The old man in history said that patriotism does not hesitate to sacrifice one’s own spiritual quality. Reason: Lin Zexu's famous saying - "If you live and die for the benefit of the country, how can you avoid it because of misfortunes and blessings?".

Is this really the case? In order to promote Lin Zexu as a national hero, some people beautified and elevated Lin Zexu. In addition to belittling the contribution of the Manchus in the war, they also concealed some things about the Qing Dynasty. Lin Zexu is patriotic, but he is not that great. Opium did not originate in Britain. China had its own opium a long time ago. However, China's chemistry level was poor. Therefore, the quality of China's opium was not as good as that of Britain. Therefore, the opium trade suffered a loss. When dealing with foreign affairs disputes, Lin Zexu dealt with smuggled opium and merchants who were not involved in smuggling opium together. Lin Zexu completely banned Sino-British commercial exchanges. The British were wrong, but Lin Zexu was also wrong. Lin Zexu was very good, but he was far from as great as advertised. .

[b]1. The origin of opium[/b]

There is no doubt that the Opium War, as the source of modern Chinese history, will always cause pain to the Chinese people: humiliation< The era of /p>

began. However, this is not the whole story.

Opium is the primary product of poppy. The poppy is indeed a large family given to mankind by God: it has 28 genera and more than 250 species; it mainly grows in almost the entire temperate and subtropical regions of the northern hemisphere. And this place is almost the birthplace of all human civilization. In the Neolithic village ruins excavated in Switzerland in 4000 BC, archaeologists discovered the remains of the seeds and fruits of the "opium poppy", which were artificially hybridized. By 3400 BC, people had planted this crop on a large scale in the two river basins of what is now Iraq, and gave it the name "joyplant" good reputation. By at least 2160 BC, opium had become a veterinary and gynecological drug. In the excavated ancient Egyptian tombs from 1500 BC, "Thebes Opium" is already a high-end brand. Continuing to 300 BC, ancient Greece had already regarded opium as a common drink. In the Bible and Holland's "Odyssey", opium is described as a "forgetfulness medicine" and God also uses it. At least in the second century BC, the famous ancient Greek doctor Galen recorded the diseases that opium can treat: headache, dizziness, deafness, epilepsy, stroke, and amblyopia. , bronchitis, asthma, cough, hemoptysis, abdominal pain, jaundice, splenic sclerosis, kidney stones, urinary diseases, fever, edema, leprosy, irregular menstruation, depression, resistance to poisons and insect bites, etc.

And other diseases.

We will not continue the tedious list. In short, opium has been accompanied by almost the entire history of mankind. Thomas Sydenham, a British doctor in the 17th century and the founder of clinical medicine, praised:

“I can’t help but sing loudly to the great God, the maker of all things, has brought opium of comfort to human suffering. No matter from the number of diseases it can control or the efficiency with which it can eliminate diseases, there is no

A drug is as valuable as opium. "Without opium, medicine would be nothing more than a cripple." This medical master also earned the nickname "Opium Philosopher".

Our ancestors have also been familiar with opium for a long time. Written records are sparse, but at least opium was introduced to China when Zhang Qian was sent to the Western Regions in 139 BC. Hua Tuo, a famous doctor during the Three Kingdoms period, used cannabis and opium as anesthetics;

In the second year of Emperor Qianfeng of the Tang Dynasty (AD 667), there were records of the import of opium. In the Tang Dynasty, Arabic opium was called "Afu< /p>

Rong"; in the "Kaibao Materia Medica" published in the Northern Song Dynasty in 973 AD, opium was named opium poppy, and the last "millet" was interpreted as capsule. After Genghis Khan's cavalry traveled across the Eurasian continent, opium also became an important type of social commodity, but it was only a good medicine. Around the 1600s, the Dutch introduced pipes and tobacco leaves from North American Indians to China through Taiwan, and smokers began to appear in China.

The extent of the disease alarmed China's rulers, and the Chongji emperor ordered a smoking ban. Because some people once mixed opium with tobacco and smoked it. Unexpectedly, the ban on tobacco led to the proliferation of pure opium smoking. It was not until the mid-18th century that Huang Yupu, an official of the Qing Dynasty, recorded for the first time the specific process of opium smoking in Taiwan. He asserted that there was no way to get rid of opium addicts except by killing them.

[b]2. The rise of the opium trade in China[/b]

At the end of the 17th century, Emperor Kangxi allowed foreigners to do business in Guangzhou and imposed eight strict restrictions. condition.

