Chapter 791: Life is like a guest without a trace of myself
Two days later, follow the garden.
The slanting sunlight in the afternoon falls meltingly on the front and rear of the Xiaocang Mountain House. The mottled light and shadow crosses the porch and reflects on the crystal clear glass windows, shining brightly. In the yard of Xixuan, there is a Qiu tree that is only five feet tall.
The ancient cypresses are as green as scales, and their emerald green branches and leaves are curling in the wind. The Taihu stone standing next to it is exquisite and clear, like a graceful girl facing it.
The line of sight moved westward, across the corridor, around the "Golden Stone Collection" filled with gold and stone antiques, turned south, passed through the "Huanxiang Place" full of peonies in summer, and further west, arrived at the place where Yuan Mei took a nap in the afternoon -
Xiaomianzhai.
This five-bay hall is surrounded by osmanthus and green bananas, with only a stone path leading to other places. It has an artistic conception far away from the hustle and bustle. At this moment, the room is filled with green smoke and silver charcoal. The seventy-nine-year-old
Yuan Mei is wearing a pair of glasses and is sitting on the couch playing music.
Yuan Mei has been fond of Go all his life. In recent years, whether he was in Jiangning or traveling, he played chess almost every day. He also recorded the winning and losing situations in detail. His attitude was not unserious. Even during the time in Beihai Town last year, he visited various places during the day.
In the evening, he would drag Zhao Yi, Wang Zhong, Duan Yucai, Jiao Xun and others to play chess with him.
If a knowledgeable person is present at this time, he will be surprised by the chessboard and chess pieces in front of him, and may even feel envious and jealous. Because the entire chessboard is actually made of two large pieces of agarwood, and the lines and stars on it are
The dots are inlaid with thin silver wire, exuding a faint sweet aroma; while the black and white chess pieces are made of rhino horn and ivory, the white ones are warm and the black ones are cool.
A truly rare treasure!
Well, this set of chess pieces is actually "trash" that Zhao Xin picked up from the Royal Palace in Hue a few years ago. Since he himself has no interest in Go, and both rhino horns and ivory were contraband in another time and space,
There was no way to exchange it for money, so it sat in the warehouse in his backyard gathering dust for several years.
Last year, at the age of seventy-eight, Yuan Meineng traveled thousands of miles to support the new imperial examination in Beihai Town. Zhao Xin felt that no matter what the purpose, he had to express his gratitude and give a return gift.
.When he learned that the old man invited people to play chess every day, he found this set of things.
Because the gifts were received just before boarding the ship, and they were packed in a suitcase. There were a lot of people present to see him off, and there were also a lot of gifts. Yuan Mei didn't even bother to look at them. When he opened the box, he let out a shocked exclamation,
The "Thor" has already passed the Tsushima Strait.
He knew very well how precious this set of chess pieces was, so when he returned to Sui Garden, he kept it in the "Gold and Stone Collection" and never showed it to anyone else, only occasionally taking it out for his own entertainment.
"Pa~~"
When the last white stone fell on the chess board, the seventh game of the "Danghu Game" that took place fifty-five years ago was all played out. Seeing this, the concubine Zhong Ji on the side handed over the hot towel in her hand.
passed.
After Yuan Mei finished wiping her hands, Zhong Ji took another plate from the table nearby. Inside was a square, golden baked cake.
He learned how to make cakes from Beihai Town. At that time, he tasted it for the first time at the dinner party hosted by the Travelers for him and Zhao Yi, and was immediately impressed by its soft and sweet taste.
In order to make "Yuan Da Foodie" satisfied and comfortable with his food, Zhao Xin even used several of his own chefs to cook different dishes every day, serving Chinese and Western food in turn.
When Yuan Mei left, in addition to large and small packages of gifts and specialties, there was also a thick cookbook. After returning to Xiaocang Mountain, he immediately asked the cook at home to learn how to make these dishes from another time and space.
, all included in his "Suiyuan Food List".
For example, duck, which was originally included in the Yu clan list, now has a "roast duck in a hanging oven" method.
Just as Yuan Mei was enjoying afternoon tea contentedly, she suddenly heard a rush of footsteps outside the door. Soon, the door was pushed open, and a young man of eighteen or nineteen years old walked in quickly.
This man was of medium height, wearing a sapphire blue dark floral silk robe, a crimson belt, and a white jade braid at the root of his hair. He looked like a rich man. However, his face, which was originally pretty and pretty, now looked abnormal.
pale.
Yuan Mei put down the silver fork in his hand and asked strangely: "Atong, why are you so panicked?"
The person who came was Yuan Mei's eldest son, Yuan Tong. He walked quickly and shouted in a low voice: "Father! Something bad is going on, something is going wrong! The court, the court is going to take action against our family! They are going to raid our house.
