In January of the 26th year of Guangxu, Li Hongzhang was appointed governor of Liangguang.
During this period, a vigorous Boxer rebellion took place in the north, and four months later, Britain, France and other countries formed the Eight-Power Alliance and launched a heinous war of aggression against China on the pretext of extinguishing the Boxers.
Empress Dowager Cixi, the de facto ruler of the Qing court, did not want to resist,
Instead, he fled west with the Guangxu Emperor and ceded the entire city of Beijing to the invading powers
During this period, the city of Beijing suffered an extremely dark moment in history, and to this day, the ruins and broken walls of the Yuanmingyuan still tell the people of the countrymen about the tragedy of that period of history.
The great powers only wanted to grab more illegal benefits in China, and in the face of Empress Dowager Cixi's compromise, they feared that a change of ruler would be more unfavorable to them, so they agreed to the Qing court's request for peace.
Empress Dowager Cixi saw hope and ordered Li Hongzhang to go north to negotiate peace with the Eight-Nation Alliance, but since the opinions of the great powers at that time were not completely agreed, Li Hongzhang was very concerned about it, so he was reluctant to go north.
This made the Qing ruler very unhappy, so he appointed Li Hongzhang as the governor of directly subordinate and the minister of Beiyang, and successively urged him to go north, and Li Hongzhang had no choice but to go north to negotiate peace with the great powers.
After many consultations, the great powers determined twelve treaties, including unreasonable demands such as land cession and compensation, and although Li Hongzhang argued with the great powers on the basis of reason, in the end the great powers did not give in, and Li Hongzhang had to sign the treaty.
Li Hongzhang signed the traitorous treaty, and he was also condemned by many people in China, and some even directly cursed Li Hongzhang as a traitor.
Li Hongzhang was very sad and indignant, originally his health was not good, his mental state deteriorated, and even vomited blood, and it was not long before Li Hongzhang cried out for his life in a wave of condemnation.
But no one could have imagined,
More than fifty years after his death, Li Hongzhang will also experience a tragic encounter, not only the grave has been blown open, but his bones have also been hung behind a tractor and paraded through the streets.
What the hell is going on here, let's see.
Li Hongzhang's beautiful participation in the funeral
Throughout the last years of the Qing Dynasty, many unequal treaties signed between the Qing court and the great powers were mostly by The hand of Li Hongzhang, who was once praised by the rulers of the Qing court as a small diplomatic expert, and even some of the great powers even pointed out that Li Hongzhang had to come forward by name before they agreed to peace talks, which shows the high popularity of Li Hongzhang at that time.
However, this also makes Li Hongzhang very criticized by the Chinese people.
After Li Hongzhang signed the Treaty of Maguan with Japan, he encountered an assassination
Because he was bleeding too much at the time, this caused him to develop symptoms of dizziness as long as he was tired.
After the Invasion of China by the Eight-Power Alliance, Li Hongzhang was so tired every day that he had symptoms of vomiting blood, coughing sputum, and not eating.
Think about it, at this time, Li Hongzhang is more than seventy years old, and it seems reasonable to have these symptoms, especially if he has to overwork all day, so it is even more strange.
Before the signing of the "Xinugu Treaty", Li Hongzhang's illness worsened sharply, and he could not even look at things, but even so, Li Hongzhang was still thinking about how to make the great powers give in a little more, and in the end the great powers did not give in, and Li Hongzhang's life was about to come to an end.
After the signing of the "Xinugu Treaty", Li Hongzhang suffered from colds again, and later his physical condition deteriorated, and he even "vomited blood for several bowls".
After the doctor's diagnosis, Li Hongzhang was diagnosed with a ruptured stomach vessel, and only a few days later, Li Hongzhang died at the age of 79.
When Empress Dowager Cixi heard the news of Li Hongzhang's death, her heart was extremely sad, as if she had lost her last pillar.
When Empress Dowager Cixi returned to Beijing again, she gave Li Hongzhang a large reward, not only posthumously honoring him as a taifu, but also promoting him to a first-class marquis, and rewarding him with 5,000 taels for his funeral.
