After Xu Dayong met Ruan Yuan, the next person he wanted to meet was a eunuch named Li Qiucheng. However, he waited for several days without seeing anyone. But he also knew that it was extremely difficult for the eunuchs in the palace to ask for leave.
It is a difficult matter, so there is no need to rush or worry about it.
The reason why the Intelligence Bureau wanted to develop this relationship was mainly because there was a special group of people among the residents of Beihai Town - eunuchs. There were a total of fifty-seven eunuchs exiled by the Qing government under Beihai Town, and they were all exiled to Ningxia.
Guta may be from Heilongjiang. Before he was liberated, he either worked in the mountains and forests to supervise the processing of ginseng, or he was enslaved by armored men, and his life was extremely miserable.
The eunuchs who were exiled to the Northeast during the Qing Dynasty were convicted for many reasons.
Some fights caused big troubles, such as in the forty-eighth year of Qianlong's reign, a group of eunuchs fought over catching crabs in a ditch north of the interesting Luoshi Tower in the Old Summer Palace, and ended up killing one of them; some stole things from the palace and sold them
For example, in the 34th year of Qianlong's reign, the eunuch Zhou Jinchao stole the Buddha statue enshrined in the Long'en Hall of Xiling.
Gao Yuncong was beheaded, but his disciples were implicated and exiled.
In addition, there were those who could not bear the inhuman treatment and ran away from the palace, and there were even those who were exiled just because they showed dissatisfaction on their faces; for example, an old eunuch named Zhang Yinliang once worked in the Construction Office, and ten years ago he
The old man in the Old Summer Palace saw another eunuch being punished and felt unfair, so he looked dissatisfied. As a result, he was sent to Heilongjiang by Qianlong to be an armored slave.
Among the former Qing palace eunuchs in Beihai Town, except for a few who entered the civil affairs system as clerks like Lin Chunlai, the other older ones were all assigned to work as gatekeepers in factories or schools after being screened by the Public Security Police Department.
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In order to take care of this special group, Beihai Town has spent a lot of energy over the years.
First, they are allowed to live together in households according to their own wishes. Each household has three to four people, and they are also given fifty acres of land. However, due to the physical disabilities of these people, the land allocated to them is all allocated to them by the administrative village where they are located.
Trusteeship, you can get 50% of the grain after the autumn harvest.
The other is to treat them equally and reduce the rejection and discrimination of new and old immigrants by repeatedly publicizing them in the community; the most important thing is not to call them "husband". In the Qing Dynasty, the meaning of the word "husband" can be as follows
It is different in later generations. It refers specifically to eunuchs, and it is a huge insult, as serious as scolding a person's eight generations of ancestors.
In addition, Beihai Town also treated people with poor health, arranged for people to take classes, taught them reading and literacy, and enriched their lives by reading and listening to the radio. You must know that the Qing Dynasty was different from the Ming Dynasty, and the educational level of eunuchs was generally
It was very low. Only a few people in this group were literate, but they could only roughly understand a few words. The emperor did not allow them to be proficient in writing.
The problem is that a person's cultural level is too low, which will have many negative impacts on their mentality, such as a huge sense of inferiority and humiliation, which will make them deeply believe that they are inferior to others, or even not human.
Since then, the more than 50 former eunuchs in Beihai Town have lived a new life that was unimaginable to them. They have simply been reborn. The most important thing is that they have regained their dignity as human beings, and this is more important than anything else.
You must know that the psychology of the eunuchs is extremely sensitive, and their emotions change very quickly, and they easily go from one extreme to another. Everyone in Beihai Town was so grateful to Zhao Xin for treating them like this, even more than the more than 300 early naturalized citizens.
They also wanted to be loyal to Zhao Xin. So they all revealed their relationships in the capital, hoping to be used by "King Zhao".
What kind of relationship network can eunuchs have? Even if they were eunuchs in the Yangxin Palace before - running errands for the emperor every day, which seemed like a glamorous one, but now they are like a fallen phoenix and not as good as a chicken. The connections they can provide can only be
They were the eunuchs with whom they had good relationships in the past, as well as the apprentices and godsons they had recognized in the palace.
But the problem comes again. Eunuchs are a very lonely group because they have experienced physical pain, mental discrimination, and ruthless oppression and exploitation by their masters and even superiors. However, there must be something hateful about the poor people. Therefore,
What this brings about is extreme selfishness, making it difficult to have any real friends.
In addition, there is a pyramid-like hierarchical system within the eunuch community, just like a daughter-in-law who has been married for many years; eunuchs with high status can suppress and bully eunuchs with lower status than themselves, and older eunuchs can also bully those with lower status.
I am a young eunuch who is young and inexperienced. Even if the eunuch has not made any mistakes, as long as he doesn't like it, he will bully the newcomers in every possible way and even beat them to death.
So the fact is that the fifty-seven people were very popular in the palace at first, and there were really few who were not hated by others.
