Chapter 24 Chapter 23 The Boiling Red Land

After Li Chengdong and Tong Yangjia led the Qing army to destroy Emperor Shaowu in Guangzhou and scare away Emperor Yongli in Zhaoqing, the organized resistance of the Nanming government tended to disintegrate, and the frontal battlefield quickly collapsed. Li Tong's army continued to expand the results of the battle, taking advantage of the situation to collect the prefectures and counties in Guangdong that had not surrendered. On December 22, 1646, the Qing army going north defeated the Ming generals Chen Ke and Tong Yizhen in Yingde, and occupied Shaoguan, an important town in northern Guangdong.

On January 7, 1647, the Qing army that continued northward occupied Nanxiong at the junction of Guangdong and Jiangxi. On April 1, 1647, the Qing army successfully crossed the Qiongzhou Strait and occupied Hainan Island. In this way, in less than four months, Li Chengdong, with his "Li's Qing Army" of more than 4,000 people (mainly composed of people from northern Shaanxi) and Zheng Zhilong's descending army of tens of thousands, completely occupied ten provinces in Guangdong. government. In the process of this occupation, Li Chengdong gradually realized the reality: on the red land of Guangdong, it is easy to defeat the government army, but it is difficult to defeat the non-government army (rebels)!

This understanding first came from a place in Dongguan called Daojiao (pronounced Jiao). The origin of the matter is this. After occupying Dongguan, the "Li's Qing army" carried forward its "glorious tradition of doing nothing evil" and burned, killed and looted this place for three days (the army jargon is called "reward"). Three days later, a "Li Qing army" with hundreds of people who "reaped a lot" was attacked by a large group of "unidentified armed men" in Daojiao, and suffered heavy losses. About 100 people were killed. All the property and "MM" that were robbed were taken away.

The Qing army who fled back to Dongguan naturally would not give up. They called a large number of accomplices and prepared to bloodbath Daojiao. But this time the Qing army was even more crippled, fighting hard for six days and losing two hundred troops. Afterwards, the defeated Qing army learned through investigation that the leaders of Daojiao's group of illegal armed forces were Mo Ziyuan and Ye Ruri. They quickly reported this situation to the newly appointed "Commander of the Guangdong Military Region" (Guangdong Admiral) Li Chengdong. After getting the reward, Commander Li put an end to his self-satisfied mental state, and sent the commander-in-chief Chen Jia to lead thousands of troops, and forced them to Daojiao by the waterway with a murderous spirit.

The people of Daojiao, who had known for a long time that the Qing army would make a comeback, certainly would not be idle these days. While rushing to repair fortifications, make weapons, and store supplies day and night, they urgently asked for help from nearby towns such as Shawan, Shiqiao, and Gaohe. In this "hometown of heroes" where Yuan Chonghuan was born, ordinary people's political awareness and national feelings will naturally not lag behind. The people in the four townships who received the letter of assistance prepared their own weapons, food and grass as soon as possible, and gathered in Daojiao urgently.

For a time, the small Daojiao gathered thousands of warships and ten thousand volunteers. Just after the preparations were completed, Chen Jia's Qing army also arrived from the water.Without further ado, the two started fighting immediately. Most of the Qing army composed of "landland ducks" can imagine the result of this water battle-more than 2,000 Qing soldiers were wiped out, and Chen Jia was captured. This was the first major defeat suffered by the Qing army since it invaded Guangdong. It greatly boosted the aspirations of the Guangdong people and destroyed the prestige of Qing imperialism!

It also proves to history once again: the deepest root of the great power of war exists among the people! The victory of Daojiao also made a "social elite in Dongguan" sigh sincerely: "The Qing army can break through the big Guangzhou with 300 people, but it can't occupy the small Daojiao with thousands of people. The hearts of the people are available!". This elite person is Zhang Jiayu, who was born and raised in Dongguan. Zhang Jiayu, born in 1616, was born in 1616. In addition to reading books, he also likes to dance guns and fencing, and make friends in the rivers and lakes. It seems that another "Yuan Chonghuan" has been reborn.

