Don't take the First Opium War too seriously.
At that time, the British Empire was in the eyes of the Daoguang Emperor, but they were just poor and afraid, and admired me for being rich and flowing oil, and came to ask for some mutual markets and extort some money and grain.
The Daoguang Emperor did not work hard, organized and mobilized a large number of troops to the front, and from 1839, intermittently dealt with the enemy until 1842.
But the Qing army lost successive battles, didn't the Daoguang Emperor feel humiliation and crisis? To say that there is nothing that will not be done, but the Daoguang Emperor is a typical person who sees the world from the twists and turns, the front line is far in the southeast, far from Beijing, not to mention that the entire bureaucracy is cooperating with Daoguang's defeat, so he basically does not think that there is any fuss.
In the view of the Daoguang Emperor, Britain at this time was to the Qing Dynasty just as the Xiongnu were to the Han, the Khitan was to the Northern Song Dynasty, and the Jurchens were to the Southern Song Dynasty. It's not that they haven't been defeated, just think in the long run, sooner or later one day they will be attached to the courtiers.
The most fatal thing is not this, but the British army poisoned the southeast and forced Nanjing. The southeast is the important place of wealth of the Great Qing Dynasty, and Nanjing is the key point of canal transshipment. Once the British army was based here for a long time, the transportation was blocked, and the country would suddenly fall into chaos.
How could Qi Ying, Irib, and others, who were presiding over the peace talks in Nanjing at that time, not understand this truth, so they hurriedly negotiated peace with the British side, lost some military expenses, made up some commercial debts, opened five trade ports, and cut a barren piece of land in the borderlands.
This kind of thing was beautified by officials to go to heaven and listen, and it was almost like that: Xu Yijin, and opened a mutual market, temporarily borrowed a corner of the border land to shelter, Ying Yi was grateful for his kindness, bowed his head to thank Tian's grace, and went.
The Daoguang Emperor may have some regrets, secretly thinking about how the annals of later generations will be written, is it the alliance of the Lanyuan, or the Shaoxing peace discussion? It won't be so nice anyway, but he can't manage so much, he is a little tired, he just wants to land smoothly and stop making any more trouble.
A soldier who can turn a war into a jade and surrender without a fight, so why fight to the end?
Many people lament that China could have seized the opportunity after the First Opium War, learned from the West, and leapt to become a world power, but this sense of urgency did not come into being until 20 years later, during the foreign affairs movement.
If Daoguang made a desperate bet, the Qing army had the possibility of losing a loss and could draw with the British army.
But the Daoguang Emperor would not do this.
Because in the late period of the First Opium War, the British army had already touched the "lifeline" of the Qing government.
If the fight continues, the Qing government risks an avalanche.
The First Opium War, which lasted more than two years.
It seems to have been fought for a long time. However, large and small battles broke out between June 1840 and May 1842.
Such as the Battle of Humen, the Battle of Xiamen, and the Second Battle of Dinghai.
It doesn't matter. The success or failure of these battles did not affect the outcome of the entire war.
Why doesn't it affect?
Because at that time the British army did not understand the national conditions of China.
The British army transplanted the tactical logic of fighting the Netherlands and France directly to China.
That is, it was believed that by blocking the coastline and cutting off the trade routes of China's coastal cities, the Qing government could be forced to surrender. (Typical naval battle thinking)
But we know that until modern times, China has always been a self-sufficient economy.
Since ancient times, most of China's economies have not relied on maritime trade. The British army blocked the coastline and occupied the coastal cities of Xiamen, Dinghai, Ningbo and other cities, which naturally did not have much impact on the entire Chinese economy.
It is worth mentioning that the British army does not understand the national conditions of China.
The Qing government also did not understand the tactics of the British army.
The Qing government stood firm and cleared the wilderness, cut off contact with the British army in the interior, and forced the British army to disembark and fight on land. It was the opposite of the British army's thinking of land warfare.
Other words. The British army engaged in a naval blockade in the open seas, thinking that it could lock up the Qing government. The Qing army carried out an anti-blockade on land, also thinking that it could lock up the British army.
However, in fact, the blockade tactics that both sides thought were useful had little effect on the enemy. On both sides, they are doing useless work.
Therefore, don't look at the Battle of Humen, the Qing army was hanged, and the governor of Guangdong, Guan Tianpei, died in battle; In the Battle of Guangzhou, more than 20,000 Qing troops were destroyed by more than 3,000 British troops; In the Second Battle of Dinghai, more than 7,000 Qing troops were once again crushed by the British army, and the general soldier Ge Yunfei was killed in battle. In all battles, the Qing army lost badly.
But in fact, these fiasco did not directly affect the outcome of the war. It will not lead to the surrender of the Daoguang Emperor.
