From the moment when Han Xiufeng asked the civil and military officials stationed in various places to obey the orders of the governors of Liangguang, Fujian and Zhejiang, Liangjiang and Zhili, the "Houyitang", which was not in the economic system, became nameless. There were only six translators left, two directors who were transferred from the Imperial Court of the Imperial Court, as well as minor officials such as Qingxian, Jilu, and Xiaoshandong, who were really not officials, and seven guards, including the big head.

No matter what kind of movement Xiyi has, several feudal officials will plan to fold the report, and even Su Song Taidao Xue Huan can secretly fold and listen to the heavens, and the emperor naturally does not need to summon him into the palace for questioning as before, but summons Prince Zheng, Prince Yi Zaiyuan, Prince Hui Mianyu, Su Shun, who has just moved to the Ministry of Household Affairs, and Wen Xiang, who has been the chief treasurer of the "Houyi Hall" and is most familiar with Yiqing, to discuss countermeasures.

It is precisely because he can always see the emperor that Wen Xiang, who has just been serving as a servant of the Criminal Department for a few days, has been promoted again!

The afternoon before yesterday, the emperor decreed that he be promoted to the rank of cabinet scholar and concurrently the chamberlain of the Ministry of Rites. In contrast, Han Xiufeng was promoted two levels in a row, and it was really nothing to move from the Shaoqing of Taifu Temple to Fengchen Yuanqing of the third grade.

But Wen Xiang couldn't be happy, because this official was not so easy to do.

The recital from Liangguang did not arrive, but the recital from Shanghai arrived first.

After the Yi chieftain Erjin led the army to Shanghai, he ordered the consul Yingyi to go to Changzhou to send a note to He Guiqing, the governor of Liangjiang, but as a result, as soon as He Guiqing sent the excerpt of the request to the capital in the starry night, Erjin did not want to wait any longer, and actually led forty or fifty large and small warships and five or six thousand foreign soldiers to sail north.

Counting the days, Xiyi will soon arrive in Tianjin.

Ten days ago, the emperor had just secretly instructed the Dagukou area to "remain silent and take strict precautions", and today he still issued an order to order Tan Tingxiang, the governor of Zhili, to "remain silent and take strict precautions".

Wen Xiang wanted to ask the emperor to order Tan Tingxiang to go to Tianjin quickly, but thinking that the emperor had made up his mind, he swallowed the words again. Just as he was about to bow down and exit the main hall, Xianfeng suddenly asked, "Bochuan, what has Han Si been busy with these days?" ”

Wen Xiang was stunned and hurriedly said: "Your Majesty, the slave hasn't seen him for a few days, and I don't know what he's busy with." ”

Xianfeng was very clear about his relationship with Han Xiufeng, and asked with a gloomy face: "Do you really not know, or do you not know?" ”

Wen Xiang didn't dare to pretend to be confused anymore, hesitated for a moment and said with a bitter face: "The slave doesn't dare to say." ”

"Bold!"

"The slave deserves death, and the emperor is angry." Wen Xiang wiped his sweat, drooped his head and said uneasily: "The slave didn't have a few words to him because of the accumulation of official duties of the yamen, but I only knew that he was in frequent contact with the Heying soldiers who were transferred from Gu'an a few years ago, and he was chattering, and he didn't know what he was doing. ”

Xianfeng didn't think that Han Si would plot a rebellion, let alone that Wen Xiangming knew that Han Si's appearance was suspicious but did not report it, so after thinking about it, he asked coldly: "That's all?" ”

The emperor's temperament Wenxiang knew too well, and he didn't want to tell the emperor what Han Xiufeng was busy with, so he couldn't hide from it, so he could only say vaguely: "As far as the slave knows, he collected a lot of silver when he was ordered to inspect Haiphong, and remitted all the silver and the remaining silver in the public account of the 'Houyitang' to Shanghai to buy guns." ”

Xianfeng also knew Wen Xiang's personality, and found that he was more and more similar to Weng Xincun, so he didn't bother to ask again, so he simply waved his hand: "I'll be here today, kneel down." ”

"Huh."

……

As soon as Wen Xiang walked out of the Old Summer Palace on his front foot, a guard rode a fast horse straight to Nanyuan.

Han Xiufeng didn't know that the emperor suddenly remembered him again, and was taking Ren Yu'er, who was disguised as a man, accompanied by Wang Qianli, to inspect the Yuanling Palace, which was located a little southwest of the Xiaohongmen in the northeast of the Nanyuan Palace wall.