In 1643, he passed the Jinshi examination, and because of his top grades, he directly entered the "National Senior Cadre Training Base" --- Hanlin Academy as a scholar. At this time, it has been 13 years since Yuan Chonghuan died. In the past 13 years, the big waves washed the sand, and the truth came out.There are people in the people who have questioned whether Yuan Chonghuan really surrendered to the enemy and treason, and the young Comrade Zhang Jiayu is one of them. In the capital, he once paid tribute to the former residence of this fellow countryman in Beijing with great reverence, and wrote the poem "Yanjing Hangs Governor Yuan". "The yellow sand, the white mist, the soap carved the flag, and the lone minister waved his arms alone. The blood wrote a book to recruit the dead, and the wounded wounded stood in a tight siege. So the soldiers of the Han Dynasty were excited, and they returned victoriously by sweeping away the demon atmosphere. Whoever deserves the most hard work, Why is Zhongshan slandering Shufei?"

Since then, he has set up such an ambition that one day, like Governor Yuan, he will do his best to serve the country regardless of slander. In March of the second year (1644), Li Zicheng led the Dashun Army to attack the capital, and Zhang Jiayu was captured. The Dashun army was very polite to this "well-known" Ming official, not only did not include him in the blacklist of "pursuing stolen goods and paying salaries", but warmly invited him to "abandon the Ming Dynasty and surrender" to serve the emerging Dashun Dynasty. Serve. But Comrade Jiayu was so ignorant of current affairs that instead of surrendering, he started a hunger strike.

After the seven-day hunger strike, the Dashun government, which had great admiration for him, decided to "lend the net" and let go of this angry "non-cooperator." After he was released, he knew that he had done nothing in Beijing, so he went back to his hometown and watched the changes. After the establishment of the Hongguang Dynasty, he was falsely accused of "surrendering to the enemy and treason", and he was locked up and taken to Beijing (Nanjing). Thanks to someone who produced sufficient evidence to prove his innocence, Zhang Jiayu was finally "exempted from criminal punishment" and acquitted.

After the fall of the Hongguang Dynasty, Zhang Jiayu actively participated in the "Tang Tang Movement", and in the later established Longwu regime, served as a lecturer at the Imperial Academy, and also managed the three subjects of officials, households, and rites. Soon, he was sent to Zheng Caijun as "political commissar" (supervising the army). However, Zheng Caiyang's practice of obedience and violation made him realize that relying on warlords to build a country is tantamount to building a tower on sand. Knowing this, he immediately carried forward the spirit of "integration of knowledge and action", and set out to form a small armed force by himself - the Wuxingying New Army. After Longwu Emperor Tingzhou was killed, he was pessimistic and disappointed with the current situation, disbanded the new army and returned to his hometown with only a part of the backbone. Daojiao's victory made him sigh and see hope at the same time. He immediately sent his general Chen Dengyun to Daojiao to make contact. Mo Ziyuan and Ye Ruri, the leaders of the Daojiao Rebel Army, were very happy to see this well-known person at home and abroad take the initiative to contact them. They immediately dispatched warships to bring Zhang Jiayu's soldiers, horses and family members to Daojiao to discuss the resistance. Qing plan. Zhang Jiayu's qualifications, reputation, and ability made him the "actual leader" of this anti-Qing base. Under his leadership, Daojiao quickly completed the following four tasks: 1. Repair mud city. According to the terrain characteristics of Daojiao, Zhang Jiayu proposed an "economical and immediately feasible" fortification repair plan-building a mud city.After thousands of people worked overtime in full swing, Nicheng miraculously stood on this piece of red land overnight. In the mud city, the tunnels are criss-crossed, and the traps, artillery, and mines are set up according to the points, which are interlocking, and it has completely become a "meat grinder"-style fortification. 2. Reorganize the army. Zhang Jiayu affirmed restraint for this rebel army from four villages and eight townships who came together for a common revolutionary goal, rectified the military appearance, and strictly enforced military discipline, so that the rebel army could truly serve the country and not worry about the people, and won the hearts of the local people. Inner support and support. On this basis, he selected 5,000 strong and brave people to form an "assault force" as the main force in offensive and defensive operations. 3. Raise the flag of righteousness. On March 4, 1647, Zhang Jiayu officially planted the uprising flag, saying that Xiaodaojiao, a "small place", will fight to the end with the "giant beast" of the Qing Dynasty, and warmly welcome all the people on the land of China who do not want to be subjugated slaves , Join Daojiao's "resistance camp". 