Han’s Son is Not a Slave

"Stones need to pass the knife, thatch needs to pass the fire, and the natives need to change their species!" This was done by some middle and low-level officers in the Xiangxi Bandit Suppression Army behind the back of the town department and the bandit suppression yamen. The reason was that their troops were stubbornly resisted. The chieftain attacked by armed forces, so in the spirit of revenge, this sensational slogan was raised and put into practice.

In several counties in the core area, the villages have fought soldiers, every family has fought with knives, and every village has seen blood. The degree of brutality is no less than the burn-to-kill policy implemented by the sixth town in Jingzhou. According to statistics, after the thirteenth year of the Yongli calendar, more than one hundred villages were slaughtered, and more than 60,000 natives died.

In the course of the campaign, some brigades, which mainly consisted of the former Qing army's green battalion, were especially crazy during the execution process, and several brigades, which were reorganized from the army of the Tusi, also acted as the vanguard of the slaughter. Their ferocity made the rest of the troops feel ashamed. .

Under the guidance of this crazy slogan, the armed forces that were not affiliated to the Tusi in western Hunan were wiped out, and the bandits entrenched in western Hunan were also wiped out. Although there are still disabled chieftains in western Hunan who refuse to go down the mountain to join the army, and there are also many disabled soldiers of the Qing army green battalion stationed in western Hunan who are still fighting stubbornly, but the military commander's mansion and the bandit suppression army have no doubt that the bandits in western Hunan will be captured. Completely flattened.

Mobilizing the common people, using the common people, encouraging the common people, and offering benefits to the common people are the keys to the success of Xiangxi's bandit suppression. And this common people, regardless of nationality, as long as they are willing to accept the leadership of the Taiping Army and are willing to sinicize, they are the people of Daming, and they are the people protected by the Taiping Army.

Zhou Shixiang copied the experience of later generations of the People’s Liberation Army in suppressing bandits in western Hunan intact in this era, and no matter the present or future generations, the nature of the bandit troubles in western Hunan is the same, and the mode of activity is the same. Naturally, there is no problem of water and soil incompatibility. Facts have proved that no matter how cunning and treacherous enemies are, they are paper tigers and vulnerable in front of the masses.

When the mobilization of the masses was combined with large-scale slaughter and intimidation, the local disaster in western Hunan that had plagued China for thousands of years was completely ended.

There are also a large number of fighting heroes and heroic troops in the Xiangxi Bandit Suppression Army. The "Wuzhai Heroes Guard", "Phoenix Attacking Heroes Team", "Mayang Jiandao New Brigade" and so on were awarded flags and honors by the military commander's office; Among the heroes awarded by the Xiangxi Bandit Commander Yamen are the "Fifteen-hole Special Warfare Hero Model Team", "Mi Gongzhai Model Camp for Mass Work", and "Brave and Tenacious Fangjiatun New Sixth Brigade".

Individuals who have been commended by the military commander's office include Liao Lanqi, the former chieftain of Donkey Pool Cave, who was awarded the "Dahan Warrior" medal, and was appointed as a counselor to protect Jing; Appointed as deputy general of Yuanzhou.

There are more than 60 individual medals issued by the yamen, the commander of the Xiangxi bandit suppression. There were 4 Han Chinese, 6 native officials and 14 natives who were awarded the Gold Medal. There were 9 Han Chinese, 12 native officials and 28 natives who were awarded the Silver Medal.

On the seventh day of the second lunar month, Zhou Shixiang personally went to Mayang County to honor a heroic mother, which was the first case of the Taiping Army honoring a woman.

The hero's mother is Lao Lianghua, a Miao woman. After the Taiping Army arrived in Mayang to destroy the Tusi armed forces and called on the natives to return to Han, Lao Lianghua took six sons and two daughters across dozens of miles of mountain road to Mayang County. . After that, he responded to the government's call and sent his three sons to join the Taiping Army. After the eldest son and the second son died in battle, he signed up for the three youngest sons beside him.

When Mayang County was jointly attacked by several nearby bandits, Lao Lianghua resolutely led her two daughters to participate in the defense of the city to help treat the wounded. His heroic deeds were widely recited in Mayang. They were reported to the Yamen by the security forces stationed in the New Fourth Brigade in Mayang, and Zhao Sihai, the commander-in-chief of the bandit suppression, reported to the military commander's house. Zhou Shi went to Mayang to meet Lao Lianghua on a blind date. In addition to awarding him honors, he personally took the Chinese name Fan Hanjie, and his children all took the surname of Fan. In addition to giving honors, it also gives certain status in politics and material rewards to encourage more natives to learn Fan Hanjie.

