Know all about the secrets of the harem

Chapter 71
Cixi's reliance on Hanchen was first promoted by Zeng Guofan and Li Hongzhang.Reusing Zeng Guofan to suppress the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement gave the Qing government a chance to deal with foreign powers.At that time, the figures of the Qing court who dealt with the great powers first recommended Li Hongzhang. Li Hongzhang died of exhaustion when dealing with the great powers in order to clean up the remnants of the Eight-Power Allied Forces. Second-rate".There are quite a few Han Chinese who were reused by Empress Dowager Cixi, among whom the most highly regarded typical figures are: Zeng Guofan, Zuo Zongtang, Li Hongzhang and so on.According to the "Qingjian" records, once this atmosphere started, "the White Army officials were governed, and they were all consulted for rewards and punishments. Therefore, the soldiers were able to quell the chaos and open up a generation of ZTE."thus.The re-use of Han people not only enabled many capable people to be loyal to the Qing government, but more importantly, it also effectively resolved the traditional conflicts between ethnic groups to a certain extent.

In terms of internal affairs, Cixi is a politician who maneuvers among various political forces. She has a basic ruling bottom line, that is, she cannot threaten her personal power.On this basis, she has always supported the Westernization School, but was often resisted by the Qing School and diehards.In order to balance the struggle between the various factions in the court, Cixi also took great pains.During the Sino-French War, Zhang Peilun, a representative of Qingliu, spoke highly of the war, pointed fingers, and dismissed the military and foreign policy of the Westernization School.Cixi took advantage of the situation and appointed Zhang Peilun as the minister who "will handle Fujian's coastal affairs" in order to teach him his arrogance, and finally Zhang Peilun fled.Thanks to Empress Dowager Cixi's support, the Westernization Movement was able to break through many obstacles and move forward, becoming the beginning of China's modernization.

In 1898, under the leadership of Emperor Guangxu, Huaxia carried out a massive reform—the Reform Movement of [-], but in the end the reform failed under the interference of Cixi, and the Qing court also lost the last chance of revitalization in modern history. .Cixi did not oppose the reform from the beginning.At the beginning of the reform, Emperor Guangxu issued an imperial edict called "Ming Ding State Affairs Edict", which was approved by Cixi after asking for instructions.Cixi was quite radical, and sent six words to Guangxu, "Today we should focus on Western learning."Empress Dowager Cixi was in favor of political reform and advocated learning advanced Western technology.

At that time, there was a debate between the reformers and the die-hards about whether to abolish the stereotyped essays.That's why there was the content of abolishing stereotyped essays in the reform.Empress Dowager Cixi also attached great importance to education and talents. During the Westernization Movement, she strongly advocated the establishment of the School of Astronomy and Mathematics. During the Reform Movement of 1904, she agreed to establish the Imperial University. In 47, the first batch of [-] students from the Imperial University were selected to study abroad. This was the beginning of Chinese universities sending overseas students. Many intellectuals in modern China went to the world from here.

However, Cixi's reform had a bottom line that could not be surpassed, that is, it could not damage Cixi's own power, could not damage the interests of the Manchu nobles, could not move too fast, and most importantly, could not involve the reform of the political system.However, the reformers issued more than 100 edicts in just a hundred days or so. They wanted to complete the road that Japan had traveled in the past 20 years of the Meiji Restoration. The pace of reform was too big and too radical. The power of Empress Dowager Cixi and the interests of the Manchu nobles conflicted.Kang Youwei and others also wanted to bypass Cixi and carry out the reform, relying on the power of the successful reform to take away all Cixi's power, and implement the true pro-government of Emperor Guangxu.This has angered the power-hungry Cixi, so she began to suppress the reform, put Emperor Guangxu under house arrest in Yingtai, and killed Tan Sitong and other six gentlemen.Emerging forces and conservative forces clashed from opposition to each other, and finally the Reformation was wiped out. The Empress Dowager Cixi listened to the government behind the curtain for the third time, and this time was different from the previous two times. In the previous two times, there was a little emperor sitting in the hall. It was remotely controlled through the curtain. This time, Guangxu was arrested and he sat in the court to handle political affairs, so this time it was also called "listening to the government at the court", or "pro-government".

After Emperor Guangxu was under house arrest, it was difficult to do anything. Cixi learned a lesson and firmly held power in her own hands. She never carried out any form of reform in her entire life, and the Qing Dynasty completely lost hope.

In 1900, the Boxers rebelled and killed foreigners, causing the coalition forces of Britain, Russia, France, Germany, the United States, Japan, Italy, and Austria to capture Beijing.Cixi did not stick to the capital to resist the invasion of foreign powers, but fled to Xi'an with Emperor Guangxu. When escaping from Beijing, Cixi secretly executed Guangxu's beloved concubine, Zhenfei, who supported the Reform Movement of 1901. In 5000, the Qing government signed the "Xin Chou Treaty" with other countries in Beijing. Among the [-] clauses, indemnity was the most important item, and the amount was as high as [-] million taels of silver, which was the harshest among unequal treaties.So far, China's semi-colonial and semi-feudal society has been fully established.

