Chapter 12 Chapter 2 The Rising Prince of Melancholy

The fighting is over, tired enough, rested enough, life must go on. To bid farewell to Qu Hongxuan and Cen Chunxuan, Cixi had to make another decision to greet and send them off. This is an old political rule.Who should I choose?The old lady was worried, and she chose to choose, but she couldn't come out of the four major political groups at that time. Relatives and nobles: Manchurian imperial relatives and nobles, to put it bluntly, they are family members.They have a special status, great momentum, and a narrow social foundation; most of their members are the second generation of young nobles, full of arrogance, and lack of means, experience, and experience.

Veteran Group: Having been in the officialdom for decades, they are smooth and clear, all of them are masters of flickering, and have great influence on the high-level. Beiyang Group: The current power is the most powerful, all of them are doers, and of course careerists. Qingliu Group: The officials are clean and honest, with a good social reputation and mass foundation, but it has been completely defeated after the fall of Qu Hongxuan and Cen Chunxuan. Cixi thought hard for a few days, and finally drew up a twelve-character set policy: "support relatives, rely on veterans, and suppress Beiyang".

Everything is as good as the family, but the brothers in the family are rarely successful.Playing tickets, experts; playing politics, laymen.Only the melancholy prince is not bad, quite honest and well behaved. His name is Zaifeng, Guangxu's younger brother, the most prominent Prince Chun, the best among princes. Zaifeng was appointed to the military aircraft department to learn to walk. Of course, adults are not learning to walk, learning to walk is an internship.At this time, Zaifeng had just turned twenty-four years old, so he had to find an old minister to support him. This veteran must have senior qualifications, high prestige, and the ability to be an official, and Yuan Shikai is on two paths.After counting and counting, there is only one qualified candidate left: Zhang Zhidong.

Zhang Zhidong, a famous minister among famous ministers, a fine man among men, and a master among masters. In the eyes of most people, Zhang Zhidong is first and foremost a scholar.There are two types of scholars: those who are well educated and who are not good at human beings, referred to as nerds;Zhang Zhidong is undoubtedly the best among scholar officials.He can be a scholar, a man, and an official. Few ministers in the late Qing Dynasty could have a smooth life like Zhang Zhidong.At the age of sixteen, Xie Yuan ranked first in the province's provincial examination, followed by the third national Jinshi Tanhua, Hanlin, governor, governor, bachelor, and minister of military aircraft.Although there are countless dangerous beaches and hidden reefs in his official career, and batches of newcomers and old people were beaten to death on the beach by waves, Zhang Zhidong still stood upright and looked down on the batches of people who fell on the beach. .

Why is he able to stand out from the tide? Is there any secret?Since it is a secret, ordinary people Zhang Zhidong does not tell him, but only tells it to a few close friends, and he also says it in a secretive way. The sixteen-character motto of being an official: Encourage the heart of the monarch, abide by the festivals of ministers; practice the new policy, and never recite the old rules. The above instructions must be fully comprehended, and local conditions must be implemented flexibly; Never offend anyone, only mediator; Newcomers should be promoted, but old ones should not be abandoned.

To say a thousand things and ten thousand things boils down to one sentence: Be loyal to the person who decides your official career. It seems that letting Zhang Zhidong assist Zaifeng is a match for Yuan Shikai. As for Yuan Shikai, didn't he always like to come to Beijing to hang out?Let me take this opportunity to let you come over to take over Qu Hongxuan's position.Anyone with a discerning eye can see that this is called ascending brightly and descending secretly, and the purpose is to let you leave the old lair of Beiyang. The Military Aircraft Department has regained its former calm and balance.Everyone takes their positions, Zaifeng, Zhang Zhidong PK (duel) Yikuang, Yuan Shikai.

But everyone has a question, will this 24-year-old melancholic prince be a political superman? Zaifeng, who wrote "Zaifeng" today, is a melancholy prince with a noble lineage, and the future helm of the Qing Dynasty is low-key and mysterious. The name alone is unusual, and people have to ask three "sharp questions" first. . First question, "Feng" is too uncommon, can you give it a simple and easy-to-read name? This is not possible, really not.Only when ordinary people don't know, read, and write can they highlight the noble and unique status of the royal family. Ordinary characters have no sense of mystery.

