Early the next morning, Prince Zhuang and Zhao Shuqiao first worshiped the previous emperors of the Qing court in Taimiao. =≤≈. In fact, during the occupation of Beijing by the Eight-Nation Alliance, the tablets of the emperors of the Qing Dynasty were plundered by the Eight-Nation Alliance, but after the People's Army recaptured Beijing, they collected the property looted by the Eight-Nation Alliance, and took back these tablets, and after cleaning up, these tablets belonged to the items that could be returned, so they were put back in the temple, after all, this is the tablet of other people's ancestors, according to the habit of Chinese, people die greatly, and this kind of thing can not be used to rob other people's ancestors. Therefore, there are still tablets in the temple of the imperial palace, but most of the tablets have been damaged to varying degrees.

But despite this, Prince Zhuang and Zhao Shuqiao still felt very lucky, after all, these tablets were not lost, which was of great significance to Chunting, so they also had a good impression of overseas Chinese, so the two cried and worshiped in the Taimiao, and then entered the palace to check.

A few of the eunuchs in the palace don't know Prince Zhuang, not only because of the prince, but also because of the prince's generosity, every time he enters the palace, the eunuchs who serve him will be richly rewarded, at least 1oo taels of silver, so serving Prince Qing has always been the most enthusiastic thing for the eunuchs. Of course, at this time, money is still the second thing, and Guan Jian finally saw his own people this time.

Although there are rumors that the Empress Dowager Cixi is moody, the most famous is the story of "you kill me, I kill your whole family", but in fact, Cixi is not a violent ruler, and even most of the time, it is relatively kind, and because of the special status of the eunuchs, most officials, including high-ranking officials such as the Minister of Military Aircraft, are generally more polite to the eunuchs, in fact, the life of the eunuchs in the palace is not bad, at least higher than the average of the people.

But after the Eight-Nation Alliance occupied the palace, the eunuchs did not have a good time, although they did not die at every turn, but being beaten and scolded was the norm, and they were all working as cattle and horses; although after the People's Army took control of the palace, life was better, there was no need to be beaten and scolded, and there was no need to be a cow or a horse, but they were locked up in the palace, basically isolated from the outside world, and had no power, and now that Prince Qing has returned, many eunuchs are thinking, since the prince is back, then Lafayette is probably coming back soon, and the palace is finally going to return to its former state。 Therefore, many eunuchs were so excited that they began to cry.

Prince Qing and Zhao Shuqiao also comforted them, and then accompanied by the eunuchs, they went around the palace, on the whole, the building of the palace was not damaged by any major damage, of course, the utensils stored in the palace were basically looted, and the travelers selected more than 20,000 pieces of various cultural relics that could be returned to the Qing court, which were piled up in the main hall and sealed. After Prince Qing and Zhao Shuqiao saw it, they were also a little relieved, it seems that the palace does not need to be overhauled, and the queen mother and the emperor can move in directly after they come back.

It took a morning to worship the temple and see the palace, and the remaining day and a half is naturally the time to do their own private affairs, so Prince Qing and Zhao Shuqiao rushed back to their mansions separately, but fortunately, their mansions were not damaged, and of course the property in the mansion has been washed away. However, Prince Qing is a big family in the end, there are many servants, when he left Beijing, there were still hundreds of people in the mansion, although most of them fled, but there were still more than 2o people left in the mansion, led by an old family, guarding the house, so after the People's Army occupied Beijing, it did not seize Prince Zhuang's mansion.

It turns out that the ancestors of this old family are all from the family of Prince Zhuang, and they can be regarded as hardcore slaves, because he and Prince Zhuang are close in age, so after Prince Zhuang was born, he became Prince Zhuang's personal playmate, and the two grew up together, although he has no ability, but Prince Zhuang still trusts him very much, and this old family is also very loyal to Prince Zhuang.

After the Gengzi Revolution, although Prince Zhuang escaped from Beijing, he was left in Beijing to take care of the palace, although the Eight-Nation Alliance occupied Beijing, but this old family member was a person who had experienced the Gengshen Revolution (the Second Opium War), so he firmly believed that this time was the same, and the Queen Mother and the Emperor fled, but they would definitely come back, and the prince would definitely come back, so although most of the family members fled the palace, he still stayed in the palace, and under his persuasion, there were still more than 2o people willing to stay.

However, when the Eight-Nation Coalition looted the palace, he did not dare to stop it, so the property in the house was basically robbed by the Eight-Nation Alliance, and now these 2o more than 2o people mainly rely on working for overseas Chinese to make a living, it turned out that overseas Chinese set up a security post in Beijing, a police station, and cleaned up the sewers in Beijing, which required a large number of manpower, and also provided a large number of jobs for Beijing residents, generally a family of 4-5 people, one person worked, and almost able to feed the whole family. Under the auspices of the old family, a total of 7 people in Prince Zhuang's mansion went out to work, which was enough to feed these more than 2o people.

Seeing that the prince came back suddenly, the people who stayed in the mansion were surprised and happy, and they cried and worshiped on the ground, and even Prince Zhuang felt uncomfortable. After crying for a while, everyone stopped their grief, and Prince Zhuang explained that he returned to Beijing this time on the orders of the Queen Mother and the Emperor to go to Tianjin to appease overseas Chinese, but he just passed through Beijing to come back to see, but soon after, the Queen Mother and the Emperor will officially return to Beijing, and then he can really come back, so he will have to wait for a while.

