Empress Eugenie, a supporter of the Anglo-French expedition to China in 1860, received a tribute from French generals for looting countless treasures from the Old Summer Palace. In order to store the cultural relics looted from the Old Summer Palace www.biquge.info in 1863, Empress Eugenie, who is famous for her artistic taste, ordered the renovation of the Palace of Fontainebleau and built a "Chinese Pavilion", which is the origin of the "Chinese Pavilion". There are more than 30,000 pieces of famous Chinese paintings, gold and silver jewelry, porcelain, incense burners, chimes, precious stones, gold and silver ware. The ceiling of the "China Pavilion" is decorated with precious Tibetan thangkas, the front is a dragon chair inlaid with jewels, a screen, a palace fan, and on the left side is a large treasure cabinet with two large treasure pavilion cabinets, which display various ornaments carved with coral, Tianhuang stone, white jade, etc., old bronzes, fine porcelain, and the crown worn by the Qing emperor in summer. On the other side of the hall are several separate display cases, all of which are filled with large objects, including a large cloisonné bottle carved with a double dragon motif; a wooden pallet jasper interstitial; A two-metre-high bronze gilt stupa with emeralds on all levels.

And now, the "China Pavilion" has a large number of Chinese treasures collected from the home of Montauban, the "Earl of Baliqiao".

The treasures that Montauban had stolen from China were in a jumble of disarray, many of them large ones, and Eugénie certainly had little hope for the aesthetic taste of a soldier like him, because the soldiers seemed to only pick on large and amazing objects (in fact, the eyes of French soldiers reflected the artistic taste of ordinary French people of that era), and they did not know how to appreciate the beauty of real Chinese art. And Empress Eugenie's taste is naturally not comparable to Montauban and the like.

"What does Your Majesty think, how about such a porcelain vase?" Eugenie said, pointing to a large porcelain vase on a table.

This is a large celestial globe vase, and the bottle is painted with exquisite Chinese landscape paintings, which is very beautiful.

"Good." Napoleon III was clearly pleased with the Empress's vision, "I think he will like it." ”

"One porcelain vase is too little, let's give him a few more." The queen pointed to a few pieces of porcelain that were similar in artistic style to this celestial vase and said, "We'll give them all to him, okay?" ”

"Okay." Napoleon III nodded repeatedly, "I will also write him a letter to express my gratitude." ”

"Your Majesty would do well to write a letter to the Emperor of China, so that the Emperor of China will come and recognize him for his contribution to the French Empire." Empress Eugenie suggested again.

"Yes, it is much better to have the Chinese emperor to honor him than to award him a medal." Napoleon III agreed, and the matter was settled.

"By the way, I heard from Colonel Riyige that he seems to be very fond of jade."

"Oh? There is a jade seal here, which I found from Montauban's house, and it is very beautiful, so it is better to give it to him. ”

"Okay. Oh, it's strange why the Chinese like such stones. ”

※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※

July 20, 1871, Fuzhou, Mawei Port.

On the sunny Majiang River, a cargo ship flying the British flag and a French tricolor flag came to the river. The docks were crowded with people, and the workers were busy unloading the goods amid the loud shouts of the overseers.

After getting off the boat, Riyige came to the dock, looked at this busy scene, and let out a long breath.

The British cargo ship was loaded with a Cambon-style steam engine ordered by Riyige from the British Mosley Iron Works for the shipmaster, and two round high-pressure boilers. On that French cargo ship was a complete set of warships Tiewaki that he had ordered from the French Mediterranean shipyard.

Riyige was not there waiting to be unloaded, at this point, he had more important things to do.

"Are the boxes all there?" He turned to one of the attachés and asked.

"I've just checked, sir, all the boxes are there, a lot of them." The attaché replied, "There is no damage. ”

"Okay, go and call the carriage, and we'll go to Lin's house now."

After Yige appeared at Lin Yizhe's house, Lin Yizhe looked at the small wooden boxes that the servants carried down from the carriage, and looked at Riyige with some puzzlement.

"What is this? Mr. Riyig? ”

"This is a gift from His Majesty the Emperor of the French Empire, dear Lin." Ri Yige said with a smile on his face, "It was personally selected for you by Her Majesty the Respected Empress." ”

Hearing that it was a gift from Napoleon III to himself, Lin Yizhe not only did not show a happy appearance, but his face changed and he looked a little nervous.

"Get the box to the house right away, quick!"

"What's wrong? Dear Lin? I also have here a letter of thanks from His Majesty the Emperor to you......"

Lin Yizhe looked even more nervous, he glanced at Ri Yige, and Ri Yige immediately closed his mouth in amusement.

Lin Yizhe pulled Riyige into the house, and after all the boxes were moved into the house, Lin Yizhe retreated from everyone and said to Riyige: "Mr. Riyige, where is Your Majesty's letter?" ”

Ri Yige took out a beautiful envelope from his leather bag and handed it to Lin Yizhe, Lin Yizhe opened it and looked at it, while Ri Yige carefully observed Lin Yizhe's expression on the side.

