Author: Our team Zhang Lan
Although it is said that the "San Francisco Rebellion" that tossed the "Kangxi Dynasty" for eight years, the great book of Ye Shili specially wrote about the heroic posture of the Kangxi Emperor to "calm down and suppress the rebellion", and sang a praise for his "heroic talent". But for the Qing Dynasty's Guozuo, this was a rebellion that risked shaving his head.
As the "founding hero" of the Qing Dynasty, Wu Sangui, the "King of Pingxi" of the Qing Dynasty, who sat on the southwest land, was the Emperor of Tu in the southwest before the rebellion, and the "San Fan" headed by him not only monopolized the production of gold, silver, copper, ore and salt wells in the southwest region, but also squeezed the southwest provinces into "the rich room is empty, the middle class is lost, and the poor people have nothing to rely on." It also consumed a large amount of silver in the Qing Dynasty every year, so that "half of the world's wealth was consumed in San Francisco". Wu Sangui, the "hero" and "pillar" of the founding of the Qing Dynasty, was already a tumor of headaches in the Qing Dynasty by the time of the Kangxi Dynasty. Just as the Kangxi Emperor angrily rebuked: Wu Sangui "is the likes of the Tang Dynasty" and "the tang dynasty."
For such a "cancer", the Kangxi Emperor wanted to "withdraw the domain", which was actually not surprising. But the young Kangxi Emperor at that time made a big mistake: he thought it was too simple. In Kangxi's view, Wu Sangui's "tang fan town" seems to be to say that it is easy to withdraw and cut. But even compared with the Tang Dynasty Fanzhen, Wu Sangui can be regarded as an "enhanced version" at this time. Over the years, "San Francisco" has not only accumulated rich wealth, but also raised elite troops. The standing troops under Wu Sangui's command numbered as many as 70,000 people, and "Pingxi jia soldiers, known as elite". Coupled with the two domains of "Pingnan" and "Jingnan", the military strength is very strong.
How fierce was Wu Sangui's army at that time? To take a simple example, we know: during the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom War in the late Qing Dynasty, the Taiping Army that "mobile operations" went to Yuezhou accidentally dug out a batch of arms from the local area, all of which were hoarded by Wu Sangui's army during the "San Francisco Rebellion" that year. Don't look at it as a pile of "antique-grade" equipment, but it is still sharp when fighting. The Taiping Army, which held this batch of "old antiques" in its hands, also quickly turned over salted fish, killed the besieged Eight Flags Army and took the important town of Wuchang in one go. This key battle in the early days of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom actually had Wu Sangui's "god assist" in that year.
Therefore, to sum up, before the outbreak of the "San Fan Rebellion", it is precisely before Kangxi decided to "withdraw the domain", which made the Qing Dynasty miserable, the "San Fan", which was three "pretended" beasts, wu Sangui was one of the "giant beasts". But in the twelfth year of Kangxi (1673), the twenty-year-old Kangxi Emperor looked at this group of people like three harmless animals. For this courtier's headache of "withdrawing the domain", he simply and rudely used the excuse of Wu Sangui's pretending to request the withdrawal of the domain, and came to push the boat along the water -- if you say withdraw, then you will withdraw.
As for the rebellion? War? At that time, the Kangxi Emperor did not have a half plan in his mind, so he waited for this group of proud soldiers to put down their butcher knives and obediently return to Liaodong to retire. What about Wu Sangui's side? Don't look at the years of "pretending", Wu Sangui's layout is very fine. For example, Zhu Guozhi, the inspector of Yunnan at that time, every time he participated in the impeachment of Wu Sangui, he could be copied by Wu Sangui's eyeliner in Beijing. Kangxi had not yet received it, and Wu Sangui recited the "transcribed version" to Zhu Guozhi triumphantly. Before completely tearing his face, Wu Sangui's confidant in Beijing also took his grandson Wu Shipan back to Yunnan...
On the one hand, it was a big dream unconsciously, and on the other hand, it was many years of meticulous preparation and strong soldiers, so in the twelfth year of the Kangxi Dynasty (1673), When Wu Sangui tore his face and rebelled, and the "San Fan Rebellion" suddenly broke out, the Qing Dynasty immediately lost his face: in less than half a year, Wu Sangui's rebels swept through all parts of the south. Li Benchen, the viceroy of Guizhou in the Qing Dynasty, did not let go of a single shot, and simply knelt outside the gate of Guiyang City to greet Wu Sangui's army. Wu Sangui's beloved general Ma Bao took Changsha, Yuezhou, Hengzhou and other important places in one go in one go, and defeated the Qing army "five thousand miles without only riding to intercept", almost in a hurry.
What made the Qing Dynasty even more bitter at that time was the boiling and anti-Yingtian of the entire south. With Wu Sangui as a "leader", several provinces in the south and even in the northwest followed suit: Fujian, Guangdong, Hunan, Yunnan, Guizhou, Guangxi, Sichuan, and Shaanxi successively broke away from qing rule, and most of Gansu also fell into the hands of Wu Sangui. In the blink of an eye, the Qing Dynasty lost half of the country.
What is particularly fatal is that at that time, Wu Sangui's main force had already entered the Songzi area of Hubei Province, just across the river from the Jingzhou camp of the Qing Dynasty, which was equivalent to drinking the Yangtze River. At that time, Wu Sangui only concentrated on the front line of Hunan, as many as 200,000 soldiers and horses, most of whom were veterans who could recruit good warriors. If Wu Sangui had had more courage at that time, he would have either gone down the east side of the river to take Nanjing, or marched north with his army, or marched into the Guanzhong Plain. This "San Francisco rebellion" is probably going to be a mess again.
