From November 21 to 24, 1894, the Japanese army created a massacre in Lushun for four days and three nights, after which only 36 living people were found in the whole of Lushun, and its tragic scene can be called a purgatory on earth.
More people's attention to this massacre is on the more than 20,000 compatriots who were killed, but the reason behind it is the Qing court guards who defended Lushun. Their escape from the battlefield made the Japanese army effortlessly and quickly captured Lushun, and the people did not have any time to evacuate, and finally they were slaughtered by the Japanese army.
In the past, soldiers who escaped from the battlefield were sentenced to death after being captured, not to mention the guards, and it was even more difficult to escape death according to the crime.
But money can make ghosts push and grind this saying, in the corrupt Qing court is vividly reflected, those defenders who escaped from the battle in Lushun, with silver to open the way, not only exempted from capital crimes, but can be reinstated, I have to say that it was an era that could create "miracles".
Gong Zhaojie has been imprisoned in the Prison of the Punishment Department since the Lushunkou Incident, and his first sentence has been six years. Every day of these six years he was trembling, afraid that his head would be cut off.
Finally, money can be psychic, Gong Zhaojie relied on the millions of silver scavenged by officials for twenty years, bought a not guilty exoneration, and also rewarded a three-pin top wear, which Gong Zhaojie could not have dreamed of.
Gong Zhaojie is a fellow of Li Hongzhang, a native of Hefei, Anhui Province, ranking sixth, known as Gong Laoliu. He was determined to take the road of the imperial examination to seek merit, but when he reached the age of thirty-one, he was still only a prisoner title, and this year the Qing court began to donate officials, and Gong Zhaojie, who wanted to be an official, suddenly saw hope, and with his family's honesty, he donated all the way to the age of 50, and he was already a Taoist member.
Images of 龚玙
But he still did not enjoy it, he tasted the sweetness of donating officials, simply kept a second product to wear, and then donated directly. Later, with the help of his compatriot Li Hongzhang, he transferred the Lushun Dockyard Project to the General Office, and was assigned to run the Beiyang Coastal Water and Land Camp Office.
This Gong Zhaojie, who had been relying on spending money and adding officials to the knighthood, was no longer good at it except for being good at corruption and bribery. In less than three years of his time at the Prime Minister's Lushun Dockyard Bureau, he embezzled millions of taels of silver and no less than a million taels of silver for bribery.
When the Sino-Japanese War broke out, Gong Zhaojie was appointed as the chief of the Lushun Former Enemy Camp Office, but his first thought was to escape.
The day after the outbreak of the war, he sent his family and silver to Tianjin. The day after the fall of Jinzhou, Li Hongzhang ordered Gong Zhaojie to defend Lushun as best as possible. Gong Zhaojie still cared so much, he wanted to escape. At this time, the sea surface inside the Lushunkou of Dalian Bay was full of mines, and in order to escape, Gong Zhaojie ordered all the mine lines laid to be cut off, and then fled to Yantai in a torpedo boat.
After Gong Zhaojie arrived in Yantai, he was afraid that Li Bingheng, the governor of Shandong, would send him to Beijing for questioning, and then absconded to Tianjin to see Li Hongzhang. When Li learned that he had absconded from Lushun to Tianjin, he was furious and ordered him to rush back to Lushun by starry night, not to leave Lushun any more, and if he took a step away from Lushun, he would be beheaded immediately.
Gong Zhaojie had no choice but to rush back to Lushun in the starry night.
Due to Gong Zhaozhen's fear of the enemy absconding, it had an extremely bad impact on the Lushun defensive battle.
On November 8, when the soldiers and civilians in Lushun heard that Gong Zhaoji had escaped, the people were panicked, and the situation was chaotic. The craftsmen of the dock robbed the treasury silver, and the officers and men of the Gong Department also looted and fled.
The mine battalion Stretch Long cut off the mine line and fled with the electric box, and the water and drought mine soldiers also fled. More than 600 water and drought mines and other large quantities of ordnance were abandoned. When the enemy attacked, not a single mine sounded.
In the early morning of November 21, the Japanese launched a general attack on the lushun rear road land battery. Gong Zhaojie saw that the Japanese army was about to enter the city, and where he was still worried about Li Hongzhang's death decree, he ran to the Qing court military camp stationed in the Baiyu Mountain area, found his fellow villager Wei Rucheng, the chief soldier of the Chengzi Army, to discuss the strategy of escape.
Due to the small waves of the boat, it landed in Yantai four days later. Gong Zhaojie was afraid that Li Bingheng would arrest him and question him, so he hid in the boat and did not dare to go ashore. When the Japanese army frantically slaughtered the people at Lushunkou, Gong Zhaoxi was discussing the next escape plan with Wei Rucheng.
After three days, the two decided to run away separately.
Gong Zhaoxi sent people to Liu Hanfang in Tokaido to borrow several leather coats to protect himself from the severe cold, and then rushed to Tianjin by boat, where he was captured.
