Chapter 3 The third round of luck of the fireman and the driver

Before the Queen Mother gets into the car, there is one more thing that must be paid attention to.In fact, it is also a very stubborn habit.That is, whenever the Queen Mother comes to any building, the first person to go in must be Yi herself; if there is already someone inside, this person has to exit first, and the Queen Mother must go in. After the rest of the people Only then can we move forward.So before the queen mother got into the car, someone first went to drive all the laborers out of the car together, and led them to a place where the queen mother could not be seen, kneeling neatly, bowing their heads, waiting for Yi The old man gets in the car.Therefore, in this short few minutes, on this imperial train that was being fired up, although black smoke was also emitting from the chimney, and the gas boiler was also full of steam, there was no one on the train. After the Empress Dowager sat down in Yi's own carriage, the firemen and drivers had to get up from the ground and return to their fixed posts, waiting for the order to drive.

During the 20 days before we were preparing to leave, countless difficulties had occurred, and Qingshan was so exhausted that he was exhausted physically and mentally!The first difficult problem is the group of workers on the car; because the Queen Mother insists on asking those eunuchs to take care of the car driving, but how can this be done?Although most of those eunuchs have served in the palace for many years, and they can be successful as butlers or maidservants of ordinary people, but they have never received some basic railway common sense, how do they drive a train? Qingshan expended a lot of words, and managed to get rid of Yi's prejudice; but in the end, Yi earnestly warned, no matter what, those railway workers were not allowed to come into Yi's sight.It means that Yi still abides by the old saying that men should not serve Yi.

Even if this problem is solved in this way, other things cannot be so easy.One of the most ridiculous things is that the Empress Dowager firmly ordered Qingshan to teach him to put all the workers on that train, from the driver to the lowest-level cleaners, to wear court boots, court hats, and dress up. Into a full eunuch style.Readers think about it: a dark-faced stoker who lives with smoke and coal all day, wearing such a small umbrella-style hat, doesn’t he look like an old fungus?Then compare the pair of black satin boots on his feet and the brocade robe as bright as a rainbow on his body with the coal pile on which he is standing, and you can easily imagine that it is a success. What a phenomenon!But this phenomenon is realized after all!Originally, the empress dowager's order was equal to the law, who could change it!

In a locomotive, three drivers are in service at the same time.Of course, they all dressed up like eunuchs. ——Let us use driver A, driver B, and driver C to distinguish them.At that time, their status was as important as the ministers in the court and the governors of the provinces; so they tried their best to ask for as many assistants as possible, but the official driver was only Driver A (in fact Two people are not allowed to drive at the same time).On normal days, he always has a seat where he can sit comfortably; but on this imperial train, no one is allowed to sit except the empress dowager herself, so he has to stand upright. with.The job of driver B is very labor-saving. He only needs to look ahead, and if he notices any changes on the track, such as a cow crossing the track, or other similar things. ——He is responsible for reporting to Driver A.There is no place for this person on an ordinary train; even if there is occasionally, he can just pull a stool and sit next to driver A; but this time, of course, he can no longer sit, so He often uses the two movements of squatting and kneeling alternately to take a short rest.This is the etiquette and authority that the empress dowager pays most attention to.

As for the C driver?In fact, it is just a substitute for A and B.If any of them wants to take a break, he will make up for it; if it is driver A who needs a rest, then driver B will take over the actual driving duties, and let driver C take over the duties left by driver B. palm. Next, let me talk about the situation of the stokers again: there are four of them together—always wearing court hats and boots, and wearing the clothes of eunuchs. ——For the time being, A, B, and D will also be represented.Fireman A is the person who is actually in charge of taking care of the fire.Fireman B was idle with nothing to do until Fireman A needed to rest, and then he went up to take over.The job of the third fireman is to shovel the coal from the tender truck at the back to the front so that the first fireman can fetch it and add it to the stove.Fireman D stands on top of the coal pile, and uses a short, small shovel to shovel the tall coal to the bottom, so that Fireman B can transport the coal to Fireman A without much effort.But we might as well think about it: how embarrassing is the position of Ding Huofu?He could neither stand, because the coal stack was too high, and the car bumped and fell, and he could not sit, because it was against the Queen Mother's order.So what?Of course, he can only sit and stand half way, squatting all the time.Therefore, his work is particularly slow, and he must always take care of his own safety.

In this way, all actions were performed according to the rituals in the palace.I think these people must have received a few days of special training beforehand.I have also been on that locomotive several times to see them, and I saw that those people were all sad and unhappy.Of course, I did not announce it to the Queen Mother afterwards.But I know that they are really not used to this kind of restraint, because there is absolutely no such restraint when running any train.The first thing that is uncomfortable is the hat on the head and the brocade robe on the body; the second is that no matter how hard you are, you are not allowed to sit down; the third is that in order not to disturb the Queen Mother, no matter what the situation is, Sounding the steam or ringing the bell is absolutely prohibited.

