Video Clip: Opening Inventory of the Ten Emperors

Chapter 106 Extravagant birthday gift

Under the doubts of the emperors, the inventory continued:
[Inventory of the top ten fatuous emperors in Chinese history. 】

[The last person to appear on the stage is Empress Dowager Cixi from the Qing Dynasty. 】

[Cixi is not an emperor, she looks like an emperor. 】

【The power in her hands is greater than everything else, and the emperor is just a puppet. 】

【She is a strange person and a sinner through the ages. 】

[Her courage is the most in the world, as is her self-confidence, but during the period when she was in power, the land of China suffered unprecedented damage. 】

[Her crimes are so serious that they are too numerous to write down. Even the Qianlong Emperor Aixinjueluo Hongli and the idiot Emperor Sima Zhong are far inferior to her combined. 】

[She is Lafayette Cixi who must be compensated even though the Qing Dynasty is far away. 】

[Next, we will bring the specific deeds of Cixi, please watch it patiently. 】

"Lafayette Cixi? Is that the wonderful empress dowager who pays compensation if she loses, and pays compensation if she wins?"

"Even though the Qing Dynasty is far away, it must be compensated. Is that what it means?"

The First Emperor Yingzheng watched the video and felt a little strange.

"From her poems, she doesn't look like a fatuous and incompetent queen mother."

"Parents and mothers love the most sincerely in the world. Tears and blood melt into the bodies of their children, and they work hard to become children. Pity the hearts of parents in the world!"

"Parents here refer to parents, right?"

"From these few poems, what I see is a filial and virtuous woman."

"How can you be a sinner through the ages?"

"Could it be like Song Huizong Zhao Ji, who was taken captive by the enemy country?"

The first emperor Yingzheng was puzzled.

Because it was hard for him to imagine what Cixi could do to ignore her identity and make her included in the top ten fatuous emperors.

"I'm interested."

[Cixi is an unusual person. She is the concubine of Emperor Xianfeng and the biological mother of Emperor Tongzhi. She is also an important political figure in the late Qing Dynasty and the actual ruler of the late Qing Dynasty. 】

[Cixi belongs to the Yehenala family, this family is a dignitary in the Qing Dynasty, and has always been married to the royal family, and the family power is very large. 】

[Cixi entered the palace through the draft in the second year of Xianfeng, when she was only 17 years old. 】

[She first entered the harem, and she was just a noble person named Emperor Xianfeng. Her rank was relatively low, only ranked sixth. It can be seen that the status of the Yehenala family during the Xianfeng period was not too high, and the family did not bring it to Cixi. Too much boost. 】

[But Cixi is different from ordinary people. She is smart and smart. She has read poetry and books since she was a child, and loves writing and listening to music. Soon she was treated differently by Xianfeng. She was promoted to concubine in the second year. Later, he gave birth to a prince for the emperor, who later became Emperor Tongzhi. 】

[Thus, Cixi's mother was conferred the title of imperial concubine by virtue of her son, and was promoted to imperial concubine a year later, but Cixi was only in her 20s at that time, and the speed of promotion was still very fast. 】

[In 30, Emperor Xianfeng died, and Emperor Tongzhi, who was only six years old, ascended the throne. His biological mother, Yehenala, became the Empress Dowager, that is, she became Empress Dowager Cixi at this time. At this time, she was less than [-] years old. age. 】

[Because the little emperor Tongzhi was too young, Cixi and Ci'an jointly listened to the government behind the curtain. Later, Cixi joined forces with Prince Gong to launch a coup, gradually defeated the eight ministers of Gu Ming, and finally took power into his hands. 】

[In 19, Emperor Tongzhi died at the age of [-]. Emperor Tongzhi had no achievements in his career as an emperor for more than ten years. He was one of the emperors with the lowest sense of presence in the Qing Dynasty, also because he was too young. 】

[Because Emperor Tongzhi had no heirs and no brothers, Cixi supported her younger sister's son Aixinjueluo Zai to succeed him, known as Emperor Guangxu in history. 】

[After Guangxu succeeded to the throne, he was pro-government in name, but in fact the power of the government was still in the hands of the Empress Dowager Cixi, and Cixi later deposed Prince Gong and became the real dictator of the Qing Dynasty. 】

[Later, Emperor Guangxu died suddenly at the age of 38 and reigned for more than 30 years. 】

