Me and Empress Dowager Cixi

Chapter 7
I can guarantee that the buttons on Qingshan's belt are worth at least 1000 taels of silver, because my father also has such a pair.The button is exquisite and exquisite, polished and carved with excellent jadeite.Did Qingshan ask for this style, or did the jade master make this style and sell it to him?This is unknown.What is certain is that such buttons are unusual and unmatched by ordinary officials.In addition, the peacock feather pipe on his hat is also very particular, it is actually made of jade, and looks like the cigarette mouthpiece that is very popular nowadays.Look at Qingshan's finger again. There is a huge jade ring on it. Judging from the quality and workmanship, the price of the button will not be much different from that of the button.From this point of view, his outfit is very valuable, and it is impossible to do it for less than 5000 taels of silver, which is about 7000 yuan in the current Chinese national currency.An important court official like him would not have only one set of clothes of the same grade. As for how many spare sets there are, who knows?Of course, there is nothing wrong with a dignified Minister of the Interior wearing some magnificent clothes.But in fact, he still has to submit to Li Lianying, and he still has to give something from time to time to curry favor.

Let me talk about my second brother Xunling.Although our family background is prominent, his costumes are not much better than Qingshan's.The reason is that the title is actually just a false name, and it has no effect on major events.Qingshan is different, although he doesn't have any title, and the title of first-rank minister is not very useful, but no matter in the palace or the court, his power is very great, no one can fight against him except Li Lianying , you can do whatever you want.Compared with my second brother, Qingshan always has much more power no matter what he is in or where he is.Actually, not to mention my elder brother, even Emperor Guangxu's direct children are not as powerful as Qingshan.How much value can such a flashy title have?I am not sure about this.All I know is that my ancestors did make great contributions to get such an honor. When they were knighted, so many people sincerely envied and admired them.But after all, it was only a short moment. After the real hero passed away, his title was passed on to his descendants, and the admiration or jealousy of others faded away.

There is only one difference between the second brother's equipment and Qingshan's, and that is the buttons on the belt. Others, such as arrow clothes, jackets, hats, etc., are exactly the same.This unique pair of buttons is made of foreign gold, with a delicate chain attached to it, and three beautiful gold rings tied at the end, not only brilliant in gold, but also engraved with many "卍" characters.The second brother has a special liking for the word "卍", so the patterns on the chain are all like this.In addition to the texture of gold, this pair of buttons is also inlaid with several pieces of high-quality emerald jade, which is even more beautiful than Qingshan's.Of course, the second brother also has a belt of loyalty and filial piety. His two purses are not only gorgeous in color, but also have exquisite patterns.The second elder brother has always been very noble. In his eyes, almost no one in the entire court can compare to him. In addition, he came back from Western education, so he has a sense of superiority.In an era when foreign languages ​​were not prevalent, he became a rare thing and even more precious.

From the point of view of appearance, my second brother is also a remarkable figure.He has a refined temperament, and with a pair of glasses on his nose, he looks extraordinary.However, the second brother's move is not to show his unique charm. He is really nearsighted and must wear glasses, otherwise he will not be able to see clearly.

Speaking of my second brother's glasses, I suddenly remembered a funny thing.Although the history of glasses in China is not short, there is nothing new, but there are not many pince-nez like the second brother, and only his pair of glasses is unique in the entire imperial court.The reason for this is that his nose bridge is very high, which is more suitable for pince-nez.And not many other people can wear it, at least he is the only one around us.I remember that it was not long after we entered the palace, and the second elder brother came back to worship in front of the queen mother for the first time.The queen mother arranged for him to stand in a very conspicuous place, so all the ministers looked at him, and one of them stared at the second brother's glasses and became dazed, as if he saw some novel diorama.

As far as I'm guessing, the gold chain attached to the glasses is the "culprit".The other end of the chain is tied to the button of the mandarin coat of the second brother, which is thin and soft.The minister was probably wondering: How can such a small chain hold the glasses?He watched intently, the seriousness in his eyes was really funny.The second brother is a naughty person, and he likes to joke when talking and doing things on weekdays.He had seen the courtier's appearance for a long time, so another naughty thought came to his mind.He wrinkled his nose exaggeratedly, and suddenly, his glasses fell off.The preoccupied minister hastily stretched out his hand to catch up with him, trying to help him with his glasses.As for the glasses, of course they won't fall to the ground, because there are gold chains on them!The courtier was even more confused when he saw the glasses fell to his waist and began to hang from the gold chain. Bar!"

