Chapter 34 four

The next day, under the guidance of Shah Ruh, we came to the tall and four-cornered palace tent of King Timur. Shaharu specially changed his attire today.Gorgeous inner clothes, plain satin coat, collar, chest and back are all embroidered with Chinese peonies.The hat was inlaid with pearls, and on the front was a large red gemstone. After such a dress up, Shahru looks more and more handsome and has an outstanding temperament. Ayilai still ran to hold Shaharu's hand, it was obvious that Ayilai liked Shaharu very much.They walked into the palace tent together, and the princess and I followed behind them.

The palace tent is about three pillars high, and it takes 300 steps from one end of the palace tent to the other.The roof of the tent is in the style of Shulou.The four sides of the palace tent are supported by twelve huge pillars, all of which are painted with gold and green lacquer.In the center of the palace tent, there are two other giant pillars. Each giant pillar is composed of three stacked sections, and the joints between each section are tightly stitched together, making it one. If it wasn't for Shaharu's introduction, we really wouldn't be able to see it.Shah Ru said that this was for the convenience of disassembly. Having said that, dismantling such a huge palace tent is still not an easy task.

The capitals of the giant pillars pass through the top of the tent, exposing the outside of the tent.There are corridors separated by the four walls of the tent, and each corridor is divided into four compartments, which are supported by 24 thinner pillars. At the same time, there are 500 red ropes tied to the corners of the tent. Inside the palace tent, the four walls are decorated with red silk, which is bright and beautiful, and the red silk is embroidered with gold brocade.In the corners of the palace tents, there is a giant eagle on display.The outer wall of the palace tent is covered with brocades in various colors of white, green and yellow, and the silver crescent emblem is carved on the copper balls at the four corners.There is also a setting similar to a watchtower, which is higher than the roof of the tent, and a soft ladder is hung on one side, which can go up and down.When not in use on weekdays, the watchtower is covered with silk cloth. In case a part of the palace tent is damaged by the wind, or the pillars are tilted, workers will climb out of the watchtower by a soft ladder to repair it.

The four sides of the palace tent are surrounded by silk brocades of different colors, on which are painted the shapes of wall bricks, and there are crenels on the top of the wall.Each side of the palace tent is no less than three hundred steps long, and there is a gate on the front, and a satin curtain is hung on it. Although the satin curtain is huge, it can be closed at any time.The gatehouse is located above the entrance and is richly decorated.The master of ceremonies who open and close the tent lives in it, which is called Dalianlou. On one side of the palace tent, there is an extremely exquisite circular tent.This is the yurt that can be seen everywhere in the places where Mongolians live.The difference is that the pillars used to support the yurts are all inlaid with silver tops, and various gemstones are inlaid on the silver tops, which are dazzling in the sun.There is a row of embroidered flags inserted behind the tent, fluttering and fluttering in the breeze, which is magnificent.The yurt screen doors are tall, but often closed.

On the other side of the palace tent, there is also a large tent, all four corners are tied by ropes, and the decoration is as gorgeous as a palace tent.Shah Ru said that this big tent, which is similar to the palace tent, is usually lived by his mother. Not far from this tent, there is another courtyard, surrounded by silk curtains, painted with gold and blue pictures and opened several windows, and the windows are covered with fine gauze to prevent flying insects and the like from flying into the courtyard.In the center of the courtyard is a tall tent surrounded by red silk curtains. The huge pillars supporting the tent are also made up of three sections.There is a giant silver eagle with two wings outstretched on the top of the tent. A few feet away from the opposite side, at the corner of the tent, there are three small silver birds. mood.The giant eagle is also in the posture of jumping at the bird. Both the giant eagle and the bird are exquisitely designed and lifelike.Moreover, such a decoration on the top of the tent seems to have a deep meaning.

This tent will be owned by Turan, the young queen of King Timur after five years.As I have briefly introduced before, Queen Tuma and Queen Turan are veritable princesses of the Eastern Chagatai Khanate, and of course they are also direct descendants of Genghis Khan. It is precisely because of this relationship that they have always hoped to become the first Among the wives, the two Timur kings of Genghis Khan loved them the most. After playing all the way in the morning, it was noon before we knew it, and Ayilai and I felt hungry again.We were discussing with Nuridin where to eat and what to eat when suddenly a servant asked to see the princess.Shaharu smiled and glanced at me and Ayi Lai, and ordered the attendants to come forward to answer.

