When Qin Zheng and his entourage came to the entrance of the pavilion, they saw five eunuchs standing outside, followed by a team of guards. Only one of the five eunuchs was empty-handed, and the other four were holding a large tray in their hands, although it was covered with yellow silk, it could also be seen that the contents of the tray were a set of official equipment.

And the post officer hurriedly gave Qin Zheng guidance and said, "Governor Qin, this Gonggong Wan specially sent you an official uniform to pay." ”

Qin Zheng nodded, arched his hand to Wan Haicheng, and said, "Father-in-law Wan has always been good. ”

Wan Haicheng looked Qin Zheng up and down, and said in a calm tone: "Is this the new governor of Shandong, Qin Zheng, Lord Qin?"

Qin Zheng said: "It's down." ”

Wan Haicheng nodded, still in an emotionless tone: "Okay, okay, our family was sent by the Queen Mother and the Emperor this time to send an official uniform to Lord Qin to wear, and teach Lord Qin to perform a salute, so as not to be rude when he sees the Holy Driver tomorrow." ”

Qin Zheng nodded and said, "There is Lao Wan's father-in-law." Please also speak in the first pavilion. As he spoke, he made a gesture of please

Wan Haicheng was not polite, swaggered into the pavilion, and the other four little eunuchs also followed the fish, Deng Yongjian, Liu Hongjie, Zhang Jianping and others followed, seeing the arrogant appearance of these eunuchs, they were also quite angry in their hearts, Zhang Jianping said in a low voice: "Dead eunuch, I don't even have a root, what's the anger?"

Deng Yongjian is a person who understands the general situation, and he shouted in the bottom voice: "Don't say a word." ”

Qin Zheng accompanied Wan Haicheng into the hall of the pavilion and gave the main seat to Wan Haicheng. And Wan Haicheng was not polite, he sat on the main seat, and the other four little eunuchs stood behind him left and right.

The post officer brought the tea, Wan Haicheng took a sip of tea, looked at Qin Zheng who was sitting in the guest seat, and said: "Lord Qin, you were originally overseas remnants, and you became the governor of the Qing Dynasty all of a sudden, not to mention one step to the sky, it is not much worse, this is all the grace of the Queen Mother and the Emperor." ”

Qin Zheng thought in his heart, this dead eunuch didn't let him try on clothes, what did he do, but although he thought so, his mouth was still a perfunctory promise.

Wan Haicheng naturally saw Qin Zheng's perfunctory attitude, and couldn't help but be a little annoyed in his heart, this group of overseas Chinese is too ignorant, it seems that it is not okay to say it so lightly, so he said: "Although you defeated the foreigners, but it is also thanks to the queen mother and the emperor's blessings, don't be self-righteous, and our Great Qing Kingdom is a rule, no better than your set overseas, even if you come to the Great Qing Kingdom, your set will have to be put away." ”

Of course, Qin Zheng could hear that Wan Haicheng's words were thorny, and it was clear that he had come to find a recommendation, and he couldn't help but wonder in his heart, could it be that Cixi sent him to test his attitude?

And Wan Haicheng saw that he had been talking for a long time, but Qin Zheng still didn't react, and he couldn't help but feel angry in his heart, and said: "Lord Qin, is it possible that you have been overseas for a long time and have even forgotten China's regulations? Or do you have no rules overseas at all?" ”

Although Qin Zheng was still not sure what his intentions were, his sense of provocation became stronger and stronger, and he couldn't help but feel angry in his heart, no matter what the intentions of this dead eunuch were, he couldn't be too weak, so he said: "Of course we have our rules overseas, but I don't know what the rules of this Great Qing Kingdom are." ”

Wan Haicheng naturally heard Qin Zheng's words, he is also the number one person in the palace, and he is also Li Lianying's godson, the prince and minister are polite when they see him on weekdays, and he has never been choked by others, so he raised his eyebrows and said: "Since you don't understand the rules of the Qing Dynasty, then our family will teach you, don't look at the imperial court to make you a governor of Shandong, but this official uniform," he said, he pointed back, "It's not so easy to wear." ”

At this time, Qin Zheng finally understood the intention of five or six thousand Haicheng, and instead of being angry, he smiled and said, "Oh, why is it not easy to wear? Isn't this the official uniform given by the emperor?"

Wan Haicheng said: "The official uniform was given by the emperor, but it was also sent to you by our family, who is our family? That is the person who waits for the Queen Mother Lafayette, but not for you, sends you the official uniform, and teaches you to act, that is your blessing, is it possible that you really think of yourself as a character, delaying our family's efforts to serve Lafayette, can you afford this loss?"

At this time, not only Qin Zheng, but even everyone else understood Wan Haicheng's intentions, it turned out that after tossing for so long, he just wanted money, so they all looked at Qin Zheng to see how he handled this matter.

Of course, Qin Zheng knew that it was one of the unspoken rules of the Qing court for eunuchs to ask officials for property, and it is said that Zuo Zongtang put down the rebellion in Xinjiang and made great achievements in expanding the borders, and the queen mother of the two palaces was overjoyed, and invited him to face the saint, and gave him a pair of ink crystal glasses worn by the first emperor Xianfeng. Unexpectedly, the eunuchs were greedy for money, and when they gave them glasses, they extorted bamboo from Zuo Zongtang: if they wanted to receive this pair of glasses from the emperor, they had to pay 3,000 taels of silver. However, Zuo Zongtang has an upright temperament, and he doesn't even sell Zeng Guofan's account, so how can he be willing to eat this mouthful of bird's anger? What kind of "first emperor glasses", Lao Tzu doesn't want it! Seeing that things are going to be worse, Li Hongzhang took into account the overall situation and privately donated 3,000 taels on his behalf before he bought the glasses and gave them to Zuo Zongtang.

