Chapter 4 Four Regents
During the three years that I was emperor and my father was regent, I only met my father in the last year.It was not long after I was studying in Yuqing Palace, when he came to check the homework for the first time according to the rules.A eunuch came in and reported, "The lord is here." The teacher immediately became nervous, tidied up the desk quickly, and gave me instructions on what to do when I saw the lord, and then told me to stand and wait.After a while, a stranger with a feather on his head and no beard on his mouth appeared at the door of the study and stood upright in front of me. This was my father.I greeted him according to family etiquette, and then sat down together.Sit down, I picked up the book and read according to the teacher's instructions:
"Mencius saw King Hui of Liang, the king stood on the marsh, the king stood on the marsh..."
For some reason, I was so flustered that I couldn't read any more.King Hui of Liang stood on the marsh and couldn't get down.Fortunately, my father was more flustered than I was. He nodded quickly and said in a vague voice:
"Okay, okay, hello emperor, study hard, let's study!" After finishing speaking, he nodded for a while, then stood up and left.He stayed with me for no more than two minutes.
From this day on, I know what my father is like: unlike the teacher, he has no beard, no wrinkles on his face, and the feathers on the back of his head are always beating.From then on, he came every other month, and he stayed for only two minutes each time.I also knew that he stuttered a bit when he spoke, and that the reason why his feathers danced was because he nodded as soon as he spoke.He spoke very little, and it was difficult to hear anything other than a few "good, good, good."
My younger brother once heard from my mother that in the year of Xinhai, my father resigned from the throne as regent, and when he came back from the palace, he said to his mother: "From today onwards, I can go home and take care of my child!" My mother was overwhelmed by his relaxed look After crying bitterly, I warned my younger brother: "When you grow up, you must not be like Ama (father in Manchu language)!" This story and the couplet written by his father, "There are books, you are rich, and nothing is a little fairy", although they are not enough. To prove what the real ambition to "retire" is, but it can also be seen that he was troubled enough to supervise the country for three years.Those three years can be said to be the most failed three years of his life.
For him, the most fundamental failure was not being able to get rid of Yuan Shikai.There is a legend that Guangxu entrusted his thoughts to the regent when he was dying, and left a four-character Zhu Yu with "kill Yuan Shikai".As far as I know, there is no such fraternity meeting.The regent wanted to kill Yuan Shikai to avenge his brother. Although it was true, he was stopped by a group of military ministers headed by Yikuang.I have no way of knowing the details, but I only know that what frustrates my father the most is Yikuang's words: "It's not difficult to kill Yuan Shikai, but what if the Beiyang Army rebels?" It turned out that the Empress Dowager Longyu followed the instructions of Zhang Zhidong and others. The idea is to ask Yuan Shikai to go home to take care of his "foot disease" and let him go.
A "Yi Shao" who had worked in the Ministry of Internal Affairs told me that in order to kill Yuan Shikai, the regent wanted to imitate Emperor Kangxi's method of killing his minister Oboi.Kangxi's solution was to summon Oboi and give him a seat. The seat was a chair with only three good legs. Oboi sat on it and asked him carelessly.It was with the Prince Regent who made the plan.Pu Wei has a Baihong knife given to his grandfather Yixin by Emperor Xianfeng. They regard it as a sacred object like the Supreme Sword, and they decide that Pu Wei will carry this knife and use it to kill Yuan.All plans were settled, but they were stopped by Zhang Zhidong and others.At least one thing about this unbelievable story is true, that is, at that time, some people tried their best to protect Yuan Shikai, while others tried to destroy Yuan Shikai, and there were also many people who advised my father.Although Yuan Shikai used a lot of money to give gifts everywhere to win him over after the Reform Movement of 1898, after all, there were still hostile forces that could not be eliminated with money.These hostile forces are not all reformists and imperial party figures in the past. Some of them competed with Yikuang for status, some were unwilling to give up all the military power, and some pinned their hopes on Yuan Yuan for other purposes. .Therefore, the issue of killing Yuan Shikai and protecting Yuan Shikai is no longer a dispute between the reformation and the old, the imperial party and the queen party, or the dispute between the Manchu and Han dignitaries, but the relationship between one group of relatives and dignitaries and another group of relatives and dignitaries. struggle for power.In terms of the cabinet of relatives and nobles at that time, it was divided into a group of Prince Qing Yikuang and others and a group of Duke Zaize and others.It was mainly the latter group who gave my father advice and power.
