Chapter 81 2. Ye Lao has a soldier in his chest, and a little prince in the eyes of a fisherman

It is unusual for the Beijing-Hanzhou Railway to reach the first major station in Henan Province.More than 3,000 years ago, Pan Geng, a famous emperor of the Shang Dynasty, moved the capital from Qufu to this place, and since then created a new era of prosperity for the Shang Dynasty.It was passed on to King Zhou. Because of his cruelty and innocence, he aroused the wrath of heaven and the people, and finally aroused the revolution of King Wu of Zhou. King Zhou set himself on fire in Lutai. The smoke dissipated.The world was spinning and the years passed, and it slowly became a ruin.Later, because this place is the intersection of the four provinces of Shanxi, Hebei, Shandong and Henan, it is a passage for horses and horses, and an important place for military strategists. Gradually, it became densely populated and merchants converged, forming a lively city.It is today's Zhangde Mansion, an important town in northern Henan.

Since the railway passed here, Zhangde Mansion has been changing with each passing day in these years.There is a small river outside the north gate of Fucheng, flowing quietly from west to east.Common people call it Huan Shui.There is an old wooden bridge on the Huan River, named Guitang Bridge.Stepping across the Guitang Bridge, it is a village with hundreds of households. The old name passed down from generation to generation for hundreds of years is called Huanshang Village.In Huanshang Village, there is a former Ming vassal mansion covering an area of ​​more than 200 mu. Although it has been deserted for many years, the shelf is still there.In that year, Yuan Keding bought it under his father's order, and built a large-scale construction project. It took half a year to renovate the abandoned palace.

The newly built Yuan Mansion looks like a castle-like building from the outside.Surrounded by thick high walls, there are solid blockhouses built on the four corners of the high walls, which look formidable and terrifying.Inside the wall is a completely different atmosphere. There are vegetable gardens, orchards, and melon gardens here, and a large group of pigs, sheep, chickens, and geese are raised.There are nine courtyards among the trees, each courtyard has its own door, and a cobblestone path leads to the large garden in the mansion.There are rockery piled up in the garden, towers and pavilions, and a ten-acre pond.Lotuses are planted in the pond, feeding fish and turtles.There are several small fishing boats tied to the willow trees by the pond all the year round.In the autumn of the previous year, Yuan Shikai moved here from Ji County with a large team of family members.He especially liked this big garden and named it Yangshou Garden himself.The nine courtyards housed the master's nine wives and their children.But soon, the number of courtyards increased from nine to ten, because another one was added to the ranks of Yuan's parents' long concubine.

It is said in the world that every time Yuan Shikai changes, he will buy a concubine as a sign.Yuan Shikai seemed to want to prove that the legend was not false, and within a month of coming to Huanshang Village, the 51-year-old owner of the Yangshou Garden became the bridegroom for the tenth time.This time he married Liu Shi, the seventeen-year-old daughter of a mason in Zhangde Mansion. Yuan Shikai used to take concubines and never made it public.In the evening, a small cloth sedan chair carried the concubine into the mansion, and entered the bridal chamber that night.The next day, the old and young members of the Yuan family got together. Yuan Shikai introduced each of them to his new aunt, and gave each of them a red envelope of different value according to their status, and then the whole family had a sumptuous banquet.This counts as a happy event.But this time it was very different.Yuan Shikai held banquets for three full days in the Yangshou Garden.

On the first day, officials from various yamen in Zhangde Mansion were invited.He personally toasted the guests, thanked them for their care, and repeatedly confessed that he wanted to be a good and obedient citizen of Zhangde Mansion.On the second day, the representatives from the neighbors of Huanshang Village were invited.He also made a toast to them, expressing that he would spend his entire life in Jushang Village, and hoped that he would forgive me for any troubles to my neighbors in the future. On the third day, all the family members, young and old, even male and female servants attended the banquet.Yuan Shikai made three promises to them: first, completely let go of the former official government airs, second, no one can have private contacts with the various yamen in Zhangde Mansion, and third, get along with neighbors in a friendly way and not cause trouble.

