Li Lianying knew that the reason why Shi Duo was like this was not only that he, the sect commander of the sect, instinctively wanted to protect Baoting, the clan that loved the Xinjueluo family, but also because of the hatred for Lin Yizhe's theory that "the four people are the pillars of the country" that made him sit on a lame chair and fall on his heels. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

Among these princes of the current Qing Empire, if you talk about the dignity of the throne, the three kings of Gong, Alcohol, and Xuan all have to be stunned after the prince - Prince Gong's ability to enter the title of prince is the hand-picked by Emperor Daoguang in the imperial pen on the edict of succession, which is actually equivalent to Emperor Daoguang's compensation for this smart and capable sixth elder brother who lost to his brother Emperor Xianfeng in the battle for the throne; And Prince Alcohol went from the prince of the county to the prince because he was not only the sibling brother of Emperor Xianfeng and Prince Gong, but also the brother-in-law of the Empress Dowager Cixi. And Prince Tan was originally the most likely to become the emperor, but he was born a little later and passed by the emperor. He was able to be crowned the prince, and it was also the relationship between the Empress Dowager Cixi and Prince Gong.

The Prince of Li is the head of the eight ******** by Emperor Taizong Taiji Yubi when the Qing Dynasty was founded, the second son of Taizu and Prince Shuo Lilie are descendants of Dai Shan, and the iron hat of "hereditary replacement" on his head has been passed down for more than 200 years, and its dignity is naturally not comparable to the upstarts such as Gong, mellow and Dian.

But if you put aside the layer of status and status, in terms of knowledge and intelligence alone, Prince Shiduo can only accompany the last seat among the four princes. He did not have the shrewdness and strength of Prince Gong, nor the prudence and self-control of King Gong, and even compared with the Prince of Ton, who was known for his honesty, he was much inferior in administrative ability.

But in Li Lianying's view, this is just a "clay carving wood sculpture" in the eyes of countless people, but he is an absolutely smart person, and the most difficult thing in life is to "advance and retreat, know honor and disgrace", Prince Li's excellence lies in knowing how many catties and taels he has, and he knows the meaning of his position in this prince and how he should behave.

"Cultivate the turtle method for people, and shrink your head when you have to shrink your head", this is located in the turtle head shrinking skill, and the sect of the people's mansion is a character who will never take the initiative to cause trouble. Therefore, although he also hates Lin Yizhe a little, he will never be like Baoting, who wants to fight Lin Yizhe to the end.

Li Lianying immediately went to report to the Empress Dowager Cixi, saying that Prince Shiduo of Zongrenfu Lingli was "sick" and "couldn't get up", so he didn't come to the garden to see him.

"It's a coincidence that he's sick!" The Empress Dowager Cixi immediately understood what Prince Li meant by Shi Duo's refusal to come, and sneered, "Li Lianying, you tell him again, today, even if he climbs, he will climb to the garden for me!" ”

Li Lianying got the will, and she was secretly happy in her heart, so she immediately arranged for someone to go to Prince Li's mansion again.

Sure enough, as Li Lianying expected, after sending someone to Xuanli Prince Shiduo to enter the palace, Prince Li did not dare to stay for a moment, but hurriedly ran to the Huangchenggen Railway Station and got on the small train. It's just that because he had just said the words "sick", he couldn't take it back, so he had to let the servant carry his shoulders and send him to the station, and he got on the train with a lot of tosses, and when he got off the train, he was also on crutches and carried forward step by step.

When he arrived at Daya Zhai, the Empress Dowager Cixi saw him pretending to be sick, and her heart was even more angry, and she immediately reprimanded him unceremoniously, and handed over the treasure court, which was full of blood and could not speak, to him for confinement, and ordered "strict control", Prince Li was so frightened that he was sweating profusely, and he didn't dare to breathe, only kowtow uncontrollably.

Seeing Shi Duo's embarrassment, Li Lianying couldn't help but laugh secretly.

