Forty-eight years of Qianlong

Chapter 726

When the panicked Yong Lang and Mian En were released from the dark cowhide pockets, their minds were in chaos, thinking that He Shen had taken them under the order of Qianlong.While they were in a daze, two of Heshen's minions groped in their arms, and soon found out a heavy kit.

The leader at the head took the kit, went to the table and took out something, and looked at it by the candlelight. They were two gold-plated waist plaques, with dragon heads carved on the top, and a dragon with its head up and its tail down on each side. The center is written in both Manchu and Chinese; one of the waist plaques is engraved with "Imperial Ci-Nine Gate Admiral Infantry Commander", and the other is engraved with "Imperial Ci-Presidential Minister of the Eight Banners Guarding the Barracks".In addition, a protruding "Ling" character is engraved on the back of the two waist cards, the surrounding depressions are filled with cinnabar, and the year and month are engraved in the lower left corner.

The trembling Prince Yi Yonglang hadn't figured out the whole thing yet, all he could think about was what crime he had committed to end up here.Could it be that his business with Beihai Town was discovered?But now which prince or minister does not get involved in the business of Anping Port?Aside from other things, if the ginseng and mink were transported to the capital, they could earn twice as much if they changed hands.

Or was it exposed that the matter of quietly sending someone to contact Beihai Town in the past few days?Oops, this is something to lose your head!
Don't look at this ninth iron-hat king in the Manchu Qing Dynasty, but facing the precarious status quo of the Qing Dynasty, he also has to think about himself.Even though the Gurkha Napo place is said to be like a paradise on earth in the mouth of the court, in fact, few people in the court are willing to go.

Just as he was thinking wildly, Mian En, who was beside him, realized something was wrong, and the back of his neck was sweating profusely.The faces of these men in armor didn't look like Manchus or Mongols at all, and from the soft whispers they heard before, Mian En noticed that they spoke with a southern accent.

These people are not Ouchi guards!
You must know that he is the eldest son and second grandson of Qianlong, and his father is the elder brother Yonghuang who has passed away. More than ten years ago, because of his elder brother Mian De, he was deprived of the title. Prince.Because Qianlong felt guilty for his elder brother who died young after being reprimanded by him, he actually regarded him as his eldest grandson.Moreover, Mian En has served as the Presidential Minister of the Eight Banners Guard Barracks for more than ten years since he became the prince, responsible for the important task of defending the capital.

Yesterday morning when he faced Sheng Sheng, the emperor was still talking and laughing, it is impossible to take him down without warning in a blink of an eye.Although Qianlong's words these days were a bit inconsistent, obviously old, but what happened just now did not conform to Qianlong's behavior style at all.What's more, if you want to punish yourself for your crime, you don't need to set up an ambush at all, and a decree can knock him down.

Reminiscent of the appearance of He Shen when he appeared at the gate of the palace just now, an inexplicable answer that frightened Mian En emerged from the bottom of his heart.I didn't expect, oh, I didn't expect that you and Shen, the most trusted white-faced treacherous ministers in the world, actually betrayed the emperor and conspired against Beihai Town!

He desperately squatted on his body, and slammed his shoulders into Yong Lang next to him, whining non-stop, trying to remind him.The problem is how can Yong Lang understand, he tilted his body after being hit, and fell to the ground, lamenting in his heart: "Nephew, we are all like this, can you stop making trouble?"

At the same time, in the main room of the small courtyard, He Shen put down the strong tea in his hand, took two waist badges from the leader of a dead soldier, looked at them over and over for a while, and nodded in satisfaction.This is the soldier talisman he has been obsessed with all this time. With these two pieces plus the "Emperor's Treasure" jade seal, he can mobilize all the soldiers and horses to guard the capital and the Old Summer Palace.

However, if He Shen wants to make his plan go smoothly, these alone are not enough.Now the sky is bright outside, and the Old Summer Palace has woken up again from a deep sleep, and what he has to do is at least control Jiuzhou Qingyan until today the palace gate is locked, absolutely not letting anyone in or out.And the other half of his success or failure this time depends on Liu Quan.

Time went back more than an hour ago.

When Liu Quan, who was guarding Gujiatun, saw the dumb eunuch, his heart shrank suddenly, and he paused a few times, as if he was anxious to jump out of his mouth.He took the waist card and the forged edict from the other party, checked it carefully, and read the letter written by He Shen from the beginning to the end twice before saying to the dumb eunuch solemnly: "Jinxiang, Go back and tell the master, I know what to do. Also, your parents, brother and nephew will follow, don't worry!"

The dumb eunuch showed gratitude, and he knelt down and kowtowed to Liu Quan.Seeing this, Liu Yin on the side hurriedly helped him up.

