Liang Yunying, who had moved to the Forbidden City, received a telegram from Zhu Jingyuan sent by her maid.
Looking at the rather brief content above, Liang Yunying's first reaction was surprise:
"He actually accepted the suggestion of taking a concubine, which means that he can arrange it directly without waiting for him to find something that suits his taste..."
Then when I looked at the details, I was stunned again, and there were some subtle doubts in my heart:
"You want a girl around twenty years old? Does my son like older girls?
"And you want someone with tall legs? Even 1.7 meters is not too tall?
"It's understandable to have a good childbirth, but it's just that this request seems to come from me..."
Liang Yunying felt a little weird and asked her maid to go to Qianqing Palace to inform Zhu Jianyan, and then she followed.
After seeing Zhu Jianyan, Liang Yunying saluted casually, and then handed over the telegram:
"Your Majesty, our son is enlightened and it's time to introduce him to a concubine. Let the clan family arrange it quickly!
"Select two as soon as possible, and I will take them there directly after the new year."
Zhu Jianyan was also surprised when he read the telegram:
"This... this is a good thing. I will immediately give an order to the clan government. By the way, someone must inform my father..."
The old emperor Zhu Zhongliang has moved to the palace outside the city. The environment and living conditions in the palace outside the city are actually much better than those in the Forbidden City, and living there is much more comfortable. Because the Forbidden City was built more with etiquette in mind, while the palace was built with more comfort in mind.
Before and during the early stages of the war, the old emperor originally lived outside the city.
Zhu Zhongliang was quite excited after receiving the news and drove directly to the clan's mansion to personally arrange and supervise the work.
The officials of the Zongren Mansion didn't have any complaints. They had to take turns during the New Year.
Because the Chinese New Year is always the time to arrange marriages for princes and grandchildren.
The reactions of the three old emperors Zhu Zhongliang, new emperor Zhu Jianyan, and Liang Yunying, who was about to be canonized as imperial concubine, were actually the mentality of elders who felt that their son (grandson) had enlightened and decided to have a child.
Relaxed and happy.
The old emperor and his son and Liang Yunying were busy arranging wives, concubines and childbirth for Zhu Jingyuan.
Zhu Jingyuan himself and the officials of the Dashi Kingdom were also busy with the problems of wives, concubines and childbearing of the workers in the country.
The next morning, when Zhu Jingyuan was looking at the files compiled by the Wangfu at the end of the year, the Wangfu dian jogged up to Zhu Jingyuan:
"Your Majesty, the Hu Ji female slaves transported from Beimo Continent have arrived. A total of three ships have arrived. The number reported is 1,256 people."
Dianbo was originally used to write memorials to the feudal lord, but now that there are not enough officials in the Dashi Kingdom, Dianbo has begun to deal with ordinary affairs.
In addition to robbery, the main business of the three Barbary pirate countries of Algiers, Tunisia, and Tripoli in North Mexico was the slave trade.
Zhu Jingyuan asked them to cleanse themselves and leave the house. At that time, they were only thinking about ordinary belongings and did not think about the slaves.
But the officers under Yang Yuchun who supervised their evacuation naturally demanded that all the slaves be kept.
From the perspective of ordinary people in this world, slaves are not members of their family, but assets.
Your Highness wants to purify himself and leave the house. How can you be allowed to take away slaves?
And according to the records at the time, and according to the pleas made by those pirate leaders to Zhu Jingyuan, they took the initiative to donate all their slaves and wealth to Zhu Jingyuan.
So later Yang Yuchun asked Zhu Jingyuan what should be done with these slaves.
After discussing with Chang Shi and his staff, Zhu Jingyuan asked Yang Yuchun to keep all the male slaves locally.
The maids used by the pirates themselves were assigned to the Jiaofang Department, but they stayed in the local service industry.
The pirates captured or trained female slaves to be sold abroad, and some of them were brought to the food country to be used as wives and concubines for single workers.
The first batch of slave girls arrived today.
Zhu Jingyuan stood up immediately after hearing the news:
"There are more than 1,200 people in total? Can we come again years ago?"
The book immediately said:
"Yes, there is a batch of ships arriving before the Chinese New Year as planned. It is estimated that they can transport more than 2,500 Orchid slave girls in total."
Zhu Jingyuan pinched his forehead:
"More than two thousand five hundred is not enough, but...counting the slave traders from Tianzhu...it should be almost..."
Dianbo immediately nodded and said:
"Yes, I guess it's almost done. We will be able to match all single workers with a woman before the end of the year. The king really loves his people like his own children..."
The immigrants from the Great Food Country, or most overseas immigrants from the Ming Dynasty, are actually divided into three types.
The first is family immigration, families with at least two generations.
Families with two or even three generations of adults immigrating together, including middle-aged couples with half-grown children, or even elders who are not too old.
This type of family immigration is more popular in the ceded lands and is also the most stable group.
The half-grown children can do some odd jobs, the elders in their forties can barely work as normal workers, and the older ones can help take care of the house and children, so that both the prime-age couple can go out to work.
Then there are couple immigrants, young couples who have just gotten married, or couples who have not yet had children after marriage, and small families who immigrate overseas together.
Among them are normal young couples who decide to go overseas together, and there are also couples who have just formed a relationship to go overseas.
Men know that it is not easy to find a Ming wife overseas, and Ming women rarely have the courage to go overseas alone.
Therefore, there is a special "immigration marriage". The man first finds a wife, the woman first finds a husband, and then they get married and go together.
This kind of immigration is the most popular, with young and strong laborers, wives and families, and no burden from children and old people.
Finally, there are single immigrants, immigrants who go overseas alone. Single immigrants are basically only men, and there are almost no single women who immigrate alone.