Zhou Shixiang said to Fan Hanjie and other native women in Mayang: "From now on, you are the women of the Han family, and your children are also the sons of the Han family. You don't have to worry about being oppressed by the chieftain, and you don't have to worry about your daughter being bullied by the chieftain. Occupy, let alone worry that your son will be killed by the chieftain, because you have me and the Taiping Army!"

After the meeting, Zhou Shixiang said to the generals of the bandit-suppressing army who came in Mayang County: "A while ago, in the suppression of bandits, in more than 20 counties in western Hunan, more than 4,600 chieftains and bandit leaders and local bullies were killed. The bandit yamen is going to kill another batch this year. This commander thinks that this is necessary and must be resolutely implemented. Only in this way can the enemy's flames be lowered and the people's morale raised. If the bandit troubles are completely resolved, if Western Hunan cannot be completely sinicized, it will be a disaster for the Han people and future generations.”

Zhao Sihai, on behalf of the Bandit Suppression Yamen, reported on the next stage of the mission. He said: "There are still about a hundred thousand unwilling to attach bandits in the core and peripheral areas, local bullies and puppet Qing local officials, stragglers, green forest bandits, There are nearly 10,000 bad elements such as local gentry who are hiding evil intentions. After several discussions, we decided to disintegrate and destroy the enemy. Under this general policy, we made a budget to kill another 50,000 people. These 50,000 people include bandits and the villagers. people."

Zhou Shixiang readily agreed, he said: "This budget military commander's office recognizes that only when the bandits are completely eliminated, and only when there are no more natives, can we consider not killing people. Otherwise, we still have to kill people. The best way to eliminate the enemy is * news, Whoever they are, as long as they are our enemies, they should be ruthlessly destroyed."

In order to eliminate bandits more effectively, let the people of Western Hunan and Han people know who is bad and who is good; who is violating their rights and who is protecting their rights. Zhou Shixiang suggested that the grand duke of the public trial should be widely held in various places, and the meeting should be held with great fanfare. The criminals in the public trials were the heinous chieftains, pirates and those pseudo-clear officials. The number of people attending the meeting can range from hundreds to thousands or tens of thousands. It is necessary to organize the people to come on stage to accuse the criminals of their crimes, and then publicly pronounce the verdict, and cut off the heads of these heinous criminals in front of the people.

With the consent of the military commander's office, the Bandit Suppression Yamen was deployed, and the New Eighth Brigade of the Bandit Suppression Army stationed in Yuanling held a public trial meeting for Qiu Wu, Wuji Langda, and Guo Wankui in the Xiaochangping Square.

Qiu Wu, a native of Yongshun County, served as the general and Qian general of Sun Kewang's front army, and later surrendered to Qing to serve as the Qing army's Yuanling garrison. After the Taiping army invaded Hunan, Qiu Wu Kaicheng surrendered, and at the same time actively cooperated with the Taiping army to clear the remaining forces of the Qing army nearby. Because of his loyalty, he was entrusted with the post of Qianhu. I don't want to, it didn't take long for Qiu Wu to persuade and instigate his subordinates under the heavy money persuasion and instigation of Guo Wankui, a pseudo-Qing official and chief executive of Ji, because he saw that the Taiping Army was "persuading big gentry families" in various places. He turned against the water, washed Yuanling County with blood, and killed more than a thousand people in Chenghan. After hearing the news, the Taiping Army drove out of Yuanling County, and joined forces with the nearby Tusi Ujilangda to continue to attack the Taiping Army, creating a no-man's land, causing 3,000 Han people to be killed innocently. After suppressing the bandits and the Yamen, the three major bandits were defeated and captured on the 21st day of the first month of the thirteenth year of the Yongli calendar.

After the trial, Qiu Wu, Wuji Langda, Guo Wankui and 254 of their subordinates were collectively beheaded. The head is hung on the gate tower of Yuanling County, and it will be removed after the wind and rain in March.

At the same time, a public trial meeting for Li Yongquan was held in Zhijiang with representatives from six counties including Zhijiang, Huaihua, Qianyang, and Huangxian.

