Chapter 99 Section 99 Reform Failed

At the end of the 23rd year of Guangxu (1897 A.D.), Li Hongzhang was 75 years old. He was specially favored by Empress Dowager Cixi and exempted from leading the introduction to show respect for the veterans. However, Li Hongzhang's body and bones were not as good as before. His hands trembled when he wrote, and his legs became numb after sitting for a long time. Li Hongzhang didn't really feel until this time that his days were numbered and it was time to take care of his funeral, so he asked his eldest son-in-law Zhang Peilun to write for him and dictated an excerpt of "Aged and Sick, Kindness and Rest".

After Zhang Peilun returned to Beijing at the end of his term, under the attack of Sheng Xuanhuai, he married Li Hongzhang's eldest daughter and became Li Hongzhang's wife and son-in-law.In addition to reading and writing every day, he is doing housework for Li Hongzhang, and he is no longer the same as before. The booklet was handed into the palace, and Emperor Guangxu said before he had finished reading it: "This Li Hongzhang has been confused for a long time, but he just proposed to give up!" Something is wrong; after all, Li Hongzhang is different from other veterans, whether he is allowed to retire, and what kind of grace he should give after the retirement, must be spoken by the people in the garden.

Emperor Guangxu reluctantly handed Li Hongzhang's book into the garden.The Empress Dowager Cixi read Li Hongzhang's papers and thought about it for a whole day before she said: "Li Hongzhang has not yet reached the time when he is free, so give him half a year's leave." Emperor Guangxu didn't dare to disobey, so he had to ask the Military Aircraft Department to draw up an order to do so. On the second day of the first lunar month in the twenty-fourth year of Guangxu (January 23, 1898), Emperor Guangxu came to pay his respects to the Queen Mother in the garden.The queen mother couldn't help asking: "Who is in the prime minister's office?"

Emperor Guangxu replied: "There are Prince Qing, Weng Tonghe and a group of military ministers." The queen mother asked again: "Is there any Li Hongzhang?" Emperor Guangxu replied: "Li Hongzhang is recuperating on vacation." The queen mother said: "It doesn't matter if you are sick. Li Hongzhang is a scholar of the Wenhua Palace and a minister of the Prime Minister's Yamen. How can such a big matter be done without him?" The decree is that Li Hongzhang will go to the Prime Minister's Yamen early tomorrow morning to question Kang Youwei together with other princes and ministers.

On the third day of the first lunar month (January 24), Li Hongzhang was ordered to come to the Prime Minister's Yamen, and together with Prince Qing, Weng Tonghe and other princes and ministers, began to question Kang Youwei.Li Hongzhang sat for a while, and found that Weng Tonghe was the only one who was asking questions. The other princes and ministers were the same as him, just listening with their ears open, but their mouths were tightly shut.Kang Youwei always talked eloquently, and he didn't pay attention to a group of princes and ministers.It seems that he is the only one in the world who can speak, and the others are only worthy of sitting and listening to him, much like Zhang Peilun in the past.

As soon as the questioning was over, Li Hongzhang didn't have the time to say hello to the others, so he whispered to Prince Qing and Prince Li: "This official is seriously ill and can't sit anymore. I hope the two princes can understand the difficulties of this official. .” Li Hongzhang returned home in a sedan chair, but never said a word to Kang Youwei's words.Since Prince Gong died of illness at the beginning of the year, Li Hongzhang had no one to talk to in the capital. On April 23 of that year (June 11, 1898), Emperor Guangxu issued an imperial edict announcing the reform and reform, and ordered Kang Youwei to walk in Zhangjing, the prime minister's office, and authorized him to perform special performances.Later, a decree was issued, ordering Yang Rui, Zhongshu Lin Xu, Liu Guangdi, the principal, and Tan Sitong, the magistrate, to participate in the New Deal.

The general idea of ​​the reform and reform and the implementation of the new policy is: the establishment of the State Administration of Agriculture, Industry and Commerce in the economic aspect, reclaiming wasteland, promoting private business, rewarding new inventions and creations. Give official positions, or grant patents; set up railways and the General Administration of Mining, build railways, and mine minerals; set up national post offices and abolish post stations; reform finance and prepare national budgets; cancel the parasitic privileges of banner people and allow them to fend for themselves.In terms of culture and education, the imperial examination system was reformed, stereotyped writing was abolished, and policy theory was changed; schools were established to promote Western learning, and the Imperial University was opened, and all provincial governments, departments, prefectures, and counties were ordered to change all existing academies, large and small, into schools for both middle school and Western learning ; Set up a book translation bureau to translate foreign new books; allow the establishment of newspapers and societies; send people to study and travel abroad.In the political aspect, rules and regulations were deleted, redundant staff were eliminated, and idle and overlapping institutions were abolished; subjects, big and small, were allowed to write letters to speak out, and officials were strictly prohibited from obstructing them.In terms of military affairs, Baojia was strictly investigated, regiment training was implemented, the old army was reduced, and the navy and army were retrained.

