Chapter 21 Section 21

On July 12th, Empress Dowager Ci'an's longevity, the palace sang operas for three days.But the empress dowagers of the two palaces were not in a good mood, because the weather was too hot, the little emperor led the princes and ministers to celebrate at the Cining Gate, and after a while in the sun, he looked like he was suffering from heatstroke, but he was thinking about the Spring Festival Playing, refused to calm down, crying and shouting, making a fuss in the Hall of Mental Cultivation.The Empress Dowager Ci'an sent people to ask questions over and over again, so naturally she couldn't listen to the play with peace of mind.

The Empress Dowager Cixi also missed Dongling in addition to the little emperor.In the Qing Dynasty, from the ancestors down, they were all buried in Guannei. The Xiaoling Mausoleum of the Shizu, the Jingling Mausoleum of the Shengzu, and the Yuling Mausoleum of the Emperor Gaozong were all buried in Changrui Mountain in the northwest of Zunhua County in the east of Beijing. They are collectively called Dongling.Sejong's Tailing Mausoleum, Renzong's Changling Mausoleum, and Xuanzong's Muling Mausoleum are located in Yongning Mountain in Yixian County, west of Beijing, and are collectively called Xiling Mausoleum.Wenzong's Dingling Mausoleum is also set in Changrui Mountain, and the Feng'an Grand Ceremony will be held in two months.But the horse bandits outside the pass actually entered the pass from Xifengkou, from Zunhua to the west, passed Jizhou and approached Sanhe County, only thirty or forty miles away from Longfu Temple where Zigong was temporarily housed.

Who is to blame?For many years, the Beijing soldiers have guarded the pass, which is just a false story.In the south of the Great Wall, from Yan'an to Zunhua, there are fifty-six large and small passes, and there are only 200 flag soldiers stationed at Xifeng Pass, and the green battalion soldiers along the line will not exceed 500 in total. The number of small officials is almost the same as that of soldiers, so horse thieves can come and go freely. After receiving the report, the Empress Dowager Cixi was very anxious and angry. What was anxious was that the horse thieves harassed the mausoleum, fearing that the feng shui would be ruined, and she would enshrine Anshan Mausoleum for Wenzong in the near future. Make people feel at ease?

I am so angry that the Bannermen are so unbelievable!There are only three or five hundred horse thieves, and there is nothing they can do.She believes that with the Hunan Army in the north, they can "clean up" these horse thieves by transferring at most a thousand people.Now I can only see that from the general of Jilin to the governor of Zhili, everyone is at a loss.Therefore, what she said to the Minister of Military Aircraft was quite harsh. King Gong discussed with everyone and thought that apart from strictly ordering the local civil and military officials to put more emphasis on defense in their jurisdictions, the well-equipped Shenji Battalion must be used to achieve success.But the leader must be a general.On the contrary, there is a banner battalion veteran in Beijing, he is a descendant of Yuan Chonghuan in the late Ming Dynasty, Jiangning general Fu Ming'a, but he fought against Hong Yang's army in Yangzhou area, and his leg was seriously injured.

So Wen Hsiang stepped forward and took full responsibility for suppressing horse thieves in Jingdong. A person Wenxiang relied on was named Ronglu.This person's character is Zhonghua, he was born in a family of Eight Banners, and belongs to the Zhengbai Banner of the Upper Three Banners.Both his grandfather and father died in the war in Guangxi when Hong Yang was rising. Rong Lu used Yin Shengbu as the head of the Ministry of Industry to manage the bank. imprison.When Wen Xiang became Minister of the Ministry of Industry, Rong Lu was appreciated for his wit.Afterwards, King Chun took over Shenjiying and made great efforts to rectify it. Rong Lu became the "Minister of Specialized Exercises" and "Chief of Wings" because of Wen Xiang's recommendation.Like the two wings of a bird, the position of "wing leader" is equal to King Chun's right and left hand, and at least half of the military power of the Shenji Battalion is in his hands.

