Small speculation: Strong can be low-key, but weakness cannot be hidden.
On October 7, 1793, under the expulsion order of the Qing Dynasty, Magalni left Beijing with a complete diplomatic failure, and the British mission was very unconvinced: we entered Beijing like beggars, lived like prisoners, and left like thieves.
How excited Magarney was when he left England, how sad he was at this time.
When he was 27 years old, he was able to make a treaty of trade with Catherine the Great, and now he is 56 years old, mature and sophisticated, but he has touched a nose full of ash in China and run in vain.
Can you imagine the frustration of Zhang Mazi finding nothing in Goose City?
However, Magalney soon picked up the spirits, and although the diplomatic mission failed, another mission came automatically:
The British government has instructed that once diplomacy fails, it should do everything possible to understand China and do a good job of intelligence gathering for the armed forces.
After all, this is a behemoth, after all, China is a superpower in the eyes of Europeans, and if Britain wants to swallow an elephant, it must do a good job of research.
He planned to measure China with his footsteps, and in two months he would run from north to south to Guangzhou.
As a result, Magalni was transformed from ambassador to spy.
1
The age of hunger
Magalni's trip to China was accompanied by song jun, the minister of military aircraft, and a Manchu.
The Qianlong Emperor had already been alert to the British, and ordered that the coastal areas be on alert, and the accompanying officials were called escorts, which were actually surveillance, and they always reported the truth to the emperor, and once they found that the British were in trouble, they could also use the army to suppress them. Such an important matter must be the responsibility of the Manchus. This was the custom of the Qing Dynasty: the key issue was to believe only in the Manchus, and the Han chinese to stand on the sidelines.
Accompanying MaGalni this time were two other people: Qiao Renjie, a Tianjin Daoist, and Wang Wenxiong, the deputy general of Tongzhou, who was Song Jun's deputy.
The most important military aircraft, until the fall of the Qing Dynasty, was always controlled by the Manchus, and the Han and Mongols were sparring partners.
Magalni first returned to Tianjin from the original waterway, and even stayed in the temple where he had stayed before. From Tianjin to Shandong and Jiangsu along the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, this is a new journey.
The scenery and crowds of onlookers along the way were no longer fresh, and even the strength of the officials and the obedience and poverty of the people made them accustomed to it.
These officials could requisition porters at any time and at any time, and the pay was so low that not only did some people risk escaping; the people on the shore automatically gave way to a neat road when they saw the officials with whips; the people's clothing and housing were still so shabby.
Accustomed to these wordless phenomena, the British can still see something unique, and their most impressive thing is the luxuriant agriculture.
On both sides of the river, there is almost no wasteland in sight, and the British often see endless farmland with lush wheat, cotton and sorghum. Although the land is arid and looks relatively barren, those crops grow well.
The industriousness of the Chinese peasants has made these crops quite fertile. They can achieve this kind of agricultural achievement with pure artificial and simple agricultural tools, and the British are very impressed.
However, while the British saw the growth of crops, they listened to Qiao Renjie and Wang Wenxiong say that people in these provinces often starved to death.
It is the harvest season in October, people still have food, and at the turn of winter and spring, the grain that should be harvested is harvested, there is no harvest, and the cold weather will increase the number of deaths.
Magalni felt that improving agricultural techniques, borrowing from Western machines, could increase food production and reduce mortality, but Matsu and his entourage of officials showed no interest.
Like the Qianlong Emperor, they were instinctively disgusted with anything new, believing that everything at the moment was the most appropriate thing to do well. Even if they know that new things are more advanced, they will not adopt them.
In their eyes, with new technologies and free hands, these people will have time to think about other things and become the X factor of stable order.
Always busy, not for food, but for order.
Always on the verge of food and hunger, how much providence and how man-made?
Magalney said, "forcing Chinese to starve."
Magalney also found Chinese dietary feature, which was a lack of meat. Along the way, it is rare to see farmed cattle, sheep and chickens. It is a plantation with no animal husbandry.
