I. The Situation Before the First Opium War (July 1839 – June 1840)
1. In July 1839, the Lam Wai Hee case occurred in Tsim Sha Tsui Village, Kowloon. The British sailors drunkenly made trouble in the village and killed the villager Lin Weixi, Lin Zexu asked the British commercial director Yi Lu to hand over the murderer, but Yi Lu himself sentenced himself lightly.
2. On August 15, 1839, Lin Zexu ordered the prohibition of all trade, sent troops into Macau, and further expelled the British. This incident thus became the fuse of the Opium War.
3. On October 1, 1839, the British Cabinet decided to "send a fleet to the Sea of China" on the grounds that commerce was obstructed and the lives of the British people were threatened.
4. On January 5, 1840, Lin Zexu, according to the will of the Daoguang Emperor, announced the official closure of the port and the permanent severance of trade with Britain.
5. On January 8, 1840, the British captain of the "Wola Doubt" announced that from January 15, the port of Guangzhou and the mouth of the Pearl River would be blockaded.
6. On January 16, 1840, Queen Victoria addressed Parliament, saying that she was paying close attention to the interests of the British in China and the dignity of the country. The events that have taken place in China have caused the interruption of trade relations between our subjects and the country, and we have paid great attention to this incident, which affects the interests of our subjects and the dignity of the royal family.
7. In February 1840, the British government appointed Yi Lu and Yi Lu as the main/deputy plenipotentiary representatives, and Yi Lu as the commander-in-chief of the British army.
8. In April 1840, the British Parliament debated this fiercely, and under the influence of Queen Victoria, it finally passed military action by 271 votes to 262, and the British government never formally declared war, believing that military action was only a reprisal ( reprisal ) , not a war.
9. In June 1840, the mobile fleet of more than 40 British ships and 4,000 soldiers (including the 18th Royal Irish Wing, the 26th Scottish Rifle Regiment, the 49th Bengal Wing, the Bengal Engineer Corps and the Madras Engineer Regiment) set out from India to the surface of the Chinese Sea, marking the official start of the First Opium War. The fleet consisted of 16 warships (3 of which were large warships armed with 74 cannons), 4 steam warships and 28 transport ships. After the outbreak of the war, the British continued to reinforce from the mainland. In addition to the ships that were replaced and returned to China, by the end of the war in August 1842, the Number of British warships invading China had reached 25, 15 steam ships, and more than 60 hospital ships, survey ships, and transport ships.
The picture above is the thirteen lines of trade in Guangzhou before the First Opium War
Ii. The First Opium War Dinghai, Dagu, guangdong war; the so-called "Nose-piercing Grass Treaty"; The British army forcibly occupied Hong Kong Island (June 1840 - January 1841)
1. On June 22, 1840, part of the main force of the British army was prepared, and as planned, the main force began to go north to Zhoushan. Only a few ships remained to carry out the blockade at Humen.
2. On June 28, 1840, the follow-up troops of the British invasion of China arrived at the surface of Guangzhou, and the first batch of British troops invading China arrived, with a total of 16 naval warships, 4 armed ships of the East India Company, 4,000 ground troops, and a total of about 7,000 land and sea. (Auxiliary ships are also available)
3. On June 30, 1840, the first British troops arrived in Zhoushan.
4. On July 2, 1840, the British follow-up fleet of 9 ships (including three warships) passed through Xiamen, and the commander of the British Expeditionary Force ordered a warship to submit the "Letter to the Prime Minister of China (Copy)" to the Xiamen officials, and the ship sailed into the South Waterway of Xiamen to anchor.
5. On July 3, 1840, the British warship that sailed into the Southern Waterway of Xiamen sent an interpreter to board a small boat to deliver a letter, which was stopped by the Qing army, and the British warship fired on the shore, triggering a small-scale artillery battle. (The losses of both sides in this battle were slight, and it became a victorious battle when it was reported to the imperial court.)