After reading the letter, although Lin Yizhe still maintained his composure, the nervous expression on his face still did not disappear, and Ri Yige noticed that his hand holding the letter was shaking, and he couldn't help but be even more surprised.

In his memory, this young Chinese was so nervous for the first time.

"Have you seen what these gifts are?" Lin Yizhe asked, pointing to a box.

"I've seen them, and they're some beautiful porcelain." Riyige replied.

"Help me open the box, Mr. Riyige." Lin Yizhe said, and when he came to a box, beads of sweat began to ooze from his forehead.

Ri Yige and Lin Yizhe opened a large box together, peeled off the packaging and filling, and the figure of a porcelain vase was revealed.

Lin Yizhe carefully took out the porcelain vase, put it on the table of the Eight Immortals, and watched it carefully.

This is a large pastel celestial ball bottle, the fetus is white and delicate, the enamel is shiny, the bottle is depicted with exquisite landscape paintings, as well as mountain gates, lakes and pine and cypress, there are inscriptions and seals next to it, Lin Yizhe carefully looked at it from beginning to end, and did not find any royal marks such as five-clawed dragons on it, so he breathed a sigh of relief.

"What are you looking for?" Riyige asked.

"Help me open all the boxes, quick." Lin Yizhe took a steady breath and said.

Riyi Ge Yiyan helped Lin Yizhe open all the boxes and took out the gifts contained in them - more than a dozen bottles, honors, plates and other furnishing porcelain and a green jade seal. Lin Yizhe took the jade seal and glanced at it first, and saw that the seal button was not a dragon, but a crouching beast, and breathed a sigh of relief.

Lin Yizhe flipped the printing surface of the jade seal and saw that there were four seal characters on it: "Baohe Taihe".

These four words seemed to remind Lin Yizhe of something, he put the jade seal on the table, threw himself in front of the table, and looked at the Tianqiu bottle again. Only this time he was not looking at the pattern ornamentation, but at the verses and words on it.

“…… Yunshan Nine Gate Dawn, Heaven and Earth Family Spring ......"

What's what? Heaven and earth are a spring?

Heaven and earth are a spring ...... Daya Zhai ...... Old Summer Palace......

Lin Yizhe's eyes instantly widened, and he stared at the poem on the bottle, and suddenly his eyes went black.

I said take the three dudes! You're not trying to kill me, are you?! Lin Yizhe scolded in his heart.

"What's wrong with you? Forest? Uncomfortable? Ri Yige noticed Lin Yizhe's shaky appearance and hurriedly stepped forward to support him.

"I'm fine...... Lin Yizhe tried to calm himself, "Mr. Riyige, thank you, and thank you to His Majesty the Emperor, what I want to know is, is there anyone else who knows about this?" ”

"No, because this is a commission from His Majesty the Emperor, I pay great attention to the ......"

"Alright, Mr. Riyige, don't mention the gift from His Majesty the Emperor to anyone, if anyone finds out, we will be in big trouble, understand?"

"I assure you, no one here will know about it but you and me."

"Well, thank you, Mr. Riyige......"

After sending off Riyige, Lin Yizhe sat on a chair, stared at these gifts from the French emperor, thought for a while, got up and walked out of the room, and after locking the door, he seemed to have collapsed, leaning against the door and sitting down.

"Sir, what's wrong with you? ......," a servant hurriedly asked.

"I'm fine...... You go and ask Mr. Xu to come over immediately and say that I have something important to discuss with him. ”

When Xu Run listened to Lin Yizhe's story, his face became extremely solemn.

"Can you be sure that these porcelains are from the Old Summer Palace?" Xu Run looked at these exquisite porcelains and asked cautiously.

"It's true, sir, please see, this bottle is white and delicate, the shape is beautiful, the glaze is uniform and pure, and the pale pink is like a peach blossom in March, elegant and pleasant. At the bottom, there is a blue and white double circle in regular script 'Yongzheng Year of the Great Qing Dynasty' six-character paragraph. This is undoubtedly the treasure of the Old Summer Palace in the past," Lin Yizhe said, pointing to the Tianqiu bottle, "There is also the words 'Yunshan Nine Gate Dawn, Heaven and Earth One Spring', which is specially fired for one of the landscapes 'Heaven and Earth Family Spring' equipped with porcelain for furnishings." And this 'heaven and earth family spring' is the residence of the current Queen Mother in the Old Summer Palace in the past! ”

As a collector of later generations, Lin Yizhe loved to collect jade and studied porcelain, so he was able to easily recognize the true identity of these fine porcelain gifts given to him by the French emperor. It's just that he never thought that these previous collection knowledge would play a role at this time and save his life.

"I see!" Xu Run listened to Lin Yizhe's explanation, and couldn't help but gasp.

――――Dividing Line――――

Collect! Ask for recommendations!