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. When his family received this message they commanded their
servants to dig a great pit in their own court in which they all
lay and ordered the coolies to bury them. This they at first
refused to do, but they were finally prevailed upon, and thus
perished all the male members of her father's household except
one child that was rescued and carried away by a faithful nurse.
When Tung Chih died there was a formidable party in the palace
opposed to the two dowagers, anxious to oust them and their party
and place upon the throne a dissolute son of Prince Kung. But it
would require a master mind from the outside to learn of the
death of her son and select and proclaim a successor quicker than
the Empress Dowager herself could do so from the inside. She
first sent a secret messenger to Li Hung-chang whom she had
appointed viceroy of the metropolitan province at Tientsin eighty
miles away, informing him of the illness of her son and urging
him to come to Peking with his troops post-haste and be ready to
prevent any disturbance in case of his death and the announcement
of a successor.
When Li Hung-chang received her orders, he began at once to put
them into execution. Taking with him four thousand of his most
reliable Anhui men, all well-armed horse, foot and artillery, he
made a secret forced march to Peking. The distance of eighty
miles was covered in thirty-six hours and he planned to arrive at
midnight
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