6. On July 5, 1840, the British army in the sea of Zhoushan began to attack Dinghai, and the British army stopped attacking until dusk.
7. On the morning of July 6, 1840, the British army invaded Dinghai. DinghaiZhi County committed suicide by throwing water, and the chief soldier Zhang Chaofa was killed in battle yesterday. In the battle, only 1540 Qing troops participated in the battle, and only 13 were wounded and killed. The Division was destroyed within nine minutes, and all the British ships were shot only three times, with no casualties.
8. On July 20, 1840, the news of the loss of Dinghai reached Beijing.
9. On August 11, 1840, the British army arrived in Tianjin and left troops along the way to blockade the Chinese coast. The Viceroy Qi Shan consulted with the Commander of the British Army, and then submitted the "Letter to the Prime Minister of China" to the Daoguang Emperor.
10. On August 19, 1840, the Daoguang Emperor received an official document. The Daoguang Emperor had no will to fight, and due to a serious mistranslation, Daoguang thought that the British army had come here to "apply for the injustice of burning opium", so the Daoguang Emperor allowed it to be redressed and "to convince his heart" (so Lin Zexu was deposed, but the British side did not want this); refused to compensate for opium losses; refused to cede the island. And ordered it: "Reverse the south and wait for the handling." Of course, the British refused to agree, and the two sides continued to negotiate. However, due to many problems such as translation and cultural differences, there has been no substantive progress between the two sides.
11. On September 15, 1840, the British army felt that it was uncertain to fight in the Beijing area and that the monsoon would end, and agreed to return. Asked to go to Guangdong to continue negotiations.
12. On September 28, 1840, the British fleet returned to Zhoushan and learned that the British army that had previously remained in Dinghai had a serious epidemic (by the end of the year, 448 people had died here).
13. On October 3, 1840, Daoguang sent Qi Shan south to Guangdong to "huaifu" Yingyi.
14. On November 25, 1840, after some days of negotiations with Zhejiang officials in Zhoushan, Yi Lu, who did not understand the "unspoken rules" of Chinese officialdom, was played by monkeys without knowing it, issued an order for an armistice in Zhejiang, and led the British army south to Guangdong (soon after the British army abandoned Dinghai).
15. On November 29, 1840, Qi Shan arrived in Guangzhou, and Sino-British negotiations in Guangzhou began. However, due to the huge difference in the opening price between the two sides, it entered the stage of ripping off at the beginning.
16. On December 25, 1840, the Daoguang Emperor received the first repertoire of Qishan, learned that the British demands were so excessive (similar to the content of the Treaty of Nanjing), and ordered preparations for war.
17. On December 30, 1840, the Daoguang Emperor received the second repertoire of Qishan, believing that the negotiations were hopeless, ordered Qishan to "not show weakness", and ordered the three provinces of Sichuan, Xiang, and Qian to send reinforcements to Guangdong.
18. On January 6, 1841, the Daoguang Emperor received the third phase of Qishan's recital and issued a strict order: "Rebel Yi demands to pass over... It is unreasonable to say that when the army is slaughtered... If you rebel or post, you are not allowed to accept it", and at the same time reactivate Lin Zexu, who was dismissed, and so on. During the negotiations, Qi Shan continued to transfer troops from all over Guangdong to Humen, and the strength of Humen reached 11,000. Humen also became China's most powerful battery in the Opium War.
19. On January 7, 1841, the British launched an offensive and the Battle of Humen began. The British captured the Dajiao and Shajiao forts and defeated the Qing sailors. The defenders fought bravely, killing 282 men, wounding 462, and sinking 11 ships until the battery collapsed. The British suffered only 38 wounds.
20. On January 8, 1841, Qi Shan asked for a resumption of negotiations, and the British agreed to a temporary truce. Negotiations have been underway since then.
21. On January 26, 1841, the British army forcibly occupied Hong Kong and demanded the cession (Hong Kong still had Qing troops).
