Age of Conquest: A Kings and Generals Podcast

Last time we spoke about the battle of Beijing. General Gaselee and the 8 nation alliance began a grand march upon Beijing. They fought numerous battles at places like Beicang and Yangcun utterly routing the Qing and Boxer forces. The road to Beijing was laid bare open to them, lest it not be for the extreme summer heat which took the lives of many. The Russians attempted to outrace everyone else to Beijing, but quickly bit off more than they could chew. Ultimately the British were the first ones to enter the foreign legations. The besieged foreigners in the legations had been met with a last ditch effort by the Qing to overrun them, but they held on for dear life. Now Beijing was being occupied by the 8 nation alliance. What was to become of the Qing officials, of Empress Dowager Cixi? How would justice be served? #67 The Boxer Rebellion part 7: The Boxer Protocol Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. Usually you would assume the story was won and done. The 8 national alliance was flooding into Beijing, as they say "the cavalry had arrived", but it was not over. The next day of August 15th saw more violence. The French deployed 4 artillery pieces onto the Tartar wall and began bombarding the pink walls of the Imperial City. Meanwhile General Chaffee was mounting an assault upon the Imperial city alongside the American forces who were battering their way through a series of courtyards trying to get to the Imperial Cities southern gate. Their ultimate objective was the Forbidden City. When it seemed they were within reach of the Forbidden City, suddenly General Chaffee commanded a withdrawal. The commanders had been arguing at a conference and they all agreed that the 8 nation alliance should take a more conciliatory approach towards the Qing government. Everyone was wondering whether the Emperor and Empress Dowager remained within the Forbidden city. If there was to be a conciliation at all, they would be needed. Rumors began to emerge stating if the Empress Dowager were still in the city, she would most likely commit suicide rather than be taken prisoner. Lenox Simpson was trying to investigate the situation, riding up to the Imperial City where he discovered a terrified Eunuch huddled in a Qing guardhouse in the outer wall. He asked the eunuch how many forces guarded the Forbidden city and the whereabouts of the Emperor and Empress Dowager. The Eunuch blurted out "The Emperor, the Empress Dowager, and indeed, the whole Court, had disappeared—had fled, was gone." There are countless tales of how it occurred, the dramatic flight of the Qing court. It is most likely the decision to flee Beijing came about in the early hours of August 15th. One account given by magistrate Wu Yung claimed he helped the Empress Dowager flee. Cixi was disguised in dark blue clothes of a Chinese peasant woman, they even clipped her nails, go google a picture of Cixi, imagine clipping those things haha. Allegedly Cixi told Wu Yung as she was hastily grabbing some personal belongs "Who would have thought it would come to this?" Of the things she hastily grabbed, one was a precious bloodstone that she believed protect her through all dangers. She boarded one of three wooden carts, and Cixi forcefully grabbed the emperor not allowing him to be taken as a hostage, alongside her niece and the heir apparent. The Imperial concubines were forbidden to accompany them and made tearful farewell. It is said Emperor Guangxu's favorite concubine begged to take her with him, prompting Cixi who hated the girl to demand she be tossed down a well. Apparently the Eunuchs rolled the poor girl up in a carpet and literally tossed her down a well in front of Emperor Guangxu, which is hardcore? Another account has it that Cixi tricked the girl by telling her "We will all stay where we are, but we cannot allow ourselves to be taken alive by Western barbarians. There is only one way out for you and me—we must both die. It is easy. You go first—I promise to follow you." Then the Eunuch tossed her in the well, one other account has the Eunuchs simply tossing the girl down the well after the imperial party departed because they didn't like her. Can't help but picture Varies from GOT leading eunuchs to get revenge on a royal family haha. Emp

Last time we spoke about the battle for Tientsin. Tientsin had be relieved momentarily of its siege, but the Boxers and Qing forces quickly went back to work assaulting the foreign held part of the city. Forces from the great powers began arriving at Taku, heading for Tientsin to finally lift its siege once and for all. The battle against the Chinese held part of the city was to be the bloodiest battle of the Boxer Rebellion and it was the Japanese who ushered in victory. The southern and eastern gates of Tientsin were breached as the foreign troops sent the Qing and Boxer forces fleeing. Now with Tientsin firmly in their hands and with even more troops arriving by the day, the new 8 Nation alliance was preparing for a march upon Beijing. Would this new international force be able to get to Beijing quickly enough to save the besieged foreign community there? #66 The Boxer Rebellion part 6: The Fall of Beijing Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. German Field Marshal Alfred von Waldersee was chosen to be the supreme allied commander, but he was in Germany with his soldiers set to depart on August 18th. Meanwhile Lt General Sir Alfred Gaselee was at Tientsin and he managed to get the Americans to back him temporarily to be the leader of the new 8 Nation alliance. I would like to note, General Yamaguchi Motomi was the highest ranking officer present at Tientsin during this time, but non-white racism disallowed the other commanders to allow him to take command. It was estimated by most of the great powers that some 50-70 thousand troops would be necessary to march upon Beijing, Gaselee had 22,000. 10,000 Japanese, 4000 Russian, 3000 British, 2000 Americans, 800 French, 200 Germans, 100 Austrians and 100 Italians. Telegraph lines were cut, the railway was damaged and many of the Great powers advised waiting for more troops before marching. But the British and Americans threatened to go it alone if they did not march at once. Back in Beijing the truce had gradually died down and now the foreigners lived in a confused paradox. At one moment the Zongli Yamen would send them gifts of food and assure them protection, the next they were plotting their death. The hostilities had resumed while the Zongli Yamen began publicly stating any soldier caught firing on the legations would be beheaded. It was unbelievably contradictory. Rumor also had it Li Hongzhang had been appointed the negotiator for peace talks and would soon send telegrams to the foreign governments. On August 12th, Prince Qing sent a message indicating the Zongli Yamen intended to have a meeting with the ministers the very next day. The foreign community hoped this meant a relief force was close to Beijing and that the Qing were panicking. They had all received information two days prior from General Gaselee stating "Strong force of Allies advancing. Twice defeated enemy. Keep up your spirits." They also received a message from General Fukushima stating "Probable date of arrival at Peking August 13 or 14." The legation defenders morale had thus boosted considerably, but they were still under a violent siege taking the lives of people every day. Bullets and shrapnel peppered them each day and the Qing forces seemed even more aggressive, planting their banners just 20 yards from the defenders outposts. In fact some of the banners bore the name of a General they had not heard of until that point, it was our old friend Yuxian. Yuxian had been appointed governor of Shanxi province and reigned a campaign of terror against Christians and foreigners there. On July 9th, it was rumored Yuxian had executed 44 foreigners including women and children from some missionary families whom he had personally invited to the provincial capital, Taiyuan under the guise he was going to protect them. It is disputed by historians who were the actual culprits who killed the foreigners, but the incident became known as the Taiyuan massacre. What is known, by the later half of 1900, Shanxi saw as many as 2000 Christians murdered. It seemed Empress Dowager Cixi brought Yuxian over to Beijing as a last-ditch effort to overrun the foreigners. The tenacity of the besiegers had increased exponentially, as told to us by Lenox Simpson "all thoughts of relief have been p

Last time we spoke about the darkest days of the siege of the foreign legation quarters in Beijing. The Hanlin Academy was burnt down taking with it irreplaceable books. The Fu Palace and French Legation were falling to pieces. Colonel Shiba and his men fought for weeks without changing their closes or sleeping more than 3-4 hours. Countless friends and colleagues were dead or wounded, funerals were becoming a daily event. Ammunition was running low, men were running low, medical supplies were running low, everything was running low. Suddenly some messages began to trickle in allegedly from Prince Qing. The Ministers were weary to trust them, but gradually pushed Prince Qing to show the Qing's good faith by establishing a truce. It seemed the darkest hours were just before the dawn as Prince Qing established a truce on July 17th, and now all wondered, what was next? #65 The Boxer Rebellion part 5: The Battle for Tientsin Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. The July 17th truce came at a perfect time, the defenders were exhausted. Food had become so scarce, they had begun sending raiding parties to the Mongol Market, but for most the regular diet consisted of horse, pony, mule meat and rice. Random note, I am from Quebec and we eat horse meat here, typically for tartar, not all the time, but if you go to the grocery store 9/10 its there, apparently this is pretty weird for everyone else in North America, I dunno, a bit on the dry side as meat goes. One thing that was easy to come by was champagne and wine, there was a enormous supply of it in the legation buildings. As Lenox Simpson put it "had it not been for the Monopole, of which there are great stores in the hotel and the club—a thousand cases in all . . . I should have collapsed." There was a enormous concern for the Chinese Christians in the Fu Palace who were constantly attacked and very isolated. Lenox Simpson investigated them and wrote this "The feeding of our native Christians, an army of nearly two thousand, is still progressing, but babies are dying rapidly, and nothing further can be done. There is only just so much rice, and the men who are doing the heavy coolie work on the fortifications must be fed better than the rest, or else no food at all would be needed. . . . The native children, with hunger gnawing savagely at their stomachs, wander about stripping the trees of their leaves.They had terrible water-swollen stomachs and "pitiful sticks of legs. To the babies we give all the scraps of food we can gather up after our own rough food is eaten, and to see the little disappointed faces when there is nothing is sadder than to watch the wounded being carried in. . . . Thus enclosed in our brickbound lines, each of us is spinning out his fate. The Europeans still have as much food as they need; the Chinese are half starving." The CHristian Chinese laborers complained about working for the British legation telling supervisors "the work at the British legation is crushing and they don't feed you enough. And if you do not carry out their orders to the letter, they flog you. . . . Therefore, we don't want to go there." The Chinese CHristian laborers preferred working for the non-Christian Japanese and Colonel Shiba even raised a force of Christian Chinese volunteers as riflemen who he trained personally. There were also incidents of Chinese Christian girls being sexually assaulted, particularly by Russian guards whose barricades were close to their girls lodgings. A written notice was erected forbidding anyone to approach the girls lodgings prompting the Russian commander Baron von Rahen to quote "Take off his cap, and assuming a very polite air of doubt and perplexity, he inquired of the lady missionary committee which oversees the welfare of these girls: 'Pardon, mes dames,' he said purposely in French, 'cette affiche est-ce seulement pour les civils ou aussi pour les militaires?'"—"Excuse me, ladies, does this apply only to civilians or also to the military?" Sexual assault was not the only thing going on, apparently the British legation gardens saw people come together each night to make romance. Over in Taku forces were coming over to help lift the siege of Tientsin. Men of the US 9th infantry came over from the Philippines

Last time we spoke about the battle of the Taku Forts and the siege of Tientsin. The allied admirals gave an ultimatum to the Qing to hand over the Taku Forts, which they declined. The western navies attacked the Taku Forts officially beginning a war with the Qing dynasty. The seizure of the Taku Forts led the Qing to fully support the Boxers who raised a siege against the foreign legations in Beijing and the foreign settlement in Tientsin. The foreign community at Tientsin found themselves surrounded by 30,000 Boxers and 15,000 Qing with only 2400 troops of various nationalities to defend them. The siege was grueling and the Chinese forces nearly overran them, but the allies were able to hold out until reinforcements arrived from Taku. Despite receiving extra troops and restoring communications to Taku, the allies were still greatly outnumbered and now those in Beijing were in more severe danger. #64 The Boxer Rebellion part 4:Darkest Days before the Dawn in Peking Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. Much of China's national library, the Hanlin Academy and other buildings had been burnt down by the Boxers. The firefighter teams did their best to stop the fires, which threatened to spread towards the British legation. Countless, irreplaceable books had perished in the fires. Within the legation quarters, they all awaited Seymours rescue force eagerly, none knowing the truth that he had been forced to withdraw. On June 24th, Qing forces deployed a 3 inch krupp gun on the charred Chien Men, the gate opposite of the Forbidden city. They began firing shells into the legation quarters, some managing to hit the British legation. Then the Chinese turned their attention to the Fu Palace being guarded by Lt Colonel Goro Shiba with a small force of Japanese soldiers. A part of the Fu's walls was breached allowed Boxers and Qing soldiers to swarm in. They were met with Japanese riflemen behind loopholed barricades who unleashed volleys upon them. The Japanese were vastly outnumbered, prompting Colonel Shiba to request urgent reinforcements as the Christian Chinese began fleeing the Fu in panic. The fleeing Christian Chinese soon realized it was even more dangerous outside the Fu than in and quickly scrambled back. A detachment of Americans and Germans dashed along the Tartar Wall behind their legations, scattering the enemy before them back towards the Cheinmen as they made their way to help the Japanese at the FU. The Americans under the command of Captain John T. Myers with aid from Christian Chinese managed to build a breastwork across the width of the wall while the Germans built their own fortification. There positions were 500 yards apart, a critical defense to deny the enemy access to the Tartar Wall. Just yards in front of them were Chinese barricades. Boxer corpses lay in heaps with the hot sun just feet away from most of the legation defensive lines. The stench was putrefying, gangs of Chinese laborers would risk their lives tossing corpses over walls when they could. During the evening of the 25th, as the sun was dying down, British author Bertram Lenox Simpson recalled this "The sun . . . was sinking down slowly towards the west, flooding the pink walls of the Imperial City with a golden light and softening the black outline of the somber Tartar Wall that towers so high above us, when all round our battered lines the dropping rifle-fire drooped more and more until single shots alone punctuated the silence.... All of us listened attentively, and presently on all sides the fierce music of the long Chinese trumpets blared out uproariously—blare, blare, sobbing on a high note tremulously, and then, boom, boom, suddenly dropping to a thrilling basso profondissimo." Gunfire suddenly ceased and created an eerie silence. The foreign troops watched with suspicion from their barricades as the Chinese departed their barricades. A giant white placard then appeared on the north bridge. It was an imperial edict announcing "in accordance with Imperial orders to protect the foreign ministers, firing shall be stopped at once". The placard also stated a dispatch should be delivered to the Imperial canal bridge, so the defenders sent one extremely nervous Chinese laborer with a written note over. The man

Last time we spoke about the Qing - Boxer siege of Beijing and the 8 nation alliance expedition led by Seymour. Baron Von Ketteler was murdered by Kansu soldiers, ushering in a real siege of the foreign legation's in Beijing. The situation was dire, communications were cut and soon the railways also. The foreign ministers called for aid and thus came an expedition of 8 nations led by Seymour to the rescue. Seymours expedition started out quite well, but soon the Boxers disrupted the tracks stopping them in…well their tracks. To the dismay of the westerners it turned out the Qing were joining the Boxers in battle against them and Seymour's force had to make a fighting withdrawal back to Tientsin. They fought all the way to a secret arsenal where they dug in, until another relief force rescued them! Now they all marched back to Tientsin as gunfire could be heard. #63 The Boxer Rebellion part 3: The Siege of Tientsin & Battle of the Taku Forts Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. When Seymour set out on his expedition a lot of events had unfolded. I mentioned it a few times, but gunfire could be heard by his expeditionary forces coming from Tientsin. When thousands of Boxers began storming the region looking to kill christians and foreigners, many flocked to Tientsin. Tientsin consisted of two adjacent but quite different subdivisions. To the northwest was an ancient high walled chinese city around 1 mile per side. 2 miles southeast along the Hai River were the foreign settlements around half a mile wide. The chinese city held around a million Chinese, the foreign settlements around 700 foreign civilians with their thousands of Chinese servants. The Boxers came at first to the railway station carrying placards and chain letters stating "Those who see this sheet and distribute six copies will deliver a whole family from calamity. If ten sheets are circulated they will save an entire district. If any see this hand-bill and fail to disseminate it they will certainly be beheaded." Within mere hours of Seymour's expedition departing, reinforcements were landed at Taku to head over to the foreign settlements at Tientsin to defend them. On June 11th, Commander Beatty of the Royal Navy had 150 sailors, marines and 2 Maxim machine guns with him. He would be joined a few days later by 1600 Russians who rushed to the scene from Port Arthur, before their railway lines were cut by Boxers. Alongside the other nations forces, Tientsin had roughly 2400 troops to defend the foreign settlements, facing a force of 30,000 Boxers and 15,000 Qing soldiers camped nearby. On June 15th the Boxers began burned down all the missions outside the Chinese city like the Notre Dame Des Victories. They stormed the streets attacking Chinese christians, massacring as they went. They destroyed all christian and foreign goods or property they could find. The foreigners in the settlement watched this unfold in horror from a distance, then at 2am on the 16th they were attacked. Beatty recalled seeing Boxers "came in great strength, setting fire to all the Houses and outlying Villages they could. . . . They came on quite heedless of the Volleys we opened on them, never replying because the poor beggars had no arms to reply with, and coming up to within 300 and 400 yards armed with swords, spears, and torches. So there we squatted, knocking them over as they came along." Chaos ensued in Tientsin, as the Admirals on their warships off the Taku Fort bar became more and more anxious. The western navies had received no word since June 10th, Tientsin was clearly under attack and Seymours expedition force was gone. Seymours last message to them came on the 14th and all evidence suggested the Boxers and Qing would block the way between them and Tientsin. The Qing naval forces were seen priming torpedo tubes on their warships and laying mines in the rivers mouth. The entire situation looked like a trap. If the Peiho river was closed, the naval squadrons would be unable to rush up it to rescue the civilians of Tientsin and Beijing. On the 16th the Admirals met aboard the Russian flagship. They all formed a multinational ultimatum that was issued to the Qing, the Taku forts had to be surrendered by 2am the next day or they would attack. A r

Last time we spoke about the Boxers march upon Beijing. The situation in China escalated until the point of no return. The Boxers began attacked Christians and foreigners, seeing less and less opposition from the Qing government. The Qing court were hard pressed to do anything to suppression the boxers lest they fall into a full blown rebellion. The foreign community in Beijing scrambled to call for help from their navies before the Boxers cut the railways and telegraph lines to the capital. Not only were the Boxers a threat to the foreign community, but the recently arrived Kansu army of General Dong Fuxiang were also causing troubles. The foreign legations held tight waiting to see what would occur and on June 11th of 1900 the violence escalated. Mr. Sugiyama of Japan was murdered by the Kansu army, it seemed all hope for avoiding conflict was now lost. #62 The Boxer Rebellion part 2: Seymour's 8 Nation expedition Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. The death of Mr. Sugiyama drove the tension through the roof. 40 French and Italian marines had detached from the legation main force to defend the Peitang Cathedral. They were led by 23 year old Paul Henry and Italian officer Olivieri who was 22. The two went to work directing a defense of the Cathedral, as Henry's commanding officer sent a message to quickly recall him back over to the legations, the message never arrived. A detachment of US Marines, were also sent to guard the large Methodist Mission half a mile from the American legation. At this point the mission was housing some 1500 refugee's within its walls. Streams of refugees had flooded in when the panic began, as told to us by Frank Gamewell running the mission "The missionaries are coming in from outside districks [sic]; some with only such articles of clothing as they could carry in their arms, as they had to flee for their lives. The situation is getting more serious as the Boxers are gathering and getting more bold every hour; as the Chinese soldiers sent out to guard Foreign property are assisting the Boxers to loot the places." On June 12th the ministers sent another message to the Zongli Yamen. The Japanese were invited to partake in the message but declined so they could submit another message bearing this. "The Chinese have murdered our Third Secretary of Legation, and Japan can have no more communication with China—except war." The next day, a Boxer appeared on Legation Street wielding a large carving knife. Baron von Ketteler was so livid at the scene he rushed into the street and began hitting the boxer with a stick. The Boxer leapt out of his cart, running for an alley, whereupon von Ketteler discovered a young boy hiding in the cart and seized him as a hostage at the German legation. Later that afternoon thousands of Boxers stormed the city wielding spears and swords. The Boxers had prepared blacklists and were quote "hunting down all who had been connected with the foreigners, cutting them down, hacking them to pieces, or carrying them off for more terrible torture in a Boxer camp". Beijing was filled with torches held by Boxers who began destroying all the Missions they could. The East Cathedral, South Cathedral, Nan Tang and Tung Tang were ablaze. Christians caught outside the legation quarters were cut to pieces when caught. A group of US Marines rushed out to save 300 Christians fleeing. Men, women and children lay in heaps, hacked to pieces. American socialite Polly Condit Smith, who was staying with some relative at the US legation described the scene of seeing refugees fleeing into the legations "Half starved, covered with soot and ashes from the fires, women carrying on their breasts horribly sick and diseased babies, and in one case a woman held a dead baby. One man of about fifty years old carried on his shoulders his old mother. . . . A great many of these people were terribly wounded—great spear-thrusts that made jagged wounds, scalp-cuts and gashes on the throat where the victim had been left for dead." To house more refugees, the palace belonging to Prince Su was seized. The Austrian compound isolated on the northeastern part of the Quarter came under attack on June 13th. The Austrians unleashed their Maxim machine gun to lackluster resulted as Cap

