Me and Empress Dowager Cixi

Chapter 32
After saying this, the Queen Mother looked at us proudly, we naturally understood what she meant, and immediately expressed our envy to her.Even so, the Empress Dowager still seemed to have more to say, and in order to prove what she said was true, she instructed us a bunch of things.Those things were placed in a large open window, and we could see them very clearly in the sunlight.The things displayed in the window are nothing more than some bows and swords. Due to their age, most of them are rusty and can no longer be used.On these weapons that are about to be corroded, some Manchu characters are engraved with twists and turns. In order to explore the meaning of these characters, we asked a female officer who understands Manchu to act as a translator.According to her translation, we learned that these things were used by the emperors in the past, and most of those words were "XX year XX day XX killed a tiger here", or "Arrow shot a leopard".After listening to the female official's translation, the queen mother was very happy, on the one hand because she praised her ancestors' bravery, and on the other hand because her explanation just now was verified.According to the performance of the queen mother at this time, it is expected that she did not know the inside story when she showed us these things, so she was very excited to be verified this time.We look at these swords carefully, and literally recall the glory of their former users.

When I was about to walk to the end, I found a very strange thing. It was two big iron rings hanging from the air, hanging from the eaves with thick ropes.These two iron rings are much thicker than human arms, and even the ropes that hang them are as thick as three fingers. However, these objects have been damaged and become weak after a long time. It's like it's going to fall.The distance between the two iron rings is one and a half feet. Since they are hung by ropes, it is possible to make them wider or narrower.Seeing this thing, I couldn't help wondering what it was useful for. I couldn't figure it out, so I had to ask the Queen Mother for help.After listening to my question, the Queen Mother smiled at me. From her smile, I already guessed that she must know the answer, and then I just need to wait for her to show off her knowledge.Therefore, I pricked up my ears and listened quietly to the Queen Mother's advice. "Of course this thing has its unique uses." The queen mother said softly, and I knew that this thing was definitely not an ornament.After waiting for a while, she said slowly again: "If you want to know what this thing is for, you have to look behind it."

The Empress Dowager waved her hand to an official behind her, and the official quickly stepped forward and pulled the bolt that locked the back door.This door is the passage connecting the main hall and the back courtyard. When the door is opened, our field of vision is suddenly opened, and what we see is a wide open space in front of us.In terms of length, it is thirty or forty feet long, and is surrounded by a huge stone wall. Several rows of pines and cypresses are planted under the stone wall. There are several small houses in the upper left corner, which must be the residence of the shepherd guard.A gravel road about five or six feet wide divides the entire field from the middle, and the two symmetrical rectangular open spaces on the left and right are very flat, but weeds have grown in some places due to long-term neglect.Starting about ten feet away from the door, there are some bamboo poles erected unevenly. The tallest is taller than a person, and the lowest is only half a foot above the ground.After careful observation, we found that the thickness of these bamboo poles is different. The thickest one is like a human arm, while the thinnest one is only the size of a thumb.In addition, these bamboo poles are not all straight, some of them are curved, and some of them are sharpened and then rolled.These bamboo poles are not arranged at equal distances. From the place not far from the door to the high wall, there are all bamboo poles.Seeing these weird things, we were all so surprised that we couldn't speak, we could only stare with big eyes.

Seeing the expressions on our faces, the queen mother was very happy. She smiled and said to us: "The place you see is the archery path. The archery target used by people to practice. In their free time, the emperor and his courtiers would come to this place to practice archery. At the beginning, everyone took turns to practice, each shot three times in a row, and each time they had to identify a different bamboo pole. Now, it is best to be able to shoot all three bamboo poles. The bamboo poles are different in thickness, distance, and difficulty. Only those who are proficient in archery can hit every shot. Follow the principle of step-by-step, from easy to difficult, start with the thick bamboo poles nearby, and then start shooting the thin bamboo poles in the distance after the skill progresses. If every bamboo pole in this field can be shot, the arrow of this person will In this way, when it comes to hunting, this person's grades will definitely not be bad, and his reputation will spread throughout the country and be admired by everyone."