After everything was almost busy, Li Lianying went to visit Liu Chengyin, who was still ill, and told him what happened, Liu Chengyin listened to Li Lianying's words, and didn't say anything, but told him to be careful when serving the Empress Dowager Cixi, and never give her the impression that she was too close to the ministers, Li Lianying understood what Liu Chengyin meant, and nodded again and again.

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"Weng Tongyi's Diary": "Sunny, early cold, wind stops." Chen Chu Yi Pavilion approved the book, Li Lansun Shangshu came, haggard and very haggard, talking about the affairs of the Baoting, and the rest was shocked. Gong Di and Wen Xiang came, Yu and the ministers asked why Bao Ting was banned, and Gong Di replied that he would hurt the ministers and defile the palace ban, and wanted to use this to hinder the prosperity of foreign affairs, so as to confine it in the Zongren Mansion. Yu asked who was the one who injured the minister? Gong Di replied that he thought it was Lin Yizhe, the minister of the sea. Yu Yan said that Bao Ting was delirious and his words were crazy, but the last time he received the rod for no reason, his heart was unsettled, and he became angry and sick. The cause of the disease is the reason why Lin Yizhe is forced to do so. If you want to investigate the fault, you should be the first to cure Lin Yizhe's crime of disturbing people's hearts. Gong Di and Wen Xiang were both angry when they heard this, and Yu resisted and argued, since Lin Yizhe invited the two palaces, Shilin and all those who discouraged him were humiliated, and in the long run, people's hearts will be lost. Gong Di was furious, and there was a saying that 'you want to be guilty of the same crime as the Bao Ting', but Governor Yu could not change it, so he stopped saying it. ……”

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"My lord can know that this time is really dangerous, if it weren't for the queen mother of the two palaces to distinguish between right and wrong, Feng Guozhang warned and Chongguo Zhang entered the play first, and the concubine of Emperor Dun Yijing (that is, Concubine Hui, the day after the Baoting incident, with the order of the Empress Dowager Ci'an and the Empress Dowager Cixi, she was named the Imperial Concubine of Dunyi Jing) cried and complained, and the consequences of this matter are almost unimaginable." Xu Run read the urgent telegram sent by Li Lianying, sighed and said to Lin Yizhe, "If you don't know it, your lord will be separated from the palace from now on, and he will no longer be favored, and I don't know when, there will be a disaster of killing." ”

"Why did you say that, sir?" Lin Yizhe asked a little strangely.

"Your Excellency, you know that the most taboo in the court is this evil thing!" Xu Run said, "In all dynasties, all those who made trouble mostly used demonic techniques to attract fools, pretending to be the mandate of heaven, not to mention the recent long-haired rebellion for the time being, Qianlong's 33-year dementor braided demon case and the story of the White Lotus Sect, don't you save it?" ”

Hearing Xu Run talk about the demon case in the 33rd year of Qianlong and the White Lotus Sect uprising, Lin Yizhe suddenly woke up, and only then did he realize the seriousness of the problem.

He had read about this demon case in a book written by a foreigner.

In the early spring of the 33rd year of Qianlong (1768), in the Cixiang Temple in Deqing, the hometown of silk, several poor monks were jealous of the incense of a nearby Guanyin Temple, and spread rumors that there were stonemasons who "buried their funerals" near the Guanyin Temple. More than four months later, rumors were spreading, and the governor of Shandong, Funihan, reported the news to the emperor. From Zhejiang to Shandong, and the governor, a high-ranking official, reported to the imperial court, and there was no public media involved, the main mode of communication was interpersonal communication, but it had a huge impact. Rumors were originally made of masons acting immorally near the Kannon Temple, but after a few months of development, the shape of a warlock or demon was able to take a person's soul through braids, clothing, and even names, making it work for the warlock, while greatly damaging the mind and body of the caster. Because the rumors have been modified and processed in the process of spreading. Everyone involved in the spread of rumors is a complicit, and they work together to cut down the unreasonable details of the rumor, add their own details, make it more clear and reasonable, easier to understand and accept, and then spread it faster and wider. When rumors, the crystallization of collective wisdom, became more and more real and terrifying, that is when the imperial court felt the shock.

