Me and Empress Dowager Cixi

Chapter 52 Tolerance and Kindness

One morning, the Empress Dowager gathered her ministers to play the game according to the usual practice.After the officials visited the temple, those who had something to do came up one by one to report.Not long after, Prince Qing, Minister of Military Affairs, came out of the class and announced: "Queen Mother, the case of XX in Futai, Guangdong has been thoroughly investigated. The slave received a very detailed report yesterday, and the fourteen charges against him by the people of Guangdong are all true. About On this matter, the imperial envoys sent by the Empress Dowager also had written reports, and sent evidence of his crime along with them. As soon as the slave received the report, he did not dare to hide anything, and immediately rushed to report to the Empress Dowager, respectfully requesting the Queen Mother to order... ..."

I am no stranger to the Guangdong Futai that Prince Qing mentioned. He was my father’s friend in the early years, and the two were officials in the same place. At that time, my father’s evaluation of him was too authoritarian, but I didn’t expect him to commit so many crimes. sin.I stood behind the Empress Dowager, so I couldn't see the expression on her face clearly, but after Prince Qing finished reporting, I saw the muscles in the Empress Dowager's neck visibly twitched, presumably due to a great shock.That Futai must have been very tyrannical when he was in power, which caused the people's resentment to boil. He ignored the power of the people too much.Due to his harsh rule, the people were unbearable and rose up to resist.People in Guangdong contacted privately and went to the capital to sue the imperial court. It is said that the total number of times was [-], and the queen mother did not know until the last time.The people sued Futai for many crimes, and they listed them in detail. Unfortunately, I can’t remember them clearly now. I only know a few of them: embezzling public funds; robbing wealthy businessmen in Guangzhou and extorting money; Banquets and banquets are detrimental to the officialdom; violence is used to force the selection of women from good families in the province to be used as concubines; when an elderly beggar did not know how to dodge and forcibly passed by during a tour of the city, the owner of the platform beat the elderly beggar with a whip, resulting in This person was on his way to death; he secretly concealed the gifts presented to the Queen Mother by all parties.

Of course, these are only some of the crimes he was accused of. There are many more serious crimes than these, but I don't remember clearly.The nature of those crimes is also roughly the same as the above ones.Among the crimes mentioned above, the first two mainly deal with local officials seeking people's fat and anointing. This is a crime that many officials will commit. It is not uncommon. In the final analysis, it is because they are greedy for money.The third article said that the Futai would go to the market to have a banquet casually. People may think it is nothing today, but it was a very serious crime at the time.According to the laws enacted by the former Qing Dynasty, officials of the Qing Dynasty, especially the officials in frontiers, were not allowed to eat and drink in the restaurants in the market.It is generally believed that the restaurants in the bazaar are exclusively for the lower class to eat and drink, so officials with a little status and status don't bother to go there.If an official often goes to a restaurant to eat, not only the official will be criticized by others, but also the restaurant owner will be criticized, thinking that the restaurant owner has colluded with the government and done something shameful.The officials of the feudal border are regarded as the representatives of the imperial court. If they go in and out of the market casually, it will undoubtedly tarnish the image of the imperial court. Now this Futai has violated this taboo.As for Article [-], I think it is necessary to explain.Modern people pay attention to monogamy, and a man cannot marry more than one wife, but at that time and earlier, a man could marry many wives, as long as he was able to support them.People in the civil society or in the government can marry concubines, which is allowed by law.For this reason, former officials were particularly keen on taking concubines.But there is always a limit to everything, if the concubine she marries is selected from slaves, or is the daughter of a small family, no matter how many concubines are allowed, the only thing that is not acceptable is to forcibly snatch a concubine from a good family.In addition, Article [-] is also a very serious crime. Anyone who conceals the tribute presented to the Queen Mother by others knows that this is a very serious crime, big enough to be sentenced to death.

After the report was completed, Prince Qing handed over the case file of that person, and the Queen Mother began to look through it carefully.Looking back now, I can still remember the horrible atmosphere.My father was one of the first commissioners sent by the Queen Mother to Guangdong to investigate the case. I still remember the embarrassment on my father's face when he received the order.My father has a good relationship with that Futai, and has had many contacts before, but he has nothing to do with that person's crime, let alone collusion and cheating.As a good friend, my father didn't want to do this thing, but since the queen mother gave orders, he had to leave.Fortunately, the queen mother did not appoint my father to be the leader of the commissioner, but only as an escort, so things were much easier.

