Before moving, Cixi asked his concubine to pick her up. She happily announced: "Today, I will visit the west with the emperor. Except for Queen Yulong and Yujin, all the other concubines stayed for the time being. " The concubines all looked flustered, but they were afraid to speak. Only Zhen Fei asked Emperor Guangxu to stay in Beijing to preside over the peace talks. Princess Zhen was the favorite concubine of Emperor Guangxu. They have always been soul mates. Empress Dowager Cixi didn't like Zhen Fei for a long time. She was furious and ordered the eunuch to push Zhenfei into the well outside Shouning Palace and drown. Seeing that his beloved woman was robbed, Guangxu dared not get angry or speak. I was so anxious that I hit my head with my fist, and my heart was full of resentment, fear, sadness and guilt. After the call-up, Cixi and Guangxu, who could not take anything with them, fled in a hurry. Empress Dowager Cixi put on the blue cloth coat prepared by the ladies-in-waiting, and asked eunuch Li to tie her hair in a bun and dress up as Hanfu and a village woman in the countryside. Guangxu also took off his crown ball, his dragon robe and his old robe. I stumbled, staggered and flustered all the way to the back door of the Forbidden City. I can't care about anything anymore. I left Huang Dou and Jiangshan and fled to the northwest by mule car. Accompanied by Cixi, Zhao Shuqiao, the resolute minister of punishments, Wang Zaiyi of Duanjun County and more than 20 officers and men from all walks of life. At this time, Eight-Nation Alliance has entered Beijing.
Qiang Bing hasn't had an operation yet. He rode a pig to avoid mice! After Cixi and her gang fled Beijing, they were like rabbits chased by dogs. They want their legs to regenerate, and they are desperate. Chaos can be imagined! When they arrived in Changping, the state officials ran faster than them, and they had disappeared. And the city gate is closed, so we can't get into the city at all, so we have to move on. At sunset, under the sunshine, Cixi and her party arrived in Guanshi, Changping. Cixi and Guangxu didn't touch Gu Mi all day, but they felt thirsty and growled with hunger. The eunuchs looked for food everywhere, and finally went directly to a farmhouse and bought half a bowl of sorghum on credit. Cixi and Guangxu were ecstatic. They are familiar with standing on the pipe, eating in a hurry, and even picking up a few grains of rice that fell to the ground. Without water, the eunuch picked up a handful of hay from the ground, and Cixi chewed it with relish. Unfortunately, a cold air suddenly blew from the northwest that night, and the weather suddenly became extremely cold. Cixi and her gang wore thin clothes. They were so cold that they put their teeth on their upper teeth and looked around for something to sleep in, but found nothing. Finally, she brought a rough quilt, which was not made by a local woman, so Cixi had to cover it. Burn beanstalk to keep warm at night, and everyone lies on the ground to rest. Empress Dowager Cixi lay there, thinking that she was in the palace, eating delicious food, drinking nectar, wearing golden clothes and covering herself with a quilt. But now that she finally came to this scene, she couldn't help crying in a low voice. It's really "a dream is like a deer in Yunshan, and the soul flies like a turkey." In this way, Cixi and her party were exhausted and spent two days in hunger and cold.
On the third day, Cixi arrived in Huailai County and was greeted by the county magistrate Wu Yong. Although we were informed in advance and prepared vegetables, fruits and seafood in a hurry, the refugees snatched an empty one, leaving only a small jar of mung beans and millet porridge. Who knows, Cixi was hungry and ate with relish. Wu Yong see in the eye, in mind. He managed to get five eggs at a time. Cixi ate three eggs in one breath and gave the remaining two to Guangxu. Back in the county government, Wu rummaged through the closet and found some old clothes of Cixi, Guangxu, Empress and Princess Jin. The appearance of Empress Dowager Cixi and her clique is only slightly neat at this point. I stayed in Huailai County, Cixi for two days for observation. Seeing that peace was hopeless, she had to continue to migrate westward. On September 7th, Cixi arrived in Yan County, Shaanxi Province,1October 10, and arrived in An from Taiyuan. Along the way, the accompanying royal family, eunuchs and the army searched and extorted money everywhere, causing the people to flee and the shops to close. The first thing Cixi did when she went to the Western Ocean was to issue an imperial edict: asking officers and men to "kill the Boxer Rebellion"; At the same time, Li Hongzhang was authorized to make peace with imperialism as soon as possible. The second thing is to shirk her responsibility of "declaring war" and kill and punish the hawkish ministers she used, such as fortitude and Xu Tong.
In Xi, the magistrate yamen in Cixi became a palace, decorated inside and outside like a new "Forbidden City". Cixi originally came to xi 'an to take refuge, but she still did not forget to lead a decadent life of drinking. There are many kinds of light dishes such as chicken, duck, fish, bird's nest and sea cucumber 100 per meal, which is very luxurious. Eat 200 taels of silver a day. In this regard, Cixi said shamelessly: "In the past, in the Forbidden City in Beijing, the daily food cost was 2,200 yuan. Now as long as 200 Liang, it can be said that it is a great savings. " Since165438+ arrived in Xi 'an on October 26th, Cixi has been living in tension, fear and pain. She was afraid that the powers would punish her as the chief culprit. She was sad, upset, at a loss and had nightmares. Every day's hard work makes her face longer and her eyes darker. On February 22, 65438, Cixi received a telegram from Li Hongzhang and was overjoyed, saying that the powers had neither listed her as the culprit nor asked her to return to Guangxu. Therefore, she was grateful for her pardon, and immediately accepted the words of "respecting the ancestral hall, attaching importance to relations and having to compromise" and asked Yi and Li Hongzhang to do it without hesitation. 190 1 On September 7th, Yi and Li Hongzhang formally signed the New Week Treaty on behalf of the Qing government.
190 1 year 1 October 6th, the emperor returned to the palace. The whole Xi 'an Street is covered with lanterns and gongs and drums. 300 salute vehicles, full of gold and silver, silks and satins, antiques and utensils. Behind the salute car, there are road cavalry, followed by eunuchs and officials. Then Guangxu, Cixi, Empress, Princess Jin, eldest brother. They took five yellow satin sedan chairs, followed by nobles. Thousands of troops, like a dragon, winding through the streets, I do not know how many times better than fleeing Beijing. After Xi left, Cixi returned to Beijing via Henan and Zhili. Palaces will be built along the way, and there will be an accommodation station for overnight accommodation every fifty or sixty miles. Every twenty or thirty miles, there is an angular rest stop for eating, and the roads along the way are paved with loess spun yarn. I don't know how much manpower and material resources it will cost.
165438+1On October 6th, Cixi celebrated her 67th birthday in Kaifeng. Soon, an imperial edict was issued, and the title of master elder brother was cancelled and he left the palace immediately. 190265438+1On October 7th, I returned to Beijing. Ended her one-year and five-month escape career. Ten days after Cixi returned to Beijing, she held a grand banquet in honor of foreign envoys and their wives. Since then, the Qing government has become the "imperial court of foreigners", and Cixi has naturally become the "housekeeper" of foreigners. Cixi fled to the west, although full of hardships, but still tenacious. For her own enjoyment, she is still building a great building, wasting money and labor. How can she protect herself when her mind is full of things?