#历史开讲 #
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"Xianfeng Gengshen, the Anglo-French army invaded from the sea, Jingluo was in turmoil"
This sentence in "Barnyard Banknotes" leads to a scene that cannot be looked back on.
On August 14, 1900, the Eight-Nation Alliance set foot on the city of Beijing and launched a general attack. Inside the Forbidden City, Cixi Guangxu panicked and fled west overnight. What royal face, gold and silver treasures are all don't want, as long as you live.
But strangely, an old photo reveals that when the eight-nation coalition army entered Beijing, the people of Beijing did not panic, and some even stood on the river bank to watch this "miracle".
Why did the Qing Dynasty people not be angry and frustrated against foreign enemies at the time of national crisis, but instead watched as if they were lively? In fact, the reason behind it is very poignant.
First, Cixi misjudged and led wolves into the house
On June 21, 1900, after four consecutive imperial meetings, Empress Dowager Cixi finally decided to declare war on foreign invaders.
At this time, the late Qing Dynasty had been influenced by foreign invaders for 40 consecutive years. For decades, the late Qing government had been interfered in its internal affairs by outsiders, and Empress Dowager Cixi also knew the strength of the invading army.
"The world is bustling, all for profit; The world is crowded, all for the good." The reason why Cixi declared war on the outside world is because the foreigners have after all affected Cixi's fundamental interests.
At that time, the Guangxu Emperor was young, so the power of the dynasty had always been in the hands of Cixi. As the emperor grows older, he will inevitably engage in a power struggle with the Empress Dowager, but it is only a matter of time.
Cixi tried to poison the Guangxu Emperor, but failed. Later, he tried to depose the Guangxu Emperor, but he had already gained the support of the Restoration faction in the Restoration movement, and his wings gradually fleshed out.
Therefore, Empress Dowager Cixi declared war on the Eight-Nation Alliance, partly because Guangxu was gradually out of her control, and she wanted to maintain her dominance.
On the other hand, it was Cixi who had a wrong estimate of his country's strength. She thought that in the late period there were enough troops, and the people would also rally against the enemy and support her decision.
But in fact, from a military point of view, the heavy troops of the late Qing Dynasty were concentrated only in the Zhizhi and Beijing-Tianjin regions.
After estimating, she believed that the actual strength of the eight-nation coalition army participating in the battle might be only 40,000, while the garrisons in the directly subordinate and Beijing-Tianjin areas were as many as 110,000, which could easily win.
From the perspective of popular support, at this time, foreign missionaries had already aroused the dissatisfaction of the Qing people, and the Boxer Rebellion anti-Westernism broke out.
The movement began in Shandong, and in just half a year, it has gathered more than 100,000 members. This put a lot of pressure on the late Qing rule, who needed to spend troops to suppress the Boxer Rebellion.
Cixi was always worried that the Boxer Rebellion would affect her rule, so she thought of a move to "kill people with a knife", hoping to take advantage of the Boxer Rebellion's public opinion on foreigners and let the Boxer Rebellion members fight against the Eight-Nation Alliance, while she reaped the benefits of the fisherman.
But Cixi apparently miscalculated. Although the warriors of the Boxers fought the invading army with a fearless spirit, armed with large knives and spears, and hugged the enemy with flesh and blood. But in front of the arrogance of the great powers and the cannons of foreign guns, Tianjin and Beijing still fell.
So, on August 15, 1900, the foreign guns and cannons of the Western powers pointed directly at the imperial palace. It was a day of unprecedented humiliation in the history of the Chinese nation, with countless deaths and injuries among Boxer members protecting Beijing.
In stark contrast to the Boxer warriors were the common people of the Qing Dynasty. A photograph taken on August 14, 1900, shows a shocking scene.
In the photo, the eight-nation coalition army is entering the city of Beijing from the sewers. They did not hide the identity of the aggressors in the slightest and swaggered on the land of Beijing.
On the side of the river, the ordinary people living around did not flee in all directions, nor did they hold weapons to fight against it, but stood on the shore with their hands crossed at the waist and watched this group of foreigners from abroad.
