Speaking of the late Qing Dynasty, people must remember Li Hongzhang and Yuan Shikai, and compared to the two, only Cixi could stand firmly in front of them. The name of "The Queen Mother of the West" can be said to be infamous and worthy of being infamous for thousands of years. And the only one who could be with the Queen Mother of the West was naturally the Queen Mother of the East, Ci'an, who had once ruled with her.

Speaking of Ci'an, many books, movies and TVs in later generations only describe it as an honest and traditional NV person. Compared with Cixi, Ci'an has long given people the impression that she is too loyal, honest, lacks political talent, and relies on Cixi in everything. Of course, people also believe that Ci'an was killed by Cixi because her existence hindered Cixi's ambition to monopolize the government.

But, is this really the case?

As an important official of the Qing court, whether Li Hongzhang or Zeng Jize, they actually knew very clearly that Ci'an was far from being as unpredictable as outside legends. The real Ci'an was born into a family of officials for generations and received a good education since childhood. Especially during the five years when she became the queen of the central palace, the Qing Dynasty encountered unprecedented external and internal troubles, which made her mature in troubles and increase her experience in troubles. In the beautiful palace, and by the passionate and kind Emperor Xianfeng, she could maintain her honor and favor for 11 years. In addition to her extraordinary appearance and character, there is another more important factor, which is that she has a very successful and effective way of dealing with and controlling her relationship with her concubines and her husband and emperor. These are enough to show that Ci'an is a very cunning and wise and foolish nvxing.

It is not easy to just measure Ci'an simply as a politician. Even if she is compared with Cixi, Empress Dowager Ci'an is definitely not useless. Deciding on the big things of the government, Ci'an is better than virtue, while Ci'xi is better than talent. Ci'an is not interested in power, so Cixi often let Cixi deal with daily government affairs. "Ci'xi was frightened by the distinction between legitimate and illegitimate, and she did not dare to be rude." When encountering major affairs of government affairs, Cixi did not dare to make arbitrary claims, but still had to seek Ci'an's opinions.

From this we can see that Empress Dowager Ci'an has a good way to control the situation and control power. During the Guangxu period, she served as the ambassador of the Qing Dynasty to Britain. After returning to China, Xue Fucheng, the minister of the Guanglu Temple, the minister of the Taichang Temple, the minister of the Dali Temple, and the left deputy envoy. In his "Yongpai Notes", he recorded that He Guiqing, the governor of Liangjiang who had lost his territory and escaped in the battle, imprisoned and sentenced Shengbao, who was accused and detained, and rewarded Zeng Guofan, Zuo Zongtang, and Li Hongzhang, all of which were inspired by Ci'an.

A loyal and honest NV man who lacks political talent can be so decisive?

Not to mention the recent ones, after Xianfeng's death, Sushun and other eight ministers assisted the government. Cixi became the Holy Mother Empress Dowager because of her birth to Tongzhi. Both sides fought for power and profit... In the end, Cixi finally defeated the Eight Ministers with the help of Yixin and others, but still had to submit to Ci'an, who respected Empress Dowager Dong. Just because Ci'an was the queen of the main palace and was the mother Empress Dowager Tongzhi? What a joke? In the face of power, fame and status are nothing?

It was just a cover-up bag. If Ci'an was useless, even if Cixi left her a position to rule the country, what could she do? As one of the Han officials who truly rose after Xianfeng's death, Li Hongzhang deeply understood that in fact, he, even his teacher Zeng Guofan, and Zuo Zongtang were able to stand out in the war to pacify the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and the Nian Army, and to ascend to the position of important officials due to the layers of obstruction of the Qing nobles, the main reason why

It was because of Ci'an's decision. Because even though the two empress dowagers ruled the country from behind the curtain, the "big measures and great punishments" were still under the leadership of Ci'an. Ci'an just dealt with some "common affairs". As for what they said, they were recommended to Ci'an, it was even more joke... Li Hongzhang was very clear about his situation, and as a student of Zeng Guofan, he also knew what his teacher's attitude towards the two empress dowagers. At the beginning of the reign of Tongzhi, that is, when Emperor Tongzhi had just ascended the throne, Ci'an issued an order to make his teacher Zeng Guofan the governor of Liangjiang. Zeng Guofan was also grateful for Empress Dowager Ci'an's kindness and devoted himself to planning the country. Ci'an consulted Zeng Guofan for military affairs, administration, promotion and demotion, reward and punishment, and adopted his suggestions... So at that time, there was a saying that "they came to the military and national plans, and the most important things in employment of people, the East Palace would be praised by everyone."

In addition, the eunuch Andehai was arrested by Shandong Governor Ding Baozhen. Cixi intends to protect her, but Ci'an "decided to punish her" without giving her any face... Is this something a loyal and honest NV person can do?

