The anti-Qing movement began with the looting of the Eight-Nation Alliance.

Chapter 252 Harem

The eunuch at the door saw Shen Lian approaching and was about to shout. Shen Lian waved his hand to tell him to be quiet and then tiptoed inside.

Although snow was falling heavily outside, the palace was warm and cozy inside. The main palaces, such as the three main halls of the imperial palace, Qianqing Palace and Kunning Palace, all have firewalls.

Eunuchs and palace maids added charcoal to the stoves outside the palace, and the heat circulated through the passageways inside the walls, making the entire hall warm and cozy.

To keep the palace, which spans two to three thousand square meters, heated, eunuchs had to keep burning charcoal, and they had to burn the best red charcoal.

Shen Lian inadvertently learned that during the Qing Dynasty, the price of this kind of charcoal in the palace was more than one tael of silver per catty.

There were regulations regarding the amount of charcoal the noblewomen in the palace used each month: the Empress Dowager used 120 catties, the Empress used 110 catties, and princesses and princes used only 20 to 30 catties.

The Qing emperors were incredibly stingy; what good was that little bit of charcoal? The empress, living in the Kunning Palace, dared not light a fire in the walls; she could only use a brazier for warmth.

Now that Shen Lian has taken over the palace, the officials of the Imperial Household Department have all been imprisoned and are being tortured by the Military Intelligence Bureau!

He believed that the price of charcoal would drop at least tenfold in the future, and if anyone dared to give him an egg that cost ten taels of silver, he would teach them a lesson.

Charcoal is something you can't eat, and you can't sell it for money. Shen Lian didn't care about the restrictions from above; he just instructed his subordinates to supply it as much as possible.

This is why Kunning Palace is so warm and cozy; the women there spend almost all their free time. The three women get along well and there's not much infighting among them.

"Your Highnesses are in high spirits! What are you all busy with?" Shen Lian lifted the curtain, took off his mink cloak and handed it to the maid at the door as he went inside.

"Ah!" A soft exclamation escaped, and the three women scrambled to their feet.

"We're an old married couple, what's there to be afraid of!" Shen Lian swallowed hard, looking at the expanse of white flesh.

"You're already the emperor, and you're still so improper!" Nie Xiaoqian finished putting on her clothes and glared at Shen Lian.

"Hehe! Even emperors are human, they have emotions and desires too!"

After being separated for several months, Shen Lian hasn't had a proper chance to spend time with the three women!

The Kunning Palace faces south and has a rectangular floor plan with nine bays across the front and three bays deep. Since the width and depth of ancient buildings were not fixed, based on research and architectural regulations of the Forbidden City, its floor area is estimated to be approximately 2400 square meters.

The charcoal mainly used in the Qing Dynasty imperial court was called "Hongluo charcoal," also known as "Hongluo charcoal" or "Hongluo charcoal." It was mostly produced in Yizhou, fired by local kiln owners. The Imperial Household Department purchased it from factories in the production area and then transported it to the capital for storage in the charcoal warehouses of the Hongluo factories. This type of charcoal was made from high-quality hardwoods from the Yizhou area, characterized by its long burning time, minimal smoke, and silvery-white ash. It also produced a slight fragrance when burning, making it of exceptional quality. It was primarily supplied to the Empress Dowager, the Emperor, and the imperial concubines for heating in their daily lives.

There is no clear record of the unit price of red charcoal, but its high price can be roughly inferred from the total purchase volume and expenditure recorded in some archives. For example, in the 46th year of the Qianlong Emperor's reign, 48,000 catties of red charcoal and 296 million catties of other firewood and charcoal were purchased for the inner court and the Yuanmingyuan Garden, costing a total of 15,800 taels of silver. In addition, there were strict regulations on the monthly supply of red charcoal to people of different ranks in the palace: 120 catties for the Empress Dowager, 110 catties for the Empress, 30 catties for princesses, and 20 catties for princes.