China and Myanmar have a good tradition of diplomatic relations, but in fact, more than 200 years ago, China and Myanmar had a seven-year-long Sino-Burmese War, and the Qianlong Emperor said this sentence before his death: "More than 50 years and eight wars, the conquest of Burma is not successful." So what are the twists and turns in this?
China-Myanmar Dynasty Relations
China and Myanmar have had official contacts since the Han Dynasty. During the Yuan and Ming dynasties, Sino-Burmese relations entered a new period, with Burma establishing tributary relations with the Yuan Dynasty, and by the Ming Dynasty from Jiajing to Wanli, with the rise of the Donggu Dynasty in Burma and the gradual weakening of the Ming Dynasty's rule, the Ming Dynasty's rule in the southwestern frontier was challenged. Mang Yinglong (reigned 1550–1581, third king of the Donggu dynasty of Burma) continued his northward march and began encroaching on China's southwestern frontier, seizing the Daming territory of Shan State in 1562.
Extremely prosperous Myanmar VS Daqing in its heyday
In the eleventh year of Wanli (1583), the Ming Dynasty sent Liu Yao and Deng Zilong to lead an army to the southwest, and the two-year war ended in Liu Yao's victory in recovering all the lost territory, the Burmese army was defeated, and the originally vacillating Tusi returned to the Ming Dynasty. In July of the fifteenth year of Qianlong (1750), "Burma was first honored as a subordinate to the Nagong," and the two countries achieved political normalization.
Myanmar sent troops to invade China, and war broke out between China and Myanmar
In the 27th year of Qianlong (1762), Burma unsuccessfully collected tribute from the inland Tusi, so they sent troops to invade China. It officially ignited the fuse of the border conflict between China and Myanmar. The Tusi of Mubang in Burma led 2,000 people to invade the jurisdiction of the two inland Tusi of Mengding and Gengma in China, and kidnapped Mengding's Tusi, and after Gengma Tusi escaped, he immediately led his army to counterattack and pursue the Burmese soldiers, defeating the Burmese soldiers on the banks of the Rolling River, killing about 200 people successively.
Map of the situation in the southwest of the Qing Dynasty in 1764
After the new governor of Yungui, Liu Zao, arrived in office, he urgently sent troops to pursue him, but except for 5 people, there was no success. Liu Zao was a scholar who did not know how to lead troops to fight, which also reflected from one side that the Qianlong Emperor misjudged the situation, and did not regard it as a border war but as an ordinary bandit, so he dared to let go and let the scholar lead the troops.
In October of the 30th year of Qianlong (1765), the Burmese army again invaded Xishuangbanna with an army of several thousand people, declaring Xishuangbanna as Burmese territory, and Liu Zao hurriedly dispatched 3,000 Green Battalion soldiers to surround and suppress it, but the Burmese guerrilla warfare and Qing soldiers did not achieve much success. On the contrary, about 600 Qing soldiers along the way fell into an ambush by Burmese soldiers on the way to the rescue, and were defeated, killed and wounded, and more than 10 people were killed. The Qianlong Emperor was furious when he heard this, and dismissed Liu Zao from his post.
The Burmese Army trained elephant array
In the first Sino-Burmese war, the Qing Dynasty lost the first battle
On December 21, the 600 Green Battalion soldiers of the Qing army encountered the Burmese army, all the main generals were killed, only more than 100 survived, and the governor Liu Zao committed suicide in fear of crime. After the failure of the Qing army's first sortie, in February of the thirty-first year of Qianlong (1766), Yang Yingju (born in the Baqi of the Han army, who was a university scholar at the time, transferred from the governor of Shaanxi and Gansu to the governor of Yungui) sent by the Qianlong Emperor arrived in Yunnan.
At this time, the Qing soldiers took advantage of the retreat of the Burmese soldiers to attack Burma, and the areas under the jurisdiction of the Burmese Tusi were occupied by the Qing troops. However, due to the fact that the Burmese soldiers were strong along the way, the Qing soldiers did not have many victories.
In the second war, the Qing Dynasty was defeated again
The Burmese king sent 10,000 Burmese soldiers up the Avasu Irrawaddy River to confront the Qing soldiers, and on September 24, 1766, 3,000 Burmese soldiers arrived in Xinjie by boat and immediately launched an attack on the Qing soldiers. The strength of the two sides was very different, the Qing soldiers insisted on two days and one night, and in the end they were outnumbered, the main general Liu Tianyou was killed in battle, and Yang Yingju urgently mobilized the green battalion soldiers of various towns to help.
