Me and Empress Dowager Cixi

Chapter 23 The Great Wall Collapsed (2)
I couldn't help my curiosity, and asked the Queen Mother privately, if the yacht was here, how would she plan to play.Unexpectedly, this aroused her conversation, like a person who is very thirsty, suddenly heard someone talking about the taste of tea, and immediately became interested.She said that if that was the case, she would let us take the yacht with her and the others in the car, but the car must drive slowly and go forward with the yacht.How novel was her idea!That way, the pleasure of boating would not be missed, nor would the pleasure of watching her yellow train roll slowly on the railroad.It's just that she has never considered how much manpower these two pleasures will consume, and she will not consider it.

Since we can't appreciate the fun of rafting, we can only go back to the car in the end and continue the rest of the journey.At this time, the right side of the railway was already close to Liaodong Bay.Beidaihe and Qinhuangdao are two scenic spots along the coast of Liaodong Bay. The Queen Mother always goes there on weekdays, so she was not very interested and didn't go to see them.For the queen mother, this is not a pity, but we all feel a little pity.At this moment, all the queen mother wanted was to go to Fengtian and see Shanhaiguan, which is known as the first pass in the world.There is not only a dangerous pass there, but also the Great Wall that once divided the Central Plains and the three northeastern provinces into two in the long history of our country came to an end there.The gray ancient city wall that stretches for thousands of miles is connected with the blue sea there.

This special yellow imperial train finally arrived at Shanhaiguan after traveling through the green grass of Cangshan Mountain for a long time.Looking from a distance, the mountains are majestic, and the Great Wall is like a giant dragon winding on it.Although everyone calls it the Great Wall, in fact it is only more than 8000 miles long. If calculated by kilometer, it should be about [-] kilometers, but such a project can already be regarded as a miracle.

Shanhaiguan belongs to the border of Linyu County, Linyu is a small place, there are no prosperous shops, and it is not lively at all.If it was in normal times, according to the Queen Mother's temperament, she would never stay in such a remote place, but Shanhaiguan really aroused her too much interest, so even such a small county town has attracted a lot of attention. her attention.As soon as our train stopped, she began to urge Li Lianying to get ready for marriage, planning to go around this small county town.

Thinking about it now, Qingshan and the others were quite foresighted.Before the Empress Dowager set off, they had already notified the officials here to give them enough time to make preparations and dress up this ruined county so that the Empress Dowager would not feel unhappy after seeing it.Therefore, when the queen mother said that she was going to make an inspection tour, everyone was not nervous at all. After all, they had been notified for eight or nine days, so they should put on a show no matter what.At this time, the local officials, like those at Tianjin Station, knelt down beside the station in splendid attire to welcome the arrival of the saint.It's just that these people's official ranks are too small, and there are no people who can attract the attention of the Queen Mother. Therefore, they came here for nothing this time, and they didn't even see what the Queen Mother looked like. They just added to this small station. Just some excitement.

They probably don't have the strength to build a new platform here, so they just spread a layer of yellow sand on the old platform.Under the guidance of the local chief executive, the empress dowager's Luanyu walked out of the station and walked slowly along several slightly wider roads.These streets are usually dirty and ugly, but at this time, everything is covered by that layer of golden sand.I have no way of knowing what the queen mother was thinking at the time, but I am very disgusted with this kind of temporary cramming.The Chinese are like this. They are unwilling to prepare for anything in advance, and even if they do, they are unwilling to do it well. They always like to play tricks and opportunistically at the last moment.This is what it looks like right now.This little trouble became more apparent when we passed a city gate.The city gate is not a simple project. Although there are seven or eight days to prepare, the collapse is too serious and it is not repaired in time. How can it be repaired in a short time?Therefore, the city gate at this time is like an old man in his twilight, slanting down there.

It only took about half an hour for the queen mother to walk all the streets in this small county.And what kind of feelings she has in her heart, who can know?I don't know if it's the same as what I thought.

After coming out of the county town, the queen mother asked someone to carry her to a nearby hill.Although this mountain is very low, you can have a panoramic view of the surrounding scenery from the top, especially the Great Wall that stretches for thousands of miles, which must be very clear.I was secretly thinking about how pleasant it would be to enjoy the scenery on that mountain. The Queen Mother has already ordered Li Lianying to find someone to prepare a sedan chair for us.This good opportunity cannot be lost no matter what.

What a delight it would be to stand on a hill and look out over the fields!Who wouldn't want to play?I think the other female officers must have been very happy at the time.We took the train to Fengtian, of course we couldn't bring our own sedan chairs with us like the Queen Mother did, but in the Qing Dynasty, the only means of transportation in various places was sedan chairs, so now it is extremely easy to find a dozen of them temporarily.Moreover, Qingshan and the others had thought of this a long time ago, and had already informed the officials here that they must prepare several official sedan chairs when picking them up, just in case.

