Not to mention, originally Empress Dowager Cixi really wanted to die and crush the Eight-Nation Alliance, but she was quickly taught by reality to be a person.
In 1900, in the name of the Guangxu Emperor and by Empress Dowager Cixi herself, the Qing court declared war on eleven countries, including Britain, the United States, France, Germany, Russia, and Japan.
You know, at that time, the most powerful countries in the world were these countries, and This kind of action of Empress Dowager Cixi was equivalent to single-handedly challenging the whole world, and this kind of "feat" was really unprecedented.
Tough or not hard? It was quite tough, and this was the most official statement of the Qing court in the late period, and Empress Dowager Cixi also believed that it was absolutely a matter of ten to nine to use the Yang Dynasty to kill foreigners.
Unfortunately, this toughness did not last long.
There are people who do the business of beheading, but no one does the business of losing money, and when Empress Dowager Cixi's declaration of war order, the first reaction of the local governors and inspectors is that Cixi is crazy!
First of all, Sheng Xuanhuai, the postal minister who conveyed the spirit of the Qing government documents, personally demanded that this edict of declaration of war be transmitted only to the level of governor, and, without sparing any effort, electrify his colleagues not to obey the edict.
Immediately afterward, Li Hongzhang, the governor of Liangguang, openly stated: This chaotic order is also ordered, and Guangdong does not obey the edict.
Then, Zhang Zhidong, the governor of Huguang, also said: The subject sits in the southeast and does not obey the edict when he dies.
It is said that in the earliest statement drafted by Zhang Zhidong's staff, it was written that "subjects treat jiangnan with sin and do not dare to obey the edicts", and It was Zhang Zhidong himself who changed it to "the subjects sit in the southeast and do not obey the edicts in death.".
In addition, Liu Kunyi, the governor of Liangjiang, and Yuan Shikai, the governor of Shandong, also said that it was their duty to suppress the Boxers, and as for the foreigners who ran to the capital, sorry, they were not responsible.
Why did these local officials, who wanted money and grain and soldiers and soldiers, not listen to Empress Dowager Cixi's dispatches? Because, they all knew that Empress Dowager Cixi's declaration of war was a completely loss-making transaction.
First of all, in Empress Dowager Cixi's edict declaring war, it roughly means that Western countries bully their orphans and widows, so people do not distinguish between old and young, the land is not divided into north and south, as long as there is war, then they must fight with them.
The question is, how to spell? How to spell? Where to spell it from? In other words, this declaration of war, with no strategic plan or specific objectives, confused the local officials. As long as it involves war, no matter how big or small, there should be specific goals and action plans, but this edict of Empress Dowager Cixi is completely unknown.
Second, if there is a real war, in addition to a fiasco, or a fiasco, which of the previous foreign wars has won? Sino-French War? Or the Sino-Japanese War? The repeated fiasco is not entirely the military strength of the Qing government, more Qing governments "can't do it", so no matter how the war is won or lost, the final result is only one, that is, the compensation for the land cut. One or two great powers have been bullied too much to resist, and now they want to single out the whole world? Liang Jingru was not yet born.
Also, and most importantly, if there is a real war, if the war is lost, there will be only two outcomes for those local officials and individuals, either to die or to bear the pot.
Earlier, Nie Shicheng of the Wu Guards had fought well in the confrontation with the Boxers, especially in the Battle of Langfang, and successfully blocked the attack, but in the end he was surrounded and died under artillery fire.
There was also Dong Fuxiang, who fought very bravely, but only because of the repeated shelling of the embassy area in Dongjiaomin Lane, he was designated as the first murderer by the Eight-Nation Alliance and asked Empress Dowager Cixi to execute him, although he eventually escaped the disaster, but he will never be used again.
In front of the "pearl jade", how dare the local officials fight for the old money again and give up their family business to play for the Qing government?
They have long understood that the changes of the times are already unstoppable, and in the face of "changes that have not occurred in three thousand years", the decadent Qing government cannot solve any problems at all except to toss and turn.
Therefore, it is very normal to listen to the tune and not listen to the announcement, without the support of local officials, there will be no capital to die.
Of course, the Qing government also tried to strengthen the Eight-Nation Alliance, but the combat effectiveness of the Qing army not only surprised the foreigners, but also made a loyal general commit suicide in shame.
After the edict of the declaration of war was issued, not everyone did not act, and Li Bingheng, the minister of the Yangtze River Water Division, responded at the first time, and, with his own soldiers, experienced difficulties and obstacles along the way, and spent a month rushing to the capital.
Cixi was very happy about Li Bingheng's arrival, and immediately promoted Li Bingheng to the head of the Qing army in Gyeonggi, and sealed him with many other rewards such as being able to ride a horse in the Forbidden City.
Faced with empress dowager Cixi's reuse and appreciation, Li Bingheng was very excited, took the initiative to ask for help, and proposed to Empress Dowager Cixi to go to the front line to resist the Eight-Nation Alliance.
As a result, Li Bingheng, who was full of confidence, was stunned by the "amazing" combat effectiveness of the Qing army.
When Li Bingheng led a large army to Yangcun (present-day Jinwuqing County), he encountered the Eight-Nation Alliance, the other side only fired a few shots, and the Qing army on this side immediately scattered, and even the camp did not come and tie up, so the whole army was defeated. In the words of Li Bingheng, it is that he has experienced many wars since he was a child, but like today, "he has never seen it"!
