1
Yi Shan, Imperial Clansman — Yi Shan, a member of the imperial clan, was a fourth-generation descendant of Prince Xun Yunti and was registered in the Bordered Blue Banner. He was appointed an attendant at the Gate of Heavenly Purity. In the seventh year of the Daoguang reign, he took part in the expedition against Kashgar and was promoted to First Class Bodyguard with the right to attend the emperor on duty. He served in turn as Brigade General of Ili and as Adviser Commissioner. In the eighteenth year he was appointed military governor of Ili. In the twentieth year he went with Vice Commander-in-Chief Guan Fu to Tashitubi to direct reclamation work, opened more than 164,000 mu of farmland, and memorialized the throne to set up Hui thousand-household units and officials from fifth-rank bakhshi down. He was recalled to court and appointed Grand Minister of the Attendant Guard of the Plain White Banner and Imperial Minister.
2
In the twenty-first year he was named Pacification General to command the Guangdong front, with Minister Long Wen and Provincial Military Commander Yang Fang as his deputies. By then the British had already captured Humen. Yang Fang reached Guangdong first and, taking advice from American go-betweens, asked permission to resume trade; he was sharply rebuked, and Yishan was ordered to reach the army without delay. In the third month he arrived at Guangzhou. British warships blocked the provincial river. Yishan sought Lin Zexu's counsel; Lin urged that foreign merchants first be used to stall the enemy so the British fleet might pull back for a time; then block the channel, heap sandbags along the banks against artillery, and only afterward turn defense into attack. Yishan would not follow this advice. After Qi Shan had stripped the defenses, the enemy had carried off the old stockpiles of piles and boulders, and now sent out light fir boats to bait our forces. Yang Fang urged restraint: the hired militia were not yet gathered, and he did not want a rash battle. Yishan at first agreed, but then his entourage persuaded him to gamble on one stroke of luck; Fang could not hold him back. They attacked by night and, with the wind behind them, burned seven craft and reported a victory; at daybreak they found they had set fire to civilian boats, while the main British force came up and moored in a line beneath the walls; They fought south of the river with losses on both sides, then closed the city gates.
3
The enemy sent steamers against Nicheng. Deputy Commander Dai Chang and others fled at the first cannonade; more than sixty government war junks were lost, and the batteries east and west of the city were taken. British troops occupied the four-sided battery on the rear hill. Yishan stayed in the examination compound while shells fell around him; soldiers and townspeople panicked, and he sent Guangzhou Prefect Yu Baochun out to Elliot to discuss a truce. Elliot demanded twelve million taels for destroyed opium; American merchants intervened and cut the sum in half, and the entire island of Hong Kong was also conceded before the British withdrew. Yishan and Long Wen pulled back first and camped at Little Golden Hill, sixty li from the city, passing off defeat as victory. In a memorial he wrote: "Elliot, driven to extremity, sued for peace; trade would continue as before; the indemnity would be recast as collection of merchants' debts, to be paid from the Guangdong customs and the grain-transport treasuries." The Daoguang Emperor read the report, took the foreigners to be submissive, and approved what was asked. Yan Bozhe, governor-general of Fujian and Zhejiang, repeatedly impeached him for fraud; Liang Zhangju, governor of Guangxi, was ordered to investigate, and the facts came out in his report.
4
Once the British had secured their payment in Guangdong, they moved their forces against Fujian and Zhejiang. Only then did Yishan and his colleagues retake the batteries at Dahuangjiao, Liede, Humen, and elsewhere, and block the provincial river. Before Elliot had left, local militia trapped him at Sanyuanli; he got away only when Yu Baochun hurried out to extricate him. Militia drill grew stronger by the day; officials at court and in the provinces alike said the Cantonese could be trusted, foreign detachments were sent home, and local militia were enlisted in their place. Repeated edicts pressed Yishan and his colleagues to recover Hong Kong, but they could not really fight; they kept reporting that storms had sunk British ships and wrecked Hong Kong's sheds, pleading unfinished batteries and unfinished ships to answer the emperor's demands. In the twenty-second year the British recalled Elliot and sent Pottinger in his place, then mounted a large campaign against Zhejiang and Jiangsu. An edict condemned Yishan's deceitful reports and ordered severe discipline: he lost his posts as Imperial Minister, Grand Minister of the Attendant Guard, and Censor-in-Chief, but kept command of the Han Eight Banners. After the peace treaty, he was prosecuted for missing the chance to aid Guangdong: stripped of rank, tried, sentenced to death, and imprisoned in an empty cell of the Imperial Clan Court.
