In the original history, the court discussion on Altan Khan's tribute was held twice. The first time, the result was opposition to the peace talks, and Emperor Longqing, or Gao Gong, was not satisfied, so he ordered another discussion.

The second time, Gao Gong did his best to finally tie with the opposition. According to the rules, such a situation requires a royal decree, so the emperor gave the decision to the cabinet, and only then did the tribute trade pass.

Zhao Hao thought that Gao Gong might have already calculated the votes in advance and figured out that he had little chance of winning during the court meeting, which was why he asked his idol to summon him to the capital.

Otherwise, these two probably don't want to see him. In fact, Mr. Zhao is the same...

But he would not interfere with the tribute. No matter what the situation was before, after Altan Khan paid tribute, the two hundred years of Ming-Mongol war finally came to an end. For nearly a hundred years thereafter, there was no large-scale war between the two sides.

Whatever the method, peace was eventually achieved.

Of course, the Mongolian brothers are no longer so irritable, not only because they can meet their basic living needs through trade, but also because their spiritual world has also gained great peace...

In the sixth year of Wanli, Altan Khan and Sanniangzi went to Chabuqiyale Temple in Qinghai, met the Tibetan Lama Sonam Gyatso, converted to Tibetan Buddhism, and successively established temples in Guihua City and other places.

With its support, Lamaism began to spread widely in Mongolia. After successfully taming the barbaric Tibetans, it turned the Mongolians into pious, peace-loving and well-behaved children. It made an indelible contribution to the stability of China's borders...

Although I think this is too easy for Altan, Mr. Zhao has too many enemies to face, and it is always good to have one less big enemy. When the Xishan Island Arsenal produces the Maxim in the future, everyone will be a family.

So this time, he would support Gao Huzi. Besides, if he went the other way, Master Zhao would lose his grasp of the course of history. Without the great prophecy, Master Zhao would probably become a winged angel, and would suffer a miserable fate, and face down...

However, the sequelae of the tribute event were also very serious, because it was almost achieved under Gao Gong's willful promotion, which seriously undermined the Ming Dynasty's tradition of collective decision-making in which the minority obeyed the majority. Gao Gong once again became the target of public criticism and was in sharp conflict with court officials, especially the censors.

Under the attack of the crowd, Gao Gong began to retaliate unscrupulously, and became more and more arrogant and eccentric, and difficult to get along with. The court was not peaceful, officials stepped down like a revolving lantern, and even the cabinet was emptied by him, leaving only the silent idol Zhang...

Therefore, Master Zhao was unwilling to get involved in this muddy water. He would rather be a coward and stay away from it, waiting for the next two years.

But if my idol's father-in-law invites me, I have to go even if it rains knives from the sky...

Young Master Zhao could only sigh reluctantly and asked, "When will the next fleet from Chongming Island depart?"

Secretary Ma quickly looked through his notebook and reported, "Noon on September 25th."

Knowing that the young master had a bad memory, she reminded him, "Today is September 21st."

"Then are you setting off early the day after tomorrow?" Zhao Hao asked.

"We can go down the Yangtze River and reach Chongming Island directly. We should be able to make it in time." Secretary Ma understood the meaning of the music.

Young Master wants to attend the Lotus Terrace Immortal Meeting before he is willing to set off...

~~

The next day was the day of the Lotus Platform Immortal Meeting.

Early in the morning, the streets leading to Xiaocangshan were jammed with carriages and sedan chairs. Officials from Xiaocangshan Management Company and Shangyuan County had to stop all carriages and sedan chairs. No matter who you were or how wealthy you were, you had to walk in.

Only the eighty-one ladies who have been shortlisted for today's fairy meeting can ride in a special sedan chair from Zhuangyuan Street directly to the Hibiscus Pond, cross the strictly guarded wooden bridge, and step onto the water platform in the lake decorated with flowers.

The water platform was two stories high, with a spacious stage on top. Inside there were several rooms for the ladies to wait in line and for storing various props used to create the stage.

For today's event, Xiaocangshan Management Company spent a lot of money. Just to decorate this water platform, they purchased 100,000 flowers. **, osmanthus, begonia, rose, crape myrtle, hibiscus... hundreds of kinds of colorful flowers made the water platform into a sea of ​​flowers, making people feel like they have returned to the season called "spring".

Just looking at this flower stand on the water will make the viewer unforgettable for a lifetime!

In the Hibiscus Pond, there are boats lined up like a wall. They are the invited guests. They are eating and drinking on the boats while watching the performances of the ladies on the water stage.

The restaurants and brothels by the pool were all full early, and the guests asked the shop owners to remove the window shutters of the private rooms so that they could watch from a high place for a different experience.

Of course, most scholars and common people could only stand by the lake and look up. However, the business of Xiaocangshan is already very developed. The commercial street and food street near Furong Lake sell a wide variety of dried and fresh fruits, dishes, soups, meat balls, and sugar cakes. They also rent out tables, cushions, wine pots, cups, and chopsticks to guests who occupy good seats on the hillside or by the pool, so that they can have a better viewing experience.

