There are three cunning rabbit caves. Yang Zhi has been studying the art of escape in recent years in order to prevent assassinations from the CIA. All his houses have tunnels, secret doors, and walls... He has domesticated pigeons, hounds, and countless guards.
These means of escaping can sometimes cover him for some secret talks. For example, what we see today is his close comrade-in-arms, Zhang Jing Li Tuo of the Military Aircraft Department, a fellow scholar recommended by the bachelor Li Hongzao.
Zhang Jing was a low-ranking official in the Manchu Qing court. He was nominally from the fifth rank, not at the end of the official hierarchy. However, in the capital where there were as many high-ranking officials as dogs, those from the fifth rank were never officials, both in the government and in the public. In the eyes of these people, they are just helpers.
They sit in the offices of various ministries every day, craft telegrams and memorials, copy and write registration files, and anyone with an official status can give them orders.
Even in the yamen, they have to do some odd jobs such as receiving some coal, pens, ink and paper, running errands and receiving salary from the household department, and delivering letters to various ministries...
Officials are very young, and most of their work is to help and listen, but there are many hidden dragons and crouching tigers in this class!
Back then, Li Tuo made a small show of his hand in front of Yang Zhi, which made the endangered Yang Zhi break his confusion and enlightenment. In recent years, he has been prosperous in the Manchu court, thanks to Li Tuo, a think tank.
Entering the wall through the secret door in the back garden, Yang Zhi arrived at his neighbor's house. The so-called neighbor was actually a house he bought and rented out.
This so-called neighbor's house is where Yang Zhi and Li Tuo often meet secretly.
There is a unique cave in the wing room. On the Eight Immortals table are takeaways ordered from Hongxinglou, all of which are the chef's specialties.
Chicken minced shark's fin, hot pot abalone, braised sea cucumber with green onion, steamed duck with wine, fish with vinegar and pepper... Then there are two famous dumplings, the dumplings of Hongxinglou in the late Qing Dynasty are the best!
When Yang Zhi pushed the door open, Li Tuo had already started eating. The dumplings and wine were getting better and better as he ate, which made Yang Zhi's appetite whet his appetite!
"Brother, why don't you wait for me and start eating now?"
"Nonsense, it's not like you don't know about the food at the military aircraft. The flatbreads and fried dough sticks are all lukewarm, and you can't even take a bite of them. You can't even put some sesame oil in the pickles... I'm thinking of beating you up at noon. !”
Yang Zhi took the sea cucumber with his chopsticks and swallowed a mouthful of strong wine. "Ah! The serious old West Wind wine... In the first few years of the war between Gansu and Shaanxi, this wine became more and more scarce, and the ten-year-old wine is even more rare!"
"Are you crying for poverty? The bonus I give you every year is at least four to five million. Your family still has its own business... Why don't you eat something good?"
Li Tuo put down his chopsticks and wiped his mouth, "You don't understand this. In this court, it's better to stay out of the limelight! I'm just like Zhang Jing, and I'm ordering takeout from restaurants all over the world? Isn't this suspicious?"
"Well, what I said before was correct!"
Yang Zhi nodded, "Brother, you are simply a god. How did you know that the Queen Mother of the West wanted to swallow Lord Long Live's money?"
It turned out that Yang Zhi had already received news from Li Tuo, saying that Cixi would definitely extort a sum of money from him before Long Live Lord came to Beijing, so that he could make preparations in advance.
"Actually, I prepared 9 million for the pro-government of Long Live Lord. I only quoted 7 million according to your advice. I didn't expect that I actually passed the test..."
"My Lord Yang! Do you think the Queen Mother of the West is an easy person? Is she so easy to admit defeat? Long live the Lord's personal rule, will she, a mother-in-law, let go of her power?"
"You have forgotten what I told you before... The five forces in the world are now strangled together, and she has to fight to survive!"
The five forces in the world were what Li Tuo analyzed for Yang Zhi back then.
The first force is the Eight Banners system including the royal family, and the second force is the Han Confucian scholars, that is, the Qingliu scholars, and the huge landlord class they represent.
The third force is the world's businessmen, and the fourth force is the increasingly powerful foreign devils!
The fifth force is the sudden rise of Han warlords, including Xiao Letian, who is the most successful among the Han warlords.
Yang Zhi twirled the wine glass and said, "The balance has been broken a long time ago. The world is about to reshuffle the cards... But no matter how much the cards are shuffled, we will never lose a bowl of food!"
"Haha... What are we? We are invisible, but there are ubiquitous bureaucrats! The bureaucratic class... We exist among these five forces. No one can leave us, and we can't live without them!"
"It doesn't matter who comes to power, or how the cards are played out... In order to rule the world in the end, they have to rely on the help of thousands of petty officials in the world!"
"A great reshuffle of the country, a change of dynasties... I have seen people killing officials, but I have never seen people killing officials!"
"Because we are the real hands that implement policies. Without us, how can the imperial court control all the people in the world? How can government orders leave the Forbidden City?"
"Brother... don't take refuge in anyone, because no one can be trusted... Only if you integrate into us, our group will be endless!"
Li Tuo represents China's bureaucratic class that has existed for thousands of years. More appropriately, he is the official among the officials!
These people are the right-hand men of officials, the executors of all policies, and the group of people who have the closest contact with the people. Every official needs staff to assist him in his work.
This results in the number of officials being much larger than the number of officials. This huge group has also accumulated a lot of survival experience in its long history!
They are proficient in all kinds of black or gray methods such as falsifying accounts, accepting bribes, settling lawsuits, taking black money... and so on.
They can even weave an invisible network to help each other and pass messages to each other.
Yang Zhi, a Chinese traitor, was able to establish a network of contacts in Jiangnan, thanks to the matchmaking of this large group of bureaucrats.
This group of officials wandering in the gray area is a force that no force can ignore.
Even if the eunuch in the palace wants to take the money back to his hometown to buy a house and land and help the family settle things, he can't leave the palace to do it himself!
In the final analysis, we still have to find officials from outside, and officials from outside still have to find these officials to do it themselves!
The steward of the prince's family is in a lawsuit with others. How does he want to trick his opponent? You don't have to find the masters and policemen in the Yamen to do something secretly.
The high officials from the border areas have returned to Beijing to report on their duties, and they have sent all kinds of tributes and bribes, but they are not allowed to pass through the hands of these people to divide the profits layer by layer!
These are countless pairs of eyes, ears, and countless mouths! There is nothing big or small in the government or the opposition that they don't know about, and when Li Tuo came to see Yang Zhi today, he also brought him some very important information.
"Brother, from now on, don't live over there in Xishan. It's too close to Yixin's lair and too sensitive..."
"The day before yesterday... Marshal Zeng had a complete falling out with the Queen Mother and the Prince in Yangxin Hall. The Hunan Army cavalry all went north... This is to overwhelm the Japanese Six!"
"There is news from Fujian that Master Long Live has been embarrassed because of the cash of more than one million taels. The Japanese have taken over the household department, and all the money on the surface has been taken away..."
"Long live the army back, do you think you will settle the score? So from now on, you must not live in Xishan. If the emperor mistakenly thinks that you are from the Sixth Prince's faction, you will be in trouble!"
"Just stay in the capital honestly until Lord Long Live comes back..."
"Also, pay more attention to Marshal Zuo recently. I guess there will be good opportunities to make a fortune in the future..."