Xu Jiu, Xiaoshan Shandong and others led the horses to guard outside, Wang Qianli accompanied the two into the palace, pointed to the palace in the middle and said: "Fourth master, this is the Yuanji Palace, the round hall has heavy eaves, only one layer less than the prayer hall, it is the royal Taoist temple built by Shunzhi Ye." It's a pity that like the palaces and temples that I inspected in the morning, they are in disrepair and dilapidated. ”

There are really a lot of palaces and temples in Nanyuan, there are 29 temples including the old palace, the new palace, the south palace, the Tuanhe palace on the emperor's palace, and the Ningyou Temple, the Zhenwu Temple, the Sanguan Temple, the Niangniang Temple, the Zhenguo Temple and the Yuanling Palace in front of you.

But as Wang Qianli said, these palaces and temples have lost some royal majesty due to disrepair, not only dilapidated, but a few have even collapsed, and even the wood and bricks have been stolen by the people. Thinking that the palace in the Forbidden City was in disrepair, the palace walls were in tatters, the stone paved ground was overgrown with weeds, and many palace doors were not looking good because of the paint peeling, Han Xiufeng's heart became more and more desolate like the scene in front of him.

He walked to the front of the hall, gently pushed open the hidden door, looked at the golden bodies of the Taoist gods such as the Three Qings, the Four Emperors, the Three Officials, and the Nine Heavens Xuannu who were juxtaposed with the Yuan Shi Tianzun who were full of cobwebs and dust, and then looked up at the broken and translucent roof, and muttered: "It has been in disrepair for a long time, and the building will collapse!" ”

Wang Qianli couldn't hear the meaning of his words, and hurriedly said: "Fourth master, this is a Taoist temple, not a mansion. ”

Ren Yu'er also realized that Han Xiufeng's words just now would lose her head if they were spread out, so she hurriedly pretended to be curious and asked, "Master Wang, since this is a royal Taoist temple, why can't you see a Taoist priest?" ”

"Whether it's a Taoist temple or a Buddhist temple, if you want to maintain it, you have to have incense. But this is the royal garden, this is the royal Taoist temple, and there is only one pilgrim like the emperor. But the emperor has never come, the first emperor has never come, it is said that Jiaqing Ye has never come, naturally there will be no reward, and no one is willing to ask the emperor to allocate silver repair, if the Taoist priest in the temple does not make a living, if he stays here and starves to death. ”

"Fourth brother, you are Fengchen Yuanqing, this matter is in your charge."

"I want to take care of it, but it's difficult for a clever woman to cook without rice, so how can I repair it without money?"

Han Xiufeng asked rhetorically, turned around and walked out of the Yuanji Palace, looked at the southeast direction and said solemnly: "In the first half of the year, I was ordered to inspect the coastal defense, and successively went to six places such as the loess ridge to build forts, and there is an urgent need to build a pontoon bridge between the north and south forts of Dagu so that the north and south banks can support each other. ”

"The court has no money?" Ren Yuer asked subconsciously.

"It's not just that the court has no silver, but there is also no silver in the locality." Han Xiufeng turned around and said: "Huang Zonghan was ordered to go to Beijing before going to Beijing, he planned to transfer some troops from Liangjiang, Fujian and Zhejiang to Guangdong, and the emperor also gave permission. But because of the lack of food, he did not transfer any soldiers. In other words, if there was a war in Tianjin, the imperial court should not expect to send troops from other provinces to help. ”

"Fourth master, according to what you say, Tianjin can only rely on Jingying, and can only rely on Zhili?" Wang Qianli asked worriedly.

"The Beijing camp can't be counted on, and the patrol camp claims to have tens of thousands of soldiers, but in fact, it would be good to be able to gather three or four thousand. The horse teams that are training in the north, others don't know you best, are actually a group of herdsmen. As for Zhili, it would be good to supervise the standard, raise the standard, and each town standard to send 500 soldiers each. In short, you can't do anything without money! ”

Han Xiufeng paused, and said helplessly: "The news of the Anglo-Buddhist alliance in the north has not spread, if it spreads, those ministers in the court will definitely be excited, and please fight to the death with the foreigners." But have they ever thought that fighting a war is not just talking, and that fighting a war costs money? What's more, the grain is all dependent on shipping, and Dagu is the sea to rush, this year's import through Dagu is only more than 600,000 stones, and more than half of it has not been transferred, if this battle starts, the sea will be blocked, what will so many people in Beijing eat at that time? ”

"It's hard for the emperor!" Wang Qianli couldn't help but sigh.

