When it comes to the Qing Dynasty, most people will grit their teeth and scold its loss of power and humiliate the country, in fact, the Manchus were not so bloodless when they first established the country, otherwise they would not have fought Chongzhen and Li Zicheng without temper.
Only after the closure of the country, China and other countries have broken off contacts, resulting in the development of science and technology far behind other countries, coupled with the prosperity of the Central Plains, the long-term life of drunken fans has long worn away their bloodiness, especially after the Opium War, China is even more depressed, any country can come and bully it.
To fall behind is to be beaten, which is an eternal and unchangeable theorem
。
It's just that the people in power of the Qing government were really subdued and scared, so that in the case of winning the war, they would also sign unequal treaties, and it was not wronged to say that they were losing their power and insulting the country.
However, to say that all the Eight Flags disciples are spineless soft eggs is indeed biased.
In the last years of the Qing Dynasty, there was such a prince who would rather starve to death than be a traitor, showing the integrity of Chinese.
After the founding of New China, Chairman Mao personally received him.
This person was Ai Xinjue Luo Zaitao, the younger brother of the Guangxu Emperor.
As the emperor's younger brother, it can be said that Zaitao was already a winner in life as soon as he was born, and his starting point is definitely an end that most people cannot reach.
If the national strength of the Qing government can flourish, Zaitao's life should have been a golden food and unlimited scenery.
However, fate seems to be just going to make fun of him, giving him a piece of extreme equipment, but putting him in the hell level.
Because of his special relationship with the Guangxu Emperor, after the Guangxu Emperor succeeded to the throne, he was made a second-class Zhenguo general, and Zaitao was only three years old at this time.
After the Guangxu Emperor crowned Tao as a general of Zhenguo, he seemed to be dissatisfied, and it did not take long to do so
Promoted to
Auxiliary Duke.
I don't know how to help a child who needs to be supported to walk?
However, Ai Xinjue Luo Zaitao is indeed different from the ordinary Eight Flags disciples, and the Eight Flags disciples at the end of the Qing Dynasty are generally stupid disciples, who carry caged birds all day and do not learn any techniques.
But Zaitao is not, he has loved horses all his life, and because of this, he also deliberately went to the French Sommy Cavalry School to study, specializing in cavalry combat.
Not only that, Zaitao was also ordered to visit European countries to learn the methods of training soldiers in European countries, and he traveled to almost all European powers at that time and had a very comprehensive understanding of the modern army.
Among the Manchu Qing royal families, there were absolutely very few people like him who had seriously studied modern military, so when the Qing Dynasty was at the end of its journey, the imperial court entrusted him with a heavy responsibility to form the Royal Janissaries.
Zaitao, who got this task, was also full of ambition at the beginning, after all, as a royal patriarch, the formation of a strong janissary was also to defend his family's business, wasn't it? Of course you have to do it with your heart.
This Janissary army really poured a lot of effort into Zaitao, from the establishment to the uniform, training methods, weapons and equipment are all based on the standards of the German and French armies, and the Qing government has invested a lot of money in this regard.
He personally selected instructors for this new army, and they were all talents who graduated from serious military academies and had excellent character and learning.
In addition, in the selection of soldiers, Zaitao is also not at all satisfied,
Be between the ages of seventeen and twenty-five and be over 4 feet 8 inches tall (about 168 cm) tall
, good facial features and no physical disability or invisible disease, while political innocence has no bad habits.
Zaitao originally planned to complete the training of this army in two years, but due to various reasons, the reorganization did not go smoothly, and it took two and a half years to basically complete the training subjects, and there was still a long way to go before the formation of combat effectiveness.
Zaitao had high hopes for this unit, and as soon as the Janissaries were formed, he couldn't wait to show his achievements to the imperial court.
To this end, Zaitao specially invited the then regent Zaifeng to come and inspect the army, and Zaifeng was also very curious about this army, so he gladly agreed to his invitation.
On July 24, 2003,
The Janissaries lined up on both sides of the Desheng Gate in full costume, waiting for Zaifeng to review
We don't know exactly how much combat effectiveness this army is, but after more than two years of training, strict military discipline is still remarkable.
