In the twelfth year of Kangxi (1673), because the Kangxi Emperor Xuanye issued an edict to withdraw the domain, Wu Sangui, the king of Pingxi who was guarding Yungui, did not want to lose his vested interests, so on November 27 of that year, he brazenly killed Zhu Guozhi, the governor of Yunnan, in the downtown city of Kunming, claiming that he would recruit soldiers and horses under the great tomorrow, the general soldier of the MingShan Customs, cut his braided hair and changed to wear Hanfu, and the flag was white, claiming that Zhu Cijiong, the third prince of the Chongzhen Emperor of The Ming Dynasty, was in the army, and raised troops to avenge Ming, and issued a letter to show the world, and officially erected a great banner of rebellion.
At that time, Wu Sangui had Wu Yingqi, Wu Guogui, Xia Guoxiang, Hu Guozhu, Ma Bao, Wang Pingfan and other hundred generals under his command, with 200,000 elite soldiers, plus he dominated Yungui for a long time, gathered a lot of wealth, and was rich enough to rival the country. How could he give up everything he had so hard to get and go back to his hometown in Liaodong to be a retired veteran general who had money, no power, and who was full of teasing Sun? Although Wu Sangui had asked him to withdraw his domain, it was just a pretense, and he arrogantly believed that the Qing court did not dare to hastily remove his domain, and although Kangxi had already come to the world and was the son of heaven, he was just a stinking bear child, and his foothold was unstable, and the Eight Banners generals who had followed Dolgun into the pass to sweep away the crowd had passed away one after another, and the Manchus had withered away the stars and looked around the world, and no one could compete with this brave and elite soldier under the king of Li Pingxi.
However, although Kangxi was young, he was an extraordinary person, and he had the strong support of Empress Xiaozhuang behind him, so he acted vigorously and never dragged mud and water. After some deliberation, Kangxi finally made a decision to defy public opinion:
"The town has been holding heavy soldiers for a long time, just like the human body carbuncle, if it is not removed early, why should it be cleaned up"?
So an edict was issued to withdraw the domain. Wu Sangui saw that the withdrawal of the domain was an ironclad fact and could not be changed, so he took the risk and raised an army to rebel under the guise of opposing the Qing Dynasty and restoring the Ming Dynasty. Wu Sangui raised an army to rebel, and the king of Pingnan, Shang Zhixin (father Shang Kexi) and the king of Jingnan, Geng Jingzhong (father Geng Zhongming), and others responded with troops, and the war was fought for a total of 9 years. History is called the "San Francisco Rebellion".
At the beginning of the war, Wu Sangui had already planned and prepared well, so he took the initiative, with Yungui as his main rear, and Xiao sent Wang Pingfan from Guizhou to attack Sichuan, and another way out of Guizhou to attack Hunan, the momentum was like a bamboo, and many important towns were successively captured. Due to the suddenness of the incident and lack of preparation, the Qing army suffered setbacks one after another, and some of the generals abandoned the city and fled, some feared the enemy like a tiger and did not dare to go to war, and some simply surrendered to Wu Sangui. In just half a year, except for the old nests of Yunnan and Guizhou, the three provinces of Sichuan, Hunan and Guizhou fell one after another, and all five provinces fell into the hands of Wu Sangui. At this time, Geng Jingzhong responded to Wu Sangui and rebelled in Fujian, rebelling against the Qing Dynasty.
After Wu Sangui's army left Yunnan, it rushed all the way and surged forward, invincible, and the Qing court was shocked by several provinces, so it hurriedly dispatched troops and generals to the south to resist the enemy.
The Wu army fought successive victories, and soon drank the Yangtze River and confronted and held the Qing army across the river from Jingzhou, Xiangyang, Wuchang, and Yichang.
The Qing generals did not dare to cross the river to attack, but only defended themselves according to the city. At this time, some generals suggested to Wu Sangui that the large army should quickly cross the Yangtze River and attack the Qing army on the north bank that did not belong to each other, did not contact each other, cooperated with each other, and only sought to defend themselves in the city, and would surely win a complete victory. After that, it directly pounded the Central Plains and the capital, and the great achievements could be achieved. Some people also suggested that the army should go down the east side of the river, conquer Nanjing, hold the canal, cut off the water transport, attack and retreat, judge the hour and size up the situation, and be at ease. Although Wu Sangui was able to fight a good battle, he was a man with no great ambition, and the reason why he rebelled against the Qing Dynasty was that he was not willing to lose his vested interests after being withdrawn from the domain, and there was no half-hanging relationship with what restored the Daming Jiangshan Sheji. In addition, he was still very worried about the safety of the eldest son Wu Yingxiong, who was a hostage in Jingshi, and was full of fantasies that Kangxi would make peace with him, so he was hesitant and failed to accept the correct advice of his subordinates.
After Wu Sangui drank the Yangtze River, the large army remained in Hunan and Hubei for a long time, and did not take advantage of the situation to go north, but only divided its troops to capture Sichuan, Jiangxi, Shaanxi and other places. It is precisely because of the two ends of his first rat that he suffers from gain and loss, so that he misses the excellent fighter.
In the thirteenth year of the Kangxi Dynasty (1674), the Kangxi Emperor heard that Wu Sangui was defending Huguangyue Prefecture with heavy troops under the condition of victory, neither going north nor east, and it is likely that he had the intention of defending Yungui and occupying several southern provinces, and making peace with the Qing court on this condition. To show his determination to put down the rebellion once and for all, the young Kangxi Emperor ordered the execution of Wu Sangui's beloved son Wu Yingxiong and grandson Wu Shilin, who had already been arrested and imprisoned.
According to records, when Wu Sangui, who was far away in Hunan, heard the bad news, he was sad and shocked, and he sighed one after another:
"Young Xuan Ye, dare to do this?" It's a matter of decision"!
Only then did Wu Sangui make up his mind to break with the Qing court once and for all. At this time, the Qing army had recovered from the initial state of chaos, and the rebellion of the Chahartu Mongols in the north of the desert had been put down, a large number of elite troops had been able to assemble southward, and the war situation had quietly taken a turn. Wu Sangui had lost the perfect opportunity due to his long-term hesitation, and finally never got such a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Kangxi appeased Wang Fuchen, the governor of Shaanxi and Gansu, reused Han generals, strategized, and dispatched well, while the Wu army no longer had the power of the past, not only was the army distracted, but also gradually lost its fighting spirit. For Wu Sangui, the situation has gone downhill step by step.
In the seventeenth year of the Kangxi Dynasty (1678), the Qing army turned to attack, and successively recaptured Liuyang, Pingjiang and other places, and the water army general Lin Xingzhu under Wu Sangui was defeated at Xiangtan, so he led the water division to surrender to the Qing Dynasty.
At this time, Wu Sangui was nearly seventy years old, dying of old age, suffering from serious illness, his body was getting weaker and weaker, he saw that the military was unfavorable, and he did not have much time to come, so he could not wait to ascend the throne in Hengzhou (present-day Hengyang) in March of this year, changing Hengzhou to Dingtianfu, Dingguo as Zhou, and Zhaowu as the year, setting up a hundred officials of literature and martial arts, and finally ruthlessly passing the emperor's addiction.
Subsequently, he announced the cancellation of the slogan of restoration, wore a yellow robe, and accepted the greetings of hundreds of officials. He finally revealed his nature and ambition, which made him even more unpopular, and many of his generals either surrendered, opposed him as emperor, or left. Just five months later, the Great Zhou Emperor fell ill and died. The Zhou he established also quickly collapsed.
【Illustrations from the Internet】