Last time we spoke about the road to the Boxer Rebellion. Christians and foreigners were encroaching into China. Boxers and other anti-foreign groups were emerging in places like Shandong and Zhili. Conflicts were growing rapidly as the two forces converged, leaving the Qing government in a terrible situation trying to please both. It seems for a time, they were keeping the hawks of war at bay, but the more incidents flared up the tougher each side became. Then came an evolution to the mayhem, the Yihetuan emerged to the stage, a large scale movement of Boxers seeking to revive the qing and destroy the foreigners. The Qing tried to crack down upon the movement, but it seems all was for nought as they only grew in popularity. Beijing has called upon forces from the northwest to bolster defenses, but can they stop the inevitable clash? #61 The Boxer Rebellion part 1: The Boxer's March on Beijing Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. After the battle of Senluo Temple Governor of Shandong province, Yuxiang ordered the boxers caught, but not to be killed. The missionaries and foreigners remarked "it was insane orders not to have the soldiers kill any one". But Yuxiang sought to not drive a wedge between the state and the people. Zhu Hongdeng fled south joining other boxer leaders to discuss what to do next. Major boxer activity halted, as they watched to see what the Qing government would do. THe magistrate of Pingyuan was removed, there did not seem to be any real hunt after them. After awhile Zhu Hongdenf and the other boxers began raiding christians in Yucheng, Changqing, Chiping and Boping. They burnt homes, stole property, performed violence and even killed a few people. Outside Boping, Christians fought back leading to skirmishes and fatalities. Yuxiang's lenient policies were failing, the Christian community felt the Qing government could not protect them. Yuxiang began targeting the boxer leaders, as he had done with the Big Sword Society prior. Tactically it went brilliantly, he managed to arrest and execute the main leaders, but these Boxers were nothing like the Big Swords. Following the elimination of the boxer leaders, boxer movements sprang up in new places all over the region, villages were being attacked all over. Whenever one Boxer leader was arrested or killed, another would generate at a moment's notice, it was like a Boxer Hydra. Now the Boxers had been targeting small villages with Christian communities, but then on November 15th they attacked the fortified Catholic village of Zhangzhuang. The boxers successfully raided the village and it seems this emboldened them greatly as their next targets became mission stations holding foreigners. As the missionaries and foreign communities felt threatened, they began complaining to remove officials like Yuxiang. On December 5th, the complaints worked, the Qing government replaced Yuxiang with Yuan Shikai. Although Yuan Shikai was convinced Yuxiangs lenient policies led to the Boxer problem and sought to use military force to quell it, prominent Qing officials advised him to not brutalize the Boxers, as they rightly feared it would spark a large-scale rebellion against their government. Thus Yuan Shikai used his forces defensively to try and protect foreigners and Christians, little actually changed. On December 31st of 1899 the British missionary S.M Brooks was murdered in Feicheng by bandits. The Boxers continued to spread and rumors of what they did were heard everywhere. Mission stations were being attacked everywhere in a wild frenzy of panic field by rumors. The Boxers would claim missionaries were poisoning wells. Boxers would target all things foreign such as railways which they said "had iron centipedes or fire carts which desecrated the land and disturbed the graves of their ancestors" Empress Dowager Cixi would love that one. Likewise telegraph lines were feared. Some thought the rusty water dripping from their wires looked like blood of air spirits. Foreign own mines were seen as disturbing the spirits of China's earth. Boxer Manifestos began to state "When we have slaughtered them all, we shall tear up the railways, cut down the telegraphs, and then finish off by burning their steamboats." When rumors emerged of the new

Last time we spoke about the escalating situation in China involving foreigners and the emerging Yihequan Boxers. The incident in Liyuantun had reached a boiling point between the Yihequan and Christian's backed by foreign actors. As hard as the Qing government tried to intermediate, they simply could not stop the boxer movement from growing. Boxers were gathering en masse in Shandong and Zhili trying to fight back against what they saw as a foreign enemy. Fight they did, but in the end the Qing government was forced to stamp down upon the ring leaders behind the multiple boxing groups until a peace was finally restored in troublesome Shandong. Yet while the Boxers went home as they say, were they truly done? The scramble for China had created a new type of enemy, one not so easily controlled and soon would make themselves heard loud and clear. #60 Spirit Boxers & the battle at Senluo Temple Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. And so the struggle over the temple at Liyuantun had finally come to an end, peace was restored, or was it? China was still being carved up by the great powers, the christians and missionaries were still running amok and in 1898 Emperor Guangxu began his "one hundred days of reform". A rising star within the Qing court named Kang Youwei had begun pushing progressive reforms upon the emperor. The self strengthening movement we talked about a long time ago had focused on military matters, but laced governmental and societal reforms. These limitations were showcased horribly with China's defeat during the First Sino-Japanese War when China was forced yet again to abide by unequal treaties and now the other great powers were literally tearing her apart. The abysmal situation led to the perfect grounds for individuals like Kang Youwei and the Qing politician Liang Qichao to advocate for some rather drastic reforms, many of which the Emperor agreed to. Kang Youwei sought a blend of New Text Confucianism and western inspired modernization, in some ways it was like a Meiji restoration. It should be no surprise Kang Youwei sought such a thing, as he studied in Japan and was an avid reader of western literature. Kang Youwei wrote to the emperor "China is confronted with the gravest danger in her history" and his reply was an unprecedented two and a half audience with the Emperor. According to an eyewitness, a scholar present, the Emperor complained to Kang Youwei that the conservatives in the Qing court were ruining China with inaction. To this Kang Youwei agreed and kept pressuring the emperor the need for radical change. "You, the Emperor, I would ask you to remove yourself from the seclusion in which you live. COme boldly forward". Well that is just what Emperor Guangxu did. A stream of imperial edicts called for changes to the examination system to stress practical studies; to reorganize and modernize the military; to establish a bureau for agriculture, industry, commerce; to translate and print more western books; to build a modern education system; to change the absolute monarchy to a constitutional monarchy, the list could go on and on, but I think you get the picture, think more modern. Between June and September of 1898 he had issued some 40 imperial edicts. This all resulted in a great divide within the Qing court between the reformers and conservatives. To the conservatives, it was simply heresy to overthrow China's traditional laws and customs, for some they believed it was all some sort of evil plot concocted by foreign powers as a means of carving up China further. Such was the thinking of Prince Duan, he was basically the leader of the conservatives in the Qing Court and very loyal to Empress Dowager Cixi. He suspected the reforms were a plot designed by foreign advisors like Timothy Richards and Ito Hirobumi. The speed and radical nature of the ideas scared the hell out of the conservatives. Empress Dowager Cixi at first appearance to acquiesce towards her nephews reform program, he had turned 27 and was officially in charge, wink wink as they say. Cixi had temporarily retreated to the Summer palace under the guise she was retiring. However as Guangxu's reforms began to touch on some lets say, more sensitive topics like the abolition of sinecures, that being

Last time we spoke about the Juye incident and the scramble for China. The Big Swords society and their armor of the golden bell technique certainly made some waves in the mid 1890's. However it would seem to get them in trouble, at minimum by proxy. The Juye incident was quickly seen as another Big Sword attack on christians and Kaiser Wilhelm utilizes it to gain something he was looking for a long time, a naval port in China. Jiaozhou bay was quickly seized by the Germans and suddenly all the western powers were seizing parts of China left right and center. The carving up of China had thus gone into overdrive and it looked to the common Chinese people that christian missionaries were all behind it. German was truly rubbing their nose in and allowing their missionaries to abuse their authority in Shandong province, but for how long would the Chinese put up with all of this? #59 Yihequan "Why is everyone Kungfu fighting?" Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. So there has been this group I have kept alluding to for a few podcasts now. They went by a few names, but they truly pop into the scene in the year of 1898 in what other place than Shandong province, to be specific Guan county. Guan county lies along the western border of Shandong and is just a bit due west of Jinan. The people of guan county were known their "brave spirit and love of righteousness". Their county held poor soil, many grew cotton and this lent itself to weaving. It was quite an impoverished county, their people lived simple lives. As noted by a gazetteer "The young have become like knights-errant, and like to indulge in wine, and drink for pleasure. They form cliques and seek revenge." By the mid 19th century, these young knight types were allying themselves with White Lotus sects. This led to conflicts such as the Song Jing-shi uprising of the 1860s. As we have seen over the past few episodes, where there are young men practicing boxing and there are sectarians, well they seem to just find common cause and love to rebel. There was a small market town in Guan county called Liyuantun. It was an exclave among 24 settlements in Guan, isolated across the Shandong border inside Zhili. Bordering it to the north was Linqing and Qiu county. A peasant from Liyuangtun described Liyuantuns locations as such "Speaking from our village, either two li [one kilometer) to the east or ten li to the west was Wei county. Twelve li to the northwest was Qiu county; twelve li to the south was Jize [Zhili]; fifteen li to the southeast was Linqing; ten li to the south was Quzhou; five li to the west were 300 mu of Guangzong [Zhili] land; and we were 130 li from the Guan county seat". The small town historically had changed administrative boundaries multiple times. Now when conflicts began to break out with Christians, a magistrate was told be local residents of Liyuantun "Before, the prefect and magistrate repeatedly came to calm and pacify us. They would fix a date and only when they received permission did they dare to enter this territory." Alongside the christians, the region was of course a natural refuge for bandits. Bandits seemed to increase dramatically between 1894-1899 and these bands were coming well armed and dared to raid villages during daylight. Even casualties were beginning to increase, it was said during one raid, 7 people were killed in a single village. Highway robbery was particularly popular in the area. Theft was often directed at the wealthy, the kidnapping of members of rich families, the ordinary peasants did not suffer from this, but instead benefited, as the bandits took their riches and spent them in the poor villages. The local Qing forces were too weak and incompetent to do anything. The isolated county of Guan was very susceptible to heterodox sects. There were countless such as the White Lotus, the Green "Qing Bang" or Red "Hong Bang" gangs, the "Huang shahui / the Yellow sand society", the "shen-ren dao / way of the sage" and so on. Historians point out the isolation of the county, low education and weakness of the orthodox gentry to be the reason for the popularity of such sects. These very same factors would bolster certain boxing groups to fight christians. With a weak Qing state, the Christian missiona

Last time we spoke about the origins of the Big Sword Society and the invulnerability technique known as the Armor of the Golden Bell. China was certainly no stranger to sects and martial art groups. The Big Sword Society rose up to counteract the rebels and bandits that plagued parts of China like good old Shandong province. However when Christian missionaries began to get involved in the mix things got ugly quick. Bandits would exploit the conversion to christianity to protect themselves from justice. The Big Sword Society had been largely successful combating bandits, but when it came to matters involving the church they were powerless. Finally enough was enough and now the Big Swords were tussling with the Christians, truly raising hell. Yet for now the Big Swords averted fatalities and limited their attacks to property, but what would happen if they turned up the heat? #58 The Juye Incident & Scramble for China Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. The story of Pang Sangjie and the minor skirmish between the Big Sword Society and Church was quite minor. French Jesuits reported two main mission residence at Daitaolou and Houjiazhuang were attacked alongside Christian homes in over 16 villages. The church settled the losses with local Qing officials for only 2000 strings of cash on June 26th, before the final battle had occurred. The Germans in Shandong submitted their report which amounted to petty vandalism to chapels in 17 villages and the burning of 119 rooms in Xue-Jonglou. For this they received 12,020 strings of cash. There were no Christian casualties during the entire conflict either Chinese or foreign. The Big Swords got rowdy, targeted the property of the Christians, but made sure not to take lives. If they had wanted to take lives, they easily could have as they demonstrated. The Qing authorities were too busy with another ongoings, there was a large Muslim rebellion raging in Gangsu and Shaanxi seeing General Dong Fuxiang with numerous forces going into the northwest. Thus the trouble of the Big Swords was pretty small in comparison. But what if the Big Swords began killing Chinese christians, or some foreign missionaries? How would the church react, how would foreign nations react? We talked a lot about French Catholic missionaries, some protestant British and Americans, but another large group came from Germany. There were three missionaries working on behalf of the "Societas Verbi Divini" Society of the divine word. This was a catholic society founded in Steyl, Netherlands in 1875, which drew mostly German priests into its ranks. When Otto von Bismarck came into power, there was a conflict known as die Kulturkampf, basically the church wanted clerical control over education and ecclesiastical appointment. Otto von Bismarck and other enlightenment minded leaders sought a separation of church and state and this led to countless priests fleeing places like Germany. In 1882 the Society began sending missionaries to Shandong province. Three German missionaries working on behalf of the society of the divine wind, George Stenz, Richard Henle and Francis Xavier Nies were at a missionary residence in Zhangjiazhuang in Juye county. This was the mission station of Stenz, it was around 25km west of Jining. The two other men had come to visit. Henle was quite discouraged because his work was going very slow, thus Stenz urged him to take a break. The three men did their best to raise their spirits on the evening of November 1st, 1897, the night of all saints day. They sang songs from their childhood as Stenz played his zither. They practiced the requiem for the following day. When they retired for the evening, Stenz gave up his own room to his two guests and moved over to the servants quarters. It was around 11pm, when suddenly shots rang out into the night, the courtyard was full of torches. A band of 20-30 armed men raced towards the missionary quarters. They charged the door to Stenz quarters which were unlocked as the priest had no reason to believe anything like an attack would occur. The mob grabbed Henle and Nies and hacked them to death. Apparently they realized neither were the local missionary, as the mob continued to ransack the building searching for Stenz. They checked t

Last time we spoke about Shandong province. Yes this one province of China just always seems to be the breeding grounds for trouble, its actual a common saying haha. Historically Shandong was unique in many ways; geographically its densely populated, almost exclusively with farmers, the majority of whom are quiet impoverished in its western portion. Just about all invading armies have to go through it if coming from the north, leading the province to be very unstable. Bandits roamed its region throughout time, leading local communities to seek protection via what we in the west called Boxers. These martial artists became a big part of western shandong, the strongmen to fight off enemies. Shandong also birthed numerous sects and when they mingled with the Boxer types, rebels spread continuously. The Qing had a hell of a time with Shandong beginning in the late 18th century, and things would only escalate further by the late 19th. #57 This episode is the Big Sword Society & the Armor of the Golden Bell Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. "My investigations reveal that the Big Sword Society is the heterodox sect, Armor of the Golden Bell (Jin-zhong zhao). Its origins lie in the distant past. Although local officials have proscribed it, its roots have never been cut. Last year the coastal borders were unsettled [because of the SinoJapanese War], and when people heard that this sect could ward off bullets, it spread all the more, so that there was hardly a place without it. The stupid thought that they could protect themselves and their families. The crafty used it to carry out their violent schemes. Then roving bandits (you-fei) came from outside to stir things up and crowds gathered to cause trouble." This passage was written by the governor of Shandong, Li Bingheng who was trying to explain the origin of what was called the Da-dao hui "Big Sword Society". This society was mentioned in 1735 in northern Anhui province, though there really is not much known about them, until they re-emerged in the late 19th century. The armor of the golden bell had existed since the late 18th century as a martial arts technique for achieving invulnerability. As I mentioned in the previous episode; the armor of the golden bell was a kungfu technique that employed "Qigong". Qigong is a system of coordinating body-posturing, like movement, breathing and meditation. Those performing it would perform breathing exercises which they claimed helped protect their bodies against blades and even bullets as if a large bell was covering their body. Several practitioners of this technique were associated with various sectarian societies like the eight trigrams back in 1813. These people usually made charms using red paper, burned and swallowed them, sometimes they cast spells or better said incantations to appeal to various gods for help. The armor of the golden bell sounds like an organization, but I am just trying to hammer the fact it's actually a technique, it just so happens many organizations used it. To give a firmer example, there was a man named Zhang Luojiao who grew up in Guan county of Shandong. He, his father and younger brother were Daoist priests and learned boxing and healing methods from another family member in 1782. The next year a teacher from Henan province taught Zhang the armor of the golden bell technique and gave him two charms. It is said after learning the technique, he took up more boxing and taught disciples for profit. He eventually became associated with the eight trigrams. He later learnt the spell "zhen-kong zhou-yu / true emptiness spell" from a Li Trigram member. Zhang claimed he left the sect because his teacher kept demanding donations and thus did not take part in the rebellion that occurred later. However students of his did take part in that said rebellion. So the armor of the golden bell at least seems to be part of something larger, it was a well established boxing technique in the north china plain region. It was an invulnerability spell against sword or knife attacks and its practitioners were often found to be linked to sects. Historians argue about the relationship between the Big Sword Society and other sects. Some argue the Big Sword Society was an off branch of the White Lo

Last time we spoke about the conclusion of the first Sino-Japanese War and we took a side trip speaking about overseas Chinese in the 19th century. The treaty of Shimonoseki ended the war between Japan and the Qing dynasty. The Qing dynasty was humiliated yet again, but so too was Japan because of the triple intervention of Germany, France and Russia. The balance of power in the east had shifted dramatically. Such dramatic change that was seen in the 19th century led to massive emigration within and outside of China. The wealthy and common Chinese people wanted to improve their lives and they moved within China seeking lands to farm and outside China seeking new opportunities. Overseas Chinese were heavily influenced by the great Gold Rushes of the 19th century and of course the colossal railway projects. In many ways it was a dark part of the histories of numerous nations, but in the end it was also the beginning of a new international community. #56 This episode it's not always sunny in Shandong Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. Shandong, anytime you hear about a conflict in Chinese history it always seems to originate with Shandong. Indeed Shandong has been at the heart of an unbelievable number of conflicts, it just always seems to be the birthing place for trouble, but hell it always gave us Confucious. Not going to lie, this is going to be a bit of a bizarre episode. The purpose of this episode is to somewhat explain, how certain groups emerge historically because….well of just a place. Shandong is unique, its been at the heart of so many events. We are soon going to be jumping into another major event in Chinese history, but to best tell how it comes about, I wanted to cover the origin of those responsible. It just so happens where the majority of these people come from, that is northwest Shandong by the way, makes for quite a story. So let us explore Shandong and perhaps touch just a bit, like a teaser upon a group of people that will become known to the western world as the Boxers. In the late 19th century Shandong held an enormous population, cereal agriculture and numerous impoverished villages. The climate of the region could go from just above freezing for the winter months and blazingly hot and humid for the summer months. China took its time modernizing as we all know, so the peasants of Shandong had to rely mostly on mother nature for irrigation and mother nature in China could be quite cruel. Floods were common, so were droughts. Shandong is quite diverse, its eastern portion was very productive, producing grain, fruits and vegetables. Its streams carried gold dust which was panned by locals. It was part of an ancient silk-raising region. Along the peninsula was a relative immunity to natural disasters. Landlords were more plentiful here than Shandongs western half and it held numerous important port cities like Qingdao which today produces Tsingtao beer, one of my favorites. Commerce was quite bountiful in the port cities and by far and large the peninsula and northern slope of eastern shandong were the most developed parts of the province. In the mid 19th century 58% of Shandongs provincial degree holders came from either the northern slope or peninsula. However when you look at the northwest plains of Shandong province you begin to see a discrepancy. Stretching across the entire region north of the Yellow River, held one of the most populous regions, with 250 people per square kilometer covering around 26% of Shandongs land area. 93% or so of these people were peasants and the region was purely agricultural, but it could be described as anything but prosperous. Average yields were the lowest of any region in Shandong, reflecting the persistent problems of waterlogging and salinity of the soil. The northwest was prone to natural disasters. The yellow river became quite problematic to this region in the 1880s. The bed of the river had risen above ground level through most of Shandong, and the floods became increasingly bad. Though bad, the yellow river was not the only source of misery for northwest Shandong. Lesser streams frequently caused local floodings and as funny as it sounds, too much water was an issue, but often it was too little that brought upon real cala

Last time we spoke about the final days of the first Sino-Japanese War, the invasion of the Pescadores Islands, Taiwan and the Treaty of Shimonoseki. The Japanese had taken Port Arthur, Weihaiwei and were on the verge of marching upon Beijing. The Qing were slow to action on the negotiation front leading to three attempts to reach a peace agreement. However in the meantime the Japanese prolonged things for just enough time to allow their amphibious forces to invade the Pescadore islands and Taiwan. Li Hongzhang became the scapegoat for the entire conflict and was forced to sign the humiliating Treaty of Shimonoseki. However in the end it would also be Japan getting served a nasty deal because of the Triple Intervention of Germany, France and Russia. The balance of power in the east had dramatically changed, and with change comes movement, the movement of many people, all over the world. #55 This episode is, Overseas Chinese Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. I did not know when I was going to tackle this subject, but I figured after the first Sino-Japanese war would be a good place. The 1890's-1900 is a sort of odd window of time for China where a lot of change occurs. When I was doing my undergraduate in History, a requirement of my University was to take a certain amount of courses in specific fields of history, one was Canadian history as I am from Quebec and its just forced on you. In one of those courses I had to spend an extensive amount of time learning about the Chinese-Canadian experience, particularly during the end half of the 19th century. Now I know the majority of you listeners are American and probably know the general history of Chinese immigration to America during the 19th century. For Canada is quite similar, first thing that comes to mind for all of you I imagine is the railroad work. Its a fundamental part of both America and Canada's history, the building of some of the great railroads and unfortunately the terrible mistreatment of Asian immigrants. In this episode however I don't want to just talk about Canada and the United States, because in truth, Chinese immigration saw Chinese going to all sorts of nations, for various reasons. I also believe it gives us a better understanding of all the events we have spoken about and how they affect the common person. There are more than 50 million Oversea Chinese today, most of them are in Southeast Asia, in places like Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, Thailand and such. They represent one of the highest figures of immigration in the world. Their migration goes back to ancient times, roughly 2000 years ago during the opening of the maritime silk road. Chinese immigrants were moving mainly to Southeast Asia. When the 15th century came around, Chinese began moving to places like Sumatra and Java, establishing what we call today, Chinatowns. Where trade went, so did the Chinese and by the 16th century trade began to pick up with Europe. Europeans began to establish themselves in the Far East, looking to trade and in the process integrated numerous places within a world trade network. European powers began to compete with another to expand and develop colonies in places like Southeast Asia and this in turn increased a demand for Chinese merchants and laborers. When the 17th century rolled around, there was an estimated 100,000 or so Chinese scattered about Southeast Asia and 20-30 thousand perhaps in Japan. Many Chinese came over during the Wokou years, setting up bases in Japan to help raid mainland China as pirates. When the Manchu conquered the Ming dynasty, numerous Chinese refugees fled to Japan to escape Manchu rule. Now its during the 19th century when we really begin to see massive movements to the far reaches of the globe. When the age of colonialism was at its height so too would Chinese immigration be at its height, and with it a diaspora began. By the starting of the 19th century, millions of Chinese pulled up stakes and left for unfamiliar and faraway places, why? During the final century of the Qing dynasty, China began to struggle with mounting challenges as I think we all have seen in this series. These problems were both internal and external in nature. Internally, the Qing had doubled their territory, incorporat

