Battle of Palikao
Battle of Palikao | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Part of the Second Opium War | |||||||
The bridge of Palikao on the evening of the battle | |||||||
| |||||||
Belligerents | |||||||
United Kingdom France | Qing China | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Sengge Rinchen | |||||||
Strength | |||||||
10,000[1] | 50,000[2] | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
British:[3] 2 killed 29 wounded French:[4] 3 killed 18 wounded | 1,200 casualties[4] |
The Battle of Palikao (
Background
The Anglo-French force had been trying for two years to get to
Sailing from Hong Kong in July, the capture of the Taku Forts on 21 August 1860 had opened up the river route to Beijing. The Chinese authorities at the fort had capitulated all 22 forts along the river as far as Tianjin, including that town.[6]: 514
The aim of the Anglo-French expedition was to compel the Chinese government at Beijing to observe the trade treaties signed between their governments at Tianjin in 1858, which included allowing the British to continue the opium trade in China. Lieutenant General
Battle
The combined Anglo-French force marched in a leisurely manner from the Taku Forts, with the French on one side of the river, the British on the other. Tianjin was reached on 1 September 1860 and negotiations were opened with Beijing.[6]: 514
The negotiators, led by Grant under a flag of truce, were captured by the Qing forces which led to an immediate cessation of negotiations.[6]: 514
The army advanced from Tianjin with a cavalry screen and when they reached Chang-Kia-Wan they met a large Chinese army with a five-mile front.[8] There was a skirmish between cavalry, then with the allied artillery silencing the Chinese artillery. The Chinese army scattered and retired.[8]
Two days later, on 20 September the cavalry discovered the Chinese army in a strong position in front of a canal connecting Beijing with the Hai River, with two bridges at Baliqiao. The allied army attacked frontally and the cavalry attacked from the left forcing the Chinese back over the two bridges.[8] The Anglo-French force inflicted massive losses on the Qing army trapped by the canal. Beijing was invaded thereafter.[9]
On the Qing side, Sengge Rinchen's troops, including elite Mongolian cavalry, were completely annihilated after several doomed frontal charges against concentrated firepower from the allied forces.[citation needed]
Aftermath
With the Qing army devastated, the
Negotiations centered around the release of the prisoners. The talks failed and on 11 October engineers threw up works and batteries to break through the walls of Peking. Everything was ready that evening when at 11.30 pm the gate opened and the city surrendered.[6]: 514
The prisoners had been taken to the Ministry of Justice (or Board of Punishments) in Beijing, where they were confined and tortured. Parkes and Loch were returned with 14 other survivors. Twenty British, French and Indian captives died. Their bodies were barely recognisable.[10]
The Anglo-French forces entered Beijing and sacked the
The French commander Cousin-Montauban was later awarded the title of "Count of Palikao" and a decade later, was made the 31st
In the Treaty of Tianjin, the Qing court agreed to all Western demands, including the payment of indemnities and the acceptance of foreign diplomats at the imperial court in Beijing. Because neither Qing nor Western diplomats discussed the opium trade, the treaty effectively liberalized it.[citation needed]
Notes
- ^ de Saint-Amand & Martin 1912, p. 273
- ^ Frontier and Overseas Expeditions from India. Volume 6. Calcutta: Superintendent Government Printing. 1911. p. 435.
- ^ London Gazette: no. 22452, pp. 4770–4771, 27 November 1860. Accessed 28 September 2010.
- ^ a b de Saint-Amand & Martin 1912, p. 277
- ^ Mourre 1968, p. 500
- ^ a b c d Porter, Maj Gen Whitworth (1889). History of the Corps of Royal Engineers Vol I. Chatham: The Institution of Royal Engineers.
- ^ Grant, Sir James Hope in Encyclopædia Britannica, 11th edition
- ^ a b c "China War 1860". 1st Queens Dragoon Guards. Archived from the original on 22 September 2017. Retrieved 16 September 2015.
- ^ Boulger 1893, p. 383
- OCLC 10947915. Retrieved 1 September 2009.
- ISBN 978-962-209-742-1.
References
- Boulger, Demetrius Charles (1893). China. Kessinger Publishing. ISBN 1-4179-1627-3.
- de Saint-Amand, Imbert; Martin, Elizabeth Gilbert (1912). Napoleon III at the Height of His Power. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.
- Mourre, Michel (1968). Dictionnaire d'histoire universelle. Paris : Éditions universitaires. ISBN 2-040-27205-4
Further reading
- Luxembourg, Rosa The Accumulation of Capital Chapter 28: The introduction of the commodity economy [1]