This vegetarian-based nutritional structure and the rhythm of life that only seeks food and clothing have pushed up the mortality rate of Chinese.
Professor Zheng Qiang said in a speech that Chinese not eat meat for a long time, so that the digestive system is different from that of Europeans. In that speech, he called on Chinese teenagers to eat more meat, not to do what they don't want because of a little obesity, to go vegetarian, and to spend decades evolving the digestive system Chinese.
In addition to the abundant crops, they also saw a large number of ships on the canal, dressed with various goods, and the busy river transportation showed that the country's commerce was prosperous. Magalni also watched a ceremony to worship the river god in Shandong, meat dishes, drums and whips, the scene was very solemn.
Whether it is the markets of villages and towns, or the vitality of canals, what Magalni saw strongly shows that although this is a country that prohibits trade and light trade, domestic trade is developing tenaciously.
When Magalni was investigating China's agricultural problems in detail, the Qianlong Emperor issued an edict day and night, and the core purpose was to report everything in detail and to monitor it seriously and lively.
The wind and waves on both sides are calm, but in fact, the dark tide is turbulent.
Magalni was not a fool or a blind man, and he also noticed the frequent exchange of letters from the court, and he was amazed at the speed of this correspondence. Relying purely on manpower and horsepower, the transmission speed can be 200-300 kilometers per day. At this rate, it takes only 5 days to get from Beijing to Hangzhou and 10 days to Guangzhou.
France's postal delivery speed is the fastest in Europe, and it is only 1/3 of China's.
However, the missionaries in Beijing told Magalni that it would take 3 months for the missionaries in Beijing and Guangzhou to communicate. Moreover, their letters have been unsealed.
The speed of mail delivery between government and private people is very different!
However, Magalni's admiration would soon fade, as Europe would introduce the optical telegraph in 1796, steamships 10 years later, and railways 20 years later.
Magalney found that the further south you go, the denser the population becomes, which is related to the warm climate in the south for crop growth. But this dense population inadvertently led to a tragedy that magalni was haunted by.
Near the Yellow River in Shandong, thousands of people from nearby villages and towns came to watch the foreigners passing by, and because there were too many people, suddenly a few people fell into the water, and these people could not swim, and shouted for help in panic.
However, no one went to the rescue!
Magalni was extremely disappointed, and suddenly saw a little hope, and someone went into the water to swim over, but instead of saving people, he took the hat of the person who fell into the water.
Magalney was completely disappointed.
Magalney also thought that when he landed in Tianjin in August, someone fell into the water and there was no one to rescue him. This is the complete opposite of the Chinese image of Confucian wisdom in the minds of Europeans.
Another myth shattered.
2
Naïve military exercises
The Qianlong Emperor was well aware of Britain's naval superiority, as evidenced by his repeated rebukes to Zhejiang officials for not urging the British ships to leave Zhoushan as soon as possible.
The British also despised the Qing Dynasty's naval military might, and Magalni was blunt in his diary as he passed through Shandong:
"Does it really not understand that it takes just a few British warships to wipe out the entire navy of the Empire?" In just half a summer, can you destroy all the ships along the Chinese coast? ”
In the naval balance of power, both sides are tacit.
Therefore, the Qianlong Emperor hoped to show off the combat strength of the Qing army to the British mission on land, so as to prove that we had land superiority and regain a little face.
Magalni had already seen this when he left Beijing this time, because he found that unlike when he came to Beijing, there were many soldiers in the greeting team along the way to leave Beijing.
They had serious expressions, their eyes were wide open, and they were neatly dressed, but because the weapons they wore were bows and arrows and a small number of backward arquebusiers, these military shows off, not only did not have a deterrent effect, but exposed their shortcomings.
Qing officials took it for granted that the British Army was poor and that it was the level of nomadic people in northern China. This naïve view makes military ostentation only a joke in the eyes of others.
