Chapter 5 The fifth round of driving minister

I often wonder: If there are no such dignified and serious ministers in the court, will all the political affairs of the country come to a standstill, or will it just be like a horse losing its long tail? Seeing that they have nothing else to do except stand straight at the queen mother's feet, so I have to have doubts about their abilities and functions.As far as I know, no matter when, no matter what the cause, no minister has ever dared to express his opinion frankly.It stands to reason that their duty was to assist the Queen Mother—that is, to contribute their opinions to the Queen Mother as much as possible, so that the Queen Mother can handle all government affairs properly; but because they were too afraid of the Queen Mother, so the Queen Mother heard They are just empty theories deliberately catering to Yi's own ideas, or lies that can make Yi happy. (Writing here, I remembered the story my father told me about the Sino-Japanese War in the Sino-Japanese War in the Sino-Japanese War. It is said that from the beginning to the end, the battle reports played by the ministers of the Qing court to Cixi were always "Our army won a big victory", " The false talk of "our army has been victorious" has not been confirmed until the entire Chinese fleet has been wiped out. The only reason is that all the ministers know that the Queen Mother has heard the news of the defeat. So no one dares to tell the truth.)

On this imperial train, there must be a car designated for these ministers to inhabit.But I was very surprised, although all the accompanying ministers - from the most senior to the lowest - were crowded together in one car, but Li Lianying, the chief eunuch, occupied a car all by herself , and it was decorated very richly, only slightly inferior to the queen mother's car.This cannot but be said to be a miracle! On the body of this vehicle for the accompanying ministers to live in, in order not to confuse him with the vehicle of the railway officials, there are signs on the left and right sides, which clearly read "" House of Internal Affairs" three words.The so-called Ministry of Internal Affairs is equivalent to the current Ministry of the Interior.In addition to this special car of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, there are also different signs hanging on the other cars, indicating who is sitting there, or what is loaded, so as not to make mistakes.But of course, no brand name can be hung on the Queen Mother's car, but there is also a special mark, that is, a giant dragon with teeth and claws painted on each side, it is painted in sky blue, with a golden yellow body, it is really Very moving.

These ministers all think that their position is very important, and they often flaunt it in front of outsiders.But I can say with absolute certainty and responsibility that their positions really don't matter!Although my second elder brother Xunling is also one of them, I can't obliterate the facts and tell lies.In terms of the character and appearance of the second brother, it can be said that he is very beautiful, and his clothes are not considered luxurious, but his knowledge, if the person who entrusts him can use it properly, he may not lose. to others.But now they not only can't make use of his strengths as much as possible, but they don't even let him do ordinary things. Apart from his beautiful appearance and luxurious service, what he can do for the queen mother or the court can be said is gone!

Qingshan is the Minister of Internal Affairs, that is, the person who is apparently in charge of all government affairs related to internal affairs.His official title sounds very important, but the official title is so beautiful, in fact, his position is exactly the opposite of our ideal scene.In the current Chinese national government, or in the United States, or other countries, the political status of a minister of the interior or an equivalent position is always very important; but the celebration we are talking about here Good, it is different.The affairs he handles are all very trivial and subtle.So to be more precise, he is really equivalent to a servant of a wealthy family, or a butler.His "internal affairs" are actually "official affairs".And the difference between his status and other ministers is that when he is close to the queen mother in the palace, he is more than others.If by chance, the Empress Dowager wanted to use him, she would teach him to do some chores nearby.In this way, he can also get along with it.

No matter how mediocre his talent is, how irrelevant his status is, but his clothes are really exquisite!In this chapter of the book, the main point that the author wants to describe is the dress style of these ministers.Their clothes are all standard and neat like uniforms.As usual, Qingshan also wears a small umbrella-like cap with a red crown made of coral; in the Manchu Qing Dynasty, the red crown was the mark of a first-rank minister, and it was extremely expensive!There is also a feather made of peacock feathers on the back of the hat. When his head shakes, there is often a dazzling light flashing.Of course, he could not use the "eyes" plume, because this kind of plume is the most glorious ornament, and it is absolutely forbidden to abuse it without the permission of the court.In the more than 300-year history of the Qing Dynasty, there were only a handful of three or four people who could receive this special reward. ——One of them is the famous Hefei Li Hongzhang.

In addition to wearing a sky-blue arrow jacket that can brush the ground, Qingshan also wears a purple sauce-colored mandarin jacket on his upper body. There are many patterns woven on the purple sauce-colored jacket.But because the color of the pattern is also purple sauce, it is not very obvious at first glance.However, the latitude and longitude of these patterns are different from other parts, which are the so-called "dark flowers".Most of these hidden flowers are the characters of "Shou", "Fu", "Lu" and so on in floral style, which always mean longevity and preciousness, and the meaning of good fortune and longevity.On the sky-blue arrow jacket, in order to match the mandarin jacket, there are also the same patterns of weaving. Qingshan's clothes are of course very impressive in terms of materials!But in terms of appearance, such a dress is really beautiful, not to mention a pair of shiny black satin court boots on his feet!

