With the death of the Daoguang Emperor, the Qing Dynasty ushered in the seventh emperor after the capital beijing, the Xianfeng Emperor, and the last emperor of the Qing Dynasty to hold real power. At this time, the Qing Dynasty was like a broken ship sailing in the raging waves, the wind and rain were fluctuating, and the feudal system that had lasted for thousands of years in the land of China began to decline like a parabola after the Xianfeng Emperor took the throne, and as an emperor, he could not avoid it, he could only be duty-bound, he struggled to support, but he was lacking in skill, he was heartbroken, regretted for life, and the fierce power struggle around the various forces behind his death was constantly falling on the bow of the broken ship of the Qing Dynasty to the abyss.
The Xianfeng Emperor Yixuan was the fourth son of the Daoguang Emperor, and he and the sixth son of the Daoguang Emperor, Yi Bi, were jointly raised by Yi Bi's birth mother, Jing Guifei, and the two were similar in age, and they grew up together and were intimate. The Daoguang Emperor was very fond of these two sons and wanted to pass the throne to one of them, but he had been undecided between them. As the two brothers grew older, in the competition for the throne, the two of them gradually became suspicious, although Yi Bi was intelligent and astute, capable of writing and martial arts, and quite talented, but Yi Xi was high in chess, showing benevolence and filial piety everywhere, won the approval of the Daoguang Emperor, and passed the throne to Yi Xi, but as compensation, he also crowned Yi Bi as a prince in his will. Although Xianfeng and his sixth brother's love affair is different, but the supremacy of imperial power, the emperor's nine-five dignity, supreme, can not tolerate anyone to challenge his authority, even if it is a close relative, therefore, at the beginning of Xianfeng's reign, he named his younger brother Emperor Six Sons Yi Bi as Prince Gong, the word "Gong" is to imply "brother and brother Gong", that is, Prince Gong can no longer be as arrogant and proud as before, must be respectful and respectful to him, the new emperor, but obey, then Emperor Xianfeng can give his sixth brother supreme glory, Otherwise, he could also deprive him of everything, and it can be said that the Xianfeng Emperor was well-intentioned.
This Prince Gong was a wise man, known as "Devil Six", and for the Xianfeng Emperor, who held imperial power, he did not dare to be disrespectful, nor could he be disrespectful. The xianfeng emperor, who was always wary, also made a gesture of obedience to Prince Gong, and in the second year of Xianfeng (1852), he gave him the best royal palace in the capital, the mansion that had once been he, but did not give him the opportunity to intervene in politics. However, the situation was difficult, and at this time, the Qing Dynasty was already facing a crisis of internal and external troubles, and even if the Xianfeng Emperor was no matter how diligent he was in government affairs, he was deeply overwhelmed and tired of coping. With the smoke of the southern country, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement intensified, and finally pushed this "sixth master" to the forefront of history. In the face of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Northern Expedition army step by step, the Xianfeng Emperor and his ministers panicked, the enemy is current, to maintain the rule of the Qing Dynasty is the most important, the Xianfeng Emperor is very clear that Yi Bi is astute and slightly superior to himself, the situation is urgent, Xian Feng three years (1853) he broke the ancestral system, summoned Yi Bi into the military aircraft to walk, and specially ordered him to serve as the foreman of the military aircraft minister, the overall plan of the military state, directly responsible for his own full responsibility.
Yi Bi held great power, and finally could show his ambitions, he wanted to turn the tide of the tide, a year later, that is, the fifth year of Xianfeng (1855), under his planning, the Northern Expeditionary Army of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was swept away, and the capital was turned into a safe place. The Xianfeng Emperor's heart hanging in mid-air finally let go, the crisis was temporarily lifted, and his suspicion of his sixth brother that had accumulated over the years finally broke out, and he did not want to see the imperial brother's power swell. Soon, the Xianfeng Emperor took advantage of Yi Bi's fuss over his mother's title, severely reprimanded Yi Bi, expelled him from the military aircraft, and stripped him of all duties. Poor Yi Bi was still the leader of the military plane yesterday, the power was tilted to the opposition, and overnight he was swept to the end, leaving only the empty title of prince. After dealing a heavy blow to Prince Gong's faction, the Xianfeng Emperor urgently needed to find a suitable candidate among the clans to fill Prince Gong's vacancy. "Gone Devil Six, here comes Su Lao Liu", another ruthless man of the Great Qing Dynasty, Su Shun, lost no time in coming to the foreground, and the Xianfeng Emperor wanted to use Su Shun to prove to the world that the Daoguang Emperor handed over the ancestral Jiangshan to him, and it was definitely not a non-person. This made the two "sixth masters" who did not have any intersection began to fight each other with each other.
