The Manchu Empire was repeatedly defeated in the Opium Wars, establishing the image of a "traitor". However, in the Battle of Bali Bridge in 1860, the Qing army showed rare bravery. They used an army of 30,000, including 10,000 elite cavalry, far outnumbering the enemy's strength. Unfortunately, the end result was a big surprise - the Qing army paid a heavy price of 1,200 casualties, killing only 5 enemy soldiers. Why did this seemingly evenly matched battle turn into such a bleak ending? The key to everything is hidden in the historical details of the time, let's find out.
A sense of crisis in front of the Bali Bridge
The Battle of Bali Bridge in 1860 took place in the final phase of the Second Opium War. At that time, the British and French forces, with their advanced artillery weapons, had captured the city of Tianjin and approached the Beijing division. In the face of menacing foreign enemies, the Qing Empire was fearful.
Although Emperor Xianfeng was the monarch of the dynasty, he was an incompetent wine bag and rice bag. When he heard that the allied forces had captured Tianjin, he panicked and immediately sent a message to the scholars to rush to the enemy-occupied area and ask for peace negotiations. It can be said that the country is in danger, but it seeks peace.
However, the strength of the Anglo-French alliance was far from being able to compete with the Qing Dynasty. There is also the secret support of the United States, Russia and other countries, so the conditions for peace talks are undoubtedly aggressive. The negotiations lasted for a week, and the Qing envoys begged bitterly, but none of them were satisfied. In the end, the Anglo-French forces directly refused to armistice and instead deployed a plan to attack the Forbidden City.
The crisis was unprecedented, and the upper and lower classes of the Qing Dynasty were shocked. Zeng Guofan, Li Hongzhang and other important ministers played the emperor, and the force Chen Wu must be ready for battle. At this time, the prince monk Greenqin was ordered to supervise the battle, leading 30,000 elite Manchu and Han cavalry to garrison the first line of Bali Bridge, the choke point of the Beijing Division.
It can be said that at the critical moment, it is related to the survival of the Manchu Dynasty.
In the face of approaching foreign enemies step by step, the Qing generals were all solemn in their hearts. Bali Bridge is only 8 miles away from the Forbidden City, and if it is lost, Waiyi will be able to go straight to the Imperial City. However, at this time, Monk Grinqin knew very little about the enemy's situation.
The Anglo-French forces were secretive, and first found local missionaries to find out the situation. With the help of them, after finding out the deployment of the Qing army's troops in the area of Bali Bridge, they immediately took action. At that time, Seng Lingqin was still unaware of it, and still had the hope of defeating the enemy army.
This oversight doomed the tragedy that followed.
On August 18, the British and French forces arrived around Zhangjiawan and launched a fire raid. Suddenly attacked, Monk Lingqin's cavalry formation was suddenly chaotic. Hundreds of cannonballs rained down, startling horses and fleeing in all directions.
And at this critical moment, it was the only fatal mistake of the Qing army.
The cavalry collapsed, and the infantry in the rear was inevitably affected. The entire Baliqiao army was immediately in chaos and retreated. Monk Greenqin had no choice but to lead the remnants of the army to support and defend the back road.
In this way, in just a few hours, the Qing army pattern in the area of Bali Bridge has been shattered by the sudden attack of the British and French forces. In the face of aggressive fire suppression, Seng Lingqin also had to make retreat arrangements.
As soon as the Bali Bridge crisis came, the Manchu Qing Dynasty also embarked on an irreversible countdown.
Serious problems with the deployment of the Qing army
Although the Qing army amassed 30,000 troops on the front line of Bali Bridge, including the elite 10,000 Manchu cavalry, this huge army had serious problems and loopholes.
First of all, there is a serious lack of intelligence about the enemy. Due to the long period of no confrontation with the Western powers, the Qing generals had little understanding of the enemy's new firearms and equipment. They simply could not imagine how far the enemy's artillery could be fired and how destructive. As a result, reasonable precautions were not taken at the time of deployment.
Second, the Qing army's weaponry was outdated and backward. At the time of the Battle of Bali Bridge, the Qing army was still using outdated weapons such as arquebuses and embroidery guns. Although some of the sergeants were equipped with new flintlock muskets, they were still nowhere near as good as the new guns carried by the Anglo-French forces. The backwardness of equipment doomed the Qing army to be difficult to win in a modern war.
