Chapter 11 Eleventh Ladies and Ladies

This time the Empress Dowager went to Fengtian, due to the limited capacity of the vehicle, all the ostentation was tightened; even the female officials and maids who served Yi personally, Yi could not bring more; There are only sixteen court ladies with them, and these people do not get a salary, and they are regarded as voluntary jobs.The origins of us female officials are almost all the daughters of high-ranking officials of the Manchu Qing Dynasty; while those court ladies are the most beautiful selected from the daughters of many soldiers of the Manchu Qing Dynasty.In name, female officials are of course more noble than court ladies, but in reality, I believe that there are many places where it is true that being a court lady is more comfortable than being a female official.

Being a female official in the Qing palace not only did not get a salary, but it was also a hard job that was upside down and had to lose money.To be honest: when I was in the palace with my sister, my father often had to bring money in for us to use.Every month, Rong Ling and I just reward those cooks with a whole hundred taels of money; if we can't bear the Empress Dowager to reward us from time to time, it will cost us even more.Because when the queen mother rewards us, the eunuchs have to be taught to carry them, and these eunuchs have to give them money; and they all have a mind full of commercial thoughts, so if the queen mother rewards us six or seven at a time Each of them will take one item and deliver it six or seven times. By doing this, our money will be very easy to get out!For example, if six or seven items are delivered at one time, we only need to give them two or thirty taels of silver; if they are divided into six or seven times, we have to give at least ten taels each time. Seventy taels.Although we know that this situation is caused by the eunuchs, who dares to tell the Queen Mother?Because the habit of taking hard money and begging for rewards has become an unbreakable bad rule in the palace; even if the queen mother knows it, she can only laugh at it.On this train, there was an eunuch who specially made my bed and took care of washing my face and mouth, and I had to reward him again.

According to my own calculations, taking the days we lived in the palace or the Summer Palace, we have to spend an average of 22 taels of reward money every day, which is about 30 yuan in silver coins today, plus special expenses at every turn. My father has tired us enough!But my younger sister and I are people who absolutely don't know how to make plans, so how much money did my father spend to keep us in the palace? If it is a long time, we really can't tell the exact number; Not a small amount!Most of them were used to buy things for the Empress Dowager Cheng.Of course, the things of the Empress Dowager are especially exquisite and expensive, and their value can be imagined.

As mentioned above, all the female officials are the daughters of high-ranking officials of Manchu nationality; my sister Rong Ling and I are the beloved daughters of Duke Yugeng.My father was ordered by the imperial court very early to go to various countries to serve as ambassadors; so we have received Western education since we were young.Excuse me for boasting!At that time, there were only a few women like us who could understand foreign languages; therefore, the Queen Mother paid special attention to us two sisters, and the others envied us to the extreme!Although there were no special titles such as "chief female officer" at that time, in fact, we were indeed the leaders of all female officials.

Two of the female officers are the daughters of Prince Qing.At that time, Prince Qing was filling the position of Minister of Military Affairs, so he was naturally a very powerful official!Another one is Shun Wang Fujin.Speaking of the origin of this person, it is very big.Yi and Empress Longyu are sisters of compatriots, and the empress dowager is also Yi's aunt, so the relationship should have been very close; the reason why Yi was selected into the palace as a female official was that the empress dowager wanted to give Yi herself some benefits relative.In this way, the empress dowager must be very sympathetic to Yi's relatives.However, the opposite is true!I don't know why, - I still don't understand, or it is also a kind of neuropathy.Yi hated those royal family members, as well as Yi's own mother's relatives who were close relatives.Although Yi holds all the political power in China and can change any officials at will, Yi has never made Yi's relatives an official with a more important position and easier money; so anyone who has a direct relationship with Yi Relatives, except for a very few, are mostly as poor as the lower class.