Even so, after repeated analysis, the Northern Navy Intelligence Bureau finally selected eight candidates for development from the list provided by these former eunuchs, and Li Qiucheng was one of them.
This person is the apprentice of Zhang Yinliang, the former eunuch of the Manufacturing Office mentioned earlier. He is currently the deputy chief eunuch of the Jingshi Room and the sixth-grade palace eunuch. Both of them are from Hejian, Zhili, and their hometown villages are just across the street.
Yahe.
The Jingshifang is an agency affiliated with the Ministry of Internal Affairs. It is responsible for complying with edicts, undertaking palace affairs and etiquette, collecting money and food from the external treasury, screening and replenishing internal prisons, and inspecting the opening and closing of each door and the security of fire and candles. Many people think that
In the Forbidden City, the eunuch in charge of the Qianqing Palace and the Memorial Office has great power. However, the eunuch in charge of the Jingshi Room actually has even greater power. He is in charge of the affairs of all eunuchs and maids in the Forbidden City. For example, if the eunuch and the maid make a mistake, they have to go to the palace to pay respects.
The room is covered with boards.
At the beginning, shopkeeper Dong of "Huang Shengtai" finally let Li Qiucheng meet him with the gift of a land deed of 500 acres of irrigated land in Hejian Mansion. Li Qiucheng originally thought that shopkeeper Dong wanted to be the "employee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs"
"Businessman", so he followed his path.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! For example, the eggs that Qianlong ate cost 10 taels of silver each, and the selling price in the outside market was three cents each. The person responsible for supplying the eggs was the "businessman" of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
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After receiving such a generous gift, Li Qiucheng asked some small purchases to be handed over to "Huang Shengtai". Although it was not worth mentioning compared to the five hundred acres of irrigated land, this kind of thing was worth mentioning.
It's a steady stream. More than a year has passed like this. During this period, "Huang Shengtai" did not do much business, but Deputy General Manager Li has collected more than 3,000 taels of silver from Shopkeeper Dong.
Shopkeeper Dong was determined to win over, but Li Qiucheng was soft on the cashier. At the end of last year, the two of them burned yellow paper and cut off the chicken heads to pay homage. By this time, the two of them had talked about everything, and Shopkeeper Dong had also heard a lot.
Secrets of the palace.
Seeing that the time was right, shopkeeper Dong took out Zhang Yinliang's autographed letter with the approval of the Intelligence Bureau. Only then did Li Qiucheng realize that he had boarded the "thief ship" in Beihai Town and that he could no longer escape if he tried to escape.
But when he read the letter and listened to Shopkeeper Dong's description of Beihai Town, Li Qiucheng was shocked. If he hadn't seen with his own eyes the photo taken of Zhang Yinliang standing in his courtyard with a smile, he would have killed him.
unbelievable.
Okay, now that we've reached this point, it's time to negotiate terms.
Deputy General Manager Li's wish is to become the General Manager of the Imperial Palace in the "New Dynasty" - that is, at the same level as the eunuch in charge of the Manchu Qing Dynasty. At the same time, he needs the endorsement of His Highness King Zhao, which is a personal letter. The Qing Palace's Jingshi
The full name of the eunuch in charge of the house is "palace supervisor and attendant". He is in charge of all eunuchs and maids, and his rank is fourth grade.
Shopkeeper Dong almost laughed out loud when he heard this, but he still held back and did not dare. Instead, he told his sworn brother with a serious face that he would definitely convey it to King Zhao.
When Zhao Xin learned about Li Qiucheng's conditions, he thought it would be fine. Anyway, the Forbidden City will be renovated into a museum in the future. If this person can be used, he will be allowed to join the management committee in the future. So he wrote a letter and promised in his own hand that Deputy Li
From then on, the general manager took charge of all the palaces in the Forbidden City (actually the cultural management office), and also stamped the newly engraved seal and asked Xu Dayong to bring it.
On the 20th day of the seventh lunar month, Xu Dayong, who was already impatient with waiting, finally met Li Qiucheng in the backyard of "Huang Shengtai".
This person is not tall, wearing a maroon poplin robe, a waistcoat, and a melon-pipe hat. He has an ocher-yellow face, high cheekbones, slightly long cheeks, big eyes, a high nose bridge, thick lips, and wide lips.
The chin looks honest and honest.
As soon as they met and exchanged greetings, Li Qiucheng said softly in a drake voice: "I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry! Li finally found an excuse to ask for leave, and he has to go back in an hour. Mr. Xu
, Master Zhang, is he okay?"
Xu Dayong often saw those former eunuchs in Beihai Town, and he had chatted with Zhang Yinliang several times before coming here, so he had no discomfort with Li Qiucheng's voice and said with a smile: "Uncle Zhang is in good health! Before I come here
I also went to see him. I heard that this time I came to see Mr. Li, and he told me a lot about your childhood!"