No matter which group it is, there is a group of clan Jueluo, the Eight Banners family, Han ministers, and counselors from the north and the south; these people have differences with each other and have their own plans.For example, Zegong of Zaizi's generation wholeheartedly wanted to win over his uncle Qingwang's president, but the brothers of Prince Chun's Mansion first focused on the military power of Yuan Shikai and other Han people.Even the brothers who learned from the British navy and the brothers who learned from the German army have different preferences.The Prince Regent is in the midst of all kinds of intrigues, sometimes he listens to one side, sometimes he believes the other side's idea, sometimes he says "yes, yes" to both sides, and after a while he can't do anything at all.It made everyone dissatisfied with him.
Among them, Yikuang and Zaize are the most difficult to deal with.Before the death of the Queen Mother, Yikuang was the leader of the military aircraft. After the death of the Queen Mother, he reformed the cabinet system, and he became the prime minister of the cabinet.Zai Ze seeks out the Prince Regent whenever he has a chance, and reveals Yikuang's stories to the Prince Regent every day.Since the Empress Dowager can't move Yikuang, how can the Regent move him?If the regent supports Zai Ze, or if the regent himself adopts an opposing attitude to Yikuang, as long as Yikuang resigns and hides at home, the regent immediately panics.Therefore, in the quarrel between Zegong and King Qing, Zaize always failed.People in Prince Jin's Mansion can often hear him and the regent yelling: "Big brother, this is for you. If you don't listen to my big brother, Lao Qing will kill Daqing!" The regent always stays silent for a while, and finally says He said: "Okay, okay, talk to Lao Qing tomorrow..." On the second day, it was still the same: Yikuang acted according to his own ideas, and Zaize's efforts were wasted again.
Zaize's failure is often Zaifeng's failure, and Yikuang's victory means Yuan Shikai's victory.The regent understands this truth, and he doesn't want to resist it, but he has nothing to do.
Later, the storm of Wuchang Uprising hit, and the Qing army who went to crusade, under the command of Yin Chang, the Manchu army minister, did not fight well, and emergency documents flew in one after another.Yuan Shikai's "Military Adviser" Xu Shichang saw that the time had come, so he recommended Yuan Shikai to the regent together with several military planes, including Yikuang and Natong.This time the regent made up his own mind, and lost his temper with Na Tong who "willed to risk his life" as a guarantee for Yuan, and severely reprimanded him.But he forgot that since Natong dared to protect Yuan Shikai, he must have nothing to fear.After the regent had finished his prestige, Na Tong resigned and resigned. Yi Qiang was not able to go to court, and emergency military telegrams from the front line were sent to the regent workers one after another. Shoulder Yu", asked Yikuang to "understand the difficulties", and finally obediently issued the decree: granting Yuan Shikai's imperial envoy to control the various armies and appointing Yuan's cronies, Duan Qirui, as the commander of the two armies.After he returned to the mansion dejectedly, another group of princes surrounded him, complaining that he first let the tiger go back to the mountain, and this time he led the wolf into the house.He regretted it and asked this group of princes for advice.This group of people said that it is okay to let Yuan Shikai out, but to limit his military power, he cannot appoint his former subordinates Feng Guozhang and Duan Qirui as the front-line military commanders.After some debate, some people thought that Feng Guozhang still had friendship and could keep it, so Zai Xunbeilor also asked to replace Duan Qirui with Jiang Guiti, who had friendship with him.The princes re-drafted the telegram to the regent, and the regent sent someone to send the telegram to Prince Qing's mansion overnight, asking Yikuang to resend it.Prince Qing's mansion replied that King Qing was taking a rest, and he would wait until tomorrow to go to court to discuss official business.The next day the regent went to court, and before he could come up with the edict, Yikuang told him that the first edict had been issued that night.
My father wasn't completely out of ideas.His idea is to maintain the rule of the royal family, and first seize the military power.This is what he learned from the German royal family during his mission to Germany: the army must be in the hands of the royal family, and the children of the royal family must be officers.He did it more thoroughly. Not only did he get it in the hands of the royal family, but he had to keep it in his own home.Not many days after I ascended the throne, he sent his brother Zai Tao to be the minister in charge of training the imperial guards and establishing the royal army.After Yuan Shikai opened a vacancy, he replaced the emperor as Grand Marshal and commanded the national army. He sent his brother Zaixun to be Minister of the Navy and another brother Zaitao to manage the Military Advisory Office (equivalent to the organization of the General Staff Headquarters). Later, my two uncles became Official Admiralty and Military Advisory Secretary.
It is said that my father had discussed with the princes at that time that no matter whether Yuan Shikai succeeded or failed in suppressing the revolution, he would be eliminated in the end.If he fails, he will be killed under the pretext of failure. If the revolution is suppressed, he will also be found an excuse to remove his military power, and then try to get rid of him.In short, the army will never remain in the hands of the Han people, especially not in the hands of Yuan Shikai.Behind the measures there is also a plan to actually control the national army.Assuming that my father came up with these plans himself, not to mention external resistance, but his ability to realize them is too disproportionate to his plans.Therefore, not only those who followed Yuan Shikai were dissatisfied with him, but even his own brothers often shook their heads and sighed for him.
