Chapter 14 Two changes of "suppressing" and "applying"

The active figures of the pond officials at the premise of the Old Summer Palace remind us of the communication conditions at that time.The memorials, inscriptions, and inscriptions of each province were sent to the destination of the official documents through the post station system set up by the Ministry of War across the country.From Guangzhou to Beijing, if you use the normal speed, it will take about 30 to 35 days; if you use "400 miles urgently", it will take about 20 days; 16 to 19 days.As for the "600-mile rush" and "800-mile rush", the speed is of course faster, but it will kill the posthorse and exhaust the postmen, so it is generally not used.

According to the Confucian principle of "Ritual and music conquests come from the Son of Heaven", all decisions in war should come from the Holy Judgment.However, the communication speed that seems so slow today has already revealed disadvantages in dealing with traditional wars such as local rebellions and border rebellions, but it can generally be dealt with.However, in this Opium War launched by a modernized opponent, the speed of the posthorse was too slow compared to the sudden changes in the military situation.The decision-making of the Qing court was often half a beat slower than the actual situation, or even one or two beats slower.

The following chapters discuss the Qing government's decision-making throughout the war, and this conditionality cannot be ignored. Because of the speed of post delivery at that time, and because the Qing Dynasty was not prepared for war, Emperor Daoguang was not as clear as we usually think about the start of the war.This is because the initial information he received was very confusing.Suffice it to say, for the first 20 days he seemed to be running blind. Let's make a timetable to see the content of information obtained by Emperor Daoguang and his corresponding countermeasures.

On July 17, 1840, on the twelfth day after the fall of Dinghai, Emperor Daoguang received a memorial from Lin Zexu, the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi in mid-June, saying that the Qing side set fire to the boat tents and the British side was "really helpless". He was very happy. "What we do is commendable." Three days later, on July 20, Emperor Daoguang received a memorial from Zhejiang governor Wuer Gonger on July 8, informing him that three or four thousand "Yingyi" had landed in Dinghai.He couldn't help being furious.Due to the memorials from Guangdong and Fujian received some time ago, most of them said how to win the battle with the British opium ships, and because of Lin Zexu's wrong judgment of the enemy's situation, he mistakenly believed that the "British Barbarians" who violated Dinghai were only in Guangdong, Frustrated opium dealers in Min "take advantage of the opportunity to sell private goods".His Zhu Zhu on the memorial of Wu Ergong stated that he did not pay attention to the "mere clowns" of the British army at this time.Dissatisfied with Zhejiang Wenwu's "disorientation", he transferred Yu Buyun, the Fujian land admiral who had repeatedly made military exploits in the battles of Dingchuan Chubailian Sect and Zhang Geer, to Zhejiang to assist in the attack.Two days later, on July 22, based on the lessons learned by Dinghai, he ordered the coastal provinces to "be careful to prevent blockage" in order to prevent those "British and Barbarians" whose trade was cut off for "selling cigarettes for profit" from "scattering to various places and committing crimes." nuisance".

On July 24, Emperor Daoguang once again received the memorial issued by Wuer Gonger on July 11, informing Dinghai that Dinghai had fallen, and that the British "barbarians" were advancing on Zhenhai.At this time, he seemed to see that the intruders in Dinghai were not British ships selling cigarettes. He ordered Deng Tingzhen, governor of Fujian and Zhejiang, and Yilibu, governor of Liangjiang, to send thousands of sailors to aid Zhejiang.Emperor Daoguang was quite confident of victory by suppressing one place with the troops of the three provinces.Two days later, on July 26, he stated in his edict ordering the provinces to arrest traitors: "