At the beginning of the humiliating history of modern China in the Opium War, the Treaty of Nanking was the beginning of China's degeneration into a half-colonization and half-sealing.
The Opium War between the Qing Dynasty and the British, which ended in a fiasco, changed the dual direction of the Qing Dynasty and Chinese history.
Although history cannot be assumed, we can still make a reasonable inference based on the historical scene at that time:
If the Qing court did not sign a contract with Britain to seek peace, but instead carried out the Opium War at all costs, would the Qing court have the possibility of turning defeat into victory?
In theory, the Qing Dynasty was vast and resourceful, able to continue to supply martial arts, and there was a vast depth to fight a protracted war; the population was large, which could provide a steady stream of follow-up troops, and the British army fought to the end, and a hundred fights were more than enough.
But in reality? If the Qing court insisted on fighting, would it completely collapse?
1. Daoguang's treasury is about to become an empty shell
Fighting wars from ancient times to the present is the most money-burning activity, and no matter how thick the family foundation of the dynasties and dynasties is, they have to become poor in three or five wars.
Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty's southern conquest of the Northern War was naturally to expand the territory, but at the same time, he was also frantically burning the deposits of Wenjing Zhizhi, and in the end, even children over the age of three became the object of taxation.
Therefore, the Opium War was fought from the twentieth year of Daoguang (1840) to the twenty-second year of Daoguang (1842), and the military expenditure in the three years before and after was also astronomical.
The specific military expenditure of the Opium War can no longer be confirmed according to relevant information, because the statistics of the Qing court are also confused accounts, but they can be roughly calculated according to relevant materials.
A more typical one is the "reimbursement" list of military expenditures reported by the provinces after the war.
The most affected by the war is the southeast coast, to be precise, the four provinces of Guangdong, Fujian, Zhejiang and Jiangsu, of which Guangdong and Zhejiang suffered the most wars.
Naturally, the military expenditure in these provinces is the largest.
After the war, Guangdong reported military expenses that needed to be reimbursed by the imperial court, including various war expenses such as the construction of forts, totaling about 6.92 million taels of silver;
After the war, Fujian reported various military expenses that needed to be reimbursed by the imperial court, totaling about 4.74 million taels of silver;
After the war, Zhejiang reported that the military expenditure that needed to be reimbursed by the imperial court was the highest, reaching about 8.36 million taels of silver;
After the war, Jiangsu reported that the military expenses that needed to be reimbursed by the imperial court were also quite large, totaling about 3.12 million taels of silver.
The military expenditure of the Qing army in the four southeastern provinces alone has reached more than 23 million taels of silver in three years, and the sum of other messy aftermath is even more than this figure.
However, the identity affected by the Opium War was far more than the four southeastern provinces, but a national war against the British.
Although the British army did not hit the interior at all, the Daoguang Emperor successively carried out two rounds of national mobilization, and five hundred, one thousand, and two thousand Qing troops from the inland provinces were gathered to fight on the front line in Guangdong and Zhejiang.
Let's not talk about fighting on the front line, only the military expenditure on the transfer of troops across provinces, and the military expenditure will also burn away.
The scope of Daoguang's nationwide mobilization of troops is very wide, from Shanxi and Mongolia in the north, to Shengjing and Heilongjiang in the east, to Gansu and Shaanxi in the west, to Yunguichuan and Sichuan-Tibet Tusi in the south, and to Henan and Hubei in the middle, all of which were provinces that were ordered by Daoguang to participate in the war.
Therefore, these provinces also had to participate in military reimbursement after the war.
Among them, the military expenditure that Shandong needs to reimburse is about 730,000 taels of silver;
Because it involves the Beijing Division, Tianjin, Dagukou and other places, although it has not been affected by the war, in fact, in order to strengthen the defense of the Gateway of the Beijing Division, many Qing troops were gathered here during the war, and a number of fortifications were built, reinforced and thickened, which were all real money and silver.
Therefore, the military expenses that need to be reimbursed after the direct subordination are about 2.92 million taels of silver;
Although Shanhaiguan is not a province, because of the particularity of its strategic location, its military expenditure is also allocated separately.
During the war, Shanhaiguan also participated in the deployment of troops and the construction of city defenses, so natural military expenses could not be saved.