On the day of the parade, the Janissaries were full of vigor and vigor, and the queue was neat and light, and looking at the spirit of this unit, they did not know how many streets to throw the Eight Banner Soldiers.
As the military music sounded, Zaifeng slowly walked in the middle of the queue in a carriage, looking at such soldiers, Zaifeng frequently nodded, always with a satisfied smile on his face, at this time he really saw the hope of the rebirth of The Qing Dynasty Nirvana.
However, what made Zaitao depressed was that this Janissary Army, which he had pinned high hopes on, had fallen into power before it could carry out actual combat.
However, this has something to do with Zaitao's character of being smart and lacking in courage.
Shortly after the Janissaries completed their training,
The Wuchang uprising sounded the death knell of the Qing government.
At this time
Qing court
There were no more leading soldiers, and in desperation, he had to use Yuan Shikai again, an ambitionist.
After the comeback, Yuan Shikai's ambitions were extremely inflated, and he knew that the Qing government could not do without him now, so he could sigh a little, but once the Qing government eased up, I was afraid that the first one would have to deal with him.
If the Qing government wanted to compromise, it had to pull out its teeth, and this Janissaries armed to the teeth naturally became Yuan Shikai's primary target.
In order to achieve his goal, Yuan Shikai proposed to the Qing government that if he wanted to quickly quell the chaos, it was best to send a highly respected imperial family to personally lead the army, so as to improve the morale of the army and reverse the previous decline and turn defeat into victory.
I think what Yuan Shikai said also has some truth, to find a person in the imperial family who is good at leading soldiers, the first thing they think of is Zaitao.
After all, the Royal Janissaries were created by him, and he could be said to be the strongest in the military ability of the entire Aisin Kyora family, and there was no one.
But what is unexpected is that Zaitao actually resigned from this matter.
In Zaitao's words:
"It is acceptable for the subjects to train troops, but it is not easy to lead the troops to fight."
In fact, it is not strange that Zaitao, although he graduated from the famous cavalry school in Europe, but after all, this person has never been on the battlefield, and no one dares to take this job without experiencing a fight.
Since the royal family could not find such a person, who could give the command of the Janissaries to?
In the end, as Yuan Shikai expected, he became the commander of this army.
In the end, this army, which was supposed to support the Qing court, did not shoot a single shot at the invaders, but instead became a weapon for Yuan Shikai to suppress the revolution.
In January 1912, the Qing government was surviving day by day, and Yuan Shikai had a heavy army to force the Qing court to negotiate peace with the Southern Revolutionary Party.
Of course, Zaitao knew that once the peace was successfully negotiated with the revolutionary party, the Qing Dynasty would be over, and as the patriarch of the imperial family, he naturally did not want this to happen, so he contacted Zaixun, Liangbi, Tieliang and other main warriors to form the Sect Socialist Party.
It aims to prevent the North and the South from negotiating peace and advocating armed resistance to the end.
The existence of the Zongshe Party made Yuan Shikai very embarrassed, nominally he was still a Qing Dynasty official, and he could not brazenly jump out against the Zongshe Party, but the Zongshe Party did stand in his way, and this organization must be allowed to disappear.
Fortunately, the revolutionary party in the south also regarded the sectarian socialist party as a thorn in the flesh, which gave Yuan Shikai room to operate.
On the one hand, he lied that he was injured in the assassination of the revolutionary party and asked for leave to recuperate at home, and on the other hand, he secretly contacted Wang Jingwei to use the alliance to assassinate the leader of the zongshe party.
This move was indeed immediate, and when several leaders of the clan socialist party were assassinated on their own turf, the rest of the people, including Zaitao, were frightened and no longer trumpeted the death war, and the clan socialist party disappeared with it.
Although Zaitao made an effort,
But after all, when manpower is poor, no one can stop the wheel of history from rolling forward.
The Qing Dynasty eventually died, and the Eight Flags disciples who originally relied on monthly money to eat, drink and have fun were miserable, and although Zaitao was not a clumsy person, his life became difficult without economic resources.
Sitting like this, it didn't take long for the family's savings to be spent, a royal nobleman you let him go out to find some work to make some money, he couldn't pull down this face, let alone there was no craftsmanship, and he couldn't do the work of selling strength.
