Qing Dynasty Secret History

Chapter 115 Mrs. Bo of the Hall of Renshou Enters the Court of Compassion and Ning Gong Miss Yu Resigns
It is said that Mrs. Yu waited for a three-shoulder sedan chair and left the Summer Palace to go home.Because I stood all day, I was extremely tired, so I went home to rest.Unexpectedly, when they arrived at home, the family members greeted the newspaper and said: "The queen mother sent someone to send four bolts of tribute satin for each person, a total of twelve bolts. The angel has been waiting for a long time!"

Mrs. Yu was so amazed that she hurriedly got off the sedan chair and entered the hall.

I saw six eunuchs waiting there with gifts.Mrs. Yu hurriedly took the gift with her own hands, offered it in the middle, and kowtowed to thank her.Said to the eunuch: "The angel played Lafayette, our mother was so kind, and she was rewarded with satin again. I am so grateful that I can't say anything!"

Then he took out twelve letters and six letters of silver and gave them to the six angels.The eunuch took the money, thanked him, and went happily.

When Mrs. Yu entered the room, she saw Yu Geng's illness, but it was just a cold from the fatigue of the boat, and there was nothing serious about it.Then he told about the situation of the audience and the summoning of the Queen Mother into the palace.

Yu Geng said: "Heaven's grace is so great, you just go to the palace, I don't care.

Mrs. Yu said: "Although Yi's decree is difficult to disobey, I always miss you, what can I do?" "

Yu Geng said: "After all, the road is not far away. If there is anything wrong, I will tell you."

Two days later, Mrs. Yu waited and went to the palace.Once in the palace, there were three mothers, and they met the queen mother.First of all, I would like to thank you for the gift of the day before yesterday.The Empress Dowager said: "I'm very busy today. The Russian envoy's wife, Brankang, is coming to see her. She came back with a video of the Russian Emperor's family, which is a gift from the Russian Emperor. Deling, I want to ask you, do you know the Russian emperor?" Can't you?"

De Ling replied that he could not speak, and said that many Russians could speak French.The queen mother was very happy when she heard this.

Turning back to Yi Gongju, "Why don't you speak Russian? I don't understand anyway.

After hearing this, the family member blushed and said nothing. Seeing that Mrs. Yu and others were wearing short skirts, the queen mother was about to ask. Mrs. Yu said: "I didn't know that the Russian envoy's wife was going to have an audience, so they all wore short skirts."Now it's time to replace it. "

The queen mother said: "Why do you need to change your clothes? I see that you are wearing a long coat, which looks like a tail. Compared with the current one, it looks much better.

It's your first time entering the palace, I am very funny. "

De Ling was about to explain why, the Empress Dowager said: "Wearing long clothes, I want to compare with short clothes, a little more dignified, isn't it?"

Deling replied: "It's just like an oracle!"

The queen mother said: "You quickly change the beauties."

Mrs. Yu followed the order and left.It changed in an instant, came slowly, and walked like spring clouds coming out of Xiu.

Deling and Longling are both wearing water-red crepe coats, decorated with Prussian ribbons.Mrs. Yu is wearing a gray-white crepe jacket with black roses embroidered on it, and the collar and belt are slightly gray-blue.When the queen mother saw it, she blurted out, "It's really three fairies with long tails.

Then he asked, "You take your clothes and walk, are you tired?"The costume is really beautiful, but I don't like the tail.Clothes have tails, the most careless.I know that when foreigners see you dressed like this, I always mean it.In fact, I just want outsiders to see your suits, so that they know that I am not at a loss in this way.I dare say that the clothes worn by the Xifu here have never been as beautiful as yours.I also don't believe that Westerners are as rich as Chinese, because they wear very little jewelry.Someone told me that I am the one with the most jewels among the kings and queens of the world.I still collect it regularly. "

As he said that, he showed the bright pearl hanging from the button of his clothes to Mrs. Yu and said, "It seems that a foreigner may not be able to take out such a big pearl!"

When Mrs. Yu waited to see the bead, it was as big as a chicken and shone brightly. It was indeed a priceless treasure.Mrs. Yu waited a few words of praise.At this time, the Empress Dowager was wearing a yellow satin coat, embroidered with the Chinese characters of hollyhock and decorated with gold trim.Both hands are covered with gloves, rings, gold finger guards and other things.

