Chapter 34 Section 4 The counterattack of the stubborn forces

The reform movement led by Kang Youwei was undoubtedly a fatal blow to the stubborn feudal forces, and they would naturally encounter strong opposition from them.As soon as Kang Youwei's "New Study of Apocryphal Classics" was published, some old-fashioned feudal bureaucrats and scholar-bureaucrats accused the book of "using sophistry to talk wildly", "confusing the backward, and calling on students", "unreasonable". The Holy Law is lawless, confusing the world and slandering the people."And attacked him as "the thief of the sage, the giant beetle of ancient and modern times" (Volume 2 of "Yijiao Congbian" "An Xiaofeng Attendant Please Destroy the Forbidden New Learning Apocrypha").Request to "destroy the original book" and punish Kang Youwei.Afterwards, Kang Youwei's several petitions to record the disadvantages of the times and put forward reform proposals were all rejected by the die-hard bureaucrats on the grounds that they were not suitable for submission.Just when Emperor Guangxu ordered the ministers to listen to Kang Youwei's suggestions for reform, Rong Lu, the diehard representative of Empress Dowager Cixi's rear party, and others made things difficult.Of course, Kang Youwei and others have long felt that the conservative forces are powerful.Therefore, during the Hundred Days Reform, their propositions and measures were also adjusted appropriately in order to deepen the reform.

Emperor Guangxu and his imperial party Weng Tonghe and Zhang Yinhuan resolutely supported the reform movement, and promoted and appointed Kang Youwei and other reformers to give full play to their talents.At this time, the Empress Dowager Cixi and others had already started to kill the reform movement. "Everyone who is close to the emperor will be condemned and expelled by the Empress Dowager Cixi" (Vol.In the spring of the 22nd year of Guangxu (AD 1896), Empress Dowager Cixi dismissed the backbone of the imperial party in a Wenting style and never used it.Then, the queen party systematically launched an attack on Weng Tonghe, the leader of the imperial party, and others.Emperor Guangxu was very angry. He asked Yikuang, Prince of Qing, to tell Empress Dowager Cixi, "I cannot be the king of a subjugated country. If I am not given power, I would rather abdicate." He rebuked and said, "It's not a good thing to be able to protect the country. Why should we investigate?" Hearing this, Cixi was very angry.But under Yikuang's persuasion, she adopted the strategy of "advancing through retreat" in order to put Emperor Guangxu and the reformers to death.It shows how fierce and cruel the struggle between the reformers and the diehards was.

As soon as the "Hundred Days Reform" began, the Queen's Party began to sabotage it.On April 27th, which was the fifth day after the edict was announced to establish the country, the Empress Dowager Cixi used the excuses that the emperor, Weng Tonghe, "had not agreed to cooperate with many affairs", "crazy for power", and "difficult to win the post of cardinal". , Forcing Emperor Guangxu to resign Weng's Minister of Military Affairs, Minister of the Ministry of Households, etc., and return him to his hometown.Empress Dowager Cixi's move was a heavy blow to Emperor Guangxu and the reformers.She also issued a decree through Emperor Guangxu that all new ministers above the second rank should kowtow in front of the Empress Dowager (that is, Cixi).At the same time, Empress Dowager Cixi also conferred the important position of governor of Zhili to his confidant minister Rong Lu, commanded tens of thousands of elite soldiers, and controlled the military power in the Gyeonggi area.In this way, the post-party group headed by Cixi took control of the military and political power, and the arrangements for the coup d'état were being stepped up.At this time, Emperor Guangxu also felt the difficulty of the reform and the seriousness of the situation, and his throne would not be preserved, so he asked Kang Youwei to help him.The Reformist Tan Sitong had no choice but to visit Yuan Shikai at night and beg him to come out to protect him.The double-faced Yuan Shikai defected to the Empress Dowager Cixi and betrayed the reformers.

On the sixth day of August, Cixi suddenly launched a palace coup and immediately imprisoned Emperor Guangxu in Yingtai, and she publicly "educated the government".Five days later, in the name of Emperor Guangxu, she issued an edict to abolish all the new policies implemented during the "Hundred Days Reform" period, restore the original old system, re-establish the abolished and merged yamen, and adopt the abolished stereotyped essays.Only the Peking University Hall was preserved.The diehards also issued an order to suspend all newspapers across the country, and arrested the editors of all newspapers.Immediately afterwards, the reformers were hunted down wantonly.Tan Sitong, Lin Xu, Liu Guangdi, Yang Rui, Yang Shenxiu, and Kang Guangren were killed in Caishikou, Beijing without trial seven days after the coup.Among them, Tan Sitong sacrificed the most heroically.At the critical moment of life and death, he did not leave Beijing.Some Westerners thought highly of him and asked him to take refuge in a certain country's embassy.Tan Sitong declined, and said generously: "If there are no walkers, who will plan for the future? If there are no dead, who will boost morale?" "In the past two hundred years in our country, no one has shed blood for the reform of the people. Please start with Tan Sitong." ("Biography of the Six Martyrs of the Qing Dynasty", Volume 75 of "Zhixin Bao") On the ninth day of August, Tan was arrested and imprisoned.In prison, he wrote a pen on the wall: "Wangmen seeks refuge and thinks of Zhang Jian, and endures death for a while to wait for Dugan. I smile to the sky from the sword, and go to Kunlun with my heart and gall." ("The Complete Works of Tan Sitong" 1) On the 13th, Before Tan Sitong was executed, he said without changing his face: "If you want to kill a thief, but you can't return to heaven, you will die well, so happy!" Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao arrived in Japan under the protection of Britain and Japan respectively, and were saved from death.So far, the vigorous Reform Movement of 1898 failed.

The Reform Movement of 1898 was a bourgeois movement of progressive significance to save the nation and survive. Its failure showed that the reform road of the bourgeoisie was unfeasible in semi-colonial and semi-feudal China.The Reform Movement of 1898 has left extremely valuable experience and lessons.Since then, the anti-imperialist and anti-feudal struggle of the Chinese people has continued to develop in depth.