People who read a lot can have a lot of temperament
On June 13, 1852, a cruel historical event occurred at Caishikou, Beijing. A burly man, Hong Daquan, was sentenced to death by Ling Chi for being captured by the Qing army and claiming to be the virtuous brother of Hong Xiuquan, the leader of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
Despite such torture, he maintained a resolute expression, and only let out a suppressed cry of pain when his life was in danger. Hong Daquan's family, including his wife Xu Yuegui, younger brother Jiao Yujing, and sister-in-law Xu Xianggui, were also sentenced to Ling Chi by the Qing ** in the fourth year after his death, and the whole family of four was tortured together, which is extremely rare in Chinese history.
What crimes did they commit, and why were they subjected to such cruel treatment? Let's explore the truth of this history together.
During the Daoguang period of the Qing Dynasty, in Yongfeng Township, Chenzhou, Hunan, there were two admirable women, they were Xu Yuegui and Xu Xianggui. They have a soft spot for dancing guns and sticks, they don't like makeup, and they are not keen on female celebrities.
Xu Zuochang, the head of the Xu family, was a leader of the Heaven and Earth Society, and he believed that women could also become talents, breaking the traditional concept of "women are virtuous if they are not talented" at that time. He not only taught his two daughters to read and write, but also taught them martial arts himself.
After Xu Yuegui and Xu Xianggui grew up, they were both civil and military, heroic and cool, and Xu Zuochang also began to choose a suitable husband for them. At this moment, a pair of brothers caught Xu Zuochang's attention.
The brothers Jiao Liang and Jiao Yujing of Xingning, Hunan Province, met Xu Zuochang by chance. Xu Zuochang saw that they were extraordinary in conversation and outstanding in talent, so he wanted to recruit them as his son-in-law.
After Xu Zuochang's matchmaking, Jiao Liang and Xu Yuegui became husband and wife, and Jiao Yujing married Xu Xianggui. Their union became a local story. However, the Jiao brothers failed to Sun Shan in the exam, and their patriotic feelings were frustrated by their repeated failures.
In the face of the decay of the Qing court and the hardships of the people's livelihood, they chose to abandon literature and join the Hunan Tiandihui, and strive to overthrow the rule of the Qing Dynasty.
Xu Yuegui and Xu Xianggui fully supported their husbands' decision, they were not ordinary women, but accepted Xu Zuochang's teachings, and had a broad vision and deep feelings for their family and country.
They were convinced that only by overthrowing the imperial court could the people be freed from the sea of suffering. So, the sisters walked out of the boudoir, put on their battle robes, extensively mobilized the poor people, and jointly founded the Tiandihui Recruitment Hall with the Jiao family brothers.
Under the careful management of the two husband and wife, the scale of Zhaojuntang has continued to expand, and its sphere of influence is not only limited to Chenzhou, Hengyang and other places in Hunan, but has even expanded to Guangdong, Guangxi and other places, becoming a civilian armed force that cannot be ignored.
In 1851, the Taiping army entered Yong'an Prefecture, Guangxi. After Xu Xianggui learned the news, he proposed to let Jiao Liang go to Guangxi to seek cooperation with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. She, her husband Jiao Yujing, and her sister Xu Yuegui remained in Hunan and continued to expand the ranks of the recruiting army to support the Taiping army if necessary.
Jiao Liang proposed the strategy of occupying a province first, and then radiating the whole country to overthrow the Qing **, Hong Xiuquan appreciated and planned to leave him behind. However, Jiao Liang's participation did not change the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's lack of a complete program, and the problem of no command, no strategy, and brutality in warfare.
The problem with the Taiping Army was that they lacked well-educated leaders and were hostile to intellectuals. Hong Xiuquan even swept all culture and knowledge out of the house, making intellectuals afraid.
Jiao Liang, a person from a family of scholars, was very dissatisfied with this. In addition, Hong Xiuquan also claimed to be the embodiment of God and **, and the Taiping Army also believed in worshipping God.
This clashed with Jiao Liang's traditional values, which he saw as more like a cult than a regular rebel army. Therefore, he criticized Hong Xiuquan, comparing Hong's behavior to Qin Shi Huang, pointing out that it was inconsistent with his values.
Hong Xiuquan was very angry about this, but Jiao Liang did not realize his problem, but continued to criticize Hong Xiuquan for greedy pleasure, and accused him of handing over power to Yang Xiuqing, a "mediocre child".
In the end, Jiao Liang even asked Hong Xiuquan: Are you fighting a war or engaging in religious fanaticism?
