Chapter 3 3. Empress Dowager Cixi saw a great talent

Empress Dowager Cixi has been thinking about the Yili Treaty in distress recently. It has been nearly twenty years since the Xinyou year began to personally govern the country.The course of the past twenty years has been truly arduous.It was very easy to calm down the domestic war gradually, but the foreign aggression was coming day by day.With twenty years of experience, Cixi knows that foreigners are the most difficult to deal with, and foreign affairs are the most difficult to handle.She is a strong woman.The occurrence of the Xinyou Year Incident, traced back to its cause, was precisely because of foreigners.If the British and French allied forces hadn't invaded the capital a year earlier, how could Emperor Wen Zong have been in a hurry to kill Mulan?If it hadn't been for the rare humiliation and fright, why would the thirty-year-old emperor abandon her mother and child as the dragon and the guest?If the son came to the throne not at such a young age, why would there be a minister who cares about his fate?If there is no Minister Gu Ming, how can there be the domineering bullying of Su Shun and others?Fortunately, the ancestors blessed, the monarch and his ministers were united, and killed Sushun, Zaiyuan, and Duanhua. Otherwise, I don't know what the situation will be like today!Over the past twenty years, every time Cixi thinks of those days and nights full of turbulent waves, Cixi can't help feeling a little lingering in her heart.The reason for all this, in the final analysis, is caused by foreigners.As soon as foreigners were mentioned, Cixi became extremely annoyed, wishing to cut those foreigners with blue eyes and high noses into pieces.

However, killing foreigners is easier said than done!The peace talks in Geng Shennian and the teaching plans that have been repeated year after year are obviously unreasonable by foreigners, but in the end, it is China who suffers.Let’s just talk about the incident in Yili this time.At the beginning, Russia sent troops to Ili City, not following China's request, but taking advantage of the fire to loot, intending to occupy it for a long time.Now that Xinjiang has been recovered, Russia should withdraw its troops from Ili and return it to China. As for the military expenses Russia has spent in Ili over the years, China can only pay part of it at its discretion. How can it be threatened?Regarding these unfair Sino-foreign negotiations, as a ruler, Cixi certainly knows in her heart that this is because China is weak and foreigners are strong.When she sent Chonghou to Russia to sign the contract, Cixi had already prepared in her heart that she would suffer losses, but she did not expect that Russia would be so greedy and China would pay such a high price for taking back Ili City.

Chong Hou has now signed a contract in Russia.He is the imperial envoy, and he is here to handle this matter, so he can sign it naturally.In the past few days since Di Chao announced the content of the treaty, there are many opponents among the courtiers, and Cixi herself is reluctant, feeling like being bullied.There are also some people who agree to follow the treaty, and Li Hongzhang is the representative of this faction.Their reasons cannot be ignored: the signing and abolishing are reneging on what they promised. The Russians are certainly annoyed, but other countries will also have opinions on this.The Russians are powerful and have always been tyrannical. If they use this as an excuse to start a war, China is not an opponent, and their losses will be even greater.The country's military priority lies in the defense of the southeast coast, and Xinjiang is a barren land, which has little to do with the overall situation. It seems that it has indeed suffered a loss at the moment, and the only way out is to endure and strive for strength.

For Cixi, this is another very difficult problem.The emperor is only nine years old, so of course he can't be allowed to intervene in this matter; the Empress Dowager Ci'an has always been unable to make up her mind on military affairs, and it is useless to discuss them. There are mainly two princes and nobles involved in military affairs: the chief minister of the military aircraft department, Liu Ye Gong Wang Yiyi And the emperor's father Qiye Chun Wang Yizhen.The views of the two on this matter are diametrically opposed: Yiyi advocates recognizing the treaty signed by Chonghou, while Yizhen firmly opposes it.

