Chapter 11 Sanlin Zexu's Enemy Judgment
On the morning of March 27, 1839, Elliot announced in the commercial hall that in the name of the British government, he asked the opium merchants in the country to hand over all the opium to the Chinese government.This decision of Elliot excited the big and small British opium merchants who were embarrassed in the business hall, thinking that it was a sign that the British government would protect their interests, and promised to hand over more opium than they had in their hands, so that they would go on the road or Opium along the coast of Fujian was also reported.Even unrelated American opium merchants handed over their opium to Elliot so that they could be registered in big accounts.
On the morning of this day, Lin Zexu, the imperial envoy, received a letter from Yilu, expressing his willingness to hand over opium.Lin is relieved that the confrontation with foreign businessmen since March 18 has finally come to fruition.However, neither he nor his colleagues realized that the first letter from the Chief Commercial Officer in China to the Imperial Envoy had changed the nature of Lin Zexu's mission, that is, from an anti-smuggling operation targeting foreigners in China to an anti-smuggling operation between China and Britain. Negotiations between officials.
On the same day, Lin Zexu also received a letter signed by businessmen from various countries in the business hall, claiming that the matters mentioned in Lin Zexu's edict were too important to reason about, so he begged Lin Zexu to ask their consuls and managers to "handle it by themselves" .Lin did not discover the mystery.Since then, the edicts no longer bypass the merchants, nor are they directly addressed to foreign merchants, but are issued to their consuls or managers.In other words, from this day forward, Lin Zexu's opponents were no longer individual foreign businessmen, but the governments of various countries, especially the British government, standing behind them.
This is the first mistake.
Elliot handed over the opium on behalf of the opium merchants, which did not mean that he would follow the Chinese law, but turned the opium merchants' goods into the property of the British government, trying to launch a war against China on this ground.
Since March 30, 1839, while Elliot was still trapped in the business house, he kept writing reports to the British Foreign Secretary, calling for military retaliation.Among them, the report on April 3 has already put forward the plan of invading China and the demand for extortion in very specific terms.
At that time, the British Foreign Secretary Palmerston was a figure obsessed with power and hegemony, and he always adopted the gunboat policy in foreign affairs. On August 29, 1839, he received the first reports from Elliot during his confinement (March 30-April 3).Before and after that, he learned about the events in China from other sources. On September 21, he received the second batch of reports from Elliot (April 6 to May 29).At this time, the British opium merchant group and cotton textile owner group also spoke to the government one after another, clamoring for war. On October 1, the British cabinet meeting decided to send a fleet to China and ordered the Governor of India to cooperate. On October 18, Palmerston secretly ordered Elliot to inform the cabinet of the decision and make him ready for war. On November 4, he ordered Elliott again, telling him that the British army would arrive around April of the following year and the combat policy; on the same day, he also sent a letter to the Ministry of the Navy, requesting to send an expeditionary force. On December 2, Palmerston again received the third batch of reports from Elliot (June 8-18). On November 4, he ordered Elliott again, telling him that the British army would arrive around April of the following year and the combat policy; on the same day, he also sent a letter to the Ministry of the Navy, requesting to send an expeditionary force. On February 20, 1840, Palmerston issued a detailed instruction to Yilu, Commander-in-Chief and Plenipotentiary of the Expeditionary Force, and Yilu, Plenipotentiary, and also issued a "Letter from Foreign Minister Palmerston to the Prime Minister of China". Beginning on April 7, 1840, the House of Commons of the British Parliament debated the military expenditure case for the war against China and the compensation case for the British opium merchants in Guangzhou. After three days of debate, the proposal of the cabinet was passed by a narrow majority of 271 votes to 262 votes.
Judging from this timetable, although the British Parliament did not start discussing the government's bill until April 1840, the British government had already made a decision to invade China between October and November 1839.While the MPs in the House of Commons were exchanging words with each other, British ships and teams were continuously sailing to China from the British mainland, South Africa and India.Due to the lack of today's electronic communication conditions at that time, it took about 4 months to send a letter from the coast of Guangdong, China to London, England. The British government's decision to invade China was made based on the situation before mid-June 1839.That is to say, when the Qing Dynasty was excited by the smell of burning opium over Humen, the demon of war had already appeared, stalking tigers, and sneaking in quietly.
