Lu Kang became an official and the King of Chu accepted a concubine, which can be said to be two major events in the Chu Kingdom in May.
At a time when people's livelihood in the world is in decline and princes from all sides are advocating frugality, even Liu Xie will try to keep a low profile on the matter of accepting a concubine - it should be accepted or accepted, after all, it is a matter of "opening up branches and leaves". In today's world,
Even if you are a master, you are not exempt from customs. The more children you have, the more you can reassure your subordinates... But you can't attract hatred!
In terms of etiquette, there is no need for any ceremony to accept a concubine, just take her into the palace...
However, because all the Jiangdong nobles were behind Xu Rong, and Bai Tu did not want to help Xu Rong, who had taken many scapegoats for himself, the betrothal gift and dowry were very extravagant.
And just as Lu Bu ordered, it was publicity to the outside world, and Queen Lu took charge of the arrangements.
Seeing the long queues of dowries and betrothal gifts on the street, the foreign scholars in Jinling were keenly aware of something "wrong" in it.
Is now the time to show off your extravagance?
It's not like the times of peace and prosperity, when you can use fighting for beauty and wealth to show your strength. Now, if you take concubines too extravagantly, I'm afraid...
How could the King of Chu be so careless?
"The Xu family is about to become prosperous. Although the few young masters are not very successful, Taishi Xu is not only a scholar, but also a virtuous and virtuous person. Now he is the Princess of Chu... tsk tsk."
"It's not just the Xu family who has a princess, it's our Jiangdong family that has a princess!"
"Hey, this motorcade is really long, worthy of the Xu family, worthy of the king..."
"Haha, have you seen those screens? Our family received the order!"
"No, it's just an order from the workshop where you work..."
"You know 'beep', this is called ownership spirit!"
Many people in Jinling were very happy eating melons, and there was no resentment as expected.
After all, the Chu State only has a population of over 10 million. After the rise of industrialization, the dividends will easily flow to the entire population - even ordinary people who are not considered rich can buy one or two Jiangdong Brocade coats in their homes, but the embroidery is not very good.
, maybe just spliced.
Therefore, for the people of Chu State, whose food, clothing, housing and transportation had changed so much in a few years, of course it was completely acceptable for Bai Tu to be more luxurious when he took in his concubine.
The only thing I feel resentful about is that it has become more difficult for men in the Chu State to "acquire concubines". Ordinary wealthy households simply don't think about it. Some entry-level wealthy families with thousands of landowners may not be able to accept concubines!
After all, in the early days of industrialization, the value of women's labor increased explosively. Especially when many men were still tied to the land, the contrast was even more obvious.
Ordinary people's "concubines" have a low status. As long as they work in a workshop, the value they create is not much lower than that of men. Who is willing to be a concubine?
Of course someone would...
However, the cost has increased a lot, the threshold for marrying a concubine has also been much higher, and the improvement of status will naturally and gradually bring about a change in thinking.
Although there were a large number of wealthy households in Chu who became rich through hard work, they were unable to take concubines like the wealthy households in the past!
…
The King of Chu's acceptance of a concubine, coupled with Xu Rong's identity, caused this incident to shock the Chu State for a while, but compared to the academic examination, it was still quickly covered up.
On the sixth day of June, the three-day academic examination officially began.
Different from the imperial examination, not only the number of people is larger, but also there is no need to conduct a completely closed assessment like the imperial examination.
The exams in the academic exams are much shorter, with only one and a half hours for each subject. There are no restrictions on the intervals between exams. You can leave the exam room, so you don't have to prepare a full set of eating, drinking and eating like you did during the imperial exams.
This time, Baitu did not go to the office in person, but only published his blessings to all the candidates in the Di newspaper - the original draft was naturally drafted by Zhang Chunhua.
Three days later, the academic examination officially ended. After only one day of rest, the "application" must be submitted on the tenth day of June. Each person can apply for up to two universities.
In fact... now, on average, there are less than two universities that you can apply to for each course!
The reason why I went through this process is just to explore the way for future academic examinations...
After the academic exam, the mood of the candidates is very different. Some are full of ambition and are waiting to be admitted, and some are forced to smile, but... the vast majority of the candidates are anxious.
However, just as no one paid much attention to the King of Chu's concubinage after the classmate examination began, soon after mid-June, everyone's attention, especially the main energy of the court, also shifted to another thing - the navy, another voyage!
This move also attracted the attention of many foreign scholars. After all, many of them had direct connections with other princes behind the scenes.
When Chu State sold a batch of warships to Wei State, many people had already guessed that Chu State's warships would have a major "update"!
Although many princes, even the Wei State, have not yet accurately understood the importance of naval warfare, they have also understood the importance of some oceans and ships.
Because the surrounding people and family members of the navy would be encouraged to see him off, the port happened to not be blocked this time, so many scholars from outside Chu also came to see him off.
I don’t know if I haven’t come here. After experiencing it myself, I found that from Jinling to the port of Piling, not only can you see workshops and people from time to time along the way, but also there is a flat cement road all the way. No fast horses are needed, even if it is a public road.
A railcar can reach the 300-mile distance in just one and a half days!
And you can tell just how prosperous this place is by looking at the number of caravans you encounter along the way.
However, many foreign scholars who finally "crowded" to Piling will be disappointed this time...
The navy's ships don't seem to have changed much from before. Even if some models are different, they are wider here and sharper there, it doesn't seem to be any breakthrough progress!
In comparison, considering the imitation and improvement capabilities of Wei's Craftsman Camp, I am afraid that when Wei launches new ships again, they will be much better than Chu's ships.
Of course, this is not so much a "disappointment" with Chu's warships as it is a disappointment with this "observation opportunity."
Considering Chu State's previous behavior of selling a large number of warships, including the "latest" warships, to Wei State, Chu State's warships are definitely more than that.
The reason why it looks ordinary is probably because this is not the latest warship of Chu State...
This is indeed the case.
Not to mention that the armored cruiser has not yet been completed, even the iron-clad wooden cruiser and many wooden infuriating ships are still in Yizhou's shipyard...
After the navy departs from the port, it will first go to Yizhou, change ships, and then patrol the "Liuqiu" opened by the left-behind navy in Danzhou not long ago. Then it will go to Danzhou to meet up with another group of zhenqi ships, and then...continue eastward
!
"Liuqiu" is the result of Ganzhou's left-behind navy continuing to explore the sea areas southward. It is an archipelago, with a total area of one county. From a distance, it looks like a horned dragon entrenched on the sea, so it was named "Liuqiu"
.
Because no aborigines have been found yet, it was directly placed under the jurisdiction of the Governor's Mansion on Danzhou East Road and included in the Chu State's overseas territory.
The governor of Danzhou East Road is Jiang Wan. Because there are very few native Amato tribes in Danzhou in the area under its jurisdiction, it is a governor's palace that focuses on land reclamation and exploration!
This time Gan Ning stopped by to confirm the location of Xia Liuqiu, and then it will be officially developed as part of Danzhou East Road...