He Shen came out of Donghua Gate and got on the sedan, then led Liu Yin and a group of guards straight to Agui's house. The group walked along Dong'anmen Street and then through Dengshikou, and soon reached their destination.
Agui's residence is in Dengcao Hutong, located at the southeast corner of the Dongsi intersection. To the north is Dongrou Hutong, where Liu Yong's family is located. He Shen has been here many times, the most recent time was when he came to visit a patient on behalf of Qianlong more than ten days ago. Unexpectedly, when he opened the curtains at the entrance of the alley and took a look, he could hardly recognize this place.
In the narrow alley, starting from the entrance of the alley, the entire wall is surrounded by white curtains. Caskets have been set up along the south wall of the mansion gate. Various warm sedans parked next to them are lined up in dense rows. Not even a mile away, even the road on the east side of Dongdan Street was trampled into mud and slush.
Seeing He Shen's sedan arriving, everyone stepped to the wall to give way and saluted, and then looked at the sedan of this powerful minister who was known as the "Second Emperor" among the people with complicated expressions.
At this time, Agui's family members were all wearing sackcloth and mourning. Some were carrying the peace bar and entering through the side door. Some were setting up "deacons" outside the wall, placing soul-drawing sedans and chair-setting sedans, and inserting "musical tunes" on the deacon racks. "Flag", people were busy running around, the chirping sound of the rattles was mixed with the chanting of the monks in the memorial sheds on both sides of the ceremony gate, making it a noisy mess.
"Yesterday, I went out to play in the wilderness and suddenly saw a big skeleton. There were no hills of grass among the thorns, the cold was whistling, the wind blew the lotus leaves, and the ghosts were crying and sad. Skeleton! Skeleton! What are you saying about waiting for the prime minister, what are you talking about? Look at the warehouses full of gold and jade, and who doesn’t throw away the bones on the hillside? Skeletons! Skeletons! The moon makes a lamp, the rain makes oil, stargazing through the Spring and Autumn Period, a lonely wandering soul, making friends for friends, lamenting the loss of so many years of Spring and Autumn Period . Skeleton! Skeleton! I am lucky enough to have a Ming Yang meeting tonight. I will light up the candles for nine days, recite secret mantras and sutras, sprinkle nectar and nectar, and burn the incense of precepts and wisdom. I hope that the lonely wandering soul will go to the west as soon as possible. "
Hearing the sad song "Sighing Skeletons" made He Shen in the sedan feel inexplicably irritable. However, he quickly adjusted his mood, put on a solemn expression, and got off the sedan in front of the eight-character wall. Since he had the emperor's order, Liu Yin went over to inform the deacon who was greeting the guests at the door.
He Shen looked around, and when he raised his head, he saw a Dulu flag more than four feet high, fluttering miserably in the wind. Because Agui is a pure white flag, the entire flag is pure white, blending with the heavy snow in the sky, like a curling white smoke.
The appearance of the "Dulu Banner" is just like the big flag raised on the stage, but the width is one foot long; the top is a lotus leaf cover, and a satin embroidered piece hangs in the middle, with the words "First Class Duke, Prince Taibao, Wu Ying" He holds the official title of "Grand Bachelor of the Palace", and below it is a wide white ribbon with a velvet waist and tassels, and white colored balls and ribbons hanging on both sides.
In the drama of another time and space, the one who fought with Heshen was either Liu Yong or Ji Xiaolan; but in fact, the only person who could be regarded as Heshen's opponent in Qianlong's later years was Agui, and wherever he was, Heshen would not Too bad.
Now that his only political opponent is dead, Heshen feels quite proud.
Not long after, Agui's three grandsons - Na Yangui, Na Yanbao and Na Yancheng, dressed in mourning clothes, came to the door of the house. Seeing He Shen in front of them, the three of them felt extremely bored. Especially for Addis's son Na Yangui, facing the enemy who framed his father in the first place, it can be said that they are irreconcilable.
Among the onlookers on the side, there are also people who feel sorry for themselves. A Zhongtang, who served the country and the people, is gone. There are only five or six of these greedy and powerful officials alive. God is really short-sighted!
