Chapter 5 Chapter 4 The Empress Dowager

The city gate in the northwest corner of Beijing is called Xizhimen. When you leave Xizhimen, a river flows westward.Go up the river, and then go on the Qili Waterway, and on the right bank is the famous Wanshou Temple. Wanshou Temple was built in 1577 in the sixteenth century, the fifth year of Wanli, the thirteenth emperor of the Ming Dynasty.This temple was built by the eunuch Feng Baogai at that time.When it was built, the treasury of the Ming Dynasty was very rich, so it was congenitally rich, and it was built with style.There are five couplets in the Great Longevity Hall in the middle, and nine couplets in the Arhat Hall on both sides.The Buddhist scriptures pavilion at the back is very high, and there are three couplets on the left and right Wei Tuo Dharma halls.One hundred and seventy years before the construction of this great temple, Chengzu, the third emperor of the Ming Dynasty, became emperor because the political monk Yao Guangxiao helped him usurp the throne of his nephew. He thanked Monk Yao and specially asked Monk Yao to supervise the construction. A big bronze bell with a diameter of one foot and two feet and a weight of 87,000 catties was cast, called Huayan Bell, because Shen Du wrote the full text of the eighty-one volumes of the "Huayan Sutra" and the thirty-two characters of Vajra Prajna on the bell. , engraved on it, Cheng Zu asked the six monks to type each word one by one every day, and every word sounded.After knocking all of them, Huayan turns and Prajna turns.Ming Shenzong built the Wanshou Temple, hung the big bell as a feature, and kept ringing until the time of his grandson Xizong.The bell stopped, and the Ming Dynasty died with it.

One hundred years after the rise of the Qing Dynasty, the fourth emperor, Emperor Gaozong Qianlong, moved this big clock to the Juesheng Temple outside Xizhimen in the 16th year of Qianlong (1751), and built a bell tower for it in the backyard of the temple. .However, since then, this big bell, which is so powerful and restless in the room, has usurped the name of Juesheng Temple, and Beijingers no longer call it Juesheng Temple, but call it Dazhong Temple. The big bell was moved away, and Wanshou Temple was relieved to rearrange its statues to welcome the new ruler.In the past, during the Ming Dynasty, the rulers of the Ming Dynasty visited the temple and ate and rested in the temple, which made it a great honor.The rulers and eunuchs of the Ming Dynasty built it, and its life experience was related to the rulers and eunuchs from the very beginning.In this way, on its 300th birthday, it got in touch with the ruler and eunuch of the Qing Dynasty. The ruler was the Queen Mother of the West, and the eunuch was Li Lianying, who was Director Li.

From the river in front of Wanshou Temple, turn northwest again, and reach a place twenty miles away from Xizhimen, which is Wanshou Mountain.Longevity Hill was originally called Mount Weng. In the same year that Emperor Qianlong moved the bell to Juesheng Temple, he changed the name of Mount Weng to Longevity Hill to celebrate his mother's 60th birthday.There is a lake in front of the mountain, called West Lake. Emperor Qianlong dug it twice as deep and renamed it Kunming Lake. This place is a large reservoir in Beijing, and part of Beijing's water source comes from here.The Qing Dynasty not only used it as a reservoir, but also used it as a training camp for the navy, and invited many Fujianese to practice water exercises; the lake was changed to Kunming Lake, which means to commemorate the event of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty's crusade against the Kunming Kingdom in the southwestern Yi.At that time, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty wanted to fight Kunming, because Kunming owned Dianchi Lake and needed a naval battle.In order to be realistic, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty imitated a Kunming Pool in the southwest of the capital Chang'an for military exercises.Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty took this name for the lake, and the intention is obvious.

