On January 5, 1859, Ye Mingchen was captured and taken aboard the British ship "Dreadnought" anchored in Hong Kong. Even though such a high-ranking official was captured, the British did not mistreat him. And the Governor maintained a calm sense of integrity from beginning to end. According to the "Hong Kong Chronicle", all officers on the warship respected him. Occasionally, when someone comes on board, they all take off their hats to greet Ye, and he bows down and takes off his hat in return. After living on the warship for 48 days, he was sent to Calcutta, India.
When people commented on Ye Mingchen, most of them scolded him. But there are also those who write elegiac couplets to uphold justice after Ye's death. Justice is in the human heart, even though I have thought deeply about it for ten years, I can't help but shed tears; when my soul returns overseas, I want to see a lonely anger turn into a flood. "In India, Ye Mingchen wrote two poems to explain his thoughts.
One of them said:
The moon is cold above the Zhenhai Tower, and the stars are translated as guest stars.
Zongyun Yifan is in the army, but you can't help but look on the wall.
Why should Xiang Rong be spared from death? Su Qing is fine and advises to eat more.
Let the painting be painted another day.
The second one is:
Ling Ding Yang Po laments that he has no home, and Yan Zha still writes about Jiedu Yamen.
It is difficult to find it overseas. Gao Shisu, the envoys are far away from the border.
The sound of leaping tigers and eggplants is anxious, and the shadow of the sun is slanting across the sky.
But the spring light is still returning, and the partition wall is red all over. Cotton.
The characters imitated in the poem are all celebrities with national integrity. One fan is Fan Zhongyan in the Northern Song Dynasty. He was not only worried about the world, but also a hero who frightened the enemy when guarding the border. , a senior official of the Song Dynasty, he launched the annihilation movement in 546 BC and personally persuaded 13 countries including Jin, Chu, and Qi to hold a meeting in the capital of the Song Dynasty. This effort to seek peace led to more than ten wars between the countries. There has been no war for 40 years, and there has been no war between the major powers for 40 years. Ye Mingchen compared himself to Xiang Rong to explain his purpose of not dying but to follow the British. Among them, Su Wu's self-expression also had this purpose, in the Southern Song Dynasty. Wen Tianxiang described himself as "The Great Scholar's Millet", referring to the two brothers Boyi and Shuqi who died after the Zhou Dynasty destroyed the Shang Dynasty. It is consistent with the above allusions to Xiang Rong and Su Wu.
From this point of view, Ye Mingchen regarded his capture as an opportunity to meet the British monarch; he did not commit suicide at the beginning of his capture because he wanted to stay. Ye Mingchen later made it clear to the servants who followed him to Calcutta that this state of mind was not appreciated by historians or ordinary people. The people understood it, and it was not taken seriously by future generations. Ye Mingchen said: "The reason why I came here without dying was because I heard that the barbarians wanted to send me to England. I heard that the king was known as Ming Li, so I wanted to see the king and discuss it face to face. Since they had reconciled, why would they start an unprovoked quarrel? What is right and wrong? Conquer their hearts with hope and preserve the national system. At that time, I had put everything aside. I originally wanted to continue my work, but I didn't expect that I couldn't go to other countries day by day. What would I do if I stayed here? When all the food you brought is gone, why eat foreign food? ”
What a “face-to-face theory”! His words reveal Ye Mingchen’s pedantry, but they also reflect the integrity of a generation of heroes. Since we can’t see the King of England, death is the only destination.
In Calcutta, Ye Mingchen continued to pay attention to current affairs, work and rest on time, and asked someone to read the newspaper to him early in the morning (translate it to him). Later, when he learned that there was no chance of meeting the British king, he decided to go on a hunger strike on February 2. On the 19th, he became ill and refused to eat. On the seventh day of March, he died of illness and had no other words to say except that he would live up to his fate and live in peace.
In August 238 AD, Gongsun Yuan asked his minister to be the prime minister. He went out to the city with the imperial censor to ask Sima Yi to relieve the siege and retreat for thirty miles, and then he would definitely lead his ministers to surrender. Sima Yi dismissed this little trick and beheaded the two men. Gongsun Yuan sent his servant to request a designated date for delivery. Hostage. Sima Yi said: "There are five general principles in military affairs: if you can fight, you should fight; if you can't fight, you should defend; if you can't defend, you should leave; for the other two things, you can surrender or die. If you don't want to be tied up, you will die if you decide to do it, and there is no need to send him away. "
Sima Yi's famous sayings are advice from the strong to the weak. Facing the British army that was a hundred times more powerful than Sima Yi, Ye Mingchen did it all.