In the early morning of August 15, 1900. Cixi, the de facto ruler of late Qing China, was about to flee, why? Because the Eight-Nation Alliance had entered and would lose her life if she did not flee, she left Beijing in a hurry with Guangxu, the prince, Gege, and the harem women's relatives and went all the way west.
To say that this Empress Dowager Cixi is not afraid of heaven in China, but she is afraid of foreigners, and this foreigner has just entered the city, and the strategy does not want to be a little, and directly slips away. Of course, there is another saying that the lord of a country escaped, called "hunting", so the Cixi "Northern Hunting" and "Western Hunting" that we know are Cixi on the way to escape.
This time, of course, Cixi acted in a low-key manner, not as publicized as before, lest the people of the world not know that she was traveling, she was wearing a coarse cloth coat this time, dressed like ordinary people. Moreover, she was in too much of a hurry, and she did not even prepare a few pieces of clothing, nor did she bring enough food, so whenever she encountered a light rain, she was cold and hungry, and at this time, Cixi, who was high above, was not even as good as an ordinary refugee.
When they arrived in Hebei Province, their group went to a county to look for food, but they did not expect that everyone had escaped, leaving only one janitor, who knew these wretched people in front of them, the current Empress Dowager Lafayette and the Guangxu Emperor! Just hold up the guys in your hands and drive them away. I think that at this time, Cixi's heart should have collapsed.
Then they continued to walk until they reached Huailai County, and the hanging heart was slightly lowered, because the county order in this place came in time to pick up the driver, sending hot millet porridge and eggs, cixi was moved to tears. After some conversation, after Empress Dowager Cixi, it turned out that Wu Yong was the son-in-law of Zeng Guofan, and he also served as an aide to Li Hongzhang, and his conversation and behavior were very decent, so he took him with him and followed him all the way to the west.
Later, because of his kindness to Empress Dowager Cixi, Wu Yong was promoted to the third rank in a row, becoming a miracle in the official arena. It was not until he left Hebei and entered Shanxi that Cixi's living conditions improved, because in Shanxi, Cixi was warmly entertained by Shanxi merchants.
At that time, the merchants in Shanxi, because they operated ticket numbers or tea and the like, were all people with rich family wealth, and the most representative figures were The Two Families of Dadetong and Dadeheng.
The person in charge of Dadetong was named Gao Yu, and he had always been in close contact with the high-ranking officials of the imperial court, so when he knew that Empress Dowager Cixi had come to Shanxi, he sensed that the opportunity had come, and he dressed up Dadetong and made a new home for Cixi and Guangxu, and the scenery greeted Cixi and Guangxu and his party, in addition to offering the taste of the mountains and the sea, he also sent a large amount of silver for them to use on the road.
On the other side, Jia Jiying, the person in charge of Dadeheng, is also a smart person, and such a good opportunity naturally has to participate in the work of receiving Cixi. Cixi and his party fled in the wilderness, and did not carry any silver on them, and Cixi has always been extravagant, although there are local people filial piety, but those silver two can not withstand Cixi's expenses. Cixi quickly ran out of silver sent by others, so Wu Yong found Jia Jiying to discuss and borrow 100,000 taels of silver.
This is not a small amount, Jia Jiying found someone to discuss, everyone knows that Cixi can't stay in Shanxi for long, if you lend out 100,000 taels, there will definitely be no return. As a result, Jia Jiying did not know what the reason was, and he took the lead in taking the lead in taking the silver and supporting lending the money to Cixi and his party.
Jia Jiying's actions led the others, so the Shanxi merchants took out 300,000 taels of silver to Empress Dowager Cixi. In fact, in ancient times, according to the status, the status of merchants was actually relatively low, in the eyes of Empress Dowager Cixi, she did not look down on these merchants at all, but she did not expect that the most helpful person who fled this time was actually a businessman.
I don't know whether Cixi was out of gratitude or for other reasons, and ordered that the financial and tax payments during the westward journey be handed over to Dadetong and Dadeheng for operation. The reparations stipulated in the later "Xinugu Treaty" were also paid to foreign banks by these two Shanxi ticket numbers.
Again, no matter when others have difficulties to help, it is always right, because these two people have given them help when Cixi is in difficulty, so that they have also found new opportunities for development.