If the Battle of Kowloon was only a hasty encounter, then the Battle of the Nose was a big battle that Lin Zexu had carefully prepared.
How elaborate? Look at the battle that was pulled up, you know that twenty-nine warships were fought in one go, and they were all the strongest warships of the Guangdong Marine Division, basically the most expensive possessions!
After a number of British merchant ships could not withstand the painful blockade, they ignored the soaring anger of Yilu and took the initiative to find Lin Zexu, Lin Zexu expected that Yilu would absolutely not be able to swallow this breath, so he had already made preparations. Although Lin Zexu said in the recital that it was because the British warships obstructed the British ships from coming to "tie the knot", Admiral Guan Tianpei was "surprised by the smell" and led the fleet to come to see the situation, but he was suddenly attacked by the British army, so the fight broke out.
But looking at this battle, we knew how well Prepared Lin Zexu had been, especially the dispatch of Viceroy Guan Tianpei. This guan Tianpei, but Lin Zexu's most important big card in the enemy strategy from beginning to end!
As a general with a long-standing reputation, Guan Tianpei can be said to be an absolute alternative in the military circles of the Qing Dynasty at that time: he was strong in martial arts, bold and loyal, did not eat empty wages, did not covet public funds, and knew how to defend his family and defend the country with one mind. During this period, Lin Zexu's various training and defensive battles were almost all his efforts before and after the saddle. A generation of brave warriors!
During this period of siege between Lin Zexu and Yilu, it was also the most tense time for Lin Zexu to reorganize his armaments, and Guan Tianpei was also very hard and very busy, in addition to training troops and building artillery, he also had to step up patrols, and all inside and outside were grasped. It's the time to be busy with the reels, but it's catching up with this battle!
For the Qing army, this battle is really a trump card, and it is determined to win!
For this battle, there are many opposites between the Qing Dynasty side and the British side, but there is one basic agreement: the British move first!
YiLu's report said: When Guan Tianpei's fleet encountered the British fleet, Guan Tianpei's flagship was hung with a red flag of flaunting military might, and after being warned by the British, Guan Tianpei replied even more arrogantly: "Now all I am asking for is to kill Lin Weixi's traitorous person", (Continuation of the Chinese Newsletter, October-November 1839, p. 13) That is, this is to threaten the British with force.
Does this pay off? The captain of the British warship Wola was immediately enraged, and in his words to Yilu: Qing warships could not be allowed to pass through the merchant ships, and once special circumstances arose, no one could bear this responsibility.
And Yi Lu hesitated at first, listening to Shi Mi's encouragement, and seeing that Guan Tianpei was not negotiable, he also slapped the board: Fight! Captain Shimi then opened fire on the Chinese sailors. A large-scale maritime confrontation between China and Britain: the Battle of the Nose piercing has begun!
The wonderful process of this battle, in Lin Zexu's sonata, is also depicted in the intestines. Guan Tianpei stood up the bow of the ship without fear in the brutal battle of the artillery fire, and the magnificent scene of the bloody struggle to the end was even moved by the Daoguang Emperor, and in the film and television drama related to the theme of the Opium War, this section was filmed in a big book, which was quite wonderful and vivid.
In fact, not only Lin Zexu brilliantly depicted, as an opponent, but also the righteous law of the veteran British naval officer, who also admitted to this matter, and said with the praise of the righteous law: "As a brave person, the fair statement is that the performance of the Admiral (Guan Tianpei) is worthy of his position." ”
Based on this evaluation alone, Guan Tianpei, who fought in bloody battles, with his iron-blooded performance, not only won the heartfelt praise of the leader Lin Zexu, but also made the British people who were opponents respect. In this case alone, he deserves to be a good soldier.
But it's not enough to be good.
The evaluation of Guan Tianpei is almost the only positive evaluation of the British record of this battle, and the other scenes, compared with Lin Zexu's exciting record, are simply unbearable.
This tactic of warfare should be familiar to those who are familiar with the history of naval warfare in Europe in the nineteenth century, especially with the Anglo-French war. This was the conventional tactic of naval warfare in Europe at that time, and of course, in the eyes of the Qing army, it was simply unheard of.
According to the report of Yilu, after the battle began, the British fleet used the crosswind from right to left with extremely fast reaction speed, first penetrating the Qing Dynasty's naval formation, and then from left to right, and then penetrating again. The two of them immediately rushed the Qing Army's marine division to pieces, and then "poured out devastating artillery fire!" ”
The consequences of "devastating artillery fire" in Travis. Hennis III and Frank. Saneiro's account of the opium war: The Obsession of One Empire and the Fall of another Empire is also quite tragic: "The ammunition depot of a Chinese ship was hit, it sank after the explosion, the Chinese ship began to fear, after that, 3 more Chinese ships sank, and the crew of the other ships jumped ship..."
