In late autumn, at the wharf of Tianjin Port, the cold wind gradually rose, and a dilapidated mast sailing ship slowly docked. At the bow of the boat, a middle-aged man of about forty years old read Leng Qiu, wearing a thin gray robe, his beard was sloppy, his face was dirty, his skin was dark, his eyes were a little dull, and those who did not know him thought he was a beggar or a disaster victim fleeing the famine.

Who would have thought that this middle-aged man would be the once famous "Four Advice of Hanlin" and Qingliu "Horn" Zhang Peilun! He once dared to speak out, and bluntly advised the Empress Dowager Cixi to take back his fate, he once raised his arms and shouted, gathered in the "clear stream" in response, he once scolded Li Hongzhang was speechless, but unfortunately, no matter how good the times were, the Sino-French war, he was defeated in Mawei, the Fujian Navy Division was destroyed, his name was stinky, everyone wanted to punish him, only Li Hongzhang spoke up, saying that the defeat "is not the fault of Zhang Peilun, whoever goes will have the same result", Zhang Peilun was so moved that he almost knelt for Li Hongzhang!

In the eleventh year of Guangxu, Zhang Peilun was exiled to Chahar Chahandrahai, in the past three years, sleeping in the frontier where there is no grass, this scholar with fine skin and tender flesh has black skin and white hair, and his beloved wife is also infected during the period of accompanying him to the army, there is no cure, and he hates Jiuquan, he is sad and desperate, and his life has fallen to the bottom. It belongs to the real strong!

Zhang Peilun wanted to make a comeback, so he desperately reflected on himself, and the more he reflected, the more he felt that Li Hongzhang was great, this person was flat and long-haired, ran foreign affairs, rejuvenated the water division, and was the master of diplomacy, turning the tide, and insisting on "zhongxing" an empire that was about to perish, and he was really arrogant and ignorant in the past. So, at the end of Zhang Peilun's garrison, he wrote a long letter of repentance to Li Hongzhang, reporting on his ideological transformation: I know that the times are difficult, but I really take foreign affairs as the main end, adopt Western methods to enemy Westerners, and also put forward the plan of "preparing to build a railway in order to improve myself", and sent Li Hongzhang 24 volumes of "Guanzi Note", 10 volumes of "Zhuangzi Guyi", "Jian Yu Ji" and other works written during exile.

Li Hongzhang cherished his talent and asked Song Xiaofei's opinion. Song Xiaofei still remembers the scene when Zhang Peilun argued that Rong Hong had a myocardial infarction, and said: "This Zhang Peilun has a good brain, and is good at saying white as black, so he must also be good at saying black as white, and the students think that he can be used to deal with 'Qingliu', so that our ears will be much cleaner." ”

Li Hongzhang thought so, so he agreed to Zhang Peilun's request. Song Xiaofei received Zhang Peilun's arrival in Tianjin, and waited at the dock of Tianjin Port with Duan Qirui, who was dressed in military uniform. Duan Qirui saw Zhang Peilun from a distance with a poor and sour look of lost soul, and asked Song Xiaofei: "Brother, you are such a down-and-out scholar, why did you come to pick it up in person?" At this time, he was just a criminal who had returned from exile, so why did Lord Zhongtang still allow him to join the staff? ”

Song Xiaofei patted Duan Qirui on the shoulder and said, "Brother Zhiquan, this is the genius of Lord Zhongtang's employment. A few years ago, Zhang Peilun was in the limelight in the court, if he was pulled into the staff, it was just the icing on the cake, at this time he returned from despair, panicked like a lost dog, at this time with him, it was a charcoal in the snow, Zhang Peilun must be grateful to Dade and swear to use it for me. ”

Duan Qirui said: "What is the use of this kind of weak scholar? ”

Song Xiaofei laughed: "Above the court, words can also kill!" Back then, he once overthrew He Shouci, the secretary of the Ministry of Industry, and Dong Sui, the secretary of the Ministry of Households, and even the Lord Zhongtang was a little afraid of him. Now that 'Qingliu' is resurrected, Zhang Peilun can't give them a head-on blow! And he has a good personal relationship with Chen Baochen and other 'Qingliu Ten Friends'. Accepting him is equivalent to breaking Weng Tong's two legs, and he will not be able to move an inch from now on! ”

Sure enough, after Zhang Peilun returned to Tianjin, he was grateful to Li Hongzhang for taking him in regardless of his previous suspicions, and expressed his willingness to serve the dogs and horses. Weng Tongyi didn't know that Zhang Peilun's thinking had changed dramatically at this time, and he didn't know that Zhang Peilun had joined Li Hongzhang's staff. Princess Rongshou also blew the wind in the ears of the Empress Dowager Cixi, praising Zhang Peilun as a talent, don't be a pity, the Empress Dowager Cixi was happy, so Emperor Guangxu issued an order to let Zhang Peilun reinstate the official and sign the left deputy capital imperial history.

At the end of the early dynasty, Emperor Guangxu went to Qingyi Garden as usual to greet the Empress Dowager Cixi, and by the way reported that Li Hongzhang "sold his official beard" in the disaster year, and Weng Tonggong and other ministers strongly demanded punishment. Although Emperor Guangxu had been in power for almost three years at this time, from the Forbidden City to the Summer Palace, there were also thirty or forty miles, and it took an hour on the road to take the dragon chariot, but he still maintained the good habit of asking for an early report in the evening, and the major military affairs were decided by the Empress Dowager Cixi.

