Chapter 40 Watch the momentum and adapt

Empress Dowager Cixi fled westward in a panic during the Gengzi Incident. On the way from Huai'an County to Xuanhua Mansion, she encountered a group of unknown troops.Therefore, Prince Qing stepped forward and asked to find out who the visitor was, which left a deep impression on Cixi.It seems that it is true that a filial son comes from a poor family, and a loyal minister is found in a difficult country.This was the beginning of Prince Qing Yikuang's prosperity, and even Emperor Xuantong's father, Prince Regent Zaifeng, was no match for him. Cixi then stopped the imperial chariot and ordered Yikuang to go to inquire, but found that she was like a soldier, and regarded her own people as enemies.The person who came was Cen Chunxuan, the governor of Gansu, who came here specially to pick him up.

When Cixi heard that she was her courtier, she let go of her hanging heart.It turned out that Cen Chunxuan's army was called the Weiyuan Army. They uniformly wore black clothes, and they were also known as the Black Army. There were five battalions in total, with more than 2,000 people.No wonder these ministers did not recognize the government troops. Cixi asked Li Lianying to know that Cen Chunxuan was from Guangxi, so she ordered him to come forward to have an audience.When Cen Chunxuan came to Cixi's car, Cixi found that Cen Chunxuan was in his forties, with a small beard, and was short and strong like a southerner.Cixi praised him for his meritorious service, and asked him to open the way ahead, not to disturb the people, so Cen Chunxuan took the order and left.

With Cen Chunxuan as an outpost officer, Cixi has no worries about food and clothing on the way to escape to the west, and her supplies have gradually become abundant.Cen Chunxuan followed the order of Empress Dowager Cixi to clean up military discipline and not disturb the people.For the stragglers who followed Cixi, who robbed homes and looted people's property, once discovered, they would be executed without mercy.Even if they saw eunuchs riding donkeys, they would kill all the donkeys. It must be civilian supplies.Although Cen Chunxuan's actions protected the interests of the common people, they did have the suspicion of killing eunuchs indiscriminately and deceiving the emperor.Although it was a special period, it was difficult for the ministers to say anything, but Li Lianying was in charge of eunuch affairs, and this was a challenge to his authority.Therefore, Li Lianying took the opportunity to sue Cen Chunxuan in front of Cixi.It is said that he was too arrogant to kill the inner palace without a request, so he should be punished.

If Li Lianying was in the capital city, Cixi would definitely consider Li Lianying's words. Unfortunately, now that she is in exile, Cixi has to consider her own safety first.First of all, the brigade is completely protected by Cen Chunxuan, so it is difficult to say anything; secondly, the people brought out from the palace are indeed too shameful, wantonly disturbing the people along the way, complaining, and need to be managed by a person; thirdly, if Cen Chunxuan is killed now, It will inevitably cause dissatisfaction among officials in other parts of the country. The three governors of the south, Liu Kunyi, Zhang Zhidong, and Li Hongzhang, declared their neutrality, which is a strong proof.Now that Cen Chunxuan is killed, it is difficult to guarantee that the governor of Shaanxi, Gansu and Shanxi will be united and neutral, and the imperial court will have no place to go.

Li Lianying saw that Cixi chose to open her eyes and close her eyes out of helplessness, so she hurriedly followed the wind and blamed herself for not having a long-term vision, and she was not as good as the wise Empress Dowager Cixi.This matter will be over.The shrewd Li Lianying kept silent, so as not to get burned. Soon, Cixi's brigade arrived at Xuanhua Mansion, and dozens of officials from the general army, the prefect, and the county magistrate came out of the city to greet them.Cixi was on the run, and she didn't care about etiquette, so she didn't ask them to clean the streets.Therefore, people came out to watch and see the majesty of the queen mother, emperor, and empress.

Cixi announced that she would rest for three days in Xuanhua Mansion. During this period, the Imperial Forest Army was formed, and finally there was a royal guard.At the same time, Cixi was worried about the situation in Beijing. After discussing with Li Lianying and Guixiang, she sent Prince Qing Yikuang back to Beijing to negotiate a peace with other countries, and appointed Li Hongzhang, Minister of Beiyang and Governor of Zhili, as the Minister of Plenipotentiary to handle the signing of the peace treaty. . Although Prince Qing Yikuang returned to Beijing, the countries did not trust the Qing court and the princes and ministers. The commander of the coalition forces, Vadsi, said that Li Hongzhang must come.

After explaining the matter in Beijing, Cixi and others set off from Xuanhua and continued westward.Cixi's imperial chariot became more and more formal, and finally sat on the eight-carried sedan chair.Coupled with the fact that the guards have just been formed, they are very different from when they fled in a hurry. Because they didn't know that Empress Dowager Cixi would stay in Xuanhua Mansion for three days, some of the food prepared in Tianzhen County had gone bad, and there was nowhere to buy it in a hurry, so some of them were inevitably sour and smelly.Li Lianying had long had a problem with Cen Chunxuan, and Cen Chunxuan was in charge of the front station. Now Li Lianying finally caught the stale biscuits and gave Cen Chunxuan a scolding, saying that he did not do his job wholeheartedly for the master, and used unimportable things to serve. Sheng Jia, suspected of dereliction of duty.Although Cen Chunxuan was not criticized by Cixi, he was ridiculed by Li Lianying after all, and he was quite resentful.

Cixi continued to travel all the way west, and arrived in the important town of Taiyuan after more than half a month.Yuxian, the governor of Shanxi, led hundreds of civil and military officials from the provincial capital to kneel down in Huangtuzhai, 20 miles north of the city, to greet the holy driver.Fortunately, in the Taiyuan warehouse there are still ceremonial luanyu used by Emperor Qianlong when he traveled south and later visited Taiyuan west. It happened that Cixi used it this time, so he took it out and used it, and made 24 new dragon flags to look spectacular.Local officials, big and small, all try their best to serve them, with gold, silver, wealth, clothing, food and clothing, everything that one expects to find.Cixi's ostentation finally returned to the level before her escape.

Since Cixi fled from Beijing, the city of Beijing has been lost.Soldiers from various countries invaded one after another, and the residents of the city fled one after another.Rong Lu also played Cixi, and then he himself rushed to Taiyuan, and proposed to kill King Duan and the princes and ministers who protected the boxers, so as to appease the foreigners and sit down for negotiations. Although Cixi knew that this would please foreigners, King Duan only suggested that she approved the order.She can't easily overthrow herself, otherwise, where is her majesty? Cixi lived in Taiyuan, but paid attention to the situation in Beijing thousands of miles away.Hearing that foreigners only had contact with Li Hongzhang, he sent a telegram to urge Li Hongzhang to go northward to negotiate peace with other countries.

Li Hongzhang knew that this matter was very difficult, and he didn't want to take over. He had no choice but to urge telegrams one after another, so he had to take a boat to Tianjin and transfer to Beijing. On the road from Tianjin to Beijing, Li Hongzhang sighed when he saw few people, dilapidated houses and desolation everywhere.After arriving in Beijing, they met Yikuang, Prince Qing, and the two went to meet with ministers from various countries.They first proposed: first, severely punish the culprit; second, invite the two palaces to return to Beijing as soon as possible.Two promises to continue the peace talks.Cixi didn't dare to agree, so Waldesi pushed his troops westward again, so scared that Cixi, who was stationed in Taiyuan, immediately got up and prepared to continue to flee westward, and finally chose Xi'an as his destination.As soon as she heard that foreigners were going to attack, Cixi's royal majesty was wiped out, and she completely suffered from foreigner phobia.