Chapter 11 The eighth round opens the door and accepts the 50 million golden birthday gift, waving hands and stopping the military exercises of the Forty-eight Towns

Why are people who are talking about counting money suddenly surprised?It turned out that when we were in Tianjin, it was he and the others who packed the boxes from the back house of Gongbao. At that time, they were all placed in the box, no more, no less, a total of three hundred packages, and each package was one hundred. A total of 30,000 yuan, it is clear and there is no mistake.Now counting a little more, it happened that two packs were short, so I was shocked.I was afraid that I ordered it wrong, so I ordered it again, and it was still 298 packs.These Ghosh were terrified, and they all knelt down to Gongbao and said: "The slaves deserve death. When we counted three hundred packs at the beginning, no more, no less, now two packs are short, two hundred yuan The money is gone, how can the servants afford to make up for it? Please show me, Gongbao." After kowtowing together, Xiang Gongbao laughed loudly and said, "Useless idiot, get up quickly, you didn't count the right ones back then. , I have already seen it clearly from the side. I have 320 packs. After you pack it, there are 22 packs left. It is obviously two packs short, so I ask you to do it again today." After listening to these people, just now Putting your heart down, although it is a small matter, it shows that Xiang Gongbao is focused on every detail.The follower ordered two more packs from the concubine's hand, packed them together in a nanmu box, and sent guards to carry them. He took his business card and went to the palace manager's office to pay homage to Manager Li.

The chief executive Li is named Li Deyong, and he is the most popular eunuch in front of the Empress Dowager. He is almost a servant from the inside, and a governor from the outside.Xiang Gongbao and him are also brothers in the alliance. He is one year older than Xiang Gongbao. Gongbao calls him the second brother, and he calls Gongbao the fourth. The two have a very good relationship.The Empress Dowager Wanshou has arrived, and he is very busy. The Empress Dowager assigns him to receive birthday gifts.He got this errand, which is unusual, anyone who comes with a gift has to take care of him first, and then the gift can be promoted.Otherwise, no matter how generous the gift you are, I will throw it aside for you, and after a long life, he will reward it himself, and the empress dowager will never see it.On this day, Xiang Gongbao asked the guards to carry the money and came to look for Manager Li in person. When he arrived at the gate of the manager's office, he recognized the eunuch at the door as Xiang Zicheng. Why did you come to our small place today?" Xiang Gongbao said with a smile: "It's been two days since I came here, and I didn't see your boss yesterday, so today I'm here to visit." The little eunuch smiled and said, "Fourth master came just in time, our boss is in a quarrel with Lao Tie, you should hurry up and rescue him! This must be a birthday gift, let's put it in the porter's room to rest for a while Go ahead." Xiang Gongbao told Ghosh to lead the guards to the gatehouse to wait.I and the little eunuch walked around two floors of the courtyard before arriving at Mr. Li's bedroom. The little eunuch told him to wait outside the door, and he went in first to answer.Not long after hearing a call from inside, Xiang Gongbao hurried into the outer room, and saw that the little eunuch had raised the red satin curtain of the inner room.Xiang Gongbao entered the room, and saw that the manager was wearing a purple satin cotton trousers and padded jacket, not wearing overcoats, neither lying down nor sitting, but squatting on a grand chair, holding a handful of Feather duster, very ugly stare.Then look at a person kneeling in front of him, wiping his tears with his head down.When Xiang Gongbao came in, Manager Li jumped out of the chair. After greeting each other, he took Xiang Gongbao's hand, held him down on the edge of the bed, and said, "Your arrival is just in time, fourth brother. Are you here?" Those who have been officials in the frontier have experienced a lot and seen a lot. You can comment on this reason for our family. Our family is in front of the Empress Dowager Lafayette, serving from night to day, and from day to night, three hundred and sixty days a year. It’s all about stealing time to take a nap. It’s so easy to hope that his old man will have a grand birthday this year. We are so busy that we can’t eat meat, so we have to drink a sip of soup. He, a wild bastard, came out of nowhere and served the pot Excuse me, show courteousness in front of Lafayette, all the birthday gifts in various provinces are arranged by him, and we don’t even type a single word. I don’t blame it. Sure enough, he did it clearly, and added a few more words to Lafayette. Let’s see Don’t you like it! After all, we should get the rules we deserve, don’t walk over our threshold. Look how crazy this kid is. The birthday gift of Governor Sanjiang came in, and we couldn’t even see him. If he didn't see it, he dared to present it before Lafayette without permission. What's missing, it's worth four to five million yuan, and he said that according to the rules, giving us a gift of 50,000 silver can't be less. He This mischief took away 50,000 from us without saying a word. It is said that he has more than a dozen copies in his hands! If you want to do everything like this, hundreds of thousands of vain money will go to his waist alone. Ark, let’s just wait for the northwest wind. We who have worked so hard to accompany us all year round can’t keep up with him. I have no other way to cure him today. Since he envies our good job, I will Take him in as an apprentice and clean himself up for him, and tomorrow I will let him do the job, fourth child, do you think about it?" Xiang Gongbao couldn't figure it out when he heard him babbling about this big thing, and hurriedly He smiled and asked: "Second brother, I stopped you from talking, you have been talking about it for a long time, who is it?" This sentence made