The advanced Mercedes-Benz car was actually disliked by the Empress Dowager Cixi, but modern people flock to it, is the Mercedes-Benz company really a high-priced sincere acquisition, or ulterior motives, another intention?
On November 29, 1901, the Empress Dowager Cixi held her 66th birthday celebration in the Summer Palace. During this period, the princes and ministers vied with each other to offer carefully prepared treasures to win the favor of the Queen Mother.
Yuan Shikai, who was well versed in the Queen Mother's love for Western objects, donated a car to successfully attract the attention of the Queen Mother. After learning that this four-wheeled "Yanmar carriage" could run without horses or grazing, the Queen Mother was overjoyed and was eager to try it on the spot, wanting to experience the new objects made by foreigners for the first time. Because this car was the first imported car in the mainland, and because its owner was the Empress Dowager Cixi, the highest power holder of the Qing Dynasty at that time, its value increased more than 100 times.
It is said that when the experts of the German Mercedes-Benz company came to visit Beijing, they found that this car was the second-generation Mercedes-Benz of their company, which was very collectible for them, so they decided to pay a high price to exchange it back, but it was rejected by the mainland. Whether this is true or not, it is impossible for the mainland to exchange it, and in addition to its own collection value, there is a deeper historical significance to the entire Chinese nation behind it.
It appeared at a birthday celebration that shouldn't have taken place
China in 1901 was not like the birthday celebration in the Summer Palace, singing and dancing were peaceful and peaceful. In that year, the Qing government and the Western powers signed a humiliating "Xinchou Treaty", which humiliated the country, and the Qing government was burdened with huge debts, and China was torn apart that year, and the Chinese nation was in dire straits, facing the crisis of extinction.
In August 1900, the Eight-Nation Coalition broke through the city of Beijing and began to burn and loot in the city of Beijing, seeing that the imperial city at the foot of the Son of Heaven could not get rid of the situation of being invaded by foreign powers, the supreme ruler of the Qing government, the Empress Dowager Cixi, took the puppet emperor Guangxu Emperor, disguised as a refugee and fled to Xi'an in a hurry, leaving only Li Hongzhang and others to negotiate peace with the invaders.
After a year of arduous negotiations, the Qing government signed the most humiliating "Xinchou Treaty" with the foreign powers, which stipulated that the Qing government would "apologize" to the foreign powers that invaded China and compensate them with 450 million taels of customs silver, to be repaid in 39 years, with interest as high as 980 million taels. This figure is equivalent to 12 times the fiscal revenue of the Qing government!
It was in this treaty that the countries demarcated the boundaries of their embassies in Beijing, where Chinese could not live, and countries could send troops to garrison them, while coercing the Qing government into promising to suppress all anti-imperialist struggles, which also marked the Qing government's reduction into an instrument of imperialism.
This treaty further pushed the Chinese nation, which was suffering from the oppression of foreign powers, into an even more painful abyss, but the Empress Dowager Cixi was not ashamed at all, because in this catastrophe, even if the price was heavy, her feudal ruler was finally preserved.
Just when the Empress Dowager Cixi was in full swing to prepare for her birthday celebration, Li Hongzhang, who had signed unequal treaties with foreign powers on behalf of the Qing government, died in tears full of grief and humiliation.
Yes, in the face of foreign guns and cannons, the Qing government can only blindly cede land and pay compensation, lose power and humiliate the country, he should probably be glad that he will never have to be a fig leaf for the Qing government in the future.
As the supreme ruler of the Qing Dynasty, the Empress Dowager Cixi could not see the starvation of the great country under her rule, corpses were all over the field, and wolves were doing a lot of evil, nor could she feel the grief and helplessness in the hearts of her ministers. She didn't think there was anything wrong with her birthday celebration. She only wants the stars and the moon to be the brightest light at her business banquet, and she only cares about who among the princes and ministers can give her the most satisfactory gift.
There is no doubt that the foreign car sent by Yuan Shikai successfully added to the luxurious birthday banquet of the Empress Dowager Cixi, because the well-informed Empress Dowager knew little about Western gadgets, and she was in a period when she had a strong interest in all Western technological products.
