In July of the eleventh year of Xianfeng (1861), Xianfeng was seriously ill, and he knew that the time was not long, and summoned Prince Yi Zaiyuan, Prince Zheng Duanhua, and University Scholar Sushun in the palace of Rehe to support orphans, which was the last orphanage in history, and of course the most unsuccessful one.
From the death of Emperor Xianfeng on July 16 to the fall of the eight ministers on September 30, it was only three and a half months, and the fall was so rapid, in addition to the arrogance of Su Shun and others and the intrigues and tricks of Cixi, there was also Emperor Xianfeng's own seemingly perfect but actually flawed arrangement for orphans, giving Cixi and Prince Gong a chance to seize power.
The two palaces are curtained and listen to the government.
Before Xianfeng died on July 16, the eleventh year of Xianfeng (1861), Xianfeng personally drafted an edict with the support of the eunuchs, which was transcribed by the minister in front of everyone, and then stamped with a jade seal and promulgated it.
The content of the edict is very simple, first of all, it is to appoint the six-year-old emperor's eldest son Zaichun as the crown prince, and secondly, to arrange Prince Yi Zaiyuan, Prince Zheng Duanhua, University scholar Su Shun, Eyu Jingshou and the four military ministers Mu Yin, Kuang Yuan, Du Han, and Jiao Youying to praise all government affairs, that is, the eight ministers of Gu Ming.
The so-called praise of all government affairs is that the eight ministers of Gu Ming exercised the drafting, issuance and approval of the edict on behalf of the emperor, which is equivalent to handing over the imperial power to the eight ministers of Gu Ming.
Minister of Care. However, he was afraid that the tail of the eight ministers of Gu Ming would not be lost, so he gave Ci'an and Cixi a royal seal each, and stipulated that all edicts in the future need to be printed with these two imperial seals to be effective, which is equivalent to a check and balance on the eight ministers of Gu Ming, and this loophole gave Ci'an and Cixi the opportunity to seize power.
In addition, Xianfeng did not explain the issuance of the edict and the review process of the edict in the edict, which made the eight ministers and the empress dowager of the two palaces constantly conflict.
According to the meaning of the eight ministers, the queen mother of the two palaces only has the power to seal them, and all the edicts are drawn up by themselves, and they cannot change them, and the recitals of various places are also jointly approved by the eight ministers, and they do not need to be presented to the queen mother of the two palaces.
However, Cixi believed that all government affairs in Zanxiang could not replace the emperor in handling government affairs, let alone represent the imperial power, they were only auxiliary and staff roles, and for this reason, the two sides were constantly in conflict.
However, in view of the fact that the war in the south had not yet been settled and Su Shun and others refused to deal with all government affairs without giving power, for the sake of the stability of the court situation, the empress dowager of the two palaces had no choice but to agree to the request of Su Shun and others, so far the eight ministers officially held the supreme power of the Qing Dynasty.
But the eight ministers didn't stay proud for long, after all, the thunder that Xianfeng planted for them hadn't exploded yet.
First of all, among the eight ministers of Xianfeng Tuogu, Zaiyuan belongs to the line of Prince Yi, and Duanhua and Sushun are the line of Shuerhaqi, although they are all royal families, but the bloodline of the Xianfeng line has been quite estranged.
Even if you don't like your younger brother Prince Gong and squeeze him out of the center of power, there are still Daoguang's fifth brother Prince Hui Mianyu, Xianfeng's fifth brother Prince Yi Cheng and Xianfeng's seventh brother Wang Yiyun can support Gu, but all of these clans that are close to their own blood are not included in Gu Ming, and eventually these close clan relatives all join Cixi's camp, and the power of the first few distant branch clans can hardly compare with these few?
Prince Gong. The second is the issue of official positions, none of the eight ministers have a cabinet scholar, the only university scholar Su Shun is only a co-organizer scholar, a co-organizer from the first product to preside over the court bureau, how can those old ministers in the capital be convinced?
As for Kuang Yuan, Du Han and Jiao Youying, they are just civilian forces, among which Kuang Yuan and Du Han all did secretarial work before they became the Minister of Military Aircraft, as for Jiao Youying, he was only a servant Siqing before, with such qualifications, he suddenly became the Minister of Military Aircraft, and other civilian groups are bound to be unconvinced.
Of course, the most fatal problem is that the eight ministers of Gu Ming are all civilian officials, and there is no force that represents military power (of course, it does not mean that they do not have military power, and the forces that do not represent military power here are people who really fight in the army).
