Chapter 11 The Opium War Not For Opium

Opium was ruined, but things were far from over.Because Elliot, who had handed over the opium, did not sign the guarantee letter, he said that the confiscation of the goods in the guarantee letter was acceptable, but the immediate execution of the personnel was not acceptable, and there was no such definition in the laws of the British Empire. This matter has not been resolved yet, and something happened again. Several British sailors got into trouble after drinking and clashed with the Chinese. The two sides fought in groups. Unfortunately, a comrade named Lin Weixi died for the country. Lin Zexu and Elliot had serious differences again on how to deal with this incident.Elliot believes that the sailor who caused the accident should be tried according to British law, while Lin Zexu demands that Elliott immediately hand over the murderer and pay for the murder according to the law of the Qing Dynasty.Elliot objected, so Lin Zexu uttered harsh words: You don't have to hand over people, but you British people must all get out of the territory of the Qing Dynasty!

Elliot and the British businessmen left Macau, and they came to live temporarily on a desolate island. This island is familiar to everyone, and it is Hong Kong. As Lin Zexu's successive victories were staged one after another, the whole country fell into a kind of self-expansion of "the king of the heavens is in the world, and the power of the gods is irresistible". No one realizes that Elliot has already written the script for the next development of the plot. Elliott, as the former secretary of Lu Laobei, especially during this period of time, made him deeply realize that only force can force the Qing government to accept Western rules, so he decided to provoke a war to tell the Qing emperor what is Free trade, what is equal diplomacy!

Given that the British government’s previous attitude towards opium smuggling has always been “you deserve to be bullied by the Qing Dynasty for smuggling”, Elliot and his team carefully prepared a very convincing reason in order to persuade the British Parliament to support sending troops, the general idea is as follows: The Qing Dynasty regarded itself as a superior country and a superior race. It always used the tone of admonishing grandchildren and the practice of violating human rights to insult British businessmen. It even endangered the lives of innocent British businessmen who did not smuggle opium many times, and affected trade other than opium. .The laws of the Qing Dynasty seem to be specially set up to facilitate officials' corruption and bribery, so trading with the Qing Dynasty requires paying other fees that are much higher than customs duties.Therefore, it is impossible to reason with such a government. Only by subduing it first can the unfair treatment of British officials and subjects in China be corrected, trade rights can be defended, and national honor can be safeguarded...

This reason did not move Congress, but touched the heartstrings of Queen Victoria's self-esteem.Under Victoria's intervention, in April 1840, the British Parliament passed the decision to send troops by a narrow margin of 271 votes to 262 votes. Lin Zexu in Guangzhou did not panic after hearing the news of the British sending troops. His strategy was to defend and counterattack.While doing a good job in Guangzhou city defense, he ordered his friend Guan Tianpei, one of the most outstanding generals of the Qing army, to strengthen the firepower of defensive fortresses on waterways such as Humen Fort, and prepare to wait for work with leisure to meet the fierce attack of the British.

In June, the huge British fleet arrived in the sea of ​​China, and the first Opium War began. However, several days passed in a row, and the siege battle of the British fleet that Lin Zexu imagined did not come. Why did the British go?Later, I learned that the main fleet of the British army had no plan to attack Guangzhou City at all. The British plan was to fight directly with the central government of the Qing Dynasty, because this was the most efficient and effective way. It has to be said that the British plan is very feasible, because there is a huge loophole in the national defense of the Qing Dynasty: Without a powerful navy, the coastal defense line of more than 10,000 kilometers has almost leaked into a sieve.

The main British fleet went northward, almost without encountering any resistance. In the past two months, Daoguang heard all bad news. The British sent troops, Zhoushan fell, and Ningbo was blocked... But this is not as good as Zhili Governor Qi Shan reported that "the British fleet has reached Tianjin." The news came as a shock! The key points of Gyeonggi were exposed to the gunfire range of enemy ships, the ministers panicked, and Daoguang panicked too! In a hurry, the central government of the Qing Dynasty finally thought of a solution: remove Lin Zexu who was a bad guy, send someone to appease the British, and see what the British want at the negotiating table.

The imperial envoy was Qi Shan, and the result of the negotiation was the "Putting the Nose Grass Treaty" drafted by this brother and the powerful British together with the powerful British. The silver dollar, which allowed officials of both countries to communicate on an equal footing. The two parties who signed the contract were quite satisfied with the result, but what happened next disappointed them.The Qing Dynasty was very dissatisfied and could not accept the result of the cession of the territory at all. The British government was also very dissatisfied, feeling that the results were too small-the trade was not free enough, and the status was not equal enough.

Since we can't get the desired result at the negotiating table, we can only see each other on the battlefield. The army of the Qing Dynasty not only lagged behind the British in terms of weapons, but also in terms of military literacy, so when the war broke out again, the situation took a sharp turn for the worse.The death ratio between the Qing army and the British army was as high as 400 to 1, but such a disparity in the cost of casualties could not save the successive fall of Humen, Guangzhou, Xiamen, Ningbo, Shanghai and Zhenjiang, the water transportation hub. Daoguang, who had been defeated in a row, hurriedly stopped for a very strange reason-the Qing Dynasty could not continue to lose face in front of the Han people, lest the Han people be encouraged to rebel.

That being the case, let's make peace. At the end of 1842, the famous "Nanjing Treaty" in modern history came into effect after being signed by Emperor Daoguang and Queen Victoria respectively. The First Opium War ends.