Chapter 1 Makeup

The flower tines are framed by iron wire and cardboard, and are wrapped with net-like patterns woven with black silk threads, and the surface is all dotted with emerald green.

The front part is decorated with five golden silk phoenixes, with pearls and gemstones inlaid on them, pearls and gemstone tassels in the mouth.

The golden phoenix lined up nine gold diaries in a row, with pearls, coral, turquoise, lapis lazuli, red sapphire and other tassels in their mouths.

There are also several strings of tassel pendants at the back of the tin [Note], which are gorgeous and dazzling.

It was evening at this time, and the setting sun shone in through the window lattice, reflecting each other with pearls and emeralds, making the hall even more luxurious.

Gu Zhen sighed, carefully put the flower tins on the ebony lacquer plate in front of him, and said slowly, "Send it to Xuanqing Palace, and say that this palace added makeup to Princess Xincheng."

When she said this, she subconsciously turned her head to look at the crystal mirror not far away. The queen in the phoenix crown and fine attire in the mirror was still noble and beautiful at first glance, but with a little attention, she could find that there were already a few strands of hair on her temples. Light gray, but the hair is premature.

"I'm not young after all..." Gu Zhen sighed again, she was the same age as Chunjia, this year has been Chunjia's 20th year, counting it is the age of looking around.

It's just that men are older than women, and Chunjia is in control of the power, and everything goes smoothly day by day. He only feels majestic and grand, but his appearance is as handsome and straight as ever.

But the empress, since this year, during the ceremonies, the empress and empress are side by side, making people think that she is older than the emperor, at least seven or eight years old.

The old people in the past are fine, they all know that the queen's life has become more and more difficult in the past two years.

In the fifteenth year of Chunjia, the two healthy direct princes, the tenth prince and the twelve princes, were moved to the Taichu Palace, and the emperor took over their teaching in person.

That would have been a good thing.

But after the two princes arrived at the side hall of Taichu Palace, for the first few months, the emperor just watched with cold eyes, and they lived in peace.

After sixteen years of Chunjia, because nothing happened in the country, Chunjia would be impolite when she freed up her hand, but she blatantly used her hands to discipline the two children.

The ten princes were arrogant, so the emperor often scolded and blamed them; the twelve princes were cowardly, and the emperor mostly encouraged and coaxed them.

In all fairness, Chunjia's arrangement can be regarded as showing affection for the two sons-in-law.

But the relationship between the tenth prince and the twelfth prince has gone from bad to worse.

Not only that, but rumors gradually spread in the palace ban, saying that one of the two princes was too domineering and the other was too weak, and neither of them was normal. The identity is right.

Although these words were spread for a while, they were suppressed by the empress together, but what is terrible is that both the tenth prince and the twelfth prince heard it.

Although the two princes became more and more respectful to the queen, Gu Zhen always felt that they were actually alienated from him in their hearts.

In terms of palace affairs, the collision between the middle palace and the imperial concubine is increasing day by day.

This is not what bothered the queen the most. What made her want to vomit blood the most was that during Chunjia's sixteen years, under repeated requests from her and Mrs. Gu, Chunjia agreed to send a pair of sisters to the palace. Under the banner of accompanying the queen, as the prince of the middle palace, the candidate for future concubines.

As a result, Gu Long, the younger sister of the two young ladies of the Gu family, didn't have a crush on the third prince, let alone the king of Chu, nor the sixth prince... but she went to the seventh prince to see the sky!

To be honest, although the empress doesn't like noble concubines, but to the seventh prince, she really wants to secretly praise that this child is indeed outstanding.

Because of his grandfather's generosity, this child has always had a somewhat detached position in the palace, and even the noble concubine has to deal with it specially, and he is not willing to be ignored casually.

But there is no arrogance, but a very generous and polite disposition.

Apart from being more attached to and partial to the noble concubine, he can be said to be a rare sincere gentleman.

And his appearance is quite similar to that of Chunjia when he was young, refined and coquettish.

Sometimes when Gu Zhen saw this child, he would feel a little dazed, because he remembered when he first entered the palace when he was fifteen or sixteen years old, and saw the appearance of the emperor for the first time.