Mr. Li also laugh, and said: "Old brother, you don't know, you are just kneeling. The one you belong to." While speaking, she showed Xiang Gongbao her finger.Because he was facing the wall, Xiang Gongbao couldn't see who was coming, so he pleaded for him and said, "Second brother, let him go, this matter is easy to handle, it's all on brother, I'll clear it up for you and that's it." Manager Li snorted, and said: "It's cheap for him, he deserves his lucky star to meet you today." Then he walked over to the man and said, "Get out of here, don't be here in this world!" The man stood up, greeted Director Li first, and thanked the head of the family for his kindness (note: eunuchs are the only ones called the head of the house, which is their most honorable name).He turned his face again and greeted Xiang Gongbao.As soon as they met each other, Xiang Gongbao laughed and said, "Who am I? It turns out to be Lao Tie!" It turned out that this person was Tie Muxian, the Minister of the Army Department, and his name was Bo Chen.Xiang Gongbao took him by the hand, told him to sit down, and said, "Bochen, why did you suffer so much from offending the second master? You have to be careful about everything. It's hard for people to look forward to the stars and hope for the moon." Looking forward to longevity, we are friends, we can’t think of ways to make others earn more, I’m sorry, do you still have the heart to peel off others? Let me advise you, how to do things, or how to do it, don’t break it It’s a common practice.” Tie Muxian replied with a face full of shame: “I’ll follow my fourth brother’s words one by one. I’m not to blame for this matter, Men Jing has already prepared it. Lord, I was careless for a moment, and I did not wait for the old man, so I brought the gift in. Today, I came to pay respects to the door, but the second master lost his temper when we met, and I was so scared that I didn't dare to open my mouth." He took out a check of 40,000 silver from his body and presented it to Manager Li respectfully. Li Deyong took it with a smile on his face and said that our family has a bad temper, so don't worry too much.Xiang Gongbao hurriedly smoothed things over, saying that they were all his brothers, so there was no reason to be suspicious.

As he said that, he took out his family's gift list, handed it to Li Deyong, and said, "Second brother, this list is to honor Lafayette's birthday, this list is to honor second brother, and the other ten thousand taels of silver, second brother see I'm going to give everyone a point, but just express my slightest intention, second brother, don't laugh at me." Li Deyong took it over and looked at it carefully, and immediately smiled at Xiang Gongbao: "Fourth, why are you bothering, our own brother, you What are you spending so much money for? Yesterday Chen Laosan came, he is the godson of the Buddha, this birthday gift is naturally different from others." Speaking of this, Xiang Gongbao hurriedly asked: "What did Chen Yunti send? " Li Deyong said with a smile: "You two can be said to be heroes who see roughly the same thing. What he gave was a thousand red gold ingots, each weighing twelve taels, and on the ingots were cast the words "Wan Shou Wu Boundless". Ten thousand taels is worth 300,000 silver, which is not a small gift. He also gave me 20 ingots, and a tourmaline cap flower, which is of good quality, and is only worth 1,000 silver. The gift is 3,000 taels. Your 30,000 yuan is twice as much as his! Another 1,000 yuan is quite a lot, so why give me a diamond ring? It can be seen that your penny is bigger than his " Xiang Gongbao was very happy when he heard that Chen Laosan had not suppressed him, and immediately took out two rings from his body and presented them to Li Deyong.When Li Deyong saw these two diamonds, they were as big as corn kernels, dazzling and out of the ordinary, he immediately jumped up with joy and said, "These big diamonds, except for the ones given to Lafayette by Lao Caijin, the minister in Japan, the year before last, Besides, I have never seen it again. Fourth, where did you get it from?" Xiang Gongbao said with a smile: "Such a treasure can't be readily available if you have to spend money. It was back when I was an imperial envoy in Korea. When they were making trouble, the princess was thrown into the well, and later the body was salvaged. I saw that she was wearing a pair of rings on her hands. It would be a pity to bury them in the soil, so I took them off and kept them. Ordinary people don’t wear them. Give it to your second brother, keep it as a toy." Li De thanked him a thousand times, and was very happy, so he left Xiang Gongbao to have dinner at the manager's office, and asked Tie Muxian to accompany him.Talking about birthday gifts during the banquet, Tie Muxian said: "The governor of Sanjiang, Lao Zhuang, sent four golden men in total, Magu offering wine and Queen Mother tasting peaches. There is a dragon script table with a plate of peaches on it. Standing on both sides is Xu Feiqiong, Dong Shuangcheng at the bottom, and Magu standing in front of the case, holding a wine pot high, and a big gold plate below, supporting these four people to write the case together with the dragon. The two Dongs held dragon and phoenix fans each, covering the Queen Mother's head, and the carvings were exquisite. The net gold weighed sixty-seven catties and ninety-four coins. In addition, there was a string of pearls strung together, a total of one hundred and ten Eight pieces, round and bright, enough to weigh two cents, and this bracelet is worth about one hundred thousand silver. The governor of Anhui has three three-star gold men of Fu Lu Shou, each weighing one thousand taels, and worth less than one hundred thousand silver. The governor of Jiangsu is worth 100,000 silver coins from the Qing Dynasty. The governor of Jiangxi is getting 10,000 British gold pounds. The gifts from these three people are very common, but the gift from Shanghai Customs is worth hundreds of thousands." Xiang Gongbao hurriedly Ask what it is.Tie Muxian said: "It's a pair of pearl shoes. The Chinese character "Fushou" is made of pearls, embedded with diamonds and red emeralds, and the shoe mouth is made of bright red coral. It is said that this pair of shoes was made by a foreigner. It cost 680,000 yuan, and they said it was cheap. According to the current price of pearls and gemstones, it is actually worth 800,000 yuan!" Xiang Gongbao and Li Deyong were amazed when they heard this.Li Deyong said: "You will bring all these things to me tomorrow to receive them, and our family has experienced them." Tie Muxian quickly responded: "Yes, Second Master. How dare I make private decisions with my brains? "The three of them talked and laughed, and the banquet broke up. Xiang Gongbao ordered the money to be carried to Mr. Li's house and handed over one by one.Li Deyong rewarded Gesh with three hundred taels of silver, and Huyong who carried the money rewarded him forty taels. Everyone thanked them and withdrew, and Xiang Gongbao resigned.

