Chapter 31: Zhen Fei's Punishment

  Back at the Yangxin Hall, Zhang Zhidong, Sheng Yu and Fei'er successively sent people to report that the handover had been successfully completed, except for the Fengtai Barracks where the Fengtai General Feng Sheng'a refused to hand over military power and was shot into a sieve by a burst of gunfire. The rest did not fire a single shot. Now all water and land transportation in and out of Beijing have been completely sealed off, and telegrams inviting various provincial officials to attend the emperor's grand ceremony have also been sent out.

  Returning to the palace, Fei'er dragged Kou Liancai by the ear and came in: "Your Majesty, he lost Zhenfei, and was so scared that he didn't dare come in!"

  I was startled and hastily asked what's going on.

  The little rascal cried and said: "I don't know who told the old Buddha, but she came with people just now. As soon as she entered the door, she called out the name of Zhen Zhu, and Zhen Zhu didn't know what was going on, so she came over. The old Buddha stretched out her hand and grabbed Zhen Zhu's hair, pulling her to the ground, then kicked and beat her until she fainted. She scolded while holding onto Zhen Zhu's hair: "You shameless vixen, how dare you let that foolish boy lock up my Li Lian? Do you want to live or not?" They released Li Lian from her confinement, and Li Lian rushed into the old Buddha's arms, saying: "It was this fox spirit who bewitched the emperor, the emperor likes me, and that day he came to my bedchamber. It was she who ruined everything!" The old Buddha became even more furious upon hearing this: "Good, I said why my son had become so corrupted. It turns out it was you, this little slut, who taught him badly! You've caused trouble for me and my child, I won't forgive you!" She pressed Zhen Zhu to the ground and beat her buttocks for half a day until blood soaked through her pants. Before leaving, she said: "Tell your master that if he looks for trouble with me, I'll make him suffer. I don't believe I can't handle this little brat!"

  I was so angry that I pulled out a gun: "Let's go, I'm going to kill her!"

  The swallow held me down with one hand and turned back to Xiaocai Zi saying: "You continue speaking!"

  The young master continued, "Before Wang Cai returned, they had just left. It was two people dragging the unconscious Zhen Zhu away!"

  "The swallow said on horseback: 'A small tolerance can ruin a great plan. We want to rescue Zhen Fei, and also use this Cixi card to quickly control the country's military and political power in our hands, without giving any opportunity to imperialist countries!'"

  The swallow asked again: "Is Li Lianying following or not?"

  Xiao Caizi said: "Followed by, always supporting the old Buddha, when leaving the old Buddha said she was tired, waist and legs sore, Li Lianying also said, go back to the slave will give you a good massage, guaranteeing that you sleep well!"

  "Alright then, let's just let them have a good sleep for now! Come on, let's go check who sent the letter!"

  The young master said, "I've been keeping a close eye on them these past few days, not even letting a fly escape! I especially posted guards around the three women Cixi just sent over, and they haven't let any of them leave the courtyard. It's impossible for them to send out any messages!" He then turned his head to ask a young maid, "Has there been any reaction from their side?"

  That little girl thought for a moment and said: "No, I saw them catching a pigeon this afternoon!"

  As soon as I heard it, I understood: "Damn, they're sending letters through carrier pigeons! It turns out these few are from the Cixi faction to monitor me!"

  The swallow led the way with the man towards the surrounding house, and I followed them over.

  Upon arriving at the door, Fei kicked it open with one foot, startling the three little maids who were lying in bed to suddenly sit up. Seeing me following behind her, they quickly put on their clothes and knelt down on the ground: "Greetings, Your Majesty!"

  I waved my hand impatiently and said, "Stop that nonsense! Where's the pigeon you were playing with during the day? I want to see it!"

  A little servant girl immediately said: "Master Wan is joking, we haven't left the house for days, where would we get pigeons to play with?"

  I laughed: "Didn't anyone see you guys playing with pigeons? Or did they not recognize that thing and say it wrong?"

  "It's definitely a mistake! How could we have pigeons?" another little girl said hastily.

  I sat on the chair, pretending to be nonchalant, and said: "Oh, okay, don't forget your master, are you really thinking of using your master's power to tie yourself to my bed? Aren't you afraid I'll sell all of you to a brothel outside and make you all become prostitutes who can be slept with by anyone?"