From the Tongzhi relocation to the sudden collapse at the beginning of the year, Ci'an took over the supreme authority of the Qing Dynasty for twenty years. In these twenty years, the Qing Dynasty experienced many things, but generally could resist foreign countries and stabilize the country. A few years ago, she won a war in Xinjiang and saved a large area of ​​land. Although it was mainly Zuo Zongtang's contribution, who dares to say that Ci'an, the supreme ruler, did not have the contribution? Maintaining the basic stability of the country and maintaining the imperial power under the internal and external troubles is something that a person with no talent can do?

Unfortunately, such an NV man died in the end. {hand, at the beginning of the year, I first heard that the Queen Mother of the East occasionally got sick, but suddenly died of illness within two days... Some people say that the Queen Mother of the West was harmed because Cixi wanted to monopolize the government, but Li Hongzhang felt that this was unreliable. With Cixi's ability, it may not be harmful to Ci'an. Moreover, if she really wants to be harmed, why should she wait for twenty years? Twenty years ago, the Queen Mother of the West was already extremely fierce and killed all the eight ministers of the government. For twenty years, if she was really dissatisfied, she really wanted to monopolize the government, but she would not be able to harm Ci'an?

Li Hongzhang firmly believed in his judgment, but the person in charge changed from Ci'an to Cixi. Although the Empress Dowager Cixi was also very clear, on major issues... Li Hongzhang was really not very relieved about the NV person who was officially promoted to the only Empress Dowager. Otherwise, she suddenly summoned the guys and mentioned what those people in the United States did? Is this matter possible for the Qing Dynasty to intervene?

"I don't know what the Queen Mother meant..."

OK, although this little girl is not as good as the Queen Mother of Dong, she is very wise and ruthless. She likes to hold grudges the most. Now she is the number one lieutenant in the Qing Dynasty, so let's retreat first. Anyway, there is no Prince Gong over there, so let's take a look first. Li Hongzhang made up his mind and inadvertently glanced at Yi Xin opposite him, and then bowed to Cixi.

"The Ai family is meaningless. I just want to ask if the British minister's wife said, is there any score or is it deliberately saying that you are having fun and amusing the Ai family?" Cixi said lightly.

"Empress Dowager," Before Li Hongzhang could reply, Prince Yili of Qing County could not help but emerge. This young official in his early forties and thin Qing Dynasty, the clan member, was the grandson of Yonglin, the seventeenth son of Qianlong, and the eldest son of the Duke of Fuguo. In terms of ability, he was not very outstanding, and he could even be called ordinary. But this brother was a sensible figure in the late Qing Dynasty. In his original history, he served as the Prime Minister and Minister of Affairs in the tenth year of Guangxu, moved to the Prime Minister and Minister of Naval Affairs in the 17th year, served as the Minister of Military Affairs in the 29th year, and was promoted to the Minister of Military Affairs in the 34th year, and was promoted to the Emperor's and the Minister of the Emperor's Republic of China in the 19th year, and was promoted to the Emperor's Minister of Military Affairs in the 34th year, and was promoted to the Emperor's and the Minister of the Emperor's Republic of China in the 19th year, and was promoted to the Emperor's and the Minister of Military Affairs in the 29th year, and was promoted to the Emperor's and the Emperor's and the Emperor's Representative Qing's relatives in the 34th year.

Wang, the first Prime Minister of the Cabinet in the third year of Xuantong... The outstanding political achievements were nothing, that was, specializing in selling official positions and titles. Yi Li's greed and mediocrity was well-known at that time, and he sold official positions and titles in countless cases. Because of his market, people jokingly called it "Lao Qingji Company". But no matter what, no matter how you joke, this Prince Qing really stood up and was stable. If officials in the late Qing Dynasty wanted to be promoted, they almost had to leave Qingji. For example, there was a Han official named Chen Kuilong, who served as the governor of Henan, the governor of the grain transportation, the governor of Henan, and Jiang

Governor Su, Governor of Sichuan and Governor of Huguang, etc. He served as Governor of Zhili and Minister of Beiyang in the first year of Xuantong, and was appointed as the first rank of officials. After the fall of the Qing Dynasty, he became the Duke of Yu in Shanghai, and he died until the eve of liberation. He lived for more than 90 years. He went through the three dynasties, Guangxu and Xuantong, and claimed to be an old minister of the three dynasties, hoping to live up to his gratitude. He became a poor scholar and a Han nationality, but he was able to have a great success in his official career, which had a great relationship with Yili. It is said that Chen Kuilong's successor Xu often came and went to Yili's mansion, won the favor of the concubine, and was recognized by Yili as a knv. After Yili succeeded Ronglu and became the leader of the late Qing Dynasty.

