In 1869, an incident occurred that shocked the government and the opposition, when Ding Baozhen, the inspector of Shandong, killed the eunuch An Dehai.
An Dehai was no ordinary eunuch, he was empress dowager Cixi's most favored eunuch.
(Anderhay stills)
In his early years, An Dehai served as a former eunuch at the side of Emperor Xianfeng, and because of his cleverness and quick wit, he was soon liked by Emperor Xianfeng and Cixi.
In 1861, the British and French allies invaded Beijing, coupled with the Taiping Rebellion, in the face of internal and external troubles, the Xianfeng Emperor, who had always been weak and sickly, died in anxiety and fear.
At that time, the 8 ministers headed by Su Shun also had the right to assist the government, which made Cixi, who had always had a strong desire for power, very dissatisfied. Therefore, he secretly launched a "Xin You coup" with his uncle Gong Yixuan, who was handling affairs in Beijing. The person responsible for the secret transmission between Cixi and Yixuan was An Dehai.
After seizing power, Cixi and Empress Dowager Ci'an began to bow to the government at the Yangxin Hall.
For his meritorious service, An Dehai was also promoted to the eunuch of liupin blue plume and served as the chief eunuch.
Although the Tongzhi Emperor was Cixi's own son, because Cixi was extremely strict with him, he was quite afraid of Cixi and had a closer relationship with Empress Dowager Ci'an, who had always been kind to him.
An Dehai knew that Cixi did not like Tongzhi to be close to Ci'an, so he often provoked the relationship between Tongzhi and Ci'an in front of Cixi. Because of An Dehai, Tongzhi was reprimanded by Cixi. Sometimes, Cixi also ordered An Dehai to reprimand him, and An Dehai also got chicken feathers as arrows, and reprimanded Tongzhi to the point of being complete, and did not regard him as an emperor at all.
(Image of The Emperor Doji)
Not only that, Buthai also had unlimited scenery in the former dynasty.
Since Cixi was a female streamer, in order to avoid suspicion, the deliberations between her and the chancellor were all uploaded and issued by An Dehai.
Since An Dehai was a red man around Cixi, the ministers naturally did not dare to offend him, and even some ministers who wanted to be promoted to knighthood tried their best to woo him and pay him bribes.
Because An Dehai served Cixi satisfactorily, and his misdeeds in the harem of the former dynasty, Cixi also turned a blind eye and did not restrain him.
An Dehai was just in the palace scenery, feeling like a brocade night walk, not happy enough, bent on going out of the palace, to the place to show off his might.
It just so happened that Cixi set a wedding date for Tongzhi. An Dehai, on the pretext of buying a dragon robe for Tongzhi's wedding, asked Cixi to let him out of the palace.
After receiving Cixi's permission, An Dehai called a group of retinues and left the palace in a mighty way.
Andehai was used to it in the palace, thinking that when he left the palace, the magistrates saw him and wanted to give three points of courtesy. Therefore, although he called himself Chincha, he did not carry the Chincha official documents.
Anderhay's path is extremely imposing. In the prefectures and counties where he passed, because they knew that he was a red person around Cixi, they were also kind to him, and they also sent some silver before leaving, hoping that he could say a few kind words in front of Cixi.
However, when Andehai went to the territory of Dezhou in Shandong Province, Zhao News of Dezhou Zhizhou was very confused, because it was customary for the minister to send official documents outside the prefecture and county, so that officials along the way could greet and send them according to courtesy. In addition, Anderhay's servants did not have a "pass-card survey".
(Ding Baozhen stills)
Zhao Xinxin was a cautious man, and he was worried that the matter was fraudulent, so he reported it to Ding Baozhen, the inspector of Shandong.
Ding Baozhen had long heard of Andehai's notoriety, and immediately wrote a secret fold to present the military plane, denouncing Andehai's various illegal acts in the secret compromise, and listing the Crimes of the Qing Court, such as "eunuchs are not allowed to hand over to outsiders and are not allowed to leave the imperial city without permission."
After the secret fold was issued, Ding Baozhen arrested Andehai and others for interrogation.
Three days later, the Military Aircraft Department issued a secret edict saying that Anderhai had gone away without permission and had done all kinds of illegal things, which had violated the ancestral system and should be corrected on the spot.
Ding Baozhen read the secret edict and knew that it was not too late, so he followed the edict and put An Dehai on the spot to correct the Fa.
After the incident, everyone in the government and the public clapped their hands and applauded. For a time, Ding Baozhen's reputation was outstanding, and many people called him "Ding Qingtian". Zeng Guofan also admired his boldness and called him "Haojieshi".
However, Ding Baozhen killed Cixi's confidant, and they all said that beating a dog depends on the owner, can Cixi let him go?
Cixi really didn't want to let go of Ding Baozhen in her heart.
However, after Ding Baozhen killed Andehai, he exposed Andehai's body to the vegetable mouth for the people to watch.
Everybody take a look, hey! Andehai is really a eunuch.
(Empress Dowager Cixi stills)
Why do people have such questions?
It turned out that An Dehai was in the capital and had married a daughter-in-law in a big way. At that time, there was a lot of trouble in the city, and no eunuch had ever heard of a wife, so there were rumors that An Dehai was a fake eunuch. The reason why Cixi couldn't leave him for a moment was because he and Cixi had unspeakable things.
Now, Ding Baozhen exposed the body of An Dehai, and when everyone looked at it, they also broke the rumors and returned Cixi's innocence.
In addition, the decree to kill An Dehai was a decision made after consultation between Ci'an, Tongzhi, and the Military Aircraft Department, and it was clearly stipulated in the ancestral system that eunuchs were not allowed to leave the palace and were not allowed to make friends with foreign officials, otherwise the law would be corrected on the spot.
Ding Baozhen did this without leaking, so that Cixi couldn't find out if it was not possible. In addition, he returned Cixi's innocence. Cixi was a person with a deep heart, and after weighing it up, she said: "This An Dehai is too lawless, Ding Baozhen killed well." ”
After that, Cixi saw that Ding Baozhen had done a lot of things to benefit the country and the people in office, and promoted Ding Baozhen to the governor of Sichuan.
(Reference historical materials: "Kiyoshi's manuscript"))