On June 6th, if the weather is clear, every household will be busy drying clothes. On this day, major yamen, Imperial College, bookstore, private schools, scholars, etc. will also be busy moving books out and drying them. The custom is called "no insects".

The Elephant Training Institute of the Jinyiwei will openly take out dozens of elephants from Annan and other countries today and bathe in the river outside the city, and the audience will be filled with tides.

The circus troupes dare not use elephants because there are at least twelve elephants carrying treasures in the big dynasty meetings, and six in the small dynasty meetings. The people love elephants very much and call them symbolizing peace and prosperity. In addition, lions, tigers, giraffes, etc. are all auspicious things and cannot be raised by the people.

In history, the Qing Dynasty also followed Xiao Gui and Cao Sui, and raised some elephants, but changed the Jinyiwei to the Luanyiwei.

In the palace of Prince Mu, Mu Fu came back from Shandong and went to see Mu Ang to take out his errands early in the morning and took out the letter from Mu Bin and his wife. Aunt Chen and others rushed over after hearing the news, and Mu Ang said loudly to the whole family.

The letter simply asks for the safety of the elders, telling about their civil affairs and civil affairs in Dezhou Prefecture, as well as some interesting news that happened in the local area. Finally, I greeted Aunt Chen's health and learned that the third uncle had newly accepted Hongwen, so I asked him well and gave me some gifts as a congratulatory gift.

Hongwen, who was standing aside, seemed very happy. She thought about it after all, the eldest young lady was good at being a human being and thoughtful. She was good at being a good person and never urged her to be big.

So Hongwen said to Du Qianqian: "Oh! Why did the young grandma even give me something? Damn, I forgot to send something to her to honor her. I didn't forget me in this letter, how can people bear it?"

Seeing that she looked proud and a little funny, Mu Lanxiang smiled and said, "My sister-in-law knew that her aunt was a celebrity of her father, so she sent a gift, which meant to be in favor of her aunt. It is said that before she went to the emperor, she would come to pay homage to her husband."

This husband means the prime minister, and Mu Lanxiang’s jokes are not malicious, but Hongwen misunderstood. She is also the former maid of the girl, who is a ill person, and she regards this husband as the other husband, thinking that the lady deliberately jokes about her charming people.

So Hongwen immediately blushed and said embarrassedly: "Miss is happy to come to find someone again. What am I? Is it worthy of rushing to offer?" After that, she took the gift with a cold face and turned back to the room.

Mu Lanxiang didn't expect to just make a joke. Hongwen shook her face in front of her, feeling very bored and couldn't hold back her face. After all, with so many people, the girl was a little arrogant and was at her own home. She couldn't help but feel annoyed and wanted to make a few words from her. After thinking about it, she didn't want to make her father embarrassed, so she endured it.

Everyone saw this scene. Mu Lanxiang couldn't get out of Taiwan and returned to the room with anger.

Du Qianqian saw Hongwen hit her baby daughter in front of her, and she felt very uncomfortable and her face became ugly.

Mu Ang also witnessed it, and it was difficult for a moment to interfere. He did not want to shout and spoil his concubine in public, nor did he say that his daughter was bad. Like the men all over the world who were sandwiched between their mother and daughter-in-law, they pretended to look at the letters, but in fact they were dazed.

Aunt Chen noticed the displeasure of his wife's face and hurriedly changed his words: "It's so hot that the housekeeper is very hard to travel. Why would you ask the master and wife to give him a few days off, let him take a break, and then come back to work as a job."

Mu Ang immediately said, "I just gave him ten days off. By the way, as he was about to fall into a burrow, the whole family had to quickly buy clothes like gauze. I don't have to, the court will send him down the official uniforms for the summer."

After saying that, he took Mu Fu to the study. Du Qianqian sighed and said to Aunt Chen: "You go to the Xu Mansion and remember the cool hat of Jiufeng Opera Beads for the children. It looks unique and interesting. I ask how to do it. If you have free time, you can make one or two of them and send it to my sister."

"I understand." Aunt Chen agreed and went to Mu Lanxiang's room first.

When the maid Hongzhen saw her coming, she said first: "Auntie, are you angry? Now Hongwen has become like this and ridiculed the girl in public. I am just an impatient person, otherwise I would rather slap her twice."

"You, don't be angry." Aunt Chen smiled, "She is such a person. What are she calculating about her? Didn't I say, "What a girl is so delicate, is she worthy of talking?"

With just one short sentence, Hongzhen made her laugh. Mu Lanxiang also smiled and said, "Fortunately, my aunt is here. When you didn't come, I advised her for a long time and was disobedient."