Li Yongquan was a bandit when he was young, and was recruited by the Xiangxi government in the Ming Dynasty. After the Ming army under his command was defeated by the Qing army, Li Yongquan fled back to his hometown and continued to be a bandit. He participated in the "Blood Washing of Qiancheng" incident, and soon surrendered to the Qing army, and was awarded the post of deputy general of Yuanzhou. In June of the same year, Hong Chengchou, a manager of the five provinces of the Qing Dynasty, came to Zhijiang, praised Li Yongquan, and gave him silver Three thousand taels. After the Taiping army entered Hunan, Li Yongquan devoted his life to the Manchus and led his troops to attack the Taiping army several times. At the end of December last year, three brigades of the Taiping army stationed in Zhijiang launched an encirclement and suppression campaign against Li Bu, Li Bu was quickly defeated , but Li Yongquan himself was able to escape. He hid everywhere, and finally, when he fled in a sedan chair, dressed as a bride, he was captured and became a prisoner.

Because of Li Yongquan's request for harming the people, Li Yongquan himself was subjected to mutilation. That is, the corpse was cut off with several horses, and then the people were allowed to eat the corpse to vent their pain and anger.

According to the opinion of the military commander's office, the commanding yamen of the Xiangxi Bandit Suppression Army also opened officer training classes in various places. Half of the trainees were Qing army officers who surrendered due to defeat in the early stage of the Taiping army's entry into Hunan, and the other half were chieftains and native officials who were forced to surrender during the campaign.

These training classes have no barbed wire and no guards, and those with family members can go home for reunion every seven days. The Taiping Army placed the greatest trust in these surrendered Qing troops and native officials, but the fact was that many people in the training class indicated that they had received training, but secretly contacted the reactionary native officials and local gentry, and planned to welcome the Qing army. Especially when these training class members knew that the army led by Luo Keduo, King of Manchu Ping County, was attacking the Taiping Army, the activities of these people became more intensive. After repeated weighing, Zhou Shixiang issued a suppression order.

Under the special order of the commander, 356 puppet Qing officers and native officials in the six training classes in western Hunan were all killed.

Senior officers and chieftains were unstable, as were the lower-level minions. Similar to the training courses for senior officers, the Taiping Army also set up low-level training courses in some places. Most of the members were ordinary Qing soldiers and bandits. As for these veterans and bandits, under the premise that their ideological work was not progressing smoothly, they were reported to the military commander's office through the Bandit Suppression Yamen and decided to execute them.

After receiving the order, they started immediately. First, they chose a valley place, pre-arranged the execution ground, and set up vigilance at both ends of the valley. Then the bandit soldiers who were to be executed would be escorted by heavy troops in the name of transition, and then executed in batches immediately.

Similar to these executions, a newspaper from the Anti-Bandit Yamen wrote: "In some places, there are mass killings. For example, in Zhijiang, Chenxi, and Yuanling, 30 or 50 people were killed in one day. In some places, when the garrison was ordered to move to defense, they acted hastily, so that some bandits were killed on the official road and could not be buried.”

The large-scale executions of reactionary and puppet Qing officers, chieftains, and low-level thieves and bandits have only been carried out for less than a month. The big ones were exempted from the death penalty, and instead they were sent to various troops to be used as masters. These people are really used as masters, not as auxiliary soldiers, and the number is probably around ten thousand. Although they were dressed in red, they were not in military uniforms, and they were all working extremely hard. In the subsequent large-scale battle between the Taiping Army and the Yungui Qing Army, many of these bandit soldiers died in the battle. Some people behaved bravely, while others behaved very unbearably~www.NovelMTL.com~ When the bandits were executed on a large scale in various places, it was not that there was no disagreement among the Taiping Army, especially among the Xiangxi Bandit Suppression Army. Some bandits may have been wronged, and some were forced to go to Liangshan. They are not bad in nature, and they should be given a chance to correct themselves. Some say that chieftains and native officials are a unique phenomenon in western Hunan and other places for two thousand years. Their oppression of the clansmen does not harm the interests of the government, so they should not be killed and killed, but should be treated with tenderness. Some were in the mountains, forcing them to come out to change their Chinese names, learn Chinese, wear Chinese clothes, and received some harsh Chinese orders.

Some different voices from the Xiangxi Bandit Suppression Command Yamen and the military commander's mansion reached Zhou Shixiang's ears. He did not express any lectures or opinions on this, but handwritten six books and sent them to the Xiangxi Bandit Suppression Command Yamen.

These six words - "I would rather kill the wrong, not let go."

"The successful experience of Western Hunan will be promoted to the world in the future, especially the Manchus and Mongolians, and it must be done in accordance with this example. Those who have opinions can be reserved, but must be implemented. Those who do not implement it will be regarded as a thief."

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(To be continued.)()