Time passed day by day, and in a blink of an eye, it was the second year of Guangxu, that is, 1876. Ding Yuntong was very anxious, this day dragged on, and he carried the small paper bag on his body, as if he had brought a time bomb, and he was shocked to think about it.

This day is the eighteenth day of the first lunar month, and it snowed all night last night, and the entire Forbidden City was decorated in silver, which was very enchanting. Early in the morning, Ding Yuntong came to Chuxiu Palace as usual to greet Cixi, and after entering the hall, the steward eunuch led him into the inner room.

It was cold and snowy outside, but when I entered the house, I felt a warm current coming towards me, which was very comfortable. The Empress Dowager Cixi would have enjoyed that there were holes more than a meter deep under the eaves around the house, and there were brick furnaces in them. There are criss-crossing fire tunnels under the floor of the house, which are connected to the brick stove, and the heat in the furnace will spread to the ground, so that the whole house will be warm, which is much more enjoyable than modern air conditioning.

Cixi sat on the bed, holding a cloisonné hand stove in her hand, small and delicate, with red charcoal in it. This red Luo charcoal is made of the best wood in Tongzhou, fired into charcoal, transported to the Xi'an Gate in Beijing, the salary division, because the production place is called Red Luo Field, so it is called Red Luo charcoal. It is not only strong and long-lasting, but also smokeless and tasteless, which is really a fine product.

There was also a small cup of hot human milk on the table in front of Cixi, which had just been squeezed out by the young nurse, and Cixi liked to drink this the most, almost every day.

Next to Cixi stood Li Lianying, and there were several palace maids standing with their heads bowed

Ding Yuntong knew that Li Lianying must have tasted the bowl of human milk. There is a special eunuch to taste food during the meal to prevent someone from poisoning, and this is naturally done by the eunuch who carries it with him.

After Ding Yuntong kowtowed, he came to Cixi, sat on the edge of the bed, and beat her legs. During this time, he deliberately approached Cixi, and sometimes he was coquettish, which made him goosebumps. But this hand was still very effective, so that the separation between him and Cixi was not as separate as before. A little doll, learning to beat the legs of others like an adult, looks very funny, the palace maids next to her are pursed and laughing, Cixi herself can't help but smile, nodding slightly, and not stopping. She thinks that this is because the little emperor knows filial piety and lives up to Weng Tongyi's teachings.

"Son, what would you like to eat?"

"The queen mother is loved, and the ministers are a little thirsty."

"Come on, get the flower tea of the mourning family."

Cixi loves to drink flower tea, and she is addicted to tea. The water used to make tea is the spring water transported from Yuquan Mountain on the same day, and the flower tea drunk is freshly picked flowers, mixed into dry tea and then soaked into the tea cup, drinking has both tea and floral fragrance.

A palace maid came to the bed with a saucer in both hands and a white jade cup on it. The gesture was about to be brought to Ding Yuntong's face, Ding Yuntong sat on the bed obliquely, his legs were thrown around very casually, and when the palace maid came to the front, his feet seemed to be unintentionally thrown over, and he pushed the palace maid's knees, this small action was very cleverly covered by the saucer, the palace maid was not guarded, as if she stumbled slightly, the saucer was tilted, and the white jade cup fell to the ground with a bang, and the debris and tea were all over the ground.

The palace maid was so frightened that she quickly knelt on the ground: "The slave should die, the slave should die." "How dare she say that it was the little emperor who kicked her.

Li Lianying, who was next to her, went up and kicked the palace maid to the ground: ", how do you serve your master?" ”

Cixi snorted and didn't speak, Li Lianying walked to the door, waved her hand, and immediately came in Two eunuchs took the fallen palace maid out. The other palace maids lowered their heads in fright, staring at the brick cracks on the ground, and they didn't dare to take a breath.

