Cixi's Coup.

The death of Emperor Xianfeng on August 22, 1861, led to a bitter power struggle over who should rule until his successor, his five-year-old son Tongzhi, had reached maturity. The group that was led by imperial adviser Sushun moved first. Sushun, a Manchu aristocrat, rose quickly under the Xianfeng emperor. After the British and the French negotiated the Treaty of Tientsin (now Tianjin) in 1858, which gave the two Western powers further concessions in China, Sushun and his allies, Prince Zaiyuan and Prince Duanhua, counseled the emperor against signing the treaty. When Great Britain and France sent an expeditionary force that fought its way toward Beijing in September, 1860, Sushun preferred military resistance. Defeated in battle on September 21, Sushun and his allies escorted the Xianfeng emperor from Beijing to the Rehe Traveling Palace in Jehol (now Chengde) in Manchuria.