Cixi knew that in terms of foreign affairs, the attitudes of the two princes had always been tit for tat.Yiyi advocates softness, with the intention of restraining people; Yixuan advocates toughness, and completely rejects foreigners.Eight years ago, the conflicting attitudes of the two brothers were most evident in the handling of the Tianjin religious case.Yiyi believes that the Tianjin teaching case is intended to fool the people and act too much. China should pay compensation, apologize, kill the murderer, and severely punish the local officials.Yizhen believes that the Tianjin case was completely caused by foreigners, and the people of Jin are righteous people. Not only did they do the right thing by setting fire to the church, but they also wanted to take this opportunity to destroy all foreigners’ embassies in Beijing and kill all foreigners on Chinese territory. Drive away and cut off contact with foreigners forever.After weighing again and again, Cixi accepted Yiyi's opinion and ordered Zeng Guofan to quell the Tianjin teaching case as soon as possible according to the principle of "softness".As a result, although the Tianjin case was handled relatively calmly, the public opinion circles across the country were in an uproar. Zeng Guofan, who was directly in charge of the matter, was dubbed a traitor and traitor, and Cixi and Yiyi felt disgraceful in their faces.On the contrary, Yizhen was widely praised by scholars, who praised him as a patriotic and virtuous king.

As the supreme ruler of the country, the Yili Treaty pushed Cixi into an embarrassing dilemma again. She hated foreigners in her heart, and hoped that China would never deal with foreigners, so as to avoid endless troubles.Therefore, she admired Yizhen's attitude, and planned to refuse the treaty signed by Chonghou that forfeited power and humiliated the country. She is also afraid of foreigners in her heart, and understands that China is by no means an opponent of foreigners, and foreigners will never give up the benefits they have gained in China, so she can only give benefits to foreigners and adopt a calm attitude to win the favor of foreigners.Therefore, she also wanted to adopt the attitude of retreating for peace in the past, and recognize the treaty signed by Chonghou.

Back then, Zeng Guofan was called a traitor and a traitor just because he punished a few local officials. Now that 80,000 square miles of land have been ceded, shouldn't the accusation of traitor be passed down from generation to generation?Thinking of this level, Cixi felt uneasy again.She decided to hand over the matter to all court officials, including Wang Gongxunqi, Liubu Jiuqing, Han Zhan Kedao, etc. for public discussion. The courtiers reacted strongly to this matter, and the excerpts were sent to Cixi from the internal memorial office one by one. Except for a few memorials that agreed with Chonghou, most of the memorials were against it, especially Cixi. Li Hongzao, Pan Zuyin, Bao Ting, Zhang Peilun, Chen Baochen, Wu Dacheng and others spoke more intensely.Their attitudes were very consistent: in addition to disapproving of the various provisions of the treaty, Chonghou must be severely punished.Cixi is not surprised by the common attitude of these people, or even the similar terms. She had already heard of the name "Qingliu Party".

Cixi doesn't like Qingliu party.That group of people relied on their own knowledge and writing, they were born in Tsinghua University, they were proud of themselves, and they looked down upon their colleagues.They often expressed their dissatisfaction with the major decisions made by the imperial court, drew a few words from the dead who had turned into rotten mud hundreds of thousands of years ago, and searched for past events from the pile of yellowed and blackened old papers as a basis to criticize the imperial court. This is not right, and that is not right, to show their magnificence; sometimes it is not a big deal, but they just want to rise to the righteousness of the country and the nation, and they often bring up their ancestors to support their speech.Cixi hated these Qingliu's excerpts very much, and often fell to the ground in anger after reading half of them, and said fiercely in her heart: "Who can say cold words, I will let you do something practical, and see how capable you are. Eighty percent is not as good as others!"

Cixi also can't understand the way the Qingliu Party behaves.They talk about preserving the principles of nature and destroying human desires, etc. In Cixi's view, this is completely hypocritical. Who in the world can really do it?Just because their leader Li Hongzao didn't go to mourn her mother, Cixi was very angry.However, Cixi could not offend them.They are speaking according to the principles of Confucius, Mencius, Cheng Zhu, and acting according to the teachings of their ancestors.The clown Meng Chengzhu and the ancestors of the ancestors cannot be abrupt.More importantly, as a powerful ruler, Cixi knew very well the necessity of this group of people in the political arena. She needed them to balance power, and moreover, she needed to use them to achieve her own goals that were inconvenient for her to express publicly.

