Since the beginning of spring, it has never rained except for the day of the competition. The rain on the day of the competition came in a hurry, as if an irresponsible cleaner poured a basin of water on the ground and called it a day. Disguise
Miss Tian, the cleaner, seems to be in a hurry to date a smooth-tongued man.
It is said that spring rain is as expensive as oil, and this year's spring rain is even more expensive. The people looked up at the sky, looking like they couldn't afford it.
It stands to reason that His Majesty the Emperor should come out to pray for rain. Officials have already petitioned the Emperor to offer sacrifices to heaven. But for some reason, Emperor Tiande, who was diligent in various rituals in the past, is too lazy to move this year, like a lazy man who has lost hope in life.
Not only was the emperor too lazy to do anything, he didn't even go to court. At this time, some people speculated that the emperor was ill.
Some ministers requested to see the emperor, but they were blocked by Empress Han. As for the matter of praying for rain, some ministers suggested that the prince should worship heaven on behalf of the emperor. Empress Han said that the prince had been secretly ordered by the emperor to go out to do business and was not in the capital for the time being. Waiting for the prince
Return home and make plans again.
At this time, someone else suggested that if the royal family could not pray for rain for some reason, then the folk method of praying for rain should be used, and the East Palace, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and the Ministry of Rites would take the lead. Empress Han readily agreed and asked the Ministry of Household Affairs to allocate funds.
Princess Anle's funeral was held on a sunny day, and the wind that day was dry. The late-spring wind was very penetrating, making the thinly-clad people shiver.
Princess Anle had no heirs, so her filial sons and great-nephews were replaced by her nephews and grand-nephews.
Under Bai Ling's pocket, eight nephews from the Tang family used wooden poles to pass through Bai Ling, lifted up the heavy coffin, and placed it on the hearse.
The sandalwood coffin, which is high in front and low in back, has a streamlined shape as a whole. It exudes the fragrance of sandalwood. Although the fragrance is strong, it is slightly bitter of almond, as well as milky and sweet.
The coffin boards were tightly sealed, completely sealing in the stench of the corpse. There were also many Chinese herbal medicines placed in the coffin, which were said to keep the corpse from decaying.
There were not many funeral objects for the princess, especially the lack of gold and silver utensils and the pitiful lack of jade items.
In order not to look too shabby, Tang Kuan asked the ceramics workshop to bring in the goods that had been accumulated for many years. Most of them were daily necessities, and those that could be considered as artifacts were some human figurines. There were male servants, male musicians, male dancers, male
Actors, tall and powerful sword-wielding guards. These were what Princess Anle liked during her lifetime. Men, men, still men.
Before sealing the coffin, Mrs. Cao lay on the coffin, looked at it, and said to Tang Kuan: "Four boys, are you going to prepare this little thing for your aunt to be buried with?"
"Old lady, you know that our family has no money."
"But this is too shabby."
Mrs. Cao couldn't stand it anymore, so she took off a pair of jade bracelets from her wrists and put them in the coffin.
It is worth mentioning that people often call Mrs. Cao Mrs. Cao Taijun. The word "Taijun" comes from China. In the Tang Dynasty system, the wife of the fourth-rank official was the county monarch, and the wife of the fifth-rank official was the county.
Jun. The names of his mother's towns all add Taijun. As for what kind of Taijun is the Eastern Island country? It may be the result of copying homework and not understanding it, so I won't discuss it here.
The old lady has three pairs of jade bracelets on her wrists. She can hear the jingling sound when walking, just like a cat's bells. You hear the sound before you see it.
Of course the sixth lady, Tang Mei, also had to attend the funeral, and she also brought her husband-in-law with her.
Miss Six has officially become Okura Superintendent. She will not miss any opportunity to show off her power to the family. At the same time, this is also an opportunity for her to penetrate new rules into the family. She takes the trouble to "read" her new rules in front of people.
.She has memorized it by heart, even more clearly than the original author Su Ping.
Obviously, Miss Six's popularity is getting worse and worse. Miss Eight, who used to take the initiative to say a few words to her, now starts to ignore Tang Mei and rolls her eyes at Tang Mei from time to time.
The girls from the Tang family all have big eyes, but the young girl Tang Yun, the eighth girl, looked cute with her childish face, and her big white eyes looked cartoonishly funny, which Su Ping laughed at.
Su Ping snickered, but Tang Yun saw it and pouted at Su Ping in protest.
Lin Tong, the eighth uncle who was recovering from his injuries at home, was sitting with a group of Tang family gentlemen. He didn't know what they were talking about and laughed shamefully. Then they were scolded by Mrs. Cao.
Mrs. Cao became the first wife before the death of the old Duke, so Tang Ning was considered a direct relative. However, after the death of the old Duke, Mrs. Cao did not stay in the Duke's Mansion, but moved to the Hou Mansion. Still living there
I feel more at ease at my son's home.
But after all, she is the official concubine of the old Duke, the highest authority among the women in Qinghuafang. The Tang family has a powerful stick, and Mrs. Cao uses the powerful stick as a walking stick. Whoever is unhappy will be given a stick. Just now,
She waved her majesty stick in the air toward the laughing crowd and bit her back teeth, as if she wanted to beat someone to death.
Tang Mei glanced sideways at Jiawei Bang, with a look of covetousness in her eyes.
It is said that the Tang family has a total of two family power sticks, and the other one is in the hands of Princess Fan. However, the princess is very seriously ill now, and she cannot attend the funeral of Princess Anle today.
