Chapter 125: Empress Dowager Cixi

【Part Two: Empress Dowager Cixi's "Four Cardinal Sins"】

First sin: unchecked extravagance, embezzling military funds.

Cixi, to celebrate her 60th birthday, diverted 30 million taels of naval funds to renovate Yihe Garden.

This left the Beiyang Fleet without money to upgrade equipment; in the First Sino-Japanese War, the shells were mixed with sand, and the entire fleet was annihilated.

Netizens comment: "One meal devours a warship." She had 108 dishes in one meal, used 40 fresh towels for a bath, and even while fleeing to Xi'an demanded local officials present bird's nest and shark's fin.

On the sky screen, an extravagantly lavish scene of Yihe Garden's construction is shown, starkly contrasted with the side label "30 million taels of naval funds."

Next appear the rust‑spattered Beiyang Fleet warships, their shells opened to reveal sand.

In the First Sino-Japanese War, the Beiyang fleet sank under the enemy's fierce cannon fire, its soldiers' blood staining the Yellow Sea.

The scene shifts to Cixi dining, with 108 delicacies displayed; when she bathes, dozens of brand‑new towels are used once and discarded.

Even as the Eight‑Nation Alliance entered Beijing, officials across the land continued to procure bird's nest, shark's fin and other rarities for her while she fled west in haste.

"Diverting 30 million taels of naval funds… to build a garden… for a birthday…"

Ying Zheng looked at those numbers and images and found them utterly absurd.

He built the Great Wall, roads, and tombs; though costly, they all served national defense, transportation, and rites.

This Cixi, for a single birthday, diverted naval funds meant to protect the nation to construct a pleasure garden?

Resulting in a navy without funds to upgrade, shells mixed with sand, and ultimately total annihilation?

"Witch! Poisonous woman!!"

Ying Zheng could no longer hold back and shouted in anger.

"Military funds are the nation's lifeblood, the shield of the state; how can they be misused for personal pleasure?!"

"Thirty million taels… enough to forge an invincible fleet, yet she used them to build a garden for a birthday?!"

"Such conduct is no different from aiding the enemy, no different from murdering frontline soldiers?!"

"One meal devours a warship…"

Liu Bang was truly astonished this time.

"108 dishes? Forty towels for a bath? Even while fleeing, she demands bird's nest and shark's fin? This damn is a dowager? Is she a reincarnated glutton?"

"No, even the mythic glutton can't match her! Naval soldiers fight desperately at sea, she lounges in the palace, even consumes the troops' funds? She's not a human, but a beast!"

Liu Che, furious, slammed his table and rose: "The troops ahead bleed and fight, while the witch queen misappropriates funds in the rear, extravagant beyond measure! This is not a sign of ruin, what is a sign of ruin?!"

"The First Sino-Japanese War… total annihilation… they used the soldiers' blood to stain her birthday feast! Detestable! Worth killing!"

Li Shimin watched with his eyes tearing, "The warning from Emperor Yang of Sui is still before us, and yet… this Cixi's extravagance is even greater, and she is even more short‑sighted and foolish!"

"The navy is a cornerstone of national defense, yet she treats it as child's play! Shells mixed with sand… this is not a natural disaster but a man‑made tragedy, a human calamity brewed by that witch queen!"

"What crime have the soldiers committed? What crime has the nation committed?!"

Wei Zheng's old tears streamed, and he could not bow properly before the sunken warships and fallen soldiers on the sky screen.

"Loyal souls weep blood, treacherous flutes play, such a court—how long before it perishes?!"

"Your Majesty! Let future generations learn from this blood‑stained lesson; a ruler must prioritize state affairs and care for the military and people, and must never follow the ways of this ruinous witch queen."

Cheng Yaojin, the rough‑manned man, now had reddened eyes and shouted profanities.

"Damn it! If I were a Beiyang Fleet soldier, I wouldn't wait for the Japanese to arrive; I'd swivel the cannons and bomb that old witch's Yihe Garden!"

"Brothers die on the front lines, not even a good shell, while she feasts behind, using the money they risked their lives for to build a garden? Bah! Worse than pigs and dogs!"

Zhu Yuanzhang was utterly enraged.

He suddenly drew his treasured sword, cleaving the imperial desk before him in two, and roared:

"Did you see that? Let's make it crystal clear, this is the disaster‑bringing witch queen, using the soldiers' life‑risking money to celebrate her birthday and build a garden!"

"Why doesn't she build her own tomb in the sea for the soldiers to step on?! She must die! Her skin stripped! Her clan exterminated! No, wiping out a hundred families still wouldn't satisfy the hatred!!"

Empress Ma also wept, shaking her head repeatedly.

During the Yongle era.

(The Yongle Emperor) Zhu Di's eyes burned red; he seemed to see Zheng He's massive fleet of voyages, and the thought of future generations squandering it pained him deeply!

"The fleet… the nation's sharp blade, destroyed by the hand of a woman! This crime is beyond description!"