Over the past decade or so since Changmao was pacified, Cixi has faintly felt that the generals leading the troops and the local officials are gradually becoming bigger.When Zeng Guofan was alive, because he himself was very submissive to the court, other meritorious generals and governors did not dare to act presumptuously.Since the death of Zeng Guofan, this trend has become more and more obvious day by day. Their general representative is Li Hongzhang, a scholar of Wenhuadian and governor of Zhili.Li Hongzhang's achievements are too great, and his power is too great, and he is only in his fifties. Just like how he treated Zeng Guofan back then, Cixi also reused and guarded against Li Hongzhang.Over the years, Li Hongzhang has done foreign affairs and dealt with foreigners, which has given him a lot of strength. The most powerful attack on him is the Qingliu party.As soon as she read the scriptures accusing Li Hongzhang, Cixi became interested.She read it carefully and wrote down what Li Hongzhang lacked, and then, when meeting Li Hongzhang, she pointed out one or two points, or simply sent the notes to him to read, so as to hit Li Hongzhang's upturned tail , kill his self-righteous arrogance.For Li Hongzhang, this trick often worked very well.

Some high-ranking officials either offended Cixi, or Cixi's respect for his family has declined, so Cixi disclosed some information about their poor personal morality to the Qingliu Party through various channels, and Qingliu people learned about it. Immediately on the chapter of impeachment.These impeachment memorials were right in Cixi's arms, and a decree came down, and the obstacles were removed, and she gained a good reputation for being kind to her words and discerning them. There are also some really bad high-ranking officials, they are moths that corrupt the government. Of course, Cixi also hates it. The Qingliu Party makes up for the negligence of the Metropolitan Procuratorate. . In this way, Cixi used the officials with real power to administer affairs for her, and at the same time used Yushi and Qingliu party to supervise and prevent her.For more than ten years, she has relied on playing these two hands to balance the political situation and consolidate her position. Now, she decided to take the opinion of the majority and use the enthusiasm of this group of purges to vent her anger at the Russians.People like Li Hongzao deserved to be well-educated, and they were full of emotions. The memorials they wrote were indeed much more exciting than others. Cixi also found it a little interesting to read, unlike those old excerpts that did not satisfy her appetite.Even Zhang Zhidong's long speech, she read carefully from beginning to end, and specially skimmed the main points in it.Cixi's memory is very good, so after reading it, Zhang Zhidong's notes are almost completely kept in her mind. After reading several scriptures in a row, she was really tired, so Cixi called out: "Little Lizi!" "Hey!" Li Lianying opened the curtain and entered, bent down, and answered in a peculiar half-male and half-female voice, "The servant is here." "Let's go out for a walk!" "Hey!" As if she had practiced light kung fu, Li Lianying walked quickly and came to Cixi in an instant without making any sound of footsteps.He supported Cixi with both hands, which was gentle and powerful, which made Cixi feel very comfortable.When she came to the door, Li Lianying said to a young eunuch who was waiting beside her, "Tell everyone that the Queen Mother is going out for a walk." Cixi likes to take a casual walk, which she calls walking in circles.After breakfast and dinner, she must go for a walk. Usually, if she sits for a long time, she will go out of the warm pavilion for a walk.When Cixi walked around, only Li Lianying accompanied her, and a large group of eunuchs followed her a dozen steps away.Some of these eunuchs carried chairs, some held umbrellas, some held tea, some carried medicine pouches, and the last little eunuch carried a shiny golden toilet.No matter how far or near the Empress Dowager was, this team of eunuchs would follow her from afar as usual. Although Cixi usually didn't use what they had in their hands, they were absolutely devoted to their duties and dared not slack off in the slightest. Cixi walked slowly and casually in the backyard of the Hall of Mental Cultivation, sometimes shaking her hands up and down gently.Li Lianying followed closely, keeping a step away from her.If Cixi didn't call, he followed her all the time, neither far nor near, always only one step away, this is the kung fu that Li Lianying has practiced for many years.Following behind the queen mother and watching her walking posture is the best enjoyment that Li Lianying will never tire of. The Queen Mother is so beautiful!Li Lianying often admires this from the bottom of her heart.However, the Empress Dowager is still in her forties after all, no matter how carefully she