[Emperor Guangxu also had no heirs. Cixi chose Puyi, the eldest son of Prince Regent Zaifeng, from the prince's mansion, and adopted him to Guangxu to inherit the throne. He was known as Emperor Xuantong in history, and was also called the last emperor by later generations. 】

[Puyi, who was pushed to the throne at that time, was only three years old, so Cixi became the empress dowager. 】

[During the 50 years that Cixi was in power, she supported three emperors to ascend the throne, which is also rare in Chinese history. 】

[Cixi walked step by step from the harem to the ruler of the Qing Dynasty. Her life is legendary. 】

[The Empress Dowager Cixi is one of the very few women in Chinese history who has been in power for a long time. She is very politically skilled, very good at balancing power among various ministers, and can maintain her own absolute authority well. 】

[However, the series of outrageous things she did while she was in power, she is doomed to be China's eternal sinner and will never be forgiven. 】

[Anyone who whitewashes or even reverses the case is a disrespect and disregard for the division of China's territory. 】

[There are many famous sayings left by Cixi. 】

[One is that whoever makes me unhappy today, I will also make him unhappy for life. 】

[At first glance, this sentence is very domineering. This is what the Empress Dowager Cixi said to the ministers who advised her. 】

[But in fact, it was a manifestation of incompetence during Cixi's power. 】

【Why do you say that? 】

[At that time, Cixi wanted to build the Summer Palace and celebrate her [-]th birthday, which cost a lot of money. However, due to the shortage of military expenditures, some ministers advised the Empress Dowager Cixi to save the money for the new navy to purchase foreign warships. . 】

[Cixi was very upset, so she said this sentence, and the ministers who advised her were so frightened that no one dared to speak again. 】

[Subsequently, the war between Huaxia and Japan broke out, and the Beiyang navy didn't even have the money to buy too many shells, so Huaxia suffered a disastrous defeat. 】

[According to statistics, the Qing government spent tens of millions of taels of silver in order to celebrate the Empress Dowager Cixi's 60th birthday. 】

[Funds for the repair of the Summer Palace come from the following sources: one is that when Yan Jingming, the former Minister of the Household Department, was in office, the Household Department had a surplus of about 800 million taels, and was found by the Empress Dowager Cixi to repair the garden. 】

[The other sum is more than 3000 million taels of road construction funds, of which more than 1000 million taels were requisitioned by the Empress Dowager Cixi for the construction of the Summer Palace. 】

[The rest of the money was collected in the name of "raising the navy". 】

[At that time, the imperial court was preparing to build a naval government office. The Manchu government’s finances were very tight, and the financial expenditures of other departments were also extremely tight. Only the navy’s funds were relatively abundant. 】

[Therefore, the Minister of Naval Yamen Affairs is recognized as a fat vacancy, and the fat water does not flow to outsiders, so naturally it cannot be handed over to the Han people for management, so Cixi personally appointed the very obedient Prince Chun Yizhen to take charge of the Naval Yamen. 】

[Yizhen knew how to repay his kindness, so it was unavoidable to embezzle funds from the navy for the construction of the Summer Palace. 】

[The navy without financial support will naturally fail miserably. 】

[How important is the navy? 】

[Before the age of great voyages, the navy was mostly sailing fleets or naval divisions in rivers and rivers, and most of the tasks they were responsible for were transporting soldiers. After the emergence of artillery, they could be mounted on warships to bombard enemy ships or local camps. 】

[Of course, this is near the sea and near the coast. The most direct factor in the development of ocean power in ancient times was to open up trade with other countries. The largest of this type is undoubtedly Zheng He's voyages to the West. 】

[After the beginning of the Age of Discovery, Western countries that have completed a certain amount of primitive capital accumulation first have reached a certain level of strength. In order to obtain more money and trade, they have vigorously developed ocean-going navies and began to force other civilized regions to open trade with their own countries. , direct colonization of more backward civilizations. 】

[The continuous acquisition of resources and benefits from trade zones and colonial zones has promoted the emerging industrial revolution to a certain extent, and the most classic of this type is the handsome country of the empire on which the sun never sets. 】

[The navy is becoming more and more important. 】

[And what about Cixi?The birthday money can buy many warships. 】

[And Huaxia suffered a disastrous defeat in this war, and lost a lot, signing a treaty that forfeit power and humiliated the country. 】

"navy?"

"Is the ocean so important in later generations?"

When the first emperor Yingzheng saw this, he couldn't help complaining.

(End of this chapter)