Pictured above is the only Western-style warship in the Qing navy, the Cambridge (also known as the Pocher), (launched in 1799, originally belonging to the East India Company, later resold to France, Britain, and the United States, the Americans sold to the Qing Dynasty at the beginning of the First Opium War, and because the Cambridge was not equipped with weapons, the Qing army was modified and equipped with a variety of guns) was destroyed in the Battle of the Pearl River in Guangzhou on February 27, 1841.
III. The First Opium War in Guangdong; The Treaty of Guangzhou; The War of Sanyuanli Against the British (January 1841 – May 1841)
1. On January 30, 1841, the Daoguang Emperor learned of the Humen War, dismissed Qi Shan, appointed Yishan as a general of the Jing Rebellion, and commanded the army south. Probably during this period, Yu Qian and Yan Botao, the "hardliners" of the Daoguang Emperor," were in charge of Liangjiang and Fujian and Zhejiang respectively, and the two immediately began to reorganize their armaments to the fullest extent after they arrived.
2. On February 24, 1841, the already hopeless negotiations had broken down, and the British began to deploy an offensive to the core position of Humen. In the early morning of the 26th, the British army officially launched an attack, and by 5 p.m. that day, the British army defeated all 8500 defenders, and Guan Tianpei was heroically sacrificed. Due to shelling mainly out of range, the British suffered minor losses.
3. On March 18, 1841, the British army invaded the British merchant house southwest of Guangzhou, and later withdrew. Due to the first two defeats, the morale of the Chinese defenders in this battle was low, and they collapsed before the battle, and the British army suffered slight losses. The new Counsellor General Yang Fang did not mention the defeat in the song chapter, but said that he had repeatedly defeated the British army, lest he escape.
4. On April 14, 1841, Yishan arrived in Guangzhou, which took 57 days and was used as a joke by the Russian military attaché.
5. At the beginning of May 1841, reinforcements from all over the world arrived in Guangdong one after another, and the Daoguang Emperor repeatedly ordered that "divide the roads and suppress them, so that the Yifan sails will not be left", if the British army "hears the wind and is far away", only the general is asked.
6. On May 21, 1841, Yishan ordered a fire attack on the British ships, and the British suffered slight losses. On the 24th, the British army attacked Guangzhou, and by the 25th, it had captured the main commanding heights and forts outside Guangzhou. The British lost 9 men and wounded 68. On the 27th, the Qing demanded negotiations with the British forces besieging the city, so they temporarily ceased the war. And pay the compensation. From 1 June, all British troops withdrew to Hong Kong. During this period, YiShan's recital did not mention the defeat, but instead won a great victory, and said that the British army raised a white flag to beg for peace. Daoguang learned of the great joy and allowed him to make peace, while ordering the coastal withdrawal (saving military expenses). Just when the heavens had eyes, at this time the plague was rampant in the British army, and the British fleet was suddenly hit by a typhoon, and the losses were heavy. Therefore, God inadvertently helped Yishan to round up the lie.
7. On May 30, 1841, the people of Sanyuanli engaged the British army, and the success of its tactics was enough to make any Qing general ashamed. However, the British finally broke through, and the British army killed 5 people and wounded 23 people. Another major died of excessive fatigue. On the 31st, the people surrounded the four-sided fort occupied by the British army. During the armistice, Yu Baochun, an official of the Qing faction who was in charge of the war, persuaded the people to return. (This hapless guy was considered a traitor by people who didn't know the truth at the time, until now.) ）
8. On May 31, 1841, the British Foreign Secretary believed that the Law of Righteousness was too conservative for China and sent Pu Dingcha to take over Chinese affairs.
Above, on July 21, 1842, the British 98th Army attacked Zhenjiang
IV. The First Opium War in Xiamen, Eastern Zhejiang, and the Yangtze River (August 1841 - August 1842)
1. On August 10, 1841, Pu Dingcha arrived. It took only 67 days to get from London to Macau, of which ten days were in Mumbai for official business, so it took only 57 days on the road.
