In terms of weapons, the British army is obviously in an advantageous position, but on the other hand, the British invading army is also obviously in an extremely unfavorable position. In the early days of the Opium War, the British "Expeditionary Force" consisted of sixteen warships (sailboats), four warships and several transport ships equipped with cannons. The total strength of the navy and army exceeded 5,000. At the end of the war, the army increased. * * * There are 25 warships, 0/4 warships/KLOC, and * * * carries more than 700 guns. In addition to the artillery, there are more than 10 thousand infantry. As some troops were stationed in Hong Kong, Xiamen, Dinghai and Zhenhai, only more than 7,000 troops entered Nanjing. Under the traffic conditions at that time, it took at least four months to sail from England to China. It takes at least one month to get from India to China. Invading a distant country with a small number of troops is originally a pirate adventure. Although they can attack at will on the long coastline of China, they dare not occupy it for a long time, disperse their forces or go too far. In fact, they can only win by surprise and blackmail. Therefore, the invading army reached Dagukou, did not land deeply, and returned to Guangdong. After the invading army occupied Xiamen, Ningbo, Zhapu and other places, it soon gave up; Finally, he entered the Yangtze River, did not occupy any place, and withdrew from the Yangtze River after reaching the goal of blackmail at the gates of Nanjing. These are all because their strength is limited and they dare not stretch the front too long and let the war drag on for too long.

The leadership of China War is in the hands of decadent feudal rulers, who are in sharp opposition to the broad masses of the people in their own country. Not only can they not make full use of the advantages they can gain by fighting on their own land, but they lose these advantages because of their own actions; Not only can we not take advantage of the unfavorable conditions of distant enemies and make them fall into more and more difficulties, on the contrary, we can turn the unfavorable conditions of the enemy into favorable conditions.

How do China's generals and governors explain their failure? Give a few representative statements. In September of the 21st year of Daoguang, when Liu Yunke, the governor of Zhejiang Province, fell in Houdinghai and Zhenhai, Xiamen, Fujian, he reported to the emperor that these three places had done their best to prepare for defense. He believes that the reason is that "the artillery equipment that covers them is fierce and exquisite, which is beyond China's power. It's time to send them wandering thousands of miles away, and they will all die for a while. All men are single-minded, have no retreat, and have strong financial resources. There is no place where they don't collude with traitors, and there is no traitor who can't bribe heavily and die for it. This is why the provinces can't win. " Qishan, who decided that he was unable to fight, explained the situation in Guangdong in December of the 20th year of Daoguang, saying that "the guns on the ship are not strong and the soldiers' hearts are not strong", and added: "At this time, if we confront each other, the soldiers' hearts will be afraid, no matter whether the guns are lost, …… and there are mainland traitors, who are ordered to fight together. So I don't know whether the barbarians are true or false. The movement here is always spying on the communique. " On the last point made by Qishan, Zhejiang Yijing also reported to the Emperor in February of Daoguang's 22nd year: "All areas of Ningbo and Shan Ye are guided by traitors, who are more familiar than our soldiers. . ..... The actual situation of the officers and men, inverse barbarians all know. Therefore, I went into battle twice and turned defeat into victory. "

It can be seen that these generals do not think that "the ship is strong and the gun is strong" is the only reason for the enemy to win. Although they tried to exaggerate the role of weapons, they also learned some other factors that made them fail: "their morale is not solid", but the enemy who carried out adventurous aggression is very solid; Foreign invaders can know the truth of our country as much as possible, but the troops fighting on their own land are not as familiar with the "mountains" as the enemy. These strange phenomena are not the nonsense of the generals who were frightened by the enemy, but that they did not tell the whole story, let alone explain the reasons for these strange phenomena.

The phenomenon of "low morale" is really serious. In April of the 22nd year of Daoguang, the imperial edict summed up the war situation and said, "Deploying troops in the well means that the ship is strong and the gun is strong, but the flame is difficult. Therefore, when the thief is flustered, he hopes that the wind will clear up first. " But this still blames the lack of morale on weapons. In fact, the troops raised by feudal rulers were originally designed to suppress the people, and they could only be violent in front of unarmed people. By the Opium War, the Qing army was more corrupt. Xu Jishe (a local official near Xiamen in wartime) described the situation of officers and men like this: "People don't know how to fight, they are called soldiers, but they are actually city people, who have no discipline, no rewards and punishments, and leave when they see thieves." Huang Junzai (the author of "Golden Pot and Seven Ink") described the situation in which the troops of various provinces were transferred to Guangdong, saying: "At the beginning of the transfer, there was robbery along the way ... After arriving in Guangdong, there was a bitter quarrel and the soldiers met each other. When they take refuge in the people, they intend to be traitors and seize property. Fighting with each other in the school yard, there are bodies every day. " In his report to the emperor, Qi Shan mentioned what happened in Guangdong Navy. "All soldiers have to ask the minister (referring to the navy prefect) to extort money, otherwise they would have dispersed. ..... Minister potential out of how, ... Every two yuan to foreign silver, will leave a defense ". Coastal defense in many places has long been in name only. For example, when Dinghai fell for the first time, the adjutant Wang in the local county yamen said: "There are more than 10,000 soldiers in Dingzhen; After that, it fell to more than 2,000 yuan. Those who have worked for a long time, made rulers, worked and combed, and pedicured, took thirty or forty dollars to buy martial arts and patrol, which is considered a text. " Feudal rulers used such an army to fight the invading army with superior weapons. Of course, there was no strong morale. However, the feudal rulers who mastered the leadership of the war never had a firm policy throughout the war. From the emperor to the general, the governor, and the caress, the policy of peaceful war is uncertain, saying that there is no practical combat method in the war, and peace will be made immediately if you are slightly frustrated; If the peace talks fail, they will call for war in vain. Of course, in this case, it is even less important to summon up strong military morale and public support.