4. Take Dongguan. In order to make the cause of resistance bigger and stronger, Zhang Jiayu did not stick to Daojiao.He invited Han Ruyan, a Juren from Boluo County, as his new partner.He asked him to march by land, and he led the "assault force" to meet him by water, and went straight to Dongguan. The two sides launched a land and water attack on March 14, captured Dongguan on the same day, and captured the newly appointed "pseudo magistrate" alive by the Qing Dynasty. Zhang Jiayu's four fast and beautiful movements made Li Chengdong, who was sitting in the provincial capital, dizzy, especially the loss of Dongguan made him feel "ashamed to see the Qing dignitaries". In order to regain the lost dignity, on March 16, 1647, Li Chengdong mobilized his entire army, preparing to regain Dongguan by force. In order to ensure this victory, Li Chengdong, "to achieve the goal and use any means", sent "secret agents" to buy insiders and made special "technical processing" on the cannons in Dongguan. On March 17, the offensive and defensive battle in Dongguan started. The rebels set up cannons on the city wall of Dongguan, planning to bombard the positions of the Qing army outside the city. However, the specially treated cannons were all "silent" at the critical moment. The powerlessness of the cannon greatly damaged the self-confidence of the rebel army, and the Qing army took the opportunity to launch a siege. After a day of hard fighting, the rebels withdrew from the city and Dongguan fell into the hands of the Qing army again. After the capture of Dongguan, Li Chengdong, who had premeditatedly exterminated Daojiao, began to attack Daojiao's outpost—Wangniudun. Unlike the successful capture of Dongguan, the small Wangniudun became a new "sad place" for the Qing army. They languished here for seven days and seven nights, and after dropping five or six hundred corpses, they occupied this small highland that was stained red with blood. On March 26, the dead and wounded Qing army finally dragged their exhausted bodies to the mud city of Daojiao. After the Qing army launched an attack, Daojiao's cannons were not polite this time, and there were majestic roars from the hot barrels. During the shelling, the siege commander Li Chengdong and his mount "luckily won the jackpot". The mount was blown to pieces on the spot, Li Chengdong was injured, and fell into the mud pit next to him, in a panic. After two days, this Qing army, which had swept across the southeast, lost its soldiers and generals under the small Daojiao mud city, and could only "look at the city and sigh" helplessly. Li Chengdong, who was helpless, suddenly had a flash of inspiration, and such a sentence flashed in his mind-"Fortresses are easiest to break through from the inside". He firmly believed that "under a heavy reward, there must be a traitor", so he offered a big price to buy the traitor. The traitor Li Haosi showed up. As Zhang Jiayu's cousin, he had participated in the construction of Mud City and was familiar with its deployment. He presented Li Chengdong with a self-drawn Daojiao defense map, which detailed the deployment of cannons, troops, traps, etc. in Nicheng. As for the reward, the price offered by this "frog at the bottom of the well" was not high, and he only asked for a piece of good land called Lizhoujiao after the city was broken. Li Chengdong, who got the defense map, followed the map and quickly attacked the city from the "weak" link in the mud city. After the mud city was breached, the unyielding Daojiao soldiers and civilians fought for themselves, and people fought for themselves, making a final struggle!Make a final roar! In the bloody battle, thousands of volunteers were killed, and thousands of volunteers died together. Among the people who died, there were more than 30 people including Zhang Jiayu's grandmother, mother, wife, sister, uncle, and aunt. On the land soaked in the blood of his relatives, the despicable and shameless Li Haosi finally got his "dream" good field. Zhang Jiayu, who felt that his responsibilities were far from being fulfilled, did not choose to commit suicide, but withdrew to Bao'an Xixiang with the surviving rebels. After the Qing army withdrew with the satisfaction of the killers, people from all directions gathered in Daojiao to bury the soldiers and civilians who died for the country in a large water in Jinniufang, covered with soil, and named it "Daojiao". Big grave". In 1826, at the initiative of Ye Anji, a member of Daojiao Judiciary, the people of neighboring villages donated 1,000 taels of silver, built the ground with stones, and rebuilt the tomb to express their admiration and respect for the martyrs more than 180 years ago. Remembrance. Born in Sri Lanka, buried in Sri Lanka, with soul in hometown, with love around hometown! Great, unyielding Daojiao soldiers and civilians! Magnificent, the glorious Daojiao Mountains and Rivers! While Li Chengdong was fighting