What is The Iron Hat King?
The answer to this question begins with the ancient Chinese system of sub-feudalism.
The feudal system is a system in which Chinese rulers, in order to consolidate political power and buy people's hearts and minds, reward those ministers and nobles who have made meritorious contributions to the country.
Generally speaking, those people were knighted, crowned kings and marquises, and given different degrees of privileges; this system began in the Zhou Dynasty and continued until the Qing Dynasty.
The names and treatment of rewards in each dynasty are different, and the Iron Hat King is a unique name of the Qing Dynasty, and the treatment is also ingenious. At the beginning of the founding of the Qing Dynasty, the ministers who made great contributions to their fight against the country were rewarded.
At that time, the Manchu Rulers also rewarded many meritorious men, including several Han ministers. For example, Shang Kexi was named the King of Pingnan, and Wu Sangui was named the King of Pingxi.
However, from the heart of the rulers, it is expedient to make a king with a different surname, and they are worried about rebellion. Therefore, it is not good for a king with a different surname and a foreign race to find a stubble to be exempted from the title, deprived of the title, and taken away his life.
Only those who are in their own family, the emperor is sincere.
In the early days and reign of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, a total of 12 people in the imperial family were crowned kings, known as the Iron Hat King.
As the name suggests, it can be hereditary, as reliable as iron. Not only did they enjoy the glory alive, but they could also enjoy the Taimiao Temple after death, and the emperors who died together accepted the worship of future generations.
Needless to say, the Iron Hat King was loyal and dead to daqing.
The Iron Hat King is out of breath with Daqing's nostrils, they are vested interest groups, Daqing abdicated, and all privileges must be affected. Therefore, when the Qing Dynasty perished, they must have been extremely sad in their hearts, and a hundred were unhappy.
However, at the critical time of the fall of the Iron Hat King in the Qing Dynasty, because of his different personalities, the strategies adopted were not the same. In general, their attitudes are broadly divided into three categories.
First, resolutely oppose and defend to the death.
The Qing Dynasty royals headed by Liangbi, Yulang, Puwei, Zaitao, Zaize, Tieliang, and others took the same position; they were not willing to fail, did not measure up to their own strength, and wanted to use their mantis arms as a car to stop the wheels of history from rolling forward, and they used force to serve the king and swore to defend the Manchu Qing reactionary regime to the death. For this common goal, they formed a counter-revolutionary organization, the DSU.
The purpose of the Sectarian Socialist Party is to support Puyi's wise leadership and oppose Yuan Shikai's Beiyang warlords who committed rebellion, and to resolutely suppress and kill chaotic courtiers and thieves. Among these loyal and die-hard elements of the Qing Dynasty, Pu Wei was prince Wang Gong of the Iron Hat. He was the grandson of Prince Gong of Yizhi (奕訢 Devil Liu) and hereditary title of Iron Hat King.
The rest, who were also descendants of the prince's ministers, planned to depose Yuan Shikai's cabinet premier, get rid of Yuan Shikai if necessary, let Yulang and Zaize preside over the cabinet work, and Tie Liang would serve as the commander-in-chief of the national armed forces to suppress the "chaotic party".
However, their plot was doomed to failure in the face of the mighty tide of the times, and the leader of the Sectarian Party, Aisin Kyora Liangbi, was assassinated by the Revolutionary Party before Puyi abdicated in January 1912.
Another resolute opponent of the Abdication of the Qing Emperor was Prince Shanqi of Su, who held a higher position among the Iron Hat Kings at the time, when he refused not to sign the edict of Puyi's abdication.
After Puyi abdicated, he defected to the Japanese to restore, twice launched the Manchurian-Mongolian independence movement, and also gave his daughter Jin Bihui to the Japanese Kawashima Nanasu, which was later changed to a Japanese name, and her name was almost unknown to everyone, that is, the notorious secret agent Kawashima Yoshiko.
But democracy has become the general trend of the world, autocracy has become a street rat, and the conspiracy of diehards is doomed to failure.
Second, eat inside and outside, respond to the Republic of China.
According to common sense, no matter what the surface is, in the heart, the Iron Hat King of the Great Qing dynasty is sad about the demise of the Manchu Qing, but there is one person who is very happy, this person is The Prince of Qing Yili.
Before the Wuchang Uprising, Yi Li was appointed as the first Prime Minister of the Qing Dynasty cabinet, forming the Cabinet of Prince Qing. However, this Prince Qing was a corrupt official, known as the second of Hezhen, who loved money without a bottom line, and had long been bribed by Yuan Shikai and became an "internal traitor".
After the Wuchang Uprising, Yi Li confessed to being a thief and asked Yuan Shikai to serve as prime minister on his behalf. When Yuan Shikai forced Puyi to abdicate, he gave Yi Li half a million taels of silver, and Yi Li saw that qian's eyes were open, and after running forward and running upside down, he persuaded Empress Longyu to let Puyi abdicate.
Third, Mingzhe protects himself and remains silent.
Before Puyi abdicated, because the Sectarian Party's love for Xinjue Luo Liangbi was stabbed, the Iron Hat Princes were terrified, knowing that the general trend had gone, unable to return to heaven, and felt that it was still good for Mingzhe to protect himself, so they chose collective silence. They were King Nelehe of Shuncheng County, Yan Sen the Prince of Keqinqun, Shi Duo the Prince of Li, Zhaoxu the Prince of Zheng, and others.
Moreover, although Yuan Shikai was Cao Cao's second, he did not do a good job, and he was still very polite to his old masters. In the "Preferential Conditions for the Qing Dynasty" formulated by Yuan Shikai, the royal family was given extremely generous treatment. Princes could also keep their property and had many political privileges. Therefore, most princes were resigned to Puyi's abdication. They don't want to take a stand, because it's useless to take a stand, so why bother to struggle senselessly?
Whether the Iron Hat Kings supported or disagreed, their attitude was irrelevant. Because the military power is in the hands of the ambitionist Yuan Shikai, Yuan Shikai wants to replace it, and no one can help, let alone 12, even 120 iron hat kings can only sigh in the wind.