Liu Quan squeezed out a few tears, held the other person's hand and said, "Jinxiang, we are all one family, why should we be so polite! The master will entrust everything to you, you must take good care of him!"

The mute listened too much to Liu Quan's words, and the excited Abba Abba said a few words, patted his heart hard, and then said goodbye with fists in his hands.

When the people left, the house became audible.Liu Yin couldn't help but whispered: "Father, why didn't you say hello in advance? If this matter gets out, it will be punishable."

"Fart! Shut your crow's mouth!" Liu Quan glared at his son and said angrily, "It's useless to say anything now! We can only go one way! You go to prepare the car and go back to Shihu Garden immediately."

Liu Yin responded, walked to the door, turned around and asked, "Are you really planning to take Sun Jinxiang's family with you?"

"What nonsense are you talking about!" Liu Quan waved his hand impatiently, signaling him to hurry to prepare the car.

In Heshen's escape plan, this eunuch named Sun Jinxiang is a key figure.At the beginning, Heshen spread secrets in the palace and bribed many eunuchs, maids and guards. The purpose at the beginning was nothing more than to inquire about the news in order to please Qianlong.The reason why he took a fancy to Sun Jinxiang was that apart from the fact that he was dumb and able to keep secrets, another key was that he was a "skilled and brave eunuch" who often stood guard outside the palace at night.

In the last years of Kangxi, the struggle for the throne was fierce, and the princes made friends with Kangxi's close bodyguards and eunuchs one after another, and used them as their own eyes and ears.After Yongzheng entered Dabao, the first thing he did was to clean up the palace ban.In order to prevent changes in the elbow and armpit, he ordered the selection of eunuchs to practice martial arts and guard the palace. Since then, "skilled and brave eunuchs" have appeared in the Qing Palace.Since Qianlong, there were [-] skilled and brave eunuchs in the Qing Palace, who were responsible for guarding the Old Summer Palace and the Jizhou Palace.

By the way, in another time and space history, when the British and French allied forces burned and plundered the Old Summer Palace, all the princes and ministers including Xianfeng and the soldiers of the Eight Banners ran away to the Summer Resort. In the end, only a few dozen people in the Old Summer Palace could fight to the death The famous skilled and brave eunuch, Man Qing's face was really thrown to grandma's house.

Sun Jinxiang was not born deaf and dumb. When he was three years old, a high fever damaged the brain nerves, which made him deaf and dumb.Like other eunuchs, he was from a poor family in Hejian and had four older brothers.When he was seven years old, his father overheard someone say that even though the child was dumb, he might be able to make a living as an eunuch, so he gritted his teeth and borrowed a sum of money, and took him to Beijing to purify himself.

When he first entered the palace, he was just a servant of Sura doing odd jobs. After a long time, many people knew that he was dumb and kept secrets, so many eunuchs in the palace ordered him to run errands.In the 36th year of Qianlong, Prince Zhuang, who was in charge of the House of Internal Affairs, was ordered to select eunuchs to learn martial arts. 16-year-old Sun Jinxiang was selected because of his strong looks.Afterwards, he entered the Old Summer Palace and practiced rifles, shotguns, piercing guns, waist knives and cloth library with the coaches of Shanpu camp every day.After four or five years like this, only a dozen or so of the more than 100 eunuchs passed the assessment. Fortunately, he was assigned to be on duty in the Old Summer Palace. Every night he either patrolled around or stayed outside the palace.

Although Sun Jinxiang's status was higher than that of ordinary eunuchs, he only received one tael of silver and two and a half dendrobium of rice more than people of the same rank.Unlike those chief eunuchs and decree eunuchs, he couldn't earn extra money, and no one bribed him.Furthermore, his family was already poor, with seven or eight mouths counting on him for food and drink, and their life was very poor.

The reason why He Shen wooed Sun Jinxiang at the beginning was actually because he was close to Qianlong, and he wished to bribe all the eunuchs around Qianlong.In order to make friends, he asked Ma 83 to redeem Sun Jinxiang's "treasure" from the knife maker with 300 taels of silver, returned it to him, and sent 200 taels to his family.

You must know that the eunuch's greatest wish is to redeem the "treasure" from the knife maker, and put him in the coffin when he gets old, otherwise his ancestors will not recognize him.If Sun Jinxiang relied on his own salary, he might not be able to save it in another 30 years.Since then, he has regarded Heshen as his reborn parent, and he is determined to do so.In his understanding, no matter how good the emperor is, he is not as good as being with the adults; it is the eunuch's life to work for Qianlong, and it is to repay the favor to serve the adults.

