"Dang-dang-dang..."

During his nap, when the sound of thirty thousand bells and drums stopped and no one told Zhu Youjian to get up, he woke up naturally.

This is a habit he developed in his previous life in the army. He sleeps very lightly. Once he gets used to the frequency of the sounds around him, he will wake up on his own initiative once the sounds around him change.

"Someone is coming!"

Rubbing his eyes, Zhu Youjian felt a little thirsty. He glanced at the dazzling sunshine outside the window and called out to the palace.

The two young eunuchs walked into the palace with their heads lowered one after another, their upper bodies slightly bowed: "Your Highness..."

"Ask the Dianshan Bureau to prepare some spicy food and get some cold drinks to cool down." Zhu Youjian frowned and greeted the two eunuchs, not forgetting to ask at the end:

"Has the national mourning begun?"

One of the eunuchs got up to write, bowed to Zhu Youjian, and then went to the Dining Bureau in the East Palace to ask the chef to prepare meals. The other eunuch nodded and responded:

"Reporting to Your Highness, the cabinet said that the death of the late emperor occurred suddenly, and the officials of the six ministries have not yet reacted."

"In addition to the internal officials and the Ministry of Rites, there is no reserve for national mourning, so it is necessary to postpone the national mourning for one day."

The eunuch answered clearly, and Zhu Youjian also understood it clearly, and couldn't help but feel speechless.

Usually, preparations for various things related to national mourning begin in January after the death of the late emperor.

It's just that Zhu Youjian's grandfather Wanli passed away just over a month ago, and Zhu Changluo passed away, and neither the internal officials nor the Ministry of Etiquette of the Twenty-Four Yamen had prepared anything.

It is estimated that there are not so many things for the national mourning at one time. It is estimated that the Ministry of Rites means to wash and clean the various things used in the Wanli national mourning, and then give them to Zhu Changluo for use first.

There was nothing that could be done about it. He died in a hurry and the coffin fell down. It was okay to have two sets of this thing. He could use Wanli's backup.

But other utensils, such as silk and satin, cannot be used. They can only be used after cleaning.

Thinking of this, Zhu Youjian also said:

"When did Chengen go out? Did anyone come back with news?"

The young eunuch saluted and responded: "Eunuch Wang left the palace at three o'clock in the morning, and at six o'clock in the afternoon someone brought back the news from the Ministry of War."

"The Ministry of War said that Sichuan troops have arrived in Luoyang and are expected to arrive in Tongzhou in one and a half months."

"The Zhejiang soldiers have arrived at Hejian Prefecture and are expected to arrive in Tongzhou in ten days."

"Okay, I understand. You go down and ask someone to come into the palace to wash and change clothes for me." After hearing the news about Bai Ganbing and Qi Jiajun, Zhu Youjian nodded and waved his hand for the man to leave.

The young eunuch bowed and left. After leaving the palace, within less than a stick of incense, a female official led four maids and walked into the palace carrying various toiletries.

Zhu Youjian, who had adapted to this world for a month, was sitting on the couch like this.

The female officer and the maid saluted him, but he just nodded without saying anything.

After the female officer and others got up, two palace maids first carried the wooden shelf holding the copper basin and placed it next to Zhu Youjian. They poured water into the copper basin and tested the water temperature.

The female officer stepped forward and took off the hosta for Zhu Youjian, her hair disheveled.

The remaining two female officers filled another wooden bucket with water. After testing the water temperature, they knelt on the ground and took off Zhu Youjian's socks.

The two of them knelt on the ground and carefully sprinkled water on Zhu Youjian's feet. After making sure that the water temperature would not make Zhu Youjian unhappy, they carefully washed his feet.

The female official knelt behind Zhu Youjian and carefully combed his hair with a comb. The maid in charge of washing his face and brushing his teeth was also familiar with the job.

One of them wrung out the towel with warm water and carefully wiped Zhu Youjian's cheek, while the other palace maid sprinkled tooth powder from a small box on the wooden toothbrush.

This toothbrush was invented by Zhu Youtang, Emperor Xiaozong of Ming Dynasty, and tooth powder is some powder used for cleaning.