Ai Xin Jue Luo Sushun, Manchurian blue flag man, zhengxian prince Zilharang vii grandson, zheng xian prince Duanhua brother, the sixth oldest in the family, belongs to the yuanzhi clan, to his generation did not get knighted, the family is thin. Sushun had been on an errand at the Guards Office until December of the sixteenth year of Daoguang (1836), when he was a third-class Auxiliary General of the Sixth Rank of Daoguang (1836), a Minister of The Scattered Ranks of the Guards Department, a minister of the Rank of The Guards, from the ErpinGuan ( ErpinGuan ) , The Food Sanpin Feng , Daoguang Twenty-four Years ( 1844 ) February Sushun sent to walk on the Qianqing Gate Guards , Daoguang Twenty-eighth Year (1848) March Luan Public Envoy , Daoguang Twenty-ninth Year (1849) February , Conferred the Title of Chenyuan Qing , Managing the Gardens, Zheng Sanpin . At the recommendation of his brother Duanhua the Prince of Zheng, Sushun gradually intersected with Xianfeng, and at the first meeting, Su Shun proposed to Emperor Xianfeng the concept of "strictly prohibiting orders, strictly enforcing law and discipline, and hoeing adultery", which coincided with Emperor Xianfeng's intention to deal with corruption in the past thirty years, so that Emperor Xianfeng looked at Sushun differently, and after Emperor Xianfeng ascended the throne, he was promoted to cabinet scholar, concurrently serving as deputy capital commander, commander of the protector army, and luan Yi envoy. Because Sushun was good at greeting emperor Xianfeng, he was sophisticated and thoughtful, had courage and insight, dared to do things, and had deeds, unlike those twilight courtiers, who only wanted to seek no merit, but sought no fault, and the chaotic life. After getting along for a long time, the Xianfeng Emperor relied more and more on Sushun and trusted him in both emotional and administrative affairs, and his position was promoted, and Xianfeng awarded Sushun the Yellow Banner of the Yellow Banner as the deputy capital of Mongolia in the first month of the third year of Xianfeng (1853), the acting Luan public envoy in February, and the acting Zhenghong Banner Protector in September. Xianfeng four years (1854), appointed the former imperial bodyguard, the relocation department waiter, and then also served in the ceremonial department and the household department, and then in the next few months successive promotions, in April the acting red flag Manchuria deputy capital, the right shilang of the ministry, in June sent to train the wing commander, in July to correct the blue flag Manchuria deputy capital, in October to confer the ceremonial department left shilang, in December to act as the white flag protector commander, Xianfeng five years (1855) in February to manage the affairs of the guide office, that is, the president minister, to make various preparations for the emperor's tour, is also given the left wing supervision, In April, he was appointed commander of the Forward Battalion, Zheng Erpin, in charge of the "Police Raiders", and soon after the defeat of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Northern Expeditionary Army, In May Sushun was appointed to organize the patrol and defense of the Gonggong, in September he was appointed to manage the chief of the Blue Banner, in November he was transferred to the left shilang of the Household Department and in charge of the affairs of the Three Treasuries, and in December he was transferred to correct the deputy capital of Manchuria under the White Banner. Under the rocket promotion of the Xianfeng Emperor, Sushun became the first close minister of the Xianfeng Dynasty, and became a political force that could compete with Prince Gong Yiqi, and when the Xianfeng Emperor deposed Prince Gong, Sushun replaced Yishu and became the chief helmsman of the Qing Dynasty.
