When it comes to "Empress Dowager Cixi", we Chinese absolutely a belly fire, this old lady is extravagant and extravagant, extravagant and wasteful, extremely eager for power but lacks the corresponding ability, directly and indirectly led to many failed wars, signed countless unequal treaties that lost power and humiliated the country, to make people praise Cixi, there is really no way to find anything to boast.
Compared with Cixi, Empress Longyu, who was in power with her at that time, was indeed rarely mentioned, to say that Cixi was arbitrary and arbitrary, Longyu was the complete opposite of kindness and weakness, but at that time, she had a hard temper and negotiated with Yuan Shikai about the abdication conditions, indicating that the other party would rather die if he did not agree to himself, Yuan Shikai actually wanted To Nalongyu as a concubine, what was the matter?
Empress Longyu, of the Yehenara clan, a Manchurian yellow flag bearer, named Jingfen, she and Cixi can be quite close, is the daughter of Cixi's younger brother, that is, the cousin of the Guangxu Emperor, at the age of 20, she was hand-picked by Empress Dowager Cixi and married Guangxu, and the following year became an empress, staying in zhong pu palace, one of the six palaces in the east.
This is a complete political marriage, the weak Longyu did not have a choice, she did not even know what kind of person Guangxu was, she became his wife, Guangxu because she hated Empress Dowager Cixi, so she was particularly dissatisfied with this empress, only spoiled Zhenfei, of course, Cixi will not care whether you love or not, she just wants her niece Longyu to monitor Guangxu.
In fact, Longyu is very miserable, neither can he get the love of his husband, nor is he welcomed in the harem, because of his weak personality, he will not find Cixi to say anything, so he spends his life in the harem.
In 1908, Guangxu and Cixi died in succession within 2 days, Empress Dowager Cixi arranged for Puyi, who was only 3 years old, to succeed to the throne before her death, and Longyu naturally changed from empress to empress, and together with the regent Zaifeng, she got the real power of the Qing government, of course, the Qing government at this time was already in tatters and would fall at any time.
But she did not mean this at all, she did not want to become the regent empress, so the power was given to Zaifeng, she did her best to take care of the young Puyi, felt the joy of being a mother, but Zaifeng did not have any ability, but also caused the internal contradictions of the royal family to intensify, the provinces separated from the Qing government, in just 3 years, the Qing government went to extinction.
On February 12, 1912, Yuan Shikai presented the "Edict of abdication of the Qing Emperor" to Empress Longyu, after reading it, Longyu was already in tears, she knew that the Qing Dynasty was about to die, and it was going to die in her hands, Puyi on the side also cried with her, the other ministers cried loudly, Yuan Shikai sighed when she saw the situation, "If Empress Longyu is young, I will consider taking her as a concubine." Of course, this sentence was particularly shameless when Yuan Shikai said it.
Although the Qing government died, but Longyu and "son" Puyi also had to live, so Longyu put forward the abdication condition to Yuan Shikai, that is, he must give her 4 million taels, which is not a small amount, Yuan Shikai directly "bargained" to 3 million, but Empress Longyu was extremely firm, saying: "Anything can be promised to you, this money must not be less." ”
Yuan Shikai saw that she was firm, so he agreed to her request, wrote "4 million taels" on the agreement, and Empress Longyu signed the "Edict of Abdication of the Qing Emperor", which lasted for 276 years, and declared the end of the Qing Dynasty.
In fact, after signing the abdication edict, Empress Longyu was unable to let go of her heart, and soon fell ill, and after her birthday in 1913, she died at the age of 46, and she never punished or killed the people around her before she died, nor did she use bloody means to deal with the revolutionaries, so after her death, people's evaluation of her was quite positive.
Reference: Draft History of the Qing Dynasty