One of them is a "public bank" that must be approved by the Ministry of Household Affairs before it can engage in foreign trade. It becomes an officially licensed business firm, and thus there is a portal for corruption. . Local officials and people with official backgrounds in Guangdong were bribed to obtain special licenses, and officials from the Ministry of Household Affairs were bribed. Sino-foreign trade was developing throughout the 18th century. The British gradually replaced the Portuguese and the Dutch as the protagonists of China's foreign trade. The scope of trade was very wide: tea, sugar, silk, < /p>

Porcelain, paper, mother-of-pearl, camphor, cinnamon, copper, alum, gold and silver, silk products, lacquerware, vegetable oil, bamboo

ware, rhubarb and other commodities were brought back to the Europeans Cotton, wool and products, iron, lead and zinc, diamonds, peppers, clocks, corals, amber, shark fins, fish, rice and other commodities, opium is also among them.

The development of trade has led to the infiltration of Western culture, religion, moral concepts and other ideologies into China, and the court is worried

This will seriously impact China's traditional culture and thus shake the rule of the court; the people It also conflicts with the religion and culture brought by Western missionaries, so it must be restricted. The pedantic royal family believed that Western goods contained temptations.

The restrictive measures strictly restricted foreign merchants to remote Guangdong; on the other hand, they prohibited the implementation of barter.

. Officials therefore recognized the goods that were allowed to be imported as they pleased, and stipulated that exports must be exchanged for gold and silver. Due to

the Chinese market is limited, serious oversupply makes it difficult for British businessmen to continue. In addition, foreign businessmen, mainly British businessmen, are even more coveted in China. The vast market in the Mainland.

Since Chinese tea is also addictive to the British, merchants must use cash to purchase tea, resulting in a huge deficit.

Foreign businessmen are strictly prohibited from entering the mainland market, and the limited trade volume is not enough to make up for it. This deficit. Merchants trying to make up for this deficit soon discovered that there were only two commodities that officials never prohibited imports from: cotton and opium. Cotton is mainly produced in Egypt and India. Egypt's transportation costs make it unprofitable; even cotton in India is very profitable; while

opium produced in India is The profits are huge, and officials especially need it to make a fortune. Although China is already rich in opium,

the quality of opium is not comparable to that of Indian opium, not to mention that domestically produced opium is far from meeting demand.

Proof of the adverse consequences of opium lies in the fact that Emperor Yongzheng issued an order in 1729 to ban the opium trade. Punishment includes 100 military sticks, three months in shackles, exile in Xinjiang, and execution. However, there is no penalty for opium smokers, and there are no regulations restricting the import of opium. Strict measures on the cultivation and production of opium are tantamount to encouraging the import trade of opium. In the year when the ban was promulgated, more than 200 boxes of opium were legally imported. By 1767 the number increased to 1,000 boxes, and by 1790 it reached

4,000 boxes. The incredible measures can only be explained by the stupidity of the imperial court. And another reason is obviously that importing opium requires paying a license tax to the court, and the court cherishes this revenue. This tax was still levied as late as 1796.

A bitter story is that in 1793, Macartney, the first British diplomatic minister, led a huge delegation of more than 700 people to Beijing carrying various gifts. The size of the mission and the richness of the gifts showed the importance that the King of England attached to it.

In the power of attorney given to him by King George III, he not only had the power to make concession decisions independently, but also agreed to prohibit the East India Company from exporting opium to China if necessary, in order to comply with the King's promise. Opium Ban in China.

The British envoy seeks China to open its mainland market. However, Macartney refused the request to kneel down and worship Emperor Qianlong

, so he was deemed to be treasonous by the Qing Dynasty, which regarded all foreign countries as barbarians and gifts must be tributes, and the Qing government set a time limit

p>

Drive him out of the country.

And the large number of advanced scientific instruments and machines he presented were installed in the palace as playthings. The proposal

to establish diplomatic and commercial ties between China and Britain was rejected without discussion. reject. The King of England's attempt to promote the full development of normal trade between Britain and China came to an end. Not only that, Macartney came to the conclusion through contacts with Manchu officials: "The Qing dynasty has become corrupt, weak and vulnerable." He called it a "shattered first-class battleship." It was proposed that the British King pay attention

to the collapse of the Qing Dynasty in order to obtain "more benefits than any other country." In 1816, the British King again

sent an Amesh mission. Come to China to continue Macartney's unfinished mission. As a result, there was another stalemate on the issue of kneeling and worshiping. This time, the Qing government simply deported them without even considering a dialogue.

