Anecdote of the Fifth Queen Mother

Chapter 38 The Empress Dowager (10)
Cixi's plan to kill Guangxu by borrowing the doctor's hand failed.She had to pin her last hope on the two staunch lackeys Yuan Shikai and Li Lianying.In fact, these two people have long panicked.They were afraid that Cixi would not be able to recover from illness, and even more afraid that Guangxu would be restored, so they actively participated in the murder of Guangxu.

As a minister, Yuan Shikai could not directly contact Guangxu, and it was impossible to personally harm him.He also adopted the method of paying a lot of money to treat doctors for Guangxu in order to kill him with medicine.But it didn't work out, because the two people he bought not only failed to show their ambitions, but revealed their plans instead.After Cheng Jiatun fled to Japan, he exposed Yuan Shikai's conspiracy. Liang Tiejun refused to follow Yuan's plan and was poisoned to death in Tianjin.

It was Li Lianying who finally killed Guangxu.De Ling, who was serving as a female palace next to Cixi at that time, made a conclusion: "The evil Li Lianying saw that the queen mother's life was not long, and his backer was about to have problems. He secretly became anxious. Instead of waiting for Guangxu to take power, he wanted to be with himself. To settle the score, it's better to let yourself do it first. After several times of thinking, his poisonous plan has been decided." This poisonous plan is to poison Guangxu's food. (De Ling's "Yingtai Weeping Blood", page 357)
On October 34th in the 1908th year of Guangxu (AD 38), Guangxu, who was only [-] years old, died in the prison - Hanyuan Hall in Yingtai.

When the news of Guangxu's death came, the officials were surprised and saddened by it, but Cixi showed a complacent look, and the vow of "I can't die first" was finally realized ("Qingjian" Volume 590).Then she issued a decree to make Puyi, the son of Prince Chun Zaifeng, emperor.Because he was only three years old, Zaifeng was made regent.But the power is still in the hands of Cixi, and the regent is just a name.Because Cixi's Yizhi is very clear: "All the military and state affairs, take the instructions given, and implement them according to the instructions. As soon as the emperor grows older and has a successful academic record, the emperor will personally judge the political affairs." ("Qing Dezong Veritable Records, Volume [-] VII) power, in Cixi's view, is above all else and cannot be given to others.

On October 34, the 1908th year of Guangxu (AD 22), Empress Dowager Cixi was lying quietly on the imperial couch in the Yiluan Hall in Zhongnanhai.In the past few days, she has obviously felt that her condition has worsened.Although the imperial doctors tried their best to treat her, her condition did not improve but became worse day by day.Famous doctors from all over the country who had been ordered to Beijing took turns to ask for pulse, and a lot of medical records and prescriptions were prescribed to no avail.These medical masters can only look at the ocean and sigh.

In the past few days, especially since Guangxu's death, Cixi seemed to be so brisk as if she had unloaded a heavy burden.Although he is terminally ill, he is still in good spirits.Maybe she has already felt that the end is coming, and she needs to repent before leaving this world like ordinary people.What did she regret?

In 74, with a flick of a finger.I don't remember much about my childhood.Those trivial things have long been forgotten, only the oath of the Yehenala hero is still fresh in my memory!My father once encouraged me to fight with this remark, so that I, a descendant of Yehenala, would march forward in the blood of my ancestors.Yes, with the encouragement of this oath, didn't I step into the palace?In this gloomy and terrifying place, they fought openly and secretly, and fought against the Aixinjueluo family time and time again.

Patience is a prerequisite for great things to happen, this is the summary of 74 years of life.isn't it?From the day when she was selected as the best girl, she thought that she would be favored by virtue of her natural beauty, and it was not an easy task to be promoted to a concubine.However, she didn't expect that after entering the palace, she would be sent to the Old Summer Palace to act as a palace maid and take charge of sanitation.At that time, I was really full of grievances and had nowhere to complain, and my beautiful vision disappeared.However, he gritted his teeth and finally endured it.Fortunately, I still have some means, and finally changed my situation after struggling. Of course, I am happy to be favored, but it also caused trouble.There are too many rivals in love in the harem, who are full of jealousy and cynicism.That's all, but the Empress Niu Hulu wanted to fight again with an excuse.At that time, I was really angry, but I endured it later, and finally did not fall out with the queen.Fortunately, otherwise, how could we form an alliance with the queen in Rehe, and how could we defeat Sushun? !Since entering the imperial palace, it was through patience and struggle that he seized power. Not until today, the power of the Qing Empire is still firmly in his hands.

