Midsummer in Beijing is really a torture for the Manchus. These nomadic peoples who originally lived in the White Mountains and Black Waters have no genes to resist the heat. Although they have been in the customs for more than two hundred years, summer is still difficult for them.
The sun above the head is emitting endless heat. The leaves of the big willow trees on the roadside have been dried up. Even the cicadas hiding in them are screaming weakly. The old man dozing in the shade of the tree has his arms open and is sweating profusely. The beads rolled straight down.
"Herbal tea...herbal tea, a big bowl of herbal tea...the latest mint tea..."
"Watermelon... watermelon, a sandy flesh watermelon produced in Daxing. If the old man has no teeth, he won't be afraid of losing his teeth after taking one bite..."
"I'm selling fans, including imperial concubine folding fans and big cattail fans... the cool breeze will come naturally after you shake it..."
In the alleys of Sijiucheng, even the shouts were wilted by the scorching sun. It was so hot that even the most ferocious dogs didn't bother to bark at these vendors, and lay on the ground spitting out their tongues. Update as soon as possible
Just when the entire capital was being swept by a heat wave and everyone was struggling to endure the midsummer, a sudden and shocking rumor was like lighting a match in a boiling oil pan, and the blazing flames instantly covered the capital.
In the hot weather at noon, all the teahouses and wine shops in the capital were suddenly full. People lowered their heads and talked incessantly. A bizarre gossip shocked the entire capital.
"Man, you are here, sit down... Hey, have you heard? There was a riot in Tanggu Port. It is said that thousands of people died..."
"Really or not... the waiter came and smashed the pot... Tanggu City is a place where Chinese and foreigners live together. With so many people dead, foreigners are not allowed to come to negotiate? Please tell me quickly..."
"Hey, what are you two talking about here? Let me tell you, Tanggu City killed ten houses and nine empty houses, and tens of thousands of people died. The blood dyed the sea red..."
"Hey! Where did you get this news? You are so old..."
"Hey...don't believe it, my tenant who grows vegetables in Changping Village, his uncle's family is a fisherman in Tanggu. I heard that no one in Tianjin Wei eats sea fish anymore..."
When people heard this, they rushed up and said, "Master Liu, please tell me carefully, why don't you eat sea fish?" Mr. Liu wiped the sweat beads on his forehead and enjoyed the feeling of being surrounded by stars. Update as soon as possible
"Grandma, there were too many dead people. More than 10,000 corpses were thrown into the sea without even having time to bury them. Those sea fish have feasted on human flesh. Do you think they can still eat it..." He didn't say anything. Afterwards, there was a sound of retching in the room, and it took a long time to calm down.
At this time, the waiter who was carrying a copper pot to add water was dumbfounded and asked stupidly, "What are you doing! Why do you kill people when you are doing well?"
"Silly boy, you don't understand this. Do you know about the civil uprising? The people are going crazy. They rush to the streets to kill whoever they see. They rob stores of money and women as they please. They commit murder and arson without hesitation... You Ask why? Besides Xiao Letian, who else could it be because of..."
"You know that at the beginning of spring, the Prime Minister's Office in Beijing sent a group of... some kind of inspection team to inspect the industrial zone. The first update was that there was a civil uprising in Tanggu, but that time it was It's drizzling, there are only a few hundred people..."
"Today is different. Tens of thousands of people rioted in Tanggu City. All the foreigners in the city fled to the sea. Foreign cannons and guns were set up on the ships. It was easy to open fire with the mob..."
In the mouths of these rumor mongers, Xiao Letian completely turned into a ruthless murderer. He gathered hundreds of bandits under his command. In the face of the people's kind protests, he actually suppressed them bloodyly. Updated immediately. Even Ninth Commander Zeng Guoquan also got involved. The Hunan Army Jiziying sent out heavy cavalry, killing countless people.
The speakers in the teahouse were frothing, and the listeners were dumbfounded. The shopkeeper in front of the counter couldn't count the beads on his abacus, and he didn't even know that he had made several miscalculations.