dresses, the wrinkles between the corners of her eyes and eyebrows cannot be smoothed out. Compared with many young concubines and court ladies in the palace, the Empress Dowager looks helplessly inferior.But not when viewed from the back.The Empress Dowager has not put on weight so far, her well-proportioned figure is still as fat and thin as a young girl's, and her shiny black hair makes many palace family members feel inferior, especially her gait under the flowerpot, which is not biased Leaning, unhurried, the slender waist that twists and turns, like a willow branch swinging, is really indescribably light, elegant, and graceful; if compared with the back view, the Queen Mother will undoubtedly overwhelm the others, Dominate the leader. "Little Lizi, come forward." Just as Li Lianying was intoxicated by the admiration of the Queen Mother's beautiful back, Cixi called. He hurriedly took a big step and walked to Cixi's shoulder: "Your servant is here to obey orders!" "Is there anything nice to hear? Tell me a paragraph." Cixi has been locked in the deep palace for many years, and what she reads all day long is nothing more than the Huangfeng memorial, the imperial criticisms of the past dynasties, as well as the several palaces in Ouchi and the narrow sky above her head, and all she listens to is the same promises and nothing. Greetings including emotional components, dealing with a few high-ranking officials all day long, as well as a group of eunuchs who are dumbfounded and clumsy, and palace maids who are sad and pregnant, so when she is free, she asks Li Lianying to speak Listen to anecdotes outside the palace, common affairs in the market and jokes of the common people to relieve boredom. Knowing Cixi's temperament, Li Lianying often sent the eunuchs in the palace to collect these materials, stored them in her stomach, and responded to inquiries at any time, so she often satisfied Cixi; she would also be happy when she heard some good jokes laugh.The fun brought to Cixi by jokes is more than the pearls and agates presented by ministers.This is also one of the reasons why Li Lianying was favored by Cixi. "My servant said something interesting to relieve the empress dowager." Li Lianying walked next to Cixi, walking with the same long and short steps as Cixi, and said articulately, "Two days ago, my servant was ordered to go to the military aircraft to do business. It happened that the adults in the Military Aircraft Department were chatting. Master Shen took a few puffs from the hookah, then half-closed his eyes and said to everyone, I will tell you a joke. So the other adults stopped chatting Come over to listen to Mr. Shen. Mr. Shen said that Mr. Lin Wenzhong had a banquet at home that year. When the banquet was about to start, Mr. Lin Wenzhong suddenly received an urgent report and went out to work in the mansion. The guests waited for half an hour It was time to see the master come back, and he was very hungry, so he ignored the etiquette and began to eat and drink. One of Lin Wenzhong's aides saw the ridiculous eating of these diners, so he thought of an idea to ridicule them. The aide said, Let's eat, and I'll tell you a story." When Li Lianying said this, he paused for a while. Seeing that Cixi was listening intently, he continued: "In the Hongwu era of the Ming Dynasty, there was a rich man named Shen Wansan..." "I know Shen Wansan." Cixi interjected, "He had more money than the imperial court, but he was killed by Zhu Hongwu." "Exactly, exactly. The Empress Dowager really knows everything!" Li Lianying quickly complimented.He knew that Cixi was in a good mood today, so he continued with gusto, "Shen Wansan is rich because he has a cornucopia at home. Put an ingot of gold into the basin, and there will be a pot of gold immediately; put a pearl Put it into the basin, and immediately there was a pot of pearls. As a result, Shen Wansan’s wealth piled up like a mountain, more than that of the imperial court. But his neighbor was a poor man, often worrying about food and clothing. One day he couldn’t open the pot again, and he remembered Shen Wansan’s wealth. Shen Wansan discussed with Shen Wansan about borrowing the cornucopia at home. Shen Wansan refused, but the neighbors said all the good things. Shen Wansan was annoyed, and said, well, for the sake of the neighbors, I will borrow it once and use it up. Then return it immediately. The neighbor happily took the basin back. When he got home, he encountered a dilemma: he didn’t have any valuables at home, so what should he put in the basin? His wife stood beside her son and helped him think. The son was hungry. I had to cry and make a lot of noise, very restless, and accidentally fell into the cornucopia. The wife hurriedly carried the son out. As soon as the son left the basin, there was another son crying from hunger in the basin; There was still one; four or five of them were picked up in a row, and there was a crying son in