“You look like this, if you don’t hand over your name card, I’m afraid you’ll suffer a beating.” Zhao Shi's eyes were full of amazement, she thought in her heart, it was true that people rely on clothes and horses rely on saddles.
Su Yu’s skin was fair, in fact, his facial features were not particularly brilliant, but they were put together just right. One more point and he would be too unyielding and one less would make him look weak.
On normal days, he was covered up by coarse clothes and looked a little ashen. Now he changed his clothes and showed his warm eyes and eyebrows.
If he had a handful of books in his hand, he would be certainly recognized as a talented scholar in the south of the Yangtze River.
“Get a caning?” Su Yu was stunned.
Why was there such a saying? But no one ever told him!
Zhao Shi nodded, her eyes full of smiles.
“In those days, Tong Yiniang was a famous beauty. You really look like her. ”
“Really…” But Su Yu was not in the mood to listen to this now.
His main concern was that he could be punished for not submitting his name card!
Throughout the ages, all dynasties had different requirements for drafts. It all depended on the mood of the emperor.
The people of the Da’an Dynasty were relatively open. Su Yu always thought that this place was similar to the Song and Tang Dynasties, so he didn’t care too much.
Could it be that the emperor was like Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, and if there were any beauties in the family who refused to be sacrificed, they would be killed?
Su Yu found that every time that he came to see his first mother, he would discover a new world and he was either surprised or frightened.
Going back and reading the law book again, there was indeed a written record about the fact that the children of merit nobles must attend the selection, but it doesn’t say that there was any punishment for not attending the selection.
Su Yu was very distressed, if he was fined and he couldn’t get married, it would be fine, but as a modern man who never suffered, he really couldn’t bear to be beaten and whipped.
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Xianmantang was open all day. It was not yet time to sell snacks and tea. The snack was seafood barbecue, and the tea was mainly sour plum soup and sweet ginger tea and they were all ready-made things.
The shopkeeper and Su Yu were at leisure at this time.
In fact, the shopkeeper was Mister Yuan. Because Su Yu’s business philosophy was too advanced, Mister Yuan was afraid that the old shopkeepers wouldn’t accept it, so he simply took the lead.
In addition, King Zhao had not assigned any tasks to him recently, so he appeared behind the counter on time every day.
When Su Yu threw a strategist, who was almost qualified to be the prime minister, into the restaurant as a shopkeeper, he inevitably felt that he was wasting natural resources.
Seeing Mister Yuan smile and put the guest’s change into his sleeve, he had a toothache. Sure enough, no one was perfect, Mister Yuan had such a strange habit of being a shopkeeper.
Taking advantage of the half-hour free time, Su Yu invited Mister Yuan to have a rest in the backyard and try his new dishes.
“What’s the matter?”
Mister Yuan laughed when he heard Su Yu’s distress.
“Young Master Su was right to ask me.”
After thinking about it Su Yu could only ask Mister Yuan about the selection. Other people he knows are either not nobles or younger than him, and knew little about the rules of the Imperial Concubine Selection.
“The rules for selecting imperial concubines were set in the reign of Emperor Taizu. The name card was to be reviewed in a directory for the ZongZheng Department. In his early years, there were not so many noble children, so there was no need for name cards, ZongZheng Department reported the roster directly. Now the merit nobles had a large number of children, where good and bad looks and character were intermingled, and ZongZheng Department doesn’t have that many people, that’s why each family should take the initiative to hand in name cards…” Mister Yuan seemed to understand everything and spoke straightforwardly.
He explained the process of selecting imperial concubines in every detail and even analyzed the hidden political factors.
According to Mister Yuan, most of the nobles' children were willing to participate in the Concubine Selection because of the strange rules of the Da’an Imperial family.
After all, once they were selected to the palace, the family title would be theirs and men couldn’t have children. Of those who were released, if they were lucky enough to be granted a title in the palace when they left they would get a promotion in their title.
To not participate in the Imperial Concubine Selection was to give up the chance to show up in front of the royal family, that is, to give up inheriting the title in disguise.
Generally speaking, every noblewoman of the right age family will participate in the selection, while the men were the preferred heirs of the family, so usually, one or two individuals were enough, not everyone.