Suiyuan, I’ll put you under house arrest!”
"Ah!" As soon as these words came out, Zhong Ji beside her suddenly turned pale and cried out.
Yuan Mei was also surprised when he heard this, but he still said calmly: "Don't be anxious, speak clearly."
Yuan Tong was as anxious as an ant on a hot pot at this moment. He repeated what E Su told him at noon, and finally asked: "Father, I'm afraid that the government will take action in the next few days, let's go out for a while first."
?”
Yuan Mei stroked his beard and pondered for a long time, then shook his head slightly and said: "Atong, have you ever thought about it, the imperial court was able to send a prince south to serve as a father, but Brother Qingcun didn't get any news, I'm afraid a dragnet has been set up long ago.
According to my guess, not only our family, but also Zhao Yunsong's place is in bad shape."
"Then, what should we do?"
"For the current plan, we can only ask the one in the north for help."
"They? I'm afraid it's too late!"
"You don't understand." Yuan Mei glanced at his son meaningfully, and then told Yuan Tong how to contact Beihai Town's stronghold in Jiangning City.
When he was in Beihai Town last year, Jiao Xun told him exactly what happened from being imprisoned to escaping, which made Yuan Mei and Zhao Yi look shocked. They never expected that that scene would happen.
The prison robbery that once caused a sensation throughout Jiangnan was actually carried out by Zhao Xin himself, and there were only two people in total.
However, compared to Jiao Xun and others who escaped from Yangzhou, Yuan Mei did not want to leave Jiangning or give up Suiyuan, which she had worked hard for many years.
This is a private garden that even the richest man in the world, He Shen, would envy, and even Qianlong would not welcome him. Its history can be traced back to the "Jiao Garden" built by Wu Yingji in the late Ming Dynasty.
Wu Yingji is one of the leaders of "Guomen Guangye Society". He is good friends with Hou Fangyu, Chen Dingsheng, Mao Pijiang and Fang Yizhi. He also appeared in Kong Shangren's "The Peach Blossom Fan". Well, he is with "Qin Huai"
Kou Baimen, one of the "Eight Beauties", was the one who fell in love with at first sight at the box party.
After the decline of "Jiaoyuan", this land changed its owners three times. The Cao family of Jiangning weaving was succeeded by the Hede family of Sui Dynasty. Finally, it was purchased by Yuan Mei with 300 taels of silver forty-six years ago.
In order to raise the funds needed to build the garden, Yuan Mei spent the past forty years as a landlord, a literary giant, a publisher, a training class teacher, and a social celebrity. He worked hard to make money and invested tens of thousands of taels of silver. Only then did he have " The scene of the morning sun rising, the greenery blooming, the bamboo trees on the terraces, and the long autumn water in the sky.
Here are not only the pavilions, pavilions, flowers and plants that he painstakingly designed, but also the collection of more than 300,000 volumes of books, as well as various inscriptions, antiques, calligraphy and paintings, as well as the wives, concubines, children, and servants who accompany him day and night.
Not to mention that he was approaching eighty, his wife Wang was also seventy-seven. In panic, she was homeless and her body couldn't bear it. If anything happened, it would be too late to regret it.
Yuan Mei was a lustful and romantic person in his life, and he married seven or eight concubines. Since his first concubine, Tao Ji, was very talented but died young, he believed from then on that "a woman with talent is a taboo for creation." Ye", so after marrying concubines, they were all based on beauty rather than talent.
Nowadays, many of his concubines have either died or been given away by him. Apart from his wife Wang, only Lu Ji and Zhong Ji are left with him. And the frightened Zhong Ji next to him is also Yuan Chi's biological mother.
When talking about Yuan Chi, one must mention that he has been engaged to the Shen family of Zhuxi and will get married next year. If he escapes, the Shen family will be implicated.
Also, even if the whole family can escape, Jiangning General Qinglin will definitely suffer the same fate. You must know that the entire Jiangsu officialdom is aware of the relationship between the two families.
Although both parties are their own masters, how can they give up the friendship that has lasted for decades? If someone dares to go out of his way to let his son deliver the news to him, he cannot trap Qinglin in injustice!
Yuan Mei is already eighty years old. For him, apart from his son's marriage and the continuation of Suiyuan, the major issues now are when the Northern Navy will enter the customs to replace the Manchus. As for life and death, he had looked away three years ago. .
It is said that when Yuan Mei was 46 years old, a man named Hu Wenbing showed him his face and then told him that you will have a child at the age of 63 and die at the age of 76. Yuan Mei has not believed in ghosts and gods all his life, so he just listened to it. Who would have expected him? At the age of 63, he really had a son, so he began to believe that his fate was inevitable.