Kunming Lake in Wanshou Mountain is not only a reservoir and naval training camp in Beijing, but also a large garden in the suburbs of the royal family in the Qing Dynasty.The mountains and rivers in this place are collectively called Haoshan Garden, and Emperor Qianlong changed its name to Qingyi Garden.Although this Qingyi Garden has a circumference of 16.48 miles (8.24 kilometers), it is not considered the number one royal garden.Ranked first is the Yuanmingyuan, which is more than 20 miles away from its northeast.The Old Summer Palace is the number one royal garden in the world. It has been built since the founding of the Qing Dynasty. In the Qianlong Emperor's time, it has been fully operated for 60 years, and it is being repaired every day.It is not purely a Chinese building, but also contains decades of painstaking efforts of Western missionaries. Missionaries who have seen Western royal gardens say that it is a garden of ten thousand gardens.It has more than one hundred landscapes, including eastern, western, fairyland, and Buddhaland. It is not just one palace, but more than a hundred palaces connected by corridors and corridors.It is estimated that the construction cost of each palace, excluding the decoration inside, was worth four million francs at that time.In comparison, the French Palace of Versailles, which is only half a kilometer long, dare not look at it.

Chinese emperors liked the Old Summer Palace far more than the imperial palace in Beijing. They lived in the Old Summer Palace for two-thirds of the time every year.Therefore, in fact, the Old Summer Palace has become a magnificent city, which is guarded by more than 5,000 soldiers, but there are no ordinary people inside, and there are ordinary people for acting.The emperor was happy, and with an order, all the court ladies and eunuchs dressed up as pharaohs, businessmen, workers, buskers, storytellers, thieves and all walks of life. There were yamen, shops, markets, docks, There are hotels, prisons and other places, each performing its own business, you come and go, it is very lively.This is a Chinese-style masquerade ball, which has been popular in Chinese imperial palaces since the second century BC. Sometimes the emperor himself joins in, pretending to be a businessman, etc., having fun with the left and right, and learning to be like ordinary people.They are another class that shuts the common people out of the eighteen splendid palace gates, and then pretends to be common people inside.

After Emperor Qianlong, the Qing Dynasty began to weaken, and the poor people began to rebel.The son of Emperor Qianlong, Emperor Renzong Jiaqing, the fifth emperor of the Qing Dynasty, began to investigate corrupt officials during his father's reign in the fourth year of his reign. One of them was He Shen. After his family property was confiscated, his wealth was equal to the total annual income of the whole of China. ten times that!Fortunately, the difficulties faced by Emperor Jiaqing were only internal. His son Emperor Xuanzong Daoguang ascended the throne. In addition to the more serious internal problems, he was defeated by the British for the first time in the Opium War.Since the Treaty of Nanjing in 1842, foreign devils have been given consular jurisdiction, inland water navigation rights, most-favored-nation treatment, tariff control, the scope of concessions, commercial ports, a large amount of military compensation, and the territory of Hong Kong.This is a humiliation and change that China has never experienced in three thousand years.The Chinese simply cannot adapt.It dragged on for fifteen years, and in the seventh year of Emperor Wenzong Xianfeng's reign (1857), the son of Emperor Daoguang, a major conflict finally broke out. Ye Mingchen, the Governor-General of Yingying who refused to surrender and never left, then joined forces with the United States and Russia to march northward.The Qing government had no choice. In the second year, there was only further compensation, further loss of power and humiliation, and further signing of the unequal treaty Tianjin Treaty.

In the second year after the signing of the Tianjin Treaty, Britain and France sent people to Beijing to exchange the treaty. The two sides clashed because the place and number of people who went ashore did not comply with Chinese regulations and public international law.The British suddenly bombarded the Taku Fort, and the defenders fired back, sinking four British ships and killing eighty-nine British people.So a new war started.In the tenth year of Xianfeng (1860), the British and French allied forces landed in China and marched towards Beijing. The Chinese were unable to defeat them. The 30-year-old Emperor Xianfeng fled from the Old Summer Palace and took refuge in Rehe.The British and French allied forces entered the Old Summer Palace and began looting. A British officer recalled the looting and said that everyone was looting like crazy at that time. Even the French soldiers took away the things that the British had already snatched and wanted to leave to the queen.Another British officer recounted that everyone was so happy that they didn't even open the doors, they kicked them with their feet; they used rare books to light cigarettes, shot all the mirrors, and put beards on the statue of Venus. Well, these civilized people who are the heads of the stick puppet game, they destroyed everything in China that couldn't be moved, even their own Venus, they had to beat and kill with sticks.