Last time we spoke about the Massacre at Port Arthur, actions in Manchuria and the fall of Weihaiwei. The Japanese had completely destroyed their meticulously cultivated public image when they let loose atrocities upon the Chinese at Port Arthur. Meanwhile, multiple Japanese and Chinese armies fought in Manchuria, culminating in a decisive blow at the battle of Yingkou. The Japanese advance was getting ever closer to Beijing, but the event that would inflict the most serious threat to China was the battle for Weihaiwei. The survivors of the Beiyang Fleet were trapped within the harbor of Weihaiwei when the Japanese snuck onto the Peninsula and laid siege to the great fortified port city. The Japanese stormed the fort's guns and quickly turned them on the Beiyang fleet before launching torpedo boats to finish the job. It was a catastrophe for the Qing Dynasty, now the Japanese could launch offensives at their whim against Shandong province. #54 The First Sino-Japanese War of 1898-1895 Part 6: Taiwan and end of the War Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. Japan had just captured the port city of Weihaiwei. The Japanese government publicly reported their objectives of war were not yet attained and that the diet was prepared to grant whatever amounts were necessary for military expenses required to finish them. Meanwhile the Qing court in Beijing concluded that China's military defeats had been mostly a result of the weaknesses of European weaponry. Yes, that was their conclusion. They pointed out how there was a mismatch between Chinese gunpowder, which might I add was inferior to that of what was being used in the west, and their western purchased breech-loading rifles. From the North China Herald we get this gem "There is a movement in Peking for a return to the use of muzzle-loading rifles and long jingals [sic] for arming the Chinese armies. But the Chinese arsenals before the war was 'unfit even for firecrackers' and had been provided 'by unprincipled ordnance officials.' This inferior gunpowder supplied to the Chinese armies in Manchuria and elsewhere since the war began, had undoubtedly been one of the chief causes which has made our soldiery appear ridiculous in the eyes of the world. The powder in the cartridges has been found either not to carry far enough in nine cases out often or not even to explode! This sad state of affairs has been the principal cause of the hitherto astonishing panics of the Chinese soldiery whenever they were confronted by the Japanese." Instead of simply replacing defective powder and using modern weapons. The Qing solution to their gunpowder problem, which was the result of corrupt officials embezzling, was to simply dispose of modern weaponry and start using their old stuff. Instead of simply replacing defective powder and using modern weapons. With the Beiyang fleet's warships destroyed or captured, Prince Gong ordered the closing of the admiralty board since China no longer possessed a real navy. When he did so, they found 5 million taels missing from the account. It is alleged these funds were diverted to Empress Dowager Cixi's summer palace renovations. There was a general recognition in the west after the fall of Weihaiwei that the balance of power in the far east had changed. China was no longer the dominant power, it was clearly Japan. The Qing dynasty faced a horrible decision: they could negotiate a peace deal with Japan or they could risk a coup d'etat. It was to be defeat by the hands of Japanese, or their own Han subjects. The Manchu leadership clearly favored the former, especially since they were under the belief they could enlist some western intervention to mitigate better peace terms on their behalf. For the Japanese, they now were trying to figure how to make their war gains permanent, but to do so they really had to get the Qing to capitulate before foreign intervention occurred. While Japan could defeat China, she could not handle more nations jumping into the mix, particularly the Russians in Manchuria. The Japanese public and military were demanding peace terms to meet their great achievements in the field of battle. Japanese diplomats however were very aware of the international diplomatic consequences of being too ambitious in th

Last time we spoke about the situation after the disastrous losses at Pyongyang and the Yalu River as well as the battle for Port Arthur. Coming off their tremendous success at Pyongyang and the battle of Yalu, the Japanese performed an offensive fording the Yalu and easily defeating the Qing forces at Jiuliancheng. After this the Japanese began to advance into the Liaodong Peninsula. One by one, each town saw Qing forces fleeing while giving little battle. Eventually the Japanese seized Jinzhou and Dalian. With bases of operations in hand they then could attack the formidable fortress of Port Arthur. As the Japanese advanced into the Port Arthur region, they came across mutilated corpses of their comrades driving a fiery need for vengeance into their hearts. The Japanese would take Port Arthur with absolute ease as the Qing yet again fled the scene, but this time the victory was met with a disastrous massacre. #53 The First Sino-Japanese War of 1898-1895 Part 5: The Battle of Weihaiwei Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. The massacre at Port Arthur was disastrous for Japan's public image. Thomas Cowan of the London Times went to Hiroshima on his way home after witnessing the massacre and met with Foreign Minister Mutsu Munemitsu to tell him what he saw personally. Upon hearing the story, Mutsu told him "that an investigation would be made and that he showed no disposition to interfere with the correspondents duty and the reports were telegraphed on December 1st". On December 16th the Japanese foreign ministry issued a formal statement to the foreign press on the matter "The Japanese Government desires no concealment of the events at Port Arthur. On the contrary, it is investigating rigidly for the purpose of fixing the exact responsibility and is taking measures essential to the reputation of the empire. Japanese troops transported with rage at the mutilation of their comrades by the enemy, broke through all restraints and exasperated by the wholesale attempts [by Chinese soldiers] at escape disguised at citizens, they inflicted vengeance without discrimination. While the Japanese government "deplores" the excessive violence, it protested "exaggerations" in the press reports and insisted that "the victims, almost without exception, were soldiers wearing the stolen clothes of citizens." Three days later the London Times reported "that most foreign reporters agree that the excesses were committed, but say that they were excusable, and that they have had their parallels in the best European armies. The Japanese military promised they would also launch an inquiry into the matter, but no one ended up being punished. Luckily for Japan the west would later on become obsessed over the peace terms and their attention was less focused on the Port Arthur Massacre. Meanwhile the Qing government was trying to deny there even was a defeat at Port Arthur, let alone a massacre. The Shanghai China Gazette had this to say "The most strenuous efforts have been made by the Chinese officials to conceal the fact that the great stronghold has passed out of their hands, and is now a de facto Japanese naval yard. Telegraphic notices have been sent...all over the empire by the officials saying that a wicked report has been set on foot by the enemy that they have captured Port Arthur, but it was utterly untrue, the place being garrisoned by 30,000 brave Chinese soldiers who would never give it up to the Japanese. Official telegrams to this effect were published to-day in all the native papers, and thousands of Chinese will thereby be kept in blissful ignorance of the terrible position in which China stands to-day. Ostrich-like, most of the Chinese prefer not to believe the unpleasant truth and rather listen to the barefaced mendacity of their wretched rulers. But the stupidity of the latter gentry, who have brought the country to its present desperate plight, is only emphasized by this false manoeuvre." A month later the same China Gazette asserted this "By many it is not yet known or admitted that Port Arthur has been taken and is held by the Japanese - even of the 'well-informed' officials. The same is said to be true in Peking." Of course the Qing court had good reason to try and conceal the defeat at Port Ar

Last time we spoke about the battle of the Yalu River. It was an absolutely catastrophic week for the Qing dynasty. Within just two days they suffered a major land defeat and now a defeat at sea that practically annihilated the Beiyang fleet. Corruption and incompetence ran rampant as the Beiyang fleet crews found themselves undertrained, understaffed, lacking ammunition and what ammunition they did have, some of it was filled with concrete and porcelain. The Qing dynasty's corruption problems were shown on full display as the IJN combined fleet outperformed them, despite having smaller warships and less of them. Quick firing guns defeated the big guns at Yalu and now the Japanese held control over the seas. The Beiyang fleet now flee's to Weihaiwei to try and repair their ships for another chance at a decisive naval battle, but will it ever come to be? #52 The First Sino-Japanese War of 1898-1895 Part 4: The Battle for Port Arthur Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. After the battle of the Yalu River, the Japanese had a enormous boost to their propaganda campaign. Despite this the Qing backed press continued their charade of blemishing the losses, take this article from the North China Herald "In spite of the reiterated denials of the Japanese authorities that any of their vessels were badly injured in the recent naval fight, information which we have been able to gather from quarters entitled to all credence, corroborates in a very circumstantial manner the statement that the Japanese lost four vessels in the actual fight, and more probably later on, as the Chinese heavy guns treated them very severely. The Chinese engaged fought with wonderful bravery; there were no skulkers." Despite their claims, by September the 20th the jig was up for the Qing government as foreign military advisers who had participated or witnessed the battle at Yalu arrived to Tianjin. They began spilling the story to the western press, and unlike the Japanese press, the Qing could not simply write them off as mere propaganda. The foreign press corroborated the Japanese reports that 5 Qing warships were had been sunk and "to a man regard the statement that the Japanese lost no ships as a barefaced lie". Even the foreign eye witnesses could not believe not a single Japanese ship was sunk. The reports caused severe issues for Beijing. This alongside other issues prompted Emperor Guangxu to take an unprecedented move, he summoned Inspector General Constantin von Hanneken, a Prussian officer who was working as a military adviser to the Beiyang fleet for an imperial audience. Von Hanneken was also one of the engineers who helped build the defenses at Port Arthur known to the Chinese as Lushunkou and at Weihaiwei. He of course was present at the battle of the Yalu and the EMperor demanded to learn what actually transpired from him. It certainly says a lot about your Empire, when you would trust a foreigner over your officials. It is also at this point Japan altered its position on foreign reporters. As mentioned near the beginning of this series, the Japanese opted to have a blackout on news about the war. On August 2nd of 1894 an Imperial Ordinance had been published requiring all newspapers and other publicans to submit any information concerning diplomatic or military affairs to the Japanese government authorities prior to publication. Well after the victories at Pyongyang and Yalu, the Japanese government decided to undermine the Qing war propaganda efforts by allowing foreign correspondence to accompany the IJA. Foreigners would not be given the same accommodation for the Qing ground forces. As explained by a reporter for the Peking and Tientsin times "no one could guarantee the safety of a foreigner accompanying the Chinese troops. Two interpreters accompanying the Second Japanese Army were captured and killed by Chinese forces". Another major event occurred after the disaster at Yalu, Empress Dowager Cixi abandoned her plans for her extravagant 60th birthday celebration, which really adds to the myth about the embezzlement of naval funds. On September 25th, EMperor Guangxu issued this edict ""H.I.M. the Empress-Dowager, in view of the continuation of the war with Japan, cannot bear to be celebrating her birthd

Last time we spoke about about the first large land battles of the First Sino-Japanese War: the battles of Seonghwan and Pyongyang. The Qing's plan to perform a pincer attack from the north and south of Korea was smashed when they lost Asan. However not all was lost, they still held the extremely formidable defensive position at Pyongyang with some of their best units and best equipment. The Japanese 1st Army deceived the Qing defenders and made an incredible victory at Pyongyang sending the remaining survivors fleeing towards the Yalu River. It was a tremendous blow to the Chinese despite their home press proclaiming every event to be a victory. Now the Qing have their backs against the wall along the Yalu, if the Japanese were to take it they could march right into Manchuria. While the Qing be able to rally themselves and hold the Japanese within Korea, or will this war see action within their borders? #51 The First Sino-Japanese War of 1898-1895 Part 3: The battle of the Yalu River Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. Literally a day after the battle of Pyongyang, the second major battle of the entire war took place. The IJN had been trying to engage a very reluctant Qing navy who were under orders not to cross the Yalu-Weihaiwei line. Well the Japanese crossed it for them. The Beiyang fleet had difficulties operating in the open sea, where the IJN warships held an advantage in speed and better maintenance. The Beiyang fleet thus operated more so along the coastlines, with her two colossal German built battleships the Dungyuan and Zhenyuan only capable of hitting 15-16 knots speed. To give a comparison, the IJN ships had a rough average speed of 20 knots. Now in early September, Li Hongzhang decided to reinforce the Qing forces at Pyongyang and he had his Beiyang fleet escort their transports to the mouth of the Taedong River. On September 12th around 4500 Qing troops left Dagu aboard 5 transports heading for Dalian where they joined 2000 more troops. Admiral Ding Rucheng, initially wanted to send the transports with only a light escort, keeping the bulk of the Beiyang fleet in a safer position incase the IJN combined fleet offered battle. However reports of sightings of the Japanese cruisers Yoshino and Naniwa who were performing reconnaissance near Weihaiwei led to disaster for the Qing. The Beiyang Fleet commanders took these reports to indicate the IJN combined fleet were all around Weihaiwei, it just so happened the entire Beiyang Fleet was to head to Weihaiwei on the 13th. The Qing hunted down the cruisers for an entire day, but found no sight of them, so Admiral Ding turned back for Dalien arriving on the 15th. The Japanese victory at Pyongyang meant the Qing land forces were concentrating at the Yalu River. Reports began to reach Admiral Ding about the supposed grand victory, but he read between the lines the truth of the matter when the reports also stated the transport of further troops to the mouth of the Taedong river was no longer necessary. Admiral Ding surmised correctly that the Qing line of defense would now be established on the Yalu River, so he decided to bring the troops there. At around 1:00am on the 16th the Beiyang fleet and the 5 transports departed Dalian Bay. The Beiyang fleet consisted of the 2 ironclad battleships, the Dingyuan and Zhenyuan, a smaller coastal defense battleship called the Pingyuan, the cruisers Laiyuan, Jiyuan, Jingyuen, Jingyuan and Zhiyuen, smaller cruisers Chaoyong, Kwan Chia, Yangwei and the gunboats Guangbing, Zhennan, Zhenzhong, Fulong and Zuo 1. Now I really need to take a moment here to explain a lot about the two opposing naval forces. These Qing ships I just listed, most of them were built before 1887, for the Japanese the majority would be built after 1890. About 10 significant ships from each side would take part in the upcoming battle; for the Qing the two battleships which each holding ⅓ more displacement than the largest Japanese warship. The Qing warships could only go as fast as their slowest, and the two battleships only pulled 15 or so knots, meaning the IJN would enjoy a massive advantage in speed. The armaments of the Beiyang fleet were created mostly at the Jiangnan and Fuzhou Shipyards and they were by far and large

Last time we spoke about about the emerging war between Big brother China and Little brother Japan. Li Hongzhang struggled to do everything he possible could to thwart the outbreak of war with Japan, but he could not stop the inevitable. The Japanese began landing troops and soon seized King Gojong trying to force Korea to take up the reforms they wanted them to. Li Hongzhang tried to keep the Qing forces at a distance, but the Japanese would not stop reinforcing their position in Korea. Eventually Li Hongzhang decided to play with what he thought was a Japanese bluff, sending further reinforcements to Asan, but the IJN intercepted the transports and disaster struck. The IJN sank the Kowshing and other Qing vessels ushering in the first shots of the First Sino-Japanese War. The Genie was out of the bottle and could not be put back in. #50 The First Sino-Japanese War of 1898-1895 Part 2: The battles of Seonghwan and Pyongyang Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. The battle of Pungdo and sinking of the Kowshing robbed the Qing of 1100 men and 12 pieces of artillery along with other war materials that were needed at Asan. It's important also to remember the major differences between Japan and China when it came to their military forces. The Qing were composed of multiple different forces, as a journalist at Le Journal des debats politiques et litteraires said "there are chinese troops: there is no Chinese army, or rather there are as many armies as there are regions". I know for those of you listening to the series I repeat the structure of the Qing military too often, but I imagine some people listening only joined us for the First Sino-Japanese War, so welcome and here is how the Qing military works. You have the 1) 8-banners army made up of Manchu, Mongol, Muslim and Han banners, 2) the Green Standard army which can be honestly seen more as a armed police force, made mostly because the 8-banners were very outdated 3) then there is the Yong Ying militias and hired mercenaries 4) lastly we have the foreign training army which are basically private armies held by grand officials like Li Hongzhang. The Yong-Ying's were pretty much the bread and butter, serving as a kind of national guard and sent to hot spots within the empire where rebels would break out. Many of these Yong-Ying types received foreign training thus fall into that 4th category, making them like the cream of the crop. Overall Yong-Ying's and well trained troops make up 10% of the total Qing forces, the Green standards make up the vast majority. Li Hongzhang like I said had a personal army, the Huai Army, created to fight the Taiping back in the 1860's. They were the elites, but as Li aged, he lessened his oversee on them. Adding to Li's age, the Qing court was reluctant to fund such an army, led by a Han no less, who might become too powerful and unseat their Manchu ruled dynasty. I mean they had good reason to worry, Li Hongzhang's teacher Zeng Guofan got to a point he could have done this with his army, he just chose to retire instead, kind of a Sulla thing to do I always find. Now as you can see the Qing military is quite regional in nature with many warlord like figures controlling private armies and the Qing state controlling the less effective forces, it severely lacked unity. So to was the situation of the Qing navy. There were 4 autonomous squadrons: the Beiyang (northern), Nanyang (southern), Fujian and Guangdong. Only the Beiyang possessed a modern fleet based at Weihaiwei and under the control of Li Hongzhang, yes old Li had a lot of firepower. China's arsenals and naval academics were the property of their province of origin and count not be counted on to supply other provinces in the event of…oh I dunno a war. We saw during the Sino-French War of 1884-1885 how this could led to disaster, when Li's Beiyang fleet declined to help the Nanyang fleet. Well, that decision came to bite him right in the ass, as now it would be the Nanyang fleet who would ignore his calls for him. Even within the Beiyang fleet, the guns and ammunition were not standardized. Gunpowder was local and not appropriate for import guns resulting in logistical mayhem. The supply system was likewise very ad hoc and prone to flaws leading to the Be

Last time we spoke about the assassination of Kim Ok-kyun and the Donhak Rebellion. Conflicts between China and Japan had heated up to the boiling point at last. The pro Japanese politician Kim Ok-kyun was assassinated serving also as an insult towards Japan. The Beiyang Fleet's visit to Nagasaki resulted in embarrassment and an awkward threat for Japan. Japan was not happy with the SINO situation and actively began building her navy to have the capability of facing off against the Beiyang fleet. Then a violent rebellion of the Donghak faith emerged in Korea prompting a very panicked King Gojong to call upon his Qing allies for aid. The Qing took up the call for help and although it differs from source to source, did or did not notify the Japanese of their actions. Regardless, both China and Japan prepared forces that would embark for Korea. The chess pieces were on the board and now things were set into motion that could not be undone. #49 The First Sino-Japanese War of 1898-1895 Part 1: The Battle of Pungdo Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. The Tonghak rebels can be seen more as a symptom than a disease of the ailing Joseon dynasty. She was a nation stuck between two tigers, two tigers who were both trying to eat her. The turmoil of the later half of the 19th century was tearing Korea apart. Her citizens were forced into this quasi black and white choice between China or Japan, particularly when it came to the topic of modernization. The Tonghak followers were rallying against a tyrannical government who were overtaxing them. Major revolts occurred in 1885, 1888, 1889, 1890, 1891, 1892 and 1893. By February of 1894 the unrest rose dramatically and in April the Tonghaks were in a full scale open rebellion. The target of their hatred were the corrupt officials oppressing them through over taxation and incompetency. But one thing that is funny about the Tonghak story, one that is almost never mentioned, is rumors spread to the Tonghaks that China and Japan were on the verge of sending troops and this prompted them on June 1st to agree to a cease-fire to remove the possibility of foreign intervention. Well that should have been the end of our story, China and Japan keep their boys home and the 3 nations lived happily ever after? On June 2nd, the Japanese cabinet decided to send troops to Korea, if China did so, they also made sure to muzzle any political opposition by asking the emperor to dissolve the lower chamber of the diet. We have the official documentation to back this, thus if China did not send troops, Japan would not have a justification to send there's, however a problem arose. The next day, King Gojong on the recommendation of the Min clan and Yuang Shikai, requested China send troops to help suppress the rebellion. King Gojong had thus unwittingly given the hawkish Japanese military leaders the pretext they desired for so long, another chance to intervene in Korea on a large scale. Why did the Min clan push King Gojong to do this despite the Tonghak basically calling a truce? Turns out the Tonghak's were particularly targeting the Min clan and their allies and there were rumors they had contact with the Daewongun. Within a few days Japan is on a military footing. On June 5th the first IJA HQ is established and on the 6th the ministries of the IJA and IJN issued instructions to the press not to print any information concerning warlike operations, they mean business. Despite this many Japanese news outlets ignore the order, leading to countless being suspended for a day. Now again the sources are sticky with how this part goes down, but on June 7th, China notified Japan in accordance with the Treaty of Tianjin. The notification states that China is sending 2000 troops to Nanyang, which is located on the coast between Seoul and Asan. Within hours of receiving the notification, Japan sends its own notice to China that it is also sending troops, which is in line with the treaty. Also at this same time the Asahi Shinbun reports that Russia is sending ground forces and warships to Korea. It seems the Asahi Shinbun made this report largely to compare the actions of Japan and China to a western power, alongside noting how much Japan had modernized. Remember, Japan's Meiji restoratio