Li Qiucheng was stunned. He stared at Xu Dayong and looked him up and down for a long time. He asked with an unbelievable look on his face: "You call Master Zhang uncle? You call me sir?"
"Yes, he is over sixty. Isn't it right to call him uncle? Isn't it offensive to call you Mr. Li?"
After hearing this, Li Qiucheng's eye circles gradually turned red, and then he actually shed tears and started to cry.
He is used to serving people in the palace, and observing people's emotions has become a survival instinct. Normally doing errands is like walking on a tightrope. If his foot staggers, he will fall into an abyss. If it weren't for these two brushes, he would not be able to climb up to serve.
The position of deputy house manager and eunuch.
He knew that Xu Dayong came from Beihai Town and brought an autographed letter from His Royal Highness King Zhao, so he could not be guilty of flattering himself in such a low-profile manner. However, from the other party's expression and tone just now, he did not feel a trace of discrimination.
, but a kind of equal treatment between people.
You must know that eunuchs generally have low self-esteem. They have been oppressed and enslaved for a long time, and work in cycles day after day. The eunuchs who have been in the palace for a long time have lost all the good hopes they had for life. They instead show their will.
Depressed, numb and decadent mentality, and step by step into an endless cycle of decadence - inferiority - more decadence - even more inferiority, gradually becoming self-denial and self-contempt.
Xu Dayong and Shopkeeper Dong both looked at each other, wondering what they had just said wrong. Why was this guy still crying?
Li Qiucheng cried for a while, took out a handkerchief from his sleeve and wiped it, and said with a tearful voice: "Mr. Xu was made to laugh! This is the first time in all my life that someone has called me 'sir', and I am really ashamed of myself."
We people, regardless of our superficial appearance, are actually people living in the dust. When the masters are happy, they call us by our nicknames. If they are unhappy, they will beat us randomly and beat us to death.
Just bury a package of boards in Enji Manor and settle the matter. I have been in the palace all these years, and to put it bluntly, if you want to survive, you have to stop treating yourself as a human being."
After hearing this, Shopkeeper Xu Dayong and Shopkeeper Dong breathed out a sigh of relief and thought to themselves, okay, that's what happened.
"Mr. Li, Beihai Town is different from the Manchus. There are no masters, no slaves, no slaves there." Xu Dayong sorted out his words and continued: "King Zhao has said from the beginning that everyone in the world should
They are equal. We have beggars from Henan, danhus from Guangdong, and of course there are people like you. Take me for example. I used to be a pirate. Since I followed King Zhao, I have changed
Way to live.”
Li Qiucheng wiped his tears, nodded and said: "Master, he has suffered a lot in the past few years. As a disciple, I can't do anything to help. Every night, my heart is like a knife. Fortunately, the king of Zhao has descended from heaven.
, Master is now living a life of immortality, and I can finally feel at ease."
Seeing that he was almost crying, Xu Dayong took out Zhao Xin's autographed letter from his arms and handed it over. Li Qiucheng stood up quickly, took it with trembling hands, and bowed three times toward the northeast.
He took out the letter and read it.
He looked at it very carefully, even looking at Zhao Xin's seal for a long time. Fortunately, the sentences written by Zhao Xin were very straightforward and did not use those formal vocabulary, so it was easy for Li Qiucheng to understand.
After reading the letter, Li Qiucheng's emotions calmed down. He looked up at the roof, rolled his eyes a few times, and a strange smile flashed across his face. Then he lowered his head and said to Xu Dayong: "Master Xu, Zhao
The king asked me to serve as an internal agent and take care of the palace and gardens when the king comes to the capital. If I want to handle this matter well, I am afraid it will be difficult for me to do it alone."
"If you have something to say, you might as well say it."
"Well, it's impossible to do this without anyone in the palace to help you. But if you want someone to help you, it's hard to do without money."
"How much do you need?"
Li Qiucheng suddenly changed the topic and said, "I heard from my brother that as long as he is from Beihai Town, his land will be divided?"
"Yes, a family has fifty acres. In one year, one acre of land can yield three to four hundred kilograms of grain."
Li Qiucheng made a calculation in his mind, and his eyes suddenly lit up. Fifty acres of land could actually produce 20,000 kilograms of grain. His 500 acres of irrigated land would only produce 70,000 to 80,000 kilograms of grain, and the weather had to be favorable!
"Then can you, can you also give me fifty acres?"
"Haha, Mr. Li, although we haven't entered the customs yet, the territory under the command of King Zhao is larger than that of the Qing Dynasty. There are more than ten thousand miles of fertile fields and fertile fields! Fifty acres is no problem."
Li Qiucheng patted the armrest of the Grand Master's chair and said, "Mr. Xu, be happy! That's it, two thousand acres of irrigated land, fifty thousand taels of silver, and I'll find someone in the palace and garden!"
Xu Dayong almost slipped out of his chair. This guy really dared to ask for 50,000 yuan? He had a total of 20,000 yuan in silver notes with him. This was really troublesome!