Ding Yuntong saw that the eyes around him had left this side, and immediately leaned on Cixi's chest, and persuaded in a milky voice: "Queen Mother, don't be angry, take care of your health." These subordinates are the most shallow-eyed, and it's not worth it to be angry with them. If you are angry with the Holy Communion, what will I do with the people of the Qing Dynasty? ”

As he spoke, he blocked Cixi's sight with his body, stretched out one hand behind his back, shook his cuffs on the top of the human milk cup, and a wisp of powder shook it in.

Ding Yuntong's words made Cixi very useful, and the expression on Tie Qing's face softened slightly, and his cold eyes swept over those palace maids: "I am too pampered with you on weekdays, you don't know the importance of all of you, and you do things carelessly, so I have to let that cheap slave who has no long eyes have a long memory." Come on, strip that slut of her clothes and let her stand in the snow. ”

The outside agreed: "Yes." Then the footsteps and the sobs of the maids faded away.

Ding Yuntong brought the human milk to Cixi's mouth with both hands: "The Queen Mother, you dissipate your anger and drink milk to moisten your throat." ”

Cixi was very happy, this little emperor of Guangxu was really getting more and more sensible, so he drank human milk.

At this time, Li Lianying also returned to Cixi's back.

Ding Yuntong secretly breathed a sigh of air at this time, his back was already covered with cold sweat, and at this moment, it was like walking before the ghost door was closed, and he was so nervous that he was about to go into cardiac arrest.

He secretly didn't know how many times he had practiced the action of pouring the medicine powder just now, he designed the paper bag to be open at one end, covered his hands with his sleeves, and shook his hands in the sleeves when he used it.

He knew that the medicinal powder was poured on top of the human milk, and if he looked closely, he would find that there were some small suspended particles on the surface of the human milk, so he had to let Cixi drink it before Li Lianying returned, and Cixi was attracted by his words.

At this time, Ding Yuntong excused himself to read it early, so he quit and quit. The goal has been achieved, and now it is hoped that the toxicity will attack later, and the later it will be safer for him. With countless dead guinea pigs in his previous life as a guarantee, he is confident in his poison.

Everything that follows seems to be normal, Ding Yuntong is reading and practicing rituals in the study, copying Weng Tongyi's Yan Kai characters, and learning "Emperor Jiantu", which is compiled by Zhang Juzheng, a bachelor of the Ming Dynasty Shenzong Dynasty, with pictures and texts. Under the guidance of Weng Tongyi, Ding Yuntong identified the portraits of the Three Emperors and the Five Emperors one by one.

was learning, and when it was time for breakfast, Ding Yuntong just got up, and Fan Changlu, the eunuch with him, came over to put on a big coat for him. At this time, a eunuch from the performance office ran in panting, and opened his mouth to report a bad news: the Empress Dowager Xi had collapsed.

This news stunned everyone present, it was too sudden, and Ding Yuntong was naturally stunned.

The specific situation is: When the Queen Mother was eating breakfast, she drank a bowl of porridge, and as soon as she took a bite of the mille-feuille cake, she fell to the ground with convulsions all over her body, bleeding from her mouth and nose. By the time the imperial doctor arrived, he was out of breath.

Ding Yuntong's face was frightened, but he was overjoyed in his heart, this is good, the timing of this poisonous attack is too good, so that he has no suspicion at all, and the stone in his heart finally fell. He immediately went straight to Chuxiu Palace, and Weng Tongyi couldn't go with him because he was a foreign minister.

When I entered the Chuxiu Palace, I saw that there were already many people, Cixi was lying motionless on the bed, her facial muscles were bruised and twisted, and she was dying miserably, and the idiot could also see that she was poisoned. Ding Yuntong didn't care about thirty-seven twenty-one, and when he came up, he caressed the corpse and cried bitterly, but he couldn't hold back his tears, so he had to lie on the corpse and howl.