For example, Liu Yu's four ministers who entrusted Gu were Xu Xianzhi and Fu Liang, representatives of Wenchen, Xie Hui, and Tan Daoji, who represented the strength of the army.
Before the Qing Dynasty, when Shunzhi Tuogu, the four ministers Li Soni represented the Manchu aristocratic forces, Ao Bai represented the military forces, and Kubilong and Suke Saha were just balancing weights, and it can be said that the ministers who could support Gu all represented the forces of one side.
Even Daoguang knew in the future that he would arrange a monk in the army, but Xianfeng was confused in the end, and he didn't even have a military minister with old qualifications.
Xianfeng's support this time has no level.
Now that I think about it, this edict appointing the eight ministers may have been made up by Su Shun and others who were beside Xianfeng, but they forgot that they were now in Rehe, and Zaichun would have to return to the capital sooner or later to ascend the throne.
In addition, Su Shun used the Wuwu Kechang fraud case and the Hubu treasure money case to exclude dissidents, and offended everything he could offend, and even the banner people were offended, which is also the reason why no one in the Eight Banners of the capital supported him.
What's even more convincing is that he knew that the civil and military ministers in the capital were not convinced, but no one went to the capital to win over and appease the forces of all parties, resulting in all the forces in the capital being collected by Prince Gong, and directly giving them a chance to form a gang.
If the Empress Dowager of the Two Palaces and Prince Gong don't want to seize power, it's just that, this loose arrangement of the Eight Ministers can still be maintained, the problem is that the Empress Dowager of the Two Palaces and Prince Gong are people with a strong desire for power, and their identity and status are destined to be unable to fight the Eight Ministers.
Ci'an on behalf of the first emperor's palace, Cixi on behalf of the new emperor, Prince Gong on behalf of the close relatives of the royal family, in the monarch's ** era, the identity and status of these people represent the entire imperial power, the eight ministers can not directly cut them down, this is called seeking power usurpation, as long as they are still there, as long as Cixi and Ci'an have the imperial seal, they can intervene in the government, and so on after the forces rise, it is enough to bring down the eight ministers, you must know that the Qing Dynasty ministers do not have the right to refute, and the edict can not be returned after it is issued, only recognized, no solution.
Sushun was the only royal family in the Qing Dynasty to be beheaded.
At this point, there is no suspense about the eight ministers seizing power, now look at how the empress dowager of the two palaces united with Prince Gong to seize power, the plan is actually not perfect, but the eight ministers have long been blinded by arrogance and given them opportunities again and again.
To tell the truth, the contradiction between Cixi and Su Shun has been a long time, as early as when Xianfeng fled from Rehe, Su Shun deliberately lowered the living standards of Ci'an and Cixi, so that the mule cart made by Cixi was not as stable as the carriage, and she didn't change it if she wanted to change it, and the reason why Cixi hated Su Shun was actually that when Xianfeng was critically ill, Su Shun proposed that Xianfeng follow the example of Mrs. Yi and give Cixi to commit suicide, if Xianfeng didn't refuse, Cixi would have died in Su Shun's hands.
After the death of Xianfeng, the contradictions between the two sides continued to intensify, according to the family law of the Qing Dynasty, after Zaichun ascended the throne, Cixi, who was the concubine of Yigui, should be respected as the queen mother, but Su Shun didn't care, and treated her like other concubines at a glance.
Su Shun did this because he understood that Ci'an did not love the government and could be deceived by himself, but Cixi was different, and she had already revealed her thoughts about the government and government, and she must take precautions.
And Cixi also knew that she couldn't fight with Su Shun and others by herself and Ci'an, but the other one could, that is, Prince Gong, as the emperor's uncle, could have become a minister who took care of his life, but Xianfeng was very guarded against him and could never take power, and Su Shun and others were in power, which made him even more annoyed.
So Cixi arranged for the personal eunuch An Dehai to go to the capital, the two sides hit it off, the next day Prince Gong went to Rehe to pay tribute to his brother on the grounds of the fold, the younger brother to pay tribute to his brother is reasonable, Su Shun and others are not easy to refuse, and Prince Gong came to Rehe, in order to avoid people's eyes, disguised as a shaman in the crowd into the palace, and conspired with the queen mother of the two palaces, after the conspiracy was completed, Prince Gong returned to Beijing and began to implement the plan.