Because the processors of rumors have fully taken into account the habits, interests, hopes, and worries of ordinary Chinese people in the process of making trade-offs and reconstructing details, and have invested in cultural traditions and social values, they have packaged rumors as convincing "facts". Because of the relationship with traditional Chinese culture, Chinese people have always understood and believed in the concept of "soul", even if they cannot express it explicitly. In the Chinese concept, the universe is a dual composition of "yin" and "yang", and there are both "souls" representing spiritual spirits and "spirits" representing body spirits, and corresponding to "yin and yang". The point is that in the concept that "soul" and "spirit" can be separated, and this concept is even clearly embodied in the law. There is a passage in the "Laws of the Great Qing Dynasty" that stipulates that the specific act of "harvesting and cutting people" should be: "It is said to kill people, take their official know-how, practice witchcraft or use magic and evil ways, take the years of life, charm people into the deep mountains and kill them, cut off their bodies, strip their five organs of life, ingest their souls, and serve as ghost servants." Today, the two Guangzhou, Henan, Fujian and other places in the city of ghost Ge are another technique. And "harvesting and cutting" was a kind of witchcraft at that time. It can be seen that this rumor not only has the inheritance of cultural traditions, but is also close to the social life of the time, and its power is unimaginable to people in later generations.

Emperor Qianlong's fears were mainly focused on the bureaucracy, as the king of a country, if he wanted to protect and consolidate his own interests, he had to constantly resort to **** and impermanent power, and the accusation of political crimes was the best opportunity to use this power. But what frightened him was that he was completely powerless against the power of "witchcraft" that he could not see.

It is precisely because of this that Emperor Qianlong made those actions that bordered on paranoia and hysteria to purge demons across the country!

And this time, once the excerpt of the treasure court was in the hands of the queen mother of the two palaces before Feng Xiu warned Concubine Hui and Chongqi played, and then saw the copy of the palace and sent it to the military aircraft for public discussion, even if he was not dead and had no place to be buried, he would be suspicious of the government and the opposition from now on, and become the "demon" that people talked about!

What's more, in fact, he did perform "deep hypnosis" on Queen Arut and Concubine Hui for reasons of self-preservation!

And in this ancient country, where science has not yet been perfected and ignorance is everywhere, no one can tell the difference between the two!

Right now, their servants privately think that their master knows how to determine!

And once the Empress Dowager Cixi first saw the excerpts of the Baoting and thought of the demon case in the 33rd year of Qianlong, she formed a preconceived impression of herself (because although the deep hypnosis he inflicted on Empress Arut and Concubine Hui that day was not discovered by the Empress Dowager Cixi and the Empress Dowager Ci'an, in the eyes of outsiders, there is indeed something incredible, after all, it is true that Empress Alut and Empress Dowager Cixi and Concubine Hui had a conflict before), and his future is only afraid that it will be doomed! Not only will the achievements of your hard work be ruined, but even the lives of yourself and your loved ones will be difficult to preserve!

In the current **** society where imperial power is supreme, although he has become a great official at a young age, if he is not careful, everything he has may be lost in an instant!

"What Mr. said, a while ago, things went too smoothly, I was indeed negligent to these guys who put cold arrows behind their backs......" Lin Yizhe sighed and clenched his fists.

"Although this time the lord is said to be auspicious, blessed by a hundred gods, the concubine of Emperor Dun Yijing inadvertently blocked a block for the adult, which made the queen mother of the two palaces angry at the treasure court and imprisoned him, and his excerpts were not copied in the palace, but after all, it was too lucky, but it could not be repeated. This kind of situation must be guarded against in the future. Xu Run said, "Attacking in the name of witchcraft, whether it is in the court or in the market, the consequences are too terrible, and adults must not take it lightly." ”

When Lin Yizhe heard Xu Run say this, he understood that Xu Run was reminding himself that he knew that he had ignored this kind of thing this time, in fact, mainly because his soul was from the modern era of later generations, and his firm belief in science made him underestimate the power of superstition in this era.

