Chapter 78 Section 78

This is the case with personnel and astronomy.The officials of the Qin Tianjian discovered a comet coming out of the northwest, observed it night and night, and it lasted for ten days. The sign was that "the Ziwei Fanwei was swept by the comet". The common name of the comet is "Broom Star", and it is ominous to see, not to mention that it will not die for ten days, and it will sweep the guards of Ziwei Star, the "Emperor Star", and the police will come and go, which is very dangerous.Therefore, Xu Tong and Guangshou, who were walking in the Hongde Hall, just took this opportunity to make a statement, saying that the emperor visited the Old Summer Palace many times and inspected the project. , very tired, in case the horse frightens the beast, it is a disrespect for the body.The emperor bears the burden of the ancestral temple and the country, and bears the joy of the queen mothers of the two palaces, so it is not appropriate to have the act of patrolling the garden workers.

At this time, Li Guangzhao had a dispute with foreign merchants.When the representative of Fuzhou Qichang Foreign Firm couldn't find Li Guangzhao since the escorted timber arrived in Tianjin, he filed a complaint with the US Consular Office.Vice-consul Bi Dege handed over the letter from Qichang Foreign Trade Co., Ltd. to Tianjin Customs Dao Sun Shida, which detailed the content of the contract. Fifteen thousand yuan should be paid for the subsidy. This time, Li Guangzhao's diorama was completely dismantled.Li Hongzhang was furious after hearing Sun Shida's report, but he was not ready to arrest him for a while, so he asked Sun Shida to inform Li Guangzhao to settle the accounts with the foreign merchants quickly.

The foreign merchants couldn't find Li Guangzhao, nor could Sun Shida, so they entrusted Ding Shouchang of Tianjin Dao to send people to search around, and only then did he find him in an inn, and handed him over to the Customs Dao for official business. Li Guangzhao had already quietly gone to the capital to ask Cheng Lin to borrow money. According to his thinking, fifteen thousand silver dollars was only eleven thousand silver dollars, and Cheng Lin could raise money no matter what.Unexpectedly, Cheng Lin not only refused to find a solution for him, but also chased him for the five hundred taels of silver he borrowed years ago.Li Guangzhao saw that the route was wrong, so he slipped back to Tianjin overnight, making friends with people everywhere, taking the official affairs of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the contracts of foreign businessmen, trying to find someone who is willing to advance money, pay the money and pick up the goods, and then deal with the Ministry of Internal Affairs .If there is no definite result, and tens of thousands of silver cannot be allocated first, he plans to sell this batch of wood privately and run away.

Li Guangzhao's greatest skill is his ability to turn the dead into living, and since there are official documents, contracts, and goods parked in Xinguan, it is easier to speak. There is actually a Changlu salt merchant who is willing to lend him money , no interest, just add a name to him when the Ministry of Internal Affairs asks for rewards in the future.With this agreement, Li Guangzhao felt confident, thought up a set of explanations, and calmly went to see Sun Shida. "Brother, it's too shameful!" Sun Shida taught him a lesson as soon as he met, "Since you claim to repay, why don't you pay the price you owe him? Hurry up and settle it! Don't embarrass yourself."

"Responding to your lord's words," Li Guangzhao replied calmly, "I have already prepared the price, and I can pay at any time. It's just that I can't pay! Why? Because the size of the wood plant does not match the original proposal. Dare to do it hastily. I ask your lord to send a note to the American Consul, to order Qichang Foreign Company to hand over the original size slip, and you can understand it at a glance." "Bill?" Sun Shida was also in charge of foreign affairs and knew the rules of trading with foreign merchants. After thinking for a while, he asked, "Each party holds a copy of the bill. How about yours?"

"Mine is here." Li Guangzhao took out a piece of paper from the boot leaf, and presented it with both hands respectfully. "Is it a copy?" "Yes." Li Guangzhao replied, "It was originally in foreign language, and I translated it for my own sake. Your lord will only understand after reading it." "Oh!" Sun Shida asked, "Do you know foreign language?" "Yes! I can speak and write." Hearing what he said, Sun Shida didn't dare to underestimate him, so he nodded in approval. So Li Guangzhao seized the opportunity and asked Sun Shida to lodge a complaint with the American consul, saying that the timber had been delayed for a long time, and foreign merchants must be strictly ordered to ship it to Beijing according to the size of the original order within a time limit, so that it could be delivered to the Old Summer Palace for use.