The second question is, ordinary people also want to take a different path and choose an uncommon name, is it okay? of course can.But if you don't have a noble blood, it won't increase the sense of mystery, you can only increase the strokes of writing, which is useless. The third question, can this "Feng" be written more simply now?No problem, it's been a hundred years since the revolution, so I can't write anything. Zaifeng becomes Zaifeng, remember, it is a person (in fact, Feng is the name used by a specific prince and cannot be simplified to Feng). An American friend described it this way: "He is silent, with a handsome appearance, bright eyes, and firm lips; he has a straight back, and although he is not of medium stature, he exudes nobility."

Enough is enough, we don't want childcare, even if you are an international friend across the ocean, we want to see photos. Zaifeng in the photo is actually not bad looking, but his face looks a bit old with a sad face all day long, which greatly reduces his image.Why melancholy?Because Zaifeng is a person who doesn't like to worry, but fate makes him worry and worry. Big people and little people are actually the same, growing up amidst worries and melancholy.If we insist on the difference, the melancholy of the big man starts from the fortune of the country, and the melancholy of the small man starts from the trivial things. This is the difference.

In fact, when Zaifeng was just eighteen years old, before he had time to hold the coming-of-age ceremony, he was already worried, both worried and sad, because it started from an incomparable humiliation. The humiliation is that a Chinese accidentally killed a foreigner. This is not an ordinary criminal case. In 1900, when the Boxer Rebellion was in full swing, a cynical youth of the Boxer Rebellion shot and killed German Minister to China Klind in Beijing.Diplomats represent the image of a country, no matter what time it is, it is a major international diplomatic event. At that time, the Group of Eight Western countries raised the most serious diplomatic protest, saying that China blatantly flouted international law, and then formed the Eight-Power Allied Forces to launch a fierce ground offensive against Beijing.Empress Dowager Cixi was also in a hurry, yelling loudly: The affairs of the Chinese people are decided by the Chinese people, and the spittle of 400 million Chinese people can drown foreigners and bleach them twice.

