History is written by the victors, and this is not false at all. The history we see is not necessarily the real history, but the accounts of the historians of various dynasties and generations on the previous dynasties, and it is very normal to have a little emotional color. Therefore, there are some hidden histories that may never be known without the objective and impartial excavations of contemporary historians.
And a war that occurred during the Qing Dynasty was almost buried in the long river of history. Why were the historians of the Qing Dynasty reluctant to mention this war? Because of this war, the Qing government consumed almost 30,000 elite soldiers, and the enemy army only killed 2 people, such a humiliating war, in exchange for any dynasty of any country, is ashamed to record.
What kind of war is it? The Battle of Bali Bridge in 1860 was fought between the Qing and British armies. Seeing this, readers can guess one or two. At that time, although the Qing Dynasty sent 30,000 elites, but they all used cold weapons, how could they beat the British army armed with guns, was this really the case?
In fact, the real fight is a different scene. At that time, the Qing army invited a Mongol cavalry with extremely strong combat effectiveness, even in the face of foreign guns, the Mongolian heavy cavalry that marched extremely fast was not vain. Moreover, this Mongol cavalry was very famous for its combat effectiveness at that time, and even the British army had heard of their fame.
Before the battle, the British carefully analyzed the situation and felt that even the foreign guns would not necessarily win over the 30,000 Mongol iron horses. So he bought several long-range cannons from the French, and set up a row at the head of the Eight Mile Bridge from afar. The exchange of foreign guns for cannons was something that the Qing court and the Mongol cavalry did not expect.
As a result, the war broke out, and the Mongol cavalry company was frightened by the artillery fire on the opposite side, the most serious of which was the warhorse. Shells exploded around the horses, and the frightened horses were not controlled at all and began to run in panic. Many Mongol cavalry fell off their horses and were directly trampled to death by the hooves of horses, and those who were lucky enough to rush to the front of the British army were also single-shadowed, and were solved by the British foreign guns three times five divided by two.
After the end of this battle, the 30,000 elite troops composed of the Eight Banners and the Mongolian Iron Horse on the Qing side were completely destroyed, and more than 8,000 people on the British side were wounded and 28 people were wounded, and only 2 people were killed, and they were also trampled to death by war horses in the chaotic battle. Therefore, the biggest decisive factor in this war is these out-of-control warhorses.
As a classic battle of modern armies and feudal armies, the Battle of Bali Bridge is also one of the rare cases in the history of war in which less wins and more victories. Due to the heavy losses of the Qing Dynasty, the historian never recorded the battle. But the British army that won the war naturally wanted to be hyped up.
It was not until a hundred years later that Our historians saw records of the Battle of the Eight Mile Bridge in the British Encyclopedia Britannica and Napoleon III and the Pinnacle of His Power, which pointed the spearhead of the defeat of this war directly at the famous monk Gelinqin of the late Qing Dynasty.
Senggelinqin was a famous Mongolian patriotic general in the late Qing Dynasty, who led the Mongol cavalry as early as the First Opium War to destroy the troops of the Anglo-French army. Not only did it seriously damage 6 enemy ships, but also sank 4 ships, killing and wounding as many as 484 British and French troops, which was the greatest victory of the Qing army against foreign invaders.
Unfortunately, these achievements made the monk Greenqin begin to look at no one and become conceited. It was believed that the foreign guns and cannons of the British and French coalition forces were not worth mentioning at all, and in the Third Battle of Dagukou, it was clear that there was a huge gap between cold weapons and new weapons. The monk Greenqin still resolutely participated in the Battle of Bali Bridge with the old routine, and finally lost a complete defeat, which is also reasonable.
It was also after this war that the Qing court finally knew the power of foreign guns and cannons, and then began to make promises to the Western powers, and signed various unequal treaties one after another. After this, the Qing army and the Western powers fought against the Eight-Power Alliance invaded China in 1900. However, in view of the fact that the Qing army at that time had long been disillusioned and corrupt, even if all the staff were equipped with the latest weapons, they could not win the war.
After all, the torrent of history is rolling in, and the fate of the feudal dynasty towards its demise cannot be stopped. Whether it was the Battle of Bali Bridge or the later invasion of China by the Eight-Nation Alliance, it was all the direction of history.