"Are you ready?"

A thumbs up, and the members of the team in black combat uniforms beside him all clenched the short barreled guns and precision Qin crossbow rifles with scopes in their hands, looking relaxed as if they were on an outing, but considering the location of their ambush, it was a little special. Looking at the leading officer, the white tower behind them was faintly visible in the night, and in front of them was the corner tower of the Forbidden City, which is still called the Forbidden City, although the emperor and the empress dowager inside could no longer impose their will anywhere other than the palace walls.

At the beginning of the autumn of the first year of the republic, the Qing Emperor Puyi abdicated less than a year, and the four-year-old was still in the final stage of "one-year-old gold and two-year-old silver, three-year-old and four-year-old annoying people", but except for the sigh of the emperor's mother, there was no change for him. According to the "preferential conditions for the Qing family" agreed between the Nanjing Provisional Government and the Qing government, Pu Yi and some of his subjects still lived in the Forbidden City in Beijing.

In the middle of the night, the ancient imperial city runs to its own rhythm. However, the sleeping people were quickly awakened by the crackling and popping sound, and the fire and smoke had rushed into the sky, and the flames were so bright that even the people around the imperial city could see clearly. A mysterious fire suddenly ignited in the garden of Jianfu Palace in the Forbidden City, and the Jianfu Palace, which contained a large number of Buddha statues, calligraphy and paintings, ancient books and treasures, was wiped out overnight, and countless treasures were buried in the flames. More than half a century later, the famous Italian director Bertolucci artistically reproduced this historical fact in the movie "The Last Emperor", and he used this fire as a metaphor for the sunset of the last Chinese dynasty, which is quite symbolic.

In the face of this fire, Zaifeng said bitterly: "I just wanted to investigate the eunuch's crime of stealing treasures, and they burned down the Jianfu Palace garden to destroy the evidence!" "At the end of the Qing Dynasty, the mysterious fire in the ancient Forbidden City still has a lot of stories, and many years later, many details of this night remain a mystery.

Let's talk about this Jianfu Palace Garden first, it is located in the northwest corner of the Forbidden City, sitting north and facing south, built in the early years of Qianlong. The garden is centered on Yanchun Pavilion, surrounded by buildings such as Jade Hubing, Ninghui Hall, Miao Lotus Room, Bilin Pavilion, Jingsheng Zhai, Jiyun Building, Huiyao Building and Jicui Pavilion, these pavilions and pavilions are all connected by verandahs, scattered and scattered, winding paths are secluded, both have the delicacy of the Jiangnan garden, but also have the elegance of the Royal Forbidden Garden, it is a good place for people to linger.

The garden of Jianfu Palace is rebuilt from the old palace, called the five places of Qianxi in the Ming Dynasty, and the five places of Qiandong on the east road, it is the residence of the prince, and the Qianlong Emperor lived here when he was young. After Qianlong ascended the throne, it was changed to the Jianfu Palace Garden, which was used as a place for leisure and recreation, poetry and painting. Qianlong liked the beauty and elegance of the Jianfu Palace garden very much, and often accompanied the queen mother and queen to rest and enjoy the scenery. As we all know, Qianlong liked to write poems and inscriptions in his life, according to the Qing Dynasty documents, many plaques and couplets in the garden of Jianfu Palace are from Qianlong's own handwriting, in his poems, at least a dozen articles are related to Jianfu Palace, one of which is a cloud: "Laxue is like a mandarin duck tile, and the east wind does not send silk flowers." I am willing to give the blessing of the Jianfu Palace to the family of all surnames in the Huanqu District. ”

Emperor Qianlong liked to collect antique treasures, and he put all the treasures he collected in the Jianfu Palace and played with them from time to time. Qianlong has been the Taiping Emperor for 60 years, and he has been the emperor for several years, and no one has counted how many treasures he has hidden here, but the concubines, female officials, palace maids and eunuchs in the palace all know that Jianfu Palace is a place where Qianlong specializes in hiding treasures, and it is very well-known. In 1799, the 88-year-old Qianlong Emperor drove to the west, and his son Emperor Jiaqing ordered the treasures and playthings collected in the Jianfu Palace to be locked and sealed as they were. It wasn't until more than 90 years later, that Longyu and Zaifeng, who had just taken over Cixi's position, had two uncles and sisters-in-law, and the silver in their hands was really not enough to spend, and the treasury in the palace was already empty and starved to death. At that time, Cao Kun forced the palace, the world was in chaos, and no one had the heart to count all this, until the dust of the Qing Dynasty settled, and Zaifeng, as the emperor's father, had the leisure to often wander around the palace.