However, the all-round artillery fire of the Eight-Power Allied Forces was too fierce, and the smoke was billowing, so that Cixi had nowhere to hide, and rushed all the way to Xi'an. After the war, in addition to signing the humiliating treaty, there was an even more humiliating task: to go to Germany to plead guilty. Who should I send?The German side has spoken, and the most noble person other than the emperor must go to Germany to apologize to show sincerity.Who is noblest but the emperor?Of course the emperor's younger brother, Prince Chun Zaifeng. Zaifeng was very helpless. My 18-year-old adult oath ceremony has not been completed yet, and I am not ready yet. Germany is very tough, don't make any preparations, just take yourself there. Many people are watching the boy's jokes and seeing how he makes a fool of himself on an international occasion.Among them are foreigners and Chinese who don't like him. When he arrived in Germany, the mighty Kaiser Wilhelm II insisted that Zaifeng kneel and kowtow humiliatingly.Even if it is a weak country, it can't do anything that insults the country's constitution. This young man Zaifeng still has a few strong bones.His resistance skills are very Chinese: hide your strength and bide your time, procrastination and patience.You say yours, and I delay mine; the more you talk, the more I delay; the two sides are at a stalemate, whoever speaks first will compromise. After all, foreigners do not understand China's national conditions.The more William waited, the more annoyed he became, and he really spoke first.Forget it, I can't wait anymore, let's bow, as long as three bows are enough.So Zaifeng made an elegant oriental bow gracefully.The demeanor is generous, and the dignity that a weak and powerful country should have is maintained to the greatest extent. The iron-blooded William was a little moved. An eighteen-year-old boy could gently pass the humiliation with such an elegant movement. There are strange people in the Chinese royal family. In a few days, William and Zaifeng became buddies who talked about everything, and Zaifeng took the opportunity to ask the secret of the long-term fortune of the country.William smiled mysteriously, did not speak, and made a gesture of holding a gun with his hand; Zaifeng also smiled, a little reluctantly and a little confused. The prince who grew up in the deep palace finally came out, and the Kaiser’s stables, museum, royal theater, and military training school where more than 200 "fat steeds" were raised, all left him; He witnessed the 30,000-ton commercial cruise ship "Wilhelm II" under construction; the Krupp Gun Factory and the Siemens Electric Factory echoed his admiration. The exotic breeze messed up Zaifeng's long hair, but couldn't blow away his tightly locked eyebrows.Zaifeng has been thinking about the true meaning of William's actions.Who the hell does he want me to hit?Brother, I have something to say, everyone is a leader-level figure, there is no need to hide it, let me guess with such a boring myth. With "William myth", Zaifeng returned to China.With the sound of the whistle, Shanghai has arrived; the motherland, I am back, and the wanderer who has been wandering for a short time has returned to your arms. The Shanghai pier is crowded with people, of course most of them are here to watch the excitement.The crowd is cheering: Your lord, welcome home.Of course it was rehearsed long ago.However, Zaifeng was very moved by this gentle greeting. Chinese people are considerate. It's good to be home, it feels really good to be home.Home is still home, but everything has changed. The boy in the deep palace that no one knew in the past has become a prince in a fairy tale, and people dedicate the most magnificent eulogies to him, both Chinese and foreigners.Among them is a poem praising: A red cloud descends to the Shanghai Bin, and the heroic dragon and the phoenix are superb.Men and women from all over the world compete to meet each other, and they all say that the yellow clothes are saints.Break through the waves and travel thousands of miles to suiyi, and teach soldiers and horses to make peace.From now on, to support the pillar of heaven, we must rely on my king's hand to hold it up. Women like him, the world looks up to him, and China depends on him.You are electricity, you are light, you are the only myth.This young man has become the expectation in many people's hearts, the infinite expectation for the court, for the future, and for the fate of the country. Now that Zaifeng has become a prince in a fairy tale, his imagination is allowed to run wild.When people become popular, there will be more right and wrong.Gossip about him was flying all over the sky, both good and bad.There are many legends about him, some real and some fictional.The most widely spread is that the person sent to Germany was not Zaifeng at all, but a barber who looked very similar to him. This legend can blind the eyes of officials, but don't insult the IQ of the general public.How could the prince's substitute be a barber, at least he is a Jinshi and Hanlin.You think anyone can learn the charming aristocratic temperament exuding from her body. Zaifeng's photos were frequently exposed in newspapers.Not tall but tall and straight, with aristocratic temperament exuding from the inside out, especially the melancholy eyes, many girls are fascinated by this melancholy prince.There's no way, as long as a man touches melancholy, it's not just one or two, but batches of ignorant girls. There are many girls who admire, and many girls who want to enter fairy tales, and becoming Cinderella in fairy tales is their ultimate dream.Realizing a dream is difficult, but also very simple, as long as one person nods, and this person is certainly not Zaifeng, he can't make the decision. It is Cixi, only she can direct this fairy tale.Cixi was also very satisfied with Zaifeng's international performance, not for anything else, but because he showed the hard-boned demeanor of the second generation of nobles in the new era in a reasonable and polite way. She wants to personally choose the mother of his future child for him. In fact, Zaifeng was engaged a long time ago, but since Cixi spoke up, the original engagement is invalid, so let's start again.But the engaged girl refused. Although she hadn't met, she was fascinated by the well-known Melancholy Prince. I can't be more obsessed, do you know who the girl Empress Cixi is targeting?Ba Niuer, an ordinary but extraordinary girl.It's not ordinary because her father, Ronglu, a bachelor and chief minister of military affairs, is the person Cixi misses most in her life.Hey, there is no hope, girl, please find a good man to marry as soon as possible.This melancholy man, the father of the future emperor does not belong to you. Prince Melancholy and Ba Niuer are married, the fairy tale has been staged, will Melancholy continue? But when the melancholy prince met Ba Niu'er, he became even more melancholy. Ba Niuer admires Cixi the