Wei Rucheng disguised himself as a boat owner and escaped, and his whereabouts have been unknown ever since.
After the fall of Lushunkou, Li Hongzhang asked Gong Zhaoyu to "dismiss him from his post and stay in the camp to serve", and on December 17, the Guangxu Emperor issued an edict to hand over Gong Zhaoyi to the Ministry of Punishment for punishment.
On February 18 of the following year, the Punishment Department planned to be beheaded and executed after the autumn on the grounds that Gong Zhaojie's commander-in-chief had lost his key pass and was afraid of the enemy and had absconded.
At this time, Gong Zhaoxi discovered the seriousness of the matter, once again opened the way with money, bought the officials and jailers of the Punishment Department, and did not hesitate to bribe Ronglu at great expense, and paid bribes up and down, reaching millions of taels.
Gong Zhaojie miraculously saved his life during this operation, and after spending six years in prison, he finally saw the light of day, was acquitted, and was rewarded with three pins.
In 1900, after Gong Zhaojie returned to his hometown in Anhui, it was close to his sixtieth birthday, and Gong Zhaojie, who had returned from Yijin, was determined to celebrate well.
On the morning of Gong Zhaojie's birthday on June 6, he had just sorted out his clothes and clothes when the servants came to report that there were guests visiting. Gong Zhaoxi was overjoyed, the black gauze hat worn by these three pins could not imagine that it was still very faceless, so early in the morning there were guests to congratulate him, he hurried out to welcome the guests.
The visitor was a young man in his twenties who called himself Lu Xiaoliu. Gong Zhaojie couldn't remember what kind of friendship the young man in front of him had with him, and he couldn't think of which friend's son in the old friend was named Lu Xiaoliu. But since he had come to celebrate, it was naturally not good to be sloppy, Gong Zhaoyi greeted him with a smile, and Lu Xiaoliu then walked into the living room in a big way.
After Lu Xiaoliu sat down, he looked around the luxuriously decorated living room and nodded his head: "Enough grand!" It's grand enough! ”
Gong Zhaojie heard the irony in Lu Xiaoliu's words, and replied with a hard scalp: "Lu Gongzi has passed the prize, please ask Gongzi, how do you remember to give the old husband a birthday, forgive me for being old and stupid, I can't remember where the gongzi had a friendship." ”
That boy haha a lot of fun. Shaking his head, he sighed: "I came to ask for advice, the younger brother recently read a few new books, know that the people are the main body of the country, the survival of the country is everyone's responsibility, I don't know why you will give Lushun to someone?" ”
When Gong Zhaojie heard this, his face sweated, and he ordered the servant with an angry face: "Send a guest! ”
Lu Xiaoliu hurriedly waved his hand: "The younger brother offers a congratulatory gift, that is, he will retire on his own, and he will not stay in this place full of copper smell without sending me." ”
He took out a piece of paper from his arms, pushed it in front of Gong Zhaoxi, then stood up and said angrily, "Take a good look, farewell!" ”
When Gong Laoliu opened the paper post to see, he saw that it was a couplet, and the upper link was:
Called the sixth grandfather, the sixth birthday, Xinzhan June 6th good day, six numbers coincided, once heard Mr. Lu Liu, stride into the door, mouth called the sixth brother also Lu Shun.
The downlink is:
Sit in prison for three years, accompany three times to chop, earn three generations of three pins of canonization, three lives wish is enough, the most pitiful up to three old friends, small money is not as good as we sprinkle, unjust three words to go to Huangquan.
There are three places in this couplet that need to be explained, and this three-year prison sitting is actually sitting for six years, presumably this Mr. Lu Xiaoliu omitted three years for the rules of the couplet.
The "Dasan" who "pitied the three old friends" refers to another compatriot of Gong Zhaojie, the commander of the Sheng Army, Wei Ruguizi Dasan, who was executed because he fled in the face of the enemy.
"Small money is not as good as we sprinkle" is a Hefei dialect, which means that Wei Rugui's method of operating with money is not as good as Gong Zhaojie, and he will eventually be beheaded.
The way Wei Rugui used money here is not as good as Gong Zhaojie's, which means that he gave the money to Li Hongzhang at that time to save his life, but Li Hongzhang was defeated in the war, and the mud bodhisattva crossed the river to protect himself, so naturally he did not dare to accept Wei Rugui's money, and finally his head was beheaded. If he gave the money to Rong Lu like Gong Zhaoxi, he would never end up with beheading in the end.
This man named Lu Xiaoliu, who is also a patriot, used this couplet to satirize Gong Zhaojie for abandoning the city and fleeing regardless of the safety of the people, and by spending money to buy officials, he not only did not get punishment, but also received the official position that Sanpin wore.
This kind of bizarre anecdote shows the extent to which corruption within the Qing court has reached.
Huang Shilin was the most fortunate of the escaped generals of the Huai Army. Although he was sentenced to prison after the war, he was quickly released and reinstated as an official with hundreds of thousands of taels to buy Ronglu.