And how do those gatekeepers work? Of course, they are not allowed to walk on these yellow vehicles, let alone run on top of these vehicles; if they do so, at least they will be killed. —Then how are these people going to get on the last yellow car and use the hand brake when the train has come to a station and is about to stop?This problem seems to be difficult to solve, but in fact it is not difficult.Since the speed of the train was only fifteen or twenty miles an hour--about sixteen miles--the driver had to send a man out of the locomotive and run to the tender before it had to stop. Get on the half of the car behind the car——this half of the car is not painted yellow, but it is specially for the workers on the car to rest. ——Inform the brakeman to prepare the brake cars.At the same time, the driver gradually reduces the speed and makes a reservation where the train should stop.As the traffic gradually slowed down, the brakeman would jump out of the car and run to the car behind which the hand brake was installed, or stand on the ground and wait for the car behind to come by before jumping on it, and then use the hand brake. Securely lock the brakes.But in fact, the gatekeeper had already stepped onto the yellow vehicle after all, that is, he had violated the Queen Mother's order; but because they jumped up and down so fast, the Queen Mother didn't pay attention.

In front of the locomotive, there are two large flags crossed, which are the national flags of the former Qing Empire.They are all painted apricot yellow, with two dragons drawn in the middle, both of which have their mouths wide open; in the middle of them, there is another big bead drawn, and the position of the bead is almost at the upper left corner of the flag.The meaning of this picture is that the two dragons representing the emperor or the empress dowager are always able to control the one bead representing the whole universe. In normal times, when the train passes by every station, there is always a small worker waving a red or green flag on the station to show whether the future is safe or not; The person who waved the flag was at least a county magistrate.As for whether they waved the red flag or the green flag, that doesn't matter; it doesn't matter whether they waved it correctly or not, because from Beijing to Fengtian, we were eliminated on this railway at that time. Apart from a line of yellow vehicles, there were no other vehicles moving, only a line of military vehicles towing ten ordinary passenger vehicles, full of soldiers, followed our vehicle, which was regarded as the escort of the Queen Mother.

I think all the laborers on this train must have undergone very strict training, because we usually take the train from Beijing to Fengtian, and one day and night is enough; For three days and three nights, this kind of slow speed was troublesome enough; plus the empress dowager ordered to stop at every turn, so it was really rare for these people to have a rest. And they can rest, but they can't sit down! However, no matter how difficult a problem is, there is a way to solve it.When the driver or his assistant, the stoker or his assistant, and the gatekeepers—there were six of them—wanted to eat or sleep, they could all return to the Go in the half compartment at the back of the car.When eating, although it is very difficult to squat or bend down, they are very skilled in squatting, and they can squat to eat or drink tea.We often see Chinese laborers who like to squat in normal times.

So what about sleep? No matter who you are, you can't sleep standing up!Even those laborers who are used to squatting can't sleep squatting!As long as the car moved slightly, he would fall down.But don't be too busy, there is another very clever way!This method is also commonly used by people in the palace.For example, I am absolutely not allowed to sit down in front of the queen mother as a rule, unless she gives me a special permission and rewards me to sit; Sit on the stool.But I can sit on the floor, or lie on the floor. ——Just a comfortable pillow is missing!Because when I sit on the ground or lie on the ground, my body is always lower than the body of Elder Yi lying on the bed, so it is not illegal.

The workers on these vehicles have completely imitated our method. Although they cannot sit or squat to sleep, they can lie on the floor!In this way, they are finally lower than the Queen Mother.In her carriage, the queen mother was either sitting on Yi's throne or lying on the bed.The bed is of course much higher than the floor! The internal position of this locomotive seems to be twice as large as that of ordinary locomotives, otherwise how could it accommodate seven people working inside. —In that half of the work truck behind the tender, you can't imagine finding a stool, a chair, or a table, in case the workmen steal away when no one is looking. sit down. Now, let's talk about the eunuch-style palace robes worn by these laborers.Of course, they absolutely couldn't keep these clothes clean. After wearing them for half a day, they were covered with soot and grease.By this time, it will be replaced immediately.The old ones were thrown out of the car--no one would have guessed that they were worn by a train boy--and new ones were put on.These funds are all borne by the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Then, readers may ask, such good clothes are stained with grease, why don't the laborers take them home and wash them before wearing them?However, they also know that after this time, they don't know when and when they will drive the train for the Empress Dowager again; and in normal times, if they wear such clothes, they will be ridiculed by their relatives and friends.It turned out that they were not worthy of wearing them. Before the Empress Dowager drove the car, she knew almost all the key points about how the train would behave; although she had never been on the locomotive to visit it herself, she had already asked all the questions she wanted to ask, and she also He ordered the train to run forward and backward in front of Yi, so Yi believed that the train would not cause any danger to Yi. Another point is also very interesting.Yi's memory is surprisingly strong, and after a few months, Yi can often tell people in detail all the situations Yi experienced on the train, and they are all very subtle.