However, Lin Zexu was not aware of all this.
On May 1, 1839, when Lin Zexu was confiscating opium in Humen, he made a judgment on the development of the situation:
Who knows that he has been involved in business from 60,000 miles away, the appearance of host and guest, and the power of being a few, do not wait for a wise man to decide.Even with strong ships and strong guns, they can only win overseas, but cannot use their skills in the inner harbor.There are many portals in Guangdong Province, natural dangers can be relied on, and its trade has been three times profitable for many years.That is to say, except for opium, and only do serious business, he is absolutely unwilling to give up this horse. (The emphasis is marked by the citer)
After making these analyses, Lin Zexu came to the conclusion: "Although there were twists and turns, the overall situation was submissive, and it must be within the scope of the situation." That is to say, there is no need to worry about "frontier provocations."
After Lin Zexu arrived in Guangzhou, in the first few memorials to Emperor Daoguang, he did not specifically mention the issue of border disputes. On June 4, 1839, he mentioned in his memorial that for the smuggling ships that offended the coast, unlike commercial ships with "licenses", "shooting and shelling are all at their own expense", and not only the navy can eliminate them, Even if you recruit coastal sailors and use the method of fire attack, you can win.Emperor Daoguang was very interested in this, and asked Lin Zexu and others to "prepare for it", and pointed out that "it is appropriate to make the treacherous barbarians persuaded by hearing the news."This is the issue of "frontier provocation" formally and clearly raised in the edict of Emperor Daoguang.
The edict issued by Emperor Daoguang on July 8 arrived in Guangzhou on July 29.Lin Zexu did not reply for a long time.More than a month later, that is, on September 1, after careful consideration, Lin Zexu posted a clip of more than 2,000 words, specifically analyzing the issue of "border provocations."After explaining in detail the three reasons mentioned in the previous quotation, that is, the distance between the host and the guest is very large due to the long distance, the strong boats and cannons cannot be used in inland rivers, and the profit can be tripled by serious trading, and he came to the conclusion: finally , Lin Zexu also reminded Emperor Daoguang that Yilu had been in China for many years and was cunning and plain. He often bought Midi newspapers. Emperor Daoguang should not be fooled by Yilu.
On the 4th day after the performance, on September 5, Lin Zexu felt very confident. In a letter to his close friend Yiliang, the governor of Guangdong, he was puzzled by Yilu's tough attitude at this time, saying: "But Imagine for Yilu, there is always no way out, I don't know why you haven't turned back?"
Judging from Lin Zexu's memorial quoted above, he believed that those who held the theory of "frontier provocation" included Yilu and others, in addition to the capital and a group of people who opposed the smoking ban in various places.Therefore, he attributed the news of the British invasion of China from foreigners to the rumors and intimidation of Elliott.We can look at a few more examples.
1. In February 1840, Lin Zexu heard rumors from the Portuguese in Macau that Britain would send 12 warships from mainland China and India to China.In this regard, he stated in his decree to the Governor of Macau: "These lies are nothing more than exaggerated words such as Elliott and others, and have no deep meaning."
2. On March 24, 1840, the British ship "Druid" arrived in the sea of Guangdong.After Lin heard the news, he wrote to his close friend Yiliang: "The talk about carrying twenty or thirty boats is all vain."