Last time we spoke about the Gapsin Coup. Li Hongzhang snipped the bud of war before it could bloom after the Imo uprising and the Daewongun stole back power in Korea. The Daewongun was spanked and sent into exile yet again, but now Korea had become greatly factionalized. The progressives and conservatives were fighting bitterly to set Korea on a Japanese or Chinese path to modernization. This led radicals like Kim Ok-kyun to perform the Gapsin coup which was terribly planned and failed spectacularly. Japan and China were yet again tossed into a conflict in Korea, but China firmly won the day for she had more forces to bear. Japan licked her wounds and went home, learning a bitter lesson. That lesson was: next time bring more friends to the party. #48 This episode is the Assasination of Kim Ok-kyun & the Donghak Rebellion Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. Now despite the Gapsin coup, Japan and China still tried to cooperate against the west. But Japan was learning much from the outside world, particularly by the actions of imperialistic nations. Britain had begun large scale operations in Shanghai, developing the international settlement there. King Leopold of belgium established the Congo Free state of 1862, and likewise France and Britain were also establishing colonies all over Africa. The Dutch held Java, but then they invaded Aceh in Sumatra in 1873 and other parts of Indonesia after that. The Russians were taking large swathes of land including Vladivostok, Khabarovsk, parts of the Sakhalin, even territory close to Korea in the region of Priamur. Once the ports of Wonsan and Inchon were opened up, Japanese manufactured goods began to pour in. By 1893 91 percent of imports into Korea would be from Japan while 8 percent would be from China. While China tried to keep Japan out, the Meiji restoration had created an industrial powerhouse that made goods, and China had not managed this herself. Of Korea, 49 percent went to China and 50 percent went to Japan. In the eyes of Koreans, even though she was not formally a colony of Japan, the way the Japanese were behaving looked imperialistic. Now in 1886 the Beiyang Fleet was responsible for protecting China's northern coastline and she would make a fateful call to Nagasaki. The purpose of this call was to show off her 4 new modern battleships she had purchased from Germany, the Dingyuan, Zhenyuan, Jiyuan and Weiyuan. These ships were far larger than anything Japan had at the time, a large reason because Japan was following the Jeune Ecole naval strategy. This strategy was developed by France basically to combat the British royal navy. It emphasized using small rapid assault craft, cruisers and destroyers to thwart the might of capital ships like battleships. For my fellow world of warship players, the idea was simple, instead of slamming money into large battleships to fight other large battleships, the French began to experiment more with the capability of torpedo technology. With faster, smaller ships, the French thought they could be used more like raiders, to attack the enemy and cripple them. The Jeune ecole doctrine also sought to use strongly armed fast ships, thus its kind of a glass cannon situation. Anyways the implicit message from China was to show Japan how foolish they would be to go to war with her. On August 13th, 500 Chinese sailors took a shore leave in Nagasaki and they went to the local red-light district. As you can imagine, one thing led to another and some altercations began with the locals. The locals claimed the Chinese sailors got drunk and starting causing havoc, regardless the Chinese sailors began fighting some Japanese cops apparently using swords they bought at some stores. One source I found says over 80 people died during this which is pretty nuts. The next day a conference was held by the governor of Nagasaki, Kusaka Yoshio and the Qing consulate Xuan Cai which led to an agreement the Beiyang navy would prohibit their men from going ashore for a day. Then on August 15th at 1pm, 300 Chinese sailors went ashore, some wielding clubs apparently and they attacked 3 police officers killing one. A rickshaw saw the conflict and tried to punch a CHinese sailor, and this all snowballed into a riot. More cops showe

Last time we spoke about the final battles to push the Qing forces out of Tonkin. The Qing, Black Flag and Vietnamese forces were fighting bitterly, on the open field and as guerillas to kick France out of Tonkin. The guerilla activity led to bloody months at the isolated outposts of Thai Nguyen, Hung Hoa and Tuyen Quang. To dislodge the Qing army from Tonkin, the French attacked them at Nui Bop and seized Lang son thus saving the outposts from being taken. After securing their outposts the French recommenced their offensive attacking Hoa Moc. But the Qing and Black Flag forces erected a siege at Tuyen Quang, to which the French beat them again. Then at Dang Dong, the French finally pushed the Qing forces across the Gate of China back to their homeland. The war over Tonkin was fierce, costing countless lives and all for a war never officially declared, but was it all won and done? Well we are about to find out. #47 The Sino-French War of 1884-1885 part 4: Of War and Peace Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. General Francois Oscar de Negrier took his 2nd brigade and absolutely smashed the remnants of the Guangxi army at Dang Dong, sending them fleeing back into their homeland. For good measure the French literally blew up the Gate of China, also known today as the "Gate of Friendship" which was the border between Guangxi and Tonkin. The customs building, walls, gate itself, all of it was blown sky high. Once this was done the 2nd brigade pulled back to Lang Son at the end of February of 1885. Thus by March the the Guangxi army had been pushed out of Tonkin by General Oscar, while the Yunnan army had been defeated heavily at Tuyen Quang and Hung Hoa by the 1st brigade of Giovanninelli. Despite the sweeping victories, the Qing were not truly defeated by any means they still held considerable forces across the border. General Briere de L'isle thought about launching an offensive against the nearest target within China, such as the military depot at Longzhou, but he did not have enough men to really pull it off, he had to wait for reinforcements. Reinforcements would arrive in mid march. He sat down with his officers and devised a course of action. It was agreed the 1st brigade would attack the Yunnan army to push them beyond the Yen Bay while the 2nd brigade would hold its position at Lang Son. The Guangxi Army in the meantime was rebuilding its strength and by March 17th had been bolstered to 30,000 men. Soon the Guangxi army was pressing upon the Tonkin border with two major camps at Yen Cua Ai and Bang Bo with over 9 separate military commands. At Yen Cua Ai were 10 battalions led by General Feng Zicai, around 7500 men strong. Behind Yen Cua Ai in the village of Mufu, 2-3 kms away were another 7000 men led by Generals Su Yuanchun and Chen Jia; another 15kms behind Mufu at the village of Pingxiang was another 7000 men led by General Jian Zonghan and Fang Yusheng. 50 kms to the west AT Aiwa village was 3500 men led by Wei Gang. 15 kms east in at Cua Ai sitting just a toehold within Tonkin was 3500 men led by General Wang Debang. And overall commander of the Guangxi army, General Pan Dingxian was at Haicun, over 30 kms behind Mufu village with 3500 men. General Oscar had around 1600 men to hold Lang Son, yes it was not looking good for the french boys. On March 22nd, Feng Zicai led a raid against a French outpost at Dong Dang. That said outpost was held by forces under Lt Colonel Paul Gustave Herbinger, someone we spoke a tiny bit about in a previous battle who made the rather idiotic decision to outflank the enemy by going way too far around, so far that his superior simply sent another force to attack the enemy. Herbingers french foreign legionnaires fought off the raid once the rest of the 2nd brigade came up to support his outposts defense. Upon driving off the raiders, General Oscar decided it was a good idea to strike back. He hoped to take the enemy by surprise and led the men to cross over to the Zhennanguan pass which held the Guangxi encampment at Bang Bo. Oscar did not intend for a major offensive against Guangxi province, his simple aim was to raid them back and give some breathing room for Dong Dang. Oscar left a single company of the 2nd African battalion with some batteries t

Last time we spoke about the Sino-French War at Sea. Admiral Courbet's Far East Squadron dealt a decisive crushing blow to the Fujian Fleet at the battle of Fuzhou. 9 ships were sunk with another 12 severely damaged, forcing the Qing to toss the Nanyang fleet to meet the French menace. However the corrupt nature of the Qing fleets led to a disastrous situation and Admiral Wu of the Nanyang fleet would be quite a victim to it. He attempted to scare the French away, only to be attacked, then hunted down until his forces fled to Zhenhai Bay. The French erected a rice blockade trying to starve out their enemy and it seemed the Qing navy had nothing left to fight them off with. Meanwhile the Tonkin campaign was still a blood bath as the French forces tried to dislodge the Qing and Black Flags from the region. #46 The Sino-French War of 1884-1885 part 3: The Great Push out of Tonkin Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. General Oscar de Negrier spent considerable time thwart guerilla efforts against French outposts such as the ones at Thai Nguyen, Hung Hoa and Tuyen Quang. He dispatched Colonel Jacques Duchesne to neutralize Yu Oc to relieve the trapped garrison at Tuyen Quang. Duchesne managed to dislodge the black flag units there, but raids made by Qing, Vietnamese and Black flag units remained a constant nuisance. Tonkin was turning into a nightmare, the French needed quick victories before the Qing Yunnan and Guangxi armies coming over the border into Vietnam could consolidate control over northern Tonkin. The French military high command began to debate the issue and this led to the Army Minister General Jules Louis Lewal to order Oscar to launch a campaign against Lang Son. Lang Son was where the Guangxi army had established its main hq. From Lang Son the Guangxi forces ambushed some French Foreign legion forces east of Chu village at a place called Ha Ho. The legionnaires were able to fight their way out from a Chinese encirclement, but the casualties suffered were high. General Oscar tried to pursue the enemy, but they retreated to Dong Song with ease. At this point the Guangxi army knew their HQ at Lang Son was to be the next major target for a French offensive so the Qing tried to gain a toehold in the Luc Nam valley by sending 12,000 troops over a hill called Nui Bop. Atop the Nui Bop hill, the forces led by General Wang Debang, a victor of the Bac le ambush event created a fortified camp. To support the men Wang Debang had his forces fan out, plundering all the nearby villages for food supplies, thus earning the hatred of them. This led some farmers and villages to come to the French on December 23rd, alerting them of the Guangxi army's presence atop Nui Bop. The news of 12,000 enemy units so close to their forward position at Chu threatened the French campaign soon about to launch against Lang Son in January, thus Oscar knew he had to neutralize them. Oscar took a force of 2000 men, drawn from the 1st and 2nd brigades of the Tonkinese expeditionary corps and began a offensive. Instead of directly marching east from Chu, Oscar decided to sweep to the southern bank of the Luc Nam river to try and outflank the enemy's left flank. To make sure the Qing did not see this coming he diverted a smaller force led by Chef de Bataillon Diguet to approach directly from Chu. The main body departed Chu at 6am on January 3rd, making a arduous trek, until they came across the northern bank of the Luc Nam river, but it unfortunately was higher in tide than expected. The crossing took the French nearly 3 hours, and in that time Qing scouts saw them and reported the incoming attack thus the element of surprise was all but lost. Nonetheless, the French main body broke into 3 lines advancing towards the Qing left flank which was within the Phong Cot valley and ready for the fight. The French skirmished with the Qing within some heavy bush and had little trouble pushing them further back up the hill area. Soon the hills around Phong Cot were cleared. Oscar believed the Qing forces were greatly demoralized and decided to seize Phong Cot's town before midnight. They found the town abandoned, but the next morning came under heavy counter attacks, supported by artillery from a western fort. The Qing counter

Last time we spoke about the descent into full scale war between the Qing dynasty and France because of the Tonkin campaign. The French sought to annihilate the Black Flag Army, knowing full well it might entice the Qing to war and so it did. The Tonkin campaign saw the battle of Bac Ninh which led to direct confrontation with Qing forces and soon both sides hit the negotiating table. The Tientsin accord was agreed upon, but no set deadline for the Qing withdrawal led to more conflict and it seems full scale war had finally kicked off. Admiral COurbet was ordered to hit Fuzhou and there he smashed the Fujian fleet utterly embarrassing the Qing dynasty leading to panic, chaos and outrage amongst the Chinese people. How will things change going forward now that France had landed a death blow to one of the Qing dynasties fleets? Could the sabers of war be sheathed? #45 The Sino-French War of 1884-1885 part 2: The Sino-French War at Sea Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. The battle of Fuzhou certainly made a splash. 9 Qing warships were sunk, several others were severely damaged and possibly 2-3 thousand Qing forces were killed. Admiral Courbet then went about the Min River bombarding all the forts and batteries he could before making his exit utterly humiliating the Qing. Now until the battle of Fuzhou the Qing and French were playing footsy under the table when it came to a full scale declared war. Basically everything up until now could be seen as an undeclared war. To give a example of this, think about China and Japan from 1931-1937. They were to be blunt fully at war, but neither side wanted to officially acknowledge it to the international community for a variety of reasons, thus it could be seen as an undeclared war. Here to we see France and the Qing dynasty not wishing to make formal declarations of war, for a variety of reasons. Now while it would remain undeclared, it by no means meant they were not at war. News of the catastrophe and destruction of the Fujian Fleet were met with public outrage in China. Mobs began to attack foreign concessions, and in Europe the mood was sympathetic to the Chinese cause. The British, Germans and American military's began to extend their hand to the Qing dynasty offering advisers. Perhaps it was less about the Qing plight and more so to stick the middle finger to the French, as one does, but its the thought that counts. Over in Hong Kong, still a colony of the British empire, dock workers began to refuse to repair French warships like La Galissonniere in september of 1884. La Galissonniere had received some hits in August and came in for some work, but a strike occurred in September. Now a large reason for this was Chinese workers refusing to work and by proxy it hindered the British dock workers. Things got dicey and some riots and fights broke out prompting British authorities to deploy forces to defend their dockyards and workers from continuous harassment from Chinese. This by no means was organic by the way, the Qing government were pulling strings of their citizens to cause such conflicts to hinder any aid to France. Now Admiral Courbet was given orders to smash Fuzhou, which he did, but if the Qing continued their "defiance" he was also ordered to go smash the port of Keelung in northern Formosa, modern day Taiwan. These actions of course were done to push the Qing to get their forces out of Tonkin as pertaining to the Tientsin Accords. Well the Qing were not budging, so Keelung was put on the menu. Admiral Courbet argued vigorously not to launch a campaign against Formosa, and instead to target major ports in the Liaodong region like Port Arthur or Weihaiwei. The French military planners thought these prospects to difficult to hit as the Far East Squadron was not large by any means and Keelung was a much easier target. In mid september the French cabinet after deliberating the issue decided to launch attacks against Keelung and Tamsui. Their rationale in the end was that the towns held nearby coal mines that could be seized to provide the Far East Squadron a wartime base. Thus on October 1st, Lt Colonel Bertaux-Levillain, haha that last name again, landed at Keelung with 2250 men taken from the Tonkin Campaign forces. They were to be ca

Last time we spoke about the beginning of the Tonkin campaign of 1883-1886. Henri Riviere picked up after Garnier and got himself killed on the Paper bridge. In the face of a unauthorized and failed Tonkin Campaign, that should have been the nail in the coffin. But a new administration took hold in France and they were certainly more gung-ho about colonizing southeast asia. General Bouet picked up after Riviere, but he was met with some failure and uninspiring victories. He quit his job and it fell to Admiral Courbet to continue France's campaign to take all of Tonkin. However to defeat the Black Flag Army of Liu Yongfu was a tricky thing as the Qing were covertly supporting them. France had to decide if she would continue, for if she did it might mean another war against the Qing dynasty. #44 The Sino-French War of 1884-1885 part 1: Battle of Fuzhou Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. Admiral Courbet just received reinforcements in the form of 10,000 men, 6 gunboats and orders to attack Liu Yongfu and the Black Flag regardless of how it might drag the Qing dynasty into war. The Black Flag Army had set up camp in the fortified city of Son Tay which lay a few km's south of the red river. The city fort was in a pentagonal formation with walls 11 feet high, surrounded by a deep moat and within the center was a citadel. The french scouts estimated the fort had well over 100 cannons, this was not going to be a walk in the park as they say. Liu Yongfu and the Black Flag Army knew the French would approach Son Tay from the east using their gunboats along the Red River. This was because the Black Flat had hired european engineers in advance to convert the town north of Son Tay blocking its approach into a impregnable strongpoint. Large dykes, water filled ditches, bamboo palisades and trenches surrounded it and offered the Black Flag Army extremely well positioned defensive lines. Thus to take a northern route meant the French would have to take Phu Sa. Liu Yongfu had roughly 3000 veteran Black Flag soldiers , 7000 local vietnamese troops led by Prince Hoang Ke Viem and an additional 1000 Qing troops led by Tang Zhiong. Hoang Ke Viem's men manned the citadel, Tang Zhiong's were inside the city and the walls and field were Black Flag Army's responsibility. On the other side, Admiral Courbet deployed 9000 of his men for the campaign against Son Tay, distributed into two columns led by Colonel Belin and Bichot. Belin would lead 3300 men consisting of 2 Turco battalions, 1 marine battalion, some Cochinchinese riflemen, 1 foreign legion battalion, 3 marine artillery batteries and 800 Tonkinese rifleman. Bichot's group consisted of 3 marine battalions, some Cochinchinese riflemen, a fusilier-marins battalion and 3 artillery batteries. Both columns departed from Hanoi on December 11th. Bichot's group were transported up the Red River by the 6 gunboats and made it ashore on the western bank of the Day River, where they secured a pathway for Belin's column to march. By December 13th both columns met up 5 km's away from the forward defensive lines of Son Tay. On December 14th the French advanced from the east towards the Phu Sa positions, beating back some Black Flag sorties against their flanks. They opened fire with their artillery for 2 hours upon the Phu Sa gun placements. Then 2 forward battalions seized the most forward defensive position at Phu Sa, but from there they found no way to keep pushing forward. During this action the French had 68 men dead and around 250 wounded. Thus in a single day Courtbet had lost more men that Bouet or Riviere in all their battles put together. Liu Yongfu hoped to exploit the French losses by ordering a night raid. This however turned into a disaster and not only did he loss many men to the combat, others began to abandon Phu Sa, fleeing for Son Tay. On the 16th Courbet ordered the men to try and prod Son Tay from the northwest. The French artillery softened up the defense before Coubet personally rode out to the forward position well within the Black Flag Army's fire range. Courbet led the men to attack the western gate of Son Tay which was demolished by artillery and explosives. Li Yongfu's men quickly withdrew into the citadel as the French stormed into the city

Last time we spoke about Francis Garnier and his wild expedition in Vietnam. Yes against all his superiors orders, Garnier decided to grab a few of the boys and sail up river to threaten and steal territories for France. He first struck at the grand city of Hanoi, taking it much to the shock of the Nguyen officials. But he did not stop there oh no, he then set his eyes upon the provinces of Hung Yen and Phu Ly. Both were taken with shockingly small forces, but Garnier strived for even more and dispatched a force to take Hai Duong. Then he found out the Vietnamese at Ninh Binh were forming an army to fight him so he attacked it. This greatly pissed off the Vietnamese and their Black Flag Army allies who attacked Hanoi and in the process Garnier died charging into the enemy like a madman. Today we continue the story of how France colonized Indochina. #43 The Tonkin Campaign Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. Now last we spoke, Henri Riviere basically took up the mantle of Francis Garnier and began to seize territory in Tonkin against his nation's wishes. That was of course until the government changed and the new administration led by Jules Ferry were very pro colonization and immediately supported Riviere. Now Rivieres actions had caused a real maestrum for the Nguyen empire. Liu Yongfu went to Hanoi and slapped a note against the citadel on March 26th of 1883 threatening to kill Henri Riviere, taunting the french into battle. This scared the hell out of the Nguyen court who expected Riviere to unleash hell so they ordered prince Hoang Ke Viem to go seek out the Black Flag Army to see what could be done. Hoang Ke Viem was sent under the guise he was trying to move the Black Flag forces away from Hanoi, but Riviere did not buy it at all. Riviere sent a letter to Hanoi's military commander Hoang Dieu, demanding he submit or get rid of the Black Flags, otherwise he would yet again attack Hanoi. Hoang Dieu simply stated it was impossible for him to do so. Thus Riviere and his forces occupied Hanoi by April 26th, further stressing out the Nguyen court who desperately sent envoys to negotiate with France. Meanwhile Hoang Ke Viem saw the paint on the wall and began to mobilize forces in the northern provinces for war. During the negotiations with the French, Riviere demanded the French be allowed to garrison at Son Tay, but the Nguyen court said they could not, it was in fact because the Black Flags were there. Rivier took this as an act of hostility and began to suspect Hoang Ke Viem was working directly with the Black Flags. Things were however not looking good for Riviere, he had very limited forces and was forced to go on the defensive. The Nguyen court then ordered Hoang Ke Viem to write a letter to the French in Hanoi to officially explain the role of the Black Flags, in the vain hope of regaining Hanoi free of conflict. Despite all of this Hoang Ke Viem and the Black Flags mobilized for battle. On March 28th, in response to Liu Yongfu's taunting, Riviere elected to go out and fight the enemy. Why would he do this with basically under 500 men against thousands? According to the French, Riviere was forced to do so to protect the prestige of France, so he led a column of 450 troops out of Hanoi's citadel to face the Black Flag Army who had taken a position in Phy Hoai, just a few miles away. His force was soon discovered by Liu Yongfu's scouts who set up an ambush at a village called Cau Giay. Within this village was a bridge, known to the french as Pont de Papier "Paper bridge". The Black Flag forces hid themselves west of the bridge in the village of Trung Thong, Thien Thong and Ha Yen Ke. These 3 smaller villages were covered in thick bamboo groves and trees making them excellent spots to perform an ambush. The French column reached the Paper bridge around 7:30am led at the ron by the Chef de Bataillon Berthe de Villers. As they crossed the bridge, the French vanguard was suddenly fired upon by Black Flag troops prompting Berthe de Villers to deploy his men into a line formation and push forward towards the 3 villages. Liu Yongfu waited for the enemy line to fully commit, then tossed in his reserves, launching a sudden flank attack to the French's right. The Black Flag flank's volleys c

