Chapter 16 The 16th Lafayette Arrives in His Hometown

As soon as we entered the three provinces in the Northeast, because of the effect of inspiration, we seemed to feel that the air had changed a different atmosphere from before; looking outside the car, the scene of those fields seemed to be a little strange.However, if you really teach me to tell me what is special about them after all, then I will not be able to answer it!In short, this kind of feeling will happen unexpectedly when we first enter a strange place.At that time, our train seemed to be running much faster than usual, probably because it was always forced to roll slowly along the way, and I was a little unhappy.

There is a plant in the three northeastern provinces that is very famous. Perhaps people from all over the world know it, and that is "sorghum".I have also admired it for a long time, but I have never seen one; so after I left Shanhaiguan, whenever I had time, I tried my best to look out the car window, but after looking for a long time, I didn't see any special plants.In the end, I went to ask the eunuch who studied botany, and he smiled and pointed it out to me.It turned out that the sorghum hadn't fully grown at that time, and it was only a foot or two long when unearthed, so although you saw it, it was still wheat!It is said that in a few months, these sorghum will grow as tall as a person, and its leaves are very dense, and there are many people planting them. Up to the border, the whole square of land is almost covered with a green tapestry.People looked down from a higher place, but saw a blue color, and all the relatively small houses, streams, ponds, and other plants were all covered by the sorghum and disappeared!Therefore, people in the three eastern provinces often call that time the period when the "green gauze tent" started.In this huge green gauze tent, it is enough to hide a huge number of cavalry; let alone the human body will never be seen by the outside, even the horse's feet will never be exposed.

At this time, the area we passed was very desolate. There were no large or large buildings on both sides of the track; there were only piles of scattered low houses covered with broken tiles. Generally, the lair of the poor is just a shelter from the wind and rain.There are also some wild or domesticated animals, such as cattle, sheep, horses, hogs, elks, deer, etc., that roam the fields; It's very funny to see that it's covered in mud.The Empress Dowager is usually very fond of birds and beasts, but now she is very interested in seeing them jumping freely in the wild.It's a pity that among the people Yi brought, from the accompanying ministers to the little eunuchs below, none of them had a special research in zoology, otherwise Yi would definitely reuse them immediately.

Outside the customs, since it generally belongs to China, there is one thing that is naturally indispensable!That is a lot of earthen buns, the tombs of the dead.Chinese people don't understand the economic principles of land use, which is true everywhere; but outside the pass, weeds seem to grow more luxuriantly than in the pass, so every grave is covered with a green felt, and it looks like a green blanket. It is also more beautiful!There is no high mountain uplift here, only these mounds are on the horizon. Because Jingfeng Road is built along the coastline, we are in the car, looking east all the way, we can often see the coast of Liaodong Bay flickering in our eyes.

My feelings after entering the three provinces in the Northeast are very complicated, but the deepest point is that the situation here still cannot get rid of the original wild atmosphere.I think it's not bad!Because hundreds or thousands of years ago, our ancestors were originally a very tough and unruly nation; relying on their strong physique, bravery and courage, they had no scruples in this vast wilderness. nomadic.Except for some of the things they use in daily life, they are grown from the fields, and the rest are obtained from hunting. In this way, the fighting power of this nation was inadvertently strengthened, and later they were able to conquer China with tens of thousands of horses. The entire territory of China's headquarters has not seen much effort.Although the group of banner people inside the pass has gradually become weaker, the people in the three northeastern provinces outside the pass still retain a bit of nomadic heredity—brave and rough.

Along the way, we also passed through several county towns scattered on both sides. These county towns were all small and far away from the railway track. When we looked over from the car, it seemed as if we were at the end of the horizon.If Zhang De, the great eunuch who is more familiar with geography, was not there to give us some pointers, we would never have thought that there was a black shadow there, which was a county town. . When we first left Shanhaiguan, most of what we saw were plains. After passing Xinmin, the inhabited area became very sparse, and many high and low mountains gradually appeared around us; Branches of a great mountain range, some close to the track, some far apart, but none of them a spectacle of majesty.Only in the distance to the west, we can vaguely see a long mountain range, with high peaks piercing the clouds and overlapping each other; at this time, our train happened to be heading in that direction, so it was getting better and better. Closer, at first there was only a line like light ink, which gradually turned gray, and then blue!A very lovely blue color.In fact, it is very far away from us!

