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Director Wei Desheng's work "Sedek Balai" is based on real events in history, which is the armed conflict between the Japanese police stationed in Taiwan during the Japanese occupation period and the local aborigines, known in history as the "Wushe Incident".
Stills from "Sidek Bale"
In fact, during the Qing Dynasty's rule over Taiwan, there were also many armed conflicts between the Qing Dynasty garrison and the local indigenous tribes.
One of the more famous and large-scale incidents was the "Lion's Head Society" incident in the 1870s, through which the Qing army stationed in Taiwan brought a coalition of indigenous tribes with a population of up to 5,000 people into the direct jurisdiction of the Taiwan Inspectorate.
The Qing Dynasty's emphasis on Taiwan's defense stemmed from the Peony Society Incident in 1874. In that year, in order to blame the Taiwanese aborigines who had killed the Ryukyu people of the dependent country, the Japanese Meiji government sent 3,600 soldiers led by Saigo Congdao to land in Taiwan to attack the Peony Society and other tribes of the Taiwanese Paiwan tribe. In the eyes of the Qing court, the barbarian country dared to send troops into the island of Taiwan under the official jurisdiction of the Qing Dynasty to fight with the People of Fan, which was an extremely humiliating thing for the Qing Dynasty.
A tombstone of the Ryukyu clan built by Saigo from the province
As Li Hongzhang wrote in his recital, Japan, which has always been regarded by the Qing Dynasty as a small state outside the country, "but with two small ironclad ships and a few more backdoor guns," dared to ignore the existence of the Qing Dynasty and enter Taiwan without authorization to stir up trouble, which really cannot but make people feel the weakness of coastal defense.
The Japanese people's visit to the door to make trouble not only touched the "Wokou" plot in the hearts of the Qing Dynasty scholars, but also brought a new diplomatic issue to the Qing Dynasty: Were the indigenous people of the Taiwanese tribes who had always been outside the jurisdiction of the Qing Dynasty official government and only used to be oppressed, or were they the subjects of the Qing Emperor?
In the process of handling the Peony Society incident, the Qing Dynasty's attitude to the issue was vague, leaving only an empty promise to "try to properly restrain" these indigenous people and let them no longer kill foreigners who came ashore after shipwrecks.
As for these customs and lifestyles, which were very different from those of the Qi people under the administration of the Qing Dynasty, did they regard them as foreigners who were not directly under the direct jurisdiction of the government, or did they regard the indigenous people as part of the Qing Dynasty? At least in the view of Foreign Premier Yamen and Li Hongzhang, who is in charge of foreign affairs, the latter approach is the most in line with the diplomatic interests of the Qing Empire.
After the Peony Society incident, the Qing Dynasty identified two major reform measures on the island of Taiwan: 1. Sending huai troops to Taiwan 2. Kaishan Fufan".
In 1862, the Huai Army sailed to Shanghai
The Huai Army was the only large-scale and well-equipped field mobile force in the hands of the Qing government in the 1870s. The Japanese invasion of Taiwan made Taiwan Island, which was traditionally a foreign land and was not at all considered in the Qing Dynasty's defense priorities, suddenly become a "soft underbelly" for pinching the southeastern half of the Qing Dynasty.
The Qing Dynasty was bound to mobilize this powerful brigade that had made many achievements in the civil war to enter Taiwan. The Huai Army had about 40,000 or 50,000 people, so naturally it was impossible for all of them to go to Taiwan. The 6,500 people who were sent to Taiwan were Tang Dingkui's department as the core.
The Mingzi battalion led by Tang Dingkui was originally the elite of the elite of the Huai Army, and was the backbone unit under Liu Mingchuan, the first general of the Huai Army. During the pursuit of the Twist army in Hubei, the Huai army was ambushed and surrounded by the main force of the Twist army, Liu Mingchuan was almost captured, and Tang Diankui, the brother of Tang Dingkui, who commanded the Kuizi battalion, was killed in battle, and later, Tang Diankui's younger brother Tang Dingkui was ordered to rebuild the Mingzi camp.