Hong Xiuquan's so-called "Chuang" and "Xian" refer to the leaders of the peasant army, Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong, respectively. Jiao Liang's question made Hong Xiuquan feel questioned and distrusted, so he decided to put Jiao Liang under house arrest, although he admired Jiao Liang's talent, but he was dissatisfied with this person.
In the "Yong'an Breakout Battle" in March 1852, the Taiping army was defeated, and Jiao Liang was also captured by the Qing army. During the interrogation, Jiao Liang pretended to be the "King of Tiande" and tried to deceive the Qing army, claiming that he was brothers with Hong Xiuquan, Yang Xiuqing and others, and called himself "Long live", while Yang Xiuqing was his "cub".
This rhetoric succeeded in deceiving the minister Sai Shang'a, who mistakenly believed that he had captured an important figure of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, so he escorted Jiao Liang back to Beijing and served him with good food and drink, hoping to get some useful information from Jiao Liang's mouth.
The Qing Dynasty never expected that Jiao Liang's confession was fabricated out of nothing. He was alone, playing with the entire Qing court. Enraged, the emperor ordered Jiao Liang to be executed.
On the day of the execution, the entrance of the Beijing vegetable market was crowded with people, pointing fingers at him, and the voices of accusations were endless. After listening to it, Jiao Liang chanted two lines of poetry: On this day, the execution ground at the mouth of the vegetable market was full of blood.
The fleshless skeleton stood there, cold and sad, as if to foreshadow the tragic end of Jiao Liang's family.
When the bad news that Jiao Liang was tragically killed at the entrance of the vegetable market came, Xu Yuegui was in pain. She put on plain clothes, waved the banner of "avenging her husband", and launched a call for righteous people in Hunan with her sister Xu Xianggui and brother-in-law Jiao Yujing to fight against the corrupt Qing **.
In June 1852, the Taiping army marched from Guangxi to the north, all the way to Hunan, and the members of the Hunan Tiandihui joined the Taiping army, but the Xu Yuegui sisters chose to stand on their own.
They formed a team, with Jiao Yujing serving as the military advisor of the armies of the three provinces of Hunan, Guangdong and Guizhou, Xu Yuegui serving as the generalissimo of the army, and Xu Xianggui being promoted as marshal. Jiao Yujing is a scholar who is good at strategy;Xu Yuegui is Jiao Liang's widow and has outstanding organizational skills and appealXu Xianggui is good at combat and has the highest force value.
The tacit cooperation of these three people has successfully expanded the influence of Zhaojuntang.
The folk of southern Hunan praise a brave and fearless female general, she is Xu Xianggui. Xu Xianggui used the red robe as the battle robe, drove the war horse with one hand, and wielded a spear with the other, fighting between the enemy troops, showing the courage of ten thousand people.
Her heroic deeds allowed Zhaojuntang to establish its prestige in the Shonan region. However, due to the suppression of the Qing Dynasty army and local regiments, the strength of Zhaojuntang was damaged and its combat power weakened.
In order to expand the power of Zhaojuntang, Xu Xianggui and Jiao Yujing decided to return to Zixing Tateshi City and recruit more soldiers. In the same year, the Prime Minister of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Luo Gang, sent an invitation to the Liangguang Triad, hoping that they would conquer Hunan with the Taiping army, march to Tianjing, and support the Taiping army in Tianjing.
When Xu Xianggui and Xu Yuegui learned of this, they immediately contacted the triad leaders in Guangdong and Guangxi. The leaders of the three forces drew up a response plan and prepared to take Hunan together with the Taiping army.
In the autumn of 1855, He Lu and the Xu sisters took the lead in conquering Chenzhou, Hunan, organizing thousands of rebels, and then conquering Guiyang and Chaling. The rebel army's He Lu division was based in Chenzhou, while Xu Yuegui and Xu Xianggui's troops were stationed in Guiyang and Chaling to jointly resist the Qing army's attack.
At the end of October, Wang Xin's Hunan army launched an attack on Guiyang, and at the same time, the squire team led by Chen Shijie also began to frantically counterattack Guiyang. In the face of two enemy forces, Xu Yuegui and Xu Xianggui could only turn from offensive to defensive, and sent a message for help to He Lu in Chenzhou, while holding on to Guiyang.
After He Lu received a request for help from the Xu sisters, he led his troops to reinforce Guiyang Prefecture, but was intercepted by the Qing army on the way, which was extremely heavy. Guiyang Prefecture has been unable to continue because it has been unable to wait for reinforcements for a long time.
Xu Yuegui and Xu Xianggui could only lead the remnants to break through and retreat to Chenzhou.
