In the late Qing Dynasty, Li Hongzhang, a famous minister, served as the governor of Beiyang for more than 20 years and the minister of trade and commerce of Beiyang, and the official was the Third Division of the Eastern Palace, a scholar of the WenhuaDian University, and a knight of the first class, su Yibo, and his power was tilted toward the opposition, and no one dared to easily provoke him and offend his authority.
However, there are exceptions to everything. In 1884, a seven-pin sesame official dared to write to the imperial court to impeach Li Hongzhang, directly stating his eight major crimes and asking the imperial court to kill him and apologize.
This seven-pin sesame official who "ate leopard bile" was named Liang Dingfen.
Liang Dingfen, character Xinghai, Guangdong Panyu people, born in 1859. Liang Dingfen lost her parents from an early age, became an orphan, and was fostered in her aunt's house and raised by her aunt. Although Liang Dingfen's family was unfortunate, she was brilliant and studied diligently, and at the age of 18, she passed the examination for lifting people, and at the age of 21, she passed the entrance examination and ordered Hanlin. In 1883, the museum was dissolved and edited by the Hanlin Academy.
The position of editor of the Hanlin Academy is not high, but it is only a positive seven products, which can be respected in status and has the power to specialize in performing things. This means that his voice can be heard directly. Liang Dingfen has a strong personality and is not afraid of power, so since he served as the editor of the Hanlin Academy, he has repeatedly played and impeached the magnates.
In the spring of 1884, Liang Dingfen intervened again to impeach Li Hongzhang.
Why did Liang Dingfen impeach Li Hongzhang? This is because Li Hongzhang behaved too badly in the Sino-French war.
In 1882, in order to fully invade Vietnam, France opened a passage to the southwest border of China and continuously increased its troops to Vietnam. Vietnam turned to China for help. Since Vietnam was a vassal state of China, China could not sit idly by, so it prepared for war in the southwest border area. Suddenly, the war clouds on the Sino-Vietnamese border were thick, and war was about to break out.
The imperial court sent Li Hongzhang, Zuo Zongtang, Liu Changyou, Liu Kunyi, and Zhang Shusheng to discuss the countermeasures. Among these 5 people, Zuo Zongtang, Liu Changyou, Liu Kunyi, and Zhang Shusheng were all hard-line main war factions, and only Li Hongzhang was the main leader and was unwilling to go to war with France.
Later, the imperial court appointed Li Hongzhang as the minister of Chincha and went to Guangdong to direct the battle: "Li Hongzhang was sent to Guangdong quickly to supervise Vietnamese affairs. All Guangdong, Guangxi, and Yunnan defense forces are under control. He Lu should be dispatched to bravely go, and the minister should properly prepare for the game. Li Hongzhang actually disobeyed the order and did not go. The imperial court had no choice but to let him still return to the post of governor directly under him, and instead went to Guangdong to prepare military affairs with The Soldier Shangshu Peng Yulin.
If it was just a refusal to go to Guangdong to direct the battle, li Hongzhang also used his influence to vigorously advocate China's lack of strength in the imperial court, and also spread rumors that Liu Yongfu and France were seeking peace (in fact, Liu Yongfu had been struggling with the French army), which made the imperial court hesitate between war and peace, missed good opportunities, and was repeatedly frustrated in the early stages of the Sino-French War.
As a bystander, Liang Dingfen couldn't help but be heartbroken when she saw what Li Hongzhang was doing. He "dared to sacrifice his sword and did not hesitate to give up his axe" and resolutely wrote to the imperial court, denouncing Li Hongzhang for being incompetent and incompetent, harming the country, "arrogant and treacherous, and manifesting his sins", and committing eight major murderable crimes.
When the news of Liang Dingfen's impeachment of Li Hongzhang came out, the government and the opposition were shaken. Li Hongzhang has been an official for more than 20 years, and has already formed a huge network of relations, and the generals of the Huai Army series are all over the government and the public. Of course, they must work together to deal with Liang Dingfen, pointing out one after another that "there is no way to go to Liang (Liang Dingfen) to secure the heart of the minister", intending to eliminate Liang Dingfen and then quickly.
Empress Dowager Cixi was also very dissatisfied with Liang Dingfen, because Liang Dingfen's words were fiercely worded, and the implication was quite to blame Empress Dowager Cixi for "having eyes and no pearls, and using thieves as subjects". For this reason, Empress Dowager Cixi planned to severely punish Liang Dingfen.
At this critical moment, fortunately, Yan Jingming stood up and relieved Liang Dingfen, saying that Liang Dingfen was only the opinion of a scholar and did not need to worry about him. Empress Dowager Cixi spared Liang Dingfen this time, but only demoted him to the 5th level and went to the Taichang Temple to become a minor official of Si Le.
Liang Dingfen was discouraged by the officialdom from then on, carved a small seal of "Dismissal of Officials in the Year of twenty-seven years", and resigned from the official position.
[References: "Late Qing Dynasty Relic Old Liang Dingfen", etc.]