Hongzhen curled her lips and said, "She was a girl and finally climbed up to the high branch. I don't know what to do these days! I can't stand it."

"I don't think she dares to contradict the girl intentionally. She will definitely regret it now. It's too late to accompany her." Aunt Chen smiled and persuaded her.

Mu Lanxiang said: "It's over when things go through, and it's because I'm talking too much for a while and I'm offending her taboo."

"After all, it's the girl's wise." Aunt Chen said in a compliment, and then said: "I just kept talking and forgot the serious things. Just now, the wife said she loved the hat that Brother Xu'er wore, which was the Jiufeng opera bead, and told me to ask for the paper. I'll ask the girl if she can do it?"

Mu Lanxiang laughed and said, "You're asking the right person. At that time, we saw that the children were wearing lion hats and were idle, so we changed it to Jiuli Playing Balls and Jiufeng Playing Balls, which were given to the children at home to play. It was done casually at that time, where did it look like? Now that the aunt is a family, how can she have free time to make this thing? Let me do it. Don't think that I'm slow at hand, as you are as tough as you are trying to do it."

Aunt Chen said happily: "Miss is willing to help me make it, that's really good. I will definitely cook a few dishes you like to eat to deliver them another day, as rewards."

The three of them were joking in the room. Du Qianqian sent the little girl to invite them, saying that Xiaolingwei sent the good melons and invited the girl and grandma to try them.

In early May, the melons in the south are already ripe, and in the north, small merchants are going to sell along the streets.

At this time, melons were native to tropical regions in Africa and Asia. They were first introduced to the Central Plains before the Tang Dynasty and are widely planted in various places today. Hami melons and vegetable melons are all variants of melons.

Later archaeologists found half a shriveled cantaloupe in the ancient tombs of the Jin Dynasty in Turpan, indicating that the cantaloupe should have passed the Silk Road. The cantaloupe in the Ming Dynasty was already very famous, but it was truly famous in the world.

Just like the great war between Emperor Xuanzong of Tang Dynasty to please Yang Guifei, who contributed lychees to the horses of thousands of miles of Pegasus, the Qing Dynasty at that time described the scene of a special transport of Hami melons to the emperor through the Hexi Corridor.

"When I meet a cavalry on the road, I enter the Hami melons, and there are hundreds of thousands of people holding small bags and covering them with yellow bags. Each of them carries a melon and glances past, as fast as a bird."

It can be seen how exhausted and luxurious it is. The Qing emperors greedy for Hami melons are no less than Yang Guifei's love for lychees.

Of course, the emperors of the Ming Dynasty did not give in too much about food, clothing, housing and transportation, and even had better results. The nobles and noble families could not respond as much as the emperors, so merchants and melon farmers from all over the country were all thinking about buying the seeds of Hami melon and cultivating them on the spot.

The climate in Hebei is suitable for growing Hami melons, and melons can be grown almost everywhere. In the early Ming Dynasty, the most famous Hami crisps, green skin crisps, dry gold pendants, big yellow flesh, girl's leech, etc. appeared one after another.

Besides, Hongwen returned to the room angrily, threw the gift on the table, sat down, and sneered: "I don't care about these things, which made people laugh at me for no reason. Could it be that I am not worthy of the eldest young lady giving gifts? Now everyone has learned to be mean."

Xilan smiled and said, "Grandma is too careless. The girl said the wrong thing, but she has to look at her wife."

Hongwen stared at her eyes and said angrily, "What's wrong with the wife? As the saying goes, the great-grandson sues the grandfather. Her daughter ridiculed me in front of so many people, gave me shamelessness, and mocked me as a female husband. Wouldn't it be annoying? So I will also give her a nail in front of others. Let me tell you, I didn't know how to be timid since I was a child, and I should not be much more scruples when I became an aunt. I am afraid of people saying this place, and I am afraid of people making a mistake. Do we still want to stand out in this mansion in the future?"

Xilan was about to speak when suddenly the male manager who was temporarily acting as a housekeeper outside came in with a list. Through the curtain, she was startled and hurriedly walked out and asked, "What are you here to do?"

The manager said, "This money is waiting for use. I just went back to Grandma Shen's words. When Miss Meinu said that the person was not here, I came to ask my aunt for advice. Please send this order on your behalf. I'll know if you take a look."

"Then you wait." Xilan took the order, turned around and entered the house and handed over.

"What's the matter?" Hongwen asked lightly, but in fact she heard it in the room. She took the order and looked at it. She was here to ask for the monthly silver for this month.

The rules of the Mu Mansion are distributed in the early days of the month. The stewards also send the rewards of men and women hired workers in the mansion in the summer, which is equivalent to the bonuses for future generations, cooling fees, etc.