3. In April 1840, the American Consul reported to Lin Zexu, and reported in his own and British newspapers that the British would blockade the port of Guangzhou in June, demanding that American ships be allowed to enter the port as soon as possible.Lin Zexu still disagrees with this official official news, calling it a "rumor"
Since Lin Zexu's analysis of "frontier provocations" on September 1, 1839, there has been no further discussion on this issue in memorials.Although he reported rumors of British actions from time to time, he always regarded them as "intimidation" and called them "forgiveness and nothing to do." In mid-June 1840, the number of British warships that had arrived on the coast of Guangdong had reached four, but Lin Zexu said in his memorial: "Fucha Yingyi's ships have come recently, and they are equipped with more weapons, and they are still carrying opium." The coming war was judged as a large-scale opium armed smuggling.After he stated that he had taken precautions, he comforted Emperor Daoguang with the words of Emperor Daoguang, "It's just like the oracle, 'There is really nothing you can do'".Less than 10 days after this memorial to report safety left Guangzhou, on June 21, the naval commander of the British Expeditionary Force, Bohmer, led the first batch of troops to arrive outside Humen; On the 17th, the British army had occupied Zhoushan for 12 days.
The war is coming!
The commander in front did not sound the war alarm!
There is a sentence in the attached film of Lin Zexu quoted above on September 1, 1839, "If you know your enemy, you will never dare to spy on China with the technique of invading other countries." This statement is undoubtedly wrong as a conclusion, but the six words "the technique of invading other countries" , but vaguely revealed Lin Zexu's new knowledge to us.
I have already mentioned in the introduction that at that time, the people of the Qing Dynasty were ignorant and confused about the outside world, and they only heard the name of England but did not know the truth. "The art of invading other countries" belongs to the scope of British colonial history, and it is already a deeper level of knowledge. It was not easy to figure out without considerable efforts at that time.
Lin Zexu's dedication to new knowledge was not mentioned in his memorials, difficult to check in his diary (which is incomplete today), and rarely mentioned in his letters.His quiet approach shows that the matter is out of fashion.As an official of the "Heavenly Dynasty", Lin Zexu actually did something that the bureaucrats and scholars at that time disdained, which is particularly commendable.
According to the observations of recent people, we can roughly see the outline of Lin Zexu's efforts that day from various scattered historical materials.He had at least four translators who translated English books and newspapers for him all day long, and he himself collected the information into a book for reference.Recent studies on this activity of Lin's have been in-depth, and many of his masterpieces have been seen, and his evaluation is so high that he is called the first person who advocates learning from the West.
The content of this book has little to do with Lin Zexu's activities of striving for new knowledge, so I don't plan to expand on this issue.However, there is still a problem here: Since Lin Zexu has already possessed so much British intelligence and has become the official in the Qing Dynasty who understands Britain best, why does he still not see the inevitability of war? trend?
I thought it was related to the method used by Lin Zexu to analyze intelligence.
Although Lin Zexu used extremely derogatory words against Britain in his memorial, in his heart, he did not seem to treat Britain as a "wild" land without "royal laws" at all.Judging from the existing translation materials of Lin Zexu, he was particularly fond of the British people's remarks against the opium trade, and he particularly valued the British king's requirements for businessmen to respect Chinese laws, and even briefly mentioned them in the memorial.Therefore, he believes that the opium smuggling trade is a criminal activity carried out by British businessmen who are far away from the mainland in violation of national orders; King's support.For this reason, at the very beginning, he agreed with Emperor Daoguang to write directly to the King of England, asking him to control his subjects and "definitely make them dare not commit crimes again."
Lin Zexu had learned about Britain's geographical location, area, population, army, and number of ships from his translated materials.However, the intuitive conditions reflected by these simple figures make Britain appear to be less powerful than China.Therefore, Lin Zexu believed that if the relatively weak Britain sent an expeditionary force, it would inevitably have long distances and difficulties in supplies, so he would not make such a bad policy.He analyzed this in both memorials and letters.
From his translated materials, Lin Zexu learned that Britain was founded on trade, and that the tea trade with China was particularly profitable.Therefore, Lin Zexu believed that even if the benefits of opium smuggling were cut off, Britain would never break with China for the benefit of tea.In his decree to Elliot, he confidently asked, if the 200-year-long Sino-British trade was "suddenly blocked" by Elliot, "would the lord of the country be willing to tolerate it?"He concluded that the law did not have the guts to take such a risk.