Accurate analysis and decisive decision are important guarantees for seizing and securing power.How thrilling it was in Rehe, the three traitors overshadowed the sky, and the power was monopolized, it was really amazing.At that time, I was a concubine, and a concubine who had fallen out of favor, and the three traitors were slandering and oppressing, and the emperor didn't call for servants, but he was deceived by the three traitors and couldn't live with himself.At that time, if you took a wrong step, you might have been decapitated long ago.However, with a pair of sharp eyes, I closely watched the movements of the three traitors, observed the current situation, made a multi-faceted analysis, and decisively took the first step—to form an alliance with the queen.How difficult, how decisive, and how important this step is!It was indeed a crucial step in defeating the three traitors; Yi stayed in the capital and took the opportunity to develop his power, and it was a force that could compete with the three traitors.I didn't know much about him at the time.But one thing is certain, that is, he is very dissatisfied with the dictatorship of the three traitors, and this is the basis for the alliance between the two parties.At that time, I clearly realized that it was impossible for the different Yilian to defeat the three traitors.So, decisively took the second step of uniting Yi Gong to fight against the three traitors.An alliance of empress and clan forces was formed.It was these two decisive steps that laid the foundation for his victory in seizing power.

An iron wrist is indispensable for consolidating power.It is said that consolidating power is more difficult than seizing it. This is true, and the 48-year career in power has strongly proved this point.The Xinyou court coup finally overthrew the three traitors, abolished the old system of auxiliary government of the ancestors, and implemented government behind the curtain.Since then, he has become the ruler of the Qing Empire.Since the day I took power, how much I cherished this hard-won power, and spent my whole life in order to consolidate it.However, I have a principle: the power in my hands can only be increased and consolidated, not reduced or weakened.Anyone in the court (including the emperor) who wants to seize power from himself, either in whole or in part, can only be delusional.Yi is so shrewd and capable. He has done a lot of meritorious service in defeating the three traitors, but he is also somewhat overconfident, taking credit for pride, expanding his power, and sometimes even resisting orders. How can this be done?Therefore, even though he had some concerns when dealing with him, he still had to be resolutely attacked. We must not watch him become Sushun's second, and live the days of relying on others and being frightened in Rehe, so he took Cai Shouqi's impeachment opportunity, Forget about his post as king of politics, forcing him to restrain himself a bit.Since then, there have been many restrictions, so that this shrewd and capable person has to bow down at his feet; Ci'an, although kind-hearted, is not a vulgar person. We have seen the clues.However, as she saw that her power was increasing day by day, she actually pulled the little emperor into opposition. Fortunately, the emperor was few and had no power, and she had already paid close attention to it, so she did not get into any trouble with the little emperor.In order to realize the monopoly of power and prevent the two curtains from hanging down together, he gave her a box of pastries and asked her to go underground to find Xianfeng; Tongzhi, who was his own biological son, failed to live up to his expectations. An Lian opposed himself, and vented his dissatisfaction with him from time to time. What made him even more unbearable was that he listened to rumors and regarded his biological mother as an enemy, so he flatly ordered him to cut off his diet and medicine, and ordered him to return to the west as soon as possible; He was raised by himself, and he also spent some effort in order to train him to be a filial son, a person who obeys orders.However, this Guangxu didn't follow his own will, and wanted to use some other method to seize power from him, how could this work?So I resolutely decided to take back all the returned power from him by means of a surprise attack, and imprisoned him in Yingtai.It never occurred to him that his desire for restoration would never die, and he always wanted to regain power one day.It's better to let him give up, so he made an exception and set up a big elder brother to prevent his hope of restoration.But Pu Jun himself was not up to date, and the foreigners made troubles, Pu Jun was deposed, and he slapped himself, but Guangxu was overjoyed.However, he still couldn't take advantage of him, in order to vent his personal grudges, and also for the purpose of his death, he finally sent him to the west under his own planning, so that the power was firmly in his hands.It can be seen how necessary this iron wrist is!It is impossible to be soft-hearted. If you are soft-hearted, how can you control the fate of the Qing Dynasty!Now, if anyone dares to move the power in his hands, then his fate will be different.