Even if the scene is so tragic, Travis. Hennis III and Frank. Saneiro and these two did not forget to give Guan Tianpei a thumbs up: "Only Guan Tianpei's flagship remains, and continues to fire at the British ship with a suicidal spirit." Shocked by the old man's courage, Yilu ordered Smith not to fire any more cannons and allowed the damaged flagship to sail away. ”
That is to say, if it were not for Guan Tianpei's heroic and fearless fighting spirit that touched the law of righteousness, this old hero with an iron backbone would have been martyred in advance.
And Yi Lu's own report said: "Our terrible potency firepower soon showed superiority!" So after three quarters of an hour of fighting, the Qing army basically collapsed and fled in a panic. The British also did not pursue. This is different from what Lin Zexu said in the "Shimi ship, the sails are obliquely flagged, and the royal and fleeing, and Warren also flees with it", the time is basically right, and the results of the battle are very different.
Who is right? According to the Macau Monthly, "The Chinese side sank 4 division ships, and the rest of the ships were injured and returned." "That is, being beaten miserably.
On Lin Zexu's side, although he did not admit that he had been beaten miserably, even in the extremely exaggerated victory, some words were also exposed: "Our army was supposed to be forced to crept, just like the gray road under the division ship was mostly shot open by artillery shells, and three ships inside gradually entered the water, and it was difficult to sail far." "That is to say, although our army has won, the ship has been beaten into the water by the British army, so it is impossible to pursue the enemy." This did not expand the results.
The Yilu side said that the British army was only slightly injured, there were no casualties, and sank three Ships of the Qing Army, and one was seriously injured.
Lin Zexu's recital, how big the water injection is, from these comparative data, it is not difficult to judge.
As for Guan Yong's six battle achievements, such as: "Wounding two Yiren, taking one shot, the remnants of the crowd rolling off a cliff and fleeing, leaving behind a number of Yi hats", "that is, hearing the Yi boat shouting in unison, and killing several people because of the darkness of the night", "Yi people scattered in the invincible, and the sheath of the hat and knife was left behind", "The Yi Chu You fired a cannon to resist, and after a moment or two, he only listened to the hoarse shouting, and there was no time to fight back", "Knocked down several people, and many people drifted to the sea", and so on, and so on.
There is no record of the above-mentioned Guan chung series of wars by the British side, and after one hundred and seventy years, various materials were compiled for examination, and the truth is greatly regrettable - these battles are except in the "Lin Ze Xu Ji. On page 704 of the middle volume of the Manuscript, "British Warships Obstructed the Import of The Country's Merchant Ships and Harassed Them Everywhere in the Nose-Tip Sand Mouth Folding Times" and "Lin ZeXu Ji. Page 359 of the Diary, which is completely undocumented elsewhere, makes one wonder that these achievements may have been fabricated and fabricated—not only from posterity, but also from Lin Zexu, because, judging from Lin Zexu's diary, he was very excited to receive the so-called "good news" from the officers and men of the front.
To sum up, the verifiable results of these battles before the opium war officially began were seriously waterlogged, and the unverifiable battles were even more seriously illusory. And no matter how hard Lin Zexu had, the consequences of these retributions were incomparably serious.
One of the most direct serious consequences was that the Daoguang Emperor was completely blinded, and at first he was still afraid of "border attacks", but when he saw that the British army was so dished, his courage also became fat. Just like his instructions to Lin Zexu, "You don't have to worry about Qing and other Meng Lang, but you must not be afraid of the guards." "Since it's easy to fight, then give me a beating to death!"
This misjudgment also ran through a long period of time after the outbreak of the Opium War. The Qing army suffered heavy losses on the battlefield, in addition to the objective gap, it also came from the subjective misjudgment of the Daoguang Emperor.
Another indirect consequence is that these several Sino-British confrontations, Lin Zexu's side, it can be said that he has fought with 100% full strength and taken out the ability to press the bottom of the box, but the British side has not moved a few points. Similar to the scale of the battle, in the eyes of the British, was a low-level military conflict.
It was also through these conflicts that the British easily figured out the military cards of the Qing Dynasty, which facilitated their subsequent big move: officially starting a war!
Especially the righteous law, before the battle of the nose, he hesitated, and after the battle of the nose, the courage immediately became stronger. In his own words: "It seems to me that such unjust violence should be dealt a swift and forceful blow to them in the form of ignorance in advance. ”
In fact, the British government did not disappoint him, and the british regular troops will soon arrive, and the movement is far greater than the righteous law hopes: the formal declaration of war on the Qing Dynasty!
(The above is an excerpt from Qin Shiyong and Zhang Lan's long popular history book "Seventy Years of Wind and Thunder", for the contextual content, please go to the column to read the whole book)