Me and Empress Dowager Cixi

Chapter 25 Lafayette returns to his hometown (2)
The scene at that time was grand and unbearable!But if you want to see clearly, sitting in the plane is the best.It’s just that in China at that time, not to mention airplanes, even the shadow of airplanes was never seen.Even if there is, as a female official, she must not fly a plane in the sky to secretly watch the holy car.However, at this time, I can see very clearly, because there is a sedan chair, which is basically condescending, and I can see everything around me clearly.

At that time, the most eye-catching thing was the two rows of well-dressed bannermen. They prostrated themselves on the ground one by one, almost like toads, with their heads lowered so hard that their lips almost touched the ground.In front of them are the two lines of officials who came to receive the driving ceremony. Compared with the soldiers, these people are indeed tougher. Although they are also kneeling with their heads down, their upper body is very straight. Some air.Of course, these officers and soldiers also have one thing in common, that is, their clothes are all neat and gorgeous.From a distance, it looks like two rows of moving lanterns, specially to welcome Sheng Jia.

These moving lanterns lined up on both sides, and our big yellow or red sedan chairs walked slowly on the golden sand between them, and the eunuchs who carried the sedan chairs wore extremely gorgeous court clothes... This scene is simply dazzling!In addition, it happened to be noon at that time, when the sun was at its strongest, which made the already brilliant picture even more radiant.

Although our team was dazzlingly beautiful, the whole atmosphere was still very solemn, with almost no sound.Even the eunuchs carrying the sedan chairs were silent, without making a sound.The lightness of their footsteps was only one of the reasons, and the most important thing was that the semi-wet yellow sand sucked away the sound from their feet.Sitting in the sedan chair, we walked through the solemn and solemn atmosphere with straight bodies, like clay sculptures and wooden statues, or like characters in stories on murals or oil paintings, inspired by some magical power. Lost their lives and lined up on the street.

Such a scene, of course, is forbidden for ordinary people to watch.For Fengtian, it is rare to see such a grand ceremony in hundreds of years, so I know very well that although no one dares to violate the prohibition on the surface, those curious eyes may be watching secretly from somewhere It's on.Hundreds of pairs of eyes, where can I stop them?

The palace finally appeared in front of us, and this neat and gorgeous team stopped outside the gate of the palace.

It is absolutely impossible for the queen mother to just walk in coldly like this, and some rituals must be arranged.There is a rule in the palace, that is, when the emperor or the empress dowager arrives at a place that is not frequented, they must be greeted by someone kneeling inside.At this time, this situation happened, so Li Lianying, the chief eunuch, began to keep busy.He seems to be a director by nature, as long as it is something like a ritual performance, he cannot be left out.He first winked at the sixteen eunuchs carrying Luanyu, they immediately understood, and stopped firmly in the middle of the royal road, so that the Empress Dowager's face was aligned with the largest of the three palace gates .

At this time, these little eunuchs were like sixteen stone statues, standing there with the empress dowager's Luanyu on their shoulders, unexpectedly motionless.If it is an official sedan chair of an ordinary family, the bearers can stop the sedan chair on the road temporarily while the owner sits inside and waits, but they are carrying the queen mother, and the sedan chair must not be soiled.Therefore, even when they were waiting, they had to carry the car poles on their shoulders. Not only could they not put down the car to rest, but they didn't even dare to take a breath.

After making proper arrangements for the empress dowager's marriage, we hurried into the palace, and transformed from the entourage who accompanied the empress dowager to the people who greeted the holy car in Fengtian palace.How interesting, like a play!Of course, the "we" here is not only the eight female officials, but also Guangxu, Longyu, and Concubine Jin. For the Queen Mother, who is not her subject?Those of us had to enter the palace, but we couldn't sit in sedan chairs, let alone the gate in the middle, so we hurriedly got off the sedan chairs one by one, and walked in through the smaller door opening on the left under Guangxu's leadership.

