The history of the late Qing Dynasty makes people grit their teeth when they mention it, how many people have lost their dignity and lived with their heads bowed when they look up to others, and how many patriotic people who have no way to serve the country have been killed, exiled, and even survived under the hands of the imperialist powers.
The country is not a country, the king is not for the king The whole country is plunged into a bottomless swamp, but the chaotic world creates heroes, and those loyal generals who grew up in the late Qing Dynasty would rather die than lose their integrity, Ye Mingchen is one, he is a member of the Qing Dynasty, in the face of the Western powers, he would rather die than use his body to defend the last backbone of this ruined country.
Ye Mingchen of the "Storm"
Ye Mingchen was born in the Jiaqing period, is a native of Hanyang, Hubei Province, since childhood tutoring is very good can be regarded as a scholar Xiang Mendi, the father is extremely attentive to his education, hoping that his son can become a talent, Ye Mingchen was smart and astute when he was young, and when he was quick to think quickly, Daoguang won the second place in the township examination when he was three years old, and Daoguang was officially entered the official field in the fifteenth year.
In 1840, the Qing government was opened by the British invading army, the Opium War broke out between China and Britain, that year Ye Mingchen was transferred to Jiangxi Yanfa Dao because of his outstanding political achievements, and from this year on, he really entered the highlight moment of Ye Mingchen as an official, in addition to political skill, military iron blood.
In the twenty-eighth year of Daoguang, Ye Mingchen was granted the post of inspector of Guangdong, and the first thing he did in Guangdong was to prevent the British army from entering the city, because the signing of the "Treaty of Nanjing" in the Opium War, the British wantonly entered Guangzhou City at that time, and Ye Mingchen, who was in office, resolutely opposed the anti-British organization "Pingying Regiment" established by the united people to strengthen his vigilance and did not let the British army succeed. Ye Mingchen did not say a word to lead the crowd to suppress the bandits, and after the quelling, he added officials to the knighthood, at this time Ye Mingchen realized that his "political achievements" might have to be superimposed by suppression.
Coincidentally, in 1851, the "Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement" broke out throughout the country, Ye Mingchen first sent troops to destroy the bandit Wu San of the Luo Jing Society, and then cooperated with the generals of other regions to destroy the leader of the Luo Jing Society, Ling Eighteen, and obtained the title of "Governor of Liangguang" from the first pin, this Ye Mingchen was well versed in the way of power, and he could be described as fierce in the opposite rebel army, constantly suppressing and constantly asking for credit from the Xianfeng Emperor, and the figures of those suppressed rebels on vanity fair achieved Ye Mingchen, in that turbulent era, The first half of Ye Mingchen's official career was all spent on quelling domestic riots, which also made the Xianfeng Emperor breathe a sigh of relief at the internal "internal worries", and externally, Ye Mingchen even used a "empty city plan" to pretend to calmly negotiate with Britain and France, and his appearance made the Anglo-French coalition forces unable to advance and had to retreat, scaring them away.
I thought that The British and French were like Sima Yi, but unfortunately Ye Mingchen bet on the wrong treasure, the current Qing government is different from the Shu state at that time, and he himself is not the incomparable Zhuge Liang, who was scheming, and the British army that was bluffed away created the "Yaluo" incident. In 1856, the Guangdong marine division arrested the bandits and suspected sailors hiding on the ship, the British officers insisted that the ship was British, so that Ye Mingchen apologized for the unreasonableness of the British, but the actual situation was that the registration license of this ship had long expired, and after the expiration of the British did not fly the flag on the ship, this ship should now belong to China, in the negotiation Ye Mingchen justifiably pointed out the problem of refusing to apologize and safeguard the dignity of the mainland, the British side was furious, two days after the negotiations were fruitless, the British army shelled the city of Guangzhou, The Second Opium War broke out between China and Britain.
Fight against Ye Mingchen, who was unfortunately captured by the British army
Ye Mingchen had courage and strategy in the initial fight against the British army, the first thing he wanted to fight was to fight a spy war with the British, using the original armor protection system to detect more than eighty "traitors" who provided our intelligence to the British military and supplied grain to the British army, and even issued an "identity card" in Guangzhou City and ordered that all those who did not have an "identity card" were not allowed to enter the city.
Ye Mingchen also followed suit, sent a large number of spies to the Hong Kong area, obviously they are trading merchants in the Hong Kong area, in fact, all of them are Ye Mingchen's soldiers, after the war broke out, Ye Mingchen and this group of "businessmen" in Hong Kong interacted frequently and strengthened the exchange of information, almost once a week, Ye Mingchen achieved the deployment of the British army in Hong Kong, for the initial war won a great victory.