Last time we spoke about how France ended up in Indochina. Yes while Britain got her hands very messy in China, France had likewise done the same in Southeast Asia. It began with Jesuit priests trying to convert those to Catholicism but they soon found themselves becoming increasingly more involved. The Nguyen empire grew weary of the tiresome catholics and began to crack down on them, leading to conflicts with the French and to a lesser extent the Spanish. Before they knew it a full blown war emerged where the Vietnamese tried desperately to fight off a Franco-Spanish force, but in the end were forced to capitulate to brutal demands. Yet again unequal treaties were placed upon a nation of the far east, but worse than that, the French took colonial possession of what became known as French Indochina. Today we continue that story. #42 Francis Garnier's Insane Expedition Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. So we ended off the last episode with the signing of the Treaty of Saigon, yet again another unequal treaty in the east. It was so harsh, the Nguyen Emperor, Tu Duc sent an embassy to France in 1863 trying to revise it. The embassy failed their mission as Napoleon III had no intentions of lightening his grip on the new territorial acquisitions. Those territorial acquisitions to refresh your minds were Bien Hoa, Gia Dinh and Dinh Tuong. Thus by 1864 France had acquired a large part of southern Vietnam and declared it the French colony of Cochinchina. Also in August of 1863 the King of Cambodia Norodom signed a protectorate treaty with France cutting off the Kingdom of Siam and Empire of Nguyen's suzerainty over his country. If you think that is humiliating, just wait to hear this. Tu Duc's envoy to France, Phan Thanh Gian returned to Vietnam and was nominated governor ship of 3 southwestern provinces, Vinh Long, Chau Doc and Ha Tien. His French counterpart the Governor of the news Cochinchina, Pierre-Paul de la Grandiere was worried the 3 provinces to his west might be troublesome so he secretly organized an expedition to occupy them. Perhaps Phan Thanh Gian was told, or perhaps not, but it seems the French convinced Tu Duc to simply hand over the provinces which he did. Phan Thanh Gian told his people not to resistance, awaited orders which never came and killed himself via poisoning. Thus France now controlled all of southern Vietnam. Emperor Tu Duc officially handed the provinces over in the 1874 treaty of Saigon. The treaty officially made the rest of Vietnam a protectorate of France, to which she promised military protection against the Qing dynasty. A large reason why the Vietnamese signed off on this was because of another event that occurred in 1873, known as the Garnier affair. In 1873 the French explorer Jean Dupuis traveled up the Red River to attempt trade with Yunnan province, specifically to sell guns to its governor. While that sounds bad, Dupuis also performed the heinous crime of carrying salt up the river. Yes it turns out this was strictly prohibited by the Nguyen empire. A dispute emerged and Dupuis found himself stuck in a district of Hanoi alongside 90 of his Chinese hired mercenaries. The Vietnamese feared french reprisals, thus instead of using force to get rid of them they issued a complaint to the French admiral Marie Jules Dupre who was acting governor of Cochinchina. Dupre seemed to think he had something to gain from the situation, so he sent an expedition led by Lt Francis Garnir to Hanoi to solve the mater. Garnier took the ships D'estree and Fleurus alongside 83 men. Another 60 men would join them 2 weeks later aboard the Decres. The D'estree arrived at Tonkin on October 23rd , while Garnier and his men traveled to Hanoi using local junks. On November 5th Granier's party arrived and met with Dupuis. Despite being told to tell Dupuis to simply leave, Dupuis managed to convince Garnier he had been greatly mistreated by forces led by Marshal Nguyen Tri Phuong. Garnier then tried to negotiate with the local Nguyen authorities, but they would not budge on anything, so Garnier decided for military action. When the second part of his expeditionary forces arrived on, plus some additional units he requested, a total of 180 men, he decided to use them to capture Han

Last time we spoke about the Gapsin Coup. Li Hongzhang snipped the bud of war before it could bloom after the Imo uprising and the Daewongun stole back power in Korea. The Daewongun was spanked and sent into exile yet again, but now Korea had become greatly factionalized. The progressives and conservatives were fighting bitterly to set Korea on a Japanese or Chinese path to modernization. This led radicals like Kim Ok-kyun to perform the Gapsin coup which was terribly planned and failed spectacularly. Japan and China were yet again tossed into a conflict in Korea, but China firmly won the day for she had more forces to bear. Japan licked her wounds and went home, learning a bitter lesson. That lesson was: next time bring more friends to the party. But today we are going to be taking a side quest, for many events were occurring in China, and one that brought yet again another foreign war. #41 How France Ended up in Indochina Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. As I said a while back, I wanted to try and hit some events that don't necessarily fit the, something like 4-5 episodes its taking to explain how the First Sino-Japanese war came about. And even as I am writing this, on my personal channel someone commented "hey please don't forget to do a podcast on the Panthay Rebellion", sigh. I chose to keep the Panthay Rebellion out of the Dungan Revolt episode, though many like to bundle these events up. I will try my best to hit that one, but if it somehow falls through my fingers, perhaps I will cheekily put it on my patreon, www.patreon.com/pacificwarchannel. A bit scumbag perhaps, but honestly its taking forever to get to the first sino-japanese war. Now this one, the Sino-French War is actually something a lot of my Vietnamese audience from my youtube channel have begged me to do an episode on for a long time now. Where to begin. This series focuses on the history of China and as such it fails to mention the experiences of China's neighbors quite often. For example while western nations like Britain were courting the Qing dynasty trying to open up further trade outside the Canton system, nations like France were likewise exploring and trying to exploit places like modern day Vietnam. During the early 17th century, France began to establish relations with Vietnam by sending the Jesuit missionary Alexandre de Rhodes. Alexandre de Rhodes was the first to write a catechism in the Vietnamese alphabet and upon returning to france in 1650 he advised the Catholic church they needed to dispatch bishops over to Vietnam to help development her roman catholic population, estimated to be around 100,000 converts by that point. He also warned that they must not allow what occurred in Japan to happen in Vietnam, referencing the Shimabara rebellion "We have all reason to fear that what happened to the Church of Japan could also happen to the Church of Annam, because these kings, in Tonkin as well as in Cochinchina, are very powerful and accustomed to war... It is necessary that the Holy See, by its own mouvement, give soldierss to these Oriental regions where Christians multiply in a marvelous way, lest, without bishops, these men die without sacrament and manifestly risk damnation." Alexandre de Rhodes efforts helped create the Paris Foreign missions society and soon the French East India company began operating in southeast asia. Throughout the 18th century the Jesuits missionary work and trade were very successful in Vietnam and this even led to military assistance. The French aided Nguyen Anh to retake his lands that had been taken from his family during a rebellion. The French were able to protect Nguyen Anh who became Emperor Gia Long and relations were fairly good with France, until his death whereupon relations fell considerably. The Nguyen dynasty increasingly viewed the catholic missionaries as a threat to their control. The french missionaries were soon being persecuted and then a revolt occurred in Cochinchina known as the Le Van Khoi revolt of 1833-1835. French catholic missionaries, Vietnamese catholics and Chinese settlers revolted against the current Emperor Minh Mang. Minh Mang quelled the revolt in 3 years while simultaneously fighting off a Siamese offensive. The revolt caused a dramat

Last time we spoke about the imo uprising. Empress Min royally messed up when she allowed her nephew Min Gyeom-ho to be in charge of handing out the grain to the retired soldiers. His tossing of the job to a subordinate led to embezzlement and the soldiers were greatly slighted. The pissed off soldiers began a major riot threatening to kill Empress Min, her clan and those they thought had cheated them. The Japanese military advisor and other staff were attacked, some Japanese were even killed, thus bringing Japan into the mix. King Gojong panicked and allowed his father to return, only to be ousted by his own father. The Daewongun was back and immediately went to work trying to rid Korea of the Min clan. Now the Chinese and Japanese were bringing forces to bear in Korea, was war on the menu? #40 This episode is the Gapsin Coup Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. Now the Chinese had a sticky situation on their hands, the attempted coup d'etat had disposed of many officials who they had been working with and worse they had attacked Japanese nationals prompting Japan to perform military intervention. Ma Jianzhong ordered the Daewongun to meet with him and read him the riot act. Ma accused him of acting against the Qing emperor by unseating the approved King of Korea "your sin is unpardonable. Considering the fact that you are the father of the king, we will not press hard on you. Please go to Tianjin to receive whatever punishment is bestowed upon you". The Daewongun was then forced into a palanquin, whisked aboard the warship Weiyuan and sent to Tianjin. He was then interrogated by Li Hongzhang and sent into house arrest at Baoding until October of 1885. Li Hongzhang had this to say of it all ": "Our country regarded [Korea] as part of the empire and dispatched...troops. We arrested the evil ringleader, the Taewongun [Grand Prince Hungson], and detained him at Paoting. The [Korean] masses were awed. Now the entire world knows that Korea is our dependency."" Basically Li Hongzhang was playing a grand game of power politics, he was trying to show face to the western world that China was in charge of Korea. However this major show of face was also a large loss of face particularly to Korea and Japan who saw this as quite the lenient strategy. And thus China reasserted her suzerainty over Korea, her troops secured Seoul and the Qing officials began to aid the Korean-Japanese negotiations. The treaty of Chemuplo was signed on August 30th of 1882 to which Korea agreed to pay Japan in indemnities, sent an envoy to officially apologize and permitted a Japanese legation guardforce in Seoul. The Qing began training the Korean army and provided them with 1000 rifles, two cannons and 10,000 rounds of ammunition. The Korean military was to be trained by a Qing figure, one of the most important figures in modern Chinese history called Yuan Shikai, oh boy this guy. On my personal channel I think I have made at least 8 episodes related to him, but he will come a bit further in the story as a lead player. Korea was reduced to an official tributary state of the Qing with King Gojong unable to make many decisions without official Qing approval prior. China basically began to treat korea more like a colony. The Min clan came right back into their seats of power, albeit under Qing approval and Li Hongzhang began to perform puppetry work on the nation to make sure she served Qing interests. The Korean government then received two major advisers, Ma Jianzhong and a close confidant of Li Hongzhang, Paul von Molldendorff, formerly of the German foreign office, but now under Li Hongzhangs employment. The new Capital guard commander was Yuan Shikai. By 1883 Li Hongzhang was so pleased with his work he said this to an American minister in Beijing "I am the king of Korea, whenever I think the interests of China require me to assert the prerogative." The 1880s was a political maelstrom for Korea. As a result of the actions of the Qing and Japanese, Korea was literally being torn apart. Two major factions emerged within the Korean political scene, the first being the Gaehwa Party, known as the "enlightenment party". They can be seen as a leftist party, progressive liberal types. Their leadership came mostly from the Ya

Last time we spoke about the Dungan Revolt. Yes it was a grand little side story that only encompassed something that should have required at minimum three podcasts, but I do my best. Northwest China was a wild place and multiple groups on the frontiers of other nations saw an opportunity when the Taiping Rebellion kicked out to try and rebel themselves. Multiple muslim groups and some foreign leaders like Yaqub Bek fought the Qing, the Russians and other groups to try and consolidate control over key areas. However when the Taiping were finally quelled, the Qing sent Zuo Zongtang northwest to deal with the Dungan problem. Zuo Zongtang led a brutal campaign to reclaim Xinjiang and was successful, a large part to muslim chinese defectors. Now we need to venture back to the issue of Japan, China, Korea and a truly stressful situation for poor old Li Hongzhang. #39 This episode is the imo uprising Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. The 1880s were an extremely turbulent time for China, Japan and Korea. Each nation faced the same anxiety, that of western encroachment, the danger of colonization. Each of these nations would face challenges from the west and this would affect all 3 of them and in turn their relations to another. There were leading figures in each nation that sought to cooperate together to resist western colonialism. At the time the greatest threat was Russia. The Russian empire was beginning the process of building the grand trans-siberian railway. The railway would only begin construction in 1891, but by the 1880's settlers were being pushed east into Siberia and discussions were being held to push the process forward. Now when Japan pulled the sneaky maneuver of getting Korea to sign treaties acknowledging her independence from China, both Korea and Chinese officials were deeply concerned and no wonder. Japan had kept pressing the buttons and this was a major red flag moment. But the Chinese and Koreans had a multitude of problems at the time taking up much of their attention. Thus the Chinese and Koreans tried to ignore the implications of the Japanese treaties in the hopes they could be stamped down later thus easing Japan back into a passive role. You might be asking yourself why are the Chinese and Koreans backing down so much and allowing Japan basically to stomp over them, to put it simply, they had too much to deal with. You might remember when I barely talked about some of the rebels going on in China during and after the Taiping Rebellion. One of those known as the Dungan Revolt of 1862-1877, well that little guy was not such a little guy. If you go on wikipedia for example and look up the Dungan revolt you will notice a few things right off the bat, the first most likely the death toll which was in the millions, possibly up to 21 million. It hit Shaanxi, Gangsu and Xinjiang provinces very hard. But alongside the death toll, you would probably notice secondly the participants list which is extravagantly long and holds many surprising participants. The Ottomans, British, Russians, Uzbeks all hands their hands in the Chinese cookie jar. While the Dungan Revolt is certainly a big one, it gets even bigger, much bigger. The Dungan Revolt basically is part of "the Great Game". Now you're probably asking yourselves what game? The Great Game was this mashup of conflicts between the British and Russian empires of multiple territories spanning the middle east and Asia. They fought for and over numerous things, for example the British believed Russia had plans to invade India. The Russians thought Britain wanted to expand into central asia. This led to countless wars such as the 1st anglo-afghan war of 1838, the first anglo-sikh war of 1845, the second anglo-sikh war of 1848, the second anglo-afghan war of 1878 and theres even more than that. Now for China this cultivated the Dungan Revolt somewhat and Russian began encroaching in Xinjiang. From 1871 to 1881 the Qing dynasty and the Russian empire were on the verge of a massive war over Xinjiang. Now I am literally pulling out my hair as I write this series because I planned to write a single podcast explaining how the situation in Korea led to what will be one of the most important wars, the first sino-japanese war of 1894-

Last time we spoke about the modernization efforts of China, Japan and the Hermit Kingdom of Korea. China and Japan undertook very different paths to modernization, and little Korea was stuck in between them. Yet there was even another play joining the mix, the empire of Russia who was threatening all 3 of the Asian nations with her encroachment. The 3 Asian nations attempted to cooperate against the common threat, but Japan and China were growing ever more and more hostile towards another, particularly over the issue of who should influence Korea more. Yet today we are actually doing something a bit different, this will be sort of a side episode, for China had too many events going on during the 19th century to cohesively tell. One story goes often forgotten, yet it encompassed numerous groups, vast amounts of territory and a lot of bloodshed. #38 This episode is the Dungan Revolt Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. I am not going to lie, I have no idea where to even start with this one. Originally I wanted to write a single episode, perhaps a two parter, explaining how China and Japan find themselves going to war in the 1890's largely over Korea. Yet the late 19th century is probably one of the most jam packed time periods for Chinese history. So many uprisings, rebellions, wars with foreign states occurs for the Qing dynasty, there's simply no way to tell them all, but here I want to touch upon just a few. Now I keep bringing up but barely talk about, the Dungan Revolt of 1862-1877. If you go right now and please do, to the wikipedia article on the Dungan Revolt, check out the list of Belligerents. You will see the Qing, the Russian Empire, a short lived state called the Kashgaria, the British Empire, the Ottoman Empire and an unbelievable number of Muslim rebel groups from all over the place. Events like this do not live in a bubble, as we say in the research world of neuroscience, this requires multivariable analysis. Well that's what I hope to accomplish, in a single episode. Now I expect when I say the Dungan Revolt, the first question that comes to mind for many of you is, who are Dungans? Its complicated. They can be described as Turkic or Chinese speaking, Hui Muslim people who inhabitant Xinjiang province, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Mongolia, Tajikistan and parts of modern Russia. Now you are saying, wait are they Turks or Chinese, thats a very politically motivated question haha. Today you could call them, Hui, Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyzs, Uzbeks, Tatars, etc. In essence they inhibit a part of the world that has so many different groups around and their history goes very deep, before the time of the Qing dynasty. When the Qianlong Emperor hit the scene in the early 18th century, he named the province Xinjiang, meaning "new frontier" and the people there were known by many as Hui, but specifically for those Chinese speaking muslims in the northwest, well they were often referred to as Dungans. Prior to the Qing rule, Xinjiang was ruled by the Oirat Mongols of the Dzungar Khanate. I am sure you veteran listeners before I came to this podcast know much of these peoples and their history, you probably could teach me a thing or two, as this is very much so out of my specialization. One thing you might remember that I touched upon I believe in the very first episode of this podcast series was the Dzungar genocide. As ordered by the Qianlong Emperor ""Show no mercy at all to these rebels. Only the old and weak should be saved. Our previous military campaigns were too lenient. If we act as before, our troops will withdraw, and further trouble will occur. If a rebel is captured and his followers wish to surrender, he must personally come to the garrison, prostrate himself before the commander, and request surrender. If he only sends someone to request submission, it is undoubtedly a trick. Tell Tsengünjav to massacre these crafty Zunghars. Do not believe what they say." It is estimated perhaps 80 percent of the 600,000 or so Dzungars were killed through war and disease between 1755-1758, enough to argue the annihilation of them as a people. Now with Xinjiang so devastated and depopulated, the Qing sponsored a large-scale settlement of Han, Hui, Uyghur, Manchu and other Chinese

Last time we spoke about the modernization efforts of Big Brother and Little Brother, aka China and Japan. Both nations went about the process of modernization in vastly different ways. Japan began its Meiji restoration, an incredible hyper modernization process done to thwart colonization by western powers. Yet China was hampered by hardline conservatives like Empress Dowager Cixi who sought instead to restore the Qing Dynasty's symbolic grandeur over technological innovations such as railways. China's greatest leaders like Zuo Zongtang, Zeng Guofan and Li Hongzhang did all they could to usher in some form of modernization. Li Hongzhang emerged as the champion of modernization efforts for China, but he kept butting heads with stubborn conservatives wishing instead to reclaim the Qing's former symbolic glory.. It would not only be the conservatives in China he would have to face, for the Empire of the Rising Sun was growing, and forcing China into the shade. #37 This episode is China & Japan & the Hermit Kingdom Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. In the early 1860's, before Emperor Meiji took to the throne, the Japanese sought to establish diplomatic relations with China. The Japanese regarded China as an enormous nation that could provide markets for their merchants, but more importantly, China could cooperate with Japan in the face of Western challenges. Who better to help thwart off the west, than Big Brother? In October of 1870, the Japanese official Date Munenari went to Tianjin to meet Li Hongzhang to see if they could open formal diplomatic relations. Li Hongzhang believed in the value of establishing relations with Japan and the importance for China to modernize and self-strengthen. Li Hongzhang admired Japan for preventing westerners from invading their nation and limiting the activities of westerners within her borders. The meeting was a cordial one, both sides saw common interest in working together to resist the west. In 1871 on September 13th, Li Hongzhang and Date Munenari signed the Friendship and Trade Treaty, the first diplomatic document between China and Japan in modern history. Li Hongzhang agreed that the two nations would not launch aggression against another and that if either nation were involved in a conflict with an outside power the other would come to their assistance. It sounded a lot like Pan-Asia unity was atleast on its way, but before the treaty could be ratified the Japanese tried to eliminate the clause to provide assistance and added a new clause, that Japan would be given most favored nation, thus giving Japan the same rights that the western nations had forced upon China, yes it was an unequal treaty clause. As you can imagine Li Hongzhang was greatly annoyed by this and delayed the ratification to try and get the Japanese to back down. By May of 1873 the Japanese yielded, accepting the mutual assistance clause and abandoned the most favored nation clause. Leaders of China and Japan than expressed that their nations shared common culture and were a common race "Tongwen, Tongzu - Dobun, Doshu" and thus they shared an interest in working together to respond to the threat of the west. When this treaty was signed, the Iwakura mission had not yet returned to Japan, but Emperor Meiji had assigned Japans foreign minister, Soejima Taneoimi to go to China to learn about her position on the issue of the Ryukyus and Taiwan. Japan had interests in them and knew this would lead to conflict with the Qing. Soejima was an expert on the Chinese classics and skilled at Chinese poetry. Thus when he went over and the Chinese hosts began to make it clear Japan was in a supplicant relationship with China because she held the Chinese emperor, Soejima used his knowledge to wedge Japan into a special position. He came to Tianjin and met with Li Hongzhang. Famously when they met, Li Hongzhang was in traditional clothing, while Soejima was in western attire and Li criticized him for this. Soejima then went to Beijing and waited several days trying to get an audience with high level Qing officials. The Qing were greatly angered by Japanese attempt to get most favored nation status in the treaty. Thus they were really trying to hammer in that Japan was the supplicant to China.

