Chongzhen put down the memorial in his hand, picked up the hot towel from the maid's tray next to him, wiped his face, and hummed comfortably. He also learned this from Yang Fan.
The empress heard that Yang Fan's house provided hot hand towels for wiping his face at any time. She immediately followed suit. Now, this has become a standard in the palace.
Now there is a separate hot towel room in the palace, with two young eunuchs and a palace maid responsible for providing round-the-clock hot towel service to the harem.
The palace bought high-quality towels from Xinghe Supermarket and steamed them in a steamer. Once needed, they would be sent to His Majesty and the ladies.
In winter, it is so comfortable to wipe your face with a hot towel.
Chongzhen lay back, leaning on the back of the chair, and covered his face with a hot towel. He was also sighing in his heart, Yang Fan would still enjoy it. There are so many eunuchs and maids serving people in the palace, how come no one thought of it.
This kind of ringed towel was brought by Yang Fan. Before the Ming Dynasty, there were only plain cloth towels, not such fluffy towels. Not to mention, this thing is really good at wiping the face and is super absorbent.
"My dear friend, what is Yang Fan doing?" Chongzhen has always been paying close attention to Yang Fan's movements.
"Long live my lord, Uncle Dingyuan gave the training to Zhou Yuji. He is researching a car that can drive on its own without horses. What kind of car did he name it? Yesterday, he drove this car home from Nanyuan. There were many cars along the way.
People gathered around to watch, and I heard it was packed to the rafters."
"Well, Yang Qing likes to play with these weird and cunning things. But let's not forget that everything he comes up with is useful and agrees with people's needs. He has made all the money in the world."
Chongzhen said with emotion.
It is so difficult to get some money by yourself. But it is simply unnatural for Yang Fan to make money. He makes money no matter what he does, as if the money comes to him on its own initiative.
After a while, he felt that the towel was cold. He took it off and felt that the skin on his face was very comfortable. Chongzhen saw that Wang Chengen was holding a red notebook in his hand.
"Well, eldest companion, what are you holding in your hand?" Chongzhen asked curiously.
"Your Majesty, this is what the Queen has just sent. It is said to be a new-style villa that Uncle Dingyuan paid tribute to Your Majesty."
"Is the villa a set of courtyards in Xishan?" Chongzhen took it and opened it to take a look.
Yang Fan had a bad taste and made the house deed look like a real estate certificate for later generations. It states the property rights of the house, as well as drawings of the building and yard. The last page has the house deed issued by the government, folded and pasted on it. On the house deed
, and it is stamped with the large seal of Shuntianfu Huke.
"Your Majesty, it is a new type of building, which was developed in the entire community. It is called Nanluoguxiang Community, just outside Di'anmen. It is said that it has installed glass windows and heating system, as well as water supply and drainage. The community has a garden design, and the environment
Beautiful." Wang Chengen introduced.
"Oh, I've never seen this before. After dinner, I took the queen and the two noble concubines over to have a look," Chongzhen said.
Now, Chongzhen often sneaks out to visit privately incognito.
Jin Yiwei has already reported to him about the Huangcheng North Street and the first residential area developed by Yang Fan. He also wants to see what these houses look like.
Princess Le'an came to visit him the day before yesterday. I heard from her that she and her consort also bought a house in that community.
It was also mentioned that there is running water, a shower head and an enamel bathtub, hot water for bathing, a private bathroom, heating, and an oven and a honeycomb briquette stove in the kitchen.
The kitchen and bathroom are decorated with ceramic tiles, and the ground is paved with solid wood floors. What Chongzhen said made me feel itchy. The queen and the two concubines who were sitting with me also listened with their eyes shining brightly. Women, no matter what era, are always interested in good houses, decoration, and furniture.
of.
Now that the weather is getting colder, the princess and the consort have moved into their new home. They are enjoying the full warmth, comfort and comfort of modern life.
With the arrival of winter, heating has started, and now this kind of community and new-style buildings are completely popular.
The first batch of purchasers were mainly businessmen and some officials below the third rank. They could not afford several courtyards in the deep house compound.
However, they also have a need for housing, and it has been difficult to live in Beijing since ancient times. Housing prices here have always been very high.
There are hundreds of thousands of people living in rented houses in the capital. They are mainly businessmen, middle- and lower-level officials, and students from the Imperial College.
These people have a small amount of money, but they cannot afford a big yard. Therefore, after the community opened, Yang Fan found that small suites were especially popular. Three-bedroom apartments with 10 rooms (10 square meters each) were very popular.
Yang Fan has noticed that the demand for small apartments is getting stronger, and is currently developing a residential complex that is mainly composed of wing buildings, with a floor area of 30 square meters, and mainly one-bedroom and one-living small apartments.
