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Chapter 87 The Refined Egoist

[The Empress Dowager Cixi has listened to politics three times in her life, a total of 47 years.

The first time was during the period of her husband Tongzhi; 】

[During the period when she was in control of the actual power of the Qing Dynasty, objectively speaking, she had made mistakes but also made contributions.

It's just that her fault caused great disasters and tragedies to the Huaxia nation, which completely covered up the few achievements she made for China. 】

[Let’s take a look at her accomplishments first. 】

[Cixi initiated two reforms in her lifetime.

The first time was to promote the Westernization Movement. Although it went bankrupt with the arrival of the Sino-Japanese War, it can be regarded as opening up the road of modernization in China.

The second time was the New Deal in the late Qing Dynasty, which reformed the military, business, education, officials, and law, which was conducive to the development of national industry and commerce and the prosperity of the social economy.

At the same time, she also knows how to use people well, promoting a group of talented people like Zeng Guofan, Zuo Zongtang, Li Hongzhang, Zhang Zhidong and so on. 】

[Cixi's greatest achievement is to follow Zuo Zongtang's proposal and regain Xinjiang.

Regardless of the reason behind it, Zuo Zongtang was finally able to go to Xinjiang.

Zuo Zongtang raised his own military expenses and carried the coffin to the west. With the help of the rich businessman Hu Xueyan, he left Lanzhou and marched westward. He wiped out Agubo who was entrenched in Xinjiang, took back Ili from Tsarist Russia, and saved Huaxia 160. million square kilometers of land. 】

"This Zuo Zongtang is not bad!"

"Sure enough, there are still capable people in my Qing Dynasty!"

"Warriors carry the coffin to conquer the west and regain the country, what a grand!!"

[Although Cixi has such a great achievement in recovering Xinjiang, compared with this achievement, the mistakes she made in her life are enough to make her notorious for thousands of years! 】

【Essentially, Cixi is just a shrewd woman who is greedy for pleasure, and her life is extremely extravagant.

In addition to loving enjoyment and living an extremely extravagant life, Cixi also has a strong desire for power.

She always considers things with her own rights as the starting point. Even when the country is facing besieged from all sides, her attention is still only focused on personal enjoyment and building gardens and other things.

In her eyes, individual rights and enjoyment are far more important than the country. With such a person controlling the power of the country, how can the country maintain long-term stability? 】

[When the Eight-Power Allied Forces blatantly started the war of aggression against China, she no longer had the courage of her youth, and instead of taking charge of the overall situation, she fled in despair. 】

[When the country is in crisis and facing war, she is still in the mood to hold a big birthday banquet.

In order to build the Summer Palace, she embezzled the military expenses of the Beiyang Navy, so that the Beiyang Navy has not purchased a new warship in the past ten years.

In the end, the Sino-Japanese War broke out, and the Beiyang navy was wiped out by the Japanese navy. The Qing Dynasty completely lost this war, which can be called the battle of national destiny! 】

【She acted arbitrarily, intervened in government affairs, and was too obsessed with power. Every selfish decision of hers accelerated the fall of the late Qing Dynasty. 】

"I lost the battle with the Japanese? Is it the battle of national fortune?!" Zhu Di's face was full of disbelief. He really couldn't figure out how those Japanese pirates who only robbed houses and stole chickens and dogs would cause such a huge impact on the Central Plains Dynasty. threat?

"Is this why Shangshen Su wants me to get rid of all evil?"

"The danger of Japanese pirates seems to be far beyond our imagination!"

"After three rounds of suppression and recovery of Taiwan, I have to consider how to deal with those Japanese."

[Next, let's take a closer look at what abhorrent things Cixi did! 】

[First, fight for power and profit, and kill the eight ministers who assist the government. 】

[When Emperor Xianfeng died of illness in Rehe, he arranged eight auxiliary ministers for his successor before his death.But he was afraid that the ministers would be too powerful, so he granted the empress and Cixi the power to check each other.

As a result, the Empress Dowager Cixi secretly joined forces with Prince Gong to kill the minister who was left alone by the late emperor in order to assert her power, and finally monopolized the power of the court!
If the Qing Dynasty was governed by those eight ministers, at least it would be much better than Cixi governing the country by one person.

As one of the eight ministers, Sushun was actually a very talented person. He advocated being close to the Han people, but he was killed by Cixi without fulfilling his ambition. 】

[The Empress Dowager Cixi also successfully launched a palace coup twice, listened to the government behind the curtain three times, carried out strong political intervention in the Tongzhi and Guangxu dynasties, and made arbitrary decisions.

The two little emperors were randomly manipulated in the hands of her elder Cixi, and the elite among the ministers were also manipulated by her. This kind of power controller is even more powerful than the previous emperors! 】

[Second, cultural confrontation, closed-door policy. 】

[During the reign of Empress Dowager Cixi, the world situation at that time had already stepped out of the traditional feudal era.

There is a huge contrast in strength and culture between an ancient civilization that was almost an era behind the world and was suppressed by Cixi into a stagnant pool, and the vibrant Western world after the Industrial Revolution.

It can also be looked at from another angle, that is, when Western culture and power were rising strongly, the Qing Dynasty was still immersed in the glory and glory of Chinese civilization in the past, and did not take the initiative to adapt to the huge changes in the world. 】

[It's ridiculous that when there is a huge gap today, it is an old woman who is proficient in ruling power but ignorant of the general trend of the world to determine the fate of China. It is really ridiculous and sad. 】

[When the world was in the torrent of the era when industry was making great strides, Cixi and the ministers at that time showed amazing ignorance on many issues.

They had neither the desire nor the courage to take the initiative to absorb new knowledge and new things, nor did they have a comprehensive consideration and goal planning for the Westernization Movement. The construction of railway projects...]

[Although under the pressure of the situation, Cixi also did some things to support the Westernization faction and reformists, which made the society seem to be progressing.

But her goal of supporting the Westernization Movement is only to consolidate her own rights, not to improve the quality of the people and enrich the people. 】

[Third, extravagance and waste, life is extremely luxurious. 】

[Cixi's greed for peace and happiness has reached a heinous level.

In order to build the Summer Palace, she did not hesitate to embezzle naval military expenditures, resulting in outdated naval equipment and backward training, which was the chief culprit for the failure of the Sino-Japanese War.

During the war with the Japanese pirates, she held the 540th birthday celebration recklessly, spending more than 250 million taels of silver in one month, while the total fundraising for the war on the front line was only [-] million taels, which was less than half of the celebration cost. 】

[Cixi has enough means to control national policy and personnel, but she does not have much sense of responsibility to allow her to consider the pace of the country's adaptation to the world.

She is just a vested interest who supports improvement with limited support, and she is just an exquisite egoist. 】

(End of this chapter)