Chunjia's heart is as hard as a stone, and among the many old people who accompanied him since his wedding, few died well, and few lived comfortably, including his childhood sweetheart, Concubine An. Even so, among the old people like Gu Zhen, who didn't secretly fall in love with the emperor in their best years? At that time, I was still a little naive and childish, and I didn't understand the depth of sorrow for meeting such an emperor. At first, I was tempted by nothing more than coveting the good looks of the ninety-five supreme beings.

Thinking of this, Gu Zhen really couldn't bear to blame Gu Long.

Gu Long is her direct niece, who is the same age as the tenth prince. In the arrangement between the queen and the Gu family, if nothing unexpected happened to her, she would become the concubine of the tenth prince in the future.

It's just that Gu Long was able to flatter the tenth prince at first, but after meeting the seventh prince a few times by chance, she even avoided the tenth prince...

If other princes have many nieces from their natal families, it is not impossible for the queen to try to fulfill her wishes.

The problem is that the Seventh Prince is raised by the noble concubine, even if the relationship between the two parties is not considered, and only that the niece is going to be the noble concubine's daughter-in-law, Gu Zhen is stunned for Gu Long.

That is the master who has run away the dignified and loving mother and empress dowager to leave the capital in embarrassment and has not been able to return to the palace. Even if she is so cruel to the elders, let alone be her junior?

Especially the seventh prince is good at everything, but when it comes to the matter of the imperial concubine, he doesn't even think that his mother and concubine are good at everything and everything is right.

Because of this, even the grandfather Yin Qu was more and more controlled by the imperial concubine.

Gu Zhen twitched the corners of her mouth helplessly, wondering if she would wait for Xin Cheng to come out of the cabinet and find an excuse to send Gu Long back to her mother's house?

Otherwise it would be a waste of a niece, it's a trivial matter, don't make any disturbances, and drag down the reputation of Zhonggong.

Although Zhonggong has been defeated again and again in the past two years, the reputation has also been lost.

But Gu Long didn't live up to it, and Gu Long's sisters still had hope of marrying into the royal family. They couldn't call her an ignorant one, ruining the future of other girls.

"Your Majesty, this flower tin is so luxurious, it would be too humiliating for Xin Cheng to be a princess." Someone among the attendants complained to her, and said in a low voice, "She is going to marry outside the Great Wall soon, where the weather will be very cold." , where can it be used? Don’t move the king’s tent, drop the pearls and drop the emerald feathers, there is no need to waste good things, it’s better to just throw away two of them.”

Concubine Min Gui is not a good person anyway, so what's the use of giving her niece and daughter good things?

Gu Zhen squeezed her forehead, and said slowly: "That's what you said, after all, she is the princess who was conferred by His Majesty himself, and she is going to be the Weihe Dayan family. As a queen, I must have two decent ones when I add makeup. Something. Otherwise, if it spreads out, it won’t mean that our middle palace can’t get rid of it!”

After Chunjia personally raised the ten and twelve princes, she thought that she had fulfilled her responsibilities to the Zhonggong and the Gu family, and she felt at ease when she favored the noble concubine afterwards.

Originally, the concubine was domineering and domineering, but after this incident, she was even more ostentatious.

Half a year ago, he found fault with the Ping family, and the tenth prince went to the imperial court to plead for mercy. Instead of being able to soften Chunjia's heart, he was scolded by the emperor in public, saying that he was ungrateful, and that he was a lowly maidservant who despised the nobles one after another. His aunt, as well as the noble mother and concubine, can see that there is no respect in their hearts. Not only did they punish the ten princes to kneel for four hours to remember, but they also punished the few scholars who admired him the most. The reason is that they There is no way to teach the disciples, and there is no way to urge the good ten princes to become a good prince with good character and learning.

After the news spread, there was a lot of discussion in the front and rear palaces, thinking that the tenth prince might be a little short of that seat.

After all, the emperor favored the imperial concubine so much, how could it be possible for the tenth prince, who had a grudge with the imperial concubine, to take the throne?

