On the twelfth lunar month of the Gengzi year, leaving Bailuyuan, Qin Customs took his children who had no biological mother at the moment of birth and embarked on a thousand miles back home.

He used a few stonemason tools to exchange for a female goat, and squeezed the goats to milk and feed the children every day. Instead of following the old path of Empress Dowager Cixi, he went out to Tongguan east, followed the Yellow River to Luoyang, went from village to village to repair farm tools and earned some money, and bought winter clothes and cotton jackets for the children.

The warm blood jade brought from the Tang Dynasty cemetery was always hidden deep in the cradle, providing faint heat. It passed Kaifeng Prefecture and turned to the north, passed through Zhili Daming Prefecture, Zhengding Prefecture, Baoding Prefecture... The war in the North China Plain had just receded, and bandits were rampant. Fortunately, he was a poor stonemason, and no one could look down on him unless he was attracted by the female goat.

When we arrived at Shuntian Prefecture, the Lunar New Year was approaching, and the Western calendar was 1901. The imperial capital was full of scars.

The Eight-Nation Alliance stood guard everywhere in the capital, and the most serious abuse of Chinese people was Japan, Russia and Germany. Qin Customs carried his children around the checkpoint and crossed the gap in the Chongwenmen wall in the middle of the night. At dawn, when he returned to the imperial city, the Craftsman Village had long turned into rubble. Qin Customs found his own house based on his memory and dug out several large pottery urns from bricks, tiles and charcoal, which were all buried urgently before he escaped. There was a large urn filled with thread-packed books, including a hand-written "Qin's Tombsman's Mirror", which is a family heirloom.

Qin Customs was packing up his things when he heard screams next door. He went out with his child on his back and saw a few German soldiers wearing pointed iron helmets raping a passing Chinese girl.

The Boxer Incident intensified, which started with the killing of German minister Clinder. The German Emperor spoke in Berlin and incited revenge on China. After the Eight-Nation Alliance captured Beijing, German Army General Wadesi ordered the robbery for three days. As long as the Chinese were urinating everywhere, the German army followed the sound of urine and shot it.

A translator next to this group of German soldiers was unable to dissuade him. Qin Customs placed the child and goat on the roadside, trying to reason with him. The German soldiers saw that he was burly and thought he was here to seek revenge, so they shot him in the chest.

In front of his eyes, the M98 Mauser rifle bullet passed through the diaphragm between his heart and lung lobes.

Just two millimeters away from the God of Death, Qin Customs was unconscious on the spot.

When I woke up, it was dusk and blood was flowing all over the ground. Fortunately, it was a stonemason who was strong and might have died long ago.

However, the child is gone!

Qin Customs' vest cooled down and almost fainted again. He saw two female corpses, both of which were shot and killed by German soldiers. His female goat came from Guanzhong thousands of miles away, acting as a child's nanny, and also shot to death. Thinking of the birth of the child, the death of his wife, and the difficulty of the journey, Qin Customs burst into tears...

Why don’t you stay in Xi’an and Bailuyuan, but run back to the capital occupied by the Eight-Nation Alliance? Are the things left by our ancestors so important?

If an Italian doctor hadn't passed by, Qin Customs would have died of serious injuries that night.

He lay in Zhengyangmen Hospital for two months and was lucky enough to save his life. After the spring of the New Year, Lao Qin searched for his lost son everywhere and also went to find the German occupation forces. However, as soon as he got closer, he pulled the gun and finally couldn't find the trace of Xiao Beiyang.

This year, Li Hongzhang signed the "Xin Chou Treaty" on behalf of the Qing court and the great powers, paying 450 million taels of silver. Empress Dowager Cixi and Emperor Guangxu left Xi'an and returned to Beijing. The last section of the "two palaces" took the train. Under the bayonet of the Eight-Nation Alliance and under the escort of Yuan Shikai's Beiyang Army, he returned to the Forbidden City with a "swagger".

Qin Weiguan also returned to the Craftsman Village. He married two more wives and died of illness one after another, leaving no son or half of his daughter.

Soon, Empress Dowager Cixi rebuilt the tomb, and the old craftsman who was passed down from ancestors was irreplaceable. The Office of the Internal Affairs ordered Lao Qin to enter the underground palace to work.

In the 34th year of the Guangxu period, in the winter of 1908 of the Western calendar, Emperor Guangxu died in the Hanyuan Hall of Yingtai, Zhongnanhai. He was 38 years old and his temple name was Dezong. The next day, Empress Dowager Cixi died in the Yiluan Hall of Zhongnanhai at the age of 74. Her last words: Women should not interfere in politics! Isn’t this a hindsight?

Emperors of China built tombs when they were young, and Emperor Wanli built Ding tombs in his early twenties. However, Emperor Guangxu failed to build a tomb during his lifetime. At the age of three, Puyi had inherited the throne and changed the reign of Xuantong. Regent Zaifeng was Guangxu's younger brother. He lamented his brother's unfortunate life and wanted to create a decent tomb, as well as the tomb-controlling beast that guarded the underground palace for thousands of years.

