When the British attacked Guangzhou, Governor Ye did not resist or surrender. Why is he so abnormal?

In the Second Sino-British War, Ye, the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, acted very strangely in the face of the British attack. He did not fight, discuss, defend, die, descend or leave, which eventually led to the fall of Guangzhou. Why on earth did he behave so abnormally? (photo of Ye Lao) Ye, a native of Hanyang, Hubei, was born in a scholarly family. His father likes books. Ye has been in contact with books since childhood and is very interested in reading. When he was young, he was famous for his poems. To study well is to be an official. Ye's road to scientific research is very smooth. He passed the examination of Gong Sheng before 18 years old, and passed the examination of Jinshi at the age of 26. At the age of 38, he was appointed as the governor of Guangdong because of his prosperous career. Ye's official career is prosperous, not only because he is really capable, but also because he is honest and frugal. Ye does business at home, and has old-fashioned pharmacies and other industries in Hanyang, and his family is very well off. But Ye is extremely frugal at ordinary times, so he is deeply loved by Daoguang, who also pursues frugality. 1874, Daoguang made him the governor of Guangdong. After the First Opium War, the Qing court was forced to open its doors and agreed to open five trading ports. Guangzhou, where Ye lives, is an important commercial port. But when people heard about it, they were very * * *, and they resolutely disagreed with foreigners going to town to do business. Ye Chenming also disapproves of opening ports to foreigners. Therefore, when he was governor, together with Xu, the acting governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, who was in charge of trade affairs, insisted on writing the condition that "foreigners are not allowed to enter the city" into the treaty when negotiating with foreigners. Naturally, the foreigners who finally opened the door of the Qing court absolutely disagreed. To this end, Ye secretly contacted 10 more than 10,000 people and besieged foreign ships to show public anger. Because of the disparity in the number of people, outsiders are afraid and will no longer rush into the city. Daoguang was very happy to hear this, and wrote a letter praising Ye's "unyielding" attitude, appeasing both at home and abroad and achieving long-term stability. "And named him viscount. Han officials have always been excluded from the imperial court, and it is rare for them to be knighted like Ye. (Daoguang stills) 1850, Daoguang died of illness, and Xianfeng inherited the Great System. Shortly after Xianfeng ascended the throne, the Taiping Rebellion broke out. Subsequently, peasant army uprisings continued everywhere. Xianfeng constantly sent troops to suppress, but the Qing army could not stop the pace of the rebels. To this end, Xianfeng was furious, and many governors and governors were dismissed and exiled one after another because of their ineffective suppression, but Ye was an exception. Guangzhou, where Ye is located, has become a battleground for the peasant army because it is a concentration of commercial trade. However, Ye has rich experience in suppressing peasant army uprisings. He not only saved the day several times, but also brutally suppressed the peasant army. Therefore, he saved Guangzhou, and at the same time guaranteed rich tax revenue, guaranteed the fiscal revenue of the Qing court, and solved the urgent needs of Xianfeng. 1852 In August, Xianfeng sent Xu to Hunan to suppress Hong Xiuquan's uprising. Therefore, Ye was promoted to the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, and was also an imperial minister in charge of five trade affairs. 1856, 10 In June, a merchant ship named Yaluo docked at Guangzhou Port. Guangzhou Navy found that the ship's license had expired 1 1 day after boarding the ship for inspection. At the same time, the shipowner was originally a national of A Qing, but he engaged in some opium smuggling activities with Britain. In addition, two of the crew members were suspected of piracy. Therefore, the Guangzhou Navy detained all 12 China sailors on board according to law. After the incident, Parkes, British consul in Guangzhou, insisted that the ship was a British ship and the Qing government had no right to detain anyone. And asked Ye to release people quickly within 24 hours and publicly apologize to Britain. Unlike some officials who talk about foreigners' color change, Ye is not afraid of foreigners coming to pick fights. After finding out the situation, he argued and finally agreed to release 12 sailors, but he never apologized. Because Britain has been unable to enter the city for a long time to do business, it has long been angry from embarrassment, so it took the opportunity to sail into the Pearl River port and shell the Governor's Office in Guangzhou, which triggered the second Opium War. After the war broke out, Ye actively prepared for the war. In addition to issuing a notice offering a reward for killing the enemy, more than 20,000 people should be quickly summoned to prepare for the battle. At the same time, due to his strong initiative, local vigilante groups also responded spontaneously. At one time, "inside and outside the city hall, all the lists were popular, and it was agreed to kill outsiders and share the same enemy", which looked quite imposing. But at this time, Ye made some unusual moves in the face of foreigners' attacks. He told his men to "listen to what the British do" and said, "When enemy ships enter, don't shoot back. "So, why is there such an abnormal behavior? It turns out that Ye is knowledgeable, but he is superstitious. In the governor's yamen, he built a "Changchun Temple" dedicated to two immortals, Li Taibai and Lv Dongbin. In all the government affairs and military affairs of Ye, I will look for this "two immortals" for divination before making a decision. Ye had already divined the foreigner's attack within fifteen days, so he didn't intend to fight back in the face of the rumbling of foreigners' guns. Although local vigilante groups and Yingyong groups fought back against foreigners, how can vigilante groups with hoes and sickles resist foreign guns? So just after 14 days, Guangzhou fell. Supposedly, as an official of the Qing court, if you want to leave a reputation, you might as well die after the city is broken. In the worst case, you may die heroically. For example, Wang Youling, the governor of Zhejiang, died heroically after the city was broken. However, in this war, Ye did not take an active part in the fighting, nor did he make peace with foreigners. He didn't die after the city was broken. Instead, wearing a hat and a royal robe, he sat in the government house, waiting for the arrival of foreigners. (Xianfeng stills)? As Ye is a senior official, foreigners worry that if he is detained on the spot, someone will save him. After discussion, he was finally placed in a house in Calcutta, India. Ye Chenming has always hoped to have the opportunity to meet these foreigners' kings and show them his righteousness. However, he soon found that hope was almost impossible to realize. So he often compares himself to "Su Wu at sea" and sometimes writes poems to compare Wen Tianxiang. Soon, Ye's food will be used up, and Ye's mood is getting lower and lower every day. He consciously can't see the kings of foreigners, so what's the use of living here? So he followed Uncle Boyd's example and died of hunger strike. Before he died, he left only one sentence: "Live up to the emperor's favor and die unsatisfied!" After Ye died, foreigners praised his integrity and sent his body back to Guangzhou. However, Ye, whose soul returned to his hometown, was extremely indifferent to this, both in the Qing court and among the people. It turned out that as early as Ye was captured, Emperor Xianfeng not only did not actively rescue him, but also worried that foreigners would use him to blackmail the Qing court. He was dismissed and convicted on the grounds of being "perverse and guilty", and declared to foreigners that Ye was just a grass-roots sinner, and his life and death had nothing to do with the interests of the Qing court. Guangzhou people hated Ye's mistake for his country, saying that he was "not fighting, not discussing, not defending, not dying, not falling, not leaving", which was "nothing in ancient times, but rare today", so he was nicknamed "the commander of the six divisions". Finally, with the help of Ye's relatives, he was hastily buried. (Refer to historical materials: "So that's it: Biography of Ye Chenming")