5
二十三年，釋之，予二等侍衛，充和闐辦事大臣，調伊犁參贊大臣，署將軍。 二十七年，調葉爾羌參贊大臣。 安集延布魯特、回匪入邊，圍喀什噶爾、英吉沙爾，命陝甘總督布彥泰督師討之，奕山為副，連破賊於科科熱依瓦特及蘇噶特布拉克，賊遁走。 論功，封二等鎮國將軍，賜雙眼花翎。 尋授內閣學士，調伊犁參贊大臣，兼鑲黃旗蒙古都統。 二十九年，授伊犁將軍。 俄羅斯遣使至伊犁，請於伊犁、塔爾巴哈台、喀什噶爾三處通商，詔允其二，惟喀什噶爾不許。 咸豐元年，俄人復固請，仍拒之，偕參贊布彥泰與定伊塔通商章程十七條。 祭酒勝保疏論當仿恰克圖通商舊例，限以時日、人數。 奕山議：「撫馭外夷以信為主，既已議定章程，旋改必有藉口。」 如所請行。 累授內大臣、御前大臣，仍留將軍任。
In the twenty-third year he was freed, given the rank of Second Class Bodyguard, made commissioner in Khotan, transferred to Ili as adviser commissioner, and served as acting general. In the twenty-seventh year he was posted as adviser commissioner at Yarkand. Kokand Kirghiz and Muslim rebels raided the frontier and besieged Kashgar and Yengisar. Buyantai, governor-general of Shaanxi and Gansu, was ordered to lead the punitive force with Yishan as his second; they beat the rebels at Kokoreyivat and Sugatbulak in succession, and the enemy withdrew. For his service he was made Second-rank Defender General of the State and awarded the double-eyed peacock feather. He was soon made a grand secretary, returned to Ili as adviser commissioner, and also served as commander of the Mongol Bordered Yellow Banner. In the twenty-ninth year he was again appointed military governor of Ili. Russia sent envoys to Ili asking to open trade at Ili, Tarbagatai, and Kashgar; the court allowed two of the three but refused Kashgar. In the first year of Xianfeng the Russians asked again and were turned down again; with Adviser Commissioner Buyantai he drew up the seventeen articles governing trade at Ili and Tarbagatai. Sheng Bao, libationer of the Imperial Academy, argued in a memorial that trade should follow the Kiakhta precedent, with limits on season and numbers of traders. Yishan replied: "In dealing with foreigners, good faith comes first; once regulations are settled, any sudden change will only give them an excuse." The court acted as he advised. He was repeatedly promoted to Inner Minister and Imperial Minister while keeping his post as military governor.