the basin. The neighbor was angry and wanted to get some money to use, but unexpectedly a group of hungry ghosts came out! Just said Here, the guests who are eating and drinking burst into laughter." "Not bad! Not bad!" Cixi also laughed out loud, covering half of her mouth with a pink handkerchief. "It's rare for Lin Zexu to have such a clever staff by his side." "My servant heard that some of the staff in the governor's mansion are smarter than the court's orderly officials, and they can do things." Li Lianying suddenly felt that these words seemed a bit out of line, so she hurriedly shut her mouth and peeked at the Queen Mother's reaction. "That's right. It is said that Zeng Guofan had a large number of staff who knew how to handle affairs." Seeing that Cixi didn't care, Li Lianying's heart fell, and she quickly complimented: "I have seen Zeng Guofan from a distance, and the whole court said that he is loyal to the Queen Mother." "Zeng Guofan was a true minister of the country, but unfortunately he died early." Cixi said to herself.She stopped and stared at the thousand-year-old cypress in front of the palace gate for a long time, as if she was thinking about something. "Don't talk about this, I'm going to go in and lie down for a while." After finishing speaking, he turned around and walked towards the back door of the Hall of Mental Cultivation.As soon as he walked to the curtain of the East Nuan Pavilion, he saw Eunuch Tong standing aside holding a memorial box wrapped in yellow satin.Li Lianying guessed that she didn't want to watch it now because she heard Cixi say "Lie down for a while", so she said to Eunuch Tong: "The Empress Dowager needs to rest, and she will send it later." "Whose book?" Cixi had already stepped into the door with one foot, and asked by the way. "Master Zhao from the Foreign Affairs Office said that it was the Bureau of Economics and Economics who punished Zhang Zhidong." Eunuch Tong replied respectfully. "Oh, Zhang Zhidong has another booklet." Cixi stopped the other foot, thought for a while and said, "Hand it up!" "Hey!" Eunuch Tong agreed, followed behind Li Lianying, and followed Cixi into the East Nuan Pavilion. Li Lianying asked gently: "Queen Mother, are you not resting?" "I'm lying on the bed, and you read to me." Two court ladies came up, helped Cixi onto the bed, took off her shoes and coat, and covered her with a thin crimson-yellow silk quilt.Cixi half-lyed on the phoenix bed, closed her eyes slightly, and said to Li Lianying, "Read it!" Li Lianying took the memorial box handed over by Eunuch Tong, opened the yellow satin, took out Zhang Zhidong's memorial from the box, and read it word by word: "Details are planned and plans are made. The thief went to the court on the fifth day of the first month of this month." Sparse, discussing the Russian treaty violates the interests and disadvantages. The intention of the ministers was to urgently build military equipment. Stealing the intention of the imperial court did not mean that the military equipment was right, but it seemed that the military equipment was difficult." Cixi's eyes opened a little.At the beginning of Zhang Zhidong's few sentences, the picture of wings and circles melted his thoughts.Military equipment needs to be repaired, but it is not easy to repair, let's listen to what this horse-washing said. "In the past twenty years, there has been nothing to rely on on the frontier, so I feel that China's general situation is definitely not enough to defend against strong neighbors, so I have to make peace. I think that if you are not prepared, you can't talk about war, and if you are unprepared, you can't make peace." "Yes, regardless of war or peace, one must be prepared." Cixi nodded in her heart, agreeing with these two sentences. "Your fool thinks that when it comes to preparations today, there should be soldiers to prepare for, people to prepare for, and wages to prepare for." When Cixi heard this, she sat up and said: "You don't need to read the words about 'soldiers' and 'people'. You can read the section of 'payment' to me." "Hey!" Li Lianying's eyes quickly scanned the memorial, and then fixed on the section on the payment: "How about the payment, what is needed in Beiyang, there are funds for coastal defense, what is needed in Xinjiang, there is a special payment from the west, and the east The salaries of the three provinces can be allocated from the Nanyang coastal defense funds, or from the 20% of each customs deposit." Coastal defense funds, special rates for western levies, tariff commissions, do you still use Zhang Zhidong to talk about these?Cixi closed her eyes slightly again, and listened patiently. "Where does the salary for the increase of troops in the important border towns come from? There are no less than a few hundred battalions in the provinces. The minister thinks that the emptiness of the hinterland can be used to fill the frontier army. I plan to request the