Hearing anxiously, "clang goes off", the bell rang eleven times, and the eunuch reported that Mrs. Brancom had arrived.The Empress Dowager said: "Long Ling, hurry up to the court room to meet her. De Ling, let's go to the Hall of Renshou!"

Long Ling followed suit, and the Empress Dowager went to the Hall of Renshou and was promoted to sit in the Nuan Pavilion.Dezong also arrived.The Empress Dowager sits in the middle, Dezong sits on the left, and De Ling stands on the right as an interpreter.For a while, Long Ling led Mrs. Brancom in, and went to the warm pavilion to pay respects to the Queen Mother.De Ling went down and led him into the Nuan Pavilion.The Empress Dowager shook hands with her, and Mrs. Brancom presented the film presented by the Russian Emperor.The Empress Dowager thanked her with a smile. The wording was very good. Deling translated it into French, and Mrs. Blanche was very satisfied.The queen mother said: "De Ling, you lead her to meet the Lord Long Live."

Deling obeys the order.Dezong had already stood up, shook hands with Mrs. Brankang, and greeted the Russian Emperor.After the audience ceremony, the Empress Dowager got down from her seat, led Mrs. Brancom into the bedroom, gave her to sit down, and talked with each other.

After talking for more than ten minutes, De Ling led her to see the queen again.

The eunuch issued a Chuanyi decree and gave Mrs. Bo a lunch in the palace.De Ling led the guests into the dining room, and saw that the table was covered with a clean white tablecloth.In addition to the common utensils on the table, there are golden dragon table trays, flat peach-shaped plates filled with almonds and melon seeds, and other than chopsticks, there are also knives and forks.De Ling asked the eunuch: "Is there a full banquet or a Chinese banquet for the banquet today?"

The eunuch said: "Lafayette ordered the table to be full."

It turns out that everyone at the full table has a special dish, which is almost a big meal for Westerners.Immediately the host and guest sat down, and the eunuch brought in dishes, nothing more than shark fin and bird's nest pudding.All the family members, Fujin, accompanied Mrs. Bo, eating half a prescription, when suddenly an eunuch came in and said, "Lafayette summoned Miss Deling."

De Ling was taken aback, and thought that the eunuchs were talking in front of the Queen Mother, but had no choice but to follow.Unexpectedly, the Empress Dowager said with a smile on her face: "I thought of something to ask you, foreign women who came to the palace have never seen such a dignified and beautiful lady like Mrs. Brancom. There are a few women with very bad manners. But I don't want to talk about her. They always think that we are Chinese and know nothing, and look down on us very much. But I don't know that I pay attention to these places.

They claim to be highly educated and culturally beautiful, such behavior is undeniable!They often say that we are barbaric, I think our barbarism is much better than their civilization!

After talking for a long time, he took out a piece of extremely beautiful green precious jade and asked De Ling to give it to Mrs. Brankang. De Ling took the treasure and sent it to the Queen Mother for her kindness. Mrs. Bo accepted it, and she wanted to see the Queen Mother to thank her. She came in, sat down for a while, got up and said goodbye.

De Ling sent her out of the court hall and waited for Mrs. Bo to get into the sedan chair before she came back and played the Queen Mother.

What did the Queen Mother ask Mrs. Brancom about?I gave her the precious jade, is she happy or not?Is she used to our full dishes?Deling played back one by one according to the truth.The queen mother said: "De Ling, your translation is really good! The foreign language you speak is crisp and proficient.

Although I don't know Spanish, I know how to be as tactful as you.I don't know how you learned it.From now on, I will never ask you to leave my side.Sometimes Xifu brought a translator into the palace, and I didn't understand the translator's Chinese, so I always guessed it with meaning.

Now that I have you, I have a lot more convenience.I am very happy.In this life, I will never ask you to leave me for a moment.I still want to arrange a marriage for you, but I don't want to tell you right now, you will know later. "

After talking for a while, he said again: "Today, there are too many things to do. I'm tired. Go and have a rest!"

De Ling followed the order, said good night, and went back to her room.There are four large rooms in total, one hall room, three of which are occupied by three wives, and the fourth room is occupied by servants.The queen mother was afraid that they would not know the way, so she asked an eunuch to accompany them on the walk.

The eunuch claimed that his surname was Li, and said that the Queen Mother specially sent four young eunuchs to serve the lady.

If they don't obey, just let me know and I'll punish them.After walking for a while, I arrived at the room.

Eunuch Li pointed to the house on the east side and said, "This is the Empress Dowager's bedroom, that's where we came from."