While howling, he thought about the next step: Cixi had a Tongdaotang seal in her hand, and the imperial reward seal on Ci'an's hand was left by Emperor Xianfeng before his death, which was used to replace Zhu Pi. All decrees must be stamped with these two seals separately, otherwise they are invalid. The Tongdaotang seal should have been owned by Emperor Tongzhi, but because of his young age, he has been managed by Cixi until now. Now that Cixi is dead, it must be Li Lianying who keeps it temporarily, and then he asks Fan Changlu to ask for it, Li Lianying suddenly suffered this change, and he will definitely not give it in a hurry. Let Ci'an take over the seal by the way, and by the way, give Li Lianying a charge of possessing the seal privately and plotting against him.

In the evening, the Empress Dowager Ci'an urgently ascended to the palace and summoned the princes and ministers to discuss the matter.

Ding Yuntong sat on his throne, his face was full of Qirong, his eyes were red, which was finally rubbed out with his hands, and he looked at Ying Gui, the Minister of Internal Affairs, who was kneeling below and was speaking.

"The minister has been ordered by the Empress Dowager to order all the officials of the yamen of all prefectures in Beijing to hang filial piety, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs will issue filial piety to all yamen and banner camps. And it is rumored that all those who belong to the Fujin and the women must wear filial piety to enter the palace to salute. ”

Ci'an nodded and said, "It's just that the West Sage suddenly collapsed, and the death was very strange, and the mourning family had doubts. Chonglun, you participated in the burial, but you can understand the echo. ”

The Minister of the Interior, Chonglun, in the back row, hurriedly stepped forward and knelt down: "The minister has asked the imperial doctor, and Xisheng seems to have taken some kind of highly toxic drug, but it is not ordinary arsenic or mercury or the like. The minister has arrested the relevant personnel of the imperial dining room that day, the eunuch on duty in Chuxiu Palace, the eunuch who tastes the food, and the palace maid next to him, and is being tortured. ”

At this time, Xu Tong walked in the Hongde Hall next to him, kowtowed and said: "Report to the Queen Mother, yesterday the palace inquired, Xisheng's face was still good, but today he suddenly spread the murderous letter, it is really strange." In a moment, there was a sudden change, and the ministers were really shocked, and the following ministers were inevitably criticized. I also hope that the Queen Mother will investigate and verify, and tell the world the cause of the sudden collapse of the Western Sage, so as to solve everyone's doubts, rest the public opinion, comfort the old ministers, and ask the Queen Mother to know clearly. ”

Seeing this Xu Tong, Ding Yuntong immediately had a very unhappy feeling. Xu Tong in history was stubborn and old-fashioned, pedantic and ignorant to the extreme. There are many classic idiotic sayings that have survived, such as that railways damage the leylines. Spain and Portugal do not exist at all, and they were made up by Britain and France in order to deceive them for benefits. The Qing Dynasty is beautiful, profitable, and strong, so the United States is a ghost country, how can it be the United States. The knees of foreign devils are hard and cannot be bent, so to fight with foreigners, you only need to hook the plate with a bamboo pole.

Ding Yuntong felt that he should speak, and from now on, he could not remain silent about any affairs of the country, big or small.

He patted the armrest of the throne with his small hand: "Xu Tong, you are unconscious, how can this kind of thing be reported to the world, are you afraid that it will not be chaotic enough?" The dignified Queen Mother was poisoned in her own bedroom, and this matter spread out, teaching the world how to view the inner courtyard of my palace, how to treat my royal family, is it that my Qing Dynasty Palace is actually a conspiracy and treacherous domain that plots poison and assassination, and the mouths of hundreds of millions of people, how many tongues do you have to chew, how many bizarre plots do you have to arrange, how can I be embarrassed? This matter must not be publicized, and it is necessary to find the murderer while announcing that the Empress Dowager Xi died of illness due to political fatigue and the Holy Communion. In short, we must be low-key and cautious, and we must not publicize it in a high-profile manner, and we will be poisoned and killed, is this a glorious thing for Xisheng? Xu Tong, I don't understand the truth of His Holiness, and your sage books have been read in the belly of a dog. ”

Ding Yuntong's crisp children's voice made everyone present dumbfounded, especially Xu Tong, who was slapped on the head, and after all, he was a courtier, so it was not easy to talk back, and his face was flushed when he stood there.