As the New Year approaches, the palace is letting people go again.
Since Li Shimin ascended the throne, he has continuously released palace residents from the palace. The emperor's public reason was of course that these palace residents were pitiful, but Wu Huaiyu's ill-intentioned guess was that Li Shimin did not want too many people in the Tai Chi Palace.
After all, the current owner of the Taiji Palace is the Supreme Emperor, who has lived in seclusion in the palace since he abdicated. I heard that his only hobbies were giving birth to children and playing the pipa.
In just a few months after abdicating the throne, more than a dozen concubines became pregnant in Taiji Palace.
The young emperor is definitely dissatisfied with the emperor's messy behavior, but as a son, you can't say it yet, otherwise it will be unfilial.
So the emperor eliminated a large number of palace maids on the grounds that he pitied the palace people.
"I heard that after the palace people left the palace, many of them had no homes to return to and no relatives to seek refuge with. It's really pitiful. You can go find my ancestor and bring some back. It's the coldest month of winter. Alas."
Fan Xuanfu, who was hiding in the small courtyard every day to raise his fetus, took the rare initiative to ask Jianyi to find Huaiyu.
She could still only talk through the window at the door of the courtyard. She was warm in her room, but Huaiyu could only stand in the wind and snow, holding a heater.
"Our family is not short of people now."
"Of course there is no shortage of people in our family. Isn't it the kindness of His Majesty the Emperor and the Queen to let some of the maids out of the palace? But now there are many poor palace maids who are homeless and have no relatives to turn to. We are here to accommodate them for the saints.
"
Obviously he just wanted to take the opportunity to recruit people, but he said it so nicely.
The palace concubines released by Li Shimin were actually divided into two categories. One type was women from good families who entered the palace. This type was usually released only after they were about twenty-five years old, and their parents were usually allowed to take them home for marriage.
They may be granted marriages to soldiers of the imperial army, or they may be handed over to local officials as matchmakers to local young men from good families who are suitable for marriage.
This kind of concubine is generally not allowed to be used by powerful officials.
Of course, there is another type, mainly criminals from the Xing family, who are women who have not entered Yeting. Some of them have even been married before or even had children. They usually have to wash and sweep in Yeting until they die. If they are released with mercy,
Generally, they are probably around thirty years old and have a sallow appearance.
Not long after the founding of the Tang Dynasty, most of the people in the palace were the wives and daughters of criminals, mainly those who had been exiled to Yeting, and there were very few women from truly good families.
I heard that some officials now reported that most of the people in the emperor's palace were wives and daughters of criminals. This led to some palace people being lucky enough to give birth to princes and princesses for the emperor. However, their status was too humble and they were not suitable. They should
Select some beautiful girls from good families among the people, even some young ones, with good family backgrounds, and even those who are well-educated and well-educated. This is in line with the identity of the heavenly family.
Therefore, the current large-scale layoff of palace staff is also to prepare for the introduction of new people.
Many of these palace servants with bad backgrounds were directly rewarded to noble officials, and many were sold. Of course, it was not known that they were sold, but the powerful and even merchants took them.
However, the leader also has to pay money, but it is not necessary to buy the title, but the fact is that it is a business, and these palace people are equivalent to slaves who have been eliminated.
Although most of them are at least twenty-five years old, and may even be over thirty, although these women originally entered the palace as the female relatives of criminals, they are certainly not the ones who can enter the palace. They are all okay in all aspects.
.
Now that it is released, the price is not too expensive. A noble family can buy it as a slave or even as a concubine. It is still of high quality.
Many nobles and noble families in Chang'an were vying to buy it.
Fan Xuanfu also wanted to buy a batch of them. The palace servants who came out of the palace were more distinguished than Silla maids, Persian concubines, and Kunlun slaves.
"If your husband likes someone, he can choose two to be concubines. It's the Chinese New Year, so it's a happy time to have two new concubines."
