Xianfeng was forced to flee from Beijing. After the situation stabilized, why did he never return to the Forbidden City?
Because of this, the British-French Coalition forces are Xianfeng's lingering nightmare. After Xianfeng fled, he made Prince Gong play. Stay in Beijing and deal with the British and French powers. Emperor Xianfeng, who has just fled, has plans to return to Beijing. Is he replying? Regarding the memorial, Xianfeng replied: "Once the memorial is completed, we should step up our relaxation in order to return to the funeral, so be careful!" Secret! "
It means that Prince Gong wants to reach a settlement with the powers quickly, and then Xianfeng said, "It's not cold at this time. If the barbarian can leave early, I can go back to the funeral to appease people. " We know that Emperor Xianfeng is in poor health and is a typical sick seedling. When he first arrived in Jehol, he certainly felt a little uncomfortable. He still wants to return to the Forbidden City before winter comes. After all, if he is on the road or in Jehol in winter, his living conditions will be much worse.
Later, Xianfeng said, "As long as the foreign soldiers retreat and don't commit any more crimes, we can go back." It can be seen that Xianfeng's mood of returning to the Forbidden City is still urgent, but the main reason for his delay is that two of these three sentences hope that the barbarians can leave early, which shows that Emperor Xianfeng is actually very afraid of foreigners.
Why is Emperor Xianfeng so afraid of foreigners? This has to be said that the outbreak of the second opium war. 1858 In the first battle of Dagukou, the Qing government failed and signed the Tianjin Treaty with other countries, but later Emperor Xianfeng was dissatisfied with the terms and wanted to change the treaty, but Britain and France did not meet the interests obtained in the Tianjin Treaty, so the second stage broke out.
1860, the British and French allied forces tried to enter Beijing again on the grounds of changing the contract. As a result, during the negotiation, the Qing court actually robbed the British negotiator's division, tortured and killed many people, gave the British and French allied forces an excuse, and finally retaliated by burning and looting in Beijing and looting Yuanmingyuan.
It can be seen from this incident that Xianfeng has a shadow on foreigners, which is why foreigners will not return to Beijing as long as they don't completely quit.