On his deathbed, Prince Yixin of Liuye Gong left important instructions to Guangxu. ?It is a big mistake to gather the iron cast of Jiuzhou and weng Tonghe cannot be reused? Prince Gong Yixin was one of the most influential figures in the late Manchu Qing Dynasty. Even the Empress Dowager Cixi relied on him.
Prince Gong Yixin rarely interfered in the political affairs between the Empress Dowager Cixi and Emperor Guangxu's mother and son. However, as for matters in the court, as long as Prince Gong spoke up, the court would definitely comply. It can be said that the death of Prince Gong was also the end of Weng Tonghe's career. Weng Tonghe and Li Hongzhang represent the Qing school and the pragmatic school respectively
Weng Tonghe is a great scholar, but in his heart he is still an intellectual who regards himself as noble. Looking through the history of the Qing Dynasty, even if we refer to the TV series "Going to Peace", Weng Tonghe in the movie has always regarded himself as a Qing Dynasty school. Although he is also very honest as an official, it is this kind of excessive flaunting of a noble character that often lays the foundation for huge career crises. For example, when Cixi was building the Summer Palace, a businessman wanted to contract the lumber project, but he asked Weng Tonghe many times to no avail. The businessman came up with a plan and found out Weng Tonghe's calligraphy preference, so he compiled Weng's calligraphy into a book and gave it to Weng Tonghe. Weng Tonghe was moved when he saw it, and he vaguely agreed.
Li Hongzhang is completely different from Weng Tonghe. Li Hongzhang was a pragmatist. In order to prepare military pay for the Beiyang Navy, the imperial court had been delaying the payment and diverted it to the construction of the Summer Palace. Li Hongzhang was extremely anxious and hurriedly took 1,000 taels of silver notes to Li Lianying to help clear the matter. Li Lianying did not accept it and gave Li Hongzhang a close-up in the TV series. Li Hongzhang clutched the banknotes tightly, wanting to get rid of these eunuchs and then be happy, but because the Manchu Qing Dynasty was too corrupt at this time, he had no choice but to do anything. Weng Tonghe is an imperial party member, and Li Hongzhang is a rear party member
Weng Tonghe is the teacher of Emperor Guangxu, and he hopes that Emperor Guangxu can take charge of the government and stabilize the country. Therefore, all the actions of Weng Tonghe must be to achieve the purpose of helping Emperor Guangxu to his position. Although Weng Tonghe also has his own selfish motives, he is an old minister of Conglong after all. Once Guangxu returns to the throne, Weng Tonghe can achieve true power in the government and the public. . However, Emperor Guangxu really had no chance of making a comeback, and the entire imperial party headed by Weng Tonghe was just a dream of the Spring and Autumn Period.
There is no dispute that Li Hongzhang is a rear party member. Because this is a mark of history. As early as the era of Zeng Guofan and Zuo Zongtang, Zeng Guofan's faction belonged to the team of the Western Empress Dowager Cixi, and Li Hongzhang was the later leader of Zeng Guofan's faction. Therefore, there is no doubt that Li Hongzhang was a post-party representative of Cixi's faction.
In the late Manchu Qing Dynasty, under the government that was completely controlled by Cixi, Weng Tonghe's imperial party had no chance of turning around. Weng Tonghe's political strategy is far inferior to that of Li Hongzhang
The debate in the court about the pay issue of the Beiyang Navy was enough to show that Weng Tonghe was really a pedantic conservative. He actually believed that foreign guns and cannons were Western. People's eccentric and skillful skills are completely for the purpose of achieving their own power struggle, regardless of the safety of the country and the country.
Throughout Weng Tonghe's life, although he tried his best to assist Emperor Guangxu, in the final analysis he never made a single constructive suggestion for Emperor Guangxu, and it did not have the effect of sharing the emperor's worries at all. It can be said that Weng Tonghe was A useless and backward pedantic scholar, apart from sacrificing his integrity to the country, he cannot achieve the purpose of being useful in the world. Therefore, after he was dismissed from office, he met Emperor Guangxu by chance. Emperor Guangxu walked in front of him coldly, completely ignoring the relationship between teacher and student, which also shows that Guangxu was already disheartened by him.