What do you think of Xianfeng and Cixi's choice to escape in the face of a powerful enemy?

Personally, I am very disdainful of their behavior. You say that you, a national leader, are so cowardly and devoid of dignity that you even ran away. What do you want the people of the country to do? How can they resist the enemy's aggression in this way without the strength to restrain themselves? Even if we were about to lose during the war, we would hold up the military flags one after another for the sake of the dignity of the country. After running away like this, there is no dignity left. The enemy looks down upon us more and more, and becomes more confident to invade us and plunder our wealth. I feel ashamed and sympathize with the people at that time for having such incompetent leaders.

Even while they were escaping, the princess was still seriously ill. Because of the hot weather, Cixi had to be given iced sour plum juice to drink. She really knew how to enjoy it. However, the only advantage of this escape was that it allowed them to truly see the people in dire straits, avoiding the peaceful lies of the officials, and the struggles and hardships of life of the people at the bottom were discovered.