Deling said: "Strange, since the distance is so close, why is it so far away on foot?"

Eunuch Li said: "This room is slightly smaller. On the left side of the Long Live Lord's bedroom, there was a road from here to the Lafayette's bedroom, but it has been cut off by the Lafayette. I can't tell you why."

After a pause, he said again: "Miss San, should this house face east or not face the lake?"

Deling said: "The scenery of Mianhu Lake is very beautiful, I am very happy."

Eunuch Li smiled and said: "After a while, you will naturally hear the news, and you will naturally know that this place is not good."

Deling was surprised when he heard this.Eunuch Li said: "Long Live Lord's bedroom is just behind where we live. It is very big, similar to Lafayette's bedroom. From here, you can see the trees in the courtyard."

Eunuch Li pointed to a house behind Dezong's palace and said: "This is the queen's palace, and the two houses next to the palace are the palaces of the imperial concubine. There are roads connecting these two palaces, but Lafayette closed them. Therefore, the empress cannot come and go without passing by the empress dowager."

Deling was very surprised when he heard this.It turned out that the queen was the niece of the empress dowager, and the empress dowager needed her niece to be the empress of Degong because she was born in the West Palace.Married the queen over, but Dezong didn't want Dezong to focus on the concubine Zhen. The queen's place was just perfunctory for the empress dowager's face.

One day, for some reason, the couple quarreled, and Dezong's relatives grabbed the queen's hair, took her hairpin and threw it into pieces.This hairpin is a relic of the Qianlong Dynasty. The queen went to the empress dowager to complain, but the empress dowager didn't say anything, she just asked to block this path.From then on, the emperor and empress will not be free when they come and go.At that moment, De Ling said to Eunuch Li: "I'm very tired, I really want to rest!"

Mrs. Li listened, and then left.

De Ling entered his room, just sat down, and several eunuchs brought dinner.

It is said that it was sent by the queen mother, so you must not be guests, eat whatever you like.The three of them took some ideas, and then unloaded and went to bed.Just about to go to bed, Eunuch Li came again and told him: "Ladies and gentlemen, according to the rules in the palace, one has to get up at five o'clock in the morning, so you can't do it."

He also told the little eunuch to knock on the window in the morning.It's the place where I was born, but I can't sleep well. My mother tossed and turned three times, and couldn't sleep again.When he fell asleep, he was awakened suddenly by the sound of knocking on the window, and asked him what was the matter?The eunuch said: "Miss Hui, it's five o'clock."

When De Ling heard about it, she quickly got up and dressed, and asked the eunuch to open the window.When I looked at it, the sun had not yet risen, and the deep red in the sky was reflected in the lake. The lake was calm and everything was silent.It is very beautiful to see all kinds of peonies on the Peony Mountain, swaying in the wind.

At this time, Mrs. Yu and Long Ling were also fully dressed.So they went to the Empress Dowager's dormitory together, and saw that the empress, concubine and all the family members were already sitting in the porch.The three mothers and the queen said good morning and talked a few words of entertainment.The queen stood up and said, "It's time, let's go in!"

The public followed in.At the gate of the bedroom, I met King Qing's Si Gege and Grandma Yuan, the empress dowager's nephew, who were busy preparing for the empress dowager.The queen said: "Go in quickly and help the queen mother dress."

Mrs. Yu and others entered the bedroom, and saw the Queen Mother lying in bed with her clothes wrapped around her quilt, she hurriedly shouted: "Auspicious ancestor!"

The Empress Dowager asked with a smile: "Where you were born and fell asleep at night, are you comfortable?"

Mrs. Yu was very comfortable waiting for the reply.

The Queen Mother said: "Have you had breakfast?"

There is no answer, the queen mother heard about it, and immediately reprimanded eunuch Li, why didn't she send the court meal? "

Then he said, "Don't be guests, tell them what you want."

As he spoke, he sat up and got dressed.Although the Empress Dowager slept with her clothes on, she had to change her clothes every day. When she finished her clothes, she got out of bed and put on her slippers, and went to the window to freshen up.The Queen Mother smiled and said to Mrs. Yu: "My bed-ridden, I really don't want the maids and eunuchs to make it up, because they are too dirty, I always ask the palace family to do it."

Speaking of this, looking back at Sister Deling, she said: "Don't say that the palace family members are working as lowly slaves. You must know that at my age, you can also act as your grandmother. If you have a little service, what's the problem? Besides, when you are on duty, it's just calling you Surveillance for a while, someone else did it, and you don't want to do it yourself."