That is to say, for these civilized people, robbing is not enough, they also want to destroy.at last.The British actually advocated that destruction was not enough, and the Old Summer Palace should be burned as China's punishment for foreign uncivilized behavior.At that time, the French believed that it would not be good if they frightened away the Chinese government who presided over the signing of the contract, so they refused to participate. A civilization of pirate traditions.The British sent a group of people to set the fire. According to an Englishman's recollection of the tragic scene at that time, on October 18, the Old Summer Palace and all the nearby palaces were set on fire.After burning for two days and two nights, the black smoke was like a veil, and with the strong wind, it meandered, and when it arrived in Beijing, black clouds covered the city.The sun goes out, looking, like a prolonged solar eclipse.

At that time, China's peace negotiating representative, Prince Gong, the emperor's younger brother, once said to Britain and France, since you are a big civilized country, what is the basis for doing this?Please tell me, what is the dispute between your country and mine? Who can answer such a question? A long eclipse! The army of civilized countries burned the Old Summer Palace, and they burned it. By the way, they burned forty-four scenic spots and eighty-one copper halls, including the Jingming Garden in Yuquan Mountain and the Jingyi Garden in Xiangshan Mountain. The Qingyi Garden in Kunming Lake was also ashes in the sea of ​​fire.In this war of marching into Peking, the British lost thirteen people and wounded thirteen; the French lost seven and wounded six.China promised to pay 500,000 taels of silver. The French agreed, but the British refused. They set fire to the Old Summer Palace, and more than 300 Chinese people in the garden were burned to death. For the 20 lives of foreigners, the Chinese died in battle. , burnt to death, and committed suicide, there are already hundreds of times more.

The unfortunate report finally reached Rehe, and Emperor Xianfeng vomited blood. When Emperor Xianfeng was in Yuanmingyuan, there were four Han women who lived in four garden palaces, called Peony Spring, Haitang Spring, Wuling Spring, and Xinghua Spring, plus a Manchu woman who lived in Tiandi Family Spring, which is called Five Springs Together. .This Manchu woman, surnamed Yehenala, named Lan'er, bore him a son. When he died, the child was only six years old and succeeded him as emperor. He was the eighth emperor of the Qing Dynasty, Emperor Muzong Tongzhi. When Manchu women first entered the palace, their status was very low.Her early life experience is very suspicious.It is recorded in official books that she is a Manchu. Her great-grandfather, grandfather, and father were all middle-level officials, and the official status of the three generations was not high.When she was three years old, her father died in Anhui.Before the age of sixteen, she lived in the south. Legend has it that she is Han Chinese at all. Her native place is Guangdong. Her father was a junior officer named Zhou. She was killed for a crime. The Manchus come.After the age of sixteen, she and her younger sister went north and were selected as maids of honor into the imperial palace and lived in Yuanmingyuan.Because she lived in the south for a long time, she could sing popular songs in the south, and was noticed by the emperor, so she started to advance.At that time, the ranks of women in the palace were: the highest rank was the emperor's grandmother, the Holy Grandmother, the Empress Dowager; the second rank was the emperor's mother, the Holy Mother Empress Dowager; The noble concubine is the head of concubines; the fifth rank is noble concubine, equal to the second concubine, two; the sixth rank is concubine, equal to the third concubine, four; the seventh rank is concubine, equal to the fourth concubine, six; The eighth level is the nobleman, which is equal to the fifth concubine, and the number is variable; the ninth level is permanent presence, which is equal to the sixth concubine, and the number is variable; the tenth level is promise, which is equal to the seventh concubine, and the number is variable; The number of people varies.A court lady is only a servant girl, not yet qualified to be a concubine. She has to be favored by the emperor, and only after having sex can she be promoted to be a concubine.There were less than 2,000 court ladies in the Qing Dynasty, which was relatively small in Chinese dynasties, because there were records of over 40,000 in the Tang Dynasty.The emperor's promiscuity in the autocratic era can be imagined from this one incident alone.

