Among those killed by Cixi, there was one person who died last and so, which she regretted and could not forget. This was Zhenfei, and before Empress Dowager Cixi and the Guangxu Emperor fled west, Cixi ordered someone to push Zhenfei into the well.
This photo is a group photo of the Guangxu Emperor and his concubine Zhenfei.
Zhenfei (1876 - 1900) was a concubine of the Qing Emperor and one of Cixi's daughters-in-law.
She was the daughter of The Right Attendant of Hubu, Changxu, a Manchurian red flag bearer, and when Zhenfei was 13 years old and her 15-year-old sister was selected into the palace, she was named Jin Concubine and Zhen Concubine respectively. Among the two sisters, the Guangxu Emperor's favorite concubine was superior to the Empress Dowager's chosen Yehenara clan (empress) and other concubines. Chinese historians explain why spectroscopy alone favored Zhenfei, arguing that there are two reasons to explain it: her appearance and personality. From the appearance, Zhenfei can be said to be a beauty in the harem.
Princess Jane, who pursues freedom, does not like to bind the palace. This was also the idea that the Guangxu Emperor had dreamed of from childhood to adulthood, and the Guangxu Emperor had always felt that he lived in a cage every day. And Zhenfei and others did not always bring him a sense of freedom, and later the full Zhenfei became the spiritual pillar of the Guangxu Emperor. When the two were together, they not only talked and laughed, but sometimes discussed state affairs. For a while, Zhenfei would use his advanced ideas to make some suggestions to the Guangxu Emperor. Many times, the Guangxu Emperor felt that Zhenfei was like a fairy sent down from heaven to save him. However, after the empress dowager learned of this news, she constantly put pressure on the Guangxu Emperor and often let the Guangxu Emperor sleep with the empress to separate the feelings between the two of them. Zhenfei is like a flower of different colors. Life is bright and beautiful, she is not afraid of Cixi at all, and often quarrels with the eunuch Li Lianying. After the empress knew that Zhenfei was not afraid of power, she often made up all kinds of bad words for the Guangxu Emperor to slander his Zhenfei. But none of them had any effect, and the helpless empress could only complain to Cixi again and again, and after listening to the empress's words, Cixi had the idea of killing Zhenfei.
In 1900, when western coalition forces began to attack Beijing, Cixi immediately planned to flee. One day, before she set out, she called Concubine Zhen to her palace and seduced her with sweet words: "Now that the coalition forces are coming, we have no way back, if we don't want to be a burden to the emperor, let's jump into the well." Princess Jane said three words out loud in anger, and I could hardly escape. "The emperor did not let me die" "You love to run away", "The emperor should not escape" Just after saying this sentence, he was pushed into the well by the eunuch. According to historical records, when Princess Zhenfei was struggling in the well, hoping that the emperor could hear her voice, she did not expect this secret to be carried out, and I am afraid that not many people knew about it.
At that time, Cixi was also self-conscious, because she heard Zhenfei's last three last words, especially the last sentence, "The emperor should not flee" because in fact, she was the real "emperor" of the Qing Dynasty, who controlled all state affairs. That's right, as an emperor, you shouldn't run away, you should lead all the people against foreign invasions. But Cixi only wanted to gain power, and she didn't care at all about fighting a powerful external enemy.