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Chapter 69 250 Shi Kefa Defends Yangzhou

The news that Emperor Chongzhen hanged himself on Meishan reached Nanjing, the accompanying capital of the Ming Dynasty, and the ministers in Nanjing were in a panic.They established a royal family who fled to the south, Fu Wang Zhu Yousong as emperor, established a regime in Nanjing, which was called Nanming in history, and Zhu Yousong was called Hongguang Emperor. Emperor Hongguang Zhu Yousong was obsessed with wine and sex, and was extremely absurd.Ma Shiying, governor of Fengyang, and a group of Wei Zhongxian's remnants took advantage of Emperor Hongguang's stupidity to manipulate the Nanming regime.Emperor Hongguang and Ma Shiying had no intention of resisting the Qing soldiers, but lived a life of debauchery and pleasure.

Shi Kefa, Minister of the Ministry of War of the Nanming regime, originally disapproved of making Zhu Yousong emperor, but reluctantly agreed to it in order to avoid internal conflicts.After Emperor Hongguang came to the throne, Shi Kefa took the initiative to ask to go to the front to lead the army. At that time, there were four Ming armies on the north bank of the Yangtze River, called the Four Towns.The generals of the four towns are all arrogant and domineering people.They divided their territory, fought with each other, and indulged their soldiers to kill the people.Shi Kefa had high prestige among the soldiers in the south. When he arrived in Yangzhou, those generals had to obey his orders.Shi Kefa personally went to those generals and advised them not to kill each other; then, he assigned them to garrison around Yangzhou and commanded them from Yangzhou.Everyone called him Master Steward.

Shi Kefa became a supervisor, set an example, shared joys and sorrows with the soldiers, and was loved by the soldiers.On the new year's Eve, Shi Kefa sent all the soldiers to rest, and stayed alone in the government office to review official documents.In the middle of the night, he felt mentally exhausted, so he called the cook on duty to order food and wine. The cook reported: "According to your order, all the meat in the kitchen is distributed to the soldiers for the festival today, and there is no food for wine." Shi Kefa said, "Then take some salt and sauce to the bar."

The cook brought the wine, and Shi Kefa drank it with a few cases.Shi Kefa used to drink a lot, but he quit drinking after he came to Yangzhou to be the governor.On this day, in order to refresh my spirits, I made an exception and drank some.As soon as he picked up the wine glass, he thought of the imminent national crisis and the corruption of the court, and felt depressed. While drinking, he shed tears, unconsciously drank a few more cups, and fell asleep on the table with a little drunk. Early the next morning, Yangzhou civil and military officials went to the Governor's Yamen to discuss matters as usual, only to see that the gate was still tightly closed.Everyone couldn't help being surprised, because the supervisor usually got up very early.Later, a soldier came out and told everyone: "The supervisor drank alcohol last night, and he still hasn't woken up."

Ren Minyu, the magistrate of Yangzhou, said: "The supervisor is overworked on weekdays. It is really rare that he slept so well last night. Don't disturb him, let him rest for a while." He also called for the watchman , asking him to beat the drums of the fourth watch repeatedly (playing the drums of the fourth watch means that it is not yet dawn). When Shi Kefa woke up, it was already daylight, and when he listened carefully, the beater was still on the fourth watch. He couldn't help being furious, and called the soldiers in and said, "Who is playing the watch indiscriminately, violating my military order?" After saying what Ren Minyu had ordered, Shi Kefa had nothing to say, and quickly met the officials and dealt with official business.

From that day on, Shi Kefa made up his mind not to drink anymore. Not long after, the Qing army, led by Duoduo, marched southward in a large scale.Shi Kefa commanded the generals of the four towns to resist and won some victories.However, internal strife broke out within the Nanming regime.Zuo Liangyu, a general of the Ming army stationed in Wuchang, raised troops to attack Nanjing in order to fight for power with Ma Shiying.Ma Shiying was terrified, and hurriedly withdrew the troops of the four towns in Jiangbei to deal with Zuo Liangyu, and even used the name of Emperor Hongguang to ask Shi Kefa to lead troops back to Nanjing to protect him.