In the 34th year of Guangxu, the Qing Dynasty was in turmoil. The Empress Dowager was waiting for treatment, but her health was deteriorating. At this time, someone reported to her that Guangxu was very happy when she heard that she was seriously ill.

The people around her always thought that if something happened to the queen mother and the emperor was still alive, how would they have a chance of survival? So when the lanterns were lit on October 21, the death knell sounded in the Forbidden City, and the well-behaved Emperor Guangxu suddenly died.The Empress Dowager established Puyi, the son of Zaifeng, Prince Chun, Guangxu's half-brother, who was three years old at the time, as emperor.

Twenty-two hours later, before she could give instructions to the new regent, Zaifeng, she died, ending her 22-year rule.When he was dying, he said a meaningful sentence: "Don't let women rule the country again!"

The Qing Dynasty had come to an end in her hands. Just three years after her death, the [-] Revolution broke out, and the centralized monarchy that lasted for more than [-] years ended on the land of China. China has no emperor since then.

Her funeral was as magnificent as the emperor's scale, and all the emblems were retained. Posthumous posthumous Xiaoqin Cixi Duanyou Kangyi Zhaoyu Zhuang Chengshou Gongqin Xian Chongxi and Tianxing Shengxian Empress, referred to as Empress Xiaoqinxian, buried in Pugu Valley in the east of Dingling Mausoleum .

Cixi set up a stele for herself during her lifetime, but no one appreciates these torn papers and scrolls after her death. The coffin of golden nanmu has long been dilapidated. The coffin stained with blood and engraved with the "Diamond Sutra" can neither atone for Lafayette's sins during her lifetime, nor can she protect her safety after death.

Cixi is the famous "Luxury Empress Dowager". When she was alive, she loved pearls, agates, gems, jade, gold and silver vessels and other treasures very much. After her death, the treasures buried in her coffin were worth as much as 300 million taels of silver.The value and scale of the mausoleum built after her death surpassed that of her husband, and it is the most exquisite among the Eastern Tombs of the Qing Dynasty.Cixi used a lot of precious hardwood to decorate her mausoleum, and decorated it with the craft of pasting gold and sweeping red, which is unique even among the imperial tombs of the Ming and Qing dynasties.In addition, the pearls, agate, gems, jade, gold and silver utensils that Cixi loved during his lifetime were also buried in the coffin. According to folklore, she brought half of the wealth accumulated by the Qing Empire over the past 1 years into her tomb. middle.The bottom of Cixi's coffin is covered with a seven-inch-thick gold silk woven brocade mattress with more than 85 pearls, 200 rubies, and more than 800 white jade. Two thousand four hundred five-cent pearls.The corpse was covered with an exquisite gold-twisted toni sutra quilt, adorned with more than 1928 pearls, and the phoenix crown was inlaid with countless pearls and gems.However, what she never expected was that it was this exquisiteness that made her tomb stolen and her soul restless. From July 7 to July 4, 7, Sun Dianying, the warlord of the Zunhua garrison, colluded with the full staff of the mausoleum guards and robbed Emperor Qianlong's Yuling Mausoleum and the mausoleum officials of Cixi Mausoleum. The body was also exposed outside the coffin, and her dream of eternal wealth and honor finally turned into a pile of loess.

When Cixi was in power, as the political leader of a great country, her food, clothing and daily life all showed the luxurious style of a big country.

November 1894, 11 was Cixi's 7th birthday.The jewelry that Cixi prepared for her birthday was 60 taels of gold and 1 taels of silver; 38 taels of gold was spent on buying clothes; 23 million taels of silver was spent on setting up and decorating the scenic spots on the road from the Summer Palace to the Forbidden City... The Empress Dowager spent about 240 million taels of silver on this birthday, equivalent to the entire Beiyang Fleet.In addition, 1000 million taels of silver were spent to build the Summer Palace for the Empress Dowager to rest.At that time, the price of the most advanced warships in Britain and Germany was about 3000 taels of silver.In other words, Cixi spent half a month on a cruiser.With the money from the empress to decorate the Summer Palace, three Beiyang fleets can be formed!
Cixi's living expenses were the biggest expense among the Qing court. Her extravagant life was based on exploiting the people and reducing military expenditures, which caused serious disasters to the people and the government of the Qing Dynasty.In addition to the signing of the "Sino-Russian Ili Treaty" in 1881, the "Sino-Japanese Treaty of Shimonoseki" in 1895, and the "Xin Chou Treaty" in 1901 and other traitorous treaties, and the killing of Tan Sitong and other "Six Gentlemen of the Eighth Movement", the suppression The "Taiping Heavenly Kingdom" movement and the "Boxer Rebellion" movement made Cixi a vicious and treacherous queen in the hearts of future generations.

(End of this chapter)