This army was gradually expanded, commanding the 13th Battalion of Mabu under the name of the Mingwu Army, and was one of the largest and most effective units of the Huai Army.
Statue of Tang Dingkui, a famous general of the Huai Army (standing on Zipeng Mountain in Feixi County)
However, in the view of the Central Government of the Qing Dynasty, since the chief general of the Mingzi battalion, Tang Diankui, had died, and the Mingwu Army had actually lost its main backbone, in order to save grain and wages, it deliberately dismissed the army. At this time, when the Peony Society Incident broke out, Li Hongzhang temporarily decided to transfer the Huai Army to Taiwan in order to preserve the strength of the Huai Army, declaring to the outside world that this move could make up for the loopholes in the Qing Dynasty's sea frontier defense line, and in fact, it could evade the central government's disarmament orders.
Although the Mingwu Army was ostensibly a "superfluous" army that had escaped the dismantling, Li Hongzhang, as the commander-in-chief of the Huai Army, understood that this unit, which had performed well in quelling the Taiping Rebellion and the Twisting Army Rebellion, had rich experience in dealing with "civil unrest" affairs.
At this time, the Huai Army stationed in Taiwan may not need to confront a powerful foreign enemy, but it must know how to deal with the "internal enemy." This is because the Qing government was vigorously promoting the policy of "opening up mountains and raising fans" at this time.
The Huai Army all adopted Western-style guns, and the picture shows the field guns equipped by the Huai Army
The proposal to "open the mountains and raise the fan" was put forward by Shen Baozhen, the plenipotentiary minister who dealt with the Peony Society incident, specifically referring to the Qing Dynasty's policy of abandoning the means of coercion against the indigenous people of the tribes outside the Han settlement areas, and completely incorporating the tribesmen who had been completely autonomous for hundreds of years into households, or at least letting them be partly under the control of the Qing government.
The reason for implementing this policy, in addition to practicing the Qing government's promise in diplomatic negotiations to "restrain shengfan, do not kill" foreigners, Shen Baozhen also tried to penetrate deep into the central mountains of indigenous activities, open up traffic on the east and west sides of Taiwan Island, and improve the Qing Dynasty's defensive layout in Taiwan. During his time in Taiwan, Shen Baozhen set up the three roads of the north and south of the central three roads, Fufan Tongzhi, and planned to build three traffic lines in the three places in the north and south of the central mountain range where the tribal aborigines were active.
While opening the way, on the one hand, it promotes the "Sinicization" of the indigenous people of the tribe, and on the other hand, it strengthens the development of mountain resources. The specific measures can be summarized as "choosing the land, checking the household, fixing the industry, speaking through the words, forbidding revenge, setting up the fan school, building roads, and changing the crown", transforming the indigenous people of the tribe into honest and responsible Qing subjects.
Shen Baozhen (1820-1879), zi youdan, Han, native of Fuzhou, Fujian
Shen Baozhen also anticipated that this "land reform and return" in Taiwan was bound to arouse resistance from Taiwan's indigenous people, so he asked Li Hongzhang early to send the Huai army to Taiwan to sit in the town.
Since the Qing Dynasty brought Taiwan under its jurisdiction, there have been successive conflicts between the Han chinese and tribal aborigines on the island of Taiwan. Han Immigrants who occupied the western plains of Taiwan and the indigenous tribes that occupied the Central Mountain Range region clashed over a variety of daily chores.
The indigenous people of Taiwan also maintain the custom of "coming out of the grass" of primitive tribes, and once they have a grudge with people, they are bound to cut off each other's heads to show their bravery. The Han people, whose lives were threatened, also joined forces with the villages and villages, constantly fighting with the indigenous people.
At that time, the contradiction between The Fan and the Han in Taiwan was like a mess, and it could not be resolved simply by appeasement or suppression.
The custom of "coming out of the grass" is to kill a person and bring the head back and place it in the first shed of the family or tribe to show their military achievements. Such customs have been practiced almost exclusively throughout the island (except for the Dawu people who live in Orchid Island), and they cut off people's heads in the grass, but mainly not for hatred or money, but on reasons that are sacred from the perspective of the indigenous people, such as ancestor sacrifices, proclamation of adulthood, boasting of bravery, exorcism of disease, and so on.
