01 /
Celestial Empire's doubts
It is said that in that far east, there is a mysterious and ancient country called the Qing Dynasty.
On this day, the emperor of the Celestial Empire was leisurely sipping tea in the Forbidden City, when suddenly, a spy came to report: "Your Majesty, a sail shadow has appeared on the sea level in the distance, suspected of foreign invasion!"
When the emperor heard this, he almost dropped the teacup in his hand: "What? How dare they!" You know, this Qing Dynasty prides itself on being the "Heavenly Empire", and it has always been others who come to worship us, so how can we visit others?
What's more, this foreigner dares to invade our territory!
The emperor hurriedly summoned hundreds of civil and military officials to discuss countermeasures. Someone suggested: "Your Majesty, let's quickly send troops to fight them!" When the emperor heard this, he waved his hand and said: "No, our Qing Dynasty is a state of etiquette, how can we use force at will?"
The emperor shook his head again and said, "Negotiation? What is there to talk about with the foreigners?" Do they understand our etiquette?"
Just when everyone was talking, a person suddenly stood up and said: "Your Majesty, according to the ministers, the reason why this foreigner dares to invade us must be because they think that our Qing Dynasty is easy to bully." So, if we want them to retire, we have to show that we are strong and invincible!"
When the emperor heard this, he immediately came to his senses: "Oh? Then tell me, how should we show our strength?"
The man smiled slightly and said, "Your Majesty, let's send someone to negotiate with them! But this person must be the most powerful person in our Qing Dynasty!"
When the emperor heard this, he was happy: "Hahaha! Good idea! I'll send you there!" When the man heard this, he was so frightened that he quickly knelt down: "The emperor spares his life!
The words are divided into two ends. In fact, this foreigner doesn't really want to fight. The reason why they came all the way to the Qing Dynasty to make trouble was entirely caused by a trade dispute.
It turned out that the Qing Dynasty had always implemented a policy of closing the country to the outside world and not doing business with foreigners. This can make the foreigners who do trade very bad. What can they do if they have a lot of goods in their hands and can't sell them?
So they came up with a solution - smuggling opium. This opium is a good thing! Once you smoke it, you become addicted to it, and you can't quit it. And after sucking, it can also make people flutter and forget all their troubles.
So these foreigners began to smuggle opium into China frantically, earning a lot of silver. It's a terrible Chinese for those opium smokers!
All of them are yellow-skinned and skinny, and they are simply not human-shaped. And those foreigners who sell opium are eating fat and oily one by one, and they are more at ease than the gods!
02 /
Prelude to the collision
Seeing that the opium business is getting bigger and bigger, and those who smoke opium are also increasing. The emperor of the Qing Dynasty finally realized the seriousness of the problem.
He thought to himself: This is not going to work! If this continues, our people of the Qing Dynasty will not all have to become a group of "sick men of East Asia"! So the emperor ordered Lin Zexu, the governor of Huguang, to go to Guangdong to ban smoking.
After Lin Zexu received the order, he immediately rushed to Guangdong with his men and horses without saying a word. After arriving in Guangdong, he first investigated the local opium trafficking, and then severely cracked down on those foreigners who sold opium.
In the end, he also concentrated all the opium he had collected in Humen and destroyed it. This is the famous "Humen cigarette sale" incident in history.
The news of Humen's cigarette sales soon spread to Britain. When the British who were in the opium business heard this, they became anxious: "Hey, what can we do with this? Our hard-earned money has just gone down the drain?"
No, we have to find a way to recover our losses quickly! So these British began to agitate the government to start a war to teach this Qing Dynasty a lesson.
They said: "Lin Zexu's anti-smoking behavior is a serious provocation to our British Empire, and we must resolutely fight back!" In this way, a war caused by opium was inevitable.
03 /
A contest in the smoke of gunpowder
Soon the war began. The British dispatched a huge fleet and slaughtered the coastline of the Qing Dynasty with great vigour.
And what about the Qing Dynasty? Although it also sent a large number of troops to resist, it had no choice but to be inferior in skill and weaponry! Those British warships were all ironclad giant ships, equipped with advanced artillery and guns.
And what about the warships of the Qing Dynasty? Basically, they were wooden warships, equipped with only some old-fashioned guns and bows and arrows. Where is this opponent? It's like an egg hitting a stone!
The result can be imagined, the army of the Qing Dynasty was defeated and collapsed. And what about the British? One by one, they landed on the land of the Qing Dynasty and began their journey of burning, killing and looting.
This war lasted for more than two years, bringing great disasters and suffering to the people of the Qing Dynasty. Countless homes have been destroyed, countless lives have been taken from them, and countless riches have been plundered......
All this made the people of the Qing Dynasty miserable and miserable!
04 /
Reflection and enlightenment
In the end, the war ended in the defeat of the Qing Dynasty. The signing of the "Treaty of Nanjing" made the Qing Dynasty lose face and lose its majesty!
The Manchu nobles had to bow their noble heads and bow down to the foreigners of the "barbarian state"!
What a shame this is! It is simply the greatest shame since the founding of the Qing Dynasty!
However, after learning the hard way, we have to admit that the defeat of this war was actually caused by the problems of the Qing Dynasty itself. If we can open up our country early and learn from the advanced technology and culture of the West;
If we can realize our own shortcomings and backwardness sooner, if we can carry out reform and innovation earlier......
Then the outcome of this war may be a different story! It's a pity, it's a pity that history has no if there are only results and consequences!
Of course, the defeat in this war also brought a valuable enlightenment to the Qing Dynasty: That is, backwardness will lead to beating! Only by constantly learning and making progress can we avoid the recurrence of similar tragedies!
Since then, the Qing Dynasty has gradually opened up its country, learned from the advanced technology and culture of the West, carried out a series of reforms and innovations, and finally embarked on the road of modernization and started a new chapter......