Chapter 7 Section 7 It's a matter of time before the rapids retreat bravely

The bells in the royal temple were long and long, and the annual National Day Ceremony (Empress Dowager’s birthday) started with such bells.According to Emperor Daoguang's wishes, this year's National Day will be the same as in previous years. Officials in Beijing will each be rewarded with a bowl of noodles. (Honorary title, meaning warrior hero) Forget it, but University scholar Mu Zhang'a thinks it's inappropriate. Mu Zhang'a solemnly gave a memorial to Emperor Daoguang: "Since he ascended the throne, the emperor has been worrying and worrying all day long. He is diligent, thrifty and self-denying, surpassing his ancestors. This year is the empress dowager's 70th birthday ceremony. We can’t meet each other unless you are Mingjun. The National Day of my heavenly pilgrimage country is not comparable to that of a small barbarian country. How can it be settled with a bowl of noodles? Especially after the war, in order to show the power of my celestial dynasty to the small barbarian country, the grand ceremony cannot be deterred without a grand ceremony Only in this way can Guo Tai feel at ease, and barbarians dare not underestimate our Celestial Dynasty."

Lord Qi Shanqi, the minister in Tibet, also sent a memorial from the frontier, urging the emperor to hold the National Day vigorously, and emphasized that celebrating the National Day quietly, although it has the name of frugality, is still considered weaker than the barbarians. There is no light. Emperor Daoguang couldn't resist the persuasion of the ministers, so he had to reluctantly agree, but he still warned Shuntian Mansion, who was in charge of the ceremony: "If you can be frugal in everything, you must be frugal, and you must not force it." After saying eight sentences, "The minister must handle it according to the order", he quit happily.

The prelude to the grand ceremony was officially kicked off under the management of Shuntianfu. First, the signboards of the shops facing the street were cleaned up. The Office of the Ministry of Industry of Shuntianfu stipulated: "All the signboards of Jingshi's stores must be uniformed at the Liji signboard shop in the south of the city within five days. , all are updated and replaced, and are not allowed to be made in other sign shops. Those who disobey, the light ones will block the shop, and the serious ones will be fined and jailed. No matter the size of the shop, there will be no escape."

The so-called Liji signboard shop in the regulations is a shop jointly opened by Zhang Shangshu's old Taishan of the Ministry of Industry of Fengtian Prefecture and Kuang Shilang's younger brother-in-law of the Ministry of Industry of the Qing Dynasty, and specializes in making signboards for merchants.It is said that "Li Ji" has made a lot of money just for the Empress Dowager's birthday. Even if Li Ji's sign shop does not accept business for ten years, it will not go bankrupt. This regulation was posted on the same day, and five days later, there were special people inspecting every street and alley, so seriously.

Some of them thought that the signboards were new, but the style was inconsistent, and they wanted to get away with it, so the shopkeepers were arrested and locked up. In the end, they spent thousands of taels of silver to atone for their crimes, and smashed the old signboards as usual. Li Ji" made a new one, and that's it. The walls facing the street were painted with new cement, and the houses not facing the street were also plastered with new mud, creating a scene of renewal.Big restaurants, big restaurants, and big opera gardens are even more decorated with lights and festoons. Even the big red lanterns hanging outside the entertainment venue have to go to places designated by the government to buy brand new ones to hang up.What Shuntian Mansion said at this time was: "Rebuild a big capital in ten days!"

Shuntian Mansion has such a commotion, although the people are complaining, and even though the capital is still the same as before, the weather has indeed radiated a kind of vitality.After doing this, the government forced people to donate money next to the store, saying that they would buy yellow sand uniformly, and all streets in the capital would rush to spread new sand in these few days.Who dares to say no to the empress dowager's auspicious day! The Changsha Guild Hall was also forced to donate one hundred taels of silver by the government.The Hunan Guild Hall where Zeng Guofan lived was home to several Hanlin officials, and the honorary director was Tang Jian, a third-rank member of the court, Taichang Temple Qing Tang Jian, so he wanted to forfeit the donation of one hundred taels of silver.Unexpectedly, after three days, the manager of the guild hall was taken away by the police from the first county of Shuntian Prefecture.The donation of one hundred taels was not only worth a penny, but it also cost seven hundred taels to redeem people.

After the manager was released, the more he thought about it, the more angry he became, so he went to Mr. Tang Jian, hoping that Mr. Tang could come forward to seek justice for himself and for the people of Hunan.Unexpectedly, when he arrived at the Tang Mansion, not only did he not ask for a word of justice, but in the end, Tang Jian even resigned from the honorary director of the Hunan Guild Hall. Tang Jian's reason was: "A certain person in Tang has a lot of power, so it is not appropriate to be a director anymore. His false name is harmful to others, himself, and fellow villagers."

