Chapter 130 Emperor Xianfeng collapses, and Cixi ascends the throne
April of the ninth year of Xianfeng.
The city of Peiping was filled with gloom and gloom.
The Puppet Ming army has now reached Baoding, which is only a hundred miles away from Peiping.
Emperor Xianfeng, who was always active in escaping, did not run away this time.
It's not that he doesn't want to run, but that he really can't run anymore.
Emperor Xianfeng was ill, and his illness was very serious. He basically had a lot of air coming out and little air coming in.
Originally, Xianfeng in history could actually last for another two years, but now it is estimated that he is listening to reports every day of where Zhu Yuanzhang has attacked, and he was so frightened that he felt the call of death in advance.
"Li Hongzhang, has the news from the sea been transmitted back?" At the bedside of Emperor Xianfeng, a woman served Xianfeng to bed with all her heart, and then walked outside to meet Li Hongzhang, the current governor of Zhili.
Although Li Hongzhang's fortunes were also very different from those in history, Emperor Xianfeng even had a very bad impression of him because of his previous errand failure.
But the only thing that hasn't changed between him and history is his tight grip on military power.
Even because of Zeng Guofan's sudden death, Li Hongzhang took the Hunan Army into his pocket.
Since then, he has even become three points more powerful than he was in history.
Of course, the Manchu Qing Dynasty today is not the Qing Dynasty that still dominates the country until this moment in history.
After being manipulated by Zhu Yuanzhang, the Qing Dynasty at this moment was like Emperor Xianfeng, only breathing his last breath away from death.
"This slave is here to report on the military situation at sea!" Li Hongzhang said with a hint of bitterness on his face.
He sighed and said: "The invincible army of the Eight-Nation Alliance has been defeated, but the fleet of Pseudo-Ming is still invincible at sea."
"Pa!" Upon hearing the news, the woman sitting at the top trembled with her palms, and dropped the cup to the ground without holding it firmly.
"Say it again?" she said with a pale face.
"Queen, this slave has just received the news!"
"The Eight-Power Allied Fleet was defeated by the pseudo-Ming fleet near Taiwan!"
"I heard that not even half of the warships escaped!" Li Hongzhang said.
"What should we do?" Yehenala, the future Cixi, looked panicked.
"ah……!"
In the back room, Emperor Xianfeng, who had just fallen asleep and was awakened by the sound of a cup falling to the ground, also heard Li Hongzhang's memorial.
He was already on the verge of death. When he suddenly heard the bad news, he sat up from the bed suddenly.
"Even if I die, how can I have the face to meet my ancestors of the Qing Dynasty!"
"Pfft!" After shouting these words, the enraged Emperor Xianfeng spurted out a mouthful of old blood.
When Yehenara outside heard the commotion inside, he didn't care about anything else and ran inside in a panic.
When she ran into the back room, the scene she saw was Emperor Xianfeng lying on the bed with his eyes open, completely lifeless.
After all, Yehenara at this moment is not the Empress Dowager Cixi who will hold great power twenty years later.
Now she is just a concubine favored by Emperor Xianfeng. If he hadn't given birth to the eldest son of Emperor Xianfeng three years ago, who was later Emperor Tongzhi, she would probably not even be close to Emperor Xianfeng at this time.
.
"What should I do?"
"What should we do?" Yehenala was completely panicked at this moment. She wanted to close Emperor Xianfeng's eyes with trembling hands, but she didn't dare to come close.
"Queen, Your Majesty is dead. The plan for now is to establish a new king as soon as possible to stabilize the situation of the court!"
"In addition, we must summon the envoys from Tsarist Russia as soon as possible, agree to all their conditions immediately, and allow Tsarist Russian soldiers to enter the customs as soon as possible."
"Otherwise, if we wait for the puppet Ming Dynasty to attack Peking City, someone will open the city and surrender before we can resist!"
Li Hongzhang couldn't care about anything else at this moment, and followed Yehenara into the inner room. When he saw Xianfeng's appearance, his pupils couldn't help but shrink, and he immediately realized that this would be an excellent opportunity for him.
An opportunity to completely grasp the power of the Qing Dynasty.
Now, with the fleet of the Eight-Nation Allied Forces at sea being wiped out, the maritime advantage has been completely lost, and the situation has become completely clear.
It was basically impossible for the Qing Dynasty to rely on itself to protect the territory within the pass. The puppet Ming Dynasty was powerful, and without the foreign navy harassing the coast, they could not confront it head-on.
Then there is only one way left.
Introducing Tsarist Russia into the country.
He has been negotiating with people from Tsarist Russia these days, and has also asked Emperor Xianfeng for instructions.
