Jiangyin is located in southern Jiangsu, now known for its wealth, in 1645, it was just a small county town on the Yangtze River, subordinate to Changzhou Capital, and did not have much fame. Perhaps because of the perennial reliance on the Yangtze River to eat, the people living here are bold, the folk customs are rigid, and no one is encouraged to see them.
In the great changes at the end of the Ming Dynasty, Jiangyin did not look different at first. Not long after the Hongguang Emperor Zhu Yousong ascended the throne, Duoduo went east to attack Nanjing, captured Zhu Yousong, and sent emissaries to the prefectures and counties under the Southern Zhizhi to appease him.
At this time, although there was sporadic resistance in various places, they were already powerless, because the government had been put in a pot, the army had fallen, fled, and the local volunteers were obviously not the opponents of the Qing army like wolves.
Intimidated by the military might, most of the region accepted officials sent by the Qing Dynasty, and Fang Heng, a Zhixian who was arranged for Jiangyin, also took office.
Just at this time, Dorgon in Beijing saw that the situation was very good, and took the opportunity to issue the famous "shaving order", ordering everyone to shave their hair and accept the rule.
Fang Heng was originally a Ming Dynasty soldier who surrendered to the Qing army early, and he was an airborne official who took office with only a few family members. When Fang Heng first arrived in Jiangyin, his ass was not yet hot, and he wanted to burn a fire, post a notice, and vigorously promote the shaving order. In order to help, The Changzhou Taishou Zonghao sent four more soldiers to supervise the execution. Fang Hengman thought that under the qing army's destruction and decay, Jiangyin had changed its banner, and it was only natural to shave his hair and change his clothes.
But the people don't see it that way. The change of dynasty may have its own general trend, but for the people at the bottom, the matter of shaving hair and changing clothes is unacceptable to everyone.
"The skin of the body, the parents, do not dare to destroy"
This sentence from the "Filial Piety Sutra" is by no means casual, and has been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people for thousands of years.
For the people at that time, asking them to shave their hair was like letting people run naked in the streets today, and they were rejected from top to bottom.
Fang Heng ordered the county officials to write a document and notice, which was written in it
"Leave your head without hair, leave your hair without your head"
When he said this, the scribe did not even care about his own rice bowl, threw away his pen and shouted: "Just die!" ”
The people of Jiangyin petitioned several times and asked Fang Heng to suspend the execution.
Fang Heng did not know the customs of the people of Jiangyin, but instead thought that the people of Xiaoxian county deliberately embarrassed himself, a foreign official, and his nostrils were facing the sky, and he refused all of them.
The people spontaneously organized themselves to go to the county to make trouble, and dissatisfaction spread.
Seeing that the people in the city had changed their minds, Fang Heng secretly sent his subordinates to the Changzhou capital to deliver a letter, asking his superiors to send troops to "kill more Tree Wei".
The letter was intercepted by the righteous people in the middle of the road, and in an instant the news spread throughout the city, and the volcano in Jiangyin was ignited.
Everyone elected the official Chen Mingyu as the leader, killed the manchu soldiers, sent Fang Heng to prison, and played the banner of "Daming Zhongxing" to formally oppose the Qing.
The volunteers opened the arsenal and armed themselves, determined to hold Jiangyin. The news soon reached Changzhou, and Taishou Zonghao did not think so, but only sent three hundred people to suppress it. At this time, the rebel army had gathered tens of thousands of people, and three hundred people were not enough to see, and they were surrounded and completely annihilated before they entered Jiangyin.
In the next few days, a small number of Qing troops came to suppress them, but they were all repelled, the rebels and the Qing army were already in the same situation, and Fang Heng, who was imprisoned, was also dragged out to wipe off the sacrificial flag.
Although the situation looked good, Chen Mingyu understood that his ability was limited, the Qing army suffered losses, and he would definitely send a large group of people to take revenge, and when the time came, with his own commanding ability, I am afraid that he would not be able to deal with such a big battle.
