"The east bank of the Ussuri River you want, there is no grass. The tin ore you are talking about is all distributed in the West Bank. You long for an inland river outlet, but you relegate the east bank to the past, and in the end the outlet is still on our side. So I don't understand why you are so attached to this barren land. "This is Prince Gong Yi?, a righteous conversation with the Russian Office involved in the negotiation of the treaty for the territorial interests of the Qing Dynasty." Let's worry about our problems. You just have to worry about your own problems. And that's the reaction of the Russian side. Xianfeng ten years, the first two days of October, Yi? Numerous such disputes were fought with Russia in the Russian Office over the territorial division prior to the signing of the Sino-Russian Treaty of Beijing. In this battle that is doomed to fail, Yi? His heart was in a trance, because ten days ago in the Forbidden City, the Xianfeng Emperor had a long conversation with him all night. In this conversation, XianFeng asked Yi? Use all his wisdom and energy to preserve the area on the east bank of the Ussuri River no matter what.
"Anything can be backed down, everything can be compromised, but the east bank of the Ussuri River they demand must not be compromised." If the land of Longxing is given to them, what else can we not lose! "XianFeng to Yi? say. "But when they point their guns at me, what do I fight for?" abundant? As you know, there has been a fierce debate within the royal family about who is responsible for the signing of this treaty. This candidate for a diplomatic event, who is destined to bear the infamy of eternity and has nothing to do with glory, is exactly what Xian Feng made up his mind. "At that moment, you should know better than I do that the muzzle of the gun and the muzzle of the gun are not only pointing at you, but also at you. In any case, this task you must complete, there is no room for concessions. ”
Since then, yi? The prince, who had no reason to be famous for future generations, became famous for this unseemly errand. Of course, in hindsight, Russia's desire for the east bank of the Ussuri River was by no means motivated by any plundering of the Qing Dynasty's imperial longxing land, which was not worth much to them. What they care about is not natural resources, but the strategic position here. If one takes note of Sakhalin's distance from Japan and its importance to East Asia, one knows that even in the nineteenth century, when Russia had not yet been freed from serfdom, its leaders had seen the value of this barren land.
The area east of the Ussuri River, including Sakhalin Island, has historically been an integral part of China's territory. The Book of Wei says:
In the twenty-fifth year of Jianwu, Hao Dan, the Lord of Karasuma, and more than 9,000 other people led the crowd to appoint more than eighty people who were the prince of the canal, so that they could give them food and clothing, and set them up as lieutenants to protect them.
The "Liaodong dependent states" here, as well as part of the "western Liaoning region", are on the east bank of the Ussuri River. At that time, the imperial court had already set up a lieutenant to manage it, which showed that in the pre-Qin and Han dynasties, this place belonged to China. During the Southern and Northern Dynasties of the Wei and Jin Dynasties, the Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties, this area always existed as a vassal state. During the Qing Dynasty, it was the rear area of the Manchus, and it was an area where they frequently operated. The Draft History of the Qing Dynasty reads:
Nurhaci ordered the treasury page to be attached to the land, year after year, paying tribute to mink skins and square objects.
"It shows that this area was once again officially subordinated to us during the Nurhaci period.
The "Regulations on the Prohibition of Displaced Persons in Ningguta and Other Places" promulgated during the Qianlong period said:
Jilin to Kupang, originally not connected to the Han Dynasty, is inconvenient for the displaced people to live, now there are more and more people, writing an edict to Fu Sen, to find out the handling, and forever ban the displaced people, do not allow entry
This shows the importance that the Manchu rulers attach to this area. Compared with China's historical ownership of this region, Russia at that time was ashamed. In the sixteenth century, the farthest part of Russia's eastern territory was on the west bank of the Volga River Valley, and until then, the whole of Siberia and the Far East had always been deserted.
When the Qing government signed the Sino-Russian Beijing Treaty with Russia, Russia actually made a stupid and low-level mistake. Perhaps because this error was too low-level, the Qing government did not find it. And this mistake has caused nearly 400,000 square kilometers of territory to be surrendered. In formulating the original text of the treaty, the Russians wrote: "
The land east of the Ussuri River belongs to the State of Russia. To the west, the land belongs to China.
"This boundary is the beginning of the article? The border with Russia. Underneath this line, however, the Russians wrote: "
All those mentioned above are empty lands, and Russia shall not occupy the dwellings of Chinese, nor the land of fishing and hunting.
"That is to say, although we have agreed in the treaty to cut this land, if in this area there are Chinese settlements and Chinese fishing and hunting places, then this small area cannot be assigned to Russia. Judging from the reality of the situation at that time, this was an extremely absurd and stupid statement.
It is recorded in the Records of Emperor Taizong of the Qing Dynasty:
Within one hill, there were 458 men, 243 seal catchers, 59 fishing people, and yu was involved in the sea industry.
The so-called "one hill" here is a unit under the county-level administrative structure of the Qing Dynasty on both sides of the Ussuri River Basin of the Qing Dynasty. Usually, within a hill, the population ranges from a few hundred to a few thousand. People living in this area mainly live on fishing industries, such as fishing for aquatic products, fish, shrimp and other river or marine organisms. According to historical records, at that time, about seventy or eighty percent of the men in any such "hill" were engaged in these trades, while the rest were either children or old people. And such hills are everywhere in the area occupied by Russia. And Russia's vow that "if you encounter a place where Chinese live or fish and hunt, Russia will not occupy it" becomes nonsense. When the area is full of Chinese and fishermen, how do they demarcate their territorial boundaries? However, it was such an obvious low-level mistake that the Qing government did not find.