Some people even found that among the high-spirited soldiers of the Eight-Nation Alliance, there were also yellow-skinned and black-eyed soldiers, who were not Japanese, but ordinary people of the Qing Dynasty, authentic Chinese.
Moreover, these people are well-trained and well-trained, and they are not traitors who were temporarily captured when foreigners entered the city. Why did the army of the Eight-Nation Alliance appear Chinese in the first place, and what was the secret behind it?
Second, the chaotic government of the late Qing Dynasty made the common people willing to be traitors
After the defeat of the Qing government's First Sino-Japanese War, it signed a land cession treaty with Britain to lose power and humiliate the country, and Britain "leased" the city of Weihai, Shandong.
In order to better gain a foothold in Weihai, the British invaders came up with the idea of organizing the common people locally to form a Chinese mercenary corps.
But locals are fiercely hostile to this group of blue-eyed, white-skinned foreigners. Because they occupied their homeland. For a period of time, no ordinary people came to sign up at all.
So, the British thought of raising salaries. As long as you sign up, you can get a military salary of 8 taels of silver every month, and you can also get 12 taels of silver if you become a team leader.
In addition to military salaries, rice, flour, meat and dry food are available in unlimited quantities around the clock, and uniforms are issued free of charge every season.
If outstanding performance in the army, there will be additional rewards. If the performance is not excellent but there is no record of violations, and it reaches two years, there can also be a bonus of 30 taels of silver.
Each item was extremely tempting to the common people of the late Qing Dynasty at that time. You know, the late Qing government paid heavy taxes, and the basic life of the people was very poor, and they lived in dire straits.
Moreover, the conscription policy of the late Qing Dynasty was also very tough, and there were often temporary arrests of strong men in various places.
So under the heavy profit, the number of conscripts gradually increased. In 1988, the number of applicants reached 534, and the mercenary corps was officially formed, and they were named "Hua Yong Battalion".
Among those who signed up were local farmers and retired officers and soldiers from the Qing Dynasty army. Most of them were people who had been hurt by the chaotic government of the late Qing Dynasty and were completely disappointed with the rule of the Qing Dynasty.
Some of them, like the walking dead, carry out orders, usually silent, not caring about where to go, only about the amount of food.
And the other part of the people are eating in the army in a muddle. Fights, blackmail, gambling, sleeping and other chaos are frequent, and the word "heroic" is not worthy of the word "heroic" at all.
They are people who give up their dignity under the temptation of profit. But in the final analysis, it was the chaos and dark reign of the late Qing Dynasty that created their tragedy.
When rulers regard their people as ants, how can they be required to sacrifice their lives for themselves?
Therefore, when we ask the Qing people why they did not resist, we should see that the Qing dynasty itself has gone into the abyss of darkness and decay. The harsh government was like a fierce tiger, and the late Qing people did not have a good life.
At the same time, we should also think of the social background at that time, after thousands of years of feudal social rule, the imperial examination system was deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, and the level of education of the people was extremely low.
Most of them were illiterate, endured years of oppression and feudal culture, and naturally had no spiritual pursuits.
Just as Mr. Lu Xun's sharp words described: "mourn their misfortune, anger them." They are "fools" who have not woken up from feudal society.
"The reason why the country is not prosperous is that the people's wisdom has not yet opened", this is Mr. Chen Zhongfu's emotion in the face of the walking dead people of the late Qing Dynasty.
This is also one of the reasons for the various unpatriotic acts of the Qing Dynasty people when the Eight-Nation Alliance invaded China.
Third, the "comatose king" has not died, and the "fool" has not woken up
As early as 1840, during the First Opium War, British troops swaggered into Guangzhou, Xiamen and other coastal areas. Strangely, the local Qing people did not organize resistance.
They still live their ordinary lives, and even some local farmers have taken the initiative to start business with foreigners after they entered, selling them their own vegetables, livestock and grain.