After listening to the queen mother's narration, we all became very interested in the way of archery, but we didn't go forward, but just stood by the door and watched from afar.It wasn't until this moment that I realized that the two iron rings that were hanging were facing the open space outside, only three or four steps away from the door.Seeing that our eyes were all focused on the iron ring, the Queen Mother turned around, pointed to the two iron rings and said to us:
"Perhaps you have all thought that these two hoops are related to archery. That's right, these two hoops are prepared for those who are just starting to learn archery. The purpose is to urge them to develop correct archery posture. At first When learning archery, the first thing to pay attention to is not the accuracy, but how to correct your own posture. If you want to develop a correct archery posture, you must first place the position of the two arms, neither too high nor too high. Too low, it needs to be just right. Don't look at me speaking lightly. In fact, it takes a long time to practice just to fix the arm in a proper position. When holding a bow and arrow, the human arm is very easy If you change the position, it is easy to become too high, too low or deviate from the correct position. Not only learning archery, no matter what kind of skill, if you want to learn it well, you need not only the correct teaching of the teacher, but also the hard work of the students. Only the usual Hard work is the only way to stand out in front of others in the future. In order to correct the posture, the person in charge of teaching archery needs to use these two hoops. First, put the learner's hands through the middle of the hoops to keep his arms at a proper height. The person who guides next to you can also make further adjustments according to the shoulder width and height of the learner, and make sure that the learner's posture is completely correct. Due to the restraint of these two iron rings, at the beginning, the arrows shot by the learner, The accuracy is so poor that you can say that it is random shooting. But it is not a big deal. After a period of time, the learner's posture is correct, and the hoop can be removed and the practice of accuracy can be devoted. When practicing accuracy, the original posture will not change again. In this way, the progress will be much faster. As far as I know, among the emperors of all dynasties, everyone has worked hard like this. If you want to show your heroic side in front of others, you must practice hard behind others."

After listening to the Queen Mother's eloquent statement, I couldn't help applauding the Queen Mother's erudition.In a way, Her Majesty taught us a lesson, and thanks to her explanations, we understood many things that we did not know before.In fact, the queen mother has never been here before, and she has never seen these things beforehand. All she knows is from books.From this point of view, the old saying "opening the book is beneficial" and "the more the better" is true.

After watching the archery, we went back to the hall to rest again.The Empress Dowager talked a lot just now, and the servant brought tea at the right time, but the Empress Dowager put it down after taking a few sips, her eyes were suddenly attracted by something in the corner, it was a wooden horse.Since it is a wooden horse, its shape is naturally similar to that of a horse. In addition, the height and size of the wooden horse are no different from ordinary horses.There is also a saddle on the back of the wooden horse, which is fixed with metal rivets. The saddle is made of wood. I don’t know how many times it has gone through wind and rain.The queen mother walked up to the wooden horse, looked around for a while, and smiled knowingly. It seemed that she had already understood the purpose of the wooden horse.Following the queen mother are our eight female officials and Emperor Guangxu. Emperor Guangxu looked lazy and didn't mean to pay attention to these things at all, and we really didn't know what this Trojan horse was for. In desperation, we had to look at Again to the Queen Mother.

The queen mother did not answer our question directly. She said with a smile: "We Manchurians pay attention to riding and archery. Just now you have seen the place where we practice archery. This wooden horse is used by our Manchurians to practice another skill. When hunting Not only must the arrow skills be good, but also the riding skills must not be poor, otherwise, life will be in danger. Imagine that when the emperor was hunting, if a wild animal fell down with an arrow, how would he tell whether it was dead? The method is of course Yes, that is to go up to it and check it out. But what should you do when you go up to the beast and find that the beast is not dead? You can only jump on the horse to avoid it. In this case, the most important thing is to get on the horse Speed ​​and accuracy, this wooden horse is made for practice on the horse. In order to train themselves, the emperors of the past often had to practice until they were sweating." After listening to the Queen Mother's explanation, I don't think I can admire it. The depth of experience determines the difference in views on things, which is incomparable to us young people and the Queen Mother.Because of the queen mother's narration, we became very interested in this Trojan horse. Everyone's eyes were fixed on it, as if they wanted to eat it.Seeing the expressions on our faces, the Queen Mother was even more complacent.

If what the queen mother said is true, the life of the old Manchu nobles was not easy.Compared with the lives of those nobles today, I can't help but put a big question mark on the Queen Mother's statement.However, even if this kind of thing really happened, there should be nothing strange about it. In order to unify the Central Plains and dominate the world, the Manchu nobles had to be sharpened and prepared all the time. If there was no hard training every day, what awaited them on the battlefield would be death. .With the impetus of the shadow of death, it is understandable that they train so hard.If I want to comment on the life of the Manchu nobles today, I can only explain it in terms of degradation and softening. The hundreds of years of comfortable life in the pass have worn out their heroic spirit.