"Awake!"
With the scream of the ceremony officer, the long funeral procession started. Some idle old men, young masters, uncles, young masters, aunts, old ladies, aunts, wives, girls, young ladies, more than 200 people, came to send them off.
The hearse moved forward slowly.
If a wealthy princess has no special merits, she will only be granted the title of "Princess Xingguo", which is the fourth rank. According to the "Daliang Rites", the death of a wealthy princess will be counted as death, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of Rites will also send ceremonial officers to hold the ceremony for the royal family.
Arrival ceremony.
The funeral procession became shorter as it walked out of the gate of Qinghuafang, because some older people would not continue. At this time, there was a burst of crying at the gate of Qinghuafang, and a group of women howled a few times either sincerely, sympathetically, or perfunctorily.
It was the last time to say goodbye to the princess.
"Okay, okay, don't cry. Those who need to get on the bus can get in, and others can leave. I'm very busy and don't have time to stay here."
The place where the princess was buried was quite far away, and Tang Kuan did not prepare so many cars for them to sit in, so most of them returned to Qinghuafang.
Tang Kuan supported the old lady Cao, sometimes smiling playfully, and sometimes looking bitter and helpless. He didn't know what he was talking about. Not long after walking, he came to the door of the Hou Mansion. At this time, he saw the eunuch from the Ministry of Internal Affairs looking for him. The eunuch knew Tang Kuan and Mr. Cao.
Madam, I greeted you from afar.
Seeing that it was Lu Shi, the young eunuch of the East Palace, Tang Kuan took a step forward to salute. Lu Shi returned the salute, then took two more steps to salute Mrs. Cao.
Old Mrs. Cao changed her stern look and said with a kind face: "Little Eunuch Lu is here in a hurry, why are you here?"
Lu Shi said: "It didn't snow last winter, and it doesn't rain this spring. It seems to be a drought year. Empress Han was a little anxious and wanted to hold a prayer ceremony for rain. But the emperor and the prince were very busy and had no time to hold it, so they used Zhang Zhenren to do it.
This is a way for people to pray for rain. As usual, it is the Tang family's turn to do it this time."
"Hey, are you going to choose 'Master Yu' again?" Mrs. Cao recalled, "If I remember correctly, the last time I chose Master Yu was six years ago. That time Mr. Yu was a member of the Meng family.
My son-in-law’s surname seems to be Tian, and his name is Tian Gan, right? Oh, that young man is so good-looking, he looks like a beautiful woman.”
Lu Shi smiled and said: "Old lady, your memory is very good. We only remembered it after reading the documents from the Ministry of Rites, but you remember it very clearly, old lady."
"Hey, how old were you at that time? It's not strange if you don't remember." Mrs. Cao glanced at Tang Kuan, who was winking at her. She understood what Tang Kuan meant, so she sighed and said: "
But now we Tang family men are fighting outside, and we have no money at home. It’s not my old lady who is crying for poverty, but look at Princess Anle’s funeral, it was so shabby. I’m so old-faced, I can’t stand it anymore.”
Lu Shi nodded sympathetically and said: "The Queen has already considered it, so she agreed to let the Ministry of Revenue allocate funds. The Tang family will handle it first, and officials from the Ministry of Revenue will come over soon."
While they were talking, Su Ping had already followed Tang Mei back to Yizhichun Pavilion. Now, people call this place Spring Pavilion or Mei Pavilion for short.
Su Ping took four maids, Zhen Ping'er, Wang Jin'er, Zhu Tao, and Feng Die, who knew how to read, and Tang Mei's nephews Tang Liu, Tang Qing, and Tang Fei to form an inspection team to inspect the work everywhere in the three warehouses.
Later, Tang Mei recruited three more literate maids to follow Su Ping's team for inspections. At the same time, they were familiar with Okura's work. This group of people will be the main cadres of Supervisor Tang in the future. They will be used to replace the original ones.
Shuo rat.
Tang Mei also has some political acumen. She knows that if she wants to replace the original three co-organizers, she cannot offend the father or grandfather of the three co-organizers. Because those people are all masters of the Zongzheng Mansion.
Therefore, Tang Liu, Tang Qing, and Tang Fei were all selected from the families of those gentlemen. However, they received personal instruction from Tang Mei from the beginning. Moreover, these three young men had a good reputation.
Although they are younger, they are all older than Tang Mei. But they are not much older. The eldest Tang Liu is only twenty-two years old.
Young people tend to have a greater sense of justice than middle-aged and elderly people. This was also Su Ping's idea for Tang Mei.
The son-in-law, who looked to be only eighteen years old, led a group of young men and women around the three warehouses. In the past few days of contact, everyone felt that the son-in-law was mature beyond his years.
and rich life experience.
In just a few days, under the leadership of the son-in-law named Su, three dispatchers and four warehouse supervisors were fired.
Usually the son-in-law is smiling and cheerful, but if anyone dares to offend his authority, he will become stern. The son-in-law acts in full compliance with the rules and trains those people into silence.
However, in Zhen Ping'er's view, this step-in-law is also quite naughty. For example, the fire prevention regulations he wrote were obviously regulations deliberately looking for trouble. Today they went to Dongdacang, intending to find some trouble here.
At this time, a young man ran from Mei Pavilion and called his son-in-law back, saying that Mrs. Cao wanted to see her.