In addition, there were major loopholes in the deployment and deployment of the Qing army in the Bali Bridge area. They failed to pay sufficient attention to the defense of key areas in the surrounding areas, such as Zhangjiawan. Therefore, when the British and French forces suddenly opened fire, the Qing army was unable to fight back at all and was forced to retreat.
The most lethal thing was that the Qing army had almost zero knowledge of the enemy's movements before the war. Unbeknownst to them, the Anglo-French forces had figured out their own deployment and were ready for a surprise attack. Therefore, when the enemy opened fire, the army of Seng Lingqin was completely taken by surprise.
Speaking of Seng Lingqin, the commander of the Governor's Mansion had a rough fate and was ordered in danger. Originally a Mongolian nobleman, he was arrested for rebellion and forced to serve in the army. Although he was a feudal official, his military command experience was really limited. Even the elite cavalry under his command was temporarily recruited later.
Monk Lingqin personally led the cavalry to kill the enemy on the battlefield, but unfortunately because of these many serious problems, his fate could not escape defeat. Even in the later white-knuckle fighting, the Qing army also paid a heavy price, killing more than half of them, but they were still powerless to return to the sky.
In general, the reason why the Qing army suffered a crushing defeat in the Battle of Baliqiao was largely due to their serious misjudgment of the battlefield situation. It did not occur to them at all that the weapons of the Western powers were no longer what they used to be. In the case of outdated concepts and backward equipment, bravery is undoubtedly in vain.
Some little-known insider story
Behind the Battle of Bali Bridge, there are also some little-known internal contradictions and entanglements.
The most important of these was the fact that the Anglo-French forces received a great deal of intelligence support from local missionaries. As early as the beginning of 1860, the British and French forces began to make secret contacts and recruited a group of missionaries in China to serve as informants. Because they had lived in China for a long time, these people were well aware of the deployment and movements of the Qing army.
With the valuable information they provided, the Anglo-French forces were able to seize the timing so precisely to launch a surprise attack on the forces of the monks. Without the support of these informants, the Anglo-French forces would likely have missed the opportunity and given the Qing army time to make up for the defense.
Another little-known insider story is the rough life of Monk Greenqin himself. He was a Mongol prince who was arrested and imprisoned for rebellion and forced to serve in the army. Despite his illustrious position, Monk Grinchen actually had limited knowledge of military command experience.
Even his brave and combative cavalry were temporarily recruited. The run-in time of this elite army was too short, so when it encountered a surprise attack, the formation was in disarray, and it quickly collapsed.
In addition, there were great divisions within the Manchu royal palace before the war. When the Qing court learned that the British and French troops were approaching Beijing, the government and the opposition were in an uproar. Some important ministers such as Zeng Guofan and Li Hongzhang played the emperor and tried to wait for him. But Emperor Xianfeng was not surprised, and just blindly sought peace.
The opinions of the government and the opposition are seriously opposed, which leads to delays in decision-making and misses the best opportunity for defense. When the Battle of Bali Bridge broke out, the Qing army's morale was already shaken.
All these internal and external factors jointly aggravated the fiasco of the Battle of Baliqiao.
Historical revelations left behind by the tragic battle
Although the Battle of Baliqiao ended in a fiasco of 1,200 men for 5 people, this battle left a valuable historical enlightenment for future generations.
First of all, the complete defeat of the Qing army once again confirmed the importance of equipment. In the Battle of Baliqiao, the weapons and equipment used by the Qing army were outdated and outdated, and they were not at all comparable to the new artillery of the British and French forces. This was undoubtedly one of the decisive factors that led to their fiasco.
The backwardness of equipment not only directly affected the combat effectiveness of the army, but also reflected the backwardness of science and technology of the Qing Dynasty at that time. The Manchu dynasty ruled for a long time and was no longer able to adapt to emerging trends. On the other hand, the result of not keeping pace with the times is that the country is in decline.
Secondly, the Battle of Baliqiao illustrates a profound military truth for us: any victory is inseparable from adequate intelligence preparation. In the Battle of Bali Bridge, the Qing army had little understanding of the movements of the British and French forces, so they were completely exposed to the enemy and suffered a surprise attack.
It can be said that it is precisely the lack of effective intelligence support and the lack of in-depth understanding of the enemy that the Qing army has major loopholes in the deployment of formations and other aspects, giving the enemy an opportunity to take advantage of. A strong intelligence system can often directly determine the direction of a campaign.
