In May 1911, the regent of the Qing Dynasty, Zaifeng, appointed Prince Qing Yili as prime minister and formed a new cabinet.
The formation of a new cabinet was part of the New Deal at the end of the Qing Dynasty. However, Yi Li saw this as an opportunity to make a fortune.
Yi Xi, a Manchurian man with a blue flag, was the great-grandson of the Qianlong Emperor, gen zheng Miao Hong, although he did not learn any skills, but with a good hand, he was deeply favored by Empress Dowager Cixi, and he was smooth in the official field, serving as the foreman of military aircraft and the prime minister of state affairs, and grasped the internal and foreign affairs and power for a while. After empress dowager Cixi's death, Yi Li was appointed by the regent Zaifeng as the prime minister of the cabinet, which was the prime minister.
However, Yi Li was insatiably greedy, and openly betrayed the official title, which was well known in the late Qing Dynasty officialdom. This time he was ordered to form a cabinet, and Yi Li naturally would not let go of the opportunity to make a fortune.
In addition to the Prime Minister, the new Cabinet also includes 11 Ministers of State, including the Cabinet Assistant Minister, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Minister of Civil Affairs of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, as well as the official positions of the Metropolitan Inspection Bureau, the Hattoku-in Temple, and the Ceremonial Yuan. Most of these official positions are to be provided to members of the royal family, and it is difficult for Yi Li to profit; only some less important positions, the members of the royal family do not look up, and Yi Li can get up and down his hands.
For example, the Minister of Posts and Communications of the Ministry of Posts and Communications.
The Ministry of Posts and Communications was established in 1906 to be in charge of traffic administrative matters, and was divided into five divisions: Shipping Administration, Road Administration, Telecommunications Administration, Postal Services, and General Affairs. The head of the Ministry of Posts and Communications is Shang Shu and one waiter on the left and right. From 1906 to 1911, the Ministry of Posts and Communications changed Shangshu frequently, and in just 5 years, 8 Shangshu were replaced, and almost half a year it was replaced by a Shangshu. Therefore, people jokingly called it "the Ministry of Posts and Communications is not an unfavorable official".
For the post of Minister of Posts and Communications, the members of the imperial family naturally did not look up to it, so Yi Li opened his mouth and sold this official position for 300,000 taels of silver. 300,000 taels of silver is a big number, after all, Duan Zhigui only spent 100,000 taels of silver to get the post of inspector of Heilongjiang. Therefore, not many people came to buy the post of Minister of Posts and Communications.
After a while, the famous "red-top businessman" Sheng Xuanhuai came to the door and paid 300,000 taels of silver to buy the post of Minister of Posts and Communications. Yi Li saw that the buyer was Sheng Xuanhuai, and the lion opened his mouth widely, sat on the ground, and raised the official position of the Minister of Posts to 600,000 taels of silver.
Why? The reason is simple, Sheng Xuan is pregnant with money.
Sheng Xuanhuai, also spelled Xingsun, was born in 1844 in Jiangyin, Jiangsu Province, and was born in Changzhou, Jiangsu Province. Sheng Xuanhuai entered Li Hongzhang's shogunate in 1870 and became a powerful general of Li Hongzhang, helping him with foreign affairs. Sheng Xuanhuai did many things under Li Hongzhang and played a huge role, just like Hu Xueyanzhi and Zuo Zongtang. In July 1905, Sheng Xuanhuai was granted the imperial court and was allowed to ride horses to the Imperial Court in the Forbidden City.
In the late Qing Dynasty, there was no distinction between officials and businessmen. While Sheng Xuanhuai was in the official arena, he also made huge profits through business, which can be called a rich country. How rich is Sheng Xuanhuai? When he died, Li Jingfang executed the will for him, and after more than two years of cleaning, he counted that his family's inheritance had more than 11.6 million taels of silver.
For a person as rich as Sheng Xuanhuai, Yi Xi naturally had to knock a "bamboo bar" well. However, Sheng Xuanhuai was not a fool, how could he be willing to give an extra 300,000 taels of silver in vain? Therefore, Sheng Xuanhuai found a relationship, and finally used 300,000 taels of silver to buy the post of minister of posts and communications from Yi Li.
As a result, Sheng Xuanhuai became a member of the new cabinet at the end of the Qing Dynasty and served as the Minister of Posts and Communications of the Ministry of Posts and Communications.
However, at this time, the Qing Dynasty was already thinning and dying. Sheng Xuanhuai served as the Minister of Posts and Communications of the Ministry of Posts and Communications for a few months, and on October 10, the Wuchang Uprising broke out, sounding the death knell of the Qing Dynasty. The following year, the Qing Dynasty declared its end of life.
Moreover, unexpectedly, Sheng Xuanhuai had a lot to do with the Wuchang uprising.
Originally, after Sheng Xuanhuai became the minister of posts and communications of the Ministry of Posts and Communications, he forcibly nationalized the railways and postal services established by the provinces themselves, which was fiercely opposed by the local gentry, and triggered the "Road Protection Movement" in Sichuan, Guangdong, Hunan and Hubei. When the Qing court mobilized the Hubei army to carry out the Sichuan bullet suppression "road protection movement", the Hubei New Army took the opportunity to launch the "Wuchang Uprising".
[References: Draft History of the Qing Dynasty, etc.]