Chapter 381: Preparations for the wedding and buying a ship in Siam
Before setting off to negotiate with the Manchus, Zhao Xin made a special trip to bring Director Liu back from another time and space to inquire about the progress of the preparations for his wedding with Shen Xuan.
When a person reaches a certain social status, many private matters become public affairs. Beihai Town is different from the past, and the marriage of Zhao Xin and Shen Xuan is no longer their business.
Last year, Zhao Xin was still thinking about whether it could be simpler, wasn't it just a lively picture? But before he could say a few words, Shen Xuan's face turned ugly, let alone Shen Jingdan, who just shook his head. disagree.
As the only descendant of the Shen family in Dongtai, Shen Xuan needs to go through a ceremonial marriage ceremony to comfort her relatives; while for Shen Jingdan's family, they have to come all the way here to endure the cold and endure hardship, carrying the reputation of rebellion. Isn’t it just the status of human relations? If you want to have a meal, you can get married. Do you think my Shen family is marrying their daughter as a concubine?
Alas, there is really no reason to argue with this. Who told Zhao Xin to call himself His Royal Highness in the first place, but now the tide has risen, and the Shen family demands that it be done at least according to the "prince's etiquette".
It was only then that Zhao Xin regretted a little. He had been foolish enough to set up a banner with the word "Ming" in the first place, and he was really setting himself up.
Afterwards, Liu Siting, who heard about this, came to the door and volunteered to help. This woman now claimed that she wanted to take care of herself and prepare for having a baby. By helping Zhao Xin's wedding, she started working only half a day every day more than half a year ago. , all the specific affairs in the hospital are handled by a large group of subordinates.
Zhao Xin was very grateful if someone could help, so he entrusted Director Liu Da with full authority to help handle the matter. So the "marriage preparation group" for the big boss was established. The main leaders are three, Shen Jingdan and Director Liu Da. and Wang Zhong, as for the handymen and helpers, there are more.
The problem is that both the Shen family and Director Liu wanted to keep things simple regarding the "Prince's Wedding".
According to the wedding rules of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the marriage of a man and a woman needs to go through six rituals: receiving gifts, asking for names, accepting gifts, accepting levies, asking for a date (the emperor calls it "announcement"), and welcoming in person, which are the so-called six rites. From the emperor down to the common people, they could not avoid it. The rules of each class just differed in details.
Shen Xuan and her biological father Shen Chengzhuo are just a small country squire from southern Jiangsu, and Shen Jingdan's family is not even considered a wealthy businessman in Yangzhou. With their little experience, how can they understand what "the gift of a prince" is? ”.
Not to mention Director Liu Da, with her and her husband Dr. Hong’s meager historical knowledge, they thought it was just a lively ceremony to worship heaven and earth in Hanfu.
However, when Wang Zhong heard Shen Jingdan's thoughts, he shook his head repeatedly and said that he was not compatible with Li. Looking at Shen Jingdan who looked confused, Wang Zhong, who said he had no books to read, directly took out a copy of "Da Ming Huidian" , turned to Volume 69 "Prince's Wedding", pointed to the text above and said to Shen Jingdan: "Brother Zhengtong, first take a look at what the Prince's Gift is."
Shen Jingdan was stunned after reading it, and Director Liu Da who came after hearing the news was also dumbfounded.
At first, Shen Jingdan was anxious and hurriedly asked for Zhao Xin's horoscope and let Wu Xianning temporarily act as a magic stick to close it. He thought it was no big deal, so he accepted a simple gift in exchange for a red book and green paper. But now I read it. "Da Ming Huidian", I realized that this is not how the princes and royal families play, the rules are complicated!
Just as an engagement gift, the twenty pieces of silk and satin, a box of Dongzhu, two gold rings, a pair of gold earrings, and two jars of white wine that Zhao Xin gave her were simply child's play.
In the ancient weddings, accepting gifts and accepting gifts were not seen one after another, but the gifts had to be prepared twice. The gifts Zhao Xin gave were so-so and they were only enough to accept the lottery. As for accepting gifts, there were also gifts, and they were far more comprehensive.
The first time I give you much more.
Not to mention anything else, since you are marrying a princess, you must have a Jade Valley Gui.
According to "Zhou Rites": Gu Gugui is seven inches long, and the emperor can marry a girl. This thing should be made of white jade, and the whole thing is rectangular, with the upper tip and lower part. There are no words or patterns engraved on the surface, just a circle of neat convex lines.
Inside the edge, there is a whole surface of raised dots that are evenly sized and arranged neatly.
Regardless of whether you are an emperor or a prince, shouldn’t you use dragons and phoenixes when marrying? Why should you use “gu”? University scholar Wang Zhong gave a perfect answer: “Zheng Xuan of the Han Dynasty has long said that the so-called Gu Gui is also a king.
It makes it an auspicious festival. Gu means good, and its decoration is like millet. It means that the emperor and the prince should have the world in mind when they get married, and 'gu' means 'good' in ancient times."
