Comrade | Guevara
During the reign of the Daoguang Emperor, the Qing Dynasty faced serious internal and external troubles, especially the harm caused by the Opium War. In the battle against the British invading army, a large number of patriotic heroes who can sing and cry have emerged, such as Lin Zexu, Deng Tingzhen, Guan Tianpei, Ge Yunfei and others, but there are also cowards who have escaped from the battlefield and are despicable. For example, Yu Buyun, the viceroy of Zhejiang, who escaped from battle five times, is a typical example, and he was also the only Qing general to be beheaded in the Opium War.
Yu Buyun, a native of Guang'an County, Sichuan Province, was promoted to guerrilla after the war by participating in the suppression of the Sichuan-Chu Bailian Rebellion in 1798 as a township hero. In the following 30 years, Yu Buyun also participated in the conquest of the Zhang Ge rebellion in Xinjiang, the suppression of the Miao and Yao people uprisings in Xiang and Guangdong provinces, and the suppression of Xie Fazhen, the leader of the Renhuai bandits. However, Yu Buyun Hero I eventually became a spurned "escaped general". Everything must start from the defense of the Dinghai Sea.
Map of the Situation of the Opium War
In June 1840, the Sino-British Opium War officially broke out, and the commander of the British Expeditionary Force, Yi Lu, led a fleet to attack Guangzhou without success, turning north along the coast, and in July of that year captured the fortress of Dinghaicheng, which was located at the confluence of the Yangtze River estuary and Hangzhou Bay. In the Battle of Dinghai, Yu Buyun, then the admiral of Fujian, was ordered to rush to the rescue, and after witnessing the Qing Dynasty's fortifications being blown up by enemy artillery in 9 minutes, he naturally became afraid of the British combat effectiveness, which was a phenomenon that had never been seen in the first half of his life.
After the fall of Dinghai, the governor of Liangjiang, Iribu, was recalled to the capital division for advocating peace with Ying, and Yu Qian, the governor of Jiangsu, took over, and Yu Buyun was appointed as the viceroy of Zhejiang to assist Yu Qian in resisting the British. Due to the epidemic, the British garrison voluntarily withdrew from Dinghai in February 1841. After the British army withdrew, Yu Qian immediately sent Yu Buyun to lead 4,000 men and horses to retake Dinghai, and stepped up the construction of fortifications, shipbuilding and casting cannons to prevent the British army from attacking again. However, Yu Buyun did not have any hope of repelling the British army, and his readiness for war was very passive, always seeking opportunities for peace talks and ready to withdraw at any time.
Yuyaku Images
Compared with Yu Buyun's negative attitude, Yu Qian was very attentive to consolidating the coastal defense of Jiangsu and Zhejiang and resisting the British army, in addition to strictly urging Yu Buyun to strengthen the fortifications of Dinghai, he also overhauled the fortifications in Zhenhai County near Ningbo, and eventually formed 4 strong defensive lines such as Zhaobao Mountain, Jinji Mountain, Daxia River, and Zhenhai City. At the same time, Yuqian also paid special attention to boosting the morale of soldiers, and whenever the war began, he would personally command the front line and lead the civil and military officials to swear in front of the statues of Emperor Guan and Tianhou to boost morale.
Dissatisfied with the slow progress of Sino-British negotiations, the British started another war in January 1841, and in just a few months they successively attacked Guangzhou, Xiamen, Gulangyu and other places, and invaded Dinghai again in September of that year. In the face of the frenzied attack of the British army, the three general soldiers stationed in Dinghai, Ge Yunfei, Zheng Guohong, and Wang Xipeng, led the soldiers to put up a deadly resistance and annihilated more than a thousand enemy soldiers. However, due to the excessive power of foreign guns and cannons, after 6 days and nights of bloody fighting, 3 general soldiers and 4,000 soldiers were heroically martyred. At the moment of crisis, Ge Yunfei had asked Yu Buyun for reinforcements, but he did not move, almost watching Dinghai City fall again.
A Qing Dynasty warship destroyed by the British in the Battle of Dinghai
After the fall of Dinghai, the British invading fleet besieged Zhenhai in two ways on October 10, Yu Qian personally sat in Zhenhai City after hearing the news, and ordered Yu Buyun to garrison Zhaobao Mountain, and the general Xie Chao'en to garrison Jinji Mountain, in order to encircle and annihilate the British army. However, Yu Buyun, who was greedy for life and afraid of death, refused to go to Zhaobao Mountain for a long time, and under the pretext of saving the lives of the people of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, asked the governor to send someone to ask the British army for peace. Yu Qian was very angry at Yu Buyun's suggestion, reprimanded him for stealing his life and betraying the country and seeking glory, and hurriedly ordered him to go to Zhaobao Mountain to die, otherwise he would be punished by military law.
