The six-dimensional pictures of emperors of all dynasties were exposed, and the ancestors panicked

Chapter 766: The US-France Treaty: Smoke of War
[After the Treaty of Nanjing, Qiying and Pu Dingcha signed two more diplomatic documents, one is the so-called "Five Ports Trade Regulations" and the other is the so-called "Supplementary Articles of Settlement". ]

【The "Treaty of the Five Ports" was signed in Hong Kong on May 1843, 6 (June 23, ). Article of the treaty stipulates: "British merchants who accuse Chinese citizens should file a complaint with the 'Administrator'. If Chinese citizens go to the British authorities to accuse the British, the 'Administrator' should mediate and persuade them to stop... If the two parties continue to dispute, the officials of both sides will jointly try and punish each according to the laws of their own country."】

[The so-called "manager" was the later "consul."]

[Another article of the Charter, Article 14, provided that Britain could dock one "official ship" in each of the five ports "so that the stewards could discipline the sailors and others and exempt them from tax after inspection."]

[The "Supplementary Articles of Settlement" were signed in Humen on August 10 (October 8), the rd year of Daoguang's reign. One of the articles in the article interpreted the "official ships" mentioned in the "Five Ports Trade Regulations" as military ships.]

【The more important clause is, "New favors will be granted to all countries, and the British will be allowed to share equally." This is the "most-favored-nation clause." It put China under the collective control of the great powers from then on. 】

……

{In the Treaty of Nanjing and its subsequent additional treaties, the British successively obtained privileges such as consular jurisdiction (i.e. extraterritoriality), demarcation of concessions, unilateral most-favored-nation treatment (i.e. equal sharing of benefits), agreed tariffs, and ports for warships to berth.}
{These powers undermined the judicial sovereignty, territorial sovereignty, trade sovereignty, and tariff sovereignty of the Qing Dynasty for a hundred years, and also facilitated the further aggression of the capitalist powers against China.}
{Among them, agreed tariffs, extraterritoriality and unilateral most-favored-nation treatment are considered to be "three important chains that bind semi-colonial countries", and for China, they were first determined by the Treaty of Nanjing and its annexes. }
{It can be said that the Treaty of Nanjing marked the beginning of more than a century of humiliation in my country's modern history. If the Opium War shattered our dream of being the Celestial Empire, then the Treaty of Nanjing was like breaking a blood bag in a shark pool. The great powers saw the series of major benefits brought about by the Treaty of Nanjing and flocked to it, all demanding all the rights in the Treaty of Nanjing except for ceding territory and paying compensation.}
{Historian Jiang Tingfu once wrote:

Sino-Western relations are special. Before the Opium War, we were unwilling to give equal treatment to foreign countries. Afterwards, they were unwilling to give us equal treatment.
……

Great Qin.

"So this is what it means to not want to learn English."

Ying Zheng's sudden and incoherent words woke up the ministers in the palace.

Liu Bang gritted his teeth and made a suggestion.

"Your Majesty, this matter requires further consideration."

“The world has changed so much.”

Ying Zheng glanced at him coldly.

Finally, he looked up at the sky silently.

……

Big man.

"equality……"

Liu Bang looked at these two words with interest.

"E'sao, why do you think they have such a concept?"

Lu Zhi never discussed these "metaphysical" things.

Anyone who has lived through the chaos of the late Qin Dynasty understands this.

If you don't suppress others, you will be suppressed by others.

What equality...

"This is the begging of the defeated."

Lü Zhi sneered and said:
"They were beaten so badly that they couldn't even lift their heads, but they were unwilling to give up their boring dignity and seek opportunities."

"I can only cling to my shortcomings and say a few empty words that won't help."

"If you have those boring ideas, it's better to think of change as soon as possible."

"Wait for the wind and the clouds to change."

“They are the ones who want equality.”

……

The period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty
Veins on Liu Che's forehead were throbbing.

His lips trembled, and finally two words came out.

"shame!"

The great China actually allowed the ugly invaders to run rampant.

"I am not as skilled as others..."

……

Datang.

"Opening five ports for trade, abolishing Hong merchants, and setting new tariffs. These terms on economic trade are difficult to simply define as equal or unequal."

Fang Xuanling simply dipped his finger in the tea, drew a simple picture on the floor tile in front of him, and said in a deep voice:

"How a country chooses to conduct foreign trade is a matter that is within the purview of the monarch."

"In this regard, the British imposing these regulations on China is undoubtedly an act of coercion."

"From the perspective of the world's economic development, the one-port trade and the system of merchants is a move to close the country to the outside world."

"It constrains the development of foreign trade and is not conducive to China's transition from self-sufficiency to a market-based industrial and commercial economy."

"Guangzhou's tariffs are manipulated by officials and merchants, making every tariff payment a gray transaction of bargaining. Foreign merchants suffer and the country does not benefit. Should these be retained?"

