After the death of the Tongzhi Emperor, Cixi lowered the curtain for the second time, at this time she already had a wealth of political experience, and for the sake of political stability, she also adopted a tolerant attitude towards the military ministers. However, at this time, Cixi's desire for power was growing, so she created contradictions among the ministers to consolidate her dominance. Of course, the main target is the political clique headed by Prince Gong Yi.
As early as the Tongzhi period, there were already differences in political views between the military minister, the cabinet scholars, and the important officials of the six ministries. Yi, Wenxiang and others advocated emulating the West and belonged to the Western school, but the imperial court was more of a conservative faction that opposed Western Law, represented by emperors Li Hongzao, Wu Ren, Weng Xincun and others. The struggle between these two factions has been fierce and has deepened its prejudices.
Since Shen Guifen was put on duty at the military plane, the relationship between the two factions has become worse. Because Shen Guifen was Yi's nemesis and a completely foreign affairs faction, although he was late in marching into the military plane, he became the main writer of drafting the edict and approving the recital, which made Li Hongzao, who was very senior, extremely dissatisfied. Everyone "refuses to conform" to everything.
Li Hongzao's relationship with Cixi was relatively close, but the military aircraft was weak, probably under Cixi's acquiescence, he recommended "dignified soldiers" with moral character in many ways, so a group of new Yushi and Hanlin formed a gang with him, especially his direct subordinate compatriots Zhang Zhidong and Zhang Peilun, and strengthened his own strength. Since most of the people promoted were northerners, they were called "Northern Party" at the time.
Shen Guifen was not to be outdone, and he also managed to make his student Wang Wenshao, the inspector of Hunan, a military minister, to enhance his strength. Shen and Wang were born in the south, so they were known as the "Southern Party". Since then, the forces of the south and the north have fought each other at the military plane, and in fact they have their own backers, that is, Yi and Cixi are manipulating behind the scenes.
In the sixth year of Guangxu (1880), Shen Guifen died of illness, and Li Hongzao's status in the military aircraft rose. Taking advantage of the false reimbursement of military expenses in Yunnan at that time, the "Northern Party" people made a merciless attack on Wang Wenshao, who was serving as a Shangshu of the Household Department, saying that he was "endowed with greed and evil" and that "it is not enough to help adultery, but greed can defile the country." As a result, Wang Wenshao was pulled down from power and expelled back to his hometown. Soon, Li Hongzao instructed Zhang Zhidong to criticize Dong Ke, another of Yi's great assistants, and Dong Ke and others were also dismissed from their posts, and Yi Yuanqi was seriously injured.
At the same time, in the late Qing Dynasty, a number of literati and bachelor-type officials who dared to speak and dare to criticize current politics appeared in the political arena of the late Qing Dynasty, who were of low rank and power, but they were known for advocating integrity and being conceited. For the administration of state affairs, "from the gap of the government to the evil of the official, to the difficulties of the micro and the lu yan, all of them are in the face of the news, and the seal of Xida." These people soon became famous and formed a political force, which was then called the "Qingliu Party".
The formation of the Qingliu Party has a certain political soil, and after the Xin You's coup d'état, the curtain of the two palaces was a political system that had never existed in the Qing Dynasty, and it was not easy for everyone to accept for traditional Confucian society. In order to win more support and have the heart to contact China and foreign countries to create a good image, the uncles and sisters-in-law agreed to let people who care about state affairs have the opportunity to discuss current politics.
As a result, the scale of officials' speech has been relaxed, the channels of speech have become smoother, and the tools used by those in power have become more effective. Cixi's use of Cai Shouqi to participate in the impeachment of Yi and his removal from the title of king of the council is the most obvious example of the early period.
After Cixi tasted the sweetness, she naturally seized the opportunity to pretend to be a color for the Qingliu people and deliberately entrap them in order to establish her own authority. Sometimes, the people and things impeached by Qingliu have not yet obtained the truth, and Cixi immediately issued an edict to deal with them. Of course, one of the things that most of these people can understand is that there should be a position on matters, and it is best to focus on the advantages and disadvantages of reform and the rectification of the program, otherwise it will hurt themselves.
However, Cixi encouraged them not to care about justice or not, but about the issue of the regime. Therefore, she not only used Qingliu to attack Yi, but also used Qingliu to attack local powerful factions. For example, Zeng Guofan and Li Hongzhang had tasted the "picky and meticulous reasons" of the Qingliu people's "rootless and floating words", and had to weaken the strength of the Xiang army and the Huai army so that they did not form a threat to the imperial court.
The greater the power of the Qingliu, although the more secure the imperial court felt, as soon as this wind opened, Cixi inevitably provoked a fire. Soon after Emperor Tongzhi took power, he ordered the reconstruction of the Yuanmingyuan, and the Qingliu Party intervened to obstruct it, forcing both the emperor and Cixi to temporarily order the project to be stopped. After the death of Empress Alut and the succession of the Guangxu Emperor, Qingliu people expressed concern, and even Wu Keshu's fierce "corpse advice" action.
The Northern and Southern Party Struggles and qingliu arose under the historical conditions of Cixi's rise to power but not yet solidified, and their political lifespan was not long. Both Cixi and Yi were using these people at the same time, but in the end it was Cixi who was superior, and while attacking Yihe's local power factions, he gradually consolidated his rule. The integrity of some of these people is indeed admirable, but it is time for history to criticize them when they are exploited by ambitious politicians.