The Preparations for War in China

The Chinese seem inclined to be very accommodating enemies. Their presumption is one of our best allies. The apprehension was that they would avoid battle, and that our expedition would be unable to make any impression, having no point of resistance on which to operate in so extensive a country. But, instead of this policy, the Chinese have the infatuation of thinking to oppose our expedition with ships built for merchant service and turned, for the nonce, into men-of-war. This is merely presenting something for us to knock to pieces or to capture. It is furnishing us with the subject-matter for showing our superiority.

The Chinese, notwithstanding their ignorance, have discerned and acknowledged the superiority of European ships to their clumsy junks; but they have not the skill to perceive that there is even a greater difference between a man-of-war and a merchantman than between a merchantman and a junk. How will the sages at Pekin reconcile the use of the foreign ships and barbarian armament with the maxim so lately proclaimed by the Emperor, that the foundations of the empire were archery and horsemanship?

Tsang Wangyen, in his memorial to the Grand Military Council, confesses his conviction that to compete with us at sea is beyond the strength of the Celestial Empire, as our ships are large and strong, and we handle our great guns both quick and well, and are accustomed to the ocean; but, though sensible so far in his view of the comparison of forces, he proposes a plan of operations by land and water which is fully equal in absurdity to that which we have alluded to.

“I find that in the different little islets adjoining our coasts, there are places where fresh water may be procured; we ought, therefore, to despatch officers and soldiers to such parts, that being so guarded, foreigners may no longer be able to land and draw water. Further, the common people who inhabit the villages by the sea-side ought all to be drilled and formed into a sort of militia, in order that they may be able to defend their different parts of the country; and should any foreigners attempt to land, let the people sally forth to beat them back; and if any one (of ours) is discovered to hold clandestine communication with the enemy, let his crime straightway be punished with the utmost rigour. Not only in the single province of Kwangtong ought such measures to be taken, but the same precautions should be secretly enforced in all those provinces which border on the sea. The supplies being thus cut off entirely from the foreigners, and they, finding it impossible to obtain wood or water any longer, will most undoubtedly repent of their crimes, and, drooping their heads, submissively await our sentence. But supposing that these foreigners do not yet submit, that they still keep looking about them, and dare contumaciously to offer resistance; as these people rely on their ships being large and strong, as they handle their great guns both quick and well, and as they are accustomed to the vast ocean, I fear, under these circumstances, that were our cruisers to proceed to catch and slaughter them on the high seas, such were an undertaking beyond our strength. But who is ignorant of the fact? These foreigners being crafty and fraudulent, fierce and overbearing, despising the laws of the land, and not brooking limit or restraint, the soldiery and people of Kwangtung have for a long time cherished towards them a violent animosity, and every man burns with impatience to give vent to it. It is only because the successive viceroys and fuoyuens, being unwilling to do anything that might light the torch of war, have for a long time rigorously held in our people and not allowed them to give it a trial, that the Kwangtung men have kept their patience till the present day.

“My humble idea of the matter then is this: as we have hitherto appeared as hosts and they as guests; as we are on shore and they are afloat, it does not seem necessary to me under these circumstances to send our cruisers a long way out to sea to give battle to them; but as the intercourse of the said foreigners is cut off, and they being but scantily supplied with necessaries, the pressure of their sufferings will not allow them to remain a long time anchored in the outer ocean, they must of necessity again enter our inner waters, and ramble and spy out as before. Now I would still further entice them to come in by means of our cruisers, and in the meantime I would call out and get ready several hundreds of the people living on the sea coast: of those who are the stoutest and the bravest, and the best swimmers and divers, I would cause them at night to divide into groups, to go diving straight on board the foreign ships, and, taking the said foreigners unawares, massacre every individual among them. Or I would fit up several hundreds of fire-ships beforehand, and cause the most skilful swimmers and divers to go on board of them. These should take advantage of the wind and let the fire-ships go, and close in the wake of these should come our armed cruisers. But, before going into action, I would proclaim to all the soldiers and people that he or they who should be able to take a foreign ship, the entire ship and cargo should be given them for encouragement; and this being made known, every one would be more eager than the other in pressing forward to the captures; and what stay, I ask, would these rascally foreigners have to cling to any longer? Would not their hearts, on the contrary, die within them for fear?”

We think not. Tsang Wangyen would do what the Chinese have done before—catch a Tartar. Diving for British men-of-war would not succeed, and the divers would find it more judicious to remain at the bottom of the river. Such a scheme for the massacre of their enemies shows the amiable simplicity of the much-lauded flowery people. They would cut throats on the grandest scale if they did but know how to set about it.

Tsang Wangyen argues for the utter extermination of all foreigners, without even an exception in favour of our brother Jonathan.

He says—

“In my humble opinion, then, the very head or chief secret of our plan lies in shutting the ports. No matter what country these foreign ships may come from, do not let a single one of them hold commercial intercourse with us.”

He thinks, however, that there is such virtue in massacre that even the knowledge that there is a plan for one may have so salutary an effect on the minds of barbarians as to render us amenable, and to terrify us into a safe state for a limited intercourse.

“Only let a plan be laid for a general massacre, and these said foreigners cannot but fear and tremble, and come to implore us. Afterwards, if we find that they can with a sincere and contrite heart repent them of their crimes, then a memorial may be addressed to your sacred Majesty, praying that, out of the abundance of your heavenly goodness, you will again permit them to renew their commercial intercourse. But even then a limit must be put to the export of tea, rhubarb, and such commodities, and they must on no account be permitted to exceed the prescribed bounds. This is what I call keeping a strong hold upon them; literally the plan of the nippers.”

It remains to be seen which side is to be caught in the nippers.