When He Shen started planning to escape half a year ago, the first thing he thought of was to firmly control Sun Jinxiang, so he asked his subordinates to take Sun Jinxiang's family from his hometown in Hejian to the capital, and live in his "ten" outside the Old Summer Palace. Wat Garden".

It was awarded to him by Qianlong ten years ago when he was promoted to be a co-organizer, and it belongs to the attached garden of the Old Summer Palace.In the past, it was just a paddy field with few buildings. After extensive renovation and construction by Heshen, it has become the best private garden in the capital.Usually He Shen is not on duty in the military aircraft duty house, so he will live here in case he is summoned at any time.

The dozen or so members of the Sun family are usually responsible for taking care of the flowers and plants in the garden, and they live a very comfortable life.He Fu did not say that they were servants, only that they were relatives of the housekeeper Ma 83.For Sun Jinxiang, He Shen's move made him feel even more helpless.Under the care of He Shen, every month, under the pretext of going to the Armed Forces Academy to repair ordnance, he would stop by Shihu Garden to reunite with his family and enjoy the family happiness.

After Sun Jinxiang left, Liu Quan left Gujiatun with more than 20 guards from Hefu, and returned to Shihu Garden not far away.As soon as he entered the garden, he asked Liu Yin to call Ma 83, Hushitu, Hu Liu, Fang Cun, and Wang Pingping to the flower hall, and then asked Liu Yin to go to the back house to invite the eldest second aunt.

After two quarters of an hour, except for the eldest second aunt, a group of people who didn't know why were waiting to arrive late.As soon as he entered the door, Hushitu yawned and said in a cocky voice: "Guan Liu, Mr. Liu, what are you going to do in the middle of the night? Why can't we wait until the morning?"

This man, also surnamed Liu, was from Dacheng County, Zhili, and he was a clean eunuch.Now he is the steward of the inner house of He Mansion, one mile and one away from Liu Quan, He Shen's right-hand man and loyal running dog, and is deeply trusted.In order to distinguish him from Liu Quan, the family called him "Nei Liu".When He Shen built the Jiale Hall, he sent this person to collude with the eunuchs in the palace to sneak into the Forbidden City and bring out the samples of the buildings collected in Ningshou Palace. After that, the famous Nanmu Hall came into being. .

Don't be surprised, there were a lot of eunuchs in the Qianlong era, but most of them worked in the homes of princes and ministers.Even if some Manchu officials are not from the clan, they still use it at home; the emperor uses eunuchs because he is afraid of being cuckolded by others, and they are also afraid of being cuckolded.The Ministry of Internal Affairs has always lacked effective management of eunuchs outside the palace, causing many eunuchs to devote themselves to private mansions as slaves. Historically, this situation was not clearly stipulated until after Jiaqing came to power, how many people should be employed at what level.

Hearing the other party's complaint, Liu Quan put down the gaiwan in his hand, and said sadly: "Something big happened, otherwise it wouldn't disturb your sweet dreams."

Hey!Look at my tantrum.Hushitu's face changed, thinking that he hadn't seen him for a long time, why did he speak in a strange way?He was about to have a seizure when Ma 83 on the side suddenly asked, "Did something happen in the Forbidden Garden?"

Liu Quan didn't say anything, but nodded solemnly.Seeing his appearance, Hushitu felt a chill in his heart, completely relieved of sleepiness, and hurriedly said, "Where is our master?"

"My lord is guarding the emperor, and I can't leave him for a while."

Hushtu asked, "Then why did you come back?"

Liu Quan was about to explain when he heard a woman's voice outside the house.He and everyone present hurriedly got up, greeted the beautiful woman who came in through the door, and said in unison: "Greetings to Second Mistress."

The person who came was the second wife and eldest second aunt of Hefu, followed by Liu Yin and a few maidservants.Aunt Chang obviously didn't expect that there were so many people in the room, and was taken aback.After scanning all the people in the house, they found that they were all confidantes of the family, so they got up, and then went to sit on the grand teacher's chair at the main seat, and asked: "Quan'er, what happened to make such a big commotion? "

Liu Quan's eyes signaled the second aunt to let the maidservant back down, although the second aunt was puzzled, she did so.When there were no outsiders in the inner courtyard, he took out He Shen's letter and circulated it to the second aunt and the others, and then told what happened in the palace at night, and everyone turned pale with shock.

After reading the letter, the second aunt's face turned pale, and she almost fainted.Although she knew about He Shen's escape plan and had made a lot of preparations, she never expected it to happen so suddenly.She bit her lip, tried to calm herself down, turned her head to look at Ma 83 who was sitting on the right, and said, "Guard Ma, you helped to come up with the idea of ​​this matter at the beginning, what should we do next?"

