In the official field of the late Qing Dynasty, Li Bingheng was a brilliant figure. He started by spending money to buy officials, and because of his ability to do things, he was constantly promoted, from the county to the county, to the prefecture, and then to the prefect, and then to the level of local governor.
Portrait of Li Bingheng.
Generally speaking, people like this who rely on buying officials to embark on a career path will inevitably be corrupt and enrich themselves after they grasp power, but Li Bingheng is not, when he was the governor of Jizhou and Yongping, he was praised as "the first incorruptible official in Northern Zhi (subordinate)".
Throughout his life, his official reputation was relatively good, and "diligent and honest administration" and "loyalty to the monarchy and the country" were the evaluations he often received. However, he was a traditional Confucian bureaucrat who did not realize that the late Qing Dynasty was in a "situation of change that had not occurred in three thousand years", opposed change, opposed the foreign affairs movement, and believed that "all the major political personnel who raise salaries and train troops can eliminate the habits and act with solid strength" can achieve self-improvement.
In 1900, the year of the Gengzi Rebellion, Li Bingheng's actions best reflected the spiritual temperament he had always adhered to.
When the Boxers entered Beijing and besieged foreign embassies, Li Bingheng was serving as the minister of the Yangtze River, and he was deeply worried about this, advocating sending heavy troops to "suppress the boxers and bandits", and criticized in front of his relatives and friends: "At this time, there must be no provocations, and the imperial court is particularly playful." ”
The former residence of Li Bingheng in Zhuanghe, Dalian.
Although he had always expressed great antipathy toward foreigners grabbing illegal benefits in China, he was a pragmatic official, and he analyzed that using the Boxers to wage war on the outside world was tantamount to playing a foul game in the next step. He neither believed in the Boxers nor approved of a declaration of war. He had expressed his opinions to the imperial court through joint concerts, but in the end there was no news of the mud cattle entering the sea, and Cixi was already planning to give it a go.
Cixi not only did not listen to his advice, but also ordered him to "come to Beijing to see his majesty and not to delay it for a moment", which was obviously to entrust him with military affairs.
By the time the war had begun, Li Bingheng was happy to be summoned to the throne and to the capital, and even before he could serve the will of the imperial court, he had already begun to go north. His attitude changed from anti-war to main war.
What kind of situation Li Bingheng is facing when he enters Beijing this time, he himself knows very well. Before leaving, he said to his friends who had come to see him off: "This battle will not be lucky. If the emperor patrols the west and orders me to stomp on my feet, I can still be born. Otherwise, there is only death! I'm over seventy years old, and I'm sorry! I only hate this battle from the boxing bandits, but it is a pity that I also. ”
Rong Lu's aide Chen Kuilong recorded that Li Bingheng also said something like this: "The foreign soldiers are so powerful, if there is any certainty in the war, I will go forward to the enemy this time, but if I fight to the death, I can quickly summon Li Zhongtang to Beijing to handle the peace talks."
Interior furnishings of Li Bingheng's former residence. He was a clean and honest official, and after becoming a high official, he only used 6 taels of silver to rebuild the old mansion.
Since he knew that there were many evils and few lucks, knew that there was no doubt that he would be defeated, knew that he had to rely on diplomatic channels, and had previously decided that starting a war was conceited, why did he know that he could not do anything, and resolutely and resolutely and generously went north? He could have treated Cixi's edicts negatively, like Zhang Zhidong, Liu Kun, and others engaging in "mutual protection in the southeast," or finding excuses to delay.
In fact, Li Bingheng's position was twofold: First, now that Empress Dowager Cixi and the Guangxu Emperor were in danger, as the great Qing courtiers who had been favored by the emperor, he chose to "relieve the difficulties of the emperor's father" and "success or failure is blunt. ”
Second, war is already inevitable, then there is no reason to stay out of the matter, only to fight to the death, the fish death net is broken at all costs, at least for the country to earn some face, do not be ridiculed for no boys.
On July 26, 1900, Li Bingheng visited Cixi and immediately gave the order: "Li Bingheng is deputy to the affairs of the Armed Guards, and all the four armies of Zhang Chunfa, Chen Zelin, Wan Benhua, and Xia Xinyou are under the control of the minister."
On August 6, Li Bingheng led his troops to battle, and before leaving, he swore: "I would rather sacrifice my life for the country than shrink my hands before dying!" ”
Li Bingheng's former residence.
According to Yi's will, Li Bingheng was indeed a general in command of the Fourth Army, but the reality was very unusual, "the name is to control the Fourth Army, and no soldier has answered the order." Li Bingheng was not from a military background, Zhang, Chen, Wan, and Xia did not listen to his orders at all, and Cixi and Ronglu crossed him to mobilize the army, making the situation he faced even more difficult.
As soon as Li Bingheng went to war, Beicang and Yangcun in northern Tianjin were lost, and the coalition army quickly advanced to Hexiwu. Subsequently, Li Bingheng fitted the team and fought against the enemy, but "before the camp was established, it was broken, and the various armies fled one after another, and the situation was unstoppable", and had to retreat to Zhangjiawan in Tongzhou.
On August 11, the coalition forces advanced against Zhangjiawan. In fact, as Li Bingheng predicted, there was no chance of winning this battle. Here he wrote a note to the imperial court, in which he said bitterly:
"The army is tens of thousands, and the enemy has been defeated, but there has never been a war." The villages and towns passed through were burned and plundered, and there was nothing to buy, and the people and horses were hungry. This time the order was sent out of the division, the matter was out of the warehouse, the Chinese army did not have a division and a brigade, Zhang Chunfa dared to fight, and the army was newly recruited, and once defeated, Chen Zelin took advantage of the cleverness, the military was not skillful, Xia Xinyou, Wan Ben Huaneng Army, the strength of the troops was too single. ”
After writing, he committed suicide by swallowing gold at the age of 70.
After 5 days of the expedition, Li Bingheng lost ground and was defeated and killed.
After his death, the Qing court not only did not pursue him for the crime of defeat, but instead praised him, gave him a pension according to the governor's routine, and entered the Zhaozhong Shrine and was called "Zhongjie".
Unexpectedly, during the peace negotiations between the Qing court and the Eight-Power Alliance, the coalition forces designated Li Bingheng as one of the "scourges" and wanted to severely punish him. After many negotiations, the coalition forces did not budge, and the Qing court had to pursue the original official and revoke the pension.
Before Li Bingheng died, he left a posthumous poem: "There is no basis for war and both matters, and once he dies, he is rewarded with high rewards." The white-haired lonely man was full of blood and sprinkled towards the door. "What he never forgot until his death was the distinction between kings and subjects, which is not difficult to explain why he went north to the king and did what he could not do." It is precisely because of this that Zhao Fengchang, a political figure in the late Qing Dynasty, called him "a loyal subject of the wrong country".
References: Zhao Yipeng," "Li Bingheng's Identity Problem of 'Fist Rebellion'"; Dai Haibin's "Loyal Subjects of the Wrong Country"? ——On Li Bingheng in the Gengzi Incident" (On Li Bingheng in the Gengzi Incident), Zhao Erxun's "Draft History of the Qing Dynasty: Liechuan 254"
"Small history" focuses on the overlooked, obscured details of well-known historical events. For more exciting content, please add the WeChat public account "Microhistory".