At dawn on September 21, 1989, the Guangxu Emperor went to Empress Dowager Cixi's residence to ask for peace, and Empress Dowager Cixi entered Xizhimen through the middle road. After arriving at Xizhimen, he suddenly returned in a hurry, and then went straight to the palace where the Guangxu Emperor lived.
According to the "Records of the Chongling Transmission" written by Yun Yuding, who had been the governor of the Guangxu Emperor's residence for nineteen years, it is recorded: "The empress dowager went straight to the upper palace, and as far as she could, she took the chapter with her, and summoned the day of anger: 'I have raised Ru for more than twenty years, but I have listened to the words of the villains and plotted against me?' Shang Shu Shu did not utter a word, and for a long time he muttered, 'I have no such intention.' 'The Day of the Empress Dowager's Spit: 'Idiot, there is no self today, and there is Ruhu tomorrow?"'
Subsequently, Empress Dowager Cifu issued a decree declaring that the Guangxu Emperor was seriously ill and could not take care of state affairs, and that she would "train the government" in the imperial court, and put the Guangxu Emperor under house arrest in Zhongnanhai. All edicts issued by the Guangxu Emperor to change the law were abolished. In addition, Empress Dowager Cixi also issued a decree saying: "The military aircraft ministers and other ministers: Kang Youwei, the chief of the Ministry of Works, has formed a party for personal gain, has spoken of chaos in government, has been repeatedly participated in by others, and has been dismissed from his post, and his brother Kang Guangren, who is the commander of the infantry army, is handed over to the Punishment Department and punished according to the law." ”
Judging from Empress Dowager Cixi's accusation that Emperor Guangxu "listened to the words of the villain and plotted against me" and emperor Guangxu's performance in the face of accusations, Empress Dowager Cixi did hear some rumors about "the garden after the robbery". Judging from the fact that Empress Dowager Cixi did not order the arrest of Tan Sitong, but only arrested Kang Youwei and Kang Guangren and convicted them of "forming a party for personal gain and talking about chaos in government", Empress Dowager Cixi did not know about Tan Sitong's conspiracy with Yuan Shikai, so we can conclude that Yuan Shikai did not inform at this time.
Some people believe that Yuan Shikai informed Rong Lu on the day he returned to Tianjin after being received by the Guangxu Emperor, and Rong Lu sent someone by train overnight to report the matter to Empress Dowager Cixi, which led to Empress Dowager Cixi's sudden coup the next morning. In fact, as early as May 1879, the first military telegraph line in China was built in Tianjin. In 1884, the Qing government set up the Inner City Telegraph Bureau to send and receive official telegrams. The Outer City Telegraph Office sent and received telegrams from merchants and people, and extended the first telegraph trunk line created by itself to the capital through Tongzhou, a suburb of Beijing.
By 1898, the telegraph had spread throughout the country, and Rong Lu only needed to send a telegram to the capital to report to the reformists on the "aftermath of the siege of the garden", so why should he take a train to Beijing to report? Moreover, for Yuan Shikai, his relationship with the conservative Prince of Qing, Yi Li, and others was extraordinary, if he really wanted to inform, why did he have to wait until after returning to Tianjin to inform? Therefore, this claim is unfounded.
However, Yuan Shikai "frankly stated" in his "Diary of Wu Shu" that he had told the secret before the coup: "Arriving in Tianjin." When the sun had set, the Court of Knowledge, Whorong Xiang, briefly described the internal situation and said that the emperor was holy and filial, and there was really no other intention, but there were groups of small parties to incite confusion and plot against the clan society, and under the real sin, it was necessary to protect the emperor to secure the world. Yuan Shikai said that as soon as he returned to Tianjin, he immediately went to see Rong Lu. He also told Rong Lu about the conspiracy of the Restoration faction to "encircle the garden and rob the queen". Just as the two people were talking, Ye Zubang and Youwen suddenly came to visit, and it was inconvenient for the two to continue the discussion. In the middle of the night, When Wan Shikai saw that Ye Zubang and Youwen had no intention of leaving, he had to resign first and agree to "rebuild and talk in detail tomorrow morning." The reason why Rong Lu was able to soar to the top of the world depended entirely on the promotion of Empress Dowager Cixi, if Empress Dowager Cixi lost power. Ronglu will lose power with it. At such a critical juncture, how could Rong Lu allow Yuan Shikai to talk again tomorrow? It can be seen from this that what is recorded in the "Diary of Wu Shu" is not the truth, but was written by Yuan Shikai in order to clear up the relationship with the reformists and smash the rumors that the reformists intended to unite with him to launch a coup.