Ma 83 scratched his goatee and pondered for a moment, then said, "Second Grandma, the situation is so close that we have no choice but to take action. Since the master has made up his mind, we have no way out. The most important thing right now is to get through the day and wait for the night." After the city gate is closed, it will be activated, so as to cover the master and son to go to Tongzhou to board the ship."

The Second Aunt Chang lamented, "What about Grandma? I'm afraid her body can't bear such a torment."

"If Ma said something wrong, he can't help it, and he has to be banned, and the grandma, the forehead, the princess, and other aunts and aunts must leave the city in batches before the city gate closes in the afternoon. According to the previous set, disguise and dress up, and must not let outsiders Get it. You have to go back to the city now, and Hushitu, Hu Liu, and Fang Cun will go back with you."

"That's all I have to do." The second aunt Chang sighed, stood up with the armrest, and was about to leave when Liu Quan suddenly said, "Second Grandma, don't think I'm nagging. , take away what you can take away, don't be reluctant to take away what you can't take away, once it gets out, disaster will be in sight!"

"Of course I understand this. I'll leave everything outside to you." After the second aunt Chang said, she stood up and blessed everyone in the room.He Shen once told her sternly, don't be reluctant to take this with you, as long as the plan succeeds in Yunnan, and the imperial court's copper mine is under control, you will have everything you want!

"Second Mistress! Don't be! This is the duty of slaves." Liu Quan and others knelt down on one knee with determination on their faces.

The eldest second aunt left and went back to make preparations, and the people headed by Liu Quan, Hu Shitu and Ma 83 had an urgent discussion for a while.Most of the details of the entire escape plan were drawn up by He Shen and Ma 83. Apart from transferring property in advance, secretly buying a temporary yard in Tongzhou, and arranging a boat, the most important things were two things; The barracks and infantry command the yamen, and the princes and ministers in the city cannot go out of the city to escort them to the Old Summer Palace.

The former, He Shen, has already done it with his minions, but in order to achieve the second point, the capital must be put into an early warning state, and all 76 gates of the inner nine outer cities must be closed.

Speaking of urban alarms in the Qing Dynasty, it was mainly achieved by firing letter cannons.Specifically, in the capital city, the city-wide early warning is provided through the signal cannons installed on the White Pagoda of Qiongdao in Beihai and nine city gates.The various regulations were formulated by Long Kedo in the early years of Yongzheng, and they are still in use today.

One of them stipulates that in case of emergency, the imperial court or the commander of the infantry will send a gold medal with the words "By order to fire the cannon" to Qiongdao Baita. At the same time, the yellow dragon flag is hung on the flagpole during the day and the lantern is hung at night.

As soon as the signal cannon on the White Pagoda is fired, all the signal cannons at the nine gates of the inner city will respond. At the same time, the four gates of the imperial city and the nine gates of the inner city will be closed under martial law, and bannermen from all over the place will be mobilized.If the emperor is in the Forbidden City, all the firearms camps and guard camps outside the city must gather outside Fucheng Gate; if it is in the Old Summer Palace, the garden must be protected first.As for the princes and ministers and civil and military officials without the emperor's letter, let alone entering the garden, they could not get out of the city gate.

However, this kind of thing has never happened since the day the charter began. Once something happens, the inner city will definitely be in chaos.

And this is exactly what He Shen wanted.

　In the Qing Dynasty, the opening and closing of the city gates in Beijing had a special rule, which was called "inner nine outer seven imperial city four, nine gates eight o'clock and one bell". This rule existed from the Ming Dynasty and continued until the end of the Qing Dynasty.Needless to say, the first half of the sentence refers to the 20 city gates inside and outside the capital; the second half of the sentence says that eight of the nine gates in the inner city will be opened, and only there is a bell on the Chongwen Gate. After knocking at night, the inner city will be completely closed. .Specifically, at dusk every day, the drum captain on the Drum Tower north of Di'anmen starts to beat the 108-beat "Dinggeng Drum" twice under the sign "Diandeng".When the drums are played, except for Chongwenmen, the gatekeepers in other places will hit "dots" (a kind of sounder, flat copper, with a waist in the middle and a round hole at one end).After the drums on the Drum Tower are beaten, the bells start to ring on the Bell Tower. When the bell rings, the city gates are closed, the traffic is cut off, and fences are erected in all alleys in the city. This is called "Jing Street".At five o'clock in the morning—that is, at five o'clock, the "Liang Geng Drum" and "Liang Geng Bell" will be knocked on the Bell and Drum Tower.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)