Whenever any minister leaves the imperial court and goes on a business trip (that is, when wearing a traveling dress), he has to fasten two additional white ribbons on his belt, each of which is embroidered with a The characters are "loyalty" and "filial piety", so the name of these two belts is Zhongxiao belt.What he meant was to make those ministers, even though their bodies went outside, always turn their hearts toward the imperial court and obey them faithfully forever. As far as the facts are concerned, the accompanying ministers never left the imperial court this time, but just followed the imperial court; but they were always on business trips, so the two white loyalty and filial belts appeared in front of our eyes .These two things were dragging on everyone's belts, just like colorful ribbons tied on gifts.At the ends of these two belts of loyalty and filial piety, there are also two small purses, which are all embroidered very carefully, because these purses have no prescribed style and color, and each person can choose according to his own wishes. They were casually sewn, so all kinds of ingenious patterns and bright colors were cited by these people without limit. However, the function of these purses is only for decoration. In fact, no one has ever used them as a decoration. over something.

As for the belt itself, it was woven with blue silk thread.Of course, the color is also very eye-catching, and as usual, a button is used to fasten the belt; The purse has also become a good material for everyone to boast about their wealth and ostentation.Every minister is planning intrigues, to have a special set of buttons that no one else can buy or think of, in order to show his own wealth.The most common ones are gold buckles, silver buckles, or copper buckles. The style can be customized according to each person's preference, and nineteen are different.However, these gold, silver and copper things are, after all, mostly ordinary materials, and only lower-level officials have to use one of them due to financial constraints; such as Qingshan, absolutely don't want it!One of his buttons was chiseled out of fine emeralds—my father also had a pair of buttons like this—and the style was very delicately carved. Maybe Qingshan himself liked the style, or maybe it was purely because of it. I don't know the skills of jade workers.But I can assure you that a pair of buttons like his is worth at least one thousand taels of Kupin.Calculated according to the current money, it must be more than 1,500 yuan in national currency.Qingshan also wore a huge jade ring on his finger, and his value was about the same as that of the button; so combined, the value of his whole suit was at least five thousand taels of silver, about The current Chinese national currency is 7,000 yuan.As for clothes like his, how many sets he has prepared is beyond the knowledge of others!A minister of the Ministry of Internal Affairs has such rich clothes, no one can say that he is unworthy; although in fact he has to look up to Li Lianying everywhere, and often find something to honor him.

There is another very delicate ornament on Qingshan's cap, the quill for inserting the peacock feather, which is also made of jade, but its style is similar to the most popular cigarette mouthpiece nowadays. The color of my second brother's clothes is roughly the same as Qingshan's, even though he is the son of a duke, and he is also the heir to the title.The title was originally just a false name, what is the real use?But although Qingshan is a first-rank minister, he doesn't have any title, but he has the right to take care of all the government affairs in the palace and the court, as long as Li Lianying doesn't mess with him, he can do whatever he wants.So in terms of real power, no matter where he is, he is always bigger than my second brother.In fact, even Emperor Guangxu's brother is not as powerful as Qingshan!I dare to say categorically, I don't know how much a false title can be worth?It's just that when our ancestors were first knighted, because this man had indeed had many special merits and achievements to win this gift, in the short moment when he was knighted, there were really a group of People admired and complimented him; when he himself died and his descendants inherited his title, others would no longer favor him because he was a descendant of a hero.

My second brother's arrow jacket, mandarin jacket, and weft cap are exactly the same as Qingshan's, the only difference is a pair of buttons on his belt.His buttons were of foreign gold in twenty-four quarters, with three gold rings connected together, fastened by a very delicate chain.These three gold rings are very heavy, but they are polished very smooth, and there are many patterns chiseled on them; my second brother likes to use words, so his rings are chiseled with countless characters.Although most of the buttons in this pair are gold, they are also inlaid with several high-quality emerald jades, which are more beautiful than Qingshan's.The two flower bags carried by the second brother's Zhongxiao are also embroidered with extremely beautiful patterns, and the colors are very bright and eye-catching.The second elder brother considered himself very noble, and he felt that no group of ministers in the court could surpass him, especially because he himself had received a Western education.At that time, Chinese officials did not know many foreign languages, so he was extremely valuable.That's not bad!