The import of opium caused a sharp decrease in the national treasury. In 1799, Emperor Jiaqing issued an opium ban, banning the import, sale

of opium and the cultivation of poppies. This troubled the Qing royal family and bureaucrats who originally relied on planting and processing to make their fortunes.

On the one hand, they continue to grow and process opium poppy in secret; on the other hand, they join in smuggling by banning imports, because they don't even have to pay taxes for smuggling. In 1800, at least in the southwestern provinces, self-produced opium exceeded imports.

By the 1830s, bureaucrats and royal families in Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangdong and other provinces protected the cultivation and processing of opium poppies, and production increased greatly

. The ban on importing opium caused the price of opium to rise sharply, and smuggling made the emperor's smoking ban a piece of waste paper.

All the taxes and money originally collected by the court fell into the pockets of officials and compradors. They colluded with foreign countries—mainly Britain—

opium dealers and smuggled opium into uninhabited territory.

Wei Yuan recalled: The Guangdong Navy patrol ship "is subject to a monthly regulation of thirty-six thousand taels of silver, which is allowed into the private entrance"; Navy Vice Admiral Han

Zhaoqing specializes in escorting smugglers and smuggling opium Simply let the navy arrange the transportation, and pump out hundreds of boxes out of every 10,000 boxes to reward merit. For this, Han actually "protected and promoted the general, and rewarded him with peacock feathers." The Fujian Navy actually relied entirely on cooperating in smuggling opium, and even "Yi Chuan's opium could not be imported for a while, so it was often stored near the fort." The Zhejiang army was not far behind. The British Government Blue Book stated: "In the past two decades, China's senior officials and government personnel have publicly acquiesced in opium smuggling.

Both the former and current governors profited from it, and it is said that the Military Aircraft Department in Beijing also secretly allowed it. "They allowed the cigarette dealers to take opium from foreign ships, and sometimes even used official ships to transship it," Marx also said. Commented in an American newspaper:

“The corrupt behavior of officials who condone opium smuggling and amass private wealth has gradually corroded the power of this patriarchal system and corroded this vast nation. The only spiritual connection between the various parts of the state apparatus.”

The reason why opium is so popular is that there is huge demand in the market. An investigation by Jiang Xiangnan, a person at that time, found that:

Among the officials in the capital, one to two in ten were opium smokers; among the staff, five to six out of ten were opium smokers; and there were countless senior officials and subordinates.

Lin Zexu reported: "There are the most smokers in the yamen, such as secretaries, eunuch relatives, long-term followers, clerks, and servants. Eighty-nine out of ten people are addicted to it." In 1831, the Ministry of Punishments The memorial said: "Nowadays, there are people eating opium in all the provinces, especially in the government offices.

There are very few people eating opium in the civil and military government offices and below." There are also a lot of crows and ghosts in the royal family. Guixiang, the minister of management of Shenjiying, is a famous smoker; even the Empress Dowager Cixi herself is an opium smoker.

Even in the anti-smoking measures of the Qing court, officials above the first rank and people over sixty years old had to be included in the ban on smoking

. Among Emperor Daoguang's close ministers, including Minister of Military and Aircraft Mu Zhang'a, important ministers Qishan, Qiying, Yilibu, etc., they were all beneficiaries of opium smuggling.

Due to the involvement of the Qing government and military officers, the amount of smuggled opium was even greater than the import before the smoking ban. British merchants

The East India Company had a monopoly on opium in India. They shipped it to Lingding Island at the mouth of the Pearl River for wholesale to Chinese smugglers with government backgrounds

In the 1790s, about 4,000 boxes were imported every year. Opium, after the smoking ban, reached 4,494 boxes in the 1810s; from 1821 to 1828, it expanded to 9,708 boxes; from 1828 to 1835, it increased to 18,835 boxes; from 1835 to 1839, it reached more than 30,000 boxes. Also

For example, Dr. Karl Gutzlaff of the British-owned Jardine Matheson Company bribed Qinzhou officials with US$20,000 every year.

Opium was able to land safely at Qinzhou Port for many years. Smuggling led to a large increase in the import of opium, and the East India Company rushed to expand poppy cultivation in India and increase opium production, otherwise the supply would exceed demand. According to statistics, in the forty years before the Opium War

China imported more than 300 million yuan in opium.

