"If you dare to damage any plant or tree, I will order the soldiers to annihilate you and leave you with no sail left. Then you will regret it and your sin is unforgivable. "

This is an official document jointly signed by Guangdong Haidao (unknown) of the Ming Dynasty and Tao Qian, the commander-in-chief of the Ming Dynasty, and written to Captain Wedell of the British fleet on August 19, 1637.

At first glance, he looked like a serious and enthusiastic Fan, but for such harsh words, Wedel had no fluctuation in his heart and even laughed out loud.

Because the combat power of the Ming army was only a few kilograms, Wedel had already learned that it was useless; Ming Dynasty could only find face by speaking harshly.

1. The Ming Dynasty did not want to trade well at all

On April 16, 1636, Wedel led the "Dragon" "The Sun", the "Catherine" and the "Colonist" were 4 warships, plus the "Annie" and the "Discovery" 2 light sailing merchant ships. With the instructions of King Charles I of England, he left England in a "mighty" way and went to Macau in the Ming Dynasty to seek trade.

Of course, they also hope to break the Portuguese monopoly on Macau trade: "If the British gain a stronghold and open up trade with India, Portugal's trade will all disappear." He is jealous of the Portuguese, He made a fortune by occupying Macau.

This point corresponds to the record in "History of the Ming Dynasty": "Driving four ships, he jumped from the tiger's gate to Guangzhou, claiming to seek market."

Wedel's fleet The first purpose was not to start a war with the Ming Dynasty, but simply to do business with the Ming Dynasty.

On July 23, 1637 (the tenth year of Chongzhen in the Ming Dynasty), Wedel's fleet finally arrived in Guangzhou, hoping to communicate with the Ming Dynasty officials. He sent the "Annie" into the rivers in Guangzhou to measure the water depth, and even went as deep as the Humen area, and marked everything.

In early August, faced with the British's temptation to penetrate deeper into Guangzhou, the Ming Dynasty ordered them: "Don't push towards Guangzhou anymore." "Although at the end of July, Wedel had already confessed to Guangzhou how many ships, how many people there were on his trip, as well as the amount of arms, goods, investment money, etc. I hope to be able to trade directly with the Ming Dynasty, but there is no reply from Guangzhou.

Due to the delay in getting a reply from the Ming Dynasty, Wedel led the fleet to set sail and arrived at Yaniang Shoes on August 8 to anchor.

Here, he saw the Ming army’s preparations for war: “The fleet (the Ming Dynasty’s navy tracking the Weddell fleet) and the forts showed that they were constantly busy making preparations. Sign."

In order to show that he was not here to start a war, Wedel deliberately raised a white flag, but the Ming army could not understand this move. Several years later, when the Qing army fired artillery at Humen at the same place, they still could not understand the meaning of flying the white flag.

Wedel had no choice but to send people ashore, on the one hand to buy food to replenish supplies, and on the other hand to communicate the misunderstanding with the Ming Dynasty. However, the Ming Dynasty "strengthened the walls and cleared the country", and Wedel did not buy anything; however, he kept in touch with Ming Dynasty officials. And got a temporary guarantee:

In 6 days, Guangzhou's trade license will be issued to Wedel.

Wedel felt that he had been deceived.

2. The Humen Fort was easily breached

After waiting for three days, on August 11, Wedel couldn't hold it in any longer. So the "Dragon" was dispatched to measure the surrounding waters. As a result, the Ming Dynasty's fort fired first, and the "Dragon" was bombarded three times, but the Ming army's artillery never hit the target.

The same was true for the Qing army a few years later.

After learning that his fleet was under attack, Weddell immediately ordered the charge to hoist the red flag: "The king's flag, canvas and red flag were immediately hoisted, and the tide rose, we (the British fleet) sailed into the fort Nearby, four of our ships surrounded it. ”

The result was that the four British warships attacked the Ya Niang Shoe Fort, and the Ya Niang Shoe Fort had no power to fight back. Only half an hour later, the Ya Niang Shoes fort was bombarded to a complete mess, and the remaining Ming army was also suffocated.

Wedell commanded the British troops to land, and after successfully attacking the fort, he tore down the Ming army flag that had been planted on top of the city and hung it under the city wall. Then the British King's flag was hoisted over the city. Take this as a humiliation to Ming Ting.

After completing the winner's ceremony, Wedel began to count the trophies of the fort. The General Secretary captured 40 artillery pieces. Even though Wedel looked down on these artillery pieces, he still carried 35 of them to the warship, so as to get some trophies and souvenirs, right?

Now the Ming Dynasty officials no longer dared to hang Wedel, so they sent Li Yerong (translator, who could speak Portuguese) (called "the traitor Li Yerong" in "History of the Ming Dynasty", Wedel called him for "Noretti") came to see Wedel.

Mainly to convey the meaning of the Ming Dynasty. To put it bluntly, it just wants to negotiate a peace and settle the matter. The conditions are also very simple:

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As long as Wedell hands over the artillery on the Ya Niang Shoe Fort and other captured trophies, Guangzhou can trade with the British;

Of course, there are conditions for trade, that is Following the example of the Portuguese, taxes need to be paid to the Ming Dynasty.

Wedel agreed without hesitation.

He also sent two of his maritime merchants to follow Li Yerong to Guangzhou to resume his duties, hoping to reach a trade agreement as soon as possible.

