The Opium War from 1840 to 1842 was a turning point for feudal China to become a semi colonial and semi feudal China. Why did the Opium War fail? The following is what I did for you. I hope it will be useful to you.
On the reasons for the failure of the Opium War
Bad shotgun
During the Opium War, the standard light weapon equipped by the British army was a front loaded flint musket. To be honest, this is not an advanced weapon. Several important inventions of modern rifle weapon technology, such as primary explosive, fire cap, conical projectile and firing gun machine, have just been invented, and there is no time to use them in this kind of gun. The rifled gun with rifling, long range and high accuracy is commonly known as the rifle. It is expensive and has not become a standard weapon for European soldiers.
The maximum range of the front loaded flint musket is no more than 300 yards (1 yard is about 0.9 meters), and the range that can aim at the human body is 100 yards. In 1814, Colonel hangar of the British Army wrote a paragraph: "if you want to shoot people 200 yards away with an ordinary gun, you might as well shoot the moon instead. The probability of hitting is the same."
On the battlefield, soldiers are very error prone. One of the common mistakes is that after loading, you forget to pull the strip out of the barrel and pull the trigger. The strip doesn't know where to fly, so it can't be loaded again. In addition, the common mistake is to insert the warhead instead of gunpowder into the muzzle in a hurry, resulting in no firing. The soldiers had to withdraw from the ranks, stand behind, use their milk strength and dig out the warhead slowly. What's more troublesome is that the fire guns are fired in line. So many guns are fired at the same time. Many soldiers don't know whether they have fired or misfired. They often load bullets many times and fill the barrel full.
The weapons of the Qing army are not bad
At this time, although the Qing army did not completely give up cold weapons, half of the soldiers used firearms, mainly shotguns and lifting guns. The largest number was shotguns, which were shotguns, which were fired with fire rope. It was not convenient when it was wet.
Generally speaking, the range of the shotgun is slightly smaller than that of the British shotgun, and the range of the shotgun is longer than that of the British shotgun. The shooting speed of the shotgun may not be much different from that of the shotgun, which is about 2 rounds per minute. However, the shooting accuracy of the Qing army's shotgun and lifting gun is lower than that of the British flint gun. The main reason is that the shotgun and lifting gun are made by hand. Compared with the British flint gun, the process is rough and the bore accuracy is not high.
We can draw a conclusion that the British flint gun fired three rounds per minute, with a hit rate of 90%; The Qing army fired two shotguns per minute, with a hit rate of 70%. Assuming that 10 soldiers of the two armies shoot several targets at the same distance, the British soldiers can fire 30 bullets and hit 27 targets in one minute; Qing soldiers can fire 20 bullets and hit 14 targets. The efficiency of the flint gun is about twice that of the shotgun. Such a gap can be made up by taking advantage of the number advantage of the Qing army.
In contrast, the performance gap between the two artillery may be greater. The main problems of Qing artillery are insufficient penetration and low hit accuracy. The lack of penetration is mainly due to the poor Chinese gunpowder; The low hit accuracy is mainly caused by the poor mobility of the artillery. The Qing army's artillery of the same caliber is much heavier and lacks a flexible turret. It is almost impossible for those large caliber guns weighing 3 to 5 tons to aim bit by bit under the fierce artillery fire of the British army. However, it is these heavy guns that pose the greatest threat to British warships. The British army was quite afraid of the Qing artillery and repeatedly exclaimed "fierce" and "fierce".
Bows and arrows beat guns
Why did only half of the Qing army use firearms? It turned out that the Qing army was unwilling to give up its housekeeping skill - crossbow. Their crossbow may not be inferior to the muskets at that time in combat effectiveness.
Generally speaking, the maximum range of the ancient crossbow is 300 meters. The maximum range of the divine arm bow in the Song Dynasty is more than 500 meters. Emperor Yongzheng of the Qing Dynasty boasted that the bow and arrow of the Qing army was the strongest in all dynasties. The accuracy of the crossbow is very high and it can aim accurately. A trained crossbow hand can accurately hit a man sized target 200 yards away.
The firing speed of the crossbow is about three or four rounds per minute. The operation is very simple. It's hard to imagine that someone will install it wrong. The only problem is that the strings need to be pulled manually. Too many launches are easy to fatigue and slow down. However, after the fire gun is fired continuously, it will also cause chamber explosion due to the heat of the barrel, or the power of the bullet will be weakened.
The penetration of the bow is even stronger than that of the musket bullet. The arrow of the divine arm bow can penetrate two layers of iron armor, which can not be done by ordinary musket bullets. However, arrows are less destructive than bullets, and wounds are easier to deal with. Arrows also have advantages. They can be coated with poison or equipped with explosives. Therefore, the crossbow was more powerful than the musket. Even in the British army, it was often proposed to restore the traditional longbow and refuse to use the bad shotgun.
Bayonets change tactics
The fire guns and artillery of the Qing army are not much different from those of Britain, and the bows and arrows are even more powerful. Why did they lose so miserably?
