On the fifteenth day of the tenth lunar month in 1874, the first day of the Mulan Autumn Festival. In the early morning, the enclosure is surrounded by thousands of acres of forest clouds and mist, a round of red light emerges from the east of the vast forest sea, mountains and trees looming, and the hot springs in the forest sea are steaming, and the cold air quickly condenses into water droplets. After half an hour, the red light sprays in all directions, the sun is shining, the hundred birds in the forest sing, and groups of roe deer, deer, and yellow sheep rush through the grassland from time to time.

In the imperial tent, the eighteen-year-old Tongzhi Emperor was full of red light, high-spirited, he deliberately wore a bright yellow round-necked satin embroidered cloud dragon mink fur robe that day, hung sable fur, the collar and sleeves were also inlaid with the sea dragon edge, decorated with three-color flat gold and stone blue auspicious cloud flower pieces with gold edges, a pair of blue velvet beaded cloud boots under his feet, thick soles and high pointed toes, decorated with red coral nails, and the toe of the boots was auspicious cloud pattern.

The banners sounded in the cold wind of the grassland, and the soldiers of the Eight Banners who participated in the hunt had already walked out of the camp tents one after another, gathered in formation near the city, and began to set up a siege, that is, to surround the beasts in the middle. I saw more than 500 sergeants of the red and white flags riding tall horses, running towards the two wings, spreading out a range of thirty or forty miles long, and then extending the encirclement, narrowing the encirclement, and finally, reaching the level of people side by side and horses with ears, after the first encirclement was set up. Then set up a second siege to prevent the beasts from escaping. When the cloth was ready, tens of thousands of soldiers of the Eight Banners took off their hats, raised their horsewhips high, and shouted "Marg", which was a signal to be hunted.

In the center of the Mulan enclosure, a square city with a height of three or four zhang and a length of more than 20 meters and a width of more than 20 meters was built for the Tongzhi Emperor, the empress dowager of the two palaces, ministers of various countries and the ministers of the Manchu palace to watch the hunt. Rong Lu hit the horse and went straight to the imperial camp, invited the Tongzhi Emperor and the Empress Dowager of the Two Palaces to come to see the city, and the Tongzhi Emperor and the Empress Dowager Cixi and the Empress Dowager Ci'an came to the enclosure in the foot of sixteen eunuchs, inspected the complete team, and returned to the city to watch.

Emperor Tongzhi, who was sitting on the gilded dragon chair, couldn't bear it for a long time, and wanted to show off in front of the princes and ambassadors of various frontiers. He asked Gui Bao to take the imperial bow and golden feather arrows, and chased the beast across the horse, and Prince Gong Yixun straddled the white rainbow knife at his waist, rode a high-headed horse, and followed closely with the soldiers of the pro-army camp who followed him.

In the midst of the siege, Emperor Tongzhi said to Prince Gong Yixun: "Uncle Huang, I have heard that you are brave and champion of the three armies, and the 'Di Tai Cooperation' marksmanship and 'Bao Xuanwei' knife technique of Huang Amachuang are unparalleled in the world. ”

This is so confusing that others are confused, and the meaning in the vernacular is: You are good at knives and guns, let's compare arrows, this is obviously a provocation. Prince Gong said: "Don't dare, please ask the emperor to shoot and hunt first, to show the exclusive respect of the Son of Heaven." ”

Emperor Tongzhi just wanted to extinguish the majesty of Prince Gong in full view of everyone, and he shot an arrow at a sika deer 100 meters away, and the arrow penetrated the neck of the deer, and the blood flowed.

The Manchu soldiers shouted: "The emperor has shot!" ”

Emperor Tongzhi was very proud, and asked Prince Gong to hunt too, Yixun excused himself again, and Emperor Tongzhi said to Prince Gong with contempt: "Uncle Huang won't be so old that he can't even pull a bow, right?" ”

Yixun glanced at Emperor Tongzhi, did not speak, the emperor had already released the arrow, he was not rude to hunt now, so he rode forward, pulled the bow and arrows, and shot at a pair of pheasants in the snow, this arrow actually penetrated the heads of two pheasants a hundred meters away.

Looking at the Cixi in the city, she saw Prince Gong dressed in a golden military uniform, and her majesty was undiminished, and she couldn't help but think of the first time she saw Prince Gong, he was of medium stature, thin, with a very kind expression on his young face, two scars on his right cheek, a small face and hands, small fingers, wearing a jade ring with a red face on a white background, and a string of amber pearls and a string of large red coral pearls hanging around his neck, hanging behind him with his braids.

The year was 1853, and Cixi was eighteen years old. After her father Hui Zheng fell in the middle of the family road, he went to the house of relatives and friends, borrowed some silver taels, and used the money to go to the court to accommodate the four products, and made up for the Taoist platform of the four products after making up for Anhui, and the Taiping army attacked Anhui, Hui Zheng saw that the situation was not good, and took the looted 10,000 taels of silver to leave his post without permission, and fled to Nanjing with his family in the name of escorting the silver, but the city gate was not opened.

