Chapter 360: Reorganizing the Inner Palace
Historically, this year was actually quite uneventful.
However, for many people, it was very different.
The Jiang Family came from humble beginnings and did not support idlers.
Although Jiang Changtian had firmly taken in the old, the weak, the sick, and the disabled from the very beginning, all of them would rely on their limited abilities to do what they could.
There weren’t that many masters in the palace, so naturally, there was no need for so many people.
Qin Luoxia was a very pragmatic person.
Aunt Yin had also returned to the imperial palace with her.
Fate was truly… a roundabout, a full circle.
In the end, she had returned to the palace, becoming a senior matron within its walls.
She had originally worked in the palace for a few years, drawing an imperial salary, but always felt that the palace was too cutthroat. She resigned to live a life of leisure and stayed away from the palace. She hadn’t expected that after working outside for several years and finding a new boss, that boss would acquire her previous place of employment, leading to Aunt Yin’s powerful return.
She was back here again, a veteran employee.
She was drawing an imperial salary again, and her seniority had even been restored.
As a veteran employee who understood both the Jiang Family and the imperial palace well, Aunt Yin knew the demands of both sides, making her work twice as effective with half the effort.
The Jiang Family was a very frugal household; they prioritized food and drink, while clothing was mainly for comfort, without being wasteful.
The only relatively wasteful one was perhaps the little master. The little master had some strange living habits and was excessively clean, so there were many demands, but they didn’t like having many people serving them.
Therefore, having so many people in the palace was too wasteful.
Qin Luoxia brought Aunt Yin along; now that she could handle matters herself, she would only ask Aunt Yin if she truly didn’t understand something.
For the concubines of the previous emperor in the palace, Qin Luoxia gave them two choices. First, they could leave the palace to retire and look after their grandchildren if they wished. Even if their sons were gone, their grandsons and granddaughters were still there, and though families were often chaotic, these women were all clever, so raising children outside the palace was no problem at all.
Second, those without children could choose to stay in the palace to retire, following a nursing home model. If they were old and unable to move, they would be well cared for, with good food and entertainment. The younger ones could put their talents to use; whatever they knew how to do or wanted to do, they could apply to do it.
In short, the palace did not support idlers, and there was no such thing as a Cold Palace. Everyone had to get active and moving; depression was impossible because they were too busy to have time for it.
The late emperor’s women were proficient in various talents; speaking of them, they were all outstanding female elites of society.
Those who could embroider, dance, compose poetry, or play the zither could easily become teachers. Those who couldn’t do anything but were just beautiful could handle reception duties—at the very least, they were pleasing to the eye.
After dealing with the women left behind by the late emperor, the next step was the maids and eunuchs currently serving in the palace.
Originally, there were many maids in the palace, and they couldn’t just be released all at once. Releasing them rashly now, when they were on the older side and past the typical age for marriage, was problematic. Moreover, anything in excess became cheap; if such a large group were released, no one knew what they might encounter.
Now, hearing that the new Empress would allow them to become concubines in the households of high-ranking officials, the maids were all incredibly excited.
Compared to countless other outcomes, this was the best one.
After all, people of this era had never been taught the concept of ‘one life, one pair.’ Having three wives and four concubines was the orthodox education of the time, and becoming a concubine was already a way out for many women. Since they were becoming concubines anyway, being a concubine to a regular wealthy merchant or a shopkeeper was certainly not as good as being one to a high-ranking, powerful court official; it was a good ending they wouldn’t even dare to dream of.
If they had to go out and find it themselves, they wouldn’t be able to find such good conditions.
Most of the maids signed up enthusiastically. The Empress actually spoke with every single maid who signed up, asking what type they liked and what their requirements were—they could actually make a choice!!!
Qin Luoxia’s thinking was very simple: different girls always had different desires. Some liked them good-looking, some liked them young, some liked them wealthy. Since they were all getting married anyway, it was best to choose someone they were satisfied with.
