What happened when a high-ranking official of the Qing Dynasty was captured and taken to India and treated as a monkey for people to watch?

This miserable first-rank official of the Qing Dynasty, named Ye Mingchen, was the chief administrator of Guangdong in the Qing Dynasty from 1849 to 1857. He was actually awarded the title of Governor of Guangdong and Guangxi and Minister of Imperial Envoy and Commerce, and was granted the title of Baron. He was one of the 300 people in the Qing Dynasty. One of the few Han people who won the title in the year.

Ye Mingchen is from Hanyang, Hubei Province. He has studied well since he was a child. He was awarded Jinshi at the age of 26, and then he was promoted all the way. At the age of 39, he became the governor of Guangdong. He is a Han Chinese and does not have a strong background. His rise to power depends on his political performance. Therefore, it is true that Ye Mingchen was a capable minister and official during the reigns of Xuanzong and Wenzong (Daoguang and Xianfeng) of the Qing Dynasty.

When he became the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, current affairs were different. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was so violent that it not only took away all the finance and taxes from the Guangdong and Guangxi regions, but also mobilized a lot of soldiers. The city of Guangzhou is close to Hong Kong, and Hong Kong was ceded to Britain in the First Opium War, so Chinese pirates often took advantage of the British's privileges to smuggle for profit.

Ye Mingchen arrested the pirates suspected of smuggling, which triggered the "Yarrow Incident", and the British army bombarded the city of Guangzhou. Ye Mingchen had no troops to use, so he had to resort to militia groups and rely on public opinion to put pressure on the British.

The British saw that the emperor in Beijing was in danger, and all their attention was focused on the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in the south of the Yangtze River, so their momentum became more and more arrogant. Seeing that he could not defeat the British, Ye Mingchen sent many people to Hong Kong to engage in sabotage work. In Hong Kong, Ye Mingchen also received good news: on the Black Sea coast, the Russian army defeated the British and French forces, and even the Russian army invaded the British mainland. The Queen of England wandered to America to seek help.

After learning such important information, Ye Mingchen took it for granted that the British army in front of him was just a bluff. Therefore, they despise them all the more. However, the information Ye Mingchen received was the opposite. The result of the Crimean War was that Russia was defeated and a tsar was appointed.

Ye Mingchen reported to the emperor and wanted to get his support, but the emperor ignored him. The Qing Dynasty was in imminent danger of subjugation, and he was very unhappy that Ye Mingchen had annoyed foreigners in Guangdong. Ye Mingchen's long-term blockade of sea routes also caused damage to the interests of the local gentry. He could not even provide the military pay he promised to the Qing Dynasty.

The British army attacked Guangzhou City again, and Ye Mingchen, who was unprepared, was quickly captured. As a frontier official of the Qing Dynasty, when all the government officials had fled, he dressed up and waited for the British soldiers to arrest him in the Guangzhou government office.

He was captured aboard a British warship and then arrived in Calcutta, India. Ye Mingchen originally thought he was going to see the Queen of England and talk to her about reasonable matters. When he finally discovered that this matter would always be just a dream. So, Ye Mingchen ate the rice brought from the Central Plains to satisfy his hunger. After eating the rice, Ye Mingchen finally went on a hunger strike and died. He followed the example of "Bo Yi Shuqi did not eat Zhou Su" to complete the festival.

When Ye Mingchen was in Calcutta, he was called the Duke from the Qing Dynasty and was regarded as rare by the local people. One can imagine his inner resentment and pain. Finally, he got what he wanted and died on hunger strike. He had no other words before his death. He only said: "If you live up to the emperor's grace, you will never die in peace."

Ye Mingchen's death was tragic, but the heroism of not eating Zhou Su obviously did not move the emperor. When his body was transported back to China, Emperor Xianfeng showed no kindness to Ye Mingchen, who had been loyal and patriotic all his life, so his family had no choice but to bury him hastily.