When I was concentrating on admiring the distant mountains, I suddenly felt that there seemed to be a state of disturbance on our royal train; although no one was jumping and running, and no one was making loud noises, After all, the order is not as neat as before.I couldn't help being very surprised, so I asked a companion, only to find out that our train will not go straight to Fengtian; it will stop at Huanggutun, the first stop in Fengtian, and we will stop for the rest of the journey. No longer relying on the bull-paced train, but will replace the official sedan chair we are used to.

Now that I knew I was about to get off the bus, I had no intention of taking a look at the scenery; and during the short distance I passed, there was really no special scenery worth admiring. Gradually, that kind of hidden harassment has become public: it turns out that the Queen Mother also knows that the train journey will end soon, so Yi is also busy directing people to make preparations for getting off the train.Although this kind of preparation work does not include the ordinary things such as packing the bedding and packing the boxes, etc., it does include those antique jade objects on the wall of the car, the little dog named "Hai Long", and the tribute presented by Yuan Shikai. The two parrots need people to be careful, and the place is really busy!Finally, Huanggutun arrived; because it had been notified earlier, a new cement platform was built on the station like Tianjin, and there were also many banners and lanterns hanging on it, which looked very neat and beautiful.Of course, these big programs must be hosted by a high-ranking official like Tianjin; this host is the governor of Fengtian, Waitabu (this person is unknown, and it is suspected to be wrong, but this book is originally a novel, so I will not go into details) , he is a Manchurian, and the real power in his hands is not much different from Yuan Shikai.

When our train came into the station, there were already countless high-ranking officials lined up on the newly built platform and kneeling to receive it, so it was inevitable that there would be another set of etiquette that was applied as usual!Although they did not have a Western band like Yuan Shikai, the etiquette they set was generally comparable to that of Tianjin; unfortunately, they did not have the same luck as those officials in Tianjin. At that time, the Queen Mother was on the way After working hard for a few days, I was anxious to make Yi's trip come to an end earlier, so that I didn't want to deal with Yi's subordinates, so I urged Li Lianying to get her husband in order.After one end of the luanyu was finished, Yi had no time to dodge, and the sixteen eunuchs who were in charge of carrying the sedan chair carefully took up their heavy burden and started to move forward.

Now that the Queen Mother got into the sedan chair, the rest of the people, of course, had no need to linger on the station; so Guangxu's sedan chair, Longyu's and Concubine Jin's sedan chairs followed the Queen Mother Luanyu one by one, and set off in line.We female officials, of course, also sit in sedan chairs, so we follow closely behind Jinfei's sedan chair.After us, there were those eunuchs, big and small; in fact, they didn't have any duties, and all of them were empty-handed, walking leisurely among the Fengtian officials. It is reasonable to speculate that there are certainly no more special officials in Fengtian than in other places. Today is probably because they want to show their enthusiasm.Specially and unanimously mobilized, one after another came to welcome the queen mother, so there were many more!Moreover, they and the eunuchs are generally dressed in full official uniforms, and they are very gorgeously dressed; this line is at least two or three miles long, and it must be very interesting to look at.I remember that when I was young, I would accompany my father to participate in several suburban sacrifices, wedding receptions, or funeral processions; later, after entering the palace as a female attendant, I followed the Queen Mother and participated in several ceremonial guards However, every time the scene is not as lively as this time, or because of the small number of people, it has never been so beautiful and pleasing to the eye.

