On June 14, 1895, the governor of Taiwan, Huashan Ziji, took a train from Keelung into Taipei's Dadaocheng. On June 17, Huashan Ziji held Taiwan's "inaugural government ceremony" at the Governor's Mansion, which was set up in the former "Envoy Yamen" of the Qing government.
The Qing government was originally "cloth government envoy Yamen"
The Governor's Palace of Taiwan during the Japanese occupation
After the inaugural ceremony, on June 19, 1895, the Guards Division sent thousands of "mixed detachments" to attack Taoyuan and Hsinchu, thinking that the battle would be as smooth as before, but before and after the pre-emptive forces occupied Hsinchu City on June 22, they were unexpectedly met with guerrilla resistance from The Taiwanese Hakka in this area.
Hsinchu City
From June 24 to June 26, 1895, the Hakka Volunteer Army led by Wu Tangxing, Xu Jun, Jiang Shaozu, and Hu Jiayou first ambushed the Japanese army in Pingzhen, Hukou, and Longtan, and made some progress. This was followed by a fierce battle with the Guards Division at Mount Eighteen, the commanding heights of Hsinchu Castle, on July 9. Due to the disparity in troop strength and equipment and the uneven quality of non-commissioned officers, after Jiang Shaozu's heroic martyrdom, the guest volunteer army led by Wu Tangxing retired to Miaoli on July 23.
Wu Tangxing (1860–1895)
Xu Jun (1858–1895)
Jiang Shaozu (1876-1895) desperate poem
On August 8, 1895, the Guards Division, which had received reinforcements from Japan, was personally led by Prince Nohisa of Kita-Shirakawa Palace and headed directly to Miaoli, the town of Kongdao in northern and central Taiwan. After fiercely shelling Miaoli Jianbi Mountain and annihilating 200 Soldiers of the Democratic State of Taiwan, the division entered and occupied Miaoli on August 14. Since then, the taiwan democracy, the northern Taiwan rebellion dominated by Hakka, has finally come to an end.
At this stage, in addition to the main guerrilla forces of the Taiwanese Hakka, the Democratic State of Taiwan also had a triangular surge of volunteers, mainly Su Li, Su Jun, and Chen Xiaopi. Near Taipei, they launched a series of attacks on Japanese logistics and military forces.
From left, chen xiaopi, Su Li, and Su Jun
On July 12, 1985, the Guards Division's special agent, Shigeo Sakurai, led a grain convoy near Triangle Chung Long Eun Po, when they were attacked by the Triangle Chung Volunteer Army, and the entire army was destroyed. As a result, the Governor's Office of Taiwan and its Japanese army began to carry out so-called "indiscriminate sweeps" of village burnings and killings of civilians in Taoyuan, Zhongli, and even the Dahan Creek Valley in late July.
Huashan Ziji promulgates the "Order on the Punishment of Military Criminals of the Taiwan People"
On August 23, 1895, the Japanese Guards Division entered dadushi Street in the south of Taichung. On the other hand, Wu Tangxing, Xu Jun, and Li Jingsong joined the "Black Flag Army" led by Wu Pengnian and Yan Yunlong, with a total of thousands of soldiers to eliminate Changhua City. In addition, on the side of the Democratic Republic of Taiwan, another 400 soldiers used the Changhua Baguashan Fort to use heavy weapons artillery for the first time to bombard the Guards Division stationed on the other side of the Big Belly Creek.
Changhua location map
Changhua Bagua Mountain Fort
On August 27, 1895, the Japanese army began shelling Bagua Mountain sporadically. The attack was launched in the middle of the night on the 29th, which lasted eight hours, and the Japanese army declared victory at 8:00 a.m. on the 29th. This was the largest frontal battle in the Battle of Yiwei, known in history as the Battle of Bagua Mountain. In this battle, Wu Tangxing, the commander of the Taiwan Democratic State, and the generals Wu Pengnian and Yan Yunlong were all killed in battle. On September 29 of the same year, Major General Nobunari Yamane, commander of the 2nd Brigade of the Guards Division, died after being wounded by the anti-Japanese forces.