The result?

Both sides were deceived by the general Li Yerong, who always said good things to everyone. One side deceived Wedel that he was willing to do business with the Ming Dynasty, and the other side deceived the Ming Dynasty that Wedel had given up. Shen Weijing is a good student. No wonder he was deemed a "treacherous citizen" by "History of the Ming Dynasty".

The result was that after the merchants came back, Li Yerong's two sides went bankrupt. Because the maritime merchants brought back a joint notice from Haidao and Commander-in-Chief Chen Qian to Wedel, telling Wedel to get out of here in a strong tone. That is the rhetoric above.

But Wedel smiled and said nothing: "The Ming Dynasty empire is facing the end, and their military force is at its lowest ebb, but the officials' tongues and pen tips still maintain their usual energy." That's it. Haha, it means "noob".

After that, Wedel requested to enter the inland river to avoid the storm, but the Ming Dynasty firmly refused, and the war between the two sides resumed.

At two o'clock in the morning on September 10, the Ming Dynasty navy launched a night attack, that is, using fire ships to attack. But it was of no use to the Weddell fleet and was quickly repulsed. On September 18, Weddell commanded the British army to counterattack, setting fire to three Chinese sailing ships, burning a town, and robbing 30 pigs. Then they captured the Ya Niang Shoe Fort in Humen again and completely blew it up, and also burned a Ming army's sailboat.

How to say it? It was a bloody attack on the Ming army.

Wedel's fleet and men suffered almost no losses. In addition to often not being able to get supplies, they are already satisfied with plunder.

3. Did Britain really pay compensation to the Ming Dynasty?

According to traditional theory, in order to avoid a complete antagonism with the Ming Dynasty, the British proactively agreed to compensate the Ming Dynasty 2,800 taels of silver, then wrote a letter of guarantee and left the Ming Dynasty.

But the fact is that there are indeed 2,800 taels of silver, but this is indeed not compensation, but "intermediary fees" for trade.

It was not Wedell who the Ming Dynasty asked for, but the Portuguese in Macau who asked Wedell for "favor fees".

After the second exchange of fire, the Portuguese intervened to persuade peace, and the Wedel fleet was able to go to Guangzhou to purchase goods. But the premise for the acquisition was that under Li Yerong's instigation, British maritime merchants bribed Guangzhou officials nearly 6,000 taels of silver. Sixty percent of the silver was hacked by the commander-in-chief Chen Qian.

But when the British were about to leave, the Portuguese stopped them and said, you can trade with the Ming Dynasty because we Portuguese have made great efforts. They asked the Weddell fleet: "Pay 28,000 eight rials for the privilege of the transaction they have made."

This is equivalent to about 17,612 taels of silver.

The British would definitely not agree. Two days later, the Portuguese changed their tune and said they only needed to pay 4,528 eight rials.

In terms of silver, it is 2,800 taels.

This has nothing to do with reparations. It is just that the Portuguese used the Ming Dynasty's rhetoric to deceive the British into taking advantage of them.

Wedel determined at that time: "This is a bluffing fraud by the Portuguese and Chinese (Ming Dynasty) people." Not only would Wedel not pay the money, but his maritime merchants were firmly opposed to it. : "Businessmen firmly reject this kind of extortion."

What is the final result? Of course, it would be nothing. The British would not give it to them, so it was a waste of time to even think about it.

But Wedel did reach an agreement with the Ming Dynasty:

"(Commander Chen Qian) made a contract and signed it with (Marine Merchant) Montaigne for the first time Terms:

In order to have free and broad trade and residence, the British paid the emperor (Ming Dynasty) 20,000 taels of silver, 4 iron cannons and 50 Mauser guns every year. ”

But. The premise is to ask the Ming Dynasty to follow the example of Portugal and also set aside an independent trade zone for itself, or allow itself to build commercial buildings.

Commander-in-Chief Chen Qian probably agreed, but in fact he just deceived Wedel, and Wedel did not take it seriously. If he can complete this trade with Ming Dynasty, he can complete his mission and return to England. The fact is that neither party took it seriously.

Although Wedel failed very much after returning to China because he failed to complete the purpose of establishing trade with the Ming Dynasty, he also completed a feat of navigation.

After all, this was the first time Britain had "successfully" traded with the Ming Dynasty.

But Chen Qian, the commander-in-chief, was unlucky. "History of the Ming Dynasty" records: "Qian asked himself to be transferred to avoid disaster, but was impeached by Ling Yiqu and others from the military department. , sit for arrest. "

After the British left, Chen Qian was afraid that the defeat and the signing of the contract would be exposed, so he immediately requested an outside transfer in the hope of avoiding investigation. However, he was still exposed, so he went to jail. It’s unknown whether it happened, but according to Chongzhen’s urine properties, it wouldn’t be too good.

Finally, let me tell you a particularly interesting thing:

The Ming Dynasty did not know the existence of Britain from beginning to end. They always thought they were fighting against the "Red-haired Barbarians".

That is, the Netherlands.

"History of the Ming Dynasty" follows the records of the Ming Dynasty and puts the blame for the naval battle of Ya Niang Shoes on the Netherlands.

The Netherlands takes the blame.

(

Reference materials: "History of the Ming Dynasty", "Chronicle of the East India Company's Trade with China")

(One family's opinion, seek common ground while reserving differences, thank you for reading)