This series of associations brought comfort to Cixi.Thinking of this today, a smile flashed across her pale face, which wrinkled her pale face a few times.

Today, on her deathbed, Cixi thought of those eunuchs, whom she has a special fondness for to this day.She recalled the course of her life's struggle, and deeply felt that every critical step she took and every victory she achieved were inseparable from the eunuch.In the bleak place of Yuanmingyuan, it was the eunuch beside her who pushed her into Xianfeng's arms and changed the bleak situation. This was a turning point for her; He made a lot of contributions because he did everything possible to collect information about the three traitors, which helped her a lot in her decision-making.In order to unite with Yi to fight against the three traitors, An Dehai played the role of Huang Gai again, endured the pain of flesh and blood, and sneaked back to Beijing to contact Yi.In the end, the two sides jointly defeated the three traitors and implemented the curtain; after An Dehai was Li Lianying, this Li Lianying was more clever than An Dehai, and became a person who was handy and could not leave him.Especially in the struggle against Guangxu, he did his best to trap Guangxu, a living dragon, to death, making him a veritable puppet emperor.No, when I was seriously ill, I planned and supported him: he did such a beautiful job, and sent Guangxu to the west the day before yesterday.To this day, he is still running around for himself so loyally.From the bottom of my heart, I like these people.Now that I think of it, it is much better to reuse eunuchs than relatives.Didn’t Empress Dowager Lu, Empress Dowager Hu, and Wu Zetian use their own relatives to cause chaos after taking power? !Fortunately, I have summed up these historical lessons and did not allow foreign relatives to participate in politics. It is just to give idle positions and reward a little wealth.Isn't this more sensible than hanging behind the curtain before?

There is some truth in Cixi's daydreams. It is indeed a great advantage not to reuse her relatives, but isn't she most proud of reusing eunuchs as a major evil!At this time, Cixi only counted one of them, not the other.

Cixi recalled her life and felt that there were many things to be proud of, especially her aggressiveness and defense ability that made her most gratified.Although she blamed others, she especially accused Guangxu's reform of destroying the ancestral system, and took this as Guangxu's main crime.But why doesn't she destroy the ancestral system?She has just returned to Beijing, isn't it because Lian Yi destroyed the Gu Ming auxiliary government ancestor system and replaced it with the curtain system?A princess, especially the title of Princess Gu Lun, cannot be given the title of anyone other than the emperor's sister at will, let alone be called into the palace. This is an ancestral system.However, it was she herself who did not follow the ancestral system, and killed two birds with one stone. She summoned Prince Gong Yi's daughter, Princess Gulun, into the palace as a show of win-win and as a hostage; This has been the case for more than two hundred years in the Qing Dynasty, and it was she who disregarded the condemnation of others and once again violated the ancestral system. After the death of Tongzhi, she actually established a Guangxu of the same generation, and even played tricks to let the successor inherit Xianfeng as the heir , This is a unique pioneering work in the Qing Dynasty; of course, all dynasties have established elder brothers, but it is unprecedented for a young and childless emperor like Guangxu to choose a son from his clan as his elder brother.But she worked it out.She herself knows that the reason why she can break the rules according to her own will is because she has great power and the opponents are helpless, but more importantly, she relies on her strong power of defense.Every time she breaks the ancestral system, she always has a relatively complete set of theories, and sometimes she can cite classics to explain that it must be so.And after this persuasion, people all admire her, because all she saw was nodding.In this way, she broke the ancestral system time and time again reasonably and legally.

Cixi did not allow Guangxu to destroy the ancestral system and reform the old law, but she repeatedly violated it. Is this a contradiction?Yes, it looks contradictory at first glance, but it is not contradictory when you think about it carefully, because she did not allow Guangxu to break the reform because she was afraid that Guangxu would "seize power by changing methods."And she herself repeatedly broke the ancestral system in order to seize and consolidate its power.Only in this way can power remain in her hands forever.This seems to be the crux of both protection and destruction.

Cixi thought of her life's struggle and felt infinitely gratified for her genius.However, when she thought about the fate of the Qing Empire, she felt desolate and miserable.Yes, the Qing Empire was in decline during her reign.

