Beginning With the Great Qing Reforms

[AlternateHistoryFan]

Hardly an expert on that area, but IMO Guangxi should made the reforms that Cixi made after Boxer Uprising...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Policies

OFC, Cixi had the shock of major military defeat as impetus for reforms...

Yes he should and that's exactly ewhat I'll do .

 

[AlternateHistoryFan]

The impetus for Guangxu's reforms was the Sino-Japanese War. Losing to the West was understandable, being licked by the "dwarfs" was humiliation, pure and simple.

The military establishment would have been the direct witnesses to failure of China's prior modernizations, and would have supported Guangxu's attempts to undertake greater institutional reform, I'd imagine.

You're right--the military was the most humiliated from losing in the First Sino-Japanese War and would've supported Guangxu the most.