The Burmese soldiers took the initiative to launch an offensive. The Burmese soldiers were partly armed with flintlock guns (from the British and French East India Company in India, or by purchase/capture), and the rate of fire, firepower, and adaptation to the environment were far superior to those of the Qing soldiers. As a result, the two sides fought for four days, with each other killed and wounded. However, the Qing soldiers suffered heavy casualties and gradually lost their efforts to ask for help.
It can be seen that the firearms of the Qing dynasty were already one generation behind the surrounding small countries in the Qianlong period, and for more than 100 years the country continued to be closed without any growth, and the Russian army was already equipped with flintlock guns in the Battle of Yaksa in 1686, when the Qing even equipped only a small number of shotguns. Daqing did not eat less losses from firearms, but he did not remember it for a long time!
Looking at the second war between China and Burma, although the total number of soldiers was more than the Burmese soldiers, the gap in firearms was huge, and they still lost repeated battles.
Ming Shwe's route for conscription of troops in Burma
In the third battle, Ming Rui, the governor of Yungui, was killed in battle
In April 1767, Mingrui arrived in office, and Mingrui also made a lot of military merits in pacifying Xinjiang, and before being transferred to the post of general Ili, he was a fierce general, but he did not understand the enemy situation in Burma, and the sentiment of underestimating the enemy was serious. In the Battle of Brute, Ming Shwe led Qing troops to kill more than 2,000 enemies and capture 34 enemies, which made Ming Shwe even more underestimated the enemy, and continued to go north to penetrate deep into Burma alone, and logistics supply became more and more difficult.
In December 1768, tens of thousands of Burmese soldiers besieged more than 10,000 Qing soldiers in Xiaomengyu, and Mingrui led the ministers, guards and hundreds of Manchurian soldiers to the palace, and hanged himself after the battle, and a generation of feudal officials fell to northern Burma.
General Mingrui, the governor of Yungui
In the fourth war, Fu Heng commanded the labor expedition
In February of the 34th year of Qianlong (1769), Fu Heng led troops to march, and the Qianlong Emperor personally gave the edict seal at the Taihe Hall, placing high hopes on it. The strategy of the Burmese side was still to lure the enemy deep into the Qing Dynasty, and the Qing army swore to march more than 2,000 li without bloodshed, and the Burmese troops mobilized the main force to confront the Qing soldiers in the area of Xinjie and Laoguantun.
The Qingshui Division and part of the army attacked by land and water, defeated the Burmese naval division, killed more than 2,000 enemies, and captured 6 warships. He also broke through three camps of Burmese soldiers and killed more than 1,500 enemies. After the battle, the Burmese soldiers retreated to Laoguantun, dozens of miles away, and the Qing army occupied Xinjie.
Fu Heng
In the battle of Laoguantun, the Burmese soldiers dug many earthen pits as deep as three feet in the camp, during which the soldiers could not only avoid artillery fire, but also hide their targets.
However, the naval division made many gains, sinking 20 Burmese warships, but the land offensive was repeatedly frustrated, and the attack could not be exhausted for a long time. After Myanmar took the initiative to demand an armistice, after several negotiations, it was negotiated and agreed to make a formal truce, and all the veteran officials and soldiers were withdrawn. This war, which lasted for seven years and cost 9.11 million taels of silver, finally came to an end.
Burmese army in fierce battle
The lesson of firearms has been painful, but it has not alerted Daqing
Some generals who participated in the Qing-Burma War have witnessed the great power of firearms held by some Burmese soldiers, in fact, this is the flintlock gun that the Russian army began to equip in the Battle of Yaksa 100 years ago, and the Qing army is still stuck in the traditional shotgun used 100 years ago, and the loading speed and firepower advantage are obviously downwind.
After the war, a general wrote to the Qianlong Emperor, proposing to purchase advanced guns from the West, imitate guns, and upgrade firearms. However, the Qianlong Emperor, influenced by the ancestral motto of "riding and shooting", believed that the development of firearms would lead to the abandonment of the riding and shooting skills of the Eight Banner Army, resulting in excessive reliance on firearms and did not pay attention to it.
The image of the Qianlong Emperor riding and shooting
Among the Qianlong Emperor's "Ten Complete Martial Arts", the Burmese War was also the only one with more controversy. In his later years, the Qianlong Emperor once said, "In more than 50 years and eight wars, the conquest of Burma was not considered successful." ”
Finally, to say: backwardness will be beaten, come out to mix sooner or later will have to pay back, the Manchu Qing Dynasty has been dreaming of the heavenly empire for more than 200 years, and regards the advanced science and technology of the West as strange skills and obscenities, when these strange skills and skillful strong ships and cannons knock on the gate of the Great Qing Kingdom, it is too late to regret the wrong beginning.