On the day Wen Xiang was ordered, he discussed with King Chun, the Minister of Management of the Shenji Camp, and decided to pick a thousand horsemen to set off. The responsibility for the selection fell on Rong Lu. Among the Forbidden Army, the Shenji Battalion is extremely valuable. It is the Vanguard Battalion, Guard Battalion, Infantry Battalion, Firearms Battalion, and Jianrui Battalion of the Eight Banners of the Manchurian, Mongolian, and Han armies. Twenty-five battalion.But the corruption of the forbidden army has not lasted for a day, so they are called elites, but they are just different from the old and weak soldiers, one hundred steps and fifty steps.The Empress Dowager Cixi had also heard many jokes about the Imperial Army. She usually put on a show, but now she had to go out to fight, which was no small matter.So I specially asked An Dehai to quietly go to Nanyuan to have a look, what is the scene like?

Nanyuan is tens of miles away from the capital, and when An Dehai arrived, the selection had already been completed.I saw soldiers all over the street, some carrying eagles, some carrying birdcages, in groups of three or four, or chatting happily under the shade of trees, or eating bean juice and jelly around the hawkers, and some horsemen were walking horses , brushing horses, but wearing a red tasseled hat with shirtless arms, the image is even more indecent. An Dehai went there in plain clothes, and it was inconvenient to reveal his identity to Zhang Jing and Guan Dai from the Shenji Camp to inquire about something, so he had to report to the Empress Dowager Cixi what he saw and heard when he rested in the tea shed. played.

"How can this be a war?" Empress Dowager Cixi said worriedly. "The servant also heard two poems read, which were also a sarcasm for our Shenji camp. They are called "When you meet, go to the sea more often, and go to Mo Dengshan." The servant asked him, the first sentence of these two poems, of course, refers to Beard on the chin." "What?" The Empress Dowager Cixi interrupted him and asked, "Have you grown a beard?" "Yes. The slave also met a few." She didn't believe it, and asked again: "What does 'this is going to Morden Mountain' mean?"

"The man said that the word 'mountain' in the next sentence and the word 'sea' in the last sentence refer to Shanhai Pass, which means that if you go out of Shanhai Pass to suppress horse thieves, you should be careful." "Hey, Shenji Camp has ruined people like this." Empress Dowager Cixi said with emotion. "The slave also heard a lot of news..." That is indeed "news", saying that it snows in June in Caozhou, Shandong, and that a hundred flowers bloom in Hangzhou in May.I don't know if these "news" are true or not, but Qin Tianjian reported that there was a riot in the beginning of autumn when the wind rose from the soldiers.The astronomical phenomena are warning, but the personnel affairs are like this, the Empress Dowager Cixi's heart is very heavy.

"My servant is thinking, isn't there a play called "Zhan Dou'e"?" An Dehai pretended to be clever, "Perhaps the monk prince died unjustly in Caozhou, so there is also the same as "Zhan Dou'e". It snows in June .But it’s a good sign that all flowers bloom in May in Hangzhou.” "What a good sign!" Empress Dowager Cixi scolded very unhappy, "If you don't understand, stop talking nonsense." The summer and spring order is by no means a good sign.The next day, the Empress Dowager Cixi couldn't help but want to talk to the military ministers.Prince Gong said that he had also heard the "news", which was completely a rumor.If the rain and snow are out of season and the weather is not right, the local officials will definitely report, but now it has been many days; there is no report from Yan Jingming, the governor of Shandong, and Jiang Yili, the governor of Zhejiang.In addition, the garrison generals and Xuezheng who can talk about things have never mentioned this matter, which can be seen as absurd rumors.

