Chapter 10 The Tenth Emperor Guangxu

When it comes to Emperor Guangxu, everyone will think of the 1898 coup that caused a lot of trouble thirty-six years ago.But this poor emperor was deprived of all his authority by the queen mother just because of this coup d'état, making him actually reduced to a political prisoner confined in a deep palace.This time, he was also included in the group we went to Fengtian.He had never been to Fengtian before, and this time, just like the Queen Mother, it was his first visit!But he seemed to be very happy, like a student who came out of school on vacation.In fact, his age is probably between thirty and thirty-five, but his appearance is very childish, and he still looks like a young man in his twenties and fourteens.His biological mother was the sister of the protagonist Empress Dowager Cixi in this book, and his father was the brother of Emperor Xianfeng, Cixi's husband.Less than a few years after Guangxu was born, his mother died; from then on, he was adopted by the queen mother as a godson.Therefore, there was very little real affection between their mother and son; even without the 1898 coup, the Empress Dowager would not have allowed him to monopolize such power for a long time.Later, almost only those decrees about offering sacrifices or holding ceremonies were issued by the courtiers in the name of Guangxu on the orders of the Empress Dowager; all other matters that were slightly related were issued directly by the Empress Dowager.

Guangxu's wife, Longyu, was the so-called "Queen" at that time; Yi's father was called "Gui Gongye", who was the brother of the Queen Mother, and of course the brother of Guangxu's biological mother.So Guangxu and Longyu were in fact cousins.Even so, there was no real love among them.Originally, in the past, the marriage between men and women was decided by the parents; both parties were blind and allowed to be fiddled with by others, so unfortunate accidents often occurred in the family.Although Guangxu is the king of a country, he can't escape this kind of bondage, so later on, he and Longyu not only have no love for each other, they are actually resenting each other, gnashing their teeth, like enemies!

In Guangxu's life, there was only one woman he really loved, and that was Concubine Zhen.But Concubine Zhen had thrown Yi into the well in the east corner of Shenwu Gate by the eunuchs when there was a fist riot in the year of Gengzi.Because they felt that Concubine Zhen was an insignificant person in the palace, and it was not worth dragging Yi to flee to Xi'an together, they readily sent Yi Duan away. (It is said that Concubine Zhen's body has not been taken out so far, it is just an old-fashioned cover on the mouth of the well.) Of course, if the eunuchs did not follow someone's hint, they would never dare to act so boldly; What did you send?Here!Here!Either someone else, or our Queen Mother!The Empress Dowager was not happy for a long time because Guangxu loved Concubine Zhen too much. After the 1898 coup broke out, some people followed the Empress Dowager to slander, saying that Concubine Zhen was the mastermind who encouraged Guangxu to do that, so the Empress Dowager So he decided to execute Iraq.

After the death of Concubine Zhen, Guangxu's inner pain was naturally deep to the extreme, and the only happiness he had, the only joy, was completely wiped out from then on!But he was still an emperor after all, and he couldn't commit suicide or run away easily like a commoner, so he could only weep sadly alone.Concubine Zhen also has a younger sister who is also married to Guangxu as a concubine, called Concubine Jin.Since Concubine Zhen was murdered, Guangxu cherished Yi very much; he felt that only with her, he could get some spiritual comfort.This time, Longyu and Concubine Jin also went to Fengtian together with the Queen Mother. They lived together in the same car, and they were in harmony with each other; but neither of these two people had any special status in the palace. Just eat and dress.Because Concubine Jin is just a "concubine" concubine, and although Longyu is a queen, she is not favored by the queen mother.The plot is really tortuous and incomprehensible: logically speaking, since the Queen Mother hates Concubine Zhen because Guangxu loves Concubine Zhen so much, President Yi should be happy with Longyu.However, Yi does not love Longyu!In the big family, Zhongyuan is the most angry. In the palace, everyone especially can't get along with each other. What a strange thing!

Since the queen mother is so indifferent to Guangxu, why did she take him with her when she went to Fengtian this time?The reasons for this are almost all known to us people; even Guangxu himself did not understand.To sum it up, the Empress Dowager still doesn't trust him, lest he will have any bad intentions after being out of Iraq's surveillance; so no matter where the Empress Dowager goes, she is always very worried, and has to keep this special Political prisoners are not allowed to bring their companions.Maybe Yi also believes that Guangxu has no ambitions at the moment, but Yi is still worried that among those courtiers, there may be people like the Six Gentlemen who will take the opportunity to confuse Guangxu when Yi leaves Beijing, and persuade him to use external force, and then send him back to Beijing. The empress dowager's power is taken away, which is considered to be quite possible; and the empress dowager's temperament is particularly fond of taking power.Although Yi has become the empress dowager, and all enjoyment is far above others, but Yi is not satisfied, she feels that there is no real political power in Yi's own hands, and all the glory and wealth are all equal to zero; therefore Yi did not hesitate to take great risks, and disregarded the slander from all parties, and desperately clinging to Yi's regime.I often see that Yi is restless all day long because of a difficult government affairs, so I can't help secretly wondering, what is the reason for Yi to be able to enjoy it for a long time?

