On February 17, 1859 in the Western calendar, the fifteenth day of the first month of the third year of Xuanwu of the Chinese Empire.

On the day of the Lantern Festival, the royal family is to show that they are happy with the people, and Lin Zhete ordered to set up many lanterns and carry out fireworks displays on the newly built 'Imperial Square', and Lin Zhe will bring the royal family members to attend and enjoy the fireworks display with his subjects.

Although the Imperial Plaza is strictly an empty large square, and the main project was basically completed as early as 1858, like the Xinhua Palace, it is not the main building that takes more time, but the details of the repair.

After more than two years of intermittent construction, the main buildings of the entire China Palace have been basically completed, of which the first to be completed is naturally the royal residence area of the China Palace, and then the Imperial Square in front of the China Palace, the main building of the China Palace is also the largest Xinhua Hall has also completed the basic main project, and is currently carrying out interior decoration.

In addition, the surrounding area of the Zhonghua Palace is dotted with dozens of buildings of various ministries and governments, and between the buildings is a large expanse of open grassland.

The Zhonghua Palace, the government buildings of the ministries and the Imperial Square together form this extremely large area of the core of the Chinese Empire.

In order to ensure the security of this area, at least two infantry regiments of the Guards are stationed all year round, one of which is directly responsible for the outer defense of the Zhonghua Palace, while the other infantry regiment is responsible for other and more peripheral defenses.

However, on the night of the Lantern Festival, more Guards soldiers poured into the area, dressed in dark blue, but with red trim on the cuffs and peonies on the neckline.

Soldiers were fully armed at any intersection leading to the Imperial Mall, checking on everyone who was going to the Imperial Mall to watch the fireworks.

At one of the intersections, a young soldier carefully examined the family in front of him. This is a couple with a pair of children, the man is about twenty-six or seventeen years old, wearing a brand new Chinese costume, a Chinese costume made of high-end woolen materials and a pair of shiny leather shoes under his feet, this outfit is basically the standard daily dress of the middle and upper echelons of contemporary imperial society, especially the group of state employees.

The woman next to her is slightly petite. Wearing a retro Han-style skirt, with a pair of white short gloves on her hands, and a white cape, she was wearing small black high heels that had just been circulated in the palace for a long time, this kind of small black leather shoes were said to have been worn by Fang Deconcubine in the palace at the beginning, and then quickly spread throughout the upper echelons of the empire because of the beautiful style, of course, outsiders will never know that this is a pattern designed by Lin Zhe himself. Let the people below make it as a birthday gift for Fang Defei.

However, this kind of small leather shoes generally can't be worn by women with wrapped feet, because although the heels of these shoes are nothing compared to the hatred of the sky in later generations, they are also high-heeled shoes.

The couple each held a child, and the two children were also dressed in new clothes, with a boy of six or seven years old and a girl of four or five years old wearing Hanfu.

And the dress of this family is similar to that of everyone else here today. Most of the people who were lucky enough to come to the Imperial Plaza today to enjoy the fireworks show with Emperor Lin Zhe were dressed in full costumes, and the men wore Chinese dresses. There are also people who wear Western-style tuxedos, and some people simply come over in Chinese-style dresses.

The ladies are more unified, basically Han-style skirts, of course, even if they are Han-style skirts, but the styles are also divided into many kinds, some of which are styles of the late Ming Dynasty. Some of them are simply dressed in the style of the Tang Dynasty, and some are simply hung with retro names, but they have been modified and integrated with some elements of Western-style women's clothing, and finally formed a skirt that integrates Chinese and foreign traditions.

People were dressed up and many were excited. From time to time, I looked at the Zhonghua Gongmen Hill in the northern section of the Imperial Forum, because this was the first time in the past three years that Lin Zhe, the emperor, and the entire imperial family had been in public with the people.

Lin Zhe was afraid of death, and there was no tradition in China for the king to swagger through the market in an open-top carriage on the street, and then wave to the people, whenever Lin Zhe went out on patrol, he was surrounded by a large number of soldiers of the Guards, and most of the nearby streets had already been emptied, and occasionally people met, and most of them quickly knelt on the ground, not daring to raise their heads.

Therefore, in the past three years, although Lin Zhe has met with some ministers every day, no people have seen him on official occasions.

When Lin Zhe decided to have fun with the people on the day of the Lantern Festival, a large number of people wanted to go to see the holy face, but in order to protect the safety of the royal family and maintain the continuity of the Imperial Square that night, the guards in charge of security affairs had already posted a clear notice that only 5,000 people were allowed to enter the square that night, and those who entered the square must have a permit issued by the agency where they work and a permit issued by the patrol police station of their place of residence, and then they can submit an application, and only after the approval of the official department can they receive tickets to enter the Imperial Square that night.

