Battle of Zhenhai

Battle of Zhenhai

Part of: First Opium War

Zhenhai bombed by British warships

date	October 10, 1841
place	Zhenhai , China
output	British victory

Parties to the conflict
United Kingdom :  British East India Company	Qing Dynasty
Commander
Hugh Gough	Yuqian † Yu Buyun
Troop strength
10 warships 1840 infantry	4000 soldiers 157 cannons
losses
3–16 dead, 16 wounded	Several hundred 157 cannons

The Battle of Zhenhai took place between the British Expeditionary Force and Chinese forces on October 10, 1841 during the First Opium War . The British troops succeeded in conquering the strategically important coastal city of Zhenhai . This cleared the way to Ningbo for the British forces . Chinese Imperial Commissioner Yuqian died in the battle after attempting suicide. The cause of the defeat on the Chinese side was blamed on regional commander Yu Buyun , who was executed after the battle.

prehistory

Zhenhai is located at the southern end of Hangzhou Bay at the confluence of Yong Jiang with the bay. The Yong River runs in a gorge, which is surrounded on both sides by hills. The river is around one kilometer wide at the mouth. The sea route through the estuary was considered to be difficult to navigate due to the many sandbanks and shallows. The city of Zhenhai itself is west of the estuary. In the estuary, the watercourse is flanked by two hills. The hill Zhaobaoshan is located east of the city, west of the mouth. Fort Weiyuan has been on the hill since the Ming Dynasty, a fortification that was initially built to ward off pirates. Jinjishan Hill, on the east bank of the river, was not fortified. There were around 4,000 soldiers and irregulars in the city at the time of the Opium War. The fortifications had 157 cannons, 67 of them bronze .

The Imperial Commissioner Yuqian, sent from Daoguang to defeat the British, arrived in Zhenhai in February 1841 and made the city his official residence. Yuqian had no experience with the British military at the time, but based on reports he assumed that Zhenhai was adequately protected against a British attack by its geography and that the coastal defense there did not require reinforcement. He saw the morale of his troops as a decisive factor and reported to the emperor that of the garrison of 4,000 soldiers only around 1,000 were reliable. He tried to raise the morale of the troops through an oath of allegiance by his officers and the public execution of captured British seamen.

When Yuqian did not stay in Zhenhai for a short time in June 1841 because of his appointment as governor general, the governor of Zhenjiang province Liu Yunke and the military commander of Yu Buyun province further expanded the defenses. They posted two new artillery batteries secured with sandbags at the foot of the Zhaobaoshan hill . They also posted a garrison on the opposite hill from Jinishan under the command of Xie Chao'en . The defense of the hill was reinforced by a fortification made of earth faults on the north side of the hill. The city wall itself was reinforced with sandbags.

After the second capture of Chusan on October 1, 1841, the British expeditionary force turned to the mainland. On October 8, the British fleet assembled on Huangniu Reef . We reached Zhenhai on October 9th. On the same day, Army Commander Hugh Gough and Navy Commander William Parker conducted a joint reconnaissance of the area. They made the battle plan to attack both hills at the mouth with ground troops while the fleet was to bomb the defenses.

course

Sketch map of the battle from a biography of British Field Marshal Hugh Gough, first published in 1903

On October 10, 1841, at dawn, the British fleet began its attack. The British landed 1,070 ground troops around 3 kilometers west of Jinishan . The troops were able to quickly take the hill. The local commander Xie Chao'en died in action. At the same time, the fleet took the Zhaobaoshan hill under artillery fire. With a bombardment lasting several hours, the British managed to almost completely destroy the fortifications there. The hill was then quickly captured by around 770 landed marines.

The Imperial Commissioner Yuqian watched the battle from the east side of the city wall of Zhenhai. When the British troops arrived, he ordered a counterattack, which did not materialize. Given the surprising fire superiority of the British forces, he quickly came to the conclusion that the battle was lost. He then attempted suicide, but was stopped by his confidants. Yuqian subsequently fled the city and died of exhaustion around 70 km outside of Zhenhai on the same day. In the course of his escape, the Chinese military resistance dissolved by early afternoon.

consequences

No statistics are available on the casualties of the Qing military . British contemporary witnesses estimated that the Chinese lost several hundred deaths. There are two conflicting sources on the UK losses. One speaks of 3 dead and 16 wounded. The second source names 16 dead and several wounded. The conquest of Zhenhai cleared the way for the British expeditionary force to Ningbo, which they conquered a few days later without a fight.

On the Chinese side, the surviving commander of the troops on the hill Zhaobaoshan Yu Buyun was blamed for the defeat. He had a difficult working relationship with Yuqian before the battle and disagreed with the need to fortify the site and treat prisoners of war. Yu was executed after the battle on the orders of the emperor. Yuqian was glorified by the emperor as an exemplary and self-sacrificing subject.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Mao Haijian: The Qing Empire and the Opium War - The Collapse of the Heavenly Dynasty. Cambridge 2016, pp. 308-316
2. ↑ Mao Haijian: The Qing Empire and the Opium War - The Collapse of the Heavenly Dynasty. Cambridge 2016, pp. 308-316
3. ↑ Mao Haijian: The Qing Empire and the Opium War - The Collapse of the Heavenly Dynasty. Cambridge 2016, p. 313
4. ↑ Mao Haijian: The Qing Empire and the Opium War - The Collapse of the Heavenly Dynasty. Cambridge 2016, pp. 315-323