Song Qing
Song Qing is a native of Penglai, Shandong, born in 1820, in the history of the late Qing Dynasty, it is also a legendary existence, the "Yi Army" he created, the early and "Beiyang Army" is the same existence, but also produced a lot of military celebrities in the late Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the People's Republic.
Song Qing's life is quite legendary, he was poor since childhood, there is no foothold, in his twenties to a fellow villagers in the capital as an official Gong Guoxun home to help, the palace saw Song Qing looks dignified, tall, arm strength is amazing, so he advised him to learn martial arts, and later have the opportunity to start with military merit.
Although Song Qing's height is not clearly recorded, but it is undoubtedly taller than ordinary people, it is said that in song Qing's later years, once he visited Empress Dowager Cixi with his class, when the courtiers knelt down, Cixi saw a person standing in the distance, and asked the eunuchs around him who was so bold? The eunuch took one look at it and said, "That's Song Qing, kneeling for you!" That is to say, Song Qing kneels and is almost like an ordinary person standing.
Cixi was taken aback and called Song Qing to his eyes, Tiger Biao Biao was a big man, although old, but his spirit was strong, he couldn't help but appreciate it, Yijun could stand out at the end of the Qing Dynasty, and Cixi's favor for Song Qing also had a certain relationship.
When Song Qing was thirty-three years old, Gong Guoxun was given the opportunity to release the governor of Bozhou, and Song Qing followed him to Anhui. At that time, Anhui was the front line of the Qing Army's Taiping Army War, and there were constant battles large and small, and later there were twisting troops, so there were regimental trainings everywhere. The prefect of the palace then put Song Qing in charge of local regimental training to resist the Taiping Army, the Twist Army, and the Qing Dynasty bandits and rebels of all sizes.
Twist army
Song Qing's talents were brought into full play, and he did a very good job in regimental training, especially in the battle to suppress the Huaibei bandit Miao Peilin, he cooperated with the monk Gelinqin and made great contributions. He successively received the titles of "Yiyong Batulu" and other titles that were awarded by the Qing court, and the origin of the name "Yijun" later lies in this. In 1862, Tang Xunfang, the inspector of Anhui, dismissed the local Linhuai Army, because of Song Qing's outstanding military achievements, he was assigned three battalions, plus Song Qing's original army, there were eight battalions, the name of "Yi Army", which arose, because the food of the Yi Army was mainly from Henan at that time, so it was also called "Yu Army", in fact, the old roots of the Yi Army were still a branch of the Huai Army, and Henan did not have much to do with it.
Song Qing, a person who came from poverty and was well aware of the sufferings of the people, was also very lenient and fair to his subordinates, deeply loved by soldiers, and was also able to give Song Qing a death force when fighting, so the achievements of the Yi Army have always been very good.
After pacifying the Eastern Twist, the Yi army was dispatched to follow Zuo Zongtang into the northwest, and also made great contributions, stationed in the northwest after the war, but the basic team of the Yi army was Anhui and Henan, which was very unsuitable for the climate of the northwest, and Song Qing had a good relationship with Yuan Shikai's uncle Yuan Jiasan at the time of the Pingtuo, and in 1880, Yuan Jiasan came forward and transferred the Yi army to the northeast and stationed it in the Lushun area of Dalian, and for more than ten years thereafter, the Yi army's garrison was here, so it is not surprising that the later head of the Fengzhi warlord Zhang Zuolin was out of the Yi army.
It is also this relationship between Song Qing and the Yuan family, and the Yi Army, which is equal to the Beiyang Army in terms of seniority and military merit, was not discriminated against and mistreated by Yuan Shikai in the late Qing Dynasty and early Minchu, because Song Qing was Yuan Jiasan's protégé and was counted as Yuan Shikai's uncle in terms of generations, so President Yuan Da basically regarded Yijun as his own.
After the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese War in 1894, Song Qing was ordered to lead the Yi army north to take charge of the defense of the Yalu River defense line, at this time Song Qing was seventy-five years old, but the White Army was in the white mountains and black waters, and people were admired at the time.