against "folk resistance forces" like Zhang Jiayu, he was still day and day thinking about catching a "big fish" so that the rulers of the Qing Dynasty headed by Dorgon could experience his extraordinary ability , Grabbing the post of "Governor of Guangdong and Guangxi" for himself, adding new bargaining chips. This "big fish" is Emperor Yongli who fled from Zhaoqing, Guangdong to Wuzhou, Guangxi. On January 16, 1647, Li Chengdong led his troops to march towards Zhaoqing, and Zhu Zhijian, the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi who stayed in the city, fled without a fight.Three days later, the Qing army occupied the "abandoned capital" of the Yongli Dynasty after symbolically "waving a knife and gun". In order to "carry on the pursuit to the end", Li Chengdong continued to march towards Wuzhou, where Emperor Yongli was located. Chen Bangfu, Marquis of Si'en in the Southern Ming Dynasty, did not "think about kindness" but "thought of fleeing", so he abandoned the city and left. Under such circumstances, Cao Ye, the current governor of Guangxi in Nanming, imitated the ancient etiquette, took off his shirt, led the sheep with both hands, and surrendered to Li Chengdong. Although Li Chengdong won Wuzhou without bloodshed, he was not in a good mood at all. Because just a few days ago, Emperor Yongli, who was highly alert, left Wuzhou and fled to Guilin via Pingle. God seemed to want to comfort his wounded heart. At this time, Ding Kuichu, the chief assistant of the Yongli Dynasty, sent him a big gift in private and asked him to surrender. For such a beautiful thing, Li Chengdong naturally agreed, and sent his deputy Du Yonghe to negotiate with Ding Shoufu and surrender. It turned out that Ding Shoufu saw that it was a highly dangerous activity to hang out with Emperor Yongli who kept running.In order to ensure the safety of his "huge wealth accumulated over the years", he decided to leave Emperor Yongli and follow Li Chengdong's path to surrender. When Du Yonghe contacted the chief assistant, he saw that his family property was fully equipped with 300 boats, stretching for several miles, and he coveted this "giant greedy" in his heart, so he immediately reported the situation to Li Chengdong. Li Chengdong decided to "punish corrupt officials and eliminate harm for the people". He used his title of governor of Guangdong and Guangxi to lure Ding Shoufu back to Guangdong, and sent Du Yonghe to rob and kill him on the way. As a result, Ding Kuichu and his male family members were all killed, and the female family members and huge family property were divided up by Li Chengdong's army. It is said that there are as many as 800,000 taels of silver alone. This is all caused by money, let me kill you easily!Looking at Ding Kuichu's bloody head, Li Chengdong comforted his slightly disturbed soul. Because Zhang Jiayu and others were making trouble in the rear of Guangdong, Li Chengdong had no choice but to bring most of his troops back to Guangdong to "put down the rebellion", and only sent a small group to Guilin to pursue Emperor Yongli. Emperor Yongli, who didn't know the enemy's situation, remained the same. When the enemy entered, we fled, and when the enemy was tired, we stayed. He was going to Wugang, Hunan to join the warlord Liu Chengyin. Qu Shixu, a scholar of Dongge University, firmly opposed it. He pointed out bluntly: "Your Majesty is the symbol of our eternal dynasty. You have escaped four times, and every time you escape, the hearts of the people will be defeated. If you continue to escape, the situation will be even worse. Easy to clean up." Faced with the accusation of Qu Dashi, the "good-tempered" Emperor Yongli explained that the green mountains are not old, and the green waters are evergreen; only those who can stretch and bend can be emperors! The helpless Qu Dashi said that he would stay and live and die with Guilin. Emperor Yongli reluctantly agreed. In order to express his apology, Emperor Yongli not only gave Qu Dashi an official hat of "Minister of Defense" (Shangshu of the Ministry of War), but also gave the honorary title of Prince Taifu. When bidding farewell to Emperor Yongli, Master Qu strongly suggested that the emperor should not leave Guangxi in order to maintain people's hearts. If the situation is really critical, he should go to Quanzhou at the border of Hunan and Guangxi first, and do not run far. Although Emperor Yongli agreed, in the actual process, he still ran to Wugang in the hinterland of southwestern Hunan. After Emperor Yongli left in a "leading example", the Nanming officials in Guilin City, from Governor Zhu Shengnong to Guilin Prefect Wang Huiqing, were like frightened birds, one by one fled farther and farther than the other. Only Qu Shiqi and a few like-minded officials stayed behind to set up a "transitional government" to maintain daily operations. The hundreds of Qing troops who arrived outside the city of Guilin knew that Guilin had been "officially removed from the city", so they launched a siege battle with the arrogance