After walking for about half an hour, our group of people has arrived in front of a huge city gate. It is said that it is a city gate, but of course it is attached to the city wall. The city wall here is not very high, but look at it. The color and air must also be ancient.As for the exact age, please forgive me, I didn't go into it; fortunately, it has nothing to do with the stories in our book.On the city wall, there is also a hexagonal watchtower. The construction method of this watchtower is very similar to the buildings in China; because as far as I know, when Qianlong returned to Fengtian, he looked at the buildings here. , Nineteen is very old, and the format is not good; he is a very smart and capable person, he can do whatever he wants, so he took out a sum of money and taught people to build new buildings everywhere in Fengtian. There are many new buildings, and this watchtower is naturally operated by him. We passed under this city gate. Although the common gates in China are divided into two parallel doors on the left and right, they are actually divided into two by one side; only the city gate here is real. The two gates, because they are both very large, are usually enough to cover the opening alone, but perhaps for the sake of being particularly tight and strong, two gates were set up one after the other.After passing through these two gates, it is the forbidden city of Fengtian.A very wide royal road leads directly into the deep palace. Once our team walked up the royal road, it added a new color; because the royal road has been covered with golden yellow sand, lining the road. The red, green and green characters moving above are really colorful! On both sides of the royal road, there are still some activities, and I have to describe them: because the large group of imperial forest troops who came with the Queen Mother had not had time to transfer in, Waitabut specially selected from his camp Hundreds of Manchurian soldiers came to act as the Queen Mother's guards. At this time, they were divided into left and right, kneeling on both sides of the royal road from a distance.The distance between them and us is about three or four feet. In this gap, there are another group of people. These people are also officials of Fengtian, but some of them are because the official rank is too low and they are not qualified enough to run to pick them up at the station; there are still some who are qualified and should go to the station to pick them up first, but because they happened to have very important duties at that time, they couldn't leave their yamen; these two groups rushed to the imperial court together. Come by the side of the road and kowtow to the queen mother, which means to make up for the reception ceremony. Although these hundreds of Manchurian soldiers were transferred to Waitabu to guard the Queen Mother, they have entered the Forbidden City at this moment. Except for the Imperial Forest Army, other teams are not allowed to enter the Forbidden City. I have already walked in from the right, but weapons are absolutely not allowed.Readers think: In this situation, is it embarrassing or not?Although their mission here is to protect the Empress Dowager, that is to say, if any misfortune happens to the Empress Dowager, they must be directly responsible, but they are not allowed to bring weapons, so how can I teach them Fend off assassins or traitors with your bare hands?Isn't this a deliberate attempt to get along with them!But we don't need to worry about them, because at that time, there were not many Chinese with pistols or bombs. If someone wanted to assassinate the Queen Mother, he had to use a sword. It is not easy to use a sword alone. The midst of so many people was at work; so, in fact, there was no trouble at all!The reason why Waitab wants to transfer these hundreds of banner soldiers is not so much that he intends to protect the Queen Mother, it is better to say that he intends to please the Queen Mother. When I passed through the city gate in a sedan chair, I opened some sedan chair curtains according to the old custom, and tried my best to peek at the scenery outside; so I could clearly see the walls of this imperial city. Many worn and mottled old bricks fell to the ground, and many of them were demolished privately.And because no one has repaired it for a long time, the grass has grown wildly, and it has lost its due solemnity; even in several large gaps, many small trees have grown.In a few years, I don't know what it will look like?I think the situation at the beginning must be very different from the current situation! I have no special liking for this imperial city, although according to history, our ancestors flourished on this piece of land, it seems that we should have a different feeling towards it; However, these deeds have passed so long ago that it is not easy for us to have any impressions.What's more, we have lived for so many years in the middle soil with different scenery, and it has almost become our second hometown. Everything is very familiar to us, but here it feels strange instead of reversed!I