Huang Shilin is a native of Lujiang, Hefei. In his early years, he accompanied Li Hongzhang around to suppress the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement and the Twist army uprising, and at that time, Huang Shilin was very appreciated by Li Hongzhang, and was one of the brave generals in the Huai Army, and was soon awarded the title of chief soldier for his repeated military achievements.
Unfortunately, in the year of Jia Wu, Huang Shilin was smoked by the corrupt atmosphere of the Qing court and had long since lost the invincible and invincible style of the past, and only had the ability to embezzle military salaries, pay bribes, and fear death.
When the Japanese army reached Lushun, the six commanders of the Qing army stationed in Lushunkou, Xu Bangdao, Wei Rucheng, Zhao Huaiye, Jiang Guiti, Cheng Yuanhe, and Huang Shilin, fought their own battles, and the dragons were leaderless.
So Xu Bangdao called Li Hongzhang, hoping that among these six people, one person would be selected to command the battle in a unified way.
After Li Hongzhang received the telegram, he first thought of Huang Shilin, who was brave in battle in the past, so he replied to the telegram and instructed all commanders to be under the unified command of Huang Shilin.
After Huang Shilin received the appointment, he was quite proud. Before the Japanese attacked Lushunkou, he called a meeting of generals to discuss countermeasures. The generals listened to Huang Shilin's high opinion, but they did not expect that his lofty remarks would shock everyone in the audience.
"The arrival of the thieves is too fierce, and there are fast guns and artillery, and now Lushunkou is isolated and helpless, it is really difficult to resist the attack of the thieves, and it is useless to hold it dry, so it is better to make plans early, abandon Lushunkou, and retreat to the Shandong Peninsula."
Huang Shilin's escape was immediately strongly opposed by Xu Bangdao, Cheng Yuanhe, and Jiang Guiti, while Zhao Huaiye and Wei Rucheng raised their hands in favor, so the six commanders became a confrontational force and no one could convince anyone.
On November 17, seeing the Japanese approaching Lushunkou, Wei Rucheng and Gong Zhaojie absconded first.
On November 19, Zhao Huaiye fled again.
On November 20, the day before the Japanese attack on Lushunkou. Huang Shilin sent a bodyguard to borrow a set of clothes from a merchant and fled to Tianjin in a small boat at the fort on the coast of Lao oyster mouth.
Before escaping, he pretended to find a deputy general, claiming that he was going to inspect the various forts and fight the enemy together with the soldiers on the forts, and he ordered the deputy generals to exercise command on his behalf and promptly telegraph the battle situation to Li Hongzhang.
On the way to the small boat he was riding, because the wind and waves were too big, he overturned the boat, Huang Shilin and two guards fell into the water, and the three of them drifted in the sea for a night before being rescued by a fishing boat, at this time Huang Shilin was already dying, and he could not hear the rumbling cannons of Lushunkou and the tragic cries of the citizens.
On December 31, Huang Shilin was escorted to Li Hongzhang by soldiers, and Huang Shilin wept bitterly in front of Li Hongzhang, weeping bitterly in front of Li Hongzhang, crying bitterly about the fierceness of the battle in Lushunkou, and also fabricating a heroic escape story, saying that he was forced to retreat when he ran out of ammunition and was outnumbered, and at the same time regretted failing to live up to the cultivation of Lord Zhongtang.
Li Hongzhang had already learned of the scandal of Huang Shilin's absconding, and when he finished crying, he scolded him bitterly. But after all, it was his old subordinate in the past, a close confidant who had been supported by one hand, and Li Hongzhang knew that the emperor blamed him, and Huang Shilin was condemned to death, so he took the first step to play the emperor and asked Huang Shilin to be dismissed from his post and never used.
However, Li Hongzhang's good intentions were in vain, and Huang Shilin was arrested and imprisoned for escaping from the battlefield, and was sentenced to be beheaded and executed in the autumn.
However, in recent years, Huang Shilin has painstakingly studied the art of opportunism, knowing that if he buys Ronglu with heavy money, he will certainly be exonerated for his great guilt, so he sends the looted silver to Rong Mansion without hesitation.
This trick really worked, and Huang Shilin was not only acquitted in the end, but also reinstated to his original post.
The several escaped generals listed here are only a few of the defenders of Lushunkou, and in the entire Battlefield of Jiawu, the generals who escaped from the battle can also be listed in a long list, Ye Zhichao, Feng Sheng'a, Nie Guilin, Lian Shun, Yan Desheng, Fang Boqian, Lin Guoxiang, Cheng Biguang, and so on.
How can these generals who have spent money to buy officials and have been promoted to a high level painstakingly study the way of bribery and plundering the people's wealth every day, and who are frightened by the sound of gunfire after hearing the sound of gunfire, how can they bear the heavy responsibility of resisting a strong enemy abroad?
The Qing court, which was far behind Japan in terms of military training, weapons and equipment, and coupled with the fleeing defenders in Lushun, they finally paid the tragic price of more than 20,000 Chinese compatriots in Lushun!