Li Shimin twisted his beard, his eyes sank slightly, and said slowly:
"So, theoretically speaking, the best option is for the Qing dynasty to reform itself."

“After making good internal preparations, we will take the initiative to open up and align our specific practices with those of other countries overseas.”

Fang Xuanling nodded in agreement.

Du Ruhui on the side shook his head and sighed:
"But the possibility of this is zero."

Everyone thought of the series of operations taken by the Qing Dynasty.

There was silence for a moment.

……

Song Shenzong Period
"Cede territory, pay compensation, pardon traitors..."

Zhao Xu stroked his chin thoughtfully.

This peace agreement was certainly not unequal.

But on the contrary, the inequality of this treaty is...too light...

Based on the Song Dynasty's many years of experience in peace negotiations.

He concluded that the British had other plans.

Based on what later generations said, he had a rough guess.

"They want to divide the melon!"

……

[The United States was unwilling to be outdone, so it also sent a "special envoy" Gu Sheng, who led four warships to Macau on the tenth day of the first lunar month of the twenty-fourth year of Daoguang (February 1844, 2), to inform the then acting Governor-General of Guangdong and Guangxi, Cheng Yancai, to come to Beijing to present the letter written by the President of the United States to the Emperor of China.]

【Cheng Yancai reported this to Emperor Daoguang, who told him to "gently persuade and reason with Gu Sheng".】

【Cheng Yancai then used the tactic of delaying, and asked Gu Sheng to wait for the imperial edict in Macau.】

[After waiting for nearly two months, Gu Sheng became impatient and sent a captain named Ba to drive the ambassador's ship, the Brandywine, into Humen and headed straight to Huangpu.]

【The Emperor Daoguang then ordered Qiying to negotiate with Gu Sheng in Macau as an imperial envoy.】

[As a result, the two sides negotiated the first treaty between China and the United States, which was signed on May 7 (July 3) at the Guanyin Temple in Wangxia Village and was called the "Sino-US Five Ports Trade Regulations."]

[The Americans enjoyed all the privileges that the British had to obtain through force, and added the privilege of "establishing churches."]

[However, the United States also agreed that if any American businessman smuggled opium, Chinese local officials could prosecute him.]

【This is not included in the Sino-British "Five Ports Trade Treaty" and the "Supplementary Settlement Clauses".】

……

Ming dynasty.

"how?!"

Zhu Yuanzhang looked at the arrogant foreigners and the submissive officials and sneered:
“Do we still need to give them an award?”

"A ship... a ship!"

Zhu Yuanzhang was too lazy to say anything.

The emperors of the Song Dynasty were also cowardly, but not to this extent.

Queen Ma sighed helplessly:

"When you are under someone's roof, you have to bow your head."

"It is more important to defend against Han than against Sichuan. I wonder what Kangxi and other Qing emperors would think when they saw this scene."

Zhu Biao took a sip of tea and said calmly:

"If we don't open up to the people, the Qing Dynasty will continue to be like this."

……

Ming Dynasty Yongle Period
“Even if the Qing wanted to open up and treat foreigners as equals, not only would the subjects not support it, but they would also think it was a surrendering regime.”

Zhu Di sat upright, his hands resting naturally on the armrests, looking at the sky curtain while saying to Zhu Zhanji:

"As the saying goes, the worst plan is to marry a princess."

"The Han family's marriage is all in the name of me being your father-in-law, and that's still something to brag about. What else can we do about it?"

"Not to mention the Jingkang Incident."

"The barbarian woman and the great emperor wrote together...ha."

Zhu Di sneered.

"If the great emperor wants to reform, at best he will be infamous for eternity, at worst he will die and his country will be destroyed."

"Want to change the law?"

"Want to go?"

……

[The French envoy and warships also arrived in Macau three months after Gu Sheng arrived.]

[Minister Laleni and Qiying signed the 10-article Sino-French Commercial Treaty on September 24 (October ) in the th year of Daoguang’s reign.]

[The location is the French warship "Agimerte" anchored off the coast of Huangpu Island]

[The contents of the Sino-French Commercial Treaty also include the right to trade in five ports, the right to negotiate tariffs, the right to consular jurisdiction, the right to berth warships, the right to establish churches, etc.]

[The difference is that if the French consul is absent or not in the area, French merchants and ships can be "entrusted to the consul of another country for handling." ]

【Before and after the signing of the Sino-French Commercial Treaty, Laerenius also asked the Qing government to cancel the imperial edict of the third year of Yongzheng's reign that banned Catholicism. The Qing government also accepted this.】

……

Qing Dynasty, Kangxi Period
Yinzhen lowered his head and glanced at Kangxi secretly.

From the moment he entered the palace, the emperor looked as if he was in a trance.