think at this time, if our ancestors come out of the underground again to meet us, we will never have any affection other than picking them up with the courtesy we treat strangers. It is naturally not easy to see such a great and hilarious comedy scene clearly; I think it is best to sit in an airplane and look down for a bird's-eye view, so that you can see everything at a glance.However, there was no such thing as an airplane in China at that time!Even if there is, I can't, as a female official, fly a plane and spy on the holy car in the air.Fortunately, I am sitting in the sedan chair at the moment, usually condescending, and can see everything I want to see.The most eye-catching thing at that time was the two rows of bannermen in full uniform, all of them prostrated on the ground like a toad, their heads lowered so much that their lips were almost pressed to the soil.In front of them are the two rows of officials who came to pick them up temporarily; the airs of the officials are more or less generous than that of the soldiers. He bowed down in the same way, and he was much more airy.However, the uniforms of these officials and these soldiers are all very neat and beautiful; it looks like two rows of moving lanterns, specially set up to welcome the Queen Mother.We were sitting in the middle of these two rows of moving lanterns, and we were sitting in big yellow or red sedan chairs, passing slowly, and the eunuchs who carried the sedan chairs were all dressed in extremely luxurious palace attire; The set of the comedy is extraordinarily brilliant and eye-catching!At that time, the sun happened to be in its heyday in the day, and the light was very strong, shining on these bright red and green colors, and immediately our parade was showing off like a long rainbow. Anyone who saw it would stop and look at it. . Our team, although the colors are so thick and beautiful, but spiritually, they are still very solemn and solemn, and there is no sound at all.Even the little eunuchs who carried the sedan chairs made no sound.This is not because their footsteps are too light, but because of the semi-wet yellow sand that is spread on the ground, which completely covers up the sound of their footsteps.In such a quiet atmosphere, we sat stiffly in the sedan chair, which was really similar to those statues carved in clay and wood; or like characters in story paintings painted on murals or oil paintings, suddenly because of some strange The effect of magic, repeated and brought back to life, lined up, walked the streets. In Fengtian, it is not easy to see such a grand ceremony of honor in hundreds of years; Not allowed to watch at all.In fact, we also know very well that the prohibition is always only observed on the surface; secretly, there are thousands of eyes hiding in the right place, boldly, and not hesitating to try their best to look around! Finally, we arrived in front of the palace; the whole procession was tied up outside the palace gate.When we got here, we had to choose one of the prescribed ceremonies to perform. First, we must not let the queen mother walk in coldly alone; because in the Qing palace, there was a very stubborn habit——in fact, All the habits in the palace are almost all stubborn. ——Whenever the emperor or the empress dowager visits a place that is not frequented, there must be someone kneeling in line to meet him before it can be regarded as dignified. This is the situation now.So Li Lianying, the chief eunuch, became very busy; whenever there was a ceremony to be performed, he had to be invited to be the director, and naturally he was indispensable at this moment.He first winked at the sixteen little eunuchs who were carrying Luanyu for the empress dowager, and they knew it, stopped advancing immediately, and stood upright in the center of the royal road, so that the empress dowager's face was just facing the empress dowager. The largest door among the three middle doors. These sixteen eunuchs, like sixteen stone statues, shouldered the empress dowager's Luanyu, standing motionless; because this Luanyu must not be allowed to be stained with mud, otherwise the official sedan chair of ordinary people would be When the owner is sitting inside waiting for something, the bearers can temporarily take the burden off their shoulders and let the sedan stop on the road. The owner is generally very comfortable, but it saves a lot of effort for them.However, this kind of blessing was not what the sixteen eunuchs who carried Luanyu to the Empress Dowager dared to dream about; not only could they not rest Luanyu on their shoulders at this time, but they didn't even dare to breathe! After the Empress Dowager's Luanyu has been settled, we have to go into the palace as soon as possible, and change our original status from accompanying Dongxing's entourage to staying in Fengtian Palace, waiting for the holy car. ——It’s really ridiculous to say it——the us mentioned here are not just referring to our eight female officials, but also include Guangxu, Longyu, and Concubine Jin; because they are generally subordinates to the Queen Mother In terms