And when entering the venue, it is forbidden to carry any foreign objects, only people are allowed to enter, and nothing is allowed to be brought, let alone weapons and the like.

The people who can apply are not all upper-class people, and based on the theme of 'having fun with the people', the organizers will specially select some representative groups, such as workers, such as handicraft workers, farmers, merchants, state employees and other people from all walks of life.

But whoever they are, they're here today wearing their best outfits!

At about seven o'clock in the evening, after the ordinary people entered the venue, many imperial magnates also brought their families to enter the venue one after another, and there were not many of them, most of them were high-level military generals or officials.

How to say it, today's Lantern Festival fireworks banquet is still an event with extremely strong political meaning in the final analysis, and if too many powerful people come, this event will become an aristocratic event, thus making the event lose its original meaning.

After these magnates represented by high-level military generals and officials entered, they didn't put on the shelves of the past, didn't they see that Emperor Lin Zhe had to have fun with the people, could it be that these officials were even bigger than Lin Zhe?

So they all smiled happily, and some even took time out of their time to talk to the ordinary people who came to the Imperial Forum.

The whole atmosphere can be regarded as harmonious, but what many people don't know is that not everyone in the square is an ordinary person, and there are also many secret agents arranged by the patrol police department to wander around, watching everyone with their eyes.

I saw a middle-aged man in a tuxedo walking in it with a natural expression, but during the whole process, he kept getting closer to the gate of the Zhonghua Palace, and where the palace gate was, it was where the royal family was located.

When he kept getting closer, there were several men behind him silently approaching, a few minutes later, I saw several people behind him speed up their pace, and the next moment a secret agent suddenly reached out from behind to cover the man's mouth, and the other two people supported the man on one side, and five or six people covered the periphery, and the next moment, the middle-aged man didn't even make a sound, and then he was directly carried out of the square by these secret agents, and escorted to a house on the side of the square.

Here, several spies quickly retrieved a revolver from the middle-aged man's coat, and a torture interrogation quickly began.

However, these events did not affect the whole event, and many people in the square were still unaware that the secret agents of the patrol department had arrested more than 15 suspicious people in a row.

Behind the gate of the Zhonghua Palace, Lin Zhe listened to Lin Chengjia, the minister of the patrol police department, reporting in a low voice: "At present, the secret agents of our patrol police department and the Beijing Division Patrol Police Department have arrested a total of fifteen suspicious elements, and there are still more than three hundred secret agents on the scene on the mission!" ”

Lin Zhe said: "Well, in this way, the security work is already in place?" ”

Lin Chengjia said: "Your Majesty, rest assured, all the situation is under control!" ”

Lin Zhe nodded and motioned for Lin Chengjia to leave.

Holding such a large-scale event will inevitably encounter some security problems, which have long been expected by Lin Zhe, as the emperor of the empire, his rise will bring benefits to many groups and people, and it will inevitably damage the interests of many people, and these people all want him Lin Zhe to die.

However, these jumping clowns did not let Lin Zhe take it to heart, in order to organize this event, the Guards and Patrol Police Department and the Palace Affairs Department Attendant Office began various preparations as early as half a month ago, and they dare not say that all security loopholes are eliminated, but if someone tries to assassinate Lin Zhe tonight, the probability of success is infinitely close to zero.

If nothing else, let's just say that Lin Zhe was not directly in the Imperial Square, but on the gate of the Zhonghua Palace in the northern section of the Imperial Square, which was more than fifty meters away from the ordinary people.

At this distance, unless someone can swagger in with a rifle, it would be useless to bring a pistol.

After all, Lin Zhe was not the Archduke Ferdinand of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the later generations, he would not be stupid enough to ride directly in an open-top car on the streets!

Looking at the time, it was almost over, and the outside was ready, so Lin Zhe raised his feet and walked in front of Chen Jing and the other concubines.

Today's event will basically be attended by members of the royal family, including Lin Zhe, Empress Chen Jing, nine concubines, as well as the Queen Mother Lin and Lin Zhe's son and three daughters.

However, these people are all following behind, and on this occasion today, only Chen Jing, the queen of this empire, can walk with Lin Zhe.

At 7:30 p.m., a group of guards in the palace attendant room wearing special uniforms appeared one after another on the upper floor of the gate of the Zhonghua Palace, and at this time, the audience was silent. (To be continued.) )