Sanyuanli incident
Schematic representation of the battles and troop movements during the battles for Sanyuanli
| date | May 30, 1841 to May 31, 1841 |
|---|---|
| place | Sanyuanli, China |
| output | draw |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Commander | |
|
unknown |
|
| Troop strength | |
| 6000 men | 20,000–30,000 militia men and villagers |
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The incident in Sanyuanli happened on 30./31. May 1841 for skirmishes between a crowd of Chinese civilians and troops of the British expeditionary force, which had advanced a few kilometers north of the embattled coastal city of Canton after the Second Battle of Canton . The fighting ended on the orders of the local Qing authorities. The event became an important link for Chinese nationalism.
background
In the course of the First Opium War , the British expeditionary corps under Plenipotentiary Charles Elliot was able to force the emperor's senior officials in Guangdong Yishan to make diplomatic concessions by destroying the coastal defense in the Pearl River Delta and successful attacks against the port city of Canton . On May 26, the British were able to bombard the city from the north with ground troops and from their ships in the south with artillery. As a result, Yishan surrendered and on May 29, 1841, declared the fighting in the entire province over.
The British began sending closed units to the north of the city to raise supplies on May 26th. According to Chinese reports, the British soldiers ransacked a temple, opened coffins with embalmed bodies and committed at least one rape. With regard to the looting and the opening of the coffin, there are eyewitness reports in the military documents and in autobiographical literature. A report from autobiographical literature is available on rape cases.
course
On May 30, British troops at Sifang Fort noticed a growing crowd pouring from the surrounding villages with hand-to-hand weapons and agricultural implements. Several kilometers away from the British position, formations formed which the British estimated at around 5,000 men. The British commander Hugh Gough sent some of his soldiers to attack them. The Chinese irregulars fell back and then counterattacked. The attacking British unit was armed with flintlock muskets. Due to the rainy weather of the day, their rifles, which were prone to moisture, were hardly operational. After a hand-to-hand fight, Gough ordered a retreat, whereupon, according to his description, the attacked irregulars also withdrew. When the troops got back to Sifang Fort, Gough found that a company of Indian infantry had not returned. Gough ordered two companies of marines armed with percussion lock muskets to find and bring them back. The marines found the company surrounded by several thousand villagers and opened fire. The British soldiers now withdrew to Fort Sifang . On May 31, 1841 the fort was surrounded by 10,000 to 15,000 people from the villages.
As a result, Gough contacted the Qing authorities and asked them to disperse the crowd. Should this not happen, the remaining British units would be destroyed by artillery fire. On the orders of the governor of Lianguang Qi Gong, local official Yu Baochun dispersed the crowd with reference to Yishan's peace agreement. Yu himself had suggested to his supervisor that a Yong unit support the villagers .
consequences
The British military reports vary slightly and give five to seven dead and 23 to 42 wounded for the two days. The discrepancy can be explained by death and wounding without direct enemy action, for example an officer in Gough's staff died as a result of heat exhaustion . The Chinese numbers reproduce a variety of reports that put the number of British deaths from ten to 748. There are often around 200 British casualties in modern historiography. None of these numbers are proven to be based on an eyewitness account and numerous reports untruthfully portray the loss of British officers in action. Among other things, James Bremer was beheaded, but at the time of the fighting he was on his way back to the sea from British India . The number of Chinese dead and wounded is unknown.
The Qing commander in Guangdong, Yishan, reported the events as an act of his armed forces with the spontaneous support of volunteers. In the course of the summer reports circulated to scholars, including Bao Shichen , who highlighted the initiative of the villagers and heroized their resistance. Yu has been criticized and branded as a traitor. He was removed from his post due to public expressions of displeasure. The events of Sanyuanli were reproduced by numerous contemporaries in poems, essays and posters and mythologically exaggerated.
In the course of the modernization crisis of the Qing Dynasty , the Battle of Sanyuanli became a point of contact for Chinese nationalist historiography, each of which imposed its political agenda on the events. In the history of the Kuomintang , Sanyuanli was the hour of birth of Han nationalism. In the People's Republic of China , Sanyuanli was seen as a revolutionary act of guerrilla warfare by the peasants. The Chinese historian Mao Haijian interprets the events as spontaneous resistance to the British crimes against the civilian population under the leadership of village elites, who were primarily concerned with protecting their own villages. Written testimonies from the participants and leaders of the Sanyuanli crowd have not been preserved.
According to the contract, the British evacuated the canton on June 1, 1841.