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There is a very interesting saying in later generations, that is, "If you fall behind, you will be beaten." Pen ~ Fun ~ Pavilion www.biquge.info"

The origin of this sentence will not be discussed, but there is no doubt that this sentence also applies to the First Opium War.

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After the outbreak of the First Opium War, British historians called it the "War of Commerce" for some reason.

That is, after Britain completed the industrial revolution, it needed a vast market as an export place for goods, and China just met this condition and could become a dumping ground for Britain's vast number of goods. Since luxury goods such as tea, silk, and porcelain produced in China were very popular in the European market, the British wanted China to open up to trade. However, British exports of wool, nylon and other industrial products were not favored in China, and the Qianlong Emperor even thought that China lacked nothing and there was no need to trade with Britain, which made Sino-British trade bring a huge trade deficit to Britain.

In the 18th century, Britain began to implement a gold standard monetary policy, and the Qing court used silver as currency, because all trade with China had to be converted into silver taels, so Britain needed to buy silver from the European continent for trade purposes, and the gold and silver were bought and sold, which hurt the profits of the British. In terms of tax rates, China needs to take a high tax rate of 20 percent on British imports, which makes Britain very dissatisfied.

After the Industrial Revolution, the British bourgeoisie tried its best to sell industrial products to China, in an attempt to open China's door with commodity trade. Until the twenties and thirties of the 19th century, China's trade with Britain still maintained the status of more than two or three million taels of silver every year. In order to change this unfavorable trade situation, the British bourgeoisie resorted to diplomatic means to negotiate forcefully, but when it failed to achieve its goal, it resorted to despicable means, relying on the method of "destroying the human race" to smuggle a large amount of opium, a special commodity, into China in order to satisfy their boundless desire for profit.

The opium trade brought astonishing profits to the British bourgeoisie, the Anglo-Indian government, the East India Company, and the opium dealers. It has broken China's long-term advantage in foreign trade and turned China from a superpower over the past 200 years into a superpower.

"The smoke of crows and poison is a disaster unseen in China for 3,000 years." The large import of opium caused the outflow of silver from China to reach 6 million taels every year, and a serious silver shortage occurred in China, resulting in the depreciation of silver, the depletion of finances, and the emptiness of the national treasury.

The importation of opium has seriously corrupted social morals and destroyed the physical and mental health of the people. The spread of tobacco and poison not only caused mental and physical damage to the Chinese, but also destroyed the social productive forces, causing the depression and decline of industry and commerce in the southeast coastal areas. [13]

The serious harm caused by the opium trade to Chinese society has attracted the attention of the Qing government and the broad masses of the people. The Qing government, acting in its own self-interest, issued eight bans between 1821 and 1834, and a section of the ruling class, witnessing a social crisis, demanded a reform of the maladministration and a strict ban on opium in China. In the month, Emperor Daoguang ordered Lin Zexu to be the minister of the Qin mission and sent him to Guangdong to ban smoking.

Lin Zexu, the governor of Huguang, sent the minister of Qincha to Guangzhou to take charge of the execution, which is the famous Humen cigarette sales in history. In March 1839, after Lin Zexu arrived in Guangzhou, he ordered foreign tobacco dealers to hand over all opium, and promised not to sell it again, guaranteeing that "the ship will never dare to carry opium in the future, and if it is brought, once it is found, the goods will be lost, and the person will be punished and willing to admit his guilt", and from June 3 to June 25, most of the opium stocks that legally belonged to the British were destroyed. The British saw the Chinese's anti-smoking campaign as an invasion of private property, which was intolerable and contributed to the outbreak of war.

In March 1839, Lin Zexu, together with Deng Tingzhen, the governor of Liangguang, and Guan Tianpei, the admiral of the Guangdong navy, planned to ban smoking in Guangzhou. Lin Zexu did not pretend to be the hand of the servant Xu officials, and the scholars in the intellectual circles were on the same front as him, and summoned 645 students from the three major academies of Yuexiu Academy, Yuehua Academy, and Yangcheng Academy to enter the tribute academy for the "examination".

This time, it is called an exam, but it is actually a questionnaire survey, with four questions: "1. The name of the opium distribution center and the operator; 2. The retailer; 3. The disadvantages of the smoking ban in the past; and 4. The law of banning." ”

Since then, Lin Zexu has mastered the list of all tobacco merchants and corrupt officials. Under the auspices of Lin Zexu, all the seized opium was destroyed in public on Humen Beach. The urban and rural masses in Guangzhou who watched at the scene all applauded.

In July 1839, the Lam Wai-hei case occurred in Tsim Sha Tsui Village, Kowloon. British sailors drunk and made trouble in the village, killing villager Lin Weixi, Lin Zexu asked the British commercial director Yilu to hand over the murderer, but Yilu himself gave a light sentence.