In fact, Yuan Shikai was forced to inform Rong Lu after the change, fearing that the reformists would confess him.
Because Yuan Shikai was close to the Restoration Faction at that time and was summoned by the Guangxu Emperor many times, Rong Lu became suspicious of him, so he would urge him to return to Tianjin for various reasons to prevent changes. It was the night after the coup. Rong Lu summoned Yuan Shikai to the palace. When Yuan Shikai arrived, he found that "the guards were lined up in the middle of the road", and the atmosphere was extremely tense. At that time, Rong Lu showed Yuan Shikai a telegram of Empress Dowager Ci's training, and Yuan Shikai thought that the conspiracy of the reformists would be exposed, and he was worried that it would harm himself, so he "cried and lost his voice and could not afford to kneel", and put out the conspiracy and interrogation of the restoration faction's "after the siege of the garden" and "knelt down to be rong as his master".
Yuan Shikai's whistle-blowing angered Empress Dowager Cixi, who issued an edict in the name of the Guangxu Emperor, saying: "[The Restoration Faction] harbored evil intentions and plotted against the evil intentions, and the day before yesterday, there was a conspiracy to correct the chaotic party, plot to besiege the Summer Palace, rob the empress dowager and the matter of degeneration, fortunately, after being aware of it, the conspiracy was broken", and then the "Six Gentlemen of Wushu" were executed without trial. Since then, the Penghu Reform Law has completely failed!
What was the trigger for Cixi's coup d'état?
On September 18, the day that Tan Sitong conspired with Yuan Shikai, Yushi Yang Chongyi went to the Summer Palace to tell Empress Dowager Cixi: "The Great Students' Association will deceive the hearts of the scholars, disrupt the situation, quote the Easterners, deeply fear the misfortune of the Sect Society, and call on the Empress Dowager to reform on the same day to curb the chaos... It is rumored that Hirobumi Ito, the former minister of the East, arrived in Beijing on the same day and will be in charge of the dictatorship. Although the subject has received from the rumors, the words of the rumors that have been heard recently should be as loud as they are. If ito is used, the world passed down by the ancestors is equivalent to giving it to you
person. After Cixi read the recital, her face changed drastically, and she immediately summoned the group of courtiers to discuss countermeasures.
In fact, the contradiction between the restoration faction headed by the Guangxu Emperor and the conservative faction led by Empress Dowager Cixi has been accumulating for a long time. Cixi listened to the government for many years. With the military and political power in her hands, and the Guangxu Emperor was less than a year into the regency of the dynasty, it was only a matter of time before Empress Dowager Cixi launched a coup, but it was necessary to find an excuse to launch a coup, and this excuse should be the conspiracy of the reformists who were rumored in the capital but not confirmed by her, but in fact it was the arrival of Itō Hirobumi, the former head of Japan, who actually made her feel a huge crisis.
Seeing that Japan had become extremely powerful through the Restoration Movement, the Restoration faction invited Ito Hirobumi to China to help guide the change. On September 20, after the Guangxu Emperor received Yuan Shikai, he immediately received Itō Hirobumi. Emperor Guangxu and Itō Hirobumi had a good relationship with each other over the change of law. This greatly displeased Empress Dowager Cixi, who was watching from the curtain.
On September 21, Empress Dowager Cixi, fearing that "the world passed down by her ancestors would be worth handing over to others," staged a coup d'état and imprisoned Emperor Guangjie. According to the "Records of the Changes of the Qing Dynasty", "The emperor was forbidden, the new party was planted, and the new policy was overturned, and this intention was not a day, and the excuse was difficult, but it was because of Ito's coming." Therefore, the arrival of Itō Hirobumi was the trigger for the coup d'état launched by Empress Dowager Cixi.
However, yang Qiyi, the first "hero" of the Coup d'état, would not have launched a coup d'état so hastily if he had not been so neglected. In fact, after the coup, Empress Dowager Cixi also praised him as "a person who has made meritorious contributions to the country", and he often regarded himself as a hero. Thank you for paying attention to the small editor "Sun Moon Morning Cloud", your attention to like comments is the greatest support for me, thank you.