6
五年，調黑龍江將軍。 時俄羅斯以分界為名，欲得黑龍江、松花江左岸地，遣艦入精奇里江，建屋於霍爾托庫、圖勒密、布雅里。 奕山疏陳陽撫陰防之策。 七年，俄使請入京，拒不許。 八年，俄人偕英、法、美三國合兵犯天津。 三國窺商利，而俄志在邊地，於是俄使木里裴岳幅至愛琿，堅請畫界，奕山允自額爾古納河口循黑龍江至松花江左岸之地盡屬之俄。 俄使知奕山昧於地勢，駐兵黑龍江口，复索綏芬河、烏蘇里江地，奕山懾其兵威，勿能抗，疏稱未許，然已告俄使可比照海口等處辦理。 逾年，與俄使會於愛琿，定約三條，鑱滿、蒙、漢三體字為界碑。 大理寺少卿殷兆鏞劾奕山：「以邊地五千馀裡，藉稱閒曠，不候諭旨，拱手授人，始既輕諾，繼复受人所製，無能轉圜。」 詔切責之，革職留任； 又以縱俄艦往黑龍江不之阻，褫御前大臣，召回京。
In the fifth year he was transferred to military governor of Heilongjiang. Russia, under cover of boundary talks, wanted the left banks of the Amur and Sungari, sent warships up the Zeya, and built houses at Huo'ertoku, Tulemi, and Buyali. Yishan proposed in a memorial to placate the Russians openly while guarding against them in secret. In the seventh year a Russian envoy asked to go to Beijing and was turned away. In the eighth year Russia marched with Britain, France, and the United States against Tianjin. Britain, France, and America were after trade gains, but Russia wanted land. Muraviev came to Aigun and insisted on a boundary line; Yishan conceded everything from the Argun mouth along the Amur to the left bank of the Sungari to Russia. Seeing that Yishan did not know the ground, Muraviev camped troops at the Amur mouth and demanded the Suifen and Ussuri basins as well. Intimidated, Yishan could not refuse outright; he reported that he had not consented, but had already told the Russians it could be treated like the open ports. A year later he met the Russian envoy at Aigun, signed a three-article treaty, and set up boundary stones inscribed in Manchu, Mongol, and Chinese. Yin Zhaoyong, vice president of the Court of Judicial Review, impeached Yishan: "He gave away more than five thousand li of frontier, calling it empty land, without waiting for the throne's order; he promised too easily at first, then let the Russians dictate terms and could not undo the damage." The emperor rebuked him sharply, removed his rank but kept him at his post; and, because he had let Russian ships sail up the Amur without stopping them, removed him as Imperial Minister and recalled him to Beijing.
7
In the eleventh year the allied powers signed a treaty in Beijing; relying on Yishan's earlier concessions, everything east of a line from the Ussuri mouth south across Lake Khanka to the Suifen and Hunchun rivers, then along the Hunchun to the Tumen, went to Russia, as recorded in the diplomatic annals. He was soon made Imperial Minister again and given command of the Mongol Plain Red Banner. Under the Tongzhi emperor he was raised to First-rank Defender General of the State and made an Inner Minister. Illness forced his retirement. He died in the fourth year of Guangxu and was posthumously titled Zhuangjian. His son Zaizhuo became vice president of the Court of Colonial Affairs. Zaizhuo's son Puhan served as deputy commander of the Mongol Bordered Yellow Banner; and his grandson Yuzhao held the rank of First-rank Supporter General of the State.
8
Long Wen, of the Irgen Gioro clan, belonged to the Manchu Plain Red Banner. He passed the metropolitan examination in the thirteenth year of Jiaqing, entered the Hanlin as a probationer, and on leaving the academy became a principal clerk in the Ministry of Punishments. Dismissed after an offense, he bought his way back and was made a Hanlin reader-in-waiting. He rose step by step to grand secretary. Under Daoguang he served as the imperial commissioner in Tibet. He served as vice minister of Personnel and Revenue, censor-in-chief, minister of Punishments and War, and member of the Grand Council. He was often dispatched on imperial orders to hear capital cases. He went with Yishan to command in Guangdong, but they did not see eye to eye. He had barely arrived when illness and distress killed him; he was posthumously titled Duanyi.