Moreover, behind the Battle of Bali Bridge there were serious differences among the decision-makers within the Qing Dynasty. Emperor Xianfeng had huge disagreements with some of his important ministers on how to deal with the Anglo-French alliance, which eventually caused delays in military decisions and missed the best opportunity to defend.
To a large extent, this reflects that the Qing Dynasty at that time had fallen into the dilemma of the decision-making system, and the interests of the upper and lower classes were seriously divided, and it was difficult to form a highly unified response. It can be seen from this that once a serious rift appears in any country, it is destined to be difficult to deal with major internal and external troubles.
In the end, this fiasco also cost the Manchu dynasty extremely dearly. After the fall of Beijing, the British and French forces savagely burned down countless valuable cultural relics and monuments such as the Old Summer Palace. This crime is undoubtedly a desecration of China's 5,000-year-old civilization and culture, and fully embodies the barbaric atrocities of the invaders of the great powers.
Overall, although the Battle of Bali Bridge caused heavy losses to the Qing army, it left a valuable lesson for future generations. It is not difficult to see from this battle that once a country is backward in science and technology, weak in military strength, and chaotic in internal decision-making, it is doomed to suffer a crushing defeat when the great powers invade. This is undoubtedly a painful historical revelation, which has prompted the sons and daughters of China to regain their strength, catch up, and write a new chapter of rejuvenation.
The road to the fall of the Qing Dynasty after the Battle of Baliqiao
The fiasco in the Battle of Bali Bridge was undoubtedly the beginning of the fall of the Manchu Dynasty. The subsequent series of events accelerated the decline of this dynasty.
After the war, the British and French forces immediately broke out the crime of burning the Old Summer Palace for the second time. It was the largest imperial garden in China at that time, and there were countless precious cultural relics and monuments. Unfortunately, in order to punish the Qing Dynasty's struggle, the Western powers showed no mercy and wantonly burned this human treasure, causing immeasurable cultural losses.
This crime is undoubtedly a desecration of China's 5,000-year-old civilization and has deeply hurt the self-esteem of the Chinese. The legitimacy of the Manchu dynasty was no longer convinced, and its prestige in the hearts of the people was completely lost.
Immediately afterwards, Emperor Xianfeng was forced to sign the Sino-Chinese Treaty in Northern Aid, which was called an "unequal treaty that humiliated China". In addition to the painful contents such as huge indemnities and land cession compensation, there are also some even more tragic contents, such as the opening of treaty ports, allowing Christians to preach in the interior, and the cession of Kowloon.
This was undoubtedly a declaration of complete surrender of the Manchu rulers to the Western powers, which was tantamount to a document of self-humiliation. The masses of the people scolded Emperor Xianfeng for "betraying the country for glory".
Under the double attack of internal and external troubles, the Manchu regime had no choice but to accelerate the pace of the "Westernization Movement" and was eager to reform its military strength by learning from the West. However, at that time, the corruption of officialdom had become rampant, and the New Deal and the New Army were once in vain.
The subsequent outbreak of the Taiping Rebellion completely destroyed the last vestige of the Manchu regime. The rebel army crusaded brutally, swept through the four provinces of Hunan, Hubei, Zhejiang, and Suzhou, and once threatened the Beijing division. In the long and tragic war, the Qing army once again paid a heavy price, killing more than 20 million people.
In exchange for such a price, a devastated country is born. The harsh flames of war almost exhausted the last vestiges of the Manchu regime. Coupled with the halfway abandonment of the Westernization Movement, science and education were extremely backward, and the fall of the Manchu Qing Dynasty was only a matter of time.
In 1911, the Wuchang Uprising broke out, which became the last straw that crushed the Manchu regime. In this vigorous national liberation movement, the Manchu ruling clique lost its foothold, and was finally completely ousted from the stage of history, thus starting the journey of the Chinese nation to re-march towards the great rejuvenation.
From the beginning of the Battle of Bali Bridge to its demise decades later, this is undoubtedly a historical process with a profound lesson. We can clearly see that if a country falls into the predicament of internal and external troubles, lacks scientific and technological development and a sense of subjectivity, it will soon be abandoned by the times. Although the Battle of Baliqiao was a heroic performance of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, it could only be a final struggle for the decline and fall of the entire dynasty.