Shen Baozhen's resolute attitude of "sharply opening the border" will naturally only intensify, not weaken the contradiction between the indigenous people and the Han people. Shen Baozhen himself was prepared to respond to the contradiction by force from the very beginning. As a close friend of Li Hongzhang, he already knew that the Huai Army, which had been transferred to Taiwan, was a powerful force that was good at dealing with "civil unrest."
When the Huai army was formed in Shanghai, it saw that the british and French armies had strong guns and guns, so they abandoned shotgun spears and gradually switched to foreign guns, and since then their combat effectiveness has gradually shaken off the conformist Xiang army and become a modernized armed force that has single-handedly stepped on the entire Qing Dynasty.
Unlike other Qing troops who switched to foreign guns and cannons, the Huai Army hired Western instructors from the beginning of the introduction of foreign guns and artillery, and replaced traditional Chinese drills and tactics with Western-style exercises and tactics.
In the course of fighting with the Taiping Army and the Twist Army, the Huai Army gradually discovered that the tactics taught by the foreign instructors were not entirely suitable for dealing with the peasant army uprising, and gradually explored a set of methods for dealing with the peasant army, and the specific tactic was to organize the elite fighters of the whole army and the whole battalion into a small but dead squad that regarded death as a homecoming, armed with a foreign gun and sharp weapon, and violently released its guns after approaching the rebel people's army.
After being equipped with artillery, the Huai army learned the tactics of first bombarding with field artillery and then sending death squads to advance. He also used this set of tactics to quell the turmoil of the Taiping Army, the Twist Army, the Northwest Hui Army, and many other civil army rebellions.
Although the implementation of the policy of opening the mountain and fufan has aroused the resistance of the indigenous people, it has indeed helped to improve traffic on the island of Taiwan, and most of the roads on the east side of taiwan island today are built along the ancient road opened by Shen Baozhen.
Compared with the Taiping Army, which was crowded with foreign guns and cavalry, The indigenous tribes of Taiwan appeared to be isolated. Many tribes have only a few dozen to hundreds of zhuangding, and only have worn-out guns and bows and arrows and other weapons in their hands. In view of the disparity in strength and weapons between the two sides, most of the Fanshe tribes chose to accept the solicitation. However, there were still many Fanshe who refused to allow the Qing army to enter their territory, and even did not hesitate to trigger armed conflict.
One of the largest revolts of the aborigines in the process of opening the mountains and Fufan came from the Guiwen Eighteenth Society in present-day Pingtung County.
Early Taiwanese aboriginal distribution
The conflict between the Guiwen Eighteenth Society and the Huai Army began in early 1875.
This year, Shen Baozhen, who was touring all over Taiwan, received a complaint from Tainan, which was a complaint from the villagers of Laotongjiao in Tainan about the killing and injury of five local tribesmen and the two elders of the Huai Army. After investigation, it was found that during the Japanese invasion of Taiwan last year, the villagers of Laotongjiao quarreled with the indigenous people because of the trivial matter of cutting firewood in the mountains, and the villagers were excited for a while, kidnapping the son of the local Fanshe chieftain to protect himself, resulting in the tribesmen retaliating against the local garrison Huai army and villagers, killing 5 villagers and 2 Huai army chiefs.
In order to quell the vicious fight between the Han and the Han of the Raktong Foot, Tang Dingkui ordered seven battalions of the Huai Army to be stationed near the Razong Foot and prepare to suppress the situation by force. Fufan and the prefect also sent people to inform the Lion's Head Society, Bamboo Pit Society, and other tribes in the Guiwen Eighteenth Society, asking them to hand over the murderers who killed the villagers of Raktong foot.
The local tribes refused to respond, so Shen Baozhen ordered three battalions of Huai troops to garrison Lat tongjiao, and on April 4, 1875, he formally issued an order to suppress Fan.
