Chapter 19 Eight Dismissal of Eunuchs

The Forbidden City is peaceful on the surface, but the order inside is chaotic.Since I was sensible, I have often heard of robberies, fires, and murders in the palace.As for smoking and gambling, let alone.By the time I got married, the theft had progressed to such an extent: just after the wedding, all the treasures on the queen's phoenix crown inlaid with pearls and emeralds were replaced by fakes. I know from the masters that the treasures in the Qing palace have long been famous all over the world.Just talking about antique calligraphy and painting, the quantity and value are extremely impressive.Most of the treasures collected by the emperors in the Ming and Qing dynasties for hundreds of years are still stored in the palace, except for two times that were taken away by foreign soldiers.Most of these things have no number, and even if they have number, no one checks them, so no one knows whether they are lost or how many are lost.This opens the door to convenience for thieves.

Thinking about it today, it was a catastrophe.Those who participated in the robbery can be said to be from top to bottom, everyone included.In other words, anyone who has the opportunity to steal steals everything, and they can steal as much as possible.There are also different ways of stealing. Some steal secretly by pulling the door and picking the lock, and some steal blatantly according to legal procedures.Most eunuchs use the former method, while ministers and officials use mortgage, auction or loan appreciation, and request for rewards, etc., that is, the latter method.As for the one-reward-one-receive method adopted by Pu Jie and I, it is the most advanced method.Of course, at that time, I would never have such a thought. All I thought was that other people were stealing my property.

When I was sixteen, one day, driven by curiosity, I asked the eunuch to open a storehouse over the Jianfu Palace.The seal on the warehouse door is very thick, and it has not been opened for at least several decades.I saw big boxes piled up to the ceiling all over the room, with Jiaqing year seals on the boxes, and no one could tell what was inside.I asked the eunuch to open one, and it turned out that it was full of hand-scroll calligraphy and paintings and very exquisite antique jade objects.Later, I found out that this was Qianlong's favorite treasure back then.After Qianlong's death, Jiaqing ordered that all those treasures and playthings be sealed up, and they filled the warehouses of many halls around Jianfu Palace. What I found was just one of them.Some libraries are full of Yi wares, some are full of porcelain, and some are full of famous paintings, including many paintings painted by the Italian Castiglione for Qianlong.In the warehouse behind the Hall of Mental Cultivation, I also found many interesting treasure boxes, which are said to be Qianlong's playthings.This kind of treasure box is made of red sandalwood. It looks like an ordinary book box. When it is opened, it looks like a staircase. Each staircase is divided into dozens of small grids. An inch-and-a-half copy of the Four Books hand-copied by celebrities, a finely carved tooth ball, a walnut carved with ancient stories, several melon seeds carved with poems and paintings, and an ancient Egyptian coin, etc.In a treasure box, there are calligraphy, paintings, gold and stones.Jade wares, bronze wares, porcelain wares, ivory carvings, etc. are all in place. They are called Baibao, but in fact, there are hundreds of kinds in a small box, and more than a thousand kinds in large ones.There is also a special red sandalwood kang table, there is no message on it, and each message contains a treasure. I have not seen this thing. At that time, I only took the treasure box I discovered by myself. There are about forty or fifty boxes. , They were taken to the Hall of Mental Cultivation.That's when I thought about the question: How much treasure do I have?I have brought what I can see, how much can I not see?What about those treasures that are in the whole warehouse?How many were stolen?How can the theft be stopped?

Master Johnston once told me that many new antique shops opened on Di'anmen Street where he lived.I heard that some are opened by eunuchs, and some are opened by officials of the Ministry of Internal Affairs or relatives of officials.Later, other masters also felt that measures must be taken to prevent theft.In the end, I took the advice of the masters and decided to take stock.In this way, the trouble is even greater. First, there are more robberies.Someone broke the lock on the warehouse door of Yuqing Palace, and someone opened the rear window of Qianqing Palace.Things are going from bad to worse, and the big diamond I just bought is gone.In order to investigate the robbery case, the concubine called the chief servant of the respected office to organize the chief of the nine halls to interrogate the eunuchs involved, and even imposed punishments, but no matter whether it was torture or offering a heavy reward, there was no effect.Not only that, just after the counting of Jianfu Palace started, a fire broke out suddenly on the night of June 27th, and all the counted and uncounted things were burned up.

It is said that the fire was first discovered by the Italian embassy fire brigade in Dongjiaomin Lane.When the firetruck drove to the Forbidden City and called the gate, the guards didn't know what was going on.The fire was extinguished overnight by fire brigades from all over the place, but the area around Jianfu Palace, including Jingyixuan, Huiyao Building, Jiyun Building, Bilin Pavilion, Miaolianhua Room, Yanchun Pavilion, and Jicui Pavilion, was still destroyed. A large area of ​​the pavilion, Guangsheng Building, Ninghui Building, Xiangyun Pavilion, etc. was burned to scorched earth.This is the place where the most treasures are stored in the Qing palace. How many things were destroyed in this fire is still a mystery.In some of the muddled accounts published later by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, it was stated that 2,665 golden Buddhas, 1,157 calligraphy and paintings, 435 antiques, and tens of thousands of ancient books were burned.On what account it was written, only God knows.

When fighting the fire, Chinese, foreigners, people in the Forbidden City and people outside the city came and went, boiling and busy.It is conceivable that they are busy with anything other than fighting the fire.But the Forbidden City is grateful for it all.There was a foreign lady who came to fight the fire. For some reason, she had an argument with the Chinese firefighters.Later, she asked someone to show me the fan to show her bravery, and I wrote a poem on it to show my gratitude.After the fire passed, the Ministry of Internal Affairs not only entertained the firefighters with refreshments, but also gave the police and fire brigade 60,000 yuan in remuneration.