Shi Kefa knew that the Qing army was under pressure and should not have left.But in order to quell the civil strife, he had to bring his troops back to Nanjing. Just after crossing the Yangtze River, he knew that Zuo Liangyu had been defeated.He hurried back to Jiangbei, and the Qing soldiers had already approached Yangzhou. Shi Kefa issued an urgent call for generals from all towns to gather in Yangzhou to guard.But after a few days, no one sent troops to rescue them.Shi Kefa knew that he could only rely on the soldiers and civilians of Yangzhou to fight alone. When the Qing army arrived at the city of Yangzhou, Duoduo first sent people to the city to persuade Shi Kefa to surrender. He sent five people in a row, but Shi Kefa refused.Duoduo became angry and ordered Yangzhou City to be tightly surrounded.

Yangzhou City was in dire straits, and some timid generals in the city were frightened.The next day, a general soldier and a supervising army carried Shi Kefa on their backs and led their troops out of the city to surrender to the Qing army.As a result, the guards in the city were even weaker. Shi Kefa called all the city officials together, encouraged them to work together to resist the Qing soldiers, and assigned the task of defending the city. He analyzed the situation and thought that the west gate was the most important line of defense, so he personally led troops to defend the west gate.Seeing Shi Kefa's firmness and composure, the soldiers were very moved, and expressed that they must join the supervisor and resist to the death.

Duoduo ordered the Qing soldiers to take turns attacking the city day and night.The soldiers and civilians in Yangzhou fought bravely, repelling the attacks of the Qing soldiers one after another. A group of Qing soldiers died, and another group came, and the situation became more and more critical. Duoduo became cruel and began to attack the city with cannons.He found out that the west gate was the most heavily defended, and Shi Kefa personally defended it, so he ordered the gunners to bombard the northwest corner.The shells fell one by one at the west gate, and the city wall gradually collapsed, and finally the gap was blasted open.

Shi Kefa was directing the army and civilians to block the gap, and a large number of Qing troops had rushed into the city.Seeing that the city could no longer be defended, Shi Kefa drew out his saber and wiped it on his neck.The generals who followed rushed forward to hug Shi Kefa and snatched the knife from his hand.Shi Kefa was still unwilling to leave, and the generals tried to persuade him to protect him from Xiaodongmen.At this time, a group of Qing soldiers came over and saw Shi Kefa wearing the attire of an official of the Ming Dynasty, so they yelled and asked who he was. Shi Kefa was afraid of hurting others, so he said loudly: "I am Master Shidu, kill me quickly!"

In April 1645, Yangzhou City fell and Shi Kefa was killed. Duoduo was annoyed by the heavy casualties of the Qing army who attacked the city, and ordered the massacre of Yangzhou people in an inhumane manner.The massacre lasted ten days before it ended.This tragedy was called "Ten Days in Yangzhou" in history. After the massacre, Shi Kefa's adopted son Shi Dewei went to the city to search for Shi Kefa's body.Because there were too many corpses, and they were all rotten in the hot weather, they couldn't recognize them at all, so they had to bury Shi Kefa's robes and used wat boards on Meihua Ridge outside Yangzhou City.This is Shi Kefa's "clothes tomb" that is still preserved. A few days after the fall of Yangzhou, the Qing army broke through Nanjing.The officials of the Nanming regime surrendered and fled, and the Hongguang regime was wiped out. The Qing soldiers continued to go south, and issued a hair-shaving order, forcing the people to shave the first half of their hair and leave a braid within ten days, according to the custom of the Qing people. , keep your hair but not your head."As a result, the resistance of the people in the south of the Yangtze River was even more aroused.Under the leadership of Dianshi (a small official in the county government) Yan Yingyuan, the army and people of Jiangyin withstood the siege of more than 200,000 Qing soldiers for more than 80 days.None of the men, women and children in the city surrendered.The Qing army suffered heavy casualties.The soldiers and civilians in Jiading insisted on fighting against the Qing Dynasty for three months, and were massacred by the Qing army three times, at the expense of more than 20,000 people.This tragedy was called "Jiading Three Massacres" in history.
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