From "relaxing the ban" to decisively banning smoking
In the fifteenth year of Daoguang (1835), when Deng Tingzhen was appointed governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, opium had already changed from a medicinal material to a drug mainly smuggled and traded. , a large amount of illegally imported into China, causing the proliferation of tobacco and drugs in the country and the outflow of silver, seriously endangering the national economy and people's livelihood. Different opinions have begun to emerge on whether the opium trade should be relaxed or strictly prohibited. In April of the 16th year of Daoguang's reign (June 1836), Xu Naiji, a young minister of Taichang Temple, formally put forward the idea of ??relaxing the ban in his "The more stringent the opium ban is, the greater the abuses will be, and the more urgent it is to ask for changes." Emperor Daoguang received Xu Naiji's letter. After the memorial, special approval was given to Deng Tingzhen, Qi Gong, the governor of Guangdong, and Wen Xiang, the supervisor of the Guangdong Customs, for review. They jointly submitted a memorial on the second day of September in the sixteenth year of Daoguang (October 11, 1836), expressing their agreement with Xu Naiji's theory of relaxing the ban. They believed that Xu Zhe "explained the evils of the times, which are all real situations" and "as Yu allowed, the relaxation of the ban will be allowed." , which is actually beneficial to the national economy and people’s livelihood.” He also proposed nine specific measures to relax the ban. This regulation of banning and banning by Deng Tingzhen and others developed and concretized Xu Naiji's banning theory and prepared it for implementation. It completely legalized the import, transportation and cultivation of opium. It was widely spread in Guangzhou at that time and produced very bad consequences. Influence, "Those who sell food are all happy and blatant." However, with the development of the situation, in the face of the grim reality that the opium trade will lead to national peril, especially after Xu Naiji's theory of relaxing the ban was refuted by Zhu Wei, Xu Qiu, Yuan Yulin and others and condemned by just public opinion, in Guangdong, At the gateway where the opium smuggling trade bore the brunt, Deng Tingzhen reviewed his past proposals for relaxing the ban and conscientiously implemented the strict ban policy. After some investigation and research, he took some drastic measures and informed the British Commercial Supervision through Wu Chongyao, the general merchant of Thirteen Foreign Companies, ordering all opium barges anchored at home and abroad to return to China and not to stay, let alone enter Guangzhou. port. However, because the British were unwilling to easily give up the huge benefits they gained from the opium trade and continued to carry out rampant smuggling activities, and because officials secretly accepted bribes and colluded with opium smugglers, the implementation was ineffective and no actual results were achieved. .
Strengthening coastal defense in the face of provocation
In the 17th year of Daoguang (1837), the British commercial supervisor Yi Lu and the opium dealers Chaton, Diandi, Ma Dichen and others deliberately undermined the opium ban. The British bourgeois government was urged to send warships to threaten China with force to impose a smoking ban in order to expand and legalize the opium trade. With the support of Yilu, armed opium smuggling ships once again entered Huangpu Port and sold opium privately. Deng Tingzhen severely condemned Yilu's unreasonable provocation and asked him to hand over and expel nine opium traffickers, including Chaton, Diandi, and Ma Dichen, from the country. However, Yilu's banditry was carried out after he conspired with the opium dealers. He relied on force as a backing and refused to hand over the opium dealers or expel them. In this regard, Deng Tingzhen insisted on an unyielding policy. , forcing Yilu's threat to fail and he had to voluntarily withdraw from Guangzhou. Within this year, the commander of the East India Zone Fleet supported by the British government, Mattallon, led the warship "Wolashi" and more than 500 soldiers and their family members to Macau, claiming to be a commercial supervisor to inspect trade. Deng Tingzhen ordered all naval and land divisions to strictly guard the fortress passes and conduct strict patrols. He also sternly declared that Matalun's intention to enter Guangzhou was against Chinese laws and resolutely drove Matalon away so that Matalun's armed provocation could not succeed.