of "the first to enter Guanzhong is king". the walls of Simon. "Showing up at times of crisis", Jiao Lian, the Pingman general who had just escorted Emperor Yongli to Quanzhou and returned to Guilin overnight, arrived in time and fought to the death with the Qing soldiers who climbed the city wall of the West Gate. The army was either dead or injured, and escaped from Guilin City in embarrassment. This happened in March 1645. Two months later, the Qing army, unwilling to fail, launched an attack on Guilin again. This time, Qu Shixu was full of confidence and confident. Because in Guilin City, he not only raised a large number of troops, but also prepared a large amount of food and grass.And also prepared a lot of sharp weapons for defending the city-red cannons. The red cannon was cast by Pang Tianshou, an excellent "technical eunuch" of the Lijian. It has a compact structure, excellent performance and reliable quality. Li Chengdong's Qing army superstitiously believed in the spirit of "two hundred and five plus gourds" in army building, and the use of new technologies and new arms was far less important and promoted than Manchuria's "Genuine Eight Banners". As a result, this time it was in big trouble! Under the bombardment of the Ming army's cannons, the siege Qing army did not even remove a piece of brick from the city of Guilin, and they made batches of "moving targets" for the Nanming artillery. After the fighting will of the Qing army was blown away by the cannons, Jiao Lian, who said "who dares to slash immediately, but I, General Jiao", took the lead and led the army out of Guilin to carry out "anti-siege" against the besieged Qing army. "Combat. In this battle, the Qing army suffered heavy losses, and the "high-quality Qing army" sent by Li Chengdong to Guangxi was basically beaten to pieces! Historians call this victory the "Guilin Victory". The "Great Victory in Guilin" was the first large-scale victory achieved by the Nanming government army on the frontal battlefield along the southeast coast. This battle broke the myth that the Qing army (this time it was actually the "pseudo-Qing army") was invincible, and greatly inspired the courage and confidence of the people and army of Nanming to fight the enemy. After the "Great Victory in Guilin", Jiao Lian led troops to take Yangshuo and Pingle, and then joined forces with Chen Bangfu to recover Wuzhou, "expelled" all the Qing troops in Guangxi, and once again made this vast border province full of people. The flag of Ming Dynasty. "Military medals are half of you and half of him." While praising the bloody battle of the Guangxi Anti-Qingming Army, we should not forget the "behind the scenes" that happened. This story is that in Guangdong Province behind the enemy lines, the rebel army led by the "Three Loyalties of Lingnan" is cooperating extremely arduously with their own blood and lives. In addition to the Zhang Jiayu mentioned earlier, the "Three Loyalties in Lingnan" also include "Two Chens" (Chen Bangyan, Chen Zizhuang). Let me talk about Zhang Jiayu first. Since Zhang Jiayu retreated from Daojiao, he persevered, and soon organized a considerable number of rebels near Zengcheng. He divided the army into five battalions: dragon, tiger, rhinoceros, elephant, and leopard, and he himself was promoted as a general. Afterwards, he led the five battalions to capture Longmen, Boluo, Lianping, Changning, Ruyuan, Guishan, Heyuan and other counties in one fell swoop. After capturing these county towns, Zhang Jiayu adopted the method of resting with the people and stationing for a long time, striving to establish a small and stable base. In terms of the specific combat method with the Qing army, he adopted the "wheel" tactic of going out again and again, fighting once and resting four times, which made the Qing army participating in the encirclement and suppression exhausted and lost sight of one another. On October 2, 1647, Zhang Jiayu led troops to attack Zengcheng. Looking at the map, Zengcheng is very close to the provincial capital Guangzhou. Now Zengcheng is a city directly under the jurisdiction of Guangzhou. It only takes one hour by car. It basically belongs to the "urban-rural fringe" of Guangzhou. When you go to other places, Comrade Li Chengdong can temporarily "turn a blind eye and close one eye", but Zengcheng is different. You know, even Mr. Rabbit is very protective of the grass beside the nest, what about Li Chengdong? Li Chengdong then dispatched all his troops and rushed to Zengcheng, where he and the defenders formed an internal and external pincer attack on Zhang Jiayu's rebel army. Under the double siege of the Qing army, the corpses of the rebels were piled up, blood flowed like rivers, and Zhang Jiayu was injured by an arrow. Seeing that there was no hope of breaking through, in order not to let herself become a "living specimen" of the Qing army, Zhang Jiayu threw herself into the water but committed suicide! When he died, he was only 31 years old. After talking about Zhang Jiayu, let's talk about another loyal