[b]3. The British Opium Controversy[/b]

The British opium trade was not only aimed at China. In the world at that time, the opium trade was legal and normal< /p>

However, due to China’s market demand, the trade volume was huge. In the 1830s, opium accounted for half of Britain’s total trade with China

! The profit-seeking British government could reap large sums of money. The opium trade was also a normal trade in Britain, but there was no market for opium smoking. It was not until 1868 that the United Kingdom enacted the "Narcotics Pharmacies Act." This act only placed general restrictions on the opium trade in the United Kingdom. Opium was not truly banned until 1914.

Britain even manufactured quite a lot of opium products, such as a common children's opium candy "Balagoli",

Until the 1920s, it was still a household item used to calm babies. drug. In 1885, the United States legislated to ban the opium trade in the United States, but the ban was not strict. A typical example is that the famous Coca-Cola drink contained trace amounts of cocaine until 1903.

But that doesn’t mean there aren’t objections. As early as the 1780s, many far-sighted people in Britain had strongly condemned and called on the government to ban the opium trade, and this call has continued. For example, the Earl of Shaftesbury declared: "I fully believe that it is extremely bad for this country to encourage this evil trade, perhaps even more evil than the slave trade.

"Dr. T. Arnold called the British permitting the opium trade "so evil that it is the greatest national sin"; for the first Opium War, Gladstone Said: "As far as I know

and what I have read, this was an unjust war, a war that brought eternal shame to the country." Processing

Lord George Staunton, an official of British relations, also stated in Congress: "We do not deny

this fact. If it were not for opium smuggling, there would be no war." Even the East India Company Opium Agency Manager Simon (Sam) also wrote: "Opium products destroy people's health and make them morally corrupt. Wherever opium is grown, there People just smoke opium. The more they grow, the more they smoke." But most people do not support the ban on opium trade.

Some people do not have a correct understanding of opium; others are simply because of the opium belt. come huge benefits. At that time

The ratio of opinions opposed and supportive of the opium trade in British newspapers was about 1:5, so the British Parliament could not pass the anti-smoking bill for a long time.

[b]4. Lin Zexu and Yilu’s people and events[/b]

What is even more ridiculous is that the British government plenipotentiary who directed the start of the first Opium War Charles Elliot himself was a staunch opponent of the opium trade. He was formerly the captain of the British Guiana medical ship "Slave Guardian". Sir Robinson, the former British-China liaison officer, was also an opponent of the opium trade. He reported to the British government : "Whenever the British Government asks us to stop British ships from participating in the illegal opium trade,

we can do it. But a more certain way is to ban poppy cultivation and opium production in British India." this< /p>

The suggestion led to strong opposition from the Indian authorities, and he was finally dismissed from his post, and Yilu was temporarily appointed to the post. As soon as Elliot took office

he asked the British government to change its historical course in China and urged the government to take measures to stop opium smuggling. He personally regarded this trade as a crime and a disgrace to the British Empire. In a report to London, Yilu wrote:

The opium trade "brings shame to the people who are under the banner of Catholicism."

Lin Zexu is the representative figure in China who strictly prohibits opium. When Emperor Daoguang discovered that the treasury had dropped from 70 million taels

to less than 10 million taels, he appointed Lin Zexu as the imperial envoy to ban smoking. When Lin ordered the seizure of opium, Yilu ordered the British businessmen to hand over all 20,283 boxes of opium without asking London and without any bargaining, and promised to compensate the British businessmen on behalf of the Emperor

losses. This move surprised and satisfied Lin Zexu, but made the British government and opposition parties angry.

It’s just that China’s propaganda has never mentioned Yilu’s decisive role in confiscating opium; while the United Kingdom has ignored his role in the cession of Hong Kong. To this day, Even the "British Dictionary of Celebrities" does not mention that it was Yi Lushou who first proposed the cession of Hong Kong and implemented the occupation.

After the first stage of the First Opium War, when Yilu submitted the Treaty of Nasal Puncture, it was not approved by London.