So, what factors caused the Daoguang Emperor to think in 1842 that he could not fight and was anxious to stop the war?
This factor is exactly what was mentioned earlier - the British army suddenly touched the "lifeline" of the Qing government during the Opium War. The Daoguang Emperor was caught off guard and could only admit defeat.
So, what is the "life gate" of the Qing government?
First, Jiangnan is financially endowed.
Second, the defense of Tianjin is almost useless.
As long as one of these two life gates is captured, the Qing government will not be able to fight it.
In August 1840, two months after the start of the war, the British army once came to the sea off Tianjin and touched the Qing government's life.
It was precisely because of this that Daoguang, fearing that the capital was in danger, removed Lin Zexu and sent Qishan to Guangzhou to negotiate with the British army.
However, because the British army did not know enough about China at that time, it still believed that only by blockade could the Qing government be defeated.
So in the war of 1841, the British army went back.
Mutual blockade with the Qing army on the southeast coast, wasting time.
Until May 1842, I don't know whether it was a sudden opening or a high-ranking person who launched an attack on the Yangtze River basin. The British army once again touched the Qing government's life.
In June 1842, the British army launched an attack on Wusongkou. After that, it attacked Zhenjiang. And the Qing army was not sufficiently prepared for this.
Daoguang had been focusing his defense on Zhejiang, when the British suddenly changed the direction of the attack, and he did not have time to react.
So, the Qing army was hanged. It took only two months for the British to fight from Zhejiang to Nanjing. (The British army initially stood at 4,000 and later increased to 9,000.) By the time the troops arrived at Nanjing Purple Mountain, the total strength was nearly 20,000, more than 100 ships)
Hearing that Zhenjiang fell, Daoguang was really anxious.
Because more than half of the Qing government's taxes came from Jiangnan. A large part of it is transported to the north via the Grand Canal. After the British army occupied Zhenjiang, they could cut the canal at any time. In this way, the central government of the Qing court would fall into the point of no rice cooking.
At this time, Daoguang has two choices.
First, not afraid of the consequences of the canal being cut off, it continued to increase its troops and fought bloody battles with the British army along the banks of the Yangtze River.
The second is to directly admit the negative.
This first option is not a lack of chance to draw.
Because when the British army attacked Zhenjiang, 12,000 people were dispatched. This is already a big gamble for Britain, which has only more than 100,000 troops in the national army.
This shows that the British army does not have much in mind whether it can take Zhenjiang.
If in Nanjing, in other cities along the river, the Qing army and the British army collided to the end, making the British army feel that it was in a quagmire, and the British army might retreat.
Just like in the same period, the British army was in Afghanistan.
It's just that Daoguang won't choose this kind of risky plan.
After all, the Manchu-Han contradiction ran through the beginning and end of the Qing Dynasty, and on the eve of the Battle of Zhenjiang, the deputy capital of Zhenjiang Garrison, Hailing, was because he thought that he was a collaborator with the Han, which led to the fall of Wusongkou and slaughtered the Han people in Zhenjiang.
If the fight continues, the Manchu-Han contradiction will be further intensified. Daoguang didn't know what the consequences would deteriorate.
Therefore, when on August 9, 1842, the British army installed artillery on the Purple Mountain outside Nanjing, preparing to attack the city.
The ministers of Qincha, Qi Ying, Iribu, and Niu Jian, the governor of Liangjiang, immediately made peace with the British army at the Jinghai Temple and Shangjiang Kaoteng outside Nanjing. And on behalf of Daoguang, he signed the Treaty of Nanjing with the British army.
Although according to the provisions of the Treaty of Nanjing, the Qing government wanted to pay 21 million silver dollars in compensation, cede Hong Kong, open five cities as trading ports, and negotiate tariffs (loss of tariff autonomy).
However, compared with the fall of Jiangnan, the central government's financial resources were cut off, and the Manchu-Han contradictions were intensified, which led to the collapse of the regime. The loss of the Treaty of Nanjing was really nothing to Daoguang.
It is worth mentioning. It is estimated that the British army later learned the lessons of the first opium war and realized that the navy alone could not strangle China, and it was pointless to rely on 20,000 or 30,000 troops to fill the pits in the bottomless pit in the south of the Jiangnan.
Therefore, during the Second Opium War, the British army did not spend time with the Qing army on the southeast coast and along the Yangtze River. Instead, he went north along the coastline to Tianjin, took Dagukou, and stabbed the Qing government in the heart, directly forcing the Qing government to surrender.
And because the Qing government was resting on its laurels, it did not have the slightest understanding of its weaknesses.
So during the Second Opium War, the Qing government was hung again. And even worse than the first Opium War.
As a result, the Chinese nation suffered an even more catastrophic catastrophe.