Chapter 370 Draft

"Xia Guo wants Tsushima Island?"

Tokugawa Iemitsu was kneeling on the couch, the wrinkles on his forehead rising like ravines in the mountains, clearly filled with shock and anger.

"Hi!"

The warrior bowed at his feet, not daring to raise his head.

"Eight...Gah..." Tokugawa Iemitsu gritted his teeth: "A wolf's ambition, a wolf's ambition!"

Then the voice changed: "Tell me, what reason did the emperor of Xia use to cede my Tsushima Island?"

"General, the Emperor of Xia Kingdom said that since the general wants to trade with each other, he will use Tsushima Island as a place for mutual trade." The samurai said tremblingly.

"Mutual trading... is really a good reason." Tokugawa Iemitsu took a slow breath: "The founding kings of the mainland's past dynasties all had enough ambitions to develop, but they were not as good as this one."

He was not stupid enough to ask why the Xia Kingdom did not use the islands off the coast of Korea to trade with each other. Now he is begging Xia Guo, not Xia Guo him.

What he saw was the ambition of the founding emperor of China's new dynasty. What is Tsushima Island? This is the gateway to Japan and Japan. What is the purpose of ceding the gateway? This is the prelude to trying to get involved in the entire Japanese Japanese!

He would not be stupid enough to say that even the Mongolian and Yuan Tatar Empire failed to succeed, so he thought that Xia State could not succeed either - Xia State's steel fleet showed off its power at home, and he had suffered a big loss!

"Someone is coming."

Tokugawa Iemitsu thought about it and said, "In the name of the shogunate, we summon all the great officials here to discuss important matters."

"Hi!"

...

It has been more than half a year since the founding of the Xia Dynasty, but the imperial palace has not yet fully grown. Not only the concubines and beauties in the harem, but also many departments related to royal life failed to be established.

Departments like the Royal Hospital are only now gradually taking shape.

Tianjia has the splendor of Tianjia, which can be summarized not only by whether it is extravagant or not. It is on par with the status and is part of the famous vessel.

No less, only more.

If an emperor eats a dish of vegetables, wears linen clothes, and looks unkempt, that is not frugality, that is a joke.

Majesty requires careful maintenance and care, including all aspects of life, without any carelessness.

During the Ming Dynasty of the previous dynasty, there were dozens of departments in the palace, which seemed complicated, but their existence was necessary. The Ministry of Rites proposed to follow the rules of the previous dynasty. Although some were reduced by Ying Yi, if they were to be built up, there would still be twenty departments.

Because the palace is not full, the number of female officials and maids in the palace is not large. Today there are less than five hundred people. The national talent show hosted by the Ministry of Etiquette has begun with great fanfare, and Ying Yi's wedding is about to be put on the agenda, so the palace must complete it as soon as possible.

Therefore, the recruitment of female officials and maids was also carried out together with the draft.

Under Ying Yi's instructions, a maximum of 100 beauties were finally selected to enter the palace. And those who can be selected must be ladies from all walks of life. Not only are they proficient in all kinds of music, chess, calligraphy and painting, they must be good at at least one or two things, and the last thing they need is to be literate.

As for the female officials and maids-in-waiting, according to the Ministry of Etiquette, they were selected from among the beauties who had not been selected among hundreds of people.

The original plan of the Ministry of Rites was to select a thousand people. But Ying Yi immediately cut it in half and asked for 500 people. In other words, the final number of female officials and maids in the palace was only around a thousand.

The palace is very large, and a mere thousand people can fit in it. Most of them will be sparse, and you won't be able to see a few at a glance. Fortunately, there are still some eunuchs left over from the previous dynasty. There are more than two thousand eunuchs, which is enough.

Speaking of the eunuchs left over from the previous dynasty, the number was certainly more than 2,000. But there was a selection process. The older ones, those over thirty-five, were dismissed. Of course, pension benefits are paid. Those left behind are all young people, just over two thousand.