He remembered a man, his predecessor, Yan Yingyuan, who was the former canonical history of Jiangyin City, who was now living in the Sand Mountain outside the city.
Yan Yingyuan was a native of Tongzhou, who had already been promoted to the post of chief of Yingde County in Guangdong, but before he could take up his post, Nandu had fallen, so he was stranded in Jiangyin. Yan Yingyuan had military talent, led everyone to resist pirate attacks during his tenure in Jiangyin, and was a doer, and everyone was very convinced of him.
Yan Yingyuan did not say a word, and immediately rushed to the city to take over the defense.
He first divided his troops to guard the four-sided city gate, reinforced it with huge trees, and sent people to guard it day and night to prevent it from being attacked by rushing vehicles.
The rebels were reorganized, and according to the configuration of the squads and brigades, they were orderly and convenient for command.
At the same time, the city's defenses were strengthened, and door panels wrapped in iron leaves, empty coffins stuffed with dirt, etc. were used to use materials according to the locality, and what could be used.
In addition to the defense of the city, the defense of the city also needs weapons, in this regard, Jiangyin is also very scarce, the bow and arrow are limited, there are only a few firearms, basically nothing is lacking.
These did not overwhelm Yan Yingyuan, the strength of the people is infinite, and everyone uses all available resources to build their own defensive equipment.
Wood, iron, bricks, and even dung, grease, these waste snacks, when recombined in the hands of the rebels, became a good weapon for defending the city.
Here is also a mention of a man, the son of Chen Ruizhi, a former Jiangyin garrison, who was originally implicated by his father and imprisoned. But this man has a specialty, good at making firearms. Yan Yingyuan ordered him to be released and made firearms for the rebels, and although his father gave the Qing Dynasty an official, the son of Chen Ruizhi had his heart set on the Ming Dynasty and worked very hard. He made fire bricks, wooden hammers and other defensive tools from local materials, and they were indeed very exquisite.
The fire bricks are about three or four inches in size, and can be thrown on people to catch fire; the wooden hammer is not a musket, it is a weapon like a grenade, the middle is stuffed with iron edges and gunpowder, and it is doubly powerful to throw it from the city high, and after the outbreak, the iron diamond horns fly randomly, the lethality is in pieces, and it is particularly effective in attacking the city with ants.
The rebels also made weapons such as crossbows, fireballs, and rockets, which were of little use in the field battles of the regular army, but were very suitable for defending the city, and the effect was not good.
Jiangyin was in action, and the Qing army was not idle, and after sending a small army to suppress the failure, Duo Duo, the Prince of Yu in Nanjing, made a big move and sent tens of thousands of soldiers and horses to attack.
These soldiers are not the Eight Banner Soldiers, and the Full Soldiers are regarded as treasures, which are the foundation of the Founding of the Qing Dynasty, and they are reluctant to use them casually. Ordered to attack Jiangyin were former Ming Dynasty vassals who had surrendered to Duoduo, Liu Liangzuo of Guangchang, one of the four towns in Northern Jiangbei, and his old subordinates.
In late June, Liu Liangzuo arrived with his troops, surrounded Jiangyin City after eliminating the rebels on the outskirts, and ordered a siege of the city.
As soon as the beating began, the Qing army cried because the beating was so painful.
The Qing soldiers who attacked Jiangyin found that what was thrown on the Jiangyin city wall overhead exceeded their imagination, and under the Jiangyin city wall was simply a large scene of high-altitude projectiles.
Bows and arrows, muskets, earth cannons and even stones and bricks are still normal operations, as well as inexplicable iron lumps, flying fire plate bricks, explosive "grenades", crossbows that can drag people up, and terrible dung water - burning hot, the surface layer is also intimately added to the grease insulation, lest it burn you. Being drenched in this fecal water is either dead or injured, because even if the wound is inflamed, it will cost half a life.
Liu Liangzuo's army was not high in combat effectiveness, and what it usually did was to bully the common people, even if he had seen these routines, he suddenly poured a large piece, and more of them cried their noses.
