The ascension of the Xianfeng Emperor in 1850 and the subsequent ousting of the Mujangga faction from the government would reverse the fortunes of Xu Jiyu. In 1851, he was dismissed from his post on account of his mishandling the case of Shen-kuang-szu Incident and he was forced to retire to his home province, where he stayed for almost a decade and a half. Xu's fortunes again changed after Empress Dowager's Cixi's coup d'état in 1861 and afour years later, Xu was brought back into service, first working in the newly established foreign office, the Zongli Yamen, and later being put in charge of the language school Tongwenguan. In 1869 Xu retired to his home province, where he died four years later.