One day, driven by curiosity, the lord asked the eunuch to open a treasury on the side of the Jianfu Palace. The door seal is thick and hasn't been opened for at least a few decades. Zaifeng saw that the house was full of large boxes piled up to the ceiling, and there were Jiaqing New Year's seals on the box skins, and no one could tell what was inside. He asked the eunuch to open one, which turned out to be full of handscrolls, calligraphy and paintings, and very delicate antique jade. Later, I figured out that this was Qianlong's favorite treasure back then. After the death of Lord Qianlong, Jiaqing ordered all those treasures and playthings to be sealed and filled with many palace warehouses in the area of Jianfu Palace, and what Zaifeng found was only one of them. Some of the libraries are full of Yi ware, some of the libraries are full of porcelain, and some of the libraries are full of famous paintings, including many paintings painted by the Italian Lang Shining for Qianlong. In the treasury behind the Yangxin Palace, he also found many interesting "treasure boxes", which are also said to be Qianlong's playthings. This treasure box is made of rosewood, the shape of which resembles an ordinary bookcase, opens like a staircase, and each ladder is divided into dozens of small grids, each of which contains a plaything, such as a Song porcelain vase, a hand-copied book of four books by a celebrity, a carved tooth ball, a walnut carved with ancient stories, several melon seeds engraved with inscriptions and paintings, and an ancient Egyptian coin. In a treasure box, all kinds of calligraphy and painting, gold and stone, jade, bronze, porcelain, ivory carving, etc., are all prepared, called Baibao, in fact, a small box is hundreds of kinds, and there are more than a thousand kinds of large ones. There is also a special red sandalwood kang table, on which there is no news, and each message contains a treasure. Zaifeng, who was amazed, didn't notice that the eyes of the old eunuch who looked at the treasury flashed like the eyes of the people in the capital who despised the old hats of the countryside, in fact, the most serious theft of the prison guards was precisely this warehouse that seemed to have been sealed for a long time.

Zaifeng's cronies and eunuchs in the palace brought this lord a worrying news. On Di'anmen Street, a number of new antique shops have recently opened, and the owners of these shops are either eunuchs or officials of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and most of the things sold are stolen from the palace. Some of the things were similar treasure boxes, apparently kicked out of the Jianfu Palace.

After the Qing Dynasty left the Forbidden City, the theft in the palace became more and more rampant, and since Zaifeng had no government to take, he became more interested in gold and silver treasures, and he decided to take measures to prevent future troubles. In the end, Longyu also accepted his suggestion and decided to take inventory of the palace's collections. Who knew that there would be more trouble in this way, the door lock of the treasury of Yuqing Palace was smashed at some point, the back window of Qianqing Palace was also opened, and even the head of the jewelry of Longyu's wedding was mysteriously missing.

Seeing that things are becoming more and more unreasonable, what these masters can call is the small world within the walls of this palace. In order to track down the theft, Longyu ordered the Jingshifang to organize personnel to interrogate the eunuchs concerned, and some even moved the punishment, but with little success. Not only that, the inventory of Jianfu Palace had just begun, and a fire suddenly broke out at night that day, and all the counted and uncounted were burned out. Of course, Zaifeng saw the eunuch's ghost trick of stealing himself very thoroughly, and he said angrily to the people around him: "I just wanted to investigate the eunuch's crime of stealing treasures, and they burned down the garden of Jianfu Palace to destroy the evidence!" But what he didn't expect was that this time he was wrong to blame these eunuchs, of course, their original intention was just as the regent had guessed, but they were obviously negligent to the behind-the-scenes financiers who provided them with convenience, and they did not intend to settle the matter with money at all, the method he used was more concise and effective, although it was the same copper product as copper coins, but the price of bullets was obviously much cheaper.

The fire that broke out at night was first discovered by a eunuch named Malaylu. It is said that the fire started at Keishungu Palace, and when Ma Lai Lu got up to fight, he found that the flames had gushed out of the window and burned to the connected cloister. Ma Lailu was taken aback when he saw this, and hurriedly reported to the Jingshifang, but the officials and eunuchs of the Internal Affairs Office knew nothing about firefighting, so they were stunned and allowed the fire to spread. The fire burned down the magnificent and tall Yanshou Pavilion, and the burning rafters fell on other palaces, and turned Huiyao Tower, Jiyun Tower, and Bilin Pavilion into a sea of fire, and even the ancient pines and cypresses turned into burning fire trees. The people nearby all saw the northwest corner of the Forbidden City full of red light, and the flames were more than ten feet high, and they heard the crackling burning sound mixed with it, as well as the sound of panicked cries.

The fire brigade of the Italian Legation in Dongjiaomin Lane first discovered the fire, and the firefighters immediately drove to the Forbidden City in a fire truck. At this time, although the outside of the city was already the Republic of China, the city was still in accordance with the provisions of the Qing Dynasty's patriarchal law, and no one could step into the inner courtyard of the palace without the emperor's will. Liu Bingli, the eunuch of the Jingshifang guarding the palace gate, while preventing the fire brigade from entering the palace, sent people to report to Longyu and Zaifeng, and when Zaifeng was found in a palace on the west side of the Forbidden City, the fire had been burning for more than an hour.