First of all, let's talk about the bayonet, an insignificant weapon equipped by the British army. Musket is a kind of weapon with short range and low firing speed. In battle, white-edged war is often inevitable. Before the bayonet was invented, Musketeers had to be protected by spearmen. After the invention of bayonet, a soldier who used a shotgun with a thorn was a Spearman. Soldiers who used cold weapons were no longer necessary, leading to the progress of combat methods and tactics.
When the British army is fighting, it is generally lined up in two rows. The soldiers in the queue cannot move alone, stand and load ammunition, and shoot together in a standing or kneeling position. There is a strong barrier composed of scattered soldiers around the formation to keep in contact with the enemy, harass and kill the enemy, and disperse the enemy's firepower, so that the own formation will not be excessively exposed to the enemy's firepower. The Qing army must also form a queue and form various formations. In the formation, heavy firearms are usually in the first place, followed by light firearms and cold weapons again. When facing the enemy, bombard with artillery at a long distance, and open the gun at a short distance; If you get closer, shoot with a bird. Three strikes failed, followed by hand to hand combat with cold weapons. As a result, the Qing army was eager to discharge more than a dozen lines in the war. The combat effectiveness of this formation is very low.
In order to coordinate the pace of the cold weapon and firearm forces, the whole array of the Qing army can only move at a slow speed, and the tactical mobility is quite poor, so it is difficult to move to a favorable position where the firepower can be maximized. The flexible formation of the British army can often successfully attack the weakest part of the Qing army through detours and other maneuvers.
The British Army waiting for work with ease
At that time, the total military strength of the Qing army was about 800000 (including eight banners and green camp soldiers). About 100000 people successively went to war in the Opium War. The British Army initially sent more than 7000 Navy and army personnel, up to 20000. In specific battles, this advantage in military strength has not been shown. Taking advantage of the strength of ships and artillery, the British side firmly grasped the sea power and the initiative of attack.
In order to defend against possible British invasion, the Qing government had to fortify dozens of Haikou in seven provinces from Shengjing to Guangdong, assigned to each important town, and stationed 4000 to 10000 troops. Such a division of troops makes it difficult to gather superior forces in every place. In many battles between China and Britain, the troops invested by the Chinese side are often equivalent to or even inferior to the British army.
Inconvenient transportation and slow troop deployment have exacerbated the plight of China. On October 10, 1841, the British army captured Ningbo. Emperor Daoguang transferred 2000 elite soldiers from Jianchang and Songpan towns in Sichuan to Zhejiang for suppression. When the Department was dusty and rushed to the front line after more than 2000 kilometers, the British army had rested in Ningbo for nearly half a year and waited for work. How could the Qing army not lose?
The failure of the Qing army was not due to the great difference in weapons, but the difference in the killing effect of weapons between China and Britain, which was much greater than the performance of weapons. Coupled with the problems of the rulers at that time, many problems led to the disastrous defeat of the Qing army.
Evaluation of the Opium War
The Opium War was China's first war against western capitalist powers. With fewer troops, the British Army used the Opium War Memorial Wall and cigarette folding sign on Humen square
The price defeated China. The reason is that the enemy's weapons have an advantage objectively, the strategy and tactics are properly used, most of the troops can be concentrated to transfer to coastal cities, occupy the place of economic lifeline, and the battle is often combined with frontal attack and flank encirclement. Subjectively, it is mainly the corruption and incompetence of the Qing government. In the 1930s, the feudal social system of political corruption was even more decadent. Not only the economy was stagnant and very backward, which weakened the economic foundation on which the war was won, but also the whole ruling group was filled with the smell of pleasure, peace and corruption.
With the import of opium, most people in the ruling group increasingly rely on this drug to spend their extravagant parasitic life. They not only accept the bribes of domestic and foreign cigarette dealers, but also rely on the smuggling of this kind of drugs to obtain benefits. Some smuggling ships, blatantly under the banner of the governor of Guangdong and Guangdong or the supervision of Guangdong Customs, sailed into Guangzhou from Lingdingyang with full prestige. The noble ministers of the Qing Dynasty received rich bribes from Guangdong and coastal officials. Even the emperor collected a large number of Western treasures and became the biggest beneficiary of this "trade" relationship. Therefore, they have always wavered on the issues of smoking prohibition and anti smoking, war and peace, and have never had a firm policy throughout the war. From the emperor to the general, the governor and the caretaker, there was no way to fight and defend, and there was no practical way to fight. When the war was frustrated, they immediately sought peace; If the peace talks fail, they shout war again. When peace and surrender are more conducive to maintaining the crumbling reactionary rule than war, they humiliate and surrender.
Political reaction and corruption have led to military incompetence and corruption. China's vast coastline has been neglected in war preparedness for a long time. The Qing army, with the eight banners and the green camp as its main force, has been pampered for a long time, lazy in training, lax in morale and discipline; The quality of generals is low, their military thinking is conservative and backward, and they will not organize and command wars. After the outbreak of the Opium War, many generals did not know the enemy's situation and guarded the backward barracks and fortresses