However, Prince Zhuang appreciated the loyalty of everyone very much, let them continue to guard the mansion, and left 1,000 taels of silver for the living expenses of the mansion, as well as to buy the necessary daily necessities, of course, there is no need to go to work, and the other fleeing family members are also recruited back, after all, it is normal for people to flee during the war, and there is no need to plan too much. And most of these people have served in Prince Qing's mansion for many years, and they are easy to use.

Compared with Prince Qing's mansion, Zhao Shuqiao is much more unlucky, after all, he is an official who has risen from the bottom, not only can the family business not be compared with Prince Qing, but the cohesion of the family has not been formed, so after the Eight-Nation Coalition broke through Beijing, all the family members fled. After the People's Army took over Beijing, although the mansion was cleaned, but seeing that no one was in charge, the mansion was sealed, and now it is naturally unsealed, but the entire mansion is empty, only full of dust.

Fortunately, Zhao Shuqiao was also mentally prepared for this, and he also brought a few people back this time, so he ordered someone to look for it, and it turned out that more than 1o people were found, Zhao Shuqiao arranged for them to clean and tidy up the mansion, and also left them some silver.

Two days passed in a blink of an eye, and both of them arranged their family affairs properly, and jointly sent a telegram to the Qing court in Xi'an, informing them of the situation in Beijing, the palace was generally fine, and the queen mother and emperor were asked to rest assured.

Early in the morning of the third day, the two led the army and boarded the train arranged for them by Li Songchen at the Temple of Heaven and marched towards Tianjin.

Prince Zhuang and Zhao Shuqiao are both taking the train for the first time. In fact, Beijing should be the earliest place in China to build a railway, in 1865, a Briton named Durand built a narrow gauge small railway only 5oo meters long outside Beijing, and tried a small train, who knows that the whistle of the train sounded, the people of Beijing were full of fear and surprise: because there was no ox and horse to pull the vehicle can run like flying, in the "Qing barnyard banknotes" contained: Beijing people are surprised to be monsters. As a result, the railway was quickly dismantled by the troops stationed in Beijing, and the Chinese breathed a sigh of relief.

In the following time, the construction of railways became an enduring topic between the Qing court and other countries, and the foreigners repeatedly demanded the construction of railways in China, and tried to show the good of building railways, and even used various means such as cutting first and then playing, concealing the sky and crossing the sea, and secretly built several railways; but the Qing court just did not agree, and the reasons for refusal were also varied, such as destroying feng shui, disturbing the gods, colliding with evil spirits, etc., even if the railways repaired by foreigners, they also spent money to buy and dismantle. There was even an absurd thing that although the railroad was repaired, it was not allowed to be pulled by locomotives, but instead horses were used to pull carriages on the tracks.

In order to persuade the imperial court to build a railway, Li Hongzhang built Beijing's first railway, the Ziguangge Railway, with a total length of 151o.4 meters, in the Xiyuan of the Qing Palace (now Zhongnanhai and Beihai) between 1886 and 1888, and purchased 6 carriages for Cixi to travel and travel between Yiluan Hall and Beihai Jingqingzhai. However, the carriage was not pulled by a locomotive, but by a eunuch.

After the completion of this railway, the imperial court's doubts and antipathy to the railway were gradually dispelled, so in 1887, before the Ziguangge Railway was completed, it was presided over by Liu Mingchuan, then governor of Taiwan, and began to build a railway on Taiwan Island, which lasted six years and completed the railway with a total length of 1o6.7 kilometers from Keelung to Hsinchu, becoming the first railway in the substantive sense built by the Chinese.

Subsequently, the imperial court successively approved the construction of the Jintong Railway and the Luhan Railway, and since then, the development of China's railway industry has entered a new period with difficulty. But until this time, China only had more than 6oo kilometers of railways.

Before the Gengzi National Revolution, there were two railways in Beijing, Jinlu and Lubao, which were opened to traffic in 1896 and 1898 respectively, but the Qing government did not allow trains to enter the city on the grounds of destroying feng shui, so to go to Tianjin to get on the train at Majiapu Station outside the Yongding Gate, and to go to Baoding to get on the train at Lugouqiao Station. After the Eight-Nation Coalition captured Beijing, a general military station was set up in the Temple of Heaven, in order to facilitate transportation, it was connected along the track from Majiabao, from Yongding Gate to the Temple of Heaven, and a general station was set up outside the Yuanqiu Gate, called the Temple of Heaven Outer Station, and from then on the diagonal track to the Qigu Altar Gate, called the Temple of Heaven Inner Station, of course, it is now controlled by the People's Army. And the Ziguangge Railway, which only had symbolic significance, was demolished by the Eight-Nation Alliance.

Because the construction of the railway in Beijing was relatively late, and Prince Zhuang and Zhao Shuqiao were both central officials, they rarely went out of Beijing, so they had never taken a train. But now, the officials of the Chunting Court also know that this thing is powered by a steam engine, and it is not a witchcraft, and the two of them are not old-fashioned, and there is no psychological burden when they come by train.