Just when everyone was scolding Xiao Letian, a Japanese devil, two young scholars suddenly walked in from outside the teahouse. They became angry when they heard the discussion among these Eight Banners bastards.
"A group of people are just fools who follow what they say, but they are just thinking. If Xiao Letian was so powerful, wouldn't the Tianjin General Military Officer suppress it? Tens of thousands of people died. Do you know how big a studio is if tens of thousands of people are lined up together? Do you know how many people there are in Tanggu?" After saying this, the two of them snorted with disdain.
"Ouch! Whose belt is not fastened and exposed to you... Ouch, aren't these the two gentlemen of the Prime Minister's Yamen? Look at my forgetfulness, what is your last name..." The rumor maker turned around and thought He was scolding, but he didn't expect to see acquaintances, two Prime Minister Yamen's written posts.
"Second servant, bring me a pot of green tea to clear my fire..." The two prime ministers wrote in the Yamen's style without getting angry, and held their hands in front of the banner men in the teahouse.
"Gentlemen, don't listen to those rumors that have disappeared. We are all bannermen. If you want to listen, you must also listen to the words of the Emperor and Queen Mother, and listen to the words of our Eight Banners Princes. These rumors are obviously some people secretly deceiving us... the whole Tanggu City There were only more than 10,000 people, why did they all die? And then they were thrown into the sea? There are no mass graves left in our Qing Dynasty?"
"To tell you the truth, what do you think the secret information that the Prime Minister's Yamen received last night? Damn it, it was actually caused by those civil servants. It was a local gentry. A man named Huang used land rent to lure people into trouble in the streets. , the purpose is to disrupt the Qing Industrial Zone..."
In just a few words, the general story of the matter was cleared up, and everyone present suddenly realized with a loud bang: "Why are the rumors I mentioned before so bizarre? It turned out to be rumors created by these scholars. These guys are really a bunch of rotten villains." …”
"That's right, my flag owner has long said that these Qingliu people are afraid that this industrial zone will be established. On the surface, they are afraid that foreigners' things will deceive people's hearts. In fact, they are afraid that our banner people will have an extra hardcore crop..."
Now, the whole teahouse was talking about it, and everyone started to scold these Qingliu scholars. Immediately afterwards, the two pen-posters began to transfer their hatred again, "Actually, this matter is also the fault of the Ninth Commander. Their Hunan Army went too far and even intervened in Zhili. Jiziying actually fought against our Green Camp. Even if he was justified in suppressing the rebellion, , and you can’t kill people casually..."
When people heard that there was a hidden secret here, they all went crazy. The crowd gathered even tighter, and they were not afraid of prickly heat even on a hot day. It was in teahouses, brothels, and wine shops, the most basic social places in the Qing Dynasty, that various rumors began to collide with each other and fierce conflicts occurred.
The scholars who took it as their duty to clean up the river risked their lives to throw dirty water on Xiao Letian and the Nine Marshals. In addition to clearing themselves, they also naturally fought against the royal family and the Hunan Army. In their minds, Xiao Letian was The two Japanese devils proposed the industrial zone as a strategy to seize the position of a prominent school.
And the Hunan Army, as the representative of the local governor, actually doesn't have the same heart as us, so you are not a good person, and you are pouring dirty water on us. Update as soon as possible
Of course, the Prime Minister's Office is a staunch defender of the interests of the Eight Banners. They have a clear idea of what the benefits of the industrial zone are. They can also guess what the evil intentions of Qingliu and the Hunan Army are. In this public opinion war, protect Xiao Letian's attack. Qingliu, by the way, disgusting the Hunan Army is their fundamental strategy.
Among the three parties, the southern governorship faction represented by the Hunan Army is relatively calm and has not gotten involved in this civil war. However, their counterattack became more direct. Three days later, Zeng Guofan reported that he was originally scheduled to return to Beijing in the autumn to report on his work, but he postponed it. He actually said that a group of 20,000 remnants of the Kingdom of Heaven had been discovered in the Wuyi Mountains.