of status!Although we have to enter the palace first, we cannot enter through the gate in the middle, and we are not allowed to take sedan chairs; so we all got out of the sedan chairs one after another, led by Guangxu, and filed into the smaller one on the left. Go in the doorway.As soon as we entered, we first saw a very large courtyard, but our receiving ceremony could not be held in this courtyard; we passed through it, walked into a second courtyard of the same size, and then passed through it. From the second courtyard to the third courtyard, the area of ​​this courtyard is larger, about twice the size of the first one. We stopped in this courtyard and were ready to pick up. When we walked in, we had already brought in all the ancient bands from the palace and the western band that Yuan Shikai had lent to the Queen Mother; It was played in the ceremony, so we can only rely on that disgusting ancient band. At this time, in each courtyard and each palace, there were already many eunuchs distributed there to perform duties.Half of these eunuchs have always stayed here; the other half were sent by Li Lianying in advance before the Queen Mother left to clean the palace, tidy up the flowers and trees, and prepare all the necessary things for the arrival of the Queen Mother and us. Therefore, when I walked in with Guangxu Longyu, I was full of acquaintances, and all the layouts were very different from the imperial palace in Beijing, which made me almost suspect that I had never been to Fengtian; there were only a few The style of this large building is completely different from that in Peking. From time to time, I was not allowed enough time to observe carefully. I only saw the general situation, and then I was busy preparing to pick up the car.I didn't have anything to prepare, but everyone was busy, and I couldn't stay idle, and the most busy one was the ancient band.They first assembled the shelves for musical instruments, and everyone stood in a suitable position, and then asked their subordinates to pick out several musical instruments from the shelves to teach them. ——These so-called applied musical instruments are cymbals, copper gongs, and small leather drums, etc.; of course, the nine-tone gong is not missing. ——After each of them had their musical instruments in their hands, the preparations for the pick-up were completed; then, an eunuch rushed out of the palace to inform Li Lianying, who was waiting outside the gate alone with the queen mother, , everything is ready inside. Then, another eunuch rolled in like a falling marble and reported to us: "The queen mother is driving!" As soon as the news arrived, the music immediately started to play, and everyone in the yard knelt down together.Guangxu knelt next to the marble steps in the middle, so that when the Empress Dowager got off the sedan chair, he was the one who knelt closest to the Empress Dowager.Behind him, Longyu and Concubine Jin were kneeling in turn.Behind the two of them, as usual, there are always our eight female officials.There is no order for the eight of us. Whoever is first and who is last can be decided according to his own wishes, and there is never any restriction.Except for the eleven of us, the rest of the eunuchs and court ladies, although they are still scattered around, don't need to be lined up, they just kneel where they stand; In a courtyard on the third floor, even in the two front courtyards, and other places, there were many people kneeling in piles, forming a brightly colored caricature.However, the characters in this cartoon do not include those Fengtian officials, because they were not called and were not allowed to enter the palace easily; It is a serious ceremony that is absolutely inner-court, and people who are not in the palace don't have to want to participate. Our return to our hometown this time is different from that of ordinary people in terms of spirit and form.First, most ordinary people return to their hometowns automatically, but we are absolutely passive;So this situation is really very special!Rather than acting out a scene of comedy, I would rather say that I am witnessing a scene of inner tragedy.Exactly what happened to me, not only do I have no memory of it now when I recall it; even on that day, there may not be any deep and tense stimulation.Probably at that time, I was concentrating on guessing how the queen mother would feel about this hometown, so I felt dazed.Readers may ask: Why should I pay so much attention to the Empress Dowager's feelings?Do you want to test Yi's psychology?This is not true!Honestly: it's for myself.Because the queen mother has a very weird temper, if the impression her hometown gives her is a bleak and gloomy impression, it will inevitably make her produce all kinds of disordered thoughts and many anxious behaviors, so that her On this first day when we first arrived in Fengtian, we couldn't live a quiet life. Although the queen mother had already been carried in by the sixteen eunuchs outside the door, she couldn't arrive in a while, so I took another chance to look around while I was kneeling