[1] On 25 May 1841, British forces under Major-general Hugh Gough left their transports at Qìnhăi (沁海)[A] some 5 miles (8.0 kilometres) north west of Canton and prepared to storm the city.

Armed with machetes, pikes and a variety of swords they enticed a detachment of 60 British Sepoys into the marshy paddy fields where the latter's flintlock muskets, sodden by the heavy rain, failed to fire as the villagers attacked.

With his reputation in tatters, the only post Yu Baochun could obtain was as a minor official in the department responsible for Imperial Examinations, where patriotic students would throw ink in his face.

[5] At the epicentre of the conflict, a small hillock known as Niulangang (牛栏岗) at the side of the modern road north to Baiyun International Airport, the Guangzhou Provincial Government on 23 May 1991 set up a simple concrete memorial to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the clash.

As historian Frederic Wakeman writes: "Out of the humiliating military defeats of the Opium War they have been able to extract a great popular victory, blemished only by the cowardice of Qing officials.