Song Erniu's wedding convoy went all the way from Shuangshan Village to the Chen family manor on the outskirts of the county. The luxurious wedding convoy consisting of dozens of vehicles shocked outsiders along the way.
This kind of wedding scene has never happened before, and it is an eye-opener for the locals.
At the same time, it also allowed outsiders to have a better understanding of Song Erniu's financial resources.
This is not a scene that can be staged by ordinary people with money, but a scene that can only be staged by being super rich.
In fact, this is indeed the case. Chu Yuan is worth more than one million yuan. This kind of wealth belongs to the rich class not to mention the overseas territories in the Americas. Even in China, it belongs to the rich class.
After all, Chu Yuan is still very valuable these days, and there is no inflation. Even because of the rapid economic development and limited gold production, there is a risk of deflation to a certain extent, which makes Chu Yuan stronger.
This is also an important reason why the salary and income level of ordinary people in the Dachu Empire has remained at a relatively stable level for a long time over the years. The economy has not developed like that of later generations, and the income of ordinary people has also grown rapidly.
Because the currency of later generations is credit currency, inflation will occur in most cases. The same is 10,000 US dollars, but 10,000 US dollars 20 years ago and 10,000 US dollars now, the purchasing power gap is huge. go.
However, in the gold-standard currency system of the Great Chu Empire, the purchasing power of currency is very strong. Even because Chu State's gold production is limited, Chu Yuan's purchasing power will become higher to a certain extent in special periods.
Chu Yuan under such circumstances is very valuable, and more than one million Chu Yuan is a number that ordinary people cannot imagine.
And today, Song Erniu's huge and luxurious wedding gave these ordinary people a space to imagine!
And Song Erniu could also see the pointing and pointing of passers-by around him. Although he didn't know what they were saying, Song Erniu could more or less guess... For this reason, he was in a good mood.
Putting on a big show at home was originally the main thing he wanted to do when he returned to his homeland...otherwise, why would he spend so much money?
Now it seems that the money spent is quite worthwhile.
We walked slowly along the road, and even went around the city for the sake of the scene... Originally, the Chen family manor was not in the city, but on the outskirts of the city, so there was no need to go into the city... But the wedding team went all the way to We walked around the county town before heading to the Chen family manor.
When the wedding reception team arrived at the Chen family manor, everyone in the Chen family was already well prepared.
The Chen family manor, which seemed old in the past, has also undergone urgent repairs in the past month. In the past, it was reluctant to use and spend the money, so I reluctantly spent it.
This marriage is not only a marriage for the Song family to move towards the traditional upper class society, but also a declaration for the Chen family to the traditional upper class society: My old Chen family has not declined, and is still very firm!
So the Chen family gritted their teeth and scraped together a lot of funds to prepare for the wedding. Of course, they didn't actually have to pay for the money, because most of it would be subsidized back from the betrothal gift... Otherwise, such a huge expenditure would It’s not that the Chen family can’t take it out, but it means they have to cut their flesh and sell their blood.
Many people in the Chen family manor, which had already been decorated to be extremely festive, were looking forward to it. When the wedding convoy arrived, some people immediately returned to the inner courtyard to report to the Chen family's legitimate daughter.
The daughter-in-law of the Chen family is now wearing a traditional phoenix crown and harem, looking dignified and festive...
The Great Chu Empire continued some etiquette traditions from the Ming Dynasty, allowing folk women to wear special phoenix crowns and harems when they got married, which were the robes worn by concubines in the harem and their wives. Commonly known as borrowing clothes... However, the phoenix crowns and harems used for folk weddings The Fengguan Xiapei is actually very different. The style and color are completely different. It is just a borrowed name, so it is called borrowing.
Fengguanxiapei itself had strong political significance in the traditional feudal dynasty. It was generally only worn by concubines and married women in the harem. There were strict regulations on the style, color and pattern.
The same is true in the Great Chu Empire. Only the wives and mothers of officials of the seventh rank and above must be specially canonized, that is, they can only wear the phoenix crowns and harems of different ranks of married women after they have become officially recognized as 'married women'. The styles are roughly the same, but the colors and patterns are different. They are clearly distinguished and cannot be worn randomly.
It is impossible for ordinary women to wear such a special dress... Even the Fengguanxiapei worn on the wedding day is actually just a name, and it cannot be exactly the same as the real Fengguanxiapei...