Chen Kuilong began his own journey of prosperity, from the governor to the chief officials of the border. Among so many officials Chen Kuilong had no office, but the governor of Sichuan did not take office. The "Guo Wen Beicheng" records: "I have not been in office for a long time and was promoted to the governor of Sichuan, but my wife did not go there. Kuilong had no plans, so he asked Yiji to give it to two lakes, and asked Xiliang to give it to Sichuan. He used his love and hate to touch several provincial governors and governors. At that time, the gains and losses of employing people were visible."... Because Gan NV'er did not like to run far away, he mobilized several chief officials of the border one after another. Prince Qing's true extraordinary.

After Yi Li's death, the Qing officials asked the emperor for a posthumous title to the new Iron Hat King as usual. But Puyi believed that this guy was a good man to be a country-profound posthumous title, and he really didn't deserve any posthumous title. Even if he had to have it, he had to be the worst, such as "女" and "ugly". In the end, he gave the word "女". This "女" means "女" in the "Post-Legendary Law". Among all the princes in the Qing Dynasty for more than 300 years, this was the worst posthumous title.

Of course, that's all for the future. At this time, Prince Qing was just Prince Qing. Although he began to curry favor with Cixi, Cixi still had Yi Xin and Ronglu, who were capable Manchu ministers, it was not his turn to stand up, nor did he become a leader of the court. So, what Yi Li could do was to curry favor with him and try every means to curry favor... And this time, he thought it was an opportunity, a great opportunity.

"The Empress Dowager, I think that since the two palaces were left behind, the Qing Dynasty has been rebelling against foreign countries for more than 20 years, and the country has become stronger and stronger. All the countries in the West have looked at each other. Today, a group of grass-roots people can also play in foreign countries. It can be seen that the prosperity of the Qing Dynasty is growing... It is only a matter of time before and after the reappearance of the prosperous times in Kanggan. Therefore, the British Minister's actions this time were not a trick, but really intending to please our Qing Dynasty. Of course, that is also to please the Queen Mother."

"Nonsense." Zeng Jize's face sank, "King Qing, why should Yingyi please the Qing Dynasty? Why should they please?"

"Mr. Zeng, what do you mean? Could it be that our Qing Dynasty was afraid that they would be a barbarian country?" Yi Li immediately retorted.

"you……"

"Mr. Zeng," Li Hongzhang quickly pulled Zeng Jize, "The Empress Dowager Shengming, don't understand what's going on? Prince Qing said it has his own reasons."

"But..." Zeng Jize struggled for a moment, glanced at Cixi's face. Although he didn't see anything, he still went back honestly. He was just impulsive and expressed dissatisfaction with Yi Li's behavior of talking lies with his eyes open. Of course, as a Shilang, a minister at the level of deputy minister, he was not really impulsive, but wanted to use this to make suggestions to Cixi... Cixi suddenly mentioned something about the United States for no reason, and he felt that something was wrong. Is this foreign devil easy to get involved? The ghost was called mén in the middle of the night. This old lady was tingling on weekdays, so why did she still say something to others?

"King Qing, please continue." Li Hongzhang secretly pulled Zeng Jize and signaled to Yi Li.

"Empress Dowager..." Yi Li glanced at Cixi.

"Li Zhongtang asked you to say it, you said it was." Cixi remained silent and remained faint.

"Empress Dowager, I think that the British suddenly mentioned this matter to you this time, probably because they themselves couldn't stand the American one... I heard that a group of grass people sent people to check the East Suburbs after causing trouble in the United States. It's amazing. Those people are not the grass people? That's simply Li Zicheng's rebirth... Queen Mother, you don't know, they almost got the American emperor..." Yi Li said loudly, with an extremely exaggerated expression.

"It's the president," Zeng Jize said angrily.

"It's almost the same." Yi Li gave him a blank look, "I almost killed the president of the United States... As far as I know, this American was originally a vassal state of the British, but was rebelled by a man named Huajidun, and he suddenly established a country. Now, although this American is not as good as the British, it is not far from that of the British. Naturally, the British are extremely unhappy with their feud. Now someone suddenly created the American rebellion again, and they certainly would not miss such a good opportunity. But the rebels were the people of the Qing Dynasty after all, and the British were not able to go to war with the American ones directly... So, they wanted to kill people with a knife."

"So, Ying Yi really has other intentions. It's really hard for our Qing Dynasty to take action?" Cixi asked seriously.

"It's not true," Yi Li shook his head, "Empress Dowager, although the British are using a knife to kill people, how can they really understand the way to conquer? They want to use our Qing sword to kill the American sword, but why can't we borrow their swords to kill the prestige of our Qing Dynasty?"

"How do you say this?" Cixi asked again.

"We don't have to come forward at all." Yi Li held his posture, "Empress Dowager, the Yingyi wants to borrow our sword, but our Qing Dynasty is not the kind of person who forgets the righteousness when it comes to profit, and America has not provoked us..."

