In June 1840, the First Opium War broke out. During the reign of emperor Guangdi of the Qing Dynasty, British merchants smuggled opium in the waters of Guangdong, China, and Lin Zexu carried out the famous "Humen Tobacco Sale" in Guangdong in 1839. Because at this time, the contradictions between China and Britain gradually increased, and the next year, the Opium War broke out, but the end made the Chinese people hate, ending in China's defeat and the indemnity of the land, and signed the first unequal treaty in modern China, the Treaty of Nanking.
During the First Opium War (June 28, 1840 – August 1842), the famous "Sanyuanli Anti-British Incident" took place. In that year, the British army broke through the forts north of Guangzhou, and also set up a headquarters and the Yongkang Platform, which was the highest terrain, which was later renamed Sifangtai by the British Army. This fort is quite high, and it is only a mile away from the city, and if you fire a cannon, you can directly hit the city. Therefore, the commander of the Qing army had no choice but to seek peace, and signed the "Canton Treaty" with the British army on May 27, 1841. Not only did they have to pay the British redemption fee, but the troops from other provinces also had to withdraw from Guangzhou in exchange for the British army returning the fort and withdrawing from Humen.
However, this contract was observed by the Qing army, and the British army began to harass the villages of Sanyuanli, Nicheng, xicun and other villages in the northwest suburbs not long after. Burning and looting in the village, raping women, and the behavior of the British army made the villagers indignant and resisted. At that time, the British army led the looting team to the Sanyuanli area to do bad things, there was an anti-British hero named Wei Shaoguang, his wife was flirted with by the British army in Sanyuanli, and he rose up with the villagers to kill several British soldiers.
Under the leadership of Wei Shaoguang, the local people began to rise up and resist. Together, they joined forces with villagers from 103 nearby townships to surround Sifangtai and lure the British into Niulan Gang in Sanyuanli. Heaven was helping them, and though they had no guns and shells, when the British entered the bullpen with their guns, it suddenly began to pour down, and their guns and shells became duds. At this time, the peasants attacked with knives, spears, and hoes. The British were surrounded and unable to break through, and the villagers killed many British troops, until the British reinforcements arrived, and the remaining British troops were rescued.
The villagers united against the British and were very brave. A few days later, they again surrounded the four-sided fort, which terrified the British. They could only force the prefect of Guangzhou to demand the forcible disbandment of the anti-British peasants, when the British army withdrew from Humen and threatened the peasants: "Don't do it again later"!
But the peasants were not afraid of them at all, but instead issued the "Notice of Shen Zhi Yingyi" to warn the British army, "If you dare to come again, without officers and soldiers, without the state treasury, you will do your own best to kill all the pigs and dogs such as Er, so as to eliminate the tragic poison in our townships."'
The Anti-British Struggle in Sanyuanli was the first spontaneous large-scale struggle of the Chinese people in modern times to resist foreign aggression, and finally the victory of the people of Guangzhou was the result, showing the patriotic spirit of the Chinese people who were not afraid of rape and violence and resisted foreign enemies.