Chapter 15 "Worthless" Xianfeng

The course of the war was exactly the same as the first Opium War. The Qing government was bullied by the big powers because of its stupidity and arrogance—it was beaten—it signed an unequal treaty—the emperor refused to implement it because of its face—it was beaten again—and it signed a more serious treaty. Unequal treaties. After the war broke out, although the Qing Dynasty had ministers of death festivals and loyal soldiers, it cost an average of 500 Qing soldiers to kill a coalition soldier. How could this battle be fought. Starting from Guangzhou, the allied forces marched northward like a broken bamboo. In the midsummer of 1858, they easily killed the Dagu Fort in Tianjin, the most powerful Qing army, and pointed their troops directly at Beijing.

According to the normal law, when the enemy is about to invade Beijing, the emperor of the Qing Dynasty will admit to signing a contract.Xianfeng is no exception. Xianfeng signed the "Tianjin Treaty" with the great powers.After the treaty was signed, Xianfeng regretted it.He regretted not because of the huge compensation and a series of lost sovereignty, but for other reasons. According to the "Tianjin Treaty", foreign ambassadors will then go to Beijing to exchange (amend) the treaty and establish an embassy.However, in order to avoid the recurrence of the "kneeling ceremony" problem in the past, Britain and France specially stated in the "Tianjin Treaty" that foreign envoys can practice Western rituals.In other words, foreigners would not kneel and kowtow three times when they saw Xianfeng.This made Xianfeng, who regarded himself as the "co-lord of the world", quite unhappy.

Why is Xianfeng still obsessed with the vain etiquette of the Heavenly Kingdom?Didn't his father Daoguang get beaten because of this? Why is he so short of memory? First, the emperors of the Qing Dynasty were always so arrogant, and second, Xianfeng was a little spoiled. In the ten years after the end of the first Opium War, several small dependent countries still came to Beijing to pay tribute, like North Korea almost every year, Vietnam and Thailand came every now and then.The awe of these small countries for the Qing Empire gave Xianfeng confidence, so Xianfeng could not accept that his "dignity of the emperor who came to court from all nations" was damaged anyway.

So Xianfeng sent people to tell the coalition army: There is no problem in changing the contract, but you must enter Beijing according to the tribute ceremony of the vassal state! How could the defeated have a right to speak? The coalition forces rejected Xianfeng's unreasonable request without even thinking about it: We will not accept any reception ceremony that belittles the status of envoys. To ensure this, we will send troops to accompany us for protection. Xianfeng thought to himself, since it's easy to say no, let's come to Yin.Then he instructed the front-line general Seng Gelinqin: Don't the foreigners want to lead troops into Beijing? Take this opportunity to teach them a lesson.Remember to hit it quietly, just say it is a brave man, not an officer or soldier.

The British and French allied forces didn't care about Xianfeng's small actions at all. They didn't pay attention to the Qing army at all, because the Mongolian cavalry they trained as the Mongolian king Seng Gelinqin were the corrupt army they had encountered before. But this time, they made a big mistake. Seng Gelinqin still has some real skills. He is the only general in the Qing army who can do it. Seng Gelinqin kept Xianfeng's top instructions in mind, and made good use of the British and French allied forces' underestimation of the enemy, geographical advantages, and numerical advantages, and really beat the British and French in the Dagukou area of ​​​​Tianjin.Therefore, the British and French allied forces withdrew from Tianjin for assistance.According to more reliable historical records, the Qing army killed nearly a hundred enemies in this battle, which was the only victory the Qing army fought in the two Opium Wars.

The news of the victory was sent back to the imperial capital, and Beijing suddenly became a sea of ​​joy.Xianfeng also took this opportunity to declare the Treaty of Tianjin invalid. How can Britain and France be reconciled to the defeat of such a great man?Moreover, the first global economic crisis triggered by the United States has also extended to the United Kingdom and France. The domestic economic situation of the two countries continues to decline, and the war indemnities and commercial interests after winning the Qing army can make up for the sluggish domestic economy. We have to increase our troops to fight again.So before Xianfeng re-arranged the spectrum of the kingdom of heaven, the British and French allied forces have made a comeback.The British and French allied forces did not give Seng Gelinqin a chance this time, and fought all the way to the vicinity of Tongzhou in the outer suburbs of Beijing.