Changhua Bagua Mountain Anti-Japanese Martyrs Monument Park
First, due to the miasma, which caused serious casualties to the Japanese Guards Division, and because of the threat of the new president of Taiwan's democratic state, Liu Yongfu, sitting in Tainan and Fengshan, the Japanese army sent reinforcements to the Second Division and the Mixed Fourth Brigade to land at Fangliao and Chiayibu Baokou in the southernmost part of Taiwan.
The Japanese army's "three-way siege of Tainan" battle plan
Location map of Fangliao and Cloth Bag Mouth
After a short rest, the two reinforcements listed above, together with the Guards Division, on October 3, 1895, the Japanese army began to occupy the cities in southern Taiwan in three directions. Among them, the Guards Division was attacked by the militia at Muddy Water Creek, the Mixed Fourth Brigade was attacked by the Volunteer Army at Budai and Salt water, and in addition, when the Second Division attacked the southern strongholds to fight Dogs and Fengshan, it also encountered a small amount of resistance and caused hundreds of casualties among soldiers in the street battles of Jiaping Foot and the two cities.
Taiwan Turbid Water Creek
Among the many battles in the Yiwei War, in addition to the Battle of Bagua Mountain, the Hakka Volunteer Army in the Liudui area of southern Taiwan had the largest anti-Japanese activities, and in southern Taiwan, the Hakka Volunteer Army in liudui had a total of 2 large-scale battles with the Japanese army, one was the Battle of Buyuelou and the other was the Battle of Huozhuang.
On October 11, 1895, the 2nd Division of the Taiwan Expeditionary Force led by The Japanese General Nogi Nogi Nogi, with about 7,930 men, landed from Fangliao to Donggang, along the way, although there was sporadic resistance from the regular army of the Taiwan Democratic State, until it encountered six piles of Hakka volunteers (Zuodui Army) led by Zuodui Prime Minister Xiao Guangming , and this conflict was also the first fierce battle of the division, which was the Battle of Buyuelou. This battle was the first large-scale battle between the Liudui Hakka Volunteer Army and the Japanese army in southern Taiwan.
Nogi Norinori (1849-1912)
Xiao Guangming (1841–1911)
In the Battle of Jiaping Foot Alley, the six piles of Hakka Volunteer Army (Zuo Dui Army) were unable to defeat the Japanese army's military superiority, and finally took the XiaoJia Gucuo Buyue Lou at the foot of the Eggplant as the last line of defense to resist japan, but because the six piles of Hakka Volunteer Army (Zuo Dui Army) could not wait for the support of the other piles of Hakka troops of the Six Piles of Hakka Volunteer Army, that is, they were unable to defeat the strong force of the Japanese army, and fought alone until the next day (October 12) ugly time, the Japanese army captured Jia Ting Foot, and the Battle of Bu Yue Lou finally ended.
The site of the Battle of Buyuelou
After the end of the Battle of Buyuelou, the Japanese Second Division, in order to avoid the intrusion of the six piles of Hakka troops and delay the Japanese plan to encircle Tainan City (present-day Tainan City, Taiwan), left a small number of troops to contain the other piles of the Hakka army, and most of the remaining main forces continued to advance according to the original route of attack (Fangliao - > Donggang - > Fengshan City - > Tainan City) and occupied Donggang on October 12, 1895. After capturing Fengshan Castle (present-day Zuoying Old City, Kaohsiung) on October 16, the Japanese army continued to move north to encircle Tainan City. On October 18, 1895, the Japanese Guards Division, the Second Division, and the Mixed Fourth Brigade all arrived at the outskirts of Tainan City, forming a three-way encirclement situation.
Map of the Japanese army besieging Tainan on three sides
After Liu Yongfu learned that Tainan City was besieged on three sides, he knew that the general trend had gone. As the Japanese prepared to besiege Tainan City with the strength of two divisions, on October 20, 1895, Liu Yongfu and 20 retinues rushed from the Presidential Pavilion in Tainan City (located in the Present-day Tainan City, Tainan City, Taiwan Province) to Anping Port in Tainan, and first hid in the cabin of the Chinese Rongke ship, and then the next day (October 21) they immediately took the British merchant ship "Dilis" to cross to Xiamen.