Another point worth mentioning is that the Empress Dowager especially hated and envied Puyi's family when she was alive, that is, Puyi, who is now serving as puppets for the Japanese in the three northeastern provinces; whenever someone mentions them, Yi was about to frown in displeasure. I said that the relatives of the Empress Dowager are extremely poor, readers may not believe it?But it is!And the reason why they are poor is that the Queen Mother made it possible for them!I often suspect that Yi deliberately came up with these special methods to tease them: because every few days Yi always picks up a few things to give to Yi's relatives.These things are often too heavily decorated and impractical; moreover, they are always packed in huge boxes or boxes and sent out solemnly.When his relatives saw him, although they secretly complained, they accepted it happily on the surface, and even looked at the palace to thank him, expressing their great gratitude.In fact, they are as embarrassed as meeting a debt collector.Because whenever the queen mother or the emperor gives something to the ministers, the ministers have to follow the rules and develop rewards to the eunuchs who carry them or follow them; this kind of interest is full, and there is still a fixed amount. Like ordinary gifts from others, the value of the gift always depends on the value of the gift.They are distinguished according to the rank of the eunuch: every third-class or fourth-class eunuch has to develop twenty taels of silver; Not to mention, not to mention that every time the queen mother has something to give out, those eunuchs who have nothing to do always like to swarm like a swarm of people who are actually sent to deliver things, so that they can You can get the reward in the same way; as for whether the person who is rewarded by the queen mother can afford such a huge reward, they don't ask!

It's just that the Empress Dowager always likes to give those irrelevant things to Yi's relatives, because Yi rewarded them so generously that Yi's relatives even gave all the money to honor those eunuchs; later they couldn't spend it.That can't be done, the eunuchs won't leave unless they get money!So they had to use a poor way to resist, that is, whenever the eunuchs came with their goods, one or a part of them would send tea and soup to keep their money—the eunuchs never clamored for money. After leaving, they all sat down happily and talked nonsense, because they already understood the reason for this. ——Then another one went out of his own box to find some more valuable clothes or utensils, slipped out of the back door, pawned dozens of taels of silver in the pawnshop, and then came back to exploit those eunuchs.Sometimes they really have nothing to pawn in their own home, so they can't help but take the things given by the Queen Mother out and pawn them temporarily.Therefore, the more generous the Queen Mother rewarded Yi, the poorer Yi's relatives would be. What can be done about this?I used to observe carefully from the side with a cold eye. The queen mother must be very clear about these situations; because there are many people affected, and Yi's eyes and ears are very careful, even if someone tells her about all the tiny things, let alone these larger ones The plot of the?Then why did Yi want to frame Yi's relatives in such a whimsical way?Apart from Yi herself, I am afraid that no one can answer this question!

People who are relatives of the emperor have such a hard way, readers probably never expected it!I can write some more for you to see: Generally, those who are relatives with the emperor or the queen mother always have at least one title. With a title, you have to do your best to maintain the scene. They really didn't have much money, but for fear of offending the Empress Dowager, they had to save money and concentrate all their energy on maintaining an empty scene.This kind of pain, ordinary people can never imagine!In fact, the Queen Mother has a lot of money!Let's not talk about the country's treasury, even the Empress Dowager's private savings are at least several million; Yi only needs to pluck out a single hair, and she can help Yi's relatives, and there is no need to use the court's public funds. Who dares to criticize One sentence!Helplessly, Yi herself disdains to raise her hand!I am very dissatisfied with Yi's behavior of gloating and showing no mercy.

One of our companions is Grandma Yuanda. (Translator's note: Grandma Yuan's surname is not "Yuan". Yuan is Yi's nickname. Yi's father is one of the main characters in this book—Minister Qingshan of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.) But this person has a special It can also be said to be a very tragic history, because Yi has been in charge of her parents since she was a child, and she was assigned to the son of the empress dowager's brother - that is, the empress dowager's nephew - as his wife.Unexpectedly, when everything was ready and the purpose of marriage was decided, the fiancé died suddenly. According to the customs of the old Chinese era, although Yi had never had a real relationship with the fiancé, she still had a relationship with her fiancé. She has to marry in the same way, be widowed for him, and never want to marry someone else again; and the title of Grandma Yuan has finally been added to Yi's head!At that time, Yi was just an innocent and lively girl of eighteen years old, but in name, Yi had already become a little widow with a bitter widow!The cruelty of the old Chinese ethics is indeed an undisguised fact.When I met Yi in the palace, Yi was exactly twenty-four years old; but Yi's demeanor was no different from that of an old woman in her forties or fifties.In Yi's life, it can be said that there is no happiness or joy anymore!Yi is absolutely not allowed to talk to any man, nor can she laugh out loud casually; moreover, she must stay in the palace forever until Yi's soul leaves her body.But one thing is Yi's good luck!It's just that Yi's nature is very stupid and dull, and he has no understanding of life. Therefore, although Yi's environment is so desolate and sad, Yi actually doesn't seem to feel it.

