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When the Manchus first entered Beijing, the country was still unsettled, so Ming dynasty officials who surrendered were allowed to continue wearing Ming dynasty clothing when attending court, but the Manchu and Han ministers were required to stand in separate groups.
There was a surrendered minister named Sun Zhixie who wanted to please the Qing Dynasty and wanted to "show his uniqueness and affinity". One day when he went to court, he looked "completely new". He not only shaved his head, kept a braid, but also changed into the clothes of a Manchu official.
When the ministers entered the court to take their place, he walked in cordially into the ranks of the Manchu ministers. The Manchu ministers all thought they were superior to others, so how could they tolerate their Han minister Sun Zhixie being in the same class with them? They all talked and pushed him out of the class.
Sun Zhixie found himself in trouble and walked back to the Han class in a sullen manner. The Han officials hated him for being too flattering and sought favor, so they blocked his way and refused to let him join the class.
Sun Zhixie, who was caught between the Manchu and Han ministers, was unable to advance or retreat and was in a very embarrassing situation.
In anger, he reported to Emperor Shunzhi that allowing the Han people to keep their own clothing was "your Majesty following China, not China following your Majesty."
After reading the memorial, the regent Dorgon was greatly impressed, so he issued an order for the whole nation to shave their heads and change their clothes.
It is not known whether the story of Sun Zhixie is true or not, but it is a fact that the Qing Dynasty had issued a shaving order. However, at the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, the country was not stable, and the shaving order was strongly resisted by the Han people, so Dorgon temporarily gave up.
After receiving the news that Duoduo had captured Nanjing, Dorgon believed that the overall situation was settled and without hesitation, he issued another order to shave his head: all civil and military personnel, soldiers and civilians everywhere were ordered to shave their heads. Those who obeyed would be regarded as citizens of our country, while those who hesitated would be regarded as rebels who defied my order and would be punished severely.
This time, the shaving order was still met with strong resistance from the people, but Dorgon had made up his mind this time: he would rather keep his head than his hair, or keep his hair than his head.
After the order was issued, officials arrested those who refused to shave their heads and brought them to the military gate. If they came in the morning, they would be beheaded; if they came in the evening, they would be beheaded in the evening.
Under such brutal killings, the vast Chinese nation was filled with blood and stench.
The Qing Dynasty hoped to attack and destroy the national spirit of the Han people, especially the upper class, by shaving their heads and changing their clothes, to establish the ruling status of the Manchus and ensure that the Manchus would not be assimilated by the Han people.
This move has hurt the core of Chinese civilization. Even if the Tartars raised their butcher knives, cut off heads and killed people in a bloody storm, there were still countless Han people who rose up to resist.
Especially in the south where the Qing army had not yet completely occupied, the Han people's resistance was in full swing.
Among them, Jiangyin County of Changzhou Prefecture had surrendered to the Qing Dynasty. The Ming magistrate Lin Zhiji resigned from his post and was succeeded by the Qing magistrate Fang Heng. As soon as the order to shave the hair was issued, the people of Jiangyin were instantly in an uproar.
Scholars including Xu Yong gathered at the Confucian Temple and swore together in the Minglun Hall: "The head can be cut off, but the hair must not be shaved!"
Just at this time, Changzhou Prefecture sent a strict order, which said "keep your hair and lose your head, keep your head and lose your hair".
The Qing magistrate Fang Heng asked the clerk to record the text into a notice and post it. When the clerk wrote this sentence, he was filled with indignation, threw the pen to the ground and said, "I would rather die!" The news quickly spread throughout the city, and immediately triggered a strong backlash from the people.
Seeing that the people would not obey, Fang Heng secretly reported to the Changzhou Prefecture and asked his superiors to send troops to "kill more people to establish their prestige."
The secret letter was found by the righteous people, so Fang Heng was captured and the Qing officials were beheaded. Chen Mingxuan, the historian, was chosen as the leader, and under the banner of "Revival of the Ming Dynasty", they claimed to be the righteous people of Jiangyin who officially opposed the Qing Dynasty.
