After Tong Tuchang returned from Tong Tulai's mansion, he has been waiting for news.

Although Tong Tuchang said to Tong Tulai that he wanted to defect to the Manchus, he knew very well in his uncle's and his own hearts that now the strength of the Manchus had come to an end, and since the Duoduo Corps was completely annihilated in Jiangxi, the Manchu offensive momentum had been contained. And the Zhu Hongsan regime in Nanjing is on the rise, and there is a good hope that the Northern Expedition will be successful in the future, and their uncle and nephew will be the heroes who will leave their names in history.

Therefore, Tong Tuchang's mood now is completely different from when he was in Fujian, when he was in Fujian, he really had the intention of taking refuge in the Manchu Qing Dynasty, after all, Zhu Hongsan only occupied a province at that time. But now that Zhu Hongsan has become a big warlord in the southeast, there is no need for him to lick the chrysanthemums of the Manchu Qing Dynasty.

Now Tong Tuchang is really doing his best for Zhu Hongsan's great cause, and the order that Tong Yangjia gave him was to stir up the Huang peace talks, which Tong Tuchang understands very well. His uncle is in charge of the military, and only if the war continues, the power in the hands of his uncle will not be reduced. Tong Tuchang knew how powerful the military department of the Shenwu Imperial Court was now, except for the combat troops that were directly under the jurisdiction of the emperor, the rest of the logistics support and equipment manufacturing were all in the hands of his uncle. The dozen or so shipyards in Guangdong are working day and night without stopping to build warships, and the musket factories and artillery workshops are replacing people without stopping, and they are all exporting armaments to the front line. Now in the Shenwu Imperial Court, there are millions of people who directly obey his uncle Tong Yangjia, how can this huge power uncle easily give up?

But how can the emperor's order be successful, the conflict between the emperor's order and his own interests really makes Tong Tuchang embarrassed, and Tong Tuchang is thinking about how to complete the emperor's order these days, and at the same time not let his uncle's power be lost. But after thinking about it for a few days, there is no good way, these two tasks are inherently relative, and it is really impossible to achieve them together.

Just three days after Tong Tuchang left Tong Tulai's mansion, Tong Tulai sent a family member to the Ministry of Rites Post to invite Tong Tuchang.

Originally, Tong Tuchang wanted to go quietly and quietly, but he didn't expect to be discovered by Fang Fengnian and Zhao Mengguan. Also, the whole post station is so big, because of the order of the Manchu emperor, in addition to providing daily necessities for the Ming Dynasty mission, the people of the post station do not contact with the people of the mission, and now there is a person with pigtails who openly enters and leaves, which naturally arouses the suspicion of Zhao Mengguan in Fang Fengnian.

Fang Fengnian Zhao Mengguan came to Tong Tuchang's house and saw Tong Tuchang changing into Manchu clothes again. Fang Fengnian saw Tong Tuchang shaved his hair and kept the Manchu money rattail braid, and said angrily: "Lord Tong, you are the envoy of the peace talks, representing my Emperor Ming, why do you keep this kind of bearded hair ornament?" Have you forgotten who you are? ”

Tong Tuchang saw these two people coming in and secretly cursed in his heart for being unlucky, how could he be seen by these two guys.

"Haha, don't make a noise about the two adults, the official wants to go out to meet relatives for a while, it's not eye-catching to dress up like this, we are the emperor's envoys, in order to fulfill the emperor's will, don't talk about these subsections!"

Fang Fengnian is not the kind of Qiu Ba like Zhao Mengguan, Fang Fengnian has been mixed in officialdom, and he has done all kinds of shameless things, but Fang Fengnian can still abide by the moral bottom line, that is, Huayi Great Defense. Now that Tong Tuchang's style has seriously touched Fang Fengnian's moral bottom line, he can no longer speak.

"Master Tong, when you return to Nanjing, the old man must be heavily involved in your book, you don't want to make a face for the Ming Dynasty!"

Tong Tuchang laughed, ignoring Fang Fengnian, and scolded in his heart: You bastard, do you want face? If you want to face you, you should go and talk to someone! In the end, it's not up to Lao Tzu to do it!

Fang Fengnian saw that Tong Tuchang's oil and salt did not enter, and he snorted angrily and took Zhao Meng out of the room. Although Zhao Mengguan is named as a deputy envoy, he is a four-rank military general, who dares to participate in the struggle between the two civil officials, anyway, the order given by the emperor is to monitor the people in the mission, and he will tell the emperor about these things as they are.

Tong Tuchang saw those two guys going out, and scolded these two bastards in his heart, but there was no way, both of them were deputy envoys appointed by the emperor himself, and he really couldn't do anything about them.

According to Tong Tuchang's understanding of Zhu Hongsan, as long as the peace talks are done perfectly, it is easy to say anything else.

Tong Tuchang changed his clothes and followed the family out of the back door of the post station, now that someone is leading, there is no need to climb the wall anymore.

Tong Tuchang came to Tong Tulai's mansion, and today Tong Tulai is very enthusiastic, the reason is very simple, because the queen mother trusts the Tong family very much.

"Brother Xian, a few days ago, my brother entered the palace to meet the Queen Mother, the Queen Mother is very satisfied with the information you sent, the Queen Mother has promised, as long as the Ming Dynasty is destroyed, you will not be treated badly!"

Tong Tuchang was also very happy to hear Tong Tulai say this, as long as he could talk to the Manchu Qing Dynasty, he could talk about it.