9
Yijing, Imperial Clansman — Yijing was a grandson of Prince Cheng Yongxing and son of Prince Mianyi; he succeeded the line of Prince Xun Yunzhang and was registered in the Bordered Red Banner. He became an attendant at the Gate of Heavenly Purity, then director of the Imperial Household Department and grand secretary, while also serving as vice commander-in-chief and commander of the guards. In the third year of Daoguang he was punished for lax oversight when Prince Dun's sedan entered the Central Gate of the Divine Martiality without permission; he lost his concurrent offices but kept his grand secretary post. In the fifth year he was made vice minister of War. In the tenth year he took part in the campaign against the Kashgar rebels; after peace he returned to Beijing and served as vice minister of Personnel and Revenue in turn. In the fourteenth year he was posted as military governor of Heilongjiang. In the sixteenth year he was recalled and made minister of Personnel, with concurrent command of the metropolitan infantry. In the twenty-first year he was appointed associate grand secretary.
10
When the British invaded Zhejiang and Dinghai, Zhenhai, and Ningbo fell one after another, Yu Qian died in the fighting. Yijing was named Campaign General to lead the punitive force, with Ha'er'a and Hu Chao as deputies; before long Wen Wei and Te Yishun replaced them. On the day he took leave of the throne, the Daoguang Emperor received him in the Hall of Diligent Government, laid out the strategy, and issued a special order: "Enforce discipline strictly: any commander or soldier who abandons a fallen city shall face the full penalty of military law." The emperor gave him peacock feathers and other rewards from the palace stores, promising prompt honors for merit, and urged him to combine mercy and punishment and restore discipline in the ranks. Grand Secretary Muzhanga asked that Qi Shan be freed from prison to serve at the front; Yijing declined.
11
As a senior imperial kinsman, Yijing was known for steadiness and enjoyed the emperor's trust. Given sole command of the campaign, he meant to achieve something but had little experience and knew almost nothing of war. He asked for ten thousand men from Shaanxi-Gansu, Sichuan, and Guizhou and ten thousand taels from the ministry treasury; nothing could be assembled quickly, so he halted at Suzhou to wait. Finding few generals trustworthy, the emperor allowed any official, scholar, commoner, or merchant with unusual talent or a useful skill to report to the army. After crossing the Yangzi, Yijing placed a wooden box at the camp gate: anyone who dropped in a name was summoned, and could speak freely in private about what was going right or wrong. More than four hundred men offered advice and more than one hundred forty volunteered, yet the staff he gathered were mostly useless Beijing placemen, and the volunteers proved no better. Only Zang Shuqing, a licentiate from Suqian proud of his integrity, persuaded him that talk of peace would only humiliate the dynasty, and at last Yijing resolved to fight; He also urged that the disgraced commander Yu Buyun be impeached and executed to restore morale; the memorial was written but then set aside. Since Zhejiang troops kept collapsing in battle, he raised militia from Shandong, Henan, and Anhui instead.
12
浙事日亟，巡撫劉韻珂促援，遲不至，遂相惡。 久駐江蘇，以供應之累，官吏亦厭之，餉需文報，皆延擱不時應。 十二月，始抵杭州。 前泗州知州張應云獻策規复寧波，奕經、文蔚皆然之，遂令總理前敵營務。 應云以重貲購寧波府吏陸心蘭為內應，日報機密多虛誑。 奕經禱於西湖關廟，占得「虎頭」之兆，乃議於二十二年正月寅日寅時進兵，屢遣諜，為敵所獲，漏師期。 初，英兵踞府城僅二三百人，艦泊定海。 至是，濮鼎查率十九艘兵二千散泊江岸，早為之備矣。 奕經由紹興進曹娥江，而慈谿敵兵退。 應云請急進，遂駐慈谿東關，文蔚分屯長谿嶺，令提督段永福、余步雲等趨寧波，游擊劉天保趨鎮海，副將硃貴駐大寶山，而應云率所募義勇駐駱駝橋，為諸軍策應，約於正月晦數路並舉。 而敵已勾結應云部勇，勢且生變，不及待期，先二日輕軍分襲，不攜槍砲。 永福等入寧波南門，中地雷，天保甫及鎮海城下，為敵砲擊退，皆大敗。 越日，應云所具火攻船為敵所焚，軍中自驚，奔大寶山。 硃貴收集潰兵圖進攻，敵兵已至，力戰竟日，殺傷相當，無援，貴死之。 文蔚聞敗亦退，軍資器械棄失殆盡。 奕經留軍紹興，回駐杭州，自請嚴議，詔原之。 英艦乘勝由海窺錢塘江，以尖山海口淺阻，尋退去。