Sun Shida accepted his request and negotiated with the U.S. Consulate, asking them to transfer Qichang Foreign Bank to hand over the receipt.The foreign merchants who escorted him had never expected such a change, so naturally they didn't bring the contract with them, which made Li Guangzhao justified.The U.S. Consulate Office carefully studied the case and found that the main body of the trade was the French wood merchant Bowery, and Qichang Foreign Trade Co., Ltd. would not suffer much loss. That being the case, there was no need to negotiate with China for the benefit of France, so a very quick measure was taken. On the one hand, foreign businessmen were asked to lodge a complaint with the French consulate;

It was Dillon, the French consul, who sent a note to Tianjin Customs Road, explaining the facts of the case, and asked to "try to detain" Li Guangzhao, on the grounds that he was afraid that he would escape.Sun Shida was very helpful to Li Guangzhao, not only refused the French consul's request, but also copied a copy of the "receipt" sent by Li Guangzhao, and delivered it along with the reply photo, hoping for a "fair transaction". Dillon did not handle affairs peacefully like the U.S. Consular Office, and immediately issued a strongly worded note, saying, "This case was originally intended to be tried impartially, but according to Li Guangzhao's own words, I have prejudices in my mind, so we can only prosecute it separately. "Sun Shida was still defending Li Guangzhao, rebutting with reason, but the governor's yamen's foreign affairs copywriter knew about this, and he was quite worried, because according to Di Long's note, he was preparing to make representations to the prime minister's yamen.Regardless of right and wrong, for the sake of a businessman, Wan turned the local incident of the payment of two silver coins into a dispute between the two governments. What kind of Western affairs is this doing?

Therefore, the governor's yamen informed Sun Shida that there was no need to file a lawsuit, and he called the French consulate to discuss and settle it peacefully.Sun Shida followed the order and brought the interpreter and the representative of the French Consular Office to sit face to face and negotiate.Helplessly, the two sides insisted on their own opinions. On the one hand, they said that the size of the wood was short, and on the other hand, they said that the size of the wood was in line with the contract. However, the contract was in Fuzhou, and there was no way to spread it out on the table for public evaluation, so no conclusion could be reached anyway.

The emperor didn't even know about these situations.Although Li Hongzhang was very dissatisfied with Li Guangzhao, it was the best policy for those who were in the way of the "imperial orders" and the Ministry of Internal Affairs to let him pay the price and transport the wood to Beijing. He went to do it, and he was able to hide the truth day by day.In this way, at the beginning of July, I finally could no longer hide it. There are two reasons why it cannot be concealed. One is that Li Guangzhao's behavior has become a big news outside the court, although it has not yet been heard by the heavens.This caused complaints about garden repairs. In addition to Li Zongxi, the governor of Liangjiang, who asked to stop the garden workers and secretly persuaded him not to do anything, Li Wentian, the Hanlin of Nanshufang, also had a verbal conflict with Baojun.

