Forty-eight years of Qianlong

Chapter 558 The Eunuch's Pain and Sorrow
After Xu Dayong met Ruan Yuan, the next person he wanted to meet was a eunuch named Li Qiucheng, but he waited for several days without seeing anyone.But he also knew that it was extremely difficult for the eunuchs in the palace to ask for leave, so this matter could not be bothered.

The reason why the Intelligence Bureau wants to develop this relationship is mainly because there is a special group of residents in Beihai Town - eunuchs.There are a total of 57 eunuchs exiled by the Qing government under the rule of Beihai Town. They were all exiled to Ningguta or Heilongjiang. .

The eunuchs who were exiled to the Northeast in the Qing Dynasty were convicted for many reasons.

For example, in the 48th year of Qianlong, a group of eunuchs fought for crabs in the ditch north of the Luoshi Tower in the Yuanmingyuan, and finally died; some stole things from the palace and sold them. For example, in the 34th year of Qianlong, the eunuch Zhou Jinchao stole the Buddha statues enshrined in the Longen Hall of Xiling; Beheaded, but his apprentice was implicated and exiled.

In addition, there were those who could not bear the inhuman treatment and escaped from the palace, and some were even exiled just because they showed dissatisfaction on their faces; Seeing another eunuch being punished, Yuanmingyuan was dissatisfied, and he was dissatisfied. As a result, Qianlong sent him to Heilongjiang to serve as a slave to a man in armor.

Among the group of ex-Qing eunuchs in Beihai Town, except for a very few who entered the civil affairs system like Lin Chunlai and became clerks, the other older ones were all arranged to be guarded in factories or schools after being screened by the public security police station. .

In order to take care of this special group, Beihai Town has spent a lot of energy over the years.

First of all, they are allowed to live in groups of households according to their own wishes, with three to four members in each household, and they are also given [-] mu of land.However, due to the physical disabilities of these people, the land allocated to them is entrusted by the administrative village where they live, and [-]% of the grain can be distributed after the autumn harvest.

The other is to treat them equally, and through repeated publicity in the community, reduce the rejection and discrimination of new and old immigrants; the most important point is not to call them "husbands".In the Qing Dynasty, the meaning of the word "husband" was different from that of later generations. It specifically referred to eunuchs, and it was a great insult, as serious as scolding a person's eight generations of ancestors.

In addition, Beihai Town also treated people in poor health, arranged for them to teach them to read and write, and enriched their lives by reading books and listening to the radio.We must know that the Qing Dynasty was different from the Ming Dynasty. The educational level of eunuchs was generally very low. Only a few people in this group were literate, but they were only able to roughly know a few characters. The emperor did not allow them to be proficient in writing and ink.

The problem is that a person's cultural level is too low will bring many negative effects to their mentality, such as a great sense of inferiority and humiliation, which will make them deeply think that they are inferior or even not human.

Since then, the more than 50 former eunuchs in Beihai Town have lived a new life that was unimaginable to them, and they were completely reborn.Most importantly, they regained their dignity as human beings, more than anything else.

You must know that eunuchs are extremely sensitive psychologically, and their emotions change very quickly, and it is easy to go from one extreme to another.Everyone in Beihai Town was grateful to Zhao Xin for treating them like this, and they were even more loyal to Zhao Xin than the 300 or so early naturalized people.So they all confessed their relationship in the capital one after another, hoping to be used by "King Zhao".

What can the eunuch's network have?Even if he used to be an eunuch in the Palace of Mental Cultivation before—running errands for the emperor every day, the kind that seemed to be beautiful, but now the downhill phoenix is ​​not as good as a chicken.The relationships they can provide can only be eunuchs with good relationships in the past, as well as apprentices and godsons they once recognized in the palace.

But here comes the problem again.Eunuchs are a very lonely group because they have experienced physical pain, suffered spiritual discrimination, and ruthlessly oppressed and exploited by their masters and even their superiors.However, poor people must have something to hate, which brings about extreme selfishness, and it is difficult to have any true friends.

In addition, within the group of eunuchs, there is a hierarchical system of superiors and subordinates like a pyramid, just like a daughter-in-law who has been a wife for many years; eunuchs with high status can suppress and bully eunuchs with lower status than themselves, and older eunuchs can also bully older eunuchs. I am a young and inexperienced eunuch.Even if the little eunuch didn't make any mistakes, as long as he didn't like it, he would bully the newcomers in every possible way, and even beat them to death.

So the fact is that among the 57 people who were popular in the palace back then, there were not many who were not hated by others.

Even so, after repeated analysis, the North Navy Intelligence Bureau finally selected eight candidates for development from the list provided by the former eunuchs, and Li Qiucheng was one of them.