Threat, this is a naked threat. The Zeng family used this method to express their protest. Is there actually hair growing in Wuyi Mountain? More than 20,000 people? God knows if he went to drink Dahongpao. Please come to more and faster chapters.
In the summer of this year, because of a small civil uprising in Tanggu, the three parties had become chaotic to the point of stabbing each other in the back. Now they are about to tear each other apart in the court.
The folders sent from Tanggu had been quietly stacked in the Forbidden City for seven days. The Empress Dowager of the Two Palaces simply looked at the folders and abstracts. As for the testimony that was more than a foot high, they were not interested in paying attention to it at all. For politicians, evidence is just a fig leaf. Sometimes they can ask for it, and sometimes they have to throw it away.
The empress dowagers of the two palaces were silent, the Japanese Liuyi was also silent, and the remaining Manchu princes didn't speak when they saw something was wrong. In the Forbidden City, only the young Emperor Tongzhi was jumping up and down talking about this matter. He would ask the Queen Mother, the Prince, and the ministers, but the strange thing was that no one on the left or right could say anything. , they all hesitated and made the emperor furious. Update as soon as possible
"Mother, what should we do about this? This is a civil uprising! Shouldn't such a big thing be handled strictly?" Emperor Tongzhi sat next to Cixi angrily, his face flushed.
"Big deal? How big a deal can this be!" Cixi looked at her son with a smile on her face. Tongzhi became uneasy when he heard this: "How big of a deal is it? The people have changed, and thousands of soldiers and civilians died. Isn't it a big deal?"
Cixi shook her head, "Not big, not big at all. Your Majesty, you are the lord of this world. You must make sure that even if Mount Tai collapses, your appearance will remain unchanged. If something goes wrong in Tanggu, it will be regarded as a disaster in the eyes of the common people." Yes, but it’s nothing in front of you..."
"Let's not talk about the distance. Let's take the Changmao Rebellion in the south. More than tens of millions of people died. This is a big deal. There are also the Western Barbarians coming from the sea. This is also a big deal. In addition, the people from the north are staring at us. The Rakshasa Kingdom is even more of a big deal. Only a small popular uprising like Tanggu is not big at all. On the contrary, it is very small. This small trick can only be left unaddressed..."
Emperor Tongzhi seemed to have become a little enlightened. Through his mother's teachings, he gradually understood that an empire does not mean that the emperor can do whatever he wants. The so-called supremacy of imperial power is purely a false proposition.
"In this Qing Dynasty, our royal family and the Eight Banners are always one. With the Eight Banners, we are the royal family. Without the Eight Banners, our royal family will become orphans and widows. This is the life-saving iron law left by our ancestors. Can you Can’t lose it.”
"As for the Han Confucian officials, those noble people, you must remember to slap them in the face and give them a sweet date to eat. What they want is to show their knowledge and rule the imperial examination forever. As long as you ensure that this rule remains unchanged for thousands of years, these slaves will not rebel. , when we Manchus entered the customs, we killed so many Han people, but in the end, didn’t they still kneel on the ground and shout us long live?”
Cixi gently stroked her son's head and taught him the secret of running a country in a rare and kind tone. This kind of secret passed down by word of mouth is not something that everyone can learn.
"Your Majesty, you must always remember that the internal affairs of the Qing Dynasty are composed of three forces. Three groups of people are entangled. One is our royal family and the Eight Banners, the other is the Confucian scholars, and the last one is the Han governor, especially Zeng Guofan As long as you can balance these three forces, this country will not be in chaos..."
"What about the foreigners? And where is Xiao Letian, the Japanese devil? What kind of force are they, and how should we deal with them?" Tongzhi was able to stop E Niang from asking, and Cixi was stunned for a long time without saying anything.
"This is a major change that has not been seen in three thousand years. Perhaps it can only be answered by geniuses that have not been seen in three thousand years..."
Note: Thank you to the friends who voted for the monthly vote, you are so awesome... I wish I could be so shameless as to ask for a few more chapters!