In a blink of an eye, it was Wanshou, and the palace sang operas and feasts, and all the officials celebrated together, creating endless prosperity and excitement.The Empress Dowager calculated the gift list in detail, and the total value of all the Beijing officials and foreign officials, gold, silver and treasures was 50 million taels.Although it is not enough to make up for Gengzi's previous amount, it can barely make up one-third, so naturally he is satisfied.For ministers and workers, big and small, the most proud are two people, one is Tie Muxian and the other is Xiangzicheng.Because Tie Muxian had arranged in advance, so many birthday gifts were actually included.The offerings made by one person in Xiangzicheng are worth almost one million, and it can be said that he has done his best to repay his kindness.After Wanshou, the two of them were specially summoned to meet in the side hall, and they had a full meal of rice soup.Then he said to Tie Muxian: "You are too young. Although you care about military affairs, you have very little experience. Xiangzicheng has trained soldiers for many years and has excellent grades. You should worship him as a teacher so that you can learn. When you are in front of me today, you can just learn from him." Li, so that he can teach you with his heart." Xiang Zicheng heard this, and quickly kowtowed and said, "Tie Muxian is a young hero, the choice of the country's leader, and I have no education, so how dare I be a teacher." The Queen Mother laughed: "You don't have to be too humble, what I say is the will, you must follow the order, don't disobey." Tie Muxian turned his face, kowtowed to Xiang Zicheng, and Xiang Zicheng quickly kowtowed back.After they kowtowed, they thanked the queen mother again.The queen mother was overjoyed, and immediately delivered an edict that the armies of all provinces and Xiangzi City had the right to inspect.All improvements to the military system must be handled by the governors of the provinces in consultation with Xiangzicheng.If this decree goes on, it implies that Xiangzi City will be recruited by the Generalissimo.The two came down to thank Tie Muxian, Xiang Zicheng took Tie Muxian's hand and said: "Brother, don't worry too much, let the foolish brother, He De He Neng, dare to be your teacher. It's just that Lafayette has an order, who dares to reject it. Tie Muxian said: "The teacher's words are too polite. The students have long wanted to worship on the door wall. I'm afraid the teacher will not accept it. Now the legacy of the mantle comes from the grace of the saints. It is also a good story for me." Xiang Gongbao saw Since he is so sincere, he is not welcome.Mr. Li saw it with his own eyes beside the queen mother, so he was naturally happy.The next day, another table of good Manchuria banquets was prepared at the general manager's office to congratulate the two of them. As their companions, they invited Prince En, the Minister of Military Aircraft, Rui Fang, Minister of the Ministry of Industry, and Chen Zhuangxuan, Secretary of the Ministry of Posts and Communications.Among the three, Prince En is Xiang Gongbao's teacher, and Chen Zhuangxuan from Ruifang is Xiang Gongbao's brother. He is the most speculative, so Manager Li invites them to have a drink together.This Prince En is over sixty years old. He is Guangxu's uncle. He has been a military minister for twenty years. He really has the wealth of the enemy country.Xiang Gongbao worshiped him as his teacher, a gift of 200,000 snowflakes and silver, three festivals and two lives every year, and 350,000 yuan to pay tribute at any time.The old prince naturally saw that Xiang Zicheng was the first proud student in his life. From time to time, he would brag next to the queen mother, saying how good he was at managing soldiers and how he was proficient in the New Deal. Xiang Gongbao thanked them both for their favor.The Swiss side in the seat came up with an idea, saying: "Since the fourth brother has won this title, there will be a military parade after next autumn. One will use this to rectify the corrupt military forces in each province, and the other will also show the prestige of the fourth brother. Why do you want to use it empty?" What about this false title?" Originally Xiang Zicheng was an ambitious person, and the person he admired most in history was Cao Cao and Liu Yu.Ever since he became a member of the frontier, he has always regarded military training as a top priority. His ambition is to coerce the emperor to command the princes.Now the queen mother gave him the honorary title of supervising and training the national army, which can be said to be a coincidence.Coupled with Rui Fang's flattery, he is naturally ambitious, but he still has to pretend to be humble, saying: "Although the Buddha has such a great grace, how dare we as courtiers act like a blessing and exercise power as we please. We have to wait for next year. If the crops are plentiful and the sea is in peace, then please act according to the order." Everyone admired him for his superiority and self-abasedness, he really deserves to be a pure minister, but he secretly laughed in his heart.After the banquet was over, he resigned from various places the next day and asked Xun to meet him again. He still went back to Tianjin.

