Chapter 61 I have something to cover my own people

In order to win over a group of loyal servants who work for him, Li Lianying will cover them in everything and try to make them feel his gift, so that he can work for him even more wholeheartedly.One thing he often said is that the world is not as powerful as Lafayette (Cixi)!In fact, most of Lafayette's power is distributed to Li Lianying, who has been around all year round.Therefore, Li Lianying's little eunuch killed someone, so he could not be treated in the same way as the people. Li Lianying had a capable eunuch named Li Guihe.Li Guihe embezzled 10,000 taels of silver during Emperor Guangxu's wedding, and always wanted to go outside the palace to have fun.When chatting with Li Changcai and Yan Baowei that day, Li Guihe suggested that everyone stay in the palace all day and don't have time to go outside the palace to see the world of flowers, which is really wronged.Li Changcai agreed.Yan Baowei also had this intention, so he said that the Qinghe Theater in Dashilan outside was performing operas, why not go together.

This is exactly what Li Guihe wanted, and he generously expressed that as long as everyone is willing to go, he will pay for it.The other two were also willing to travel for free, so they agreed.When the three of them came to the gate of the palace, Li Guihe lied that he was ordered to go out on business.Seeing that Li Guihe was the leader, the eunuch guarding the gate did not dare to stop them, so they let them out of the palace.After leaving the palace gate, the three of them ran straight to the Qinghe Opera Garden inside the Dashilan. They happened to meet Fan Lianyuan, the eunuch of Chuxiu Palace, so the four of them went to listen to the opera together.

The four of them came to the theater, climbed the stairs, and took a fancy to a few elegant seats by the window and facing the balcony.Li Guihe first chose an elegant seat with a better view and sat down, crossing his legs.Without the shackles of the palace rules, the four of them were very relaxed. Li Guihe called the boss and said that the four of them wanted to take the four best seats, and asked the boss to set a price at will.The owner of the theatre, named Hei Yong, quickly apologized and said with a smile: I'm really sorry, guest officers, unfortunately, these seats have already been reserved.

It doesn't matter, you tell them, tell them to quit and it's over.Li Guihe said lightly. This is not as simple as the guest officer thought, Hei Yong still said with a smile on his face, we still have to maintain our reputation.Besides, it has already been reserved, and it will be given to you without the consent of the person who booked the seat, and the person who reserved the seat will not agree. Li Guihe was furious when he heard this, he stared round and said that as long as he gave them these four seats, they don't care about the rest.At the end, Li Guihe cursed at the person who made the reservation.

At this moment, five middle-aged people came upstairs.The owner of the theater, Hei Yong, told Li Guihe, these are the people who reserved the seats, I will go over and talk to them. At the same time, the five people who came up were also very upset when they saw someone sitting in the seat they reserved.The boss, Hei Yong, hurried over to make them laugh, saying that the four newcomers didn't seem easy to mess with, and advised them to give up their seats and reserve better seats for them in the future.Unexpectedly, these five people were not easy to provoke, they shouted loudly that they had to sit there.

Li Guihe was even more dissatisfied with them because he was a member of the palace and refused to let them go.The two sides came and went and quarreled.Finally, Li Guihe miraculously said: Tell you who we are, I'm afraid you will be scared to death!We are from the Forbidden City! It's okay not to say this, but after saying it, the five people laughed and called them eunuchs, not men.The eunuchs couldn't bear such insulting words, and they all stood up from their seats one by one.Seeing that they were about to attack, the boss hurriedly advised Li Guihe that the other party had more people than you and was stronger, so he had to bear with it.

Li Guihe calmed down and felt that the boss was right, so he had to leave the garden temporarily.At the same time, the other five people were also persuaded by the boss to avoid causing trouble in their own shop. Li Guihe went back to the palace again and gathered a group of young eunuchs, armed with knives, a total of eight men rushed towards the Qinghe Theater in Dashilan in a menacing manner.Worrying that they would make trouble again, Hei Yong kept staring at the entrance of the theatre, seeing that they not only brought a few more people, but also brought fighting equipment, he didn't know well, so he rushed to bow to them.

The boss complimented Li Guihe and said that they were scared away after hearing that you were from the palace.But Li Guihe didn't believe this, thinking that the boss was trying to cover them up, so he ordered the store to be smashed. Inexplicably, a group of people rushed forward, armed with knives and sticks, fought violently, smashed porcelain vases, chopped tables and chairs, and smashed the house to pieces in a short while, Hei Yong held his blood-stained face and tried his best to persuade him I can't persuade you.The audience in the theater also jumped up and fled one after another.

Seeing this scene from the side, Li Guihe finally relieved his hatred.The boss escaped in the chaos and reported the case to the Yamen of Zhongcheng Deputy Commander who was in charge of public security.Zhao Yunqi, captain of Zhongcheng Bravery Bureau, was ordered to immediately lead 20 brave soldiers, dressed in livery, to arrest the eunuch who caused the accident.When he heard that the eunuch who caused the accident had been allowed to drink tea at Tianquan Teahouse, he rushed to Tianquan Teahouse and surrounded the entrance of the teahouse. He personally led four people into the teahouse to arrest the eunuch.

