Chapter 75 The boxer with magical powers

During the "1898 Coup", Yuan Shikai managed to save his life and official position in an incomparably thrilling manner. If one survives, there will be future fortunes.The timely emergence of a spontaneous mass political movement gave Yuan Shikai new political life. Following the "Tianjin missionary case" more than 20 years ago, bad news came from Shandong: the relationship between some ordinary people and missionaries became more and more tense! Since the Opium War, most of the missionaries stayed in the big cities, but there are still a few brave missionaries with dedication who have gone through all kinds of difficulties and dangers to go deep into the mainland of China to spread Christianity.It's a pity that their efforts are not directly proportional to their rewards, and their efforts have almost no results.The reason for this is similar to the reason for the previous "Tianjin teaching case".

The relationship between the common people and the missionaries became more and more tense, and there was another fundamental reason—the conflict of ideas. The ideas of "no father, no king" and "all beings are equal" in Christianity are fundamentally opposite to the traditional Chinese ideas of "monarch, minister, father and son".From today's point of view, it is obvious that the former is more advanced than the latter, but Chinese people at that time did not think so. For example, Christianity's efforts to promote women's status have greatly angered some Chinese men who do not regard women as human beings at all.In Jingzhou, Hubei, when a Manchurian woman recited the Bible, her husband found out, and the husband really sent his wife to the west to see God!

... As the conflict between common people and missionaries intensified, habitual friction evolved into deep-rooted hatred and eventually led to a full-scale bloody confrontation. In 1897, some peasant friends in Shandong were the first to attack, and began to spontaneously form groups to fight against foreigners.Unexpectedly, this gave secret organizations such as the White Lotus Sect and the Great Sword Society found an opportunity to take advantage of the situation. These big brothers in the rivers and lakes and green forest heroes are much smarter than their peasant friends. They know that fists and hoes are no match for foreigners with advanced weapons.

Therefore, the big brothers decided to use the terrifying "magic skill" of deceiving their ears and stealing their bells.They deliberately developed secret martial arts such as "Iron Cloth Shirt" and "Golden Bell Cover". According to their own propaganda, as long as they recite the spell, their bodies will be covered with a layer of steel armor, making them invulnerable. In addition, the big brothers also found a very contagious political slogan: "Help the Qing and destroy the foreigners." Under the leadership of the big brothers, the team of "Destroying Foreign Countries" expanded rapidly. Handicraftsmen, urban poor, small traders, workers, hooligans, officers and soldiers, wealthy gentry and even princes and nobles found "organizations" one after another. Amulets, drinking magic water, practicing magic skills, pretending to be gods and playing ghosts, set off a strong storm of killing foreigners and destroying foreign religions, which is very popular!Very bloody!

In their eyes, all foreigners must be killed, and all those with foreign characters must be removed. All Chinese who believed in Christianity and those who had anything to do with Western things, such as those who wore Western glasses, those who wore suits, those who could speak English, and those who had studied abroad, were all eliminated. For example, a county magistrate not only lost his own life, but also implicated his family because he used a pencil made in the United States. The man was killed directly, and the woman was raped and then killed. As for foreign embassies, it is the focus of their work!These people think that the embassy is the lair of foreigners, as long as the embassy can be destroyed, the foreigners will be completely wiped out.

In addition, everything related to the West, such as western-style buildings, railways, wires, lights, clocks, and trains, were also burned and destroyed. In this movement, thousands of foreign missionaries and countless Chinese civilians and officials died! This political, military and religious organization full of ignorance and backwardness is known as "Boxer" or "Boxer" in history. The original motivation of the Boxers was pure. They were simple Chinese peasants with spontaneous national feelings, and they consciously fought against foreigners and the Chinese who were slaves of foreigners.They have no education, no knowledge, they know nothing about the outside world.The gods they worship are all characters from "Fengshen Bang".

If they are guided correctly, the tragedy that happened to China later can be avoided completely.Unfortunately, their patriotic enthusiasm fell into the hands of ignorant careerists big and small, so they became pitiful, hateful, indiscriminate and xenophobic fanatical mobs. Of course, the actions of the Boxers were hated by some and loved by others. In the eyes of those ignorant and stubborn conservatives, the actions of the Boxers are worth exciting and looking forward to!Firstly, they felt that the actions of the Boxers were revenge against foreigners, which made the Chinese feel proud; secondly, they may really believe that there is "invulnerability to swords and guns" in the world, so they openly supported the Boxers and called the people of the group "righteous people". .

In the eyes of those foreigners, the Boxers are naturally heinous.Incidents of foreigners being killed continued to occur, and the great powers continued to put pressure on the Qing government, asking Empress Dowager Cixi to suppress the Boxers. On one side is the wage earner who serves himself wholeheartedly, asking for instructions early and reporting late, and on the other is the aggressive foreign man.The Empress Dowager Cixi was in a dilemma and was very entangled.What can she do? She looked around, only to realize that Zeng Guofan, Li Hongzhang, Yi Xin and other sober-minded ministers were no longer by her side for various reasons, and she was surrounded by submissive mediocre ministers.Only then did she realize that she was getting old too, and could no longer judge the situation as accurately as thirty years ago. How much she needed a capable friend!

As a last resort, Cixi had no choice but to resort to a unique trick - braking with silence, and we will wait and see. It was Lafayette's wait-and-see mentality that fueled the "revolutionary arrogance" of the "righteous people", and the incident became bigger and bigger and more violent.