When the British fleet fought the Qing army on the Pearl River, the two armies exchanged-for-tat artillery fire. But the surrounding people were standing far away, watching like watching a movie.
Later, the British fleet broke through the Humen Fortress and went all the way north along the Pearl River. During the process, tens of thousands of local residents on both sides of the river watched the battle, and the situation was as lively as watching a dragon boat race at the Dragon Boat Festival.
Some of them are cold and calm; Others were elated. When the official ships of the Qing Dynasty army were sunk and the soldiers jumped into the water to escape, these ordinary people actually clapped their hands.
All of the above behavior was because the Qing people did not realize the actual harm to their lives caused by the invasion of foreigners. In them, there is a stupid side of feudal society.
However, they also have the heroic blood of the Chinese nation in their bones, and when the invaders harm their interests, they will still rise up and resist.
In May 1841, in Sanyuanli, Guangzhou, British troops raped local women. This angered all the people in Sanyuanli. They banded together to surround the foreigners, and with their agricultural tools and knives and axes, they killed many British soldiers and wounded more than 20.
The Eight-Nation Alliance invaded Beijing, targeting the Old Summer Palace and the imperial treasures in the Forbidden City. There is no common people to organize resistance, and there are even some ordinary people to lead the way to foreigners. The reason was that the people did not care about the death or life of the emperor.
Because these properties in the palace were originally gathered by exploiting the common people. These ordinary people naturally have no interest in protecting it, and even have the intention of taking advantage of the fire and robbery, wanting to follow the foreigners into the palace to make a profit.
One of the commanders of the British army was curious about the performance of the common people of the Qing Dynasty, so he asked someone to ask, and the answer he got was; "If the country does not know the people, the people do not know the country."
In this sentence, the rulers of the Qing Dynasty did not take the people to heart, how could they ask the people to work for them?
After the Manchus entered the customs, in order to strengthen their rule, they insisted that all the people of the Qing Dynasty have a uniform hairstyle, only with a braid on the back, which looked like a pig's tail.
At that time, the implementation of the policy was also resisted by the people. Many people with lofty ideals rallied with the goal of "opposing the Qing Dynasty and restoring the Ming Dynasty" in an attempt to overthrow the Manchus' oppression and destruction of Han culture.
But the Manchu rulers took a tough stance, threatening to "grow hair without head, and head without hair." In Yangzhou and Jiading, many heroic people who did not want to shave their heads were killed.
It was from the change of hairstyle that the decaying aura of the Qing dynasty lurked and grew. The people are becoming more and more "stupid and ignorant", and the rulers are becoming more and more "ignorant".
Especially in the late Qing Dynasty, from the ruler Cixi to the officials and ministers, everyone did not treat the common people as people, and poured heavy suffering into them.
During the First Opium War, the Qing army in Zhenjiang was collectively named Hai Ling. At the moment of life and death against the foreigners, he did not effectively organize resistance.
As a general, he indulged in the good of dogs and horses, hiding in the mansion and drinking with his wife and concubine. On the front line are ordinary soldiers in the army, holding backward sword weapons and fighting hand-to-hand with the cannons of foreigners.
In contrast, for the common people, there was only the option of enslavement in the late Qing Dynasty. One was enslaved by the Manchus, and the other was enslaved by the foreigners. There is no difference between the two, and even foreigners can get more money.
Therefore, in today's view, these unpatriotic behaviors are, in the final analysis, the "faint king" of the late Qing Dynasty not dying, and the "foolish people" not waking up.
Epilogue:
Looking back at the eight-nation coalition army stepping into the city of Beijing, burning and looting countless precious cultural relics, these memories are still the pain of the Chinese nation.
Like the destroyed Old Summer Palace, they are a constant reminder not to forget national shame.
Fortunately, the Chinese nation finally ushered in the moment of awakening, and countless revolutionaries threw their heads and spilled their blood in exchange for the current good life.
And the old photo in the archive is also a reminder that patriotism is the soul of the nation that can never be lost.
Resources:
"Barnyard Banknotes"
Boxer Rebellion Archives
"History"