Therefore, The ZongZheng Department mostly reviews the directory based on the name cards.
Those who did not submit their name card will be ignored when there was no shortage of candidates.
After filtering out the political things Mister Yuan said, Su Yu breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed that Zhao Shi was just joking.
“But…” Mister Yuan seemed to suddenly think of something, and then changed his words.
“If the ZongZheng Department suddenly became more serious, if you should hand over the name card but didn’t, you would be punished with twenty canings.”
Su Yu: “...”
After going back and forth, things went back to square one.
At home, Su Yu overturned trunks and boxes for a long time but failed to find his lost name card, he was very distressed. If I had known it earlier, I would have submitted the name card.
Anyway, it would be better to fool around and not be selected, than to be found out and beaten.
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In Da’an Imperial Palace, in the golden hall, there were red pillars with coiled dragons, carved beams, and painted rafters.
On the Jiulong Throne sat the young emperor of the Da’an Dynasty, dressed in bright yellow imperial robes, he held his forehead with one hand and listened absently to the minister presenting a memorial below.
“I inform the emperor that the ZongZheng Department has reviewed the name cards of the noble children, and the Ministry of Revenue has also submitted the directory of official children. The first round of the Concubine Selection is scheduled for the third day of September.” The official of the Ministry of Rites said, holding two rosters.
The beautiful eyes, which seemed to be closed but not closed, opened slightly. After a pause, he said casually.
“Bring it up.”
The directory of official’s children was obviously much thicker than that of merit noble children.
An Hongche frowned slightly, opened the registry of noble’s children, glanced at it and closed it, then looked at the other directory, tapped on it with two fingers but didn’t look through it.
There was a moment of silence in the court hall.
“Your Majesty, there has been no Imperial Concubine Selections in the palace for three years. This minister thought that this time he should recruit concubines to fill the harem, and so this minister decided without authorization and allowed the children of officials below the third grade outside the capital to be included in the booklet.” The man standing at the head of the civil officials stepped forward and said.
This person was Luo Maogong, the Prime Minister of the current dynasty, the crown prince's grand tutor, and also the cousin of the Empress Dowager.
There were too many officials outside the capital that it would be very costly to let their children participate in the selection. Everyone understood this truth, but no one in the court refuted it,
An Hongche picked up the booklet and glanced at the people in the audience hall.
The civil official all lowered their heads and dared not to talk, several military officers seemed angry but no one spoke.
“Crack~~” A crisp sound, which was very grating on the ear echoed in the hall where a needle falling could be heard and the thick booklet was torn to pieces in an instant
“With so many words, how can We see it!” An Hongche said coldly.
“September will wait, the Concubine Selection will be held on the third day of the next month, present the new directory tomorrow.” With that, he got up and left without waiting for everyone to react.
Silence, a long silence.
The civil and military ministers were all stunned on the spot, and the Prime Minister was even more frozen in place.
“Sirs, are you all intending to have lunch here?” The person standing above the prime minister, that is, the person under the imperial steps yawned, it was His Royal Highness King Zhao who hadn’t quite woken up yet.
Only then did the ministers of civil and military affairs react, saluting the empty throne and leaving the court.
“Brother Emperor has been willful for a long time. Uncle, take more care.” An Hongyi said happily when he came to Luo Maogong’s side.
Lu Maogong looked at the chubby King Zhao with a smile.
“The King’s words are too serious. The emperor’s dissatisfaction is naturally due to the incompetence of his subjects.”
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The Imperial Concubine Selection will be held on the third day of next month and the sons and daughters of the officials outside the capital had no time to enter the capital.
The ups and down in the court affected Su Yu’s peaceful life, within a few days, the ZongZheng Department’s directory came down.
Su Yu was inviting King Zhao to taste the new dishes in the backyard when the only servant of the Su family stumbled in.
“Second Young Master, the family asks you to go back quickly. The ZongZheng Department sent people to announce the directory and requested you to go back and announce it again!”
“Bang!” Su Yu dropped the vegetable plate in his hand to the ground and looked at An Hongyi stiffly.
“Wangye, can you think of a way to help me make up the name card?”
“Ah?” King Zhao, who was eating happily raised his head blankly.