Empress Dowager Cixi believed that even though it was a rumor, it could be seen that the people liked it and disliked it, and that people were against each other.He also said that the rumors originated from the unstable situation. Horse thieves outside the pass entered the pass and harassed Jifu. How could the people not panic?Then he mentioned Shenjiying, shaking his head and sighing repeatedly, expressing his disappointment, saying that the so-called "rectification" was empty talk and had no real effect. Whether Wen Xiang led the team to suppress the bandits this time would be successful, Dacheng doubted. She said a lot of words by herself, which seemed to be reproaching and complaining, and the tone of her voice still implicated King Chun.Prince Gong is careful in everything now, except for Wei Wei saying "yes", it is inconvenient to say anything, but Wen Xiang, the more he presents, he has a few practical words.He said that Qiying has a long-standing old habit, and the bustling capital city is not suitable for military training. Sending a team out of Beijing now is just a chance to practice. He assured the two queen mothers that there will be good results. Sure enough, as soon as Wen Xiang led the troops to arrive, he harassed the horse thieves in Zunhua and Yutian, and fled first when he heard the news.At the same time, the negligence of defense was found out, and Xu Tingkai, the admiral of Zhili, was impeached.After this rectification and deployment, the Dongling area can be kept safe, so they returned to Beijing to return to their orders. As soon as he arrived in Beijing, the empress dowagers of the two palaces summoned him immediately and rewarded him greatly.Talking about the process of suppressing horse thieves, Wen Xiang confessed that Chen Zou only drove the horse thieves out of the pass. Empress Dowager Cixi was particularly concerned about this.The Nian Army in Shandong, Henan, and Anhui; the Rebellion in Shaanxi and Xinjiang; , that becomes a confidant's trouble.Therefore, after listening to Wen Xiang's Chen Zuo, she was already planning to send troops out of the customs. However, troops are already deployed in three places, and if they want to wipe out horse thieves outside the pass, there are no troops to transfer, nor wages to raise.It's all about planning. As a result of the planning, it is believed that the military affairs of suppressing Nian must be paid off as soon as possible.Zeng Guofan was stationed in Xuzhou, with a certain army to control the undetermined bandits, and his stand was firm. There was nothing he could do about him, so he could only make his mind on Li Hongzhang.So at the beginning of September, a secret decree was issued to Zeng and Li, saying: "Heluo has no heavy soldiers, and Yu Province has no famous veterans to dispatch; this place lives in the sky, and there is nothing to worry about. It was written because of Li Hongzhang's courage. , and the military strength is strong, you can experience the line in person. Immediately supervise and lead Yang Dingxun and other troops to the Heluo area, briefly stationed, quickly wipe out the bandits in western Henan, and take care of the Shanshan Portal, so that Zhang Zongyu on the West Road Wait for the gangsters to prevent intrusion, and keep them intact. As soon as the suppression of bandits on the West Road is over, I will go back to Liangjiang to act as the governor." This implied that if Li Hongzhang could not eliminate the Nian Army on the West Road, he would not have to act as Governor of Liangjiang again.Therefore, there is another arrangement: "As far as the governor of Liangjiang, things are heavy and heavy. Li Hongzhang leads troops out of the province and cannot be left alone; Wu Tang is serious in his work and has been stationed in Qinghuai for many years. Tang acted as the governor of Liangjiang, and the printing affairs of the governor of water transportation were handed over to Li Zongxi as the temporary acting agent. There were many incidents of negotiation between the governor of Jiangsu and foreigners. For this decree, we should send letters to each other, and if we have the same opinion, we should repeat it quickly, and then issue the decree." This last paragraph clearly shows the imperial court's intention of threatening his reputation. There is no need for their juniors to occupy important positions. At this time, the Feng'an Grand Ceremony was imminent, and the capital and Kinki were very busy.In every yamen in Beijing, not to mention those who have duties, those who do not have duties must also send out salute personnel. Local officials in Kinki regard protection as the top priority, especially because of horse thieves, and extra vigilance.Governor Liu Changyou of Zhili, Governor