most, and she has always wanted to become a strong woman in China. NO.2 (No. 2) To be a strong woman, start with men, start with your own men, and start with changing the eyes of men.Ba Niu'er seriously started to change Zaifeng: "You look sad all day long and look at everything with melancholy, do I mean that I am the embodiment of melancholy in your eyes?" Ba Niuer's words are indeed reasonable.When you are married, there should be no melancholy in your eyes, only eight girls. But everyone wronged Zaifeng, in fact, he was not looking at anyone, he just wanted to move his eyes and roll his eyes.Zaifeng is a bookworm. He reads every day, on the road, on the horse, on the pillow, and in the toilet. His eyes are so tired that he is tired. To protect his eyesight, he must start from the daily routine and from the details, that's all. But whenever Ba Niuer loses his temper, Zaifeng always keeps silent and silently turns his melancholy eyes to the ground.Either reading books or watching the underground, Zaifeng's eyesight is getting worse and worse, which is passed on to his son Puyi. Zaifeng could only bear it silently, he was afraid of this lady, because she reported all major and minor matters to the Queen Mother.When the queen mother gets angry, I am not alone, but the whole country is afraid. Later, the Queen Mother was gone, and Zaifeng was still afraid of Ba Niuer. Why? got used to. This henpecked man is an honest man, a bit quiet, a bit shy, a bit cowardly, a melancholy honest man with deep love, an honest man without any bad habits.He called himself Bohan, and also called Jingyun and Xianyuan.The name is very literary, but it doesn't have the sentiment of literary youth, let alone flirt like literary youth. Such a person is actually very pleasing to women, has a sense of security, a standard otaku, and spends a lot of time with himself; such a person does not please women. Romantic. So Cinderella is not easy to do, and fairy tales are not necessarily beautiful.To marry or not to marry is your choice.But Ba Niuer had no choice, their matchmaker was the Queen Mother, and she was in politics, but Zaifeng didn't like politics. The wind, the snow and the moon are not their past, because there is no past; they have never walked hand in hand under the past and the moon, because Zaifeng is busy reading books and stamping every day. Zaifeng didn't like playing politics, playing mahjong, listening to operas, or snuff bottles.He rejects all vulgar, boring and unhealthy things, and only likes to collect books, calling himself a "book addict".What must be done every day is to stamp, desperately stamping.The chapters engraved by Zaifeng include "Weiweizhai, Tui'an, Yubo, Xianyuan, Take a step back and think, Siqiantang". Every book is stamped, and all these chapters must be stamped, authentically Chapter Professional Accounts. Others have finished reading all the books, but Zaifeng's chapter has not yet been finished. As for how many books he has read, only he knows. What exactly did Zaifeng see in the book?What he was reading was not a book, but depression. There is a pair of couplets hanging in Zaifeng's study: "It is rich to have books, and a little god to have nothing to do." The original couplet is slightly different, Zaifeng changed "famous" to "youshu".The change is quite real, I am already a prince, so I don't need to ask for fame or wealth. Zaifeng's only hope is to be a fairy with few things and nothing to do. He never causes troubles, let alone causes troubles. At most, he scans the surroundings with melancholy eyes, and then falls down on the book, not daring to look at his wife. Zaifeng likes poetry very much. He wrote a poem: "What's the fight on the snail's horn? Send this body in the light of the stone fire. Follow the poor and the rich and be happy. If you don't smile, you are an idiot." This poem is his favorite, the living room , Study room, bedroom, you can see "snails" everywhere. A guest came to visit and was full of praise: "The calligraphy is good, and the poems are better. My lord, it's a pity that you don't become a poet." Zaifeng smiled: "I haven't been a poet for many years, it was written by Bai Juyi." The guest also laughed: "It's a pity that the prince doesn't become a calligrapher. His handwriting is better than Bai Juyi's." But Zaifeng couldn't be a happy fairy after all, because Cixi didn't want him to be too carefree.After the marriage was over, Cixi thought that the family was done and it was time to start a career.Go to the Military Aircraft Department to experience it.First learn to walk at the military aircraft, learning to walk is an internship, and novices always have a transition period. Why let Zaifeng carry this heavy burden? As I said before, since the gang fight incident caused by a woman, Cixi no longer trusts outsiders, only trusts family members, caring family members.Also, Zaifeng was an honest and obedient child. When asked to go abroad to make amends and divorce, he had nothing to say, and always accepted it silently, never asking why. Of course, the most important thing is that Zaifeng is very melancholy. People who are melancholy don't talk much, and they always digest themselves in their stomachs. This kind of personality is most suitable for development in the political arena.Throughout the century-old history, the future stars of China's political arena have always started to rise with little talk or no talk. In fact, Zaifeng didn't get much experience in the military aircraft department.Things are thought out for him; articles are written for him; words are spoken for him.Zaifeng felt relieved and never expressed his opinion.Go to bed early and get up early every day, and go to and from get off work on time.When I get home from get off work, I will stamp it, not an official seal, but a book collection stamp for "book addicts". In addition, Zaifeng also used his spare time to study in Guihua Academy.Majoring in thirteen courses including mathematics, chemistry, and electricity.He listened carefully in class and took detailed notes for each subject.He was especially interested in astronomy and geography. He bought globes, three-sphere globes, planetariums, astronomical telescopes and other instruments to observe the celestial phenomena, and he also specially recorded the observations of the celestial phenomena.Words related to astronomical phenomena such as Halley's Comet, Five Stars, and Eclipses often appear in the diary. It's a pity that a noble and melancholy prince, a literary youth who may win the Nobel Prize, and a future Einstein in China were strangled by the evil feudal imperial power, Cixi and Ba Niuer. Sometimes Zaifeng doesn't like his own personality, he loses so much joy in life, he can't even settle for a wife.But more fortunately, because of honesty and melancholy, how many twists and turns have been avoided. And these are all thanks to my father, the old prince Yixuan, without his excellent genetic genes, there would be no future melancholy prince.