During the period before departure, my father was in great pain. He didn't understand why his friend did those things.After staying in Guangdong for more than a month, my father returned to the capital. He told me that the Futai case had been investigated. Not only were the crimes accused by others true, but many crimes that others did not know were also discovered. There is no pardon.My father has always valued friendship, and he always cared about his friends. After returning home this time, I often saw him pacing back and forth with his hands behind his back, and his appetite was significantly reduced. The children were very worried, lest the father's body would not be able to bear it.

After the Queen Mother finished reading the case files, she discussed with Prince Qing in a low voice. Watching them talk was like making a family routine.I was not far from the queen mother at that time, and I could hear every word they said clearly.The queen mother said: "I can't see that such-and-such a person is such a person. I don't understand why he would do this. He was born in a noble family, and he made friends with princes and nobles. He has a very noble status and status, and he did it at a young age." What is there to be dissatisfied with such a high official position? In the eyes of others, he is a very enviable person, perhaps this is what people often say "the heart is not enough to swallow the elephant". If he puts his conscience in the If you are in the middle, or if you have a sense of responsibility for the whole family, you will never do such an unbearable thing.” What the Queen Mother said by putting conscience in the middle refers to several principles that a person must abide by, such as loyalty, integrity, Trustworthy, benevolent and fair to everyone... Immediately afterwards, the Queen Mother and the courtiers talked about the crime of Futai conniving at the servants to beat the beggar to death.

The Empress Dowager said: "Since you are an official in the frontier, you should always think about the country and know how to respond when things happen. His official position is already very high. Not only the people in his jurisdiction will respect him, but even the people of the whole country will respect him." Respect him, there is absolutely no need for him to establish his prestige through force. If he can think of these, he will never do those outrageous things, and he will treat the people with generosity and love. On the way, Seeing an elderly beggar who cannot dodge in time, the best way is to ask your servants and guards of honor to walk slowly, let the old beggar pass safely, and then urge the local officials to do a good job of clearing the road in advance. If they It's not a good idea to not slow down the speed of your guard of honor, that old man will definitely be trampled to death by the cavalry. No matter how you look at it, this is an incident, I just wonder why people can't even handle such a small thing well How did it become a Futai?"

The biggest crime of this person is not the ones mentioned above, but the last one, which is to hide the tribute to the queen mother, which is a heinous crime.According to the practice at that time, if there were any rare items in the local area, such as jade, jewelry, sculptures, even if it was just a very beautiful animal, the local officials would try their best to find them and present them to the Queen Mother.Since some people's rank was too low to meet the Queen Mother directly, they had to hand over these things to the local governors and they would pass them on, so there was a problem.The crime of hiding tributes in Futai was not exposed by the people, but by the government officials below him.In remote areas such as Guangxi and Guangdong, it is not easy to go to Beijing once, so the local governor always waits for a certain amount of tributes to be sent to the capital in batches. The yamen stayed for several days.According to the law, those tributes could not stay overnight in the hands of the governor, but considering the difficulties of remote provinces, successive emperors specially allowed them to send them collectively after a period of time.The things sent by the prefectures from all over the country were placed in the mansion of Futai. Unexpectedly, this person moved all his heart and kept all the things he liked.After the officials who went to investigate the case arrived, the local governments sent a list of their tributes to Lafayette. After comparing the two, the truth came to light, and he couldn't even argue.This futai's charges have been fully established, there is no doubt about it.When the case was discussed, it was time to convict the man.This person used to be a favorite of the Empress Dowager. Everyone will wait and see how the Empress Dowager will punish this traitor.Judging from the past situation, the Empress Dowager hates such things deeply, and it is impossible to forgive this person lightly, but I know that the Empress Dowager does not only have a cold-blooded side, she also has a loving heart.If you just blindly be strict, then you won't have the image of the Queen Mother in my eyes.

Let me take the Yellow River flood that happened more than ten days ago as an example to talk about the other side of the Queen Mother.

