Me and Empress Dowager Cixi

Chapter 15: A King Is Like a Tiger (2)
When I saw her for the first time, she was just 24 years old, but judging by her demeanor, she was almost the same as an old woman in her 50s or [-]s.For this woman, no happiness or happiness has anything to do with her.The code of ethics not only forbids her to talk to any man, she cannot even laugh loudly, what is even more difficult is that she will not be able to step out of the palace gate for the rest of her life until she dies.Fortunately, God pity her, so she was born with a numb character, there is no such thing as "life" in her mind.Therefore, although her situation seemed desolate to outsiders, she didn't feel much about it herself.

There are also several female officials, since there are no outstanding features, there is no need to repeat them here.

What does the lady officer do?In fact, our work is very easy, we just need to serve the Queen Mother well.We don't need us for chores like dressing and combing our hair, though.We were in groups of two, taking turns to stand next to the Queen Mother, and talk to her when we had nothing to do to relieve boredom.But we are all very aware of the fact that "accompanying a king is like accompanying a tiger". Therefore, under normal circumstances, the Queen Mother is quoted, and we listen carefully with a look of interest. When the Queen Mother asks us Answer carefully.

When the queen mother really has nothing to do, she will play with the cards by herself. Our task is to stand behind her to see if she has made any mistakes, and to help her tidy up when the time is right.In addition, if she needs some glasses, a pipe or other small items, we can easily get them, so we will go and get them for her.If you are not in front of you, it will take a lot of effort to take it up, so those maids will do it.In short, our job is very easy.

To put it bluntly, the eight of us female officials, although we have different tempers and dispositions, all have outstanding looks.In terms of dressing, except that the headgear must be in a uniform style, the clothes can be left to your own preference.Therefore, we put a lot of thought into dressing, whether it is style or color, we try our best to avoid similarities.If someone wears light red clothes on this day, the other seven people will never wear clothes of this color again.Whenever you see the eight of us, your eyes will brighten up.We are so young, and once we dress up, everyone is radiant, which makes us very proud.

When it was time to go to bed at night, someone had to serve the Queen Mother in the bedroom.This job was a bit hard, so we took turns on duty, one person every night, once every eight days, and we got used to it after a long time.The queen mother has a habit of talking to people every day before going to bed, so every day those of us who are on duty have to chat with her casually until the queen mother falls asleep.Fortunately, the Queen Mother has never suffered from insomnia and can fall asleep quickly every day, otherwise we will suffer.

After the queen mother fell asleep, we couldn't sleep either. We could only sit on the floor or lean against the wall and take a nap, and we had to be careful not to snore.Every time I am on duty at night, I always don’t want to sleep, and all kinds of thoughts will keep popping up in my mind. The more it is in the dead of night, the more complicated my thoughts are.The Empress Dowager, Guangxu, their affairs kept turning in my mind.I always think: Why is Guangxu dissatisfied with the authoritarian policy implemented by the Queen Mother?The reason should be Guangxu. He is a man full of democratic ideas. The concept of their mother and child is fundamentally different, and they will never think of it together.

Who would have thought that my experience of sitting next to the queen mother's dragon bed would become a page of Chinese history today?
Behind the carriage of our female officials is a special carriage for the ladies of the palace, which is convenient for us to greet.They have to take care of themselves, there is no one to serve them, but our eight female officers are helped to take care of the affairs around them.There were four eunuchs and four maids who were responsible for making our beds, sweeping the floor, and preparing water for our washes.It was like this all the way to Fengtian, and it was the same when I came back.

Although someone took care of us, it was really uncomfortable not being able to take a bath. Fortunately, the trip was not long and the weather was not very hot, so we just made do with it.The queen mother usually likes to be clean and often takes a bath. This time on the train, she really had no choice but to wipe her body and wash her feet.It is easy to say, but it is very troublesome in practice.The royal family needs to take a bath, so the train can't move forward, it must stop, and the travel should also pay attention to one's majesty.But in this way, he also fixed himself in a rigid pattern-this is the royal family.