"Since ancient times, the methods of controlling foreign barbarians are only three: war, defense, and appeasement."

At this time, Kangxi suddenly said quietly: "We are at a disadvantage in fighting and defending. We are really helpless."

Yinzhen was silent.

"The Qing army suffered several setbacks, and its fighting spirit was completely gone, and it was difficult to recover."

Kangxi stood up with the help of the handrail, walked down the steps, and paced back and forth:
"If we continue to transfer the best soldiers from the northwest, it will be too late to help in an emergency."

"The British firearms were extremely powerful and unstoppable."

"And it's not that he's not good at land warfare."

Kangxi recalled the battles of all sizes that had flashed across the sky, and said calmly:
"Even if they were lucky enough to win on land and the British army escaped by boat, the Qing army could only watch helplessly."

“…There is nothing I can do…”

The hall suddenly fell silent.

"I cannot watch the Qing Dynasty go the way of the Song Dynasty."

After a moment, Kangxi turned around and said:
"Emperor Taizu of Song was not incompetent, but he was criticized a lot."

"A lifetime of fame is dragged down by unworthy descendants."

Yinzhen said softly:
"I will obey Khan Ama in everything."

Kangxi's expression eased a lot, and he said softly:
"reform."

"Use your reforms."

"Go ahead and do it. I'll take care of it for you."

……

Qing Dynasty Yongzheng Period
"Officials are officials, and the people are the people."

Yongzheng was so shocked by the sentence "The country does not know that there are people, and the people do not know that there is a country" that he still cannot recover from it.

Originally, the Qing Dynasty's Mandate of Heaven was far behind that of the Ming Dynasty.

Now we are following the old path of the Ming Dynasty.

Isn't this just running towards a dead end?

Hongli said softly to comfort him:

"The people are worried about the large-scale invasion of the army. This is a rare example of people sharing the same hatred for the enemy."

Yongzheng gave him a sidelong glance.

"Is that the same?!"

"During the Opium War, both officials and civilians were hostile to the barbarians, but their starting points were different."

"Officials are motivated by interests, while the people are motivated by hatred caused by violence, and it is not clear what harm the aggressive demands of the British will cause to their interests."

“The concept of the country has not become the banner for the people to rise up!”

"Under such circumstances, the people's emotions are nothing more than that if the British oppression is greater, the resistance will be greater, and vice versa."

Yongzheng cursed for a while, then sighed:

"Let's not talk about anything else, but the issue of industry must be brought up."

"I'll leave it to you."

"Anyway, with the Bull and Horse God, you won't get tired."

Hongli:?
Yongzheng waved his hands and said impatiently:
"Go get your work done!"

"An eyesore!"

……

[The United States and France clearly stipulated in the "Wangxia Treaty" and the "Huangpu Treaty" that they would not protect their own country's scum who violated the ban and engaged in the opium trade, thus winning a lot of favor from the Chinese. The people of Guangzhou were willing to allow American and French merchants to enter the city, but not British merchants. ]

[The British could only live in the trading house in Guangzhou.]

[In the autumn of the 26th year of Daoguang’s reign, two British people sneaked into the city and were immediately driven away by the local people.]

[In the spring of the following year, several British people went to travel to Foshan Town (this was a violation of the treaty. The "Supplementary Articles of Settlement" stipulated that they could not go to the countryside or inland areas outside the five ports)]

【Two months later, the Governor of Hong Kong and the plenipotentiary envoy to China, Sir David, led 900 soldiers on a warship to Huangpu to protest to Qiying, demanding that the criminals be punished, a warehouse and a chapel be built on Henan Island, and Guangzhou City be opened two years later.】

[Qiying fully agreed to these four requests.]

[In the winter of the 28th year of Daoguang's reign, six curious British people walked into the countryside of Guangzhou and were killed by the local people. Qiying quickly caught the "main culprit" and beheaded him.]

In March of the 1849th year of Emperor Daoguang's reign (), the so-called "opening of Guangzhou City in two years" had expired. The Governor of Hong Kong and the plenipotentiary envoy to China, Wen Han, came to Guangzhou again by warship, but was frightened by the hundreds of thousands of people gathered on both sides of the Pearl River and retreated.

[These hundreds of thousands of common people were militia secretly organized by Governor-General Xu Guangjin and Provincial Governor Ye Mingchen.]

[Daoguang was very happy and awarded Xu Guangjin the title of first-class viscount and Ye Mingchen the title of first-class baron.]

[However, although the British could not enter Guangzhou, they could anchor their opium barges two or three miles south of Huangpu Island outside Guangzhou and openly smuggle opium.]

