Since Tongzhi emperor has no offspring, no one can inherit the throne after his death. So in order to stabilize the situation, Cixi adopted a child from the prince's descendants, and this child was later Emperor Guangxu. Because they were raised by Cixi since childhood, the two can be said to be neither biological mother nor son, but they are better than biological mother and son.
However, due to the long-term pressure from Empress Dowager Cixi, Guangxu had the idea of taking power after growing up. But why did Guangxu fail to successfully kill Cixi to take control? Many years later, Puyi gave the answer, and there were three factors that led to him not being able to succeed .
cannot confront the ministers in the court and Cixi
First of all, the power in the court is extremely complex, and it can be said to be divided into several factions. From the time Emperor Tongzhi was still alive, there were as many as eight ministers alone. Moreover, these eight ministers were not the same as Empress Dowager Cixi, but they were not even the same as the emperor. When the emperor was still alive, they all expressed their thoughts of taking action against Cixi, hoping to kill Cixi and return the power to the emperor.
But once Empress Dowager Cixi really loses her rights, the final winner will not be Guangxu. Because he was too young back then and could not handle matters in the court by himself, his rights would eventually be lost to the ministers' .
The second is that in addition to the faction of the ministers, there are also factions supported by Empress Dowager Cixi. Because in order to confront these ministers, Empress Dowager Cixi specially promoted some people who were relatively low-birth or had a certain kinship with her. And these people have received favor from Cixi, so they can be said to be completely in line with her. Moreover, most of this group of officials are officials in institutions like Military Affairs Office , so they control all the troops near the capital.
Therefore, Emperor Guangxu can be said to be completely capable of confronting Cixi in the court, and he can only seek opportunities from the outside. So Emperor Guangxu planned to borrow the power of the Reformation faction and learn from Japan's transformation of China into constitutional monarchy. However, the assassination campaign initiated by him and the Reformists was not successful, and was even noticed in advance by Empress Dowager Cixi. Moreover, the person who betrayed them and reported to Empress Dowager Cixi is not a simple person. He is the future president of the Republic of China Hong Xian Emperor Yuan Shikai .
The power controlled by the hands is easily manipulated
Yuan Shikai was actually the force supported by a minister under Cixi, and he was not the same party as Emperor Guangxu. In addition, it was with the help of Cixi that he controlled a large army. Therefore, even though Emperor Guangxu had promised him a lot, it was impossible to follow Emperor Guangxu because it was too risky. Choose to rebel with him.
Therefore, since Emperor Guangxu had too few rights in his hands, he had no chance of winning the power after Yuan Shikai defected to Empress Dowager Cixi. And obviously he overestimated the effect of 100-day reform , and no one was willing to help him in the court. Since then, he has been imprisoned in the palace by Empress Dowager Cixi and has no chance to resist.
And even if he successfully killed Empress Dowager Cixi this time, he might not be able to take control, because the obstacles he faced were not only Empress Dowager Cixi, . At that time, except for Empress Dowager Cixi, the most powerful one was Prince Gong . Therefore, even if Empress Dowager Cixi died, Prince Gong was the one who controlled the court.
At the same time, there have indeed been many similar situations in history in the Qing Dynasty. Take the regent Dorgon in the early Qing Dynasty as an example. It can be said that he controlled the emperor for 10 or 20 years. So even if his support from other forces is completed, he will inevitably not be betrayed by them.
And even if he really succeeds in governing himself, it will be difficult to change the current situation, because the Qing Dynasty was indeed too ruined at that time.Since Empress Dowager Cixi took power, the Qing Dynasty has been trapped in the invasion of foreign forces. In the face of violations by foreign troops, they have only adopted passive measures, and the power of the Qing Dynasty has become increasingly low due to excessive concessions.
However, Emperor Guangxu has never really faced these situations, and it is very likely that he would adopt overly radical reforms in his policies. Therefore, he was very likely to rashly anger them when his strength was not enough to confront these great powers, which gave them a better reason for the Qing Dynasty to take action. Therefore, his killing of Cixi may lead to worse results. .
killing Cixi has great risks
, and after all, Empress Dowager Cixi has raised him for so many years, and she cannot do too much in terms of emotion and reason. She always has to reserve some room for her. is also very taboo in the royal family to kill his adoptive mother, because this is a fundamental morality as a person. Therefore, even if he can achieve some results in the future, he may not receive support from the public.
Take Tang Taizong Li Shimin as an example. His achievements can be said to have reached the top of emperors from ancient times to the present. They were also affected by the killing of brothers by the Xuanwumen Incident and forced his father to abdicate later. Many people criticized it.
and later, because some officials in the north were once promoted by the former crown prince, they were not under the control of the emperor for a long time. Even when foreign enemies invaded, they allowed the enemy to enter the capital, which caused Tang Dynasty to face a significant crisis at the beginning of its establishment.
However, because Li Shimin quickly organized a strong resistance in the imperial city, and the emperor personally took action to make a great improvement in morale, he successfully stopped the enemy's iron hooves under the city wall. And after that, he vigorously developed his military strength, coupled with the strong improvement of the strength of the entire country, he finally gained everyone's recognition and established the title of days Khan .
And the situation he is facing now is similar to that of Li Shimin back then, and he was also invaded by foreign races. However, even Li Shimin forced the emperor to abdicate, causing such great resistance, which caused the previous ministers to react so much. Then if Emperor Guangxu really killed Empress Dowager Cixi, the pressure they faced by officials who had been favored by Cixi might be even greater.
Add to that the situation China faced at that time was really too difficult. If part of the country's military or government departments were really paralyzed, it might really go deeper into the abyss. Moreover, because he was supported by Cixi's family, killing Cixi would face the consequences of betrayal of relatives, so from the beginning he did not have any hope of victory.
ended
In fact, the demise of the Qing Dynasty was an inevitable result. The wheel of history was rolling forward. No matter who became the emperor at that time, there was no chance to turn the tide. Although Emperor Guangxu had already given a try, the Qing Dynasty was still in a desperate situation and was powerless to turn things around.
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