The time when Lan Er was born coincided with the decline of the Qing Empire. The great powers that had stepped into the capitalist society longed for the prosperity of the East, and even coveted China's vast land and abundant resources.They are trying to pry open the door of China.When Laner was six years old, Britain launched the Opium War to invade China, and the great powers followed one after another, and the Qing Dynasty was hard to defend against.When Lan'er stepped into the palace and was favored, Hong Xiuquan started the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and swept the whole country.Soon, Britain and France jointly launched the second Opium War.When Xianfeng's internal and external troubles continued to intensify, he simply indulged in sensuality, ignored the court, and allowed the Qing Empire to decline.In the feudal society of autocratic and centralized power, the power is monopolized by the supreme ruler, the emperor.If the emperor indulged in sensuality and disregarded the imperial court, there would be a situation where the power was left behind; or the dictatorship of eunuchs, or the dictatorship of foreign relatives, and the concubines intervening in politics, this was the result of the system.So when Xianfeng was indulging in sensuality, he had already handed over part of Zhu Zhu's power to Cixi, who was Yi's concubine at that time.After arriving in Rehe, after fighting openly and secretly, the foundation of the curtain was laid.Back in Beijing, the coup was launched and finally listened to the government behind the curtain.When Empress Dowager Cixi came to power, she was able to work together with Ci'an and Yi, gathering foreigners outside and pacifying the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom inside, and the so-called "Tongzhi Zhongxing" appeared.But the good times did not last long. In the Sino-French War, although the Chinese military and civilians defeated the invaders, they still signed the concessional "Sino-French Peace Treaty", resulting in an undefeated and defeated situation; It was a disastrous defeat, and the signing of the "Treaty of Shimonoseki" lost its sovereignty and deepened its semi-feudal and semi-colonialization.The expansion of the powers of the great powers in China and the intensification of economic and military aggression aroused public indignation, and the Boxer Rebellion broke out in Zhili, Shandong.Cixi used both suppression and appeasement, and ended up fleeing westward in panic.The Eight-Power Allied Forces invaded Beijing and forced China to sign the "Xin Chou Treaty".China has completely fallen into the abyss of semi-feudal and semi-colonial.Today the great powers are still grabbing benefits...

This bitter memory made Cixi feel heartbroken.But who is to blame?Cixi believes that she herself has a little responsibility, but the greater responsibility lies with Daoguang, Xianfeng, Sushun, Yi, Ci'an, Guangxu, Kang Youwei, Zaiyi and others.Cixi didn't think that her strategy would lead to the decline of the country, but what she thought of was: "I am not inferior to any male ruler!" In her opinion; I took over a mess in Xianfeng, and it is only a matter of time to clean up like this now. Not bad. In 48 years, how many emperors in history can surpass it?There are only a handful of Emperor Wu of the Western Han Dynasty, Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty, Qianlong and others.Which male ruler in history has been able to rule for 48 years under internal and external troubles, and under the circumstances of great powers vying for supremacy and frequent internal troubles, there is no situation of division and separation? !In any case, the Qing Empire was still a unified country.

Cixi’s confession on her deathbed, although self-reflection, was more of self-indulgent pride. Of course, what comforted her most was that one minute before she left the world and went to heaven, the ruling power of the Qing Empire was still in control. in her hands.

At the end of October 34nd in the 1908th year of Guangxu (AD 22), that is, the third day after Guangxu's death, Cixi closed her eyes on the imperial couch in Yiluan Hall in Zhongnanhai.She, a 74-year-old Cixi who ruled the Qing Dynasty for 48 years, fell asleep forever.There were emotions, anger, sorrow and joy on her pale face.That trace of a permanent smile made people see her masturbation at the end of her life.It showed people that in the fierce power struggle of her life, she defeated all opponents.This is the smile of a "ever victorious general".Those deep wrinkles showed her sorrow and sorrow.This is a woman's unique sorrow, and it is also a worry about the future of the Qing Empire.Not long after her death, the Qing Empire perished in the sound of artillery fire from the Wuchang Uprising.Like Cixi, she has permanently withdrawn from the stage of history.

She stepped onto the stage of history when the Qing Empire was in decline and turbulence, and then withdrew from the stage of history when the Qing Empire was facing decline. It is difficult for such a female ruler, Cixi, to say a word about her merits and demerits. I am afraid that the judgment of history But also the test of history!

(End of this chapter)