At the same time, on Guangxu's side, he is very optimistic, because he knows it very clearly. He knows that under such an environment, it is really impossible for him to hope to govern, like finding a needle in a haystack; When he was alive, he no longer wanted to be a comfortable and real emperor.So he was not sad.He put all his experiences into fate, and after such a glimpse, his spirit was much happier.Just like going to Fengtian this time, although he knew that the Empress Dowager wanted to monitor him, he only thought that he wanted to go out for fun; along the way, he relied on the car window to enjoy the wild scenery to his heart's content.Every time the train stops, except for a few of us who have to stay to serve the Queen Mother, the rest of us can get off the train and wander around casually; at this time, Guangxu often jumps off and walks with us.He is short in stature, and has a childish face; but he is not proud, and he speaks fluently and pleasantly.He treats us female officers like friends.He probably knows my childhood experience very well, so he often wants to talk to me.He asked me about the railway situation in European and American countries, as well as the disposition and iron facts of the monarchs or heads of state at that time; I only told him a little of what I knew, and he was very happy and satisfied.

"If in fact I am a real king," he once said to me excitedly, "has the right to rule the country like Lafayette, then my first step is to follow what you have told me." I have heard of the methods of those foreign monarchs or heads of state, and traveled around the world. Of course, I also like to travel in disguise, and I don’t want people to know my true face; because this kind of travel is fun. Like how we are now Prudence? If I want to play on land, I must not have much fun; if I can swim in the sea, the fun will be even more unimaginable!...Before going abroad, all the big cities in our own country, where If there is a train that can get there, I must go and see it first. I do have a special tendency when it comes to traveling. Whenever I think that we will return soon after this trip, I feel infinite. It's not painful."

Really, I'm sure he'll never want to go back if he's allowed too much.Because after he returned, he could only be imprisoned in the Forbidden City or the Summer Palace all year round; and within these two prison-like areas, he still could not move freely.Let me be clear; he is simply inferior to those eunuchs with high status; and what he says, whether it is to order others or to supervise others, is often of little effect. The difference is too far!So as long as he thinks about these situations, when he thinks about going back, his eyes—they are a pair of big and flexible eyes—immediately show a gloomy expression.If the Empress Dowager does not seize all of his power, but still allows him to dispose of it freely, he may do something beneficial to China.This is what he himself will always regret.But he finally did not dare to express anything to the Queen Mother.Readers should not blame him for being too weak.Because no matter whether he is weak or strong, according to the customs of the palace, the mother can take the regent for Yi's son at any time, and the son, in any case, cannot resist.So Guangxu's talent was also buried by this habit!I believe that his thinking is indeed advancing, and his insight and ability are enough to shoulder the burden of improving the Qing government. Unfortunately, the Empress Dowager refused to let him have the opportunity to display it.Otherwise, regardless of the rise and fall of the Manchu Qing government, the foreign aggression and internal strife China suffered would be better than it is now!

Of course, the traveling clothes he wears are different from those of the accompanying ministers: one of his arrow jackets is made of sky-blue satin, with countless words of longevity embroidered with gold threads on it; His figure fit him very well, his clothes were very suitable, and with his handsome face, he was really a handsome young man.On top of this archery jacket, he also wore a sleeveless waistcoat, also made of satin, but black, on which were similarly embroidered with many inscriptions of longevity in gold thread; but in my opinion, this The vest is really redundant, and two blue long sleeves protrude from the outside of the black vest, which can be said to be extremely ugly.

All rich and noble families, no matter men or women, love to use gold, silver and jewelry as decorations, but Guangxu absolutely hates these things; his weird temper is of course due to the harsh environment and various unsatisfactory conditions. The impact of the encounter, as long as a reasonable person, can be estimated.But how many gold, silver and jewelry decorations should be used by the emperor of each dynasty, there was no such special ancestral precept in the palace, and it was only up to each person's own pleasure, so no one can interfere with Guangxu's why Don't use these things anymore!But on the black satin melon skin hat he was wearing, there was a bead the size of a longan adorning it, which happened to be on the center of his eyebrows. This bead was not only very big, but also crystal clear and clean, very extraordinary. The products, embedded in this small black hat, are more shining and moving.However, Guangxu's use of this bead was definitely not for the sake of looking good, but for a commemorative effect.From his usual expression, it is not difficult to find his intention; but who is he really commemorating, it cannot be judged arbitrarily.There is also a knot on the top of his hat made of red silk thread, and a bunch of red tassels about a foot long, all of which are very bright and eye-catching.At his feet, like those ministers, he also wore a pair of black satin boots.I often think: If a character like him wears a neat military uniform, he must be very heroic.

