Empress Dowager Cixi, who made great efforts to govern the country, was beaten up by the British Empire in the first Opium War launched by Lin Zexu, and finally ended up ceding land compensation. 14 years later, the war resumed. This time, the Qing army fought against 20,000 British and French allied forces with120,000 elite soldiers. After fierce fighting, 30,000 people were killed, while the British army only died 4 people. Obviously, the strength of the two armies is far from each other. 1859 65438+1October18, British and French troops captured Beijing, burned and looted, and burned the beautiful Yuanmingyuan. The loss of the capital humiliated the Qing government, but it also deeply touched the people with lofty ideals of the imperial ruling class. The cutting-edge forces in the ruling class, headed by Cixi, gave up the conservative and negative national policy pursued by the Qing court and began to try to change and strengthen themselves in order to solve the dilemma of the empire.
186 1 July, the "four noes", known as "no vision, no courage, no talent and no achievement", died, and Cixi listened to politics on1February 2, and took control of the direction of the Qing Empire from then on. After Empress Dowager Cixi came to power, she rectified the order, successfully suppressed the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Nian Army, Miao and Hui uprisings, eased the ruling crisis of the Qing Dynasty, and stabilized the situation in China.
As the supreme ruler of the empire, she was ashamed of China's frequent bullying by foreign powers, but at this time she was still calmly aware of the gap in national strength and knew that brute force would only bring shame to herself. So on the one hand, she ordered all parts of the country to be patient and restrained with foreigners, not to have an accident like Lin Zexu's, and to give the powers an excuse to oppress China. On the one hand, they are determined to reform, secretly develop the military, reuse the Westernization School, learn foreign military science and technology, and introduce a large number of advanced weapons, so that Yuan Shikai and others can practice the new army ... What's more, they will spend huge sums of money to form the Beiyang Navy. In addition, Cixi developed some military and civilian industries with the policy of "self-improvement" and "seeking wealth", which greatly promoted the modernization of China.
There is a widespread saying that Cixi was stupid and had no choice but to misappropriate the 32 million military expenses of Beiyang Navy, which led to the navy's insufficient equipment and the fiasco of the Sino-Japanese War. This sentence comes from Liang Qichao's "Drinking Room Collection": "A group of ministers competed for the training of water masters, and prepared 30 million yuan ... The Summer Palace project is a big project, and all the money raised is used for civil purposes." In fact, what Liang Qichao said is a complete forgery of history, with the aim of demonizing Cixi. As for the misappropriation of military funds for the Summer Palace project, it is true, but it is only the funds of the naval yamen, not the Beiyang Coastal Defence Association, and the funds of the naval yamen are not the special funds of the Beiyang Navy. Even if it is not misappropriated, it will not necessarily be allocated to the navy. The amount of misappropriation is only 302,000 yuan, which will be paid back soon. Many people don't know that it is not Cixi who is really keen on repairing the Summer Palace, but Emperor Guangxu. He hopes to repair the Summer Palace as soon as possible, let Cixi move in, give up her power as soon as possible, and don't always stay in the palace and tell her what to do.
Reform and change:
On July 19, at the instigation of the reformists, Emperor Guangxu dismissed six officials of the Ministry of Rites in order to establish his strong position and suppress the conservatives who obstructed the political reform. Zeng Guanghan was also dismissed by Emperor Guangxu for obstructing Wang from speaking according to the book. Previously, the personnel rights of these senior officials were in the hands of the Western Empress Dowager. Guangxu's "infringement" behavior completely angered the post-party die-hards, and the contradiction between reformists and conservatives quickly intensified, and mutual attacks intensified.
Cixi had long been very dissatisfied with Guangxu's fiddling with political reform, and she no longer trusted Guangxu and the reformists' ability to govern the country. Most domestic officials and nobles refused to reform and accept Guangxu's real power, and encouraged the empress dowager to come out as soon as possible to "wave the flag and scream, clarify right and wrong." Cixi is even more uneasy about entrusting Wanhe's ancestral business to Guangxu, an ambitious nephew with sparse talents. After the failure of the political reform, she felt that what she entrusted was inhuman, which was the biggest reason why Cixi finally suppressed the political reform.
Ito Bowen's visit was the fuse of Cixi's determination to suppress the Reform Party. Ito Bowen was highly recommended by Kang Youwei to Emperor Guangxu. Kang Youwei also advocated that China "unite with Japan, Britain and other countries. This is a thoroughly traitorous draft. In order to realize his desire for power, Kang Youwei is even more shameless than Yuan Shikai who promised "Article 21". He dated Timothy Richard for many years, and they used each other. Kang Youwei won the support of the great powers, defeated the post-party and gained political power at the same time. Timothy Richard made a complete plan to carve up China, just waiting for Kang Youwei to convince Guangxu to enter the trap. ...