In addition, you also need one Yanju crown and four sets of Yanju clothes. This is the so-called Fengguan Xiapei (for details, please refer to the actual objects unearthed from the Dingling Tomb of the Ming Dynasty in later generations). The biggest difference between the Yanju crown and the dress crown is that the two dress crowns
On the side are two strings of pearls held by a golden dragon. As for other jade belts, shoes and socks, and head and face jewelry, there are a lot of them. Not only is the style specified, but the weight is also required.
The above is just for women, it is more troublesome for men.
The first is to prepare a leather bean suit, which is the court dress, also called "缱衣"; then the palace is to be prepared, which goes without saying; the third is to have an ancestral hall, and if it is a royal family, there must be a Fengxian Hall;
The fourth is to have a band perform "Zhonghe Shao Music".
If clothes and music are relatively easy to solve, things like the ancestral hall in the ancestral hall are not something that can be handled carelessly. The ancients talked about honors and discipline. When getting married, the ancestors must be informed, and the new daughter-in-law must also go to the ancestral hall to offer incense and worship.
, Only in this way can you enter the family tree and have a reputation.
The problem is that even if we build a Fengxian Hall, who will be worshiped in it? Put a large group of Zhu family members who can't compete with Zhao Xinba inside, and then kowtow to them. Isn't this a joke?
When Director Liu Da sent a telegram to Zhao Xin to ask how to solve it, Zhao Xin said that the matter was too simple. If you want to build it, it is better to build a big Mingtang. Before getting married, you should offer heaven and earth first, and we should also return to Zhenyuan Daxian. After we get married, we will
Put the memorial tablets of those who sacrificed their lives in Beihai Town over the years and transform it into the Martyrs' Shrine.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! Liu Siting later discussed with other time-travelers, and everyone thought that this trick was really effective; with Zhao Xin's magic stick style, he said that it was only for the ancients of heaven and earth to return the favor.
There's really nothing to say.
So five months ago, a large-scale building covering an area of 5,000 square meters, with a steel-wood hybrid structure inside and a Chinese-style Mingtang on the outside, broke ground on an empty lot north of Beihai Town. Now the interior sketching has begun
Painting stage.
With the matter of Fengxian Hall settled, the next step is the band. With the level of Beihai Town, it is very simple to set up a band of 200 trumpeters, but the problem is that the folk trumpeters cannot handle "Zhonghe Shaoyue" at all.
There is no place to learn this thing, unless you go to Taichang Temple in the Qing Dynasty to capture a few officials in charge of court music... Oh, by the way! You also have to capture a few eunuchs from the Divine Music Department at the East Gate of the Temple of Heaven.
Because in addition to the 72 musicians required to perform Shao music, there are also more than 130 civil and military dancers. The musicians return to Taichang Temple, and the dancers return to the Kagura Department. In addition, there are
More than ninety kinds of musical instruments have to be prepared, including chimes and chimes.
Forget it! Let’s play the recording. This is the easiest thing to do.
Before Zhao Xin left for Khabarovsk, he sent Director Liu back to another time and space. He took a plane back to China to find a studio to make custom clothes. Anyway, Boss Zhao was a rich man with a lot of money in Jinshan, so Director Liu directly
Went to Yunjin Research Institute in Nanjing.
When we got to the place and took a look, Director Liu Da was immediately elated. It was too expensive and too beautiful!
Liu Siting pretended that she was not short of money, and hurriedly placed an urgent order. In addition to the ones specially made for Zhao Xin and Shen Xuan, there were also two sets for Director Liu and Doctor Hong himself.
After that, she found a jade shop, selected a piece of mutton-fat jade, and had someone make a seven-inch-long Gu Gui according to the photos of the cultural relics unearthed in Dingling. Then she found several studios that made Hanfu.
I spent a lot of money to buy a jade-like "Six Dragons and Three Phoenixes Crown" and a Babel Crown. In addition, I also bought a lot of various jewelry.
Shen Jingdan was not idle either. Before going to Guangzhou, he made a special trip to Jiangning and asked someone to spend a huge sum of five hundred taels of silver to get some pieces of cloud brocade from Jiangning Weaving.
The output of ancient brocade was very low and the price was extremely expensive, mainly because its weaving process was very complex and cumbersome. Two weavers were dizzy after a busy day, and they could only weave a brocade of about 5 cm at most.
It is said that after Shen Jingdan went to Guangzhou, he met the Cai family smoothly. Now, thanks to Zhao Xin, the Cai family has lost its position as general merchant and was fined a large sum of money by Guangdong Customs.
When they learned that Mr. Shen, who spoke Yangzhou dialect, was here to inquire about the progress of buying a boat, Cai Shiwen and his son, the owners of Wanhe Bank, quickly explained. Only then did Shen Jingdan realize that buying a boat was not that simple.
Zhao Xin made a big fuss in the city of Guangzhou and left with Liu Zheng never to return. The Cai family wanted to communicate with him about the market information obtained from the shipyard, but nothing happened.