man-Chen Bangyan. Chen Bangyan, a native of Shunde, Guangdong, because his father is a glorious "private-run teacher", he has been influenced by his ears and eyes, and he loves to "study hard and make progress every day" since he was a child. But this did not bring him a bright future, because he was not the kind of student who "studied hard and studied hard", so he failed to pass the exam many times, and he was a typical victim of "examination-oriented education". After his official career was hopeless, in order to make a living, he took over his father's teaching whip and set up a hall to teach apprentices at the foot of Jinyan Mountain in the northern suburb of Daliang. He became one of the thousands of "rural educators" in the Ming Dynasty. After the establishment of the Hongguang Dynasty, the rural teacher faced the students and raised his arms and shouted: "Anyone who doesn't want to serve the country at this time is not a husband!" Since then, he bid farewell to the podium and became a "professional revolutionist" wandering all over the world with his life hanging by a thread. Like his fellow countryman Sun Yat-sen more than two hundred years later, the first "revolutionary action" he took was to write a letter. According to the current situation, he carefully wrote a book of thousands of words-"Zhongxing Political Leaders", which listed 32 methods to resist the enemy and save the country, and traveled thousands of miles to Nanjing to join Emperor Hongguang. It's a pity that Emperor Hongguang, who was indulging in the dance pavilion and song stage and the spring scenery of Liyuan, read this Wanyan book, and only published a comment of "this is a pedantic opinion!", and then put it aside! After the establishment of the Longwu Dynasty, Chen Bangyan sorted out the "blocked" Wanyan book and played it to Emperor Longwu. Contrary to Emperor Hongguang, Emperor Longwu, who was determined to rejuvenate himself, greatly appreciated this "Wan Yan Shu", and made an exception to appoint Chen as a supervisor and supervisor, finally allowing this weather-beaten scholar to enter the ranks of national civil servants . Later, together with Su Guansheng, he participated in the relief battle of Ganzhou. After the fall of Ganzhou, the Qing army began to attack Guangdong. He suggested that Su Guansheng rely on the natural danger of the Five Ridges to block the incoming enemy, but was rejected by the scholar Su University who "had other ideas" in his heart. Su Guansheng, who knew that Chen Bangyan had complaints about him and had made up his mind to establish Emperor Shaowu, simply sent him to Gui Jianguo as a "liaison officer" in an attempt to "borrow a knife to kill someone". Su Guansheng's wish almost became a reality, because after Emperor Shaowu launched the "independence movement" and killed the two special envoys Peng Yao and Chen Jiamo, the Yongli monarch and ministers almost killed this "liaison officer" to defeat the fire. discouraged. But Chen Bangyan, who was touching with sincerity, successfully saved himself, and was sent back to Guangzhou by the villain to instigate rebellion. Knowing that he could not complete the important task, he did not dare to return to Guangzhou, but sneaked into the Gaoming Mountain on the way, recruited volunteers, and waited for the opportunity! When Li Chengdong aggressively attacked Guangxi and the Yongli regime was in jeopardy, he thought of a strategy commonly used in Chinese military science-"surround Wei and save Zhao". He led his own small team, contacted the large team of Yu Long and others, organized an armed group of tens of thousands of people, and ran to the city of Guangzhou to "demonstrate." This action frightened Tong Yangjia, the governor of Qing, Guangdong and Guangxi who stayed in the city. Because there were only a few hundred people on hand, while he closed the city gate and put the whole city under martial law, he sent envoys to urge Li Chengdong to lead the main force back to help. Li Chengdong had to follow the order. This move indirectly made the "Great Victory in Guilin" possible, and allowed Yongli Dynasty to overcome the first "survival crisis". After attracting Li Chengdong's withdrawal from Guangxi, Chen Bangyan, who made a feint under the city of Guangzhou, took the initiative to withdraw from the siege. He first recovered Shunde with his student Ma Yingfang, and then took advantage of Li Chengdong's attack on Zhang Jiayu to capture Jiangmen in one fell swoop. Tong Yangjia, who regarded Chen Bangyan as a confidant, disregarded his status as a first-rank official in his country, and used despicable means to kidnap Chen's wife, He, and two young sons, in order to threaten him to surrender. refuse. Soon, He and his two young sons were killed together. In July 1647, when Chen Zizhuang attacked Guangzhou, Chen Bangyan led his army to occupy Qingyuan and other counties near Guangzhou for strategic containment. After Li Chengdong defeated Chen Zizhuang, who was besieging the city, he became cruel and decided to eradicate the "cancer" of