But the most peculiar thing is precisely here, obviously facing the great opportunity of the Northern Expedition, Wu Sangui, who holds a large number of good cards, suddenly made a "strange move": forbidding troops to cross the river. In the following years, Wu Sangui hoarded more than 200,000 of his army on the front line of Hunan, carefully built a complete defensive line with Yuezhou as the center, and hoarded a large number of arms and weapons, which was drained with the Qing army on the opposite side. Even if the main force of the Qing army was trapped in the two battlefields of the northwest and southeast, the strength of the troops on the Hunan battlefield was seriously insufficient, and even "most of the horses were killed" and the soldiers were "killed in two out of ten". Wu Sangui's side was still calm, just standing still.
His "calm breath" is actually another turning point in the "San Francisco Rebellion". After that, the Qing Dynasty confronted Wu Sangui in Hunan while quelling the rebel forces in the southeast, southwest, and southeast. Wu Sangui's elite soldiers and horses "must not take a step out of Hunan." Waiting for the Qing Dynasty to pacify Fujian, Shaanxi, Gansu, Guangxi, and other places, Wu Sangui's concubines were also trapped in the great siege of the Qing army. Wu Sangui, who was in a hurry to attack the heart, died of illness in Hengzhou in the seventeenth year of Kangxi, and his defensive line centered on Yuezhou then collapsed one after another, and was chewed down by the Qing army piece by piece, and then Kangxi entered Yunnan in the nineteenth year, and there was no suspense in victory or defeat.
It can be said that Wu Sangui's closest chance to victory in the "San Francisco Rebellion" was personally broken when he was "drinking the Yangtze River". When many posterity talked about this matter, they also lamented that Wu Sangui had made a faint move. So, why did Wu Sangui, who has been in the battlefield for a long time, have such a strange operation?
The first reason should be Wu Sangui's personal "pattern" problem, don't look at him after rebelling and calling himself "King of Zhou", before his death in Hengzhou, he also had the addiction of "calling himself emperor". But when pulling the flag and rebelling, Wu Sangui's "pursuit" was really not so big. Even if he hit the edge of the Yangtze River, he still thought that "if things cannot be accomplished, they can be divided into the Yangtze River and the country", that is, to divide and establish themselves as emperors.
Moreover, this matter was not only Wu Sangui's personal "pursuit", but also the "negotiation bottom line" of many high-ranking officials in the Qing Dynasty at that time. At the beginning of the San Francisco Rebellion, due to the collapse of the Qing Dynasty, many high-ranking officials in the Qing Dynasty, either advocating "peace" or proposing "splitting the land and dividing the land", simply gave the place to Wu Sangui. What about Kangxi, who made a big mistake when "withdrawing the domain"? At this time, he had the responsibility to insist on "not allowing the land to be torn apart and the soldiers to strike." If he hadn't been so resolute at that time, then this "Kangxi Dynasty" would have really become a Southern and Northern Dynasty.
However, although Kangxi was very resolute, Wu Sangui did not have a dead heart, and when he hit the Yangtze River, he began to stabilize the defense, that is, he wanted to protect vested interests, and once the negotiations had the capital. Then a few years of dry consumption, the cost of work is exhausted.
The reason why he would rather spend all his money than fight forward is that Wu Sangui knows how much meat he has.
At the beginning of the San Francisco Rebellion, Wu Sangui marched forward, but the elite troops of the Qing Dynasty did not break their bones. In particular, the "northward advance" seems to be easy to "fight across the Yangtze River", but the fact is that after the outbreak of the "San Fan Rebellion", the Qing Dynasty hoarded heavy troops in Taiyuan and Yanzhou. Once Wu Sangui really crossed the river, it was equivalent to crashing into the "pocket" of the Qing army, and the odds of winning were much lower than that of "defending Yuezhou".
Moreover, let alone going north, even if it is consolidating the southern half of the country, it will not be easy for Wu Sangui. The so-called "San Fan Rebellion" was actually divided into three battlefields, in addition to Wu Sangui and the Qing army in Hunan, Shaanxi, Gansu and Fujian and Zhejiang also fought fiercely. If Wu Sangui wanted to take the initiative, he must take Jiangxi, so that he could open up his connection with Geng Jingzhong in Fujian. But the Qing Dynasty also saw this, Jiangxi has been deploying heavy troops, Wu Sangui several plans to capture Jiangxi have not been realized, so he and Geng Jingzhong and other "allies" were actually divided into several pieces.
In this situation of fighting separately, it is almost a mess, and only individuals can take care of individuals. Therefore, Wu Sangui did not understand the consequences of giving up crossing the river, but under the strategic situation at that time, for him personally, holding hunan was the safest choice.
Although this choice for him, is the difference between "early death" and "late death".
The roots say that at that time, wu Sangui chose to rebel, and Wu Sangui was unpopular, and second, his economic foundation and war support were unable to confront the Qing Dynasty. The only chance of victory is to hope that the Qing Dynasty will make another trick. However, the Kangxi Emperor, who made a mistake on the issue of "withdrawing the domain", did not give Wu Sangui another chance in terms of strategic response.
Putting aside historical grievances, reviewing the entire "San Francisco Rebellion" still has too many things worth recalling in terms of "strategic pattern" and "layout success or failure.".
References: Su Heping, "On the Nature of San Francisco in the Early Qing Dynasty and the Reasons for the Failure of Its Rebellion", Mei Yi's "True History of the Qing Dynasty", Xu Jia's "Firearms of Wu Sangui", Li Shangying's "Kangxi Pacifying San Francisco and Its Aftermath Measures"