It turned out that the tent of the concubine Hanzedai was not far in front. The concubine probably knew that the princess was taking us around the palace tent, so she specially prepared a banquet for us to go there. In the concubine's tent, there were already some noble ladies waiting here.What we didn't expect was that when Princess Oeira was greeting the concubine and the wives, Queen Tuma also came.The Queen is wearing a red brocade robe, which seems to be made of the red fabric we brought back from the Golden Horde. convenient. As soon as the empress sat down in the honorable position, twelve of the fifteen maids who served the empress withdrew from the tent, and only three personal maids accompanied her.

The queen is still wearing heavy makeup. Not only the queen, but all the other wives, including the concubine, imitated her dress.After all, the dress of the great queen always represents a fashion in the Timur Empire.But for me, it's her tiara that interests me the most.The hair bun that the queen wears today is really strange. The top of the hair is so high that it looks like a battle helmet on the head, and the temples are covered with pearls and gemstones. There is also a pictographic gold ornament next to the hair bun, and the gold ornament is inlaid with large pearls. and three rubies.In addition, there is a brightly colored bird feather in the queen's hair.

I originally designed this pictographic gold ornament for the princess. On the Queen's birthday, the princess gave it to the Queen as a gift. The Queen appreciated it very much and often wore it to attend banquets. The queen was born with beautiful black hair, not a little chestnut-colored like the princess's.The queen loved her hair very much, so her maids, no matter what race they were from, all dyed their hair black. On weekdays, the queen and King Timur attended the banquet together, and the king and queen sat side by side, but the queen's seat was slightly lower.All the people attending the banquet today were women and children. King Timur was not among those invited, and only the queen was sitting in the center.

The concubine Han Zedai was under thirty years old, and she was an out-and-out beauty when she was a girl.However, her face and eyes became swollen from drinking, and her body began to gain weight, so that her youthful beauty was lost.Hanzedai was of the same family as King Timur, and was quite intelligent, and was usually most trusted by King Timur.As we all know, Hanzedai was originally the beloved wife of the eldest prince Jihanjar. She gave birth to her husband two sons, Shaletan and Pier.After the death of Hanjiel, Hanzedai reluctantly agreed to remarry the third prince Milansha under the repeated persuasion of her father-in-law King Timur and the queen, and after marriage she had a son Khalil with Milansha.Recently, for some unknown reason, the relationship between the concubine and the third prince had become discordant, so the stubborn concubine moved out and lived alone near the palace tent.