of Shuntian Mansion Yin Wanqingli, Admiral Xu Tingkai of Zhili, Governor of Rehe Qiqing have already been severely punished for this case. , must lose the official, so they all issued extremely strict orders to arrest the thieves.After catching the head of the robber, he immediately asked for an order to rectify the crime, cut off his head and announced the place where the crime was committed, and disappeared for a while, quite peacefully. As soon as the fifteenth day of the ninth lunar month passed, chariots and horses left the east side gate one after another. Officials with duties in Dingling all took the way of Tongzhou and rushed to serve first. On the day of the seventeenth Qiluan, except Prince Su Huafeng, academicians Jiazhen and Woren, and Minister of Military Aircraft Wen Xiang stayed in Beijing according to the order and went to the palace in shifts on a daily basis, the rest of the princes and ministers, civil and military officials above the third rank, and Fujin's wife , all follow the retinue out of Beijing.The yellow sedan chairs of the empress dowagers of the two palaces left the palace, first went to the Dongyue Temple outside the Chaoyang Gate to burn incense, and then walked slowly along the road.On the first day, he stayed at the Yanjiao Palace, on the second day he stayed at the Baijian Palace, and on the third day he arrived at Jizhou. Longfu Temple was located in the middle of the mountain in the north of the city. On the fourth day, the soul was moved, on the fifth day the emperor paid homage to Dongling, and on the sixth day, the underground palace of Anding Mausoleum was enshrined. Zhou Zupei, a university scholar, and Rui Changgong, a co-organizer of the university, wrote the inscription on the God Lord. Emperor Xianfeng was born in peace and died in sorrow. It ends here. After the funeral, the empress dowagers of the two palaces summoned Prince Gong and the Minister of Military Affairs at the Longfu Temple Palace.Because the Dingling project was done firmly and neatly, and the ceremony was arranged very thoughtfully, the empress dowagers of the two palaces were very happy, so as usual, the grace was extra lenient, and all the officials who undertook the mausoleum were promoted.The accompanying servants and the guards along the way will each be rewarded with money and food.As the edicts were issued one after another, all of them were smiling. After all this was dealt with, the Empress Dowager Cixi smiled at the Empress Dowager Ci'an: "The great work is really well done! Thanks to the sixth master, he is not sloppy at all, how can we thank the sixth master?" Hearing this, King Gong hurriedly said: "I dare not!" Then he knelt down, "I have received so much kindness that I have no way to repay it. I should devote myself to the great affairs of the late emperor and never dare to repeat my kindness. " "You don't have to resign!" The Empress Dowager Ci'an replied, "There are graces, big and small. You have contributed the most, but you are an exception. Isn't it inappropriate for people to look at you?" "The two empress dowagers are so sympathetic, I am really grateful. It's just that in the past six months, I have asked myself, I always feel that the grace is too great, and the reward is too little. I am afraid that it will be full and easy to be envied. I have read a few books recently. Only after reading the book, did I realize that 'people are valuable and content' is truly the most reasonable saying. Not only is this my heart, but my daughter is favored by the two queen mothers, and she is named Princess Gulun. I also feel uneasy when I think about it, fearing that my fortune will be poor. I can't afford this honorary title. So I beg the two empress dowagers not to worry about my ministers, and with grace, even the title of my daughter, please take it back. These are all words from the heart of my ministers, and I dare not say a word of falsehood." , and kowtowed again. The empress dowagers of the two palaces are in a dilemma and don't know how to deal with it?After discussing in a low voice for a while, I decided to put it aside for the time being, and find someone to ask about it later. The person she was looking for was Princess Gu Lun, Prince Gong's big princess. "Big girl!" The Empress Dowager Ci'an asked, "Every time you go back, see what your Ama thinks, is there any deficiency? For example, the house is not good enough, the guards are not enough, what?" Da Gege, who had already grown into a slim figure, heard these words, his extremely flexible eyes suddenly became silent, his eyelids drooped, and he bit his fingers slightly to keep silent. "What's the matter?" Empress Dowager Cixi asked. "I was thinking!" Da Ge raised his eyes and shook his head, the