It was also God's wish, and in the second year, the provinces had a bumper harvest without any disasters.He wrote a booklet, saying that this year is a prosperous year, and the people are prosperous and prosperous. This is all due to the empress dowager and the emperor's prosperity and prosperity. You can take advantage of this time of peace to prepare for the whole army. Not teaching war is called abandoning If the people are able to be able to be prosperous, they can strengthen the country.What's more, when the five continents are in traffic and the great powers are around, let's not forget about armaments.He said a lot of reasoning in a grand manner, and at the end he asked for an order to hold a grand autumn parade in Zhangde Mansion, Henan.Where the minister's duty lies, he should go to the supervisor, and ask for a brief review. The minister, on behalf of the emperor, goes to review to show his solemnity.When the book was uploaded, it was approved by decree, and Tie Muxian was appointed as the Minister of Reading and Exercise. He will review it in detail with Xiangzicheng and the governors of various provinces, and select the best for awards.This is it.When this decree was passed down, the governors of all provinces panicked. How many of them usually paid attention to armaments were just perfunctory stories.At that time, the military system had been changed, and it was also decided by Xiangzicheng. One army was changed to one town. In one town, there was one township, two associations, and six standards. There were 20 battalions in total. Thousands of soldiers.There are six towns in Beijing, all of which were practiced by Xiang Gongbao himself.The remaining provinces have three towns and two towns, Jiangnan has five towns, and Hubei has five towns. Except for Beiyang, these two provinces are the most.As for the provinces that are too far away and have inconvenient transportation, there are a total of forty-eight towns.These forty-eight towns are all commanded and dispatched by Xiangzicheng.Received the decree, Xiang Gongbao ordered the staff office to send telegrams to all the provinces. Before the 15th day of the eighth month, all the officers, men and horses from all the towns would be stationed outside the city of Zhangde Prefecture, Henan Province without any delay. Violators would be ruled by the military law. crime.He also consulted the governor of Henan Province to choose an open and open place 20 miles outside Zhangde City as a playground, and quickly built the martial arts hall to prepare for imperial envoys to review the exercises.Henan governor Lin Xiling was a well-known cadre, after receiving Xiang Gongbao's message, he dared not be negligent, so he personally took the civil and military staff to Zhangde Mansion to rush to do everything.Fortunately, beside the Huan River outside Zhangde City, there is a large piece of farmland, which can accommodate forty-eight towns.But in the big autumn, the crops have not yet been harvested, so it is a bit embarrassing.We had to send the prefecture and county to discuss with the gentry and directors of the villages, how much to pay per mu, pull out the seedlings early, and exempt this year's rent and tax.Everyone knew that this was the emperor's will, and whoever dared to disobey had to follow it with tears in their eyes.Before August, the land was already clean and flat.At this time, it was too late to start civil engineering construction, so a martial arts hall was built on the big soil slope with a mat shed, but the top was covered with lead plates, so that it would not be blown even if it was windy, and it would not leak when it rained.Next to the main hall, there are many mat sheds, which are specially used as places for the attendants to rest and serve.Hanging lanterns and festoons, it looks brand new from the outside, and it can't be seen that it was built by Xi.After getting ready, he hurriedly went to Zhiwen to inform Xiang Gongbao, and asked when to come.Xiang Gongbao replied that around the tenth day of the eighth lunar month, Yizhun and the imperial envoy Tie Shilang set off from Tianjin.All the six Beiyang towns have already arrived one after another, and only Duan Jixiang, the commander of the sixth town, is left to accompany him as guards.At this time, more than half of the towns and towns in various provinces have arrived, and they are all stationed outside Zhangde City.