This Manchu woman who could sing southern popular songs gradually climbed up in the Old Summer Palace. Because she gave birth to a son for the emperor, she was immediately worth a hundred times, and she could please the empress dowager, so she was promoted to a noble concubine soon.Everyone called her Concubine Yi. Before Wenzong's death, three Manchus were in power, the distant prince Zaiyuan, Prince Yi, Prince Zheng Duanhua, and Duanhua's younger brother Sushun.Among the three, Sushun is the most discerning and capable.Sushun is the most prophet among the Manchus who can recognize the cooperation with the Han people. He deeply knows that the Han people have many talents, and they should rely on these talents to govern China.In particular, he corrected the Manchu's guard against the Han nationality, and communicated with outstanding people of the Han nationality.Without him, Zeng Guofan would not be of much use; without him, Zuo Zongtang would have been framed long ago.Other talents of the Han nationality, such as Guo Songtao and Wang Kaiyun, are all admired by him.He is generous and often invites outstanding people of the Han nationality to drink at home.His comments on Man Han are: There are many jerks in our bannermen, what do we know?The Han people should not be offended, his pen is very powerful! In order to rectify political corruption, Sushun offended many people.For example, he believed that the Manchu soldiers in the Eight Banners could not fight and wanted to reduce their salaries, which offended a lot of people;This problem made him offend a woman, a Manchu woman. When the British and French allied forces approached, Wen Zong walked in a hurry when he left the Old Summer Palace. Some of the concubines in the Old Summer Palace could not be taken away. As a result, when the British and French allied forces entered, they all committed suicide by diving into the water.On the first day Wenzong fled to Rehe, he only ate sesame seed cakes for dinner.Old rice meal, japonica rice porridge.The next morning, I only ate a little sliced ​​pork. Even the emperor, who was used to delicacies from mountains and seas, couldn't eat anything good. As you can imagine, everyone can only drink soy milk.But these difficulties, some pampered concubines can't control so many, they blame the directly responsible leader Sushun.On the way, the Manchu woman thought the car she was riding in was too uncomfortable, so she asked Sushun to change it for her.Sushun was riding on the horse, and said impatiently, what time is it now that the army is in turmoil, it would be nice to have this one.When they arrived in Rehe, there was a shortage of supplies and they could not provide these pampered concubines to live a Beijing-style life, so Sushun was even more unforgivable. When Wen Zong arrived in Rehe, he was in a bad mood. He recruited actors from Beijing to sing for him.Except for the release of "Four Seas Raising Peace", he is more interested in listening to operas than in state affairs.He listened very carefully, and he had to correct every four times he sang a wrong word.Once correcting the pronunciation of an actor, the actor said that it was sung like this according to the old score, but the emperor said: The old notation is wrong! Wenzong's health was failing, although he was still smart enough to correct the pronunciation of a word.But he had to start thinking: If he dies, what should he do next? In the family law of the Qing Dynasty, the emperor's position was passed on from father to son, but there was no rule that it must be passed on to the boss.At that time, his younger brother Yixin was the candidate, and Yixin was better than him, so his father Xuanzong was still unable to make a decision.Once when they went hunting, younger brother Yixin returned with a full load, but he was empty-handed. His master taught him that when the emperor asks you why this is useless, you can say: Spring is the time when all things grow, and killing is harmful to the harmony of heaven and earth, so I would rather come back empty-handed. This statement made the emperor feel that he was more stable than his younger brother, so he decided to make him emperor and his younger brother Prince Gong.Now if he dies, his son is only six years old, and Prince Gong makes him somewhat uneasy, so the day before his death, while announcing his son's succession to the throne, he also announced that Prince Yi Zaiyuan, Prince Zheng Duanhua and Sushun, etc. Eight people are the ministers of Zanxiang government affairs, and they all assist his son.Among the eight people, there is no Prince Gong. As for his wife, she has no part in politics at all.It is not only the family law of the Qing Dynasty, but also the tradition of the Chinese court that the queen mother cannot be involved in politics. Traditional Chinese women have contributed to the subjugation of the