Steward Ren tried every means to persuade him, but Tang Jian just shook his head and refused to agree again. In fact, Tang Jian also had his own difficulties, and he only told Zeng Guofan about it.That was when Zeng Guofan went to the Tang Manor to ask Tang Jian about the sage's thinking about his faults. Tang Jianyu said something like this earnestly: "The sage thinks about mistakes and pays more attention to being alone, and the work of being careful about being alone is more important on the word alone. If you are alone and not careful, you can't think about mistakes. The Great Qing Dynasty was built on the back of Taizu's horse. It emphasizes martial arts and despise virtue. But today's sages value virtue. But ignoring martial arts, natural and man-made disasters continue, power ministers are positive and negative. Virtuous ministers are difficult to use, and powerful ministers are in power. For the present plan, retreat and seek safety, so as not to lose integrity and morality, but also to preserve reputation.

"The old man has been in the capital for a long time, and he has been an official to Jiuqing. There have been countless scenes. The Qing Dynasty is a world dominated by Manchus. We Han people can never stretch our waists and do things. Only the Manchus follow the lead. The old man is poor in a high position, and he is just doing nothing. The old man is not good at politics, but he likes to educate people. Now that the sage is not tired, the old man will soon resign and return to the south. Disheng, you are still young, listen to the old man, when you reach my age, no matter what position you occupy This is the old man's confidant's words. How can your temperament, your conduct, and the current officialdom fit together! When the water is clear, there will be no fish, and when the official is pure, there will be taboos. No matter when, this It’s all the same reason!”

Zeng Guofan knew that Tang Jian, an official, had done a lot of wronging himself, and it would be a matter of time before he retired bravely from the officialdom.No matter who it is, when the official career is at its peak, public and private affairs are extremely smooth and harmonious, but gossip and slander also arise from this.The Shaoqing Woren of the Taipusi, He Guizhen, the doctor of the Ministry of Justice, and Wu Tingdong, the censor of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, who have a close relationship with Master Tang, are not full of knowledge!But in the officialdom, except for the Japanese who belonged to Mongolia and had some royal relatives, no one dared to underestimate them, almost everyone kept silent!

Zeng Guofan thought for a while, felt sad for a while, and became angry for a while.He thought to himself: "My original idea was completely wrong. If you want to be an official, you should be an honest official, and if you want to be a man, you should be a gentleman. These are all far-fetched ideas! It was thrown away! Now I have to ask my family members for money even for food expenses, and what are you talking about about honest officials and gentlemen, it doesn’t matter!” The day of the grand ceremony is getting closer and closer. The first batch of people who came to Beijing were the governors and governors from the provinces around the capital city, as well as the princes and relatives who lived in Fengtian Mansion. Eight hundred miles special discount of Tibetan general Yanling. Emperor Daoguang was surprised when he saw Yanling's special report: Could it be that there is another riot in Tibet?When I opened it, it turned out that it was Yanling's greeting memorial sent out on the way to Beijing in order to attend the grand ceremony and was afraid that the emperor would blame him.The memorial reads: "The slave has been away from Tibet for more than forty days, and is rushing to the capital day and night. The empress dowager's 70th birthday, how can the slave not be by her side! The spirit of the ancestors in heaven, it is strange if the slave is not cut!" After reading the memorial, Emperor Daoguang's face turned pale with anger.There are many things in the frontier, which are not comparable to those in the mainland. How can we get away without authorization!He took a pen and wrote the word "confused" on Yanling's notebook, and immediately sent an order to the Military Aircraft Department to downgrade Yanling to a second-level punishment and return to his original post, ordering him to return to Tibet without delay! Not long after the imperial decree was issued, the special envoys sent by the Mongolian prince, the four Tibetan Kalons, and the Korean royal family also entered Beijing; although English, American and other barbarian countries also sent envoys by boat, Emperor Daoguang did not receive them. , The gift was naturally not accepted.It is said that the persuasion of Mu Zhang'a and Qiying played a role in Emperor Daoguang's doing so. Mu Zhang'a said sincerely: "The barbarians all have yellow hair, blue eyes and hooked noses. It's no fun to scare the empress dowager! How can a seventy-year-old person be able to withstand being frightened! Please think twice, Your Majesty!" Qiying pointed to Tianhua and said: "My heavenly holy country is a state of etiquette. The two long legs of the Yi people cannot be bent when they are born. When it comes to celebrating their birthdays, all the officials kneel to ask the emperor and the empress dowager for their blessings, but they Standing still, how is this decent! If it spreads out, it will damage the prestige of the country!"