Aunt Yin was very satisfied. The Empress was doing an excellent job, balancing kindness with severity. This way, if these maids had a hard life, they could file a complaint, and if they had a good life, they would certainly remember the Empress’s kindness. Furthermore, these were palace people being married off from the palace, and the Empress was particularly kind and gentle, truly like a mother, speaking to each maid individually. After these maids were married, most would surely think of the Empress, and these would be sources of support; as for the few who were brainless, there was nothing to be done about them.
But then again, if they were truly brainless, they wouldn’t have survived in the palace. Any maid who could survive and get ahead had her own strengths and definitely had some wits.
Qin Luoxia did things in a very methodical way. She felt she wasn’t very smart, so she was very serious about everything she did, and if she didn’t understand something, she would ask her husband without feeling ashamed.
She also had a daughter who was married off, so putting herself in their shoes, she spoke to each one very earnestly.
It didn’t matter if the other party understood or not; she had done what she could.
She hoped the girls would all have a good destination.
There were also maids who didn’t want to leave the palace to become concubines; that was fine too. If they didn’t want to go out, they could stay in the palace—they could just put their talents to use.
She tried her best to satisfy everyone’s choices.
Then, the wives of the officials who had submitted memorials requesting the Emperor to fill the harem also bit the bullet and entered the palace to request an audience one by one.
These ladies’ scalps were tingling; they hadn’t expected that the first order of business when meeting the new Empress would be to take concubines for their own husbands, which made them feel depressed and even more depressed.
Honestly, why worry about whether the Emperor takes concubines when you have nothing better to do?
If the Emperor wants to bestow someone upon you, can you refuse?
There were already enough birds and swallows at home, and now the Emperor was bestowing another one, along with a bride price. Was this a concubine?
What kind of concubine requires a bride price? But this was trouble caused by their own husbands, so the wives had to come forward to solve it.
The New Emperor had just taken office.
The new Empress was not a pushover.
There was gossip that when The New Emperor was an official in Jingzhou, he loved to amass wealth, often using family birthdays as an excuse to collect money; he would even host lavish celebrations for his son-in-law’s birthday just to receive gifts.
Therefore, when each family prepared the bride price, they were very sensible and gave items that were quite valuable.
The Empress in the palace also arranged dowries; the imperial dowry was very respectable, and the dowry would become the girl’s private property later on. Moreover, the Empress was even thoughtful enough to provide secret health-preserving medicine.
The palace maids all knew that Princess Caiyi had given birth to two sons in one pregnancy for the Meng Family, which had only had one heir per generation.
It was hard to say that the secret medicine didn’t contribute to that.
In short, although outsiders called it The New Emperor amassing wealth.
But those maids who rode sedan chairs out of the palace were all moved to tears.
Their path ahead might be uncertain, but at least what was behind them was certain.
The Empress said that she was their maternal family, and if there were any issues, they could report them.
They took the dowries given by the imperial family and were delivered to the homes of various officials.
These officials were very angry at first, feeling that they had been outplayed by The New Emperor in their struggle against him, which caused them to lose face.
They didn’t give these maids a good look, but for the sake of the imperial family’s reputation, since they had already taken them in and couldn’t return them, they had no choice but to accept.
The wives were also worried that their backyards would not be peaceful in the future.
However, unexpectedly, this group of maids performed very well. There was no fighting for favor or trying to stand out; instead, they got along very well with the wives of each household and quickly established a firm footing. These court officials also felt that they were truly women from the palace—their thinking and behavior were just different.
The ice and snow melted, green grass poked out, and spring arrived.
That group of maids bestowed from the palace had actually all become pregnant one after another…
Hearing that they all had the secret health-preserving medicine bestowed by the Empress as part of their dowry, the noble ladies of the capital turned green with envy.
In reality, those pills were just ordinary herbs from the household, nothing special. However, this group of maids, at their age of early twenties, were actually at the best age for women to give birth. Moreover, the maids had been doing manual labor for years, so they were actually less likely to have difficult births, and their fertility rate was high…
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