Me and Empress Dowager Cixi

Chapter 5 Railway Officials
Among these carriages, there is a section that is not eye-catching. I don’t want to talk about it, but I have been there before, so I will talk about it.The Empress Dowager had specially ordered that I could look around, so I had the opportunity to go there.That car was specially prepared for the workers to store clothes boxes, bedding, etc. in it.As long as their court clothes are stained with soot and other dirty things, they will come here to replace them, so it always looks messy here, and people keep coming and going.However, when I went there, I met no one once, no one changed clothes, and no one stopped me from passing.I don't know if they can really change clothes at any time, or there is a fixed time, or they remind each other when they see me, and when I pass by, they carefully avoid them, and continue to fuss when I leave .

Next to this carriage is a very special carriage, filled with special characters, they are officials on the Jingfeng Railway.There is so much to write about these people.Their mediocrity, drunkenness and dreaming, may be more deeply engraved with the traces of the officialdom of the Qing Dynasty.

The status of "railway officials" sounds like they can show their glory on the railway, but in fact they can't achieve anything.For them, the Beijing-Fengfeng Railway is just for fishing, and everything else has nothing to do with them, and they can't control it even if they want to.They followed this way for two reasons: one is that in the queen mother's mind, these people should know everything on the railway, and taking them can make themselves safer; the other is that those people have their own little plans , ready to take this opportunity to enrich his already bulging pockets.

Meng Fuxiang is the leader of this group of bureaucrats.This person is wrapped in brocade clothes, and he puts on an appearance that he thinks he looks good and has a good status all day long.He said he was a railway official, but in fact the Jingfeng Railway was just a big money bag for him. Most of the income went into his pocket, but he didn't care about anything.If one day he manages it on a whim, it will be the misfortune of this railway.Because this person's knowledge in managing railways is not as good as that of a primary school student.Even so, he didn't let himself be idle, and was busy, just busy getting money in his pocket.

This group of officials with "special missions" are all on the train, so they can't ignore the business at all, so they found a job for themselves, the first thing is to talk to the three drivers and four firemen mentioned above Plus the half-dozen people who manned the brakes supervised to see how well their work was done.Meng Fuxiang is worthy of being a leader. He divided these officials into groups of two, and each group was responsible for one piece.There is a team at the locomotive, supervising the three drivers and the four firemen to prevent them from doing anything wrong.In fact, even if the driver makes the train derail, they don't necessarily know whether it is right or wrong!Fortunately, they have the status of officials, no matter what, those workers will not disobey their orders.For example, if they tell the driver or the fireman to move to the left, the latter will definitely move, but it doesn't matter whether it goes to the right or to the left, and these officials don't necessarily see it anyway. come out.

However, when it comes to conscientiousness, these officials are also very qualified.They didn't care about the speed of the train, or whether the fire was burning vigorously or not. What they had to do was to keep a close eye on every driver and worker in charge of the fire, and forbid them to sit secretly, so as not to violate the Queen Mother's rules.That's what they feel their mission is.No matter who is on the whole royal train, even the person on the coal pile is counted in it, as long as no one is sitting secretly, and the person who manages the brakes does not just run on the yellow roof, it is considered a success.This kind of work shouldn't be too complicated, but it also exhausted them.Think about it, it's not easy to supervise people. You must stay close to each other, let alone sit.

There are still some details here, let me talk about it slowly.The officialdom of the Qing Dynasty for hundreds of years has formed many things that are difficult to change, which can be said to be long-standing habits.One of them is, "One person attains the Tao, chickens and dogs ascend to heaven".If a person gets a certain official position, and this official position is easy to get money, then he will recruit all the men in his relatives, call them assistants, and assign them to various important positions.Of course Meng Fuxiang is no exception, he has at least two very important assistants.He can't do anything himself, how to guide these assistants?There is no need to worry about this. His identity and status are there. An assistant is a must. There are assistants under the assistant. There will always be someone who can do things.A group of people like this, holding the imperial salary in their hands, how many people can really do things well?

Meng Fuxiang had passed away many years ago. At that time, he was the director of the Jingfeng Railway Bureau, but the affairs he was in charge of were nothing more than the flow of money.Everyone only knew that he was personally appointed by the empress dowager, but they didn't know that there was something else hidden in it.If anyone can arrest Li Lianying, the chief eunuch, torture him to extract a confession, and let him recruit the truth, he will understand the way.The reason why this Meng Fuxiang was able to sit in such a high position was all due to the effect of money, a huge sum of money was put into Li Lianying's pocket.One can imagine whether Meng Fuxiang, the bureau chief, is competent.There are a few more tidbits on this point.

During this trip, the Queen Mother really wanted to know something about trains, so she invited Meng Fuxiang.When this person came in front of the Empress Dowager, he first saluted respectfully, then stood aside with his head down, not daring to lift his eyelids, just waiting for the Empress Dowager to speak.

The queen mother said: "This train can move, what is pushing it?" Meng Fuxiang was born with a bit of a stutter, so he always speaks slowly on weekdays, and now it is even slower in this situation: "Back... back to the queen mother Lafayette, the train is only moved by those workers!" "Are you afraid that I don't know this! What I ask you is, how does the train move in their hands?"

"Slave...you don't know! You deserve to die! You don't...no...don't dare to speak nonsense!"

Although his answer was very unsatisfactory, the Queen Mother insisted on continuing to ask: "Do you still remember? At the previous station, this train did not move forward, but backed up. Tell me, why did it go back?" Can you go forward or go backward?"

"Back... back... back to the Queen Mother! This servant knows! It's all made up by those drivers!"

"Since it's them, how can the car stop?"

"Qi...Qi...Qi to the Empress Dowager! There are six people who will jump off when they stop, run to the last carriage, and pull a big turntable with all their strength. Slowly, the train will stop!"

In fact, this was not what Meng Fuxiang thought in his heart. He always felt that the train was forcibly held back by those who managed the brakes.What he said was smarter than his head.

After reading this, you must have doubts: How did the railway officials of the Qing government obtain the qualifications for appointment?In fact, as mentioned earlier, it was exchanged for silver!And how to keep yourself after taking office will not be a problem, just use some small tricks.My second brother, Xunling, is a railway supervisor, but I still don't know exactly what to do, and not only me, but even he himself doesn't understand.How did he get into this position?The reason is also very simple, just because he once worked as an international student in a certain army school in France.

For the queen mother, although the red tape in the palace is uncomfortable, it is helpless and unbearable.The same is true for her civil and military officials.They often fooled her, even deceived her, and those railway officials were no exception.She pretended not to know on the surface, but why didn't she know in her heart?I have been in the palace and by the Empress Dowager for so many years, and I can say with certainty that the Empress Dowager can see the dispositions of these courtiers, whether they are hypocritical or arrogant, and she can see them very clearly.

When she had that conversation with Meng Fuyang, what was she thinking?According to our guess, there are probably two ideas, and there can be only two: one is to drive him away, never wanting to see him again; the other is to laugh at him.But she knew very well in her heart that if Meng Fuxiang left, what kind of person might come.Mocking doesn't work either!Because she wants to maintain the dignity of the empress dowager.

Along the way, not having to go to court every day seems to be very easy, but the etiquette must not be reduced, only us female officials have the opportunity to relax.Whenever there was something worth laughing at, we ran to our cars and laughed all we wanted.

(End of this chapter)