The main requirements of this treaty are: a. Transfer Hong Kong to the United Kingdom; b. Indemnity of six million yuan (this is the amount advocated by Qishan

); c. Chinese officials treated each other equally; d. Trade in Guangzhou was resumed within ten days after the Spring Festival (1841). This article

Ask Qishan only to cede Hong Kong to the emperor's approval, and other matters shall apply. The British government is not satisfied. They believe that what is more important is to open China's trade blockade and obtain the right to free trade throughout China. In August 1841, Yilu was dismissed and replaced by Henry Pottinger. Queen Victoria described Justice as "a man who strives for the shortest term of office in complete disobedience". Yilu was transferred to Texas, North America, to serve as the British Charge d'Affaires, which would be considered equal to Lin Zexu's exile to Xinjiang.

It is good to say that the trigger of the Opium War was opium. But the essence of this war is not opium. Opium is a revealing agent, which exposes the corruption of China's autocratic rule; opium is a corrosive agent, making this already corrupt system even more corrupt. Just as Marx said: "The private corruption that permeated the entire bureaucracy of the Chinese dynasty and destroyed the pillars of the patriarchal system, together with the opium boxes, emerged from the British barges anchored in Huangpu.

Smuggled into the Celestial Dynasty." The loyal and brave men represented by Lin Zexu were worried about the fate of the country and the nation. Although Fan

Wen Lan respected Lin Zexu as "the first person to open his eyes to the world." In terms of their energy, they are powerless.

Lin Zexu completed the collection of opium on May 18, 1839; the destruction began on June 3. At this time, there were only about 20 merchant ships in the UK, protected by the only small frigate, HMS Larne. Lin Zexu did not insist that these opium merchants sign a contract promising to stop the opium trade; he was satisfied when Yilu ordered the merchants to hand over all opium in accordance with Chinese official requirements.

The British businessmen Mathison and Chatton sued the British government because Chinese officials secretly told them that "six thousand or seven thousand chests are enough."

When destroying opium, Lin Zexu invited an American businessman C.W. King and an American missionary Elijah Bridgman to watch. Jin told Lin Zexu that Britain was sending steam gunboats at the request of those businessmen.

They were already on their way. Lin Zexu obviously did not pay enough attention to this information and did not realize that he was destroying only opium. He did not destroy China's huge opium market, nor did he destroy the opium dealers' desire for huge profits.

Desire. Nor did he do enough to separate legitimate merchants from opium smugglers. Until July 7,

A group of British sailors rowed to a tavern in Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon, where they drank too much and destroyed a shrine among the villagers, causing a fight.

As a result, villager Lin Weixi died of his injuries. Lin Zexu demanded that one of the sailors be killed according to Qing law; Yi Lu agreed to compensate the family of the deceased and punish all the sailors involved in the matter, but refused to sentence only one of them to death. This conflict between Qing law and British law was the origin of extraterritoriality later.

The two sides were in a stalemate, and Lin Zexu issued a notice to all "overseas barbarians", ordering them to obey the Celestial Empire. On August 15th, Lin ordered a ban on all trade, blocked all foreign enterprises in Guangzhou, and sent troops into Macau. Yilu

ordered British merchants from Hong Kong and Macao and their families to board the ships and sail away from the coast; Lin further ordered to strictly prohibit the villagers from supplying any daily necessities to the British ships, and sent warships Blockade British ships, and any foreigners found ashore would be punished on the spot.

On September 5, Yilu sent British businessman Guo Shili as a special envoy and handed Lin one of the letters, requesting to lift the blockade on British ships

and restore normal trade relations; The second requirement is to stop villagers from putting dirt or even poisons in the places where British ships obtain fresh water. Lin refused. At two o'clock in the afternoon, Yilu issued an ultimatum, but was ignored. At 3 o'clock, the British warships opened fire on the blockading Chinese warships in an attempt to break through the blockade. Time Magazine called it the first shot in the Opium War.

In fact, this is at best a local armed conflict and cannot be called any war.

[b]5. The beginning and end of the Opium War[/b]

After the conflict, neither normal trade nor opium smuggling stopped for a day during the entire process.

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The only difference is that the scale is much smaller. A "by-product" of the destruction of opium is that the price of opium rises, and there are many people who take risks. The two sides have been in a stalemate for several months without actively resolving it. This cannot be a mistake on Lin Zexu's part. This stalemate not only led to the arrival of British warships to strengthen their strength, but also caused the British to oppose the ban on the opium trade.

's use of power has led to the idea of ??using force to solve problems gradually gain the upper hand. On November 4, British warships and the Chinese Navy began armed conflicts on the waters of Chuanbi and Guanchong. By the 13th, such conflicts occurred six times, with both sides suffering losses.

Including the conflict on September 5, Lin Zexu reported to the court as "seven battles and seven victories." Emperor Daoguang was overjoyed.