The vast majority of single adults who want and are willing to work overseas are originally men, and the number of women participating in immigrant marriages is ultimately a minority.
Therefore, there are still a large number of single men who go overseas directly. These people are either from the truly poor class or are not very lucky.
This kind of immigration is also relatively popular, but it is also a destabilizing factor.
Ming Dynasty arranged slightly different destinations for immigrants under different circumstances.
Where there are local residents, especially places where there are a large number of Ming people and a large number of indigenous people, such as Japan, Korea, Tianzhu, and Xintianfu, as many single men as possible will be arranged to go there.
In places where there is no one at all, such as Crete, North Mexico and other places that are being taken over, families and couples will be arranged to immigrate as much as possible.
The capital of the Dashi Kingdom is a bit special. Originally, there were Ming people and native residents here, but the numbers were very small.
There are currently 3,000 single men among the immigrants arranged by the Ministry of Household Affairs for Dashi Country.
Single adult males are a source of instability. To maintain the stability of the colony, the marriage problem of bachelors must be solved.
Even if they can't find a formal match, at least enough service facilities must be arranged to meet their needs.
The big food country acted as a matter of course and transported back the female slaves that the Barbary pirates planned to sell for use by these bachelor immigrants.
Zhu Jingyuan walked around the lobby and ordered the book:
“Guards and officials were arranged to keep a close watch, carefully checking and registering the status of all female slaves.
“When they are handed over to workers, the identities of these female slaves are directly registered as the concubines of the corresponding workers.
“All immigrants from the Ming Dynasty, regardless of their age, are eligible to have a concubine after arriving in our country of great food.
"Whether he can find a Ming Dynasty woman to be his wife depends on the worker's future fortune."
Dian Book listened and nodded with a smile:
"His Highness has thought carefully. He will use Hu Ji as his concubine first, and then he will find a wife from the Ming Dynasty depending on the situation...
"However, if female slaves are turned directly into concubines, what will happen to their status as slaves?"
Zhu Jingyuan has already made plans:
“The slave status can be lifted, and those with dry ears and tasteless can be directly given citizenship, and those with oily ears and taste can be given the right of abode.
"Most of them are natives of the Dashi Country, so it is reasonable to give them the right of residence and national rights.
"It also allows them to know the difference between us and the Barbary pirates. They are liberated when they come here."
Speaking of this, Zhu Jingyuan suddenly smiled:
“These women are an important national asset of our big food country. If they are directly handed over to workers as slaves, they may be wasted and damaged.
“There may even be workers who obtain female slaves and engage in private prostitution to make money.
"We must at least give them the right of residence so that workers cannot dispose and sell them as objects, so that they can play the greatest role."
After hearing this, Dianbo was suddenly enlightened. He once again sincerely praised his king for his thorough consideration, and then immediately thought of another question:
"Your Highness, then give them national rights and residency rights, and when you hand them over to the workers, do you still ask them for money?"
Zhu Jingyuan said of course:
“Of course, money is required. The workers first pay the money to accept the female slaves, and then release the slave status on the spot.
“But remember, we collect money not to make money, but to maintain order.
“Slaves are also an important asset, and no family wants to let go of the opportunity to be a concubine.
“Even immigrants with families, or even couples, will not refuse.
“It’s not just the man himself who wants a concubine, the wife won’t refuse to find a concubine for her husband for free.
“For ordinary families, concubines not only allow men to reproduce more offspring, but also serve as family labor force.
“With more young female workers in the family, the family can make money faster, or the household work can be shared with others.
“We give concubines to single men for nothing, and those immigrants with couples and families will definitely have objections and may even make trouble collectively.
"So the money for serving as a concubine must be paid, and it cannot be particularly low. If it is too low, it will be the same as giving it away for free.
"Let's give it a 10% discount based on the market price, and then allow workers to pay in installments."
Dianbo reacted again and couldn't help but admire again:
"The king has really thought carefully..."
The two surrounding staff members and Guan Tianpei were also stunned for a moment after hearing Zhu Jingyuan's analysis.
Once again, I feel that Zhu Jingyuan, the young king, thinks about things from a really different perspective.
In fact, what Zhu Jingyuan said is very simple. The key issue is that the slaves themselves are valuable.
If you send a female slave to a single worker for free, it is equivalent to giving a free gift.
As the saying goes, don’t worry about scarcity but inequality. Other workers will definitely want it too.
If you need to spend money to buy it, those men who already have wives and families will not come forward even if they have ideas.
In literary and artistic works, there are often scenes of wealthy ladies from wealthy families causing trouble because their husbands take concubines.
Because it costs money to take a concubine, and the expenses are likely to be quite high, they consider the expenses more than their family status.
If you give a concubine for free, the lady will basically not refuse, and you can take it back and use it as a long-term laborer.
At the same time, under Zhu Jingyuan's promotion, the Ming Dynasty had banned the sale of Mo slaves outside Mozhou.
Except for Mo Nu, the price of even the lowest-grade Tianzhu Huji is in the range of 150 to 250 silver notes.
Those with particularly outstanding images can sell for three to four hundred.
The overall price of the tasteless Tianzhu Orchid will be increased by another fifty to two hundred silver coins.
The wages of ordinary workers in the Great Food Country have been raised to fifteen to twenty silver coins, and the wages of skilled workers are twenty to twenty five silver coins.
Quality craftsmen will be higher.
The first migrant workers to come here can already afford the lowest-level Orchid with their wages in the past six months.
But they cannot be allowed to spend all the money they have saved on buying Orchid.
So Zhu Jingyuan thought of installment payment.