Chenzhou was besieged by the Qing army, and the Xu sisters and Jiao Yujing thought of the strategy of "besieging Wei to save Zhao". They took advantage of the Qing army's attack on Chenzhou and infiltrated Guiyang Prefecture, intending to take the enemy by surprise.
However, they didn't expect that it was their old rival Chen Shijie who was stationed in Guiyang Prefecture. He teamed up with Mei Zhenrong, the governor of Guiyang Prefecture, and defeated Xu Xianggui's raiding troops.
Therefore, the rebel army had no choice but to change its strategy and move to the area of Jiahe and Ningyuan. On December 13, Xu Yuegui and Xu Xianggui's rebel army rushed from Ningyuan to Guanwei, successfully raided the Qing army in Jianghua County, and captured Jianghua County.
At the same time, another rebel army also conquered Yongming, and formed a situation of mutual support with the army of the Xu sisters. Eventually, the rebels and the Qing army reached a stalemate, and the two sides faced off for two months.
On January 16, 1856, Xu Yuegui and Xu Xianggui teamed up with Zhu Hongying, the leader of the Jianghua Tiandihui, to launch a fierce attack on the Qing army. However, the news of He Lu's death came from the front, and the Hunan army approached step by step.
Under these circumstances, the rebels were terrified. Part of the rebel army chose to escape from the Hunan army and enter Guangxi. In the end, only the three armies of Xu Xianggui, Zhu Hongying and Xiao Yuanfa held on to Hunan.
Soon after, Xiao Yuanfa's troops stationed in Yongming were besieged by enemy troops, and Xiao Yuanfa led his subordinates to evacuate Yongming, putting Xu Xianggui and Zhu Hongying's troops in the predicament of being attacked by the enemy.
On February 24, under the continuous advance of the Hunan army, the two armies were forced to abandon Jianghua and retreat in the direction of Guangdong. However, the journey south was not smooth, and the rebels panicked, while the Hunan army followed closely.
When the large army marched to Ningyuan Road Pavilion, they were caught up by the Qing army. Seeing that the rebel army was about to be wiped out, Xu Xianggui stood up, her red robe fluttering in the wind, holding a spear in her hand, and organizing a temporary squad as quickly as possible.
In order to protect the retreat of the large army, a squad of the Qing army accepted the task of blocking the Qing army. Although Jiao Yujing and Xu Yuegui were very reluctant, they understood that this was the most correct choice.
However, in the face of the strong strength of the Hunan army, this squad could not match. Under the huge power gap, they were defeated and retreated thousands of miles, and Xu Xianggui also left scars on his body, and was finally captured by the Qing army.
The Qing army tied up Xu Xianggui and sent it to the Yamen of Ningyuan County. After the interrogation, the yamen learned that this woman was the "thief" Xu Xianggui, so she was sent to Chenzhou.
Because of "madness and disorder, the crime is extremely heinous, and the law is not lenient", Xu Xianggui was sentenced to Ling Chi at the age of 26. After Xu Xianggui was arrested, Xu Yuegui and Jiao Yujing led the rest of the team to escape to Jiahe, intending to start over.
However, there is still a gap between the strength of this rebel army and the regular army, coupled with the absence of Xu Xianggui, a general, the strength of the team has been greatly weakened, and the vitality has been greatly damaged.
When Xu Yuegui and Jiao Yujing resisted the Qing army's attack in Jiahe, they suffered many defeats, and the rebel army was disheartened, and the soldiers abandoned their weapons and returned to the fields. In desperation, the two decided to go to Jiahe County to surrender, but the Qing ** saw through their plan and decided to kill them, the "rebels" who had rebelled against the imperial court many times.
After they were escorted to Changsha, they were tortured and eventually killed. The two couples, who were originally happy, died early when they were young, and they did not even leave a complete body.
Some people believe that the Xu sisters and Jiao Yujing fought alone against the Qing court in order to avenge Jiao Liang, but they both ended in a tragic ending. But is that really the case?
Dare to challenge a strong opponent is a kind of courage worthy of respect. It is precisely with this fearless and tenacious spirit that the Xu sisters can stand up in the decaying Qing Dynasty and become a bright spot in China's modern history.
We may not be able to empathize with their actions, and we may not be able to judge right and wrong. But we can feel the indomitable national spirit in them, which is the spiritual pillar of China's infallibility, and our pride and pride.
Xu Yuegui and Xu Xianggui, their deeds and spirit are the precious wealth we leave to future generations. Let us remember their names, carry on their spirits, and move forward for a better future.