Between the Tiananmen Chairman Mao Memorial Hall and the Tongren Hospital, there is an alley called "Dongjiaomin Lane"; just south of the bronze statue of Sun Yat-sen in Zhongshan Park, there is a stone stele called "Defending Peace", which is this alley, a stone stele, which has witnessed China's glory and humiliation and vicissitudes since the defeat of the Second Opium War until the founding of New China, nearly a century of glory and humiliation!
"Defending Peace" Stone Monument
"Dongjiaomin Lane", formerly known as "Dongjiang Rice Lane", a total length of 1552 meters, during the Yuan Dynasty, it was the main traffic route for grain transportation between the north and the south, so it was named "Dongjiang Rice Lane", and later the Qing government set up the Hongxu Temple and the Huitongguan here, responsible for receiving foreign envoys.
Since the eighth year of Qing Xianfeng (1858), Britain, France, Russia, and the United States forced the Qing government to sign the unequal "Tianjin Treaty" in Tianjin, and all the countries that had contacts with the Qing government set up embassies in "Dongjiang Mi Lane".
The two ends of the "Dongjiang Rice Lane" are connected to Tiananmen Square and Chongwenmennei Avenue, which is a gathering place for the relatives of the Qing Dynasty emperors and relatives, where the great powers set up embassies, and inserted a knife in the heart of the incompetent Qing government.
From 1861 onwards, British ministers stayed in the palace of Prince Chun (the residence of Prince Yizhen of the Seventh Son of the Daoguang Emperor); French ministers stayed in the Palace of Prince Anjun (the residence of Prince Yuele of Anjun, the grandson of Nurhaci); American ministers stayed in the "private residence" of American citizens "Wei Sanwei" (the first American missionary to China); Russian ministers stayed in an Orthodox church built in 1727 according to the Treaty of Kyakhta signed between China and Russia.
At this time, the "Dongjiang Rice Lane", although the sovereignty still belongs to the Qing government, in fact, has long been "useless", before the signing of the "Xinugu Treaty" in 1900, the "Dongjiang Rice Lane" has been occupied by British, Russian, Japanese, French, Italian, American, German, Austrian, Belgian, Dutch, Spanish ministers.
On May 28, 1900 (the twenty-sixth year of the Qing Dynasty), the British, Russian, Japanese, French, Italian, American, German, and Austrian eight-nation alliance, in the name of suppressing the Boxers and protecting the embassy, actually divided and plundered China, and launched an armed invasion of China.
In 1900, the aggressor British-American-Australian-Indian-German-French-Austrian-Italian soldiers of the Nine Kingdoms of The United Kingdom were photographed in Beijing
On the afternoon of June 14, 1900, German Minister Klinder led his soldiers out of the "Dongjiang Rice Lane" to look for trouble, saw the Boxers practicing boxing and martial arts, and ordered them to shoot and shoot more than 20 Chinese.
At 9:00 a.m. on June 23, 1900, the Qing government prepared to go to war with the great powers, and before the war began, it sent a note to the ministers of various countries in the "Dongjiang Rice Lane", out of a "humanitarian stance", the Qing government promised to escort foreigners to Tianjin and asked them to give a reply within 24 hours. The foreigners in the "Dongjiang Rice Lane" wanted to make a plot with the "Eight-Nation Alliance" that had already captured Tianjin to "cooperate inside and outside", refused to evacuate the "Dongjiang Rice Lane", and protested to the Qing court at 8:00 a.m. on June 23.
German Minister Klinder, even more arrogant and flying, with an interpreter in a palanquin, the momentum was fierce, straight to the Prime Minister's Gate, when passing through the Dongdan Archway, was stopped by the Qing army "Enhai" patrolling here, the invincible Klinder shot in the car, Enhai shot back, Klinder was killed on the spot, after killing Klinder, Enhai snatched away the valuable things on his body and fled.
On August 17, 1900, German Field Marshal Wadsi was appointed commander-in-chief of the Eight-Power Coalition; on October 17, Vadersi led the Eight-Power Coalition to capture Beijing, and set the General Headquarters of the Eight-Nation Alliance in the Forbidden City!