Chen Bangyan in Qingyuan, which he hated deeply. On September 19, Li Chengdong surrounded Qingyuan City on all sides. This time, the "Li's Qing Army", which had learned wars in wars and grew up in battles, began to pay attention to the training and use of new arms --- "engineers" when they attacked the city. Under the cover of the infantry, the "engineers" secretly dug tunnels to the bottom of the city, blasted the city wall with gunpowder, and the cavalry and infantry of the Qing army took the opportunity to swarm in. Next, in the brutal street fighting, Chen Bangyan was captured three times and taken to Guangzhou. After persuading him to capitulate to no avail, Tong Yangjia ordered him to be escorted to Sipailou, where he was "in the market" among the crowd. Before his execution, this loyal man wrote a Jueming poem: "There are many loyal souls in Yashan, which will shine through the ages." Since Chen Bangyan joined the army, he only ate one meal a day, and at night he lay down with his clothes on, resting his head on his sword and waiting for the next day. He shared the hardships and hardships with his subordinates. Therefore, the team he brought out had the strongest combat effectiveness among the rebels from all walks of life, and he had helped other rebels who were in danger many times. Therefore, all the volunteers who heard the news of his death "teared and poured rain", sincerely mourned and regretted the departure of this respected "Mr. Chen"! Finally, it is worth mentioning that, apart from his profound national integrity, this heroic martyr was also well-known in his poetry and prose at that time. Together with Li Suiqiu and Kuang Lu, he was called "the top three in Lingnan", and was also known as "Du Fu in central Guangdong". Compared with the previous "two loyalists", Chen Zizhuang, the "third loyalist" among the "Three Loyalties in Lingnan", was the one with the best study, the highest official position, the oldest age, and the worst death. Chen Zizhuang, a native of Panyu, Guangdong, was extremely smart when he was young, and he was a child prodigy who "can write at the age of seven". In 1619, at the age of 24, he ranked third in high school (Tanhua) in the "National Civil Service Examination". Afterwards, he joined the civil service and worked diligently for the leaders of four countries (Wanli, Taichang, Tianqi, Chongzhen). By 1632, he was already the "senator of the four dynasties", and he had become the minister of the Ministry of Rites. Even the pretentious Emperor Chongzhen often called him "Sir" instead of his first name. But later, because of "differences in political views", he was rewarded with a "court stick" by Chongzhen, and "fortunately" went to prison. It was not until the second year that Emperor Chongzhen "benevolent outside the law" and "fished" him out of the imperial prison, deported him back to his hometown, and put him under residential surveillance. In the Hongguang Dynasty, he used to be the Minister of the Ministry of Rites, and in the Longwu and Yongli Dynasties, he used to be a high-ranking official of Dongge University, and invited him to "come out of the mountain", but he refused all of them. However, in the "controversy between authenticity and falsehood" between Emperor Shaowu and Emperor Yongli, he stood firmly on the side of the Yongli regime and wrote a letter expressing his support. When the Qing army invaded Guangdong and his hometown fell, he was past the age of "knowing the heaven and accepting his fate", but he was "a martyr in his old age, and his ambition is not self-sufficient". in the end! Mr. Chen, who had been a high-ranking official, wanted to be a big one. At the end of June 1647, he made an agreement with Chen Bangyan: to attack Guangzhou. This is not a whim, but he believes that there are indeed four favorable factors for attacking Guangzhou nowadays. One is that Li Chengdong's orthodox soldiers were outside, fighting with rebels from all over Guangdong. There were only two hundred Qing soldiers in the huge city of Guangzhou. The second is that there are "our own people" in the city to support them. Yang Keguan and Yang Jingye, the former commanders of the Guangzhou Guard who had surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, realized their conscience and voluntarily went anyway to cooperate with the rebels to attack the city. The third is that there is still a ready-made "flag" in the city-Zhao Wang Zhu Youfen who has become a monk. Fourth, in order to ensure the safety of this matter, he also sent 3,000 "Huashan Pirates" to surrender to Tong Yangjia.At present, these people have successfully obtained the right to defend the Guangzhou East Gate. Mr. Chen has also chosen the date of the uprising, which is the Qixi Festival in July. "Qixi Festival" is the day when the underground cowherd and the weaver girl in the sky meet, and it is also known as China's "Valentine's Day". Choosing such a day, Mr. Chen probably has already made plans to let Tong Yangjia and Lord Yan meet at Queqiao on this day, and they will