Baotou characters: Guo Yuhong, organized the Boxer Rebellion, and killed the Yang Church

Guo Yuhong (1855-1924), also known as Guo San, was born in Sarazi in the fifth year of Qing Xianfeng (1855 AD) to a martial arts family in Sarazi. He is tall and strong, with a wide waist and round waist, thick eyebrows and big eyes, and his voice is like a hong bell. His temperament is fierce and upright, and he is loyal and righteous. In addition to learning martial arts with his father and brother, he also learned the yin gun technique from the fourth lama of you, and his skills were even more extraordinary.

During the Qing Dynasty and the Guangxu years, the wealthy merchant Liu Baobang of Saraqi, the martial artist Di Wu and Guo Yuhong were very close, spending money regardless of you and me. In the third year of Guangxu (1877 AD), Liu Baobang was convicted of financial manipulation and exiled to Shandan County, Gansu. Guo Yuhong resolutely accompanied Liu Tongxiang, served and cared for, and did not leave his left and right. After arriving in Shandan County, Guo Yuhong replaced Liu Baobang and went to prison. Less than 3 years later, he escaped from prison and sneaked back to Sarazi, where he could not hide. Later pardoned.

Guo Yuhong and his second brother Guo Yusheng worked as farmers in The Little Baragai while teaching Yun Liansheng and Cheng Quanzhong to learn martial arts.

In the nineteenth year of Guangxu (1893 AD), Min Yuqing (Belgian), the liaison officer of the Belgian Society of the Sacred Heart of Our Lady, selected Little Balagay as a mission site to build a Catholic church here. Min Yuqing is sinister and cunning, scheming, and specializing in official entertainment. He knew very well that if the Catholic Church wanted to gain a foothold in Little Balagay, it would have to bring the Guo brothers together. Therefore, he first sent people to lure the Guo brothers to believe in Catholicism, promising to give them a prominent position and preferential treatment, but the Guo family had believed in Buddhism for generations, had a strong sense of national justice, and deeply resented the misdeeds of the missionaries. They clearly replied: "We are Chinese and are not interested in the Catholic Church founded by foreigners." Min Yuqing offered to use the money to buy the Guo family's land, but was sternly refused. Min Yuqing continued to hit the wall, and his fierce appearance was exposed. After careful planning, the first lie was made up: "The land cultivated by the Guo family was not bought, it was a wasteland of a landlord who returned to the interior, and now the Catholic Church has bought these lands and obtained the land title." One day in the spring, the Catholic Church organized people and horses to forcibly cultivate the land of the Guo family.

Guo Yuhong and others had also made preparations long ago, and when they saw that the church had moved, they immediately gathered the disciples and the villagers with a sense of justice nearby, and everyone rushed to the scene with weapons in their hands and argued according to reason. The church was poor, the dog jumped the wall and preemptively moved; the Guo family brothers called out, and the brothers and villagers beat the foreign priests and believers to escape.

In the twentieth year of Guangxu (1894 AD), Min Yuqing, who had failed to dominate the land, went to the Saraqi Yamen to accuse the Guo family of "encroaching" on the land of the church; on the other hand, let a burly priest lead many believers to forcibly cultivate the Guo family's land. The Guo brothers did not show weakness, and organized a second resistance, leading the apprentices and villagers to attack the robbers armed with guns and pickaxes, and the two sides won or lost each other. However, due to the verbal approval of the church's land ownership by the mesmerizing Saraqi Yamen, which fueled Min Yuqing's arrogance and ordered the disciples to plant crops around the Guo family's house. In this regard, the Guo family brothers did not compromise, when the crops were ripe, led a group of tough brothers, took advantage of the church people asleep to launch an attack, hit the other side in all directions to flee, the Guo family brothers immediately commanded the nearby peasants, people back, carts, livestock, to seize the mature crops.

After several rounds of fighting, Min Yuqing was still not dead-hearted, and he was convinced that the government was afraid of foreigners, so he went to Yamen to file a complaint. Yamen submitted to the imperialist aggressive forces and ordered the Guo brothers to return the crops they had "robbed" and not to allow similar incidents to occur again.

The Guo brothers' indomitable "anti-foreign" struggle has been supported by all sectors of society. Saraqi Yamen was afraid of the teaching plan, so he had to make peace with the mud, withdraw the former officials, and return the land of the Guo family; give the church 3,000 silver taels, and build churches elsewhere.

Min Yuqing was very dissatisfied with the handling of the official government and went to Beijing to find the French legation in China. In the twenty-fourth year of Guangxu (1898 AD), the French consul negotiated with the Qing court and was approved by the Prime Minister Yamen, who determined that the church was the legitimate owner of the land of The Little Balagay.

In the 26th year of Guangxu (1900 AD), the Boxer Rebellion was booming, Guo Yuhong and Guo Yusheng responded positively, set up altars in the town of Saraqi to practice boxing, and young and middle-aged peasants and handicraft workers enthusiastically joined the regiment, with a number of 300 to 400. On the morning of the eleventh day of the sixth lunar month, the red flag led the way, and the Guo Yuhong brothers, carrying bows and arrows, holding spears in their hands, riding high-headed horses, led a large group of people and horses dressed in red, wrapped in red scarves, and armed with weapons, and marched towards Little Balagai. After arriving at the destination, Xu Wenhui, the leader of the Orgson Boxers, also led the crowd to arrive. The two families joined forces and launched a fierce attack on the church. Brother Guo's disciples, Yun Liansheng and Cheng Quanzhong, some wielded large swords, some held spears in their hands, and some picked up large sticks and killed the church. The faithful resisted with double-barreled shotguns, ox-legged cannons, and home-made grenades. The battle lasted for several days, with casualties. On June 23, Guo Yuhong and Guo Yusheng took the lead in climbing the wall with their claws and hundreds of locks, killed the church, smashed the icons, distributed food and property to the people, and then set fire to the church.

After a short rest, he rushed to attack the church in conjunction with the Boxers in toctor and other places. On the twenty-fourth day, he conquered the bishop's palace and captured Han Moli and others alive. Soon, the Guo brothers led the Sarazi Boxers to attack the Xiaonao'er Church on the south bank of the Yellow River.

After the failure of the Boxer Rebellion, Min Yuqing rushed back to Sarazi to take revenge. Guo Yuhong and Guo Yusheng saw that it was difficult to survive, so they rode two horses and left their hometown, hiding their names and wandering the world. After the Xinhai Revolution, he returned to Sarazi. Guo Yuhong died in the 13th year of the Republic of China (1924 AD). After the founding of New China, when rent reduction was implemented in the "Second Five-Year Plan," the people's government notified the descendants of the Guo family to go to The Little Baragai to recognize the territorial land. It was only when this historical case was justly concluded.

Source: Baotou City Chronicle (Volume 1), June 2007. Huang Xiang (Yin Shan Worm) was sorted out in January 2022