As the Kangqian era entered its heyday in the early years of Qianlong, the Qing Dynasty's conquest also entered a climax. At this time, Emperor Qianlong's expedition to the south and north brought the entire territory of the Qing Dynasty to its peak, and he also gathered ten martial arts for himself.
Among these wars were four wars with the Gongbang dynasty in southern Burma. Except for the first skirmish, the other three were national wars with a scale of more than 10,000 people. Although the Qing army eventually withdrew from Burma in victory, each victory was a disastrous victory. And the flintlock pistols purchased from the West during the war caused considerable trouble to the Qing army, and even killed four generals of the Qing army. But the flintlock pistol still did not attract the attention of the Qianlong Emperor and the Qing Dynasty high-level, which is indeed worth **.
Things have to start with the rise of the Gongbang Dynasty. After the rise of the Gongbang Dynasty, it quickly began to expand in all directions, eliminating the southern palm in the east, the city-states of northeastern India in the west, and the famous Siamese dynasty in the south. And to the north is a lot of Yunnan toast under the fetters of the Qing Dynasty. The Gongbang Dynasty demanded that the Tusi of Yunnan hand over the Huama Rite, which had been broken for many years, which aroused unanimous opposition from the Tusi. In order to make an example of the chickens and monkeys, the Gongbang Dynasty attacked the Yunnan border.
The Great Qing Dynasty and the Gongbang Dynasty.
At this time, the Qing ** still adhered to the policy of calming things down, thinking that it was just a civil war between bandits and Tusi, and did not pay attention to it. In fact, Qing**'s misjudgment also has a lot to do with toast. The so-called flower horse ceremony is the tax paid by Tusi to the Qing ** and the Donghu Dynasty since the beginning of the Qing Dynasty. At that time, Yunnan Tusi could neither provoke the Donghu Dynasty nor the Qing Dynasty, so there was a policy of "taking the Qing as the father and Burma as the mother".
But with the weakening of the Taungoo dynasty, the Tusi no longer paid tribute to Burma. However, the strength of the Gongbang Dynasty made the toasts live a life of serving the two "fathers" again. This flower horse ceremony does not dare to report the truth to the Qing **, otherwise it will expose the essence of riding the wall. Therefore, from top to bottom, Qing ** thinks that those who come to loot are thieves. Even Qianlong sent Liu Zao to be the governor of Yunnan and Guizhou.
Liu Zao was a literati and did not know how to fight, and Qianlong sent him to think that the Yunnan border was bandits, and he still had to rely on appeasement and economic governance, and the military as an auxiliary means. But of course, this is not the case, and the green battalion soldiers sent by Liu Zao many times have been wiped out by the Burmese army. Liu Zao was also demoted by Qianlong because of military defeat, which was the first Qing-Burma War.
Emperor Qianlong. Realizing that it was not a good thing to harass the border, Qianlong began to send a large army to conquer Burma, which was the Second to Fourth Qing-Burma Wars. Although the number of troops participating in the Qing-Burma War was 10,000, the battle situation was quite tragic. "Huanzhu Gege" Lierkang was captured because of the Qing-Burma War. In the Second Qing-Burma War, Qianlong replaced Yang Yingju as the governor of Yunnan and Guizhou. Although Yang Yingju is a civil official, he is still a little level in quelling the rebellion.
Yang Yingju changed Liu Zao's combat policy, began to prepare supplies, and went all out to attack the Burmese army. Yang Yingju requisitioned more than 10,000 green battalion soldiers to attack the Burmese army's defense of Cheng and Menggen, and won the battle. The victory of these two strongholds made the toasts see the strength of ** again, and began to join the Qing **. Yang Yingju saw that Tusi was attached, and the Burmese army began to float up after fighting so well. On the one hand, he reported a great victory to **, and on the other hand, he continued to attack the hinterland of Burma.
At this time, the Gongbang Dynasty also reacted, and transferred the elite troops who were fighting from the south, and Yang Yingju's luck was over. In the face of the elite of the Burmese army, the green battalion soldiers in Yunnan could not take much advantage at all, and in the end, the two sides fought on the front line of Tiebi Pass. In order to invite merit, Yang Yingju had already reported the news of Yunnan's victory to Qianlong. But Qianlong was not a mediocre emperor, and when he saw Yang Yingju writing about the great victory in Yunnan on the one hand, and saying that Burma should be based on peace negotiations, he was suspicious. In the end, Yang Yingju was dismissed and killed for lying about the military situation.