Sister Deling, repeated yes.

The Empress Dowager said: "De Ling, I need your help in many things. I will ask you to be the leader of the palace. If Xi Fu comes to see you, you can be my interpreter. Everything will be arranged by you. And my jewels, too. I want you to be in charge. You don't have to take care of the heavy things.

As for Long Ling, choose a job that she can take care of and ask her to take care of it.Si Gege, Grandma Yuan, and your two sisters, there are four people in total, all matters can be negotiated and handled.As for you, you don't have to be overly modest about them.They treat you rudely, just let me know.

"De Ling smiled and said: "The kindness of the old ancestor rewarded me with such an important ear defect, but I am young and have limited knowledge. If something goes wrong in a short time, wouldn't it be a disappointment to the kindness?"I beg you to take back your life, and I am willing to retire to the end of the palace family, to be diligent and diligent, and to learn how to do things! "

The queen mother didn't wait for her to finish, and said with a smile: "Stop talking, why are you so humble? Even at this point, you can be seen to be smart and intelligent. Among the banner women, there is someone as perfect as you, sincerely I am surprised! Although you have not been in this country for a long time, you still understand this kind of small details. You are so smart! Now I ask you to do it, and you try it. If you don’t do it well, I will scold you , and ask her to replace you."

De Ling Xie En was appointed, and watched the eunuchs finishing making up, and saw that the Queen Mother was still combing her hair.The hair bun in the palace, divided into two, is called the fork head.The one that hangs down at the back is called the swallowtail. Because the Queen Mother likes to have a high bun, she combs it very tall.Later generations have a poem saying: the phoenix bun and the clouds are in harmony, and the pearly hairpin shadow protects the grub.

The city is much higher than a ruler, and the fork is evenly divided and the swallowtail is lower.

After grooming, the queen mother led Deling to the jewelry room and showed her where the jewelry was.In this room, there are shelves on three sides, and the shelves are full of sandalwood boxes, with yellow labels on each box, writing what is hidden.The queen mother pointed to a row of boxes on the right and said: "The jewels in this box are all my daily needs. I will show you one by one when I am free. There are more than 3000 boxes here, and the rest are hidden in another room. I want to show you."

Deling agreed.The queen mother said: "It's a pity that you can't read! Otherwise, I will give you the list of things for your endorsement."

De Ling was amazed when he heard the words, and replied: "Although I am not a scholar, I can learn to read and write. If you give me a list of things, I can try to learn."

The queen mother said: "It's very strange. On the first day you came, someone told me that you couldn't read a word! But whoever told me, I forgot. If you have time in the afternoon, I will give you the list. You and Get me the five boxes in the first row!"

Deling got it according to the order.The queen mother opened the first box, which contained a beautiful peony flower, which was made of coral and precious jade. The petals were made of coral, and the flowers and leaves were made of precious jade. Another box was opened, and it contained a butterfly, which was the Queen Mother's idea, and it was also successfully linked with coral gemstones.The other two boxes are nothing more than bracelets, rings, etc., in different shapes and exquisite.Two golden bracelets inlaid with pearls and two gold bracelets inlaid with precious jades, with gold chains tied at both ends, and precious jades hanging from the end of the chains.The last box contains pearl tassels.The Empress Dowager picked out a pair of quincunx-shaped ones and hung them on the buttons of her coat.After finishing dressing, Dezong came in in his formal attire and kowtowed to the Queen Mother: "My dear father is auspicious!"

When De Ling saw De Zong, he felt embarrassed. No one said that he should salute or not;Unexpectedly, the Empress Dowager also came out at this time, looking at De Ling, feeling very disapproved.Seeing De Ling, she regretted it a lot.

At this time, the little eunuch held several yellow boxes and placed them on the left-biased case.The queen mother sat down on the case, and the eunuch opened the yellow box, sealed the box with yellow paper, and presented it to the queen mother one by one.The Empress Dowager uncovered them with a dental knife and browsed them one by one, only to find out that they were seals written by ministers and workers.At this time, Dezong stood on the side of the case. The Queen Mother saw it and handed it to Dezong.Look, it is still in the yellow box.After reading the play, the chief eunuch knelt down and said: "The driver is ready."

So he boarded his horse and went up to court, and all the family members remained hidden behind the screen.De Ling peeked out and saw that the queen mother had finished taking care of the matter, so she looked back at Dezong and asked whether the move should be done, and Dezong should always say yes.Backing down, the Empress Dowager said, "I really want to take a walk!"