Li Hongzhang’s son, Li Jingmai, went to the Prince Regent to ask for an opportunity before leaving for Germany. My seventh uncle, Zaitao, accompanied him into the palace and entrusted him to tell him something about the Imperial Guards in front of the Prince Regent. Probably he was afraid that he would say something It doesn't work yet, so I have to borrow Li Jingmai's face.Li Jingmai agreed to him and went into the palace.After a while, Zai Tao, who was waiting outside, saw Li Jingmai coming out again, and was very surprised. He expected that the task he had entrusted must not be done, so he asked Li Jingmai what was going on.Li Jingmai said with a wry smile: "When the prince saw me, he said three sentences in total: 'When did you come?' I said, and then he asked: 'When are you leaving?' I just finished answering, before I can say anything." When I went down, the prince said: 'Well, do it well, go down!'—I didn't even talk about my own affairs, how can I talk about yours?"
When my grandmother suffered from breast sores, it was not always good to use Chinese medicine. My father followed the advice of his uncles and invited a French doctor.The doctor planned to operate, but was opposed by Jin Wang's family, so he had to apply medicine.Before applying the medicine, the doctor lit the alcohol lamp to disinfect the equipment. My father was frightened and asked the translator:
"What are you doing? Burning the old lady?"
Seeing that he was such an amateur, my sixth uncle shook his head and grinned at the translator behind him, and refused to let the foreign doctor listen to the translation.
The doctor left the medicine and left.Later, the doctor found that the old lady's condition had not improved, and felt very strange, so he asked to bring the used ointment box to have a look.Father personally brought all the medicine boxes, and after a look, it turned out that they were all intact.The uncles couldn't help shaking their heads and sighing again.
Zhang Wenzhi, the chief steward of Prince Chun's Mansion, loves to talk about the "Prince".Once he said that there was a small temple near the palace, which was dedicated to a well, and it was said that there lived a "fairy family".After being exposed, the prince passed by the small temple once, and wanted to pay homage to the fairy family, thanking him for his protection.He had just knelt down when suddenly a weasel jumped out from behind the altar.The patrolman found out about this matter and reported it to the police, so the ministers said that the prince was so fateful that even the immortal family could not stand his worship.After Zhang Wenzhi finished telling the story, he revealed the truth. It turned out that this was prepared by the prince and the people in the temple.
People in Jin Palace like to call themselves reformists after Cixi's death, and my father is no exception.When mentioning the trivial matters of his father's life, there are quite a few moves against superstition and trends towards fashion.I have also heard people say, "Lafayette is not opposed to the reform. Isn't Guangxu going to do all the things after 1898? Prince Chun is also a new figure. Didn't Lafayette let him be a military plane later ?” Needless to say, what was Empress Dowager Cixi’s reformation and westernization affairs about.I know a little about my father's restoration.He does not take an attitude of rejection of those things that the "veteran ministers" once called strange skills and obscenity.Chun Wangfu was the first palace in the Qing Dynasty to prepare cars and install telephones. They were the first to cut their braids, and he was the first to wear a suit among the princes.But his real understanding of Western things can be seen in the example of wearing a suit.After wearing suits for many days, he once asked my second brother Jie very puzzled: "Why do your shirts fit so well, and my shirt is always one piece longer than the coat?" Those who put their shirts over their trousers have endured this awkwardness for days.
In addition, he once drove the witch out of the gate who was treating his grandmother, and once kicked the hedgehog into the ditch that the servants dared not touch, but after kicking, his face turned pale.He opposed worshiping gods and chanting Buddha, but he was very serious about burning incense and making offerings during festivals and festivals.His birthday is on the fifth day of the first lunar month, which is called "Po Wu" by the custom in Beijing. He forbids people to say these two words, and puts a red strip on this page of the calendar, writing Shouyu, and draws the pen firmly. very long.The second brother Jie asked him what it meant, and he said, "It's called longevity!"
In order to understand the situation of the three years when the regent supervised the country, I read my father's diary at that time.I didn't find much material in the diary, but I found two types of very interesting records.The first category is routine matters, such as every Lixia, must "cut the haircut according to the routine", every Liqiu, "distribute according to the routine";The other category is detailed records of astronomical observations and summaries of such news published in newspapers, and sometimes there are diagrams carefully drawn.It can be seen that on the one hand, there is a very poor life, and on the other hand, there is a passionate love for astronomy.If he was born today, maybe he could become an astronomer.But it is a pity that he was born in that kind of society and that kind of family, and he became a prince in the royal family from the age of nine.
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