In ancient times, the founders of every feudal dynasty wanted their dynasty to last forever, but this is obviously unrealistic, take the Qing Dynasty, for example, after the prosperity of Kangqian, the Qing Dynasty soon turned from prosperity to decline, Qianlong was followed by Jiaqing, Jiaqing was followed by Daoguang, and when Daoguang reigned, the Qing court ushered in an unprecedented disaster: the Opium War.
After years of retreat, the Qing court's military strength was far from being comparable to that of capitalist industrial powers such as Britain. The reigning monarch of England at that time was Queen Victoria, who was born in 1819, and when the First Opium War broke out (Daoguang Twenty Years, that is, 1840), the Queen was still quite young, but the Daoguang Emperor heard about this and asked funny questions.
The Opium War ended in the defeat of the Qing court, in which the British army exchanged fewer troops and a lower price for what they wanted: such as the more than 20 million silver that the Qing court compensated, such as the treaty ports that the Qing court was forced to open. The Daoguang Emperor had always been known for his frugality, and such a great loss made his heart ache, and he couldn't figure out how this English country had suddenly become so powerful.
During the reign of Daoguang's grandfather Qianlong, in the face of the gift of the British envoy Ma Garni, he only said one sentence: "The gift has been accepted, but the Heavenly Dynasty does not lack these things, and there is no need to pay tribute." This idea of "shangguo" continued until the Daoguang period, and after Daoguang was frightened by the foreign guns and cannons of the British army, he immediately sought out General Yang Wei Yijing to understand the situation in England.
Yi Jing was a minister of the clan who fought against the British in the Opium War and was defeated. However, Yi Jing knew the situation of some opponents after all. On March 21, 1842, Yi Jing wrote a note to the Daoguang Emperor, telling him that two general secretaries (translators) who knew English had been sent from Zhejiang. The Daoguang Emperor then lowered his decree and raised a series of questions, asking Yijing to "interrogate separately and clarify the details."
The Daoguang Emperor asked questions such as "how long does it take to travel by water to England", "how big is England", etc., all of which were to understand the situation of the opponent. However, the Daoguang Emperor also asked several questions about the Queen of England - "England is actually ruled by the Queen, how old is the Queen?" Are you married? If he is married, how old is his husband? What position is it in England? ”
Yi Jing did not dare to be sloppy, and immediately asked these questions clearly, and the book was played. After the Daoguang Emperor got the songbook, he opened it to take a closer look, and when he saw that the land area of England was not as good as that of the Qing court, he couldn't help but sneer; then he learned that the Queen of England was actually only 23 years old, and the Daoguang Emperor was surprised and couldn't help but ask the courtiers: "The heroine is twenty-two years old, why was she pushed to be the head of a country?" ”
The courtiers didn't know what was going on, and they looked at each other. In the perception of the Daoguang Emperor, it is inconceivable that the heroine is the king, and there has only been one Wu clan in China for thousands of years. But this is not the most laugh-out-of-cheek, Daoguang Emperor then smiled and asked the people around him: "The Heroine of England is so young, if you make her my concubine of the Great Qing, you can communicate with each other and be friendly?" ”
Objectively speaking, the ignorance of the Daoguang Emperor cannot be counted on his head, he has lived at the top of the feudal pyramid since he was a child, and he knows nothing about everything that happens in the outside world. But at that time, the British army had already made the Qing court suffer a big loss, historical records record that the British army only suffered 523 casualties in the Opium War, while the Qing soldiers suffered 22,790 casualties (perhaps more), the Daoguang Emperor did not want to be strong to change the crisis, but thought of solving the problem by marriage, which shows that the Qing court at that time was extremely decayed, and the Great Qing Was going to die.