Empress Dowager Cixi was a very strange person, when the Qing Dynasty was far ahead of the Qing Dynasty because the scientific and technological equipment of the Western powers was far ahead of the Qing Dynasty, and it was humiliating to the Qing Dynasty, but Empress Dowager Cixi also regarded the Qing Dynasty as a heavenly dynasty; Empress Dowager Cixi listened to the government from the beginning of the Tongzhi Emperor's ascension to the throne in 1861, and until her death in 1908, Empress Dowager Cixi was the real speaker of the Qing Dynasty, but when she was about to die, she left a testament: Never let a woman take power again.
In addition, Empress Dowager Cixi's ignorance was also famous, Li Hongzhang bought a railway for Empress Dowager Cixi, and bought a steam locomotive, but Empress Dowager Cixi asked to use a horse to drag the train away; Yuan Shikai gave Empress Dowager Cixi a car as a means of transportation in 1902, but Empress Dowager Cixi said: "This horse runs so fast, it should eat a lot of grass, right?" Empress Dowager Cixi was also very afraid of the camera, believing that there was a devil lurking in the camera, and all those who took pictures would be seduced by this devil.
Even Empress Dowager Cixi was so ignorant and dismissive of scientific and technological products, how could the Qing Dynasty develop? However, even though Wanqing had been shaken to the point of life and death, there were still many capable and heartfelt courtiers who wanted to bring this decadent empire back to life, including the Xiang general Zeng Guofan and Li Hongzhang, who had been the governor of zhili.
Many modern people have a deep prejudice against Li Hongzhang, believing that Li Hongzhang signed a series of unequal treaties such as the "Xinugu Treaty" and was a villain who betrayed the imperial court. But in fact, Li Hongzhang was a good minister comparable to Fan Zhongyan, Wang Anshi and other historical figures, and Li Hongzhang was only a "back cooker" at the time of the "Xinugi Treaty", and Li Hongzhang signed it only in accordance with Cixi's decision to "measure the national strength of China and tie the heart of the country". Li Hongzhang is very tall in the eyes of foreigners, and Japan's Ito Hirobumi said that Li Hongzhang was the only capable person in the entire Qing Dynasty who could fight against the great powers.
In addition to the "Xinugu Treaty", Li Hongzhang was often criticized for corruption, but Li Hongzhang could really be regarded as a clean wind in his sleeves, and although the imperial court allocated a lot of funds to Li Hongzhang, Li Hongzhang put these huge sums of money in the military factories and schools founded during the Beiyang Navy and the Foreign Affairs Movement. Don't talk about embezzling money, many times Li Hongzhang still has to paste it upside down. Because Li Hongzhang was also responsible for military equipment and treasury financial expenditures, he was very able to feel the predicament faced by the Qing Dynasty, and Li Hongzhang's bitterness could also be seen from Li Hongzhang's purchase of the Makqin machine gun.
In the 1890s, Li Hongzhang came to the United States and saw the Maxim machine gun invented by the British British in the United States in 1883. Li Hongzhang has always believed that the reason why the Qing Dynasty lagged behind was because its weapons and equipment lagged behind too many Western countries, so it has not been able to defeat Western countries. Since the beginning of the foreign affairs movement, Li Hongzhang has been importing advanced equipment from foreign countries to arm the Qing Dynasty army, and after seeing the Makqin machine gun, Li Hongzhang was also happy to see the hunter, so he asked the Americans to demonstrate the Makqin machine gun.
Three minutes after firing, because the temperature of the machine gun barrel was too high to cease fire, Li Hongzhang asked the foreigner a question: "How many bullets can be fired per minute?" The foreigner thought that Li Hongzhang wanted to order, and his eyebrows fluttered and he described it: "There is no problem in hitting three hundred pieces per minute." Unexpectedly, Li Hongzhang said: "The amount of ammunition used is too much, and the Qing Dynasty cannot afford to consume it." When lao wai heard this, his face changed drastically, and he did not expect that the Qing Dynasty had reached this point of poverty.