There is no way they are exactly the same. After all, there are many kinds of Fengguan Xiapei according to different grades...
But this is just a theory... But in real life, due to the gradual liberalization of folk customs, and the official dress of the Chu Empire is generally very loose, and rarely interferes with what ordinary people wear...
As long as you are not blatantly playing with the dragon robe and phoenix crown, shouting that the sky is dead and Huang Tian is here, the officials of the Great Chu Empire will generally not pay much attention...
Even if you get yourself a set of phoenix crowns and harems to wear in private, just don't make them exactly the same as the vermilion harems worn only by married women, especially concubines in the harem, and don't use patterns with special meanings, such as phoenixes and the like, indiscriminately. Even if someone reports it, the officials are too lazy to pay attention to you... In this regard, the officials of the Da Chu Empire actually have very few restrictions under the influence of Luo Zhixue.
Except for a few very special costumes, mainly crown costumes with strong political significance, you can actually love them as much as you like. Even the yellow costumes that have always symbolized the royal family have turned a blind eye in recent years. Eyes, you can wear whatever you like...as long as you don't put a dragon pattern on it, the officials won't even bother to talk to you.
Therefore, the clothing trends in the Chu Empire have changed greatly in the past thirty years, with few official restrictions. The clothing worn by both men and women has changed greatly, especially women's clothing, which has been a trend for several years, and some are at the forefront of the trend. , the fashionable women who don't care about the rumors of old antiques are even close to the modern clothes of the original time and space. The clothes pay attention to slimming and smoothness... and have broken away from the category of traditional Hanfu.
Many of these slim-fitting long skirts will not look out of date even if they are placed in the modern society of the 21st century... Of course, this kind of modern-style clothing was actually circulated in the palace, and the source is Luo Zhixue !
It’s not just this kind of modern-style slim-fitting long skirt. In fact, many of the contemporary costumes in the Chu Empire, regardless of men’s and women’s clothing, have their origins in Luo Zhixue... For example, the popular business attire was born out of military uniforms, and The military uniforms of the Chu State were made by Luo Zhixue based on the military uniforms of later generations...and then there are other things, such as gloves that people easily overlook!
You have to know that in the traditional Chinese era, people rarely wore modern-style gloves in daily life. In the winter, they often retracted their hands into their sleeves to keep warm...some even wore collars in their sleeves. There is a small charcoal stove.
At the beginning, out of military considerations, Luo Zhixue first had modern-style gloves sewn with fur for use when going out in winter, especially when commanding operations.
The people below followed suit, and each of them also picked up gloves. After all, it is really convenient and warm to wear gloves when commanding in winter... and even the color was copied, almost all black!
When Luo Zhi learned to wear gloves, there was no special meaning. On the one hand, the military uniform was not like the traditional Hanfu. It had wide and long sleeves to keep warm, but his fingers were really cold in winter... so he got a modern style of gloves to keep warm. use.
On the other hand, he also imitated some modern warlord leaders, wearing gloves and holding a sword to show off... At that time, he wore the military uniforms of modern warlord leaders every day!
Then it was learned by a group of generals under their command, and it later became an important part of the military's standard uniforms.
Looking at ancient and modern times, at home and abroad, regardless of season, region, or military rank, no one except the Chu army gave soldiers a pair of gloves...
Even the Chu troops serving in the tropical areas of South Asia were so hot in the summer that they hung out their tongues and panted like dogs. Their tropical summer military uniforms were all sandals, large pants and short-sleeved tops...but every one of them also wore gloves when performing tasks!
Of course, they usually wear breathable and sweat-absorbent half tactical gloves specially designed for summer.
However, some more old-fashioned officers still stubbornly use black leather gloves to direct operations... and call it traditional... They are just as crazy as they are, and they are not afraid of covering their hands with rashes.
Fortunately, the Chu Army's Ordnance Department is not unkind. It has successively developed a variety of functional tactical gloves, including breathable and sweat-absorbent half-length tactical gloves for summer, as well as warm and cold-proof gloves for winter, etc. There are many, which can basically cover the needs of different troops and regions of the Chu Army.
So just talking about gloves, the Chu army can be proud to say that it can instantly kill the armies of almost any country in the 21st century... Even in the 21st century, the soldiers of most countries don't even have tactical gloves.