Khalil is only eight years old, and he is not very affectionate with his uncle Shah Ru.However, he and Ayilai were about the same age, so they got to know each other very quickly. Each of the two children took a piece of bread and ran out to ride a horse. Shahru was ordered by his mother to toast to all the wives present.According to the position of honor, he came to the queen mother first.Behind him was a wine envoy who was holding a silver plate on which was placed a golden cup filled with wine. After that, there was another waiter with a wine jug. Cup filled. The wine envoy came to the queen with the tray, bowed three times first, and then Shahru presented the cup to the queen.The queen took the cup and drank it all in one gulp.The waiter filled the silver cup again and walked up to the princess. The princess never drank baijiu. Knowing her habit, Hanzedai specially prepared a jug of kumiss and asked the attendant to carry it.Unexpectedly, the waiter was careless and poured white wine into the silver cup by mistake. The princess didn't want the waiter to be punished, so she took the cup and wanted to drink it. Shah Ru said, "Please give me a drink, princess." During the process of presenting wine, there were times when the present was passed on to the cupbearer, but it had never happened before that the person who presided over the worship asked for the wine on his own initiative.Because of this unexpected episode, the wives who were whispering all stopped talking and looked at the princess and Shahru together. The princess also seemed a little surprised and hesitated a little. Shaharu's attitude was calm but firm, and he still said, "Princess please give me a drink." The princess couldn't hesitate anymore, and hastily brought the silver cup to Shaharu.Shaharu took the silver cup, drank the white wine in one gulp, and then asked the attendant to pour sweet and sour kumiss to the princess. After the princess put the silver cup back on the plate, the toast continued.Shah Ru came to the concubine Hanzadai with the wine envoy and servants.Hanzedai made a joke with her brother-in-law: "Yo, I didn't expect our little Shaharu to grow into an adult."Shaharu didn't respond either, but only smiled slightly.Hanzedai looked like she didn't expect a fifteen-year-old boy to be so meticulous and considerate, but I felt that after returning from the Golden Horde, Shahru seemed to have changed from a boy to a man all of a sudden. After drinking like this for a while, the maids and servants brought exquisite snacks, and everyone used some snacks before starting to drink again.In the Timurid Empire, women liked to drink like men, and when they attended a banquet, they often returned drunk and lost their composure.The only woman who never gets drunk once is Princess Oeira. I drank juice and ate snacks, and when I no longer felt hungry or thirsty, I began to savor the furnishings in the concubine's tent with great interest.Appreciating all masterpieces of art always brings me great enjoyment. Hanzedai lived in a pure green tent.The interior of the tent is made of all kinds of precious animal skins. It is said that this kind of animal skin needs about fifteen gold bars to buy one in China, and the price in Europe is even more expensive.In the center of the tent is a huge cabinet, about four feet high, with extremely ornate carvings.Large pearls are inlaid around the cabinet, and blue gemstones as big as walnuts are inlaid on the top of the cabinet.I remember seeing this cabinet in the queen's tent, it must have been given to the concubine later by the queen. All the drinking cups and porcelain of the concubine are stored in this cabinet. The drinking cups are made of sterling silver, and the outside is either inlaid with jewels or inlaid with green emeralds.On the opposite side of the giant cabinet was a high silver table, on which was placed a jewel tree, the tree was as tall as Shaharu, and the silver branches were covered with rubies, emeralds, agates, diamonds and other fruits. Between the fruits and the branches, there were several A golden bird is perched on it, or it is flapping its wings to fly, or it has just landed, its expression is naive, which arouses pity.There is a silver screen behind the tree, and the silver screen is full of flower patterns.A miniature painting from India was hung in one corner of the tent, and the corners of the painting had been framed with tiny brocade threads. This painting was a gift from the princess to the concubine. When I glanced over the carved wine table from the corner of my eyes, I saw that the queen was talking softly with the princess, and her smile revealed inner joy. I know very well that for Princess Oeira, the queen loves and respects her from the bottom of her heart.If not, she would not have entrusted her only son, Shaharu, to the care of the princess.In my impression, although the queen is reasonable, she is not as generous and caring to everyone as she is to the princess.Yes, it's not difficult to understand. The queen and the princess, one is a descendant of Chagatai Khan and the other is a descendant of Tuolei Khan.What's more, there is no emotional entanglement between them, and this is precisely the most fundamental difference between the princess and the little queen Turan. As I have said many times, the little queen Turan is the niece of the great queen Tuma, but at the same time, they are also the most beloved women of King Timur when he was alive. This relationship makes it impossible for them to truly marry her. The other party is regarded as a relative, or trusts each other from the bottom of their hearts. Shaharu was the only man among the guests invited by the concubine that day - of course, in the eyes of the queen and the concubine, he was still a child.According to my understanding of Shah Ruh, I thought he would leave the concubine's tent after the toast, I thought he didn't like this kind of occasion. However, I was wrong. Shah Ruh has been quietly sitting in his seat, showing no intention of leaving halfway.I found out that he ate almost nothing except the occasional sip of wine.His eyes kept looking at a certain place, his face was shining brightly, and his expression was extremely focused... Later, I finally understood that he was listening to the queen and the princess talking. This is not like the Shahru I know. The banquet is over.The queen was a little drunk, so Shah Ru must send his mother back to the palace to rest.Before leaving, he watched the princess, Ayilai and I got into the same carriage.When he told Nuridin to send us back to Orinburg safely, and when he looked at the princess with nostalgia, I finally realized why he had such a strange behavior before.This is because, in that afternoon and night, Shah Ruh did not realize that he was among a group of women, and what his eyes could see was actually only the princess.