Statue of Yang Sihong in the Suqian Museum
Yang Sihong was born in 1847, the character Xijiu, Mao Ling, Suqian City Tonghua Street people, since childhood to learn martial arts, good to fight uneven, and then abandoned school to join the army. He participated in the Sino-French Battle of Mawei and made many achievements in the war. In the fifteenth year of Guangxu, he was promoted to the commander of the left wing of Zhenbiao, and later served as the commander-in-chief of Taiwan Town. In April of the 21st year of Guangxu (1895), the Qing government was defeated in the Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese War and signed the Treaty of Maguan with Japan, which was humiliating and humiliating, ceding Taiwan to Japan. At the same time, the officers and men guarding Taiwan were ordered to cross back to the mainland. At this time, Yang Sihong was the deputy commander of Liu Yongfu's Black Flag Army, refused to carry out the order withdrawn by the Qing court, and led the Taiwanese army and people to resist the Japanese invaders. He led his army in a heroic battle, took the lead as a soldier, and braved himself to gallop to the north and south of Taiwan Island, defeating the Japanese army in Anxi and Hsinchu, which made the Japanese Kou feel frightened. Known as the "Black Tiger General". In August 1895, in the battle to pursue the enemy at Luohong Bridge, he was unfortunately shot, and at the time of his death, he still secretly ordered the army not to be mourned, so that the commander was mourned and the soldiers were victorious, and he was 49 years old when he was martyred.
After General Yang Sihong's sacrifice, the people of Taiwan heard the news and were extremely saddened, and they spontaneously organized themselves to carry out the umbrella of the people and the flag of the people, and tearfully bid farewell to Yang Sihong's remains and return them to their hometown, expressing their love for him.
Yang Sihong's tomb is in the south of Suqian City, on the west bank of the ancient Grand Canal, surrounded by a piece of pine and surrounded by green trees, an ochre red archway rises from the ground, standing impressively, the middle pillar and the side pillar of the archway are five meters and six meters high, and the middle forehead is engraved with three large characters of "Yang Cemetery", and the couplet on the pillar is: "Blood sprinkled on Taiwan, vowing to protect the territory of China; bones return to their hometown, Gongqin national heroes." On the two side pillars, there is also a couplet: "Yisi is like a placket, Yellow Luck is like a belt, traversing thirteen states, and the independent middle stream is like a pillar; destroying Qin has a xiang, defeating Yang, two thousand years up and down, two heroes born in the same place." "
There is a monument on the east and west sides of Shinto, and the Shinto stele on the east side records the heroic deeds of General Yang Sihong in defending Taiwan and martyrdom. On the west side is a monument to the construction of the tomb.
At the end of the Shinto road is a tomb, under the tomb is a rectangular cement platform, the tomb and tomb platform are ochre red, the east tomb is the joint tomb of Yang Sihong and his wife Cai, and the west is the tomb of Yang Sihong's parents.
Behind Yang Cemetery is a bixi, surrounded by pines and cypresses, solemn and quiet.
Because Yang Sihong violated the order to defend Taiwan, he was regarded by the Qing government as a rebel general, and he "did not belong to the dynasty and did not belong to the sympathy" to Yang Sihong, so for many years he was a tomb. After the founding of New China, the party and the government rebuilt the cemetery and erected Shinto monuments in the cemetery, the fourth batch of provincial-level cultural relics protection units in Jiangsu Province.