The imperial capital was in danger of falling, and Xianfeng, who discovered that the situation was not good, once again showed his "witness".He decided to take back what he had said: Stop hitting!We surrender and the Treaty of Tientsin is valid.But how could Britain and France let Xianfeng go so cheaply: an armistice is fine, but the "Tianjin Treaty" is not enough to pay for our losses, and all conditions must be renegotiated! Once Britain and France became tough, Xianfeng lost his temper completely. Next, the two sides sent representatives to negotiate in Tongzhou.But after talking and talking, the two sides still haven't reached an agreement on the etiquette of entering Beijing.The foreigners insisted on bringing troops into Beijing, but Xianfeng didn't even think about kneeling and saluting!

When Xianfeng learned that the results of the negotiations were unsatisfactory, he was so angry that his seven orifices burst into smoke. In his anger, he thought of a "coupling plan": kidnapping. Seng Gelinqin, arrest the negotiating missions of the other party. Let us use these hostages as leverage to negotiate with Britain and France. Seng Gelinqin is a good subordinate who is good at implementing the leadership's intentions, and his execution ability is very strong. He immediately dispatched troops to capture the thirty-nine members of the British and French mission headed by Bacharley. It's hard to say about water, anyway, not many people returned home alive later.

Attacking missions is a taboo in international law!The British and French allied forces immediately retaliated, and Xianfeng's plan to take hostages against Britain and France went bankrupt. In September 1860, the British and French allied forces defeated the Mongolian cavalry led by Seng Gelinqin at the Bali Bridge in Tongzhou, and approached the Forbidden City! Xianfeng, who could feel the dragon chair under his buttocks vibrating from the cannon fire, could no longer care about the dignity of the "common master of the world" and enjoy the wonderful entertainment programs in the Old Summer Palace. He made up his mind to run away. There should be no chance to run.

Before running away, Xianfeng hurriedly called his younger brother, Prince Gong Yixin: I want to go north to Rehe to hunt (Beishu), and I will entrust the state affairs to you for the time being!Xianfeng, who threw the difficult problem to Yixin, concentrated on thinking about "advanced" issues such as which concubines should be brought with him during the "Bei Shou", and which important things should be taken away together. Rehe, the destination of Xianfeng, is the junction of Hebei Province, Liaoning Province and Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. Its provincial capital is a place known to everyone today—Chengde, a good place to escape the summer heat.

At the end of September, when the country was at a critical juncture, Xianfeng fled to Rehe in panic all the way with his lover Yi Guifei and the emperor's seal, under the pretext of hunting. A month later, the British and French allied forces captured Beijing. In Beijing, the allied forces burned, killed, looted, and did everything. The treasures in the Old Summer Palace were almost looted.As for the small part of the remaining treasures that were accidentally "washed", I had to take advantage of the local Qing people who heard the news. The fall of the national capital and the burning of the Old Summer Palace in the resort finally forced Xianfeng to let go of his poor persistence, accept the reality, and bow his head to admit defeat.Xianfeng sent someone to inform Yixin: Tell the British and French to stop fighting.We surrender and let them come and change the contract quickly. Yixin lived up to Xianfeng's high expectations. After signing several unequal traitorous treaties with the British and French, Britain and France finally stopped fighting. Britain and France finally subsided, but the shameless Russians appeared. Although the Russians lost so badly in the Crimean War that they even lost their underwear, and even their Tsar Nicholas I died during the war, but the Russians' psychological quality was "excellent", and they actually took advantage of the British and French invasions. Northeast China is causing trouble and demanding territory.Now that the old rivals Britain and France are about to withdraw their troops from China, and no one dares to intervene in themselves, the black-hearted, ruthless, and thick-skinned Russians sent envoys to inform Xianfeng: Hurry up to meet our territorial requirements, or please try the tsar Your Majesty's cannon fire! Xianfeng's pitiful self-confidence has long been beaten by Britain and France, and he still has to save some of his family property to suppress the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, so how dare he make extra troubles.So Yixin, the number one "negotiator" was sent to talk to the Russians. With the situation of the country like this, what can Yixin do.The Russians opened their mouths wide, and immediately took over one million square kilometers of land in the northwest and northeast as their own.Russia, a country without a face, thus became the biggest winner in the Second Opium War. As a result, the Second Opium War ended with the defeat of the Qing Dynasty. The ending of the war does not seem very good, with some helplessness and humiliation, but looking at it from another angle, isn't this an opportunity? Because failure does not necessarily mean the end, for a nation with seeds, failure is a new starting point! If you fail, you will wake up from the phantom of Lao Tzu's number one in the world! Only when you fail, will you see your own flaws and shortcomings! Only when it fails, will there be self-salvation, the Westernization Movement, the Hundred Days Reform, the Constitutional Reform and the Revolution of 1911, and finally the republic!