Former site of the Presidential Pavilion in Tainan City
A photograph of Liu Yongfu captured by Japan
After Liu Yongfu crossed the river, the local gentry of Tainan followed the Taipei model and elected the British priest Barkley to ask the Japanese army to enter the city peacefully to help maintain order. On October 21, Major General Yamaguchi Suchen of the Japanese Second Division first led the army into Tainan City, and successfully entered Tainan City without bloodshed, which was like a replica of the original entry into Taipei City, and the death of Taiwan's democratic state.
Motoomi Yamaguchi (1846-1904)
Outside the small south gate of Tainan
After the Japanese army occupied Tainan City and the fall of the Taiwan Democratic State, on October 26, 1895, the Japanese Military Command ordered the Second Division to take over the Guard Division as the garrison south of Dadu Creek, and the Second Division was responsible for the Tainan, Fengshan, and Hengchun garrisons, and the Mixed Fourth Brigade regiment was responsible for the Changhua garrison. Two days after the 2nd Division took over as the main garrison, on October 28 the Japanese government announced that Prince Kita-Shirakawa Miyaya, commander of the Japanese Guards Division, had died of malaria in Tainan, Taiwan (the Japanese government's statement that Prince Nohisa had died of illness denied the Japanese government's statement). On November 13, the Japanese Guards Division left Taiwan to return to Japan from Tagu Harbor (now Kaohsiung Port) in southern Taiwan.
Prince Nohisa of Kita-Shirakawa Palace died in Tainan Castle
On November 9, 1895, after the 2nd Division and the Guards Division completed the handover of garrison tasks, because there were still large anti-Japanese activities in the Liudui area in southern Taiwan, the 2nd Division ordered the 3rd Brigade Fengshan Garrison to eliminate the anti-Japanese forces in southern Taiwan, and the Fengshan Garrison of the 3rd Brigade of the Japanese 2nd Division encountered greater resistance at Huohuozhuang (present-day Changxing Village, Changzhi Township, Pingtung County) on November 26 (October 10 of the lunar calendar). The Liudui Hakka Volunteer Army and the Japanese Second Division finally broke out the second large-scale battle in southern Taiwan, the Battle of Changxing, which was also the last battle of the Hakka anti-Japanese resistance in the Yiwei War.
The site of the Battle of Changxing
This battle was led by Qiu Fengyang, the prime minister of Liudui, who personally led more than 3,000 people of the Six Piles of Hakka Volunteers to fight the Japanese army of 10,000 in a bloody battle at Huozhuang until noon the next day (November 27), the Liudui Hakka Volunteer Army was defeated by the Japanese fire offensive and strong force, and the whole village was burned by the Japanese army and suffered heavy casualties, this battle is also known as the Battle of Huozhuang.
Qiu Fengyang (1829–1898)
Due to the defeat at the Battle of Huozhuang, the last battle of the Yiwei War, the Taiwan people's anti-Japanese War also came to an end.
In this war that lasted for about 6 months, the Japanese government mobilized nearly 50,000 troops from two and a half divisions, more than one-third of the total strength of the japanese army at that time, and more than 26,000 soldiers, totaling more than 70,000. More than 4,600 Japanese people were killed and killed (including one of the leading princes and one major general), and more than 27,000 were infected and wounded, far more casualties than in the Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese War. The regular army of the Democratic Republic of Taiwan also dispatched about 33,000 people, and the number of civilian townspeople and rebels could not be estimated. The Taiwan side not only lost many generals, but also civilians affected by the "indiscriminate sweeping" of the Japanese army, but also the casualties of civilians and soldiers are even more difficult to estimate. According to estimates, there are at least 14,000 people.
Schematic diagram of the B-Unwar
In order to retaliate against the Taiwanese people and suppress the rebels after the Yiwei War, the Japanese army repeatedly carried out massacres on the settlements where the rebels were located, and even burned the town to the ground. Taiwan's anti-Japanese forces were not completely quelled by the defeat in the war, and the taiwanese civil resistance with "defending the family" over "defending the country" was not only reflected in the rebel counterattack on Taipei City in 1895, but also appeared one after another in the Japanese occupation period in the following twenty years.