History often has many coincidences, and there are also some things that modern scientific principles cannot explain. For example, as early as 1587 (that is, the fifteenth year of the famous Wanli calendar of the Ming Dynasty), when Nurhaci was building a city in his hometown of Hetuala, he accidentally excavated a stone stele with the words "Ye He, the founder of the state". At that time, he had only been in the army for five years, and these few words were not traces of new chisels, which made him suspicious, coupled with the more powerful Yehebu located nearby, from time to time oppressed his tribe, and it was even more intolerable to him when he witnessed his gradually growing power. Nurhaci also limited the foreshadowing of the stele to the immediate reality, and in the later Battle of Salhu captured Jintaishi, the leader of the Yehe tribe who helped the Ming army, and beheaded him regardless of his in-laws. As for Jintaishi's curse in the face of death, "No matter what son or daughter is left behind, there will always be revenge and hatred." "Then don't care too much, who didn't have a few angry words?"
Later, when Emperor Taiji succeeded to the throne, he was naturally more generous and benevolent to his mother-in-law Ye Hebu, so that the defeated Ye Hebu was able to recover and develop, and the relationship between them tended to ease; even in 1644, he followed the Shunzhi Emperor "from the dragon into the pass" and also ranked among the Manchu nobles. For more than two hundred years, the Manchus after entering the customs relied on the ancestral tablets to make a living, and on the other hand, they also relied on their personal skills to mix large and small official positions; and as the Qing Dynasty regime gradually stabilized, they sent Manchu Qing nobles to all parts of the country to serve as local officials at all levels, so that the network multiplied, the branches and leaves slowly spread, and the later Manchu officials were not only concentrated in the imperial power of Beijing, but all over the north and south of the river.
Among them, a descendant of Ye Hebu became an alternate Daoist in Anhui, the so-called "alternate" that is, he had the qualifications at that level, but he could not make up for it if there was no vacancy; just like the current college students who got a diploma, but could not enter the system, there was no iron rice bowl. However, he was also unlucky, and he had not had a fat shortage to replace for a few years, resulting in a depression in the family and having to live in the cold; there was an eldest daughter in the family, Lan'er, who was born smart and exquisite, and loved to read and write, and did not like needlework; the discouraged father could not help but nag from the side: "You are a young woman, saying what is ancient and modern, only a man with eyebrows, a good test of erudite and great words, if you are a woman, no matter how knowledgeable you are, you don't always need miles."
Lan Er calmly responded to her father: "'Isn't it special to be a lowly day?'" You come to the party to go to the rare! Isn't this a portrayal of Xizi (Xi shi)? 'Do not be sad when you give birth to a man, do not be sad, and you can also be strong in the lintel when you give birth to a woman.' Isn't this Princess Yang's last song? Although the daughter is now poor, An zhi will not compete with the ancients later? "For the father's hearing, he was also secretly surprised by the words of the child who had just passed the age of ten.
Unexpectedly, a few years later, his father, who was in a difficult career, died in a poor and miserable life! Lan Er and her mother, with a younger sister and a young brother Fu Ling, went north to return to her ancestral home in Beijing to bury her father, on the way, she happened to meet an old friend of her father's life, Wu Tang, who mistakenly sent a sacrifice of three hundred taels of silver to her ship, and later learned that his old friend had also died, although he knew that he had made a mistake, he also mistakenly sent a whole person to the wrong person, which solved the Lan'er family's temporary predicament. After that, the whole family settled in a small courtyard under the roots of the imperial city with the help of their clansmen, and they struggled to survive.
Anyone who achieves great things will have some magical legend attached to her (him). Lan Er, who was living in poverty, had an illness, and in a deep slumber, she saw a green-clothed waiter lift her up and guide her out of the house, first a flat field, but seeing the pines and cypresses, occasionally dotted with strange flowers and plants; Lan Er was surprised that there would be such a scenery outside my house? Then the green mountains were majestic, the water and stones were quiet, the crane danced in the blue sky, and flew to the top of her head and hovered in a low altitude; at the moment of confusion, a gate tower appeared in front of her, and a plaque hung on it, and although there were three big characters on the plaque, it was not in Chinese, nor was it Manchu or Mongolian, and Lan Er did not know it. Inside the gate, the courtyard cloister curved and pavilions, and its exquisite elegance was not seen by Lan Er. The attendant led her into the hall and saw several fairy-like figures standing side by side shaking hands with her and saying hello, and she wanted to ask for peace, but the ones said, "Don't dare!" You are the future mother of the nation, Hugh is welcome! Saying that he invited her to drink a cup of tea-free and leafless water, but it was fragrant in front of her, Lan Er took a sip of it, and suddenly felt that she was immersed in her heart and spleen, refreshed, and when she was inexplicable, she overheard a shout, and the fairyland was fleeting. It turned out that the mother woke her up from her sleep, and when she recalled the scene in the dream, she still felt strange! And apparently felt that the illness had gotten better by more than half; she was 14 years old that year.
Just two years before her dream, the Daoguang Emperor chose concubines for the four princes and prepared for the big wedding. There was a lovely man who had been chosen, but when asked for a surname, he answered Yehenara. In view of the shadowy memories from her ancestors, she was immediately dismissed; another Sakda clan from the Mongol tribe was established as a concubine, but the concubine died the next year. The Yuenian Daoguang Emperor also returned to heaven, and the Xianfeng Emperor succeeded to the throne, changing the era name according to the customary second year, and then establishing an empress at the end of the mourning period in the second year of Xianfeng, and establishing the Niu Cobalt Lu clan from his mother's clan as empress (Eastern Empress). This year, Lan Er paid special attention to the matter of choosing a concubine, and even took out a few pieces of money to buy a palace door copy (newsprint) in the middle of the situation, and was also reprimanded by her mother for breaking the fee; when she saw the words "Niu Cobalt Lu Clan", although there was a world of difference, she still felt lost.