Since the feudal rulers did not resolutely oppose the invaders and constantly harassed the people in War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, they certainly could not get the support of the people. It is not surprising that an army without the help of the masses is not as familiar with the "mountains" as some foreign invaders led by traitors. After all, traitors bought by the invaders account for a very small number of residents. The feudal rulers could not solve the contradiction between officers and soldiers and between the army and the people, but greatly exaggerated the number and role of traitors. Yijing reported to the emperor in Zhejiang: "To the east of Cao Jiang, traitors are everywhere, and merchants are seven times out of ten. It is impossible to distinguish a traitor from a good man. Yishan also said in Cantonese: "If you carefully examine the situation in Guangdong Province, you will be hurt by it. Businessmen are rich because of foreigners, and people are rich because of foreigners. Offshore businessmen are familiar with foreign languages, and the sly ones are spies. " So he came to the conclusion that "defending the people is to guard against bandits, and the so-called suffering is not outside. "It is obviously nonsense to say that almost all the people are traitors, but this statement just shows that the biggest enemy in the eyes of feudal rulers is the people rather than foreigners. Even when fighting against foreign invaders, they still think that "defending the people is better than defending bandits"!

Foreign invaders have been active in coastal areas for many years, and they have indeed bought some traitors through various channels. During the war, these traitors became their right-hand men. But feudal rulers didn't really hate traitors, especially when it came to the so-called "discussion", traitors became their treasure. For example, there is a man named Peng, who is a running dog running errands for a famous British opium dealer in Guangzhou. When Qishan, the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, went to Guangzhou to replace Lin Zexu, he took Bao Peng in and made him an eight-product official. Qishan participated in the negotiations with the British in Guangzhou. British records about Bao Peng said: "This man was the comprador of the company founded by Mr. Diandi in Guangzhou", and said: "In all our contacts with Qishan, the contact medium was the comprador Bao Peng mentioned above. He is a clever man, about forty-five, and speaks mixed language fluently. " Lin Zexu said: "Guangdong's foreign affairs cannot be asked. Jing Lao (Qi Zishan Jing 'an-the introducer) thinks this is a secret plan, which is kept secret from outsiders. He secretly wrote a letter to Bai He, the governor of Zhili. Although it is very secret, in fact, everyone knows it. "

Bao Peng with eight titles is a traitor! Isn't Qi Shan himself and senior officials who wholeheartedly publicize the enemy's strength and seek peace with their own ideas really traitors? This traitor Dai Hualing made China lose the ability to resist foreign aggression. Implement defeatism and capitulationism in the war; Their harm is incomparable to those little traitors who guide the enemy's path and spy on the news.

The feudal ruling class has always been determined to oppose the peasant uprising. For example, the rebellion against An Baili sect was recently fought, even if it was defeated in the war, even if it was postponed. The class contradiction between life and death determines it to do so. But in the Opium War, a war against foreign invaders, it was so easily shaken and so vulnerable to setbacks, which was of course determined by its class status. Liu Yunke, governor of Zhejiang Province, pointed out to the emperor in February 22 nd of Daoguang that if the war continues, there will be ten "worries", the first to the seventh of which are about the enemy's excellent weapons, the help of traitors, and the support of our own army and people, so we can't fight, and so on. In the eighth item, he talked about the lifeblood of feudal rulers and the problem of collecting grain. He said that the grain harvest was not good because of the war. "Now that the soldiers are defeated, it is even more difficult to urge them." Then in the ninth item, he talked about the problem of "gangsters gathering to plunder" in the mainland. He said that although there have been many "rebounds", "now the prices of rice, wheat and vegetables are rising day by day, and the people are struggling. Even if there is no reunification before the traitors, there will be no others who will not retreat. " Finally, the tenth item says, "In the seven coastal provinces, the garrison has spent two years ... including the national defense expenditure of the seven provinces in January, the amount is huge. If there is no time to prevent it, the cost will be difficult to count. Why bother to adjust labor? " Liu Yunke's theory of "ten considerations" is very illustrative. In the eyes of feudal rulers, it is certainly good that foreign wars can be won at once, which can strengthen internal rule. But failure, even a small setback, will greatly strengthen the existing internal crisis. The long war was beyond their imagination.

(1) Changes in social nature: After the Opium War, China gradually became a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society from an independent feudal society.

(2) Changes in social contradictions: After the Opium War, the main contradiction in China society began to transform from the contradiction between the landlord class and the peasant class into the contradiction between foreign capitalism and the Chinese nation, feudalism and the masses, and the former became the most important contradiction among all kinds of contradictions.

(3) Changes in revolutionary tasks: Since then, the people of China have shouldered the dual tasks of opposing foreign aggression and domestic feudal rule, and the history of China has entered the period of the old democratic revolution.

(4) Germination of new ideas: The invasion of foreign aggression made some intellectuals begin to realize the corruption of the Qing government and the crisis of the country, demanding to change the status quo and learn from foreign countries. The representatives are Lin Zexu and Wei Yuan.