Last time we spoke the Heavenly Kingdom of Great Peace, Tianjing had finally fallen to the forces of Zeng Guofan and his Xiang army. Hong Xiuquan, the self proclaimed brother of Jesus was dead. All the remaining Taiping Kings and Hong's son were hunted down and executed. History's bloodiest civil war was over, claiming the lives of 20-30 million people. Yet this civil war was just one event amongst many simultaneously occurring in the Qing dynasty. Foreign encroachment and internal strife were breaking down the dynasty brick by brick. China was facing an uncomfortable situation, she had to modernize to survive against threats abroad and within. Another nation, just across the sea, faced the same cataclysm, but would undergo a vastly different approach. Henceforth the two nations, China Big Brother and Japan, little brother, would never be the same again. #36 This episode is China & Japan: Big Brother & Little Brother Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. Now I want to say this right off the bat, for those of you who are fans of my Youtube channel and have seen my content, you already know my background from the beginning was more so the history of Japan. It was in fact my love of Japanese history that led me to the history of China and I think that says something about these two nations. You simply cannot speak about one's history without the other. I could delve deeply into the opening of Japan, its turbulent Bakumatsu period, my personal favorite, the Boshin war, the Meiji restoration, the Satsuma rebellion, etc etc. But this podcast is about the Fall and Rise of China. While my personal channel deals with both nations trying to give an equal amount of narrative to explain both their developments, I want to try my very best to keep it to the hip so to say. If you want more details about the historic events of Japan from 1600-1890 or so, check out my personal channel or perhaps become a Patreon over at www.patreon.com/pacificwarchannel and scream at me to do some podcasts in depth on those subjects, I certainly would love to dabble more into it, like for example a podcast dedicated to the Shinsengumi, the samurai police who fought to the bitter end to defend the Tokugawa shogunate during its death throes, just an idea. The last time we spoke, I went over the end of the Taiping Rebellion, a momentous part of the history of Modern China. I literally sighed with relief upon completing that large series….then I stared at a blank page. Where do I even begin now? The first thing that came to my mind is how to explain what occurred to both China and Japan in the mid 19th century. Both nations were forced to modernize lest they become colonized by foreign powers. For China this was brutal, she was quite literally being carved up, but for Japan who had spent 265 years almost completely isolated under her Sakoku policy, she was opened up, went through hyper modernization and thwarted colonization as a result. Japan's story is quite different for numerous reasons, major ones being that she got the enormous benefit of seeing what was happening to China and learnt directly from China's predicament. After the west defeated China during the Opium Wars and Commodore Perry opened up Japan in 1853, Asia could no longer maintain a separate existence. Both nations were forced to begin the process of becoming part of the world. Japan had many natural advantages over China. She was made up of 4 islands, very compact, sea transportation was widely available, her communications did not have to link very far. China would only get its first telegraph in the 1880s, and it took their governmental communications nearly a month to travel from one end of the country to the other. Japan being an island had always felt vulnerable to dangers from the sea. This sense of danger prompted Japan to seek knowledge of the outside world to protect herself. Chinese leaders had to worry about enemies coming over land from multiple directions, thus they were less concerned about the seas. Japan, had isolated herself for 265 years, while China had become the literal pinnacle of civilization, hoarding the worlds silver. Thus as you can imagine Japanese leadership were not as confident as the Chinese who saw themselves on top of the w

Last time we spoke Cholera spread like a plague taking countless lives on either side of the conflict. The loss of so much life hurt the Xiang armies positions, and Zeng Guofan worried dearly for the life of his brother fighting at Yuhaitai. Zeng Guofan desperately tossed any men he could to help his brother and it proved effective as Li Xiucheng was forced to flee for the safety of Nanjing's walls. The EVA force lost Ward and gained Chinese Gordon as its leader. But it was to be a short lived command as Gordon and the British became outraged with their allies atrocities and slights against them and thus took back on the stance of neutrality. Yuhaitai was taken and now Nanjing was under siege by the Xiang army, it was only a matter of time for the Taiping to finally fall. #35 This episode is The Taiping Rebellion part 12: The Fall of the Heavenly Kingdom Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. The populace of Nanjing were terrified, with only two gates left open, provisions were becoming very limited and there was almost no way to get out. Roughly 30,000 people were inside the city, 10,000 of which were soldiers. After the fall of Suzhou to Li Hongzhang in December, Li Xiucheng returned to Nanjing pleading with the heavenly king, to simply abandon Nanjing and take the entire movement into Jiangxi province. The heavenly king was livid, saying Li Xiucheng lacked faith in the cause. Without much choice, Li Xiucheng began to prepare the city for a bitter siege. Meanwhile the heavenly king was becoming more and more paranoid and angry. His anger led him to cruelty and he began punishing the people in horrifying ways. For example the new crime of communicating with those outside the walls of the city saw people pounded to death between rocks or flayed alive in public. The people would have fled the city, but they knew the fate of what happened to those who did, as was the case when Anqing fell. By late December they heard the rumors about the fate of Suzhou thus sealing their fate to Nanjing. Zeng Guofan sent reports to his brother in spring of 1864 not to even let women and children escape the city, so their fear was well founded. Zeng Guofan justified this by stating, to force the Taiping to support the entire population within the city would accelerate their starvation. With Chen Yucheng dead, Li Xiucheng spread too thinly, Hong Rengan found himself yet again thrust into the role of military commander. Hong Xiuquan told his cousin he had to go out of the city to rally troops from nearby territories to help relieve Nanjing. But it was not possible to head north or west, nor was it possible to traverse the river. Hong Rengan set out the day after Christmas of 1863. His first destination was Danyang around 50 miles east of Nanjing which was commanded by an uncle to the late Chen Yucheng. The commander told Hong Rengan he could not spare any troops to help Nanjing, so Hong Rengan continued on to Changzhou. While enroute he found out Li Hongzhang had taken the city, forcing him to winter in Danyang. When spring came, he took his force south into Zhejiang, where Hangzhou was still holding out. Back in 1861 when Hong Rengan went out to get recruits, the work was much easier. This was no longer the case, in the cities of Danyang and Huzhou he found people too afraid to leave their garrisons to go back to Nanjing. Meanwhile the Xiang army was exponentially growing, by 1864 Zeng Guofan had 120,000 troops, Zeng Guoquan 50,000, another 30,000 garrisoned Anhui, 13,000 moved around with Bao Chao and 10,000 were in the area between Anhui and Suzhou. Li Hongzhang's Anhui army followed up its conquest of Suzhou by marching upon Nanjing from the east. They seized Changzhou and Wuxi with ease as Zuo Zongtang battled Taiping in Zhejiang province. All these armies would eventually converge upon Nanjing. Zeng Guoquan's forces managed to take the Fortress of Heaven on the Dragon's shoulder, pitting it against the Fortress of Earth. With the vantage point upon Dragon's shoulder the Xiang forces were able to create stockade camps at the Shence Gate and eastern Taiping Gate, thus cutting off the city completely. By the end of March, Hangzhou fell to Zuo Zongtang forcing its survivors to flee to Huzhou seeking refuge wi

Last time we spoke Hong Rengan was in misery, nothing was going as planned. Li Xiucheng went off on his own to perform a campaign in the east, but it was drawing ire from the foreign community to make Hong Rengans life even worse. To defend Shanghai from Li Xiuchengs men, Ward's mercenary force became the Ever Victorious Army and began to work alongside the foreign community and Qing. Chen Yucheng was hunted down and executed, yet another great Taiping king gone. Zeng Guoquan made an extremely bold move and began a siege of Yuhuatai, a fort guarding Nanjing. Then the foreigners it seems quasi joined the Qing, thus ending any chance of the Taiping earning their support. With what seems the rest of the world against the Taiping, and the enemy nipping at their doors, what could they do to stop the inevitable? #34 This episode is The Taiping Rebellion part 11: The Siege of Heavenly Kingdom Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. Meanwhile, refugees from across Jiangsu and Zhejiang flooded into Shanghai seeked protection. In 1862 alone nearly 1.5 million refugees crammed into the Chinese and foreign held parts of the city. Where there are so many people, comes issues. One particular issue was human waste, with so many people crammed into the city, the waterways literally became clogged with fecal matter and other waste. The rivers were also the primary supply of water for the city and even with the custom of boiling the drinking water, the washing water and that used to prepare food was not. A massive cholera outbreak began in may of 1862 causing the usual symptoms, cramps, vomiting and diarrhea. Death ran rampant and by June it was a full blown pandemic. 10 to 15 Europeans were dying a day based on records, but obviously the Chinese population suffered the most. Hundreds of people died each day and by July thousands. At its peak the Cholera outbreak killed 3000 people a day in the foreing settlement, the streets were ridden with unburied bodies. Some local Chinese called it "fan sha, the foreign infection". The pandemic spread, first going north to the Taku forts, then Tianjin where it claimed 20,000 lives in a few weeks. From there it hit Beijing, but it was not limited to this northern route, it also went south and over the Yangtze going into the interior of CHina. Zeng Guofan's HQ was hit and men began to die. 10,000 men under Zeng Guoquan at Yuhuatai became sick, 10,000 more under Bao Chaos army in southern Anhui and Bao Chao himself also became sick. 50% of Zuo Zongtangs army in Zhejiang were sick and with the massive amount of illness, the Xiang army simply could no longer continue to be on the offensive. Zeng Guofan ordered his commanders to distribute Korean ginseng to the sick troops hoping it would at the least alleviate symptoms. Over in Shanghai the British military distributed "cholera belts", these were wide cummerbunds of flannel wrapped around the persons torso to keep it warm because the belief was the disease was caused by sweaty chills in the bowels. Another British medical officer in Beijing, did not believe the disease was the result of insanitation and instead suspected quote "the operation of certain electrochemical changes in the atmosphere on certain constitutions." Within Nanjing it seems they fared a bit better, which is understandable as they were more rural and less crowded then places like Shanghai or Tianjin. The disease spread via the trading routes, which were pretty much closed off to the Taiping. Those Taiping around the Shanghai area however got just as smashed by the disease as the rest. The disease would petter off during the winter, but found its way to Manchuria and then Japan. For those of you who know your Bakumatsu period history, the Cholera outbreak began in Shanghai. Overall, in the region surrounding Shanghai for about 40 miles, by September it was estimated by missionaries that cholera had wiped out ⅛ of the population, a population in the several million. Zeng Guoquans position at Yuhuatai was a precarious one, even before Cholera wreaked its ugly head. Zeng Guofan was shocked by his brothers boldness to dig in so close to the heart of the rebellion. When Cholera began to steal away half of Zeng Guoquans forces, his brother dispatched reinforceme

Last time we spoke Emperor Xianfeng died at the ripe age of 30 having spent a life smoking opium with his harem. Now the Qing dynasty was in the hands of his 5 year old son, but in reality henceforth until its collapse the Qing dynasty would actually to be controlled by the infamous Empress Dowager Cixi. Hong Rengan received a military defeat at Tongcheng and it seems he would never psychologically recover from it. Li Xiucheng went on the offensive and performed a grand eastern campaign taking multiple provinces. Zeng Guofan needed a new army created and chose his student Li Hongzhang to command it. The Anhui army was formed and it looked like the Qing side was going to win this civil war after all. The only thing that might turn the tide back for the Taiping was that ever sought after foreign support. #33 This episode is The Taiping Rebellion part 10: The Ever Victorious Army Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. Meanwhile back in Nanjing, Hong Rengan's life was becoming more and more miserable. He lost at Anqing and his rivals used his absence to take away his authority in the capital. His continued efforts at gaining western support was going nowhere, in fact it was earning him embarrassment. The foreign relations to the Taiping had become poisoned due a large part to the eastern campaign led by Li Xiucheng. Many of the foreign missionaries stopped visiting Nanjing and soon that direct line of communication that Hong Rengan cherished had slipped away. Shanghai was bracing itself for what it believed was a Taiping offensive against the city and Hong Rengan could do little to nothing to stop Li Xiucheng. As for Zeng Guofan, he knew Shanghai was extremely wealthy and must be protected from the Taiping, but Nanjing was simply more important and he could not launch two enormous campaigns simultaneously against both. Zeng Guofan elected to focus on Nanjing and perhaps once Li Hongzhang had built up his Anhui army he could deal with Shanghai. For Shanghai, it looked certain the Taiping would soon attack, and the Qing had no assurances from the foreigners that they would help defend the city. They had no one to turn to, then our old friend the filibuster wannabe Frederick Townsend Ward. Despite Britain's attempts to stop the mercenary leader, he was still going strong with his HQ at Songjiang. He only had 68 foreign mercenaries left because of the constant harassment from the Taiping and British, but he did have some Napoleon field guns and a promise form his Qing benefactors that if he took Qingpu he would be rewarded handsomely. Way back when we talked about how Ward's ragtag group failed to take Qingpu from the Taiping and they attempted 4 more times with disastrous results. They just kept using the same strategy over and over, blast the gates with artillery, storm the walls and hope the Qing military followed through. Ward's defeats were brutal and he lost a third of his force for his efforts. The foreign community of SHanghai had zero sympathy for the filibuster, he was just a source of embarrassment. But then the American civil war broke out and a rumor emerged about a group of Californians purchasing the vessel, Neva and that it was a confederate ship now being run by none other than Ward. According to these rumors, the Neva was outfitted with guns stolen from US munitions stored in Shanghai and this said vessel was firing up Union merchant ships going around the Chinese coast. The United States only had a single warship in China at the time, the USS Saginaw which hunted the so called Neva. When they finally caught the Neva, the so called guns it held were actually whiskey, it was just a merchant ship, but still the rumors persisted raising Ward as this legendary figure. Now this was all awkward as hell in Shanghai, the american population was overwhelmingly pro union northerners, while the British were more pro confederacy. The American merchants were dependent on the British warships to protect their business and this caused all sorts of conflict. During one particularly bad incident, the Trent incident of 1862 in which a US captain chased down and boarded the British steamer Trent trying to arrest two confederate diplomats, if you know the story you know the story haha. Long story sh

Last time we spoke the Qing dynasty was looking dreadful. More and more peoples were flocking to the Taiping, as the European forces were humiliating the Qing government. Yet the more independent figure of Zeng Guofan and his Xiang army was making headway with its siege of Anqing, so much so it forced the shield king to depart from Nanjing to meet the enemy on the field. The foreign community had not completely lost its faith in the Taiping and sent envoys to see what relations could be made. Then the grand pincer attack of the Taiping kings failed horribly and they were unable to stop the Xiang army from capturing Anqing. Nanjing was now threatened yet again and it seemed no headway was being made with the foreigners to earn their support. Can the Taiping come back from such defeats? #32 This episode is The Taiping Rebellion part 9: Li Hongzhang and the Anhui Army Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. On August 22nd of 1861, Emperor Xianfeng died at the age of 30. The probable cause of his death was tuberculosis, but many romanticize it as him dying of shame and disgrace, never returning to Beijing. I think his rampant abuse of opium may have contributed also. Zeng Guofan received the news on September 14th and had this to write "Heaven has collapsed, the earth is split open. My emperor, from the time he came to the throne until today, over the course of twelve years, never knew a day when he wasn't consumed by worry over our dangers. Now Anqing is finally conquered, and the longhairs have begun to weaken. It looks as if the war has reached a turning point. But my emperor did not live long enough to hear the report of victory, so his dejection and melancholy will follow him into eternity. What a terrible agony that is for me, and for all of his ministers." Xianfeng had died after just 11 years of rule and to make matters worse, the throne was supposed to go from father to son, but Xianfeng was notably infertile. In spite of spending almost his entire time with a harem of 18 concubines and wives for years, Xianfeng had managed to only father one son. This son in 1861 was 5 years of age. Hong Rengan began to preach and boast about the situation. "Xianfeng left behind a little demon who is several years old and will find it difficult to continue the demon rule. This is precisely the time for us to seize the opportunity to uphold Heaven, and render ourselves not unworthy in our role as heroes of the world." Confidence in the dynasty was crumbling, many of the elites within Beijing began to compare the previous Qing emperors' reigns to the current situation. Yet while many of these elites lamented about how the dynasty was in decay, none offered any remedy to the situation, much like our politicians today ahah. As much as Beijing was in disarray, the Taiping were in no position to march upon it, afterall they had just lost Anqing. However the death of Xianfeng reinfigerated the Taiping nonetheless. Chen Yucheng and the remnants of his battered army were cut off in northern Anhui while Li Xiucheng was marching east into Zhejiang province. Zhejiang at this time held around 26 million people and Li Xiucheng planned to conquer the province and gain further independence from Hong Rengan. Hong Rengan did not want Zhejiang province, well at least not at this time, what he wanted was for the Taiping to consolidate and take back Anqing. Control over the Yangtze region was the key to his strategy of consolidating a southern empire and for that Anqing was a major component. He began to beg Li Xiucheng sending letters from Nanjing to turn his army back around to smash Zeng Guofan. "the Yangtze has been described as a serpent, with its head at Hubei, its body in Anhui, and its tail in Jiangnan. We don't have Hubei, and if we let go of Anhui as well, the serpent will be sundered, and the tail won't survive for long on its own." To all of this Li Xiucheng simply replied that Anqing was a hopeless cause and that he would not leave Zhejiang. Hong Rengan was livid, but what could he really do. Now the way Hong Rengan described the Yangtze as a serpent, was something Zeng Guofan also ascribed to. Both men understood the enormous advantage Wuchang and Anqing presented; they both controlled vast regions of agricu

Last time we spoke The foreign community of Shanghai did not take the Taiping advances lightly and fired upon the rebels as they approached the great port city. The filibuster Frederick Townsend Ward created a foreign mercenary team to fight the rebels with pretty mixed results. Hong Rengan tried to smooth things over with the foreigners to earn their support, but nothing was going the Taiping's way. Meanwhile Zeng Guofan was building up his Xiang army, falling into despair at the prospect that Beijing might be captured by foreigners. Yet this did not stop Zeng Guofans resolve to take Anqing, a major stepping stone to seize Nanjing. It seems Hong Rengans grand strategy was falling apart as a result of the foreign community, could he turn things around before Zeng Guofan crushed his plans? #31 This episode is The Taiping Rebellion part 8: The Fall of Anqing Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. When the Taiping generals and officers were around things went relatively well for the populaces that came in contact with the Taiping assaults. However as the Taiping armies moved onwards, large groups of bandits followed in their wake, many Taiping secretly amongst them. They would plunder, rape and murder, the usual as it were. Horrible atrocities were common, one account from Xiangshan county in Zhejiang province had a recently groom disemboweled before 12 bandits raped his bride and killed her as well. In the same province one story told that "there were those who would cut open the stomach and drink the blood, and others who chopped off the four limbs. Some would dig out the heart and eat it…my pen cannot bear to write this". They would carry off women to rape and young boys to be made into future conscripts. Often the Taiping vanguards if they could not find Qing officials, they would kill citizens of a city and dress up their corpses in Qing official attire, to invigorate the rest of the army. Heads went on stakes, placards were nailed to them. The violence between the Qing and Taiping was becoming indistinguishable. But as so often in China, alongside the horror, taxes were collected, crops were grown, new officials were appointed, life simply went on. The frank truth about this time period, is the Chinese commoners did not care who was in charge whether it be Taiping or Qing, they simply wanted the damn fighting to end so they could carry on with their lives, they just wanted some order and to be able to provide for their families. Facing so many new territorial gains and countless differing population under their control the Taiping established agreements with local leaders, such as the gentry class who were willing to play ball. Thus a lot of these territories held a lot of autonomy, that is if they paid taxes and made sure not to help the Qing. There was an interesting element of class struggle going on as well. Where the Qing ruled, the wealthy landowner gentry class or scholars generally called the shot. But where the Taiping ruled, you could join their ranks, no matter what class you came from and move up the social ladder. Real control still lay outside the Taiping's grasp. Though the Qing were weakened by the European victory of them and even with the Emperor literally fleeing the capital, the mandate of heaven still remained and as long as it did, those loyal to it would resist the rebels. Hong Rengan and Li Xiucheng did not agree on a great many things, but one thing they certainly saw eye to eye on was the need to consolidate the fertile southern provinces, to take what was once the old Ming empire and use it to starve the Qing in the north. By autumn of 1860, Li xiucheng was forced to leave his command in the eastern provinces, to come to relieve Anqing from Zeng Guofan's siege. Hong Xiuquan actually sent orders for Li Xiucheng to march north to hit Beijing again now that it was weakened, but he refused, ironically similar to how Zeng Guofan refused Emperor Xianfeng. Instead Li Xiucheng insisted he should go west into Jiangxi and Hubei provinces, were several hundreds of thousands of people could be recruited into the Taiping ranks. He would use these men to lift the Anqing siege and this all meant a clash with Zeng Guofan in Qimen. Before Li Xiucheng left Nanjing for his campa