This victory inspired a large number of Qing soldiers, Ye Mingchen also ordered who can kill the head of the British army to reward thirty-two silver, the British army was forced to ignore the tail, the French army saw that the situation was not good, but in order to preserve the strength ordered to withdraw to Hong Kong to recuperate, more than four months of confrontation, the British army finally failed to cross to Guangzhou a step, Ye Mingchen achieved a big victory, Ye Mingchen's goal is not only to protect Guangzhou He really wants to take Hong Kong back.
So in January 1851, a disguised force was sent to raid Hong Kong and killed an officer of the British patrol, and put arsenic cream in the British bread A large number of British people were frightened and stupid, and basically most of them fled to Macau for refuge, these near-perfect "wars" allowed China to win beautiful and curbed the arrogance of the British in momentum, and the victorious offensive that could have been victorious in pursuit was crushed by the "Holy Will" of the Xianfeng Emperor.
Ye Mingchen spread his "merits" to Beijing, thousands of miles away, the Xianfeng Emperor saw the twists and turns and was shocked and panicked, he was afraid that Ye Mingchen would offend the British because of these victories, the consequences were unimaginable, he ordered Ye Mingchen to stop the war and negotiate with the British, reprimanding him for not easily provoking war, The will of the Xianfeng Emperor was cold to Ye Mingchen, who had won the battle, but the "Holy Will" he did not dare to disobey, and the top of the head still wanted it, and he had no choice but to obey the instructions of the central authorities, and the British army got a chance to breathe. A large number of troops were dispatched to Hong Kong.
Because the Sino-British trade was broken, the interests of China and Britain could not be saved, coupled with Ye Mingchen's long-term war, the central government also demanded an armistice, in this case Ye Mingchen fell into despair, no soldiers, no money, and pressure from his superiors, he really did not know how to win this battle, what was more fatal was that this news was known to others In order to please the British army, this traitor betrayed Ye Mingchen and told the British powers about his situation, and the British army got the news and launched a war again to occupy Guangzhou City easily. Ye Mingchen did not leave his governor's palace until his death, and such a generation of names would be captured by the British army.
Imprisoned in India, glass bottles were exhibited as commodities
After Ye Mingchen was captured, he resolutely did not surrender, let alone make peace with the British, the British army admired him when he saw him so tough, some people also gave her a hat to greet him, for the problem of Ye Mingchen to stay, the British army spent good efforts to study, they were afraid that ye Mingchen imprisoned in Guangzhou, not only the people would come to save him, maybe those people in Southeast Asia would also come to save him.
In order to take Ye Mingchen to the overseas colonies for safety, so Ye Mingchen and the British Invaders boarded the warship bound for Calcutta, India, and calmly instructed his family to prepare dry food for him before leaving, Ye Mingchen on the ship did not ask the British colonists for a word because of seasickness and vomiting, always maintained a straight body to sit on the boat, the British army saw that he was very dignified, did not torture him along the way, after marching to India, the British army began to insult him in order to force him.
The British army found a huge glass bottle to put Ye Mingchen in, and then pulled him to the streets of Calcutta like a monkey for others to watch, how a generation of famous generals can bear this insult, but Ye Mingchen resolutely does not surrender, does not speak, does not bow to the invaders and begs for forgiveness, from beginning to end to maintain the integrity he should have, this year he is still worried about the country and the people, hearing the news that the Qing court has lost the war, he sighed, if the war is won, he is very happy, Ye Mingchen ate all the food in India he brought over, After eating my own food, I never opened my mouth to bite into food from other countries.
In 1859, Ye Mingchen died of hunger strike, the British army saw Ye Mingchen's death and spread the news back to Guangdong, the British army during this period added fuel to smear Ye Mingchen, making Ye Mingchen's reputation in Guangzhou bad, which also found a "grandiose" reason for the British army to occupy Guangzhou in a bright and upright way.
epilogue
Ye Mingchen's mistake in this life was born in the late Qing Dynasty, that era of war and strife, the achievement of heroes also destroyed heroes, that spy war against the British army fought so beautifully in exchange for the reprimand of the central court, during the Period in India did not forget to care about the domestic situation, in fact, when Ye Mingchen was escorted to India, he was already a "sinner".
Because he offended the British and was captured, the Xianfeng Emperor did not go to rescue his ministers at the first time, but ordered Ye Mingchen to be stripped of all public titles, and said that Ye Mingchen was a person who brought calamity to the country and the people, and now that the British were in the hands of the British, the British could handle it on their own, and they were not sorry for Ye Mingchen's death, and these few words portrayed how cold and ruthless the king under the autocratic feudal system was.
Those uprisings that Ye Mingchen once suppressed internally preserved the royal throne, but now he threw his ministers as useless pawns to foreigners, from the great hero of the bandits that everyone admired to the useless "chicken feathers" Ye Mingchen only needed a rogue and rogue-like autocratic emperor.
I don't know if Ye Mingchen regretted that at this time, he had used his iron wrist to suppress the blood of those good men who were forced to "Liangshan" uprising in exchange for an official position that was worth it to him?