Deng Tingzhen carefully organized Guangdong’s East, West, and Middle Naval Divisions to strengthen coastal defense. He urged Navy Admiral Guan Tianpei to set up an admiral's office in Shajiao to station at Shajiao, closely monitor and control the seaport of the middle road, and go hiking with Guan Tianpei on the sea, and carefully design the construction of the three lines of defense in Humen. They also conducted overt and covert inspections and sealed hundreds of inland kiln entrances, captured smuggling and stranded ships in inland rivers and inland oceans, and prohibited inland smuggling ships and any ships from getting close to opium barges that had long been anchored inland and overseas. British opium Opium could not be sold on barges.
Collaborating with Lin Zexu to eliminate cigarettes
In the fourth intercalary month of the 18th year of Daoguang's reign (June 1838), Huang Juezi, the Minister of Honglu Temple, played "Please strictly stop leaks to strengthen the country's foundation" After the "Revolution", Emperor Daoguang considered the interests of feudal rule, especially after seeing Lin Zexu hit the nail on the head in his anti-smoking memorial, he decided to adopt a strict ban policy. On the one hand, he demoted Xu Naiji, who openly advocated the ban, to six Pin Dingdai, on the other hand, appointed Lin Zexu as the imperial envoy to go to Guangdong to investigate and deal with opium. He also ordered Deng Tingzhen and Yiliang, the governor of Guangdong, to refresh their spirits and cooperate with Lin Zexu and Zhongxingji to handle the matter. Deng Tingzhen was very excited when he learned that Lin Zexu was coming to Guangdong. When Lin Zexu was on his way to Guangdong, Deng Tingzhen wrote to Lin Zexu, vowing that "people who disagree are like the sea" and expressed his willingness to "work together to eliminate the source of China's great troubles."
On the 25th day of the first month of the 19th year of Daoguang's reign (March 10, 1839), Lin Zexu arrived in Guangzhou and began to ban smoking. Deng Tingzhen provided active support and cooperated closely with Lin Zexu, becoming Lin Zexu's close collaborator in promoting the smoking ban in Guangdong. In a short period of time, they arrested opium dealers in the mainland, raided kiln entrances, attacked and drove away armed opium barges, and personally supervised the seizure of more than 20,000 boxes and bags of opium weighing more than 2 million kilograms in Humen. From April 22nd to May 15th (June 3rd to 25th), they were destroyed at Humen Beach to announce to the world the justice of China’s smoking ban. During the construction of Humen Coastal Defense, Deng Tingzhen often accompanied Lin Zexu to inspect and study various Haikou, put forward constructive suggestions, and cooperated well with each other.
Served as governor of Yunnan, Guizhou, Fujian and Zhejiang
In December of the 19th year of Daoguang (January 1840), the Qing government transferred Deng Tingzhen to serve as governor of Yunnan and Guizhou. He was transferred to the governor of Liangjiang, but he had not yet taken office. , and because Du Yanshi, the censor of Shaanxi Province, reported that Fujian's smoking ban and coastal defense needed to be investigated more intensively, Deng Tingzhen was transferred to the post of governor of Fujian and Zhejiang. Qi Junzao, the right minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, and Huang Juezi, the left minister of the Ministry of Criminal Affairs, were specially sent to investigate and deal with the matter, "and to plan defensive matters."
Deng Tingzhen traveled from Guangdong to Fujian to actively strengthen coastal defense construction. He, Qi Junzao, Huang Juezi and others studied and decided to build a 500-foot stone wall on the Huli Mountain protruding from the sea in the southern part of Xiamen Island based on the characteristics of the Fujian coast topography. They also built barracks and flexible and practical gun piers behind the stone wall. . One hundred iron cannons were placed on Xiamen Island, and more than 160 iron cannons were placed on Gulangyu Island, Yuzi Port and other places opposite. He also mobilized Zhangzhou, Tong'an, Xinghua, and Yanping land troops to coordinate defense, which greatly improved the coastal defense capabilities of Xiamen Island in Fujian, and also used the fourteen foreign cannons he purchased from Guangdong. The British invaders called it the "long column of forts". They also formulated new coastal defense regulations, instructing the land and sea divisions to jointly attack or cooperate with the invading British armed merchant ships and warships on the sea, and to pursue and interdict inland opium dealers to curb their collusion with British opium dealers to resell opium. Activity. While banning opium, Deng Tingzhen also punished criminals in Zhangzhou, Quanzhou and other places who used imported foreign money and smuggled silver to mint money.
