鸦片战争与第一次阿富汗抗英战争比较研究——以军事素养、国民性与交通为中心的考察

A Comparative Study of the Opium War and the First Anti-British War in Afghanistan

1839年至1842年,第一次阿富汗抗英战争与第一次鸦片战争几乎同时进行,阿富汗将英国殖民者打得溃不成军,而大清帝国则被洞开国门。就军事素养而言,阿富汗人在排兵布阵、战术素养和武器射程等方面远超清朝军队。就国民性而言,从乾隆到清末的中国士大夫对阿富汗国民性有渐次加深的认知过程,统合中、英、俄人记载观之,阿富汗人以好勇斗狠为武德,以强宗大族为纽带,以亚民族国家的部落联盟与英军打全民战争,最终使得本国成为英军的“坟墓”。反之,晚清国人缺乏国家认同感,多取旁观者态度,军人无荣誉感,战时则狼奔豕突。就交通而言,千沟万壑的阿富汗地形严重束缚英军行进,寸草不生的岩石山使英军无法补给,中国沿海则利于英军战舰朝发夕至,江浙膏腴之地更可使英军随时补给军需物资。

From 1839 to 1842,the first anti-British war in Afghanistan and the first Opium War almost went on simultaneously.Afghanistan defeated the British colonists,while on the contrary,the Qing Empire was defeated.In terms of the military,Afghanistan used muskets and flank twists to break through the British hollow square array in the mountain ambush,while in China the British twists and turns and intensive firepower flattened the Qing army’s 100 sentry echelon formation.In terms of the national character,from Qianlong period to the end of Qing Dynasty,the Chinese scholar bureaucrats gradually deepened their cognition of the national character of Afghanistan.According to the Chinese,British and Russian records,the Afghans took the courage and ruthlessness as their military morality,the powerful clans as the link,the tribal alliance of sub-nation states as the base to fight the national war of resistance to British Army,and finally became their grave.On the contrary,the people of late Qing Dynasty lacked the sense of national identity:taking the attitude of bystanders,the soldiers had no sense of honor and ran wild in wartime.As far as the transportation is concerned,the topography of Afghanistan seriously restricted the British Army’s advance,and the barren hills and rocks blocked the supply of the British army.Conversely,the coastal areas of China benefited the arrival of the British warships;meanwhile,the productive land of Jiangsu and Zhejiang provided the army provisions for the British Army.