Finally reached the top of the mountain.Facing the continuous Great Wall in front of her eyes, the Queen Mother smiled, and that slight smile was full of complacency.She said excitedly: "Back then, the Great Wall was supposed to keep us out! But now? Not only have we come in, but we can also watch it from a distance on the high mountain inside the pass. People at that time How could they think of this? They are so ignorant and insist on seeing us as different from them. In fact, what is the difference between us? We are also part of China, from language to customs, we are different from them. The mainland has many similarities, even the same. Moreover, since we came into power, it has become more integrated with the mainland. The former boundaries have been swept away, only this decadent big project, It remains intact."

What the queen mother said is not unreasonable. The three eastern provinces originally belonged to China. Although the people there have their own unique temperaments, since the Manchus entered the customs and took power, the people in Central China have assimilated the Manchus, and there is almost no difference.

The Empress Dowager seemed to think of a lot when she said this. She said: "At the end of the Ming Dynasty, there used to be a general named Wu Sangui guarding here, facing us from a distance. Unexpectedly, there were constant internal troubles in China at that time, and bandits were rampant. Unfortunately, not only were the officers and soldiers incapable of destroying them, but they suffered from them again and again, making it difficult for Chongzhen to even secure the throne. Under such circumstances, General Wu sent people to our side to ask for help , we immediately agreed. So he opened the door himself and welcomed us in. We entered the customs smoothly and established the Qing Dynasty. This is simply an unexpected harvest! Of course, for the Central Plains and the three eastern provinces In other words, merging the two into one is something that is beneficial to both parties.”

We stayed on this hill for more than an hour, and we were almost tired of looking at the scenery in front of us, but the old lady, the Queen Mother, still looked at it with great interest.Not only that, after seeing it on the mountain, she seemed to feel that it was not enough to enjoy herself, so she suddenly thought of going to the seaside to see where the Great Wall enters the sea.I really can't figure out why she insists on going to that place that has no special meaning.

Facing the damaged buildings, she pointed with her fingers and said with emotion: "In the past, the Great Wall in this part of Binhai was originally built stronger than other places, and the area was also very large. It was probably intended to be used for coastal defense." The long dikes used. Look now, what have they collapsed into? They are useless at all! In addition, the Shanhai Pass that was used to block us in the past has also opened the door to us. Probably decades or hundreds of years later , people will gradually forget why the ancient emperors built the Great Wall, until one day they will forget all about it!"

This is indeed the case. The collapse of the Great Wall has become more and more serious, and the damage near Shanhaiguan is even greater. For more than 2000 years, the end of the Great Wall has been washed by the sea day and night, and there are many phenomena of automatic collapse, like an elderly person dying slowly.The track of Jingfeng Railway passes through its big gap, and it looks very spacious.As for the collapsed bricks and stones, since no one was guarding them, the nearby residents picked them up and used them for themselves. What’s more, they even secretly demolished the undamaged parts and moved them to their own homes... Such a great ancient building, how could it be Let it be destroyed like this, it is very normal for the Queen Mother to express such emotion.

We stand at the dividing point between the Central Plains and the three northeastern provinces, walking out from the Great Wall is where our ancestors entered the Central Plains.When the queen mother saw all this, she didn't know what she would think. According to my opinion, she seemed to be very fascinated by the blue water of Liaodong Bay.

Slowly, she turned her eyes from the sea to the high mountains. They all looked like prisoners who had been locked there for years and years. The Great Wall was the iron chain that tied them.

Immediately afterwards, the queen mother looked to the east again, and that was the direction of Fengtian.As she looked into the distance, she muttered something in a low voice, and because the voice was too small, I couldn't hear what she was saying.However, it can be seen from her eyes that there seems to be some figure or scene far away that has attracted her deeply, and her expression is strange and focused.We saw her staring so intently, so we followed suit, but we didn't find anything special.

Finally, the Queen Mother had seen enough, so we followed her back to the car and continued on our way.The train started slowly, like a crooked earthworm, slowly left the small station and passed through the aforementioned gap in the Great Wall.When the locomotive in front slowly entered the boundaries of the three eastern provinces, our carriage was still driving on the land of the Central Plains!Soon, these yellow carriages left the Central Plains one by one and drove into our hometown.Although I am not a person with a strong sense of place, the three northeastern provinces are my hometown anyway, and my ancestors lived on this land.The Queen Mother's ancestors belonged to the Yehenala family, and they also multiplied there.

One of the greatest contributions of the three eastern provinces should be the creation of that unparalleled figure in the world-Nurhachi, the emperor of the Qing Dynasty. It was this man who brought about tremendous changes in the entire history of China.The subsequent emperors of the Qing Dynasty: Shunzhi, Kangxi, Yongzheng, Qianlong, Jiaqing, Daoguang, Xianfeng... until Guangxu, they were all descendants of Nurhachi.Including our family, which is also his direct heir, because there are too many branches, it doesn't show how important it is.Take the empress dowager as an example, she is a descendant of the Yehenala family, and this family has never been very important.Until the fall of the Qing Dynasty, only the Empress Dowager Cixi was the only one who stood out among them.As for me, although I am said to be a direct descendant of Nurhachi, now I have to serve the queen mother in the palace in a humble manner. This world is really unpredictable.

(End of this chapter)