Nie Shicheng, a famous general of the Huai Army, can also be said to be one of the few generals who can achieve brilliant results in the Qing Dynasty's foreign wars. Nie Shicheng was a descendant of the Huai Army and did not participate in the suppression of the Taiping Rebellion. His life was a life of fighting foreign invaders. However, it was such a rare fierce general, but he was regarded as a traitor and traitor by the people of the country, and he did not sink into the snow until he died in battle. On the contrary, it was the foreigners, out of respect, who gave Nie Shicheng high-standard treatment.
Nie Shicheng is a compatriot of Li Hongzhang, both of whom are from Anhui. He had been in the army since childhood, belonged to the junior officers of the Huai Army, and did not participate in the suppression of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement. However, he still participated in the war against the Twister Army, and was promoted to the title of "Baturu" for his merits, when he was only 32 years old.
In 1884, the Sino-French War broke out, and French warships blockaded Taiwan, and the island of Taiwan was in danger. Nie Shicheng crossed the sea to aid Taiwan in December of that year, and unconsciously evaded the French warship and landed smoothly. Together with Liu Mingchuan, he defeated the French army and won the victory in the defense of Taiwan.
Ten years later, the Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese War broke out, the Qing Dynasty was defeated from Pyongyang onwards, and the two Japanese troops invaded Liaodong as if into no man's land. Nie Shicheng was ordered to set up a defensive position at Sky Ridge to prevent the Japanese from attacking Shenyang. At that time, Nie Shicheng's officers and men were less than 2,000, and the enemy was outnumbered. Therefore, Nie Shicheng used ancient tactics to plant flags all over the Skyscraper Ridge, as if thousands of troops and horses were hidden in the mountains, which really frightened the Japanese army.
However, the arrogant Japanese army finally chose to attack the Sky Ridge, but Nie Shicheng had already recruited township heroes in the surrounding areas, and his strength increased greatly. He commanded the artillery to bombard the Japanese, beating the Japanese to the point of not being able to lift their heads. After suffering heavy losses, the Japanese army was forced to flee to Lianshan Pass. Nie Shicheng led his troops to pursue the Japanese and recaptured Lianshan Pass, which was the only time that the Qing army regained territory in the Sino-Japanese War. After that, Nie Shicheng broke through the enemy army and personally beheaded the Japanese general Safuoka Yamazo. Until the end of the Sino-Japanese War, the Japanese army could not cross the Sky Ridge.
Due to his outstanding achievements, the Qing Dynasty appointed Nie Shi as the commander of the Wu Wei Army. The Armed Guards were China's first modernized unit, trained by German instructors, equipped with machine guns and cutting-edge artillery, and were the strongest fighting force of the Qing army, which was no less than that of the great powers.
In 1900, due to Cixi's chaotic government, the Boxers were used to attack foreigners, which eventually led to the invasion of China by the Eight-Nation Alliance. Nie Shicheng led the Wu Wei Army to garrison Tianjin and prevent the Eight-Power Alliance from invading Beijing. At first, however, Nie Shicheng clashed with the Boxers whom Cixi relied heavily. Nie Shicheng, who has been a veteran of the army, believed that the Boxers were just a ragtag group, let alone a battle, and even cannon fodder was not enough.
And that's not to mention, the Boxers, who hated foreigners, also went around destroying railways and power lines, bringing Beijing's transportation and communications back to the Middle Ages overnight. In order to protect the railway and power lines, Nie Shicheng commanded soldiers to shoot at the Boxers, killing more than 500 people on the spot, and in the first battle, he punctured the Boxers' "swords and guns" nonsense.
