When Er Mao returned to Mawei, it was already past seven o'clock in the evening. Er Mao was too tired to ride a horse. He returned to the camp in a dark carriage.
As soon as they arrived at the gate of the camp, the sentry took the reins and took Er Mao directly to the tent of Emperor Tongzhi's army without saying a word.
"Let me drink some water first, it's all stuck in my throat..." Er Mao walked into the tent and didn't even bother to salute Emperor Tongzhi. He picked up the teapot and drank it with his mouth.
The senior was so happy that he was about to curse, but Zai Chun raised his hand to stop him. The little emperor just looked at Er Mao, watching quietly!
"You all go out, Er Mao and I will talk alone... By the way, let the chef give Er Mao a bowl of noodles. He has had a hard enough day!"
After blasting away everyone, Zai Chun didn't have to worry about it that much. "Which department did you get the money from? The Ministry of Finance or the Chinese Central Bank of the old shopkeeper?"
"I'm afraid it's not the case. The master's influence here in Fujian hasn't penetrated yet... Did Wang Bureau get it? The CIA! Haha... The sharpest knife in the master's hand!"
Er Mao could hear the bitter taste in the little emperor's words. He put down the teapot and said, "What does it matter? Hasn't the problem been solved?"
"One million promissory notes are exchanged for eight million silver dollars... At the moment, slave, I can only raise two million for Your Majesty, but Your Majesty will leave north on the fourth day, and it is too late to transfer it from Hong Kong..."
"The remaining six million can only be allocated from Shanghai... There is only so much that I can do. Your Majesty, please atone for your sins!"
Zai Chun looked at Er Mao and listened to him mouthing the words "slave" and "slave", and suddenly became angry, "Didn't I say it countless times? Among the eunuchs in the Forbidden City, you are the only one who doesn't need to call me slave!"
"You are my playmate, you are my friend!" Zai Chun slammed his fist on the table. "Is the gap between you and me so deep?"
Er Mao was stunned and his expression suddenly froze, and the time in the tent's restraint stopped!
Emperor Tongzhi didn't know what happened today. He was honest in front of 30,000 soldiers and suddenly lost his guard against Er Mao. He had too many things to say.
"Er Mao... Do you remember in the Forbidden City? You and I were playing horseback and fighting, but you were the only one who dared to throw me to the ground!"
"We climbed up the ladder to the roof of the Hall of Supreme Harmony to look at the stars, and looked for them one by one with foreign constellation charts... I remember that the first one I found was Orion..."
"The Western globe, telescope, and moon phase clock hidden in the gold vault...you secretly took these with me to play with!"
"Have you forgotten all the memories from that time? Now you are my slave?"
"The head of state is my master, but he is also your adoptive father! Do we have to bring our children to this point?"
Zai Chun was really moved, his eye circles were red, and Er Mao was so soft-hearted that tears fell down as soon as his nose became sore.
"Your Majesty...Your Majesty, you want to be in charge, and I will leave the Forbidden City sooner or later...There are some things you can do as a child, but you can't do them when you grow up..."
"But don't worry, Your Majesty, I, Ermao, have never had the slightest intention of harming you...I..." Ermao slapped his thigh hard, "This is fate! Who let us all be trapped by the times..."
Zai Chun's body slumped and he leaned back on the chair, feeling helpless and lonely, "Yeah... maybe this is what they mean when you are in the world and you can't help yourself!"
"You and I are friends, and the master has a life-saving grace for you, a father-son relationship... But the Chinese and the Qing are not the same skin! I hate it so much..."
Ermao waved his hand, "Stop talking about this. Your Majesty will never bring up this topic again... The Chinese nation rose from the ocean, and the Qing Dynasty has never been a maritime country..."
"The core interests are no longer aligned at all. If you can't get along, don't think about it... Tell me something else. I heard that His Majesty performed very well today. You really have the demeanor of a holy king!"
