Date of birth and death: 1833- 1906
Nationality: British, later joined China, the word Chen Qing, to show loyalty to the Qing court.
Place of birth: Scotland
Graduate school: graduated from medical college of Edinburgh University.
Bai Qiwen has been the secretary of the team leader for only two months. In the second year of Tongzhi (1863), he joined the Huai army, taught in Chunziying under the command of Zhang Yuchun, and led the team to fight the Taiping Army with Li Hongzhang in Shanghai, Kunshan and Suzhou, which won Li Hongzhang's trust. 10, a murder occurred in Suzhou. Later, Li Hongzhang asked Pan Zengwei to seek mediation from Magritte, and Magritte persuaded Gordon to reconcile and kill and surrender.
After Magli joined the Huai Army, Li Hongzhang established the Shanghai Foreign Artillery Bureau (the predecessor of Changan Automobile) in Songjiang near Shanghai in the second year of Tongzhi (1862).
After being demoted, Magli lived in Jinling. When the Yi Sima incident happened, Guo Songtao was ordered to send an imperial envoy to Britain to "apologize" and set up an embassy in London. Because the British ambassador to China Wade "repeatedly called it (Magri) energy"; Ceng Jize also interceded for him; Li Hongzhang himself "knew that faithfulness was available", so Li Hongzhang recommended Magli to Guo Songtao to visit Britain as one of his entourage. In the second year of Guangxu (1876), Magli served as a third-class translator with a third-class title and went to Britain with Guo Songtao to help set up the China Embassy. During this period, Magli helped Guo Songtao a lot, because he was familiar with everything in China and Britain, handled English copywriting and foreign affairs for Guo Songtao, and often instilled knowledge of western etiquette, customs, culture, science and technology into Guo Songtao. After Guo Songtao left office, Magli returned to China and was transferred to the British Embassy as Counsellor until he left office in the 31st year of Guangxu (1905).
Magritte started as a firearms coach of Huai Army, and later he supervised the production of artillery shells and presided over the production of modern arsenals. He followed Li Hongzhang for more than ten years and was deeply relied on by Li Hongzhang. During the Sino-French War, Magli put forward seven mediation drafts in the 11th year of Guangxu (1885). 1906, Magli died in England at the age of 73. At that time, he was an adviser to the China Embassy in London. After his death, the king of England gave him a title, and there were streets named after him in the British Concession in old China. Sir Magli, a native of auchinleck, England, received his doctor's degree in medicine from the University of Edinburgh. He served as a military doctor of the 99th United Army, and served as the "Chang Shengjun", a Chinese-foreign mixed force that suppressed the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom movement. This team is controlled by Li Hongzhang, commander-in-chief of Huai Army.
Li Hongzhang witnessed the power of western-style tactics and foreign guns, so he planned to build his own arsenal to produce new weapons and hire foreign instructors to greatly improve the combat effectiveness of the Huai army. Smart Magli saw through the current situation and seized this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity wholeheartedly. He tried his best to join the Huai army and become a foreign "teacher" (instructor) to get close to Li Hongzhang. Magli wrote in his notes: "I joined Li Hongzhang after I was allowed to leave the British army. The first thing is to point out to him that the price he paid for foreign arms at that time was too high. Spend 30 taels of silver to buy an ordinary 12 kg shell case stolen from a British gunboat, and spend 16 taels of silver to buy the worst copper cap, which is 6 kg. I told him that European countries set up large factories to manufacture arms. If China wants to consider its own interests, it should also establish such a manufacturing factory. " These words touched Li Hongzhang, so Magli volunteered to lead the craftsmen to carry out manual trial production. He mounted the horse by indigenous method, made a melting pot out of clay, and pieced together some shells, drug guides and paper tubes of gun doors with simple tools and equipment. British officer Charles Charles Staveley came to visit Li Hongzhang. Li Sui asked him to have a look at these samples. After being praised by Charles Charles Staveley, they tried it out and proved that the quality was acceptable. 1862, Li Hongzhang authorized Magli to hire 50 workers to build the Shanghai Yangpao Bureau in a temple in Songjiang County, which was completed in April 1863.