Now, we have finished visiting the three houses in the palace, and the queen mother led us to the square outside.Back then, the people in this square won with their eyesight and courage, but what we see here today is the heroism left behind after they left.The scenes of fighting with ferocious beasts in the past are gone, leaving this desolate and ruthless land empty.The forest on the west side of the square looks more lush than it was hundreds of years ago, perhaps because no one has visited it since the tiger-fighting hero left.Faced with this situation, I think the queen mother's thoughts are nothing more than the same. I clearly saw her sighing towards the mountains to the west.

Before arriving here, the Empress Dowager had already told us that a commemorative ceremony would be held. At that time, she only talked about the general situation, but did not explain the specifics.Now that we have finished watching the main hall, we have come to the front of the forest. Besides, it will be noon. If we don’t say anything else, we may miss the time for the ceremony.The Empress Dowager seemed to understand our thoughts. She paused for a while, then turned around and said to us:
"Before I came, I said that a ceremony would be held here to commemorate a great leader of our Manchurians. When we were a small tribe, our great and brave leader was not content to be a The chief of the tribe, he wants to lay a wider land with his own hands, and then unite all the Manchurians to establish a prosperous and independent country. With the support of this goal, he made great efforts to govern, expand the territory, and wait until the time is right Afterwards, they took the opportunity to annex the surrounding tribes successively. In this process, wars are indispensable, and the heads and blood of the warriors are constantly sprinkled on this land, but their efforts are rewarded, and the victory always falls to Our side. No one can win forever, and our great leader suffered a defeat later, and was besieged by his enemies in a forest of this size, surrounded by fierce enemies. However, the brave Manchurian warriors were not afraid of death, and they would never surrender even if they were the last ones left. Two days later, the food and grass they brought for the expedition ran out, so they had to dig out the wild vegetables in the mountains and forests to eat. Relying on these wild vegetables, they finally waited for reinforcements, cooperated internally and externally, and fought a beautiful battle. Later, each of our emperors held a ceremony every year to express their respect for this great leader, and at the same time to train themselves to endure hardships and stand hard work. quality. In fact, this ceremony is very simple and does not require kneeling or other things, as long as each person eats a little cold food rolled with Shandong gum. "

After finishing speaking, the queen mother made a gesture to Li Lianying, signaling him to bring up the things she had prepared earlier.Soon, several young eunuchs came over with several large food boxes.It was already lunch time at this time, and after listening to the queen mother's narration, my heart suddenly became excited, and I could eat new things anyway.In addition to this exciting feeling, I also have a small worry in my heart, that is, I really don't like cold food.Seeing our distressed faces, the Empress Dowager smiled and said, "Don't worry, this is not really cold rice, but other cold food is used instead. Anyway, this is just a ceremony, and cold rice can't be served casually. Food." After the doubts in our hearts were resolved, we couldn't wait to see what was in the food box.The food box was finally opened, and what came into view were some Jiaodong vegetable leaves that had been washed but never cooked. They were not only fat, but also very white and tender in color, and the taste must not be bad.In addition, there are several plates of pate.Her Majesty first took out a piece of lettuce, then asked someone to pick up the plate of pate, took some from it and put it on the lettuce. Then she rolled up the lettuce and put it in her mouth to chew.From her expression, you can tell that this food is absolutely delicious, otherwise why does she have such a satisfied expression on her face?Our saliva was almost drooling, and when the queen mother said "eat", we couldn't wait to imitate her, and each of us rolled a piece and stuffed it into our mouths.The taste is really good, the best lettuce paired with the meat sauce specially made from a variety of lean meats is simply a supreme enjoyment.I am used to eating stir-fried vegetables on weekdays, and occasionally I have a cold meal, and I feel my appetite is whetted. The taste can no longer be described as delicious.

After lunch, today's itinerary is coming to an end. Just like the day trip to the Fox Immortal Pagoda, we all returned with a lot of fun.Holidays like this are relatively rare for Lafayette, and even more so for us.On such days, the Queen Mother often has a smile on her face. As long as she has a smile on her face, our life will be much better.

(End of this chapter)