"Cixi? You are just jumping to modern history!" Weng Xiupin said.

According to the division of Chinese history, 1840 is the dividing line between ancient Chinese history and modern history.

However, this is the division of middle school textbooks. In the academic community, there are many different ways to divide modern history.

For example, some people believe that China has entered modern history since the Tang and Song dynasties. The so-called "Tang and Song dynasty's theory of reform" was proposed by Japanese scholars and has some status in the Chinese historian community; some scholars believe that before the founding of New China, it was considered ancient history...

Anyway, each school has its own theoretical basis, so the Annual Chinese History will not limit too much on this. As long as the scope is before the Xinhai Revolution, it is true.

Chen Kan smiled and said, "I just think this old woman is quite interesting, so I will study it."

"Tell me, which direction are you going to do?" Weng Xiupin asked. She knew that Chen Kan was "very interesting", and that research results have been produced.

"Don't the senior sister think that the old lady Cixi is actually quite fun?" Chen Kan asked back.

“How to say it?”

"First of all, Cixi is also an experienced old politician. Why did she declare war on all countries at the same time?" Chen Kan asked with a smile.

Cixi set a world record, which was to declare war on all the diplomatic countries of her country at the same time. This is unique in world history and is simply a strange fighter.

In history textbooks, this happened during the Boxer Rebellion, followed by the Eight-Nation Alliance invasion of China, followed by the Xin Chou Treaty, and China completely became a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society.

In 1900, Cixi declared war on all diplomatic relations. The textbooks explained it in two points. The first point was that Cixi believed in the so-called "invulnerable" words of the Boxer Rebellion, and the other point was that Cixi, the old woman, was confused.

But is this really the case?

Of course not. A few days before the declaration of war, Cixi asked her confidant Ronglu to lead troops to encircle and suppress the Boxer Regiment, but Ronglu was recalled by Cixi for some unknown reason. As for the so-called "invulnerability" of the Boxer Regiment, it was even more joking.

Someone personally experimented with this matter at that time, and he really caught several senior brothers from the Boxer Rebellion and shot them to see if they were really invulnerable to swords and guns. It turned out that a blood hole would still be left. The person who experimented was also Cixi's confidant, and he was Yuan Shikai.

It was Yuan Shikai who was in Shandong that time, suppressing the Boxer Rebellion the most powerfully and indeed achieved great results. In the feudal dynasty of China, the court and peasant uprising were definitely incompatible. Cixi had always been determined to suppress the Boxer Rebellion.

So what was the reason for Cixi to meet the Boxer Rebellion, let the Boxer Rebellion go to Beijing, and later also to recruit the Boxer Rebellion and let the Boxer Rebellion deal with foreigners?

"Cixi is so confused!" Weng Xiupin said with a smile.

Chen Kan shook his head with a smile. Of course he knew that Weng Xiupin was joking.

As an old politician, Cixi was still very powerful. After 1840, the Qing Dynasty fought many wars with the great powers, and almost all suffered a crushing defeat. The only victory was the Sino-French War. Although the Qing Dynasty finally gave up, the war itself was won. This war was presided over by Cixi. During the period when Cixi was in power, there were basically no major conflicts between China and foreign countries.

After Guangxu became an adult, Cixi actually retired. In 1879, Guangxu came to power and Cixi was basically out of control. For example, as we know the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, according to historical records, Cixi and Li Hongzhang opposed the war at that time, but Cixi saw that Guangxu was so determined, so she ignored it.

Later, because of the Wuxu Coup, the arrest of Liang Qichao and others' reformists, Cixi, was also the point in the textbook attack on Cixi. Therefore, it is not reasonable to say that Cixi is a conservative, because after the Eight-Nation Alliance, Cixi returned to the capital and began drastic reforms, which was even greater than the reform reform. Cixi did everything that Liang Qichao and the others wanted to do but failed.

Cixi was not confused in front and behind, so why did she become stupid in 1900?

In fact, there are several interesting things in the reform. First, they are targeting the Six Gentlemen of the Reform and Reform. Cixi directly took him to Caishikou to behead him without any judgment, which is very unreasonable.

Maybe you will ask what is unreasonable about this. Cixi did something bad and did not dare to make it public. You should know that the court is in the hands of Cixi. Isn’t it very easy to give them a charge? This is better than just cutting them off without saying anything.

Secondly, why did Cixi not abolish Guangxu?

Back to the fact that Cixi declared war on all diplomatic countries, it was not that as soon as Cixi declared war, the eight countries immediately organized coalition forces, and they also had to prepare, not so quickly, so the Qing Dynasty took the initiative at the beginning, and its first goal was those foreign embassies in the capital.

When fighting these embassies, Cixi sent her confidant Ronglu to work for a total of three months, but she couldn't finish it.

Maybe you would say that the Qing government was corrupt and incompetent, and even the small embassy could not be defeated. In fact, this is just a matter of being incompetent. How can you just bombard the water with cannons and cut off the water source? Wouldn't everything be fine!

In fact, this is not because the Qing Dynasty was not strong in combat, but because it was not a war at all. If you look at this war to siege the embassy, ​​you will find many interesting things.

For example, the weather was very hot at that time, and the Qing army transported large quantities of ice to foreign embassies, and a large amount of vegetables and meat were also supplied continuously. This was not a war, it was just a service to the master, and the two sides even opened markets to trade with each other.

In the past three months, neither foreign nor the Qing Dynasty had any substantial casualties. This was to protect these embassies rather than fighting. You should know that the Boxers had already entered Beijing at that time, and these Qing dynasties' troops were more like protecting the embassies from being attacked by the Boxers.

There are actually many such strange things.

"I can't use your research method." After hearing these questions, Weng Xiupin said.

Chen Kan is a very traditional way to find problems through historical materials, and then advance them step by step. However, Chen Kan also added some analysis and reasoning techniques to traditional historical materials, which is basically the same as Qin Shihuang's method when he was doing a master's thesis.

Don’t look at what Chen Kan said so simply. In fact, this is not simple at all. It is very difficult to find all the historical materials and requires extremely high Luo Ji’s analysis ability, otherwise you will be confused before you can analyze it clearly.
Chapter completed!