Me and Empress Dowager Cixi

Chapter 58 The Royal Garden (1)
There is no beauty-loving woman who does not like flowers, and so does the Queen Mother.Because of her strong concept of beauty, she became obsessed with flowers.No matter how difficult it is, she will find a way to get all the flowers she likes.According to my observation, besides power and money, what she values ​​most are flowers.There are many exotic flowers and plants planted in the Summer Palace, and all the folk ones can be seen in the garden.

There are some eunuchs in the imperial palace who specialize in the duties of gardeners. Their gardening knowledge is very extensive, and almost all the flowers and trees can get the best care in their hands.It is because of their existence that the flowers in the Shangyuan grow extraordinarily luxuriantly.The queen mother often walks around the garden when she is free, which to some extent eliminates the possibility of the gardeners being lazy.When she is in a good mood, the queen mother will act as a gardener herself and show off her skills in the upper garden.Every time the queen mother does this kind of thing, the scale is relatively large, and she always drives a large group of us in a mighty way.The work of digging mud and carrying water will definitely not be done by the queen mother. Her usual work is to help catch pests, trim flower branches, and cut off redundant small flowers to ensure that the remaining buds get enough nutrition .Apart from these, all the Queen Mother can do is to cut some flowers and bring them back.

One late night, I happened to be on duty.Every time I am on duty, I dare not fall asleep, at most I squint my eyes and rest for a while.The first half of the night was uneventful, when the clock struck three o'clock, it suddenly began to rain outside, and the thick raindrops hit the roof with a crackling sound.These noises not only woke me up, but also woke up the queen mother who was sleeping. As soon as she woke up, she shouted: "Ah, hurry up and call the eunuchs on duty, such heavy raindrops will definitely damage the newly planted chrysanthemums. Let them quickly cover those flowers..." Before the Queen Mother finished speaking, I had already jumped out.According to the rules of the palace, the accompanying eunuchs were not allowed to enter the palace. They were very painful during the night vigil, and usually rested against the wall. At this moment, they all woke up when they heard the Queen Mother's cry.After I went out, I immediately said to the eunuchs who were awake around me: "The queen mother has an order, I want you to go to Shangyuan as soon as possible, wake up the gardeners, and let them take good care of the newly planted chrysanthemums, and they must not be caught by the heavy rain. Smash it." After hearing what I said, they rushed towards Shangyuan without saying a word.

The eunuchs came back not long after they went out, and brought back good news: "Don't worry, the gardener has already covered the young flowers." This news is a great comfort to the Queen Mother at this moment , After listening to the eunuch's report, the queen mother turned over and went to have a tryst with Duke Zhou again.It can be seen from this incident that not all the eunuchs in the palace are full of wine and food, and there are many knowledgeable and capable people among them.According to the news brought back by the little eunuch, the gardeners had a premonition that it would rain at night before they went to sleep, and they also considered that the chrysanthemum seedlings could not withstand the rain, so they covered the flowers with reed mats in advance.When the Empress Dowager woke up the next day, the window screens were already full of sunlight.After a night of rain washing, not only the air is extraordinarily fresh, but even the sun is extraordinarily bright.Breathing the fresh air, the Queen Mother was in a very good mood, and thinking about those precious flowers, she decided to go to Shangyuan.Since the queen mother wants to go, we can only form a neat team and go with her.The queen mother walked in the front as usual, and she was wearing bright clothes and smiling all over her face. From a distance, no one could recognize her as an old man over seventy years old.The Empress Dowager walked very slowly when going out on weekdays, but today's situation was a little different. Not only did she walk very fast, but she didn't even feel tired after walking such a long distance.

According to the queen mother's personality, I guess she will tell us something about flowers on the way.Sure enough, before halfway through, the Queen Mother started talking: "Guess how many pots of chrysanthemums are there in the Summer Palace?" We all knew that the Queen Mother was showing off again, so we didn't answer, so the Queen Mother continued: According to accurate statistics, there are a total of three to four thousand pots of chrysanthemums in the Summer Palace, which is not a small number.” This was just a prelude, and the Empress Dowager later told us a lot about chrysanthemums.The queen mother is a beauty lover. As long as it is something she finds beautiful, no matter how difficult it is, she will try her best to get it, even at the expense of a lot of manpower and material resources.It is not difficult to imagine Her Majesty's love of flowers just by recalling her attention to clothing and decorations.At the end, the queen mother said: "There are eighty or ninety kinds of chrysanthemums. When I was young, I could name them one by one. Unfortunately, now that I am old and my memory is bad, I can only name a few of them. "

