The Qing Empire - a colossus with feet of clay
I decided to write an article about an event that is not very well known to us, the Boxer Rebellion. But... It turned out that in order to appreciate the full flavor of this event, it is worth digging deeper. And deeper, in this case, from the First Opium War, which created the very situation in which the Boxer Rebellion became possible. So fasten your seat belts, at the turns of this stories it rocks hard!
Opium has been known in China since at least the 11th century, if not earlier. At least in the "Book of Recipes", which appeared somewhere between the Tang and Song dynasties, it is already mentioned as a medicine. In fact, Indian Muslims had been brewing this potion even earlier, and the Chinese borrowed the recipe from them. But if in India poppy juice "loaves" were used as a tonic (chewed on a long journey), then the Chinese thought of smoking the "Indian product", and this gave a completely different effect - sweet, relaxing dreams. As you can easily understand, the "product" quickly became quite popular in narrow circles...
Gostiny Dvor Kyakhta: Russians had something to trade with China...
Narrow, because China was a self-sufficient country and tried to limit foreign trade - the imperial treasury was "silver", and the Chinese avoided the outflow of white metal beyond the Celestial Empire whenever possible. Therefore, Bengal opium (and the Chinese considered it to be the highest quality) was expensive, and it was mostly high-ranking officials who relaxed with a pipe.
But by the 18th century, Europe had become thoroughly hooked on goods from the Celestial Empire: silk, porcelain, tea. And while silk and porcelain were quickly learned to be made in Europe (well, how they learned, they stole the recipes), problems arose with tea. Even if it was possible to steal the seeds of the tea bush (which was problematic in itself), it took a long time to transport them intact. And silver began to leak out of Europe. From Europe? From England first of all!
The thing is that most European countries were hooked on coffee, and the English were into tea. There were also Russians, tea lovers, but they received the goods directly through Kyakhta and did not experience any particular problems (why? Russian furs were very popular with Chinese officials! Opium was sold there too, but it was a very small percentage of the total trade).
Opium warehouse in Bengal
In general, something had to be done. And the British came up with an idea! In 1757, they got Bengal with its opium, and trade began! Bengali peasants began to be generously paid for growing opium, the potion was sold to China, and tea was bought for the silver received. In general, in 1837 alone, the "enlightened sailors" delivered 2535 tons of the drug to China and received 592 tons of silver for it. Assess the scale of the trade: today, several kilograms are considered a large consignment, and here - thousands of tons! In general, this could not but affect the Chinese economy in the worst possible way: the shortage of silver led to an increase in the price of silver coins, and this, in turn, to an increase in taxes.
Chinese officials on holiday
The situation was given a special flavor by the fact that it was mainly officials who got hooked on the Bengal import - those who were supposed to run the empire without sparing their strength, in fact, spent their days lounging on couches with pipes in their teeth, which could not but affect the quality of government. Moreover, if in Beijing no more than 10-20 percent of officials smoked, then in the most developed coastal southern provinces - more than half! But that was only half the trouble...
The thing is that the English decided that the Bengal peasants were doing things the old-fashioned way and were not producing as much opium as their plots allowed. Therefore, plantations began to appear in Bengal, where the dope was grown using the latest European developments in agriculture. Which could not help but lead to a reduction in the cost of the final product and an increase in its quantity. And then there was enough not only for officials, but also for soldiers, traders, monks, peasants...
They brought the "goods" to China...
It cannot be said that the imperial government did not see the danger in such trade. The first decree banning the opium trade was issued back in 1726, long before the English drug dealers appeared on the market. And since 1796, decrees were issued almost every year. And every year their implementation was sabotaged by officials who were either "sitting on the pipe" themselves or had their own percentage of the trade.
The best illustration of the system of corruption that had developed is the example of the main fighter against drug smuggling, Captain Han Zhaoqing. For every 10 boxes of opium that were passed through, he took a percentage - several hundred boxes, which he presented as confiscated from European merchants. In general, this rogue himself transported opium from the ports on military junks and at the same time received awards for successfully fighting it. As a result, he became an admiral, received the right to wear a peacock feather on his hat and amassed a huge fortune.