Such a scale is unmatched by any other dynasty. However, Ying Yi insisted that there was no need for so many people, and there was nothing the Ministry of Rites could do.

Huang Zongxi thought that since there wouldn't be so many people, it would be better to be more expensive. Since the emperor does not like eunuchs and replaces them with female officials, then he should carefully select some who are educated and knowledgeable.

Regarding the fact that Ying Yi did not like eunuchs and replaced them with female officials, the ministers in the court did not criticize him. One person thinks this is not in line with the laws of the ancestors. No one thought that Ying Yihuangyin, plus the Zheng family who had not yet entered the palace, had only five confirmed concubines. This is unimaginable for any founding emperor of any dynasty.

They just felt awkward - in the future, the direct contact with the palace would be with female officials, which made these ministers feel uncomfortable.

But the subtle remarks are ineffective.

When the emperor wants to draft, it is a first-class event for both the temple and the world. There is a lot of enthusiasm among the people - if a young lady in the family is selected and reaches the sky, what kind of glory will it be?

The first step in the selection process for the Ministry of Rites is local recommendation. There are no restrictions on this, whether it is a gentry family, a businessman's family, or a common people's family.

What matters is appearance and posture. After passing this level, you will officially enter the selection process of the Ministry of Etiquette.

Taking the county as the unit, each county recommends 100 people. Then the Humane Supervisor and the Ministry of Rites will send people to jointly select them. The Humanity Supervisor represents Ying Yi's own wishes - whatever his aesthetics is, the Humanity Supervisor will choose. The Ministry of Rites is responsible for handling related matters.

One out of ten candidates will be selected in each county, and one in ten candidates will be selected at the provincial level. The selection at this level involves appearance and temperament. At the state level, it is still one out of ten, involving music, chess, calligraphy, painting, and female beauties.

Finally, it was collected in the capital and inspected by the emperor himself.

Throughout the Great Xia Empire, there were thousands of administrative districts at the county level. If the number of candidates was full, there would be hundreds of thousands, and the first choice would be tens of thousands of women. There are still thousands of people entering the government level. Basically, at the state level, you should be able to enter the palace as a concubine, a female official, or a maid.

In this regard, the empire does not waste its people and money. As long as they make it to the primary selection list, all the expenses of the draft will be reimbursed by the empire. If they fail to pass any test, the empire will pay a return home allowance, so that the people will not be embarrassed.

It is said to be vigorous, whether it is the draft or other construction, it is the same. The education system, transportation system, water conservancy and other infrastructure construction, and even the draft, mobilized the entire empire. The related national issuance of new currency, improvement of labor efficiency, and gradual prosperity of commerce are all visible to the naked eye.

In this process, some remnants of the purges before and after the founding of the People's Republic of China, including thieves and bandits whose business was becoming increasingly difficult to do, and evil gentry and businessmen who were lucky enough to escape, were all picked out and accounted for.

The order of the empire, under such circumstances, was further and completely stabilized.

The summer sun is so intense that even the capital is extremely hot. Since the establishment of the empire, the cold climate has gradually begun to recede, gradually tightening towards the most normal period in the past. People think this is God's will and believe that Ying Yi is destined to return.

It actually heralds the end of the Little Ice Age.

In the imperial garden, under the shade of the flower trees, Ying Yi was enjoying the cool air. Zi Niang also entered the palace today, where she and Chen Yuanyuan were chatting happily while fanning themselves and sipping ice cubes.

There are always some inconveniences in life - compared with before Ying Yi traveled through time. For example, it was a hot summer day. In that era, there was air conditioning, but there was always an electric fan. But not here.

Just ice cubes.

It's not that this problem cannot be solved. In fact, Ying Yi already has relevant ideas, but he hasn't had time to implement them yet.

The ice cave in the palace is actually different from the past. The ice in the ice cave is no longer made of saltpeter, but is made of Yuan Fu.