After hearing the news, Gu Zhen was so angry that he hated Yun Fenghuang for being vicious and intentionally angered the tenth prince by focusing on Ping Xianyi; in front of?

Now it's not the tenth prince's turn to be the master of his own house!

She knew the child's temperament, and she was afraid that he would say something that should not be said in a fit of anger, and cut off his future even more, so she abruptly took off her coat and blew the cold wind all night, making herself sick, as an excuse Needing the ten princes to attend to the sick, he kept him by his side and taught him well.

After this incident, the tenth prince restrained himself a lot, and he seemed to be sincere towards her.

It's just that the mother and son have been separated for several years, and this is not a short-term relationship that can bridge the gap.

After all, it is impossible to be as affectionate as the seventh prince and the imperial concubine.

As a result of the queen's meddling, the imperial concubine no longer targeted Ping Xianyi, but instead sang against her everywhere.

Gu Zhen didn't say anything, but he was really tired in his heart.

She is nearly ten years older than Yun Fenghuang, and she is not favored by Chunjia, and she is not capable enough to take the position in the middle palace... It is really very difficult to hold on until now, so in the past two years, she has been very fond of Yun Fenghuang. , if you can give in, you will give in.

What I said to the left and right is that there is no need to cause troubles because of trivial matters, and increase Chunjia's dislike for them.

Actually feel tired.

Same this time.

Princess Xincheng Xie Kuo was registered five years ago, and she would have married far away in the grassland the year before last.

But in the eighteenth year of Chunjia, Wei Hexin Khan suffered a serious illness and almost failed to survive.

For this reason, the court held an emergency court meeting. The courtiers were divided into two groups. One group proposed to marry Princess Xincheng immediately. , Xie Kuo came from a low family background and was young. No matter how weak Wei He's side is now, at least it was once a dynasty that was able to sit on an equal footing with the national dynasty. How could Xie Kuo's newly arrived Da Yan family be able to suppress it?

Yes, it is impossible for Xie Kuo to marry far away alone, he must arrange for a dowry and make suggestions.

However, no matter how many people came up with ideas, Xie Kuo still had to be able to support the scene at the critical moment. If this candidate was Concubine Min, the courtiers would not be at ease.

However, it was rumored that Xie Kuo had a calm and well-behaved personality, so everyone naturally didn't believe her very much.

The most important thing is that Xie Kuo is about the same age as Wei Hexin Khan.

The young Khan was born and bred on the grasslands, so there is a risk of premature death, let alone Xie Kuo, the master who has been pampered in front of the imperial concubine for many years?

What if after Xie Kuo left, something went wrong within two years?

This is not to curse her, but it is really possible.

So what name does the court have to manipulate Weihe Khan?

In the end, the latter faction gained the upper hand, and Guochao found an excuse to delay the wedding, and after confirming that Khan had fully survived, he agreed to continue the marriage.

But after Yun Fenghuang knew about it, he said that Khan was already weak, and after this incident, he didn't know whether he could live a long life. Even if she doesn't consider her niece, but simply considers the country, Prince Weihe, who is bleeding the country's blood, is better than an adopted child?

All in all, Guochao procrastinated on preparations until the beginning of this year, when he learned that Wei He Khan was completely recovered, and even let a female slave give birth to a male heir, so he let go and married Xie Kuo over.

The auspicious time calculated by Qin Tianjian is the beginning of autumn, and it is only the beginning of spring, so there is still enough time to prepare, but considering the summer vacation in the middle, in fact, it is the day when Xincheng comes out of the cabinet after returning from Qishan this year. In this way, the queen was afraid that she would be in a hurry, so she simply added makeup to the new batch of jewelry while the people below brought it up.

Left and right were sent to Xuanqing Palace, and Concubine Youmin cleaned up for her niece and daughter.

After arranging this matter, she didn't want to think about those annoying things, but asked someone to bring a stack of portraits in front of her, and pondered: "Tell me, among these girls, who is more speculative with Bing'er?"

[Note] Diancui inlaid jewelry and five phoenix tin, the description comes from the appreciation and analysis of the collection of the Forbidden City.