Jiajing Chengming

Chapter 25 The eunuchs recognize their new master
Zhu Houcong knew that he was not strong enough yet.

Therefore, after paying homage to the late emperor, he did not rush to instruct the secretariat to stop all memorials to the cabinet, which showed his extreme desire for power.

He only looked at the eunuchs kneeling in front of the coffin of Emperor Zhengde and asked: "What are your names and what positions do you hold in the palace?"

"I am Wei Bin, the current seal holder of the Imperial Household Department."

"I am Qin Wen, the current secretary of the Imperial Household Department."

……

After the eunuchs answered, Zhu Houcong nodded and said: "You are all good servants. The late emperor did not use you in vain."

"Wei Bin!"

Zhu Houcong then named him directly.

Wei Bin replied respectfully, "I am here."

"Take me to Qingning Palace."

Zhu Houcong gave an order.

After Wei Bin agreed, he took Zhu Houcong to Qingning Palace.

The Qianqing Palace has not been rebuilt since the fire in the ninth year of Zhengde, so the emperor's bedroom is temporarily set up in the Qingning Palace.

After Zhu Houcong arrived at Qingning Palace under the guidance of Wei Bin, the eunuch Zhang Jin, who had already gone to Qingning Palace to check and instruct the preparation of meals, was kneeling outside the palace gate to greet him with his study companion Huang Jin and other old people from the prince residence.

After Zhu Houcong asked them to stand up, he asked, "Is the meal ready?"

From the time he left the temporary hall to the time he accepted the advice to enter the palace, Zhu Houcong had not eaten or drunk anything, so naturally he was a little hungry now.

Zhang Jin came over and replied, "It's all ready, just waiting for you to call me."

"Pass the meal around!"

"Also, send someone to tell the Queen Mother, the Empress, and the ladies around Concubine Shao that I will go to pay my respects to them after I have my meal and bathe, and ask for their orders."

Zhu Houcong gave an order and sat on the throne. He took the tea from Huang Jin and took a few sips.

The "Madam" mentioned by Zhu Houcong refers to the female officials and maids around the nobles in the palace.

In the Ming Dynasty, palace maids with status or seniority were often addressed as "Madam".

After Wanli's wedding, Empress Dowager Li, Wanli's biological mother, issued an imperial decree instructing the palace maids around Wanli to address them as "Madam".

Back to the topic.

After Zhu Houcong finished speaking, he carefully examined the furnishings of Qingning Palace. Seeing that there were vases and gold vessels everywhere, as well as many rare ancient paintings, and the whole room was filled with precious incense, he said to Wei Bin:
"Too luxurious."

Wei Bin glanced at the people around Zhu Houcong, then smiled and said, "I know that you value frugality, but the specifications of the imperial palace are such that we cannot wrong you too much. When we sent people to clean up in advance, we have tried to keep it simple."

Zhu Houcong nodded. He knew that if he lived too simply, it would mean that other nobles in the palace would have to follow suit, and the eunuchs in charge of purchasing would find it difficult to earn gray income, which would inevitably cause resentment among the people in the harem.

In history, Jiajing did not suffer many losses, but he did suffer several times in the early days of his reign, and those losses were basically in the palace. This was because when he first entered the palace, he still advocated frugality and treated the palace maids too harshly, or even meanly, which caused a lot of resentment in the palace.

For the people in the harem, being imprisoned in this square city makes them less free than the emperor, and they are subject to more rules and restrictions. If their material life is restricted and not rich enough, it will naturally be more difficult for them to bear mentally.

Therefore, Zhu Houcong did not blame Wei Bin too much.

Wei Bin took the initiative to continue, "However, there are too few people serving me. The maids that the late emperor kept by his side have been sent out of the palace according to the will. I am afraid that it will be difficult to recruit more maids in a short period of time. Do you think I should transfer some from other palaces?"

There were indeed not many people around Zhu Houcong. Apart from three study companions including Huang Jin, there were three female historians including Wang Chunjing, and nine maids.

Every day, he would be accompanied by a tutor, a female historian and three maids to take care of his daily life.

According to the custom of the Ming Dynasty, the prince and the crown prince had five tutors, five female internal historians, nine female historians, and a number of maids, a total of more than 30 palace maids were responsible for their daily life.

Zhu Houcong was indeed very simple.

Not only Wei Bin felt this way, but the civil servants in the outer court also felt this way.

Notice.

In this era, it is basically abnormal for powerful officials to not have twenty or thirty people to serve them in their daily lives.

Therefore, if emperors, princes, dukes and other people only have one maid by their side, it usually only appears in novels.

Here, the companion reader was a eunuch, appointed by the emperor and selected from the study hall in the Silijian.

The Nei Shi and Nv Shi were equivalent to female officials, and were also the people selected by local officials for the royal palace by the imperial court.

For example, in the third year of Xuande, Shen Wangmo asked for an imperial decree on the grounds that Wuxiang Wang was about to get married and needed a female historian. Therefore, Emperor Xuande ordered the local governor to select five historians and seven female historians and send them to the prince's palace. Because they were selected by the court, these female historians and their families also enjoyed the privilege of being exempted from military service by the court.