The three groups of rich people sitting on the boat, upstairs and on the mountain are commonly known as the "three elegant ones", because only they have the elegance to buy gold flowers of ten taels of silver and silver flowers of one tael of silver to reward the ladies... The sponsors on the boat and upstairs are rich, so they are the main ones who reward the gold flowers. The guests on the mountain also have a little money, and although they can't afford to give too many gold flowers, they have the advantage of being in large numbers, and a little bit of money can make a tower, and a little bit of silver flowers accumulated can also not be underestimated.

Unfortunately, the richest sponsor was the landlord, and it was not good for him to steal the limelight from the guests. Therefore, Zhao Hao only ordered to give each lady on stage a hundred golden flowers, and to ensure their minimum decency.

Well, one hundred golden flowers is one thousand taels of silver, and eighty-one female historians is eighty-one thousand taels of silver, which is enough for Dongfang Bubai Li Zhuowu to buy the Humble Administrator's Garden...

People couldn't help but admire that Mr. Zhao was really a good man who cherished women. No wonder all the ladies in Qinhuai had been vying to seduce him over the years, but none of them succeeded, and no one knew who would be the first to have a taste of his soup in the end.

But Zhao Hao was actually worrying too much.

The women who were able to rise from the hellish Jiaofangsi did not rely on their beauty and talent alone. They were all outstanding in their scheming and tactics. In addition to being skilled in driving, they were also well versed in various tricks. None of them was a real white lotus. When you cut them open, you can see that they all had seven orifices and exquisite minds.

In particular, most of the 81 female historians who made it to the final round were already well-known in Qinhuai River, and most of them were prostitutes. There were many patrons who wanted to seduce them.

Since they decided to attend the Lotus Fairy Meeting, they began to prepare intensively. They invited the guests to dinner and begged them with soft words, put down their airs and acted like a spoiled child, sang songs for the masters, and took advantage of the old perverts... In short, they used all their tricks to make them swipe rockets today... Oh no, buy a lot of golden flowers to vote for themselves.

The patrons were so hyped that they thought they had a chance to show off, and all of them came with a lot of money. When it was the turn of the lady they supported to perform on stage, they were instigated by Xuelang and frantically bought gold flowers to send to the stage.

Not only are the supporters of different female historians competing desperately, but the supporters of the same female historian are also competing with each other. If you send 500 flowers, I will send more than 600! If you send 1,000 flowers, I will send 1,001 flowers. In short, I want to be the first on the rich list of my own female historian... I don’t know what benefits will be given by being the first?

But as the saying goes, a blacksmith must be strong himself. If your own qualities are not good, you cannot motivate the audience to give flowers generously just by relying on others.

But don't worry, during the preliminary selection yesterday, ninety-nine experienced flower list examiners had already screened them carefully.

You know, since the Song Dynasty, it has been popular to list famous prostitutes. In the Ming Dynasty, after a century of silence, the romantic world has flourished, and scholars have been able to break free from the oppression of Neo-Confucianism, which has intensified the trend of indulgence. The social atmosphere is becoming more and more extravagant, and visiting prostitutes and feasting has become a romantic act. Being able to associate with famous prostitutes is an extremely glorious achievement in life.

Although the evaluation of famous prostitutes was initially a game played when bored, it became an elegant fashion after generations of literati and poets, led by Tang Yin and Wang Shizhen, developed a complete set of evaluation criteria:

First, the quality of poetry and prose is outstanding;

The second is rhyme, the one with a dignified and elegant demeanor wins;

The third is talent. The one with the best arrangement of qin music wins.

Fourth is appearance. The one with outstanding appearance will win.

These four elements of "quality, charm, talent, and beauty" are indispensable. The female historians selected by this standard are all beautiful and intelligent, with unique skills. At this time, they bring out their best skills to win your favor. They are really like spring orchids and autumn chrysanthemums, each with their own strengths, and none of them will disappoint the audience.

In the frenzy of the atmosphere, the audience was completely excited and wanted to replace their calf-nose pants with golden flowers to vote for the female historian they supported.

By noon, the top 36 winners were chosen. The accumulated gold and silver flowers received on the flower stand had already exceeded two million taels of silver...

However, not all the money will go into the hands of the female historian, because the organizer will divide the money among them in three parts: 30% will go to the female historian, 30% will go to Xiaocangshan, 30% will go to the Honglou Poetry Society, and the remaining 10% will be divided equally between Shangyuan County and Yingtian Prefecture.

Otherwise, how dare they make such a big fuss?

"How can I feel good about this?" Seeing the 100,000 taels of silver coming into the account, the old county magistrate Zhang Dongguan was so happy that he smiled and rubbed his hands to Zhao Hao beside him, saying, "It would be great if this Lotus Terrace Fairy Meeting could be held once a year."

"Haha, there's no difference. The atmosphere of the annual event is far worse." Hua Bozhen on the other side laughed. Today he also invested 50,000 taels, but he gave it all to a prostitute named Jiang Yulan, which was a huge investment.

Oh, how many bags of cement do I need to sell...

Speaking of which, this largest and best-positioned pleasure boat actually brought together almost all of Mr. Zhao's friends in Jiangnan...Except for the too-old Grand Tutor Hua and Wang Mengxiang, Xu Bangrui who was in mourning at home, and Xiang Yuanbian who vowed never to spend a penny on prostitutes again, almost all of them were invited.

It can be seen that beautiful women are very attractive.