country, but are not good at governing the country.The earliest famous women in China, like Meixi in the Xia Dynasty, Daji in the Shang Dynasty, Baosi in the Zhou Dynasty, and Xi Shi in the Spring and Autumn Period, were all figures who had subjugated the country. After Liu Bang's death, he seized power and messed up, which exhausted people's appetite.So Han Wu, the fifth emperor of the Han Dynasty, arranged for his youngest son to succeed him, but killed the mother of the youngest son.His theory is: when the emperor is young, the emperor's mother will monopolize power, and if a woman monopolizes power, it will bring disaster to the country.Emperor Xianfeng knew this kind of thing, and he also felt that his son's mother Yiguifei was a powerful woman, so he arranged for his son to assist, and women could not be listed. The emperor is dead.The six-year-old son became the emperor. In order to respect him, his mother could no longer be a concubine-level figure, so she began to upgrade, and began to get close to the queen who could not give birth to a son, so she became two empress dowagers: The empress of the imperial concubine became the Empress Dowager Mother, who was called the Empress Dowager Ci'an in the Shanghui; The Empress Dowager Xi is an ambitious woman, she thinks now is an opportunity, she said to the Empress Dowager Ci'an, now that her husband is dead, you and I can't bear it anymore, if people like Sushun take power, we will not have a good life in the future Alright, why don't we contact Prince Gong for a coup d'état?The Empress Dowager Ci'an was persuaded by her, so they secretly informed Prince Gong, who was in Beijing to clean up the mess after the British and French allied forces, to plan a coup d'état. The coup began on the way Wenzong’s coffin was transported to Beijing. Zaiyuan and Duanhua were handed over to the ribbons and forced to commit suicide. At that time, it was a kind of preferential treatment and a kind of favor to tell you to commit suicide. suicide.The Chinese don't like to be decapitated when they die, so instead of beheading, it is a kind of grace to ask you to commit suicide.But judging from the effect of quick death, the pain of beheading is relatively light.As for Sushun, the Empress Dowager hated him and wanted to kill him publicly at Caishikou Execution Ground in Beijing.That day Sushun was tied to the bullock cart, because everyone wore filial piety for Emperor Xianfeng, Sushun also wore white clothes and cloth shoes, and the atmosphere was bleak; poison.He refused to kneel before the execution, and the executioner broke his legs with a big iron rod before beheading him.After his death, his home was also confiscated, and all his wealth went into the private house of the Queen Mother.One of the crimes of his death was that he did not give the empress dowager an object. This ridiculous crime was obviously revenge for the scene where she fled to Rehe Road.Just like that, for the power desire and narrow-mindedness of a vicious woman, the ancestral system of the entire Qing Dynasty was destroyed, and the emperor's will was obliterated. , all destroyed. China is in decline. The power of Manchu women is on the rise.The Empress Dowager Xi and the Empress Dowager Ci'an initially listened to politics behind a curtain.The curtain is a yellow curtain that hangs down, and the location is usually the Hall of Mental Cultivation. The queen mothers of the two palaces sit behind the yellow curtain, and the emperor sits in front of the yellow curtain.Three steps after entering the palace, first kneel down and call the servant so-and-so, respectfully greet Shengan, then take off the hat, kowtow, and say, the servant kowtows for the grace of heaven, then put on the hat and walk forward, kneeling down on the mat in front.According to regulations, courtiers are not allowed to look at their masters at the same level. They have to go in with their heads down, respond with their heads down, and come out with their heads down. The palace is very big, there are no lights, only candles.As soon as you enter, it takes a while to see clearly.The general habit is to look at the place below the emperor's chin. This way, you can avoid the disrespect of looking straight up, and you can also feel the expression on the master's face. I don't know what the master looks like. The Empress Dowager was only twenty-seven years old when she listened to the government behind the curtain. There was enough time for her to seize power and squander.The emperor is her son, and he is only six years old, so there is no hindrance to her.There are only two people who can hinder her dictatorship, one is Empress Dowager Ci'an and the other is Prince Gong.When the Western Empress Dowager was still a noble concubine, the Empress Dowager Ci'an was already a queen. Although after Mu Zong came to the throne, the Western Empress Dowager was