Amidst the praise from the court officials, Emperor Daoguang ordered a ban on all foreign trade at Guangdong ports in December. Lin Zexu was ordered to formally close the port in early 1840, cutting off all trade between China and foreign countries.

This comprehensive ban on all trade has lasted for more than four months. The focus of the conflict is no longer the opium issue, but the conflict between seclusion and free trade. The corrupt and rigid Qing government and the British government that implemented the gunboat policy

The government has reached a point where differences cannot be resolved without war.

However, the exchange of letters between Lin Zexu and Yilu did not stop. Yilu proposed various plans for transportation, trade and restriction of opium

. However, Lin Zexu insisted on ignoring all requests except Lin Weixi's case. Stalemate

By May 1840, 48 British warships, 540 cannons, and 25,000 troops had arrived at the Pearl River Estuary.

The British army counterattacked and blocked the Pearl River Estuary. On the night of May 9, Lin Zexu sent 10 fire boats to take the initiative and burned 11 British boats. Yilu did not fight back in Guangzhou, which was heavily guarded, and led 40 ships north to attack Xiamen and fall into Dinghai. Arrive in Dagongkou on July 12th

Blackmail the Qing court. Emperor Daoguang saw that the British ships were threatening the capital, and he quickly sent Qishan, the governor-general of the University Scholars' Office, to Dagu, Tianjin

to discuss peace. The emperor issued an edict: "The smoking ban was improperly handled. The emperor has heard about it a long time ago and must take action." We will find out the crime in detail and punish him severely.

We have sent an imperial envoy to redress the injustice and return it to Shanan immediately. "

Qi Shan made it clear. Yi Lu said that as long as the British ships were returned to Guangzhou, the imperial court would definitely investigate and deal with Lin Zexu, Deng Tingzhen and others. The British warships then headed south. In August, Daoguang appointed Qi Shan as the imperial envoy. On September 28, Lin Zexu and Deng Tingzhen were dismissed from their posts. On November 29, Qi Shan arrived in Guangzhou. Yilu proposed 14 requirements: compensation for war expenses and confiscated goods including opium losses; reopening commercial ports; granting exclusive docks to British merchants; establishing tax rules; reforming the trading system and extraterritoriality. Qishan responded with a compensation of six million yuan and opened another commercial port in addition to Guangzhou. The British insisted on choosing two additional commercial ports in Fujian, Zhejiang, and Jiangsu. After Qi Shan reported to Emperor Daoguang, Emperor Daoguang was furious. He originally thought that removing Lin Zexu from his post and reopening trade would solve the problem. Now the British are determined to open up free trade in China. door, this is absolutely impossible. Therefore, on January 20, 1841, the emperor ordered Qishan as the most urgent matter to immediately stop negotiations, mobilize troops from Hunan, Sichuan, and Guizhou provinces to assist Guangzhou and prepare

During the First World War, he also ordered the governor of Liangjiang, Yilibu, to fire on the British ships as soon as they saw them, and violently suppressed them.

On January 6, Yilu learned that China would reject the British request, and immediately informed Qishan that everything would be discussed after the war. And

ordered British warships to fly the red flag. Qishan followed the law and warned Britain not to act rashly, otherwise all the agreed requests will be in vain. On the 7th, 20 British ships and more than 1,500 soldiers attacked two forts at Shajiao and Taijiao. Two thousand Qing troops were defeated, and both forts fell. On the 20th, Yilu stopped fighting and passed the draft of the "Treaty of Penetration"

sent to Qishan by the Macao authorities, demanding the cession of Hong Kong. Qi Shan signed the treaty on the third day of the first lunar month, but reserved the tail to be effective until the approval of the memorial. Emperor Daoguang scorned the treaty after it was submitted, calling it "a piece of nonsense." On the 26th, without waiting for the emperor's approval, the British army immediately dispatched the warship "Brimstone" to land in Hong Kong and issued a proclamation calling Hong Kong residents British subjects. Yiliang, the governor of Guangdong, reported to the court on February 10th that in fact Emperor Daoguang had already issued an edict to China and foreign countries on January 27th, declaring war on Britain righteously.

At this time, when I heard the report again, I was informed of the cabinet: "Qi Shanshan was good at Hong Kong and betrayed the country. He was immediately dismissed from his post, locked up, and escorted to Beijing

Stern news, all The property was confiscated by the officials.”