So he took off his headgear, put on small flowers, changed into light clothes, and led all his family members to walk slowly, enjoy the garden scenery, and talk with him as he went, feeling very happy.In an instant, I passed through a courtyard and came to a verandah. The corridor is near the lakeside, in the shape of a "Zigzag", which is extremely long. The whole corridor is exquisitely carved.There are electric lights hanging from the ceiling.From this corridor to the Foxiang Pavilion on Longevity Hill, there are not many roads.On that day, the abolished King Fujin entered the palace to wait on him, and Chang kissed the Empress Dowager, and climbed mountains to worship Buddha.There is a poem from later generations that sighed: "In front of the Qianbu Temple, you can visit Bicen by the side of the Buddha Fragrance Pavilion."

The long clothes hovered on the ground, and the relatives held the lucky gold.

At the end of the long corridor, there is a dry boat made of marble, which is very ingeniously carved, but unfortunately most of it has been damaged.After entering the dry boat, the Empress Dowager said: "Look at the stained glass on the window, and this beautiful picture, they were all destroyed by Western soldiers in the year of Gengzi. I don't want to repair it, so I keep it as a souvenir!"

The chief supervisor knelt and played, the royal boat was ready, would Lafayette want to board the boat for a tour?The queen mother said: "Let's cross the lake and go to the west bank to have dinner!"

So the masses boarded the boat.There are five boats in total, the empress dowager boat is the first, the empress boat is the second, the eunuch boat is the second, the maidservant boat is the palace maid boat, and the dining boat is the third.The sun is shining, the water is calm, and the lake view is very bright.

Crossing the Taihu Lake, abandoning the boat and taking a sedan chair, he went straight to the top of Longevity Mountain.When we arrived at Qingfeng Pavilion, we had dinner just now.After dinner, the Empress Dowager suddenly asked Deling: "Mrs. Brancom, what else can I say? Is she happy or not? Do you think foreigners love me? As far as I think, they may not always respect me, I'm afraid They are still thinking about the boxer incident in the Gengzi Year. As for the trouble, I don’t care about it because of my old-fashioned ways. But I don’t understand why China needs to use Western methods. I asked You, have Xi Fu ever told you that I have never described it as violent?"

Deling said: "No. Westerners have never said anything other than praise."

The Queen Mother smiled and said: "Westerners naturally say that when they see you. They say that your master is kind, but I want you to listen happily. After all, my knowledge is a little wider than yours, and now I can't worry about it anymore. But China I really hate being poor like this! Although the people around me often comfort me with the words that the great powers love China, I don’t really believe it, and I hope that China will have a strong one day!”

De Ling waited to comfort him with other words, and talked about other things again.The queen mother said: "De Ling, I have a new gadget, do you understand it after reading it?"

After leading her into a room, she saw a picture like a promotion picture spread on the square table.The queen mother sat down and said: "Look! If you don't understand, I will show you."

De Ling complied with the decree, and read as he watched: "The name of this play is Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea. The names of the Eight Immortals are Lu Xian, Zhang Xian, Zhong Xian, Lan Xian, Han Xian, and Tie Xian. The seven immortals are all male, and there is only one. The lotus fairy is a female. As far as the picture is drawn, it is also a map of China. There are also eight pairs of ivory poles, about an inch and a half in diameter, and about two and a half minutes thick. They bear the names of the Eight Immortals. This play can be performed by eight people, or four people Each holds two celestial beings, as eight people. In the picture, put a magnetic basin, throw six dice in it, and count the number of points. If four people play this, first roll the dice with one person, and count the number of points. , the one with the most points is 36. If anyone has 36 points, the immortal he is holding should go to Hangzhou to visit its scenery. For example, the person who holds Lu Xian has 36 points, and Lu Xian is placed in Hangzhou , toss again to see where it ranks as one immortal. Therefore, if there are four players, each person tosses twice. If there are eight people, each person tosses once. The points are different, and the places they go are also different. The method of counting , then choose the pair, from one pair to three pairs. The smallest point is double, one, two, two, three. If there is any one who wins the toss, he will be out of the game. In the picture of the fairy parade, he will go to the palace first. Whoever wins."

After De Ling finished reading, he looked at the Empress Dowager, wanting to know what the Empress Dowager was talking about, and let's listen to the next chapter to break it down.

(End of this chapter)