also promoted to the rank of empress dowager, but she had never been a queen after all, and she always felt wrong in front of the Empress Dowager Ci'an.Before Wen Zong was alive, he gave the Empress Dowager Ci'an a secret edict, which was a will. It said that if Concubine Yi made a mess, the empress could summon the ministers to announce the secret edict, and concubine Yi would be sentenced to death.After Wen Zong's death, the Empress Dowager Xi was very respectful to Empress Dowager Ci'an, and amidst the respect, people felt that there was still a proper sense of being a concubine, which made Empress Dowager Ci'an very satisfied.Once, the Empress Dowager Ci'an was seriously ill and recovered. She saw the wound on the arm of the Empress Dowager Xi and asked her what was the matter. The Empress Dowager Xi said: The Queen Mother was ill, I prayed to God and worshiped Buddha, made a vow, cut off the flesh on my arm, mixed it with medicine, and cured the Queen Mother. This act of cutting meat and mixing it with medicine is a traditional superstition in China. The Chinese believe that if a person is seriously ill, if his children cut off their thighs and medicine and give it to the patient, this behavior will move God and the disease will be cured.The Empress Dowager Ci'an was very moved after hearing the explanation of the Empress Dowager Xi, so she said to her: I really didn't expect you to be so kind to me, almost like a sister, the first emperor really misjudged the person! So he revealed the secret edict left by Emperor Xianfeng; at the same time, he took out the secret edict and burned it in front of the Queen Mother. This burning burned away all the scruples and politeness of the Queen Mother, and since then, everything has changed. The situation of the collective leadership of the two empress dowagers has become more and more tilted.The Queen Mother is becoming more and more powerful, and her method is to reuse eunuchs.Eunuchs, commonly known as eunuchs, are men who have their genitals cut off. The purpose of such people is to do odd jobs in the palace.There are many things in the palace, but the emperor also has many wives and concubines. When men work in it, they will make mistakes, but women are not as capable as men, so there are men without genitals.The ancient imperial palace was really a deformed combination with thousands of female genitals and hundreds of them without male genitals, but only the emperor had male genitals. The men had their genitals cut off, and they waited in the center of power all day long, took care of the emperor's daily life, watched the emperor's expression by the emperor's side, and passed on the emperor's orders. Naturally, a situation was formed: they were trusted by the emperor, they had power, They can manipulate power up and down, and this kind of power manipulation is based on a strong psychological abnormality as the background. Therefore, the world is in chaos, and there is another source of chaos. Eunuchs are generally ignorant villains, and their power is outrageous.Zhao Gao, the first famous eunuch in China, performed the technique of intervening in politics, which brought down the Qin Dynasty.In the Han Dynasty, the eunuchs were even more outrageous and ran amok everywhere.One eunuch had a record of robbing 381 houses of the common people. When the Han Dynasty fell, soldiers marched into the palace and killed more than 2,000 eunuchs at a time.But it’s useless, the Tang Dynasty came again, and the eunuchs in the Tang Dynasty were even more fierce, because they not only bullied the officials and the people, but also bullied the emperor. One-third of the emperors of the Tang Dynasty were supported by eunuchs, and finally it was over In the Tang Dynasty, the army still marched in, killing people so much that their eyes were red, and even people without beards were killed as eunuchs.In the Ming Dynasty, eunuchs made a comeback.The first emperor of the Ming Dynasty, in order to fear that the eunuchs would take power, specially stipulated that eunuchs were not allowed to read and write. His power has spread to the governors of the six departments of the cabinet and the four directions.The whole country flattered him, and the characteristic of flattery was to build temples and shrines for him.Shrines usually commemorate great men who died.But flattery experts believe that Wei Zhongxian should enjoy this honor when he is alive, so officials all over the country have built shrines for him in various places. It will cost hundreds of thousands to build one, how many trees will be cut down, and how much land will be occupied. Dare not cover.The construction of Shengsheng Temple in Kaifeng, Henan alone destroyed 2,000 private houses.On the other hand, the emperor is called long live, but Wei Zhongxian is called nine thousand years old, which is only one thousand years younger