Just when Song Xiaofei was building China's "Great Wall on the Sea", the situation in the Qing court changed dramatically because of the pro-government of Emperor Guangxu.

In the thirteenth year of Guangxu, the number nine cold winters, snowflakes flew, and Yanjing City was covered in silver. Against the backdrop of heavy snow, the cornices of the Forbidden City appear more solemn. The seventeen-year-old Guangxu Emperor wore a sea otter skin robe, a golden dragon robe, standing in the body and hall behind the Yikun Palace, a pot of charcoal fire in the hall was burning, the light blue flames were blown by the cold wind that slipped into the hall and swayed left and right, the Guangxu Emperor still felt cold, and his body trembled.

The Empress Dowager Cixi sat on a chair in the main hall, and Emperor Guangxu stood behind Cixi, not daring to move, and not daring to shiver. However, at this time, the Guangxu Emperor was physically mature, his height grew to more than 1.6 meters, his forehead was very high, his face was pale, his big brown eyes were like half-ripe "apricots", his eyelids were drooping, his lips were thin and thin, his lower lip was slightly protruding, and he did not have a beard. The dragon hat on the head of the Guangxu Emperor, for his thin and pointed head, is too big and too heavy, the middle of the hat stands a nine-dragon hollow gold dome, a total of seven layers, inlaid with nineteen shining Dadong pearls, tied with red tassels, the outer ring eaves are inlaid with sable bear fur, and the eaves are bright yellow satin and kelp, which can not stop the melancholy eyes of the young Guangxu Emperor!

On this day, for the depressed Guangxu Emperor, it was actually a day of great joy! He wants to choose a queen and two concubines for himself, and then, the big wedding, and then, it is the pro-government that Emperor Guangxu dreamed of!

Last month, the Empress Dowager Cixi, who was nearly 50 years old, couldn't hold off and issued a decree announcing to the world that she would return to power in February of the 14th year of Guangxu. The officials of Qin Tianjian took the turtle shell and calculated a hexagram, and the third day of the second month was the zodiac auspicious, Cixi and the ministers including Guangxu's father, Prince Yiyun, discussed, and ended the training on this day, so that the eighteen-year-old Guangxu Emperor held a pro-government ceremony and ruled the world!

This time, the Empress Dowager Cixi was not joking, at least not on the surface. So in today's draft, Emperor Guangxu was a little nervous and a little impatient, clenching his fists, and beads of sweat oozed from his palms! He couldn't show too much joy, so he kept a melancholy face, for fear that if he made a wrong move, the Empress Dowager Cixi asked him to wait for another fourteen years.

Fourteen years, five thousand nights and nights, Guangxu Emperor Yanjing didn't know how he survived! From the age of four into the Forbidden City, Emperor Guangxu felt "god-like loneliness", his loneliness, than the Tongzhi Emperor who died at the age of nineteen, he was frail and sickly, timid, every rainy day lightning and thunder is particularly afraid, curled up in the corner of the study dare not go out. Emperor Guangxu is more like a puppet than Emperor Tongzhi, and there are many rules in the palace that bind him as a puppet emperor, how far each step should go, how many bites of a bowl of rice should be eaten, how long to go to the toilet, and how many times a day to kneel with the Empress Dowager Cixi. He did not have a childhood, and studied the "Four Books" and "Five Classics" for two hours every day, recited "Zhihu Zhiye", and also learned Manchu Tungusic and Mongolian, and trained in fencing, horseback riding, archery, wrestling, etc.

Emperor Guangxu had a little-known hobby, which was Western toys. Since the fairy girl gave him Swiss clocks, he has been fascinated by Western toys, music boxes, music cars, cars, ships, and Danish toymakers with brains have specially designed all kinds of fun toys for the young Guangxu Emperor and sold them to him at a high price. When Emperor Guangxu grew up, he also heard that the telegraph could transmit words like lightning thousands of miles away, so he asked someone to get one and fiddle with it like a toy.

As Emperor Guangxu grew older, he became more and more dissatisfied with the backward status quo of the Qing Empire, and his interest in Western things increased. After the Sino-French War, his teacher Weng Tongyi also realized the importance of Western studies, and added courses on Chinese and foreign history and geography and early capitalist reform to the Guangxu Emperor.

From the time he was sensible, Emperor Guangxu's ideal has always been very full: to be a generation of holy lords like Emperor Taizu Kangxi and revitalize the Qing Dynasty. Therefore, Emperor Guangxu was particularly diligent in reading, and he went into the study before dawn every day to read, every day, even during the Spring Festival, he could be called the most diligent emperor in history, there was no one! Before he became pro-government, he read more than 90 kinds of Chinese and foreign reform books, and his self-confidence was bursting, and he felt that he was fully capable of ruling the world! The skinny reality is: before the king of the world, Emperor Guangxu has to choose a flag girl as his wife to prove that he is a man and not a boy!