There were many places like Jiangyin where people surrendered and rebelled again because of the hair-shaving order. Changping and Sanhe in the capital area, as well as central Hebei, northern Jiangsu, Shandong, Shanxi, Henan and other places all saw the reappearance of anti-Qing struggles.
Such as the Yuyuan Army in western Shandong, the Qingzhou Uprising Army in eastern Shandong, the uprising army in the Luliang Mountain area in western Shanxi, the uprising army in Huaiqing and Weihui in Henan, and there were also many small-scale peasant armed forces in various parts of Hebei.
Among these rebels were Li Zicheng's former subordinates who were dispersed by the Qing army, and more were the two hundred scattered armed forces behind enemy lines organized by Qin Mu, including Dongfang Sheng, deputy director of the Military Intelligence Department, and Gan Nan, deputy director of the Supervisory Department.
These armed forces, small or large, flexible and mobile, launched a vigorous sabotage operation behind enemy lines. For a time, the anti-Qing struggle was surging.
At this time, Duoduo occupied Nanjing, and his men, including the surrendered Green Camp soldiers, numbered more than 300,000. They were dividing their forces to attack cities and seize territories, and to kill the remaining Southern Ming troops.
Among them, Beile Bolo was sent with tens of thousands of soldiers to march southeastward toward Hangzhou. Danyang, Changzhou, Wuxi, Changshu, Yixing and other cities surrendered one after another, and Bolo's troops headed straight for Suzhou and Hangzhou.
He also sent the third-class duke Tong Tulai and the Gongshun King Kong Youde to lead an army of 100,000 to the west. After defeating Huang Degong's troops and capturing Wuhu, they continued to lead their troops to capture Fanchang, Wuwei Prefecture, Ningguo Prefecture, Xuancheng, Nanling, Jianping, Tongling and other counties.
An army of 100,000 strong was marching forward in a mighty force, with flags covering the sun and dust filling the sky. They were pressing towards Chizhou defended by Cui Feng. Most of the troops on the eastern front had been withdrawn by Qin Mu, and led by Meng Ke, they crossed the river to block the gap between the southern foothills of the Dabie Mountains and the Yangtze River to prevent Ajige and Wu Sangui from escaping eastward.
This made the military strength on the eastern front very weak. Cui Feng had only 8,000 troops defending Chizhou. Facing the 100,000 troops of Tong Tulai and Kong Youde, the situation was extremely difficult. If Chizhou was broken, the Qing army could go straight to Jiujiang, and would instead form a pincer attack with Ajige against the Qin army.
If there was no time to dispatch troops to reinforce, the poorly defended Nanchang might fall into the hands of the Qing army. The entire Jiangxi defense line would then collapse, with disastrous consequences.
Cui Feng was under tremendous pressure and was worried, but he also knew what it would mean if he could completely wipe out Aji's group, so he gritted his teeth and held on to buy time for Qin Mu.
In order to strengthen the defense capability, he ordered the young and strong men in all counties from Chizhou to Jiujiang to be organized and distributed weapons, so as to prepare to fight with the Qing army one city at a time and block the enemy layer by layer.
The Qing army was less than fifty miles away from Chizhou, and the city was already filled with a gloomy atmosphere of war, as if a dark cloud was pressing down on the city, threatening to destroy it.
At this time, the injured and furious Ajige did not wait for Wu Sangui to arrive, and had already launched a desperate battle against Qin Mu's 20,000 troops at the Ju River.
Both sides had already put all their forces into the battle, killing each other in a bloody mess.
Qin Mu was wearing armor and holding a sword, and he personally led 4,000 cavalrymen to charge into the battle. The black flag with the word "Qin" on it had been stained red with blood and was in tatters, but it was still fluttering tenaciously in the midst of the bloodbath.
The mountains and rivers have changed color, the earth has been destroyed, the war horses are exhausted, their voices have become hoarse, and the ground is covered with broken limbs.
The sharp blades destroyed the sharp edges, the sea of clouds turned red, and the brutal fight to the death continued, as if this bloody storm would never stop.
Qin Mu's hand was cut open, blood was dripping out, but on the battlefield where the sword shadows were like a curtain and you were fighting to the death, there was no time to bandage you, if you were a little slow, you might become meat under the horse's hooves, you could only keep swinging your sword to kill all the enemies who approached, and open up a bloody path, only then would you have a chance to survive.