It must be said that Chinese officials understood the need to combat this evil, but did not have a unified understanding of how to combat it. One influential group advocated a complete ban on trade, storage and use of opium, another - for a ban on use only by the military and officials, but when establishing opium cultivation at home and ousting Bengal from the market - the main thing is that silver does not leak abroad.
Drug dealer James Matheson: "And such eyes - kind, kind!"
While trade was in the hands of the British East India Company, which had a monopoly on trade with China, the mandarins had time to think. But in 1833, the monopoly was finally abolished, and the business passed into the hands of a group of English merchants from Guangzhou (the English name is Canton), and they were accustomed to acting without looking back at the bureaucratic approvals of East Indian officials. The merchants created their own chamber of commerce, headed by the authoritative drug dealer James Nicholas Sutherland Matheson (not yet a sir). After which the newly elected head of the chamber immediately left for London to demand that China be opened to them by force. At first, he approached Wellington with his proposal, but the "iron duke" threw him down the stairs. He had to return to Canton and write pamphlets about the benefits of free trade and its protection by force. weapons.
Matheson's partner, William Jardine, was portrayed to great effect by Clive in the novel Tai Pan.
In 1839, Matheson's partner William Jardine (or was it Wellington who pushed him down the stairs? I can't remember exactly, but it was one of these drug-trading partners) went to London. This time, the Chamber of Commerce representative had a trump card in his hands! The Daoguang Emperor appointed another official, Lin Zixu, to combat opium smuggling. And, lo and behold! He guessed right with the appointment - Lin Zixu neither smoked opium nor took bribes. To begin with, he announced:
"Any foreigner or foreigners who bring opium to the Celestial Empire for sale shall be executed: leaders beheaded, assistants strangled, all property confiscated. For the next year and a half, anyone who brings opium by mistake may voluntarily dispose of it, then he will be freed from all responsibility for his crime."
Lin Zixu, an official who experienced first-hand the dangers of fighting drug trafficking
But, having started with words, he soon began actively fighting drug smuggling: he surrounded European and American trading posts with troops and demanded that they hand over the opium. The Superintendent of British Trade, Charles Elliot, and members of the House were forced to hand over 19 boxes and 2 bales of the drug (1321 tons) to the official, worth about 2 million pounds sterling. Which Lin Zixu did not pocket or sell wholesale in mainland China, but ordered a huge pit to be dug, where he dumped the confiscated drug, mixed it with sea water, added lime, and poured the boiling mixture, like soup, into the sea through a pre-made sluice.
When a man was caught trying to hide some of the drug, he was immediately beheaded. After the opium was destroyed, all merchants found to be trading it were expelled from China. Lin Zixu then demanded that all captains of ships heading to Canton sign a written guarantee that there was no opium on board. Elliot forbade the Chinese from signing guarantees, citing the fact that if opium was found on a ship with a guarantee, the captain would be executed immediately. For the merchants, this meant financial losses, which someone had to compensate!
Charles Elliott Superintendent of British Trade
Meanwhile, Elliot announced to the merchants that the British government would compensate them for the cost of the opium. Lin Zixu was a true Confucian, for whom justice was not an empty word. He offered to compensate the merchants for the opium given out in tea - in triple volume! But the merchants hoped to get much more from the sale of opium... And the emperor was so inspired by Lin Zixu's victory that he decided to close China to the British (these actions did not concern the Americans and Europeans - drug trafficking was an English monopoly).
Emperor Daoguang
Elliott, having agreed to the Chinese demands, had ruined his career. Parliament did not forgive him. How dare he promise compensation from the British government? Yeah, screw them all, let the Chinese pay compensation! The House asked Jardine to talk to the Qing officials about compensation, but he replied that compensation could only be obtained through war. And he left for London to demand that war be started with China.
In 1839, he met with Foreign Secretary Lord Palmerston and received a promise of support from him. And in 1840, the pro-war lobby won a victory in parliament - 271 votes were for the war with China, 262 - against (interestingly, even English parliamentarians had no doubt that opium was evil, it was just that some valued their conscience more than the money of Jardine and Matheson, and some...). In the spring of 1840, a squadron of 16 warships and 31 transports with 4000 soldiers on board set off from India to China...