In the 33rd year of Qianlong, the demon case that swept the country, ordinary people focused on the sudden and random death caused by strangers and caused by the loss of souls. In Chinese society in the mid-18th century, there was a widespread belief that there was evil around them, and that their lives were constantly threatened by hidden dark forces (in fact, there was a similar situation in Europe). The demon case can be said to reveal the ugliest social reality of the time: once the government seriously launched a crackdown on witchcraft, ordinary people had a good opportunity to settle old grudges or seek personal gain. It's a loaded weapon thrown down the street, and everyone – whether it's a rogue villain or a good person – can use it. In a society where power has always been scarce for ordinary people, maliciously slandering others on the charge of "soul dementoring" has become a kind of power that is suddenly available to ordinary people. On the other hand, in such a troubled society, people can doubt whether they can improve their situation by working or studying. This situation is all the more intolerable because of a corrupt and unaccountable justice system, from which no ordinary person can expect fair compensation. In such a world, sorcery is both an illusion of power and a potential compensation for everyone. Even if such a thing as a dementor never happened, it is still widely believed that anyone with the right "skills" can summon the powers of the underworld by stealing someone else's soul. It's a hallucination that's both scary and exciting. For some ordinary people who have no power and no power, Emperor Qianlong's purge has brought them the opportunity to be generous! Because of this, I don't know how many people have lost their lives under the double-edged sword of "witchcraft" for such reasons!

And this time Baoting dared to use such a method against himself, it was by no means a whim, because as a speech official, he understood the ignorant, barbaric, superstitious, and cruel dark side of many Chinese in this era more deeply than himself!

In a country where the people and officials can regard the telegraph and the railroad as witchcraft, there are so many things that can be regarded as witchcraft......

Thinking of this, cold sweat broke out on Lin Yizhe's back.

For the first time, he felt the deep sense of powerlessness brought about by the ills of this era.

may be because of the relationship with a strong sense of crisis, Lin Yizhe thought of a lot at once......

The bureaucracy was in the middle, so to speak, in the ancient empire, fearing on the one hand by the volatile mob and on the other by the capriciousness of the monarch, both of which they felt threatened by the existing system in which they lived, and that it was they who sought to defeat the former by intimidating those who made accusations of witchcraft and thwarting the latter by blocking the monarch from the news. The bureaucracy has set up roadblocks: the careful concealment of information, the concealment of truth to cover human relationships, and the immobility of conformity to normal procedures, through which self-protection is carefully pursued. The corrupt and rigid bureaucracy has now become the most important anchor in the structure of the state!

History is a mirror, and it cannot actually reflect the present, nor can it see the future clearly......

Panic comes from the people, and it is the people who create it, and the people both seem to avoid it and at the same time rush to it. Among them, "dementors" represent an illusory power, while accusations of "dementors" symbolize real power, which embodies the powerlessness of the people - this seems to have the color of Freudian psychoanalysis: "In this society where power has always been scarce for ordinary people, maliciously slandering others on the charge of 'dementoring' has become a sudden power available to ordinary people." ”

Lin Yizhe knows that just this so-called real power is just a mirage for the people, and it is actually no different from "dementoring".

But for the people, in this cruel social reality, holding even a trace of power is a guarantee for themselves, because in normal times, they cannot obtain the necessary security through normal channels, they have no legitimate power to defend their legitimate rights and interests, and even the humble bottom line of survival cannot be guaranteed.

For the people living in such an insecure society, there is hostility in the form of retribution, and society is ruthlessly torn apart, and people and groups of people are opposed to each other because of their interests: from local and foreign, commoners and monks, to two temples competing for pilgrims, and two teams of stonemasons competing for business. Everyone may have just used "dementoring" to put people to death, and in the blink of an eye, they have become the target of other people's "dementoring" accusations!