I prefer the history of Kang Yong's reign in the Qing Dynasty, because it was the heyday of the Qing Dynasty, and its territory, national strength and people's living standards all reached the peak in the whole history of China. Although this "golden age" has signs of a spent force, it is another revival after the Ming Dynasty. The history after the Opium War has always been a symbol of humiliation, which makes people feel resentful. I'm afraid the Opium War has brought almost the same impression to most people, which is nothing more than these views: the Qing dynasty ruled in darkness and corruption, and traitors and traitors in the DPRK ran rampant. If we persist in using upright ministers and people like Lin Zexu to resist, we will certainly defeat the invaders ... Apart from some objective factors, an important reason for the defeat is that the Qing Dynasty never regarded Britain as an equal opponent and never learned a lesson after the defeat. For the "foreigners" who came from afar, the Qing dynasty knew that they had "a strong ship and a strong gun", but that was all. They always thought that the British army was not good at land warfare, and it was easy to deal with when they left the warship.

In fact, although the officers and men of the Qing army stubbornly resisted to the end in many battles, they were brave and unyielding, but in most cases they were still broken at the touch of a button, or coaches took the lead to escape. However, due to its obvious advantages, the British army suffered few casualties, and in Zhenjiang, it was also largely due to underestimating the enemy. On the contrary, climate, soil and water, diseases and epidemics have caused them to lose more than hundreds of people.

After the signing of the treaty, the dynasty resumed singing and dancing, and most of the officials who stepped down because of poor military achievements resumed. It seems that nothing has changed. Even the most basic defense facilities, the restored battery, are still unable to resist the artillery fire of the foreign powers as before. It can be said that the cost of the defeat of the Opium War was completely wasted. However, the door of neighboring Japan was opened by American bombing at 1850, and it quickly learned its lesson and embarked on the road of reform.

History is immutable. I used to wonder if it would be like this if the sage Kangxi was in power at that time. In fact, it is difficult to have such a wise monarch as Kangxi in the late dynasty with hereditary monarchy and educational methods. Besides, Daoguang himself was not the emperor with the worst qualification. The key is that the decadent system and bad habits make him unable to understand the real situation. China's development to this state, it should be said that it will inevitably be opened by the gunfire of foreign powers, and the signing of unequal treaties seems to be irreversible. What is really sad is that China failed to embark on the road of self-improvement in time after the defeat. Now, when we are lamenting that Lin Zexu was dismissed, cheering for the peasants in Sanyuanli to resist Britain, and hating the surrender of Qishan and Yilibu, should we think about what the Opium War really should bring us and what it actually brings us?