The rest of the female officials are all girls from the same family with the same surname as the emperor, so there is nothing special to remember. When it comes to the jobs we ladies hold, it's pretty easy.Our whole job is to serve the Empress Dowager; but we don't need to serve the Empress Dowager when she dresses, combs her hair, etc.We are only divided into two groups, and we take turns to stand close to the Queen Mother, and just say something funny; but we all know that talking to the Queen Mother is very easy to get into trouble, so we always let the Queen Mother say it herself. However, we pretended to be very happy and listened, and only carefully responded to Yi's questions when he raised them.Sometimes, Yi really felt that there was nothing else to do, and occasionally she was playing cards alone, and we would stand behind her and watch carefully for her;And if she needed a pair of spectacles, or a pipe, or some other odds and ends of the sort, and these were set up so close that they could be reached without much trouble; we went over there. , took it for Iraq.If these things happen to be placed at a distance, it will be more laborious to pick them up; in this case, let the maids do it.In short, any work that is more strenuous will be undertaken by the maids, and we female officials can ignore it.

I beg you to forgive me for boldly boasting that our eight female officials, although we have different temperaments, all have a very good-looking appearance.This sentence may be too much to say at all, but it is not far from the truth, so I will say it directly!The headdresses we all use are exactly the same; but the clothes that everyone wears, we try our best to avoid the same.Not only do the styles never imitate each other, even the colors of the materials do not cause them to conflict.For example, if someone wears a light red dress today, the other seven people cannot wear this color again.So when the eight of us stood together, other people would have to give a thumbs up when they saw it; even if we saw it ourselves, we were very proud, especially because we were all young, and once dressed up, we all looked good. Very beautiful! Every night, when the queen mother is fast asleep, one of us has to wait in her bedroom; because this is a relatively strenuous job, we take turns to be on duty.Everyone gets their turn once every seven days, and they don't find it too hard after getting used to it.But before the queen mother fell asleep, the people who served Yi beside her had to talk to her at will until Yi herself snored loudly.Fortunately, this procedure doesn't take much time, so everyone can handle it.What's even better is that Yi has never suffered from insomnia, otherwise it would be terrible! When we are serving her to sleep, of course I have to sleep too, but I can only lie on the floor or lean against the wall and take off my clothes. Unfortunately, your snoring is so loud that you wake up the Queen Mother. Dream; although it won't kill the head, it's settled if it's boring!Whenever it was my turn to be on duty at night, I often couldn't sleep soundly. The emptiness and silence in the palace kept popping up in my brain.I often think about why the authoritarian policies that the Empress Dowager adheres to make Guangxu feel unhappy?The reason for this is mostly because Guangxu is full of democratic ideas. Since the concepts between mother and child are fundamentally different, of course there is no emotion at all! Looking back now, at that time I served Yi to sleep in the Empress Dowager's bedroom. In form, I was lying next to Yi's dragon bed, but actually I was sitting on the corner of a page of Chinese history. Those court ladies also have a special car, which is behind the car that the female officials take, which means that it is convenient to greet each other; but all the affairs of Yimen have to be sorted out by themselves, and no one serves them. We have eight female officials, but there are four other eunuchs and four servants who are appointed to serve us.They were divided into two parts: the eunuch and the eunuch, and the servants belonged to the servants. They lay on the two ends of our train and made our beds, prepared face wash, and cleaned the floor every day;But there is one thing that makes us very inconvenient, that is, there is no bath to wash on the road. Fortunately, this trip is only a short period after all, and the weather is not too hot, so we can barely endure it.The Empress Dowager is usually the favorite to be clean, and she takes a shower very frequently, but in the car, she also feels the inconvenience of taking a shower, so she has no choice but to wipe her body and feet frequently, and chat instead.And while Yi was washing her body and feet, the train had to make a special stop again.The life of the imperial family is indeed very enviable. Even when traveling on the train, they can still exert their authority as much as