not see each other. But "details determine success or failure", this "nearly perfect" plan, was broken by a little servant of Mr. Chen's family. This little servant was sent by Mr. Chen to put up leaflets in Guangzhou on July 5th. While performing this special task, the little servant was caught by soldiers patrolling the Qing army. After being severely tortured, the little servant who "has not high ideological and political awareness and will not be firm" confessed this "big secret". Tong Yangjia, who received this secret report, immediately took action. On the one hand, he hunted and killed Yang Keguan and Yang Jingye, and executed 3,000 "Huashan Pirates" in the name of "reward", and ordered Zhao Wang to commit suicide; On the other hand, an envoy was sent to ask Li Chengdong to send a "quick response force" to return to Guangzhou on the eve of Qixi Festival no matter what. Old man Chen, who didn't know that the city of Guangzhou had been "turned upside down", launched an attack on Guangzhou at the third watch of the Qixi Festival, but what greeted them was fierce artillery fire from the top of the city. When Mr. Chen attacked Guangzhou this time, most of the troops he brought came by military ships. The shells landed on the military ships, causing many ships to catch fire on the spot. This night, it happened to be a strong north wind. The wind assisted the fire, so that the rebel ships sailing against the wind changed from a small number of fires to a large number of fires. Tong Yangjia took advantage of the situation to go out of the city to fight back, and Mr. Chen was defeated by Bai'etan. Mr. Chen, who doesn't give up lightly, still wants to fight Guangzhou City again. But history will not give him such an opportunity, because Li Chengdong has led his army back from Xin'an and joined the attack on Mr. Chen. Under Tong Li's joint attack, Mr. Chen had no choice but to lead the army, retreating first to Jiujiang and then to Gaoming. After "eliminating" Chen Bangyan in Qingyuan, in late October, Li Chengdong led his troops and the "second puppet army" of Shi Fu (formerly Zheng Zhilong's general) to launch a large-scale attack on Gaoming County, which was guarded by Mr. Chen. Attack on a large scale. This time, the Qing army's siege technology has been further improved. Instead of "engineers" digging holes and filling explosives, they have changed to "artillery" to concentrate firepower and carry out "concentrated contiguous, point-to-point" bombardment, which is more convenient and convenient to operate. The effect is more obvious. After heavy shelling, a section of the city wall in Gaoming County came crashing down. Qing cavalry infantry quickly followed up and rushed into the city. In the street fighting, Mr. Chen was injured and captured. He was also taken back to Guangzhou and handed over to Tong Yangjia for trial. Tong Yangjia threatened to kill Mr. Chen's youngest son in an attempt to force him to defect. "Everyone has the love of licking a calf", Mr. Chen once hesitated again and again, but finally chose to die rather than surrender. He said to Tong Yangjia: "The life and death of my son is up to you and not to me, it's up to you." Tong Yangjia failed to force surrender, so angry and hated, he thought of a poisonous plan to kill everyone, and sentenced the old man to the brutal "sawing punishment". "Saw punishment" refers to using an iron saw to cut a person into two pieces from the top of the head down. During the execution, the executioner couldn't saw the person's body shaking. Mr. Chen shouted to the executioner: "Fool, people in the world (saw) need to use wooden planks!" Only then did the executioner understand the method of execution with a saw. So far, the allusion that "people in the world must use boards" is still circulating among the elders in Guangzhou. At the execution scene, the brutal Tong Yangjia summoned "well-known people from all walks of life in Guangzhou" to sit in the hall and watch him being tortured in fear, and asked viciously, "Are you afraid?" "A true warrior dares to face the bleak life and face the dripping blood." When his blood spurted from the top of his head and splashed all over his body, the old man still kept cursing until the end of his life! Watching and punishing "lords", there are those who are afraid, those who regret, and those who hide their faces and weep. But more, it is the true touch from the heart, as well as the contempt and self-blame for self-sufficiency. Until the end of the 1950s, playwright Huang Xiling compiled a large-scale historical Cantonese opera based on the glorious deeds of Mr. Chen - "Blood Stained Yuewangtai". At the time of the performance, people today, three hundred years later, were still moved and burst into tears. The blood of heroes will not be shed in vain, just when they shed blood on the battlefield or the execution ground for the ideal of restoring the country and rejuvenating the cause.Nanming was gathering strength to fight back bit by bit. A gigantic curtain of shocking fission has quietly opened!