It was the summer of the nineteenth year of Wanli.
The sky is clear in Manila.
The palm trees that line the harbor avenue outside the city are lush and spectacular.
Both sides of the avenue were filled with girls swaying their graceful bodies.
These girls are all native girls bought from other islands with a piece of cheap cotton. Most of them are only fifteen or sixteen years old.
The person who bought them was the Jiaofang Division under the Luzon Governor's Palace.
When Zhu Yijun was developing Donghui, he had already issued an edict to allow the governor of the Jiaohua District to set up his own Jiaofang Siguan Office.
This is to facilitate the spiritual needs of wanderers and prevent them from falling into too much homesickness and being uninterested in promoting the cause of Wang Hua.
Now these native girls from the Luzon Jiaofang Department are sent here. Naturally, the imperial court wants to leave a good impression on the Han people who have moved to Luzon, and to prevent these Han people from seeing Lin Duotian here before they get off the ship. , too backward, and clamoring to go back, even causing accidents.
Therefore, as soon as Li Jinzhong entered the port with the ship, he saw these girls dancing beside the avenue, and they were all wearing only thin bellybands to lightly cover their shameful parts.
This made Li Jinzhong fall in love with this place even before he got off the boat. He felt a surge of blood and wanted to jump off the boat and swim to the shore right now.
Especially when you see those girls smiling like flowers.
Li Jinzhong had to admit that he felt like he had entered a gentle land.
Li Jinzhong's companions and other Han people were also very happy at this time. After the ship docked, they all took the initiative to get off the ship without being rushed by the officers and soldiers on the ship, and came to the case, and then stared at the girls.
When these Han people got off the boat, they were led by officials to the Governor's Palace to prepare for registration and further disinfection.
Li Jinzhong was walking along the Port Avenue to the Luzon Governor's Palace of the Ming Dynasty with the Han people who had moved here, and saw a tall statue of Deng Zilong standing at the highest point near the sea under the red sun.
This made Li Jinzhong feel that this scene was sacred in his heart, and he suddenly realized that he was here to make achievements.
The other Han people also looked over with burning eyes, no longer staring at the swaying dancing girls.
To the east and west, there are statues of Chen Lin and Deng Zilong standing on two highlands. They are both very majestic, more than ten feet high.
Both statues stand on the seaside with swords and armor. Their copper bell-like eyes are wide open and looking straight at the sea level. Even from a distance, they feel majestic.
Matteo Ricci, a foreign official from the Ming Dynasty who was ordered to deal with the Western Yi books and various instruments and materials left here, also came here with the ship Li Jinzhong took.
He also saw these two tall statues at this time, and couldn't help but said to his fellow traveler Wan Hongru:
"Their sculptures are not inferior to ours, and they have a different charm. What amazes me even more is that they are so powerful that they directly turned Luzon into their own territory and organized such a large-scale immigration movement."
"This is because they have a lot of powerful knowledge. Their level of civilization seems to be higher than ours. We should borrow their knowledge as soon as possible to unify our Europa and become as powerful as them!"
Wan Hongru said at this time.
Matteo Ricci said: "I heard that they have a book called "Yongle Dadian", which contains a lot of knowledge. It's a pity that we don't have the right to read it, otherwise it would greatly help us in the West! But now I can only help him with the Ming Emperor and Some Ming officials worked together to translate mathematical knowledge."
"Let's find another chance."
"But what is certain is that this place will undoubtedly become Han soil."
"People who come here in the future will have to learn their Chinese, read their scriptures, and wear their clothes just like we did when we went to the Ming Dynasty."
Wan Hongru said.
Matteo Ricci nodded after hearing this.
Luzon is indeed becoming a Han country step by step.
Li Jinzhong got his wish and became a miner, and began to dig mines for the Ming Dynasty in Luzon.
Luzon is rich in copper and gold mines, especially the amount of copper mines that can be mined is much richer than that of the Ming Dynasty. After all, the amount of mining in the Ming Dynasty has been severely lacking after thousands of years of mining, so much so that it affects the currency transactions in the national economy.
Since the wages for mining in Luzon were very high, Li Jinzhong soon used his wages to buy ten acres of land there, and bought natives from North Korea, Japan, and Java as serfs to farm for him.
In order to increase his farm output, Li Jinzhong had to hire an old Han farmer here to be his farm head, to manage the farm for him, and to teach these serfs how to improve farming techniques.
As a result, within a few years, Li Jinzhong had more savings and was able to contract mines from the government and organize miners to mine new mines.
Of course, this is something.
While people like Li Jinzhong were going south, young girls like Sun Ying who were in their prime years were heading to the capital.
Because His Majesty the Emperor issued an edict to select additional thirty-six Zhaoyi, the decree has been issued to everyone, and the recruitment is in full swing.
