Change in the Middle Kingdom
Change in the Middle Kingdom
Li Hongzhang’s arrival outside of Beijing on October 16th threw the Qing into turmoil. Sushun, who had ruled since the Xinyou Coup, had not taken to the stresses of national leadership well and was willing to step down after the humiliation of the Manchuria War. Unable to agree upon a successor before Li Hongzhang’s arrival, the Qing government fell to infighting and recriminations as the city’s garrison was ordered to prepare for a siege. The Beijing garrison, not willing to throw their lives away, steadfastly refused and mutinied. The Qing government, aside from a handful who managed to escape to the loyalists in the Forbidden City, was captured and turned over to Li Hongzhang.
Li Hongzhang was at a loss at what to do. Blinded by fear and rage, he had neglected to plan on what to do after he succeeded. Nonetheless, he had come too far and the fate of the Qing government was in his hands. He marched on the Forbidden City and demanded to meet the Tongzhi Emperor. The young Emperor, whose attempts to be politically active had regularly been stifled by Sushun, readily agreed. Wanting to ensure Li Hongzhang never forgot his status, the Emperor officially invited his counterpart to meet him inside the Forbidden City.
The meeting between Li Hongzhang and the Emperor went smoothly. Much to Li Hongzhang’s surprise, the young Emperor was determined and willing to work with him. Appealing to Li Hongzhang’s patriotism and claiming that overthrowing the Qing dynasty would plunge China into chaos, the Emperor was able to convince him to instead form an alliance between the two. The Tongzhi Emperor would be allowed to run his empire how he saw fit while Li Hongzhang would be appointed to the new position of Prime Minister. The Grand Council would be dissolved and numerous officials purged in a move to secure power. In a risky move designed to show goodwill, the Tongzhi Emperor offered Li Hongzhang the ability to remain in charge of the Beiyang Army.
The Tongzhi Emperor was heavily inspired by the exploits of Kings Munjo and Heonjong and how they managed to drag Korea into the modern era over the resistance of a reactionary bureaucracy. He saw a compatriot in Li Hongzhang, who had worked to reform the armies under his command, and believed that by working together the two of them could overcome the deep conservatism of China and affect a true revitalization of the Middle Kingdom. Li Hongzhang, for his part, believed the Tongzhi Emperor was an inexperienced and naive, if passionate, counterpart who would need to mature before he could be considered a worthy leader. He took it upon himself to tutor the Emperor in politics so that he could one day become a competent Emperor.
The Beiyang Duumvirate, so-named due to their rise to power on the backs of the Beiyang Army, sought to outmaneuver their political opponents by securing the support of the military. In particular Zuo Zongtang, a key general in suppressing the Taiping Rebellion who had recently managed to drive the Russians from Xinjiang and secure the Empire’s western flank, was brought on board by placing him in charge of the newly-established Ministry for Agriculture and agreeing to his demands for Xinjiang to be transformed into a province. With the previous government either dead or exiled and the most influential military leaders in China supporting the new one, the rest of China fell behind the new regime.
Beijing prepared for a massive project of reform. The cracking dynasty, overseeing a vast, corrupt, and simmering empire, was straddling a cliff’s edge that required the utmost effort to recover from. The Tongzhi Emperor, in a moment of brutally honest introspection, clearly stated this in an imperial address to all corners of his empire. He called on the people to give the new government time to enact reforms, promising famine relief and the restoration of order to the provinces. While the people would appreciate the candid assessment of the Empire, the promises were not taken seriously.
The first action taken by the new government was to help deal with the aftereffects of the famine in northern China, as well as the devastation caused by the recent warfare in the south. In Zhili province, members of the Beiyang Army, which had shrunk to 40,000 soldiers, moved to secure food supplies and redistribute them to the lower classes in an effort to secure their support. The bureaucracy also saw a long-overdue expansion to match the expansion in population, as well as a significant modernization. Outdated exams such as the military examination were abolished while exams based on Western technology were added.
Limited attempts at land reform were also made. Bureaucrats were dispatched to the countryside and sought to determine if any lands sold in the past two years had been done so under duress. Due to the recent famine, thousands of families were able to regain their land, although the efforts greatly alienated the aristocracy. Land redistribution efforts would end in 1883 as aristocratic forces bubbled with anger and the discovery that many of the bureaucrats in charge of the programme had taken bribes to keep the status quo. The Qing would respond by beginning a purge of the bureaucracy, replacing them with lowborn candidates to maximize loyalty to the government.