Generally speaking, it was impossible for all the servants of wealthy families in ancient times to be their own slaves. It is good to serve more people, but they have to be able to support them, right? In addition to the deacons and servants in the house, as well as the maids, women and ladies in the house, they often hire some outsiders. For example, men are responsible for carrying things, cleaning ditches, cleaning, and women in the house, specializing in heavy work such as washing and squeezing.

Because people in the city often disdain to do this business, most of them hire rural people outside the city.

Although the Mu Mansion has a great family, most of them are far away from Yunnan, so the mansion also hires some outsiders. In fact, the Xu family is the same. The number of slaves is limited. Whenever the number exceeds the number, a group of slaves has to be released and can be hired back in the form of employment. Otherwise, a duke's mansion will often have one or two thousand slaves. What do you want to do?

So an unwritten routine was formed. In summer, farming was busy, and people in the countryside wanted to take leave and go home to farm. However, there were the most internal and external things in summer. For example, chopping wood and boiling water for bathing, and changing clothes frequently, should you have to wash them?

These crude benzene work cannot be left alone, so we set up a very humane example. Those who want to go home let it go, and those who do not sign a contract to sell their bodies can't force them to stay. Those who don't want to go back will suggest that we should just do it for the sake of doing it for the sake of not hiring others, and the servants in the mansion will also say the same.

In this way, the family should first consider the bonus for this year and prepare in advance. At the same time, they should also give the person who wants to leave a reward, which means that the owner is sympathetic to humankind. By mid-June, it is clear at a glance who leaves and who will not leave, and you can pay the bonus, which is usually three to four times the wage.

Of course, you can also not give it to you, but in this way, just like the rich and unkind landlords in the countryside, can you not do it if you don’t give it to you? Anyway, you come and go freely.

The slaves at home will also be unhappy. They are equivalent to employees of state-owned enterprises. They will be able to earn money for drought and flood all their lives, and they will be picky and like to do leisure errands. Employees are equivalent to temporary workers. Without temporary workers, can they ask employees of state-owned enterprises to do dirty and tiring work for temporary workers?

Looking at the Ming Dynasty, it was very common to hire workers. After all, too many domestic slaves were one of the serious crimes that many powerful and officials were questioned. This is obviously different from the aristocrats of the Eight Banners of the Qing Dynasty who fought to raise a large number of domestic slaves.

There is no need to say much about the Eight Banners of the Qing Dynasty. This directly proves that the Qing Dynasty did reverse history in this regard. The Qing Dynasty was the peak era of semi-feudal and semi-slavery.

In short, these prescribed examples have only appeared in the past twenty years. There are causes and effects. It is probably the same in the previous dynasty. I think China has been a society that talks about human feelings since ancient times, and the legal system is pretty good. The common people cannot survive and will rise up. Even in the Qing Dynasty, the so-called master would give slaves many respects, and similar rules also exist. See the respect for older slaves in Dream of Red Mansions.

Unfortunately, China's bourgeois revolution was interrupted in the late Ming Dynasty. The Qing Dynasty used swords and guns to strengthen the concept of strict feudal class hierarchy. Even though it also emphasizes human feelings and sympathy, under the general environment, China completely lags behind the entire era.

Hongwen, who was unhappy, took the opportunity to say, "I didn't expect that my grandma over there was not in the house, so she asked me to pick up something. Oh! Did you see my yard, have the weeds grown? It can be seen that they are all the people who are accustomed to rush to the high and low, and are the most powerful. Xilan, go and tell him, I'll leave this order, wait until I do a good job and come and get the money in half an hour."

Seeing that she was not angry, Xilan hurried out to speak. The butler had heard this, so he obediently responded to "Yes", then stretched his tongue, shrank his neck, and silently called out a very powerful aunt, turned around and ran away.

"Get the abacus." Hongwen said angrily.

I carefully checked the order twice with an abacus, and the numbers matched, totaling 806 taels.

Hongwen thought for a while and told Xilan: "You go to grandma's place to exchange 850 taels of silver. If you ask you what it is for? Just say I'm cashing out the order given by the housekeeper and sending the bill later. If grandma is not in the house, she will ask Meinu to give it to you and tell her to wait for it and not to delay it."

"Oh!" Xilan nodded and was about to go out.

Suddenly, Hongwen said again: "You are not allowed to change my word, I understand, carefully take care of your skin."

"knew."

Xilan muttered in a low voice, threw the curtain, and after walking out, she curled her lips and said, "What should I do if I change your words? If you ask me to kill someone, I will kill you too, anyway, you will resist." (To be continued.)
Chapter completed!