After entering the door, the first thing you see is a large courtyard, but the pick-up ceremony cannot be held here. We continued to walk forward and entered the second courtyard of similar size, and then came from the second courtyard. To the third courtyard.This courtyard is the largest of the three courtyards, roughly twice the size of the first one.We stopped here, ready to welcome the holy driver.

We walked in together with the ancient band in the palace and the western band tuned by Yuan Shikai.Of course they will be required to perform later, but because of habit, Western music is absolutely not allowed in such formal ceremonies, so this time we have to use that annoying ancient band.

At this time, in every palace, every courtyard, and every corner, many deacon eunuchs have been arranged.Among them, half of them have stayed here for a long time, and the rest were sent by Li Lianying before the queen mother left, and asked them to come here in advance to do some cleaning and tidying up, and prepare all the things that should be prepared. , so that the Empress Dowager and us can quickly get on the right track once we arrive here, so that we won't be in a hurry.Therefore, when I went in with Guangxu and Longyu, I immediately saw many familiar faces, and the arrangement and display of everything was similar to that of the imperial palace in Beijing. For a while, I felt that I was not in Fengtian.However, the architectural styles here are completely different from those in Beijing.

Since I was busy preparing for the holy car, I didn't have time to observe carefully, so I just took a rough look.I didn't have much to do at first, but everyone was so busy that I couldn't hang out there.The busiest of these people was the ancient band. They first assembled the shelves for holding musical instruments, then stood in their corresponding positions, and then asked their assistants to bring the instruments on the shelves.What about cymbals, gongs, and small leather drums, and that nine-tone gong.When they all have their musical instruments in their hands, the preparations for the pick-up will be completed.At this time, a eunuch ran out to tell Li Lianying who was waiting outside the door with the queen mother, and then another eunuch rushed in and reported to us: "The queen mother is driving!"

As soon as the words were finished, the music started, and everyone in the yard knelt down in unison.The place where Guangxu knelt was next to the marble steps in the middle. When the Empress Dowager got off the sedan chair, he happened to be the closest to the Empress Dowager.Longyu and Concubine Jin knelt behind him one by one, while our eight female officials lined up behind them.As for the eight of us, since the status is the same, there is no clear rule on who is in the front and who is in the back. We can be anywhere we want.The rest of the eunuchs and maids don’t have to line up, they just kneel wherever they were before, so they are very loosely distributed, and not only the third courtyard, but also the first two courtyards , and other places, there are also people kneeling.Such a picture is also colorful and amazing.However, there are no Fengtian officials in this picture, because those people are absolutely not allowed to enter the palace without the Queen Mother calling.Therefore, the reception ceremony we are performing is absolutely invisible to people who are not in the royal family. It has always been a major ceremony that belongs entirely to the palace.

Ordinary people returning to their hometowns are definitely different from us. Although we are also returning to our hometowns, both the external form and the inner feelings are quite different.Ordinary people returning home must be driven by their own hearts and take the initiative to do it, but we have to come whenever we want, and come when we don’t want to, so we are very passive; See your hometown.Isn't this situation very special?It looks lively and happy on the surface, but what about the inside?There must be a tragedy unfolding.

Looking back now, I have no impression of what I felt at the time.Even if I were asked to say it at that time, I probably wouldn’t be able to tell why, because what I paid attention to at that time was not myself, but the Queen Mother, and I wanted to know how she felt when facing my hometown, but how I felt about myself ignored.You may ask me: Why do you pay so much attention to the Empress Dowager's feelings?Are you concerned about her?To be honest, I'm all for myself.The queen mother's temper is difficult to control. If she leaves a bad impression of her hometown in her heart, it will definitely affect her attitude towards people and things. In that case, we will not be able to go smoothly on the first day in Fengtian. It went smoothly.

At this time, sixteen eunuchs were carrying the queen mother inside, and before they could reach me for a while, I secretly looked around again.This time it was clearer that those few palaces were indeed somewhat different from those in Beijing, and they were obviously not the same as they were hundreds of years ago. They had all been remodeled and processed.This was also presided over by Emperor Qianlong.Thinking that he personally ordered people to do these renovation projects, I couldn't help feeling a lot of admiration for this emperor who was superior in both literary and military skills.