than the emperor.Just like this nonsense, until the last emperor of the Ming Dynasty, he executed Wei Zhongxian, but the Ming Dynasty also perished. In the early years of the Ming Dynasty, in order to fear that the eunuchs would take power, an iron plate was hung outside the palace gate, saying that the eunuchs were not allowed to interfere in political affairs, and those who intervened would be beheaded.But after hanging up, the eunuchs of the Ming Dynasty had already caused the country to perish.In the early years of the Qing Dynasty, the iron plate was also hung up, and the regulations were even stricter. Violating the law and interfering in politics was not only about beheading, but also killing people with a knife.The Qing Dynasty stipulated that eunuchs were not allowed to leave the imperial city without permission, not to interfere in foreign affairs, not to make friends with foreign officials, and not to buy properties under false names. Violating these prohibitions was a capital crime, but the favored eunuchs didn't pay attention.In order to fight for power and profit, the Queen Mother used eunuchs as her minions.At first she used the eunuch An Dehai.An Dehai kept making noises in the palace, and even went outside.In the ninth year (1869) of the ninth year of the Empress Dowager's administration behind the curtain, An Dehai sailed to Shandong in a large and small boat with a dragon flag on the boat, saying that the imperial envoy was ordered to purchase dragon robes, and there were some on board that he bought. The nineteen-year-old girl has his uncle, sister, niece, attendant, bodyguard, cook, shave, pedicure, storyteller, and a monk and the monk's cook.On the boat, they sang and made noise, hired singers to perform, and monks joined in the fun.When I arrived in Shandong, I went ashore to change cars and sedan chairs. I had twenty-two mules, seventeen horses, and a donkey, and I took a cart and car with me.At that time, Ding Baozhen, governor of Shandong Province, couldn't see it anymore, and secretly informed Prince Gong. Prince Gong thought that the Queen Mother should be given a warning, and ordered Ding Baozhen to kill An Dehai on the spot according to law.The news reached the Empress Dowager Xi who was listening to the play, she was furious, she hated Prince Gong and Empress Dowager Ci'an, she thought it was their conspiracy, she wanted to take revenge, and she continued to cultivate the power of the eunuchs under her protection. Eleven years later (1880), the Empress Dowager's power became more stable.In August of this year, she asked the eunuch Li Sanshun to take things out of the palace and give them to her sister.According to the palace rules, eunuchs are not allowed to go through the main entrance, they can only go through the side door, but the eunuch must go through the main entrance, and refuses to listen to the inspection. As a result, there was a fight with the gatekeeper, and the eunuch ran back to report to the Queen Mother.The Empress Dowager Xi came to the Empress Dowager Ci'an and said that they would ignore me before I was dead, and that if I didn't kill the gatekeeper, I wouldn't want to live.The Empress Dowager Ci'an was afraid, so she ordered to kill the gatekeeper. The judicial officer said that this was not acceptable. Firstly, the gatekeeper had not violated the law.Empress Dowager Ci'an said, what is ancestral system?When I die, am I not also your ancestor?Insisting on killing people, Pan Zuyin, Minister of the Ministry of Criminal Justice, who is the head of justice, said that since the prisoner is handed over to the Ministry of Criminal Justice, he must be dealt with according to the law, which means being acquitted. If the Queen Mother wants to kill, the Queen Mother can do it on her own. .Ci'an had no choice but to tell the Empress Dowager Xi, who found Pan Zuyin, crying and making a fuss, beating the bed and cursing, calling Pan Zuyin heartless.Later, they agreed to give a discount and not kill them, but they had to beat the gatekeepers in court, and they had to be spanked openly by the court staff in the court.Prince Gong said that the court rod was the tyranny of the Ming Dynasty, and we in the Qing Dynasty cannot learn from it.The Queen Mother said that you are against me in everything, who are you?Prince Gong said that I am the sixth son of the first emperor.The Empress Dowager Xi said that I would revoke your post, and Prince Gong said that you had obtained the position and title, but you could not revoke the status of the late emperor's son!The Queen Mother was furious.In the end, I still accommodated her, discounted it, and punished what shouldn't be punished. Lawlessness like this had a turning point when Emperor Tongzhi was eighteen years old.Emperor Tongzhi had to get married at the age of eighteen, and he was considered an adult when he got married, and the queen