"You did nothing wrong in this matter. As long as safety can be ensured in the future, there is no harm in being more friendly to the people... Let's learn from the monarchs of European countries, they are all superior!"
"In the future, people's wisdom will gradually widen in the world, and they will always lie to people with myths about the divine right of kings. It is better to go to the people in person and warm people's hearts! It is better than anything else..."
Er Mao hadn't had a heart-to-heart talk with the little emperor for a long time. When the two got excited, they actually sat down on the floor to talk. The thick carpet isolated the humid atmosphere of Fujian. The two were as close as when they first met in the Forbidden City.
When Da Sixi and the others brought the imperial chef to deliver the noodles, the scene in front of him made him extremely jealous. He stared at Er Mao like a poisonous snake, and he even wanted to strangle him to death.
But he didn't dare. The people closest to Long Live Master were his ancestors. When he saw that Long Live Master was sitting on the ground, several eunuchs quickly knelt on the ground.
"Ouch... Long live my Lord, please be careful of the cold ground. Getting damp is no joke! Although the weather in Fujian is warm, there is also a lot of humidity..."
"Thank you for your hard work, Chief Manager. This is a bowl of Fuzhou noodles carefully prepared by a local chef in Fuzhou. If you are hungry, come and try it!"
Putting down the bowl, Da Sixi wanted to help Emperor Tongzhi, but Emperor Tongzhi just drove him away, "Go aside... you all go out, I want to talk to Ermao Bingzhuye!"
"Let's go... By the way, open a bottle of wine from the wine cabinet in the corner and send it over..."
Da Sixi and Xiao Sixi are so jealous that they are going crazy. Where can I explain this? Er Mao was actually able to drink with Long Live Master. We just talked and played for the past two days!
You wait, when we return to Sijiu City, we will try our best to kill you!
After returning to the square sky of the Forbidden City, we have arrived at the eunuch's base camp. It is quite spectacular to think about thousands of perverts united together.
Zai Chun took Er Mao to drink red wine and complained from the bottom of his heart, "You said that I am so boring as an emperor. I just got in trouble when I returned home! Why is it so bad!"
After saying that, Emperor Tongzhi threw his hat on the carpet, and the hat with fake braids stuck to it spun around several times.
"I just want to give the soldiers a little silver reward for meeting. I don't need these officials to raise money. I have brought the money... but I can't do it. Do you think I am a waste?"
"No, no..." Ermao drank a few sips of wine on an empty stomach and got a little drunk. "You can't think like that. What did the head of state say before? The devil is in the details!"
"Those great Confucians also said that all dharma is achieved through forbearance! This forbearance is not about swallowing one's anger, but about enduring the tediousness!"
"Any big undertaking is made up of countless tedious little things. Only by doing all the countless small things can you combine them into a big undertaking!"
"What you are doing today is just a rehearsal for your return to Beijing. In the future, after you enter politics, you will do other errands... Don't worry, it will only be more difficult than this, not easier!"
Er Mao, like his elder brother, broke it into pieces and analyzed the truth behind it. Take such a simple reward to the soldiers as an example, how do you exchange the money in your hand? Are you looking for the ticket number or the bank? Have you ever considered the exchange issue in Fuzhou City before?
Do local governments have money? What are the dates for tax and deportation of taxes? Have you asked any of these?
I didn't understand anything, I didn't inquire about anything, I just said "I want to reward the soldiers" out of the blue. It's strange that such an impulsive decision can lead to no trouble!
To put it bluntly, you brought this trouble on yourself!
As an emperor, you can't decide things by patting your head, let alone imagine that you can direct the country at will. You can't just want the results without considering the process!
The devil is in the details. If a house is not cleaned, the world will not be clean!
"That's fine, that's fine... before you go back to Beijing, you can personally understand how to govern, so that you will have experience when you take charge!"
That night, the two of them had a long conversation and had a heart-to-heart exchange!
