The Forbidden City was first built in the 4th year of Yongle, the reign of Emperor Chengzu of the Ming Dynasty. It was modeled on the Forbidden City in Nanjing and was completed in the 18th year of Yongle.
In general, the Forbidden City is a rectangular city, 961 meters long from north to south and 753 meters wide from east to west. It is surrounded by walls 10 meters high and a moat 52 meters wide outside the city.
The buildings in the Forbidden City are divided into two parts: the outer court and the inner court. The center of the outer court is the Hall of Supreme Harmony, the Hall of Harmony, and the Hall of Baohe, collectively referred to as the three halls. They are the place where the country holds major ceremonies. The center of the inner court is the Palace of Qianqing, Jiaotai Hall, and Kunning. The palace, collectively known as the Housan Palace, is the main palace where the emperor and queen live.
The Forbidden City was once known as the top five palaces in the world, the others being Versailles in France, Buckingham Palace in the United Kingdom, the White House in the United States, and the Kremlin in Russia.
The Forbidden City that Qin Zhiyuan once visited is a huge museum. Because of the large number of tourists, the Forbidden City is not short of funds, so the repairs are naturally perfect.
But when the time goes back to 1920, the Forbidden City still looks majestic and majestic from the outside. If you look at it from a distance, it is full of royal majesty. But if you look closer, you can see that the Forbidden City is just a huge dilapidated courtyard. It is as dilapidated as it has been. The Qing Empire was almost the same.
According to the preferential treatment conditions for the Qing Dynasty signed by Puyi and Yuan Shikai, the title of Qing Emperor will still be preserved, and the Republic of China will treat foreign monarchs as gifts; and the Qing Emperor's annual salary of 4 million taels will be allocated by the Republic of China government; at the same time, the bodyguards will be retained as usual; The deacons in the palace can be retained as usual, but no more eunuchs are allowed to be recruited; the original Imperial Guards are under the establishment of the Army Ministry of the Republic of China, and their salaries and salaries remain as before.
This provision seemed indeed good, as it protected part of the power of the young emperor while also restricting it. Therefore, the then Empress Dowager Longyu approved the agreement, and Emperor Xuantong officially abdicated.
The conditions for the preferential treatment for cleaning up the house are indeed written in black and white, but it is not up to the little emperor whether he will strictly abide by the conditions after signing.
Anyway, as far as Qin Zhiyuan knew, the 4 million yuan per year seemed to have never been given enough.
After all, the Aixinjueluo family still had private property, and the little emperor's basic necessities of life were not greatly compromised. However, when it was extended to the entire Forbidden City, it was difficult to repair and maintain it.
The Forbidden City is a wooden building. These buildings look good, but maintenance also requires a lot of money, and it needs to be maintained every year. This cost is definitely something Puyi cannot afford now.
So the dilapidation of the Forbidden City can be imagined.
From the moment we entered, the royal road in the middle was relatively clean, but the weeds on both sides of the road were already overgrown, even more lush than the flowers and plants in the garden. If we look at the buildings, they are even more dilapidated. The wooden buildings were originally made of gold powder and jade with bright colors, but now the colors are peeling off and mottled. Some palaces further away have collapsed to a small extent, and there are even grass on the roofs of the main buildings on the central axis. This is simply a waste of natural resources. .
Faced with this situation, Xu Shichang didn't know what to say and could only speak vaguely.
What is there to say? The Forbidden City in front of us is similar to the Republic of China under Xu Shichang's rule. There are holes and chaos everywhere.
What a pity. If this place was turned into a museum, attracting ordinary people to visit, charging a certain fee, and then using the money to repair it, maybe it would be a virtuous circle. Qin Zhiyuan couldn't help but make suggestions.
No matter how you look at it, the Forbidden City is a treasure of the Chinese nation, and Qin Zhiyuan cannot bear to see the Forbidden City deteriorate like this.
Alas, Your Majesty does not know. This is not easy. Now the former Qing Emperor is still living in the Forbidden City. You have also seen the situation just now. Our people have no right to enter and exit here at will. We want to turn this place into a
Museums may not be built overnight. Xu Shichang also has his own difficulties.
Haha, he is just the deposed emperor of the former Qing Dynasty. You can still let him live here. He is only 15 years old. If you let him go through such troubles, it is estimated that in a few years, these palaces will be reduced to a pile of ruins. Qin
Zhiyuan is not worried. Even if Qin Zhiyuan does not add jealousy now, Puyi will be driven away by Feng Yuxiang in a few years.
It’s not necessarily true that Feng Yuxiang expelled Pu Yi during the second Zhili-Fengtian War. The warring parties at that time were Cao Kun from the Zhili clique and Zhang Yuting from the Fengtian clique. The cause of the war was the civil strife of the Beiyang government and was also the result of long-term accumulation of conflicts.
If Qin Zhiyuan remembers correctly, he should be fighting the first Zhizhi-Fengtian War now.
Thinking of this, Qin Zhiyuan suddenly realized that because of his appearance, the course of the Republic of China had also changed. Now that Cao Kun and Zhang Yuting did not fight, the second Zhili-Fengtian War would not necessarily happen. In this way,
Whether Puyi will be driven out of the Forbidden City like in history remains to be seen.
Thinking of this, Qin Zhiyuan suddenly felt a sense of responsibility in his heart. Some things need people to promote them after all.