After becoming pregnant, Fan Xuanfu now remembers Huaiyu's instructions and no longer rides horses and shoots arrows, nor wields a broadsword. Like a lady, she plays chess, plays the piano, reads, and draws, staying here without leaving the door or taking a step forward.
Inside the courtyard.
Coupled with the deliberate supplementation, she, who was originally very fit, gradually became plump and her bright face became smoother.
He speaks much more gently.
Huaiyu didn't want her to stay in this small courtyard every day. Although the courtyard was not small, he still felt that she was exaggerating.
But after becoming pregnant, she became stubborn, and Huaiyu could only follow her wishes.
She stretched out and said, "I'm so sleepy. I always feel like I don't get enough sleep every day. I won't tell you anymore. I'm going back to catch up on my sleep. You hurry up and pick more palace people to come back. Opportunities like this don't come often.
No matter how high or low you are, bring back more."
"When you choose someone to take a concubine, remember to choose a woman with an innocent family background. It's best not to be a daughter of the Xing family. It's best not to choose someone who has been married and had children."
She said a few words and left.
I stayed in Huaiyu and couldn't laugh or cry. What a wonderful tradition in ancient times. This lady took concubines for her husband. Many men in future generations would be beyond their reach.
The next day Huaiyu actually took his entourage to the gate of the palace, and first went to see Zhang Anan.
"I heard that Gao Hui'an is pregnant?"
"My father-in-law is very well informed."
The old eunuch laughed a few times and said, "How many palace people do you want to bring back, and what kind of people do you want?"
"A poor man who is homeless and has no relatives to turn to. My father-in-law arranged for me to take him back to me. I happen to need some people who are smart and hard-working at home."
"Would you like to choose two young and beautiful people to be your concubines?"
Huaiyu shook his head. He now had one wife, three concubines and four concubines. The Wu Liu family even selected a personal maid from each of his wives and concubines to be their common maid.
No matter how strong the cow is, it can't defeat eight wives, concubines, and eight maidservants.
"I'll pick two for you. They're definitely not bad. They're definitely better than the last two. You don't have to be polite. Which noble family doesn't do this? They can also be used to entertain guests or give gifts to others."
Among noble families, it is popular to give maids as gifts.
Huaiyu found it difficult to accept it. Although he also knew that most of the gifts were from domestic concubines, which were usually Kabuki and dancers raised by the family, but there were indeed some people who would give away their concubines, and even give them away.
Some gave away pregnant concubines.
This is too unacceptable.
But in the eyes of the nobles in Chang'an, concubines are actually just like cattle and horses. Only noble concubines like you have a certain status, or they have given birth to children for their masters.
Other concubines can be given as gifts.
Huaiyu handed a piece of paper to Zhang Ananda. It was the dividend from Changshengtang. Changshengtang originally had three shareholders. Later, warriors Xun, Fan Xing and Huaiyi also became shareholders. As a result, they also gained shares in Dongshi and Luoyang.
By opening two branches, the capital is sufficient and the business is large. With a strong backer, the business will naturally be more prosperous.
Although there is a five-year accounting period, Huaiyu did his accounting before the year and still used a large amount of the surplus funds in the account to distribute dividends.
This piece of paper in Zhang Ananda's hand is a voucher. With this piece of paper and a special key as a token, one can withdraw a thousand guan of money at any time from three accounts in Chang'an and Luoyang.
"Haha." After hearing this, Zhang Ananda smiled and put it in his arms.
Huaiyu had heard before that eunuchs all loved money. After all, without treasure, it would be difficult to have other pursuits.
Zhang Anan called his adopted son Zhang Fuguo and asked him to select people for Huaiyu.
He selected twenty twenty-five-year-old palace servants from the Xing family who had not entered Yeting, and also selected two twenty-year-old palace servants from good families for Huaiyu to be his concubines.
For those twenty people, Huaiyu paid one million yuan according to the rules, 50,000 yuan each, and the other two people paid 200,000 yuan each. In fact, this price was relatively high in the human and horse markets of Chang'an and Chang'an.