possible.Thinking about it on the other hand, it makes people feel that this kind of life is too rigid, too restrained, and too meaningless. The eunuchs who were assigned to serve us, besides tidying our clothes, had to stay at both ends of our car all night to wait on us.If we have any orders, they will do it immediately. ——Of course they also take turns on duty.They are absolutely not allowed to talk to us casually, unless we ask them first, they dare to answer; otherwise, they seem to dare not even breathe.But sometimes they often talk to those court ladies. The so-called talking here is of course not joking, and they always sneak a few words when no one sees them; because if they talk to each other too intimately Now, the queen mother will often know, and once Jing Yi knows, the disaster will be serious!Yihui immediately ordered someone to drag the court lady here, and in front of many people, stripped off Yi's lower garment, and beat her dozens of times with a thick bamboo board, but what about the eunuch?Not to mention treating him preferentially like this, he will always be decapitated immediately. Although the eight of us female officers also have a special car, in fact, we are not big enough to go in that car, unless we need something or go back at night when we want to sleep. Get in the queen mother's car and wait quietly.Because although two of us have taken turns serving in front of the Queen Mother, Yi may suddenly think of a certain person who is not at work; therefore, we have to stay in the room on Yi's car in silence whenever we are not at work. In the small house, waiting for the call.It was a bit like patients waiting for treatment in a doctor's waiting room, but we were not allowed to sit down. We could only lie on the carpet or lean against the wall to rest for a while. On this imperial train, we are already very lucky, only we, eight female officials, and Guangxu, Longyu, Jinfei, Qingshan, Xunling and others can sit; but there is also a restriction First, it must be in our own car. If it is in the Queen Mother's car, it must be temporarily licensed by Yi.So we all feel very tired on the road, although the scenery along the road is indeed very novel and pleasing to the eye, we only hate that our legs are too weak! Except for the few special cars I have mentioned above, the rest of the cars are where the eunuchs lived.However, due to the large number of people and the lack of vehicles, they were packed so densely that there were no gaps. , must not be much different from the sardines in those tins. In China, there is no such name as "sardine", but since I thought of this interesting ratio, of course I couldn't bear to publish it, so I finally said to an eunuch: "You guys are so crowded in those cars, you're really like little fish!" Then I told him in detail how foreigners packed sardines into those canisters, and he listened. I couldn't help laughing too; so he immediately spread the word of mine on his behalf, one person to ten, ten to a hundred, and it didn't take much time for all the eunuchs to know it!Of course I can't hide it from Li Lianying!But Li Lianying doesn't live with them at all, he also has a special car, I'm not trying to ridicule him, of course he can't be angry after hearing this!But the rest of the listeners might not be happy if people call them Xiaoyu, right? In Beijing, people have a very common alias for eunuchs, called "Xiongjier", because the throat voices of those eunuchs are always very high-pitched, which is really the same as the sound of a rooster crowing, so this alias , all agree that it is very appropriate.I think the eunuchs themselves are willing to bear it at will, and it is better to simply "rooster" than "little fish". Readers think about it: there are a thousand eunuchs, everyone is wearing a full set of uniforms, but the cars they occupy can only hold four hundred people; can you get used to such a comfortable life?However, the big sedan chair that Guangxu and Longyu took was very spacious, but none of the eunuchs dared to climb up to take advantage of those vacant positions!The empress dowager's Luanyu is even more affluent. It is often covered with a huge yellow cloth, and it occupies a single car. The remaining space is enough for sixty or seventy people to live in, but who can use it? ?According to this situation, being a eunuch in the palace is sometimes not only inferior to dogs and horses, but even inferior to one thing! I really can't say what happened to the train of troops following us, because I only saw it from a distance every time, and never had the opportunity to examine it in detail. To sum up, among the many vehicles, the one of the Empress Dowager is of course the most interesting; at that time it represented the entire Qing palace, and the person riding in it was the only central figure in the Qing palace, that is, the entire Qing palace. The central figure of the Manchu Qing Empire.