This product is specially designed for single Imperial College students in the capital, young Hanlin Academy officials, and petty officials in various yamen. The price is not expensive, usually less than one hundred taels.
During the meal, I heard that His Majesty was going to take them out of the palace to play. Queen Zhou, Concubine Tian and Concubine Yuan were very excited.
At this time, Queen Zhou's lower abdomen had swelled slightly, and the child she was carrying was Chongzhen's eldest son Zhu Cixiang. Historically, he was born in the second year of Chongzhen (1629), and he was named the crown prince the following year.
The three of them are under twenty this year, and they are at the age where they love to play.
When Your Majesty was in Prince Xin's Mansion, he was still young, but he kept a straight face and pretended to be an adult all day long. But now that he has become the emperor, he has become more and more humane.
This was the first time that I took them out to play in private, and they were all very happy. In this era, once you enter the palace, it is as deep as the sea. Under normal circumstances, you will never have the chance to leave the palace in your life.
Chongzhen changed into the clothes of a scholar and put on a precious sable fur cloak. The concubines also changed into the clothes of young folk women.
Women's tops in the Ming Dynasty mainly had styles such as collars, tube tops, jackets, bijia, and paddy fields.
After Zhou Hou and her two noble concubines carefully dressed up, they wore an albizia peplum skirt underneath. In the Ming Dynasty, the peplum skirt developed into a system with sleeves, so it was also called the "main waist".
Wear a coat made of precious silk on the outside. The coat is not only worn by women with prominent status, but also among the people, it is a fashion for women to wear the coat.
Finally, he put on a snow-white mink fur outside. Looking at his bright eyes and white teeth, he was so bright and beautiful. He went shopping with a flower-like scroll, which made Chongzhen very satisfied.
Although it was getting cold, Chongzhen still held a folding fan in his hand, deliberately showing off the coolness of a romantic scholar.
"Your Majesty, please put this on."
Wang Chengen presented a pair of sunglasses. These are sold in Xinghe Supermarket and are super expensive.
A pair of black toad mirrors cost ten taels of silver. However, young men in the capital flocked to them and snapped up every new style.
Wang Cheng'en gave Chongzhen sunglasses mainly because he was afraid of being recognized, causing unnecessary trouble and spoiling Long Live Lord's interest.
After finishing dressing up, Chongzhen and his three wives took pictures of themselves happily in front of the coat mirror for a long time, and then set off happily.
He left the palace from the Xuanwu Gate with three women, a slave from his hometown, Wang Chengen, and seven bodyguards, dressed as rich young men.
At this time, the north gate of the Forbidden City was still called Xuanwu Gate. It was not until the Kangxi Dynasty that it was changed to Shenwu Gate to avoid tabooing Xuan Ye.
Not far after leaving the palace, we bypassed the military camp on the back of Jingshan Mountain and arrived at Di'anmen.
When we came out of Xuanwu Gate, it was already dark. There were no street lights in the palace or the imperial city. They were all pitch black, and the guards' gates were all illuminated by lanterns.
Originally, Di'an Gate was closed and locked. But when His Majesty came, how dare the gatekeepers Baihu and Zongqi not open the door.
As soon as I went out, I saw a wide east-west street in front of me. The street was brightly lit, and every ten meters there was a wooden street lamp pole with carbide lamps hanging on it. It illuminated the road as bright as day.
"Wow, it's so lively here." Concubine Tian couldn't help but exclaimed.
Although it is already dark, it is different from the desolation of other streets. There are many horse-drawn carriages walking on the road here, and there are also many pedestrians.
On the west side of Di'anmenwai Street is the huge three-story building of Xinghe Supermarket. It is brightly lit from the windows. In the square in front of the supermarket building, people are coming and going, and it is as bright as day.
In the Nanluoguxiang community to the east, the outer walls facing the street are all shops. At this time, they are also brightly lit and open for business. There are people on the road, bustling and bargaining with the shops. Many people are shopping with their families. Since the curfew has become
In the middle of the night, the T-shaped entrance in Drum Tower became completely lively.
Chongzhen looked towards the north. Carbide lamps were hung around the four corners and top floor of the Drum Tower. The upper part of the Drum Tower illuminated was very majestic, as if it were floating in the air. This was a lighting project specially carried out by Yang Fan in order to improve the taste of the community.
From Di'anmen to Drum Tower, this street has turned into a bustling commercial district. All kinds of shops and businesses are hanging carbide lamps for business, and they are working hard and shouting. The street lights on this road are also brightly lit.
For a moment, Chongzhen was confused. Is this still the capital in his memory?
/
Please remember the domain name of this book: .Novel about Strange People of the Republic of China
Domain name of this site:
This chapter has been completed!