Li Hongzhang read the "Ming Ding Guoshi Edict" promulgated by Emperor Guangxu four times, but still did not write a word.Li Hongzhang believes that stereotyped writing is no longer a virtuous act, which has long been recognized by people of insight. He and his mentor Zeng Guofan once organized the establishment of translation books, sending people to study abroad, establishing railways and mining bureaus, and promoting Westernization. passed.Reducing the old army and retraining the navy and army are actually what he has always advocated.He didn't say a word this time because he knew that since the first year of Tongzhi (AD 1862) in the Qing Dynasty, there had only been an empress dowager and no emperor, and this time is no exception.Li Hongzhang got it right again this time.

On the fourth day after Emperor Guangxu's "Ming Dingguo Shi Edict" was promulgated, the Empress Dowager Cixi ordered Emperor Guangxu to issue four decrees in succession: the first decree was the Minister of the General Air Force, the Prime Minister, the Minister of the Yamen, the Minister of the Household Department, the Minister of the Ministry of Finance, the Emperor Shi Weng Tonghe, and the vacancy of the book for the crime of being old and fatuous. All posts are ordered to rest.One decree is that in the future, senior officials above the second rank must go to the Empress Dowager in the Summer Palace to thank the Empress Dowager when they are appointed to new positions.The first decree is that Wang Wenshaosheng, the governor of Zhili, co-organized the Minister of the Minister of the Ministry of Finance and Military Affairs, and he will come to Beijing to serve within a certain period of time.The first purpose is to command Dong Fuxiang (Gan Army), Nie Shicheng (Wu Yi Army), and Yuan Shikai (New Army) under the command of the Ministry of War, Minister of State Affairs, Yamen, Minister of Ronglu Department, Governor of Zhili and Minister of Beiyang Commerce.

The imperial party naturally refused to lag behind, and Song Bolu and Yang Shenxiu impeached Xu Yingkui, a member of the post-party party, Prime Minister of the Ministry of Rites, Minister of State Affairs and Yamen for "conserving the old and absurd, and obstructing the New Deal." The power of the latter party. In order to increase the strength of his own faction, Emperor Guangxu followed Kang Youwei's suggestion and rewarded Tan Sitong, Yang Rui, Liu Guangdi, and Lin Xu with the rank of fourth rank to walk on the military plane Zhangjing and participate in the New Deal.The two parties of the emperor and the queen turned the capital into a big stage, competing for the leading role.After Weng Tonghe left the capital, Kang Youwei regarded himself as the emperor's teacher, and ran to the palace with a red face every day.

Li Hongzhang ordered several servants on the door to close the door tightly every day, and asked the bodyguards of Huiyou Escort Bureau to guard the house, and all visitors were not allowed to enter.He sits in the study every day, reads history books, and occasionally teaches Xiaohong to play Go, turning a deaf ear to outside affairs. On the first day of August of that year (September 16), Li Hongzhang suddenly received an order that he would not have to walk on the Prime Minister's Office of State Affairs. He smiled slightly, and after sending off the edict officer, he still made people close the door tightly, and read the history books correctly. On the sixth day of August (September 21), Li Hongzhang received another decree, but it turned out that Emperor Guangxu issued an edict calling on the empress dowager to train the government. After Li Hongzhang received the order, he sighed inwardly, and said to himself: "The day when the emperor's life is worse than death has arrived!" He sent an order to the porter: "Open the gate, the 'play' is over, it's all right!" The "play" was really over.It turned out that when Emperor Guangxu was full of ambition to do a big job, Empress Dowager Cixi rushed back to the Forbidden City from the garden on the fifth morning of August, went straight to Emperor Guangxu's bedroom, took away all the documents, and ordered the eunuchs to take the stunned Emperor Guangxu away. Confinement in Yingtai in Zhongnanhai.When the Empress Dowager Cixi left Yingtai, she said to Emperor Guangxu angrily: "Your Majesty, you can implement your new policy here." The next day, in the name of Emperor Guangxu, Empress Dowager Cixi issued an edict calling on the empress dowager to train the government.