Li Wentian was originally released from Jiangxi Xuezheng, and his three-year term expired. He was supposed to "finish his support" and return to his hometown in Shunde, Guangdong to serve his mother. Because of the large-scale construction work in Beijing, he came to Beijing to return to his post, and he was still sent to the South Study Room.One day when I met Bao Jun, Li Wentian blamed him for not being able to rescue him in time. From that point of view, Bao Jun was Li Wentian's senior. You can speak. Why blame the military plane?" "That's right!" Li Wentian also pushed forward: "This is exactly how it is here, so please help me!" After breaking up in this way, Li Wentian gave a memorial the next day, using the "natural disaster" of the comet, and speaking of "human harm", he had a very severe attack on the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the eunuchs, quoting from "The Great Learning" The words, "A minister who collects money is not as good as a minister who steals" refers to "the ministers and workers of the husband and the house are all ministers who collect and steal ministers"; , to enrich his family"; its "self-made plan, what is the benefit to the emperor?" In this way of citing scriptures and writing down, the conclusion is naturally to ask the gardeners to stop.The emperor read it, learned from Shenzong's method, neither accepted it nor added any crimes, and threw the original book away.However, Li Wentian still imitated the meaning of "burning remonstrance grass" by the ancients. When someone asked him, he only said "burn the bottom and burn it".But Pan Zuyin, who was also in the South Study Room, knew about it, and he spread the word, and quite a few people thought about it, and were ready to follow suit and remonstrate directly.Li Hongzhang paid great attention to the discussion on the Qing Dynasty in Beijing. Knowing about this situation, he thought that bringing out the case of Li Guangzhao would be a good response. Everyone worked together to write a lively article, which might harden the interest of the emperor and Empress Dowager Cixi. pressed down. Another reason is that when the new Tong Yongdao Yingliang asked to be trained out of Beijing, the emperor told Li Hongzhang to send Mu Zhi, whom Li Guangzhao had served, to Beijing as soon as possible.At the beginning, it was ordered to inspect and accept, because Li Guangzhao had not paid the price, so there was no way to inspect and accept, so it became an unsolved case. Therefore, Li Hongzhang ordered the copywriter to make a fairly detailed memorial, summarizing Li Guangzhao's disputes with foreign businessmen and the process of negotiating with the US and French consular offices, adding this comment: "Li Guangzhao's internal affairs The government claimed that the purchase and transportation of foreign wood was worth 300,000 taels of silver, but the price of the wood has gone up too much, and the silver taels have not been paid at all, so where is the so-called rewarder?" Just such a sharp accusation made the emperor furious. After summoning Chunyou to open the vacancy, Guibao, the former Rentang doctor who had been promoted to minister of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, denounced him severely.At the same time, two edicts were issued, one to the cabinet, which was to "send the edict clearly", saying that Li Guangzhao "acted recklessly, deceived the imperial court, and was extremely lawless. He was dismissed first and handed over to Li Hongzhang for strict investigation and punishment as usual. All Li Guangzhao did his best. The case of Muzhi will be canceled immediately." Another message to the Minister of Military Affairs was to repost Li Hongzhang's "Tingzhi", because the original replay said that Li Guangzhao "swaggered outside and spoke carelessly". Recruitment? It may be the emperor and the empress dowager. This has more to do with the dignity of the court, so with the procedure of issuing a secret decree, "Li Hongzhang will investigate exactly, and handle it strictly according to the law, without any frivolity. " But even the previous "revealing the imperial decree" has already made people laugh, but there are different opinions. Some people say that the emperor is young or not, which seems to be full of loopholes, which is like a child's play, and they will believe it.As a result, "Tianwei", who had already been harmed because of his unauthorized use of microservices and his involvement in Pingkang, suffered a lot.Some blamed the Minister of Military Aircraft. Such a case has been allowed to evolve to this day, almost causing foreign-related disputes.Of course, these ridicules are all out of a very sad mood, thinking that in the long run, the three major martial arts of Ping Hongyang, Ping Nian, and Pinghui Chao, which have been spent in hard work for more than ten years, will be destroyed. In the hands of the current emperor. So King Chun was the first to hold back, and first consulted his group of imperial ministers for their opinions.There were five imperial ministers in total, all of whom were top-notch relatives and important ministers. The leader was King Dun, followed by King Chun, Boyan Mogu, Jing Shou, and Belle Yikuang with the title of county king. "Fifth Brother," Chun Wang said excitedly, "We have to stop talking. If this is the case, we will all be sinners of the Qing Dynasty in the future!" "Difficult!" King Dun shook his head and said, "If you say it lightly, it won't work; if you say it too seriously, I'm afraid the emperor will not wish it." Shou asked, "What do you two say?" These two people have different temperaments, one is taciturn and always hides his emotions and anger, the other has a problem of being impatient with sitting for a long time, and keeps wandering around the house, moving and standing still, which is very different, but at this time he is a quiet six Prince Consort Jingshou opened his mouth. "We have to talk to Liu Ye, right?" He said, "It's better to list the masters together, it will be more powerful." "Yes!" King Dun agreed, "It's like a family. If the young master doesn't learn well, don't disturb outsiders. The stewards, accountants, and teachers in his own family will first persuade them. The master will look at the people around him. It’s all here, so I can’t help but show some