? First, Xianfeng has a fear of Prince Gong.
Although Xianfeng and Prince Gong are blood brothers, when they were princes, Prince Gong was once the best candidate to inherit the throne because of his combination of civil and military skills, extraordinary intelligence and good popularity.
Although Xianfeng finally succeeded to the throne, he was always wary of Prince Gong, who was better at fighting and fighting than himself. Moreover, Xianfeng was also worried that if Prince Gong was made the minister to take care of his life, the power of state affairs would be firmly controlled by him before long, and those orphans and widows, Cixi and Ci 'an, like puppets, could not compete with Prince Gong at all.
The powerful Prince Gong is likely to become the next Dourgen, even killing his nephew to usurp power and seize power. Xianfeng had this concern, so he excluded Prince Gong from the highest power center.
Second, Su Shun and others provoke.
Xianfeng fled to Jehol for refuge after the invasion of the capital by British and French allied forces. Before long, Xianfeng could not afford to get sick and had been recuperating in Jehol during his serious illness. Su Shun and his colleagues and Xianfeng.
Because Su Shun and Prince Gong were always antagonistic in the imperial court, Su Shun and others tried to discredit Prince Gong in front of Xianfeng in order to control power in their own hands, trying to provoke the relationship between Xianfeng and Prince Gong, so that Xianfeng was dissatisfied with Prince Gong and did not choose Prince Gong when arranging life ministers.
Third, use Prince Gong to balance eight ministers who care about life.
When Xianfeng died, Tongzhi was only six years old. In order to make Tongzhi grow up, he didn't resist when he was in power. At the same time, Xianfeng was wary of Prince Gong and didn't fully trust the eight ministers who took care of his life. He is worried that Tongzhi will be put on hold after they control state affairs.
Xianfeng excluded Prince Gong from the appointment of Minister Gu Ming, but did not take back his previous office and power, which enabled Prince Gong and Minister Gu Ming to check and balance each other in the court and prevented the possibility of eight ministers Gu Ming monopolizing state affairs.