"Virtuous brother! There is one more thing that called you over today, the Queen Mother wants to meet you, you can prepare for a while, and my brother will take you into the palace! ”

The Manchu Empress Dowager wants to see herself? Tong Tuchang was stunned when he heard this, and he was immediately overjoyed. Originally, he thought that the peace talks should be that the Manchu Qing Dynasty should send a pro-noble minister to talk to him, but he thought that now the Empress Dowager is seeing him in person, and with her three-inch incorruptible tongue, she will definitely be able to fool the Empress Dowager!

Tong Tuchang followed Tong Tulai out of the gate and entered the Forbidden City in Beijing through the side gate of the imperial city. Tong Tuchang has seen the Forbidden City in Nanjing, but it is the first time he has seen it in Beijing. Because the Forbidden City in Beijing is the capital of the Ming Dynasty for more than 200 years, it is much better preserved than that of Nanjing, at least several major buildings are there, and it is not like the Fengtian Temple in Nanjing that has been burned down.

At this time, the Manchu Qing Dynasty had entered the customs for less than five years, and the Ministry of Rites had not yet formulated the etiquette of the new dynasty, so the rules in the Forbidden City were similar to those in the Forbidden City in Nanjing.

Er Tong, under the leadership of the palace guards, came to the harem Cining Palace, which is where the Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang lives.

After Xiaozhuang learned that Tong Tuchang was coming, she hurriedly asked the eunuch to summon in, and she wanted to meet this Tong Tuchang, who claimed to be a hero of the Qing Dynasty.

Tong Tuchang didn't dare to raise his head, lowered his head and entered the palace, and after walking a few steps, he knelt on the ground and kowtowed, shouting: "Slave Liaodong Tong Tuchang visits the Queen Mother, the Queen Mother of God!" ”

Tong Tuchang was a political envoy of Sanpinbu in Nanming, and he didn't have to salute when he saw the emperor, let alone kowtow. But now that I got to someone's land, I had no choice but to curse in my heart, but on the surface, I kowtowed respectfully three times.

Xiaozhuang looked at the unattractive Tong Tuchang with interest: "This is Lord Tong, the envoy of the Ming Dynasty mission?" You are not my Eight Banners, you can't call yourself a slave! ”

Tong Tuchang got up and said respectfully: "Back to the Queen Mother, the slave was born in the Tong clan in Liaodong, yesterday the slave heard the eldest brother Tong Tulai say that he has entered the blue banner of the Han army, so I am also a slave of the Qing Dynasty!" ”

Although Xiaozhuang and Sony have rich political experience, they have just entered the Central Plains and do not know much about the shameless officialdom culture of our Greater China. Now listening to Tong Tuchang's shamelessness, although I don't believe it, I am also very happy in my heart! You must know that the Manchu magnates knew that their civilization was not as good as that of the Han people, and there were many Manchus who wore Hanfu and spoke Han when they were in Liaodong, and Huang Taiji repeatedly decreed to preserve the traditional culture of the Manchus, but the effect was not too great.

After entering the Central Plains, Dolgon ordered to shave his hair and change clothes, in the eyes of the rulers of the Qing Dynasty, in the previous minority regimes, the early stage was basically to resist sinicization, maintain their own national customs, so strong. However, the successors often envied the Han culture, and carried out Sinicization reforms or promoted Han customs from the top down, resulting in the death of several generations. In order to protect the dominance of the Manchus, it is necessary to prohibit the sinicization of their own nationality at the same time, and at the same time require the Han nationality to change its customs and shave its hair and make it easier to obey through coercive means, which is one of the means.

Of course, political necessity was the main reason for the ease of shaving hair, but the jealousy of the Manchu magnates such as Dolgon for the higher civilization was also one of the secondary reasons for the ease of shaving their hair.

Xiaozhuang saw the money rattail dragging behind Tong Tuchang's head, and asked, "Lord Tong, you are an official of the Ming Dynasty, can your Shenwu Emperor agree to keep my hair ornament from the Qing Dynasty?" ”

Tong Tuchang heard Xiaozhuang say this, knelt down with a bang, and told Zhu Hongsan how to persecute his uncle and nephew, and also broke his fingers twice, and finally Tong Tuchang cried: "Queen Mother, the slave is really unbearable to be oppressed by the faint monarch Zhu Hongsan, this time the slave will not go back to the south, so he will stay in the north to be a cow and a horse for the Queen Mother, which is better than being a bullshit three-grade member for Zhu Hongsan!" ”

Xiaozhuang nodded, and he didn't know whether to agree with Tong Tuchang to stay or agree with what Tong Tuchang said.

"Tong Aiqing, get up!"

Tong Tuchang dared to stand up slowly when he heard Xiaozhuang say this, and then looked up at the queen mother above.

Beijing is now July, the hottest season of the year, although it is now the Xiaoice River climate, Beijing in the summer hottest only more than 20 degrees, but this temperature also makes the Manchurians from a bitter cold land unbearable.

Tong Tuchang raised his eyes and looked at Xiaozhuang, and couldn't help but scold in his heart: It's really shameless, as the queen mother, she is so shameless.

The weather was too hot, and the Manchurians had just entered the customs, and they had not yet learned the etiquette of the Han people, so Xiaozhuang only wore a horse coat and exposed two snow-white shoulders.

Xiaozhuang is six years old Chinese New Year's Eve today, and she is not young, but she is of noble birth, plus she is very good at maintenance, and the northern woman is originally tall, so Xiaozhuang looks only in her twenties, and she still has some charm.

Although Tong Tuchang scolded Xiaozhuang in his heart for being shameless, he also looked at it several times in a row.

Tong Tuchang's small movements were seen by the high-flying Xiaozhuang, but she was not angry, Xiaozhuang was born in Mongolia and thought that being peeked at was the embodiment of her beauty.

Xiaozhuang laughed twice and said, "Lord Tong, since you dare to peek at the palace, why don't you raise your head and take a closer look?" ”