecture and is good at preparing these mountain products from Liaodong."

Soon, a middle-aged woman wearing an elegant blue silk jacket with a round collar knelt in front of Shen Shiqing. She wore a hanging black gauze hat on her head, with a pair of pink and yellow velvet flowers on the hat, and a belt around her waist. Wearing a gold-plated girdle and wearing soap boots, this is the common look of a female official in the palace.

Shen Shiqing looked at her and asked in a gentle tone: "Most of the female officials in the palace are selected from Jiangsu and Zhejiang, but Wu Zhangshan is from Daning in the north. It's really rare. No wonder he can cook this dish extremely well." Tasty."

Wu Zhangshan knelt on the ground, his voice was trembling but still calm: "Back to Your Majesty, in the first year of Mingkang, I followed my parents to the capital and was selected as a palace maid. Since then, I have been taught by my aunts in the Shangshi Bureau. Mingkang In the 16th year of the Empress Dowager's birthday, I served three dishes and the Empress Dowager liked them very much, so she promoted me to a female official. Fortunately, I was promoted to the sixth rank of chef in the year before last."

After hearing her origin, Shen Shiqing nodded: "It is even more rare that she is a female official who has risen from the ranks of palace maids."

The female officials of Dayong are different from the palace maids. They are almost all civilian women who are educated and literate from all over the Yangtze River. They are between thirty-five and forty years old and stay in the palace until they are seventy years old. They can leave the palace and return to their place of origin. Supported by local governments.

At that time, Emperor Taizu of Yong Dynasty established female officials to prevent eunuchs from taking power. He even ordered the eunuchs in the palace not to be literate, let alone interfere with the government. The affairs of the palace were all decided by female officials. Unfortunately, when Suzong came, Suzong did not like it because he did not like it. The queen whom Zong proposed to marry also didn't like the female officials under the queen's command, so she set up a study room in the palace to let the eunuchs know how to handle palace affairs for him, because eunuchs could communicate with each other internally and externally. Compared with the older female officials, They had another close relationship with the emperor, and soon the departments where the female officials worked lost their important powers and became a subsidiary yamen that had to look at the expressions of the chief ceremonial officers and act according to their wishes.

During the reign of Shenzong, the power of eunuchs became even more impressive, and they were even sent to various places as supervisors. The defeat that made Dayong lose face was also the result of Shenzong's heavy use of eunuchs.

It is a pity that even such a disaster did not stop the eunuchs from being the most favored servants of the emperors. After that, the emperors of all dynasties also had powerful eunuchs around them, such as Wang Wan and Wang Gui around Mingzong, and Zhang Wan around the late emperor. Although the eunuchs had no heirs, they could rely on their mutual recognition of "grandfather and grandson" to support their party members to complete the transition of power, suppressing the female officials deep in the harem.

Nowadays, although the palace still selects female officials to enter the palace every three years, and they are still called "aunt" by the eunuchs, everyone knows that they are just another kind of palace maids, wearing different clothes and calling them "no." They have the same name, but they will also be trampled under the feet of eunuchs.

People like Wu Zhangshan who were promoted from palace maids to female officials because they accidentally got a favor on their errands can be called legends in this huge imperial city.

Wu Zhangshan buried his head between his arms and said respectful words such as thanking His Majesty and the Queen Mother for their kindness.

But she heard His Majesty ask her: "Who else is in your family?"

The female officer in her thirties carefully replied: "Your Majesty, I still have my mother and younger brother at home. My younger brother should be married."

"What does it mean to be married? Don't you even know that your brother is married?"

Wu Zhangshan said quickly: "The last time I corresponded with my family was the year when I was granted the title of female official. At that time, my father had just passed his filial piety period, and my mother said that she was seeing her younger brother."

Seven or eight years have passed since the 16th year of Mingde's reign, but there is no news between her and her family.

Shen Shiqing nodded, raised her eyes, looked out the window, and said:

"Since I entered the palace in the first year of Mingde, it has been twenty-three years since you have served the king sincerely and won the praise of the Queen Mother and the Queen. I will reward you. Xu Gong ordered that you draft edicts for me and the Queen. Wu Zhangshan has abided by his duties for twenty-three years. He has been rewarded by two palaces many times for his meritorious service. In memory of his mother's meritorious service in raising him, he was given the title of a fifth-grade pleasant person, with a reward of 100 acres of fertile land, 100 taels of official silver, and 10 pieces of tribute satin."