Duan Wang Zaiyi, who was in power at that time, and Gang Yi, a university scholar, ordered Nie Shicheng to be severely reprimanded. Nie Shicheng wrote back: "Fists and bandits harm the people, and they will harm the country." A certain is a directly subordinate governor, there are bandits in the territory, can not be suppressed, such as any post? If a bandit is killed, he will not dare to resign. ”
Although Nie Shicheng and the Boxers were at odds with each other, Gang Yi and others still forced Nie Shicheng and the Boxers to fight together. In June 1900, the British officer Seymour led an army of 2,500 eight countries to Beijing. At the beginning of the battle, the Boxers, who rushed to the enemy army with incantations, were swept away by the Eight-Nation Alliance. The Boxers saw that the magic had failed, so they fled to the rear. In order to prevent the Boxers from storming their positions, Nie Shicheng ordered his soldiers to use machine guns to sweep through the fleeing Boxers.
Fortunately, Nie Shicheng was not afraid of danger, and his men were well armed, while the Eight-Nation Alliance was mostly a navy and was not good at land warfare, and as a result, he was repulsed by Nie Shicheng, which was known as the Great Victory of Langfang. However, Duan Wang, Gang Yi and others favored the Boxers and put the credit on the boxers, but instead Nie Jun did not reward anything.
Not to mention, the Boxers not only fought incompetently, but also framed Nie Shicheng for collaborating with the enemy. The corrupt Qing court listened to the rumors and stripped Nie Shicheng of his rank. However, Nie Shicheng had rich military experience, and almost no one could replace him, so the Qing Dynasty still let Nie Shicheng "wear crimes and make meritorious contributions".
In July 1900, the Eight-Power Alliance, after receiving reinforcements, launched a major offensive against Beijing. Nie Shicheng led the Armed Guards to resist desperately, and in the face of the enemy's superior firepower, the generals of the Nie Army went forward and followed, and they were not afraid of death, and the Eight-Nation Alliance army was unable to advance for a long time.
While the battle was scorching, Nie Shicheng suddenly heard a shocking news. It turned out that the Boxers took advantage of his outside fighting and actually kidnapped Nie Shicheng's eighty-year-old mother, wife and daughter. At the same time, some Boxers mixed in Nie Shicheng's troops suddenly mutinied and shouted, "Nie Shicheng has turned against!" Nie Shicheng turned against! ”
Nie Shicheng, who was burning inside the five, thought that his last moment had arrived, and he drew a line behind him, and then said to the soldiers: "This line is Nie Mou's dead line, if I take a step back from the line, I will immediately cut off my head." Randomly, Nie Shicheng rode his war horse towards the Eight-Nation Alliance. Dense bullets knocked Down Nie Shicheng's war horse, and a shell exploded next to him, and the four-shot shrapnel cut through Nie Shicheng's stomach, and his intestines flowed out.
Due to excessive bloodshed, Nie Shicheng was eventually martyred. Originally, the Boxers, who deeply hated Nie Shicheng, still wanted to kill corpses to vent their anger, but the foreigners could not succeed in killing them. The foreigners respected Nie Shicheng and pulled a red blanket and covered Nie Shicheng's broken body. After that, the Eight-Nation Alliance returned Nie Shicheng's body to the Qing Dynasty. When the Boxers saw that Nie Shicheng had been martyred, they did not embarrass Nie Shicheng's family and released them all.
After Nie Shicheng's death, the Qing court never gave Nie Shicheng a sympathy, saying that he was "a mistaken country and lost his life, which is really hateful, and he remembers his previous achievements and grants him a compassionate ceremony." In 1902, yuan shikai, an old comrade-in-arms, wrote to the imperial court to mourn Nie Shicheng's grievances. The Qing court, who was loyal to the state and bitterly worried, finally agreed to Yuan Shikai's request. Nie Shicheng was "posthumously given to the crown prince Shaobao, and given a pension according to the example of the death of the viceroy, and was given a courtesy and a loyal festival." The deeds of life and battle deeds and the end of the death were announced to the National History Museum. And it is allowed to establish special shrines in the provinces of Meritorious Service, the places of death, and Lutai, Tianjin, and Hefei."
This fierce general, who was once slandered as a traitor, finally got the evaluation he deserved.