From his translated materials, Lin Zexu already knew the general background of the British merchants engaged in the opium trade. He made an analysis in his memorial and believed that these scattered merchants with no official background had absolutely no power to influence the government.
From his translated materials, Lin Zexu learned that the governments of Bangladesh and other places "take points" from the opium trade, and that officials' salaries mostly come from this; Ships of the British Navy in India dispatched at Law's request.From this, Lin Zexu drew an inference that Elliot and British Indian officials colluded with each other and secretly dispatched warships to carry out "intimidation", not under the order of the British king.He also believes that these small number of warships will not lead to a major war.
From his translated materials, Lin Zexu learned that opium prices in Bangladesh and Singapore plummeted in the spring of 1840 due to his anti-smoking measures, and that the new monsoon season was approaching, and the number of naval ships stationed in India increased.From this, he drew another inference that Elliot and the British in India were not reconciled to the loss of opium interests, and planned to smuggle opium into China by force.In fact, he was so convinced of this inference that on July 3, 1840, when the British fleet went north to Zhoushan, he still called his friend Yiliang "only to escort opium".
It can be seen from this that although Lin Zexu's judgment was wrong, it was still in line with his own logic when placed in the context of the "celestial dynasty".
Today's researchers are "wisdom after the fact" and have already seen the cards in the hands of all parties. It is difficult to appreciate the difficulty of decision-makers in those days.Judging from the existing translation materials of Lin Zexu, it is all-encompassing. There are both praises and criticisms on Lin Zexu, and there are all estimates of future wars, and there is no tendency to see a single opinion.One would have to be a connoisseur of international affairs to draw from these sources the inevitability of war.However, Lin Zexu was originally a person in the "Heavenly Dynasty" atmosphere, and he was involved in this way for the first time; the sources of information were only public materials such as newspapers and books, and there were no secret channels; Unfavorable information is not taken seriously.All kinds of circumstances make the possibility of Lin Zexu making mistakes far exceeds the possibility of not making mistakes.
Lin Zexu was not a god.
Although he is like a myth today.
According to Lin Zexu's letters and memorials, some commentators claimed that he had foreseen the war, and issued a notice to Emperor Daoguang and the governors of the coastal provinces to prepare for war.
These letters and memorials are:
1. On July 4, 1840, Lin Zexu stated: "If the British army invaded the north, "if it sails to Zhoushan in Zhejiang Province or Shanghai in Jiangsu Province, the two provinces will be prepared and will not be neglected."
2. On August 7, 1840, Lin Zexu stated that he was afraid that the British army would "fly across the oceans and take advantage of the situation to disturb".
3. On December 22, 1840, Lin Zexu sent a message to Ye Shenxiang, his in-law, saying: "I knew that the barbarian would not give up...I request the governors of all provinces to strictly prevent the barbarian from blocking, and to spy on the barbarian in Zhoushan instead of planning to go to Tianjin to deliver Submissions are also filed in advance.”
4. On February 18, 1841, Lin Zexu sent his teacher Shen Weizheng to say: The British army "fleeed to the coastal provinces. They were interested in it, so Xu Zuo asked for an order to prepare for the defense. The plan has been taken, and the map of Zhoushan and Tianjin are occupied. If they are accused, they will all be found out and prosecuted."
5. In September 1842, Lin Zexu sent a message to his old friends Yao Chun and Wang Boxin, saying: "The arrival of the British and barbarian warships was intended, but Xu's administration didn't care. Even after arriving in Guangdong, he asked those who came to the coast to take strict precautions... Dinghai The attack on Tianjin, and the lawsuit against Tianjin, are all those that Xu heard about in advance." (The key points in the article are all marked by the author)
There is no doubt that Lin Zexu's remarks are completely different from the aforementioned judgment of the enemy's situation.Carefully comparing Lin Zexu's above-mentioned remarks, it is not difficult to find that Lin's words were all said after the outbreak of the war, and the more he said, the more rounded he was, until the fifth document (which is also the most quoted), it is watertight.