Therefore, the silver that needed to be reimbursed by the imperial court after the war was about 14,000 taels of silver;
The military expenses that needed to be reimbursed by the imperial court after the Shengjing War were about 700,000 taels of silver;
In addition, in more than ten identities such as Anhui, Jiangxi, Hubei, Sichuan, Guangxi, Shanxi, Gansu, Chahar, and Henan, the total amount of military expenditure that needed to be reimbursed by the imperial court after the war reached more than 5.5 million taels of silver.
Coupled with the military expenditure of the four southeastern provinces, the military expenditure of the Qing court during the Opium War will inevitably exceed 30 million taels of silver.
This is only the expense of the Opium War, ah, if the State apparatus of the Qing court is to operate normally, there are still many 30 million taels waiting to be filled.
Daoguang's treasury has so many 30 million taels to pay?
2. The Zhong Renjie Uprising allowed the Qing army to fight on two fronts
The second half of the twenty-first year of Daoguang (1841) was the highlight of the Qing army during the Opium War, because Daoguang was determined to devote himself to the battle.
Therefore, let his eldest nephew Yi jing be the commander of the Yangwei general, and launch a second round of national mobilization to support his nephew, demanding that he must recover the three towns in eastern Zhejiang that were occupied by the British army, that is, Dinghai, Zhenhai, and Ningbo, which fell to Yishou.
Daoguang was full of expectations for the prospects of war, and he felt that he had not taken Yingyi too seriously before, and now he had to stand up and play the real thing.
He did not believe that the national mobilization of troops could not defeat Yingyi.
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After the general waited in Zhejiang, it was advisable to be brave and courageous, not to be appointed, and to wait and see the arrival of Jieyin!
(Records of Emperor Xuanzong of the Qing Dynasty)
Let's tell the truth, since the opium war began, Daoguang has heard reports of losing the city and losing land and martyrdom of the generals, although the front-line generals like to write fake war reports to fool Daoguang, but they can hide defeat into victory, but no one dares to directly change the outcome of the war.
Most of them are still just making excuses for losing the city and the land.
Therefore, Daoguang was particularly eager for a victory, even if it was just to recover the three towns in eastern Zhejiang, which would make Daoguang excited to worship the ancestral temple.
For the Eastern Zhejiang Counterattack Daoguang is bloody, what does this blood represent?
It is more than 10,000 Qing troops dispatched from various places, as well as 30,000 regiments temporarily recruited on the Zhejiang front to practice township bravery, which is the most luxurious configuration for fighting counterattacks.
At present, there are more than 10,000 soldiers in Zhejiang Province and the dispatch of soldiers, and more than 30,000 people, including volunteers and brave shamin, have been recruited to guard the key passes of land and water.
But in fact, when Daoguang was transferring troops to the eastern Zhejiang front, The anti-Qing uprising of Zhong Renjie broke out in Hubei, and the rebel army quickly swept through Hubei and Hunan provinces.
The reason for Zhong Renjie's uprising was also simple, that is, to resist the harsh taxes and miscellaneous taxes of the local government and find a way for the people who could not survive.
The rebel army planned an uprising at the end of the 21st year of Daoguang, and formally pulled the flag to rebel at the beginning of the 22nd year of Daoguang, and quickly captured Tongcheng, Chongyang and other places in Hubei, killing and wounding the Qing army and many local civil and military forces.
After Zhong Renjie captured Chongyang, he was elected by his followers as the "Grand Marshal of Qinwang", and set up civil and military officials to pass through Chongyang and other places, which made the Daoguang Emperor a first two big.
At the most critical time of the counterattack in eastern Zhejiang, Daoguang still had to send troops to Hubei and Hunan to suppress the uprising, and he transferred about 20,000 troops from Hunan, Hubei, Jiangxi, Shaanxi, Gansu and other places to encircle and suppress them.
In the end, Yu Tai, the governor of Huguang, Liu Yunxiao, the viceroy of Hunan, cooperated with the viceroy of Hunan, Tai Chung, the deputy general Shuangfu, and others to jointly encircle and suppress the rebels in four ways, and only then suppressed the rebel army.
By the time the Hubei Zhongrenjie uprising was put down, the counterattack in eastern Zhejiang organized by Daoguang was also completed, and the defeat was so bad that the British army had penetrated deep into Jiangsu and other places to approach Nanjing.
Among them, liu yunxiao, the viceroy of Sichuan, was originally going to be transferred to the eastern Zhejiang front, but was temporarily arranged to go to Hubei to suppress Zhong Renjie's department.
