Chapter 25 Section 25

Li Hongzhang returned to his post, the Navy Yamen was also established, and Li Hongzhang was responsible for the demolition of the Beitang. The expansion of Sanhai can be a big move. For this big project, there are three most important people, one is Li Lianying, one is Li Shan, and the other is Lei Tingchang. Although Lei Tingchang has the title of Yuanwailang, few people know about it, but when it comes to "shape thunder" or "style thunder", there are many people who know it, even if it is not like thunder. "Zizi Lei" has been in the capital for seven generations, and his family is regarded as aboriginal. In fact, Lei's family is from Jiangxi, and their ancestry is in Jianchang County, Nankang Prefecture.It is said that his family's lineage is ranked by the sixty-four hexagrams of the Zhouyi, Qianyuan and Zhou, and the Yuan Dynasty has experienced hundreds of generations.Thirty years is one life, so the Lei family has a long history and is comparable to the Confucius family in Qufu.Of course, this is something that is difficult to test.

What is really reliable is the situation after the Lei family moved to Jinling.Lei Yucheng, a carpenter, moved to Jinling Shicheng with his two sons, Zhensheng and Zhenzhou, to avoid the rogue rebellion in the late Ming Dynasty.The Qing soldiers entered the customs and rebuilt the palace that was burned by Li Zicheng. Lei Zhensheng's son, Lei Fafa, issued a declaration with his cousin to apply for admission to Beijing. This is the beginning of "Zang Lei". In the middle of Kangxi, the three halls of Taihe, Zhonghe, and Baohe were rebuilt. The main beam of the Hall of Supreme Harmony was used by the nanmu beams and columns that were demolished from the Xiangtang of the Ming Mausoleum.

On the day when the beam was put up, the holy ancestor came to salute in person, but he didn't know that the tenon and tenon did not match when the main beam was hoisted up.Two pieces of wood are inlaid, the protruding one is called tenon, commonly known as tenon head; the concave one is called tenon, commonly known as orifice.Making mortise and tenon is the highest skill among carpenters. Obviously, this carpenter's craftsmanship is not good enough, and the dimensions do not match, so that they are out of place. The three main halls are the emperor's main government office, and raising the beam is a very solemn matter. How can such a mistake happen?Therefore, the officials of the Ministry of Industry were shocked.

In the end, there was an officer who was quick-witted and knew that Lei Fada was very skilled, so he found a set of official uniforms from the ninth rank and asked him to wear it. With an ax and a chisel tucked around his waist, he went up. Hold the beam with one hand, and open another hole with a manual chisel.Under the gaze of the emperor and all the officials looking up, he finished the work calmly and quickly, then put away the chisel, took out the axe, aimed at the position, hit hard, and the hands fell together, and the officials of the Ministry of Industry took a breath. Shengzu is a virtuous gentleman who is extremely understanding and humane. He has seen the whole process before and after, and knows that the mortise and tenon do not fit. He cannot blame the officials of the Ministry of Works, because it is inevitable that the old wood will not match.The combination of mortise and tenon is entirely Lei Fafa's ability. Longyan Dayue issued an order face to face, and awarded Lei Fafa the captain of the camp of the Ministry of Industry.At that time, there were four ballads, specifically remembering the event: "There is Lu Ban on the top, and Chang Ban on the bottom. Ziwei obeys orders, and the Golden Palace is appointed as an official."

Lei Fa didn't die until he was seventy years old, and was succeeded by his eldest son, Jin Yu.Lei Jinyu later voted to serve as the coating flag of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and was in charge of the nanmu style room in the Old Summer Palace.With the merits of building the inner court, he was granted a seventh-rank official position in the Ministry of Internal Affairs. He did not die until the seventh year of Yongzheng, and he was already in his seventies when he died. Three days before Lei Jinyu died, he gave birth to another son.Lei Jinyu had married six wives, and the last son born to this young wife Zhang was named Sheng Li, the fifth eldest.Shengcheng's four elder brothers probably couldn't inherit their father's business, so they decided to return to the south, but Zhang refused to accompany him, and took his son to live in Beijing.