After Xianfeng fled to Rehe, Prince Liugong negotiated with Britain and France in Beijing, giving Prince Gong the opportunity to win people's hearts, and Prince Gong immediately attracted a group of people after arriving in Beijing, the most important of which was Wang Yixun of Alcohol County and Lang Shengbao, and the eight ministers who were far away in Rehe did not know that the capital had changed.
Then Cixi's side came to a move to retreat as an advance, first arranged for his cronies Dong Yuanol to play, claiming that Zaichun was young, and temporarily let the empress dowager of the two palaces listen to the government, this move was naturally opposed by the eight ministers, and after the stalemate, Cixi took a step back, claiming that Prince Zheng Duanhua and Zaiyuan and others had too many positions, and handed over Duanhua's infantry commander to Wang Yiyun of Alcohol County.
The importance of the Admiral of the Nine Gates is self-evident.
The commander of the infantry army is the commander of the Nine Gates, and his position is quite important, and mastering the commander of the infantry army is to control the garrison power of the Beijing Division.
In order to prevent Cixi from hanging the curtain, Duanhua and Zaiyuan chose to compromise, and on the premise of keeping Xing under the command of the infantry, they gave up the infantry commander in the capital and let Yiyun take charge of the Shanpu battalion.
In this way, Yi Xun, who was already the commander of the Han army of the Zhenghuang Banner, also served as the commander of the infantry army, completely mastered the garrison power of the Beijing division, and provided military support for the seizure of power by the two palaces.
Of course, Su Shun and others also had close military generals, and the living forces that fought against the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom at that time, Zeng Guofan, Hu Linyi, Zuo Zongtang, etc., were all supported, protected and helped by Su Shun, and they were also regarded as Sushun's people, in order to prevent them from going to Rehe, Cixi ordered Shengbao to let the ministers who commanded the troops in various places not be summoned to Rehe, and in this way, the wings of the eight ministers in the army were completely broken.
On September 23, the small court of Rehe, which had been delayed for a long time, was preparing to return to Beijing, and in order to be able to return to Beijing early, the empress dowager of the two palaces proposed to return to Beijing first on the grounds that Zaichun was young and she was a woman, and it was inconvenient for her to act with men.
In just a few days, Zaichun and the Empress Dowager of the Two Palaces arrived in the capital, and the Empress Dowager of the Two Palaces immediately summoned Prince Gong Yi, Wang Yixun of Alcohol County, Minister of Military Aircraft Wen Xiang and Monk Greenqin to discuss the details of the seizure of power.
As for the eight ministers escorting the coffin, it was heavy rain, and they had been grinding for a long time, without the slightest sense of urgency, but spent all day and wine in Miyun and other places, and they had no military power to sit like this and let the Queen Mother of the Two Palaces and Prince Gong control the capital.
On September 30, Cixi issued an edict, requiring seven ministers other than Su Shun to enter Beijing to discuss the enthronement ceremony of Zaichun, and the eight ministers did not suspect him, leaving Su Shun to return to Beijing alone.
From taking power to falling, the eight ministers have only been regents for more than three months, to be honest, there are actually many loopholes in the plan to seize power in the two palaces, and it is not perfect, but the eight ministers are all arrogant and miss these opportunities, such as Cixi letting Yiyun take charge of the military power instead of them, it is very suspicious, why didn't they find the clues?
Minister of Military Aircraft. Ordinary people can see that Yiyun and Cixi are obviously colluding together, but they just don't interfere.
For another example, on the way back to Beijing, the two palaces returned with Zaichun first, the reason seems to be sufficient, but in fact it can't stand scrutiny, and the power of the eight ministers comes from the emperor, as long as they grasp Zaichun, they can give orders, but they let Zaichun go, and they don't gather people's hearts in the capital to find out the news for themselves, and they easily agreed, it can be said that the eight ministers were led by Cixi all the way, and finally died.
From a historical point of view, the principle of the minister of Tuogu is nothing more than proximity and respect, these two, Xianfeng did not occupy it, on proximity, Xianfeng can bypass Prince Gong, pull the forehead attached to Jingshou to make up the number, and want to cover it.
As for Du Han, it is purely because he is the son of Xianfeng's teacher Du Shoutian, and Jiao Youying is only a newly promoted curtain military machine, but Wen Xiang, who has both literary and talent, and is widely expected, was excluded because he was too close to Prince Gong.
Although Su Shun is talented, he is a domineering person, he has made too many enemies, and he has offended everything he can offend, so no matter what aspect he looks at, Xianfeng's Tuo Gu is a complete failure.