This probably won't take that long. There was obvious hesitation in Xu Shichang's words.
Xu Shichang is 65 years old this year. Although he seems to be in his prime now, he is already old after all, and he may become ill at some point. To say the least, even if Xu Shichang has always been in good health, it is estimated that
Xu Shichang could not defeat Puyi, who was still a young boy. Maybe Puyi would be driven away from the Forbidden City in the future, but no one can guarantee that Xu Shichang would be able to see it.
I have a case here. Last night, the people I sent to Hankou captured several people at Pinghan Station. They were said to be stewards of Prince Chun's house. These people were heading to Tianjin, carrying several large boxes with them.
After inspection, the boxes contained all antique cultural relics of literati calligraphy and painting. After preliminary statistics, there were actually Wu Daoxuan's original paintings of ladies and a blue and white porcelain vase from the Yuan Dynasty. These are both national treasure-level cultural relics. Qin Zhiyuan did not lose the opportunity.
revelations.
Xu Shichang was astonished that such a thing could happen.
Xu Shichang was the president of Wenzhi. He was very clear about the value of these antiques and had an extraordinary hobby for literati calligraphy and painting. When he heard the words Wu Daoxuan, Xu Shichang was shocked and angry.
Wu Daoxuan was Wu Daozi. Even in the 21st century, no authentic works of Wu Daozi were found at that time, which shows that they are rare in the world.
Well, in the 21st century, there are many works of art claiming to be the authentic works of Wu Daozi on the market. They cost about hundreds of thousands of pieces. If you think about it with your heels, if you buy an authentic piece of Wu Daozi for more than 100,000 yuan, then you will sell it.
You can make hundreds of times profit.
Yes, and it is said that it is not an isolated case. That group of people often travels between Beijing and Tianjin, carrying several large boxes every time, and then the boxes disappear when they return. This has been going on for a long time. Qin Zhiyuan does not mind taking advantage of the opportunity.
eyedrops.
Damn it, how could this happen? How could this happen? Xu Shichang muttered to himself, the pain in his eyes made people feel pity.
Regardless of where those things came from, such a large-scale transfer of property is definitely abnormal, and Xu Shichang can almost confirm that many of them must have come from the Forbidden City.
The Beiyang government has no idea how many cultural relics there are in the Forbidden City.
After Puyi abdicated, the Beiyang government once asked the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the former Qing government to provide a list of cultural relics in the Forbidden City. However, this request was similar to the annual demerit of 4 million yuan, and it was never implemented seriously.
So until now, how many cultural relics there are in the Forbidden City is a mystery, and Puyi himself probably doesn't know either.
One thing is certain, as the current owner of the Forbidden City, Puyi has the right to dispose of these cultural relics. For example, when Puyi's family came to visit Puyi, Puyi casually rewarded him with some
It's entirely possible. In history, Puyi used this method to steal a lot of things from the Forbidden City.
Well, this kind of behavior is indeed stealing, that's why Xu Shichang lost his composure.
This is normal, right? When power is unsupervised, loss of control is almost certain. If I did the same thing, Qin Zhiyuan sighed quietly.
Hum, they will definitely pay the price. Xu Shichang's eyes turned cold, and the look he looked at the Hall of Supreme Harmony could turn the Hall of Supreme Harmony into ice.
When Qin Zhiyuan was talking to Xu Shichang, he had already arrived at the Hall of Supreme Harmony.
Oh, this place is not called the Hall of Supreme Harmony now, but the Hall of Huangji. There was originally a plaque of Jianji Suiyou written by Emperor Qianlong hanging in the hall, but it was replaced when Yuan Shikai ascended the throne and is now missing.
So when I stood in the current Huangji Hall and raised my head, I could only see empty beams. Considering what Qin Zhiyuan and Xu Shichang had just talked about, it felt extremely desolate.
You are King Lanfang. A somewhat sharp childish voice suddenly sounded.
Qin Zhiyuan looked at the voice and saw a somewhat thin young man. The young man was wearing traditional Manchu clothes and was followed by two timid servants. It was estimated that the young man was in the period of changing his voice, so his voice sounded a bit strange.
There is nothing surprising about the young man's appearance, which means he is a middle-aged man. However, his expression is a bit arrogant, and his standing figure is slightly tilted back. This is a very conceited body posture.
As a young boy in middle school, Qin Zhiyuan just had this term in his mind, and then he realized clearly that this was Pu Yi, the last emperor of the Qing Dynasty.
Sure enough, as the young man appeared, all the people present in the Republic of China, including President Xu Shichang beside Qin Zhiyuan, bowed slightly. Although they did not say long live, this further confirmed Qin Zhiyuan's judgment.
Even if Xu Shichang had no real power in his hands, he was still the president of the Republic of China after all. Apart from Puyi, no one else could make Xu Shichang bow.
Yes, I am Qin Zhiyuan, King of Lanfang. Who are you? Qin Zhiyuan did not respect or deliberately disparage, he just answered Pu Yi with a normal attitude of normal communication.
Puyi obviously didn't have much of an emperor's airs. He didn't care about Qin Zhiyuan's disrespect, but sighed to himself: You are so young.
Really, for a little boy of fourteen or fifteen years old to say this, Qin Zhiyuan felt that it was really ridiculous for a moment.