After these three days of banquets, everyone inside and outside the city of Zhangde Prefecture had a good impression of Yuan Shikai: the ex-Military Air Minister who was dismissed from his post and returned to his hometown lived a civilian life of modest retreat and peace. But Zaifeng was worried about this commoner, and he ordered the infantry commander's yamen to keep an eye on Yuan's family.Therefore, Yuan Deliang, the infantry foreign commissioner who escorted them out of Beijing, and his two soldiers were ordered to live in Huanshang Village for a long time. Yuan Shikai, who is old in this way, is very clear about the court's intentions.He was hospitable and enthusiastic to the three of Yuan Deliang, arranged the best housing for them, and assigned a cook to cook for them.Mr. Yuan's accountant gave each of the two soldiers ten taels of silver for their hard work on a monthly basis.An ordinary soldier, only three or four taels of silver a month, eats corned bread and pickles every day, and has to sweat and practice hard.When I came to Huanshang Village, I had nothing to do but eat delicious food and drink spicy food, but my salary was two or three times more. Where in the world could I find such a good job!Yuan Gongbao is really a living Bodhisattva.It was too late for the two soldiers to be grateful, and there was no such thing as monitoring or not monitoring!

As for Yuan Deliang, Yuan Shikai wins him over even more firmly.Yuan Deliang was from Rehe, thousands of miles away from Xiangcheng, but Yuan Shikai recognized his family with him, and paid him fifty taels of silver every month for his hard work.Yuan Deliang was filled with joy. One day, Yuan Shikai was walking in the garden and saw Yuan Deliang's eyes fixed on the girls in the mansion. Knowing that this guy wanted a woman, he secretly sent someone to find a private prostitute for him in Zhangde Mansion.Yuan Deliang would spend the night at the private prostitute's house every now and then, and the people in Yuan's house settled the bill with the private prostitute once a month.

This Yuan Deliang got so many benefits, he never dreamed of it.He had nothing else to repay Yuan Gongbao's kindness, so he could only repay him by saying good things to the Yamen, the commander of the infantry.Although Yuan's elegant curtained carriages constantly pick up and drop off high-ranking officials, wealthy businessmen, gangsters, and party leaders passing by at Zhangde Station, even though Yuan Shikai's small study is often lit, many unidentified people I had frequent contact with him and talked in secret all night. Although Yuan Shikai set up a private telegraph room, the clear sound of sending messages was almost uninterrupted for a day. Yuan Deliang and his two soldiers turned a blind eye to all this and turned a deaf ear to it. A few ready-made words: Yuan's family lived in peace, planted vegetables and raised pigs, and lived a farm life; Yuan Shikai studied behind closed doors, stayed at home, and had no contact with the outside world.

In this way, Yuan Shikai was safe and sound in Huanshang Village for more than two years.It seemed that he really didn't go out and cut off all contact with the outside world.In fact, the details of the imperial court, the movements of the capital, and major events in the world are all in his heart. He knew about the Wuchang matter yesterday, and he felt a little relieved.Of course, he was not on the side of the revolutionaries, comforting their victory, but comforting the embarrassment of the regent who was helpless in the face of the chaos in the world. "Zaifeng, Zaifeng, it depends on how you clean up this stall!" Yuan Shikai became more and more complacent as he thought about it.When it was time for lunch, he ordered a few more dishes, and he wanted to have a good drink with his third brother who came from his hometown in Xiangcheng a few days ago!

Yuan Shilian and Yuan Shikai are brothers born to the same mother, but they don't have many similarities in appearance.Yuan Shikai has big eyes and thick lips, while Yuan Shilian has beautiful eyes and thin lips; Yuan Shikai has a long body and short legs, and Yuan Shilian has narrow shoulders and thin waist; Wearing a python robe and a jade belt, she can't shake the slightest prestige.However, Yuan Shikai was very kind to this brother.Because Fang was at home when they were young, they were bullied by their eldest brother and second brother, and their common fate often made them allies.This childhood friendship seems to be even more precious in old age.

