Who is Yan Yingyuan from Jiangyin?

Yan Yingyuan, whose courtesy name was Liheng, was from Tongzhou in the north. In the Xinsi year of Chongzhen, he was appointed as the Dianshi of Jiangyin. At the beginning of taking office, the sea pirate Gu Sanmazi led hundreds of warships to invade Huangtian Port. Ying Yuan led his troops and refused to defend. He fired three arrows in a row, but everyone fell down in response. The pirates were frightened and did not dare to do it again. During his term of office, he suppressed salt pirates, subdued civil unrest, and displayed outstanding political discipline. The people of Jiangyin were grateful for his kindness and commemorated his portrait in the Sociological Society. The court of the Southern Ming Dynasty originally wanted to transfer him to the position of chief registrar of Yingde County, Shaozhou, Guangdong. Because the mother was seriously ill and the roads were blocked, the trip was not possible, so the family lived scattered at the foot of Sand Mountain outside Jiangyin City.

In the second year of Shunzhi (1645), Jiangyin surrendered to the Qing Dynasty. Lin Zhiji, the magistrate of the Ming Dynasty, resigned from his post. Fang Heng, the magistrate of the Qing Dynasty, succeeded him and issued an order to shave his hair as usual. On the 28th day of the sixth lunar month, the village elders He Mao, Xing Jing, Zhou Shun, Xing Ji, Yang Fang, Xue Yong, Yang Qi, Ji Mao, Xin Rong and others proposed to keep their hair. Fang Heng cursed loudly. Everyone was furious and cursed: "As a Chinese Jinshi, you wear a gauze hat and a round collar to be the Tartar magistrate. Don't you know how ashamed you are?" Fang Heng was so ashamed that he suspended the discussion.

In the early morning of the first day of the sixth lunar month, Fang Heng summoned more than a hundred local residents, gentry, and common people to the Confucian Temple in the name of offering incense. Everyone asked: "Now that Jiangyin has surrendered, there should be nothing going on, right?" Fang Heng said: "All that's left is to shave your hair. The four soldiers we sent just now shaved their heads for the purpose of arresting the prisoners." The crowd said, "Have your hair shaved." Can I shave it?" Fang Heng said, "This is the law of the Qing Dynasty and cannot be violated." After that, he returned to the office. Zhu Shengxu Yong and others gathered together and swore an oath together in Minglun Hall: "The head can be cut off, but the hair must not be shaved!" At this time, Changzhou Prefecture sent a document strictly ordering shaving, which included "Leave If the head is left without hair, the hair is left without hair." Fang Heng asked the scribe to write a notice and post it in the form of a notice. When the scribe wrote this sentence, he was filled with indignation, threw the pen to the ground and said, "Just die!" The news quickly spread throughout the city, and there was an uproar immediately. When Fang Heng saw that the soldiers and the people would not obey, he secretly reported to Changzhou Prefecture to ask his superiors to send troops to "kill more to establish authority". This secret letter was seized by the Yimin, so on the second day of the Lunar New Year, Fang Heng was captured, the Qing officials were killed, and Chen Mingyu, the leader of the Dian Shi, took the banner of "Resurgence of the Ming Dynasty" and called himself the Yimin of Jiangyin to officially fight against the Qing Dynasty.

After the news spread that the people of Jiangyin were resisting the Qing Dynasty, Zong Hao, the prefect of Changzhou in the Qing Dynasty, sent 300 soldiers to suppress it. On the fifth day of the sixth lunar month, they were annihilated by the righteous people of Jiangyin at the foot of Qinwang Mountain. Later, Jiangyin's army and people, led by Chen Mingyu, repelled the attacks of small groups of Qing troops many times. At the same time, a strict investigation was carried out on the spies in the city, and anyone who could report and capture the spies was announced to be rewarded fifty taels of silver. The execution of Fang Heng, the former magistrate of the Qing Dynasty, as well as many spies who betrayed intelligence and attempted to surrender to the enemy, effectively curbed Jiangyin's internal collapse.