and waiting for Elder Yi's house.Looking around this time, it is clearer than before: I can see that the appearance of those large buildings is somewhat different from that of Beijing, but they have obviously undergone some renovation work, and they no longer look like they were hundreds of years ago. The old palace is gone.This transformation and renovation work was also planned by Emperor Qianlong that day.When we saw his Tezawa, we couldn't help thinking about the literary talents and martial arts of this wise and upright statesman, and we felt a kind of warm admiration. Ten minutes later, the Empress Dowager's Luanyu was slowly brought in through the door in the middle. The dull and monotonous ancient music was still playing, but the air was extraordinarily serious, like a person alone. In the desolate ancient temple, it is like worshiping a hideous and terrifying god.Its solemn and solemn situation is beyond words to describe.We only heard the sound of footsteps on the stone steps, and we knew that Luanyu was about to ascend to the palace; but everyone still held their breath, and no one dared to raise their eyelids to have a look.Then, I heard the sound of Luanyu landing on the ground, as soft as the sound of wind blowing leaves.Because the sixteen eunuchs were extremely cautious, of course there would be no loud noises.After they rested Luanyu on their shoulders, they hurriedly knelt down on the nearby open space, forming another pile of colors; and at the same time, the Empress Dowager's jade toes began to trample on the land of Yi's hometown. When the queen mother came in all the way, she must have peeked through the gaps in the car curtain, but of course what Yi could see was very little, and it was very unclear; With a very concerned demeanor, I try my best to browse in all directions. Yi's eyesight has never changed with her age, and now she is paying special attention, so I think that Yi must take all the scenery here and put it in the In an instant, everything has been learned!But Yi stood there for a while, but did not move, as if these historical sights had touched Yi's thoughts like Shanhaiguan.Many of us still bowed down tremblingly, and even our breathing was extra careful, so as not to disturb Yi.This picture of one person standing in awe and hundreds of people bowing down lasted for ten minutes.Later, Yi slowly moved her footsteps, but stopped after walking five or six steps; probably because Yi wanted to see the scene in another corner, and it was inconvenient to stand in the same place, so she wanted to change to a place where she could see. be more clear. All the kneeling people are still motionless like clay sculptures and wood carvings, and piles of colors are still like flowers in a vase; because before the Queen Mother has not personally issued an order to allow us to stand up, no matter what People, even Guangxu, dare not make a move on their own initiative.And the sound is even more gone.At this time, only the queen mother walked slowly in the hall with extremely reserved and small steps.Yi's attitude always seems to be very calm on the outside; but according to my guess, Yi's hesitation at this time is really a manifestation of inner panic.Maybe Yi himself wanted to find a place to rest quickly, maybe he wanted to lead everyone to check around first, maybe he thought: ... In short, Yi's mind must be very disordered, and he doesn't know what to do for a while , so I had to linger in the hall for a while. During the past few days, Yi was always on the train, and later was carried by Luanyu. It can be said that the whole life was in a state of motion.At this time, Yizi couldn't help but feel a little strange when he was repeated in the still palace! After a while, Yi began to speak.This sentence was addressed to Li Lianying. "Stop the music!" Although I don't know why, Yi suddenly wants to stop the band's performance, but I have never expressed the slightest boredom with this ancient band, and the old man Yi also knows a few old tunes very well, and every time I order Stopping the music is always at the end of a song, but now, Yi suddenly stopped them unexpectedly.A piece of music they played was covered up unexpectedly like a hanged person.This situation is of course very abnormal; so the musicians panicked, returned their instruments to the shelf before it was too late, and hurriedly lay down on the ground, kowtowing desperately, lest they themselves had unconsciously , violated some criminal regulations, maybe there was a mistake in the flute, which made the Queen Mother feel annoyed. But the queen mother never paid attention to them, and murmured alone: "Today is the first time we set foot on this piece of land that truly belongs to us; now, we are back! Let us resume our daily life!" What Yi said was very simple and pleasant, like the words of an emotional person, not like an order issued by a queen mother, and the daily life indicated in this order is actually just a kind of daily life. Abide by the palace system that has been passed down for hundreds of years, and the prison life is just a dull prison life.