The squadron consisted of the sailing ships Melville, Wellesley, Blenheim (all 72-gun), Druid, Blonde (42 guns each), Voyage, Conway, Alligator (28 guns each), Lan, Hyacinth, Modestus, Pylades, Nimrod (20-gun), Cruiser, Columbine (18 guns each), Algerine (10 guns), Louisa (Elliott's personal tender), Aurora (the schooner of the East India Company resident G. Dent). In addition, the steamships Queen, Madagascar, Atlanta and Enterprise took part in the event. Troop-Ships were ships capable of carrying a single tactical unit, such as a cavalry regiment.
"Nemesis" - a gunboat for drug trafficking
Separately, the gunboat Nemesis arrived in China at the end of 1840, and its role in the war would be very significant. It was a paddle steamer with an all-iron hull (the world's first all-metal vessel!), armed with 2x32-pounder guns, 4x6-pounder guns, and missile Congreve rocket launcher. The Royal Navy or fleet The steamship was not part of the East India Company; the Hampshire Telegraph newspaper wrote that the ship had a privateering license.
Most likely, the Nemesis was built for opium smuggling: its length to width ratio was 184 feet to 29, which gave it high speed, and its bottom was flat, and its draft was only 6 feet (and this was with a full load; an unloaded ship had an even smaller draft of a foot), which allowed it to operate in the mouths of Chinese rivers, where battleships could not enter due to the regularly washed-up shoals. The ship's captain was a former naval sailor, William Hall, his first and second mates were also former naval sailors. The Nemesis set off for China in conditions of extreme secrecy: everyone was told that the ship was going to Odessa.
The expeditionary force that left India consisted of battalions of the 18th Royal Irish, the 26th Cameronians, the 37th Herefordshire Irish, the 49th and two companies artilleryIn addition, volunteers from the sepoy regiments took part in the expedition (the sepoys signed a contract for service only in India, so they could not be ordered to go to China).
"The Army of the Blue Banner" from the "Eight Banner Army"
The forces of the Qing Empire were incomparably greater! 220 thousand (sometimes the figure of 275 thousand) people - the "Eight Banner Army" - ethnic Manchus, Mongols and "Hanjun" - Chinese collaborators who served the Manchus even before the complete conquest of the Celestial Empire, and 660 thousand people - the "Green Banner Army" - ethnic Chinese. But all these troops were scattered throughout the rather large country. And the Chinese had no combat experience - the last time they fought was 35 years ago, when they had to suppress the "White Lotus" uprising.
What kind of lion is this "tiger"?!
In general, the Chinese military organization was stuck at the level of the 17th century, when the Manchus conquered China. The "Eight-Banner Army" would have looked good on the battlefields of the Thirty Years' War, but in the 19th century it was a terrible anachronism! The most elite of the "eight banners" was considered the "Yellow Banner with a Red Border" corps. Among others, it included the emperor himself and the entire imperial family. The structure of the Eight-Banner Army was ornate and incomprehensible in the Eastern manner. It included the palace guard "Jin-jun-ying", the guard of the summer residence "Yuan-ming-yuan", the guard of the imperial mausoleum - "Shao-ling-zi-bing" and even the "Tiger Company" - "Hu-qian-ying", which included the best archers for the imperial hunt. There was also an exotic squad of "tigers" - shield-bearers with sabres, dressed "like tigers" in yellow striped suits, it was believed that enemy horses, seeing tigers, would be scared and run away. There were no tigers in England, so English horses were not afraid of these fighters.
Green flag of the corresponding army
The "Green Banner Troops" were formed according to a more understandable system. They consisted of garrison troops and two corps for solving strategic tasks. What kind? "Ho-piao" guarded and maintained the dams on the Yellow River, "Cao-piao" did the same on the Imperial Canal - an important transport artery through which Beijing and the northern provinces were supplied with food. The soldiers of these troops were brought together in infantry "yings" - battalions of 500 people and cavalry "yings" - squadrons of 250 horsemen. Several "yings" made up a "Zhen-piao" - a brigade, all brigades in the province were subordinate to the "ti-du" - the local commander-in-chief.