During his tenure as Governor of Fujian and Zhejiang, Deng Tingzhen made great efforts to rectify the situation in view of the lax armaments, weak defense capabilities, and lax coastal defense in Fujian and Zhejiang. Navy officers and soldiers familiar with the coastal defense situation and water properties were mobilized, and a large number of sailors were recruited to strengthen preventive measures. While recruiting soldiers and strengthening training in Quanzhou, he watched the changes in Zhejiang's coastal defense and prepared to go to Zhejiang in person to supervise the war. However, he gave up because Emperor Daoguang sent another imperial envoy Yilibu to Zhejiang to handle military affairs. Deng Tingzhen made achievements in cracking down on opium in Guangdong and Fujian, promoting anti-smoking campaigns and building coastal defenses. However, the British and American opium traffickers, with the support of their own bourgeois governments, carried out armed provocations, deliberately sabotaged the anti-smoking campaign, and set up numerous obstacles with the domestic capitulationists and mainland opium traffickers. As a result, Deng Tingzhen and others failed to achieve the goal of eradicating the opium trade and eradicating the import of opium. Purpose.
Loyal ministers have no way to serve the country
On the third day of September in the twentieth year of Daoguang (September 28, 1840), under the frame of the capitulation faction, Emperor Daoguang ordered the death of Lin Zexu and Deng Tingzhen He appointed Qishan as the Imperial Envoy and succeeded Lin Zexu as the Governor of Guangdong and Guangdong, and ordered Deng Tingzhen to immediately return to Guangdong to wait for the matter. The vigorous anti-smoking campaign has come to an end.
During the negotiation process with Yilu, Qi Shan once discussed with Deng Tingzhen whether Xiamen and Hong Kong could be ceded to the British as commercial ports. Deng Tingzhen strongly opposed it. He said: "Xiamen is the gateway to Fujian, and the barbarians live there. Xiamen can have a glimpse of the mainland, and Penghu and Taiwan are in the east of Xiamen. They are isolated and cannot communicate with each other. This is extremely harmful and absolutely unreasonable. Even Hong Kong is in the middle of Guangdong Road, surrounded by Tsim Sha Tsui, and is surrounded by nepotism. The two islands are often used by barbarian ships to take shelter from wind and waves. They have been coveting them for a long time. Now that they are given to them, they will build forts. First they will defend themselves, and then they will come in and watch. Guangdong cargo ships are anchored in Huangpu, and their baggage is there. They are white and black. There are hundreds of people living in official offices, all of whom are in Hong Kong, and it is not convenient for them."
On December 15, the 20th year of Daoguang's reign (January 7, 1841), Yilu suddenly attacked Shajiao and Dajiao forts, and Humen's first line of defense was breached. Although Deng Tingzhen and Lin Zexu had both been dismissed from their posts at this time, out of patriotism, they personally went to the Governor-General's Office of Guangdong and Guangxi to urge Qishan to send troops to support, but Qishan ignored them saying "there is no discussion".
In April of the 21st year of Daoguang (1841), Emperor Daoguang confounded right and wrong and accused Deng Tingzhen of being lazy and following the rules for many years in Guangdong. The Battle of Humen cannot be resisted. He was dealt with severely and was sent to Yili to atone for his sins. He was not recalled until the seventh month of the 23rd year of Daoguang (1843). He was awarded the third rank and appointed as the chief envoy of Gansu, and was sent to Yinchuan, Taolong, Jiuquan and other places for inspection. wasteland. Deng Tingzhen conducted a careful survey and found more than 19,400 acres of uncultivated land, more than 1,500 acres of Fanling land, and more than 100 acres of Ningxia Horse Farm's public land. If the ripe land is promoted to a high school, the uncultivated land will be cultivated, and the land will be rewarded with the second rank. In the twenty-fifth year of Daoguang's reign (1845), he was transferred to the post of governor of Shaanxi, acting as governor of Shaanxi and Gansu, and later returned to Shaanxi as governor. During this period, he always kept in touch with Lin Zexu. He died of illness while in office on March 20, the twenty-sixth year of Daoguang's reign (April 15, 1846), at the age of seventy-one.