How did Regent Zai Feng spend his miserable three years in prison?

At the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China and the end of national subjugation, the Qing Dynasty produced a regent with high status, one was the famous Dourgen, and the other was Zai Feng, the biological father of the last emperor Puyi. These two people are quite similar. They are all regents, and they are all "regents of the emperor's father", but one is a false father and the other is a true father. But the end of life is very different: one was destroyed by the emperor, and the other was forced to step down by the powerful revolutionary, but basically spent the rest of his life safely. Here is a brief introduction to the painful days when Zai Feng, the last regent of the Qing Dynasty, supervised the country for three years.

Zai Feng is the fifth son of Aisingiorro Yi Xuan, the prince of alcohol, the grandson of Daoguang, the half-brother of Emperor Guangxu, the biological father of Emperor Puyi of Xuan Tong and, more importantly, the nephew of Cixi. As a distinguished royal family, Zai Feng went to Germany on behalf of the Qing government at the age of 19, and gloriously completed the task of "apologizing" to Germany. At the age of 20, he was appointed as an accompanying minister. At the age of 24, she was awarded the military training by Cixi and began to enter the core leadership circle of the Qing Dynasty. 1908, 25-year-old Zai Feng was appointed Minister of Military Affairs. 165438+ 10, Guangxu and Cixi were both critically ill.

Cixi summoned military ministers Zai Feng, Zhang Zhidong and Xu Shi to discuss the issue of heirs, and decided to make Puyi, a three-year-old emperor, and Zai Feng, Puyi's biological father, as regent. After the death of Cixi, Zai Feng came to power. In order to rectify the Chaogang and strengthen the centralization of the royal family, he began to want to bully Yi Kuang, the prince of the Qing Dynasty, but he felt insecure, so he turned his attention to the cunning Yuan Shikai.

In fact, since Cixi and Guangxu died and Zai Feng came to power, Yuan Shikai had a premonition that his situation was in jeopardy. However, Yuan Shikai, a wily man, knew that the new army he controlled was his effective amulet, so he quickly secretly sent someone to Baoding to help the court quell the mutiny in Nanyuan, Beijing, and transferred Duan to Beijing. On the other hand, he claimed that he had a foot disease and could not go to the director of the military department and the foreign affairs department. Through such careful arrangements, Yuan Shikai quietly avoided the edge of Zai Feng and turned the corner after hiding at home for a few days. Because Duan quickly arrived at the army, and this is an elite division with guns and guns. When he was stationed near Beijing, he fired several shots at the south of the city if something happened. At this point, I understand that Duan came here to support Yuan Shikai, so I had to give up the idea of killing Yuan Shikai.

When Yuan Shikai saw that the time was ripe, he immediately presented the throne of "Resigning from all posts due to foot disease" to the court, requesting permission to return to his hometown for illness. Zai Feng saw that Yuan Shikai had stepped down the stairs for himself, so he had to give up the plan to assassinate Yuan Shikai, and conveniently let Yuan Shikai reign, relieved him of all his duties.

When Yuan Shikai left the imperial court, the Manchu royal family and the pro-expensive group headed by Zai Feng completely controlled the situation of the central government. All political affairs are decided by Zai Feng, but Zai Feng, who seemed to win and take power, didn't actually win. He has had a hard time these two years. Because Zai Feng seems to control the central power, but at this time, all localities, especially the new army trained by Yuan Shikai, are not interested in Zai Feng. In the second year of Xuantong (19 10), Zai Feng was almost assassinated by revolutionary Wang Jingwei and others.

In the third year of Xuantong (19 1 1), on October 10th, revolutionaries launched an uprising in Wuchang, and a stone stirred up a thousand waves, which quickly spread to the whole country. Seeing the collapse of the Qing Dynasty, Zai Feng tried to mobilize new troops to suppress the revolutionary party, but his orders had no effect. Finally, weighing the pros and cons, I had to re-enable Yuan Shikai, who was watching jokes at home. At first, Zai Feng imagined that Yuan Shikai could be mobilized by giving him a governor of Huguang, but Yuan Shikai, who had seen through the crisis situation in Qing Dynasty, could not miss this great opportunity. After receiving the urgent imperial edict from the imperial court, he refused to accept his life on the grounds that his foot injury had not healed. Yuan Shikai held his ground, and the revolutionary party pressed hard step by step, which caused contradictions within the royal family of the Qing Dynasty, especially the exposure of the scam of "preparing for constitutionalism", which made the Manchu government fall into an unprecedented isolation.

1 1 month 1 day, unable to return to heaven, Zai Feng was forced to announce the dissolution of the royal cabinet, appointed Yuan Shikai as the Prime Minister of the Cabinet, and handed over all military and political power of the Manchu Dynasty to Yuan Shikai. When Yuan Shikai saw that his goal was achieved, he immediately sent troops to kill Wuhan and recaptured Hankou in one fell swoop.

Zai Feng, who stepped down, retired to his mansion in the name of Prince Alcohol, bid farewell to his short and difficult three years as a national regent, and completely withdrew from the historical stage. Soon, under the control of Yuan Shikai, Queen Jade Dragon and Little Emperor Puyi announced their abdication, officially announcing the demise of the Qing Dynasty.