My second brother's appearance was originally very handsome, and with the pair of pince-nez he was wearing, his appearance was even more impressive!However, the reason why he wears these glasses is really not for the sake of looking good, but because his eyes are short-sighted, and without glasses, he can hardly see some things.Mentioning his pair of glasses reminded me of a joke.Although glasses have a history of more than a hundred years in China, they can no longer be said to be a novelty; but the pair of pince-nez worn by Xiang Xunling is still rare, at least limited to the court. No one else wears the same glasses—maybe there are out there.The root cause is probably because people with higher nose bridges don't wear this kind of pince-nez, so there are not many people wearing them in other places, but Xunling's nose bridge is very high, so it is extremely easy Clip up his glasses.When we first entered the palace, the second elder brother went to court for the first time, and the queen mother put him in a very good position. Therefore, other courtiers paid great attention to him, and one of them was the most curious. , as if looking at some kind of diorama, he fixed his eyes on the second brother's glasses and was lost in thought.What shocked him the most was probably the gold chain that was tied to the glasses at one end and the button at the other end.Because he felt that although one end of this gold chain was tied to the button of the mandarin jacket of the second brother, the chain itself was soft, so how could it support the glasses and prevent them from falling off.So he stared at it intently.The second brother's temper was originally very funny and naughty. He saw that the official was always looking at his glasses, so he deliberately made a joke with him.He wrinkled the bridge of his nose on purpose, and the glasses fell off immediately, so that the official rushed forward in a panic, and stretched out his hand to catch him; but the glasses were tied with a gold chain, and fell to the second Brother's waist, it no longer fell down, only turning on the gold chain.This made the official even more obsessed. "Ah!" The minister couldn't help shouting, his eyes were twice as wide as usual. "Try again and let me see?" The second brother really followed him and tried again.The minister looked at it, grinned all over his mouth, and asked the second brother to lend him the pair of glasses to try for himself.But he quarreled for a long time, and even rubbed his nose red, but he still couldn't get it off.The reason is very simple, but my second brother has a very high bridge of nose, so he can use a pince-nez; but the old man's nose bridge is as flat as it is, so naturally he can't fit it. From then on, Xunling's pair of pince-nez became the focus point of his colleagues' curiosity; until we took this special imperial train from Peiping to Fengtian, the This curiosity has not been completely extinguished. Because the main reason for the Empress Dowager to go to Fengtian this time is purely to go to the Mausoleum, not to deal with any military affairs, and just to enjoy the scenery along the way, and does not intend to stay for a day and a half, so get rid of my second Apart from elder brother and Qingshan, Yi no longer brought along other more important ministers.But my second brother and Qingshan each brought a lot of attendants as usual.Qingshan brought about five or six of them, some of whom could be regarded as helping him with chores, and some of whom were helping him with paperwork, but in fact, these people could do very little for Qingshan.As for the clerical business, there was less—none at all.Originally, Qingshan intentionally took care of his relatives for this lack of eating and doing nothing, because his relatives were very lazy characters. Although they wanted to make money, they didn't want to actually work, so everyone had Taking advantage of his relatives, he forced Qingshan to place them.This kind of situation is very common in China. No matter which person, as soon as he finds a position where he can have the right to employ others, his relatives and old friends will immediately surround him and force him to do his best. The more references to private, the better.In the official circles of the Manchu and Qing Dynasties, this situation was especially common. Of course, my second brother is no exception. Although I don't know the exact number of his entourage, I can assure you that they have no other jobs other than sitting and chatting with him.In fact, when the second brother quoted them, he didn't want them to do any work.In this way, readers can easily imagine the situation in our family: not only my second elder brother has so many Qingke-style attendants, but my fourth younger brother also has several to support, and my father has even more; these three The total number of people after the merger is at least twenty or thirty.So no matter how big our own house is or how big the house we rent from other people is, there will never be any vacant room.And often not enough.Under such circumstances, my father, my second brother, or fourth brother would have to spend another sum of money to rent some houses outside, so that these parasites can live in peace. Having said that, in the court, it was all thanks to those ministers who were dressed in colorful clothes and stood upright in the court, so that they could embellish a kind of elegant and luxurious atmosphere; and during this trip, it was all thanks to Xun These entourages of Ling and Qingshan are embellished, so as not to lose the court demeanor. Although, strictly speaking, among the group of accompanying ministers who followed the Queen Mother to Fengtian this time, except for Xunling and Qingshan, they can really be regarded as ministers, the rest of the group, if you are not welcome For some, there is no need to give them the title of minister; but I think it is very appropriate to call them accompanying ministers, otherwise it is unfair.Because I think the positions held by this group of people!They are exactly the same, except that Qingshan and Xunling are always at the front when meeting the Queen Mother, otherwise there is no difference.When it comes to the position of the station, we have to praise the preciousness of the title.Although I have repeatedly said before that a title is a false name and has no real benefits, but when meeting the Queen Mother, my second brother always stood in front of Qingshan every time, relying on his title of duke. It is to stand very close to the Queen Mother; this kind of treatment was regarded as an extremely honorable thing at that time. Qing Shan was a butler in the Qing Palace, and he could probably manage all the things that a butler could manage; while my second brother was an attendant and adjutant of the Queen Mother. Although he had no real power, his status was always higher than that of a male The Hakkas are taller, so he can stand in front of Qingshan. Along the way, our train often ordered it to stop because of the momentary pleasure of the Queen Mother; and whenever the train stopped, a group of "accompanying ministers" led by Qingshan and Xunling had to walk to the Queen Mother together. Come and wait on me.The Queen Mother knew almost none of these people's names, official titles, and their short histories.Although Yi didn't seem to pay much attention to them when they stood in front of her, none of these people's clothing and manners could escape her keen sight. "They are all very richly dressed!" Yi Chang said with emotion: "Their flashiness and official airs can indeed add a lot of humor to us during the journey!"