法军没有参与焚烧皇帝园子3500英军干的
1860·10·18 —— A Date
Which Will Live in Infamy
of His Majesty Hien-Fung
Upon the 18th October, the 1st division, under the
command of Major-General Sir John Michel, marched
from our camp near Pekin to Yuen-ming-yuen, and
set fire to all the royal palaces which lay scattered
about in that neighbourhood. Throughout the whole
of that day and the day following a dense cloud of
black and heavy smoke hung over those scenes of
former magnificence.
升级版谷歌同学一秒钟完工译文:
1860年10月18日,英军约翰·米歇尔少将下辖第一师
从我们所在北京附近的营地开拔到圆明园,
放火烧毁所有散落的皇家宫殿。 整个过程
那天和密集的云层之后的那一天
黑色和浓烟笼罩着那些场景
昔日的辉煌。
—— Excerpts from Narrative of the War with China in 1860 Page 278
作者:1860年中英第二次战争中 英军陆军司令詹姆斯·霍普·格兰特 James Hope
Grant 参谋部 后勤主管 deputy-assistant quartermaster-general
时年27岁中校 Lieutenant colonel 第一代子爵 嘉内德·约瑟夫·沃尔斯利
Garnet Joseph Wolseley, 1st Viscount Wolseley;1894年5月26日,
晋升为英军陆军元帅 Field Marshal
https://ia800208.us.archive.org/10/items/narrativeofwarwi00wols/
Early in the morning of October 18, a division of British
troops marched off to Yuanmingyuan. The accounts left by
the people present on that fateful day all mention the immense
beauty of the gardens even in its post-looted state. “We marched
through scenery of the most enchanting beauty,” wrote reverend
M’Ghee, and as he explained, the beauty demanded some kind of
tribute, “a tribute so due that you must perforce pay it.” 99
Other eyewitnesses must have felt the same. Beauty, they too
argued, cannot simply perish without us, its beholders, taking
some kind of action;
98 . According to Allgood there were 3,500 men
involved. Allgood, China War 1860 , 58.
—— Excerpts from Liberal Barbarism: The European
Destruction of the Palace of the Emperor of China
By Ringmar, Erik
https://portal.research.lu.se/ws/files/5852516/4612601.pdf
In the end only 18 out of the 39 men came back alive.
This treatment, the Allies agreed, constituted a crime against
the laws of war, against humanity, and an insult both against
Britain and France. The Chinese had
to be punished, the question was only how. The commanders
considered a number of alternatives. 87 They could, for example,
have asked the Chinese to pay an
indemnity or demanded that they turn over the men responsible
for the treatment
of the prisoners. However, Elgin did not think it right to accept
money in return
for human lives and besides, he argued, the sums would have
been difficult to collect. And if they had asked the Chinese to
hand over the perpetrators, the imperial
authorities would surely have given them some miserable
underling who the Allies
would have found it difficult to punish, and if they had asked
for Sengge Rinchen
himself, the Chinese would have refused and the Allies would
have had no means of forcing them.
Having ruled out the alternatives, Lord Elgin argued, only
the destruction of
Yuanmingyuan remained. It was an “act of retribution and
punishment sufficiently severe to produce the required effect”
—it would avenge the lives that had
been lost, but it would also terrorize the Chinese, forcing them
to agree to European
terms and reminding them for ever more just who the
Europeans were and of what
they were capable. The effect, moreover, would be
instantaneous, making it possible
for the Allies to turn southward before the weather had
turned too cold. Although
other targets could be imagined, Yuanmingyuan was
particularly well suited to
achieve these effects. This was first of all the case since
the compound was where
the Europeans believed the 39 prisoners had been held
captive. Through a complete
incineration, the site of their humiliation would be obliterated.
Destroying the palace was also a way to strike at the Chinese
emperor personally rather than at the
Chinese people with whom, Elgin insisted, Britain had no
quarrel. Yuanmingyuan
“was the Emperor’s favourite residence, and its destruction
would not fail to be a
blow to his pride as well as to his feelings.” The action
would no doubt “produce
a greater effect in China and on the Emperor, than persons
who look on from a distance may suppose.”
法军两位指挥官反对额尔金勋爵烧毁圆明园以报复残害21名联军致死的提议
The French, however, were not convinced by these arguments. Baron Gros
objected in the strongest possible terms against the action Elgin
contemplated and
he categorically refused to lend French support to a complete
incineration. “It takes
a courageous resignation not to let oneself be swept away by the desire
for vengeance
which has taken hold of all hearts.” 94 Yet Gros left it open to General
Montauban, as
the military commander, to make the final decision. Happily, Montauban
reached
the same conclusion as Gros, and this despite strong pressure exerted
on him by the
British commanders. I too have considered the question very carefully,
Montauban
insisted in his reply to Elgin, and I have come to the conclusion that
“this vengeance
is worthy of a people more barbarian than the Chinese themselves.”
Moreover,
if we burn the palaces and gardens Prince Gong might take flight
and thereby we
might end up overthrowing the entire Qing dynasty. Such an
outcome would not
be in the best interests of the French government. We want a
China open to trade
and to Christian missionaries, but we do not want a China in chaos.
Yet none of
these arguments had a effect on Lord Elgin. The British made fun
of the 11th hour
piety of the French, pointing out that they only would complete the
work that the French themselves had begun.
没有参与焚烧皇帝园子的法军,
却是1860年10月7日清晨先于英军第一批进入圆明园抢掠洗劫的:
上述这一区别,法国作家维克多·雨果都注意到了,
难怪他在1861年11月25日信中说:
This wonder, Hugo explained, has now disappeared.
One day two bandits entered,
“ one plundered, the other burned. ”
有一天,两个来自欧洲的强盗闯进了圆明园。
一个强盗洗劫财物,另一个强盗在放火。
Incidentally, 上述第一本书作者在第 217 页里,提到英军1860年
10月5日从东北方向进军北京的一路上,还有当地国人带路党随时报告
英军僧格林沁骑兵官军的动向:
疯狂! 男子帯两罐汽油 两个丁烷打火机试图进入纽约
第五大道圣 Patrick 教堂,被警方拘捕。
这个教堂就像巴黎圣母院一样非常古老!