Emperor Zhengde

Chapter 109: Election of the Queen
Yan Song, enjoying his sweet love, went to Beijing with his wife.

And the Zhengde Emperor Zhu Houzhao of the Ming Dynasty is about to end his single life.

Tang Ren, the Imperial Censor, submitted a memorial suggesting that Zhu Houzhao be elected immediately.

This was the first time that the censors began to discuss state affairs after the Three Cabinet Ministers Case and after a large number of censors were killed.

However, this memorial was immediately endorsed by almost all civil and military officials, including the Chief Minister Ma Wensheng and Duke of England Zhang Mao.

Even Liu Jin, the eunuch of the Imperial Household, came along to join in the fun.

Zhu Houzhao had never understood why the civil service group and even most officials of this era always focused their main energy on things that seemed not very important.

For example, the prince went out to study.

And the emperor had to attend more morning court sessions which had no practical significance but were only for ceremonial purposes.

There is also the matter of the emperor marrying a wife.

But now Zhu Houzhao could understand the characteristics of this era. In this society based on maintaining ethical order, it was essentially a family-based empire, and the emperor represented the largest family.

Therefore, the emperor’s marriage, childbearing, determination of the crown prince, and training of his offspring are the most important things!
The history of every dynasty is a family history.

Zhu Houzhao's Ming Dynasty was no exception at this time. Zhu Houzhao was not able to go against the ethics of this society, not to mention that he was also a beneficiary, so Zhu Houzhao chose to accept it.

After all, the Empress Dowager Zhang in the palace also hoped that he would marry a queen as soon as possible, and she talked about it almost every day.

Zhu Houzhao had no choice but to announce the imperial decree to the whole country and start the selection of the empress.

As a veteran bachelor in his previous life, Zhu Houzhao never thought that he would be single in the Ming Dynasty, and that the girl he was going to marry would be just a little loli of thirteen or fourteen years old, or even not just one, but three!

Zhu Houzhao couldn't imagine what it would be like if his wife was a little girl.

Although he is only fifteen years old in the eyes of others now.

But Zhu Houzhao's inner age was already much older than his actual age.

However, Zhu Houzhao still had to accept this factual arrangement.

……

In the severe winter with ice and snow, the willows are covered with gauze and cotton.

When the emperor's decree to select a concubine was issued and known to the people of the world, Miss Xia, the daughter of Xia Ru, the governor's mansion official, did not know that she would have connections with the royal family in the future.

At this time, Miss Xia only knew how to look at the red plum blossoms through the window every day.

As for the Emperor, he was a person she had only heard of but never seen in her life.

And the so-called husband is the person she is curious about and looking forward to but is not ashamed to talk about.

But at this moment, a white face with powdered complexion appeared in front of the window without anyone noticing. She raised her orchid finger and said something more girlish than Miss Xia herself:
"So beautiful! I'm afraid you are the only one who can be the queen. Be selected!"

The Xia family girl herself was frightened to the point of paleness. She turned around hastily, her heart pounding.

This was the first time she met someone outside her family, and the first person she met was a eunuch who looked neither male nor female, which naturally left a very bad impression on this young girl.

Immediately afterwards, her father told her that day that she had been selected by the palace and would soon go to Beijing to participate in the election.

It was from then on that Miss Xia began to realize that she might have to get married, and she also started to pay more attention to the current emperor Zhu Houzhao.

Not long after, this girl from the south of the Yangtze River left her hometown of Jinling where she had lived for fourteen years and sailed north. The Ming Dynasty did not select daughters of the rich and powerful when selecting concubines, so the girls selected were all commoners, and even if they were not commoners, they were just from poor and wealthy families.

It is worth mentioning that the "poor family" in ancient times is not the same as the "poor family" in later generations. The "poor family" in ancient times is almost equivalent to the middle class.

Therefore, although the girl from the Xia family went to the capital with her father, she did not charter a large ship to the north. She also took the same ship to the capital with other women who were selected to go to the capital.

Since they all came to Beijing for the same reason and were almost from the same class, they naturally had a lot of common topics.

Although the girl from the Xia family was quiet in nature, she had heard a lot of new things from other more lively girls, and most of these new things were naturally about the emperor.

After all, they are coming to Beijing now to be chosen as the emperor's women.

Some say that the palace rules are strict and beheadings can happen at any time.

Some say that the current emperor is cruel, killing people of ten clans and taking out their hearts and lungs.

There are also those who say that the current emperor has been indulging in excessive lust and pleasure since childhood, and is very dissolute, so that he is physically weak and even has diseases. If a woman becomes the emperor, she may be infected with the disease and will not be able to survive.

There are also people who say that the emperor ate human flesh and slept on human skin every day, and they imagined Zhu Houzhao to be a character in a horror movie.

In short, these girls who were selected were reluctant to leave their hometowns and afraid of the future, so they did not have a very good impression of the mysterious palace.

After hearing this, the girl from the Xia family couldn't help but frown. She didn't want to marry such a playboy who was murderous, cruel, ruthless and lustful.

……

At this time, Zhu Houzhao in the Qianqing Palace did not know that he was imagined as a devil by the girls who were waiting for selection.

At least, as a newly crowned emperor at the age of fifteen, he was still secretly loved by the palace maids in the palace. After all, in the huge Forbidden City, he was the only young man who still had some masculine spirit.

If Zhu Houzhao wanted, he could pick and possess the palace ladies at any time.

But young people should abstain from sex, otherwise they will not live long. For the sake of the Ming Dynasty and his own life, Zhu Houzhao had to take care of his health first.

But he was still quite looking forward to becoming the future queen.

He even had a dream about the queen last night, and did some shameful things in the dream, but he did not see the queen's face clearly while she was sleeping.

Even though Zhu Houzhao had had such an experience in later life, he still felt a little embarrassed at this moment.

Zhu Houzhao had to admit that the owner of his body did begin to have secondary sexual characteristics.

Empress Dowager Zhang eventually gave the maid Ruyi to Zhu Houzhao. The purpose was naturally very clear: to teach Zhu Houzhao about matters between men and women before his wedding.

Ruyi was very dedicated and was willing to devote herself to teaching Zhu Houzhao about ethical matters.

However, Zhu Houzhao didn't need anyone to teach him, and he learned it by himself. In order to avoid being trapped in lust once he lost his virginity, which would be harmful to his body even if he kept himself abstinent, he only let Ruyi sleep in the outer room and didn't allow her to warm his bed or even be his concubine.

Ruyi would always get up earlier than Zhu Houzhao every day, and would always help Zhu Houzhao change his clothes after washing up.

"Remember to ask my permission before coming in next time! You are not allowed to come in without my permission! Do you understand?" Zhu Houzhao asked.

Ruyi nodded: "I understand!"

Zhu Houzhao hummed and said, "Take a bath first! Also, call Wei Bin on duty and ask Wang Shouren to wait a little longer!"

I wrote this chapter with one purpose: Zhu Houzhao has grown up! There are two opinions about the empress's hometown. One is that she was from Shangyuan, Jinling, and the other is that she was from Daxing. Here, we use the first opinion to facilitate the plot later.

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(End of this chapter)