Brushing teeth is called washing the dragon's ditch, and one must be careful. Even if Zhu Youjian is just a prince who has not been crowned king, it is enough to punish them.

Most of the maids serving Zhu Youjian were in their early 18s or 19s, with bright eyebrows, bright teeth, and fair skin.

Even the female officer was only twenty-six or seventeen years old, and her skills were very sophisticated.

There are standards for their arrangements. Generally, combing the hair, which is the most uncomfortable thing, is done by experienced female officers.

The next step is brushing the teeth, which is done by the oldest maid in the palace, followed by washing the face, and finally the maid washing the feet.

Under their operation, Zhu Youjian was cleaned up in just a quarter of an hour.

The maid opened the wash basin stand, and the female officer got down from the bed.

Zhu Youjian stood up, and when he opened his hands, several pairs of rough hands began to change his clothes.

These hands are rough from working, which is in obvious contrast with the appearance of these palace ladies.

Zhu Youjian didn't care about this. Anyway, he was still a ten-year-old child and couldn't do anything.

He just opened his hands and waited for the female officer to take off his clothes one by one, and finally started to put on new clothes.

After all, it was a national mourning. Zhu Youjian was put on plain white clothes, a wooden hairpin was inserted on his head, and then he was put on a black Yishan hat without any gold rim.

Although he is still young, Zhu Youjian is already four feet eight inches tall. According to the Ming Dynasty tailoring rule of one foot and 32 centimeters, he is already 1.53 meters tall.

In this era, even some twelve or thirteen-year-old children were not that tall.

The average height of men in the Ming Dynasty was only 1.64 to 1.69 meters.

Looking back on the five thousand years of Chinese height history, the Chinese people have been the tallest in East Asia for most of the time. Even around the world, the height of the Chinese people has almost always been considered outstanding, and it was not until the Qing Dynasty that it began to decline.

If Zhu Youjian remembers correctly, the standard for recruiting camp soldiers in the Ming Dynasty in this era was five feet two, which was approximately equivalent to 167 centimeters in later generations.

At the same time, the standard height for recruiting soldiers in Northern Europe was only 162 centimeters, and in Southern Europe, the standard height was only 158 centimeters.

In various countries in Southeast Asia, a person over 1.5 meters tall is considered good, and for the Japanese shogunate, a soldier taller than 145 centimeters is considered a high-quality soldier.

But if nothing unexpected happens, the height of the European race will continue to increase during the next three hundred years of plunder. From the beginning, the height standard for recruiting soldiers in southern Europe was 158 cm to 165 cm.

Zhu Youjian knew these things very well, but it was just due to the excessive exploitation of the Qing Dynasty that led to malnutrition of the people and the height decline of the Han people.

All dynasties need to exploit the people, it just depends on who exploits them ruthlessly.

As far as the taxation system is concerned, the central court of the Ming Dynasty was not ruthless in exploiting the people, but due to the insufficient salary of officials, corruption became common.

When the imperial court increased the tax revenue by one cent per acre, local officials dared to levy one and a half cents. Then they transferred the local gentry's tax to ordinary people, and the tax rose directly to three cents.

As an emperor in such an era, if you don't understand why the people are suffering, then it is normal for the dynasty to fall.

Just like Chongzhen in history, I will probably never understand until his death why he only raised a little tax and the land yielded two hundred kilograms per acre and only collected a dozen kilograms of grain, but the people rebelled.

For now, Zhu Youjian is very aware of the shortcomings of the Chongzhen Dynasty.

To save the Ming Dynasty, it might be possible from the Tianqi period, but from the Chongzhen period, it would be better to join the bandits directly.

If Zhu Youjian remembers correctly, probably starting from the first year of Chongzhen, the severe drought that broke out during the Little Ice Age would last for twenty consecutive years, affecting Gansu, Shaanxi, Henan, Shanxi, Shandong, Beizhili, northern Huguang and other areas...

…

In addition to Liaodong and Yunnan, the other two provinces and twelve provinces will experience severe droughts affecting the entire province or even half of the province.

Hebei, Henan, Shanxi, Shaanxi, and Shandong have all been experiencing drought for more than five consecutive years.

Twenty consecutive years of drought, floods, and plagues have actually affected more than 60 million people.
Chapter completed!