Introduction: During the reign of Qianlong, he called himself the "Ten Perfect Old Man", believing that his merits could already be compared with that of the Qin Emperor Han Wu, so he began to be blindly proud. At that time, the Western countries had already moved towards the process of industrial revolution, and their national strength was increasing day by day. At that time, when the British sent envoys to cooperate with China, they were rejected by Qianlong and ordered to close the country, and China began to completely lag behind the Western powers after this time.
In the old photo of Shaanxi in 1909, the people are poor, but the landlord can step on a thing, proving that he really has money
The Qianlong Emperor before the middle of the Qing Dynasty was indeed wise and decisive, ruled the country diligently, and never abandoned political affairs. The economic boom of the Qianlong period reached the top of China's feudal social dynasties and accounted for half of the world's total economy at that time. Unfortunately, in his later years, Qianlong was arrogant and lascivious, reused corrupt officials and yan, and learned from Kangxi's six southern tours, consuming a large amount of silver from the Qing Dynasty's national treasury.
In the last few years of Qianlong's life, uprisings broke out in various places, such as the uprisings based on the White Lotus Sect. After Qianlong's death, Jiaqing executed Hezhen as soon as he ascended to the throne, and there was a famous saying that "Hezhen fell, and Jiaqing was full". After Jiaqing came to power, although it stabilized the domestic uprising, it could not solve the situation that the Qing Dynasty began to decline.
In the later years of the Qing Dynasty, the evil consequences sown by the Qianlong Emperor finally ushered in retribution. After the Industrial Revolution, the western powers greatly increased their national strength, and greedily they began to spread their claws to the East, forcibly opening the door of China by force. It was at this time that we gradually learned how miserable the chinese people were at that time.
Xi'an City was once the economic, political and cultural center of the world during the Han and Tang Dynasties, and the Tang Dynasty was prominent for a while, and the situation of worship of all nations was also opened from here. But by the end of the Qing Dynasty, the people of Shaanxi were extremely poor, living in crooked and twisted, the most ordinary tile houses, often without enough to eat, often living on tree bark and wild vegetables.
On the other hand, local officials and landlords ate mountain and sea delicacies and used rare utensils, the most conspicuous of which was the carpet made of bun skin under their feet. At that time, the Qing government was on the verge of extinction, and the officials at all levels of the imperial court were in the same stream as Cixi, regardless of the lives and deaths of the people, but their own food and clothing were extremely luxurious.
Since 1840, the Chinese government has signed many unequal treaties with Western powers, and Chinese society has also transformed into a semi-feudal and semi-colonial society. The "Western-style buildings" in Xi'an City are in stark contrast to most of the civilian houses, and the people are displaced, and anyone who can have a potato to solve the problem of food and clothing is a very lucky thing.
The two children in the camera are dressed in dirty clothes and have dark faces, as if they are like a "little orangutan". They didn't have enough to eat, and after a hard day's work, they hid by the abandoned wall holes to rest. On the other hand, the mink wool worn by those court officials and the tiger skin stepped on the ground were like people from two worlds.
Not only these two poor children, under the social background of Shaanxi at that time, the entire city was worried about eating and drinking. They were small, not tall, leaning against dilapidated walls. At this time, Empress Dowager Cixi was still serving in the palace, moisturizing her skin with fresh milk.
Before the Eight-Nation Alliance invaded Beijing, Empress Dowager Cixi received the news and immediately led her subordinates and officers and soldiers dressed in their own costumes to take refuge in Xi'an. Cixi's journey can be described as turbulent and displaced, and she can't enjoy the rough tea and light meals of the common people all year round. Fortunately, Li Lianying, the eunuch of Cixi, tried every means to exchange expensive gold and silver jewelry for food and drink with the people who fled along the way, so that Cixi could survive.
Later, Cixi could not stand such a life, and after learning that the Eight-Nation Alliance had left the Forbidden City, she hurried back to the palace. However, after he returned, he still did not consider the hardships of the refugees he encountered along the way, and let Li Hongzhang negotiate with many leaders of state power, and finally paid a lot of money, ceded a large area of land, and preserved the glory and wealth of his old age.
Summary: At that time, the situation in China was tense, and Li Hongzhang planned to learn from the military strength of the West and maintain the majesty of the Qing Dynasty. Unexpectedly, cixi came down with a royal order, so that Li Hongzhang embezzled military expenses into his own hedonistic wealth, and the last reform of the Qing government also failed because of Cixi's extravagance and lust, until it was destroyed.
Today's Xi'an City has become the ancient capital of the 13 dynasties, a state-level central city, and the prosperity of the former Han and Tang Dynasties has reappeared. But we should also bear in mind the tragic years of modern history, and the huge price paid by the Chinese people for this. The fainting and corruption of the Qing government made these imperial court nobles step on tiger skins, while the common people ate tree bark.