Wu Zhangshan knelt down and listened to His Majesty's orders. He couldn't even express gratitude.

She raised her head in disbelief, only to see His Majesty with his eyes lowered and a faint smile on his face.

Knowing that her actions were inappropriate, she quickly lowered her head. She couldn't speak, so she could only kowtow desperately: "Thank you, Your Majesty, thank you for your grace, thank you for your grace..."

Xu Gongling was a woman between forty and fifty years old. When she was asked to write such a shocking imperial edict, she didn't show any emotion on her face, and she immediately wrote the edict.

The decree, the land...

Only when a man becomes an official can he earn a job for his mother, and only then can a man purchase land and property in his own name.

Only at this moment did Lin Miaozhen finally believe that "Zhao Surui" really wanted to give the ladies in the palace a "future". She suppressed the heat in her heart and said with a smile:

"After receiving the fifth-grade imperial decree, I can hand over my son to the palace. I will give another one hundred taels of silver from this palace, and also give it to... Wu Zhangshan, I don't know what your mother is called?"

"Chen, Chen, Chen's mother, Chen's mother's surname is Wang."

"Okay, I will give Wang Yiren a hundred taels of silver as a gift for traveling expenses. I want to see with my own eyes this Wang Yiren who has given birth to a good daughter."

After saying that, Lin Miaozhen looked at the other maids and officials standing next to her: "Your Majesty gave Wu Zhangshan's mother the imperial edict because of your benevolence and filial piety, and because of your gratitude for Wu Zhangshan's decades of loyalty. You should take Wu Zhangshan as a role model." , as long as you are loyal to me wholeheartedly, I am also willing that the maids and officials in the palace around me will work hard to make progress and earn a job for the mother of the family."

The maids and officials inside and outside the palace suddenly knelt down and responded in unison. Even the magpies flying from the eaves heard their different momentum from usual, waving their wings and flying from the deep palace to the south palace wall. Went there, flew for a long time, and finally landed on the tall Qianqing Gate.

The magpie bird puffed out its little chest and looked around, seeing lights lighting up one after another in the dark palace city.

It was already the second watch when I came out of Changchun Palace. The cold wind of early winter was whistling in the alley. Shen Shiqing was sitting in the warm sedan chair, and her heart was uneasy for a long time.

Maybe when the decree is issued tomorrow, all the officials will just think that there is a very lucky female official in the palace, or maybe they think that as the emperor, she is acting willfully again.

Only a woman, only a woman who has been silent for a long time in the night, knows the meaning of what she did today.

Lin Miaozhen knew it, Xu Gongling knew it, and she, Shen Shiqing, also knew it.

The next step is to enable the maids to study in the inner school.

Lin Miaozhen was right. She did use the palace maid to mock the officials of the court. Those officials said they were asking for orders for the people, but in their hearts they were doing business. Since they were unwilling to select officials who were good at accounting, they Jing, she will naturally find someone from elsewhere.

Adding arithmetic classes to the inner study. If there are hundreds more maids in the harem who can write and count in a year or two, Zhao Surui may not be willing to abolish this item based on his temperament.

"Don't worry."

She said to herself in her heart.

Her fingers seemed to be slowly grinding something with the pestle in mid-air, and the turmoil in Shen Shiqing's heart finally calmed down...

"Your Majesty, the Qianqing Palace has arrived."

Hearing the sound of a chicken, Shen Shiqing raised her head, the dumplings stopped, and she walked out from under the opened dragon-patterned brocade door.

"One chicken."

"My slave is here."

"Tomorrow you go tell the cabinet that I don't have much time left for those people. Since I haven't been able to find enough people to settle the accounts, there is no need to look for them. From tomorrow onwards, the accounts of Taipu Temple will be piled up in the Qianqing Palace. , I opened a book casually, and as soon as I saw the expenditure accounts, I would strip off the official skin of the person who embezzled it and throw it into the Beizhen Fusi."

Zhao Surui's moodiness is not needed at this time. When will she use it?

With this in mind, Shen Shiqing walked into the Qianqing Palace. She planned to read a hundred more memorials before going to bed.

On the Zhuangzi outside Beijing, Zhao Surui sneezed suddenly, then his face suddenly changed, and he slowly moved his buttocks while holding the quilt wrapped around his stomach.
Chapter completed!