On the 21st of the intercalary month, Qing Beile and General Boluo ordered Liu Liangzuo, the surrendered general, to surround Jiangyin City with heavy troops. On the 24th, Liu Liangzuo wrote a surrender letter and shot it in from outside the east city. After a public discussion between the army and the people in Jiangyin, they responded with a letter of rejection. When Liu Liangzuo saw that persuading him to surrender was ineffective, he went around hunting down the rebels outside the city in an attempt to cut off foreign aid from the military and civilians in the city. On the first day of July, the siege began. The city was tightly defended, and arrows from the Qing soldiers rained down on them. The people in the city held pot lids in one hand to cover the city and caught arrows in the other. They could get three to four hundred arrows every day (each made three or four hundred thousand).

The situation in Jiangyin became increasingly severe. Although Chen Mingyu was loyal and courageous, he felt that he lacked military organizational skills, so he thought of Yan Yingyuan, a former official who was both wise and brave, and wanted to recommend him to replace him as leader while he was idle at home. Defending the city, Gu Yuanbi resolutely attacked the enemy because he was being guarded, but left the matter alone. During the battle to defend the city on July 5, Yuan Bi climbed up the city to shoot at the enemy. His arrows fell to the ground every time they failed to hit the enemy, making everyone suspicious. Later, he ordered Ma Gaozi to steal gunpowder from the city and throw it to the enemy. The crowd captured Gu Yuanbi and searched his residence together, and sure enough they found a Qing military document. So Gu Yuanbi and forty of his accomplices were executed, thus cutting off the internal support of the Qing soldiers. Chen Mingyu originally wanted to ask Yan Yingyuan to take charge of the task of defending the city, but now that Gu Yuanbi was executed, he brought up the old matter again, and everyone unanimously agreed. Chen Mingyu specially appointed sixteen people to go out of the city overnight and went to Yan Yingyuan's residence to invite him out. Ying Yuan said: "You can follow me. Otherwise, I will not host it for you." The crowd said: "Dare you not obey orders?"< /p>

On the 9th, Yan Yingyuan led 600 young men from Zhutang in Jiangyin City and entered the city armed with weapons. When passing by Qili Temple, he wrote a poem on the wall to express his determination to fight to the death. After entering the city, Yan Yingyuan immediately conducted a detailed survey of the city's household registrations, old and young, and selected young and strong men to form a militia. He gathered more than 200,000 rural soldiers and went to the city in shifts, with ten men for each battlement, and shifts were changed on time. Wang Gongluo, a military officer, guarded the east gate, General Wang guarded the south gate, Chen Mingyu guarded the west gate, and Ying Yuan took charge of guarding the north gate. He and Chen Mingyu are responsible for patrolling the four gates day and night. Strictly interrogate passers-by in the city and eliminate traitors. In order to solve the problem of ordnance, food and salary supply, Yan Yingyuan, after discussing with the gentry and the people, appointed people who were good at financial management to be responsible for classifying and collecting materials stored in public and private areas in the city and allocating them for unified use. Under the leadership of Yan Yingyuan, people and materials were quickly put to good use, and all aspects of work were done in an orderly manner.

On the 11th, the Qing soldiers attacked the north gate guarded by Yan Yingyuan. The city was rained with arrows and stones, and the Qing soldiers did not dare to approach. The commander-in-chief Liu Liangzuo was furious and ordered nine generals to go up to the city on a ladder and stab them with spears. Five generals were killed and four were injured. Some were hit by three arrows, some had their heads chopped off, and some fell and fell to pieces. There was a lot of chaos, and some were burned to death by rockets. The commander became even more angry and ordered the ten battalions to select a few fierce generals, thirty thousand infantry, and ten ladders. They would march up to the city in ten places in the coming day. If any retreated, they would be killed immediately.

