[War & Business] Chamber Pots and Cannons

Naval Battle during the Opium War [Image source= National Maritime Museum, UK / www.rmg.co.uk]

[Asia Economy Reporter Hyunwoo Lee] During the Opium War in 1840, known as the greatest humiliation in modern Chinese history, General Yang Bang requested the emperor to send him to the front lines, claiming that collecting chamber pots from women could help defeat the British army. He argued that the British cannons were so accurate because of a shaman’s magic, and that smearing women’s urine on the city walls would break the spell and reduce their accuracy.

The Qing court knew this claim was nonsense, but still recommended sending him as the deputy commander to the Guangzhou front. The reason was that no one else volunteered to fight. Even General Hyesan, the supreme commander and a royal relative, entrusted all battles to Yang Bang, the deputy commander. Having witnessed a British warship destroy 26 Qing navy vessels with a single bombardment, Qing officials all tried to avoid the war by citing illnesses of themselves or their families. Amid this, Yang Bang was the only one willing to take responsibility.

On his way to Guangzhou, Yang Bang recruited militia forces, increasing his troops to 40,000. Since the British forces numbered just over 4,000, the Qing court believed that despite the weapon gap, they would not lose. However, the Qing army, mostly composed of vagrants and opium addicts who had barely received proper military training, suffered repeated defeats against the British, and no matter how much urine was smeared on the walls, the British cannons hit their targets precisely.

Facing inevitable blame, Yang Bang began writing false reports. He fabricated victories for the Qing army in every report, which encouraged the court to issue stronger orders to suppress the British. In reality, after realizing the British forces were unbeatable, Yang Bang secretly negotiated without the court’s knowledge. He plundered the property of Guangzhou residents to prepare reparations for the British, halved the number of coastal batteries in Guangzhou to show a lack of will to fight, and disbanded the militia.

The Qing court learned of these facts through front-line inspectors, but remained silent, fearing that pointing fingers would only lead to someone else taking the blame. Soon, the British government discovered that Yang Bang was independently negotiating with them while submitting false reports to the Qing court. When the negotiations collapsed, his lies were exposed. With the troops disbanded by Yang Bang, the Qing suffered even greater losses and were forced to sign the humiliating Treaty of Nanjing. This was a tragedy born of bureaucracy, where even the absurd claim of blocking cannons with chamber pots could not be challenged.