However, this was not the most surprising thing for him, when the Qing army faced the foreigners, the whole army was defeated without a battle, but in the process of rout and retreat, these Qing troops exerted amazing "combat effectiveness".
At that time, the direction of retreat was Tongzhou, so along the way through many villages and towns, everywhere they went, the Qing army went door to door, began a large-scale plunder, robbing money and taking people, very powerful, not at all can not see the previous "enemy and collapse" appearance. After the looting was not finished, the Qing army also destroyed and burned the villages and towns they passed one by one, so that Li Bingheng had no place to buy military funds.
In the face of all this, this old water division minister felt ashamed of the imperial court, so after retiring to Tongzhou, Li Bingheng left a suicide note and chose to commit suicide.
As far as the combat strength of the Qing army is concerned, even if Empress Dowager Cixi had the courage to fight with the Eight-Nation Alliance, presumably the final outcome would be "defeated by the enemy" and a thousand miles away.
Li Bingheng's suicide was still because of the war, and the death of the "Five Loyalties of Gengzi" was really called a grievance.
Xu Jingcheng, a cabinet scholar, in order to alleviate the losses caused by the "Maguan Treaty" after the Sino-Japanese War, actively joined forces with Tsarist Russia and other countries to coerce Japan to return the Liaodong Peninsula, and led the famous "Three Kingdoms Returning Liao Incident".
Moreover, in 1899, when Italy proposed to lease Sanmen Bay and wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to make it its own sphere of influence, Xu Jingcheng also sternly refuted it, and cooperated with Ye Zujue, the commander of the Beiyang Marine Division, to state the interests to the Qing court, and finally forced Italy not to dare to move again, which was the first time since the great powers divided China that the Qing government rejected such a demand made by an imperialist country.
When Empress Dowager Cixi issued an edict declaring war, Xu Jingcheng tried her best to dissuade him, but Cixi stubbornly persisted and executed Xu Jingcheng on charges of "colluding with foreigners, talking about chaos, and speaking a lot of dissension."
Before his execution, Xu Jingcheng was still worried about the 400,000 taels of silver stored in the Russian bank, worried that the Russians would pay their debts, and after several explanations to his colleagues, he generously died.
There was also Yuan Chang, the secretary of the Taichang Temple, who was also loyal and advised, and together with Xu Jingcheng, was executed by Cixi on the same day.
In addition, Hubu Shangshu Lishan, Rebbe Shilang Lianyuan, and Bingbu Shangshu Xu Yongyi, because of their disagreement with Duanjun Wang Zaiyi, who strongly advocated starting a war with the Eight-Nation Alliance, and strongly advised, which aroused Zaiyi's great jealousy, and eventually they were also executed one by one.
The death of the "Five Loyalties of Gengzi" was a despicable means carried out by Zai Yi and others to eliminate dissidents within the Qing court at that time, and this was enough to prove that the Qing court at that time was already rotten to the bone.
At present, the great enemy is not thinking of painful changes, but is trying to take advantage of the opportunity to kill people, and he does not listen to the reasonable opinions of loyal and good generals, but instead wantsonly kills him.
Unlike the "Five Loyalties of Gengzi", who are bent on serving the country, the rest of the princes and ministers really can't bear to look at it directly.
After King Zaiyi of Daduan Commandery introduced the Boxers to the capital, the courage of the Manchurian Xungui began to swell extremely, and they were convinced that they must be able to defeat the foreigners by relying on "magic", so "everyone said that they insisted on the main battle".
In addition to being extremely bold, the ministers did not forget to make up myths and stories for Cixi.
Yushi Chen Jia wrote that Empress Dowager Cixi was extremely powerful, and that she could make foreigners disappear in one breath with just a seal spell; General Changshun of Jilin said that if foreigners dared to act rashly, as long as they invited Empress Dowager Cixi, the foreigners' churches would automatically turn into ashes; even more exaggerated, some people wrote to the temples of Mount Wutai, saying that in the temples of Mount Wutai, there were 100,000 divine soldiers in their hands, and as long as the imperial court gave an order, they could send divine soldiers from heaven and destroy the foreigners in an instant.
Such "shocking" remarks abounded at that time, holding Empress Dowager Cixi to heaven one by one, so that the imperial court at that time entered the world of mythology.
It was under this kind of self-anesthesia that Empress Dowager Cixi let go of her courage and issued a shocking statement that she wanted to declare war on the whole world, vowing to fight with the foreigner to the end and exalting her great qing national prestige. But the result? Even if some officers and soldiers who swore to defend the country were useless, it did not help, and eventually led to the fall of the capital and was devastated by the Eight-Nation Alliance, and Empress Dowager Cixi, who was once invincible, could only flee west in a hurry.
I don't know if she ever regretted killing the "Five Loyal Servants of Gengzi" in the process of escaping?
All in all, if when the Eight-Nation Alliance invaded, Empress Dowager Cixi did not run and chose to fight with the coalition army, with her course of action, the outcome would not change much, and it was even possible that Empress Dowager Cixi would be the first culprit and die at the hands of the Eight-Nation Alliance, and Cixi obviously knew the stakes, so she had to run, and she could not run slowly.
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