The crisis in Zhejiang worsened by the day; Governor Liu Yunke begged for reinforcements, but Yijing's army was slow to arrive, and the two men grew hostile. He lingered in Jiangsu so long that supplying his army became a burden local officials resented; rations, funds, and paperwork were all held up. Only in the twelfth month did he reach Hangzhou. Zhang Yingyun, former prefect of Sizhou, proposed a plan to retake Ningbo; Yijing and Wen Wei both agreed, and put him in charge of front-line operations. Zhang Yingyun bribed a Ningbo clerk named Lu Xinlan to act as an inside man; most of the intelligence he sent each day was empty boasting. Yijing prayed at the Guandi temple on West Lake and drew the omen "tiger's head"; he then fixed an attack for the yin day and yin hour of the first month of the twenty-second year, but the spies he sent were caught and the battle plan leaked. At first the British held the prefectural city with only two or three hundred men while their fleet stayed at Dinghai. By then Pottinger had brought nineteen ships and two thousand troops, spread along the riverbanks, and was fully ready. Yijing marched from Shaoxing up the Cao'e River as the British pulled back from Cixi. Zhang Yingyun pressed for a quick advance. The army halted at Cixi's East Pass; Wen Wei held Changxi Ridge. Duan Yongfu, Yu Buyun, and others were sent toward Ningbo; Liu Tianbao toward Zhenhai; Zhu Gui took Great Treasure Hill; Zhang Yingyun camped at Camel Bridge with his hired militia to coordinate the columns. They planned a multi-pronged attack on the last day of the first month. The enemy had already suborned men in Zhang Yingyun's militia and an uprising was imminent. Unable to wait, they launched light detachments in separate raids two days early, without muskets or cannon. Yongfu's men entered Ningbo's south gate and hit land mines. Tianbao had barely reached Zhenhai when British guns drove him off. Every column was routed. The next day the enemy burned Zhang Yingyun's fire ships. The army panicked and fled toward Great Treasure Hill. Zhu Gui rallied the fugitives and tried to counterattack, but the enemy was already there. He fought all day with heavy losses on both sides; with no help coming, he was killed. Hearing of the defeat, Wen Wei withdrew as well, leaving nearly all supplies and weapons behind. Yijing kept part of the army at Shaoxing and returned to Hangzhou. He asked the court to punish him severely, but an edict let him off. Victorious British ships probed the Qiantang from the sea, but the shallows at Jianshan blocked them and they soon withdrew.
13
Zheng Dingchen was the son of Guo Hong, the regional commander who died in battle, and had served under his father. Yijing gave him 240,000 taels to raise sailors and retake Dinghai, but after hearing of the Ningbo and Zhenhai disasters he hovered offshore without acting. Pressed hard by Yijing, he reported that on the third day of the third month he had beaten the enemy off Dinghai at the Sixteen Gates, destroying dozens of ships and killing hundreds. Liu Yunke called it a fraud, but Yijing sent guardsmen including Rong Zhao to investigate at sea; they brought back charred timbers and broken weapons. Yijing reported victory to the throne, received the double-eyed peacock feather, and Dingchen was rewarded too. The British then suddenly left Ningbo, kept ships at Zhaobaoshan, turned on Zhapu, and captured it. Yijing could not help Zhapu but reported Ningbo as recovered. The court rebuked him for lack of foresight, stripped his rank, and kept him on the job. The British then invaded Jiangnan, took Zhenjiang, and threatened Nanjing. Yijing was ordered to reinforce, then told to hold Wangjiangjing on the defensive. After Ningbo and Cixi his army was useless and morale shattered. Liu Yunke ridiculed him openly and kept him out of every discussion of defense or peace. When peace came and the army was withdrawn, an edict listed Yijing's crimes—wasting troops and funds and bringing disaster on the country. He was taken to Beijing and sentenced to death.