There was no way, in order to live, Zaitao began to sell the objects in the seller, it is said that every night he had to go to the ghost market in Beijing to set up a stall, sometimes even in order to compete with others for stalls, a prince fell to this point has to be lamented.
In 1917, things seemed to take a turn for the better.
At this time, Yuan Shikai's attempt to restore the imperial system failed, and he had already died the year before.
After Yuan Shikai stepped down, Li Yuanhong took over as president, but the real power was not in his hands.
Duan Qirui, who was the premier of the State Council at the time, was the real person in charge, and under such circumstances, contradictions inevitably arose between the two of them, and this contradiction intensified, gradually developing from a fight of words to a trend of using force.
At this time, an interesting person appeared, Zhang Xun, who had been turning to the old lord since the peaceful end of the Qing Dynasty, in order to show his heart.
His team wore braids from top to bottom, known as the Braid Army.
He was once highly valued for supporting Yuan Shikai's claim to the throne, but in his heart there was only one thing that he had always had in mind, that is, to restore the rule of the Qing government, and later the dispute between Li Yuanhong and Duan Qirui made him see the hope of restoration.
In June 1917, Zhang Xun mediated the contradictions between Li Yuanhong and Duan Qirui.
Led 3,000 braided troops into Beijing.
He immediately took control of the Forbidden City and supported Puyi as emperor, and issued an edict to urgently invite the Qing Dynasty to enter the dynasty.
Zaitao, as Puyi's closest person, is naturally also among them, and when he heard that Puyi had already been proclaimed emperor, Zaitao was also very excited and hurried into the Forbidden City to pay his respects. Zhang Xun also valued this royal widow and made him the commander of the Janissaries.
But this happiness came and went quickly,
In just 12 days, the restoration farce was over.
Originally, Zhang Xun felt that his prestige among the Beiyang warlords was very high, and once he was restored, he would definitely follow the crowd.
Unfortunately, the development of things greatly exceeded his expectations, Zhang Xun was quite lively in Beijing, and the warlords who called him brothers and brothers did not react much.
This is a bit embarrassing, and with this little bit of what he brought into Beijing, people naturally can't make any waves.
After the failure of Zhang Xun's restoration, Zaitao once again became a commoner, and after this ups and downs, he gradually recognized the reality, knowing that the Qing Dynasty had been eliminated by history and that he could never go back to the past.
Later, when Xu Shichang was president, in order to win over the Manchu Qing royal family, he also made him a general.
After Xu Shichang stepped down, Zaitao completely bid farewell to the political stage and has since disappeared from everyone.
In 1919, he sold Langrunyuan to Yenching University and used the money he earned to get by.
In 1929, life in Zaitao Mansion was no longer sustainable, and he had no choice but to sell the Baylor Mansion to Fu Jen University.
Zaitao and his family rented a courtyard and used the money from the sale of their ancestral property to make ends meet.
Although this money is quite a lot, on the one hand, because his family population is too large, on the other hand, Zaitao is usually very generous, so this money will soon be stretched.
After that, Zaitao began his stall setting career, but you don't have to say that once he went out to set up a stall and happened to meet an acquaintance, after the acquaintance inadvertently shouted his identity, Zaitao's business was surprisingly good.
After all, with the royal family's vest, the quality of the things he sells is also guaranteed, right?
What's more interesting is that because he didn't fly around when he was in the scenery before, on the contrary, he was very approachable, which accumulated a lot of popularity for him, so when he came to set up the stall, everyone would give him the best position, and the fight for the stall with him never happened again.
Although you can't get rich and expensive by relying on sellers, it is not a problem to eat enough and wear warmly, so Zaitao has lived a calm and leisurely life.
In the blink of an eye, in 1931, the September 18 Incident broke out, and the Japanese invaders occupied the three eastern provinces.
Soon after, they established a puppet state of Manchukuo in the northeast and colonized the three eastern provinces.
In 1934, in order to make their aggression seem more justified, the Japanese supported Puyi as the emperor of Manchukuo.
Puyi, who had always been grumpy about the revolutionary party forcing him to abdicate, did not care about national integrity and went so far as to collude with the invaders, gladly agreed to the Japanese request, and announced his succession in the northeast.