On the ninth day of August, Xiang Gongbao arrived first. It was Duan Yuzhi, the general manager of the Beiyang Bank's Operations Office, the sheep-herding boy mentioned above, named Xiao Yang, and Liu Changqing, the general manager of the Food and Rating Bureau. The two are Xiang Gongbao's left assistant and right secretary, the number one Hongdaotai in Beiyang Tianzi.When the two arrived, they first went to Lin Futai Xingyuan to hand over the handbook to see, and Futai immediately said to invite them to come in.When Futai met, he first said please do the usual courtesy, which means that he will be exempted from court attendance.The two of them were not polite, so they both made a deep bow, stroked the platform to return the gift, pushed the two of them to the upper seat, and said with a smile: "You two have worked hard." The king is hardworking, and the two of them have to run around, so there is nothing to worry about.Futai asked Gong Baotong when the imperial envoy would arrive, and Liu Changqing replied, "I will definitely arrive before noon tomorrow. I wonder if the two Xingyuan marshals have prepared properly?" There are two large mansions outside the east gate. There are more than 70 rooms in the palace guard house and more than 50 rooms in the imperial envoy's house. I wonder if it is enough?" Duan Yuzhi said: "The imperial envoy is enough. There are no more than thirty or forty people in the family. I am afraid that the palace guards will not be enough, and his shogunate has as many as seventy to eighty people, and there are no fewer than two hundred people in the civil and military patrol Ghosh guards. He also has a kitchen. The difference between the seventy rooms is too great." Lin Futai immediately invited the two of them to watch it, and if it was not enough, he could try to find a solution as soon as possible.He also called the capital and the first county, and accompanied Duan Liu and the two Daotai to serve on errands.Everyone went to the outside of the city to have a look around, and immediately rented a few houses from the left and right neighbors, and repaired them all night, all in one go.Before noon the next day, Lin Futai led forty-seven town commanders, the capital of Zhangde, the capital of Zhangde, and Zhangwei Huaibing to the station to wait for the errands.When I arrived a little while ago, it was General Staff Feng Guohua and Secretary-General Zhao Bingheng, both of whom had the concurrent title of Jingqing.So when Lin Futai met, he greeted each other and received them as equals.Feng Guohua said to Lin Futai: "Gong Bao and the imperial envoy will arrive in another quarter of an hour. Is there a place to rest at this station?" Lin Futai said: "There are more than 20 colorful sheds beside the station. The imperial envoy will occupy three rooms, and Jing Qing can choose the rest at will." Feng and Zhao chose a clean mat shed and went in to rest. After resting for less than a quarter of an hour, they only heard the sound of whistles in the distance, and the big furniture left. When they came out, they stood in front of the station and waited to welcome them. The county roads in Futai and Tongfu were all dressed up in suits. They all wore blue Ning silk gowns, square mandarin jackets of sky blue satin, and brilliant tops.The forty-seven towns are all in military uniforms, blue wool jackets and trousers, red feather satin battle skirts, thin-soled fast boots, and sabers.The tops are all red, but there is a difference between bright red and nirvana red, because all the town commanders have the rank of commander in chief, so the tops are all red.However, there is only one third-rank bright blue top Dai in the inner circle. This person's surname is Li and his name is Tianhong, and he is the leader of the Hubei New Army.Because Zhang Bao, the governor of the town, was ill and was replaced by him, so the top sons could not be uniform.

Gossiping aside, let's say that the imperial envoy's car was still half a mile away from the station, so a salute was fired here, a total of three seven twenty-one shots were fired, and the car had already pulled up at the station.The military music in the forty-seventh town is playing together, and the door of the float is opened. Li Jinchen, the Wen inspector, said loudly: "The imperial envoy has an order to protect the palace. I only invite Lin Futai, Master Lin, Zhangwei Huaidao, Jia Guan and Feng Zhao to get on the car." The others are all waiting at the station." Lin Futai heard this, and hurriedly boarded the car with Feng, Zhaojia, and saw that Xiang Gongbao and Tie imperial envoy had come out of the private room, and there was a majestic, The tall and tall officers of the Han Dynasty also served in short clothes and skirts, with swords on their shoulders.Lin Futai hurried over to pay his respects, Xiang Gong was still safe, but the imperial envoy stood upright and refused to return.Do you know why?It turns out that in the era of autocratic monarchy, the etiquette of monarchs and ministers was extremely strict. All imperial envoys sent from Beijing, regardless of their official positions, arrived in various provinces. But stood motionless on it.This name is called Kneeling for Shengan, and the others are said to represent the emperor, and he still has a bit of imperial air on his body, so greeting him is just like greeting the emperor.After the salute is over, he will greet you again, and he will return the salute. This is a private meeting ceremony.When he gets up to return to the capital, he has to kowtow to pay his respects as usual. This is called sending greetings to the saint, saying that it will be enshrined on him. When he returns to Beijing to meet the emperor, he can salute the master who sent it. sacred dignity.Even though it is the Republic of China now, we also need to know that Haoxuan is the strange humiliation of that day so that it will never happen again. This is also a little bit of novelty.The imperial envoy of Gongbao met with the