Yuanmingyuan was built in the 18th year of Kangxi (1709), was Kangxi's gift to Yongzheng, who had not yet taken the throne, after Yongzheng ascended the throne, he gave the name yuanmingyuan as "garden" Yongzheng second year (1724) Yongzheng expanded the yuanmingyuan, and the expanded yuanmingyuan covered an area of 3,000 acres.
During the Qianlong period, the Yuanmingyuan was partially added, and the Changchun Garden and the Qichun Garden were established in the southeast ridge, the three gardens collectively known as the Yuanming Three Gardens, but in October 1856, Britain and France, with the support of Tsarist Russia and the United States, jointly launched a new war of aggression against China.
By October 6, 1860, the British and French troops had their eyes on the splendid and rich Yuanmingyuan, and they had long heard that there were countless treasures in the Yuanmingyuan, but after breaking in, the rare treasures in front of them still stunned them, and the true face of the British was also exposed.
Greedy and brutal, they began to rob the Yuanmingyuan, taking almost all the things they could take away, and even the gold on the pillars they cut with a knife, and if they couldn't take them, they destroyed them all, and under the British and French forces, the Yuanmingyuan was completely looted.
Just when the British and French troops were about to leave after plundering, the British planned to burn down the Yuanmingyuan, but the French army did not think of burning the Yuanmingyuan, because there were still many treasures in the Yuanmingyuan that had not been taken away, and the French army thought of coming back to the Yuanmingyuan in the future to take the rest with them.
However, the British army insisted on going its own way, so there was some friction between the two sides, the British army at that time was above the French army, the French army withdrew from the Yuanmingyuan in order to avoid war, and the British army still burned the Yuanmingyuan, the fire burned for several days, and a treasure disappeared from the world.
Among the British soldiers who stole the treasures of the Yuanmingyuan, there was a British second-class military officer named Helith, who was known as the nickname "Jaime of China" because of the robbery in the Yuanmingyuan, who was also known as "Jaime of China", and according to post-war statistics, the total value of the looted and destroyed property has exceeded 6 million pounds.
These are only estimated values, some of the treasures in the Yuanmingyuan are mostly priceless treasures, all of which are not defined in price, as for why the British ordered the burning of the Yuanmingyuan? According to the names of British scholars, during the invasion, the Qing government killed many British soldiers.
So they used the burning of the Yuanmingyuan to show their position, which was also a warning to the Qing government, and the British envoy Erjin said at that time: "Only the method of burning the Yuanmingyuan is the most feasible." In this way, the world's rare magnificent palace became a sea of fire.
At that time, not only the Yuanmingyuan was burned down, but also hundreds of ordinary people who fought against Britain and France to protect the Yuanmingyuan, the history of the Yuanmingyuan cannot be forgotten, it gave us a painful lesson, backward will be beaten. What do you think about that?