When he first ascended to the throne, Puyi wanted to invite some ministers he once trusted to come out of the mountains again, and the Japanese were naturally happy about this.
In Puyi's eyes, Zaitao is definitely the person he trusts the most, after all, the relationship between the two is there, and Zaitao does have some talent, which is still very useful to Puyi.
Therefore, the first thing he did after he ascended the throne was to issue an edict and let Zaitao enter the puppet state of Manchukuo as an official.
Originally, Puyi thought that with the relationship between the two, Zaitao would immediately pack up and prepare to go north when he received the edict.
As a result, Puyi miscalculated this time, zaitao was very excited at first after receiving this edict, but when he knew that Puyi was cooperating with the Japanese, his eyes were full of disappointment, and then he politely declined Puyi's invitation on the pretext that he was old and frail and could not travel a long distance.
The Japanese Kwantung Army, the chief of the Fengtian secret service, Kenji Toihara, heard about this incident and felt that this Zaitao had a superior position in the Manchu Qing imperial family, and if he could express his support for the puppet manchukuo, then the other members of the Manchu imperial family would definitely come to vote.
Besides, you, a Manchu and ruined royalty, dared not to give us face, and this paid off?
So Kenji Toihara personally went out to find Zaitao, but he didn't expect that Zaitao, who had always been fearless, was surprisingly tough this time, even if Kenji Toihara put the saber on his neck, he did not let go.
At that time, the Manchu nobles still had some use value for the Japanese, and Kenji Toihara did not dare to really kill Zaitao, after all, he did not want the entire Manchu Qing imperial family to fight against the Japanese, so after some coercion and inducement was fruitless, Kenji Toihara also left Beiping sadly.
For the wealth at his fingertips, Zaitao chose to give up, because he had such a bottom line in his heart, that is, he would rather die than be a traitor.
He always firmly believed that China's suffering would always pass, and one day the motherland would be reborn in nirvana and once again stand tall among the world's great powers.
With a firm belief in his heart, Zaitao, like all Chinese people, looked forward to the early dawn in the darkness.
In 1949, the founding of New China,
Zaitao's home came to a guest that surprised him.
This person is the director of the police station in the street where Zaitao's family is located, and the purpose of his visit is to learn that Zaitao is familiar with everything in the neighborhood and has great prestige, hoping that he can contribute to the new China and help the government do some work.
Zaitao gladly accepted this task and began to help the police station count the household registration and help the street to do sanitation.
Because he treats people very kindly and has no shelf, slowly the people on the street also become acquainted with him, shouting one by one, and he himself is also happy in it, and seems to have found the meaning of life.
The Second Session of the First National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference was held in Beijing, and Zaitao was qualified to attend the meeting, which made Zaitao, who wanted to contribute to the cause of new China's construction, very excited, and he took this opportunity to propose it
"Improving the Military Horse Eli Military"
of bills.
After Chairman Mao and Commander-in-Chief Zhu De read it, they praised the motion and handed it over to the Artillery Command for implementation.
After this battle, Chairman Mao saw Zaitao's ability in terms of war horses, and it was the so-called let the right people do the right things, so Hu Zaitao transformed himself into a change
He became an adviser to the Ma Zheng Bureau of the Artillery Headquarters of the Chinese People's Liberation Army and enjoyed the treatment of deputy ministerial level
During the Period of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, Zaitao was ordered to go to the northeast, Inner Mongolia and other places to select warhorses.
He worked tirelessly day and night, insisted on personally looking at each war horse, and finally completed the task perfectly, sending a total of 25,000 excellent war horses to the volunteer soldiers, and making great contributions to the victory of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea.
Although Zaitao's official work after the founding of New China was not small, his life has always been very simple, and Chairman Mao was once touched by his deeds.
He also sent him his own 2,000 yuan manuscript fee.
On September 2, 1970, Ai Xin Jue luo Zaitao died in Beijing at the age of 83, and his ashes were placed in the Babaoshan Martyrs' Cemetery for posterity to visit.
The legendary life of the assistant chancellor of the Qing Dynasty ended here, starting from the top and ending with plain innocence, although he lost his life of glory and wealth and wanton squandering, he got the sublimation of his soul, so until the last moment of his life, Zaitao was grateful to New China and Chairman Mao.