Tomb-suppressing beast!

The Minister of the Interior reported that the only craftsman who could create imperial tomb-controlling beasts in the Qing Dynasty was left with Qin Customs.

As a hereditary royal craftsman, he had to obey orders unconditionally, but Qin Customs proposed to meet with the Regent. The minister said: "What are you worthy of meeting the Regent?"

Old Qin Heng said vertically: "Or kill me, no one in the world can create a tomb-controlling beast."

"Duck who dares to stretch his neck in a tiger's food bowl - do you dare to be stubborn?"

Having said that, the Minister of the Interior still surrendered. If the tomb-suppressing beast fails to be created or creates an inappropriate counterfeit, the Regent will be punished.

That year, the Regent Zaifeng was only twenty-seven years old. He became the dictator of the empire because he was the father of the three-year-old emperor. The first responsible cabinet of the Qing Dynasty was preparing. The Regent was very worried about the list of ministers of various ministries, and eventually became the infamous royal cabinet. This is not to be mentioned later.

On a spring afternoon, willow catkins fluttered over the capital. Zaifeng sat in the West Flower Hall of Prince Chun’s private residence, and felt the illusion of snow flying in April. When he was drowsy, a eunuch reported that two imperial prisoners were arrested.

"What? Or two? Sun Yat-sen and Huang Xing were both captured?"

"No, the prince, I came from Taibai Mountain."

The eunuch's sharp voice made Zaifeng feel disgusted, but when he heard the three words "Taibai Mountain", he sat upright and forced himself to cheer up.

After a while, two imperial prisoners were taken to the steps of the West Flower Hall. They were all six or seven years old, one boy and one girl, with a pretty face and a similar appearance, most of whom were twin brothers and sisters, and at first glance they looked like boys and girls who sacrificed folk sacrifices.

"Just two children? Is it the imperial court criminal?"

The Regent walked up to the two children and held up the little girl's chin with a fan. The child actually had big black eyes. Facing the dictator of the Qing Empire, he was not afraid, but stared at him like a soul-absorbing spirit.

Zaifeng quickly turned on the fan to block the girl's gaze, as if her gaze was about to pierce a hole in her face.

The old eunuch knelt beside him and said, "Prince, these two children are indeed criminals of the imperial court. Don't be fooled by them. No matter how small the wolf cub is, it is still a wolf breed! In order to capture the twin brother and sister, countless silver and horses have been lost."

"I know, Taibai Mountain has been so many years, so there is no need to remind me!" The regent's face under the board hit the eunuch's naked forehead with a fan. "But, the real purpose of this operation - the person the court was looking for at all costs, isn't there any whereabouts?"

"Prince, are you talking about Mr. Li's youngest son? Oh, I heard that I went down the mountain before the action, so..."

"Drinking bag!" The Regent was furious and wanted to drag the eunuch out and cut it off! He forced his anger and looked at the twin children on the ground and said, "What should they do?"

"According to the law, you should be killed!"

"A six-year-old child is also killed? It's ridiculous!"

"You can also be imprisoned first, and then sentenced to death when the child grows to fifteen years old." The old eunuch hesitated and said, "But, in order to stop the future troubles, it is better to cut off the weeds as soon as possible, so as not to have too many dreams and cause greater trouble."

"Can it still shake the Qing Dynasty?" Regent Zaifeng looked at the two children and said, "I will implement various reforms in the Qing Dynasty and prepare for constitutionalism, and then imitate the legislation of Western countries, especially criminal laws. If even a six-year-old child is killed, it will be heard by foreigners in Dongjiaomin Lane, and the Chinese are barbaric and uncivilized!"

"Your Majesty, you may not have let the person go?"

The Regent took a few steps and patted the boy on the shoulder with a fan: "The man went to the palace to castrate himself as a eunuch, and the woman sent him to the eight major hutongs as a prostitute, that's it!"

Both children understood his words, but remained silent and were escorted by the old eunuch.

Zaifeng was lying on the couch in the West Flower Hall, teasing the thrush in the bird's cage. He was about to close his eyes and take a nap when someone informed the Minister of the Ministry of Internal Affairs to visit.

The regent with the ministers came to pay homage to the Regent, and there was a royal craftsman named Qin Customs. This man was tall and strong, with a handsome appearance, and was about fifty years old. He kowtowed three times on the ground, and the blue bricks in the West Flower Hall of Prince Chun’s mansion pounded.

Zaifeng was frightened by this momentum and ordered him to calm down. However, Qin Customs couldn't kneel down and burst into tears: "The Regent, the slave Qin Customs, has built tombs for the Qing royal family for generations. The slave has nothing to do, but wants to find Qin Beiyang, the only son who has been separated for nine years."

If it were the era of Empress Dowager, the empress dowager, would have cut off his head long ago and dared to bargain with the royal family? Fortunately, Lao Qin met the young Regent.

"Love deep affection!" Zaifeng remembered his three-year-old son who was taken into the Forbidden City to become the emperor, and he couldn't help but feel sad. "How can the world of the Qing Dynasty be separated by father and son!"
Chapter completed!