face.” Although the words are vulgar, the analogy is still appropriate, Chun Wang nodded in agreement.At that time, he went to see Prince Gong, and he agreed without hesitation, so he invited Wenxiang, Baojun, Shen Guifen, and Li Hongzao, and agreed on what to say, a total of six proposals, and recommended Yikuang to draft and Li Hongzao to polish. At that time, Weng Tong and his mother's mourning clothes were full, and they returned to Beijing from Changshu to sell their holidays. They were still sent to walk in the Hongde Hall.He was very strange in his heart, Wang Qingqi was the "culprit", and he was listed as an admonition, isn't it a joke? Sure enough, it changed the next day.King Gong and others also thought of Wang Qingqi, but it was inconvenient to single him out, so they decided to be led by King Dun, and the five imperial fronts and the five armies would be combined.These ten people are not the emperor's uncles, but Jiao Fangchang's relatives, so there is no need to be tactful in the wording, but the emphasis is on heartfelt, frank and blunt at the beginning: "When this soldier is in trouble, people's thoughts have been governed for a long time! All the subjects of Bohai look up to the emperor. Pro-government, sharing peace, and achieving the rule of ZTE. Since the 12th year of the Tongzhi Emperor's personal administration, the internal and external ministers have developed a sense of work, and they have worked together to forge ahead. Now it has been more than a year, and it is gradually slackening. , always look at the court Taiyan, the work is too complicated, admonitions and suggestions are discussed and implemented, and the budget is scarce, and it is still used endlessly, so the straight people are depressed, the mediocre and cowardly remain prosperous, and the wind is decadent. , day by day. At this time when the western frontier is not settled, Fang Yin is insulted by foreign countries, and he is dealing with it with the lack of vigor. I am afraid that there will be too many harms, and the disease is beyond words! I wait for the day to serve the left and right, and I dare not keep silent. , I will summarize the most important ones, and list them in the following; as for the meanings that cannot be fully expressed, I will present them in detail." "Mian Chen" means King Gong, King Chun and Wen Xiang. Because there are many words, it is inconvenient to express them in pen and ink, but even so, the memorial has already "speakers dare not speak". "Relationship is the most important", there are a total of six paragraphs, the first one is "fear of fate", with the appearance of a comet, astronomical warning, it is said that "foreigners from all over the world are entrenched in the capital, and their confidantes are in trouble; Suffering from unforeseen events." Advised the emperor to "always seek awe and reverence, and make extra efforts in the deep palace to avoid disasters and accidents." The second is "following the ancestral system". It is said that there are routines when dealing with affairs in the dynasty.There are a lot of overtones here, and the next section, "Caution in Words and Actions", is quite blatant: "The emperor is admired by the people all over the world. Although the words and actions are small, you must not be careless. It is rumored that the emperor is waiting at the gate of the palace with the eunuchs." Taking pleasure in singing, besides, there are a lot of rumors. Fortunately, I drove the Old Summer Palace to inspect the project several times, and it was said that the emperor took this opportunity to enjoy the tour. The ministers and others knew that there must be nothing wrong, but they must not be afraid of people's words. I even summoned the ministers Work, dignified manners should be serious, speech should be appropriate, not lightly, for those who are like this, I hope the emperor will always pay attention." This one is for micro-traveling.The second half refers to Wang Qingqi, outsiders will not understand, they believe that the emperor will understand the deep meaning. There are three more paragraphs below, among which "Admonishment Chapter" and "Heavy Treasury Fund" are the focus of the whole memorial: "Chinese and foreign ministers and workers, big and small, submit seal memorials, which have always been sent to the Minister of Military Aircraft for review. Please order to handle it. Recently, it has been sealed Folded pieces are often kept in the middle and not released, and the gains and losses of political affairs are closely related. If there are loyal words and comments, they will be dismissed, and there will be a trend of rejecting advice? Later, when there is a seal, the emperor will still send it as usual. , A wide-ranging statement. The Ministry of Households’ money and food are the needs of the military and the country, and all entry and exit are customized. Recently, the inner court has too much work and a lot of money. Every time the Ministry of Internal Affairs borrows money from the Ministry of Households, it can provide infinite waste with countless money and food. ?The urgent thing to stop now is the garden work. In the tenth year of Fusi Xianfeng, Emperor Wen Zongxian visited Rehe from the Old Summer Palace. Up to now, all the subjects at home and abroad have said it with heartache. The empress dowagers and emperors of the two palaces have all witnessed the incident and read it And the situation on that day, how can you bear to return to its place? That is to say, in terms of engineering, it is about 10 to 20 million yuan. At this time, material resources are difficult, so how can we raise such a huge sum of money?May the performances of the emperor, generals and ministers be euphemistically presented in front of the empress dowagers of the two palaces.If the emperor obeys Yi's decree and stops the garden work immediately, the holiness of the empress dowagers of the two palaces and the filial piety of the emperor will both go beyond the ages! " Among the six pieces of advice, this one is the only one that also advises the Empress Dowager Cixi. The meaning should not be obscure, but it should not be clear.Finally, "Diligence in learning" is a companion pen. As long as the emperor can accept the first five items, he will study morality and study diligently, which is an inevitable thing.