Although in fact, he is already a deposed emperor, and he seems to be sitting in a city of sorrow all year round, but the red tape in the palace can't let him go.The empress dowager just wanted to force him to be a complete puppet!For example, when it comes to eating, he has to enjoy the one hundred bowls of boring dishes every meal, and these one hundred bowls of dishes are the same as what the Empress Dowager eats, no matter what his taste is, they can never be changed; Because his dishes are cooked together with the queen mother's, of course he can't make decisions or choose casually!What's especially embarrassing is that he has to eat and drink alone every meal. His wife and concubine, Longyu and Concubine Jin, have to wait in the Empress Dowager's car. Go up and eat the leftovers from the Empress Dowager; so Yimen have a rare chance to have a meal with Guangxu!But the Empress Dowager is still very indifferent to the daughter-in-law Long Yu who always comes to serve every meal of Kong Kong, she speaks less than one sentence in a month on average, and the corners of her eyes always look like she has never seen Yi.Maybe there is no shadow of the queen on the brain cells of the queen mother. Poor Guangxu, the situation he is in is more painful than that of ordinary people. Sometimes, he can only do some interesting things to tease himself, and burst out a smile from his tearful eyes.But he was really terrified of the empress dowager, he could only pay attention to it all the time, not to let himself do anything that would displease the empress dowager.Not only do you have to be very careful in your actions, but you have to think twice when you say a word; because he will never be free, no matter who he is talking to, there will always be a few eunuchs listening not far away, As long as he has any resentful words or something that is not very serious, they will immediately go to tell the queen mother that someone is still bugging him when he sleeps at night; they all hope to hear a few more words so that they can go to the queen mother achievement. Because of this kind of surveillance, Guangxu was almost deprived of his freedom to tell jokes!Especially on this imperial train, because the place is too narrow, the surveillance he received has also become extremely strict invisibly.His travel plans were greatly reduced because of this; it even made him think of returning to Beijing immediately.The reason is that in the palace or in the Summer Palace, he can occasionally get a few minutes of freedom; these short four or five minutes of space are really more precious to him than anything else.He can use them as much as possible to make jokes.However, the jokes he made were always childish. I still remember one fact that is an excellent proof of his childishness. Every morning, everyone who has a little status in the palace has to go to the morning court; this is different from the morning court attended by the courtiers. The meaning of our going to the morning court is to say good morning to the Queen Mother, not What national affairs need to be discussed. ——Guangxu was also one of the attendees, so we took advantage of this opportunity to have a very short conversation every day.But one morning, he suddenly joked with me!Because whenever the Empress Dowager came out from her own room to accept our congratulations, one of them would come out first and shout, "Here we come!" With such a shout, everyone knew that the Empress Dowager's holy car was approaching, and they hurriedly gathered together. Kneel down and greet with your head.On this day, before the Empress Dowager came out, Guangxu suddenly turned around and said to me: "Here we come!" I never expected him to be joking with me, and I didn't even notice whether he was kneeling down, so I believed it and fell to my knees; Everyone laughed, and I realized that I had been fooled by him.The Queen Mother may not have gotten up at all! Poor Guangxu, he is an emperor in name, but how lonely and sad he is!He can only find some happiness from such childish and insignificant jokes, how miserable is it?I was deceived by him at that time, although I laughed with him for a while, but when I stepped back and thought about it, I couldn't help crying for him!I can categorically say that apart from this kind of silly joke, he doesn't need to think about finding any happiness; what he loves to do, he can't do, and what he doesn't like to do, he wants to do.In short, no matter where he goes, he is always a prisoner! Our train will stop at night; perhaps the movement of the train at night will inevitably hinder the peace of the Queen Mother?As soon as the car stops, all sounds will die together; in this way, can the Queen Mother rest in peace?No, no, with the dignity of the queen mother, how can she sleep in the wild without some defenses!So every time our car stopped, a train of military vehicles following in the distance also stopped; hundreds of well-armed guards hurriedly climbed out of the car in the dark, and walked quietly on our train. Around the area, guard posts were deployed.As for the car that the Empress Dowager and Guangxu were riding on (Guangxu's car was also painted with a blue dragon on both sides.) Beside the two cars, the guards were extraordinarily tight, almost completely surrounded.However, the queen mother can still get off the car freely, as long as Yi is happy; but Guangxu can't go one step further, and no one else is allowed to go up.It can be said that he has been completely cut off from everyone and everything in the world, and he is no different from a lonely ghost living alone.Only in his sleep could he temporarily escape from this great circle full of demons hiding. Of all the men I ever met in my life, he was one of the most unfortunate characters!At the same time, he is a most pitiful person. I think this trip to Fengtian will at least give him some comfort!