On August 15, 1839, Lin Zexu ordered a ban on all trade, sent troops into Macao, and further expelled the British. This incident thus became the fuse of the Opium War. On 1 July, the British Cabinet made the decision to "send a fleet to the China Sea" on the grounds that commerce was blocked and the lives of the British people were threatened, although the British had no right to store opium on Chinese territory under Chinese law.

On January 5, 1840, according to the will of Emperor Daoguang, Lin Zexu announced the official closure of Hong Kong and the permanent severance of trade with Britain. On January 8, the captain of the British ship "Wola" announced that from January 15, the Guangzhou port and the Pearl River estuary would be blocked. On January 16, Queen Victoria delivered a speech to Parliament, saying that she was paying close attention to the interests of the British in China and the dignity of the country. The events that have taken place in China have caused the severance of trade relations between our subjects and that country, and I have taken great care of this incident, which affects the interests of our subjects and the dignity of the royal family.

In February, the British government appointed Yi Lu and Yi Lu as the president/deputy plenipotentiary representatives, and Yi Lu as commander-in-chief of the British army.

In April, the British Parliament debated the issue, and under the influence of Queen Victoria, the military action was finally approved by a vote, but the British government never officially declared war, believing that military action was only a form of revenge, not war.

In June, a mobile fleet of more than 40 British ships and 4,000 soldiers (including the 18th Royal Irish Wing, the 26th Scottish Rifle Wing, the 49th Bengal Wing, the Bengal Engineer Regiment and the Madras Engineer Regiment) led by Yilu departed from India to the Chinese seas, marking the official beginning of the First Opium War. The fleet consisted of 16 warships (3 of which were large warships armed with 74 cannons), 4 steam warships, and 28 transport ships. After the outbreak of the war, Britain continued to reinforce from the mainland. By the end of the war in August 1842, there were 25 British warships, 15 steam ships, and more than 60 hospital, survey, and transport ships.

According to Rhodes Murphy's analysis, the deep-seated reason for Britain's military presence was to have the opportunity to trade freely with the huge Chinese market, so that it could directly enter the Chinese market. And it was hoped that the Qing government would recognize Britain as an equal country. However, China's arrogant attitude towards the Celestial Empire, due to its unequal diplomacy such as the traditional order of the world and the tributary system of five servants, made Britain unable to tolerate contempt or neglect and exclusion, and China's attitude was out of place in the international community that had entered the modern world at that time. Britain sees China's rejection as a sign of backwardness, and some Westerners also have a sense of mission to use force if necessary to push China into the modern world, believing that it will benefit both sides. It was the arrogance of both sides that led to the outbreak of a head-on conflict.

At the beginning of the war, the Chinese only regarded the British army as barbarians and did not consider them a threat. In June 1840, the British commander-in-chief and plenipotentiary Yi Lu led his troops to the sea of Guangzhou, and according to the instructions of British Foreign Secretary Palmerston, the expeditionary force blockaded the Haikou of Guangzhou and Xiamen (now part of Fujian) to cut off China's overseas trade, and captured Dinghai (now Zhoushan City) in Zhejiang Province in July as a base for advance. At this time, China's coastal areas, except for Guangdong, which was slightly prepared for combat under the supervision of Lin Zexu, were all lightly prepared. On August 20, 1840, Emperor Daoguang replied to the British letter, ordering Qishan to tell the British to allow trade and punish Lin Zexu, so as to seek the withdrawal of the British ships to Guangzhou, and sent Qishan south to Guangzhou for negotiations; at the same time, the British side also agreed to go south to Guangdong for negotiations because of the epidemic and the approaching autumn and winter. In October, Qishan became the acting governor of Liangguang. Lin Zexu and Deng Tingzhen were dismissed. In December, Qi Shan negotiated with Yilu through Bao Peng, a private translator, to stall for time. After the British army moved south, the Qing court ordered the governors of the coastal provinces to prepare for the defense of Haikou, and ordered the governor of Liangjiang, Yi Libu, to lead his troops to eastern Zhejiang to prepare for the recovery of Dinghai.

Yilu lost patience and decided to negotiate after the war. On January 7, 1841, the British army suddenly captured the Dajiao and Shajiao forts in Humen, killing and wounding more than 700 Qing defenders, and sinking 11 handsome ships and tugboats. Qi Shan was forced to give in, and on January 25, he signed the "Treaty of Piercing Nose Grass" with Yilu, the first clause of which was to cede Hong Kong Island to the British. The next day, British troops occupied Hong Kong Island. Lin Zexu was assigned to Xinjiang, although he wrote to Emperor Daoguang, he strongly stated that smoking must be banned and coastal defense must be emphasized, so that Emperor Daoguang dismissed it as nonsense. However, the Treaty was not ratified by the Emperor of China from beginning to end, and Qi Shan did not use the seal of the Guan, so the treaty had no legal effect.