Nowadays, Zhu Yijun has been deeply loved by the people. In addition, many palace maids communicate with their families through letters, which also lets the people know that entering the palace is not so terrible now. If their own girls cannot become concubines, they can also become palace concubines. Female officials, at worst, can apply to leave the palace. Therefore, the people are now less repulsive to the emperor's selection of concubines. Instead, they respond very positively, and want to send their best daughters to the palace to gain a better background.
When Sun Ying and a group of girls came to the capital and saw the majestic Forbidden City towering in front of them, they couldn't help but look up and look at the majestic world composed of vermilion walls and white marble steps, and wondered what the emperor was like in this palace. What kind of character he is.
Sun Ying had a general understanding of Zhu Yijun, and knew that today's emperor is less than thirty years old. Although he has repeatedly implemented benevolent policies, his ruthlessness is really chilling to the heart just thinking about it.
Like Sun Ying, the other girls who came to the palace had heard about Zhu Yijun, and knew that the emperor's kindness and power were unpredictable. However, they all just looked at the Zhu wall and the white platform without daring to speak, but their eyes were full of joy. The look of fascination.
On the day when these girls entered the palace, Zhu Yijun also came to the palace wall of Huangji Gate and looked at these girls.
When he watched these girls, most of whom were equivalent to junior high school students in later generations, walking towards his field of vision under the leadership of eunuchs, what aroused in his heart was not physical desire, but curiosity about what these people would do in the next palace. What kind of person you grow into in life.
He hopes that these girls will learn something after entering the palace. Whether they become his women in the future or get married out of the palace, they can represent the best of the new era.
You know, whether a person can be mature enough, the mother's influence is great.
Many outstanding figures are able to make great contributions to the country and the people, which is inseparable from their mother's good teaching. It is also said that a virtuous wife and a husband have few disasters.
Although we cannot blame the rise and fall of a country solely on women, we cannot blame the rise and fall of a country not on women. After all, women are also an important part of the nation.
"As soon as the results of these girls' palace entrance exams come out, let the queen show them to me."
Therefore, Zhu Yijun gave instructions to Huang Xun, the eunuch in charge of the ceremony.
Huang Xun raised his hand and said yes.
The current concubine selection system is different from before.
Because Zhu Yijun was expanding the number of staff in the palace in the name of selecting concubines, the focus was no longer on selecting appearance and posture, but on screening education level, awareness, and wisdom, so he set up an examination system for entering the palace.
That is to say, after these palace ladies go through basic family investigation and appearance screening, they will undergo a physical examination when entering the palace. Unless they have physical diseases, they will basically not be eliminated, and then they will directly take an entrance examination first, and The ranking will be determined, and the outstanding candidates will be directly assigned status and duties by the emperor.
Girls such as Sun Ying did not expect the entrance examination. The key is that most of their parents do not pay attention to their education.
According to the old etiquette, it is virtuous for a woman to have no talent.
Therefore, only slightly more enlightened families will let their girls know some words and read some books. Naturally, fewer families are truly enlightened enough to let their girls read various books that can help expand their horizons and wisdom.
But what is certain is that the more enlightened a family is, the more likely its head is to be a true supporter of the new rituals.
In this way, Zhu Yijun was actually screening the families behind them.
Because the palace entrance examination actually tests some simple mathematics questions and some simple geography and history knowledge. In addition, it requires writing poems, songs, poems, and policies.
Sun Ying did quite well in the exam, because her brother Sun Ding'an taught her mathematics, geography, history and other knowledge, and also popularized today's new rituals, so she was able to take the exam with ease.
But those girls who come from families that support the new etiquette on the surface but still reject the new etiquette in their hearts and adhere to the old etiquette that is weak to the people will have a headache when they see the test papers.
It’s not that they are stupid, it’s that unless they take the initiative to contact them, it is difficult for them to gain access to this knowledge due to their family environment.
Because girls with too conservative family backgrounds can't even write, just like Wang Xifeng in "A Dream of Red Mansions" had to write several bills and asked Jia Baoyu to help write them when she saw Jia Baoyu.
Although Yu Bailu, a girl who entered the palace in the same batch as Sun Ying, came from Jiangnan, a land of outstanding people, she was troubled by the examination papers in front of her.
It's not like she's uneducated.
Her father was educated in a government school and she was educated, but the education she received was like the Four Books for Women, so she was asked to list the virtuous and filial women in history. She could speak eloquently, but now she encounters these She felt very embarrassed about arithmetic questions and common sense questions, and she couldn't accept that the court wanted to test them on this knowledge.
What she was more worried about was that she would be eliminated in the first test, so she had an idea, stood up on the spot, came to the female officer Huang Min who was invigilating the exam, knelt down and said:
"Madam, you are kind! It is really difficult for civilian girls to answer such a test, and civilian girls also boldly believe that since the imperial court wants to select concubines, it should be based on talent and virtue. How can we test my boudoir with poems, songs, and articles? What principles can Chinese talents learn?”
(End of chapter)