Last time we spoke Hong Rengan, the cousin of the heavenly king made a long pilgrimage to get to Nanjing. When Hong Rengan finally made it to Nanjing, the heavenly king rejoiced and began showering him with titles. Hong Rengan soon became the Shield King, but this drew jealousy and resentment from the Loyal king Li Xiucheng. Hong Rengan quickly went to work restructuring the movement, making dramatic improvements and began a campaign to win over foreign support. A grand strategy was formed to break the encirclement of Nanjing and it succeeded in a grand fashion, bringing the Taiping closer to Shanghai where a large foreign community awaited. However rumors spread that the Taiping wished to attack Shanghai creating fear amongst the foreigners they sought to ally with. Could Hong Rengang turn the tides in favor for the Taiping? #30 This episode is The Taiping Rebellion part 7: Ward's Mercenaries & the Battle for Shanghai Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. Shanghai was not a typical Chinese city, it had a complicated division of jurisdictions such as the international city with each nation having its own military force and each foreign citizen was liable only to their nations authorities. Trading vessels came and left, exchanging not only cargoe but crews from all around the world. People from all walks of life came to Shanghai and much like Mos Eisley, "you will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy". Now in 1860, just 12 miles due west of Shanghai a group of irregular military men began to run drills in a muddy little village. There were around 200 Europeans and Americans in a unit, wearing a hodgepodge of uniforms. Some wore red coats and dark pants, typical British marine getup, other blue jackets with white bell bottoms, that of french sailors, others tattered fabrics of merchant crews. For weapons, many had colt revolvers others sharp repeating rifles and the reason they drilled was to capture the Taiping held town of Songjiang, 10 miles further away from Shanghai. Alongside Qingpu, Songjiang was a strategic walled town and a necessary stepping stone for one to invade Shanghai from Hangzhou or Suzhou. The motley crew of mercenaries were being paid for by a banker named Yang Fang at the incredibly high rate of 100 dollars per month per man. On top of their handsome salaries these men were promised rewards of a hundred thousand dollars if their unit was able to defeat the Taiping garrison at Songjiang alongside anything they could loot. The commander of this unit was an American named Frederick Townsend Ward. He was 29 years old, from Salem Massachusetts and had deep black eyes and a thatch of unruly raven like hair worn long over his ears. Wards army was modeled on the so called filibusters, those American soldiers who frolicked in latin america in the 19th century. Ward was not drawn just by money but also the dream of establishing a new state to govern. Ward had been frustrated during his military career, he had failed to gain admission to West Point in 1846 and spent a year at Norwich university, a private military college in Vermont, without even graduating. His real military training came informally, in central america in 1852 when he enlisted with the infamous William Walker who led a small army of Americans to fight a civil war in Nicaragua to overthrow its government with the intent to form a new Yankee state. Ward fought hard for Walker, but left his camp to form his own, while Walker conquered Nicaragua and installed himself president in 1856. It was a short lived state to be sure, 4 years later the British captured Walker and arrested him for breaking neutrality laws. Meanwhile Ward traveled to Shanghai to launch his own venture against the Taiping, while his former mentor was executed by firing squads in Honduras. The Taiping-Qing civil war was a fantastic opportunity for a would be filibuster and initially ward came to china to join the rebels and overthrow the Manchu. However upon making it to Shanghai, making contact with the Taiping proved difficult. Ward first found work aboard a french steamer named Confucius, hired by some wealthy Chinese merchants to protect them against Yangtze pirates. Eventually Ward and the captain of the Confucius found themsel

Last time we spoke Shi Dakai went into exile while performing a western expedition, riding out into an eventual oblivion. Hong Xiuquan fell into depression, paranoia and seclusion as he began to only trust his close family members and appointed them to grand positions despite the fact their skills might not be up to par. The Taiping kings were gone, now the new military leadership lay in the hands of Li Xiucheng and Chen Yucheng. The Nian rebels began to work closely with the Taiping to campaign against the Qing, but it was ultimately not working out. The taiping sought foreign support, but things simply were not going well on that front and they were gradually finding themselves being more and more isolated from allies to defeat the Qing. #29 This episode is The Taiping Rebellion part 6: Rise of the Shield King Hong Rengan Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. Our old friend, the cousin to the Heavenly King, Hong Rengan had heard so much news over the years about his famous cousin and the Taiping. He decided to try and visit the Taiping capital of Tianjin. He left Hong Kong in may of 1858, traveling first to Canton which was at that time under British and French occupation, thus safe to him who was friends with missionaries. From there he set off northeast through Guangdong province along the riverways. For the most part, he ran into travelers trying to sell wares and Qing soldiers patrolling for bandits. He got to a junction at Nanxiong country and turned north upon an ancient stone road that led to the Meiling pass, the gateway dividing the southern part of the empire from the Yangtze valley. Beyond was Jiangxi province and beyond that Nanjing, or as I keep fumbling back and forth, Tianjin. He dressed as a peddler so he would be unremarkable to anyone, especially Qing troops and thus pass without incident. Once he entered Jiangxi he continued northeast along the Gan River where he came to the edge of the active war zone just outside the Taiping realm of control. Many Qing encampments were found along the way, many massive in size. Hong Rengan was able to attach himself quite easily to an outlying unit, joining them on their march eastward towards the porcelain producing city of Jingdezhen. There the Taiping attacked, forcing the Qing into a rout. Within the chaos Hong Rengan was lucky to escape the slaughter, escaping with only his clothes on his back. After escaping the heated battle, he worked his way west for a time, away from the active fighting, then further north towards the Yangtze river towards Hubei province. This territory had been fought over for more than 5 years at this point, being conquered and reconquered by the Qing and Taiping. Countless cities he came across were empty, houses stripped of wood to make cooking fires for passing armies. Even in the more prosperous parts of the province, underpopulated farms were unable to muster enough hands to bring in the harvests. Hong Rengan eventually came across a Qing soldier. THe man told him he sought to purchase goods in the Qing held river town of Longping and then to sell the goods downriver in Nanjing to the rebels. The soldier seemed to have many contacts, thus Hong Rengan gave him a piece of gold leaf he had kept sewn safely into the fabric of his jacket and they partnered up. While the soldier went to Longping to buy the goods, Hong Rengang waited for him in the city of Huangmei around 15 miles northeast with one of the soldiers contacts, a magistrate named Tan. Tan found Hong Rengan's intelligence and education so impressive he offered him a job on the spot as a secretary. It was quite a coveted job for an unemployed scholar,but Hong Rengan was still fixated on getting to Nanjing and gave Tan an ambiguous reply. The soldier did not seem to show up, leaving Hong Rengan with no way to get to Nanjing so he stayed with the magistrate for many months. Hong Rengan began to hear rumors about the Qing encircling the Taiping capital, strangling them into submission. Hong Rengan began to become anxious so he left Huangmei with a letter of introduction and a bit of money given to him by Tan. Hong Rengan took back the mantle of a peddler, but in October a Qing patrol captured him, though they had no idea how valuable a bounty he t

Last time we spoke tension was brewing within the Taiping capital between the the heavenly king and his subordinate kings. The Foreigners were debating who would win the civil war for China and who would be the best bet for trade. The new Yung-Ying armies, such as the Xiang army of Zeng Guofan began to encircle Nanjing in an effort to strangle the Taiping. Within the Taiping capital, conflict finally broke out and Yang Xiuqing was murdered by his comrade King Wei Changhui. When Shi Dakai found out he demanded blood, leading to Wei Changhui's death and almost his own, but he fled Nanjing, taking a large army with him to campaign in exile. Now Hong Xiuquan fell into a depression and fell into seclusion, who would lead the movement now that the great taiping kings were all gone? #28 This episode is The Taiping Rebellion part 5: Out with the old kings, in with the new Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. With Shi Dakai's departure, Hong was put in quite a pickle, as one of his commanders, General Li said "morale declined and there was no unified policy. Each went his own way. The Sovereign did not place complete confidence in anyone. He had been frightened by the East, North and Flank Kings and dared not trust other ministers, but placed all his trust in members of his own clan". Thus the Taiping fortune had turned dramatically, the period of swift campaigns and sweeping victories had ended. They would not be able to exploit the blitzkrieg like momentum they once held. Now the Qing provincial armies would organize and begin the process of wrestling back control over vital and strategic territories in the upper Yangtze valley. Hong Xiuquan was alone in Nanjing with none of his original comrades to pick up the much needed leadership roles. As bad as Yang XIuqing had been, he was at least effective as an organizer and strategist. On the other side of the coin, the Qing were unable to take advantage of all the Taiping upheaval. Their main besieging camps around Nanjing were smashed in 1856 and they faced two other large threats. The first ws another rebellion taking place in northern CHina, that of the Nian rebellion. The Nian rebellion was severing lines of communications from north to south making it extremely difficult to coordinate against the Taiping. The second was of course the second Opium war which threatened the eastern coast and cut off contact with the sea, effectively leaving local regional commanders in the south and center of China to have to formulate their own strategies against the Taiping. The financial records show at this time Emperor Xianfengs treasuries were significantly reduced. The Qing court had begun suspending orders for silk and porcelain and these sort of goods were necessary to showcase imperial glory. Alongside this, weddings and funeral stipends for Manchu Banner troops were canceled, golden bells, buddhist statues and other items made of gold, silver and such were melted down to make coins. The Qing court forced officials to reduce staff, canceled repairs to palace buildings and by 1857 some Imperial Banner families had reached starvation levels of just a few pounds of relief grain per month. The Emperor was allowing his Banner troops to use their own banks and rice stores in an attempt to shield military personnel from the effects of inflation. Despite the economic hard times, and enemies left right and center, the Qing armies could have crushed the Taiping altogether during this turbulent time, had it not been for the Qing leaders insistence on the policy of having veteran Taiping troops executed if captured without exception. There was really little incentive to stop serving the Taiping. Now Hong Xiuquan did not stop at just placing his two brothers in high positions. There was Hong's sister, his wife Lai and his children, the 8 sons of his eldest brother, 2 from his second eldest brother. Hong also had 8 daughters from various consorts, many of whom were married. Hong also had a dozen or so cousins, the Hong family had roots in Guangdong and Guangxi and many had made the trek from Thistle mountain to Nanjing. Now that Yang was dead, Hong was able to do things with less scrutiny, thus he began to extend his family as he saw fit. Hong's palace was run entirel

Last time we spoke the Heavenly King established his new capital Tianjing, the heavenly kingdom. Dramatic reforms were made, soldiers were recruited and armies were made to perform grand campaigns. The Taiping performed the Northern expedition, but instead of throwing the kitchen sink and potentially taking the dragon throne, it failed. The western expedition proved more fruitful and soon large swathes of territory fell to the Taiping enlarging their new empire. Yet not all was well in the heavenly kingdom, Yang Xiuqing, the mouth of the heavenly father began to abuse the heavenly king and draw the god worshipers under his thumb. Alongside this Zeng Guofan was created a brand new type of army that could challenge the Taiping and quell China of their rebellion once and for all. #27 This episode is The Taiping Rebellion part 4: Murder amongst the Taiping Kings Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. While the Taiping at Nanjing were beginning to lose their political and military initiative to the Qing and Yung-ying forces, they were also losing something vitally important outside of China, western support. Western forces definitely would play a crucial role in the Taiping Qing war and western attitudes would shift dramatically from pro Taiping to anti Taiping. The first major rumblings about the Taiping came to westerners when they captured Nanjing. Overall the impression of the Taiping was quite favorable, reports indicated they were a well disciplined group of Christian character. There were many westerners who thought the Taiping might be a better alternative than the Manchu whose attitudes towards western missionaries and economic activities were aggravating. Western dissatisfaction with the Qing government really came down to their unwillingness to abide by the treaty of Nanjing in full. Thus as you can imagine quite a few missions were sent by Westerners to the new Taiping capital in Nanjing to evaluate the situation. The first official mission that went to Nanjing was sent by the British. Sir George Bonham accompanied by Captain Fishbourne and T.T Meadows sailed to Nanjing aboard the Hermes. Bonham was egged into the mission by influential British merchants in Shanghai who were worried by the disruption in commerce. Most of the information on the Taiping that came to westerners was during the Yongan occupation and the information was quite vague and contradictory. Issachar Roberts who knew Hong Xiuquan wrote to local newspapers describing the man " "He is a man of ordinary appearance, about five feet four or five inches high; well built, round faced, regular featured, rather handsome, about middle age, and gentlemanly in his manners. he is trying to be something in the capacity of a prophet and appears to be struggling for religious liberty." What the British really wanted to know, was about the trading interests and investments in SHanghai which amounted to around 25 million pounds sterling at the time. The foreigners in Shanghai wanted to know if the Taiping would offer greater chances for stability and trade expansion than their QIng counterpart. While enroute they ran into the Taiping leader named Lo Ta-kang in Chen-chiang in april of 1853. The man told him the Taiping were friendly to foreigners and would not interfere with any commercial relations. Yet when Bonham reached Nanjing he quickly found that the Taiping government like the Qing, regarded foreign governments as subordinates to their rule. While the Qing believed their mandate was that of heaven, likewise the Taiping assumed their heavenly king held an equal position within the globe. Yang Xiuqing sent a formal letter to the British and here is some of what it said and I am strongly paraphrases as its a very long letter. "Now that you distant English "have not deemed myriads of miles too far to come" and acknowledge our sovereignty; not only are the soldiers and officers of our Celestial dynasty delighted and gratified thereby, but even in high heaven itself Our Celestial Father and Elder Brother will also admire this manifestation of your fidelity and truth. We therefore issue this special decree, permitting you, the English Chief, to lead your brethren out or in, backwards or forwards, in full accordance with your own w

Last time we spoke Hong Xiuquan had gathered a rabble of peasants, named them the god worshippers and declared war upon the Qing dynasty. He gave titles to his closest comrades forming the North, South, East, West and Flank Kings who led the great Taiping armies on a march towards the secondary capital of China, Nanjing. Countless cities fell the Taiping and the Qing desperately tried to encircle and quell the menace. But the Taiping never stayed in any given place long enough to be captured and even when they were dealt significant losses, they simply moved on and recruited more and more to their cause. Their armies grew exponentially and so did their conquests until they reached the secondary capital of China, Nanjing. Nanjing was put through a brutal siege and taken, her citizens put to the sword and now the Taiping held a grand capital city. #26 This episode is The Taiping Rebellion part 3: The Heavenly Kingdom of Tianjing Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. 14 years after his first vision, Hong Xiuquan alongside an incredible 2 million followers had captured the secondary capital of China, Nanjing. Hong Xiuquan, the heavenly king, Yang Xiuqing the East King and the surviving Taiping leadership had developed their military based on the work of the late Feng Yunshan and their combined experiences from the march from the Thistle Mountains all the way to Nanjing. Much like the military structure the new capital would have 4 families linked to every corporal's family and 25 family units linked under every sergeant. These communities would build the public granaries, chapels for worship and so forth. The sergeants would dwell in chapels, the corporals would take their family and those families under their command to sabbath to worship. Every sabbath day, all senior officers, from generals to captains would visit one of the great churches of the sergeants to pray and work hard obeying the Ten commandments. By day people would work the land, all serving in some form, whether it was pottery, ironwork, carpentry, masonry, whatever according to their skills. The land under Taiping rule was divided up amongst all with one full share for every man and women aged 16 and older and half a share for children below 16. All of the land was graded according to its productivity and when land was insufficient for the peoples needs, the people were moved to land that was plentiful. Of the products of labor, each corporal saw to it that every family under him had food, but all the rest went to the public treasuries. Sergeants checked the books and tallied the accounts, presenting records to superiors " for all people on this earth are as the family of the Lord their God on High, and when people of this earth keep nothing for their private use but give all things to God for all to use in common, then in the whole land every place shall have equal shares, and every one be clothed and fed. This was why the Lord God expressly sent the Taiping Heavenly Lord to come down and save the world." The public treasuries would give gifts to every family at times of birth, marriage and death according their needs, but never in excess of one thousand copper cash or one hundred catties of grain. Surpluses had to be maintained incase of famine or war. Every family unit with a living male head had to give a soldier to the army, but the Taiping would not take widowers, widows, orphans or childless, nor weak or sick. With births came new families and every 5th family gave a new corporal, and every 25th a new sergeant and so on. All officers and officials, even the highest would be reviewed every 3 years and promoted or demoted according to performance. This was the system pushed out upon Nanjing when it was taken. As you can imagine it was a goliath task to meet these demands, thus the system could not actually be implemented all at once, but they were diligent to starting the listing and recording keeping to establish it. Not everyone flocked eagerly to the Taiping ranks. Many households were reluctant to register their members and hid for weeks, countless fled Nanjing. The Taiping burnt down countless Taoist and Buddhist architecture, smashed statues and image and stripped or killed priests. Everyone was to conform to the n

Last time we spoke Hong Xiuquan attempted four times to pass the imperial examination, but was met each time with failure. The stress put upon him was too much, causing him to have multiple mental breakdowns and to see visions leading him to realize he was the brother of Jesus Christ. God and the elder brother Jesus taught Hong Xiuquan had to fight demons and gave him a magical sword to rid the world of them. Hong Xiuquan knew the Manchu were demons and it was he who could usher in a heavenly kingdom on earth. He began to preach to the masses gathering those he called god worshippers and this began to raise concerns with the Qing officials who sought to stamp out what looked like the White Lotus Rebellion 2.0. Now the Qing forces led by Xiang Rong were trying to surround the god worshippers to end the menace before it became an even larger problem. #25 This episode is The Taiping Rebellion part 2: The March to Nanjing Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. The Taiping had taken Jintai, but were being pursued constantly by multiple Qing armies always seeking to encircle and quell the rebellion. By this point the Taiping numbered around 60,000 men and they sought to seize the first major town, that of Yong'an, present day Mengshan town. Now before I get to this I just want to describe a bit the forces at play. The Taiping like I said were around 60,000 strong and were as you can imagine more of a peasantry type of group. They did not have much in the way of firearms, most were armed with spears ranging from 8-18feet long halberds, knives or swords such as the Liuyidao. There were those with bows and arrows, but archery in this time period was more specialized in northern china than southern china. For example the eight banner army had manchu and mongols who were extremely proficient in archery, but in the south it was simply not as great. There were some firearms, consisting of the usual suspects, firelock muskets and the every hilarious jingalls. Women took part in the initial battles, such as at Jintian, but there is pretty much no evidence of Taiping women fighting battles after 1853, it seems it was a necessity in the beginning but later on it was not employed. Later on in 1858 there would be an official women garrison under the Taiping, but they seem to be a ceremonial group. Now the Qing military is quite complex at this point and although I have described it a bit in the past I would like to refresh memories here because the Qing military will evolve during this conflict. In the 1850's, the Qing military was roughly 3.4 million strong, quelling the Taiping rebellion while simultaneously fighting the Europeans during the second opium war. The eight banner army consisted of Manchu's, Mongolians and Han Chinese, roughly 250,000 men strong. They were much more of an imperial guard and stationed around Beijing. Then there was the Green Standard army consisted pretty much exclusively of Han Chinese. They were around 600,000 strong and were the real military might of the empire. Their creation was mostly because of the lack of efficiency within the eight banner army and ironically another type of military force would be created later on in this story because of the Green Standard armies lack of efficiency. There would also be varying groups of Europeans involved in this conflict, but that all comes later. Now the last time we spoke, the Taiping were fleeing their stronghold in the Thistle Mountains, and sought to attack Yong'an. With their large force of 60,000 they took Yong'an easily on September 24th of 1851. A large reason Yong'an fell so easily was because there was an extreme lack of coordination on the part of the Qing forces. Meanwhile the Taiping had their 5 king system, the north,south,west,east and flank kings who were coordinating their military efforts quite well to fend off encirclement efforts by the Qing. It was at Yong'an that Hong Xiuquan enacted a lot of reforms. One of them was to replace the classic lunar calendar with a solar calendar. The lunar calendar is based on the monthly cycles of the moon's phases while the solar calendar's dates are based on the position of the sun, ie; seasons. Hong Xiuquan also began to develop many social reforms that we will talk about late

Last time we spoke the entire Second Opium War of 1856-1860. The forces of Britain and France brought the Qing dynasty to its knees, forcing yet again unequal treaties and humiliation. While the opium wars were certainly a large contributor to the century of humiliation, the story we are about to talk about is arguably a lot more significant. During that five part series there was an ongoing and much more significant event occurring within China, that being one of if not the deadliest civil wars in human history, the Taiping Rebellion. Both the Taiping Rebellion and Second Opium War are intertwined, they influenced another greatly and together they are a large reason for the eventual downfall of the Qing dynasty. Buckle up folks because we are taking an extra long dive into an event that killed an estimated 20-30 million people. #24 This episode is The Taiping Rebellion part 1: Hong Xiuquan the self proclaimed brother of Jesus Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. I first need to take a moment to explain something. I am literally writing this down after finishing the last page of my first draft of the entire series and without the last final touches I can tell it will be a whopping 10-12 episodes long gasp. I in no way expected this, I thought hell it would be the longest for sure, but maybe 6 episodes, not 12! But what really drove me to write so much, 99 pages to be exact cough, was fantastic sources I had not read until recently. One source looked at the event from a religious point of view, another was much older from the 1970's which simply explained the events in a large picture, the old school way of history. Then a third source, which is a much more recent book tied up everything quite nicely with a lot of primary sources and feelings of the people from nobility to the commoners. I could not bring myself to cut down as a result and I do apologize if its a long venture, but for all of you who can rough it out I ensure it will be worth it. This is an incredible story filled with hardship, dramatic change, religion and insanity, and since the Qing dynasty is involved a hell of a lot of corruption. Stating all of that thank you so much to all those who have been listening you guys are awesome I greatly appreciate you all. If you want to reach out to suggest anything for the future, have critique and so on, please reach out to me by commenting at my Youtube channel the Pacific War Channel or if your are on the Kings and Generals discord shout out to me there! Please enjoy the Taiping Rebellion. In 1852, Theodore Hamberg, a young Swedish Protestant missionary with a thin chinstrap beard was in Hong Kong. He was one of the first Europeans of his generation to brave the Chinese countryside, as he left the relative safety of Hong Kong, which was by this time a british colony to preach in a village 100 miles up the Pearl River. Hamburg was one of the first non chinese to learn and speak the dialect of the Hakka people. These were as described by one of my sources "a gypsy minority that thickly populate south CHina. They are sometimes referred to as the "guest people"". All of this amounted to nothing of too much importance, save for one short, round-faced Hakka, Hamburg converted named Hong Rengan. Hong Rengan had a incredible story to tell it seems. Hamburg was surprised and found it a bit odd, that a lot of the Hakka he met already knew about God and Jesus despite these people being well beyond the narrow reach of the Hong Kong missionaries. Hamburg listened to Hong Rengan recount stories of battles, armies and congregations of christian believers all being led by a heavenly prophet, a Hakka one no less. This prophet claimed to be hunted by agents of the Qing dynasty and lived in disguise under an assumed name. He was once kidnapped, but escaped and lived in a forest for 4 days and a cave for 6. Hamburg confessed the stories this man told him were confusing "I could form no clear conception of the whole matter". Hamburg did not know what to make of it all, so he asked Hong Rengan to write the stories down for him. Hamburg thought little of any of this for nearly a year, then in the spring of 1853 news came that Nanjing had fallen in a torrent of blood. Hamberg then realized Hong Rengan's