In my opinion, it is necessary to examine the four events mentioned by Lin Zexu one by one.
A. During Lin's training in Beijing, did he face-to-face say, "The arrival of the warships is what I really care about"?
Regarding this question, I have answered this question in the first section of this chapter by citing the correspondence between Lin Zexu and Gong Zizhen in January 1839 and the letter from Lin Zexu to Ye Shenxiang in December 1840. Provocation".However, in September 1842, he suddenly said the plot of "Chen in front of the capital", which was obviously self-contradictory. It seemed that he could only believe what he said before but not what he said later.
B. When Lin was in Guangdong, he played five times to request the various provinces to prepare for defense. What happened?
When Cha Lin Zexu banned smoking in Guangdong, he did ask for an edict to prepare for it, but the specific reasons and purposes were different.
On May 18, 1839, after confiscating more than 20,000 boxes of opium, Lin Zexu asked Emperor Daoguang to order the coastal provinces to "strictly investigate" opium smuggling because he was worried that opium smokers would go northward to sell cigarettes.However, Emperor Daoguang did not issue any edicts to the provinces after receiving this performance.
On January 8, 1840, after receiving the order from Emperor Daoguang to cut off British trade, Lin Zexu played again, with the intention of preventing opium smuggling.After receiving this discount, Emperor Daoguang ordered the generals and governors of Shengjing, Zhili, Shandong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Fujian on January 30, 1840, "Everyone belongs to each other, and carefully inspects them. Expel the net to the last, eliminate the source and clean up the accumulated evils."
Checking the "Lin Zexu Collection" and other documents, except for these two folds, there is no memorial to ask the provinces to prepare for defense.Why Lin Zexu claimed to have as many as five times, we might as well expand the scope and continue to search.
On June 14, 1839, Lin Zexu stated that foreign merchant ships coming to Guangdong for trade must apply for a license in their own country and opium should be banned.However, the British Indian merchants were greedy for profit, and disregarded the ban, "going straight to Nan'ao on the east road, and reaching the oceans of Fujian and Zhejiang", and asked Emperor Daoguang not to adopt the previous method of "expelling empty words" against these smuggling ships, but to "severely expel them with empty words". Check it out."Emperor Daoguang received this package and did not order the provinces to do so, but the governor of Fujian received a consultation from Lin Zexu and others.This is one.
On June 24, 1840, Lin Zexu stated that the British army had sent 10 ships, and "the ministers and others are now flying to Fujian, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Shandong, and Zhili provinces to strictly investigate Haikou and work together to prepare for defense."This is two.
The above cited Lin Zexu’s memorial dated July 4, 1840, said that the British troops in Guangdong “drove out of Laowan Mountain at the end of May and the beginning of June (in the lunar calendar), sailing away with the east wind...”, Emperor Daoguang on August 3 After receiving this package on the 1st, it is known that Dinghai has fallen, and Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces have taken precautions, so I only ordered Qishan, the governor of Zhili, to strictly guard Haikou, Tianjin.This is three.
It can be seen from this that the "five times" that Lin Zexu called in his letters, the first three times were to guard against opium smuggling ships from Britain and other countries, and the last two times the British army had arrived, and the war had already occurred.
C, Dinghai, and Tianjin, when did they report in advance?
Chalin Zexu’s memorial, the first time he talked about Dinghai and Tianjin, began on July 4, 1840, and the battle of Dinghai took place the next day, which shows that it has no warning effect on the defenders of Dinghai.Emperor Daoguang received this package on August 3, and the governor of Zhili had received news from Dinghai before that, and rushed from the provincial capital Baoding to Tianjin on July 31 to prepare for defense. It can be seen that Tianjin also lost its early warning effect.
Ding and Lin Zexu said that what happened to the message sent to the coastal provinces in advance?