The equipment of Shanghai foreign guns is very simple. In addition to buying some from foreign businessmen in Shanghai, they also recruited foreign craftsmen to "buy gun-making equipment from Hong Kong". From the very beginning, Li Hongzhang established two modes for foreigners and China people to manage factories. To this end, Li Hongzhang "let China craftsmen led by Han Dianjia concentrate on learning" the skills of foreign workers, and specially transferred Ding Richang from Guangdong, who was "knowledgeable and alert to the secrets of westerners", and divided the artillery bureau into three sub-bureaus. The 1 sub-bureau was jointly led by Liu Zuoyu, an official from Magli and China, and the other two sub-bureaus were led by Han Dianjia and Ding Richang respectively. At that time, it was called "Shanghai Sanyo Artillery Bureau" (two sub-bureaus led by Han and Ding merged into "Jiangnan Machinery Manufacturing Bureau" in Shanghai on 1965). As one of the "general managers" (factory directors), Magli became the first foreign factory director in the modern industrial history of China. At the end of 1863, Li Hongzhang moved to Huai Army to conquer Suzhou, and Shanghai Foreign Artillery Bureau also moved to Nawangfu, the former Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in Suzhou, and changed its name to Suzhou Foreign Artillery Bureau. The "Aspen Fleet Incident" in this incident brought an opportunity for the development of the Foreign Artillery Bureau. Horatia Nelson Lay (Britain), the State Administration of Taxation, was entrusted by the Qing government to buy the fleet ship from the British, and wanted to build the China Navy on this basis. However, Horatia Nelson Lay signed an agreement with Admiral Aspen to monopolize the fleet. The Qing government could not accept the situation that it was completely controlled by others, so it had to reluctantly send the fleet that had already come to China back to Britain and quit the post of the State Administration of Taxation of Lee Tae. The Qing government spent106,70000 taels of silver in vain. At that time, the fleet had a set of machinery and equipment for manufacturing and maintaining arms, including steam boilers, cupolas, ladles and various machine tools. Magli, known as the "floating arsenal", encouraged Li Hongzhang to buy this set of equipment in 1864+ 10 in order to expand the possession of the foreign artillery bureau.
After Magli installed and put into production this set of equipment in the factory, the factory became the first enterprise in Jiangsu Province and even the whole country to introduce western technology and equipment and have mechanized production capacity. It can produce about 2000 rounds of guns, shells and other ammunition every week, and the product cost is greatly reduced. Shells of different sizes cost about 1 to 3 silver dollars, which is 30 taels cheaper than buying 12 jins of shells from foreign speculators. To this end, Li Hongzhang twice requested permission from the Qing court, and successively sponsored Magli's doctrine to put on a hat, adding a virtual title of "Taoist".
Li Hongzhang attaches great importance to Magli and often asks for information. In addition to discussing military affairs, he also talked with him about western scientific and technological inventions and Sino-foreign relations, and sometimes asked him to come forward to coordinate the contradictions between foreigners such as Li. Li Hongzhang's knowledge and generous reward from the Qing court enabled Magli China to develop. He married the daughter of Wang Na, the former commander of Taiping Army, and had three sons and one daughter. After his children returned to England to get married, Magli's eldest son also took the name of "British Consul in George Macartney", which means that his son will follow in his father's footsteps and serve as British Consul in Kashgar, Xinjiang, China.
Magli's achievements attracted the attention of the Qing government. As early as 1859, when the British and French allied forces invaded Dagukou, Tianjin, the Qing army won its first battle, and the accompanying departments of the army immediately ordered the firearms battalion to copy the captured foreign guns, but they had no choice but to imitate their fur, "without paying attention to its subtlety." The Qing government had to select 48 students from the soldiers who had learned foreign guns in the firearms camp and send them to become the backbone of the Qing government's military enterprises.
/kloc-in the summer of 0/865, Li Hongzhang was promoted to acting governor of Liangjiang, stationed in Jiangning, which was conquered by the Qing army, and moved the personnel and equipment of Magli Branch of Suzhou Foreign Artillery Bureau. After more than a year's expansion, a larger arsenal, Jinling Machinery Manufacturing Bureau, stands in Chenghuangshan, Nanjing. The mechanization level and productivity of this factory were first-class in China at that time. Zeng Guofan, an important official of the imperial court and a representative of the Westernization School, wrote in his diary after the visit: "Among them, if you make a copper hat with matches, sawing big wood like cutting tofu, the two are especially magical." At the beginning, there were more than 400 workers in the bureau, and later it increased to 1200.
Jinling Manufacturing Bureau has always been controlled by Li Hongzhang and regarded it as the lifeblood of Huai warlord group. 1866 to 10, Li Hongzhang was sent to the north to encircle the Nian army. In the paper, he bluntly said that he founded Jinling Manufacturing Bureau, which is the lifeblood of Huai Army, and he dared not trust it lightly. He continued to control the personnel and operation of the bureau on the grounds that the funds of the bureau were raised by Huai Army quartermaster. After Li Hongzhang was transferred to the governor of Zhili, a large part of the products of Jinling Manufacturing Bureau were still supplied to Huai Army for the construction of national defense facilities along the coast of Zhili, such as Dagukou in Tianjin.