This is the rule set during the Hongwu Dynasty.

Of course, if someone devotes their daughter to serving others, and there is a high probability that she will never have the chance to get married, it is normal to give her some favors and privileges. Otherwise, who would be willing to sacrifice their daughter?

As for the maids, they were girls adopted or bought by the palace itself. Since they were not selected and granted by the court, their status was naturally lower and they were the lowest class in the palace.

When Zhu Houcong was named the Crown Prince, in order to show his frugality, he advised his mother to ask for permission to select only three companions and three female historians for him.

Therefore, Zhu Houcong now has not many eunuchs and palace maids around him.

Zhu Houcong knew that Wei Bin asked him whether he wanted to transfer more palace servants to serve him. This was not only to please him, but also to satisfy the desire of his subordinates to advance and win people's hearts for him. At the same time, he could show favor to his own people and place his own people around the emperor.

Zhu Houcong had no way to refuse, he could not stop the palace ladies from wanting to advance themselves.

Because he knew very well that blocking a person's progress would be more hateful than forcing him into slavery.

"You decide the situation. You must be honest and loyal. If something goes wrong, I will not tolerate you even if you are an old friend of the late emperor!"

Although Zhu Houcong could not refuse Wei Bin's proposal, he also warned Wei Bin, meaning that Wei Bin, you can accept my offer, but if you want to use it to monitor me, you should give up the idea as soon as possible and don't really treat me as a fool.

Wei Bin knelt down anxiously and kowtowed to the ground: "I dare not! I know that I have committed a grave sin and offended the outside court. I only hope that you can protect my life. How dare I have any other thoughts?"

"It's fine if you don't."

"Let the old people I brought with me take care of the servants' daily life and meals. The additional people will only be in charge of the treasures, ceremonies and cleaning. We will consider other matters after seeing their performance."

In addition to warning Wei Bin, Zhu Houcong also decided to screen these unfamiliar people before allowing them to come to his side.

Wei Bin quickly bowed and agreed, and at the same time secretly marveled at the new master, who was so shrewd and experienced, and who knew how to help him and win favors from his subordinates while at the same time warning him. It was obvious that he was not the simple young man who only knew how to study etiquette as rumored.

So.

Wei Bin no longer regretted his previous decision to betray Yang Tinghe and be loyal to his new master.

Soon, Zhang Jin brought people from the Imperial Kitchen to deliver the meals.

Zhu Houcong's study partner Huang Jin and female historian Wang Chunjing came over and tried the food with silver utensils.

Although Zhu Houcong had already asked Huang Jin to go to the Shangshenjian to replace the kitchen servants with the kitchen servants he brought to Beijing, the necessary procedures still had to be followed.

Zhu Houcong started eating only after Huang Jin and others had tasted the food.

In order to avoid the three highs in the future, Zhu Houcong did not let his meals be made with too much oil, salt and sugar, but he had higher requirements for nutritional balance. So although the cost was not very high, the process was still very troublesome and required the chef's skills. Otherwise, it would easily become bland due to the lack of many seasonings, leading to loss of appetite.

However, in the eyes of Wei Bin and others, Zhu Houcong was naturally a simple eater, and they all believed that the new master did not have high demands on food and drink, and that practicing frugality was indeed something that the late emperor could not do.

"Zhang Jin."

"The slave is here!"

After finishing his meal, Zhu Houcong called out the name of the eunuch Zhang Jin who was sent by Wei Bin to Huguang to welcome him back.

Then, Zhu Houcong asked Zhang Jin: "During this period, Huang Jin, Mai Fu, Bao Zhong, my three companions and the maids around me have been learning the rules from you, how are they doing?"

Zhang Jin knew what Zhu Houcong meant by asking this, and hurriedly said, "My Lord, you have learned well, and you can take on important responsibilities in the palace!"

"In that case, let the three of them serve as eunuchs in the Qingning Palace. I will bring maids from the palace to serve in the Qingning Palace. You and your people will not have to serve here in the future."

"As for you, you are considered an old man left by the late emperor. I have been watching you from the sidelines these days. You are reliable and should be assigned to another important position."

Zhu Houcong then instructed Wei Bin: "If there is any good vacancy in the twenty-four government offices, promote him first, and then send a Silijian to accompany the emperor on a daily basis."

Zhang Jin immediately knelt down to express his gratitude.

Wei Bin also bowed and agreed.

Huang Jin and other study companions also followed in happily and expressed their gratitude, because the three of them could finally be alone with their young master when there were no outsiders around.

Zhu Houcong then walked around Qingning Palace to help digest his food and familiarize himself with the area around it.

He was afraid that there would be a flood here one day and he wouldn't know which direction to run.

After the people who went to the bedrooms of Empress Dowager Zhang, the Empress, and Concubine Shao came back and conveyed the news that Empress Dowager Zhang and the Empress were waiting for Zhu Houcong in Renshou Palace, and Concubine Shao was also waiting for him in Ciqiong Palace, Zhu Houcong went to Renshou Palace where Empress Dowager Zhang lived after taking a bath.

As soon as Zhu Houcong arrived at Empress Dowager Zhang's place, he saw many beautiful girls in the palace, secretly looking at him.

(End of this chapter)