The Qing government pursued a policy of closing the country to the outside world, which led to the ideological feudal backwardness of the Chinese, china's productivity lagged far behind that of the West, and when Westerners were already riding on steam cars, we were still using horse-drawn carriages, and the first user of China's imported cars was Empress Dowager Cixi.
It was in 1901 AD, Cixi's big red man Li Hongzhang died, Yuan Shikai wanted to take the opportunity to ascend to the throne, just at this time encountered Cixi's 66th birthday, Yuan Shikai in order to please Cixi, but also painstaking.
Empress Dowager Cixi has never seen anything in the world, what mountain treasures and seafood have not eaten, what rare treasures have not been played, it is not easy to win Cixi a smile!
So Yuan Shikai hollowed out his mind, made a big bloody payment, spent 10,000 taels of silver tickets, bought this car from the United States, and gave it to Empress Dowager Cixi on her birthday.
Cixi had never seen this new thing and liked it very much, so the car appeared on the scene. Cixi, who received this gift, also made many jokes, such as asking: "How much grain and grass will be used for this foreigner's car?" ”
Yuan Shikai replied: Foreigners' carriages do not need to eat grass, only drink oil.
I heard that this iron guy has the strength of 19 horses. So Cixi was eager to try, but she couldn't drive, and even if she would, Empress Dowager Cixi couldn't drive it herself, so Yuan Shikai did a good job of supporting one-stop service and helped her find a driver.
The first driver was a foreigner, Cixi did not like this foreigner very much, his own Yangyang country actually no one would drive this car, and later a driver surnamed Sun learned this car, so he became Cixi's second driver.
As a result, this driver once drove for Cixi, because he had drunk the wine given by Cixi the day before, and he was a little dizzy, and he accidentally drove a car and killed a eunuch. Even if you don't crash to death, disturbing the holy car is also a capital offense, and it is inevitable to die.
At this time, the diehard ministers who had opposed Cixi's car in the past seized this opportunity and raised their objections again, saying that it was a bit uncivil for the coachman to sit in front of Empress Dowager Cixi and drive, and that he had to find a way to move his seat to the back, and it was not okay to sit and drive in front of Empress Dowager Lafayette.
After this accident, the car at that time was also beaten into the cold palace, never used again, and has been placed in the Summer Palace.
Time passed, the staff of the Summer Palace found this car, at that time its machinery and equipment were no longer available, so they reassembled, pinched and knocked it into an antique, and placed it in the Forbidden City for exhibition.
Saying that later Mercedes-Benz saw it in the Forbidden City and wanted to pay a high price to recover it, but it was rejected, this statement may be a bit exaggerated.
There has been controversy over whether the car belongs to Mercedes-Benz, which was actually produced by the Durier Company, the ancestor of the American automobile industry, in 1896, and at first many people thought it was a Mercedes-Benz car from the outside, even professionals thought it was a Mercedes-Benz. But later, according to the iron pedals on the car, it was found that it was the American Duryea (Durier).
It was built by the Durier brothers of the Durier company before the Ford company of the United States, and has nothing to do with the Mercedes-Benz company.
Then again, whether it belongs to mercedes-benz or not, our country cannot let it be recovered, it is The first imported car in China, which was personally used by Empress Dowager Cixi, with the attributes of national cultural relics and has high value. Besides, the annual turnover of our Palace Museum's cultural and creative products is several billion, and there is no shortage of its little money!