However, He Shen came today with the emperor's orders, that is, the imperial envoy. No matter how dissatisfied the three of them were, they could not show any trace of it, so they all knelt in the snow with a flick of their sleeves.
"Slave, please greet me!"
"Holy Holy Gong!"
He Shen answered for Qianlong with his hands raised, then hurriedly stepped forward to help the three brothers up, and said with a sad face: "Three nephews, please express my condolences. He came here today in compliance with the emperor's order. The emperor has already rejected the request of the Ministry of Rites. The posthumous title I proposed before is changed from "Wenxiang" to "Wenzhong", and the official of the Ministry of Rites will come with the decree tomorrow morning."
When the three Nayangui brothers heard this, they all burst into tears with excitement. Then they knelt down in the direction of the Forbidden City and kowtowed repeatedly. When the three of them stood up, Heshen said again: "The emperor also said that there is no need to rush to hand over the sign to express gratitude, and we can wait until the funeral is completed."
After hearing this, the three people bowed again and again. After He Shen finished explaining the business, he showed a sad look on his face and cupped his hands and said, "I would also like to ask the three nephews to lead the way. He is going to offer incense to Duke Wen Zhong as a token of condolence." Thoughts."
It was already the end of Shen Dynasty when He Shen came out of Agui Mansion and returned to He Mansion in Shichahai. At that time, the snow in the sky had lightened up a lot. Liu Quan and his family were busy beating the snow and smoothing the mud. They carried He Shen to the second gate. They saw that the ground in the inner courtyard had been swept clean. His wife, Feng Shi, and the second wife's elders were there. The second aunt, concubine Su Qinglian, Daukou, Nalan and others were already waiting in the courtyard with a group of old women and girls. Seeing him come in, Mrs. Feng took the lead in performing a blessing ceremony.
He Shen helped his wife up, held her hand that was like a jade carving, and said with concern: "It's so cold, why did you come out? Go back to the house and talk."
Feng frowned and said with a smile, "It doesn't matter. Even though it's snowing heavily today, it's not too cold."
The couple has been married for more than 20 years. Although He Shen is a romantic person, he respects and loves the wife of the wife very much. The two had a daughter and two sons together. The eldest daughter married Beile Yongjun, and the eldest son Fengshen Yinde married the tenth princess of Qianlong and lived separately. The younger son died young.
He Shen went into the house and changed his clothes, and then the family went inside to eat around the table. Needless to say, the hot soup and porridge were delicious. He Shen drank a bowl of yellow rice porridge first, and then drank a few glasses of scalding rice wine. He felt warm all over his body. He felt drunk for a while and was in a good mood. After dinner, he had a conversation with Mr. Feng, then put on his big cloak, took Liu Yin, and walked north along the corridor on the right side of Jiale Hall to the back tower.
In an ordinary courtyard house, the row of houses located behind and parallel to the main house is called the back room, which is usually a servant's room or warehouse. For example, Zhao Xin kept a lot of sundries in the back room of his "Prince's Mansion" in Beihai Town. Many of the gadgets he bought from the south were placed there.
However, the back building of the He Mansion, not to mention Zhao Xin, could not be compared to even Prince Heshuo of the Manchu Qing Dynasty. The entire building is more than 183 meters long and contains 111 houses, commonly known as "ninety-nine and a half rooms." In traditional culture, there is a saying of "full and loss". Even if there are 1,000 or 10,000 rooms, you can only take nine, never a round number.
He Shen walked along the corridor of the back building to the western end and came to an independent two-story building with ten bays. However, the strange thing is that this building has no door at all, just a hole as high as one person in the wall. There are many Taihu stones of different sizes inlaid around the hole, making it look like a cave. Just looking at the two exquisite colored glass lamps hanging on the wall inside the cave, it can be seen that there are winding paths inside, and traces of moist water vapor are faintly coming out, and it is unknown where they are.
