Since we are leaving the era of imperial power, we must of course set an example. Some special existences with the nature of imperial power should not continue to be retained.
First of all, the imperial dining room should be abolished. There is no need for this eye-catching institution dedicated to serving his family, and there is no need to make it special.
Then all the eunuchs and maids must be eliminated.
The eunuchs and maids who are currently staying in the palace to serve Su Yonglin and his family are basically the old people who have been retained since the Wanyanliang period. They have been here for more than ten years. There are quite a few who have been retained, but they are not too many. Four Looks like five hundred people.
Wan Yanliang lived a luxurious life, and the number of eunuchs and maids was still very large. After Su Yonglin conquered Zhongdu, he thought about it and kept them to continue working in the palace, but from now on he would no longer recruit eunuchs and maids from outside.
At that time, he just thought that one day he would no longer be the emperor, so he could dismiss all these eunuchs and maids, saving time and effort, and not having to spend more money to recruit new people.
Of course, Su Yonglin also considered where these palace maids and eunuchs would go after they were dismissed.
Some relatively young and capable people stayed to be trained as future staff of the Palace Museum and do some maintenance and cleaning work. In this regard, they are very professional.
Arrangements have been made for the remaining people who need to be sent away.
Those who have family members will contact their families to see if they are willing to take them back. Those who are willing to take them back will be taken back.
Those without family members, those over fifty years old, whether they were eunuchs or female officials, were directly sent to the Zhongdu Almshouse to live together, and were cared for according to the standards of widows and widowers, so that they could spend their old age peacefully.
Those who are still relatively young under the age of fifty are sent to skills training classes to acquire some useful skills, and then arrangements are made for textile factories in Zhongdu to accept them and provide them with a job.
If those who already have professional skills are sent directly to the corresponding factory to work, their professional skills will not be wasted.
These people wait until they are fifty years old before being sent to live in an almshouse to spend their old age peacefully. Anyway, it will not make their lives unstable, but will allow them to have enough food and drink to spend their old age peacefully.
After hearing the news, Zhou Fu, the personal eunuch who had replaced his predecessor and served Su Yonglin for six years, and Jiang Xiaorou, the female officer who had served Zhao Xixin for more than ten years, came to Su Yonglin and Zhao Xixin, hoping to keep them here for the sake of serving the couple for so long. Let them continue to serve.
Su Yonglin and Zhao Xixin thought it over and thought that it would be more convenient for the old people who were used to it than the newcomers to save the running-in period, so they decided to hire Zhou Fu and Jiang Xiaorou in their personal capacity to stay as servants of the Su family.
Then Su Yonglin felt that it would be the most convenient and quickest option to simply hire a few of the most capable people from the usual staff to work in the new home.
He and Zhao Xixin are both very busy at work and cannot do things like cooking, washing, cleaning, etc. personally, which is still necessary.
They carefully selected one eunuch and three female officials to stay, hired them in their personal capacity, signed employment contracts, and allowed them to continue serving in their new home.
You can also save on other things. The place where a family of four lives does not need to be luxurious and luxurious. It just needs to be comfortable and pleasant, and don't spend too much money.
Because there are still some things he wants to do that will cost a lot of money.
Su Yonglin's series of actions caused considerable repercussions in the Zhongdu court and the Renaissance Society system.
Especially the construction site of the new home that Su Yonglin chose for himself, almost as soon as construction started, groups of officials and revival members came to visit the holy land.
There is no other reason. Everyone feels that they can only see an emperor with real power and status and prestige comparable to a god voluntarily giving up his status as emperor and a large part of his power once in his life.
Maybe it can only be seen once in the entire history, so they are very happy and very happy.
In order to do things right, this emperor, who is comparable to a god, even stopped living in the palace. He said that he would give up the palace for administrative and tourism purposes. Part of it would be used for administration, and part of it would be used to build the palace museum for the world to enjoy. .
He bought a piece of land by himself, built his own house and lived in it. He spent the royalties he earned from writing books without spending any money from the state. He took care of everything on his own without any effort from the state.