Gardening is not a job that can be done casually. It requires not only a strong body, but also rich knowledge. If you do not have these two points, you will definitely not be a good gardener.It is not easy to be a gardener for ordinary people, let alone a royal gardener.For the flowers and trees in the Summer Palace, those people don't know how much effort and energy they have spent.Generally speaking, these people are very knowledgeable, not only know the tricks of planting flowers and trees, but also often come up with very elegant names for flowers, so as to win the Queen Mother's favor.Those flowers originally had names, and they kept them if they thought they were suitable. If they didn't think it was suitable, they thought of a new name to replace them.Besides this, those people have other advantages, in a way, they have the ability of ingenuity.According to the laws of nature, different types of chrysanthemums have different flowering times.Generally speaking, early-blooming chrysanthemums will bloom in August and September, while those that bloom later will wait until early October.This creates a pity that one cannot appreciate all the chrysanthemums in full bloom at the same time.Unexpectedly, these gardeners broke this routine with their intelligence and wisdom. They set up a greenhouse, cultivated different chrysanthemums according to their own experience, and finally made those chrysanthemums bloom beautifully at the same time.There are many famous species of chrysanthemums in the Summer Palace, and I think the cutest one is Danfeng Chaoyang.The petals of Danfeng Chaoyang are purple, but if it is only purple, it is not unusual. What is commendable is that its flowers have different shades of purple from the stamens to the outer ends of the petals. Stretching out, the purple is heavier, and it has become dark purple when it reaches the outermost end.Although the color of this flower is very bright, it is not coquettish at all.No matter from which angle you look at it, Danfeng Chaoyang is a rare gem.There were no such flowers in the Summer Palace. Later, an old official from the south of the Yangtze River found out the Queen Mother's temperament, and sent several kinds of high-quality chrysanthemums to please the Queen Mother, among them this kind of Danfeng Chaoyang.The queen mother loves this kind of chrysanthemum very much. Every time she goes to see a chrysanthemum, she always stays in front of it for a few minutes.In addition, there are dozens of top-grade products such as Bailongxu, Zijinling, Xueqiu, Yugutianqing, etc. in the Summer Palace.Here I will not describe their forms one by one, even if they are mentioned, there is no practical significance, so I will keep everything simple.

Whatever it was, Her Majesty liked to make the most of it, and to think of as many ways of using it as possible.Take flowers as an example. No matter what kind of flowers, the Queen Mother is not limited to viewing them. Roses and impatiens are used to make cosmetics, which are very meaningful.The Empress Dowager also developed a new usage of chrysanthemum. The juice of chrysanthemum is not thick, so it is not suitable for cosmetics, but it is an excellent food material.Whenever the chrysanthemums are in full bloom, the Queen Mother will always come to feast on the chrysanthemums. This has been a habit since many years ago, and it is nothing new.Chrysanthemums are always picked and eaten fresh, and what the Empress Dowager often eats is a kind of chrysanthemum called Xueqiu, probably because its petals are thick and white, and they are most suitable for chewing.

After the whole chrysanthemum is picked, the petals are torn off one by one, and then some of the yellowed and decayed ones are thrown away.After the petals are picked, they need to be washed in water. First, they are soaked in clean water for 10 minutes, then they are taken out and rinsed in warm water mixed with dilute alum. Finally, they are put into a special bamboo basket and drained. Can.After these tasks are done, the chrysanthemum can be put aside for use.Afterwards, the eunuch in the imperial dining room held out a heater.It was not late autumn at that time, and the stove was not suitable for use, but it was a special situation at this time, so it was okay to use it occasionally.The inside of the stove is not empty, most of it is full of thick boiled chicken soup, and it is equipped with a cover, the size of which fits tightly with the stove, so that the heat inside will not escape easily, and even the delicious taste of chicken soup Not even a tiny bit escapes.Zhang De, who was in charge of meals, quickly set up a small table. The table was different from the usual ones. There was a small hole in the middle, the size of which matched the stove. It was probably specially designed for this purpose.The imperial dining room not only prepared a heater, but also prepared several small dishes of meat, mostly sashimi or raw chicken. Since the Queen Mother likes to eat fish, often only sashimi is prepared. Good sauce, vinegar.

(End of this chapter)