First of all, what Zhao Xin originally wanted was a British three-masted sailing ship, but Siam could only build Tang ships, not British ships at all. And the Macau shipyard actually inherited the traditional craftsmanship of Guangdong. If you really want to buy a British ship,
Boats can only be bought from India through the British or Portuguese, and the price is very expensive.
Cai Zhaoping told Shen Jingdan that he thought Siamese Tang ships were very suitable. The largest one had a load capacity of 1,000 tons, the medium one was 770 tons, and the small one was more than 500 tons. Moreover, the shipbuilding craftsmen in Siam were all overseas Chinese, and what they were best at was
A red-headed ship with three masts and hard sails.
As for the price, the cost of Siam Shipyard is not expensive, only 15 taels of silver per ton. The total price of a 500-ton three-masted sailing ship is between 7,500 and 8,000 taels of silver, while the current price of a ship in Fujian Shipyard is 1,600 taels (
The cost of building a medium-sized sea-going ship (95 tons) is 3,000 taels of silver.
In addition to being very cheap, the shipbuilding period in Siam is also very short. A 580-ton Tang Dynasty ship can be completed in just three months from keel laying to launching.
So judging from the current situation, the load capacity of the Siamese ship can definitely meet Zhao Xin's requirements, but the Cai family doesn't dare to decide whether the ship type is suitable. What if Zhao Xin doesn't want to do it if the order is placed?
In addition, there is another biggest problem. After the ship is built, Beihai Town must send people to drive the ship back. It is impossible to stop in Guangdong.
As a former sea trade merchant who went to Japan, Shen Jingdan knew this very well.
In the 42nd year of Kangxi's reign, the Qing government stipulated that merchant ships built in coastal shipyards were allowed to use two masts, but the beam of the ship could not exceed 18 feet, and the number of sailors could not exceed 28.
This means that the thousand-ton ship that Beihai Town bought back from Siam can at most stop at Tanzai Island. But there are so many berths at Tanzai Island!
After a serious discussion between the two parties, Shen Jingdan made the decision to buy Siamese Tang ships. Five 1,000-ton ships and five 770-ton ships. Zhao Xin had previously given the Cai family a deposit of 70,000 taels, and Shen Jingdan took it again this time. A 50,000-tael silver note issued in Yangzhou.
Seeing that Mr. Shen was so forthright and knowledgeable, Cai Shiwen and his son were very happy and treated him warmly. After finishing their work with the Cai family, Shen Jingdan took a boat to Leiyumen to meet Zheng Lianchang from the Red Flag Gang.
Ever since Zheng Yi followed Zhao Xin to the north, Zheng Lianchang has been in a bad mood. He even changed the number of times he went to the flower boat from ten times a month to eight times. Ever since he heard that the imperial court was gathering troops in the north, he was even more worried and worried about his son. of safety.
Shen Jingdan went to Lei Yue Mun. After some pleasantries, he first handed over the letter written by Zheng Yi to his father, and then talked about the situation in Beihai Town. When Zheng Lianchang heard that his son was already a member of a thousand-ton British ship, The trainee captain couldn't help but feel relieved, but then he looked sad again.
Shen Jingdan comforted him: "Brother Zheng, you can rest assured. Wen Xian is smart and studious. Now he is mainly responsible for the commercial trade with the Japanese country. He will be familiar with the routes and gain experience. It will be of great use in the future."
Zheng Lianchang sighed: "Mr. Shen, you are an old expert in running the sea. I am a rough man, so don't mind what I say. I am the only one in the Zheng family, and that bastard Wen Xian doesn't even have a son. Although the ship in the North Sea is safe, , but the wind and waves on the sea are really unpredictable!”
Shen Jingdan said: "Brother, don't worry, we are already familiar with the route to Japan. We have experience when the weather is bad and when there is wind. Besides, Ah Yi's big ship is not driven by sails alone. , with Beihai Town’s mechanical secrets, it only takes three to five days to go back and forth.”
"Oh? Then I must see it some other time." Zheng Lianchang changed the topic and continued: "To be honest, the Xu family of the Black Flag Gang has mentioned it to me several times, and you have to be honest. Now that it's settled Honey, then you can’t keep your words and keep your words.”
Shen Jingdan said: "What are Brother Zheng's plans?"
Zheng Lianchang said: "Let Ah Yi come back and get married. When my daughter-in-law is pregnant, I will ask him to go back and help you."
Shen Jingdan's original intention was to propose to Zheng Lianchang that Hongqi help send sailors to bring the ship back from Siam. But if Zheng Yi was allowed to drive the Beihai No. 1 back, he would feel more at ease about bringing the ship back.
Even if the Cai family sends people to Siam to place an order to start construction, it will still take four months. Taking advantage of this time, Zheng Yi can come back to get married, and then he can go back with the ship in February or March next year, killing two birds with one stone.
Thinking of this, Shen Jingdan said: "This matter will be taken care of by me. I will make it clear to King Zhao when I get back."
So when he returned to Beihai Town in October, he told Zhao Xin about the situation. Zhao Xinxin said that he was so sleepy that he was thinking about who to send to the south to open a tea road!