As the leader of a country, holding great power, and being able to do this, everyone felt that they really had nothing to say.
They originally respected Su Yonglin, but now they felt that simple reverence could no longer express their feelings.
But they didn't know what to do. They could only come here to tour the holy land, watch Su Yonglin's house being completed day by day, and gaze at the house with the pious eyes of a believer to express their emotions.
Su Yonglin didn't care about these things. From September of the twelfth year of Hongwu, Su Yonglin spent most of his energy on settling the people's representatives who were preparing for the meeting when they arrived.
Central representatives each have their own positions and procedures for entering the capital. They can arrange it themselves, which is simple and convenient.
Most of the people's representatives have never even left the county they belong to in their entire lives. They can't find North without leaving home. Everything is so novel. At the same time, it is impossible for them to have sufficient financial resources to support the cost of traveling, so this money It must come from the imperial court.
Su Yonglin arranged for the Renaissance organizations and the government in every county across the country to arrange the travel work of the people's representatives, plan the routes, and then notify every station along the way so that the stations can also be prepared to avoid too many people coming and insufficient transportation. Food reserves.
Fortunately, Ming Dynasty's developed official road station system provided a lot of help for a large number of people's representatives to go to Zhongdu. Except for some representatives from remote areas, it was not difficult for representatives from the Central Plains and Jiangnan regions to reach Zhongdu.
It is not difficult for representatives from the Guangdong and Guangxi regions. They can reach Zhongdu relatively quickly by waterway, which can save a lot of time.
The difficulty in remote inland areas is relatively high. It is difficult to travel all the way over mountains and ridges, and the travel time is generally more than two months. Therefore, you need to start early to catch up with the convening of the Hongwu Congress in the 13th year, otherwise you will be late.
Therefore, in late September of the twelfth year of Hongwu, people's representatives began to rush to Zhongdu. By October of Hongwu's twelfth year, people's representatives in most parts of the country had already started to rush.
In mid-November of the twelfth year of Hongwu, the first batch of 213 people's representatives from Sichuan and Sichuan arrived in Zhongdu. Su Yonglin personally received them at the Garrison Pavilion Station south of Zhongdu City.
Garrison Pavilion Station prepared a lot of ingredients for the arrival of this group of people's representatives, and also urgently dispatched 20 skilled chefs from major restaurants in Zhongdu to rush to support, and prepared quite a sumptuous [Sichuan cuisine] for this group of people's representatives from Sichuan and Sichuan. 】.
In this era, there is no trace of the eight major cuisines, but the regional nature of food has gradually become a recognized fact. As early as the Northern Song Dynasty, major restaurants in Bianliang City had [Southern Restaurant] and [Northern Restaurant] The difference between [Chuan Hotel].
At that time, southern restaurants mainly referred to food from Lingnan and the southeastern coastal areas, mainly fish, shrimp, and crabs, while northern restaurants mainly served cereals, poultry, and meat.
At that time, southerners liked salty food, while northerners liked sweet food. The reason why modern tastes are different between the north and the south is mainly due to the migration of northerners southward after the Jingkang Rebellion and the southward migration of the Song Dynasty. A large number of northerners will love The custom of eating sweets was brought to the south.
As for Sichuan Hotel, it also has its own characteristics.
Although Sichuan Restaurant also focuses on pasta and meat, there is a unique cooking method called [砠], which is to cook the meat in oil and mix it with salt, wine and leftover ingredients. A method of preserving food by soaking it in oil in an urn.
In addition, Sichuan restaurants also have a "spicy" flavor, which is certainly not chili pepper. Chili pepper was introduced to China in the late Ming Dynasty. In the Song Dynasty, when there was no chili pepper, ginger, garlic, leeks, and pepper were the main sources of spicy food, which are widely present in Sichuan cuisine. among.
In order to take care of the tastes of these people's representatives from the Sichuan and Sichuan areas, the Garrison Pavilion invited chefs from the most famous Sichuan Restaurant in China to cook Sichuan cuisine for them, which made these people's representatives very satisfied.