The older Cixi gets, the more she trusts Li Hongzhang, and she has a kind of dependence mentality, whether it is coastal defense, disaster relief, or foreign teaching plans, as long as something happens, she will look for Li Hongzhang. Recently, the Empress Dowager Cixi recommended a Sichuan political envoy Sibu political envoy, but because of the lack of learning and no skills by the Guangxu Emperor to repudiate, Cixi strongly felt that the Guangxu Emperor, Weng Tonggong, Prince Alcohol this "iron triangle", more and more threatening their own status, at this time saw Weng Tonggong they actually wanted to attack Li Hongzhang, at that time the face was black, but because of the impeachment of Li Hongzhang by Weng Tonggong this time is "selling official beard", the surname is very serious, it is not good to openly protect it, so they summoned several of their parties and the minister of imperial history to come to Qingyi Garden to discuss.

Prince Alcohol, Weng Tongyi, Li Hongzhang, Zhang Peilun, Liangjiang Governor and Minister of Nanyang Trade Liu Kun arrived one after another, Weng Tonggong first attacked, took out a fold, opened it and was a meter long, on which he secretly wrote Li Hongzhang's list of "selling officials and lords" and the silver taels, he knelt down to the Empress Dowager Cixi: "Our Lady of the Empress Dowager, this list is the list that the servants got from the Ministry of Officials, after verification, Li Hongzhang sold a total of 1,221 officials in the three-year disaster year, and got 1.2 million taels of silver, the scale is huge, unheard of, Please punish the queen mother and the emperor severely to revive the dynasty! ”

Cixi opened her mouth and asked Li Hongzhang: "Is this true?" ”

Li Hongzhang replied without hesitation: "It's true, and it's too little, the old man sold a total of 1,556 official titles and titles, and got 1.8 million taels of silver." ”

Cixi understood as soon as she heard it, Li Hongzhang was selling official titles and titles, not actual official positions at all, she hadn't listened to Zhang Peilun's impassioned statement for a long time, and asked Zhang Peilun what he thought about it. Seeing that Li Hongzhang did not deny it, Weng Tongyi glanced at Zhang Peilun with encouraging eyes, suggesting that Zhang Peilun said boldly!

Zhang Peilun knelt down unhurriedly and said: "Back to the Queen Mother, the lower officials also have a fold to play!" ”

Zhang Peilun's fold, the top is also dense, and the words are one size smaller than the one on Weng Tong's fold, as soon as Li Lianying opened it and pulled it out, it was more than 100 meters long, shocking!

The Empress Dowager Cixi took a sip of ginseng tea and asked, "What are you?" ”

Zhang Peilun said that this is a list of some of the unjust souls, all of whom were victims of starvation in Shanxi, Henan, Shandong, and other places, and according to the survey of the household department, a total of 3.1 million people...... I want to impeach the Minister of Military Aircraft in charge of the Ministry of Households, co-organizer of the university Weng Tonggong for dereliction of duty, Weng Tonggong because of a long-standing grudge with Li Hongzhang, repeatedly plotting revenge, in this miraculous disaster through the ages, Weng Tonggong still has ill intentions, holds power, estimates the situation and manipulates power, and delays in allocating disaster relief funds, resulting in millions of victims starving to death, and the souls of grievances are all over the wilderness. Lord Zhongtang had no choice but to sell his false position to save the people from fire and water, but Weng Tonggong deceived his superiors and subordinates, and played with right and wrong, this crime is too numerous to mention, although Ling Chi is executed, it is not an exaggeration!

Zhang Peilun's words were brilliant, Weng Tonggong was dumbfounded, and what made him even more stunned was still behind, Zhang Peilun took out another fold, on which there were more than 20 Qingliu ministers' joint names, impeaching Weng Tonggong, which read: "The co-organizers of the university scholars Weng Tonggong did not allow many things to cooperate, so that the public was not convinced, and some people participated in the performance, and every time he consulted the incident when he was called, he was arbitrarily able or not, and his joy and anger were seen in the color of the words, and he gradually revealed the situation of grabbing power and arrogance, and it was difficult to win the cardinal's responsibility."

Zhang Peilun's knife in the back was fast and ruthless, Weng Tongyi was so angry that he trembled, and there was green smoke on his head, and the situation was immediately reversed, and Liu Kunyi, the governor of Liangjiang and the minister of trade in Nanyang, came out at this time to confirm that the household department had indeed delayed the transfer of disaster relief materials in the southern provinces in the process of disaster relief, and he had written several times to no avail.

Emperor Guangxu was also stunned when he heard this, he never expected that the teacher who taught him benevolence, righteousness and love for the people in Pingyue would be shattered, only caring about personal grievances, ignoring the life and death of the people, Li Hongzhang's disaster relief, he also dared to make an obstacle from it, and he didn't feel that his trust in him was greatly reduced.

The Empress Dowager Cixi was furious when she heard this, and felt that this was a good opportunity to crack down on the "imperial party", and immediately ordered Li Lianying to step forward and peel off Weng Tongyong's dazzling eyes, and asked Emperor Guangxu to remove Weng Tonggong's official and never use it!

Prince Alcohol came out to intercede at this time, and the Empress Dowager Cixi gave him face, so he changed his mind. Emperor Guangxu was forced by the Empress Dowager Cixi, and issued an edict saying: "Weng Tonggong's mistake should have been investigated and punished, and he remembered that he had been walking in Yuqing Palace for a year, and he couldn't bear to be severely punished. ”

In this struggle, Song Xiaofei successfully achieved his goal, Weng Tongyi was expelled and returned to his hometown for three years, Zhang Peilun was a hit, and he regained his bull's ears in the "clear stream"! Li Hongzhang was not only not punished, but was also additionally rewarded with a three-eyed dazzling feather, which is a reward that only the royal family and nobles can receive.