Unfortunately for most of China, these reforms would mainly be limited to Zhili and Shanxi province. The Qing, wary of overextending themselves, sought to consolidate a strong base of support before seeking to completely upend the political system of millennia. Nonetheless, reforms such as the reconstruction of the devastated famine-relief system and the expansion of the bureaucracy was spread throughout China in an attempt to head off further unrest. The Qing would face mixed results as budgetary issues and corruption continued to plague the system. Local governors would often utilize the expansion as an opportunity to claim a massively expanding local workforce while barely accepting any new candidates. The Qing would attempt to crack down on this with brutality, with those found guilty of embezzlement executed and their family members expelled from governmental positions if they were lucky. In one particularly gruesome incident, Qing soldiers left the corpse of the magistrate of Xian tied to a pole in the middle of the market overnight, his skin flayed off and decapitated. From a nearby building his head was on display in a cage, eyes gouged out, lips sliced off, and genitalia stuffed in his mouth. Although the body was removed by midday, the head remained for a full week before finally being carted off.
By 1885, the new regime had managed to significantly stabilize its position in the north and could rely on an increasing number of loyal administrators in the south. Still, not all was clear for the Qing. Despite attempts to crack down on corruption, rebuild the peasantry, and to expand the bureaucracy, taxation was still insufficient to fulfill the increased expenses of the government. Reparations forced on the Qing by foreign powers also took their toll, with some 4 million taels leaving the country in 1880 alone. Tariffs could not be relied upon, as the Western powers had ensured that China was hamstrung in that regard by treaties. Until a proper reform to the tax code could be undertaken, or control over trade regained, the Qing would be forced to rely on loans from merchants to make good their shortfall.
Han mistrust of the Manchu Qing dynasty also proved to be a significant hurdle for the Qing to overcome. While Li Hongzhang’s inclusion in the ruling duo won over many, as did Zuo Zongtang’s support of the government, the fact remained that the Qing themselves were Manchu, not Han. Attempting to overcome this, and perhaps wanting to push back against his training in how to be a “proper Emperor”, the Tongzhi Emperor filled his court with Han advisors, prioritizing them over Manchu ones. In particular, he would make sure that military positions in and around the capital would be staffed by Han rather than Manchu officers. He would also officially open Manchuria to non-Manchu settlement, prompting a land rush, and abolish the requirement that non-Manchu men wear their hair in a queue. While these actions would do much to ingratiate him with the Han peoples, it infuriated his Manchu compatriots, resulting in a failed assassination attempt in 1884.
The response to this was swift, as the Tongzhi Emperor ordered the execution of all involved in the plot. In Beijing, a riot against Manchu inhabitants of the city slaughtered thousands before the army could halt the violence. In the riot’s aftermath, the Tongzhi Emperor appeared before a crowd of the people of Beijing and hailed them for their actions. In a move that surprised all, he formally renounced his Manchu heritage and proclaimed himself as Han. The guards shot glances at each other as the crowd roared in approval and the Tongzhi Emperor smiled.
Li Hongzhang was absolutely appalled when he heard about the incident in Beijing. He had spent most of his time outside of the city, taking a more hands-on approach to affairs and content with leaving the capital to the young Emperor. Nonetheless, the actions the Emperor took were dangerously erratic and inflammatory. He hurried back to Beijing and spent several weeks in council with the Emperor, encouraging him to take a less chaotic path. Instead, Li Hongzhang awoke one morning to a report from one of the guards that the Emperor had snuck into the city overnight and had spent time admiring practitioners of the world’s oldest profession.
The very next day Li Hongzhang departed Beijing, never to return to the city for the rest of his life.
The rise of the Beiyang Duumvirate would also see the military wield increased importance in China. Both the Tongzhi Emperor and Li Hongzhang relied on the Beiyang Army to uphold their rule, with attempts to expand their effective control including significant efforts to create loyal armies that would serve the Duumvirate above any local figures. After the attempted assassination of the Tongzhi Emperor, China would create a Westernized bodyguard unit modeled after the Swiss Guard. Due to the Tongzhi Emperor’s growing estrangement with the Manchu part of his empire, the Protectors of the Mandate would be composed entirely of Han.
The rising officer class was not completely loyal to the Tongzhi Emperor, however. Their loyalty was first and foremost to Li Hongzhang as someone who had proven themselves in service to China, not some foreign brat pretending at the Mandate of Heaven. The Tongzhi Emperor’s increasingly manic behavior caused concern in the ranks, as the new officers feared that as quickly as he had thrown the Manchu to the wolves he would turn on them. The seeming lack of rationality behind his decisions also disturbed them, striking them as the actions of a child rather than an Emperor. While Li Hongzhang’s continued support for the Emperor would cause them to continue supporting the Qing, discontent brewed just beneath the surface.