During the Opium War, the broad masses of people in China's southeastern coastal areas actively supported and cooperated with the Qing army in their operations and spontaneously persisted in the struggle against aggression. Everywhere the invading army went, it was resisted by the local people. When the British captured Xiamen, the local people automatically organized themselves to attack the British army, forcing the invading army to retreat to Gulangyu. The British army invaded Zhejiang, and the people of Zhejiang organized the "Blackwater Party" to strike a severe blow at the British army. After the invading army invaded the Yangtze River, the people along the river attacked the British army in many ways to prevent the British fleet from advancing.

Battle of Humen Guangzhou (~1841.), Qi Shan and Yilu began negotiations in Guangdong. Because the conditions proposed by the British were too harsh and Qi Shan signed them without authorization, Emperor Daoguang was greatly dissatisfied, so Emperor Daoguang dismissed Qi Shan's family and sent Yishan, Longwen and Yang Fang to Guangdong to command the battle. On January 7, 1841, the British army was also dissatisfied with the progress of the negotiations, and Yilu struck first, dispatching the navy and army to capture the first gateway of Humen, Shajiao and Dajiao forts, and launched the Battle of Humen.

When Emperor Daoguang heard the news, he ordered a declaration of war on the British, sent Yishan, the minister of the guard, as the general of Jing's rebellion, and transferred more than 10,000 troops from all over the country to Guangdong. On February 23, the Humen Fort was attacked, and although the troops resisted bravely, they were defeated by the British army, and the Humen Fort finally fell. On February 26, the British army dispatched the navy and army to break through the forts on the first line of the Humen rungs and the Dahushan Fort, and traced the Pearl River to Guangzhou.

Guan Tianpei, the commander of the Guangdong Navy Division, was martyred in battle. On May 21, Yishan ordered more than 1,700 sailors and troops to set out in a fast boat in the dark of night, carrying rockets and spray canisters, attacking the British ship at night and burning it. On the morning of May 22, the British counterattacked with 2,400 men. The Qing army retreated. On May 24, the British army launched an attack on Guangzhou, occupying the merchant hall in the southwest of the city and landing in the northwest of the city, outflanking the heights in the north of the city, capturing the forts in the northeast of the city, and shelling the city of Guangzhou. In this situation, Yishan and others erected a white flag to sue for peace, accepted the British conditions, and signed the "Guangzhou Peace Treaty", the British not only did not lead the troops to evacuate Guangzhou, but also extorted Guangzhou merchants to pay 6 million silver dollars to the British army for ransom. During this period, the anti-British atmosphere in Guangzhou was hot, and the atrocities of the British invaders aroused the people in Sanyuanli, a northern suburb of the city, to spontaneously arm themselves to carry out the anti-British struggle. In order not to be punished by the emperor, Yishan falsely reported his military exploits, and even said that the fiasco of the battle was a great victory.

The British government was still too little concerned about the rights and interests of Yilu's aggression in Guangzhou, so it sent Pu Dingcha as the plenipotentiary to China to expand the aggression. On August 21, 1841, Pu Ding Cha led 37 ships and 2,500 army troops from Hong Kong to the north, broke through Xiamen, Fujian, occupied Gulangyu Island (that is, the third battle of Xiamen), turned north into Zhejiang, captured Dinghai on October 1 (in February 1841, the British army abandoned Dinghai due to epidemic), captured Zhenhai (now Ningbo) on the 10th, and occupied Ningbo on the 13th. The British army was short of troops, so they stopped the offensive and waited for reinforcements.

After the defeat of Xiamen and eastern Zhejiang, Emperor Daoguang sent Shang Shuyijing to Zhejiang as a general of Yangwei, and successively mobilized troops to prepare for counterattacks. In March 1842, Yijing decided to counterattack by land and water with sufficient troops, in an attempt to recover Ningbo, Zhenhai, and Dinghai in one fell swoop. On the night of March 10, the Qing army launched counterattacks against Ningbo and Zhenhai respectively, but the engagement was unfavorable, and they withdrew to their original stations one after another. The attack on Dinghai was postponed due to an unfavorable trend. On March 15, the British army stationed in Ningbo took advantage of the situation to counterattack Cixi (now Cicheng Town) and Dabaoshan in the west of the city, and the Qing army was defeated and retreated to the west of the Cao'e River. Emperor Daoguang saw that the long-prepared counteroffensive in eastern Zhejiang had failed, so he sent the Shengjing general Qiying to rush to Jiangnan to prepare for peace with the British army.