Last time we spoke the Europeans licked their wounds after their nasty defeat to the Taku Forts. Elgin returned to China and a even larger coalition force now set itself on a warpath to march upon Beijing, but this time they went around the Taku Forts. They seized Kowloon, Chusan, Shanghai, Beitang, Tianjin, Danggu and then exacted their revenge upon the Taku Forts. The key to their success was the devastating Armstrong field gun which ripped asunder anything the Qing threw at them. Prince Seng lost the battle for Zhangjiawan utterly humiliating the Qing, but the great General did not simply call it quits, for now he reorganized the forces and put together a last stand at Baliqao. Could Prince Seng stop the European menace before they got to Beijing? Only time will tell. Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. #23 This episode is Part 6 of the Second Opium War: The Burning of the Summer Palace Prince Seng and Prince Sengbao, the brother of Emperor Xianfeng had gathered a force of the Green Standard Army, reinforced by imperial guards of the 8 Banner Army, for a combined force nearly 30,000 strong. After their victory at Zhangjiawan, both Grant and Montauban were overly confident that they could simply march on Beijing. As they marched, the 101st regiment led by General Jamin arrived to increase their numbers. On the morning of September 21st as the European columns moved past Tongzhou they saw the Qing force in position in front of the Baliqao bridges. The Qing force was formidable with its left on the canal, reinforced by the village of Baliqao, another village in the center and a third on the far right. The road to Beijing passed through a rolling wooden terrain veering towards the canal and the Baliqao bridges. Seng had re-established order to his army and strengthened their resolve by bringing 100 guns and positioning them in the villages, on the other side of the canal and along his entire front. The Green Standard army were the majority, while the 8 Banner Army units were kept in reserve at the bridges. Seng also had of course a large cavalry force which was being led by Sengbao on their formation flanks. Grant kept inline with what he had done in the previous battle, he took the left while Montauban took the center and right to protect his flank. Montauban used the wooden terrain to hide his lack of numbers, sending the first column to hit the Qing center. General Jamin moved to Collineau's right to hit the Qing left. Grant moved to the far left of Collineau hoping to flank the Qing. General Collineau took the advance guard consisting of the elite companies of the 101 and 12nd regiments, two companies of the 2nd Chasseuers a pied, an engineer detachment, two batteries of horse artillery and a battery of 4 pound foot artillery. Montauban and Jamin commanded the 101 regiment along with the 2nd Chasseurs a pied, a battery of 12 pounders and a Congreve rocket section. Collineau's infantry sped through the woods towards the Qing center and their speed shocked Sengbao as he moved most of the cavalry from the wings to protect the center. The French advance guard moved into skirmish order forming a long line towards Baliqao. Montauban ordered Jamin to go forward as two large bodies of Qing cavalry, around 12,000 charged at each of the French columns. Collineau's artillery rained hell into the Mongol and Manchu cavalry, while the elite company's rifle fired from secure locations along the sides of the main road. The accurate rifle fire took a massive toll on the cavalry, but Collineau soon found himself embroiled in hand to hand combat. Montauban and Jamin also used their artillery to devastating effect while their infantry formed two squares before the cavalry hit their position. The French 12 pound battery was positioned between Collineau and Jamin, continuously shelling the enemy. After some time the Qing cavalry broke off their attack having failed to break the French square formations or to overrun Collineau's men. A brief lull allowed Montauban to re-form and advance upon the villages being defended by Green Standard battalions. Prince Sengbao and Seng did not renew their cavalry assaults, because Grants column was marching onto their right flank. The 101st stormed into the village of O

Last time we spoke the first time the British and French armada attacked the Taku forts it was a literal cake walk. Reminscent of the first opium war, the Qing cannons proved inept at hitting the European ships. Elgin's coalition made their way to Tianjin where they were met by the Emperors emissaries who began the same old tired procrastination strategy. Elgin was simply fed up and left the job to his brother Bruce who thought he got the deal won and done, but little did they all know the Qing had no intention of following through with the new treaty. A rebellion broke out at Canton and now Bruce was left with a new coalition force to fight yet again to get to Beijing to force the Qing to heed the treaty. However this time the Taku Forts were led by Prince Seng and he served the Europeans a truly nasty defeat. The tides of war were turning in favor of the Qing dynasty. Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. #22 This episode is Part 4 of the Second Opium War: The March to Beijing When news came back to Britain about the loss, Lord Derby's government fell on June 10th 1859. Lord Palmerston returned to power at the age of 75 and wrote to the foreign office "We must in some way or other make the Chinese repent of the outrage. We might send a military-naval force to attack and occupy Peking." Elgin sat in on a cabinet meeting as Palmerston had appointed him Postmaster-General in the new Whig government. Elgin proscribed a moderate response, fearing that if Britain toppled the Manchu government the new masters of China would become the Taiping who lets just say were not great friends to capitalism and especially not towards the opium trade. For those MP's who still sought diplomacy, a recent event had hurt their cause. American ambassador John Ward made an attempt at diplomacy, agreeing to go to Beitang around 160 miles north of Beijing before heading to the capital. Yet instead of traveling in a sedan chair like any respectable Qing official, Ward accepted the humiliating Chinese offer to use a wooden cart without springs or a cushioned seat. The Chinese it turns out slyly told Ward this was the preferred method of transport the Russians took when in reality it was the typical transport for tribute bearers. Apparently the trip was so bumpy and painful, Ward chose to walk the last few miles. The Qing were delighted at the sight of the western representative entering Beijing on July 27th on foot like a common peasant. Ward like so many before him, ran into the kowtow situation. Ward said he was willing to bow but "I am accustomed to kneel only to God and women" to which some Qing court official said "but the emperor is God'. Another absolutely ridiculous war about the logistics of Kowtowing emerged. Ward was unwilling to do the full blown deal and kept trying to cut corners. The Qing officials asked if he could touch the floor with his fingertips instead of his head, he said no. They then asked if he could hide his legs behind a curtain so the emperor thought he was kneeling when in fact he wouldnt be. Many letters went back and forth trying to find a way to accommodate Ward's kowtow, but at the last moment Emperor Xianfeng came out of an opium stupor and upon receiving the recent news about the grand victory at the Taku Forts demanded Ward do the full blown kowtow. The Emperor added, since the Americans decided to break neutrality at the Taku Forts it was the least Ward could do, ouch. If you can believe it, the kowtow argument went on for 14 days. The Emperor eventually ordered Ward and his entourage to be expelled from Beijing. Though this all looked horrible on the surface, in truth Ward went to Beitang without interference from the Emperor and signed a treaty with the Qing officials on August 15th of 1859. Wards success was due to the fact, unlike his British and French counterparts, America was not insistent on signing the treaty within the capital. The American experience made Bruce look bad and Palmerston was fed up with the Qing protocols, kowtowing and such. The British newspapers were calling for blood after hearing news about the Taku fort disaster. Yet the situation was delicate. 10% of Britains tax revenue came from the opium trade in China. As Elgin put it in a letter to a colleag

Last time we spoke the reluctant Lord Elgin took up the job as the new emissary to China. Alongside his french counterpart Baron Gross, both men would overlook their military coalitions expedition in China to force the Qing emperor to abide by their treaty and some new demands. They began with a bombardment and occupation of the grand city of Canton and then Ye Mingchen was hunted down and arrested. Ye was replaced with a puppet named Pih-Kwei who would be nominally controlled by the European forces. Now the coalition would fight their way to Beijing to force an audience with Emperor Xianfeng, but something lied in their way, the famous Taku forts at the mouth of the Bei He River. Could the coalition fight past these legendary forts and strangle Beijing enough to get their demands met? Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. #21 This episode is Part 3 of the Second Opium War: battles for the Taku Forts At high tide the Taku Forts were surrounded by water, the Bei He River became something like a natural moat. The entrance to the Bei He River was 200 yards in width, forcing the British and French warships into a bottleneck gauntlet with each shore holding 137 pieces of antiquated artillery. When the invaders arrived, the Qing forces quickly went to work creating earthwork walls with sandbags to bolster the defenses. The Qing forces presumed the European gunboats hulls were too deep and thus they would not risk entering the river until it was very high tide to avoid going aground. That presumption was a grave error as Seymour and Rigault were willing to risk it and mounted a surprise attack at 10am on May 20th. Elgin made one last ditch effort to get Tan to surrender peacefully, but Tan did not even bother to respond to Elgins message. Now in a similar fashion to the first opium war, as you might remember a large problem for the Qing was their outdated artillery. Their cannons were usually immobile, unable to aim at all degrees and angles. The Taku Fort cannons were aimed in such a way to hit warships at high tide, but the British-French force was going to attack during low tide. Alongside the Taku Forts cannons another defensive obstacle was a 7 inch thick boom made out of bamboo. The Europeans opened fire unleashed pure hell upon the forts and when the forts unleashed their own volley, literally all of their shots went over the European masts. To add insult to injury, the British sacrificed one of their ships, the Coromandel to ram into the boom which broke with ease. The Coromandal received a nasty gash in her hull, but the job had been done. As pieces of the boom floated away, the rest of the European armada began to steam through the gap while the Qing helplessly fired their cannons straight over their masts. The French ships Mitraille and Fusee alongside the British Cormorant fired upon 2 of the Taku Forts on the left bank while the French Avalance, Dragonne and British Nimrod fired upon the 3 forts on the right. The Chinese manning Gingalls had much better luck than the cannons, though it also came at the price of making the Europeans laugh watching men fall over from firing each shot. However not all was funny as Gingalls could be properly aimed unlike the cannons and managed to kill 5 British and 6 French while wounding another 61. Then tragedy happened when a gunpowder cache in one of the Taku forts accidentally exploded killing 100 Chinese. Alongside the invaders maelstrom of gunfire and the defenders despair at the futility of their cannons many began to panic. Even before many of the British and French forces began to land ashore, countless Qing forces were deserting the earthen parapet en masse. In desperation seeing his men flee, the Qing commander launched 50 fireboats stuffed with straw at the barbarian ships, only to see the fireships crash into the bank at the bend in the river. Not a single fireship was able to cause damage to the invaders. With the last ditch effort a complete failure, the commander of the Taku Forts went to the Temple of the Sea God and slashed his jugular vein with his sword killing himself. The Viceroy of Zhili province was banished to the desolate border territory with Russia in the north. As he packed his bags, Emperor Xianfeng condemned the Viceroy'

Last time we spoke Rear Admiral Seymour took the charge as he waged war first on the city of Canton to hunt down the seemingly tyrannical Ye Mingchen. Seymour took the city quickly and with ease, but knew he had no way to hold onto it so he opted to start capturing all the forts he could along the riverways. Meanwhile back in Britain, the politicians were raging over the entire conflict and what was to be the best course of action. The Torries and Whigs fought another to use the issue for their own interests and it seems the Torries might be successful at thwarting the need for another war with China, but not if the Whigs had anything to say about it. Now a new figure will come to the forefront to be placed in charge of the China issue and it will consume his life. Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. #20 This episode is Part 2 of the Second Opium War: Lord Elgin's reluctant War Now outside parliament, the British public was in a jingoistic mood after winning the Crimean War. Palmerston began to appeal to the masses on the basis of patriotism. Meanwhile the Prime Minister decided to appoint a plenipotentiary to carry out negotiations with the Qing court. The Duke of Newcastle was Palmerstons first choice, but he rejected the job as he knew it would be a thankless one and would earn him no favors. On March 13th, in the middle of a general election, Palmerston announced a new appointment for the new envoy to China. It was the popular Scotsman, former governor of Jamaica and British North America, James Bruce the Earl of Elgin, a direct descendant of Robert the Bruce. Lord Elgin was the son of a famous antiquarian who had notoriously preserved or better said vandalized, if you're Greek, parts of Ancient Athens by shipping them back to Britain. Yes the British museum issue. Elgin also sold these pieces of history in question to the British Museum at around 35,000 pounds in 1816 before going bankrupt and leaving England in exile to escape creditors. So yeah daddy was not a good person so to say. Ironically Elgin's fathers actions would haunt him in this story, because he would perform a heinous act on a similar level. During the 3 day voting period that began on March 28th of 1857, the Whigs managed to return to office with a landslide victory. Turns out Palmerston had won the public over, alongside the Queen and now parliament. The day before Palmerston named Elgin the plenipotentiary to China, Elgin wrote to his wife "My Dearest, I have had a note from [Palmerston] followed by an interview. The proposal is to undertake a special mission of a few months' duration to settle the important and difficult question now embarrassing us in the East and concentrating the attention of all the world. On what grounds can I decline? Not on political grounds for however opposed I might be to the Govt. that would be a reason to prevent them from making the offer, but not me from accepting it. The very mission of a Plenipotentiary is an admission that there are errors of policy to be repaired." Elgin's wife responded "Dearest, it was unexpected but if your conscience and feelings tell you to say yes I would not for the world dissuade you. God bless you my own darling. I promise you to do my best not to distress you. Forgive me if I can't write more today. Your own ever Mary." Now Lord Elgin had a very impressive career, as I said he had been the governor of Jamaica and the governor-general of British North America, I live in quebec and he is quite the figure here. There is a statue of him in front of the Quebec parliament building. Lord Elgin attempted to establish responsible government to Canada, wrestled issues of immigration to Canada and took a surprising stance during a French English conflict. You see there were rebellions in what was then Upper and Lower Canada over various colonial issues. Lord Elgin ended up compensating French Canadians who had suffered during the rebellions and this greatly pissed off his British colleagues. On top of that Elgin invited the leader of the lower Canada revolt, Papineau to dine with him at the governor-generals residence in Canada. An English mob began burning parliament buildings in montreal, Elgin was assaulted, but instead of calling in the military, Elgin got h

Last time we spoke the horrifying trade of Poison and Pigs. The "Poison" referring to the still thriving opium trade and "pig" being the kidnapping of Chinese coolies. We also briefly talked about the rise of the Taiping rebels under Hong Xiuquan, the self proclaimed brother of Jesus Christ. The Taiping rebellion alongside the trade of Poison and Pigs was wreaking havoc upon the Qing dynasty and then to ignite the powder keg came a rather small event. The Arrow incident set into motion Ye Mingchen to butt heads with Harry Parkes and John Bowring and all 3 of these men would begin a duel that set into motion the kindling for another opium war. Soon things got completely out of hand and Rear Admiral Seymour was brought into the mix leading to him ordering the first official shots of what will become the second opium war. #19 This episode is Part 1 of the Second Opium War: Seymour's onslaught Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. Ye Mingchen upon learning of the threat immediately called upon Canton's militia, but their response was not exactly enthusiastic. Unlike the previous Lin Zexu, a noble and very charismatic figure, Ye lacked public support and the rank and file soldiers often disregarded him. A large reason for this was because of the brutality he unleashed on the Taiping Rebels in the two provinces he ran. Ye's two hundred warships while numerous, in the face of the British state of the art gunboats and steamers, were basically childs toys. Parkes sent Ye another demand: to grant British residents the right to live and work outside the factories. Ye refused the demand and on October 28th, the British sent the steamer Encounter to shell the rooftop of the vice regal residence. This action did drive some popularity for Ye as many began to say the viceroy was fearless and had remained in his courtyard reading a book as the shells missed him. Ye then upted the anty by placing a price on British heads from 30 to 100 dollars. Ye also placed a whopping 30,000 dollars for Parkes head. When Seymour came to Canton he found the Encounter moored off the city near the factories. He sent the Sampson and Barracouta to seize the Blenheim and Macao forts meeting no resistance. One of the British sailors named William Kennedy described the city "The river was alive with every kind of craft, from the little sampan, propelled by a single oar in the stern, to the heavy trading junk with her single iron-wood mast and mat sails. Numerous flower-boats belonging to wealthy mandarins were moored off the town, conspicuous by their gaudy paint, and crowded with laughing girls, who kept up an incessant chatter as they peeped out at the foreign devils!" The next day, Seymour seized the Bird's nest fort and then the two Shameen forts guarding the passage. All of the guns they found in the forts were rendered unserviceable. When the bombardment of Canton had begun, a hole was made in Canton's walls and this allowed a detachment of Royal Marines to land and get into the factory sector to protect the inhabitants. Chinese guns on the walls did not fire upon the invaders who all entered the city to an eerie silence. Some Chinese matchlocks did fire upon them but it seems many were antiquated and did no damage. W.t Bates, the captain of the HMS Actaeon planted the Union Jack atop Canton's wall, and he was joined by an American envoy to Hong Kong, James Keenan who likewise was waving the Stars and Stripes. Now this is an interesting bit, because the US remained neutral during the conflict between China and Britain. James Keenan apparently was shit faced when he did this haha. The British began to move a large cannon through the wall breach and used it to further shell Ye's residence.. The royal marines and sailors formed posts and barricades with field gun support around certain streets to guard against counter attacks. On October 25th the Chinese forces attacked the British pickets, but were easily repulsed, resulting in 14 casualties for them. On October 27th, the Encounter opened fire on Ye's poor residence as the Barracouta and Sulphur Creek shelled Chinese positions along the hills in the back of Canton. The British forces warned the Chinese civilians to evacuate themselves and their property. On october 28th, the

Last time we spoke about the end of the infamous First Opium War of 1839-1842. The Qing tried to procrastinate as much as they could in the face of a goliath force wrecking havoc upon them. Their cannons were simply outmatched and as a result the British armada was easily brushing aside their war junks and fortifications. Many horrible battles were fought and countless Qing commanders took their own lives in shame after defeat. The closer the British forces got to Beijing the more desperate the Qing became and eventually Emperor Daoguang was forced to send diplomats to negotiate a peace. The result was the infamous treaty of Nanking a utter humiliation for the Qing dynasty, marking the beginning of the century of humiliation for China. Britain grabbed Hong Kong, the Qing would pay 6 million taels of silver in reparation. But the treaty made zero mention of why the war had occurred at all, Mr. Opium. Was Mr. Opium gone..no by no means was he. #18 This episode is The Trade of Poison and Pigs Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on the history of asia and much more so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. So the last time we left off, on October 12th of 1842, the last $6 million dollars of payment reached the British armada and they finally departed from Nanking. The tension between the Chinese and British was still raging however. In fact there would be another skirmish so to say. In november of 1842, opium merchants decided to bring their wives for a trip from Whampoa to Canton violated a Chinese taboo against mixing of sexes. The Chinese residents of Canton seized and burned the Union Jack flying over the British factory there. Defenders of the American factory shot 5 rioters before the Qing police managed to calm things down. Then the shipwrecked survivors of the Ann and Nerbuda were grabbed from jail and beheaded by angry Chinese. This pressed Pottinger to threaten retaliation and soon the viceroy of Canton, Yiliang rushed to the scene to arrest the ringleaders of the executions and sent them to Beijing to be punished. The British press, such as the Illustrated London News hailed the Treaty of Nanking as "It secures us a few round millions of dollars and no end of very refreshing tea. It gives an impetus to trade, cedes us one island in perpetuity, and in short puts that sort of climax to the war which satisfies our interests more than our vanity and rather gives over glory a preponderance to gain,". Now just like the Treaty of Nanking itself, the press made zero mention of the reason for the war in the first place, Mr. Opium. Now with Hong Kong island in the hands of the British, it would be used as an offloading point for opium, go figure. Despite the horror of the war, the demand for the opium was still raging and thus the poisonous relationship between the two empires remained alive. Now not everyone in Britain was jubilant about the situation. The Times of London condemned the opium trade and criticized the treaty of Nanking quite a bit. They went a step further by calling the victors of the war "early victorian vikings" a nickname that would soon denote the raping and pillaging that would occur in the second opium war. Alongside this the Anglican Church members of the Tory party railed against opium. On January the 4th of 1843, Lord Aberdeen, the new boss of Pottingers foreign office told a British envoy to China "The British opium smugglers must receive no protection or support in the prosecution of this illegal speculation". An order from the Council gave Pottinger the power to quote "forbid the opium traffic in Hong Kong". For Pottinger's part, he paid lip service to this by issuing lukewarm threats on August 1st of 1843 ""Opium being an article the traffic in which is well known to be declared illegal and contraband by the laws and Imperial Edicts of China, any person who may take such a step will do so at his own risk, and will, if a British subject, meet with no support or protection from HM Consuls or other officers.". Officially, at the least and to what degree it mattered, there would be no more gunboat diplomacy nor gunboat protection for opium smugglers. Now as you can imagine there were those who saw the dollar bill signs such as Jardine & Matheson who could not help themselves. They were not alone, the British Exchequer also wanted to see