"In fact, this American really provoked our Qing Dynasty." Li Hongzhang suddenly interrupted Yi Li. "In recent years, the United States has often had some 'anti-Chinese' behavior. The people living in the Qing Dynasty were often bullied by the people of their country, but the local government deliberately turned a blind eye to it, which was quite indulgent, resulting in many Chinese people being killed and injured. It was precisely because Guo Jinzhang could not bear the persecution that he rose up..."

"It's outrageous. How can I allow barbarians to be bullied by the people?" Cixi slapped the small table beside her and snorted coldly. However, her artificiality was not only a little lower than Li Hongzhang and others' heads, but even a few people were secretly curling their lips disdainfully... Can the people of the Qing Dynasty not be bullied? Is there so much Qing Dynasty great? I really thought it was the former heavenly kingdom, and all countries came to pay tribute?... Since the Daoguang period, when the British came here with strong ships and powerful cannons, the Qing Dynasty's fig leaf was torn off several times, more than 20 years ago,

The British and French coalition forces only had a few thousand people, but they killed 100,000 ancient cavalrymen in Senggelinqin, drove Xianfeng out of Beijing, and even burned the Old Summer Palace... Didn't you, Empress Dowager Cixi, stayed by the side back then? You pulled up at this time, so what did you do back then? As for those Chinese in the United States... When did the Qing Dynasty care about others? However, although they were disdainful, Cixi's face still had to be sold. While everyone bowed their heads, they also looked indignant... Of course, this god was not very heavy, it was purely a performance.

"Who is the ambassador to the United States?" Cixi asked suddenly.

"It's Chen Lanbin when I go back to the Queen Mother," Yi Li said.

"Why didn't he repay me if my Qing people are humiliated in the United States?" Cixi asked in a deep voice.

"It's not that I don't report it, but that the Americans ignore it at all. Chen Lanbin is far away in the United States. Although our Qing Dynasty is strong, it is difficult to go far away, so..." Yi Li looked depressed and powerful.

"You should discuss this matter with a constitution and seek justice for the people of the Qing Dynasty, but you must also protect my face from the Qing Dynasty." Cixi glanced at everyone again and said suddenly.

"The Queen Mother..."

"Slaves and others follow the order"

Zeng Jize wanted to speak, but Yi Li had already kneeled down to accept the order first. There was nothing he could do, and the others had to follow him... In fact, they all knew that Cixi had worked so hard to perform, and they had no reason to refuse, so they could only follow the order.

...

"Sixth Prince, what's going on? With the temper of the empress dowager, how could he suddenly care about foreign affairs?"

The four left the Cining Palace, Zeng Jize left by himself, and he pretended that he had nothing to do. Or maybe he went back to find a way to deal with the possible foreign dispute. King Yili of Qing looked proud and pulled Yixin and Li Hongzhang back to his home, saying that he was discussing how to complete the empress dowager's decree. Although Yixin and Li Hongzhang didn't want to pay attention to him, Yili was a prince after all, and he was very likely to be favored. The two were unwilling to offend him for nothing, so they had to urge their respective sedan chairs to follow behind... However, as they walked, the two sedan chairs were unconsciously leaning together. To be precise, Li Hongzhang took the initiative to lean towards Yixin.

"Brother Shaoquan, why do you ask me knowingly?" Yi Xin lifted the curtain of the sedan chair and smiled bitterly at Li Hongzhang, "I don't say a word today, don't you understand?"

"Not it?" Li Hongzhang said with a wry smile.

"NV people, no matter how powerful it is, he is still cautious," Yi Xin looked at Yi Li and his party leading the way, and said, "The Empress Dowager Dong suddenly passed away. Although we all know that this may not be the matter of the Empress Dowager Guanxi, the government and the people are still in the throne... What kind of person is the Empress Dowager Ci? It would be fine if there was no British minister, but now they all want us to be a good man. In addition, with the instigation of someone who is interested, she can still bear it?"

"Just establishing authority, why bother to choose a foreigner?" Li Hongzhang changed into a bitter face.

"Why can't you choose a foreigner? How many people can be as clear as you and me in the court? Especially after the 'Jin Liang' defeated Agubo and recovered Xinjiang, the dynasty was full of ambition and thought that the Qing Dynasty would enter a prosperous era again... Now a group of people can make achievements outside, so naturally this group of people couldn't help but roll up their sleeves in front of the empress dowager. What can the empress dowager knows again?" Yi Xin sneered.

"That's too..." Jingming? Li Hongzhang also sneered in his heart. Cixi was jingxi, but that was just a little jingming. The power scheming broke the jingming. The real big thing, to say something disrespectful: She knows nothing? Unfortunately, he could only hold this in his heart and could not say it.

"Don't worry, this time we will follow King Qing and see what he does..." Yi Xin looked at the front again: "Just the ability of these people can't do anything."
Chapter completed!