The Battle of Jia-Wu
On October 25, the Japanese army crossed the river and began to attack, most of the Qing army collapsed in one battle, and retreated to the south, in general, the level of the Qing army in the Battle of Jiawu was not as good as that of the Japanese army, but under the command of Song Qing, the Yi army still fought several battles that could be seen, although it did not help, but it was not too ugly, of which the Battle of The Feeling King Zhai and the Battle of Dapingshan in Haicheng were still worth mentioning.
On December 13, Song Qing personally led 5,000 people into the Ganwang Village northwest of Haicheng, planning to take Haicheng as a base point. The Japanese army immediately sent troops to attack, with a strength of about 4,000 troops, basically equivalent to the Yi army. Under the command of Song Qing, the Yi army was not afraid of death, and repeatedly competed with the Japanese army for positions. Yu Rentong, the head of artillery of the Yi Army, fired the artillery with precision, causing a large number of casualties in the Japanese army and forcing the Japanese army to invest in artillery and other reinforcements. In the end, although the Yi army had to withdraw from the battle, it also caused nearly 500 casualties of the Japanese army, which caused the arrogance of the Japanese army after the start of the Sino-Japanese War.
In February 1895, during the Fourth Battle of Haicheng, Song Qing sent Yi to bravely take Ma Yukun down Taiping Mountain to block the passage of the Japanese army aiding Haicheng. The next day, the Japanese made a slight attempt, and were immediately repelled by the Yi army. On February 23, heavy snow fell in the sky, and the Japanese army attacked in three ways.
However, the Yi army was already prepared, and the Japanese army approached the position, all of them fired in unison, and the fortifications were strict, causing a large number of casualties to the Japanese army, and from 7 o'clock in the morning to 3 o'clock in the afternoon, the Japanese army made no progress. Lieutenant General Motoji Yamaji, the commander of the Japanese First Division, personally went to the front line to command due to the emergency of the situation, and when he led his men into an empty local house, the house immediately collapsed, killing two of his lieutenants on the spot. The house here is suspected to be a trap set by the Yi army, and if it can smash Lieutenant General Yamaji to death, it may even change the outcome of the entire war.
The Japanese attack was even more rampant and fierce, and they did not hesitate to launch a "white-knife charge", but the Yi army returned with a more fierce rain of bullets, and the corpses of the Japanese army on the battlefield were piled up and bleeding all over the ground. The fierce battle lasted for more than ten hours a day, the sky was getting dark, a large number of reinforcements of the Japanese army were put into battle, but the Yi army had no foreign aid, the casualties increased, and the ammunition was gradually exhausted, so Song Qing ordered the Yi army to withdraw from the battle.
However, at this time, the Japanese army had already surrounded the Yi army of DapingShan, and the Yi army could only break through with all its strength, Ma Yukun attacked the Japanese encirclement with two hundred guards, and finally only about 20 people were left, of which Zhao Yunqi, a brave general of the Yi army who had made great contributions in the battle of Pyongyang, was also killed here.
After Ma Yukun rushed out, he saw that the lord general Song Qing was still trapped in the formation, so he rushed back into the siege and escorted Song Qingzhong out of the Japanese army. Under the fierce artillery fire of the Japanese army, Song Qing fell off his horse and was wounded in the waist, and ma Yukun's war horse died three times, which shows the fierceness of the battle.
In this battle, although the Yi army lost, at the cost of more than 400 casualties, the result of the Japanese army's casualties of 400 people was comparable, but due to the unusually cold weather, the Japanese army still had more than a thousand people who lost their combat effectiveness due to frostbite, which caused a great blow to the morale of the Japanese army at that time.
In 1898, the 30th Battalion of the Yi Army was changed to "Wu Wei Left Army", which was of the same status as the "Wu Wei Right Army" of the Beiyang Army, and still led its army with Song Qing, and in 1902, Song Qing died at the age of eighty-two.