After the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement, the Qing government could only appoint Han overseers to suppress the Taiping Army for them, which gradually increased the power of the Han overseers, laying the groundwork for the subsequent southeast mutual protection incident.
The historical background of the occurrence of southeast mutual insurance
After the Boxer Rebellion broke out, the British feared that their traditional sphere of influence would be affected, so they instigated Liu Kunyi, Zhang Zhidong, Li Hongzhang, and other important officials from the southern provinces to cooperate with them, and soon led by Sheng Huaixuan, Shanghai Daoyu Lianyuan came forward to agree with the consuls in Shanghai on the "Southeast Protection Treaty" and the "Charter for the Protection of Shanghai Inside and Outside the City", stipulating that the Shanghai Concession should be jointly protected by all countries, and the Yangtze River and the interior of Suzhou and Hangzhou would be protected by the governors of the provinces.
Southeast mutual protection begins and ends
On June 21, 1900, Cixi declared war with the eleven countries at the same time in the name of Guangxu, and Sheng Huaixuan, as the minister of posts, withheld the edict, only for the local governors to watch, and told the governors not to obey this order, the local governors are not stupid, they know that the strength of the Qing Dynasty must be powerless and declare war on the eleven countries, and there is only one result, that is, it will be defeated.
The Southeast Governor did not serve each other, Cixi was very angry, but what was the use, after all, at this time they still needed to come to Beijing Qinwang, she really needed the support of the Southeast Governor, she could only keep sending reports at this time to be tougher and tougher, that is, to force them to enter Beijing to escort.
Cixi's edict declaring war until the fall of Beijing did not receive any support from the southeastern provinces.
Cixi was very distressed, and Li Hongzhang, Zhang Zhidong, and Liu Kunyi, the mainstays of the empire, did not listen to her at this critical moment, which made her very heartbroken, but the situation still had to be cleaned up.
After Cixi left Beijing, he declared the Boxers a rebel and asked Li Hongzhang to quickly enter Beijing to negotiate peace with various countries.
Li Hongzhang said that someone needs to clean up the situation and calmly go north to start the road of negotiation.
Li Hongzhang finally did not dishonor Cixi's high hopes and signed the "Xinugu Treaty" with the Eight-Power Alliance after two months of negotiations.
The Southeast Mutual Protection Cixi did not pursue the reason
The reason why Cixi did not hold Li Hongzhang and the governors of the southeastern provinces responsible is very understandable, the war in the north is chaotic and the south is stable, at this time Cixi wants to raise money as soon as possible to repay the reparations, she can only ask for help from the governors of the southeastern provinces, which means that they will soon forget their disobedience and disrespect.
Cixi needed their support so that she could continue to consolidate the rule of the Qing Dynasty, and if she punished them at this time, it would not be boring for herself, Cixi knew how to choose, she could only want everything to go as usual.
The collective disobedience of the southeastern mutual protection, which means that the central government has gradually lost control over the southern provinces, and Cixi's failure to strike now does not mean that she will not strike in the future, and she has begun to attack the southeastern provinces since the situation stabilized.
After the Gengzi state disaster, Cixi continued to transfer the governors of the southeastern provinces, so that they could not stay in one region for a long time, which would not form an inherent strength, which would also reduce the threat to the central government.
In fact, I think that neither Cixi, Li Hongzhang, Zhang Zhidong nor others are the winners of this event, and the only real winner is Yuan Shikai.