mother had to end her administration behind the curtain, so the formal transfer of power was getting closer and closer. In terms of candidates for queens, the empress dowagers of the two palaces each recommended one. Emperor Tongzhi selected the one recommended by the empress dowager Ci'an as empress, and the one recommended by the empress dowager Xi as concubine Hui.This made the Queen Mother very unhappy.After getting married, the Empress Dowager Xi kept making troubles, saying how could she fool around in the room every day, and she also wanted to go to Concubine Hui's side. Emperor Tongzhi was tired of such a painful mother, so he didn't go there. Went there, but changed into a disguise, slipped outside the palace to talk about it, and finally fell ill.The queen ran to take care of him. Unexpectedly, the queen mother took off her socks and sneaked behind the scenes to eavesdrop. She heard the emperor say: Just be patient, be patient for a while, we will succeed one day! The Queen Mother immediately jumped out, grabbed the Queen's hair, dragged and beat her, and shouted for a stick.Emperor Tongzhi died in fright.Two months later, the eighteen-year-old queen committed suicide by swallowing gold.As a result, the situation of listening to the government behind the curtain returned, and the political power that the Queen Mother lost formally returned to her hands two years later, after her own son was forced to death by her. After the death of Emperor Tongzhi, according to the rules, someone who was younger than him should be found to succeed the new emperor, but when the younger generation came out, the Empress Dowager was a step older. She couldn't bear it, so she took her younger sister's child, Her nephew was introduced to be the ninth emperor of the Qing Dynasty, Emperor Dezong Guangxu.Dezong was only four years old when he was emperor. Compared with Mu Zong who was only six years old when he was emperor, the starting point is lower. The Queen Mother has more time to monopolize power. In this way, the Empress Dowager Xi poisoned the Empress Dowager Ci'an in the seventh year after Emperor Guangxu ascended the throne, and dismissed Prince Gong in the eleventh year. China is declining more and more. When the Empress Dowager West united with Empress Dowager Ci'an and Prince Gong to seize power, she was twenty-seven years old, Empress Dowager Ci'an was twenty-five years old, and Prince Gong was thirty years old.The three young men took on internal troubles amidst foreign aggression. The most troubling internal troubles were civil uprisings in various places. Before the three young men succeeded in seizing power, the civil uprisings had lasted for eleven years, and then continued for another seventeen years. In 2008, during the civil uprising, Zhejiang's population dropped from 30 million to only 10 million; Hangzhou, Zhejiang, which is known as a paradise on earth, fell from 800,000 to only a few tens of thousands; Jiangsu fell from 45 million , there are only 20 million left.Barren villages, starving people, wildfires, bones of the dead, and cannibalism in other provinces are also often seen. However, although the internal and external troubles are so serious and are getting worse, the Manchurian woman is happy in the city of Beijing. Thirty years after she succeeded in seizing power at the age of 27, she rebuilt Qingyi Garden, a large royal suburban garden, into a magnificent Summer Palace. . The Summer Palace is the largest garden landscape in China, with more than 100 classical buildings, including palaces, pavilions, pavilions, theaters, temples, pagodas, waterside pavilions, promenades, embankments, and arch bridges.Shifang and so on are the emperor's palaces that have been in operation for 800 years.In the hands of the Queen Mother, she refurbished and expanded it, turning it into a forbidden garden that only she can enjoy alone.In the earliest days, she lived here on the first day of April every year, and did not return to the Beijing Imperial Palace until the tenth day of October; later she simply lived here for a long time. In the Summer Palace, the extravagance of this Manchu woman is astonishing. For a meal, she has to put out 128 dishes, costing 100 taels of silver, which is equivalent to the millet of poor Chinese farmers, which can supply 15,000 yuan. A Chinese farmer eats a meal.In other words, what she eats a day is the sum of what 45,000 Chinese farmers eat.However, Chinese farmers still can't afford millet. They have to eat everything from miscellaneous grains to bark. Millet is still a high-end food! On the way from the Beijing Imperial Palace to the Summer Palace, the Empress Dowager always got off the sedan chair to take a rest, and the rest place was the Wanshou Temple.In this way, Wanshou Temple became a very popular temple, and Li Lianying, the confidant of the Empress Dowager West, etc.;