By the time Zhong Renjie was pacified, Liu Yunxiao led his Qing army to eastern Zhejiang, and the British army was ready to attack Zhenjiang, and Liu Yunxiao's troops basically came to the end.
Therefore, in the later stage of the Opium War, the Qing army was actually fighting on two fronts, not against Yingyi wholeheartedly.
However, the local uprisings led by Zhong Renjie were only more representative in this period of time, and in fact, there were also uprisings and riots of varying degrees in other parts of the Qing Dynasty, but it was only a matter of scale and influence.
Therefore, Daoguang is also a mess.
Moreover, the suppression of the uprising was also to burn money, and Daoguang was mainly invested in the war against Yingyi, so in the process of suppressing Zhong Renjie, the Daoguang Emperor repeatedly asked the front line to reduce military expenditure.
The rest of the troops transferred were ordered to return to the army in order to save money. All this military supply should be verified and reimbursed correctly, and there is no order to be excessive.
Although the military expenditure consumed to suppress the Zhong Renjie uprising is basically impossible to verify, judging from the situation of the mobilization and suppression of troops in various provinces, it must be several million taels of silver.
Daoguang's treasury is really enough.
3. If you continue to fight, the Qing court will inevitably collapse
As we have already said above, after the three-year Opium War, Daoguang spent at least thirty million taels of silver, and the military expenditure was extremely large.
Of course, there must be a lot of water in this, and it is a fantasy that the governors of the provinces do not eat some kickbacks, in fact, the military expenditure is also very large when the war is carried out.
Eating empty pay on the front line is the basic operation.
For example, an officer is responsible for recruiting volunteers, he actually recruits a thousand people, but he will report four or five thousand people, and three or four thousand people will be paid in vain.
If the superiors inquire about it, they will either say that a battle has been fought and fully reimbursed, or they will temporarily recruit people at a low price to act, and then disband after reviewing.
In fact, Pei Qingqiao, who participated in the counterattack in eastern Zhejiang, who was then an aide to the Yangwei general Yijing, recorded in his book "Aggressive Yin" the operation of the front-line Qing army's wenwu fancy military expenditure wool
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Daoguang is not unaware of what the front line is doing, but he can't fight with Yingyi without fighting money, so these dumb people must also eat Daoguang.
Therefore, no matter how much military expenditure is actually spent on the front line, Daoguang basically has to give them money as required, but the problem is that the Daoguang Treasury has so much money?
In the twenty-first year of Daoguang, the national inventory was only 6.79 million taels of silver, which was not even enough to spend on the eastern front of Zhejiang, let alone spend money to suppress the Zhong Renjie uprising.
So you said that the light has never been silver?
In addition to letting the gentry make donations and lose during the war, they could only transfer a bunch of unshaven war debts to the people at the bottom.
Among them, only one donation reached 9.8 million taels of silver, which was solved for nearly one-third of Daoguang at once, and most of the rest were showdowns on the heads of people everywhere.
Anyway, Daoguang's treasury can't see the bottom, and if Daoguang's treasury is clean, then the Qing court is really not far from collapse.
Daoguang is not patching on the dragon robe, it is necessary to embroider the dragon robe on the patch, and frugality and cutting the door cannot solve the problem of military expenditure.
Therefore, if the Opium War continues, it will inevitably enter a vicious circle at the end of the feudal dynasty and will fall into a dead end like the chaos at the end of the Ming Dynasty.
To go to war with the British army, it is necessary to burn military expenses, and the burning of military expenses must be apportioned to the bottom, and the apportionment to the bottom will lead to a peasant uprising; to trigger a peasant uprising, it will have to be suppressed, and the suppression will require more military expenditure; more military expenditure will need to be apportioned, and then a larger peasant uprising will be triggered...
However, the British army in eastern Zhejiang, the Qing court has not yet been settled.
If the Opium War continues, the end will inevitably be that the Qing Dynasty will be overthrown by the peasant uprising, unless Daoguang can make money like his grandfather Qianlong.
However, Daoguang was not as tough as his grandfather Qianlong, so in the end, he signed a contract with the donkey's endorsement downhill, and was nailed to the column of shame in history.
The Qing Dynasty used this to survive for decades.
(A word of family, seek common ground while reserving differences, thank you for reading)