[They openly paved roads and built houses at the two mouths of the Pearl River, set up concessions (without any treaty basis), and moored a number of opium pontoons. In Xiamen, Fuzhou, Ningbo, and Shantou, Quanzhou, and Zhenhai, which are not included in the five ports, there are also opium pontoons parked in the sea not far from the port. There are even more moored in Wusong near Shanghai.]

[As a result, the amount of opium sold to China increased year by year.]

[Before the Opium War, the peak was 20,000 boxes. In the year after the signing of the Treaty of Nanjing, the number reached 36,700 boxes.]

……

Qing Dynasty and Qianlong period
In terms of the relationship between officials and the people, the Qing Dynasty and the people had an antagonistic relationship.

Qianlong certainly understood this truth.

Is that why he aspires to be a benevolent and wise ruler?

I won’t mention what happened later, but at least this is what we did at the beginning.

but……

Thinking about the officials and soldiers who collected taxes, took on lawsuits, patrolled and extorted money, extorted merchants and travelers, and harbored prostitutes and gamblers...

Qianlong slowly closed his eyes.

All kinds of abuse and evil are committed.

Officials and civilians, civilians and soldiers, have become the same enemy.

Under such circumstances, it was impossible for the people to gather around the government and become a conscious alliance in this war.

The Qing Dynasty also lacked this kind of appeal in the minds of the people.

Qianlong opened his eyes again and looked at the ministers who were bowing their heads.

Among the officials, the people and the barbarians, the people have the greatest power, and the people are also the weakest.

An organized mass of people is virtually invincible.

A fragmented population cannot resist even the slightest violence.

That being the case...

Why can't I organize the people?

Qianlong's eyes were gloomy.

Just like... Emperor Xiaowen of Wei...

……

【The failure of the Opium War did not awaken or cheer up the majority of the Qing court and the upper echelons of the ruling class.】

[On the contrary, they became increasingly depressed.]

[“The past is sad like a dream, and the passing time is fleeting like wind and smoke”]

【Daoguang's poem is a reflection of his negative and pessimistic mood.】

[As for the entire officialdom, “there are grand banquets every month, and small social events every day.”]

[Gong Zizhen once mocked the drunken life of officials in a poem: "The autumn air does not scare the swallows in the hall, and the setting sun still lingers on the crows by the roadside."]

[The upper echelons are decadent and corrupt, and the county and county governments at the grassroots level are even more reckless.]

【At the same time, anti-rent movements broke out across the country. 】

……

On the canopy.

At midnight.

The long torches formed a fire dragon that coiled in front of the official gate.

The eight-shaped walls on both sides of the government office were projected with jumping and running figures.

Ragged people rushed into the government office carrying farm tools.

At the back door, the official fled in a single layer of clothing, holding the official seal.

……

[In the ten years after the Opium War, especially after 1847 (the th year of Emperor Daoguang’s reign), the influence of the Tiandihui spread rapidly.]

[The armed uprisings it launched also became more frequent.]

[Faced with the flames of rebellion ignited by the Tiandihui, the Qing government was unable to defend itself and suppress it. ]

[Because the Tiandihui had the characteristic of not being subordinate to each other, its uprisings could never break through the basic pattern of "rise and fall, fall and rise again", but it had already greatly consumed the energy of the Qing court.]

[The armed uprisings in the nearly ten years after the Opium War spread almost all over the 18 provinces and even to places like Yili, and were relatively concentrated in Guangdong, Guangxi, and Hunan, which are geographically connected.]

【However, Emperor Daoguang, who was already in his twilight years, could not and did not want to do anything, and only sought to keep things quiet on the surface.】

[In the first month of the 1849th year of Daoguang's reign (), Daoguang, who was already in his twilight years, became ill due to the pressure from both inside and outside the country. He could only barely hold on to attend court and handle government affairs.]

[On the 1850th day of the first lunar month in the 2th year of the reign of Emperor Daoguang (February 25, ), his condition worsened. Knowing that he had no hope of recovery, he hurriedly summoned the head of the Imperial Clan Court, Zaiquan, the ministers Zaiheng, Duanhua, Senggelinqin, the ministers of the Grand Council, Mu Zhang'a, Sai Shang'a, He Rulin, and the Minister of the Imperial Household Department, Wenqing, to the palace.]

[Ordered them to accompany the chief eunuch to take down the brocade box from behind the "Zhengda Guangming" plaque and read the imperial edict.]

[On the imperial edict there are only five characters: the fourth prince Yi Ning.]

[At noon, Emperor Daoguang passed away in the Shende Hall of Yuanmingyuan.]

[In October of that year, a powerful peasant revolution, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Revolution, broke out under such circumstances.]

A friend of mine is right. It would be irresponsible to the book lovers to end this month hastily…

emmm……

Then next month!
As for the Republic of China, I can’t write about it, I can’t write about it at all.

It basically only writes about Puyi's abdication.

Some of the things later...let’s talk about them later!



(End of this chapter)