There is no black-and-white history, and there is no true objective neutrality

"Autumn of Heaven" by Pei Shifeng

As mentioned last time, Hong Xiuquan established the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and while preaching, he marched north, sitting in Nanjing, waiting for an opportunity to attack the enemy. The West's attention to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is far beyond our imagination, because for the first time in history, a great foreign country has given birth to a revolutionary regime based on Christian doctrine.

As the first global empire in history, Britain could not stand idly by if it wanted to invest more political and military resources for profit. So, how did they express their position when the Chinese mainland was full of flames?

Today, we will talk about the impact of foreign intervention on the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.



Ever since the British used force in the Opium Wars to win Shanghai and the treaty ports south of Shanghai open to all countries, other countries have also been eager to try the fertile land of China. But foreign governments did not dare to act arbitrarily, and they were not sure what the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom could bring to them. As a result, the foreign government, Xuancheng, took a neutral stance toward the Chinese civil war.

The British Governor of Hong Kong even banned the British in China from intervening in the Chinese civil war, and any British who violated their neutrality were sentenced to prison or fined heavily. In fact, behind the neutrality, the British government is watching the balance of heaven's every move, intending to see which side wins in its favor and then supports which side.

When the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom defeated the Qing Dynasty and was unable to fight back, the British seized the opportunity to take advantage of the danger and forced the Qing government to revise the Treaty of Nanking signed after the Opium War in 1842, in a vain attempt to allocate more resources to China. Who knew that the Qing government not only disagreed, but also arrested the sailors on the British-flagged smuggling ship "Yaluo".

Therefore, the British government claimed that the Qing government had insulted its country, and used this as an excuse to send Erjin to China and ask him to conclude a new treaty at any cost.

Elgin's trip went through many tribulations: first when passing through Ceylon, he encountered the Indian army rebellion, loaned troops to the British governor of Calcutta, who was unable to quell the chaos, and delayed some time in India; then spent several months waiting for reinforcements to arrive in Hong Kong; and finally sailed north to the White River, which was frozen and had no way to advance, but to wait for the spring.

After the ice melted in the spring, Erjin could finally justifiably ask the Qing government to send someone to sign a new treaty, but the emperor did not think so and ignored Erjin. This annoyed Elgin, who led the British and French fleets up the river, vowing to teach the Qing Empire a lesson.

The course of the Baihe River is very tortuous, and it is much more difficult to take the waterway than to take the land route, but Erjin is bound to get it, and it is imperative to transport the weapons that can deter the Qing government, the gunboats equipped with artillery, to a distance that makes the emperor frightened, posing a direct threat to the Qing government. In the end, the large army broke through the Dagu Fortress and won a stage victory in the war.

The Qing government knew in its heart that from the analysis of various strengths, the troops and weapons and equipment led by Erjin were powerless to resist by their own country, so the emperor was afraid and immediately sent plenipotentiaries to negotiate a treaty, hoping to prevent them from advancing further into the capital.

In this way, the British government got its wish and signed this seemingly peaceful and friendly treaty of trade, the Treaty of Tianjin, and the Qing government was once again humiliated.

Clear-eyed people know that this treaty is definitely not an equal treaty, and it can be said that it deceives people too much. The treaty stipulated that foreigners could move around the Qing Empire at will, and Chinese converting to Christianity would be protected, of course, excluding the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

And that's not all, just as Britain was triumphant, several other countries saw the enormous benefits of the treaty and followed suit. As a result, the envoys of France, Russia, and the United States also signed similar treaties with the Qing court, and Elgin also won the historical reputation of the pioneer of British gunboat diplomacy in China.

It is reported that Erjin had received a letter from a commander of the Taiping Army, inviting him to fight alongside him and annihilate the Ships of the Qing Government, and as a reward, the Heavenly King would grant him the title of Honor.

It turned out that Hong Xiu really believed that Britain was a Christian country, and the Christian demands of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom would impress them. The Manchu Qing dynasty has long wanted to drive the foreigners out, and only the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom really wanted to ally with the foreigners, and the British should accept themselves.

Unfortunately, the British government is not interested in who can call itself a brother, but on who is convenient to squeeze more from. Obviously, the Treaty of Tianjin signed in 1858 gave the British a big advantage, and they could not bear to give up the fat meat of the Qing government, and Hong Xiuquan made a mistake.

To be precise, the so-called neutrality of the British government is actually a pretense, and they are rebellious and morally opposed. But who cares about moral standards on the commanding heights of interests?

A year later, the British Prime Minister appointed Erkin's younger brother Bruce as Britain's plenipotentiary and led the army to China to exchange treaties with the Chinese emperor. Under the premise that the Emissaries of the Qing Dynasty had already informed the Emperor that they were not allowed to take the route from the White River to Beijing, in order to show off their abilities, Bruce was determined not to change the route.

In Bruce's view, the previous year's Battle of Takukou was an absolute victory, and this time the Qing army could not stop itself. Moreover, listening to the emperor's words and taking the secondary route taken by the history of tribute is a great shame and humiliation, and it cannot be compromised.

What Brius did not know was that after Erjin had breached the fortress of Taku, the emperor had sent his most trusted and warlike general, the monk Greenqin, to take charge of coastal defense. The monk Gelinqin was fruitful in battle, once repelled the Northern Expeditionary Army of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, was crowned prince, and became famous. The emperor put him in this important position, that is, he wanted to avenge the snow and hatred and give the British and French fleets a dismount.

Sure enough, Bruce fell into an ambush by Senggelinqin, sinking 3 ships, 3 ships severely damaged, and more than 400 soldiers killed and wounded. To put it bluntly, this is not just a failure, but a fiasco.

Sangh Gelinqin won a decisive victory, was greatly excited, and confidently told the emperor that in the future, he would not have to fear such a fleet again, and he would lead his troops to destroy it once. But the emperor still had a lingering feeling, and warned him to keep a close eye on the coastal movements, as long as the new treaty was not signed, the others would turn a blind eye.

In the end, the emperor and the monk Greenqin still thought of this victory as simple. In the eyes of the British, the Great Selling Fiasco was a bloody humiliation, the weapons and tactics were inferior to others, and they could not bear to lose to the hands of the Chinese.

From this day on, everything was different, and the British government, with the mentality of revenge on the "inferior people" that had defeated them, was full of energy, brewing a catastrophe that could cause Chinese to suffer more than ever.

Well, that's it for today's co-reading. Through this co-reading, we know that in the war between the Qing court and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the British government was worried about its economic interests in Shanghai being damaged, and on the other hand, it was dissatisfied with the inefficiency of the Qing government. They pretend to be neutral, but in fact they are waiting for an opportunity to seek greater benefits.

So what will the disgraced British government do next? How did Hong Renjie, who went to Nanjing to find his brother, cope with this complicated situation? See the next section.