Li Hongzhang is very fond of Magli, assisting him to assume the power of "supervising government" and ranking above Liu Zuoyu, the "general manager" of China; Gave him a generous salary, and set aside 2000 taels of silver to build a luxurious private villa, and awarded him a private guard composed of more than 10 at public expense. In order to expand the product variety and catch up with the international advanced level, Magritz reported that he personally organized the trial production of new weapons such as rockets and achieved success. 1870, Jinling manufacturing bureau added a rocket branch, and Hall rocket was put into production. 1872 10, Li Hongzhang called Magli to Tianjin to support the development plan of Jinling Manufacturing Bureau. Li also approved the request to visit Europe and buy equipment and raw materials.
1in March, 874, Magli returned to China. He used the foreign equipment he bought back to expand the Jinling Manufacturing Bureau, which has jurisdiction over the gunpowder bureau, the rocket sub-bureau and the mining bureau. Second only to Shanghai Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau, it is famous for producing a variety of guns and ammunition. With the gradual development of Jinling Manufacturing Bureau, Magli became bossy and selfish. "After he returned to China from Europe in 1874, he was more bossy than before". In enterprise decision-making, it is generally said that the "general office" and "supervision department" of westernization enterprises cannot make decisions without authorization and must obey the command of the next higher level. Magli took advantage of Li Hongzhang's instructions to monopolize power, surpassing his "supervisor" status, which should only be responsible for guidance and supervision, and overriding everyone else. As a result, the relationship with "general manager" Liu Zuoyu was very tense. Treat subordinates, Magli more arrogant. Those who are different are easily replaced, and guards are ordered to whip disobedient workers. Liu Zuoyu sued Li Hongzhang for blocking foreigners' technology against China people in the factory, while Magli retorted that he had no right to master the necessary labor force to guide the training. He accused China of supervising the personnel transfer without consulting him. What's more, the transfer of personnel is often based on nepotism or nepotism. As a result, the workers are full of sycophants and cronies, who are either not interested in learning or slow to learn. Magli's rebuttal truly exposed the corruption of feudal bureaucrats in China. Li Hongzhang despises Ma Geli, transfers Liu Zuoyu, and appoints Duan Shouhe as the "general manager".
Duan Shouhe was tactful and shrewd, and there was no direct conflict with Magli. He secretly tipped off Li Hongzhang about how Magli bullied China people, monopolized technology, squandered money and squandered public funds when he went abroad for inspection, which shook Li Hongzhang's trust in Magli. 1874, Li Hongzhang appointed Guo Daozhi as the "general manager" to restrict Magli and increase the number of "general managers" in China to two; At the same time, he "reduced Magli's status to foreign guidance" and ordered the dissolution of Magli's personal guard. Faced with the loss of privileges, Magli protested by resigning, trying to force Li Hongzhang to regress by "staying". Before long, a sudden major accident accelerated his fall from grace.
1875 65438+1On October 5th, two cannons manufactured by Jinling Manufacturing Bureau for Tianjin Dagu Fort exploded on the spot, killing seven officers and men. Li Hongzhang called Magli to the scene to find out the cause of the accident. Magritte's arrival was delayed for two months. As a result, under his own auspices, the cannon exploded when it was tested again. Fortunately, I made preparations in advance and didn't hurt the people present. After inspection and identification, the reason for the explosion of the gun was the poor quality of the raw materials used to make the gun. This batch of materials was originally shipped to China from abroad as ballast iron to balance the hull. In order to catch up with the production schedule, with the approval of Magli, this batch of inferior raw materials was used to make guns, but the qualified raw materials were replaced after arrival, which caused great disaster. Li Hongzhang was afraid that the Qing government would investigate the responsibility for such a serious accident, so he ordered Magli to admit his mistake and demanded severe punishment, but Magli refused to bear it. It never rains but it pours. On May 19, another vicious accident occurred in Jinling Manufacturing Bureau. According to Shenbao, "It was noon at that time, and the craftsmen of this bureau were working. Suddenly, because the stone mill accidentally collided with the iron guy, a Mars was drilled, and the iron guy landed on the rocket, and immediately the arrow shot directly into the powder keg. But when I heard the thunder, it was like a landslide, even people and houses went up to the sky. Suddenly, several houses were burned and three craftsmen were blown to fly ash." This is undoubtedly worse for Mali. On July 7th, Li Hongzhang dismissed Magli from his post in Jinling Manufacturing Bureau. However, due to his many years of service in Westernization, he was recommended to Guo Songtao, China's ambassador to Britain (as a secretary). He went to London with Guo on 1876 and died in England on 1878.
As the "foreign factory director" of China, Magli has served China military enterprises for 12 years. The opportunity of the times made him play the role of a Chinese and western arms broker.