Flipping through history, war is an inevitable occurrence in almost every dynasty. "Sun Tzu's Art of War: "Therefore, the upper soldiers cut the plot, the second cut the traffic, the second cut the soldiers, and the next attack the city", for the generals, the use of troops is only the next strategy. If it is the best policy to "surrender the soldier without fighting", then the messenger plays a very important role, they are responsible for transmitting information, as a bridge of communication and exist. Therefore, there is an unwritten rule that "two armies are at war, and they will not be cut down."
This unwritten rule has very old origins. In 596 BC, the State of Chu sent Shen Zhou on an envoy to the State of Qi, and King Zhuang of Chu specifically instructed Shen Zhou not to pass through the Song State. When Hua Yuan, the ruler of the State of Song, heard about it, he was very angry and felt that this was an insult to the State of Song, and actually sent troops to kill the emissaries of the State of Chu.
The king of Chu Zhuang was greatly annoyed, and entered and did not hesitate to send a large army to defend the Song kingdom for a full 9 months, and the Song kingdom did not expect the chu state to be so fierce, so he asked the Jin state for help, and the Jin state was also defeated by the chu state only a year ago, where dare to provoke the chu state again. Therefore, the State of Song had to send an envoy to the State of Chu to request reconciliation, and the emissary sent by the State of Song was Hua Yuan.
The Chronicle of the States of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty records that "Hua Yuan stomped on the bed and robbed Zi Rebellion", which means that Hua Yuan sneaked into the Chu army camp in the middle of the night and kidnapped the Chu army commander Zi Zi who was sleeping. He directly stated his attitude to the State of Chu, saying that the Kingdom of Song was already "eating from the son and eating, analyzing the skeleton to make a sacrifice", hoping that the State of Chu could retreat thirty miles, then our country would only listen to its orders.
Zi reverse Hua Yuan promised to be able to do it, and the next day the reverse Chu Zhuang Wang reported the situation, the Chu army actually retreated 30 miles, and made a contract with the Song State to promise not to deceive each other again, and Hua Yuan was sent to the Chu State as a hostage to this contract. This rule gradually evolved into "two countries at war, do not cut each other".
This rule was formed in the Spring and Autumn Warring States, which paid attention to etiquette and rules in terms of war, but how did it continue in later generations? In fact, the reason is very simple, war is only an extension of politics, and when there is no political negotiation, they will meet each other on the battlefield.
So if it can be resolved peacefully, who is willing to go to war with bloodshed? If the enemy comes to explain that there is still room for communication, and the generals on both sides will naturally be willing to reconcile, over time an unwritten rule will be formed, and the status of the messenger as a bridge messenger for communication will be very high, and if it is cut to make the two sides have no way to communicate, it will cause a real bloody war.
On this issue, the Qing Dynasty made the next major mistake. In 1860, the British army raided The Tagu Fort, and the strength of the two sides was very different, and the Qing Dynasty was soon defeated. So the British sent Harry Smith Pashali to lead 36 envoys to the Qing Dynasty to negotiate with the Xianfeng Emperor, but these foreign envoys were unwilling to bow to Xianfeng, which made Xianfeng very faceless.
Therefore, when Pasha Li was preparing to leave Tongzhou, the Xianfeng Emperor sent Zaiyuan the Prince of Yi to directly capture Pasha Li and his party and put them in prison. Because the prison was damp and dark, many emissaries died of illness, and the news reached Britain, causing the anger of the British royal family, so they united with France and attacked Beijing.
When the Anglo-French coalition arrived, the Xianfeng Emperor quickly fled with his concubines and ministers, and the Anglo-French coalition army entered the Yuanmingyuan like bandits, snatched millions of treasures, and set fire to the Yuanmingyuan. Bringing the remaining 18 hostages back to Britain, Xianfeng originally wanted to "cut off the demonstration" but did not expect to become an excuse for the British and French allied forces to march, which had to be indignant.