However, even if the Qing government found this obvious loophole at that time, I am afraid it would not help. In 1859, a year before the treaty, Russia had established offices in the Far East dealing with Chinese affairs. The administrative power of the office was enormous, and it could directly dispatch the Russian army in the Far East at that time, including the ancient Russian Fourth Army, with a total of nearly 20,000 people, and the weapons and equipment far exceeded that of the Qing government, all of which were aimed at forcing China to sign various unequal treaties. In the "Red File", it is recorded:
I personally firmly believe that the role of the ministers in Beijing is over and that things should be transferred to the admirals. Only a strong army can quickly arrive to save the foreigners in Beijing.
Secondly, at that time, the Qing government was tired of dealing with the invasion of China and the occupation of concessions by Western powers throughout the country, and under the comprehensive invasion of Western powers, poor strength was the root cause of the Qing Dynasty's land-cutting indemnities. However, the signing of the Sino-Russian Treaty on Beijing can also lead to a strange question:
Why should the victorious countries in the war take the initiative to accept the treaties proposed by the defeated countries, such as truce agreements and land reparations, under the good situation, instead of continuing to fight with one heart and one mind and completely destroying the defeated countries?
The vast majority of wars in human history have followed this principle. In 1805, during the Napoleonic Wars, Napoleon saw that the remnants of the European feudal system had been gradually wiped out by him, and only Russia in the East still had a strong feudal soil, so he decided to crush the soil of Russia. The Diary of Napoleon says:
The stubborn Prussians were defeated by me in Marengo, and their feudal lords still hoped to exploit their slaves by relying on the old system, and I would not watch this happen... These people are abusing themselves...
At the end of the year, he made a superficial reconciliation with Tsar Alexander I of Russia. The two met in a boat on The eastern border of France for a friendly meeting. Behind the scenes, France had decided to engage in a great showdown with Russia, and Napoleon had only deliberately made overtures in order to hide his eyes.
In September of that year, France, in conjunction with Austria and Russia, fought a general battle at Austerlitz, which resulted in a great Victory for France. According to the situation in France at that time, they could have taken advantage of the good situation and marched eastward and completely erased Austria. In fact, later Napoleon, in the Tuileries Palace of the Fifth Coalition, also said personally: "
It was long overdue for me to lead my army to Vienna after the victory at Austerlitz and completely wipe out the Austrian traitor
In hindsight, he did regret it, however, at that time Napoleon did not continue to march, but stopped the pace of progress, and signed the ""
Treaty of Bresbourg
。 In this treaty, France forcibly ceded the vast territory of Austria and demanded huge reparations from Austria and Russia to France. After the treaty entered into force, Napoleon did not continue to embarrass the two countries.
Similarly, europe and Germany at the end of world war I.
After Germany's defeat, if the Allies took the opportunity to invade Germany itself, Germany would surely perish, but the Allies did not do so. Curiously, these countries chose to accept German surrender. After Germany surrendered, it signed the Treaty of Versailles with the Allies, and if you look at the original text of the treaty, you know that this treaty is the most vicious treaty in human history, and there is no one. This treaty deprived Germany of nearly one-fifth of its territory and one-fifth of its population, and in addition to this, many of Germany's important industrial and commercial cities were all divided. Of course, there are not many cases in history where surrender is not accepted, but it is extremely rare. At the end of World War II, before Hitler committed suicide, he ordered Goebbels to contact the West and send a signal of surrender, which refused to surrender. After Hitler committed suicide, Dönitz ordered Yodel to make a conditional surrender to the Soviet Union, which also rejected Germany's conditional surrender. In the end, the United States, Britain, France, and the Soviet Union carved up Germany.
In fact, from the above three cases, we can already see the reason. First of all
The victorious powers must worry about the problem of the people's hearts and minds in the world
。 In these war years, war was a common occurrence, and there was therefore no reason for any country to blame the enemy state, nor to blame the enemy people. But everything has limits, and if you do too much, it is bound to cause retaliation. For example, after the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, many Western scholars believed that instead of letting Germany fulfill such a cruel treaty, it was better to simply conquer Germany, otherwise, once this beast eased up, the West would once again fall into the depths of the water. The rise of Hitler amply proves this speculation that the German people would not have supported such a madman had it not been for the brutal division of Germany by the Allies during World War I.
Second, war is the most consumed luxury in human history, and any all-out war is fought by two countries, concentrating the strength of the whole country. Therefore, although the victorious powers have won, they are also compared to the defeated countries."
Kill a thousand enemies and inflict eight hundred self-inflicted wounds
”。 Under such circumstances, the victorious powers would never dare to give the order to continue the offensive easily. Once such an order is given, it is necessary to fight to the end, and it must be won, and in this way it often leads to the unprecedented unity of all the peoples of the defeated countries, and to the formation of a situation in which all the people are soldiers - a situation that occurred in Stalingrad and on the anti-Japanese battlefield in China.