In order to thank Li Hongzhang for his contribution, the Qing court also specially built a special shrine for him, and let local officials make regular sacrifices, throughout the history of the Qing Dynasty, the only person who can build a shrine in Beijing is Li Hongzhang.
Li Hongzhang's grave was blown open
Li Hongzhang was not buried in Beijing after his death, but rather
He was buried in Daxingji, Hefei, Anhui
At that time, Daxingji was only a commodity distribution center for a few small villages nearby, which was not prosperous at all, and it is said that it was originally a trading street set up by the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in this area.
This place is the cemetery chosen by Li Hongzhang very early, perhaps many people think that this place is the birthplace of Li Hongzhang, in fact, it is not, Li Hongzhang is in Feidong County, Hefei City, and there is still some distance from this place, of course, this place is not the location of the Li family's ancestral grave.
So why did Li Hongzhang choose this place as a cemetery?
This is because there are also two great figures buried here- Bao Zheng of the Song Dynasty and Zhang Desheng of the Ming Dynasty, especially Bao Zheng was the most admired figure of Li Hongzhang's life
It can be seen that Li Hongzhang chose this place as a cemetery to pay tribute to his predecessors.
In the spring of 1903, Li Hongzhang's coffin was transported here for burial, and his cemetery area reached more than 10,000 square meters, with a total of 99 large and small rooms.
In the blink of an eye, half a century has passed, new China has been established for nearly a decade, and the people of Daxingji have built a steel factory, and in order to collect the materials of the steel plant, they have set their sights on Li Hongzhang's cemetery.
Since the local people have always thought that Li Hongzhang is a traitor, they will naturally not be polite to his cemetery, and when they received instructions from their superiors, the local production team dispatched 32 production teams to excavate Li Hongzhang's cemetery.
Because Li Hongzhang's cemetery was too strong, people could not use iron hammers to smash it, and finally they chose to use explosives to blow up a hole in the cemetery, and someone entered the cemetery and dragged Li Hongzhang's coffin out of it.
Li Hongzhang's bones were dragged through the streets
At that time, many people felt that Li Hongzhang's coffin must have a lot of gold and silver jewelry, but Li Hongzhang disappointed them, in addition to Li Hongzhang's body, there was only a pair of glasses, a crutch, seven gold coins arranged according to the seven stars of the Big Dipper, and a sword.
People were unwilling, and they looked at the coffin of Li Hongzhang's wife, Zhao Xiaolian, in
This coffin has a delicate wooden box, when the box is opened, two golden "gold bricks" into people's eyes, someone weighed it with a scale, a full thirty pounds, but after expert identification, this is not a gold brick at all, but a copper brick.
Li Hongzhang's grave was blown open, but the funerary goods inside disappointed the people, because Li Hongzhang's reputation was not good at that time, some people suggested that his bones be used to parade the streets to show people the fate of traitors.
According to the recollections of those who excavated the graves at that time:
At that time, Li Hongzhang was wearing a yellow coat, and his body was relatively well preserved, so people hung his body on a rope and hung it behind a tractor.
All the way down, Li Hongzhang's body was scattered everywhere, and no one collected it for him, and finally the bones were scattered, and the body did not exist, which was really regrettable.
The Li Hongzhang cemetery we see now was rebuilt later, but among them
There was almost nothing that belonged to Li Hongzhang, only the empty coffin where he had been lying.
Li Hongzhang has been beautiful for a lifetime, who could have imagined that there would be such a catastrophe in the decades after his death?
Perhaps when Li Hongzhang repeatedly signed the traitorous treaty for the Qing government, he had already thought of this.
It's just that the Qing court was weak at that time, and what could he change if he stood up and didn't sign?
Li Hongzhang is multi-faceted, and his merits have been evaluated by others, so what kind of person do you think Li Hongzhang is?
References: Draft History of the Qing Dynasty, Complete Works of Li Hongzhang, Biography of the History of the Qing Dynasty, etc.
(Figure network intrusion and deletion)