Because according to the laws of the Qing Dynasty, who dares to take in the defeated generals who abandon the city without permission, will be guilty of the same crime as those who abandon the city, and exterminate the three clans! When Hui Zheng fled Anhui, he wrote to his daughter in the palace asking for help. Cixi received a letter from her father asking for help, she was anxious, she also wanted to see Emperor Xianfeng, but she had only entered the palace for a short time, and she was just a low-status nobleman, and it was difficult to even see the emperor's face. And although this kind of thing is small, for the emperor, it is also government affairs, women are against the ancestral system of the Qing Dynasty, Emperor Xianfeng may not help, and he will put himself in the cold palace, thinking about it, Cixi decided to take another risk and go out of the palace to see Prince Gong Yixun privately. In 1853, Yi Xun served as the foreman of the Military Aircraft Department, responsible for the suppression of bandits in various places.

On the day Cixi went to see Prince Gong, the snow in the capital was getting heavier and heavier, and the goose feather snow slowly fell from the sky of the black hole. Cixi found An Dehai, the little eunuch in the palace, called him to an inconspicuous corner of the imperial garden, secretly took out fifty taels of silver, and asked him to help get the eunuch's clothes and waist cards, and help him get out of the palace.

An Dehai was only ten years old at the time, on an errand in front of Emperor Xianfeng, he heard the shivering Cixi say that she was going out of the palace to save her father, promised to help, and had not yet received Cixi's silver, Cixi saw that An Dehai was small and clever, and was not greedy for money, so he recognized him as a godbrother.

Prince Gong's Mansion is in the southwest corner of Shichahai in Yanjing, only ten miles away from the Forbidden City. Cixi was wearing a thin eunuch suit, the cold wind was blowing on her face, her face was red from the cold, and the road was also very slippery, and she fell and her nose was swollen if she was not careful. Seeing the porter, Cixi handed him a fifty-tael bag to bribe, and the house slave who opened the door saw that Cixi was wearing eunuch clothes, as well as a waist card, and spoke like a eunuch "sissy", so he took her to the back garden to see Prince Gong.

At that time, more than a dozen plum blossoms in the back garden of Prince Gong's mansion were blooming, and the red plums bloomed in the snow, and the dark fragrance floated. Prince Gong's concubine Fujin Guerjia is pregnant, and the twenty-year-old Prince Gong invites his seventh brother, Wang Yixun, to drink, and the two are cooking wine and appreciating plum blossoms in the pavilion in the garden.

On a whim, Prince Gong came to the open space outside the pavilion, grabbed a silver spear, and danced a piece of "Ditai Cooperative Gun" to cheer up.

I saw the red plum falling snow, Yi Xun was dressed in a white robe, holding a silver gun, and the 28-style Di Tai cooperative marksmanship dance was superb, impermeable, sometimes like a silver snake flying, sometimes like a meteor catching the moon, and the snow fell under Prince Gong's feet without a trace.

Cixi saw the dancing spear, and her heart was moved, this is the man she likes, with a noble identity and both civil and military. It's a pity that creation makes people! Cixi said that the emperor wanted to pass on the secret decree. So, Yixun asked his subordinates and the king of alcohol to avoid it. When only 18-year-old Cixi and 20-year-old Yixun were left in the pavilion, Cixi took off the eunuch hat on her head, took off her robe, shook off the snow on her body, revealed her black hair and a pink lotus shirt, explained her intention without humility or arrogance, and took out a dagger and aimed it at her chest: "If you don't save my family, I will die in this palace of King Gong today, and you will be covered with mouth and can't speak." ”

The drunken and hazy Yixun was stunned, Cixi in front of her, her eyes were shining, her face was red from the cold, her body was plump and slender, standing in the snow, like a beautiful woman in a picture, in order to save her father, Cixi dared to go out of the palace without permission, and also falsely preached the holy decree, threatening herself with death, a weak woman, with this kind of courage and great wisdom, it is rare in this world, but he did not agree immediately. Cixi decisively stabbed herself in the chest, and immediately blood stained her clothes, and Cixi covered her bleeding chest with her hands, tears in her eyes.

Yixun hurriedly asked Cixi to put away the dagger first, and seeing that she was shivering from the cold, and handed her her tiger skin shoulder, Cixi's pounding heart calmed down, and she realized that the god of fate had once again favored her and her family.

Thinking of these old events, Cixi was grateful, and couldn't help but shout "good" for Prince Gong!