Although the Yellow River has nurtured the Chinese nation, it has also caused great disasters to this nation.It causes several floods in different places every year, and most officials are no longer surprised by this, and the imperial court has specially prepared relief materials and funds for this purpose.This year the Yellow River came out to make troubles as usual, and the people along the banks naturally suffered from famine again.I heard that this time the flood was particularly severe. Not only did thousands of people drown, but tens of thousands of people became homeless.The relief supplies and funds were simply not enough. In desperation, local officials had to report the truth to the court, hoping to send more relief money.According to the rules of the imperial court, no matter what the report is, there will always be a lot of delays after coming to the court. The most common procedure is that the local officials first write the report, and the military aircraft office will discuss it after seeing the report, and then forward it to the competent department. If the competent department If you can't solve it, pass it to the Queen Mother.Therefore, it has been a month or two since the Queen Mother resolved everything in person.This time, due to the severity of the disaster, the Military Aircraft Department directly handed over the report to the Queen Mother. After seeing it, the Queen Mother immediately approved it, asking the Ministry of Households to take out several 10 taels of silver as disaster relief funds, and set a deadline for them.Not only that, the Queen Mother was afraid that those people would procrastinate, and added that if the Ministry of Households could not provide the money for the time being, her own private property could be sold.I still remember what the Queen Mother said: "As long as it is really for disaster relief, it doesn't matter if I sell my clothes."

This kind of benevolent practice has been manifested by emperors of all dynasties, and it is not uncommon in Chinese history.Even so, every time I hear or see such a thing, it still touches me.As for whether the queen mother's actions were to imitate the ancients, or whether they were completely from the heart, these are not important. The important thing is that the queen mother has shown her benevolence after all.It is precisely because of this matter that I concluded that the queen mother will not easily rule on that Futai.According to that person's crime, the most serious thing is beheading or hanging, followed by death.Considering the status of this person and the crimes he has committed, beheading and hanging are too severe, and the most appropriate thing is to give him death and let him decide on his own.Even so, the Queen Mother couldn't bear it. In my opinion, the Queen Mother didn't want this person to die at all.But the queen mother will never let this person pass the test easily, because she will lose her sense of justice.After weighing again and again, the Queen Mother issued an edict: "The governor of Guangdong is so-and-so corrupt and broke the law, and his reputation is notorious. He sent a certain secretary of the household department and a certain minister of the criminal department to investigate and deal with it. Heilongjiang will never be used, and his family property will be handed over to the governor of Jiangsu Province and sealed up by the local officials, hereby." The reason why his family property is handed over to the governor of Jiangsu Province is because the hometown of Futai is in Jiangsu.

This punishment is quite light, but this ruling has affected two generations and lasted for many years.The Futai went to Heilongjiang according to the imperial edict, and soon died of illness there. Although his family could live peacefully in Jiangsu, because all their property was confiscated, they could only give up their titles of nobility and rely on their own hands to earn money for food.In addition, the local people know that they are the family members of the prisoners, and there is a lot of discrimination in their words.Generally speaking, since the Futai was convicted, his family has not only stopped being rich, but has become very low.

When I lived in Shanghai two or three years ago, the Qing Dynasty had collapsed for more than 20 years.One day I went to a silk and satin shop to buy things. Since I had too many things to carry, I wrote down my address and asked them to send them back for me.After finishing these things, I went home by myself first.In the evening, a little guy brought something to me.After this person handed me the things, his expression was very strange, he blocked the door and did not want to leave, and asked me: "Has Madam stayed in the palace before?" After hearing his question, I was very surprised, but it was nothing Good to hide, I nodded and said yes.Afterwards, he told me about his own background intermittently. He said that he was originally a child of an aristocratic family, but because his father was convicted of a crime more than 20 years ago, his family situation plummeted and he suffered all kinds of discrimination from his neighbors.In desperation, he had no choice but to come to Shanghai alone to seek a living, and became a boy in a silk shop.

Finally, he also said that his father and my father were family friends and gave his last name.It wasn't until this moment that I suddenly realized that he was the youngest son of the criminal Futai.It has been more than 20 years since the incident of Futai. I did not expect that the punishment given by the Queen Mother will continue until now.

(End of this chapter)