However, Li Guihe beat Captain Bingyong to serious injuries. Seeing that the captain was beaten, the other soldiers rushed forward and captured Li Guihe, Li Changcai, Fan Lianyuan, Yan Baowei, Bi Delu and other eunuchs.Eunuchs Li Laixi, Wang Lianke, and Wu Decheng slipped out of the teahouse and fled back to the Forbidden City. Captain Bingyong died early the next morning due to his injuries.Immediately, the whole city was in an uproar, and everyone showed hatred for the eunuch's behavior of resisting arrest and murder.The inspector of the Metropolitan Procuratorate gave a memorial to Emperor Guangxu in Guinian, which not only reported in detail the whole process of the eunuch's crimes and rampages, but also copied the punishment edicts of Emperor Kangxi and Daoguang. Please Emperor Guangxu He was ordered to be handed over to the Ministry of Penalties for strict punishment.

After Emperor Guangxu knew the whole story, he was furious.He feels that he has just been in power, and it is really distressing that political corruption has reached such a level.These eunuchs always used the prestige of their masters to fulfill their personal desires, and even Guangxu himself suffered a lot from it.Now it is too rampant to cause trouble and resist arrest and commit murder, resulting in human life.This time I have to take advantage of this matter to rectify it. Xue Jiansheng, Shangshu of the Ministry of Criminal Justice, also wanted to give a heavy sentence to the eunuch who caused the accident, but he did not dare to speak casually without the consent of Emperor Guangxu.Seeing that Emperor Guangxu was so angry now, he intends to guide him.Emperor Guangxu was really enraged, so he ordered: all murderers and wounders will be executed, and the accomplices will be sent thousands of miles away. Xue Jiansheng had Emperor Guangxu's will. After returning to the Ministry for deliberation, Li Guihe and Li Changcai were sentenced to death and planned to be executed. Both Yan Baowei and Fan Lianyuan planned to be hanged and executed in the autumn. Four thousand miles, and at the same time asked Emperor Guangxu for approval. After Li Guihe killed someone, he thought he was protected by Li Lianying, but he didn't take it seriously at first. Later, when he heard that he was about to be beheaded, he panicked and hurriedly interceded with Li Lianying, begging him to save his life. When Li Lianying heard this, she was very dissatisfied with Li Guihe: Why do you say now that Emperor Guangxu has already checked and is waiting for approval, how can you speak to Lafayette.However, he still wants to help Li Guihe, after all, he has always been his right-hand man.So, Li Lianying wailed at the Empress Dowager Cixi with snot and tears. Empress Dowager Cixi didn't know the details, so she hurriedly asked Li Lianying what was going on.But Li Lianying played tricks, just kept crying and didn't answer.Empress Dowager Cixi had no choice but to let him cry, and then waited for him to speak. Sure enough, Li Lianying said after a while: Someone cut off the eunuch's head because of a trivial matter. I'm afraid that the slave will not serve Lafayette properly in the future, and he will be taken and killed before he knows what happened, so he is very sad. Only then did Cixi realize that Li Lianying must have something to ask of herself, so she asked him to get up quickly and explain the whole story.Li Lianying briefly described what had happened, trying to minimize the responsibilities of Li Gui and them, and then said that Emperor Guangxu had asked the people in the Ministry of Punishment to verify the facts and was about to approve it. Empress Dowager Cixi was very angry, but she made a decision because Emperor Guangxu did not report to her on such a big matter, so she obviously didn't take her seriously. Li Lianying was by the side, always watching the situation. He knew that he was talking about the pain of the Empress Dowager Cixi, so he took the opportunity to add fuel to the flames, saying that if they were beheaded, he would rather go with them, and at least he would fight for us slaves. In order to vent her anger and comfort Li Lianying, the Empress Dowager Cixi said that as long as she was there, no one would be sentenced to death.Li Lianying finally got a word of reassurance, and quickly kowtowed to thank Empress Dowager Cixi for her great kindness. In the early morning of the next day, Emperor Guangxu went to the Summer Palace to greet Empress Dowager Cixi as usual.Emperor Guangxu could clearly see that Empress Dowager Cixi's complexion was not good, but he didn't say anything, and still knelt down to pay his respects. Cixi did not ask Emperor Guangxu if he was in good health as usual, nor asked him to stand up, but sternly called out: "Emperor, why didn't you report to me in advance about the death penalty for the eunuch?" Only then did Emperor Guangxu understand that the Empress Dowager Cixi was angry about this, so he calmly replied: These eunuchs are too hateful, not only going out of the palace to cause trouble, but also killing people with knives Cixi didn't listen to Emperor Guangxu's explanation, but asked him to spare them.Emperor Guangxu also insisted that it is okay to forgive, but this cannot be justified in terms of the laws of the Qing Dynasty. According to the laws of the Qing Dynasty, killing people must pay for their lives. However, Cixi insisted on making