As a jinshi in the first year of Chongzhen (1628), Shi Kefa's initial life was not brilliant, and even a little "disgraceful". The reason for this is that the imperial court had high hopes for him and sent him to various places to suppress the rebellion, but his achievements were not good, and none of them were completed, and he was convicted of Chongzhen in the eleventh year.
01 Yangzhou Supervisor
The imperial court was not bad, not killed with a stick, but gave him a chance to wear the guilt and make meritorious deeds. The following year, Shi Kefa's father-in-law died, and he left his post to go home for mourning, and after the funeral period expired, the imperial court appointed him as the right attendant of the household department and the right hand of the imperial history, in charge of Caoyun. At the beginning of his term of office, Shi Kefa impeached and dismissed three incompetent grain inspectors, vigorously dredged the South River, and carried out a relatively large rectification of Caowu. The imperial court was quite satisfied with the results of his "dai sin and meritorious service" and transferred him to the post of Shangshu of the Nanjing Bingbu.
After serving as the Head of the Army, Shi Kefa proposed eight reform measures against the army's low combat effectiveness. However, before these measures could be implemented, Beijing was captured by Li Zicheng, the Chongzhen Emperor hanged himself on coal mountain, and the governor of Fengyang, Ma Shiying, and others supported Zhu Yousong (Hongguang Emperor) the Prince of Fu in Nanjing, established the Southern Ming regime, and set up four towns in Jiangbei, appointing Shi Kefa as the Shangshu of the Army, and supervising Yangzhou.
Shi Kefa did not approve of Zhu Yousong as emperor because Zhu Yousong was not only obsessed with wine, but also acted absurdly, but Ma Shiying and Wei Zhongxian's remnants manipulated the Southern Ming regime, and in order to avoid possible internal conflicts, Shi Kefa failed to uphold principles in this matter. Not staying with the gang was the best way to avoid conflict, so he took the initiative to ask to go to the front to command the army.
Shi Kefa did not expect that although he was a soldier, the army was not easy to command. The generals of the four towns in Jiangbei were basically some muddy eggs, doing some bad things such as fighting for territory and killing the people with their arsonists. Fortunately, Shi Kefa's prestige was extremely high, and the generals barely obeyed his orders. He let them live around Yangzhou. Shi Kefa, who commanded the army in Yangzhou, has since had a "nickname" of Shi Tuoshi.
02 Five refusals
In the second year of Shunzhi, the Qing army that defeated Li Zicheng marched south in a big way, led by Duoduo, the most capable of fighting the Qing army. Under the command of Shi Kefa, the soldiers of the four towns in Jiangbei were still working hard and fought some victorious battles. At the critical moment, there was chaos, and the tyrannical Ma Shiying and Ruan Dacheng provoked Zuo Liangyu, who was stationed in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, and in a fit of anger, Zuo Liangyu did a confused thing: send troops to attack Nanjing, and Zhu Yousong urgently ordered Shi Kefa to rescue him.
No sooner had Shi Kefa led his army than he crossed the Yangtze River when he received news that Zuo Liangyu had been defeated and died. Before he could breathe a sigh of relief, the news came that the Qing army was approaching Yangzhou, and Shi Kefa hurried back to Jiangbei and ordered the troops of the four towns in Jiangbei to rush to the aid of Yangzhou, but only the general Liu Zhaoji listened to him, and the other generals turned a deaf ear to Shi Kefa's orders. The Qing army continued to open up, as many as 100,000 people, and the strength of Shi Kefa's hands was only a mere 10,000.
Shi Kefa knew very well that this was a collision of eggs and stones, and there was a result before it had begun. After making up his mind to coexist and die with Yangzhou City, he began to write a suicide note to his mother and wife who were far away in Nanjing.
Although Dodo is a fierce general and never ambiguous in battle, he also has a flexible side, and it is always a good thing to be able to win without fighting, so he plans to come first and then soldiers, and send people to persuade him to surrender. Shi Kefa's response was very simple, he didn't look at the letter of persuasion brought by the people, and directly burned it. Dodo was not dead-hearted, and continued to send people to persuade him to surrender, and Shi Kefa did the same.
When the fifth letter of persuasion was burned by Shi Kefa, Duo Duo finally lost patience, and in anger, he ordered the siege of Yangzhou. The great war was about to break out, and the fear of death began to plan for itself. The next day, Li Qifeng, the commander-in-chief, and Gao Qifeng, deputy envoy of the supervising army, took advantage of the night to take away their headquarters and surrender to the Qing army. Faced with the situation that the defensive forces were even weaker, Shi Kefa had to ask the Hongguang Emperor for help, but the Hongguang Emperor ignored it. After repeated attempts to persuade him to surrender, Duo Duo began to command the Qing army to attack the city.
