In the early morning of August 15, 1900, when the Eight-Power Alliance invaded the city of Beijing, Empress Dowager Cixi and the Guangxu Emperor fled in a hurry and came to Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, known as the "Western Hunt". In fact, it has nothing to do with hunting for a dime, it is simply an escape.
Empress Dowager Cixi arranged for Yi Li the Prince of Qing and Li Hongzhang, the governor of Qing, to negotiate with the Eight-Power Alliance. The Eight-Power Coalition proposed that 12 "culprits" must be executed. Among these 12 "scourges", there are not only princes and ministers such as Zaiyi, Zailan, and Zaixun, but also ministers such as Yingnian, Qixiu, Xu Chengyu, Xu Tong, and GangYi. In order to retain the power in her hands, Empress Dowager Cixi had no choice but to kill them and exile them.
However, when dealing with Zhao Shuqiao, the prime minister of state affairs, the minister of military aircraft, and the yin affairs of Suncheon Province, there was an accident.
Zhao Shuqiao (赵舒翘), a native of Chang'an (present-day Xi'an), Shaanxi, was born in 1847. Zhao Shuqiao grew up with both his parents dying, becoming an orphan, and finally growing up under the care of his uncle Dong Shi. Perhaps because of his bumpy life, Zhao Shuqiao was particularly sensible and diligent in reading, and in 1873 he was admitted to the examination and in 1874.
Zhao Shuqiao's career was relatively smooth, and he successively served as the chief of the Punishment Department, the outer lang of the Punishment Department, the Huguang Shilangzhong of the Punishment Department, the prefect of Fengyang in Anhui, the Wenzhou Road in Zhejiang, the political envoy in Zhejiang, the Inspector of Jiangsu, the Zuo Shilang of the Punishment Department, and the Shangshu of the Punishment Department. In 1899, Zhao Shuqiao was promoted to chancellor of the ministry of state affairs, minister of military aircraft, and yin of Suncheon Province, and entered the center of power.
In the 25 years since Zhao Shuqiao became an official, he has always maintained the official voice of honesty and love for the people.
When he was the prefect of Fengyang in Anhui, the local area was hit by drought and flood. He rushed to the front line of the fight against the disaster, issued treasury money in a timely manner, and rescued the disaster-stricken people. Not only that, he also took the initiative to take out his own money to raise money, buy lifeboats, and open a nursery school, trying to alleviate the losses caused by the disaster to the people. When the disaster was severe, he also mobilized his wife and led the maids to sew winter clothes day and night to rescue the refugees.
During his tenure as Shangshu of the Punishment Department, the famous "Henan Wang Shuwen Case" occurred. Before his execution, Wang Shuwen cried out for wrongdoing, which led to an unjust, false and wrongly decided case that shook the official field. Zhao Shuqiao resisted the pressure of the magnates, released Wang Shuwen, and executed the real murderer Hu Ti'an. And that's not all. He also promoted the pursuit of responsibility, and dismissed Mei Qizhao, the governor of Hedao, who was involved in creating unjust, false and wrongly decided cases, Li Henian, the inspector of Henan, and a number of officials from Kaifeng Province and Zhenping County.
In 1899, the Boxer Rebellion flourished in north China and played the slogan of "supporting the Qing Dynasty and destroying the west". In order to understand the true fighting strength of the Boxers, Empress Dowager Cixi sent Gang Yi and Zhao Shuqiao to investigate. In the investigation, Zhao Shuqiao had already determined that "fists and bandits cannot be bullied", but because Gang Yi believed that the Boxers were trustworthy, Zhao Shuqiao had no choice but to agree and put forward the Boxers' strategy of "using them for caressing, unifying them with handsomeness, and incorporating them into the ranks".
Zhao Shuqiao did not expect that it was this suggestion that brought him the misfortune of killing himself--later, the Eight-Nation Alliance decided that Zhao Shuqiao was the "culprit" who supported the Boxer Rebellion, and demanded that the Qing court severely punish him.
At that time, Zhao Shuqiao had already come to Xi'an with Empress Dowager Cixi and the Guangxu Emperor. Initially, the Qing court did not intend to really kill Zhao Shuqiao, and intended to protect him, so it sentenced him to "dismissal and retention". Of course, the foreigners stopped doing it and repeatedly persecuted it. The Qing court had no choice but to increase the number and sentence "beheading the prisoner", which was equivalent to a suspended death sentence, if this was the case, Zhao Shuqiao still had a chance to escape death. However, the foreigners did not forgive. The Qing court had no choice but to sentence it to a "beheading decision"—an immediate execution of the death penalty.
After the news that the Qing court wanted to kill Zhao Shuqiao spread, the Xi'an gentry was very dissatisfied. They believed that the people of Xi'an had given everything they had to worship Empress Dowager Cixi and the Guangxu Emperor, but they did not expect that the Qing court would actually obey the words of the foreigners and kill Zhao Shuqiao, the talented son of Xi'an! What's more, Zhao Shuqiao has always won the hearts of the people and is a good official.
The Xi'an gentry united more than 300 people and petitioned the Qing court to spare Zhao Shuqiao's death. On the second day of the first lunar month of the 27th year of Guangxu (February 20, 1901), an angry people of Xi'an, about 10,000 people, gathered near the Drum Tower, claiming to rob the Dharma Field. They also declared that if the Qing court insisted on killing Zhao Shuqiao, then it would invite Empress Dowager Cixi and the Guangxu Emperor to return to Beijing.
However, at this time, Yi Xi and Li Hongzhang telegraphed the Qing court, claiming that if they did not follow the foreign note, it would be difficult to prevent Wadesi from leading the army to the west. Empress Dowager Cixi did not dare to offend the Eight-Nation Alliance, nor did she dare to oppose the fierce will of the people, so she had to change the "decisive decision" to "give death", and quietly let Zhao Shuqiao commit suicide at home, and Cen Chunxuan, the inspector of Shanxi, went to supervise the implementation.
On the day of the execution of the death, Zhao Shuqiao began to swallow gold and did not die. Followed by taking arsenic, still not fatal. Forced to be helpless, Zhao Shuqiao's family had to follow Cen Chunxuan's request, paste cotton paper on Zhao Shuqiao's face, and then pour shochu, repeated several times, before suffocating him alive.
Zhao Shuqiao was 54 years old.
[References: Zhao Shuqiao's Unjust Death Case, etc.]