The two palace empresses dowager

After the Xin You coup in the year of Xin You, the new emperor Zai Chun ascended the throne. Empress Dowager Ci An and Empress Dowager Ci Xi began to rule from behind the curtain. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom peasant revolution made the royal family, who had just returned to the capital, extremely uneasy. Empress Dowager Ci Xi resolutely overcame objections and decisively appointed the Han minister Zeng Guofan to suppress the rebel army. Since then, she became more arrogant and gradually controlled the entire court, step by step selling out the country for personal gain while continuously consolidating her own power. Emperor Tongzhi contracted smallpox and died at the young age of 19. The cunning Empress Dowager Ci Xi then used several poison plots to kill Empress Dowager Dong Ci An and Empress Tongzhi. Finally, in the Yangxin Palace, another even younger emperor took the dragon throne, and Empress Dowager Ci Xi began her second reign behind the curtain.