earrings of the two emerald autumn leaves dangled. "Never said that?" "No." Da Gege pouted, "Every time I go back, I only hear him sigh." "Why is that?" Empress Dowager Ci'an looked very surprised. "It's been like this since March until now. I always say: I did something wrong and left a bad reputation. It's too late to regret it now!" The empress dowagers of the two palaces unanimously said: "Oh...!" Obviously, they all understood immediately. When Da Gege was no longer in front of her, Empress Dowager Cixi asked Empress Dowager Ci'an, "Do you understand what Lao Liu means?" "I understand. But how can I save him?" "Look for Baojun to ask and talk about it." So Chuanyi summoned Baojun.The Empress Dowager Cixi was a little suspicious of Da Gege's words, but she was taught to find an opportunity to speak up.So without revealing what I mean, I just ask Bao Yun if there is any appropriate way to grace King Gong. Bao Yunzuo was very straightforward: "The kindness comes from above, and I dare not pretend." "It doesn't matter," Empress Dowager Cixi said in a very gentle tone, "tell me!" Bao Yun thought for a while and replied: "Prince Gong has been cultivated by the two empress dowagers, and he is always afraid of being full, so he really dare not ask for grace again. This is what I know very well.The two empress dowagers really saw that Prince Gong was assisting in carrying out the important affairs of the late emperor, and they were respectful and orderly. Even if it was just a word of praise, Prince Gong would be grateful to him for life. " The Empress Dowager Cixi fully understood what Prince Gong wanted in her heart, nodded and said: "Prince Gong cherishes his reputation. As long as he can be as careful as he has been in the past few months, our sisters will naturally protect him. Look at the early March How can Qi Na's decree be eliminated? You have discussed it and decided to write the decree." As soon as Bao Yun withdrew, he went to congratulate Prince Gong. Cao Yuying had to write this edict.In addition, Prince Gong insisted on his original intention and asked the queen mothers of the two palaces to revoke the title of Princess Gulun of Da Gege.This means that his memorial to the queen mothers of the two palaces is indeed "heartfelt words", and besides, he really does not want to have a princess in his mansion, which will cause a lot of trouble in the ritual system. Fortunately, he is out on tour and does not follow the routine. He can come in and see him at any time, even if he is on the road.When the decree was drawn up, it was still early, and Prince Gong "passed the sign" saying that he wanted to thank him, and at the same time put the draft of the decree in the yellow box and sent it in. The empress dowagers of the two palaces immediately summoned them, and King Gong kowtowed and said: "The two empress dowagers, the minister and the minister, have gone beyond the limits of preservation, and it is hard to repay the favor of the overriding. It's just that the minister's daughter is indiscriminately honorable, and I am not afraid of the uneasiness of the minister and his wife. , I am also afraid that the courtiers and daughters will lose their blessings, and I beg the two queen mothers to observe the subtleties and take back their orders!" "I think," Empress Dowager Ci'an looked at the right side and said, "Sixth Master's intention is very sincere, please change your title!" The empress dowagers of the two palaces stopped negotiating at that time, revoked the title of "Gu Lun" and changed it to "Princess Rongshou". Hearing such an announcement, Prince Gong didn't need to resign because it was inconvenient, so Cao Yuying immediately proposed to submit an edict, and the two orders were issued concurrently. Soon, Dajia returned to Beijing, followed by the ceremony of enshrining Wenzong's god tablet into the Taimiao.Everything went smoothly during the Feng'an Grand Ceremony, but there was a trick in the end. Prince Yu Yidao, Minister of Rites and Minister of Rites, Woshi Hunbu, sent Chong Gong to deliver the divine tablet. , never used.This extraordinary negligence is comparable to that of King Dun, who had recently succeeded Prince Su Huafeng as the Zongling of the Clan Mansion, and participated in impeachment.Then it was the ceremony of promotion and the issuance of the imperial edict. Although it was all routine business, it caused a lot of trouble for the military plane for no reason. Others didn't care about it, but Li Tangjie, who was in poor health, couldn't stand the hard work of the journey and the complicated business affairs, so he finally fell ill, and the onset of it was very serious, and he looked quite unbearable.It was postponed to early November and finally passed away.