In 1673, a far-reaching event occurred: Wu Sangui, the king of Pingxi, under the guise of "the first emperor and three princes", issued a letter of revival and qing, and raised an army to attack the Qing Dynasty. Soon, the King of Jingnan in Fujian and the King of Pingnan in Guangdong responded one after another. This was the famous "San Fan Rebellion" in the early Qing Dynasty.
Before Wu Sangui started the army, he took Yunnan as his old nest and operated painstakingly for many years, with strong influence. The Qing Dynasty has been in peace for a long time, and there has been no war for many years, and the Qing army is about to collapse in front of the rebels. Therefore, Wu Sangui attacked the city strategically and occupied many places. Around 1677, Wu Sangui occupied Yunnan, Guizhou, Hunan, Hubei, Sichuan, Guangxi, Gansu, and Shaanxi, plus Fujian and Guangdong occupied by the Jingnan and Pingnan kings, occupying a total of 10 provinces.
At that time, Wu Sangui sat on half of the country and crossed the river with the Qing Dynasty, entering the peak state of life. However, in less than a year, the situation took a sharp turn for the worse: Wu Sangui fell ill and died in the autumn of 1679, and the Qing army took the opportunity to attack and regain the lost land. In 1681, the Qing army pacified Yunnan, ending the eight-year-long "San Francisco Rebellion".
Why did Wu Sangui, who occupied 10 provinces at most, eventually lose to the Qing Dynasty?
First, Wu Sangui's illness and death were the direct cause of the failure of the uprising
Wu Sangui was born as a general, good at riding and shooting, and also passed the Ming Dynasty martial arts, military command ability is relatively strong, that year once defeated Li Zicheng, Li Dingguo and others, from Shanhaiguan all the way to Yunnan.
The Eight Banners Army of the Qing Dynasty entered the peak stage at the beginning of the entry, and since then it has deteriorated. At that time, on the side of the Qing Dynasty, almost no one could compete with Wu Sangui as a general. In the "Rebellion of San Francisco", YiLibu, Hakesan, Shuodai, Tuodai, yisixiao, etc., who were relatively capable of the Qing army, were all defeated generals under Wu Sangui. At the same time, many Qing generals were in a wait-and-see state, unable to work hard, futile troops, and spending military salaries on air, making Wu Sangui's territory bigger and bigger.
However, Wu Sangui was able to defeat the Qing army, but he lost to the years. Wu Sangui was already 61 years old when he started the army. The average age of people in the Qing Dynasty was very low, and people over 60 years old were relatively rare. Although Wu Sangui was in good health, he was an elderly man after all, and after several years of conquest, his physical condition became worse and worse, and he finally died in Hengzhou (present-day Hengyang City, Hunan Province) at the age of 67.
After Wu Sangui died of illness, the rebels lost their main heart, and the ability of the heir Wu Shifan was far inferior to that of Wu Sangui, how could he not lose the battle? Therefore, in just two years, the Qing army put down this rebellion.
Second, although Wu Sangui has a large number of people, he is not united internally
Wu Sangui has been operating painstakingly in Yunnan for 12 years, and has old subordinates distributed in Guizhou, Sichuan, Guangxi, Gansu, Shaanxi and other provinces as officials. When Wu Sangui raised an army, these ministries would echo each other in the provinces, and the momentum was very strong. Suddenly, Wu Sangui had a large number of people, and the maximum number of troops that could command and mobilize reached 400,000.
However, 400,000 troops is only a theoretical number. In fact, many of Wu Sangui's old subordinates were opportunists. When Wu Sangui's state was smooth, these old subordinates would naturally unite under his big chess; but once Wu Sangui's state became bumpy, these old subordinates would turn to the Qing Dynasty every minute for their own interests.
This point is illustrated by taking Wang Fuchen as an example.
Wang Fuchen was an old subordinate of Wu Sangui, who served as the viceroy of Shaanxi when Wu Sangui raised his army. In 1674, Wang Fuchen led his troops in response to Wu Sangui, with an army of 80,000 under his command. However, in 1676, Wang Fuchen, who was at both ends of the first rat, was lured by the Kangxi Emperor to surrender to the Qing Dynasty again.
Not only that, Wu Sangui's allies also had two sides and three knives. Zheng Jing and Geng Jingzhong were full of contradictions and infighting. Geng Jingzhong was attacked by the Qing army and Zheng Jing's army and was forced to surrender to the Qing Dynasty. In this way, the Qing army could concentrate its forces to attack Wu Sangui. In addition, Shang Kexi and Shang Zhixin were father and son, but Shang Kexi was loyal to the Qing Dynasty, and Shang Zhixin responded to Wu Sangui, pleasing at both ends and betting at both ends.
Third, Wu Sangui's troops were too hurried, and it was difficult to fight a protracted war
After Wu Sangui defended Yunnan, he developed his own forces, surpassing the other two clan kings, Jingnan Wang and Pingnan Wang. However, Yunnan is located in the southwestern border, many places are undeveloped, and the economic conditions are very poor, which cannot support Wu Sangui's ambitions to annex the world.
What's more, the reason why Wu Sangui first raised an army was because Shang Kexi was preparing to return to Liaodong for retirement, and the Kangxi Emperor planned to withdraw Wu Sangui with him. The incident happened suddenly, and Wu Sangui did not expect the Kangxi Emperor to act quickly. Wu Sangui hastily launched a rebellion when he was not fully prepared. He led an army out of Yunnan, into Hunan, and laid half of the country, and has already exerted the resources he has to the extreme.
We can imagine that even if Wu Sangui had not died of illness in 1679, the rebels would not have been able to fight a protracted battle against the Qing Dynasty. The Qing Dynasty had a vast buffer zone and a stable rear, and the rich Jiangnan region as a logistical support base, which would sooner or later drag the rebels to their deaths.