China's modern history is undoubtedly a very heavy topic, in this chaotic era, the internal and external difficulties have brought a huge burden to the people, and in foreign wars, the Qing court has also been defeated repeatedly, of course, the results of the war are also different, such as the fiasco of the Sino-Japanese War, the Opium War, or the Sino-French war that was not so ugly.
The time of the Sino-French War was already in the 1880s, when the Qing court carried out a vigorous foreign affairs movement, it has greatly narrowed the gap in science and technology with the outside world, and it is enough to be able to confront France, which is known as the world's first army, and from the introduction of military equipment, the Qing Dynasty at that time was definitely an Asian power, including the beiyang navy that formed Asia's first, but the war was still lost, which shows that it is not a technical gap.
Of course, this does not mean that the Qing army is not necessarily brave in battle, and during the Second Opium War, one of the most tragic battles in modern history broke out, with more than half of the 10,000 cavalry casualties and only 5 enemy deaths, which was the Battle of Bali Bridge in 1860.
In August of that year, the invading Anglo-French coalition army had landed in Dagu, Tianjin, so the monk Greenqin led the Mongolian horse team of 7,000 and more than 10,000 infantry to retreat to the Bali Bridge, which was eight miles away from Tongzhou City and thirty miles from the capital, which was the throat of Tongzhou into Beijing, so Senggelinqin also built trenches to prepare for field battles with the coalition forces.
With the continuous advancement of the foreigners, the Qing army successively transferred green battalions and soldiers from all over the country to organize defense, and finally formed a defensive force of 30,000 people headed by 10,000 Manchu and Mengma teams.
On the side of the Anglo-French coalition forces, the troops under the command of Britain and France were about 4,000 people each, a total of more than 8,000 people.
At 5:00 a.m. on September 21, the coalition troops pressed forward, and according to the recollection of montauban, an Anglo-French allied officer, it was the Qing cavalry that took the lead in attacking, and they faced the allied artillery, without fear, and attacked one after another.
However, this was soon blocked by the dense firepower of the allied infantry fighting in the trenches, and many Qing cavalry horses were frightened, and the cavalry almost collapsed, but they still stubbornly rushed to the enemy's side and caused small casualties. The British and French allies then launched a counterattack, they released a large number of shells on the Bali Bridge, and the Qing army occupying the trench rushed out and engaged in a fierce white-knife battle with the enemy.
The entire war lasted from morning to 12 noon, and although the Qing army was very brave, it eventually allowed the British and French forces to occupy the Bali Bridge.
In this war, the gap between the Qing Dynasty and the West was the most stark contrast, the British and French coalition forces at that time, have been equipped with breech flintlock guns and smoothbore guns, and even used the latest rifles, but the Eight Banner Army is still a mixed infantry and horse army with mixed cold and hot weapons, and its most advanced weapons, including homemade shotguns, lifting guns, lifting guns, splitting mountain cannons, more people use large knives, spears and other cold weapons. This eventually led to heavy losses of 30,000 Qing troops, and the 10,000 cavalry of the charge suffered more than half of the casualties, with at least more than 3,000 killed.
According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, 2 British soldiers were killed (one was an Indian soldier) and 29 were wounded, while the French were 3 dead and 18 wounded.
In this regard, the domestic history books have not recorded it, and people can only understand what happened at that time from the Western classics, but it is undeniable that the gap in the equipment of this war has become a sign of the real decline of the old cavalry, and its historical lessons are even more impressive.