The second brother did it again.The old man looked at it, laughed all the time, and asked his second brother to lend him this wonderful pair of glasses for a try.As a result, his nose was all red, and his glasses still couldn't be put on.The problem lies in the nose. The bridge of the nose of the second brother is so high that the pince-nez can fit it, but this old man has almost no nose bridge. Where can the glasses be clamped?Everyone focused their curiosity on Xunling's nose, and his enthusiasm has always been with us, taking this imperial train from Beijing to Fengtian.

When the Queen Mother went to Fengtian this time, she didn't think about dealing with any major national affairs, and she didn't plan to stay anywhere. She just wanted to visit the mausoleum and take a look at the scenery along the way.Therefore, the only important accompanying ministers were my second brother and Qingshan, and no one else brought them along.Even so, it seems that there are not many prominent figures on this imperial train.How is this going?Who are those people?
In the official circles of the Qing Dynasty, there was a trend: no matter who it was, as long as he had the right to use it, relatives and friends would surround him and force him to use his own people, and the more the better.These people are often idle masters all day long, unwilling to do things down-to-earth, but want to make money every day, hoping to force themselves into a certain position by virtue of their relatives.

The second brother and Qingshan are surrounded by this type of people.As a result, the two of them seemed to be busier than the Queen Mother, and there seemed to be more people accompanying the Queen Mother than the Queen Mother.Qingshan had five or six people under his command. In name, there were those who handled chores for him and those who got him paperwork. But to be honest, although there were quite a few of them, few of them could really help. No one can do such a job.These idlers originally only eat and do nothing, Qingshan brought them here just to make money.

The second brother's situation is similar to Qingshan's. I don't know how many people are accompanying him. The only thing I know is that these people's ability is only to accompany people and talk, and they don't know anything else.But this is irrelevant, the second brother didn't expect them to be of any help.

In our big family, not only the second brother has entourages, but even my fourth brother has several, not to mention my father, he has the most entourages.These people add up to about 30 to [-] people, and the father and the others had to spend another sum of money to rent a house for these parasites to live in.It's not that my house is not big enough, but that there are too many people. No matter how big the house is, can it support such a large group of people?

However, having said that, these people are not useless.Where did the grace and luxury above the imperial court come from?Not relying on these useless courtiers!They dressed themselves up beautifully, and stood there respectfully and solemnly, which naturally created an atmosphere.Including the Queen Mother's tour this time, it is precisely because of the colorfully dressed retainers of Xunling and Qingshan that the whole team is full of royal atmosphere.

So what are their identities?Minister?As I said before, the only real ministers accompanying the Queen Mother to Fengtian this time were Xunling and Qingshan.The rest of them, to put it bluntly, are not qualified to be ministers at all.However, if you look at it from another angle, these doormen should also be called the accompanying ministers.In my opinion, there is only one difference between these people and Qingshan and Xunling, that is, when they meet the queen mother, they stand in different positions: Qingshan and Xunling always stand at the front, and the others are behind. That's all.As for what they do, there's very little difference.

As I have said before, the title of title is just a show, without any practical benefits, but it is different when it comes to standing.We can definitely praise the title, because the second brother finally got a level higher than Qingshan in one treatment thanks to his duke title.Every time he met the queen mother, he would stand in front of Qingshan, closer to the queen mother.At that time, such preferential treatment was simply an honor.

In terms of their positions, Qingshan is equivalent to the chief steward of the palace, taking care of almost everything; my second brother is different, he is just an attendant next to the queen mother, or a deputy.However, even though he has no real power, his status is higher than that of a housekeeper, so he can be closer to the queen mother than Qingshan.

The train is carrying all kinds of people along the way.Sometimes when the Queen Mother gets up, she will stop the car.At this time, Qingshan and Xunling's "accompanying ministers" will come to the queen mother to be ready for orders.For the Empress Dowager, the names, official positions, and personal backgrounds of these attendants are completely unclear and not worth paying attention to.Only the clothes and manners of these people could not escape the eyes of the Empress Dowager.She always exclaimed: "Their dresses are so elegant! In this monotonous journey, these colorful and pretentious things add a lot of fun to us!"

(End of this chapter)