The wind is swirling in the clouds, and it is customary to watch the mulberry fields become vicissitudes; from ancient times to the present, how many stories are laughing!
In the last years of the Qing Dynasty, the imperial court was chaotic, and with the pace of invasion by foreign powers, the Qing Dynasty gradually declined step by step, at this time, the appearance of a woman accelerated the already crumbling Qing Dynasty to its demise, she was Cixi. In 1875, when the four-year-old Guangxu Emperor ascended to the throne, the power of the Qing court had fallen into the hands of Empress Dowager Cixi, and the power of the Guangxu Emperor was basically emptied. The Guangxu Emperor was eager to carry out imperial reforms and save the fate of the Qing government, but Empress Dowager Cixi was obedient to the government and the power was tilted to the opposition, and the Guangxu Emperor had more than enough heart and insufficient strength, so why did Li Hongzhang, as a heavy minister of the imperial court, not support the Guangxu Emperor, but serve Cixi?
As one of the most important ministers of the Qing court, Li Hongzhang held great power, superb vision and political and military ability, and knew that Cixi was in trouble, but he also understood that he was now sitting in this position from Cixi. Li Hongzhang was a clerk during the Daoguang years, when Li Hongzhang was a new branch of Zeng Guofan, who had been in the imperial court for decades, and Had experienced several emperors, Li Hongzhang, who had experienced several emperors, gradually developed and even surpassed Zeng Guofan under the promotion of Empress Dowager Cixi.
Under the circumstances at that time, Li Hongzhang clearly knew that it was a wise choice to stand in Cixi's camp, Li Hongzhang had bowed to Cixi for many years, Empress Dowager Cixi greatly appreciated and trusted Li Hongzhang, and the career of officials and eunuchs was bright. After so many years of cooperation with Cixi's interests, he did not have to abandon his existing personal resources and venture into the camp of the Guangxu Emperor, nor would he gamble the results of so many years of hard work on a young and powerless emperor. Even if Li Hongzhang defected to the Guangxu Emperor's camp, would the Guangxu Emperor really trust Li Hongzhang? Certainly not, as a confidant of Empress Dowager Cixi, the Guangxu Emperor was absolutely jealous of Li Hongzhang, and it was impossible to identify with Li Hongzhang from the bottom of his heart. Moreover, Li Hongzhang's power in the imperial court would threaten the imperial power, so that the Guangxu Emperor was even less likely to accept Li Hongzhang.
Even if Li Hongzhang gradually wanted to move closer to the Guangxu Emperor in the later period, Empress Dowager Cixi would not easily let Li Hongzhang go. Looking at the entire Qing court, no one dared to challenge Cixi's authority, and the consequences of daring to challenge it were only a dead end. When Li Hongzhang was an official under Zeng Guofan, he had witnessed Empress Dowager Cixi pulling her own son from the official position due to power disputes, let alone the Guangxu Emperor as his adopted son. With the signing of a series of unequal treaties such as the Sino-Japanese War and the Opium War, the fate of Li Hongzhang and Cixi at this time was closely linked, and Li Hongzhang was the most powerful person in the Qing government in the eyes of foreign powers, and he could not give everything he had in front of him to the Guangxu Emperor.
During the reign of the Guangxu Emperor, he accepted foreign ideas and was bent on reforming the Qing court, but Li Hongzhang's rights were attached to the connections in the court, so that the reform of the Guangxu Emperor disrupted the internal imperial program of the imperial court, and Half of Li Hongzhang's life's efforts may be about to be destroyed. Therefore, it is reasonable that Li Hongzhang could not support the Guangxu Emperor.