Rong Fei is not honored

No matter how unwilling she was, Concubine Sochorolo had no choice but to agree in the end and was "forced" to choose Zhao Ma's suggestion.

Time quickly came to the thirteenth year of the Kangxi reign.

The previous year was an eventful one. First, the empress was seriously ill, and then she became pregnant with an heir again. In addition, Wu Sangui rebelled, and there was no one to preside over the general election. Kangxi was really unable to spare the time, so he discussed with the Empress Dowager and decided to cancel this year's general election.

Many noble ladies of the Eight Banners who had been eagerly looking forward to the selection were disappointed. According to the rules of the Qing Dynasty, they could not marry before the selection, so they could only wait another three years.

Three years is not a short time. It’s okay for those who are young, but it’s terrible for those who are not young anymore.

You have to know the rules of the Qing Dynasty's beauty selection. The age of the concubines was generally between fourteen and seventeen years old, although there were exceptions. For example, the group of palace maids such as Ji Nai who were selected at a young age were specially selected by the Empress Dowager to accompany Kangxi, and their age was not much different from Kangxi.

But in most cases, women who were over the age limit would not be chosen. They could only choose to marry outside the palace, but even outside the palace, they were already very old.

Among them, Tong Jia was the most anxious. Everyone knew that Tong Jia's eldest princess must enter the palace. Not to mention that she had accompanied Kangxi in his childhood, just the face that was 70% similar to Empress Xiaokangzhang was enough for Kangxi to not allow her to marry into the family of a minister.

Tong Jia, who was supposed to enter the palace after the election this year and start her journey to becoming the most favored in the harem and looking down on all the other concubines, failed at the first step.

(The year of Tong Jia's birth is not recorded in history, but some novels set Tong Jia as one year older than Kangxi and as Kangxi's cousin.

But I think this is unlikely. First of all, Kangxi ascended the throne at the age of eight, and Tong Jia was already 21 years old in the 13th year of Kangxi. How old was Tong Jia? You should know that Tong Jia did not enter the palace until the 15th year of Kangxi.

Even if the Tong Jia family insisted on sending someone to the palace for the sake of family honor, they would not be so greedy and drag Tong Jia into an old maid.

Furthermore, if Tong Jia was old enough, her family would have sent her into the palace during the general elections in the tenth and thirteenth years of Kangxi's reign.

However, judging from the difference in Kangxi's attitude towards the two Tongjia concubines, it can be seen that Empress Xiaoyi Ren definitely held an important position in Kangxi's heart. Perhaps it was because of the powerful Tong family in his later years, but the editor thinks it is more likely that Kangxi and Tong Jia were of similar age and had spent time together in childhood.

And it must have been a very wonderful time, so the setting of this article is: the cousins grew up together under the lap of Empress Xiaokangzhang, and they were childhood sweethearts, and they also carried Kangxi's memories of his mother. Until Empress Xiaokangzhang died, Tong Jia had no reason to stay in the palace.)

When she first entered the palace to accompany her aunt, although she was only five years old, she knew from her father's mother's advice and her aunt's teasing that she would marry her cousin when she grew up, so she liked to stick to her cousin.

Unfortunately, my aunt was not blessed. Not long after my cousin ascended the throne, he became ill and passed away less than a year after entering the palace. Tong Jia had to leave the palace.

During these years at home, Tong Jia gradually grew up and understood the burden on her shoulders. She wanted to marry her cousin not only for the sake of love between children, but also to continue the glory of the Tong Jia family. What her aunt failed to do, she had to rely on herself. She was the hope of the Tong Jia clan.

It was a pity that she was unlucky. She fell seriously ill at the age of fourteen and missed the general election in the tenth year of Kangxi's reign. She waited for another three years, but this year's general election was cancelled. She was already seventeen years old this year.

But the imperial edict had been issued and there was no possibility of turning back. Tong Jia refused to give up the opportunity to enter the palace. She had been preparing to enter the palace for the past ten years, so how could she be willing to give up all her efforts at this time?

Tong Jia went to her father and uncle with red eyes.

The two brothers Tong Guogang and Tong Guowei were discussing how to deal with this incident. Compared with Tong Jia Gege's panic, they were more dissatisfied.

They were dissatisfied that Kangxi did not inform them before making the decision and did not consider Tong Jia Gege's situation. In fact, it was because they did not get the benefits they expected and thought that this nephew was not close enough to their family.

Logically speaking, after they took the risk of exposing the matter, His Majesty should have turned against the Empress Dowager and become closer to his in-laws.

But the fact is, everything that happened in the Imperial Study that day was like a dream. His Majesty and the Empress Dowager continued to enjoy their deep affection for each other as usual. As for the Tong family, except for the fact that His Majesty showed favor to the maternal family when he just ascended the throne, raised the Tong family to a higher level, and promoted the Tong family's children, there has been no further movement since then.

You know, their choice to expose the truth about Empress Xiaokangzhang's death was equivalent to breaking off relations with the Grand Empress Dowager. However, they offended the Grand Empress Dowager but did not gain the same benefits. How could they be willing to accept this?

At the beginning, Tong Guowei and Tong Guogang thought that the Emperor was just considering his weak position and it was not appropriate to confront the Empress Dowager directly, so they pretended not to know the injustice of their biological mother and pretended to be friendly with the Empress Dowager.

But after so long, they could neither wait for His Majesty to declare war on the Empress Dowager, nor wait for His Majesty to compensate the Tong family out of guilt, so the two began to have doubts.

They had originally planned to send their own princess to the palace to meet the emperor every day, so as to remind their nephew not to forget his maternal family, but this happened again. However, the two also understood that Wu Sangui's rebellion was not a trivial matter, and it was reasonable to cancel this year's election, and they could not stop it.

But in private, he cursed the rebels such as Wu Sangui.

Hearing their niece (daughter) coming, Tong Guowei and Tong Guogang looked at each other and decided unanimously to comfort the future empress. A princess of the Tonggiya clan must not fall so easily.

"Ama, Bo, Amuqi." Tonggiya Gege walked in with tears in her eyes.

(Amuqi means uncle in Manchu.)

Tong Guowei came back to his senses. At that moment, he seemed to see his sister. The similar appearance, the same deliberate cultivation of the same demeanor and habits, made Tong Guowei and Tong Guogang not miss each other, but ambition.

They just didn't believe that the Emperor would remain indifferent after the Tong family sent such a princess into the palace.

Tong Guowei came back to his senses with some dissatisfaction, and sternly lectured: "You will enter the palace to serve His Majesty in the future, so you naturally have to get used to the life of the Manchus. Now even the Manchu names are so unfamiliar to you, do you have to wait until you enter the palace to slowly get used to it?"

Tong Guogang watched his brother teach his daughter a lesson, and drank tea silently, saying nothing, but this also showed his attitude. Their Tong family has devoted all their family strength to train a princess, and they can't let her not pay attention.

Tong Jia Gege couldn't hold back her tears any longer, and choked up and said, "Father, can I still enter the palace? Do I still have a chance to marry my cousin?"