Qing dynasty, during the Kangxi era.

Xuan Ye stared at the "30 million taels diverted from naval funds," at the Beiyang Fleet's tragic defeat, at Cixi's extravagance, and felt a chill surge from his feet to his head, his vision darkening.

Thirty million taels… navy… defeat at the First Sino-Japanese War!

All this was a loss and humiliation he could not imagine, all because of a dowager's birthday?

"Witch… witch queen!!"

Xuan Ye pointed at the sky screen, his finger trembling, his voice hoarse.

"Our Great Qing… our iron‑cavalry empire, the strong fleet—how could such a foolish woman doom them?!"

"Our ancestors above, Xuan Ye is unfilial; future generations have produced such a ruin‑bringing witch queen!"

The princes and ministers present all wore ashen faces, trembling with fear.

Cixi's destructive power was even scarier than all previous tyrants combined!

She was not merely squandering; she was systematically, from top to bottom, destroying every foundation of the nation!

【Second sin: Loss of power, national humiliation, signing a slave contract.】

Operation: Cixi once blustered to attack eleven nations, and was forced to sign the Treaty of Shimonoseki (2 billion indemnity, ceding Taiwan), the Treaty of 1901 (4.5 billion indemnity, total loss of sovereignty) and dozens of other unequal treaties.

Netizens comment: "Treaty printer." Whenever the great powers came, her first reaction was always "sign."

On the sky screen, humiliating treaty texts were flipped through quickly: the Treaty of Shimonoseki, the Treaty of 1901…

The indemnities were staggering, the ceded territories shocking (Taiwan, Liaodong, etc.), and the lost‑sovereignty clauses were countless.

Next to it an animation of a "treaty printer" played, as if Cixi were merely a machine that only signs and stamps.

"Treaty of Shimonoseki"… indemnity two hundred million taels… cede Taiwan…

"Treaty of Xinchou"… indemnity four hundred fifty million taels… sovereignty completely lost…

"Dozens of unequal treaties… Treaty Printer…"

The emperors of the various dynasties, especially those bold founders and rulers of golden ages, upon seeing these numbers and clauses, felt a surge of hot blood rushing to the crown of their heads, their fury nearly breaking through the celestial dome.

Two hundred million taels? Four hundred fifty million taels?!

Ying Zheng sprang to his feet, his eyes filled with incredulous rage and ice‑cold murderous intent.

"With a sweep of the Six Directions, what wealth have I obtained? How dare she so easily hand over the blood and sweat of countless common folk to the barbarians?!"

"To still cede territory, Taiwan? What a realm, discarded like a worn shoe; this scoundrel should be torn limb from limb, yet even that would scarcely atone for his crime!"

"Printer? Signing? She does sign it smoothly!"

Liu Bang this time could not laugh either; his complexion turned iron‑blue.

"Is this damn thing treating the nation like a pawnshop? Or the kind of endless, unsecured, usurious loan?"

"Paying so much, ceding so much land, has the Great Qing struck a gold mine?"

"Oh, no, it's that old woman who treated the nation as a gold mine, digging it out to give to the foreigners!"

Liu Che, his hair bristling with anger, swung a sword and cleaved the bronze crane beside him in two.

"An unprecedented, extraordinary humiliation! Never before in history has such a shame been witnessed!!"

"Indemnities in the tens of millions, cessions of thousands of li, sovereignty entirely lost—this is no longer treason, but kneeling in supplication, offering the Huaxia divine lands with both hands to the foreign barbarians for slaughter."

"Empress Dowager Cixi should be torn into ten thousand pieces, her bones crushed to ash, yet even that could not erase this hatred."

Li Shimin watched, his whole body trembling, a mouthful of fresh blood rising to his throat, which he forced back down.

"The Wei River Alliance, I take as the shame of my life, yet it was but a modest amount of gold and silk."

"This… this casually demanding tens of millions of taels in indemnity, ceding ancestral lands, relinquishing the nation's supreme authority… this is not disgrace, but a calamity that brings about the ruin of the state and extinction of the lineage!"

"This witch queen is digging Huaxia's own grave with her own hands! The 'Treaty Printer'? What she prints is not a treaty, but Huaxia's contract of servitude, a verdict of national ruin."

Wei Zheng let out a long howl, tears and voice mingling: "Your Majesty! I… I hate that I was not born in this era, that with this boiling blood I could spray the witch queen's face, asking whether she still retains any shred of modesty, any fragment of humanity?!"

"Signing like this is no different from binding the people of the world and sending them into the tiger's mouth!"

"The name 'Printer'—how precise, how tragic!"

"Later Huaxia has fallen to the point where a single old woman signs and seals, allowing others to carve it up!"

Cheng Yaojin, this rough man, at this moment only feels a surge of grief and anger blocked in his chest.

He, eyes reddened, roared: "Paying so much money, ceding so much land, this old witch, how dare she?!"

"If I were a man of that time, I'd stake my life and march to the capital to execute her!"