unreasonable words, and asked Guangxu to distinguish between active and passive when it comes to murder, and to learn to be flexible. Although Guangxu was already in charge, Cixi's power was still there, so he had to listen to her and had to agree. Due to the intervention of Empress Dowager Cixi, Emperor Guangxu had no choice but to suppress Xue Jiansheng's memorial after returning to the palace.Xue Jiansheng felt that the memorial he had prepared according to Emperor Guangxu's will would be approved by Emperor Guangxu soon, so he quickly ordered people to set up a dharma field at the entrance of Caishi, and prepared to execute Li Guihe and Li Changcai. After the people in the capital heard about it, they flocked to Caishikou one after another, tens of thousands of people.It was heard that the eunuch who caused the accident and murder would be beheaded. People were all beaming, and they went out with their families one after another, which was better than an outing.Everyone praised the court's move one after another, thinking that it was time to kill their prestige. Just as he was speaking, there was commotion in the northwest direction of the execution ground, and someone pointed to the northwest direction and said that it was coming.Everyone looked in the direction the man pointed, and saw two soldiers escorting a prisoner walking towards here, followed by a row of soldiers, and among the soldiers was a prison officer wearing a plume cap. After a group of people came to the execution ground, everything was ready, and when it was three quarters in the afternoon, the executioner raised the knife and cut the prisoner under the knife.The supervisor ordered: Withdraw!He left the vegetable market with a group of people. The people at the scene were reluctant, thinking that the imperial court was fooling them. They had said that they would kill two eunuchs, but now they only killed one person. I don’t know if it was an eunuch.Some people who knew the prisoner said that this person was arrested because he participated in an armed fight elsewhere, and he was not an eunuch at all.So, after scolding the imperial court for deceiving them for a while, the people dispersed in a hurry. It turned out that Xue Jiansheng had been anxiously waiting for Emperor Guangxu's approval after he sent someone to set up the execution place, but it was not until noon that he learned that Emperor Guangxu suppressed his own memorial and did not approve it due to the intervention of the Empress Dowager Cixi. It has been arranged, and there are so many people who come to watch, I am afraid that it is unreasonable not to kill one of them, so I have to push out a criminal who has just been sentenced to death, steal the beam and switch, and hastily beheaded in the execution ground. When Xue Jiansheng returned home, he was very angry at the court's behavior of treating the law as a trifle, and was even more heartbroken at the brutal interference of the Empress Dowager Cixi and Li Lianying's unreasonable troubles. At this time, Sun Minwen, Minister of Military Aircraft, asked to see him.It turned out that he was entrusted by Li Lianying to intercede for Li Guihe, and he also presented fifty thousand taels of silver as a gift.Xue Jiansheng was very angry, and even dismissed Sun Minwen, thinking that he had tarnished the trust of the court and the people, so he flatly rejected his request, and he must bring the murderer Li Guihe to justice to thank the world. In the evening, Xue Jiankai resolutely wrote and wrote a memorial to the Empress Dowager Cixi, saying that the Qing Dynasty has lasted for more than two hundred years.Speaking of the law of the Qing Dynasty, murder pays for life.Now, for a small eunuch, the imperial court ignores the laws of the Qing Dynasty and engages in malpractices for personal gain, which not only disappoints the people of the whole country, but also disappoints the civil and military forces of the Manchu Dynasty.At the same time, a stern warning is issued: by then, the country will perish!He also asserted that these fraudsters will be eternal sinners who subjugate the country! When the Empress Dowager Cixi saw the memorial the next day, although she was very dissatisfied, she didn't want to interfere too much because of her feelings, so as not to arouse public anger in the end.In the end, they had to reluctantly agree to execute Li Guihe, the eunuch who killed Captain Bingyong, and changed the sentences of Li Changcai, Yan Baowei, and Fan Lianyuan to prison, and finally to a suspended sentence.Other criminals will be exiled according to the agreement. Seeing that Li Guihe still wanted to be killed, Li Lianying was dissatisfied with the verdict, but seeing that the Empress Dowager Cixi had agreed, she did not dare to intercede with the Empress Dowager Cixi again, for fear of causing her displeasure. Later, Xue Jiansheng suffered a series of blows from Empress Dowager Cixi and Li Lianying, and was demoted to three ranks. His son Xue Mei, who served as a cabinet attendant, was also fined for nine months.Xue Jiansheng knew that this was Cixi's revenge on him, so he took his family back to his hometown in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province to find a job in the name of recuperating. In order to protect his own people, Li Lianying even forced an old court official to go home for the elderly, which shows how capable he is in front of Cixi.