On July 20, the 26th year of Guangxu (1900), the Eight-Nation Alliance army approached the city of Beijing, and the capital of the Qing Dynasty was in danger. In the face of the ferocious Eight-Nation Alliance, Cixi, who had declared war on the various countries, had no courage, and she was ready to take the Guangxu Emperor and a cadre of people to immediately leave the city of Beijing and flee west. At this time, Cixi was in a terrible state, and she did not want to stay in Beijing for a moment, but at such a critical juncture, Cixi went so far as to have Zhenfei executed. What exactly was the enmity between Cixi and Zhenfei that Cixi had to kill Zhenfei? In fact, Cixi killed Zhenfei for two main reasons.
The first reason is related to Zhenfei's support for the Guangxu Transformation. Zhenfei was one of the few concubines in ancient China who accepted advanced Western ideas and dared to fight against the feudal etiquette of the court. Princess Zhen was born into a family of officials and eunuchs, but she was free of thought and courageous, and knew that the Qing Dynasty was weak and weak, and only reform could save the country. Princess Zhen was aware of her husband's suffering and reform ideals of the Guangxu Emperor, so she firmly supported her husband's reforms. The bold Concubine Zhen even confronted Cixi in person after disagreements with Cixi many times, which the Guangxu Emperor did not dare to do.
Although Guangxu was the emperor, Cixi was the de facto ruler of the Qing Dynasty, and Princess Zhen understood this. In order to get rid of Cixi's control, Zhenfei constantly instigated Guangxu to carry out reforms, and at the same time demanded power from Cixi and gained real power. Zhenfei's behavior completely violated Cixi's anti-scales, and the iron-fisted empress dowager of the Qing Dynasty could not tolerate the most was that others interfered with her power. Therefore, the concubines who constantly instigated the Guangxu Emperor to seize power naturally made Cixi resentful.
Cixi reprimanded Zhenfei many times and forced Guangxu to snub Zhenfei. After finding Zhenfei's handle, Cixi also humiliated her in every way and beat her into the cold palace. After the Eight-Nation Alliance army came to the city, Cixi planned to take the Guangxu Emperor with her, and Zhenfei was undoubtedly an unstable factor, and taking her on the road could easily make Guangxu have "incorrect" thoughts. Therefore, even at the critical moment of escape, Cixi still did not forget to order Zhenfei to be pushed into the well and drowned.
Of course, in addition to Zhenfei's support for the Guangxu reform, Zhenfei was killed by Cixi, and there was another reason, that is, Zhenfei already had a vendetta against Cixi. The Guangxu Emperor had one empress and two concubines, but he favored Zhen Concubine alone and snubbed Empress Dowager Cixi's niece, Empress Yulong. This made Empress Dowager Cixi very dissatisfied with Zhenfei and always wanted to clean her up, and Zhenfei also gave Cixi a chance.
In the works of later generations, Zhenfei is often a progressive who is concerned about reform, a poor person with a tragic fate, but objectively speaking, Zhenfei is not a virtuous concubine who comes out of the mud and is not stained. Princess Zhen had been engaged in the business of selling officials and knights, and with the help of the favor of the Guangxu Emperor, she sought official positions for many people in exchange for returns. And this also gave Cixi a reason to attack Zhenfei, and she beat Zhenfei into the cold palace on the grounds of "interfering in state affairs".
It can be said that Cixi was already very dissatisfied with this "fox spirit" who let her niece fall out of favor, and coupled with the fact that Princess Zhen had repeatedly instigated Guangxu to change the law and seize power, Cixi already had the intention of killing her. When the Eight-Nation Alliance was about to invade the city of Beijing, Cixi was worried that Zhenfei would be a destabilizing factor in the future, so she threw Zhenfei into the well and killed her on the grounds that "it would be inconvenient to take Zhenfei away, and she was afraid that her youth would cause right and wrong and insult the royal face".