It turned out that as early as the Qing army entered the customs, regulations were promulgated: All Manchu and Mongolian officials with more than four pins, and all women over the age of 14 and under 20 years old, can be selected as gong'e. Lan Er's father's level also met this requirement, and the dream a few years ago seemed to give her some enlightenment, which led to such an emotional ups and downs. Unexpectedly, soon after the canonization of the empress, news came: the emperor wanted to select a woman (an errand boy in the palace)! Lan Er did not want to miss the opportunity this time, even if he was an errand boy in the palace, after all, he was close to the emperor; he reported his name, and on the day of the selection, he changed into two new clothes prepared for himself, tearfully bid farewell to his mother and younger sister (because once selected, some people would never see their families again in their lifetime), and took the carriage sent by the palace into the Forbidden City.
There were 60 applicants, divided into two rows, Lan Er still stood in the back row, they were summoned one by one to accept the selection of Emperor Xianfeng and his adoptive mother (an imperial concubine); when it was Lan'er's turn, she saw that Emperor Xianfeng stared at her intently, almost forgetting the process; the imperial concubine next to her saw the situation and said: "This woman is quite blessed." The Xianfeng Emperor said, "Ci is not bad! So he held the Zhu pen and circled Lan Er's name. Since she was a draft girl and not an empress, the Xianfeng Emperor at this moment did not care much about Lan'er's surname. Later, Lan Er learned that 28 of the 60 people had been selected.
Lan Er was assigned to work in the Empress's palace, and at the same time, one of the Empress's sisters was selected; soon the Empress selected her sister from the show girl to the position of Noble Lady, and witnessing this scene, Lan Er deeply felt that she was powerless and powerless. In addition to the empress around the Xianfeng Emperor, there were also a concubine and a group of show girls, who were really beautiful like clouds! Therefore, although the emperor seemed to have a fondness for her at first, he may have forgotten it after entering the palace; it was not until a chance half a year later that he noticed her again and was able to be favored, and those showgirls who were not invited to be favored were allowed to be assigned to foreign noble families by the age of twenty-four or five.
Lan Er gave birth to a daughter, who died in less than a month without being loved, and later gave birth to a son (The Tongzhi Emperor); the emperor who was high up in power was also a human being, and he also liked his own children, after the birth of his son, the Xianfeng Emperor frequently visited Lan'er's palace and teased the little prince, Lan Er was able to have the opportunity to talk with him about the past and the present, during which the Qing army suppressed the uprising of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Lan Er also often learned about current affairs through the palace door copy (newsprint), and told the emperor: Reuse Zeng Guofan. Gradually, the emperor also took some of the folds to her palace for processing, and she also read them from the side, and the suggestions she made were sometimes regarded as wonderful by the emperor.
However, the disaster was not alone, the war in the Jiangnan area was in full swing, and the British and French allies were deceived by various misunderstandings and excuses caused by cultural differences, and the emperor had to hunt north in danger (can not be called escape, that is faceless!). Instead, he went hunting around the paddocks of Chengde.) The palace relatives accompanied them, and then the Yuanmingyuan was set on fire; the Xianfeng Emperor, who was in distress, was plagued by illness, and when he felt that he was in danger, he left a secret letter with the empress, and wrote: "If the noble concubine is a bully, arrogant and lawless, she can be ruled by the rule of law by the ancestral family, and there is no forgiveness." I hereby leave a message! In this way, the descendants of Nurhaci, both men and women, from the Yehenara clan, have been wary of generations.
However, history proves that the empress is only a slightly outstanding ordinary person, lacking the mentality of a politician, and a person who grew up in a superior environment, if she is of good character, often does not think of others as bad; so in the face of the power struggle between the ministers Su Shun, Zai Heng and Duan Hua and Yi Guifei (Lan'er) who were designated by the Xianfeng Emperor to assist the little emperor before his death, he only said: "This is a big thing, you should sum it up." "Take a step back and say: There is no mother under the heavens who does not think about her son! She seemed to understand too.
But what she didn't understand was that behind the power struggle there was a hidden killing machine! First, the three ministers plotted to get rid of Concubine Yi (was it because of the opposition to her hanging curtain, or was it related to the shadow brought by the stone tablets on the ancestors?). Unknown). On the way back to Beijing from Chengde, Princess Yi Guifei was escorted by Rong Lu and his team of his own soldiers, and was able to return safely to the Forbidden City; in the middle of this, The sixth brother of the Xianfeng Emperor, King Gong, seemed to have little vigilance against Yi Guifei, but helped her fight for power, and may also worry about his nephew (the young Tongzhi Emperor) falling into power. In this way, With the assistance of her left and right arms, Yi Guifei found an excuse to remove the three roadblocks (SuShun, Zaiheng, and Duanhua) who hindered her hanging the curtain, and listened to the government with the Eastern Empress.
From the beginning of Lan Er's entry into the palace as a showgirl, with the increase of grace, the title also continued to rise: from the show girl to the nobleman, Yi Yu, and then to the Yi Guifei (the position of the concubine is second only to the empress), and even after the curtain is the famous Western Empress. (To be continued)