But Qing officials didn't know this, and they enjoyed it. Until the Second Opium War, the Qing government stubbornly believed that the British Navy was mighty and the Army was pulling its crotch.
On November 6, 1793, in Zhenjiang, a huge military exercise was prepared for the British.
A total of 2,000 people, gongs and drums were noisy, flags were displayed, and they were inspected by Wang Bing, the chief soldier. The helmets sparkled and the military uniforms shone neatly, staging a serious "uniform seduction".
However, the military equipment is still bows and arrows spears, a few broken guns.
Seeing this kind of cold weapon-based military equipment, how would Magalni feel?
It's like Biden admiring the crushing boulders in his chest in North Korea.
Ten thousand words of "stupidity" in my heart, and I have to squeeze a smile on my face to show my courtesy.
Magalni also deliberately asked Wang Wenxiong, who was next to him, "Why would you rather use such a crude arquebus gun than the exquisite rifle commonly used by Europeans?" Wang Wenxiong's answer left Magalni speechless, "In Tibet, rifles are not as effective as muskets." ”
This is a completely untrue bias.
Magalni had no idea that the Qing Dynasty had exquisite rifles, which were only reserved for the Imperial Forest Army of the Forbidden City, and existed as military secrets of the emperor, and it was illegal for other troops to use them.
In fact, it is normal that Magalni does not know, because Wang Wenxiong does not know, even Lin Zexu, who will preside over anti-smoking and coastal defense in the future, does not know.
Not only were the weapons backward, Magalni also found that the Zhenjiang city wall in front of him was on the verge of collapse, which was a dangerous building.
In ancient times, the city wall was the core of national defense, and the so-called military point of occupation was to break through the city wall, and once the city wall was broken, the war was the final work. You've broken walls and practiced a fart!
It's like the United States flaunting force on an aircraft carrier, and as a result, the cabin leaks badly, the hull is a little tilted, and your F35 is good, and others will only think that the United States has a false appearance. Not to mention your fighter is still a 70s MiG-23!
After watching the entire exercise, Magalni wrote in his diary:
"They don't have a bit of martial style, and the soldiers are a little feminine, like they're on stage rather than military exercises."
There is no doubt that the military exercises have become a joke.
Finally, Qing officials were not at ease, and in order to strengthen the deterrent effect, they revealed to Magalni: "We have 1 million infantry and 800,000 cavalry. ”
This figure is suspected of exaggeration, but at that time the Qing Dynasty did have 800,000-1 million troops, but most of them were not so much soldiers as militia.
The Qing Dynasty had no police and no urban management, so most of the soldiers of the Qing Dynasty were responsible for administrative and judicial tasks. As an authoritarian and repressive regime, the Qing Dynasty must maintain the presence of force throughout the country and suppress outlaws anytime and anywhere.
As a result, these armies were scattered throughout the country, sometimes called jailers, sometimes sentries, sometimes granary guards.
As Magalni walked along the way, he found that every five or six kilometers along the way, there were soldiers stationed.
The meaning of their existence has long been not to fight, but to maintain order.
Such an army has no combat effectiveness on the battlefield.
During the Opium War, the Daoguang Emperor recruited 250,000 such soldiers from all over the country to the battlefield, almost all of whom were a rabble, and had no egg except to eat military salaries.
Coincidentally, the Qianlong Emperor prepared a large military exercise for the British mission in Zhenjiang, and the Opium War ended in Zhenjiang 50 years later.
History is so magical, it can be said to be a coincidence, it can be said to be ironic.
However, the British delegation did not go to Nanjing, because the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal did not pass through Nanjing, and they could not see the city.
In Zhenjiang, Magalni also learned that 300,000 Eight Banner Soldiers were the core elite of the Qing Dynasty government, all of whom were Manchus, and he couldn't help but think: 300,000 Manchus could control 300 million Han Chinese, 1:1000, such a huge disparity between conquerors and conquered people, it was really unheard of!