The Eight-Power Coalition occupies the Forbidden City
In the Eight-Power Alliance, the German army is the most cold-blooded and cruel, they are not in a hurry to grab the treasure, but think about how to plunder China's land and resources more and more, the German minister Klinder "stabbed" became an important "weight" in the hands of Germany and the Qing government when signing an unequal treaty, and the German Emperor Wilhelm II intended to use this as an excuse to force the Qing government to hand over the "murderer".
At that time, the Qing government did not know who "assassinated" the German minister Klinder, at this time, the "beam-jumping clown" did not know how many "eyeliner" Japanese spies were installed in the Qing Dynasty, and gave clues, it turned out that the Japanese spies found Klinder's relics in a pawnshop, and Shunto touched the melon and found the murderer "Enhai".
An unknown Qing soldier "Enhai" was thus pushed to the cusp of history, in order to appease the "thunder anger" of the commander-in-chief of the Eight-Power Alliance, Wadsi, the cowardly and incompetent Qing government handed over the "Enhai" to the German soldiers.
On December 31, 1900, the streets from Dongsi to Dongdan were crowded with ordinary people who sent off the good man "Enhai" and escorted the execution car of "Enhai", and the people cried and scolded.
The "Enhai", who was about to go to the execution ground, did not change his color, and walked out of the execution car in a tragic way, and the execution rack was surrounded by people holding wine bowls for his grand deeds. "Enhai" took a bowl of wine, drank it all, straightened his waist, and shouted loudly: "I killed Klinder, he did evil in our land, and he deserved it!" After I die, I hope that everyone will remember that as long as someone wants to kill people on Chinese soil, no matter who he is, he must be saluted with a shot! The applause under the execution ground was thunderous, and the applause came and went.
The hero "Enhai" is arrested
On September 7, 1901, the defeated Qing government was forced to sign the Treaty of Xinugu with 11 countries, including Britain, the United States, Germany, France, and Russia. The first paragraph of the Treaty of Xinugu was that the Qing court sent Prince Zaifeng, as a first-class envoy, to Germany to apologize to the German emperor for the murder of Minister Klinder, and to build a stone arch of a similar grade at the site where Klinder was killed.
After the "Xinugu Treaty", "Dongjiang Rice Lane" completely became the territory of the great powers, and the great powers demolished the Chinese-style buildings inside, built different styles of buildings in their own countries, and called "Dongjiang Rice Lane" "Embassy Street" and Chinese called it "Dongjiaomin Lane".
On a 6-meter-high wall outside the "Dongjiaomin Lane", there is a notice written: "Residents who come and go, do not cross the border, if you do not comply, shoot and kill"; there is also such an insulting rule: Chinese are not allowed to enter!
On November 11, 1918, after Germany's defeat in World War I, the people of Beijing, who had long held their breath, demolished the "Klinder Arch" and moved it to Central Park (now Zhongshan Park) and changed it to the Archway of Victory of Justice.
On April 18, 1927, after the establishment of the National Government in Nanjing, Chiang Kai-shek failed to regain the sovereignty of Dongjiaomin Lane, which was still the territory of foreigners and Chinese still could not enter.
On February 3, 1949, when the Chinese People's Liberation Army peacefully liberated Peiping, Chairman Mao ordered the People's Liberation Army to hold a ceremony to enter the city, it must pass through Dongjiaomin Lane to declare sovereignty, and the doorway of various Western buildings in Dongjiaomin Lane was full of joyful Chinese, Chinese the shame of not being able to set foot on Dongjiaomin Lane for nearly half a century, and on this day it was finally washed away!
On October 2, 1952, in order to commemorate the Peace Conference held in Beijing and to recognize the merits of the Chinese Volunteer Army, the Congress decided to change the "Victory Workshop of Justice" to "Defense of Peace".
Since then, the Chinese who stood up and was no longer afraid of any "jackal"!
In Dongjiaomin Lane, once the embassy