Although Yu Buyun was forced to go to Zhaobao Mountain to garrison, out of extreme fear of the combat effectiveness of the British army, when the enemy approached the position, he forbade the soldiers to open fire and hung a white flag of exemption from battle. During this period, Yu Buyun went to Zhenhai City twice, and on the grounds that more than 30 of his wife and children needed to be taken care of, he begged the governor to allow him to withdraw to Ningbo, but Yu Qian severely refused. However, since Yu Buyun wanted to live with an iron heart, he naturally refused to obey Yu Qian's orders. Therefore, when the British army began to climb Zhaobao Mountain, Yu Buyun decisively abandoned the fort and fled west to Ningbo. When the soldiers saw that the Lord would be like this, they naturally fled one after another.
Schematic of the Battle of Zhenhai
After Yu Buyun led his army to escape, the British army occupied Zhaobao Mountain without a single shot, and then attacked Jinji Mountain, although Xie Chao'en led his troops to fight in blood, but finally died because they were outnumbered, and the position was immediately lost. After the fall of Zhaobao Mountain and Jinji Mountain, the British army took advantage of occupying the commanding heights and bombarded Zhenhai City with artillery to cover the British army's climbing ladder to the city. In the face of the swarming British troops, Yu Qian knew that the situation was gone, but he did not follow the advice of his subordinates to retreat, but out of the sense of mission of "defending the territory and having a responsibility", he jumped into the sinking pool and committed suicide, thus becoming the highest-ranking martyr in the Opium War, on October 11, 1841.
After the news of Yu Qian's suicide and martyrdom reached Beijing, the Daoguang Emperor urgently ordered the general Yang Wei to order Yi jing to be the governor of Zhejiang, in order to recover all the lost land in eastern Zhejiang. However, before Yi Jing arrived in Zhejiang, Yu Buyun, who had fled to Ningbo, fled again without a fight when facing the attack of 700 British troops, and ran into Shangyu with a smoke. Not only that, during the period of hiding in Ningbo, Yu Buyun on the one hand begged the British commander Pu Ding to make peace, on the other hand, he framed Yu Qian to the imperial court and collapsed without a fight, causing Zhenhai to fall, which was really shameless.
Michimitsu-tei Image
At the end of January 1842, Yi Jing, who had already arrived in Zhejiang, commanded three men and horses to launch a counterattack, planning to retake Ningbo, Dinghai, and Zhenhai, but Yu Buyun did not arrive at the designated location on time. After the Qing army failed to counterattack, Yu Buyun led his troops to xiyuanling near Cixi to garrison. In March of the same year, the British army attacked Dabaoshan, a military stronghold west of Cixi City, and Jinhua's deputy general Zhu Gui led more than 700 Qing soldiers to fight bravely, although killing and wounding a large number of British troops, they were all killed in battle because they were outnumbered. After the fall of Dabaoshan, Yu Buyun retreated into Cixi, and then abandoned the city and fled.
Yu Buyun's repeated role as a "fleeing general" on the battlefield naturally provoked the anger of the Daoguang Emperor, and in May of the same year, he was deposed and escorted to Beijing, where he was soon sentenced to beheaded and imprisoned (i.e., suspended death). On the question of how to deal with Yu Buyun, the courtiers disagreed, and some believed that he had made great achievements before and should be taken lightly. However, Li Zhenhu, the Shangshu of the Punishment Department, believed that Yu Buyun, as the main general, repeatedly abandoned the city and fled, and if he did not engage in military law, how would he comfort the loyal soldiers who sacrificed their lives for the country?
The British army fighting in eastern Zhejiang
The defeat of the Qing army in the war in eastern Zhejiang made the imperial court lose face, and it was really impossible to say that it was really impossible to say that yu Buyun, the main general who had escaped from the battlefield for 5 consecutive times, had not been executed. What's more, Yu Buyun also framed Yu Qian, who committed suicide and martyrdom, and such a despicable act was not enough to kill the people. Therefore, the Daoguang Emperor quickly approved the request of Li Zhenhu and others, agreeing to behead Yu Buyun and abandon the city, which was officially executed on January 24, 1843. As a result, the 69-year-old Yu Buyun became the only Qing Dynasty general to be beheaded in the Opium War, and entered the annals of history with a humiliating image.
bibliography
Zhao Erxun: Draft History of the Qing Dynasty, Zhonghua Bookstore, 1998 edition.
Official Revision Historical Materials: Qing Shilu, Zhonghua Bookstore, 2008 edition.
Edited by the First Historical Archive of China: Historical Materials of the Opium War Archives, Tianjin Ancient Books Publishing House, 1992.
Chinese Historical Society, ed., Opium War, Shenzhou Guoguang Publishing House, 1954.