"Third brother, the photos of our brothers have been printed two days ago." After drinking a few sips of wine, Yuan Shikai said to Shilian with a smile. "Oh!" Yuan Shilian was very pleasantly surprised, quickly put down his chopsticks and said, "Where do you put it, show me quickly!" Yuan Shilian had never taken a photo in his life, and he only heard about it two years ago.He found it both fresh and delicious, and incredible. With a sound of "click", the appearance of the person is left on the paper without leaving a trace. This thing invented by foreigners is really amazing!Hearing from his nephews that a photo studio had recently opened in Zhangde Mansion, Shi Lian wanted to try taking a photo. "Third brother, don't go into the city, call the photographer to come to Huanshang Village!" Yuan Shikai understood the third brother's mood very well, and really recruited the photographer to Huanshang Village.Yuan Shilian was very excited that day. He took a lot of photos in the study, under the tree, and in front of the flowers.Finally, Yuan Shikai said: "Third Brother, let me take a photo with you!" "Middle! That's exactly what I think, so I can take it home and show it to your sister-in-law and nephews in the future." Shi Lian was very happy. The two old brothers walked to the Yangshou Garden together and boarded a fishing boat. Yuan Shikai said: "Third brother, let's both put on coir raincoats and bamboo hats. You pretend to be a boatman and stand behind to pole a pole. I pretend to be a fisherman and sit in front to fish. Are you okay? " "Middle, middle! It's the best way to take pictures like this!" Shi Lian was very happy to see his younger brother in such an elegant mood. After he had put on his makeup and was about to take a photo, Yuan Shikai asked someone to bring a fishing basket by his side.So the two brothers posed seriously, and the photographer suppressed a smile and pressed the shutter. Yuan Shikai took out some photos from his pocket.Shi Lian looked at it with great interest, and said excitedly: "Fourth brother, you see that the person above really looks like me!" "It was you who took the picture yourself, not who you look like!" Yuan Shikai laughed. "This one is better!" Yuan Shilian finally pointed to the photo of the two brothers in makeup, squinting his eyes and said, "It really looks the same! This Shaogong and this fishing man are all real. I don't know why. Who knows it's me. Brothers!" "Hahaha!" Looking at his expression in the photo, Yuan Shikai laughed heartily. "Third brother, I have written two poems specifically for this photo in the past two days!" "Hey, did you write a poem?" Yuan Shilian hurriedly put down the photo and said, "Show me." Since Yuan Shikai was a child, in order to take the exam, he also did a lot of stereotyped essays and wrote a lot of test post poems, but he was not happy with this way. Although he was named as the president of two poetry clubs, the poems were never well done.In the future, when he becomes the commander of the army, he will be a governor, and he will never recite poems for the big and small things that can't be done.Occasionally, when there is a need to entertain, there are masters among the staff who will write for him, so he doesn't need to worry about it.I have lived in Danshang Village for the past two years, after all I am free, and sometimes I read some Tang poetry and Song Ci, and I have the idea of ​​being arty.So he invited some well-known literati in Zhangde Mansion to come and talk with them about poetry and papers, and he felt that it was also interesting.Unknowingly, more than a hundred poems were left behind.Yuan Kewen is most enthusiastic about being a poet.Every time his father did something, he respected him.He also collected his father's poems, his own Fenghe poems, and the poems of Qing literati who often came to Yangshouyuan for gatherings, and recorded them neatly in a notebook.Yuan Shikai was happy to see it, and named it "Gui Tang Chou Sing Collection".I plan to engrave it after there are a hundred more poems and distribute it to relatives and friends to let them know that I can not only do things, but also chant poems, and that I am a person with both civil and military skills. Yuan Shikai took out another piece of paper from his pocket.Shi Lian opened it and saw that he wrote two poems of Qilu, titled "Two Poems of Self-Inscribed Fishing Boat Portraits".He chanted with great interest: