Along the Qinhuai River, although there are many brothel painting studios that have been operating normally for many days, the bustle of the past is no longer there, and they look gloomy and gloomy.
The reason is that dozens of top brothels still have seals, and hundreds of luxurious flower boats are always docked on the shore.
Under the names of these dozens of brothels, there are not only top famous prostitutes such as Qinhuai Bayan, but also a large number of rising stars. It can be said that it is because of the existence of these famous prostitutes that half of the sky of Qinhuai River is held up.
It attracts countless literati, wealthy businessmen and wealthy guests.
Now that these brothels are closed, it is as if the Qinhuai River has lost its vitality, causing countless talented people and wealthy businessmen to come around every day and then go back sighing.
More people are still waiting to buy these properties, and the salt merchants from Lianghuai are the most popular among them. But today, when a group of salt merchants came to the Qinhuai River again, they found that dozens of brothels that were still closed yesterday were actually closed.
It's open for business.
What surprised everyone even more was that these brothels had actually changed their rules. Some ordinary prostitutes no longer accepted customers. There were only two famous prostitutes and some young apprentices left in each brothel.
These hundreds of popular prostitutes are all prostitutes, not their bodies, and there is an additional list outside each brothel, called the Hundred Flowers List.
Talented and wealthy businessmen can reward their favorite courtesans with flowers. After two months, the ten courtesans with the most flowers will compete for the top spot.
Every famous prostitute has a flower boat of her own, and she will perform her talents on the flower boat every night to gather popular flowers for herself.
If you want to board these flower boats, you have to reward at least one flower, and then draw lots, and each flower boat is limited to fifty places.
Of course, in addition to rewarding flowers and drawing lots, whoever can write a decent poem can board any flower boat and have ten flowers counted on the head of the owner of the flower boat.
If you can create a masterpiece, you can add a hundred flowers and you can board any flower boat for one month.
The quality of the poems will be judged by six of the eight beauties of the Qinhuai River. On board the flower boat, all food and drink are free.
Each flower costs five taels of silver.
Of course, Chen Yuanyuan and others organized this Hundred Beauty Competition. As they have been in brothels for many years, they know very well the nature of those talented and wealthy businessmen.
They are also more playful than those distinguished talents. Compared with the past when selecting courtesan, which was filled with a strong smell of copper, this time I chose to go on the flower boat by drawing lots and poetry, and all the drinks were free. It is true that
Much more elegant.
Because of this, when the news spread, the whole of Nanjing was shocked. Compared with the previous selection of oiran, this time it was indeed more innovative and elegant.
Some poor scholars could just write two limericks, go to the flower boat and join in the fun, and even add ten flowers to the courtesans they supported, which they could not afford before.
I can only watch those rich talents and wealthy businessmen spend their money like gold.
In just a few days, the Qinhuai River not only returned to its former liveliness, but even became more popular.
However, while enjoying themselves, more people are still asking about who the new owners of these brothels are, especially the wealthy salt merchants.
You wouldn't know it unless you inquired about it. When you inquired about it, almost everyone's jaws dropped. The new owner of these brothels turned out to be Chen Yuanyuan, a famous prostitute in Qinhuai in the past.
In addition, Chen Yuanyuan came with the imperial concubine, and almost everyone understood what was going on.
No one dared to think about or ask for those mansions and estates of nobles. The millions of acres of fertile farmland that the imperial concubines and empresses occupied were not for sale. They could still take advantage of them. But how profitable were those dozens of brothels?
It couldn't be clearer.
Now that the empress wants to monopolize and run her own business, it is really too much. This is no longer just about competing for profits with the people.
The officials took the lead in launching an attack and were preparing to impeach the Red Lady in court. Unfortunately, the Red Lady was too lazy to go to court anymore and had no time to chat with the civil officials.
Everyone had no choice but to summon some scholars and merchants to petition at the gate of the palace, hoping to use strong public pressure to force the red lady to sell the brothel.
"Ying'er, what's going on? Aren't those brothels sold?"
"Yes, I sold it to Chen Yuanyuan. If you don't believe me, I can show you the documents."
The red lady said, then took out the document and handed it to her.
Zhang Yan did not answer, but said angrily: "Ying'er, you are just hiding your ears and stealing the bell! Alas! I don't know what to say to you, and you are too ignorant. You are a noble concubine, how can you
What about opening a brothel? What will the world think of it if word spreads about it? What will Xun'er think?"
"Mother, didn't I tell you that I have already sold these brothels to Chen Yuanyuan? It's clearly written in black and white on this piece of paper. What does it have to do with me?"
"But someone has to believe it. As the saying goes, a piece of official document of yours is worth more than the words of a scholar? Ying'er, you'd better listen to your aunt and sell it!"
"Hmph! If they don't recognize what's written in black and white and insist on blaming it on me, then that's unreasonable, and there's nothing to say!"
The red lady snorted coldly and slapped the official document on the table.
"You can make as much trouble as you like, I don't care about it."
Zhang Yan saw that she didn't listen to her advice at all, so she didn't bother to talk anymore.
"Xu Lan, show this official document to the scholars outside the palace. If they don't leave after reading it and make trouble, arrest them all and send them to Qiongzhou.
Tell them that if there are still people coming tomorrow, or if there are rumors about my relationship with brothels in the future, I will seal all the brothels in Jiangnan and everyone will stay away."
The matchmaker said and finally hit the table hard. She was obviously very angry at the shamelessness of those literati. She was not coveting the millions of taels of silver earned by dozens of brothels every year.
"yes!"
Xu Lan immediately picked up the official document and took away the people to kill outside the palace.
At this moment, thousands of scholars and a large number of common people have gathered outside the palace. The scholars came spontaneously, while the common people were hired by the merchants.
After reading the documents, all the scholars looked at each other in shock. When they heard that there was a commotion and that they would be sent to Qiongzhou, and that all the brothels were to be sealed off, they all fled away in fear.
And whether they were officials, gentry, wealthy businessmen, or scholars, they were so frightened that they did not dare to cause trouble again when they saw that the red lady wanted to drain the fire and close down all the brothels.
After all, with the temperament of that imperial concubine, she would really be able to do such a thing when provoked.
In this way, under the threat of the red lady dying together, the wealthy scholars and merchants in Jiangnan had no choice but to acquiesce in the brothel matter and did not mention it again.
And as the news spread that the Queen Mother and the imperial concubines came to Nanjing to take charge and eradicated all the nobles as soon as they arrived, the civil and military officials in the southern provinces and the local powerful people could not help but restrain themselves a lot.
For example, Zheng Zhilong of Fujian Province has made Fujian a mess in the past two years. His men killed innocent people indiscriminately and destroyed villages and villages frequently. He did not take the court or the local civil servants seriously. The Zheng family was like a local emperor in Fujian.
exist.
But now they have to restrain themselves, but the memorial to impeach the Zheng family is still flying from Fujian to Nanjing like snowflakes.
But now the red lady has no mind to care about the Zheng family in Fujian. In the Fengtian Hall, after listening to the angel who came back from Wuchang to deliver the edict, Ma Shiying was the first to jump out.
"The Empress Dowager, your Majesty, this Zuo Liangyu is clearly self-respecting and harboring evil intentions. He is too guilty to come to Nanjing. He is pretending to be ill. This is really treasonous."
"Your Majesty, Your Majesty, General Zuo has always been loyal to the imperial court. Over the years, he has made many military exploits in chasing down the rebels. If it weren't for General Zuo, the entire Huguang would have fallen into the hands of the traitors.
I think this time it is true that an old illness has relapsed, which is why I am unable to come to Nanjing to see the Queen Mother and the Queen Mother. It is definitely not what some people who are afraid of the world's chaos say, holding the troops in high esteem and harboring evil intentions, hoping that the Queen Mother will understand clearly!"
Hou Xun stood up quickly. After speaking, he stared at Ma Shiying fiercely, wishing he could eat his flesh and sleep on his skin.
Ma Shiying sneered: "Resisting and disrespecting the order means resisting and disrespecting the order. If you are sick, you can disobey the order. Will other generals in the world be able to use pretending to be sick as an excuse to disobey the order in the future?"
"you…"
Hou Xun pointed at Ma Shiying, his face turned red from suppressing it, but he didn't know how to refute, so he had to bow to the red lady and Zhang Yan again: "Queen Mother, Queen Mother, there are millions of people under Zuo General Bing's command. Although there is resistance this time,
There is suspicion, but after all, there is a reason for the matter. I am willing to go to Wuchang in person and persuade him to come to Nanjing for an audience."
Hou Xun knew that if Zuo Liangyu still held the idea of supporting the army and disobeying the imperial court's orders at this time, he would definitely not end well.
He would definitely be implicated by then, so he wanted to go to Wuchang in person to persuade him.
Because news just came that Zhang Xianzhong surrendered in Chengdu half a month ago and accepted the canonization of the imperial court.
Looking at the world, Zuo Liangyu has millions of troops in Huguang. Your Majesty and your empress will never let it go.
Not to mention that Hou Xun really guessed wrong this time. As for Zuo Liangyu, Zhu Cihong really planned to just wait for him to die of illness, so he told the red lady when he came that he could ignore Zuo Liangyu for the time being.
But now Zuo Liangyu is the only one in the whole south who has supported his troops in Huguang and has written a memorial to Beijing and Nanjing respectively, but has not expressed anything.
"Okay! Then I will give Zuo Liangyu one last chance. You tell him that he will not be in Nanjing at the end of November. After the beginning of the new year, I will go to Wuchang in person to meet his million-strong army."
The red lady said and finally sneered.
Even if she was beaten to death, she would not believe that Zuo Liangyu really had an army of one million and had 150,000 soldiers and horses with real swords and guns. She admired Zuo Liangyu's ability.
The real number of soldiers capable of fighting is probably only 70,000 to 80,000. If His Majesty had not told her, she would have led 20,000 troops to the west along the Yangtze River, and then asked Gao Jie to go south along the Han River. Attacked from both sides, with only the two of them with 40,000 troops.
, you can easily deal with Zuo Liangyu’s rabble.
"yes!"
Hou Xun was relieved when he saw that the red lady agreed to persuade him.
Zhang Yan, who was on the side, thought about it and added: "Hou Aiqing, please convey a message to Zuo Liangyu on behalf of the Ai family. As long as he is willing to come to Nanjing, the Ai family can protect him from worries and submit a petition to His Majesty to request a title for him."
Seeing what the Queen Mother said, Hou Xun was also overjoyed. He naturally knew that the reason why Zuo Liangyu did not want to come to Nanjing was mainly because he was dissatisfied with the fact that His Majesty had appointed all the generals as general soldiers, except for Zuo Liangyu, who had been forgotten.
After all, Gao Jie, Liu Liangzuo, Huang Degong, Liu Zeqing and others cannot compare with Zuo Liangyu in terms of qualifications, military achievements, or the troops in hand.