14
After more than a year under house arrest he was restored with Qi Shan, made a Fourth Class Bodyguard, and sent as assistant commissioner to Yarkand. Censor Chen Qingyong impeached him and he lost his post again. Soon he was made Second Class Bodyguard again, adviser commissioner at Yarkand, then brigade general of Ili. He was dismissed and exiled to Heilongjiang for mishandling the trial of Zhai Qing'e, brigade general of Yengisar, who had been accused of falsely imprisoning innocent Muslims. In the thirtieth year he was freed and allowed to return. Early in Xianfeng he served in turn as brigade general of Ili and Yengisar. In the second year he was recalled as vice minister of Works, moved to Punishments, and made vice commander-in-chief as well. In the third year he was ordered to lead the Miyun garrison to Shandong against the Taiping rebels and died at Xuzhou on campaign; he received the standard vice-minister burial honors.
15
Wen Wei, of the Feimo clan, belonged to the Manchu Plain Blue Banner. He passed the metropolitan examination in the second year of Jiaqing and became a Hanlin compiler. He rose to vice minister of War and Works, and also served as vice commander-in-chief and minister of the Imperial Household. While he held Changxi Ridge and heard that every column had failed, he wanted to break camp and run. Enemy troops mixed with refugees and fugitives struck suddenly, burned his camp, and he fled to the Cao'e, rallied what he could, and fell back on Shaoxing. He tried to cross the Qiantang but Liu Yunke stopped him. Soon he received the first-rank ruby button for the reported victory at Dinghai. When the campaign ended he was prosecuted for missing his chance, stripped of rank, and jailed. A year later he was freed, made a Third Class Bodyguard and brigade general at Gucheng, then dismissed again. Early in Xianfeng he served as commissioner at Karashahr and Hami, imperial commissioner in Tibet, and prefect of Fengtian. He died in the fifth year.
16
Te Yishun, of the Tatara clan, was a Manchu of the Plain Blue Banner on garrison duty at Fuzhou. He rose step by step to battalion commander. In the thirteenth year of Daoguang he helped suppress Zhang Bing's rebellion in Pingtaiwan and was made deputy commander-in-chief of Jingzhou. He served in turn as regional commander of Tengyue, deputy commander-in-chief of Miyun, and military governor of Ningxia. In the twenty-first year he received banner-commander rank, became adviser commissioner, and was sent to command in Guangdong. He was soon redirected to Zhejiang, garrisoned the provincial capital, acted as military governor of Hangzhou, and then received the post permanently. When Zhapu fell he was demoted but kept at his post. After peace he was put in charge of Zhejiang's recovery. In the twenty-sixth year he was transferred to military governor of Uliastai. He died in the twenty-ninth year.
17
Yu Buyun came from Guang'an in Sichuan. Under Jiaqing he joined the fight against the White Lotus rebels as a local militiaman and rose to mobile corps commander. He helped pacify the Zhandui rebellion and was promoted to regional commander of Chongqing. In the seventh year of Daoguang he led his garrison under Yang Yuchun into the Western Regions campaign and routed the rebels at Yang'a'erbat; with Yang Fang he smashed the rebels at Bilaman, retook Khotan, captured the rebel leader Yunus, became an attendant at the Gate of Heavenly Purity, and was made provincial military commander of Guizhou. He was transferred to Hunan. In the twelfth year he led Guizhou troops against the Yao rebel Zhao Jinlong of Jianghua; with Luo Siju he destroyed the rebel base and killed Jinlong, and was made Junior Guardian of the Heir Apparent. He also defeated Cantonese Yao rebels at Lanshan in Yongzhou and captured their chief. He followed Minister Xi'en to Guangdong, pacified the Lianzhou Yao, received the double-eyed peacock feather, and was given the hereditary rank of First Class Commandant of Light Chariots. He served as provincial military commander of Sichuan and Yunnan in turn, then returned to Guizhou. In the eighteenth year he captured the bandit chief Xie Fazhen of Renhuai, was made Senior Guardian of the Heir Apparent, and was posted to Fujian as provincial military commander.