But the Chu army only has one for everyone... Even if it is a civilian employee, there will be gloves in the uniform issued by him.
When contemporary soldiers of the Chu Army wear military uniforms to attend formal occasions, gloves are a must, because gloves are part of the military uniform... without gloves it is incomplete.
To be honest, this is nonsense...but there are many nonsense things in human history, not least of which is the Chu State.
Later, I don’t know when, gloves became one of the must-have clothing items for the Chu people. Especially in the winter, many people will wear gloves, especially in the middle and upper classes, when men go out in winter. , all black leather gloves... And women are gradually starting to use gloves, but the colors are very rich, and there are all kinds!
Of course Luo Zhixue started the trend here, but more importantly, modern style gloves are indeed a warm weapon...
The changes Luo Zhixue brought to the Great Chu Empire were huge... Even if it was unintentional, because of his special status, as the emperor of the empire, he would still unknowingly affect the changes in the entire empire in many ways. .
The influence and changes of clothing are a very typical example... Luo Zhixue has never done anything on his own initiative, but it happened because of many changes in him.
————
Luo Zhixue's many influences on clothing, coupled with the imperial official's clothing policy, which in principle had almost no restrictions, led to great changes in the clothing of people in the Chu Empire... People could wear whatever they liked. No matter what to wear, naturally all kinds of messy clothes will appear.
Of course, limited by people's common concepts and the limitations of the aesthetics of the times, the contemporary clothing culture of the Chu Empire mainly prefers traditional Hanfu and partially improved Hanfu, as well as very special military uniforms and men's professional attire. .
For women, Hanfu is still the main type of daily wear...but many of them are improved and are very different from the Hanfu in the Ming Dynasty, mainly in that they are more slim, simple and smooth, and not as complicated as before...
At the same time, there is another feature, that is, it involves some clothing elements that could not be used by folk in the past, such as vermilion, yellow, and Xiapei.
Times are changing, and so are Hanfu.
Many women from middle- and upper-class families will wear a shawl when they wear traditional Hanfu to attend formal occasions... This thing is actually the early form of Xiapei... This is actually the Xiapei that imitates the official married woman.
Hanfu, especially the improved modern Hanfu of Chu and the combination of silk shawls, are very beautiful and have an elegant and ethereal look.
Of course, ordinary low-class women cannot use this thing, because this thing is basically made of silk, and it is made of fine silk, and it is very expensive...
These things are temporarily limited to a kind of clothing trend in the middle and upper class society, and have nothing to do with the general public. However, with the progress of the times, the improvement of productivity, the sinking of consumer products, and the improvement of people's living standards, in the future, lower-class women Maybe I will wear it like this...
Of course, in the early days, this was still the trend... But the clothing and cultural trends in Chu State changed so fast that in more than ten or twenty years, I still don’t know if there will be anyone wearing a shawl.
————
For the eldest daughter of the Chen family, today is the most important day in her life. It can even be said that she is making the biggest gamble in her life.
Marrying a man whom I have only known each other for more than a month, and even my acquaintance was from people around me. The two of them only met a few times in total, and the total time they spent talking alone was less than an hour.
Although the direct daughter of the Chen family knew from the many known information collected, she knew that Song Erniu was a capable, mature and stable man, and he was not good enough to be the male protagonist in the romance novel... At least he didn't look like the male protagonist in the romance novel. The protagonist said it so well, and he didn't surround her with all kinds of flattery and the like.
But the story is a story, and real life is real life. The eldest daughter of the Chen family judged rationally that by marrying such a man, her future life would be good, even better than her current life.
But these seemingly rational judgments still make her worry about gains and losses... After all, it is too difficult to truly understand and judge a person.
Not to mention that her understanding of Song Erniu was actually very limited...
Marrying her under such circumstances... This is actually equivalent to gambling half your life.
And what the result will be, she doesn't know now, or even in the next few years... This is a lifetime matter, how can it be so easy to draw results and draw conclusions.
Under such circumstances, she naturally had to worry about gains and losses... and when she heard the maid say that the wedding convoy had arrived, she looked at her mother and father, and she couldn't help but burst into tears.
She didn't know whether she was crying because she couldn't bear to leave her parents, or whether she was crying because of the uncertainty of the future, let alone whether she was crying because of compromise!