"As soon as the soldiers attacked the city, they all wept."
Liu Liangzuo repeatedly attacked unfavorably and wanted to persuade Yan Yingyuan to surrender, but he repeatedly sent emissaries to shoot letters with bows and arrows into the city to surrender, and even personally came to the city to appear and say that Yan Yingyuan surrendered.
Yan Yingyuan stood at the head of the city and gave him eight big characters: "There is a descending general, and there is no history of descending!" Liu Liangzuo was speechless in one sentence.
Duo Duo heard that the war in Jiangyin was unfavorable, and sent Kong Youde, the king of Gongshun, to bring troops to help. Kong Youde is an old qualified general, and his ability is much stronger than Liu Liangzuo, but he has no choice but to face Jiangyin, and he can only surround Jiangyin but still can't bite down.
Nanjing's Duo Duo couldn't sit still, he killed from outside the Guan to the inside of the Guan, nanjing, Hangzhou and other important towns did not fight and fell, the little Jiangyin dared to use the mantis arm as a car, had to use a big move.
The big move is the Eight Banners, at this time the Eight Banners is the peak of combat strength, sweeping through East Asia, it is indeed not covered. Duo Duo thought that the strength of the Han army was really not good, so he had to dispatch the Eight Banners to the horse, and he sent the famous generals Boluo and Nikan to Jiangyin with red-clad cannons and Eight Banners elite soldiers.
These two were important ministers of the Qing Dynasty, and later they were respectively promoted to prince Duanzhong and Prince Jingjin, and their ability to conquer the north and south was strong.
Bo Luo came to Jiangyin City and did something first--hit Liu Liangzuo with a board.
Without saying that, the commander-in-chief of the army could not attack Xiao Jiangyin, but instead lost his troops, Liu Liangzuo was not wronged at all, and it was already polite not to get rid of him.
Although Liu Liangzuo had no face and no skin, he also felt ashamed at this time, and he urged his subordinates to attack the city desperately, and Boluo also sent eight banner soldiers, and then opened the red-clad cannon to help the battle.
It has to be said that the combat effectiveness of the Eight Banners is really strong, they started with heavy armored infantry, and they can still move freely with several layers of armor. As soon as the Eight Banners came on the battlefield, the defense of the city head was somewhat tight, the weaker crossbows and earth guns could not penetrate the heavy armor, and it was difficult for firearms to hurt the soldiers hidden behind the strong shields.
There was a brave general of the Qing army, simply draped in three layers of heavy armor, held up a table in his hand, took the lead, climbed up the ladder, climbed the battlements, and tried to capture the flag.
The rebels were cut down by him, and finally under the siege of the combined forces, they pierced the neck of the weaker protection and killed him.
After difficult resistance, the city was still not breached. At this time, Jiangyin had stubbornly resisted for two and a half months, although it had caused heavy casualties to the Qing army, but the city was already unsustainable, and the materials and manpower had been exhausted, and it was difficult to hold out for a longer time.
During this period, Jiangyin did not make other efforts, and the city sent people to the four sides for help, hoping to connect the resistance forces in various places and break the siege.
The request for help was not without a response, the Ming Dynasty generals Huang Fei, Wu Zhikui, the rebel Yiyang Wang, and Xiucai Gold Mine all led troops to rescue Jiangyin, and even the pirate Gu Sanmazi also led a boat division to help because he admired Yan Yingyuan as a person. Unfortunately, without exception, all were defeated on the periphery and could not break the encirclement.
This was also the problem at that time, although the anti-Qing forces surged up, but because of the collapse of the Hongguang regime in Nanjing, they lost unified command and dispatch, and no one stood up to dominate the overall situation, and the result of fighting for each other could only be broken by each one.
Boluo could not attack for a long time, and he also began to be anxious, he issued a surrender condition, as long as the banner of Daming Zhongxing was pulled out, the four gates hung the banner of the Great Qing dynasty on all four sides, only a few people were killed, and the rest did not care, even if they did not shave their hair, they would withdraw their troops.