This person is the apprentice of Zhang Yinliang, the former eunuch of the construction office mentioned earlier, and is currently the deputy chief eunuch of the respect room, and the sixth-rank palace supervisor.Both of them are from Hejian, Zhili, and the Ziya River is across from their hometown.

The Respect Room is an institution affiliated to the Ministry of Internal Affairs. It is responsible for obeying orders, undertaking internal affairs and etiquette, collecting money and grain from external treasuries, screening and replacing internal prisons, and inspecting the opening and closing of various doors and the closing of fires and candles.Many people think that in the Forbidden City, the eunuch in charge of the Palace of Heavenly Purity and the Rehearsal Office has great power, but they don’t know that the eunuch in charge of the Respect Room is actually more powerful, and he is in charge of all the affairs of the eunuchs and maids in the Forbidden City; I have to go to the respect room to face the board.

At the beginning, the treasurer Dong of "Huang Shengtai" finally let Li Qiucheng meet him with a gift of [-] acres of irrigated land in Hejian Mansion.But Li Qiucheng originally thought that shopkeeper Dong wanted to be a "businessman" of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, so he followed his path.

For example, the eggs Qianlong ate cost 10 taels of silver each, and the price in the outside market was three Wen each.

After receiving such a generous gift, Li Qiucheng ordered some small purchases to be handed over to "Huang Shengtai". It's a steady stream.More than a year passed like this, during which "Huang Shengtai" did not do much business, but Deputy Manager Li had already received more than 3000 taels of silver from the shopkeeper Dong.

Shopkeeper Dong was all about wooing him, but Li Qiucheng was soft on collecting the money. At the end of last year, the two actually burned yellow paper and chopped off the chicken's head to worship him.By this time, the two had already talked about everything, and shopkeeper Dong had also heard a lot of secrets from the palace.

Seeing that the time was ripe and approved by the Intelligence Bureau, shopkeeper Dong took out Zhang Yinliang's personal letter.Only then did Li Qiucheng realize that he had boarded the "thief ship" in Beihai Town, and there was no way he could escape if he tried to escape.

But when he read the letter and listened to Shopkeeper Dong's description of Beihai Town, Li Qiucheng was stunned.If he hadn't seen the photo taken by Zhang Yinliang smiling and standing in his small courtyard, he wouldn't have believed it even if he was killed.

Well, at this point, it's time to negotiate terms.

Deputy Director Li's wish is to become the chief executive in the "Xin Dynasty"—that is, to be at the same level as the chief eunuch of the respect room in the Qing Dynasty. At the same time, he needs the endorsement of His Royal Highness Zhao Wang, that is, a personal letter.The full name of the eunuch in charge of the respect room in the Qing Palace is "Palace Supervision Leader", who is in charge of all the eunuchs and maids, with a rank of fourth rank.

Shopkeeper Dong almost laughed his teeth out when he heard this, but he still held back and told his sworn brother with a serious face that he would definitely convey it to King Zhao.

When Zhao Xin learned about Li Qiucheng's conditions, he said yes, anyway, the Forbidden City will be converted into a museum in the future, if this person can be used, let him join the management committee in the future.So he repaired a letter, promised in his own hand that Vice President Li would be in charge of all the halls of the Forbidden City (in fact, the cultural management office), and stamped a newly engraved seal for Xu Dayong to bring.

On the [-]th day of the seventh lunar month, Xu Dayong, who had been waiting impatiently, finally met Li Qiucheng in the backyard of "Huang Shengtai".

This man was not tall, and he was wearing a maroon poplin robe, a waistcoat, and a melon cap.He has an ocher-yellow face, high cheekbones, slightly elongated cheeks, big eyes, high nose bridge, thick lips, wide chin, and a simple and honest look.

As soon as we finished our greetings, Li Qiucheng whispered in a male duck voice: "I'm really sorry! I'm really sorry! Li finally found an excuse to ask for leave, and he has to go back in an hour. Mr. Xu , Master Zhang, is he alright?"

Xu Dayong often saw those former eunuchs in Beihai Town, and had chatted with Zhang Yinliang several times before coming here, so he was not uncomfortable with Li Qiucheng's voice, and said with a smile: "Uncle Zhang is in good health! Before I come I also went to see him, and I heard that this time I came to see Mr. Li, and he told me a lot about your childhood!"

Li Qiucheng was stunned for a moment. He stared at Xu Dayong for a long time, looked up and down, and asked with an expression of disbelief on his face, "You call Master Zhang uncle? Do you call me sir?"

"Yeah, he's over 60, shouldn't he be called uncle? Is it offensive to call you Mr. Li?"

After Li Qiucheng heard this, the circles of his eyes gradually turned red, and then tears fell, and he began to cry.