Taiwanese Aborigines
Responsible for leading the first campaign was the Huai general Luo Dachun's guerrilla attack Wang Kaijun, Wang Kaijun led hundreds of Huai troops along the Fangshan Stream to the east, to the Inner Lion's Head Society, which participated in the Laotong foot incident, but did not encounter strong resistance in the area, the Huai army burned down the houses and then attacked the Zhukeng Society, where it encountered fierce resistance and failed to capture it.
When the Huai army retreated, the Nei lion head society, the Bamboo Pit Society, and the rest of the tribes zhuangding arrived one after another, constantly shooting darts and small arrows from the dense forest, chasing the retreating Huai army, and surrounding its regiment in Qilixi, after a fierce battle, Wang Kaijun was killed, and the Huai army died more than a hundred people.
Wang Kaijun was praised as the "First General of Kaishan Fufan" for his meritorious efforts in resisting the attacks of the tribesmen and successfully mediating the conflicts between the Japanese army and the tribesmen left behind in Taiwan, but this time he was ambushed and killed by the Guiwen Eighteenth Society, which greatly shocked shen Baozhen, the minister of Chincha, and the qing government officials stationed in Taiwan. Tang Dingkui ordered the main force of the Mingwu army to be concentrated and launched a large-scale attack on the Guiwen Eighteenth Society.
A temple dedicated to the soul of King Kaijun
Before the all-out attack, the Huai army spared no effort to clear all the trees outside the mountainous area and opened up a marching road more than thirty meters wide in the mountain forest.
On March 13, 1875, the Huai army attacked Zhukengshe again. With Zhang Guangliang, the commander of the left army, as the central army, the left and right battalions were divided into guerrillas to cover the left and right roads, and the general Zhang Gaoyuan and other divisions were ordered to block the retreat of the tribesmen after circumventing the Bamboo Pit Society. When the Huai army entered, the tribesmen were in groups of one hundred and ten, watching from the heights of the mountains, and soon after, they attacked from the dense forest and grass, and the Huai army was a battalion step by step, and the infantry lined up in a neat formation to snipe with serial guns, killing more than a dozen indigenous warriors in succession. The natives of The Bamboo Pit Society fled all over foreign gunfire, and the Huai army successfully entered and occupied the Bamboo Pit Society.
The battle to attack the Lion's Head Society was much more fierce than the battle of the Zhukeng Society, and the Huai army's daily advance was blocked by as few as two or three hundred and as many as five hundred aborigines. By the beginning of April, it was difficult to enter the bottom of the Inner Lion's Head Society.
The Huai army used foreign guns to cover the shooting, while the army continued to approach the Lion's Head Society along the Guiwen Creek. On April 4, the Huai army seized the opportunity to set up a camp on the top of the hill near the Lion's Head Society, isolating the reinforcements of the Lion's Head Society and the Guiwen Eighteenth Society. Another force was sent to camp about two miles behind the Lion's Head Society to prevent the indigenous people from attacking the Huai army from the rear.
The Lion's Head Society gathered warriors from the Dagan Zaili and Zhou Shiban tribes, built a stone wall in front of the society, placed antlers, and built a lookout, set up a sentry flag, and posed as a dead-end posture.
HuaiJun
The Huai army bombarded with small cannons with foreign guns for several days, killing more than 20 indigenous people and killing more than 100 people, and gradually completing the encirclement of the Lion's Head Society. In April, taiwan was extremely hot and unbearable, and the Huai army was not satisfied with the water and soil, and Admiral Zhang Guangliang actually fell ill and died in the camp, fortunately did not encounter the rainstorm weather that Tainan was accustomed to, and there was no plague, so as not to cause the Huai army to lose more personnel.
On April 16, Tang Dingkui personally deployed, and the Huai army poured all its main forces into launching a general attack on the Lion's Head Society. On the day of the day, the Huai army divided into three routes and attacked in the direction of the Lion's Head Society. The natives of the Lion's Head Society completely abandoned the outer fortifications, and only gathered their forces in the last fortification outside the society in an attempt to fight to the death.
