?
"Brother, did the King Of The East remember to bestow these 20 women to me because I reported to the King Of The East this time?" Vézé asked the official of the King Of The East's residence with a smile on his face. This was the advantage of being young. Even if he had a high status, he could still call others "brother" smoothly. As long as the seniority was not clear, this title was also very suitable.
The official of the King Of The East's residence also replied with a smile, "Prince Of The East is really smart. These women were prepared by the King Of The East for the Prince Of Qi. It's just that this time, Prince Of Qi happened to be delivering a memorial to the King Of The East, so the King Of The East asked me to deliver it to the Prince Of Qi. "
"Oh. What does' filling the palace 'mean? The King Of The East wouldn't ask me to find a woman to be my wife from here, would he? "Vézé's slightly nervous expression was not fake, it was real. With Vézé's level of classical Chinese, he certainly understood what it meant to fill the palace with women. However, Vézé had no confidence in Yang Xiuqing's foundation in classical Chinese, so he had to figure out this very important issue.
Seeing that Vézé was sincerely asking for advice, the official of the King Of The East's residence immediately explained to Vézé in detail, "This phrase was used by the literati recruited by the King Of The East. The King Of The East said that these women were bestowed to the Prince Of Qi. The Prince Of The East has done so many things, he can't have no one to serve him. These women are not to be given to the King Of The East to be the Queen Mother. "
Vézé heaved a sigh of relief when he heard that he was not going to marry her officially. Although he was living in an era where men could marry many wives, Vézé also felt that he had a chance to play with a harem. However, this did not mean that Vézé was willing to marry any random woman. In any case, Vézé felt that an official marriage was a very serious matter. He didn't want others to destroy the importance of marriage to Vézé.
After confirming the most important issue, Vézé drank with the official of the King Of The East for a while and talked about the situation in the capital. At least in the eyes of this official from the King Of The East's residence, the situation in Tianjing City was not bad. The food supplies transported from Anhui to Tianjing City were very stable. Although there were all sorts of wars in various places, the overall direction was very good. This was especially so for the north where Vézé was located. It seemed like there were no big movements, but in fact, they had completed the reorganization of the army of three Prime Ministers in an extremely short period of time. This had already far exceeded Yang Xiuqing's expectations. And this time, Vézé had annihilated 12,000 Qing Army soldiers in one fell swoop, which made Yang Xiuqing even more happy.
If there was anything that had changed, it was that the Wings King, Shi Dakai, had finally left Tianjing City and headed to the western front to preside over the war upstream of the Yangtze River. Other than the King Of The East's residence, there were no other princes or generals in Tianjing City. King Of The East Yang Xiuqing's King Of The East's residence was becoming more and more capable of acting as the central government and giving orders to various troops and factions.
After drinking, Vézé ordered someone to send 200 taels of silver to the official of the King Of The East's residence. Hearing this number, the official's smiling face immediately became a little unhappy. Vézé immediately raised the number to 500 taels of silver. Only then did the official resume his smiling face.
Vézé couldn't help thinking, "So the benefits of doing things have already reached 500 taels of silver. I wonder if this is for me, the Prince Of Qi, or for everyone? "
It seemed that the official of the King Of The East's residence was also quite busy. He didn't stay in Vézé's residence, but directly went to Huaiyuan where Lin Fengxiang was located. As soon as the official left, the generals who knew that Vézé had been assigned women ran over to Vézé's residence shyly but enthusiastically.
Vézé knew what these bearmen were thinking about. He said straightforwardly, "You came just in time. This time, I've never seen 20 women before. These women will be managed by the logistics department. Whoever wants a woman, sign up first and then draw lots. The one who draws lots can have the first one. "
The generals just wanted to join in the fun; however, they had never imagined that Vézé would assign women to them without any hesitation. Additionally, Vézé didn't express his goodwill or say anything else. He was very frank as if these women were originally assigned to the generals by Yang Xiuqing, instead of Yang Xiuqing's gift to Vézé.
"Chief of General Staff, this … this is not appropriate." Even a trusted subordinate like Wei Changrong could only say such words in front of the opportunity to assign women.
Vézé thought, "What do you mean by not appropriate? Whenever you say it's not appropriate, you actually expect the other party to reply, "What's not appropriate about it?!" Then, both parties could happily save each other's face and do whatever they wanted.
Since he knew all this, Vézé could only act according to the rules. He shouted, "The King Of The East is only giving these women to me. What I do with them is my business. Don't talk nonsense, just do as I say! "
Since Vézé's attitude was so firm, the generals could only follow his orders.
After confirming the general direction, Vézé continued to give details, "But I'll say this first, these women cannot follow the army. Also, if you want to be assigned women, you have to marry these people. The Taiping Rebellion prohibits prostitution. If you violate the heavenly law, you will be executed for it. Three days after you get married, send the women you are assigned to to settle down in Lu Zhou. If you just want to play around, then don't participate in this matter! "
When saying this, Vézé felt that it was too nonsensical. As the saying goes, the superiors follow the example of the subordinates. Hong Xiuquan, with his eighty-eight wives, still had the cheek to say that others were not allowed to "engage in prostitution." The most ridiculous thing was that Hong Xiuquan got women just to show his face, to prove that he was a king who was qualified to have eighty-eight wives. Whatever the reason, Hong Xiuquan actually played the game of abstinence in front of hundreds and thousands of women. If Hong Xiuquan was really a lecher, perhaps it would be more humane.