Many emotions came to her heart at once...so much so that even she couldn't tell why she was crying.
Seeing this, Chen's mother and Chen Yuanxiang's wife quickly stepped forward to comfort her. They were both experienced and could somewhat understand the feelings of the direct daughter of the Chen family at this moment.
After this consolation, her makeup was messed up, and she had to ask the maids to touch up her makeup immediately.
At this moment, Song Erniu was also busy outside, and then met many guests accompanied by Chen's father and Chen Yuanxiang.
When a daughter of the Chen family marries a daughter, the pomp and circumstance cannot be overstated. Although the Chen family has declined, the sign of a century-old scholarly family is still there, and it still has some foundation. In addition, the person marrying this time is a millionaire. Knowing that the Chen family was unlikely to be short of money in the future, many respectable people came.
After finishing the work at the front, the auspicious time has arrived. Song Erniu and many people in the wedding team got ready immediately.
Song Erniu stood at the front of the crowd, and in front of him, the daughter-in-law of the Chen family, wearing a phoenix crown and a red hijab, came slowly on the red carpet with the support of two maids on the left and right.
After a series of brief ceremonies, the bride got into a luxurious carriage decorated with extremely festive decorations, while Song Erniu got into a luxurious carriage behind.
They are still in the wedding process. Strictly speaking, the two are not a couple, so naturally they are not riding in the same carriage.
The wedding uses a carriage instead of the traditional sedan chair. This is also a change in the Chu Empire in the past ten years.
In traditional weddings, the bride usually rides in a sedan chair, and the groom rides a horse or a sedan. However, with the transportation mode of the empire, carriages gradually replaced sedans, and the tradition of sedan chairs in weddings has also changed. In some areas, traditional wedding sedans are still used. bridal sedan, but some areas began to use four-wheeled carriages instead of bridal sedans...and these changes are more common in the upper class...
After all, the trend of using four-wheeled carriages to replace sedan chairs in the Chu Empire started from the government, then to the upper class, and then gradually spread down... After all, the people who rode sedans in ancient times were mainly from the upper class, ordinary people and sedan chairs If anything, he is also a bearer carrying a sedan chair!
Therefore, the popularity of carriages and the disappearance of sedan chairs in the early days mainly appeared in the upper class society, and had little to do with ordinary people... Until the number of horses in the empire increased and the demand for transportation increased, urban public carriages appeared. After long-distance public carriages and carriages were rented, carriages became associated with ordinary people.
And these changes have gradually affected some traditional ceremonial occasions, such as weddings. I don’t know when. In some areas and group weddings, the sedan chair has become a four-wheeled carriage... However, it has not been completely replaced. There are still some Weddings in a large number of areas and groups of people use traditional sedan chairs.
In contemporary times, wedding carriages and sedan chairs are used together, which is a typical transitional period between old and new.
And when the bride got on the luxurious wedding carriage and the motorcade began to return to Shuangshan Village, the size of the entire motorcade became even larger, because there was a huge send-off team on the bride's side!
Some of the various dowries are directly loaded on the carriage. Some of the special traditional dowries will be taken off the carriage after they arrive at Shuangshan Village and let specific people carry them through the door...
The team on the return trip became extremely large. When they walked around the county town again, the team was too large and there were so many people watching. In order to avoid accidents, the county town had to send patrol police out to maintain order...
Of course, Song Erniu also sent people to the patrol station early, gave many small gifts, and sponsored a batch of police equipment.
After the huge wedding convoy arrived at Shuangshan Village, it returned a little early but the auspicious time had not yet arrived, so it circled around a few times to consume some time.
Finally, the auspicious moment arrived, and we officially returned to the Song family manor!
It was already evening at this time... As the so-called wedding is, it is actually the evening ceremony, that is, the evening ceremony... The traditional wedding is to worship at dusk, then the groom makes a toast, and then enters the bridal chamber...
After some worship, Song Erniu and the Chen family's legitimate daughter officially married... Of course, this was only in name. In fact, Song Erniu and the Chen family's legitimate daughter had arrived in the county three days ago, accompanied by relatives and friends. The yamen here carried out marriage registration...
So legally, they were already husband and wife three days ago... and now it's just a traditional wedding ceremony.
After all, a wedding and a legally registered marriage are two different things... If you just hold a wedding without registering it, the authorities will not recognize your relationship as husband and wife!