2. On August 22, 1841, the main force of the British army went north to Xiamen, and Yishan concealed it (he bragged that the British army had retreated). Fortunately, Yishan's cowhide had long been recognized by Yan Botao in Xiamen, so Yan Botao had always resisted and did not withdraw. And in Xiamen, it invested heavily in establishing the strongest defensive line along the coast of China - Xiamen Shibi. The firepower of the fort was also quite powerful, with more than 400 guns and 5680 defenders (second only to Humen, but far stronger than Humen Fort).
3. On August 26, 1841, the British army besieged Xiamen. The British tactic was nothing more than a frontal feint, with a detour on the flank, easily bypassing the stone wall. Such a simple tactic had been used many times by the British army, but due to the serious concealment, Yan Botao and the Daoguang Emperor did not know it. The initial resistance of the defenders was also fierce, but the enemy was attacked on the abdomen and back, and the battery lost its function and was soon out of support. By dusk, the Qing army's outer positions had all been lost. The British also stopped attacking.
4. On August 27, 1841, the British army attacked the city of Xiamen. The defenders had fled in the night, and Xiamen was lost. In this battle, the Qing army killed one general soldier and 7 officers below the deputy general. The number of soldiers was reduced by 324. The British lost one man and wounded 16 men. After the war, the British army rated the defensive power of the Shibi Fort quite high. After the war, the Daoguang Emperor learned for the first time that there were still army troops among the British troops who came to China this time.
5. On September 5, 1841, the main British army (4,000 navy and army totaling 4,000 troops) went north to Zhejiang. At this time, Zhejiang was presided over by Yu Qian, the number one main war faction, and the defense of eastern Zhejiang had also been comprehensively strengthened compared with before the war, and Lin Zexu, who had been demoted, once assisted in organizing defense in Zhenhai, and Lin Zexu, who had experienced several battles, realized that Dinghai would inevitably not be able to hold and should take the initiative to give up. This proposal is certainly unlikely to be adopted.
6. On September 25, 1841, more than 4,000 people of the main navy and army that the British army had planned to attack Zhenhai were affected by the wind and gathered on the sea between Zhenhai and Dinghai. In the following days, the Qing army in Dinghai and the British army exchanged fire repeatedly, all of which suffered minor losses.
7. On the morning of October 1, 1841, the British launched a general attack on Dinghai, and by 2 p.m., more than 5,000 defenders had been defeated. The three general soldiers of Dinghai were sacrificed. The British lost 2 dead and 27 wounded.
8. On October 10, 1841, the British launched an attack on Zhenhai, and a few hours later, the outlying positions were lost. At this time, although the battle was not over, Yu Qian, the governor of Liangjiang, who was commanding the eastern city wall of Zhenhai, already knew that there was no hope, so he jumped into the water and committed suicide.
9. On October 13, 1841, the British army approached Ningbo, and The Crown Prince Yu Buyun, who was in charge of this place, abandoned the city and fled, and Ningbo was lost.
10. On October 30, 1841, "the commander of the Shangshu Infantry Army of the Imperial Household Bureau, the Commander of the Zhenghuang Banner Manchurian Capital, Chongwenmen, supervised the Zhenghong Banner Patriarch Of the Fourth Yongzheng Emperor, the former Heilongjiang general, the former Heilongjiang general, and the former Shengjing general" Yi was appointed as the general of Yang wei and mobilized reinforcements from eight provinces to aid Zhejiang.
11. In the early morning of March 10, 1842, after more than four months of preparations, the only counterattack to recover lost ground in the Opium War was launched under the command of Yi Jing, and four hours later, the large-scale counteroffensive was declared a failure.
12. On March 21, 1842, Liu Yunke, the governor of Zhejiang, gave a "Ten Worries" fold, which was not explicitly stated, but implied that the war was hopeless and full of danger.