About 10 minutes later, the queen mother's Luanyu was finally slowly carried in.The air was filled with hollow, low-pitched ancient music, and at this time some solemnity was added.That kind of feeling can only be experienced when you are alone, like worshiping a terrible god in a desolate ancient temple, this feeling is really indescribable with words.Suddenly there were rustling footsteps on the stone steps. We all knew that Luanyu was approaching, but none of them had the courage to raise their eyelids to look. They were all motionless as before, not even daring to breathe. Prostrate on the ground.The sound of Luan Yu falling to the ground was heard, as light as leaves blown by the wind, which showed how cautious the sixteen eunuchs were.After putting down Luanyu, they also quickly knelt down on the open space beside them, adding a new color to the colorful picture just now.At the same time, the empress dowager's jade toe finally stepped on the land of her hometown.

I guess, when the Empress Dowager was sitting in the Luanyu and walking towards the courtyard, she probably also peeked out through the cracks in the car curtain, but what she saw was limited after all, so as soon as she walked out of the Luanyu, she stood on the ground and looked around vigorously. , his expression was full of concern.Although the queen mother is getting old, her eyes have always been good, and there has been no change due to age. With extra attention, she can take a panoramic view of everything here at once.But she didn't move after looking at it for a long time, and she still stood quietly. Perhaps these scenes with the dust of history, like Shanhaiguan, once again aroused her infinite thoughts.

As for us people, we didn't dare to show our spirits, and we still prostrated ourselves on the ground in fear, for fear of alarming the Queen Mother.She stood there quietly by herself, surrounded by people kneeling silently, what a strange picture it was!For a full 10 minutes, everything was still, only the wind that travels through time and space has blown from ancient times to the present, stirring people's skirts.Later, the queen mother finally started to move her steps slowly, but she stopped after taking five or six steps.Maybe she wanted to look at it from a different angle so that she could watch it more carefully.

The people kneeling on the ground were still motionless, they were all lying there like clay sculptures and wood carvings, only the colorful colors on their bodies showed some vitality, but that was also still, like putting flowers in a vase.Since the queen mother didn't tell us to stand up, no matter who it was, even Guangxu dared not move easily, and no one dared to make a sound.At this moment, the Empress Dowager was walking up and down slowly by herself, her steps were small and reserved.From the outside, the queen mother always gives people a calm and composed look, but, as far as I can see, her heart must be a little messy at this time, so she lingers and walks back and forth.

These days, her old man either took the train or the bus, and almost all of them were in a state of motion. Now that she suddenly returned to the quiet palace, something was wrong with her.

After a long time, she finally said, "Stop that music." Although I don't know why she stopped the band, it was a blessing to me. Very uncomfortable.It's just that this habit has been around for a long time, and I have no power to change it, otherwise I would have urged the Queen Mother to dismiss them long ago.

In any case, today's situation is really a bit unusual.Normally, this group of ancient bands is still very popular with the Queen Mother, and her old man also knows some ancient songs, so she usually waits until the end of a song before ordering it to stop.Not this time, when she said that sentence suddenly, the song was like a person who was suddenly strangled to death, and her life was frozen there at once.The musicians were terrified by the sudden change, and they lay on the ground in a hurry, kowtowing their heads, not caring about putting the instruments back on the shelf, for fear that they might have committed some crime or played the wrong piece of music. , affecting the Queen Mother's mood.

But what about the Queen Mother?She didn't look at them at all, but still stood there, whispering: "This is our land! I really came here today, and stepped on this land for the first time. Come back! Start living Let's live in the past!" Her words did not seem to be issuing orders at all, her tone was so soft, as if she was talking to someone close to her.However, she was not talking about the old life, but the dreary, rigid palace life.

(End of this chapter)