Ren Yu'er was not as worried about the emperor as he was, but asked cautiously: "Fourth brother, the imperial court will not agree to the conditions proposed by the foreigners, but this battle cannot be won, what should we do then?" ”

There are no outsiders in this dilapidated royal Taoist temple, Han Xiufeng didn't have so many scruples, stared at it very seriously and said seriously: "I am deeply favored by the emperor, I can't just walk away, I can only take one step at a time, but you have to give me a good life!" ”

"Fourth Brother ......"

"Don't say it, don't ask, no matter what happens in the future, I'm listening to my arrangement, I don't listen to Master Wang." Han Xiufeng thought about it for a while, and then advised: "You just know about this matter, don't tell Lian'er." ”

Ren Yu'er didn't want to or dare to make trouble for him, so she hurriedly said, "Okay, I'll listen to you everything." ”

……

Nanyuan is very large, and the three of them turn around and it gets dark.

Just as they were rushing back with lanterns, the Blue Feather guard Defu, who had been in the "Houyi Hall" for three years, ushered in an uninvited guest.

The uninvited guest asked a few questions, and then walked out of the yard, turned on his horse, and returned overnight.

Early the next morning, Xianfeng was called by the eunuchs as usual, and just finished changing his clothes and walked out of the palace under the service of the eunuchs, when he saw the imperial guards who had gone to Nanyuan yesterday to ask questions kneeling and said, "Your Majesty, the slave is back." ”

Xianfeng suddenly remembered what happened yesterday, and when the eunuchs stepped aside very familiarly, he said in a low voice: "Say, what did you ask." ”

"Your Majesty, Defu said that Han Xiufeng, Fengchen Yuanqing, is preparing for the worst."

"Worst-case scenario?"

"He said that Han Xiufeng planned to go to Tianjin to serve, and if the emperor allowed it, he would swear to live and die with Tianjin, and it is said that even the suicide note has been written."

Xianfeng shook his head and asked, "What if I don't allow it?" ”

The imperial guard said bitterly: "The emperor forgives the sin, and the slave doesn't dare to say it." ”

"But it doesn't hurt to say it, I forgive you for your innocence!"

"Thank you for your grace."

The imperial guard calmed down and said cautiously: "Defu said that Lord Han is worried that if Tianjin can't be defended, Xiyi will come to the city, and then the people in the city will be panicked and in chaos. It is said that Lord Han is worried that if he really goes to that point, the pedantic people in the court will ignore the emperor's safety. He asked Yongxiang, the capital of the Qianhe camp, Ronglu Zhongronglu, the former Yinkulang of the Qianhu Department, and Yuan Datou, the guard of the Qianqing Gate, to contact the soldiers of the Qianhe Battalion who were on an errand in the Yamen of the infantry army, and raised money to buy new foreign guns, so as to escort the emperor out of the city at that time. ”

Tianjin can't hold it, and the foreigners are coming to the city, so what else is there to escort the emperor out of the city...... If these words come out of other people's mouths, it will be a fallacy to confuse the people, shake the hearts of the army and the people, and Xianfeng will definitely be furious.

But it was none other than Han Si who said these words!

Xianfeng took a few deep breaths in a row and asked coldly, "Go on." ”

Seeing that the emperor was not angry, the imperial guard breathed a sigh of relief, and continued: "Defu said that because of this matter, Lord Han also quarreled with Lord Wenxiang. ”

"Why are they arguing?"

"Lord Wenxiang said that if you really come to that point, your emperor will never go out of the city; Lord Han said that he was deeply favored by the emperor, and he must not let the emperor get into danger, if he really came to that point, even if he fought to the death, he would protect the emperor. If anyone dares to stop him, don't blame him for being ruthless! ”

"This Han Si, I know that he will not be idle. Although the things he thought and said were ridiculous, they were also out of loyalty. Xianfeng thought for a while and said in a deep voice: "As for Wenxiang, it's all right, and he's a loyal minister who cares about the country. ”

"The Emperor Shengming!"

"It's a good errand, kneel."

"Huh."

"Wait." Xianfeng stopped the imperial guard who was about to retire, and said: "Pass the decree, let that wronged boss come to the palace to be on duty from Ming'er, and promote Lan Ling's guard Defu to a third-class guard." ”