The Qin army was mostly infantry, and under the fierce attack of the Tartar cavalry, the situation was becoming increasingly unfavorable. One plum blossom formation after another was broken, and blood was spilled on the ground. However, because Qin Mu's blood-stained flag rushed in front, the Qin army suffered heavy casualties, but they still fought bravely.
If the swords and guns were broken, they would use their fists. If the fists were cut off, they would tear with their teeth. At this moment, everyone was bloodshot. No one knew what fear was anymore. There was only one thought left in their hearts: Kill!
Shang Yi watched as the last of his comrades fell before him, his head shattered by the horse. All the blood in his body rushed to his head, and he roared like a wild beast: "Fuck your Tartar ancestors. I will fight you to the death!"
Shang Yi roared and rushed towards the enemy's horse, his long hair flying and his eyes bloodshot. The enemy on the horse pulled the reins. The horse neighed and stood up, wanting to trample Shang Yi into a meat pie;
Shang Yi rolled recklessly onto the horse's belly. The horse's front hooves stomped down heavily, splashing mud and sand that hurt people. "Kill!" Shang Yi roared wildly, and the big knife cut through the thin belly of the horse. The horse cried out and fell to the ground, pinning the Jiala Zhangjing on the horse to the ground.
Shang Yi's foot was also pinned down, but he ignored the pain of a broken bone and stabbed the enemy general in the throat with his knife. Puff! The knife was pulled out, and blood spurted out like a fountain... ...
Although the Qin army was at a disadvantage, its desperate counterattack also caused heavy casualties to the Qing army. In this narrow "U"-shaped area, more than 40,000 troops were fighting together. The war horses had almost no space to charge, and the corpses all over the ground made it difficult for people to move.
Ajige finally calmed down slowly. There were tens of thousands of Han people, but only a hundred thousand Manchu soldiers. Even if they exchanged ten for one, the Qing Dynasty could not afford the losses. Moreover, the battle situation was tense. Although the Qin army suffered more casualties, the Qing army was not much better off after fighting hard. This kind of fighting style of exchanging life for life made Ajige feel cold in his heart.
Just at this moment, the dull sound of horse hooves came from the north, and the wind blew the smoke and dust straight into the sky. Based on Ajige's battlefield experience, he felt that it would take at least tens of thousands of troops to raise such a large amount of dust.
If the Qin army sent another 10,000 reinforcements, he was afraid that his entire army would be wiped out here. Ajige did not dare to hesitate and immediately ordered a retreat. The sound of the horn was like the howling of wild ghosts.
The Qing army retreated like a tide, but the blood-thirsty Qin army refused to give in. Even Qin Mu, with the remaining cavalry, continued to chase and kill them recklessly.
Ajige gave the order to retreat, but the two armies were fighting each other at that time. In this situation, the retreat quickly turned into a rout. The infantry could not catch up, but Qin Mu still had two or three thousand cavalrymen left. They chased the Qing army all the way for ten miles. After the rout, the Qing army was hacked to pieces, and the death toll was almost one-third of the casualties in the first bloody battle.
When Ajige learned that the so-called tens of thousands of troops in the north only ignored Hong Niangzi's two or three hundred troops, he was so angry that he almost vomited blood. If he continued to fight according to the situation at that time, he would definitely be able to wipe out Qin Mu's 20,000 troops.
The problem was that the enemy situation was unclear at the time and he did not have time to think much. If he did not retreat in time, if there were really tens of thousands of Qin troops coming, it would be Ajige who would be wiped out.
In this battle, Ajige suffered nearly 4,000 casualties, almost equal to the Qin army. Most importantly, when the retreat turned into a rout, many people died in vain, which made him extremely unwilling. Fighting on the plains turned out to be such a result. Ajige felt like someone had poured a mouthful of dog shit on him in public... ... ...
The next morning, Wu Sangui's troops arrived. Ajige, still furious, immediately fought back. If he didn't completely destroy Qin Mu's troops, how would Prince Ying face the emperor and his ministers of the Qing Dynasty
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.(To be continued..)
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