  The three little maids immediately became frightened, trembling all over and knocking their heads: "I dare not do anything to harm the Emperor's affairs, I have done nothing to the detriment of the Emperor!"

  I nodded: "Selling my beloved concubine to an old thing, isn't this a bad thing for me?"

  A little girl hastily said: "We didn't say anything bad about Master Wan, we all like Master Wan very much, how could we say anything bad about him? It's just that today Liyan cried and asked us to deliver a letter to the old Buddha, and we only said

  Liyuan was locked up! Not another word was said!"

  I furiously cursed: "Isn't this sentence enough? You three sons of bitches still want to say something? You sent my beloved concubine to hell, and I won't let you off easy either! Come on, lock these three cheap people in the room where that runaway cheap person was hiding, and make them stay there for her!"

  Three little girls kowtowed and cried, begging: "Your Majesty, we know we were wrong, please forgive us! We won't dare to do it again!"

  The guard rushed in and dragged the three people out. I thought for a moment and said, "Li Xianglin, Zhang Cheng, Chen Ran, you three are not young anymore, why don't you just take them as your wives? Take them home and let them give birth to a big fat son!" As I spoke, I pulled one over and handed her to Li Xianglin, then pulled another one over and handed her to Zhang Cheng. Finally, I pushed the last one into Chen Ran's arms and said, "You three are older, so you go first. In a few days, we'll take all the girls from the old man's place and distribute them among the rest of you!"

  Three men dragged their wives and knelt on the ground, kowtowing: "Thank you, Emperor, for giving us our wives!"

  Now those three little girls are overjoyed, they have turned a disaster into a blessing, aren't they happy? The three of them knelt down, knocking their heads loudly: "Thank you for helping us!"

  Fifi was so angry that she pinched my ear and said: "Are you punishing them or rewarding them?"

  The swallow giggled and said: "Hubby really knows how to cherish his wife!"

  He grabbed another one of my ears and said: "Come on, let's go home!"

  I was carried back to the bedroom by two little wives. Yane said: "Hurry up and change into night-traveling clothes, let's go save people right away!"

  "I hastily said: 'Now is not the time to go, they've taken Zhen'er away, it's obvious that they're trying to lure us into a trap! Let Sheng Yu send troops to thoroughly destroy the old thing's dog den instead!'"

  Swallow said: "So rest assured, now Sheng Yu's army has surrounded the Kun Ning Palace, so not moving her is my order. I have to take her with me and force her to go to Tianjin with us to deal with Li Hongzhang! She must be holding Zhen'er in the water dungeon right now, where there are definitely large numbers of soldiers guarding them. They want us to go rescue people and then catch us off guard! We won't directly go to rescue people today, we'll go to her bedroom and capture her first, then go to rescue people!"

  Bai Xue said: "I'll go too!"

  "Of course you have to go, you have to come with me to lure the snake out of the cave, and let Fei and her husband go to steal Cixi's quilt!" After finishing speaking, she looked at her watch and said: "Good, they have already surrounded Kunning Palace, we should act now!"

  She said and threw a set of clothes at Baixue.

  After changing our clothes, the four of us went outside. Swallow said: "I and Baixue will go to rescue Zhen'er. Once we start a fight on our side, they must relax their guard on that side, and you can take advantage of it to sneak in!" As she spoke, she handed me something, which I felt was the one-time camera.

  "Yan'er said: 'You guys have reached the old thing's bedroom, rush in and take a picture, I've already set up the film, you just press the shutter! This is the film, take two more shots, this is the control of her weapon! Then you two bring that old thing back, tomorrow we still have use for it! We'll rescue Zhen'er and come back too! The rest will be left to Sheng Wei and others to handle, we don't need to worry about it anymore!'"

  After finishing speaking, she pulled Bai Xue and took her to jump onto the house. The four of us flew towards Kun Ning Palace together.

  We parted ways near Kun Ning Palace, and Yan Er and Bai Xue went towards the back of the surrounding house.

  I and Fei climbed onto the roof, waiting for movement from their side. Before long, they indeed started fighting, with deafening shouts, and more people ran out of the Kun Ning Palace courtyard, apparently to provide support.

  It was quiet in a moment, and Feier and I gently fell in front of the Kun Ning Palace.