governors of the provinces to abolish them at their discretion. Four save six, and the border pay goes out." The provincial camps will cut 40%!Here's an idea.The war in the interior has long been settled, but the provinces still retain a large number of soldiers and bravery, which not only consumes a lot of money and food, but also causes troubles, and invisibly encourages the arrogance of the border officials.Cixi has long been dissatisfied with this, but it is difficult to deal with it, and now she can use the topic of defense against Russia to write this article.Cixi's eyes opened again. "In addition, if the tax on foreign medicines is doubled, you can get three to four million per year." Double the tariffs on foreign medicines to squeeze foreigners.Cixi thought about it in her heart, and she was so happy that she said: "This is a way!" "Thirdly, you can get two to three hundred thousand yuan if you take advantage of Jiangguang's water transportation. Fourth, rectify the Huai Gang and eliminate private business, and the income will not be less than four to five hundred thousand yuan." "Don't read it anymore, I'll see it myself!" Cixi stood up and sat up on the bed, and the maids hurried forward to put on her clothes in a panic, and Li Lianying hurriedly handed over the booklet. Cixi took the booklet and quickly read the unread part below: "The matter of raising wages is especially important for those who earn money. The servant Yan Jingming is good at comprehensive auditing, and his financial management is effective. The government and the public know that although he lives in the mountains today, he is not an old man. Yan Jingming How can the heart forget the world in a day! If you are called by a warm decree, the time is difficult, and the action is a metaphor for righteousness, how can the servant bear the resignation? Yan Jingming can support you with reason, and the court will not worry about the lack of salary!" Cixi's heart was shocked, she put down the notebook, and sighed: "Unexpectedly, Zhang Zhidong is a clean stream, and he has economic talents!" It turned out that in view of the bullying by foreigners over the years, Cixi wanted to train the Qing army to become stronger, whether it was the coastal defense army in the southeast, or the frontier defense army in the northwest and northeast.There is no shortage of soldiers in China: millions of soldiers are available as soon as they are called; there is no shortage of generals in command: Li Hongzhang is a good leader of coastal defense, and Zuo Zongtang is a strong commander of fortress defense.In order to strengthen the military, what is most lacking at the moment is payment, which is money.The provinces are either reporting disasters or crying for poverty. The taxes that should be handed over to the court have been delayed and reduced again and again.Faced with this situation, the Ministry of Household Affairs was helpless, and could not think of a way to make money.Many good ideas for strengthening the army fell through because the household department had no money. Zhang Zhidong's strategy of raising wages not only provided a guarantee of wages for the current defense against Russia, but also opened up multiple sources of income for the future to strengthen the army and strengthen the country.Most importantly, he reminded Cixi that Yan Jingming should be appointed as soon as possible.Yan Jingming was an expert in financial management, Cixi knew this for a long time, but this person had an odd personality. A few years ago, because he couldn't get along with his colleagues, he resigned from his position as Minister of the Ministry of Industry and went back to his hometown to recuperate from his illness.Over the years, Cixi gradually forgot Yan Jingming in her mind.Yes, it should be started as soon as possible! Zhang Zhidong, a member of the Qingliu Party, is actually able to pay attention to the economy and practice, which is really rare.Cixi seemed to see the shadow of Zeng Guofan from Zhang Zhidong.The imperial court needs good officials who can handle affairs, as well as virtuous ministers who can speak character. If someone can combine good officials and virtuous ministers like Zeng Guofan, then he is a real talent for the country.Is Zhang Zhidong such a talent?Cixi leaned her head on the exquisite flower lattice of the phoenix bed, and began to think. According to the rules of the Qing Dynasty, the emperor did not summon officials below the fourth rank.Therefore, although Xima Zhang Zhidong from Wupin's Sijing Bureau has been an official for nearly 20 years, he has no chance to see the sky.If it was an ordinary fifth-rank official, Cixi would not be able to have an impression, but Zhang Zhidong was unusual.At the beginning of his official career, he received Cixi's special family.In the past twenty years, Empress Dowager Cixi has also been watching him from time to time. The reason for this is a long story to say.