four of them, and then two officers helped them get off the car. The military music played together, and all the forty-seven towns and towns raised their notebooks and called their names to greet them. Gongbao and the imperial envoy could only smile. head.Everyone peeped and saw that Xiang Gongbao was wearing a blue woolen robe, a yellow satin mandarin jacket, with a headband on top, and eyes with mottled feathers; Tie imperial envoy was wearing a purple badge satin robe, a yellow satin mandarin jacket, also wearing a headpiece, with mottled eyes.The two officers beside him, one is Duan Jixiang, the commander of the township, and Cao Huchen, the commander of the standard, and they are all generals who are proud of Xiang Gongbao's personal care.Like the stars holding the moon, everyone held the two of them into the lounge, led by Lin Futai, and led civil and military officials to kowtow to Tie Muxian. hello.Xiang Gongbao asked: "Why aren't Duan Liu Erdao here?" Lin Futai said: "My younger brother asked him to take care of the imperial envoy and Gongbao's Xingyuan this morning, so in the future." Tie Muxian said: "In this case, disciple Teacher and I go to Xingyuan to rest first, if we have business, we can discuss it there." Gong Bao nodded in agreement, and the two walked out of the lounge, the big green sedan chair was ready.When the two got on the sedan chair, all the forty-seven townsmen stood beside them with their knives on their hands, and they got on the sedan chair with a slight nod.In front of the Gongbao sedan chair is Duan Zhentong Jixiang as the top horse, and in front of the imperial envoy's sedan chair is Cao Biaotong Huchen as the top horse.The two sedan chairs are in front, followed by the sedan chairs of Lin Futai, the sedan chairs of Feng Zhao and Liang Jingqing, the sedan chairs of Zhangwei Huaijia Daotai, and the sedan chairs of prefectures and counties.The other forty-seven town officials all followed on horseback.There are more than 200 guards, 70 or 80 shogunate entourages, some in cars, and some on horseback. It is very lively.In a blink of an eye, they arrived at Xingyuan, and Liu Duan came out to greet them. They first arrived at Xinggongbao Xingyuan, and everyone followed them in, settled down a bit, and then accompanied Tie Qin to his Xingyuan. Cooking, thick and ready.Kung Pao hung out a sign to rest for three days without seeing any visitors, and to return to work in three days; the imperial envoy also showed the same sign.Even so, Nafu County must come to pay his respects every morning and evening, and send a number of special messengers to provide all necessary things.Unexpectedly, Xiang Gongbao's laws and regulations are strict, and all things needed in the palace will be paid by the accountant at the current price, without any supply from the prefecture or county.As for the Tie imperial envoy, it was not the case. Not only should they ask for everything more, but they were also picky.The doorman of the accountant dared to scold the prefecture and county, and opened his mouth to curse, with the air of a palace eunuch.This is also what the imperial envoy Tie received from others back then, and it is still being given to others now.Later, when the prefecture and county saw that the limelight was not going well, they hurriedly entrusted their confidantes to clear the accounts of the Tie imperial envoy. In addition to the supply, the prefecture and county jointly sent five thousand taels of silver, so they were not picky.

Three days later, Xiang Gongbao invited Tie Qin envoy to Xingyuan to hold a meeting first. Henan, Shaanxi, Gansu, Hunan, Hubei, Jiangsu, Anhui, Jiangxi, Zhejiang, Fengtian, and Jilin are a total of fourteen provinces. Each province has a representative elected by the town government to attend the meeting. Naturally, it is Chairman Xiang Gongbao.The chairman announced the agenda: the date of the parade, the number of people in the parade, the program of the parade, and the rewards of the parade. Please discuss according to the rules.Everyone spoke in the same voice, and they all said that the imperial envoy Gong Baotong should preside over it, and we all obeyed.Tie Qin envoy said: "Students have little military experience, please ask the teacher to deal with everything, you don't have to be polite." Xiang Gongbao saw that everyone respected him enthusiastically, and Tie Muxian said the same, he was good at taking power, so he simply didn't give in .Then he laughed and said: "Since you have called the hall to be in charge, the hall takes state affairs as the most important thing, so it is inconvenient to push back and give way, and then show people with a fake face. According to the hall's intention, the parade will be held on August 16th, not far away. It's not close, but it's just time to prepare calmly, do you agree?" Everyone agreed.The number of people was also discussed, and Xiang Gongbao presided over the three-day joint drill. Each town selected 1,000 infantry, and each town selected 500 horse guns. Forty-eight towns will perform together in one place.After the joint exercises, the field exercises of mutual offense and defense will be performed according to the marching style. The number of field exercises is not limited, and it is decided temporarily.The team is led by the standard, the town is supervised, and the association is called cao.The number of people program has also passed.As for the reward method, after the results are determined, the headquarters and the imperial envoy Futai will decide to handle it temporarily, and everyone agrees, so they will decide accordingly.Although Tie Muxian praised him with joy on the face, saying that the teacher had a plan at the moment and made a decisive decision, but in his heart he was always uncomfortable: I am obviously an imperial envoy, and I am here on behalf of the emperor.Even though you are the Generalissimo, you cannot be above me.Now everything is up to you alone, so what use is there for me?So unhappy.