It's too high.
However, even if these palace servants are from the Xing family, they are from the palace. Their number is limited and they are not comparable to ordinary slaves. The slaves in the two markets are also divided into many grades, such as domestic ones and Fanhu ones, and they are also divided into men and women.
, old and young among the young and old, each kind must be divided into the upper, lower and third grades.
For example, Silla maids, Kunlun slaves, and Hu Ji are still high-end. As for the maids from the palace, things are rare and valuable.
For ordinary Tibetan maidservants, that is, young and strong barbarian maidservants, the second-rate ones may only cost 20,000. For the teenage maidservants who are not yet adults, they only cost more than 10,000. For the old and young barbarian maidservants, they only cost a few thousand. But the superior ones
Some maidservants can be sold for 40,000 yuan. If they are beautiful or have any special talents, such as singing, cooking, etc., the price may be doubled.
Generally speaking, the price of a young barbarian male slave in Chang'an is roughly the same as that of a horse.
The Silla maids that noble families are vying to buy are even more expensive, especially those authentic Silla maids, which are just like buying a BMW, and ordinary people cannot afford it.
Zhang Ananda still gave Huaiyu some discounts, letting his adopted son choose the best ones of the same grade.
Twenty-two people paid 1.4 million. Huaiyu felt that it was not worth it. Although these palace members were rare and expensive, he felt that the Wu family was not yet at this level.
However, if Fan Xuanfu wanted to buy it, she would have to pay for it.
If you buy some raw maidservants from Lingnan, you can buy one of thirteen or fourteen years old for seven to eight thousand yuan. With more than one million, you can buy two hundred.
Based on the current exchange rate of 200 qian per dou of rice, a maidservant can be exchanged for three stones and a half meters, but a palace servant can be exchanged for 25 stones of rice.
Take them home and hand them over to the monks and maidservants. There are really many people in the Hou family now, but the Fan sisters still feel that there are too few people.
Fan Xing had more than 30 concubines, more than 20 servants who specialized in playing piano, singing and dancing, and more than 100 servants.
It is said that Yang Suquan of the Sui Dynasty dominated the government and the public, had thousands of children in his family, and thousands of prostitutes, concubines and maidservants in his backyard.
Li Xiaogong, the king of Hejian in this dynasty, drinks and listens to music at home every day, and there are more than a hundred singing and dancing girls in his backyard.
These days, to determine which family has power and status, it depends not only on how many farms, houses, and shops it has, but also on how many slaves and maidens it owns, and how many Kabuki and dancers it owns.
Huaiyu discovered that in the early Tang Dynasty, although the treasury was empty and the people were in poverty, the rich and powerful really lived in luxury.
The two heavens of ice and fire.
Completely two worlds.
Just as Huaiyu was sighing, Duan Lun, the governor of Qingzhou, who was once the supervisor of the weapons inspection, sent Huaiyu a cart of new year's goods, and also brought two pipa prostitutes. Duan Lun got them from the Jiaofang Division.
Duan Lun said that he had benefited a lot from Huaiyu's practice, so he specially gave two pipa prostitutes as a thank you.
It’s no good if you don’t accept it. We just accepted it here. Dr. Jin Ziguanglu and Qi Hui, the abbot of Louguan Zong Shengguan, also sent two Kunlun slaves and two carts of bacon, wild rice and pheasants to Huaiyu, the junior uncle.
Hare and others said they were giving a New Year gift to their uncle.
Wuwei Bo'an Yuanshou also sent two Persian orchids, with big black-brown curly hair, big and round eyes, very deep amber pupils, tall, young and beautiful figures, and a lot of spices from the Western Regions.
Seeing the Sogdian steward of the An family leading the two Persian orchids out of the carriage, Huaiyu couldn't help but wonder, is the sixth man of the six doors trying to plant an informant around him again?