In the fifty-sixth year of Qianlong's reign, the 76-year-old Yuan Mei's health was indeed worse than before. First, he suffered from dysentery. During his illness, he dreamed that a monk came to his door and told him the exact time of his death. So he asked his colleagues and friends to give him money in advance. I wrote elegy and made arrangements in advance for my family.
On New Year's Eve of that year, everyone in the garden was anxiously waiting for him to "sit down and wait for death." Unknowingly, it was the first day of the Lunar New Year during the torment. Until a rooster crowed and dawn came, Yuan Mei was safe and sound. The whole family cried with joy.
It was precisely because of this experience that Yuan Mei completely put life and death aside, toured the rooftops, climbed Mount Huangshan, and even dared to take a boat to Beihai Town.
"Life is like a guest, who comes and goes. There is no reason for his coming, and there is no reason for his going. But when he comes, each one has his own way."
Beginning in 1791, with the establishment of the Beihai Navy Intelligence Bureau, Beihai Town also began to establish intelligence stations in major towns under the rule of the Qing Dynasty. The main task of these intelligence stations was not to cause destruction, but to collect information, including prices.
Various commercial information, drawing of the city's spatial structure including streets and bridges, and garrison defense information.
Specifically, there are four intelligence points in Jiangning City, outside Jiangdong Gate, Sanshan Street, and near the "Jinwang Ferry" at the foot of Taoye Mountain outside the east gate. Like the intelligence points in the capital, Jiangning's intelligence points are also different.
Horizontal contact occurs, and all collected intelligence is sent to Shandong by telegram every three days, and is then summarized and sent to the Intelligence Bureau headquarters.
Before Yuan Mei came back from Beihai Town, Zhao Xin told him privately when seeing him off that if he had any trouble in the future and needed help, he could send someone to a felt shop named "Tongxincheng" on Sanshan Street in the city to find a man named Chang.
The shopkeeper only needs to give the secret code and tell the truth.
Yuan Tong got his father's instructions and hurriedly came to the city in a sedan. Fortunately, Sanshan Street was not long, so he found the shop quickly. As soon as he entered the door, a faint smell of mutton hit his nose.
Channel.
The store was not big and there were no customers. When someone came to the door, a waiter with a Shanxi accent greeted him behind the counter: "Sir, do you want to choose felt? Then you have come to the right place. My number is
The felts you make are of the highest quality on Sanshan Street. The plush is fine and dense, and they are all made from..."
Yuan Tong was not in the mood to look at the felt, so he interrupted with a pale face: "Is your shopkeeper Chang here?"
"Uh, you're here, please wait a moment." After the clerk said that, he turned around and opened a small door leading to the backyard, and shouted: "Shopkeeper, there's someone out front!"
Not long after, a middle-aged man in his forties walked in from the door with his head lowered. He looked at Yuan Tong twice, then smiled and said, "My surname is Chang, he is the shopkeeper here. Dare you?"
Ask this guest officer what you want from Mr. Chang?"
Yuan Tong returned the gift, took a deep breath, and whispered: "I have a refrigerator, a refrigerator, and I want to exchange it with you for a washboard, no, a washing machine."
Hearing the other party stumblingly saying the secret code, Shopkeeper Chang's expression changed slightly, and then he raised a movable board on the counter and signaled to Yuan Tong: "Sir, please come with me."
After he finished speaking, he winked at the clerk. The clerk understood, nodded and ignored him.
When Yuan Tong followed him into the accounting room next to the receptionist's room, before he could speak, he heard shopkeeper Chang say: "Your Excellency, is Mr. Yuan Dafu Yuan?"
"Shopkeeper Chang knows Mr. Yuan? Sorry, Mr. Yuan swears to God, this is my first time here."
"Don't mind, Mr. Yuan. Although I know the code words, if Chang doesn't even know Mr. Yuan and his son, how can we do anything? In a crowded place like Sanshan Street, you can't be too careful when doing things."
Yuan Tong was surprised and said: "How do you know what I look like? We have never met."
Shopkeeper Chang said with a smile: "Mr. Yuan, noble people often forget things. Last year, you and layman Cangshan went to the north. Did you apply for a pass after getting off the ship? We have a file."
"You mean photos?" Yuan Tong suddenly realized.
To be honest, the two months he spent in Beihai Town felt like a dream now. He saw so many new and strange things, it was like entering a kaleidoscope. Compared with the photo, the three-million-ton steel plant in Khabarovsk
That shocked him even more and was unforgettable.
"Mr. Yuan, what do you need help with today?"
"Yuan came here to beg you to protect my family's safety! Now the government is going to take action against my father! If it's too late, it may be too late!"
After Yuan Tong finished speaking, he bowed deeply to Shopkeeper Chang.