In the 25th year of Qing Guangxu (1899 AD), Hubei Wuchang Jinshui gate (now Jinshui gate community in Jinkou Street, Jiangxia District, Wuhan) suddenly came to the master and servant two, of which the seemingly master was about 20 years old, tall and white-skinned, and the servant was nearly 50 years old, had no beard, spoke like a female voice, and both of them spoke a standard Beijing dialect, obviously from the Beijing master.
The master and servant stayed in a more high-grade hotel, living in simplicity on weekdays, rarely showing up, but the usual clothing and eating and wearing were extremely luxurious, and they were not ordinary people.
The innkeeper and the little second brother in charge of the reception were surprised to find that every time the old servant brought tea and food to the master, he would kneel down and call himself "Shengshang" and call himself "Slave Talent", and the two muttered privately: Are these two mysterious figures the emperor and eunuchs who went out of Beijing to serve privately?
Coming and going, almost all the hotel guests know. A certain alternate official who lived in a hotel (a candidate official who did not make up for the vacancy) was very strange after learning of this matter, and secretly passed it on to a friend, and it was passed on to a hundred times, and not long after, the Guangxu Emperor Ai Xinjue Luo Zaixiang was persecuted by the empress dowager because of the failure of the Pengshu reform law, and was imprisoned in Yingtai, and now the rumors of fleeing south to Wuchang to escort Zhang Zhidong, the governor of Huguang, did not go away, and quickly spread throughout the three towns of Wuhan in the nine provinces, through street talks, newspapers, and then through the addition of oil and vinegar to the crowds of thugs in the tea house liquor store, and more and more spread.
Some good people peeped and found that the quilt clothes used by "Guangxu" were embroidered with five-clawed golden dragons, and the bowl used for eating was actually carved from Hetian Meiyu, and the jade bowl was also engraved with a five-clawed dragon, and there was a huge jade seal engraved with "Royal Treasure", which was obviously the emperor's special town national treasure seal, and the servant was not very shy about this royal treasure seal, but took it out and showed it to everyone. At that time, if anyone dared to indiscriminately use the things of the royal family, it was a great sin of killing the head and exterminating the clan. Apparently, the two mysterious masters and servants were the True Dragon Heavenly Son Guangxu Emperor and his eunuchs who had gone south to accept Zhang Zhidong's protection.
True Dragon Guangxu escaped from Yingtai, and the holy driver came to Wuchang, which became a sensational headline in the three towns of Wuhan at that time, and the officials and gentry of the city, men and women went to the hotel one after another to pay respects to the "fallen heavenly son", almost flattening the threshold of the hotel. Those who went to see him had performed three kneeling and nine prostrations, and the mountain called long live the king and the courtier, saying that he was respectful to the holy driver, and that Guangxu looked at himself calmly, and raised his hand slightly: "There is no need to be polite." Some of the alternate officials who had not yet received the real vacancy for donations (purchase officials) thought that the heavenly opportunity had arrived, and came to pay homage to the Heavenly Son, including generous donations and silver offerings, hoping to leave a good impression on the emperor and get an errand as soon as possible.
Chen Shuping of Jiangxia County was a little suspicious of this matter, so he personally went to check it out to distinguish the true from the false. When he saw the mysterious figure, he asked directly, "What are you?" The "suspected Guangxu" did not answer, but instead replied in a cloudy manner: "After seeing Zhang Zhidong, I can reveal it to you." Some good deeds suspected that the old servant was a fake eunuch, so they invited him to bathe in the bathhouse, during which he peeked at his lower body, and sure enough, it was like a fake Swallow, so the word was even more colorful, and almost no one suspected that this matter was fake.
The news of this matter became more and more severe, and finally reached the ears of Zhang Zhidong, an enlightened official and governor of Huguang. He decided to take matters into his own hands so as not to exacerbate the situation and cause irreparable negative effects. Zhang Zhidong ordered people to go to the hotel and take the master and servant to the governor's gate and personally interrogate them. He first said to the "emperor", "Who the hell are you?" The "emperor" replied mysteriously: "In public, it is not convenient to make it clear to the governor, and after retiring from the church, you can say it in person." The servant claimed to be a palace eunuch, who escaped from the palace after being detected for stealing forbidden objects in the palace, and then fled from the capital division, and met this person (a counterfeit guangxu person) on the way to the south, and still do not know his real name, he only let me follow him to Huguang (referring to today's Hubei and Hunan), which is naturally of great benefit after saying it. Zhang Zhidong consulted with his staff and thought that the person was the emperor's confidant eunuch or a powerful eunuch in the palace. Because the interrogation did not reveal the main points, the two were sent to the prefect of Wuchang and Jiangxia County for strict interrogation.
Jiangxia County ordered Chen Shuping to be specifically responsible for the case. He served the two suspects in the hall with severe punishment, but the two survived the punishment and came one by one. The fake Guangxu Emperor confessed the truth: he was originally a jingcheng (Peking Opera artist), named Chongfu, subordinate to the banner (Manchu), because of his appearance, he was forbidden to act in the palace since childhood, he was familiar with the affairs in the palace, and he looked exactly like the Guangxu Emperor Zaixiang, so everyone in the drama class called himself (Chongfu) "False Emperor". His servant was originally a eunuch in the palace, who was discovered because of the self-theft of the guards and escaped from the capital division, and after the two met, they agreed that after the Guangxu Emperor failed to change the law, he was imprisoned in Yingtai by Empress Dowager Cixi, and there was no internal and external information, and at this time, he went to the provinces to cheat, and he could be sure of everything. When they were in the capital, they often heard that there were scammers who pretended to be a certain prince and a certain minister to make a fortune, and there were not a few people who made their fortunes from this, so they decided to go to Wuchang to cheat together. Unexpectedly, pretending to be the emperor was recognized, and it seemed that it was going to be re-opened, and since the matter had reached this point, the good villain had also been addicted to the emperor for a few days, and he had no regrets about dying. A few days later, two scammers who impersonated Guangxu and the eunuch were put on execution signs and taken to the Buhumen execution ground and beheaded.
The liar is bold and bold, and deceives with the world's number one person who is the most respected person in the world, although he can be fooled for a few days and can get some benefits, but it is also easy to show flaws. Chongfu is just a drama of Jingshi, and he dares to commit such a shocking deception, how can he not take advantage of the servile psychology of the world's extreme worship of imperial power, especially Guangxu, who pretended to support and promote Kang and Liang to change the law and was placed under house arrest by Cixi, and can also win the widespread sympathy of the world. Zhang Zhidong, the governor of Huguang, was a feudal official and a well-known reformist official, who often went to Beijing to see Guangxu, and naturally he was very familiar with the emperor's dragon face, plus Wuhan, the capital of Hubei Province, was a strategic place through the nine provinces, and it was also a large wharf for the distribution of goods, with crowns and covers, and a mixture of fish and dragons, so how could it not be recognized?
【Illustrations from the Internet】