Guan Tianpei was born in a poor martial arts family in Huai 'an, Jiangsu. In the feudal dynasty, a martial artist made a living easily. He can be a wet nurse for a rich family, a flower escort, or take a martial arts exam and work for the court. Guan Tianpei chose to take part in martial arts. In the eighth year of Jiaqing, Guan Tianpei was admitted to Wuju, from which he began his career as a local military attache for 30 years.
Because of Guan Tianpei's selflessness, integrity and honesty, he became an official constantly, and the official became bigger and bigger. In the fourteenth year of Daoguang, he was promoted to be the prefect of the navy and worked in Guangdong. The prefect is a military attache with a rank and is the highest military officer in a province. In the Qing Dynasty, there were only three prefects in Guangdong, Fujian and the Yangtze River, which was much less than 12 prefects on land. Guan Tianpei's promotion to the position of navy division prefect shows that he was appreciated and reused by the Qing court.
The Qing dynasty adopted a closed-door policy, leaving only one foreign trade port in Guangdong and Guangzhou. Therefore, since Guan Tianpei became the prefect of Guangdong Navy, in order to strengthen local defense, he added more forts and soldiers, and stepped up the training of soldiers' combat capability.
In the 19th year of Daoguang, Lin Zexu was ordered to ban smoking in Guangdong. Guan Tianpei and Lin Zexu have been close friends for many years. He fully supported Lin Zexu to ban smoking, and personally led the Guangdong Navy to intercept and detain foreign merchant ships trying to sell opium, especially those from Britain. In June of the same year, Lin Zexu and Guan Tianpei destroyed the confiscated opium in public, and the local people applauded.
It was the fuse of destroying opium in Humen Opium War, which led to Lin Zexu being dismissed by the Qing court. Many officials in the Qing court were moderates who were afraid of death, but Guan Tianpei insisted on fighting the British army to the end. Qishan, the newly appointed governor of Guangdong and Guangxi in the Qing court, is a representative of the peace faction and a national sinner. Guan Tianpei repeatedly asked Qishan for reinforcements, but they were all rejected.
In the 21st year of Daoguang, the British army launched a general attack on Humen Fort. Guan Tianpei and his Qin Bing were determined to defend Humen Fort and serve the country. By this time, Guan Tianpei was 60 years old, and there were more than ten injuries, big and small. But he still commanded the battle on the fort, and he personally lit the artillery against the British. He is helpless. Without reinforcements, the fortress fell. Suddenly, the British artillery hit Guan Tianpei, Guan Tianpei died heroically on the spot, and Qin Bing and hundreds of soldiers under the artillery company all died heroically.
When the British arrived at the fortress, they found that Guan Tianpei was dead, but his body was still standing, and his eyes were like torches, which frightened all the British troops.
After the fall of Guangdong, the British army continued northward, eventually forcing the Qing government to make peace. In the 22nd year of Daoguang, the Qing government signed the treaty of nanking with Britain, which began the humiliating history of ceding land compensation and humiliating the country. Seeing the humiliation suffered by the country, I believe those soldiers who died in the Opium War will never be disappointed, including the national hero Guan Tianpei.