Qing Army. The Third and Fourth Qing-Burma Wars were both commanded by military generals. We can see how difficult the flintlock pistol caused to the Qing army by looking at the two battles. As a Southeast Asian country, Myanmar naturally had more dealings with Western colonizers. The Gongbang dynasty once captured hundreds of French soldiers, who also helped the Gongbang dynasty train in the use of flintlock pistols.
There is a similar record in our "Burmese Files": "Their guns are all fired by themselves. "During the Third Qing-Burma War, the Qing army once set up an ambush on the top of the mountain. However, due to the use of flintlock pistols by the Burmese army, they also shot and killed Li Quan, the commander-in-chief of the Qing army, by virtue of their rate of fire. Later, the Burmese army shot and killed the commander of the protectors, Zharafonah, with a flintlock pistol.
In the Fourth Qing-Burma War, Fu Heng organized troops to attack the Burmese army, although the Qing army relied on the ability to mount and shoot and achieve some victories, but the flintlock pistol still caused a lot of casualties to the Qing army. The commander-in-chief, Defoy, was shot with a flintlock pistol in this war. It can also be seen from the third and fourth Qing-Burma wars that the intensity of the war was quite high.
Qing Army Horse Team. In the end, Qianlong had no choice but to adopt economic sanctions. After the start of the Qing-Burma War, the Qing Dynasty banned the ** on the Qinghai-Burma border, which hit Myanmar very hard. Raw silk and textiles from the Qing Dynasty were important in Burmese clothing**. Due to the severance, many people are forced to take risks to smuggle. The Gongbang Dynasty even ordered that all silk products should not be sold, which shows the arrogance of the influence of Burma.
So much so that the Fourth Qing-Burma War was still being fought, and Myanmar asked the Qing Dynasty to lift the embargo. Moreover, the ** embargo made it impossible for Burmese cotton to be sold to the Qing Dynasty, and this blow was from the top of Myanmar to the civilian population. In the forty-second year of Qianlong, Burma really couldn't stand it anymore and began to release the detained Qing Dynasty ** Sur Xiang hoped for peace talks between the two countries. In the 53rd year of Qianlong, Burma sent tribute, and the Qing Dynasty began to restore diplomatic relations.
The flintlock pistol had a faster rate of fire than the Qing army's bird guns, and it also shot two commanders and one protector. The general army was already considered a high-ranking general in the military system of the Ming and Qing dynasties, but the Qianlong Emperor did not pay much attention to the flintlock pistol. It was not that the Qing Dynasty leaders, including Qianlong, had never seen flintlock pistols, but they only used flintlock pistols to hunt and did not equip their troops. This question is indeed worth digging into.
Fusiliers. The Qing Dynasty faced a problem with flint, that is, it did not have the same good flint as in the West. But this is not the main problem, because there was no **embargo in that era. Flint, a widely used thing, is certainly available. The biggest reason why the Qing Dynasty didn't like flintlock pistols was that they focused too much on quantity and not on quality.
Many people think that the regular ranged ** of the Qing army is a bow and arrow. In fact, with the passage of peace in the world, most of the Qing army did not have the ability to shoot arrows, and instead of muskets. The Qing Dynasty's reliance on muskets was even outrageous. Although the Ming army was corrupt and degenerate, there were still family members as the main force, and the Qing army's Eight Banners and Green Battalion were collectively degenerate, and they were all mud that could not support the wall.
In order to solve the problem of low combat effectiveness, the Qing Dynasty began to equip soldiers with muskets in large numbers. The number of musket equipment of the Qing Dynasty's green battalion soldiers has reached 50%. Due to the large number of Qing troops, so many muskets in that agrarian society was a disaster for craftsmen.
Green Battalion Soldiers. Therefore, the Qing Dynasty opted for a simplified version of the musket. The fire guns of the Qing Dynasty even did not have a crosshair, and the fire rope was replaced by a paper rope. Many historians believe that the firearms of the Qing Dynasty were even inferior to those of the late Ming Dynasty, and there is no problem with this. Because the Qing Dynasty completely threw aside performance in order to focus on quantity. Under such circumstances, it is understandable that the Qing Dynasty was not interested in the more complex craft of flintlock pistols.
Moreover, the long-term use of more and less also gave the Qing Dynasty high-level an illusion, and their Eight Banners Iron Cavalry was still the invincible army that fought all over the world. Therefore, from Qianlong to Daoguang, they are constantly strengthening the cavalry and archery capabilities of the Qing army. Who knows, the world of the 18th and 19th centuries is no longer the world when the Qing army entered the customs. When the British army's strong ships and cannons appeared on the southeast coast, the end of the Qing Dynasty was also coming.