In a blink of an eye, it was the 16th of August, the fifth watch, and everyone was waiting.Xiang Gongbao ate some snacks, got dressed, and sent his servants to the Martial Arts Hall to read exercises.In front of Xingyuan Gate, Wu Yaya was full of civil and military officials, except for Lin Futai and Feng Zhao Erjingqing, they all went to the martial arts hall early to serve.The rest of the officials all stood in front of the Xingyuan Gate for Gong Bao, and waited on duty for the imperial envoy, and then rode fast horses, rushed to the martial arts hall before the two sedan chairs, to prepare for the arrival of the imperial envoy. , and then stand back to work.All the official ceremonies in the monarchy were like this. The two legs of an official must be faster than a wild cat, so as not to cause delays.When Xiang Tie and his two arrived at the Martial Arts Hall, they fired cannons to welcome them and played military music together.The two got off the sedan chair and stepped into the Martial Arts Hall. Futai led the way in front, Duan Zhentong Cao Biaotong followed behind with a knife, Feng Zhao Erjingqing and Duan Liu Erzong followed on both sides, and the local prefecture and county Daotai stood on one side. Serving, not daring to come forward unless called.This Martial Arts Hall is built on an earthen platform, facing south, it is extremely spacious and bright, with red and green silk tied in various colors in front.There are five square tables on the first line, and several tables on both sides, all of which are covered with red satin and flat gold embroidered python drape around the tables and chairs. There are three red box pen holders on each table.Walking to the table in the middle of the room, Lin Futai was silent and did not dare to open his mouth, because the chief should naturally sit down with Xiang Gongbao in terms of his position; but that one was an imperial envoy, a representative of the emperor, and with temporary dignity It seemed that Imperial Envoy Tie should sit down again, so Lin Futai dared not speak.Xiang Gongbao smiled and said to Tie Muxian: "My brother is an imperial envoy, you can sit in the middle." Tie Muxian said: "Teacher, this is wrong. In terms of Beijing position, you have the honorary title of Gong Bao; in terms of military position , you are the Grand Marshal of the Empress Dowager Lafayette Chrysostom. Don’t say there is a teacher-student relationship, even if there is no teacher-student relationship, I can’t take your seat. Teacher, just sit down honestly and don’t give up.” Xiang Gongbao Raising his beard and laughing loudly, he said: "Gou Yi is sincere, but I just accept it, and I will be arrogant." After that, he strode to the chair in the middle and sat down. On the table, Feng Guohua is at the far east table, and Zhao Bingheng is at the far west table.Gongbao also ordered Liu Changqing and Zhangwei Huaijiadao to be honored officers of the whole army, to sit on the table on the east side of the upper head;He also appointed Duan Jixiang as the commander of the whole army, and Cao Huchen to guard the banner of the martial arts hall.The two large flags are all red and white characters. The upper head is Beiyang Minister Xiang, and the lower head is Imperial Envoy Tie.The red and green flags were handed over to Cao Huchen, and he was ordered to raise the red flag to start the exercise and raise the green flag to stop the exercise.After all the orders were given, Duan Jixiang came to the playground on horseback with a sword in his hand, and acted as the general commander, commanding all the townsmen to prepare for the drill.

