On September 7, 1901, Qing Dynasty deputies Yi Xi and Li Hongzhang signed the famous "Xinugu Treaty" with representatives of Britain, the United States, Russia, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Austria, Belgium, Spain, and the Netherlands, ending the eight-power alliance's invasion of China.
When the news came, Empress Dowager Cixi, who was living in exile in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, was finally relieved. Li Hongzhang's ability to do things so that Empress Dowager Cixi did not appear in the list of culprits in the "Xinugu Treaty", which was very meritorious. Therefore, when Li Hongzhang later died of illness on November 7, Empress Dowager Cixi was still "shocked to mourn the loss" and shed a handful of tears.
After the signing of the Treaty of Xinugi, Empress Dowager Cixi immediately considered the matter of returning home.
One
Empress Dowager Cixi fled the capital to Xi'an in August 1900. On October 26 of that year, Empress Dowager Cixi and her party arrived in Xi'an. From October 26, 1900 to October 6, 1901, Empress Dowager Cixi, the Guangxu Emperor, and others lived in Xi'an for nearly a year. In order to show the warm hospitality of local officials at the shaanxi and Xi'an levels over the past year, Empress Dowager Cixi added officials to promotions before she set off.
However, since the return of Empress Dowager Cixi and the Guangxu Emperor to the palace was a great event, the three provinces of Shaanxi, Henan, and Zhili that they passed along the way needed to make full preparations, so it was not until October 6 that Empress Dowager Cixi and her party left Xi'an in a big way.
I think that when Empress Dowager Cixi and her party arrived in Xi'an, they were lonely and miserable, and they looked like they were depressed; now Empress Dowager Cixi has set off for Beijing, carrying a large number of people's fat and people's paste, and there are more than 3,000 carriages alone. More than 3,000 horse-drawn carriages are connected end to end, like a long dragon that stretches for more than ten miles, passing through the official road and coming all the way to the east.
In order to seek an auspicious occasion, Empress Dowager Cixi detoured from the south gate of Xi'an to Dongguan after leaving the city, and officially embarked on the road after the Eight Immortals Temple had picked incense.
Two
For local officials along the way, their "nightmare" begins. They had to expend a lot of manpower and material resources to requisition civilian service, renovate roads, and build palaces to provide a comfortable and comfortable travel and living environment for Empress Dowager Cixi and the Guangxu Emperor.
According to the arrangement of the journey back to Beijing, Empress Dowager Cixi and her party took a palanquin and carriage through Shaanxi, Henan, and Zhili provinces, and took a train into Beijing at Xingtai, the governor of Shunde Province (present-day Xingtai City, Hebei Province). The main means of transportation for Empress Dowager Cixi and others were palanquins and horse-drawn carriages. At that time, the official roads of Shaanxi, Henan, and Zhili provinces were paved with loess, and the distance was far away, and it was inevitable that there would be some bumps. In order to make Empress Dowager Cixi feel less bumpy, local officials deliberately used fine yellow earth to pave the road.
Morrison, a Reporter for the British Newspaper times in China, said after learning about the incident that laying this fine and soft yellow-body pavement would cost 1,000 pounds per mile. A simple calculation: from Xi'an in Shaanxi Province to Xingtai, the distance is thousands of miles, costing millions of pounds.
Local officials also spent huge sums of money to build a number of palatial and luxuriously furnished palaces for Empress Dowager Cixi and the Guangxu Emperor. Yu Yinlin, the Governor of Henan, said in the Recital: "All the ways to govern the road, build the palace, build the bridges and boats, and use them on the way... The treasurer has successively issued 180,000 taels of silver, which is estimated to be insufficient. This means that Henan Province spent a lot of money on receiving Empress Dowager Cixi and her party, and although it has allocated 180,000 taels of silver, it is estimated that it is far from enough, and it is hoped that the imperial court will make up for it. However, at that time, the imperial court could not make ends meet the financial income and could not come up with money, and these expenses could only be passed on to the people in the end.
Three
For the local officials who had made meritorious contributions to the driving, Empress Dowager Cixi was willing to reward them.
On October 27, when Empress Dowager Cixi and the Guangxu Emperor arrived in Luoyang, Henan, they lived in the palace of Wen Tixin, the prefect of Luoyang. The palace cost more than 30,000 taels of silver and took more than a month to build. It was late autumn and the weather was getting cooler. The palace where Empress Dowager Cixi and the Guangxu Emperor stayed was not only spacious and bright, but also set up a pit where charcoal could be burned, and it was warm as spring inside.
Empress Dowager Cixi liked the palace very much and deliberately stayed in Luoyang for 9 days. Before leaving, Empress Dowager Cixi made a big stroke of the pen and promoted Wen Ti to the position of Guixi Daotai.
However, for more local officials, greeting the two palaces is a huge test, facing great pressure, a little careless, light black hat is not guaranteed, heavy head down to the ground. Some local officials could not withstand this pressure, and even fled when Empress Dowager Cixi and her party were about to arrive.
Shaanxi Lintongzhi County is called Xia Liangcai. At that time, a eunuch in charge of playing the front station came to Lintong in advance and asked Xia Liangcai for silver. Xia Liangcai was helpless and spent 2700 silver fees. However, li Lianying, the chief eunuch, sent someone to ask for 1200 taels of "palace door fees", which was rejected by Xia Liangcai. Li Lianying immediately instigated the officers and men who opened the road to grab the meal and cut off the dirty on Xia Liangcai's head, and Xia Liangcai was afraid of accountability, and only escaped, "fleeing in terror, hiding in the countryside."
On November 8, the day after Li Hongzhang's death, Empress Dowager Cixi and the Guangxu Emperor entered Zhengzhou, Henan. Li Yuanzhen, the prefect of Zhengzhou, prepared for more than a month in advance, and during the two days that Empress Dowager Cixi was stationed in Zhengzhou, she was busy and careful to serve Empress Dowager Cixi. When he knelt down to send Empress Dowager Cixi and her party out of Zhengzhou, he didn't even have the strength to stand up, and said in a relieved voice: "Lafayette passed through the garden safely, and my generation has a destiny." ”
The next morning, when they ascended to the church, the servants discovered that the prefect had "white hair" within one night.