The two sides have conducted several rounds of negotiations, and the situation has been in a stalemate.
Tsarist Russia wants a lot.
If you want them to enter the military pass and resist the false Ming Dynasty, you must cede the Ili region of Xinjiang and a large area of land north of the Ussuri River.
Moreover, the Qing Dynasty also promised to lease the ice-free port of Qingdao to Tsarist Russia for a hundred years.
These conditions made Emperor Xianfeng very heartbroken and he did not relent after several rounds of negotiations.
After all, they actually had hope before.
If the Eight-Nation Allied Forces fleet can annihilate the Puppet Ming fleet in one fell swoop, then they only need to defend Beiping City for a period of time. The Puppet Ming Dynasty's home base is threatened by the foreign navy and is highly likely to retreat.
At that time, there will naturally be no need to bow to Tsarist Russia.
But now that the foreign combined naval fleet was destroyed, the last hope of the Manchu Qing Dynasty was suddenly shattered.
If Tsarist Russia did not help, the Qing Dynasty might not even have room to struggle, and would be directly destroyed by the false Ming Dynasty.
By that time, not only the territory, but also survival will be a problem.
Emperor Xianfeng saw this very clearly, and Li Hongzhang naturally understood it too.
"The two things you mentioned are naturally urgent."
"But my prince is still young. If he succeeds to the throne, I'm afraid his uncles will have different opinions!"
"And if I can't inherit the throne of emperor, in what capacity can I negotiate with the envoys of Tsarist Russia?" Yehenara was indeed shrewd and quickly grasped the most important thing to him now.
The eldest son of the emperor is only three years old, and several princes still hold great power. Now that Emperor Xianfeng has recently died, in such a chaotic situation, how to ensure that the crown prince successfully ascends the throne and becomes emperor is the Yehenala family's greatest concern.
.
Because the Crown Prince's interests are actually her interests.
Only when the crown prince successfully ascends the throne and proclaims himself emperor can she have the opportunity to evolve from Yehenara to the Empress Dowager Cixi who listens to politics behind the curtain.
"The slave is willing to do the hard work of the dog and horse!"
"If Your Majesty has a legacy, I will risk my life to fulfill it for Your Majesty." Li Hongzhang said with a solemn tone.
Yehenara raised his head and looked at Li Hongzhang.
In fact, after Emperor Xianfeng's condition worsened, she began to flirt with Li Hongzhang.
Of course, it's not that there is any adultery between the two, but that both of them are willing to make each other their political allies.
As a queen, what Yehenara needed most was for Aixinjueluo Zaichun, who was still the eldest son of the emperor, to legitimately inherit the throne after the death of Emperor Xianfeng.
And this requires the help of important ministers from outside the court.
What Li Hongzhang wants is that there is only one voice in the city of Beiping under the current chaotic situation, and the most important thing is that it is best for him to make that voice.
And this also requires the full help of the imperial power in the inner court.
It just so happened that both of them had the cards that the other party needed most.
Then it is very logical to join forces with each other.
Li Hongzhang acted quickly. He first kept the news of Emperor Xianfeng's death secret, and then transferred the Huai army to Beijing on Emperor Xianfeng's order.
After everything was ready, he directly killed several powerful princes for treason.
It was only then that the news of Emperor Xianfeng's death was spread, and the emperor's eldest son was enthroned as emperor. At the same time, the queen mothers of the two palaces were invited to listen to the affairs behind the curtain and have an overview of the court situation.
This set of operations was completed in just two days, so fast that everyone was overwhelmed.
By the time the ministers in the court reacted and wanted to do something, the overall situation had been decided and nothing could be changed.
By this time, even if some people have other thoughts, they can only suppress them in their hearts.
Two days later, the Ming army, a hundred miles away, finally received the news of Emperor Xianfeng's death. However, by this time, the city of Beiping had changed its owner and still maintained the most basic stability.
There is no point in trying to make a fuss about this matter anymore.
"He is decisive in dealing with things and never shows mercy when he kills people."
"It seems that Li Hongzhang and the Empress Dowager Cixi are both masters of political struggle!" Zhu Yuanzhang couldn't help but admired when he heard what Jin Yiwei had learned about the whole matter.
"It's a pity that if we could have received the news two days earlier, maybe Peking would have been destroyed by now!" Zhu Yuanzhang said.
"This subordinate is incompetent!" Mao Xiang hurriedly knelt on the ground to apologize.
"Get up!"
"It's not your fault!"
Zhu Yuanzhang stood up with his hands behind his back and said solemnly: "It's just another battle."
"To be honest, we are now starting to look forward to how these two political masters will deal with our army of hundreds of thousands."