On this day, the body and hall were particularly lively, and five young girls wearing cheongsams stood in a row, standing in the hall with serious expressions, waiting for Emperor Guangxu to choose. These five girls are the daughter of Dutong Guixiang, Yehnara who is nearly twenty years old. Jingfen, the two daughters of Jiangxi Governor Dexin, fifteen-year-old Derui and fourteen-year-old Dehui, and the two daughters of Changxu, the left attendant of the Ministry of Rites, and the fifteen-year-old Tatara. Wanyu and thirteen-year-old Tatara. Wanzhen.

In front of the Empress Dowager Cixi and Emperor Guangxu, there is a long table, on which is placed a delicate jade-inlaid Ruyi and two pairs of red embroidered purses. Princess Rongshou stood beside Emperor Guangxu and asked the five show girls to come forward, raise their heads, and let Emperor Guangxu take a good look.

Li Lianying offered ginseng tea, Empress Dowager Cixi picked up the teacup, took a sip, pointed to the jade Ruyi and embroidered purse on the table and said to Emperor Guangxu: "Your Majesty, according to the old rules of your ancestors, you can pick it yourself, the five girls in front of you, whoever is in love with her is the queen, she will stuff the jade Ruyi into her hand, and whoever is in love with her will be the concubine, so she will give her the embroidered purse." ”

After speaking, the Empress Dowager Cixi put down the teacup, picked up the jade Ruyi on the table, and stuffed it into the hands of Emperor Guangxu. Emperor Guangxu has read sage books since he was a child, and his surname is filial piety, but he pushed it back: "This marriage event is a major event, when the emperor's father is the master, the son cannot be the master." ”

When the Empress Dowager Cixi heard this, she reprimanded: "Your Majesty, you are about to become pro-government, how can you be so assertive?" ”

Emperor Guangxu then took the jade Ruyi, paced in front of the five show girls, he first glanced at the front of the Dutong Guixiang's daughter Jingfen, that is, the niece of the Empress Dowager Cixi, suddenly dumbfounded, this woman's name is good, but the skin is gray, and a little hunchbacked, rugged, so he stepped forward and walked two steps, to the two daughters of Jiangxi Governor Dexin. As the saying goes, "after the ugly girl, you know what a beautiful woman is", Emperor Guangxu looked at these two sisters from the south of the Yangtze River, De Rui, De Hui, the more pleasing to the eye, especially the younger sister De Hui, fair skin, autumn waves in the big eyes, like the spring water of Panyang Lake, Emperor Guangxu was moved, and stuffed the jade Ruyi into Dehui's little hand! Dehui saw that Emperor Guangxu had chosen him, lowered his head and smiled, and reached out to pick up Yu Ruyi, at this time, Cixi behind Emperor Guangxu coughed twice, and shouted unhurriedly: "Emperor!" ”

The Empress Dowager Cixi's voice was not loud, but Emperor Guangxu was like a thunderbolt on a sunny day, and his liver trembled, why did the emperor's father call me "emperor" at this time, is the queen's father I chose not satisfied? Emperor Guangxu hesitated, and the jade Ruyi who was about to be sent out was not sent by him, nor was he sent it if he didn't send it! The Empress Dowager Cixi looked at it and gave Princess Rongshou a look, Princess Rongshou understood, picked up the two pairs of embroidered purses on the table, and stuffed them into the hands of Wanyu and Wanzhen, and the draft ended here!

Emperor Guangxu took the jade Ruyi, looked at the daughter of Guixiang, and understood that she would be his future queen, and wanted to cry without tears, feeling that his life would only have the dark side from now on, but he did not have the courage to resist the emperor's father, and he was powerless to change this reality. In this way, the daughter of Guixiang was chosen as the queen; Changxu's two daughters later became Concubine Jin and Concubine Zhen, the tragic married life of Emperor Guangxu, and the tragic pro-government, took the first step in the tragedy!

But the Guangxu Emperor is not completely unassertive, after he took power, he was not willing to be a puppet emperor, with the support of his biological father Prince Alcohol, the Guangxu Emperor enabled his teacher Weng Tonggong to re-serve as the Minister of Military Aircraft, and was in charge of the more important household department, around Weng Tonggong, gradually regathered a group of ministers who dared to die and "Qingliu" ministers, as well as a group of ministers who were determined to renew, such as Zhang Zhidong, the governor of Liangguang, they were called the "imperial party", and opposed the Empress Dowager Cixi's excessive interference.

When Rong Hong received Song Xiaofei's telegram, the United States, which was founded on freedom and equality of all men, had a strong wave of anti-Chinese at that time. Arthur also signed the infamous Chinese Exclusion Act, which made the situation of Chinese laborers in the United States miserable, as exemplified by the Stone Springs Mine in Wyoming, which by 1885 had 331 Chinese laborers and 150 day laborers. By September, 150 whites had attacked Chinese workers with guns, 28 Chinese workers were killed, 15 were wounded, and the rest were driven away. Rong Hong was filled with grief and indignation, and decided to accept Song Xiaofei's invitation to go back to promote the Guangxu Emperor's reform and change of law, and he deeply felt that only when the motherland is strong, can the Chinese have dignity! Rong Hong took Rong Rong back to China by steamer, first to Shanghai, and then north to Tianjin, Song Xiaofei heard that their father and daughter had returned to China, so he quickly put down all the official business in his hand and prepared a carriage to meet them at Tianjin Port.