The Margary Incident and Memorial Monument

　　In the 19th century, Britain was the most powerful and domineering imperialist country in the world, extending its reach to every corner of the globe, while the Qing government of China before the 20th century was an incompetent regime.

　　After consolidating their rule over Burma and India, the British sought to use these territories as a base to pry open China’s southwestern gate, seize control of China’s southwestern provinces, and connect them with the Southeast Asian regions they had already occupied.

　　In 1874, British Colonel Browne led an armed force of 200 men from Burma into Yunnan. Augustus Raymond Margary, a translator at the British legation in Beijing, went to meet them. Along the way, Margary spied on our military and political intelligence and mapped out the terrain.

　　Margary and Browne reunited on the tenth day of the first lunar month in the first year of the Guangxu reign (1875), and led troops into China via the Bhamo–Mangyung route. When the British forces reached the Hongbang River within Chinese territory, they learned that local soldiers and civilians were prepared for a joint resistance. Margary volunteered to lead three companions ahead to scout the path, while Browne followed with the main unit. Our border defense forces, under Captain Li Guozhen of the Tengyue Left Camp, intentionally let Margary pass in order to sever his connection with Browne. On the evening of January 14, Margary arrived in Mangyung and stayed overnight in a temple. On the 16th, while returning to greet Browne, he was blocked by local villagers. In response, Margary shot and killed one civilian on the spot, enraging the crowd who then killed Margary and his three companions and threw their bodies into the Husong River. The next morning, local Jingpo, Dai, Han, and other ethnic groups, together with Captain Li Guozhen’s forces, intercepted Browne’s troops at the foot of Banshan Mountain. Learning of Margary’s death and the approach of Chinese reinforcements, Browne fled in panic back across the border. Thus, our sacred territory was protected. However, the British used this incident to make numerous unreasonable demands on the Qing government. The incompetent Qing government succumbed to the pressure, arrested and executed 23 Jingpo anti-British heroes under the charge of “bandit murder,” dismissed Jiang Zonghan, Commander of the Tengyue Frontier Defense Force, and Wu Qiliang, the Prefect, throwing them into prison.

　　In September 1876, Li Hongzhang, representing the Qing government, signed the humiliating Sino-British Chefoo Convention in Yantai, Shandong. According to the treaty, the Chinese government had to apologize to the British, pay reparations, provide compensation for the deceased, severely punish the so-called “culprits,” agree to open up Indochina-Tibet communication routes, allow British people to travel to Tibet, Qinghai, Gansu, and Yunnan provinces, designate Yichang, Wuhu, and Beihai as trading ports, and expand consular jurisdiction.

　　To commemorate the struggle of border region soldiers and civilians against the British, the People’s Government of Yingjiang County erected this memorial monument in 1987.