The late Qing Dynasty was one of the dimest periods in the long history of China. The court was corrupt and weak, corrupt, and the officials and the people were disunited, which made the whole country lifeless and there was no hope at all. But in fact, as the saying goes, the masses have a sharp vision. Whether an official is good or bad is always seen by the people. In 1901, the court made a decision to execute the Prime Minister's Minister of Affairs of various countries, and they should not worry about the affairs of the court. However, as soon as the news came out, more than 300 gentry and people spontaneously pleaded for him. The next day, more than 10,000 people went to the streets to plead for his life. The scene was majestic.
However, Zhao Shuqiao himself was not particularly anxious at this time. He was well versed in the rules of the officialdom and thought that this was just a delaying strategy for the court, and he was just a show of satisfying foreigners. However, he underestimated the corruption and incompetence of the court, and could not imagine that he, who was a prime minister, died of torture.
Zhao Shuqiao was a clear stream in the late Qing court. He passed the imperial examination in the 12th year of Tongzhi (1873), and the following year he was appointed as the head of the Ministry of Justice by the court. In the following ten years, Zhao Shuqiao was promoted steadily and was promoted to governor of Jiangsu in the 21st year of Guangxu (1895), becoming a local official. It is worth mentioning that no matter the official position, Zhao Shuqiao always remains united in serving the people as an official. When he was in Fengyang, he was experiencing drought and flood disasters, and the people were living in poverty. He did not hesitate to let the treasury help the victims, and paid for it out of his own pocket to add money, and even mobilized his family to help the victims repair their clothes and do something within his ability.
1898, Zhao Shuqiao paid 2.4 taels of silver to renovate the Fenghe Bridge, providing convenience for the elders of his hometown. In addition, Zhao Shuqiao treated foreign enemies with neither humility nor arrogant. During his tenure as governor of Jiangsu, the Japanese used the Treaty of Shimonoseki to forcefully open up Suzhou as a trading port to facilitate Japan to seize benefits in China, and proposed to drive away local people and free up territory for them to build factories. Zhao Shuqiao first refused and said that he would not give in. With the repeated concessions from the court, he just rented some wasteland to the Japanese, collected rent regularly, and saved local people.
As we all know, the court was in internal and external troubles in the late Qing Dynasty, not to mention the strong ships and cannons of foreigners, the uprising of the grassroots people alone was enough for the court to drink a pot. With such a talent who can support her, Cixi is naturally very popular. However, even such a good official had inexplicably become a "traitorous minister" who had to be killed by the court.
things have to start with Boxer Movement which broke out in 1899.
Now look at Boxer again. Some of its practices may not be satisfactory, but its passionate patriotism is obviously unquestionable. At that point in time, the Boxer Rebellion defended the country and the Qing Dynasty's efforts to protect itself coincided with the interests of the Qing Dynasty. Therefore, when the Boxer Rebellion was vigorous and strong, Cixi asked Zhao Shuqiao to investigate with the Minister of Military Affairs to resolutely see if the Boxer Rebellion could be used.
Zhao Shuqiao, based on the principle of seeking truth from facts, found that the Boxer Rebellion was unreliable and "Boxers should not rely on it", but the old man in the officialdom was firm and well aware of the intentions of Lao Fu and proposed the strategy of "helping and using it" - we can distrust him, but we can use him! This is exactly what Cixi likes. Seeing that the Empress Dowager had made the decision, Zhao Shuqiao couldn't say more. But just one year later, the Eight-Nation Alliance captured the city of Beijing. The court fled in a hurry and sent people to negotiate with foreigners.
Although he failed to save Qing Dynasty , the Boxer Rebellion killed many foreigners during the struggle, which made the latter feel like a thorn in his throat and regarded it as a thorn in his eyes. Therefore, during the negotiations, he specifically proposed to severely punish the "culprit" who condoned the Boxer Rebellion. Without considering the deep reasons, from the above, the real "culprit" should be Tsang Yi. However, on the one hand, Tsang Yi is the bannerman, so the court naturally tends to die suddenly; on the other hand, more importantly, this person died before the settlement after the autumn. The court was anxious to give an explanation to the foreigners, so Zhao Shuqiao naturally became a "scapegoat".
Soon, Cixi issued an imperial edict to "kill the prison guard ", and the latter was escorted to the Xi'an Yamen waiting to be put down.
So the scene we mentioned at the beginning of the article appeared. Just as the news spread all over the city and the people of the whole city were begging for Zhao Shuqiao, he was not in a hurry, thinking that he did not cover up the Boxer Rebellion at the beginning, and this account could not be counted on him. Besides, I have been deeply engaged in the imperial court for many years, including Military Affairs Office , and I have my friends everywhere, which is authoritative and stable. Zhao Shuqiao thought that the court was just using himself to play with foreigners, so he probably just had to make a few moves. However, he did not expect that the court could do anything to protect itself.
In fact, Cixi was also very worried about whether to really kill Zhao Shuqiao at first, and she tended not to kill him. The punishment given was to dismiss his post and remain in office. However, Yi Li, , Li Hongzhang, and others took the blame and reported that if they did not give an explanation, the foreigners would probably not do it and the situation would be even more difficult to deal with. In desperation, Cixi was determined to kill. Even though the people were in full swing, the powerful people who pleaded for him had changed one after another. The court only changed the beheading to death, leaving at best some lasting decentness for this important minister.
On the third day of the first lunar month of the 27th year of the Guangxu period (February 21, 1901), seeing that there was no hope of turning the tables, Zhao Shuqiao and his wife decided to swallow the gold and commit suicide. After swallowing the gold nugget, Mrs. Zhao immediately had abdominal pain and screamed in pain, and soon died of anger. Unexpectedly, after a few hours, Zhao Shuqiao, who also swallowed gold, had no reaction at all, and even chatted with relatives and friends who came to visit. In desperation, the Shanxi Governor 1 Cen Chunxuan , who was ordered to die, brought a large amount of opium. After swallowing it, Zhao Shuqiao felt hot, and then his whole body was in unbearable pain and struggled wildly. This tragic situation continued until the afternoon of that day, and Zhao Shuqiao was not dead.
In desperation, Cen Chunxuan forced Zhao Shuqiao to induce arsenic. The latter rolled and screamed all over the ground after being poisoned, but he was still breathing a sigh of relief. Two more hours passed, and it was almost time to reach the deadline given by Lao Fu. Cen Chunxuan finally did not stop and asked someone to hold Zhao's hands and feet, stick his mouth and nose with cotton paper, pour wine on it, and try to use a trick to "post up and add officials" to take his life. You should know that this was torture invented by Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty. It is famous for killing people without blood. It is famous in ancient history and is terrified. The "scapegoat" Zhao Shuqiao suffered such torture, which is truly an unrestrained disaster.
I don’t know if the person who was executed was ruthless. Zhao Shuqiao was still angry after being fucked several times in succession. He was still angry until after four o’clock the next morning, when he died completely. He was only 54 years old. It is worth mentioning that according to literature records, before swallowing gold, Zhao Shuqiao was still optimistic about the situation. He kept telling his wife the reasons why he should not die, and frequently entrusted others to help ask whether there was a pardon from the court.
It is not difficult to imagine that the blame has nothing to do with him. He is in his prime of political life. He is at the height of his position and dies in a daze. I am afraid that Zhao Shuqiao will not be able to swallow this and has been holding on forever, hoping to wait for the court's pardon order. For this reason, he was willing to suffer such pain. However, until death really comes, this wish is not fulfilled, and we can imagine how desperate it is.
