Seeing the enemy knocking at the door, Cixi was frightened directly. She swept away her previous prestige and domineering. 15 In the early morning of August, she escaped from the Forbidden City with Emperor Guangxu, Gege, the Prince and some service personnel * * * 1000 and started her own escape journey.
Before leaving the palace, Cixi also did an immoral thing. She ordered the favorite concubine of Emperor Guangxu to be pushed into the well and drowned alive. Later, this well was called Zhenfei Well. Maybe God is punishing Cixi, who suffered a lot during her escape.
Cixi lived a pampered life in the palace, rich and luxurious. Once she reached out for food, she kept her mouth shut. During that escape, Cixi didn't take many people and didn't prepare enough food and clothes because she left in a hurry. Wandering from one place to another along the way, not enough to eat and not warm to wear. What's more, during this period, the whole country was in chaos, and some places could not buy food even if they had money.
According to "On the Western Expedition of Gengzi", when I went from Guanshi to the fork in the road, I lived in a broken shop and asked for a bowl of coarse rice and a cup of mung bean soup, but I couldn't find a place. People who fled abroad are even more distressed. " That is to say, Cixi can't find a bowl of coarse rice if she wants to eat it, which is worse than the refugees, let alone delicious food.
The living conditions of Cixi and Emperor Guangxu were also very poor. They all slept on the heatable adobe sleeping platform, without comfortable and warm quilts and clothes. I didn't see any officials along the way, not even a shadow.
The house leaks in rainy days. When they came to Huailai County, Hebei Province, the sky was not beautiful and it rained heavily again. The mountain torrents poured down and the river surged. Cixi and her party didn't bring any rain gear, but they were soaked and embarrassed, and they all lost the majesty of Empress Dowager Cixi.
When crossing the river, it is even more bitter for those who sit in sedan chairs to carry Cixi across the river. The current was so fast that it almost washed away the sedan chair. When they were hungry and cold, they met Wu Yong, the county magistrate of Huailai who came to meet them. When the magistrate of Wu saw Cixi, he bowed down. Cixi was so moved that she almost cried. She always remembered the county magistrate who helped her in time.
Huailai County was a poor county at that time, but Wuzhi County still tried its best to prepare food for Cixi, eat corn bread and drink mung bean porridge. If she were in the Forbidden City, Cixi wouldn't even look at these simple meals.
However, she hasn't eaten for several days on the way to escape. Cixi had been hungry for food for a long time, and she also wolfed down Wowotou mung bean porridge as delicious. Wuzhi County also washed the clothes used by his wives and concubines and gave them to Cixi. One of them was a dozen pairs of fine cloth socks, which Cixi especially liked. In this way, Cixi put on dry clothes, took off wet socks and put on dry socks, which made her feel much more comfortable.
After satiated with food and drink, Cixi and Wu Yong chatted. During the chat, Cixi found that Wu Yong spoke calmly and the language was concise and not wordy. After careful inquiry, she learned that Wu Yong was Zeng Guofan's granddaughter, so Cixi felt that she had met her relatives. Seeing that Wu Yong was a talented person, she immediately promoted Wu Yong as a grain platform, and left Wu Yong with her on the way to escape later, making him responsible for delivering letters and collecting grain along the way.
Wu Yong is really good at doing his work methodically. A few days later, Empress Dowager Cixi issued an imperial edict, and Wu Yong left the original province as the magistrate, and first changed the top-wearing Hualing. The following year, Cixi returned to Beijing and promoted Wu Yong to Guangdong Daotai, and Wu Yong's official hat was changed from dark green jade to sapphire agate.
From the seven-level county magistrate to the four-level platform, it is equivalent to jumping from the county level to the provincial level. According to the normal situation at that time, it took at least 10 years to struggle, while Wu spent less than two years, which was extremely lucky.
Cixi ate Wu Yong's Wowotou, drank other people's mung bean porridge and wore other people's clothes and socks. Wu Yong's career soared. Wu Yong can be said to be one of the luckiest officials in Qing Dynasty. At that time, I don't know how many people envied him!