When the ministers of the Manchu Dynasty saw Cixi's applause, they also echoed it. The ministers of various countries had a lot of dealings with Prince Gong, so they naturally gave a thumbs up, and the British Minister to China, Wittoma, shouted to Prince Gong: "good". The people who participated in the hunt were also impressed by Prince Gong's arrows in a hundred steps, cheered for him, and the sound resounded through the vast sky of the grassland, overshadowing Emperor Tongzhi, who returned to the dragon chair to watch the city with a black face.

After the hunt, the hunting soldiers regarded the hunting ground as a battlefield, and fought bravely to fight the beasts. Banner hunting, war horses trampling, sonic shock grassland. In the evening, when it was almost dark, the hunt was over, the chariot drove back to the camp, and the night on the grassland was particularly cold, and the hunting sergeants lit thousands of bonfires, cut them and cooked them, held picnics, drank wine in large bowls, and ate large slices of meat.

This went on until the ninth day, that is, the night before the performance, Song Xiaofei couldn't sleep. According to Emperor Tongzhi's plan, once Ruilin brought 2,000 soldiers from the Shenji Battalion to surround the city, he would bring Kubu to the stage to arrest Prince Gong and the Empress Dowager Cixi.

Emperor Tongzhi was also very nervous that night, he didn't take off his dragon robe, he was lying on his side, his forehead was sweating, and suddenly a "bang" gunshot sounded outside the tent. He realized that something was wrong, and he got up, and saw the soldiers outside holding torches and shouting "escort", and Emperor Tongzhi hurriedly asked what was going on.

A military attache knelt down and said: "The gunfire came from the outer city, it is estimated that someone has gone off the fire, please return to the imperial tent quickly." ”

The sound of the gunfire came from Ruilin's tent, and he was making a final mobilization speech with the Buku, and one of the younger Kubus was so nervous that his hands shook and he accidentally brushed off his gun. In a special period such as hunting, in order to avoid mutiny, according to the regulations of the imperial court, ammunition must be put into storage. When going out or exercising, it is issued by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and secretly possessing ammunition is a capital offense for rebellion.

Hearing the gunshot, Emperor Tongzhi also guessed that Buku had an accident, he trembled all over and asked what to do? Song Xiaofei said: "We have no way out, there is a mountain of swords and a sea of fire in front of us, and we have to break through." ”

After about a pillar of incense, the outer city gradually quieted down, and Li Lianying came to the imperial tent to pass the decree of the Empress Dowager Cixi, and asked the Tongzhi Emperor to go to her big tent.

Emperor Tongzhi asked what was going on, and Li Lianying said: "The slave doesn't know, the emperor will know when you go." ”

Song Xiaofei didn't know if the matter was revealed, so he followed Emperor Tongzhi to the camp of the Empress Dowager Cixi. In the queen mother's tent, Cixi had already sat down, closed her eyes and recuperated. The Empress Dowager Ci'an has suffered from the wind and cold these days and is not in the account. Emperor Tongzhi was very surprised to see that Empress Arut, who was pregnant, was also there.

Song Xiaofei saw that Prince Gong Yixun, Prince Alcohol Yixun, Duan Wang Yixun, Fujing County Wang Yixun and other princes were all present, and an old man in a white prison uniform was kneeling on the ground, his gray hair looked messy, and his hands and feet were wearing the shackles of a felon.

Cixi opened her eyes, saw Emperor Tongzhi, and asked calmly: "Your Majesty, do you know the person kneeling under the tent?" ”

The prisoner just raised his head, and the Tongzhi Emperor was shocked, he was none other than Ruilin, the governor of Liangguang. Fine beads of sweat were already oozing from Emperor Tongzhi's forehead, and he asked in fear: "Queen Mother, what did Ruilin do?" ”

"Tell the emperor that Ruilin is secretly hiding ammunition in the camp tent, and the gunfire just now came from the camp under his jurisdiction. I also found a batch of military armor and Western firearms in his tent. Prince Gong said.

"How many sets are there?" Cixi asked with a grim face.

"A hundred sets." Prince Gong clapped his hands, and a dozen or so forbidden soldiers entered the tent and placed a set of brand-new armor and dozens of German-made rifles on the ground.

"Where are the people there?"

"They tried to resist stubbornly, and they were all punished on the spot." Prince Gong waved his hand, and a group of Qing soldiers behind him entered the tent, each of them carrying a few bloody human heads and throwing them to the ground.

Song Xiaofei watched these people all die, and his heart was mixed, they died heroically, and they could be regarded as saving Emperor Tongzhi and himself, but he didn't know if Ruilin would betray them.

Cixi asked Ruilin: "Who are you instructed to dare to be so rebellious?" ”

At this time, Ruilin suddenly stood up and said righteously: "Women in politics have been a disaster for society since ancient times!" Now that the emperor has been in power, he is still seized by Empress Lu, and the world is unlucky! Ruilin, my dying man, why is there any fear of death? I won't say anything, I'm going to kill or chop, give me a good time. ”;