If you want to estimate the loss this time, you might as well talk about the disposal of the pile of burned and touched garbage.At that time, I was looking for a vacant land to build a court, and Johnston taught me to play tennis. According to him, this is a game for the British aristocrats.This fire scene is just for this purpose, so I asked the Ministry of Internal Affairs to clear it out as soon as possible.Of course, there were no calligraphy, paintings, or ancient porcelains to be found in the pile of ashes, but there was still a lot of melted gold, silver, copper and tin.The Ministry of Internal Affairs called gold shops in Beijing to bid, and one gold shop bought the right to dispose of the ashes at a price of 500,000 yuan, and picked out more than 17,000 taels of melted gold nuggets.After the gold store picked up these things, the Ministry of Internal Affairs packed the remaining ashes into many sacks and distributed them to the people of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.Later, an official from the Ministry of Internal Affairs told me that his uncle donated two golden mandalas to each temple of Lama Temple and Bolin Temple in Beijing at that time. The diameter and height of the mandala were about one foot, and they were extracted from ashes in sacks. .

The cause of the fire and the truth of the loss are equally impossible to investigate.I suspect that the thief deliberately set fire to extinguish the traces.Not many days later, another fire broke out on the window of Wuyizhai, the East Courtyard of the Hall of Mental Cultivation. Fortunately, it was discovered early, and a ball of cotton soaked in kerosene was found to be extinguished as soon as it was on fire.My suspicions immediately grew.I think it's not only someone who wants to set fire to put out the traces, but someone who wants to murder me. In fact, theft and arson are both facts, and the masters did not shy away from this, and the murder of me may be due to my own nervousness.My suspicious character has been revealed at this time.According to the ancestral system of the Qing palace, no matter how busy the emperor was every day, he had to read a page of "Sheng Xun" (these things were placed in the emperor's bedroom all year round).At this time, I especially admired Yongzheng's "Zhu Pi Yu Zhi".Yongzheng once said this: People who are trustworthy are people, and those who are not trustworthy are also people.Otherwise, it is impossible to use human abilities.He once commented on the memorial of his trusted minister Ertai: "It is the first secret of employing people that he dare not trust people."I have never known a suspect, nor a believer.He also said that no matter how many things people have experienced, they can only believe in their past, and should pay attention to their future, and never believe that they will not change.These words are deeply imprinted in my mind.I also remember Kangxi's words: For those who are superior to others, although they are trustworthy in employing them, they should not be trusted suddenly.Kangxi specifically said that eunuchs cannot be trusted. He said: From ancient times, there are few good eunuchs.These instructions of the ancestors were brought into my thinking by these fire alarms.

I decided to follow the instructions of Emperor Yongzheng Chacha Weiming.I came up with two methods, one is to ask the little eunuchs around me, and the other is to eavesdrop on the conversations of the eunuchs by myself.Later, I used the second method. Outside the window of the eunuch’s house in the East and West Road, I found them talking about me behind their backs, saying that my temper was getting worse and worse, which aroused my suspicion even more.On the night when the fire broke out in Wuyizhai, I went to the eunuch's window to eavesdrop again. Unexpectedly, I heard their discussion go a step further, saying that I set the fire myself.I think they really have ulterior motives. If I don't take measures first, the consequences will be endless.

A murder had just occurred at this time.A eunuch was accused of some negligence and was beaten by the steward, so he held a grudge. One morning, before the informant got up, he took a handful of lime and a knife, went into the house, and sprinkled lime on the ground first. The man's face, lost his eyes, and then stabbed the man's face with a knife.The assailant was later escaped and the injured were taken to hospital.At this moment, I remembered that many eunuchs had been beaten by me. Would they attack me?Thinking of this, I couldn't even sleep.From the outer room of my bedroom all the way to Baosha, there are eunuchs on duty sleeping on the floor bunks. If there is anyone here who has bad intentions for me and wants to make things difficult for me, wouldn't it be too easy to attack?I want to pick a reliable person to watch for me, pick and choose, and only pick a queen.From this day forward, I asked Wanrong to guard me all night, and if she heard anything, she would wake me up.At the same time, I also prepared a stick and put it beside the bed for contingency.For several days in a row, Wanrong couldn't sleep all night, I don't think this is a solution after all.In order to get it done once and for all, I finally decided not to drive away all the eunuchs!

I knew this was bound to cause a storm.It won't work if you don't deal with your father well.I came up with an idea and went to find my father in person.He had no way to discuss it with the minister of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and his masters. When he suddenly encountered this problem, his eloquence became even worse and he stuttered even more.He tried very hard to give some scattered reasons, such as the ancestral system, these people have been on duty for many years so that they will not plot wrongdoing, etc., to persuade them.And said: This has to be discussed slowly, the emperor will return to the palace first, and after two days I don't care what he says, just answer with this sentence: If the prince does not agree, I will never return to the palace from today on! Seeing me treat him like this, he was so anxious that he didn't sit or stand, scratched his head, scratched his cheek, and kept spinning on the ground. A bottle of soda on the table was knocked down by his sleeve and fell to the ground with a bang. The sound exploded.Seeing his appearance, I couldn't help but giggled, and opened a book on the desk calmly, pretending that I didn't want to leave. Father finally gave in.In the end, it was decided that all the eunuchs would be dismissed except for those who were inseparable from the concubine's side.