When I was young, I saw the red flag waving in front of the Martial Arts Hall, the trumpets sounded, the infantry of the 48 towns occupied 48 positions, and Xie Tong stood in front of the army and shouted loudly.But seeing the orderly pace and the serious appearance of the army, Xiang Gongbao was very happy to see it, and said to Tie Muxian, "brother, you see that the forty-eight towns are able to stand together, and even the sound of the soldiers running is not uneven, this is not easy. " Tie Muxian said: "It's all because the teacher chooses the generals and trains diligently, so he has such good grades. The students have to expand their horizons today, all rely on the teacher's guidance." Kung Pao laughed: "You are in the middle of the year , the achievements in the future must be higher than mine. This old man has been training soldiers for the country since he was in his twenties, and it took him twenty years to achieve today's progress. The person entrusted to him in the future will be replaced by a younger brother. But it's new, so what's the point of Guo Fenyang?" Tie Muxian kept humbly saying that he didn't dare.Lin Futai also flattered, saying that the second father's meritorious deeds will not let Li Guo in the future.The three of them chatted and laughed, it was already afternoon, and suddenly the sky in the distance turned yellow, covering the sun with no light.Tie Muxian said: "Looking at the weather, there must be a strong wind." Lin Futai said: "Most of the time there is sand in it. Originally, the playground is surrounded by sand. Sometimes there is wind and sand. I'm afraid it will be a bit difficult to operate." Xiang Xiang Gong Bao smiled and said, "What are you afraid of? In the battle of Henkel Xingyang, the sand and stones hit the face, and the defeat was turned into victory; the battle between Wei Qing and the Xiongnu also caught up with the wind and sand in all likelihood. When marching, the more The wind and sand will only help the courage of the soldiers." The two of Tielin nodded in agreement.As he was talking, he suddenly heard the wind blowing in the distance, and the sky became more and more yellow.The following teams still performed bravely, running back and forth in the wind and sand without fear.Xiang Gongbao saw it, and became more and more happy, and praised it repeatedly.The imperial envoy, Tie Da, was a little impatient, and said to Xiang Gongbao: "It's getting late, and there's wind and sand again, teacher, you can go back to rest earlier." Gongbao smiled and said, "You might as well sit less." Waiting again For a moment, Tie Muxian got really impatient, and said again: "You can stop the fuck." As he spoke, he peeked at Xiang Gongbao, but Xiang Gongbao didn't hear him, and kept looking straight at the fuck.Tie Muxian was anxious, thinking that I am an imperial envoy, and I can also send orders to accept the order, so why wait for him?Then he said to Duan Yuzhi on the magistrate's table: "Please pass the order for me!" Unexpectedly, after saying it twice, Duan Daotai didn't hear a word, and he still sat on his seat, motionless.Tie Muxian was anxious, ashamed, and angry, so he had no choice but to get down from his seat and come to Xiang Gongbao and whispered, "Please send an order to stop the drill!" After refuting, he nodded, waved his hand to the magistrate's table, and only said two words, Duan Yuzhi stood up quickly, walked to the front of the hall and sent an order to Cao Huchen: "The palace guard has an order to stop the operation." Hearing this sentence, Cao Huchen immediately threw the red flag aside, picked up the green flag and held it high, shaking it back and forth dozens of times.Just hearing another cannon shot in the playground, the forty-eight town soldiers all returned to their original places and stood still without moving a single bit.The forty-eight Xietong called Cao all turned their faces towards the Martial Arts Hall, bowed their knives to stand at attention, put their command knives back into their sheaths, and stood still in front of the team.Commander-in-chief Duan Jixiang still rode back to the Martial Arts Hall to give orders, and all the forty-seven town commanders also came to the Martial Arts Hall with their sabers on their backs to greet the imperial envoy of Gongbao.项宫保立起身来，将大墨镜摘下，向这些镇统满面春风地说道：“诸位辛苦了，果然严肃整齐，不愧劲旅。凡今天会操的将官，每名奖银四两，兵士奖银二两，由我粮饷局支领。”说罢又朝着司勋官刘长庆招呼一声，命他照办，刘道连声应诺。项宫保看镇统中唯独李天洪还带着三品蓝顶，立时唤左右取一颗二品的红顶来替他换上。各镇统又请安谢了宫保，然后传伺候回辕。项宫保走的时候，四十八位镇统一齐站班，宫保轿子去了，这些人便陆续分散。铁钦差走的时候仅仅剩了十几个镇统给他站班。等林抚台走时，只剩了河南本省的三个镇统，其余全走净了。然后文武各官一齐回寓。这种情形本来是官场势力的标准，分厘毫丝也不能错的。

单说铁木贤回至行辕，心中甚是不快。他有一位贴近的师爷，名叫龙华号子春，是一个满洲旗人，多才多艺，上而天文地理，下而医卜星相，他是无一不通。而且弹唱歌舞，有眼的就能吹，有弦的就能拉，唱一口好二黄，气死谭鑫培，不让孙菊仙。所以铁木贤把他奉为神圣，时刻也离不开的，有时闷了，彼此便拉拉胡琴，唱唱二黄，借此消遣。今天铁木贤在演武厅上，始而因为座位已经大大扫兴，不过项宫保是他钦命的老师，虽然受点屈也无可奈何。后来因为停操的事，他可大不乐意了，以为我乃代表皇上的钦差，三番五次传令，却没人理我。那老项仅仅一挥手，顷刻之间便停了四十八镇的军操。彼此相形之下，真叫我难乎为情。因此越想越气，连晚饭全不曾吃好，叫长班把龙子春请过来，彼此闲谈破闷。龙子春问他白天阅操军容怎样，铁木贤叹了一口气，把日间的情形对子春说了。子春道：“晚生恰有一件事要同钦差商量，不过这件事关系太重，晚生不敢轻易出口。”铁木贤道：“你有话只管说，何必这样拿腔作势的。”子春道：“不是别的，这话要传扬出去，要叫前途知道是晚生说的，晚生便有杀身之祸，岂能轻易出口。”铁木贤道：“既然如此，我情愿同你成立一种口头契约，此话出你之口，入我之耳，如从我口中使第三人知道，事前必须得你同意，你难道还不放心吗？”子春点头称是，方才慢慢说出来。要知所说的话，有何重要关系，且听下回分解。