Until now, during the Taiping Rebellion, husband and wife were not allowed to live together. According to the law, only officials of the Prime Minister rank could live with their wives. The army naturally did not allow family members to bring along, and it was the same for Vézé's troops. However, the civil service system did not prohibit husband and wife from living together, so the social unit of the family was not destroyed in the central Anhui province under Vézé's control.
Perhaps because the emperor was far away, Yang Xiuqing never objected to Vézé's practice of violating the Taiping Rebellion system. The king Hong Xiuquan, who only cared about the etiquette of the Taiping Rebellion, didn't have the chance to care about Vézé. Therefore, Vézé could guarantee that the generals in the army who got a wife could live with their new wives for three days.
Knowing that they could finally get a wife, except for the generals who already had a wife, the other young men were extremely happy, and even couldn't help but feel shy.
"Hurry up and find the people in the logistics department, let them prepare to draw lots!" Vézé ordered. After that, Vézé suddenly frowned, and after thinking for a moment, he actually laughed out loud.
No matter how strange this action was, it couldn't stop those who were eager to get married. They swarmed to the logistics department, leaving Vézé in the general staff headquarters.
The reason why Vézé laughed was because he originally thought that maybe he could sneak a peek at the group of women. But when he thought about facing 20 women, it was like when he traveled to Japan and went to the Akihabara Holy Maid Cafe. As soon as he entered the door, there was immediately a cute girl in a maid costume bowing and saying, "Welcome! Dog cultivator Kinsa Ma! "
This thought made Vézé in a good mood, so he couldn't help but laugh out loud. This good mood lasted for nearly a day, and it didn't disappear until evening, when Vézé's good mood didn't disappear. The guard came in and asked, "Chief of Staff, do you know a book collector in Tianjing City called Qi Yuchang?"
"Yes, I do know such a person. What's wrong? "Vézé replied.
"That Qi Yuchang sent someone to our barracks, saying that he wants to deliver a letter to you," the guard replied.
At this time, Vézé was in a good mood, and Qi Yuchang could be considered one of Vézé's few "personal friends," so he ordered someone to bring the letter in. When the guard brought the letter in, Vézé opened it and was immediately surprised.
In the letter, Qi Yuchang said that Tianjing City had recently organized a female talent show, and it was said that there would be another one soon. Qi Yuchang had a precious daughter who was in her early twenties and still unmarried. Now that the female talent show was going from house to house, it seemed that it couldn't be avoided, and there was no way to escape from Tianjing City with the whole family and books. Qi Yuchang wanted to ask if Vézé was married. If Vézé had any questions, he could directly ask the person who delivered the letter.
Other than not directly writing, "Vézé, do you have a wife? Are you interested in marrying one?", Qi Yuchang had already said everything in the letter. Vézé remembered that during the Manchu Qing era, there was also a talent show in the capital. The families that were qualified to be a nun were not ordinary people, they had to have some status and background. As a result, every time it was time for the talent show, these rich families would quickly marry off their daughters. For families with money and status, the happiness and health of their own family was much more important than the so-called "glory" of serving the emperor. It seemed that Qi Yuchang was such a person.
Although he admired Qi Yuchang's attitude towards the world, and Vézé quite liked Qi Yuchang as a person. However, Vézé had no plans to satisfy Qi Yuchang. After staying in the Taiping Rebellion for so long, Vézé found that he liked one thing about the Taiping Rebellion very much. Whether it was the system or the implementation, the Taiping Rebellion was against foot-binding.
Vézé had seen photos of foot-binding, and Vézé was scared to death by the abuse of their feet. In Guangxi, the birthplace of the Taiping Rebellion, foot-binding was not popular. Moreover, most of the people who joined the Taiping Rebellion were poor. Once the women from poor families had their feet bound, they would lose a labor force. This was something that the poor people could not accept. Along the way in Hunan and other places, a large number of poor people also joined the Taiping army, and the women there did not have their feet bound. On the contrary, in Anqing, where the "culture was flourishing", women generally had their feet bound. Vézé's administrative system had spent a lot of effort to oppose foot-binding, but to no avail.
For this, Vézé was extremely angry. The proportion of women in Nanjing who had their feet bound was extremely high. Vézé felt that it was really pitiful for Qi Yuchang's daughter to marry Hong Xiuquan, but Vézé had no intention of marrying a foot-binding woman.
After calling the messenger sent by Qi Yuchang to come in, Vézé said in a pleasant tone, "I am Vézé. I have read Mr. Qi Yuchang's letter. I appreciate Mr. Qi's kindness, but I will never marry a foot-binding woman. But I will never marry a woman who binds her feet. Please go back and tell Mr. Qi about this. "
The messenger was a little uneasy at first. After hearing Vézé's words, he was stunned at first, and then quickly said, "Prince Of Qi, my young lady has natural feet!" "Huh?"
Vézé was stunned when he heard this answer. His first thought was, could it be that Qi Yuchang deliberately found a more adaptable guy to deceive him in order to marry his daughter?
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