The conservative and xenophobic Empress Dowager Cixi
Since this car is a novelty imported from the West, no one has ever seen it, let alone how to drive it. The intimate Yuan Shikai specially invited a German driver for the Empress Dowager Cixi. The Empress Dowager Cixi sat in the car, feeling this "foreign carriage" that did not need to eat grass but only oil galloping freely in her Summer Palace, and her heart was extremely concerned and excited. It's just that she really can't get used to seeing the foreigner driver dangling in front of her, although she likes Western products, she is extremely repulsive to foreigners in her heart, and she doesn't like foreigners' thoughts and behaviors. (In Yu Deling's Memoirs of the Empress Dowager's Private Life, she mentions more than once that the Empress Dowager Cixi's rejection of foreigners, despite her novelty about foreign goods.) ）
In desperation, Yuan Shikai invited foreigners to train a eunuch as Cixi's full-time driver. However, the Empress Dowager Cixi, who strictly adhered to the traditional feudal etiquette, could not tolerate the driver being on an equal footing with her, so she ordered the eunuch to drive on his knees when driving.
This made the eunuch who drove very embarrassed, kneeling to drive, once there was an accident and injured the queen mother, he would not be enough to cut off ten heads. So, he quietly made a trick on the body of the car so that it could no longer start. The Empress Dowager Cixi did not delve into this, because her curiosity was soon attracted by the camera, and she was busy posing everywhere and taking beautiful pictures of herself.
From the attitude of the Empress Dowager Cixi towards the two car drivers, it is not difficult to see that the Empress Dowager Cixi was an extremely conservative and xenophobic ruler. This style of governance also put China in the late Qing Dynasty in an ignorant and backward position, allowing the Western powers to burn, kill, and loot on our territory, sowing monstrous crimes.
The car was not Yuan Shikai's first gift to Cixi
In 1898, Emperor Guangxu listened to the advice of Kang Youwei and other new intellectuals to learn advanced Western ideas, and formulated a series of reform measures, from April to August of that year, 103 days in a row issued dozens of reform orders involving politics, economy, military and other aspects, Empress Dowager Cixi keenly found that these reform measures touched her power, so she took swift measures to crack down on the reformers. At this time, Guangxu Emperor Kang Youwei and others pinned their last hope on Yuan Shikai, who held part of the military power in his hands.
After weighing the pros and cons, Yuan Shikai thought that the reform faction had little chance of winning, so he resolutely slipped to the conservative faction represented by the Empress Dowager. The result of this change was that Emperor Guangxu was placed under house arrest by the Empress Dowager, and issued an edict announcing that the Empress Dowager would discipline the government, and he himself became a complete puppet emperor.
Yuan Shikai threw himself at the Empress Dowager Cixi at a critical juncture, thus winning the appreciation and trust of the Empress Dowager Cixi. Yuan Shikai has since entered the eyes of the Queen Mother, and his official position has risen all the way. Later, when the Eight-Nation Coalition broke through Beijing and the Empress Dowager fled to Xi'an, Yuan Shikai, who had a keen political sense, immediately seized the opportunity to curry favor with the Empress Dowager and immediately sent a large amount of money and materials to the Empress Dowager.
The car was not his first gift to the Empress Dowager Cixi, nor was it the last.
Yuan Shikai relied on his cleverness and sleekness to be a very popular minister in the Qing Dynasty. Later, in the turmoil of the later times, he was able to recognize the form, forced the Qing Dynasty emperor to abdicate, and later became the president of the Republic of China at the top of power, and became a figure who influenced the court situation of that era for decades.
Through this car, we look at the two important figures associated with it - Cixi and Yuan Shikai, and the history behind this is worth pondering.
The people of the past are gone, and the car is still left silently telling the world about that humiliating history.
That dark history is an indelible pain in the hearts of every Chinese nation.
With copper as a mirror, you can be dressed, and with history as a mirror, you can know the rise and fall.
This car is like a mirror that can keep us awake at all times, and every time we take it out and wipe it, the memory of that humiliation becomes clearer. If the Chinese nation wants to stand tall in the world, it should keep pace with the times and strive for self-improvement!
Summary: Why is a car that has been refurbished so valuable?
First of all: this Mercedes-Benz is not only the Empress Dowager Cixi's car, but also the first Mercedes-Benz car in Chinese history, which is of extraordinary significance.
Secondly: this car bears witness to that period of humiliation, but it also shows the ignorance of history, which is of great historical value.
Again: Originally, this was a birthday gift from Yuan Shikai to the Empress Dowager Cixi, and others naturally had no right to decide its fate, and it was the only one in history.
In the end: recovering at a high price, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions, tens of millions, hundreds of millions? To put it bluntly, this is a priceless treasure that cannot be measured in money.