After opening the gate, the police and firefighters who rushed to the palace to put out the fire rushed to the palace, but there was no running water in the Forbidden City, and the fire hose could not be used. Later, I had to connect all the water pipes together and take the water of the imperial river outside the Forbidden City to put out the fire, but it was also a drop in the bucket and to no avail. In the end, in desperation, the trained Italian firefighters ordered the demolition of the house and the separation of the fire so that the fire could be extinguished.

Jae-bong also arrived at the scene of the fire, he was stunned by the sudden fire, and one of the palace guards wrote in his memoirs: "I saw the regent and the queen mother standing on a pile of scorched wood, staring gloomily at the scene before them. Several princes also arrived at the scene. The personnel of the Ministry of Internal Affairs did not know anything about extinguishing fires, but they took great care to yell at the orderly firefighters. ”

In the eyes of people, this already somewhat fallen regent was actually not stupid, he clearly saw that some people took the opportunity to rub oil in the name of firefighting, and later wrote in his memoirs: "When fighting the fire, Chinese, foreigners, people in the Forbidden City, people outside the city, people came and went, boiling, busy. It's conceivable what to do besides fighting fires. But the Forbidden City was grateful for all this, after all, what they took away was only a drop in the bucket compared to the entire Forbidden City they saved. As Zaifeng said, he thanked all those who helped, and provided the firefighters with fruits, tea and pastries to maintain their strength, and sent people to send 20,000 silver dollars to the police and fire brigade afterwards.

Before the firefighting scene was staged, another scene had been quietly opened on the shore of the North Sea. One after another, the carriages were filled with the contents of the baskets that were brought down from the palace wall one by one, and when the last eunuch involved came down from the palace wall, it was still very dark, and in the corner of this palace city, the guards on duty today had already opened a gambling game in the corner tower in the other corner, and no one would miss the opportunity to earn some extra money.

"Master Cao, we're all here, look." A guy who looked like a chief eunuch waved at the back, silencing the eunuchs, big and small, and he and the owner of the largest jewelry store in the capital had a big deal to finalize.

"Everyone's hard work, let's go to our hall, the silver goods will be delivered face to face, what do you think?"

"Okay. The guest is as he pleases. ”

The two of them hooked their shoulders like brothers and got into the first car, and the other eunuchs also got into the other cars with their waists bent, and a group of more than 20 carriages quietly left the palace wall and began to look around the north sea.

"This lord, you are from Jinan, right?" A little eunuch didn't say anything to a black-clothed guard. The other party was silent for a while, as if dumb.

"Hey, if a few years ago, let Lao Tzu look at you, what is it?" This person felt that he had lost face, and seven were dissatisfied and eight were not angry. "This strong man, your brother is not deaf and dumb, is he?"

Looking at the little eunuch with a high-spirited expression, the guard on the other side was older, and there was a pitiful look on his face with some vicissitudes, he pursed his lips and said, "He's just not used to it." ”

"Not used to it?" The little eunuch, who was a little confused, asked, "What are you not used to?" ”

"Talk to the dead." The older guard smiled weirdly and said. When the eunuch looked at him suspiciously, and then wanted to see if the other guard's face could see any clues, a bright light flashed, and his eyes fell to the ground. The older guard gently held the little eunuch's head and covered his neckline to block the splattering of blood. The two guards didn't say a word more, and the three of them continued to follow the car in front of them, of course, now the corpses of two people and a eunuch.

On the way, the wagons underwent some changes, and after unloading some of their loads on the North Sea, they began to transfer the goods, and when the ships were on the opposite shore, the wagons were pushed into the lake by the guards with stones, and after a ripple, they all disappeared into the night.

The official version of the Jianfugong fire was that the wires caught fire. At that time, Nie Xianfan, the commander of the infantry army who was responsible for protecting the safety of the Qing room, also personally went to the scene to direct the firefighting, and afterwards he issued a telegram saying: "At 12 o'clock on the night of the 26th of this month, the Shenwumen wire caught fire, and it was burned by Deri Xinzhai (the inscription on the plaque hanging in 'Jingsheng Zhai' is 'De Ri Xin', so 'Jing Shengzhai' is also called 'Deri Xinzhai'). "At that time, movies were often shown in the Forbidden City, and the movie machine and electric light room were set up in Deri Xinzhai, and the eunuchs in charge of management lacked common sense of electricity, and it was possible that there would be a leakage and fire. In addition, there was a small power plant in the palace at that time, which was used exclusively for lighting in the palace. Due to the poor quality of the wires and the illegal use of the wires, there are often leakage fires in the palace, but they do not cause major fires.

At the beginning of the republic, everyone's mind was focused on the allocation of quotas in the Nanjing government, and such a small episode was insignificant, but in fact, in the barracks record of He Dazhuang, the commander of the Special Operations Corps, the record of this day was only a sentence "The training is proceeding normally." "That's it.