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二十年，英兵初陷定海，率師赴援，調浙江提督。 二十一年，定海既收還，步雲駐防鎮海。 裕謙來督師，疏言步云不可恃，未及易而英兵猝至，复陷定海，三鎮戰歿。 步雲屯招寶山，總兵謝朝恩分守金雞嶺。 步雲號宿將，實巧猾無戰志，又嗛裕謙剛愎，將戰，裕謙召與盟神誓師，託疾不赴，且獻緩敵之策。 敵攻其前，而以小舟載兵由石洞攀援登後山，步雲遽棄砲台走，敵乃據招寶山俯擊鎮海城，金雞嶺及縣城先後陷。 步雲退寧波，敵掩至，墜馬傷足，僅免，府城遂陷。 步雲疏聞，委敗於裕謙。 裕謙既歿，其妻赴京訟之。 二十二年，從奕經規复寧波，不克，褫步雲職，逮京，命軍機大臣會刑部訊鞫。 廷臣爭劾其罪，亦有原之者，獄久延，尚書李振祜堅持，讞乃定。 詔曰：「餘步雲膺海疆重寄，未陣獲一賊，身受一傷，首先退縮，以致將士效尤，奔潰棄城，直同兒戲。 儻不置之法，不惟無以肅軍政而振人心，且何以慰死節諸臣於地下？」 步雲遂棄市。
In the twentieth year, when the British first took Dinghai, he marched to relieve the city and was made provincial military commander of Zhejiang. In the twenty-first year, after Dinghai was recovered, Buyun was posted to defend Zhenhai. Yu Qian arrived to command and reported that Buyun could not be trusted; before he could be replaced the British struck again, Dinghai fell, and three regional commanders were killed. Buyun held Zhaobaoshan while Regional Commander Xie Chao'en guarded Golden Cock Ridge. Buyun had a veteran's reputation but was sly and unwilling to fight, and he resented Yu Qian's stubbornness. When battle neared, Yu Qian called him to swear an oath before the troops; Buyun pleaded illness, stayed away, and urged delay instead. The British attacked from the front while small boats landed men through stone tunnels to scale the rear hill. Buyun abandoned his batteries and fled. The enemy took Zhaobaoshan and shelled Zhenhai from above; Golden Cock Ridge and the county seat soon fell. Buyun fell back to Ningbo; the enemy overtook him; he was thrown from his horse, hurt his foot, and barely escaped as the city fell. In his report Buyun blamed the defeat on Yu Qian. After Yu Qian's death his widow went to Beijing to accuse Buyun. In the twenty-second year he joined Yijing's failed attempt to retake Ningbo. Buyun was dismissed, taken to Beijing, and tried jointly by the Grand Council and the Ministry of Punishments. Officials competed to denounce him, though some pleaded for mercy. The trial dragged on until Minister Li Zhenhu held firm and the sentence was fixed. The edict read: "Yu Buyun held a grave coastal command. He captured no enemy in battle, took one wound, and was the first to retreat. Officers and men followed his example, routed, and abandoned their cities—as if war were a game. If he is not punished, how can discipline be restored or the people heartened—and how can the loyal dead be honored in their graves?" Buyun was then executed.
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The historians comment: Yishan and Yijing were imperial princes who knew nothing of war. Each in turn abandoned his army in the same way, and the situation grew hopeless. The men were too mediocre to blame alone; court officials could not foresee the crisis and frontier governors could not set things right. One might say the empire had no one fit for the task. Yishan later again abandoned the northeastern frontier lands, and the harm he left was even deeper. Yu Buyun was mediocre, cowardly, and cunning, and in the end was publicly executed. The Daoguang Emperor treated nearly everyone involved in the disaster leniently; only Buyun was punished under military law.