On May 29, 1841, the British troops entrenched in the Sifang Fort in the northern suburbs of Guangzhou broke into Sanyuanli to harass and loot. The local people rose up and killed several British soldiers. Subsequently, the men, women and children of the whole village gathered in the Sanyuan Ancient Temple, with the three-star flag as the order flag, "the flag enters the people advance, the flag retreats and the people retreat", and at the same time, thousands of farmers and handicraftsmen in the vicinity were also contacted, holding big knives and spears, braving the rain to meet the enemy. At this time, the British army had only one company of marines. The British army was trapped in the bullpen, it rained heavily, the gunpowder was damp, and it was impossible to exert its power, and hand-to-hand combat began, and one British soldier died. The British fought hand-to-hand all the way, and with the huge disparity in numbers between the two sides, they defeated the volunteers. In the end, the British Redcoat soldiers finally fought their way back to the fort.

In the early morning of the next day, more than 20,000 people held high the three-star flag and surrounded the forts in all directions. The commander-in-chief of the British army sent a message to the local governor Yu Baochun that if the siege of Yiyong was not lifted, the main British army would attack and slaughter the city of Guangzhou. Yu Baochun knew the strength of both sides, and also knew that the guns of the British army would not be damp forever, so he persuaded the righteous to retreat to avoid the slaughter of Guangzhou, and from then on he bore the notoriety of traitors, but in fact, judging from the comparison of the strength of the two sides, this approach is very wise. After the resistance against the British in Sanyuanli, the people of Guangdong organized armed forces in the form of "social studies" to carry out the struggle against aggression.

The British government believed that the rights and interests gained by the "Piercing Grass Treaty" were too few, so they replaced Yilu and sent Pu Ding Chalai Huawei plenipotentiary to expand the invasion. On August 27, 1841, the British army moved north again, capturing Gulangyu, Xiamen, Dinghai, Zhenhai (present-day Ningbo) and Zhapu (Pinghu, Zhejiang). Among them, Dinghai was breached for the second time, the general soldier Ge Yunfei and 4,000 soldiers were killed in the battle, and the British army also suffered heavy losses. The British army later attacked Wusong, the gateway of the Yangtze River, and Chen Huacheng, the governor of Jiangnan, led his army to hold the West Fort, and Niu Jian, the governor of Liangjiang, wanted peace and ordered a retreat but was refused. Niu Jian fled, the East Fort was captured, and Chen Huacheng and his subordinates defended the West Fort and fought alone until they died in battle. The defeat of Wu Song caused the British warships to sail into the Yangtze River. Hailing, the deputy commander of the Zhenjiang garrison, heard that Zhapu and Wusong were not defending, and thought that the Han people were collaborating with the enemy, and killed the Han people. On July 21, more than 6,600 British troops defeated the defenders of the Green Battalion outside Zhenjiang City, crossed the city and entered the city, fighting with 1,500 Mongolian Eight Banner soldiers, 37 British soldiers were killed and 129 were wounded, and about 600 flag soldiers were killed. The whole city was burned and plundered, and there were ruins. The Yangzhou gentry and merchants on the other side of the Zhenjiang River were terrified and paid 500,000 taels of ransom to the British army and were exempted from military occupation. On August 4, the British army approached Nanjing, and the Qing court was in a disadvantageous position.

From September 30, 1841 to March 11, 1841, the British detachment also repeatedly invaded Taiwan. Thanks to the well-prepared and clever tactics of the defenders, a rare victory was achieved throughout the war, with 182 British troops captured alone.

In May 1842, the British army abandoned Ningbo and concentrated its forces to invade the north. On the 18th, Zhapu Town, Pinghu, Zhejiang Province was captured. On June 16, the Battle of Wusong was launched, and Chen Huacheng, the governor of Jiangnan, was killed in battle. After that, the British reinforcements arrived outside the mouth of the Yangtze River one after another, and Puding Cha ignored the begging notes of Qi Ying and others, and traced the Yangtze River with 73 ships and 12,000 army troops, preparing to cut off the canal, the main artery of Chinese mainland communications. On July 21, more than 6,900 British troops launched the Battle of Zhenjiang, but they were stubbornly resisted, killed and wounded 169 people and captured Zhenjiang. On August 4, the British ships approached the Xiaguan River in Nanjing, and then the British troops landed at Yanziji, inspected the terrain, and threatened to attack the city of Nanjing.

Under the deterrence of the British army's strong ships and artillery, the Qing Dynasty's ministers Qi Ying and Yi Libu and Niu Jian, the governor of Liangjiang, compromised and retreated, and were forced to negotiate peace with the British army at Jinghai Temple, Shangjiang Kaoteng and other places. During the negotiations, the British army's evil deeds triggered the local battle of Jingjiang, and the invaders were defeated after suffering 13 casualties.

On August 29, 1842, Qiying and Pudingcha signed the unequal Sino-British Treaty of Nanjing.

...................................................... Dividing Line................................................

From the above account of the First Opium War, it can be seen that although the British army did not always achieve victory, there is no doubt that when facing the Qing army, the advanced firearms of the British army can even form an effective deterrent. (To be continued.) )

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