13. On May 7, 1842, the British army withdrew from Ningbo and gathered troops to prepare for an inland attack along the Yangtze River.
14. On May 18, 1842, the British army of 2,000 men attacked Zhapu, and the Qing army resisted fiercely, and many people committed suicide. The British army killed 9 people (including a lieutenant colonel) and wounded 55 people.
15. In the early morning of June 16, 1842, all the British troops in Zhapu attacked Wusong. Wu Song was the focus of Jiangsu's coastal defense, and niu Jian, the new governor of Liangjiang, personally sat here. However, the battle was until 12 noon, and all the Qing troops fled. The Qing army was killed by the 88 men under the admiral of jiangnan waterway, Chen Huacheng, and the British army was killed two and wounded 25. On the same day, the second phase of british reinforcements arrived at Wusongkou, and the total strength of the British army in China reached 20,000. Compared with the Qing army, this is an unprecedentedly powerful army in both quantity and quality.
16. On June 19, 1842, the British army occupied Shanghai.
17. On July 5, 1842, the British army formed a fleet of twelve warships, ten ships, 51 transport ships, and 7,000 soldiers from Shanghai and directly attacked Zhenjiang.
18. On July 13, 1842, the Qing army began to reinforce Zhenjiang.
19. On July 21, 1842, the British army began to attack the city. At this time, there were only 1600 troops stationed inside Zhenjiang City, 2700 people outside the city, and very few artillery. The British army alone participated in the siege of the city with 6905 troops, and the British army had an absolute advantage. After the battle began, the British Navy organized fire to bombard the Qing army outside the city, and the Qing army outside the city lacked cover and did not have any means of counterattack, and soon collapsed. At the same time, the landing British army began to attack the city, due to the lack of artillery cover, the British army could only use the ladder to attack the city, and was severely attacked by the defending Qing army. Subsequently, the British army organized fire to bombard the city wall, but 1185 people garrisoned in the city were stationed here in the Eight Banners of Jingkou. They have been here for more than 200 years, so they are still blocking it. At the same time, the British Navy organized small boats to attack the west gate of Zhenjiang along the waterway, and were effectively bombarded by Qing artillery on the city wall, and withdrew. Finally, the British army, which had the advantage of firepower, broke into the city from the north, west and south, and the defenders continued to fight in the streets until late at night. The casualty rate of the Qing army in the city reached 30%. The firepower of Zhenjiang was far less than that of Humen, the city walls were far less solid than Xiamen, the pre-war mobilization was far less than dinghai, and the preparation was far less than that of eastern Zhejiang, but in this battle, the British army killed 39 people, 130 wounded, and 3 people were missing. More enemy troops were killed or wounded than the four battles above combined.
20. On August 2, 1842, the British army left Zhenjiang and prepared to attack Nanjing. Prior to this, the Qing side decided to make peace.
21. On August 31, 1842, the Daoguang Emperor formally agreed to sign the treaty. However, on the 29th, the minister in front of him who had penetrated Daoguang's thoughts had already signed the Sino-British Treaty of Nanjing.
22. On September 1, 1842, the Qing dynasty officials in charge of negotiations sent a note to Pu Dingcha, proposing twelve items of negotiation to the Treaty of Nanking. These twelve self-inflicted contents have left hidden dangers for China's future suffering; they have also laid the foundation for the next war. (At the same time, Emperor Daoguang in Beijing and Liu Yunke in Hangzhou both wrote letters to officials in Nanjing, asking for similar representations, which were still on the way.) ）
23. On September 7, 1842, the Daoguang Emperor officially agreed to sign the agreement to the signing of the decree arrived in Nanjing, and the First Opium War had long been over.
The founding of the People's Republic of China was the result of China enduring the division of the great powers for nearly a hundred years and finally winning the war.
The First Opium War
A road map for the British invasion of China