On the battlefield of the Opium War, the flanks of several British warships fired a series of salvos at the Qing forts on the shore.
[Pictured] British warships at that time
Hundreds of British soldiers then landed on the flanks of the fort in dinghies and went around to the rear of the fort to attack. The Qing defenders on the fort were in disarray, shooting indiscriminately without a clue, the British army began to land on a large scale, and the soldiers lined up in a salvo of salvos, driving the Qing army out of the fort, the fort lost, and the Qing army collapsed...
Scenes like this were repeated during the Opium Wars.
The defeat of the Opium War has to make us think, where is the gap between double hair?
Now it seems that the superiority of the British army is mainly concentrated in weapons, the quality of soldiers and tactics.
At that time, the firearms used by the Qing army were mainly arquebusiers, and soldiers were equipped with gunpowder and matches for ignition. The rate of fire of this gun is 1-2 rounds per minute, and the range is about 100 meters. In addition to the shortcomings of slow rate of fire and short range, in actual combat, because the gun body is too long, loading and firing are very inconvenient, and it is impossible to install bayonets, and it is basically useless to engage the enemy at close range. In addition, the firing mechanism of the arquebusier is very backward, and during the firing process, the gunpowder is also very easy to spill out and ignite, and the soldiers will even be burned or injured. The most surprising thing is that these guns are particularly old, and the guns used by the Qing army for the longest time have a history of more than 160 years. And in these more than 160 years, there has been no renewal. However, even such arquebusiers only equipped about half of the troops, and the rest of the troops used cold weapons to fight.
Looking at the British army, the British army was generally equipped with a new front-loading smoothbore firing gun, with a rate of fire of 3 to 4 rounds per minute and a range of about 300 meters. Some people have calculated that the firepower of one British musket is equivalent to the firepower of 5 arquebusiers used by the Qing army, but in actual combat, this gap will be widened.
Let's compare the artillery.
It is hard to believe that because the Qing Dynasty strictly banned firearms, after a long time, there was no place for the whole country to build cannons, so the qing dynasty's artillery was even worse than the Ming Dynasty hundreds of years ago. The artillery in stock has also fallen into disrepair and has long been rusty, and it is not known whether it can continue to be used normally. Some of the forts in the Tianjin area used Ming Dynasty cannons.
【Photo】 Qing Dynasty cannon
Later, the Qing army began to imitate the European artillery of the 17th century to build cannons, but there were still problems such as backward casting process, poor iron quality, and defective design.
On the training ground, a batch of newly built artillery is waiting to be tested, and they are lined up in a majestic line. The Lord of the Great Qing Dynasty sat on the viewing platform, his eyebrows locked, he did not say a word, and then waved his hand, and the officers on the side saw it, immediately ran to the stage, and loudly ordered: Prepare for test shooting!
As soon as the soldiers in front of the cannon heard the word "test shot," they shook their legs and stomachs one by one. These two words mean that they are going to go to the ghost gate again.
Because of the defects we mentioned earlier, the explosion rate of Qing artillery was surprisingly high, and many artillerymen lost their lives because of the explosion during the test firing.
In 1835, Humen test-fired 59 new guns, 10 guns were destroyed on the spot, 3 guns were damaged, and the remaining guns, although not blown, were difficult to ensure that they could withstand the test of actual combat.
In addition to quality, there is also an important indicator to measure the quality of artillery, that is, the rate of fire. In those days, the rate of fire of artillery was even more important than accuracy. At that time, the rate of fire of the Qing artillery was 1 round every 6 minutes, while the rate of fire of the British artillery was 3 rounds per 2 minutes, simply put, the Qing army hit a shell, and the British 9 shells were smashed into the face. Coupled with the poor quality of the Qing artillery and the low quality of the soldiers, the rate of fire will only be slower in actual combat.
In addition to artillery, there is also a huge gap in artillery shells, although both sides are firing solid iron lead bullets, but the Qing artillery can only fire a few pounds of small shells, while the British army can fire dozens of pounds of large shells, and the British army is also equipped with the latest explosive bombs at that time, which is the most feared thing of the Qing army, the lethality is huge, Qi Shan once described this kind of shell in the compromise to the emperor.
At the same time, the gap between the two sides in the quality of soldiers is also amazing.
The British navy and army were composed of well-trained professional soldiers who were familiar with the way of fighting at that time, used weapons freely, obeyed orders, standardized tactical movements, shot accurately, and were well prepared before the start of the war.
【Photo】 British soldiers during the Opium War
And these British opponents, basically never experienced combat, whether it is firearms, or cold weapons, are not familiar. As for the soldiers, one by one, like coolies, they were wearing shorts and holding fans and rattan cards in their hands. When the soldiers assembled urgently, the soldiers were neither wearing uniforms nor weapons, without any preparations, and half-awake, the officer had them hand over a pile of rag-like uniforms next to them, with the word "courage" sewn on the front and back of the clothes to show the difference between them and the civilians, and then carried the rusted swords from the storeroom.
【Photo】 Qing Dynasty soldiers during the Opium War
The navy of the Qing Dynasty also looked like this, before the Opium War, the warships of the Great Qingshui Division were basically built of wood, huge and bulky, just like a pile of wood, the cannons on the ship could also be put less, because there were more wooden ships that could not move, the cannons on the ship were the same as in the shore turrets, the power was small and the rate of fire was slow, some cannons fired on the ship, and the recoil generated directly allowed the cannon to crash into the side of the ship behind the butt and directly fall into the sea.
How did those Western countries, which had undergone modernization, view the military strength of the Qing Empire at that time?
During his visit to China, Macartney once said that the entire navy of their empire would only need two gunboats, and it would take only half a quarter to completely destroy the sea traffic along their coast.
After the Russian Nikolai sent an envoy to the Qing Dynasty, he also believed that the Qing army had no combat effectiveness to speak of.
At the beginning of the nineteenth century, a magazine founded by foreigners, the Macao Monthly, summarized the Qing Dynasty army from the perspective of civilians.
They came to the conclusion that the Qing army had no combat effectiveness at all, let alone war, even ordinary riots were difficult to quell, the military strength of the Qing Dynasty was completely overestimated, and under a direct foreign attack, the entire imperial army would collapse in an instant.
Now that we look at this conclusion again, it is actually not outrageous, carefully counting the specific contents of the "Ten Perfections of Martial Arts" that Qianlong also proudly claimed to be unparalleled in the world, and then looking at Hong Xiuquan's triumphant journey from Jeonju to Nanjing, we can roughly know what level the military strength of the Qing Empire is.
Such an army has no chance of winning in a modern war like the Opium War.