On June 26, 1840, Lin Zexu sent a letter to his close friend Yiliang, which said: "The state councils of the provinces, the previous version is planned, because of the redundant collection, it has not yet been finalized, so it is necessary to publish it; a special record is sent to the government. After approval, it will be sent back, and it will be copied today. It will still be stamped and sent out with a list. Save a copy of the manuscript and send it to the ice storage case, so I can make up for it." (The emphasis is marked by the author) From this letter It can be seen from the letter that the "Flying Advisory" provinces mentioned in Lin Zexu's memorial on June 24 have not yet been sent out after two days.Even if it was issued on the same day, based on the speed of the British army's attack and the speed of the official documents of the Qing Dynasty, it is bound to be an afterthought.
You can see a real sample of what was written in Lin Zexu's conference. On August 1, 1840, Shandong Governor Tuo Hunbu received this consultation.After reviewing the experience since the ban on smoking in Guangdong, the advisory committee said:
If you go overseas from deep water and sail with the wind, you can sail straight to the north without any difficulty... You should fly to the provinces to prevent and investigate as a whole, and you can avoid the disadvantages. (The emphasis is marked by the citer)
Lin Zexu's advisory meeting, like his previous memorials, did not predict war, but still discussed the issue of armed opium smuggling.Before the governor of Shandong received this message, he had already received the governor of Zhejiang's consultation on the fall of Dinghai on July 21, and on July 25 he received an order from Emperor Daoguang to strengthen coastal defense.
To sum up, I think that Lin Zexu's memorial on the "Consultation Council" and the letter on the "Request for Edict" are his self-justifications after the outbreak of the war, and they are not based on evidence.
After clarifying Lin Zexu's words and deeds, Emperor Daoguang should be held accountable.
As I mentioned in the first section of this chapter, Emperor Daoguang took drastic measures to transfer Lin Zexu to Beijing under the stimulation of the royal family members taking drugs and a large number of drugs approaching the capital. There was no careful thinking and planning in advance.What he paid most attention to at this time was whether smoking and drugs could be banned, and he did not consider the consequences.
As expected, Lin Zexu arrived in Guangzhou, and the second memorial reported the good news that Elliot agreed to hand over 20,000 boxes of opium.Emperor Daoguang not only commented on Lin Zexu's memorial that "what he did is commendable", but also in the excellent narrative proposed by the Ministry of Officials, Zhu Bi changed Lin Zexu's "add one level, record twice" to "reward plus two levels". ".Excitement overflows the pen.
On April 22, 1839, Emperor Daoguang received a memorial from his important minister Tao Shu who was critically ill and resigned. According to Tao Shu's proposal, he ordered Lin Zexu to be the Governor of Liangjiang instead.According to the general opinion in the official circles at that time, the governor of Liangjiang was second only to the governor of Zhili, and Liangjiang was transferred from Huguang. Although they were of the same rank, they were still moved to the right.But this matter seems to reflect that in Emperor Daoguang's heart, the three provinces of Jiangsu, Anhui, and Jiangxi, the three affairs of salt, water, and rivers seem to be more important than the ban on smoking in Guangdong.He believed that Lin Zexu would soon fulfill his mission and return to the north with banners.
After the cigarettes were sold out in Humen, he thought that the overall situation had been roughly settled, and he only left some specific affairs to be sorted out by Lin Zexu, and everything would return to normal.However, those small and big matters came from Guangdong newspaper one by one, and they were recognizances, murders, and continued payment of opium (see the next section for details), and those who bowed their heads and ears respectfully handed over opium " The barbarian people dared to use cannons to confront the "celestial dynasty".The instructions he gave Lin Zexu were nothing more than those seemingly comprehensive but insightless words such as "planning out everything", "prestige first and then kindness", "never dare to act rashly, and never fear incompetence", etc. Say.Once, seeing that Lin Zexu was hesitating, Zhu criticized, "I don't worry about Qing and other Meng Lang, but Jie Qing should not be intimidated" and encouraged Lin to confront the British.
On December 13, 1839, Emperor Daoguang received Lin Zexu's memorial, and what he saw was still the tangled "barbarian affairs", and he deeply felt that "it is not a matter of fact"!So, he came up with a once and for all solution, "is about to