This strategy of slowing down the army could not conceal Yan Yingyuan, and he replied to Boluo: "I would like to be shelled, and I would rather die than surrender!" ”
Even so, the destruction of Jiangyin City was only in the middle of nowhere. On the twenty-first day, Boluo gathered his red-clad cannons and fired cannons to bombard the broken northeast city wall, and after the wall was broken, the Qing troops who sneaked in rushed into the city.
When the city was destroyed, Yan Yingyuan and everyone in the city already knew that they could not be spared, and they had already made preparations. Yan Yingyuan sat on top of the enemy tower in Dongcheng, asked for a pen, and mentioned at the city gate:
"Eighty days with allegiance, cousin Taizu seventeen dynasties figures, 100,000 people died with one heart and righteousness, leaving the Ming Dynasty three hundred miles of rivers and mountains."
Write it, throw it on the ground, and lead people to fight in the streets. The rebel army was already at the end of the crossbow, no longer able to drive the Qing army out of the city, Yan Yingyuan repeatedly rushed to kill and could not break through, he tried to throw himself into the lake but did not succeed, was captured by the Qing army and sent to Boluo.
Bo Luo was triumphant, thinking that he could humiliate Yan Yingyuan. Yan Yingyuan stood up and unyielding, refusing to even give Boluo a straight face, and his mouth was full of scolding. A small soldier tries to please Boluo, and a shot pierces his calf, and Ying Yuan finally falls to the ground. The next day, Yan Yingyuan was finally killed.
The rest of the city, Chen Mingyu and others, were also martyred in the street battle, and the rebel army was completely destroyed, and none of them surrendered.
Enraged, Bolo ordered the slaughter of the city for three days, and 100,000 people were either killed or slaughtered, and only fifty-three survived.
Jiangyin's resistance made the Qing army tremble with fear, and the army spread:
"If our soldiers go south, those who are not easy to pull out, Jiangyin, Jing County, and Zhoushan and three ears."
After Zhu Yujian, the Emperor of the Southern Ming Dynasty, took the throne in Fuzhou, he heard about the resistance of the rebels everywhere and sighed: "My descendants will meet the people of these two counties, although the three-foot boy should also be pitied and respected." ”
There are many legends in the Battle of Jiangyin, and the so-called "Seven Kings", "Wing King" and "Ten Kings" of the Qing Dynasty were all killed under the city, which is actually a fabrication of wild history, not a fact. However, the resistance in Jiangyin, including Jiading, Jingxian and other places, was not about how many enemy troops were killed or wounded, but in the spirit represented by such low-end officials as Yan Yingyuan and Chen Mingyu.
Compared with Shi Kefa, who was martyred in Yangzhou before, their status is insignificant, Jiangyin is not a big city like Yangzhou, Yangzhou was breached in one day, Nanjing fell without a fight, and the small Jiangyin blocked tens of thousands of manchu troops for 81 days.
In fact, this shows a problem, Jiangnan, which has always been known as a weak folk custom, can also have such strong resistance, indicating that as long as the organization is proper and the strategy is effective, the power of the people is not as weak as imagined, and there is no shortage of supporters of the Ming Dynasty among the people. It was just that at that time, there was neither a wise king, nor an incompetent subject, nor a good general, and Jiangyin's efforts were wasted in vain.
Even so, Jiangyin is still worth remembering for future generations. To this day, there are still three ancestral shrines in Jiangyin City that worship Yan Yingyuan, Chen Mingyu and Feng Houdun, and since 2005, public sacrifices have been held every year to pay tribute to the martyrs, and history has not forgotten them, nor has it forgotten the blood-colored history of Jiangyin.
Speaking of this, putting aside the dispute between the Ming and Qing dynasties, from the perspective of history at that time, whether it is a city or a person, the struggle at the time of the national destruction is worthy of the respect of future generations.