Liang, also known as tael, is 37,5 grams of silver
In principle, soldiers and officers from the "Eight-Banner Army" and the "Green Banner Army" received good pay and maintenance. For example: 1 silver liang cost about 2 rubles in silver. A soldier of the capital units of the "Eight-Banner Army" received 4 liang per month, an artilleryman - 3 liang, a common soldier - 1,5 liang. Officers received from 45 to 80 liang (depending on rank) per month. In addition, privates and non-commissioned officers received a rice ration - 22 bags of rice per year, officers, accordingly, much more.
The "Green Banner Troops" were cheaper for the imperial treasury, but they also earned quite well: privates got 1-1,5 liang and 3,5 sacks of rice. In other words, Chinese soldiers and officers (especially those of the "Eight Banner Army") earned much more than their Russian colleagues. But the Chinese troops were as far from the combat capability of the Russian army as they were from Moscow on foot...
Chinese soldiers, some from a slightly later time, but they haven't changed much since the era described...
The main weapon of the Chinese troops was the matchlock arquebus. True, it was shorter than the Russian infantry rifle of the same era by 40 centimeters and had a smaller caliber - 15 mm versus 18 mm. The bullet entered the barrel so freely that the Chinese soldiers did not even know what a ramrod was. The accuracy and power of the shot were appropriate: Chinese officers wore armor in the second half of the XNUMXth century - it really helped against Chinese bullets!
But, in addition to short arquebuses, the Chinese also had long guns, which the English called "gingals", by analogy with medieval fortress guns. The crew of such guns was from two to five people, with one shooting, the rest acting as a living gun carriage. Since the Chinese had poor quality gunpowder, the "gun carriages" could be recognized by the burns on their faces.
Calculation of "gingals"
The Chinese troops had a lot of guns! A lot of them – thousands! But the Russian diplomat Yegor Kovalevsky, who was present at the exercises of the capital’s artillerymen, was depressed by them:
"There were up to two hundred guns, but what guns! The guns brought to the field were tied with ropes; some were simply tied to beams laid flat, others to gun carriages, if one can even call these ugly carts gun carriages, the wheels of which are dug halfway into the loose earth so that the recoil is not strong."
Manchurian cannon. True, it's from the 17th century, but they were used in the 19th century too...
The Chinese fired, according to Kovalevsky, “without a diopter, by eye, driving wedges in front or behind, pulling them with a rope to the right or loosening them to the left.” The Chinese artillerymen either did not know bombs or grenades, or were simply afraid to use them (when occupying Chinese fortresses, the British indicated “hollow shells” as trophies, but did not note their use).
Manchu foot archers
The main combat technique of firearms infantry was "caracole" - like Wallenstein: shooting in alternating ranks. And not all infantry was firearms! No more than half of the infantry had arquebuses, most were armed with pikes, halberds, short sabres, and there were also many archers - both mounted and foot. But despite the large number of cold weapons, the Chinese practically never went into hand-to-hand combat! Apparently, the Manchu commanders did not value the fighting spirit of their soldiers too highly: if they still decided to shoot the enemy, then they immediately fled during a bayonet attack.
Chinese Emperor with bodyguards
Observant Europeans, analyzing the military system of the Celestial Empire, had no illusions about its combat capability. In 1818, an American of Irish descent (and a Russian citizen) Peter Dubel visited China together with Russian diplomats. His conclusion was categorical:
"There are more than a million warriors in the army of the Bogdykhan. This may be true, but I can positively assure everyone that nowhere and never has there been an army so numerous, so weak and incapable of defending the state and so completely ignorant of the art of war...".
A Chinese officer, he would have looked a bit odd at Waterloo...
The British troops had to face such an enemy, many of whose officers and sergeants still remembered Waterloo, dense columns of soldiers in blue uniforms, fearlessly marching towards grapeshot, and the furious attacks of the French cuirassiers. The outcome of the clash was predictable...
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