He is used to serving people in the palace, and observing words and emotions has become an instinct for survival. Usually doing errands is like walking a tightrope.If it weren't for these two brushes, he wouldn't have climbed up to the position of deputy chief eunuch of the respect room.

He knew that Xu Dayong came from Beihai Town, and with the letter written by His Royal Highness Zhao Wang, it was impossible for him to please himself with such a low profile.However, from the expression and voice of the other party just now, he didn't feel a trace of discrimination, but a kind of equal treatment between people.

You must know that eunuchs generally have low self-esteem, long-term oppression and enslavement, and day-to-day cycle of labor, which makes the eunuchs who have been in the palace for a long time have lost their good hopes for life.Instead, they present a decadent mentality of depression and numbness, and step by step fall into the endless cycle of decadence-inferiority-more decadence-more inferiority, and gradually become self-denial and self-contempt.

Xu Dayong and shopkeeper Dong looked at each other in blank dismay, thinking they said something wrong just now, why is this one still crying?

Li Qiucheng cried for a while, took out a handkerchief from his sleeve and wiped it, and said in a crying tone: "Master Xu laughed! I have lived all these years, and this is the first time someone calls me 'Mr. We people are all slaves living in the dust. When the masters are happy, they call us by nicknames or nicknames, and when they are unhappy, they beat us in a mess, killing eight boards and burying them in a bag. Don't worry about it. I have been in the palace all these years, let me say something bad, if you want to live, you have to stop treating yourself as a human being."

After hearing this, Xu Dayong and Shopkeeper Dong breathed a sigh of relief unconsciously, and said to themselves, well, it turned out to be like this.

"Mr. Li, Beihai Town is different from the Qing Dynasty. We have no masters or slaves, and there are no slaves." Xu Dayong straightened his words and continued: "King Zhao said from the beginning that everyone in the world should We are equal. We have beggars from Henan, Danhu from Guangdong, and of course there are people like you. Take me for example. I used to be a pirate. Since I followed Zhao Wang, I have changed way of life."

Li Qiucheng wiped away his tears, nodded and said: "Master, the old man has suffered a lot in the past few years. As an apprentice, I can't help anything. Every night, my heart is like a knife. Fortunately, King Zhao came from the sky. , Master is living a fairy life now, I can finally feel at ease."

Seeing that he was almost crying, Xu Dayong took out Zhao Xin's handwritten letter from his arms and handed it over.Li Qiucheng got up hastily, took it with trembling hands, bowed three times towards the northeast, and then pulled out the letter and read it.

He looked very carefully, and even looked at Zhao Xin's seal for a long time.Fortunately, the sentences written by Zhao Xin are very straightforward, and Li Qiucheng is easy to understand without using those literary words.

After reading the letter, Li Qiucheng calmed down. He looked up at the roof, rolled his eyes a few times, and a strange smile flashed across his face. Then he lowered his head and said to Xu Dayong: "Master Xu, Zhao The king wants me to be an internal response to take care of the palace and gardens when Master Wang enters the capital. If this matter is to be done well, I am afraid that I will not be able to support it alone."

"You might as well speak up if you have something to say."

"For this matter, it is absolutely impossible to have no one to help you in the palace, but if you want someone to help you, it will be difficult to move an inch without money."

"How much do you need?"

Li Qiucheng suddenly changed the subject and said, "I heard from my brother that anyone from Beihai Town will be given land?"

"Yes, a family of [-] mu. After a year, one mu of land can harvest three to four hundred catties of grain."

Li Qiucheng made a calculation in his mind, and his eyes lit up immediately.Fifty mu of land can produce [-] catties of grain, and his [-] mu of irrigated land can only produce [-] to [-] catties of grain, and the weather must be good!
"Then can you, can you also give me fifty acres?"

"Haha, Mr. Li, even though we haven't entered the customs yet, the territory under King Zhao's command is larger than that of the Qing Dynasty, and the fertile and fertile fields are more than ten thousand miles! Fifty acres is no problem."

Li Qiucheng patted the armrest of the grand teacher's chair and said, "Master Xu is happy! That's it, two thousand acres of irrigated land, 5 taels of silver, I will find someone in the palace and garden!"

Xu Dayong almost slipped out of the chair, this one really dares to ask for it.fifty thousand?He had a total of [-] silver bills with him, which was troublesome!

　Historically, for a long period of time in the Jiaqing Dynasty, because the post of minister of the Ministry of Internal Affairs was not concurrently held by an important minister of the court, the monitoring of eunuchs was greatly reduced.In the era when He Shen was also the minister of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, this person had the strictest control over eunuchs in the Qing Dynasty, and all the eunuchs in charge obeyed him, and they were terrified to death.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)