After Su Shun came to power, he straightened out the official political style with an iron fist, severely cracked down on corruption, and severely punished dereliction of duty. He resolutely handled the "Pengwu Kechang Case" and beheaded Bai Bao, a senior member of the Yipin Dynasty; straightened out the financial shortcomings, starting with the investigation of the accounts of the Wuyu officials, to investigate and deal with the cases, to investigate and punish hundreds of people involved in the case, to confiscate dozens of household secretaries, merchants, and Manchu clans, even the once-prominent Prince Gong's palace was not spared, the head of the palace, Meng Laixi, and his family were raided, and Prince Gong's father and brother were also implicated; he carried out tough diplomacy, and changed the cowardly style of the former imperial court in the process of negotiating the "Treaty of Yaohun" between China and Russia, and did not fear the threat of the Russians After the case of the violation of the treaty by The Emperor, there was a lot of debate around the matter of the punishment and conviction of the Emperor, some of whom exonerated him, and some advocated that he be immediately beheaded, these two political views were represented by Yi Bi and Su Shun, respectively, at this time, although Yi Bi was idle, he still had a strong prestige and political force in the imperial clan, and for the matter of Qi Ying's return to Beijing, Yi Bi asked him to be hanged, in fact, secretly looking for life for him. Su Shun then single-handedly asked Qi Ying to carry out the Fa-rectification in order to achieve the purpose of intimidating the Manchu nobles and showing a tough attitude to the outside world, and the Xianfeng Emperor finally decided to execute Qi Ying. In the face of the decline of the Qing Dynasty, Sushun saw clearly that only the Han people could save this defeat, revealing the political sensitivity of "everyone sleeps and wakes up alone". At that time, the Qing court, from the emperor down to the courtiers, did not realize this, they had no good way to save the country, nor were they willing to give up the concept of the Manchu and Han dynasties, but just held the psychology of luck to get out of trouble, waiting for the change of current events. SuShun believed that it was necessary to break the Manchu and Han concepts, reuse the Han people, and implement policies such as emphasizing internal rule of law and being tough on the outside world, so that it was possible for the Qing Dynasty to survive many difficulties. Years of war in the Jiangnan region seriously endangered the stability of the Qing regime, and the progress of the war situation no longer allowed the Qing court to make more swings, either to give up power to Zeng Guofan to raise local salaries and lead troops to gain real power, and to strive for a better turn in the war situation, or to allow the situation to develop until the Qing court perished. Although the decentralization of power by the Han generals of zeng guofan and the use of local military and political power would endanger the centralization of power, they were still able to maintain the existence of the Qing Dynasty, suppress the "lesser of two evils", and were determined to reuse the Han dynasty. His secret aid to Zeng Guofan and the reconstruction of Zuo Zongtang were once rumored to be good stories. Su Shun was a Manchu, but he was most unaccustomed to his fellow tribesmen, treating his Manchu subordinates violently and arbitrarily, like slaves, and treating Han members with great courtesy. He once said: "We flag people have a lot of bastards, what do we know?" The Han people can't be offended, his pen is very powerful! ”
At this time, the undercurrents above the court were surging up, although Yi Bi had a body of ambition, it was difficult to exert themselves by the Xianfeng Emperor everywhere, and SuShun's handling of things was often a thunderous means, without dragging mud and water, coupled with the protection and maintenance of the Xianfeng Emperor, so that Su Shun developed a personality of no one in sight and arrogant and arbitrary, which made Yi Bi have no half good feelings for Su Shun, especially in the attitude towards the Western powers, the two had tit-for-tat opinions. In the Xianfeng Decade (1860), when the Anglo-French army attacked Beijing and the Xianfeng Emperor fled to Chengde, he had to use his sixth brother again to clean up the mess for him. The Xianfeng Emperor appointed Yi Bi as a minister plenipotentiary to negotiate with the Anglo-French coalition forces and sign the Treaty of Beijing, and after the situation stabilized, Yi Bi played the "borrowing of teachers to help suppress" and the use of foreigners to suppress the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, but the hardliners led by Su Shun used the excuse of "leaving a disaster in the future" to deny it. With this as the beginning, the contradictions and frictions between Sushun and Yi bi began to heat up, and then Yi Bi asked the Xianfeng Emperor to return to Luang, and the Xianfeng Emperor once said that he would return to Luan as soon as possible to calm the people's hearts, but after a month, he suddenly issued a decree to suspend the return to Luang, and it was the Sushun faction that prepared the will on behalf of the people. Emperor Xianfeng's attitude changed so greatly within a short period of time that the Yishu clique was greatly dissatisfied, and they believed that the Reason for the Sushun clique to set up many obstacles to keep Emperor Xianfeng away from the capital was to influence and even control Emperor Xianfeng in order to control the power of the court, and Sushun was also deliberately trying to prevent Yi bi from coming to Rehe to visit, at this time Sushun was already a former minister of the imperial court and a minister of internal affairs, and he was already a former minister of the imperial court and a minister of internal affairs, and he was assisted by Hubu Shangshu to run a university scholar, and he was in charge of all affairs, and he surrounded Emperor Xianfeng with loyalty Prince Gong Yishi was alone in the capital, hundreds of miles away from the Xianfeng Emperor, and the Xianfeng Emperor became increasingly suspicious of his brother, the "Devil Six", and never saw each other again until his death, and the two brothers forever lost the opportunity to release each other.
In July of the eleventh year of Xianfeng (August 1861), the Xianfeng Emperor died in the Rehe Palace, and in his last will, seven of the "Eight Ministers of the Zanxiang Government Affairs and Gu Orders" he designated were Sushun's party, plus a good old man, Jingshou, but kicked the Prince gong Yixuan, who was closest to the Xianfeng Emperor, out of the list of Gu Feng, excluding him from the center of power, and Sushun became the "Minister of The Zanxiang Government", assisting the young emperor Zaichun, and his power reached its peak and flourished for a while. After years of open and dark struggle, these two "six masters" finally achieved a stage victory by Su Laoliu.
