Most of the kings who perished had tragic endings, such as the Sui Emperor, Qin II, the King of Shang, etc., or committed suicide or were killed, and those who survived, such as Li Yu, Song Huizong and others, most of them had a desolate evening scene, and Puyi, as the king of the fallen country, his ending was relatively good.
After Puyi abdicated, the Manchu nobles and ministers were not killed and persecuted by their opponents, and Puyi himself received 4 million oceans from Yuan Shikai every year for expenses.
4 million oceans can allow Puyi and his family to live the rest of their lives without worry. So how much is 4 million oceans now?
Puyi was the last emperor of the Qing Dynasty, but he did not control the Qing Dynasty, and when Cixi died, Puyi was only 3 years old, and he could not even speak the whole language, let alone talk about the governance of the country, so the government was governed by his father Zaifeng.
After Zaifeng became the regent, he was ambitious and wanted to do something big, he first used the power in his hands to clear the stumbling blocks such as Yuan Shikai, but then the situation surprised him, because the Qing Dynasty signed many treaties that harmed the interests of the country, which made the people greatly dissatisfied, and uprisings against the Qing government appeared in an endless stream everywhere.
Zaifeng wanted to send troops to suppress it, but could not mobilize the new army controlled by Yuan Shikai, in order to maintain the Manchu Qing Dynasty, he took the initiative to invite Yuan Shikai back and handed over power to Yuan Shikai.
After Zaifeng retired, Yuan Shikai took control of power in the dprk, but on October 10, 1911, the Wuchang Uprising broke out. This news caused the Qing dynasty to fall into panic, and Yuan Shikai, the actual helmsman of the Manchu Qing, in order to obtain greater benefits, began peace talks with the revolutionary army while forcing Empress Longyu to abdicate Puyi.
At this time, the strength of the revolutionary army was weak, and there was no absolute certainty that they could overthrow the Manchu Qing, so they were also willing to cooperate with Yuan Shikai. At the same time, Empress Longyu was also an incompetent woman, and she could become empress dowager, mainly because she was Cixi's niece, and Cixi made her the empress of Guangxu in order to enhance the influence of her mother's family and also to monitor Guangxu, but because Longyu was incapable, cixi and Guangxu did not like her.
Without Cixi as a patron, Longyu simply did not have the ability to control the situation, so in the face of Yuan Shikai's coercion and inducement, she also panicked, and had no idea for a while, and the Manchu nobles and ministers of the Court had either fallen to Yuan Shikai or did not dare to stand up for her for self-preservation, and Empress Longyu could only choose to let Puyi abdicate.
In the end, it had been discussed, and Empress Longyu and Yuan Shikai signed the "Preferential Conditions for the Qing Dynasty", and Yuan Shikai gave all kinds of preferential treatment and guarantees to the members of the Qing Chamber in exchange for Puyi's peaceful abdication. Among them, according to the "Preferential Conditions for Qing Room", Yuan Shikai has to pay Puyi 4 million oceans per year.
After Puyi abdicated, Empress Longyu had been grumpy, feeling that the Great Qing had died in her hands, and felt that she had no face to go to see the ancestors, which made her miserable and died soon after. Although Empress Longyu died soon after, Yuan Shikai, in order to gain a good reputation and the support of the people and ministers, basically fulfilled his promise and gave Puyi a generous treatment, and he would pay Puyi 4 million taels of ocean every year.
Before the Republic of China, now a piece of ocean can be exchanged for 800 yuan, the ocean in the Republic of China period, can now be exchanged for 400 yuan, simply with this method of mistake, Yuan Shikai paid Puyi 4 million oceans, worth the current 160 million, which is equivalent to a huge amount of money, but this algorithm is not appropriate, we should use the purchasing power of the ocean and the current banknotes to convert, so that we can convert the real value of 4 million oceans.
In order to calculate how much 4 million oceans are worth now, we can calculate according to the price of food, which best reflects the purchasing power of coins. During the Republic of China period, an ocean can buy 30 pounds of rice, and now the price of a pound of rice is between 2.5 and 3 yuan, and the price of 30 pounds of rice is about 80 yuan, so that the conversion is down, 4 million oceans are replaced by today's banknotes, about this basis to be multiplied by 80, the result is roughly 320 million.
That is to say, the 4 million oceans that Yuan Shikai gave to Puyi were converted according to the purchasing power of grain, which is about 320 million now.
Based on the wages of the workers at that time, the actual value of this money will increase. In the early days of the Republic of China, the wages of workers were about 5 to 10 silver dollars, and now the monthly wages of workers can reach 5,000 yuan, so that the value of an ocean can be converted into about 800 yuan now, and the value of Yuan Shikai's 4 million pieces of ocean to Puyi should be doubled on the basis of 320 million, and about 600 million can be obtained.
No matter how you calculate, this is a huge amount of money.
In 1924, after Puyi was expelled from Bauhinia City by Feng Yuxiang, the money was reduced to 500,000 taels, but it was not long before the money was broken, and the Republic of China government was reluctant to give it.