Don't get me wrong, this is not Heshen's treasure house, but an indoor landscape garden, specially designed for enjoying the scenery in winter. It is unique in Beijing and even in the world. If Qianlong knew, he would probably die of envy.
Just as He Shen was about to enter the cave, he suddenly heard a man's voice coming from behind: "He Zhongtang."
He Shen was startled at first, but he instantly realized that this was his own home. What bastard slave dared to play tricks on him like this!
"Who?! Dog slave, get out!"
Liu Yin at the door was also frightened. He turned around quickly, raised the lantern and looked around. He vaguely saw a tall figure standing under the wall more than 20 steps away.
Suddenly, a light far brighter than a lantern lit up from where the man was, shaking Liu Yin and He Shen so hard that they couldn't open their eyes, and they hurriedly covered it with their hands.
Just as Liu Yin was about to shout "Here comes someone", he heard the black figure speaking fluently in Beijing: "I have been separated from Chaoyin Temple for many years, my lord, you are really a noble person who forgets things."
He Shen was stunned for a moment, Chaoyin Temple? This sound.
Immediately afterwards, the two of them saw that the light originally directed at them suddenly turned upward, and then a thin, beardless face that was half black and half white was revealed in the light and shadow.
"Mom! Ghost!"
Liu Yin's legs went weak, and he fell to the ground, lying on his back. Although He Shen was also frightened to the point of fighting between the two forces, the aura he had gained from being in a high position for many years allowed him to quickly calm down.
"Who are you, your Excellency? You are pretending to be a ghost in the middle of the night. Don't you know that the sky net will be restored and there will be no omissions?"
"Haha." The man sneered: "As the saying goes, if you don't do anything embarrassing in your life, you won't be afraid of ghosts calling the door in the middle of the night. But you and Zhongtang have done so many embarrassing things, why are you pretending to be a clove of garlic in front of me!"
In the flash of lightning, He Shen suddenly remembered who the other party was, and his forehead immediately buzzed, his ears rang loudly, his heart was pounding wildly, and white hairs and sweat broke out all over his body.
At this moment, He Shen's mind was filled with one sentence: Oh God! ! ! Why is it him? !
The dazzling light suddenly went out, and the other party slowly walked out of the night, stood five steps away from He Shen, and said with a smile: "He Zhongtang, you want me to stand like this on a cold day? I heard that you are here Shuifa Tower is the only one in the whole city of Beijing, not even owned by Emperor Qianlong. Tsk tsk, don’t be polite, I’ll go in and take a look, I can’t come all the way here in vain, right?”
With the light of the lantern falling on the ground, He Shen finally saw the other person's face clearly. His eyes were straight with fear, his mouth was wide open, and his whole body was as frozen as a stone man, unable to even speak. After a while, he said with difficulty: "Zhao, Zhao, Mr. Zhao."
The person who came was none other than Zhao Xin.
I saw him smiling and saying: "Hey~~ That's right, old friend! I was the one who entrusted you with the medicine back then. How about it? It's all so easy now?"
medicine? What medicine? Does this co-author know the master? Even if you know each other, you can't break into the back house in the middle of the night!
Liu Ying, who was on the side, had just recovered. He stood up holding on to the wall, stood in front of He Shen, stared at the tall man opposite, and said softly without turning his head: "Master, do you want to call someone?"
"No need." He Shen shook his head slightly and said in a cold tone: "You go to the corridor and watch, no one is allowed to come over. If anyone wants to ask, just say I am thinking about something."
Everyone is here, taking your life is like squeezing a bed bug to death, calling anyone is useless! Besides, if this person dares to come to Beijing, he may be accompanied by many people! Don't talk about it, the nursing homes in the house must have been cleaned up quietly, and now there might be a few guns on the roof aimed at his head!
Thinking of this, He Shen felt calm. A smile appeared on his face. He swept away the panic before and said to Zhao Xin: "Mr. Zhao came from afar. Although he came uninvited, he and a certain times I feel honored. The small Shuifa Pavilion can catch your eyes, which is enough to make the whole family shine. Please!"
