In the early days of the British and French invasion of Guangzhou, the enemy failed to establish colonial rule quickly, and the anti-invasion battles of the people of Guangdong were repeatedly defeated. In this sense, at that critical moment, the unity of the town had a lot to do with the Anglo-French coalition forces at that time, the smooth establishment of colonial rule in Guangzhou put an end to the worries of aggression, and the invaders sent troops to continue to invade Beijing and Tianjin, forcing the Qing court to surrender. Later, after Serving as governor of Guangdong, Lo sogo decided in July 1859 to cooperate with the local Anglo-French coalition forces in Guangdong to maintain the local puppet regime. Therefore, these officials will always be nailed to the column of humiliation in the history of development, forever infamous.
When the news of the fall of Guangzhou and the capture of Ye Mingchen reached Beijing, the Xianfeng Emperor was "taken aback" and had to meet with the chancellor and the new governor of Liangguang to find a solution.
Or "war" or "appeasement" has become their primary consideration. After more than half a month of planning, they felt that the decision to arrange a "war," that is, to accuse Britain and France of going to war, was neither reasonable nor advisable. Because in light of the situation at that time, the internal war of the Qing Dynasty was fierce, the salaries of officers and soldiers were a huge burden on the imperial court, and it was even more difficult to go to war with foreigners, let alone face a fierce enemy with strong warships and artillery. Second, the Guangzhou incident was a regional incident triggered by Ye Mingchen's "expulsion of overseas Chinese." If the Qing court strongly accused, it would overly irritate the enemy, give the enemy a fierce reaction, and cause the result of the final war; at the same time, it would also hinder its own retreat and increase the risk of internal and external difficulties.
However, the policy of "appeasement offices" with soft kegang and appeasement of the enemy will not work. Because this will further hurt the "national prestige" and the "Great Qing system", the enemy will be more greedy, the rights and interests of the Qing Dynasty will be seriously harmed, and the domestic rule will be more unstable. But where is the way to live? They felt that the best choice for handling the Guangzhou incident was to study the experience of the anti-invasion struggle in Guangzhou in 1849, prevent direct action with the enemy, express the expectation of saving the situation on top of the training of the Guangdong regimental training, take the regimental training as the theme of "pingyi", take the struggle of the common people as the point, bargain with the aggression, and achieve the enemy's goal of "thinking about punishment within its own area." In the words of the Xianfeng Emperor's edict, the suppression of the great powers by the people" and "unofficial mediation" were expressed.
Huang Zonghan later wrote to a man: "In this matter, when the brother waited for the capital, he said that it was best for the people to have a righteous wrath and take revenge on him, and before Yu Qincha arrived, he would first fight a big battle, so that he would know what he had been punished, and then the officials would reason with him, or give him a little favor, so as to make a round scene", which refers to this decision.
In this way, the Xianfeng Emperor appointed the former Household Attendant Luo Huanyan, the former Taichang Temple's secretary Long Yuanyuan, and the former engineering department to su Tingkui, as the main responsible persons of the Guangdong regimental training, in an attempt to firmly control the leadership of the regimental training in the hands of the Qing court through them and Huang Zonghan. As a result, the anti-invasion struggle in Guangzhou, whether official or not, was led astray from this time. The regimental training, which served the "Pingyi" and was the main body of the Qing court to prevent a direct confrontation with the enemy, was also reflected in the difficulty of retaining the post of inspector of Guangdong. According to historical records, the Xianfeng Emperor did not know at first that the local officials in Guangzhou had made peace with the British and French forces.
On January 7, 1858, local officials large and small in Guangdong attributed the deterioration of the situation in Guangzhou to Ye Mingchen. The Xianfeng Emperor was unaware. He believed that local officials in Guangzhou were not caught up in entanglement with foreigners. Instead, many people have been trusted again. In addition to the usual disposition of negotiations between officials and foreigners, he also preserved the positions of former inspector of Guangdong and general of Guangzhou, when Luo Bingzhang, the governor of Hunan, claimed that some of the correspondence between officials in the Guangzhou region at that time and the British and French allied forces were found in the enemy camp, and when discussing with the British and French colonists to maintain local stability and open a trade port, the Xianfeng Emperor was confused and questioned whether the local officials in Guangzhou were "controlled by foreigners". It was not until Luo Bingzhang secretly folded Bai Gui now lived in the same office as the Yi chieftain, under the supervision of Yi Bing, "his official documents were all read by the Yi people before they could be issued", and the Xianfeng Emperor was convinced that Bai Gui had "listened to the instructions of the Yi people and could not do everything on their own" After the traitorous acts of Bai Gui and other traitors to the enemy were already known, what should the Qing government do?
Of course, the Xianfeng Emperor made such a decision to a large extent because Ye Mingchen, the governor of Liangguang at the time, underestimated the British and French forces, and concealed and lied to his superiors for personal honor. At that time, the British and French allied forces because of the fire in the backyard, that is, the outbreak of an uprising against the British in india, which led to the temporary withdrawal of the British to India, Ye Mingchen felt that the British were retreating, and reported the situation in the Guangzhou area to the Xianfeng Emperor, which led to the misjudgment of the central government of the Qing Dynasty on the situation in the Guangzhou area.