He suddenly understood that there was some truth in Europe's infatuation with China: what country could govern more shrewdly than China?
3
Silk of Suzhou and Hangzhou
Since ancient times, the simplest indicator of whether a place is prosperous or not is the posture of a woman.
As soon as the British arrived in Suzhou, they were attracted by the women of this place.
It's not just that the long journey has long since left them suffocating, it's that the women in this place are so beautiful.
Most of the women here wear fashionable silk clothes, their faces look pleasant and relaxed, and they are very good at dressing, with earrings and satin soft hats. They are distinctly different from women elsewhere in China.
It seems that Suzhou women won glory for China at that time.
However, the British could not get off the ship, they were forbidden to contact with the people, in a state of close surveillance, can only watch the beauty disappear with the waves, in yy reluctantly left Suzhou.
For Magalney, the biggest regret of not being able to get off the ship is not the female color, but the silk.
One of the purposes of his research was to understand silk technology in order to introduce it to India.
However, Chinese has been highly vigilant about this since ancient times, as a core competitiveness, silk technology has always been a state secret, and anyone who dares to leak secrets will be killed.
The British mission received little information, nor did it take with it mulberry saplings and silkworm samples.
It can be seen from here that after the failure of the mission, the British already had plans to find an alternative to the Chinese market.
Whether it was a woman or a silk, the British mission could only be seen from a distance on a river boat, and could not be blasphemed. In a hungry and thirsty eye, he left Suzhou and arrived in Hangzhou on November 9.
Hangzhou is also a famous silk manufacturing center, where Magalni will continue his mission.
The opportunity came, because some members of the British mission were going to Zhoushan by British boat along the coastline to Guangzhou, Magalni was going to go from the inland river to Guangzhou, the personnel were separated and the luggage was resettled, and the mission was to stay in Hangzhou for a few days.
But he was soon disappointed, the mission's itinerary was arranged so meticulously that they did not have time to travel independently. Tour the West Lake, see leifeng pagoda... But it was impossible to inquire about the situation without the arrangement.
They are under close surveillance, and their every move is in the eyes of Chinese officials. This was the will of the Qianlong Emperor repeatedly.
Two British people tried to sneak away, but when they were discovered by the Chinese soldiers, they were directly arrested and beaten.
According to my meaning, the ticket has face; if you don't follow the rules, you immediately turn your face and don't recognize anyone. The distance from guests to the prisoners is only within a line.
Magalni could only inquire a little about mulberry trees and silkworm farming like a boatman and a coachman, which was very fragmentary and useless.
Although the expected results were not achieved, Magalni got a little silkworm egg.
During the Song Dynasty, europeans hid cocoons in their wives' underwear and brought them back to Italy, but nothing changed.
Magalni, like the European, was at first a treasure, but later found that it had no real role in Europe.
Tea and silk were the bulk of China's foreign trade at that time, and in addition to silk, the British also wanted to introduce Chinese tea technology in India, and Magalney made this plan a success. He took away several high-quality tea trees, and Indian tea developed rapidly, offsetting the influence of Chinese tea to some extent. This will be tabled later.
On November 13, Magalni left Hangzhou by boat, planning to go to Guangzhou via Jiangxi.
The accompanying personnel changed from Matsumi to Changlin. Song Yun wanted to accompany the mission to Zhoushan, and Chang Lin, who was originally the governor of Zhejiang, had just been transferred to the governorship of Liangguang, responsible for accompanying Ma Garni to Guangzhou and monitoring it in the name of Shunlu.
The accompanying personnel have changed, and what has not changed is that Changlin is also a Manchu.
Qiao Renjie and Wang Wenxiong have been accompanying Ma Garni, these two Han People, who were previously Song Jun's deputies, are now Chang Lin's deputies.
The Manchu responsibility system of Han people playing soy sauce has always remained unchanged.
—END—
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