After the Huai Army's middle road contained the indigenous defenders, the left and right roads detoured from the path back to the fortifications, triggering the collapse of the shouka indigenous militia. As a result, the Huai army was able to drive a long way, invading the Lion's Head Society and the aborigines to fight house by house.
After the Battle of the Lion's Head Society began, more than 200 reinforcements from other tribes of Guiwen saw the signal for help and rushed to support, but they were ambushed by the Huai army's mountain troops and suffered heavy losses.
The Huai army surrounded the Lion's Head Society on all sides, attacked from morning to noon, and finally broke through the Lion's Head Society. About a hundred indigenous zhuangding people were killed in the inner and outer lion's head societies, and the younger brother of the chief chief of the Guiwen Society and the chief commander of the aborigines, Ala Pendulum, was also killed.
The Huai army captured a large number of weapons, flags, gunpowder, etc., and burned more than 300 grass huts of the Lion's Head Society, completely leveling the largest tribe in the Guiwen Society Alliance.
1895 Qing Dynasty woodblock prints depicting the indigenous "Fan Wang" and "Fan Po"
After the battle of the Lion's Head Society, the Guiwen Eighteenth Society successively came to surrender to the Qing army, accepted a series of conditions such as the Qing government's stationing in Tumu, Chafanhu, and Dingfanye, and became the first batch of so-called "Shengfan" to be Sinicized. However, the attack on the Guiwen Eighteenth Society only opened the prelude to the Qing government's great project of suppressing and using and arming the mountain.
With the deepening of the Huai army's operation into the mountains and the construction of communication roads, there were armed conflicts such as the booby-trapping of the indigenous Zhuangding incident and the Jialiwan aboriginal uprising, and even the aboriginal chieftains who went to the Huai army camp to surrender were executed by the Huai army Ling Chi to intimidate the aborigines to obey.
According to statistics, in the "Kaishan Fufan" activity presided over by Shen Baozhen, the indigenous people suffered heavy casualties, with more than 1,000 deaths, and the two larger indigenous tribes in the east of Hualien were almost extinct.
On the Huai Side, due to the superiority of foreign guns and artillery, the direct casualties caused by the battle were not many, but the hot and rainy weather in Taiwan made the Huai Army plagued. Before the Battle of the Lion's Head Society, the Huai Army had accumulated more than 700 deaths, followed by more than 1,100 casualties.
In the end, as many as 1918 Huai army soldiers buried in Taiwan, accounting for almost one-third of the total number of Huai troops stationed in Taiwan.
In Taiwan's Huaijun Zhaozhong Ancestral Hall, as many as 1918 Huaijun dead are enshrined
After the two sides paid such a tragic price, the Qing Dynasty's "Kaishan Fufan" project actually had little effect. In addition to some of the indigenous people who were killed by the Qing army, more people fled to the deep mountains and dense forests.
Although Liu Mingchuan, the first governor of Taiwan, inherited Shen Baozhen's YuXu and vigorously promoted the policy of "opening up mountains and raising the mountains and raising the fan", causing many indigenous tribes to "break their bodies and exterminate their tribes", they still could only drive the indigenous tribes into deeper mountains and forests, but could not surrender them.
Until the Time of the Qing Dynasty's cession of Taiwan during the Sino-Japanese War, most of Taiwan's aboriginal tribes continued to maintain their own living traditions and were not Sinicized.
Scholar Hu Shi's father, Hu Tiehua, served as an official stationed in Taiwan on the eve of Jia Wu. He once commented on the policy of "opening mountains and fufan": After 18 years of opening mountains and fufans, it is meritorious to suppress it, but it is ineffective.
Recruiting indigenous and Han Chinese to reclaim land, the state could not collect half a land rent and tax, and the Huai army's fortification of Han-inhabited areas often only helped rich households guard tea camphor plantations, rather than ensuring the safety of ordinary civilians.
In fact, due to the intensification of the contradiction between Fan and Han, there are more and more cases of indigenous people "going out of the grass" to kill ordinary Han people. Judging from the Qing government's initial expectation of "restraining Shengfan and not causing it to harm people's lives", "Fufan Kaishan" cannot be regarded as a successful policy.