Although it is a hereditary position to be in charge of the case in the style of the Old Summer Palace, it is only in its infancy, so it was usurped by Lei Jinyu's assistants. So Zhang's son complained to the Ministry of Industry, and it was not until Lei Shengcheng became an adult that he could inherit it. When Lei Shengcheng came of age, it was the time when Qianlong started building construction projects, so Lei Shengcheng and his three sons were all reused.The eldest son, Jiawei, was sent to investigate the palaces of other provinces. Emperor Gaozong made six tours to the south, and Jiawei never failed. In addition to surveying the construction of the palace, the Old Summer Palace was modeled on various places of interest. It fell on Lei Jiawei's shoulders, so he spent fewer days in Beijing and more days outside.In addition, he also investigated and dealt with extra missions such as dike construction, supervisory affairs, and private opening of official land, and he has become the eyes and ears of Gaozong's cronies.

Lei Shengcheng's second son was named Jiaxi, who was deeply favored in the last years of Qianlong's reign. He undertook most of the garden projects of the palaces of Longevity Hill, Yuquan Hill, and Fragrant Hills. fireworks.Qianlong's 800,000-year-old, point-of-view tower, competing for beauty and beauty, was very popular for a while, and it was also written by Lei Jiaxi. Lei Shengchen's youngest son, Jiarui, took over the style house after his father and brother in the Jiaqing Dynasty.During the Qian and Jia dynasties, the three brothers of the Lei family worked together, and the family fortune was prosperous. "Zi Zi Lei" laid an unshakable foundation. The third son, at the age of sixteen, followed his father to learn "hereditary errands" in Shishifang, and he was hardworking and cautious.In the fifth year of Daoguang, Lei Jiaxi died of illness, and Lei Jiarui was already old. Because Lei Jingxiu had a lot of work and was afraid of making mistakes, he asked his assistant Guo Jiu to take charge of the case in the name of being in charge of the case, and he would rather be under him.This is a wise way to protect oneself, because Xuanzong is famous for his frugality. In the name of being in charge of the case, there are not many benefits, but endless disasters.So when Xuanzong died, Lei Jingxiu came out to fight for the case again.

Of course it is not easy to fight.It is a fact that this errand is hereditary to Lei's family, but it was tantamount to giving up when Guo Jiu was asked to undertake it in the first place.Therefore, on the one hand, they have to fight, on the other hand, they refuse to give in, and they are stalemate. The deadlock was resolved because Guo Jiuyi died of illness at this time, so it was logical to "return things to their original owners".However, when Lei Jingxiu fought to get back the style house, it was just when Hong Yang was going eastward to build a country in Jinling.Lei Jingxiu is industrious by nature, so he took advantage of these few years when he was not busy to collect ancestral construction French drawings and large and small "hot samples" - palace models made of hard paper, plus instructions, and compiled them into catalogs. It takes three rooms to accommodate it.

In August of the tenth year of Xianfeng, the Old Summer Palace was burned.At that time, besides Wen Zong, the most distressed person was probably Lei Jingxiu!The painstaking efforts of the Lei family for several generations have been wiped out. From Kangxi to Qianjia, the first famous garden in China that has worked hard for a hundred years has suffered such a catastrophe. Estimated the country's financial and material resources, there is no hope of repeating the old view.Therefore, Lei Jingxiu moved his family from Haidian, where he lived for a long time, to the East Guanyin Temple in Xizhimen.At that time, all the sons had grown up, and the most capable was the youngest, Lei Siqi, who presided over the construction of Wenzong's Dingling Mausoleum.

In the thirteenth year of Tongzhi's reign, the Old Summer Palace was rebuilt, causing great disturbances. In fact, Mu Zong suffered half of it for his mother.Under the personal intervention of the Empress Dowager Cixi, Lei Siqi and his son Tingchang were summoned five times, and Lei Jingxiu's collection of artwork "hot sample" was put to good use at this time, and the reputation of "Looking Lei" Spread the entry again.But with the death of Mu Zong, who was "the son of heaven with smallpox", everything seemed to come to naught, and Lei Siqi also passed away depressed.