This paragraph may not be true, but it also shows that the eunuchs are bold in asking for money, dare to ask for money for everything, and dare to ask for anyone's money, and today they were obviously encountered by themselves. Of course, it cannot be ruled out that Cixi deliberately connived and tested her attitude. However, it is okay to kowtow to Cixi, but it is not possible to bribe the eunuchs, firstly, there is not so much money, Zuo Zongtang paid 3,000 taels for glasses back then, and this set of official uniforms must not be much easier; I didn't ask Father-in-law Wan to send me clothes, if Father-in-law Wan felt that sending me clothes delayed serving the Queen Mother, why didn't he quit this errand and let the Queen Mother come differently?"

When Wan Haicheng heard this, he was almost so angry that he vomited blood, and he didn't know if Qin Zheng really didn't understand or deliberately angry with himself, so he turned his heart sideways and said: "Today, our family won't talk nonsense with you, take 10,000 taels of silver, and our family will let you wear this official uniform, if you don't give the silver, our family will immediately take away the official uniform, so that you can't enter the palace, and you can't see the queen mother and the emperor." ”

Qin Zheng said with a smile: "We have the silver, but we won't give it one or two, if you want to take it, just take it, without this official uniform, I can still see the queen mother and the emperor, but I'm afraid that if you take the official uniform back, you won't be able to pay it, and if you want to send it to me, it's not so easy." ”

Wan Haicheng listened, and couldn't help but be angry, he had been an errand boy in the palace for more than 30 years, from an ordinary little eunuch to the head of the four-grade Hualing, and also recognized Li Lianying as his godfather, almost all the important ministers of the Qing court have been in contact, and no one has received money, but he has never seen such a person.

After the Gengzi State Change, Wan Haicheng escaped from Beijing with Cixi and Guangxu as a few eunuchs named by Cixi, and suffered a lot of sins along the way, but after arriving in Shanxi, firstly, he was far away from Beijing, and secondly, there were local officials along the way, so he also settled down a lot, and the eunuchs were not willing to be lonely, and began to extort money from local officials along the way. Cixi naturally banned these bad things, but it was originally the practice of the imperial court, and these eunuchs all shared the hardships with themselves, and the money they had accumulated in the palace was estimated to have been looted by the Eight-Nation Alliance, and they should be allowed to make a little money.

Of course, Cixi herself was not clean in this regard. It turned out that when she was in the palace, Cixi had a way to make money, that is, to sell officials and accumulate a huge amount of property. After arriving in Xi'an, the old woman felt that she was poor, and the private money hidden in the palace of the capital might have been robbed by foreign devils, so she began to sell a large number of official titles. The local officials, who were usually difficult to get close to Lafayette, also had frequent activities, seizing this opportunity to buy officials and knights, commoners spent money to buy official ranks, and alternates spent money to buy actual titles; and the prefects and counties spent money to buy prefects and governors, so Cixi had already sold a lot of official positions and saved a lot of money for this purpose.

Of course, Cixi will not negotiate the price in person, and the eunuchs naturally play the role of intermediaries, of course, they also take a point from it, Lafayette eats meat, and then you can also drink some soup.

However, once he sold an official and made a trouble, which made Cixi very unhappy. It turned out that there was an official surnamed Shi, who had been in the Tong Guanguan Office for many years, had a little savings, and wanted to buy a Taoist to do it. It's just that he has been suffering from no way, and after Cixi and his entourage arrived in Xi'an, he thought the time had come. He first sent his subordinates to buy off Li Lianying, and Li Lianying told Cixi at an appropriate time that the surname Shi wanted to buy a Taoist. And Cixi thought for a while and told Li Lianying that now that the imperial court is covered with dust, the official price can be cheaper, but the Taoist can be promoted to the two divisions, and at least 10,000 silver. Li Lianying told the official surnamed Shi about the price, and the petty official shouted that it was really cheap, so he immediately issued a silver ticket and sent his subordinates to send it to Li Lianying.

Cixi and his entourage's palace in Xi'an is actually the governor's yamen, which is not as tightly guarded as the original palace, and the guards are all the original officials, and the person who sent the money entered the palace with silver tickets to find Mr. Li, and somehow broke into the courtyard where Cixi lived. This is a heinous crime, if it is called "breaking into the palace" in the capital, let alone a subordinate, it is a prince and minister, and it must be chopped. As a result, the person who delivered the money was caught by the eunuch on duty and asked, "Who let you in?" and replied, "Master Chen." Cixi was furious when she heard this. It turned out that the words "Chen" and "Cen" were homophones in Shaanxi dialect, and Cixi thought that this was the person Cen Chunxuan had sent to spy on her, so she immediately ordered this person to be handed over to Cen Chunxuan, probably to see how he interrogated. Cen Chunxuan only knew the reason when he asked, and the little boss of the person who gave the silver ticket was surnamed "Chen". And the final result of the treatment was that the subordinates who "broke into the palace" were executed, Shi Mou, who wanted to buy the Taoist, and the little boss of the money giver, Lord Chen, were dismissed, and all the officials who guarded the palace that day were exiled to the frontier. As for the 10,000 taels of silver ticket, after a long investigation, no one said that they couldn't find it, but it was actually privately divided by a group of eunuchs.

Although Wan Haicheng has also heard some things about overseas Chinese in Xi'an, but after all, he is a minister, and he doesn't know what is going on outside, in his opinion, since overseas Chinese have been sealed by the imperial court, that is, the courtiers of the imperial court, they naturally unceremoniously ask for money, and because this kind of thing is too common in the Qing court, everyone has been accustomed to it, so whether it is Cixi, Li Hongzhang, Prince Qing, Ronglu, they have not thought of it. As a result, Wan Haicheng hit a nail in front of Qin Zheng.