This year's draft is destined to be a bloodbath.
July arrived quickly, and young women from all over the country entered the city one after another. They then went to the palace for the preliminary selection, and after a batch was eliminated, the second round of selection began.
The young women moved into the palace, and the inner palace began to become less peaceful.
Those who could enter the second round of selection either came from good families or had outstanding looks. Kangxi was almost sixty years old, and no matter how wise and powerful he was, he was already an old man.
The fact that Prince Yong is the undisputed successor to the throne is largely due to his ambitions.
Yinzhen had no such intention, and Kangxi, because of his son's problem, also had no such intention, but outsiders were unaware of the inside story.
The young ladies who moved into the palace spent their days learning etiquette and thinking about how to get into Prince Yong's mansion.
Before July was over, two of the young ladies-in-waiting had been sent out of the palace after only half a month of entering, naturally because they had violated a taboo in the palace.
Emperor Kangxi frowned and ordered, "These young ladies have indeed gone too far. Have the governesses discipline them properly."
“Zha”
The governesses were naturally not pleased when they received the message from the Qianqing Palace. Although it wasn't their fault that the young ladies were being disobedient, as governesses, it was their fault.
"Yesterday afternoon, two young ladies were sent away. All of you are from official families. You can imagine what your future will be if you are sent away midway. I would like to give you a few words of advice: being honest and peaceful is better than anything else. This time you have only been sent away because of your misconduct. If you do it again, you will probably have to go to a nunnery to live a life of seclusion."
These words made the young women's faces turn pale.
After that day, the nannies increased the "studies" of the young ladies-in-waiting. The nannies thought that if they couldn't control the young ladies' "ambitions," they would fill their time with activities to prevent them from having any free time to cause trouble.
This year's imperial concubines have had a rather unfortunate experience.
The concubines in the imperial harem were also observing these young women being selected for the imperial harem.
The young women wanted to make a name for themselves, and the concubines in the harem naturally wanted to arrange a good place for their younger relatives. Emperor Kangxi was getting old and saw that Prince Yong was the most promising. Whether one's family had someone in the harem or not made a difference.
With this in mind, the concubines in the harem began to summon the young women to the palace.
At the residence of Imperial Noble Consort Tong, she asked the nanny, "How is Xijin doing?"
The Xi Jin she was referring to was Tong Xi Jin, the niece of Consort Tong. She was born out of wedlock but was exceptionally beautiful. A few days ago, her mother came over and asked her to take care of her, subtly mentioning the mother-son relationship between her sister, Empress Tong, and Prince Yong.
Consort Tong then understood her family's meaning.
Consort Tong was pleased with this. Her family had never produced a prince, and the only one she had any connection with was her sister's adopted son. Now that he was being valued, he was the most likely to achieve great things in the future, and she wanted her niece to be able to enter the Yong Prince's residence.
"Girl Tong is well-educated and sensible, and is skilled in music, chess, calligraphy and painting. The nannies also have the Empress's instructions to take good care of her, so naturally she performs exceptionally well."
Consort Tong smiled with satisfaction: "She is exceptionally beautiful. It would be good if we could take things a step further."
Although Emperor Kangxi has not favored her over the years, he has at least given her enough respect. She has made most of the decisions in the harem. If she were to propose marrying her niece to Prince Yong, I think His Majesty would not refuse.
"By the way, Your Highness, I heard that a princess from the Uya clan has also made it to the second round of selection this year. She is a distant cousin of Prince Yong."
Consort Tong frowned: "How is she qualified to participate in the election?"
"It was a favor from His Majesty when Consort Wuya was still Consort De in her early years. He just mentioned it casually at the time, and I guess His Majesty himself has forgotten about it."
Consort Tong scoffed, "Don't worry about her. Consort Wuya went too far in life, leaving no affection for Prince Yong. A distant cousin is no big deal. He might even find her more annoying than we do."
The old woman smiled and said, "Your Highness is right. I've also heard that there are young ladies in the imperial concubine selection this year, and that young lady seems to be quite beautiful."
Consort Tong said, "I seem to remember that she had an older brother named Nian Gengyao?"
"Your Majesty remembers correctly."
“Nian Gengyao is quite capable in military affairs, and His Majesty will certainly not treat him unfairly. I will mention later that it would be good if she were more beautiful. If His Majesty has this intention, I think the Princess Consort of Prince Yong will not target Xi Jin.”
"Should I do anything for you?"
Consort Tong shook her head: "I'll send some rewards to that rather beautiful Princess Nian later. Her brother is favored by His Majesty, so I can't neglect him. As for anything else, there's no need to do anything more."
She's made her stance clear; someone else will do it. There's no need to get her hands dirty.
"Should we also give some rewards to Princess Tong?"
Consort Tong thought for a moment and said, "Give some as well."
It's understandable that she would act more affectionately towards her niece from her maternal family.
"yes."
In Consort Rong's palace, she could see who Kangxi favored. What could she do even if she was unwilling? Her son was no match for others, and she would not force him to do anything against the will of Heaven. She had given birth to and raised her son with great difficulty, and she couldn't bear to let him take any risks.
She's come to terms with it, but the talent show could also add two people to her son's backyard.
Consort Yi, on the other hand, was quite open-minded. The relationship between the Fifth Prince and his wife had grown stronger over the past two years, which she was happy to see. As long as the Fifth Prince didn't beg her for help, she wouldn't become an unpleasant mother-in-law.
As for the Ninth Prince, ever since he complained that the concubines in the inner courtyard were not as good-looking as him, he has only gone to his wife and nowhere else. Since Consort Yi does not cause trouble for the Fifth Prince's wife, she naturally will not think of causing trouble for the Ninth Prince's wife either, after all, they are all daughters-in-law.
As for adding to the Prince Yong's harem, Consort Yi had even less interest. The Ninth Prince had received no shortage of "favors" from the Prince Yong's wife. If she really did it, wouldn't that be slapping her son in the face? She couldn't bring herself to do that.
Therefore, among the prominent concubines in the harem, Consort Yi was the most leisurely.
Perhaps it's true that an outsider has a clearer perspective! Watching the women in the harem bustling about like this, she found a kind of entertainment in it.
In the blink of an eye, more than a month had passed. After the second round of selection, some of the candidates kept their names on the list, while others dropped them. Apart from the two Han Banner candidates left by Emperor Kangxi, all the other candidates had left the palace.
"Your Majesty, the Imperial Noble Consort has sent someone to deliver chicken soup."
On such a hot day, even Emperor Kangxi couldn't drink the chicken soup, so he gave it to a servant. That evening, Kangxi went to the palace of Consort Tong.
"Your Majesty, I pay my respects."
"Get up."
"Thank you, Your Majesty."
After exchanging pleasantries, Consort Tong got down to business.
"Your Majesty, the young ladies-in-waiting have all returned home. I think the young ladies-in-waiting this year are all quite good. The wife of Prince Yong is pregnant and there is no one to serve her in the harem. I was thinking of bestowing a concubine or a princess over to her so that she could help take care of Prince Yong and his wife."
Emperor Kangxi frowned: "The Living Buddha said that Yinzhen cannot have anyone else in his life. Do not mention this matter again."
Consort Tong thought of her mother's instructions and her niece: "The Prince Yong's mansion is rather weak. Why don't we have someone perform a religious ceremony? It shouldn't be a big deal."
Emperor Kangxi frowned even more deeply: "I have said that this matter must be brought up again."
Consort Tong's expression darkened after hearing this, but she dared not say anything more.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