Zhao Xin followed He Shen and walked into the narrow cave on the rough stone surface. He walked cautiously for more than ten steps. Suddenly, his eyes lit up. He saw dense bamboo forests all around and the blue sky above his head. There is a pavilion built outside the steps; and at the end opposite the pavilion, a waterfall gurgling down from a rock several meters high, falling on the water like an echo in an empty valley; the trickle finally merged into a small pool in front of the pavilion, with a tail The golden carp jumped out of the water with a "pop" and then fell back with a "pop", splashing a few drops of water.
I wipe it!
But Zhao Xin quickly realized that the sky above his head was painted on the roof. Because there are several pillars painted vermilion on both sides of the room, and on top of the pillars, there is a circle of viewing platforms that can only allow one person to pass, surrounding two-thirds of the room.
"Mr. Zhao, this is where He Shen spends his free time in winter. There are so many shabby places, which makes me laugh." Although He Shen was amiable on his face, his tone was very proud.
"It's okay, but it's too cramped. Sir, your roof is too fake! I think it should all be replaced with glass."
He Shen's heart twitched when he heard this. When he looked at Zhao Xin with a depressed look on his face, he found that the other person really didn't look like he was talking nonsense, and he couldn't help but feel curious. I thought to myself, could it be that this guy also built a house in Beihai Town that was bigger than his own? Then he sneered and said: "I can't compare with Mr. Zhao. How can the light of a firefly dare to compete with the bright moon?"
What he didn't know was that his Shuifa Building only covered an area of 1,000 square meters, while the largest indoor garden the other party had ever been to covered an area of 60,000 square meters. There was no comparison between the two.
Zhao Xin smiled. With his hands behind his back, he stood a few steps away and looked at He Shen. He said jokingly: "Master He, I really admire you. Is your current family property 200 million or 300 million? Guarding so much It’s amazing how I can still eat well, sleep well, and have fun every day with the greedy people’s wealth and wealth!”
He Shen's face turned livid. He didn't expect that Zhao Xin would go straight to his property without saying a few words. It seemed that he must have something up his sleeve. He stared at Zhao Xinda nervously: "What do you mean by your coming here? Do you want to win over He? I advise Mr. Zhao not to have any wishful thinking!"
"Don't worry, Mr. He. You said you have Nanmu Hall and an indoor garden, not to mention tens of thousands of acres of farmland and hundreds of shops. I'm very curious. Waiting for 100,000 Northern Navy Once you enter the customs, how much can you take with you?"
He Shen was so angry that he almost cursed, saying in his heart that even if I set you on fire, it would not be easy for you!
"Your Excellency came all the way from outside the customs, could it be just to make fun of He? It's okay not to talk about it!"
"Don't bother me! I just said a few words and you got angry. How dare the Prime Minister be so generous?"
Zhao Xin shook his head with a smile, stepped on the stones and walked to the pavilion to sit down. He tilted his head and looked at the golden carp that was more than a foot long in the water. He pondered for a moment whether it tasted better braised in braised sauce or dry braised, and then changed his mind. He looked at He Shen and said, "Master He, if Qianlong dies, how long do you think you can live?"
1. Historically, there were no direct male descendants of Heshen. The youngest daughter of Heshen and his second aunt married Guiqing of the Fucha family. Their legitimate son Ruixiu once served as the prefect of Jiaxing, Zhejiang Province. However, because he was appointed as the supervisor of the Baoyuan Bureau, he was sentenced to death in prison for embezzling more than 27,000 pieces of silver. He was really like his grandfather. Afterwards, the stolen goods were compensated and distributed, and he was released with grace and returned to Beijing. No news was heard from him again. Interestingly, this man also had a half-sister who was married to Zai Chong, the fifth son of Beile Yiheng, who was also the great-great-grandfather of Mr. Qi Gong. 2. In 1937, with the death of the last Prince Gong Puwei in Changchun, the palace was also sold to Fu Jen Catholic University by his descendants. The entire rear building was converted into a female dormitory, and the entire landscape of Shuifa Building was also destroyed. It was demolished and a second-story partition was erected.
(End of chapter)