Let's talk about the eunuchs who served us.Not only did they help us with our laundry, but when we went to bed at night, they also waited on us at both ends of the carriage all night, just like we served the Queen Mother.If we say hello, they will be on call and do things for us.They also take turns on duty like we do.

On weekdays, those eunuchs can talk to us only when we find them, otherwise they will never dare to talk to us casually, if we are upset, they will be so scared that they dare not speak out.They can chat with the court ladies, but they can't be too public, and their words can't be too casual. They usually say a few words secretly when others are not paying attention.The reason for being so cautious is that the Empress Dowager would know that if the Empress Dowager heard that a eunuch was too close to a court lady, it would be a disaster.The court ladies would be dragged here immediately, take off their clothes in front of everyone, and beat them dozens of times with bamboo boards; but the eunuchs were not so lucky, and the only thing waiting for him was death.

For the eight of us female officers, although we have our own dedicated compartments, except for picking up things or sleeping at night, it is rare to go back once.We must all wait in the queen mother's carriage, quietly waiting for her orders, maybe at any time, she will think of one of us.Therefore, even if it is not our turn to be on duty, we dare not leave half a step.Readers must know the situation of patients waiting for doctor's treatment. We were like that at that time, but we must not sit down, we can only lie on the ground when we are tired, or rest against the wall for a while.

Even so, we are considered lucky.Apart from Guangxu, Longyu, Concubine Jin, Qingshan, Xunling and others, those who are qualified to sit on the entire imperial train are our eight female officials.However, our privilege can only be in our own compartment. If we are in the Queen Mother's compartment, we have to wait for her special order.Because of this, there are so many novel scenery along the way, we don't have the heart to appreciate it, we have to take a rest when we have the opportunity, it's really tiring.

The special compartments are the ones mentioned above, and the rest are where the eunuchs live.Although I have not had the opportunity to go there to see, but the specific situation is not difficult to imagine.There are too many people and so few cars, they can only squeeze inside, like sardines in a can.

Since there was always such a metaphor in my head, I couldn't help but say to an eunuch: "You are like canned sardines, packed tightly in those carriages!"

At that time, there was no concept of "sardines" in China. He scratched his head, not understanding what I was talking about.So, I told him carefully about the situation of foreigners making canned sardines, and he couldn't help laughing when he heard it.In this way, one pass ten, ten pass one hundred, not long after his publicity, all the eunuchs know this metaphor, including Li Lianying.Li Lianying has his own private compartment, so I won't offend him with this metaphor, but if he listens too much, he will be unhappy—no one wants to be called Xiaoyu!

For the title of eunuch, there is a very common name in Beijing, that is "rooster".This is based on the voices of the eunuchs, because their voices are high-pitched and high-pitched, very similar to chicken crowing.I think the eunuchs can probably accept this name, but they can't agree with "Little Fish", so they are not happy.

You can imagine the specific situation: there are more than 1000 eunuchs accompanying them, and their full uniforms alone will take up a lot of space, not to mention there are still people; It can accommodate more than 400 people.What a life that is!There was a carriage dedicated to the large sedan chairs of Guangxu and Longyu. Although there were only two sedan chairs, the carriage was very spacious and there was a lot of free space, but the eunuchs could not and dare not occupy it no matter what.The empress dowager's Luanyu is even more amazing. Not only is it covered with a very large yellow cloth, but it also enjoys a dedicated carriage, which is spacious enough to accommodate another six to seventy people, but no one has the guts to do so.

This is the treatment of being a eunuch in the palace, and it is not as expensive as a thing.As for the private vehicle behind us, I don't know what it looks like inside, because I can only see it from a distance, and I have never had a chance to get close.

Among these carriages, the most interesting one is the Queen Mother's.Thinking about it now, that carriage at that time was equivalent to the entire Qing Palace, and the old lady sitting in it was the core of the entire Qing Palace.

(End of this chapter)