In February of the seventh year of Xianfeng in Qing Dynasty (1857), a group of British gunboats invaded Wuzhou from Xijiang River, surveyed the navigation channel and drew charts along the way. In the first month of the ninth year of Xianfeng (1859), Britain and France jointly sent five ships and more than 3,000 soldiers to invade Wuzhou from Guangzhou to explore the waterway from Wuzhou to the mainland. In October of the first year of Tongzhi (1862), the British gunboat Huangpu invaded tengxian along the Xijiang River via Wuzhou, and explored the Xijiang waterway again, preparing to invade Wuzhou further.

After the Sino-Japanese War, the Qing government sent Li Hongzhang to Japan to make peace. In the draft peace treaty, the Japanese side proposed to open seven places, including Wuzhou Prefecture in Guangxi, as trading ports. Li Hongzhang said, "Xiangtan and Wuzhou natives have always hated outsiders. In case of opening the mouth, it is difficult for the local officials to protect. " Wuzhou was not opened for various reasons.

After the Sino-French War, the Qing government longed for peace and signed a peace treaty with France, confirming France's special rights and interests in Guangxi. Britain used this as an excuse to say that the government violated the Sino-British "Further Talks on the Yunnan-Myanmar Border and Commercial Funds" (1894), and thus proposed new blackmail, including the foreign trade of Xijiang. It was under the consideration of the so-called "the lesser of the two evils, the delay in making a decision, and the more difficult it is to clean up" that the Qing government decided to open Xijiang trade. Gong, the Qing government's envoy to Britain, negotiated with Britain. On February 4th, the 23rd year of Guangxu reign (1897), Li Hongzhang, the representative of the Qing government, and Claude Maxwell MacDonald, the British ambassador, signed the supplementary clauses of the Sino-British Treaty on the Continuation of Myanmar, including the special clauses of Xijiang trade: "It is now clear to each other that Wuzhou House in Guangxi and Jianggen Market in Sanshui County in Guangdong Province will be opened as trading ports and used as the residence of consular officials, and ships will sail from Hong Kong to Sanshui and Wuzhou. From Guangzhou to Sanshan, on June 5th, Li Hongzhang and Claude Maxwell MacDonald exchanged the text of the treaty in Beijing, and the treaty came into effect, and informed the governors, ministers and customs inspectors of Guangdong. The five States set up customs, and the British served as the customs tax department. 、

In the name of protecting foreign nationals' trade interests in China, Britain built a consulate in Baiheshan to build another bridgehead for aggression. According to relevant data, the land price paid by the British to buy Baihe Mountain and two nearby hills is only 24,000 copper coins. According to Article 65438+ 1000 in the late Qing Dynasty, 24,000 copper coins are the silver dollar 24 yuan. At that time, in normal years, 1 yuan could only buy medium-sized rice of about 25 kg. In other words, the land price of Baihe Mountain and two nearby hills is only equivalent to the value of 600 Jin of rice! The flattery and ignorance of local officials in the Qing Dynasty is really embarrassing.