In the case of the disparity in strength and weapons between the two sides, Shi Kefa led the Yangzhou military and people to swear to resist the enemy to the death, repelled countless attacks by the Qing army, and three days later, the city of Yangzhou was still unbreakable. Duo Duo brought in Western cannons and aimed them at the west gate that Shi Kefa personally defended, and the shells rained down, and the city wall was blown open a large gap, and the Qing army poured in like a tide. Grief-stricken, Shi Kefa drew his sword and committed suicide, and his subordinates saw the situation and hurriedly took his sword down.
At this time, Shi Kefa only wanted to die quickly, but he could not help his subordinates and was forcibly pulled away by his subordinates. When Shi Kefa was protected by his subordinates and walked out of the small east gate, he encountered a group of Qing soldiers. At this moment, Shi Kefa's Ming Dynasty official costume was so conspicuous, but qing soldiers obviously did not know him, and asked him who he was, out of consideration of not involving his subordinates, Shi Kefa said loudly: "I am Shi Kefa, you come to kill me." ”
03 Heroism is righteousness
The capture of Skofa was the news that Dodo had been waiting for. Not only did he not intend to blame this enemy, who had caused him great losses and devastation, but he also treated him with courtesy, calling him "Sir" and promising him a high-ranking official. This was Dodo's last persuasion and still ended in failure.
Dodo persuaded for three days in a row, and the response he received was nothing but scolding, which was this sentence: "I am a minister of the imperial court, and I am willing to secretly give birth to a sinner in all the worlds!" My head can be broken, my body cannot be disgraced, and I wish to die quickly, from the first emperor to the ground. ”
In the process of Duoduo's last persuasion to surrender Shi Kefa, a witness named Wen Ruilin left a more detailed record: King Yu (Duoduo) very kindly summoned Shi Kefa and said: "Before I wrote a letter to ask for advice, but Mr. Wen Ruilin did not follow." Now that Zhongyi has been completed, when he is responsible for the heavy responsibility, he will clean up Jiangnan for me. Shi Kefa replied, "I have come here only to ask for one death." Duo Duo asked, "Don't you see Hong Chengyu?" To descend is to be rich. Shi Kefa replied, "He was favored by the Former Emperor and did not die, and his disloyalty to Erguo Mingyi." How can I do what I do? ”
In the face of Shi Kefa's unwavering, Duoduo, who was poor in donkey skills, said, "Since you want to be a loyal subject, I will fulfill you in the next step." Shi Kefa sneered, "Whether the city is dead or dead, I have already made up my mind, that is, the corpses are broken into ten thousand pieces, and they are as willing as raptures, but the millions of beings in Yangcheng city must not be killed!" ”
After Shi Kefa was killed, Duo Duo was very angry at his stubborn resistance and caused the Qing army to suffer heavy casualties, and inhumanely ordered the Qing army to massacre the people of Yangzhou, this retaliatory killing lasted for ten days, creating a famous tragedy in history, known in history as the "Ten Days of Yangzhou". During the ten-day massacre, 800,000 people in Yangzhou were killed.
After Shi Kefa's heroic righteousness, his adopted son Stilwell went to the city to find the body of his adoptive father. Faced with too many corpses, coupled with the hot weather, many corpses began to decay and could not be recognized, Stilwell's search was fruitless, and he had to bury the clothes and wat boards worn by his adoptive father in his lifetime on the Meihua Ridge outside Yangzhou, which was Shi Kefa's crown tomb.
04 The spirit lives on
The British diplomat Macartney once said: "The anti-Qing struggle at the end of the Ming Dynasty was not a national struggle, nor was it a struggle to defend the selfish interests of the Ming Dynasty, but a struggle between civilization and barbarism, progress and backwardness, a struggle related to the fate of China in the following centuries."
Shi Kefa, Liu Zongzhou, Huang Daozhou, Mu Tianbo, Zheng Chenggong, Zhang Huangyan, Yu Yingzhu, Xiong Rulin, Qian Sule, Zhang Mingzhen, He Tengjiao, Tuoba Yinxi, Qu Shiyan, Li Dingguo, Wu Zhenyu, Wang Yi, Zhang Tongchang, Feng Jingdi, Dong Zhining, Yan Yingyuan, etc., they are defending not only China's interests, but also the interests of the progress of the entire world civilization, but unfortunately they failed! ”
Although they failed, their heroic and indomitable spirit has inspired and inspired generations of Chinese, become a sharp sword and a strong fortress against foreign enemies, and become a powerful motive force for the Chinese nation to rejuvenate the country with great difficulties and become stronger and stronger. In this sense, heroes such as Shi Kefa are the real victors.