Su Shun was in power, arrogant, and empty-eyed, he thought that he was Xianfeng's widow, Prince Gong Yi bi had already stood aside, and his power was all over the government and the opposition, he did not take Cixi, Ci'an, and the little emperor Zaichun in his eyes at all, only when they were stamping machines. Su Shun was unscrupulous in the main hall of the Rehe Palace, and in the face of the empress dowager of the two palaces and the little emperor Zaichun, he scolded at every turn, "The sound vibrates the palace, the son of heaven is terrified, as for the sobbing, drowning back clothes", "The debate is no longer polite." Compared with Su Shun, the twenty-six-year-old Cixi seemed to be a little too tender. But Cixi is by no means an ordinary female stream, she is a rather ambitious woman, and her goal is to listen to the government and seize real power! In the face of the aggressive Su Shun, Cixi was worried, and if this development continued, it was only a matter of time before Su Shun and others took over the little emperor and monopolized the government. How to resist the power of the eight ministers, and how to ensure the safety of their orphans and widows, Cixi was eager to find someone who could help her. Having a vendetta against Sushun, he is also his own relative, and he has the power and prestige to come and go, and only Prince Gong Yishi is the most suitable. Undercurrents, Cixi and Yi Bi reached a political deal (Yi Bi supported Cixi to bow to the government, and Cixi supported Yi Bi as the chancellor of the Council), and the empress forces and the prince forces formed a political alliance against Su Shun.
Yi Bi understood that to deal with Sushun, it was first necessary to grasp military power, at that time the troops around Beijing were mainly commanded by Shengbao, Yi Bi tried every means to try to win over Shengbao and gain the support of the army; secondly, to create public opinion and create a momentum for the "hanging curtain", Prince Gong's cronies lobbied in many ways, launched a qing discussion, contacted people's hearts, and won the support of many Han ministers and Mongolian princes; finally Yi Bi resolutely demanded to go to the palace to mourn and cry, and won the opportunity to meet with the empress dowager of the two palaces, and Cixi and Yi Bi secretly talked for an hour. The two sides reached a consensus: Gu ordered the eight ministers not to stay any longer, and Cixi secretly ordered Prince Gong Yi bi to dispose of it. As soon as empress dowagers returned to Beijing from Rehe, they summoned a five-member group of "anti-Sushun" composed of Prince Gong Yishi, University Scholar Guiliang, Jia Zhen, Zhou Zupei, and Minister Wen Xiang of military aircraft, formally put forward the idea of "bowing the curtain and listening to the government," and accused The Minister of Gu Ming of various crimes, and told him that "Zaiyuan, Duanhua, and Sushun will be removed from their knighthoods and taken to the Zongren Mansion; Jingshou, Muyin, Kuangyuan, Duhan, and Jiao Youying will withdraw from the Military Aircraft Department; Prince Gong will be joined with the university scholars, liubu, Jiuqing, Han, Zhan, Ke, and Dao." And the blame for the righteousness shall be played according to the law, and the instrument shall be played according to the law; and the ceremony of how the empress dowager should hang the curtain shall be played together." Holding the holy will stamped with the jade seal and the two seals of the former emperor, Yi Xian announced the dismissal of SuShun and others, and arrested Zaiyuan and Duanhua on the spot; he also ordered that Jing Shou, Mu Yin, Kuang Yuan, Du Han, and Jiao Youying be removed from their posts and investigated and strictly guarded. He also sent Wang Yizhen (奕譞) to arrest Sushun, who was escorting zigong back to Beijing, at Miyun on the outskirts of Beijing. On November 8, 1861, Cixi issued an edict denying Xianfeng's testament, issuing several counts of the crimes of Zaiyuan, Duanhua, and Sushun, ordering that Sushun beheaded; Zaiyuan and Duanhua committed suicide; and the other five ministers were dismissed or charged with the army. On November 11, 1861, Zaichun formally ascended the throne, the empress dowager listened to the government, the then 26-year-old Cixi usurped the power of the Qing court, announced the abolition of the original QiXiang era name of the eight ministers, in 1862 changed to the first year of Tongzhi, the eastern and western palace empress dowagers bowed to the curtain to listen to the government, and crowned Prince Gong Yixuan as the minister of the government, the foreman of the military aircraft minister.
"Devil Six" Yi Bi finally overthrew "Su Lao Liu" Su Shun and embarked on the peak of power, the dragon struggle between the two "Six Masters" ended with Su Shun being beheaded, but Prince Gong Yi Bi did not expect that after he had deliberately and painstakingly helped his little nephew to the throne, in the face of the Qing Dynasty, which had already been devastated and about to sink, he had not yet come and turned the bow of the ship, and was easily kicked down from the top of the power mountain by his young sister-in-law. Since then, history has never given Yi Xi any chance to take the helm of the Great Qing.