On the evening of May 1, the 26th year of Guangxu (1900), Dongjiaomin Lane, where foreign ministers lived, received news that the Boxers had burned the Fengtai Railway Station, and in the face of a grim situation, the ministers of various countries unanimously agreed to use the army to protect the embassy. In early May, foreign fleets arrived in Tianjin by boat from the Haihe River in preparation for an invasion of Beijing. On May 13, the number of troops entering the Tianjin Concession had reached more than 2,000, and at the instigation of the American consul, the existing forces of the eight countries formed a coalition army to march into Beijing, and the eight-nation alliance was officially formed.
(Empress Dowager Cixi in the film and television drama)
On May 21, the twenty-sixth year of Guangxu (1900), the Eight-Nation Alliance attacked the Dagu Fort, the Boxers and the Qing army jointly attacked the Zizhulin Concession, the Battle of Tianjin broke out, on May 25, Empress Dowager Cixi did not know the depth of the war to all countries, on the night of July 19, Zai Yi hurriedly reported to Empress Dowager Cixi sitting in the Yangxin Hall: "Lafayette, foreign devils have come in." The Minister of War, Rong Lu, panicked and reported that the Russian cavalry had invaded the Temple of Heaven. Empress Dowager Cixi hurriedly summoned the princes and ministers to discuss the evacuation of Jingshi for refuge.
On July 21, Cixi and the Guangxu Emperor and other imperial family members, dressed in plain clothes and fled Beijing in a horse-drawn carriage, the escape route from ShenwuMen out of the palace, through Jingshan West Street, out of the anmen West Street, when the team arrived at Deshengmen, refugees poured in, Empress Dowager Cixi could not take care of the safety of the refugees, let GuiXiang lead the Eight Banners Army to crash out of a road, the team to Renshou Palace to rest for a while, later, Empress Dowager Cixi ordered the horse to march to the west.
(Empress Dowager Cixi)
Before Cixi arrived in Xi'an, she experienced the hardships of displacement, because she fled in a hurry, did not bring a change of clothes, ate relatively poorly, and when she was hungry, she could only drink millet porridge to fill her stomach; after Cixi and her party arrived in Xi'an, safety and supply were guaranteed, and Empress Dowager Cixi wanted to return to Beijing as soon as possible, so she arranged for Prince Qing Yixi to return to Beijing to negotiate peace with Li Hongzhang, the governor directly under his command.
After Empress Dowager Cixi arrived in Xi'an, she still asked local officials to supply her extravagant greed, and Empress Dowager Cixi asked local officials to pay silver to Xi'an, and according to statistics, the amount of silver and grain that went to Xi'an was as high as more than five million yuan and grain was one million stones. The imperial meal that Cixi ate was still divided into meat bureau, vegetarian bureau, meal bureau, tea bureau, dim sum bureau, etc., each bureau had to set up a steward eunuch, the number of cooks was more than ten, more than 100 kinds of recipes were selected every day, and 200 taels of silver were spent every day.
In order to curry favor with the great powers, Empress Dowager Cixi constantly issued edicts: This time chaos is not the intention of the Qing government, and those who provoke chaos must be purged with all their might and will not be tolerated. Cixi tried her best to satisfy the wishes of the great powers, and in the name of Guangxu, she issued an edict against herself, and said with a full face: "Measure the material strength of China and the joy of the country."
On August 15, 1901, the Treaty of Xinugu was signed, and China paid 450 million taels of silver in reparations, and after the completion of the "peace talks", Cixi and his party embarked on the road back to Beijing on August 24. When departing from Xi'an, the people "put on a colorful display" farewell, Empress Dowager Cixi took an eight-person carriage to carry a large sedan in front of the palanquin, and more than 3,000 official cars in the back, loaded with the clothes and souvenirs of Cixi and the princes and ministers, were as triumphant as winning a battle.