The next day, the Qing soldiers still attacked the north gate. They fired cannons and shouted outside the city. Thirty thousand soldiers built ten pontoon bridges, crossed the river outside the city together, and climbed up the cloud ladder at ten places to go up to the city. Yan Yingyuan commanded the city to throw down bricks and stones and use spears to resist the enemy. For a time, rocks were flying, artillery fire continued, and countless people on both sides died. A certain Manchu general believed himself to be brave. He wore three layers of armor, hung two knives on his waist, carried two knives on his back, and held two knives in his hands. He personally climbed the ladder, stepped onto the battlement, and slashed with the sword. The defenders on the city used coffins to block him and stabbed him with spears, but he was unable to enter. Someone shouted: "Stab him in the face." So everyone stabbed his face one after another. A boy named Yitang, holding an iron hook and sickle, cut his throat with force. The bamboo craftsman Yao You cut off his head, and his body fell under the city. . The Qing soldiers came together to snatch the corpses. The bangs and drums on the city were beating in unison, and the bricks and stones were like raindrops of arrows. The Qing soldiers suffered more than a thousand casualties.

Liu Liangzuo ordered the sergeant to kill General Man, but Yan Yingyuan refused. Liu Liangzuo was willing to redeem the money with silver, and ordered people to put the silver in a silver scabbard and hang it into the city. He also ordered the sergeants to cry under the city: "Give me the general's head!" Yan Yingyuan asked someone to wrap a yellow dog's head in a cattail leaf, throw it back, and hang the general's head on the city wall. Liu Liangzuo personally led his people to beg for help outside the city, but Fang threw his head down. The Qing soldiers took the head back, sewed it up with the body, and hung it in mourning for three days. Yan Yingyuan repelled Beicheng's attack, but knew that there would be a larger-scale attack by Qing soldiers soon. So he actively forged tools for defending the city, and recruited more than a thousand people including Qingyang Crossbow King Huang Minggang. They went into the city to make thousands of small crossbows and tens of thousands of small arrows, and distributed them to the soldiers who defended the city. He also used the gunpowder that Ji Congxiao combined and put it on the arrowhead to shoot someone, and he died immediately when he saw blood. The crossbow is more than a foot long and the arrow is five inches long. It can hit the target from a hundred steps away. He also released Chen Rui's son from prison and ordered him to make fire bricks and wooden guns. The fire brick is about three to four inches wide and will be burned when it hits someone. The wooden blunderbuss has a silver scabbard, three feet and five inches long and two to three inches wide. It is made of wood and has gunpowder hidden in the middle. When the enemy comes, he throws it down and the mechanism explodes. The wooden shell breaks. Iron water chestnuts fly out and kill people if they touch them. Yan Yingyuan also made the crossbow himself, using a piece of iron, a few hooks on the side, and cotton ropes tied to the back. He could throw it out to hook the enemy and kill him at close range. They also imitated the old ones and made fireballs, rockets, etc., all of which were exquisite and exquisite. Therefore, although there were many Qing troops, they often sighed with excitement when looking at the city, trembling and showing no emotion. Even the Manchurian generals were frightened when they heard this, and every time they came down from the siege, they would celebrate grandly for surviving the attack.

The Qing troops were unsuccessful in attacking the city, and they began to persuade them to surrender. Liu Liangzuo personally composed "Songs of Encourage to the Folk", hoping that Jiangyin would surrender, but Yan Yingyuan refused. So the Qing soldiers set up cowhide tents under the city to prepare for long-term battles. On the 15th, the Qing troops attacked the northeastern city. Liu Liangzuo ordered artillery fire from the southwest and digging the city from the northeast. They all used mountains to attack the city, and the city resisted with fireballs and rockets. The Qing troops were defeated and wanted to retreat, but the good commander gave strict orders to stop. Yan Yingyuan continued to order bricks and stones to be thrown into the city. The Qing soldiers were unable to dodge, and hundreds of people died under the city. Liang Zuo was ashamed and frightened. So he set up three layers of cowhide tents to defend but not attack. There are nine beams and eight pillars in the tent. If arrows are thrown on them, they will bounce back and cannot enter. Yan Yingyuan ordered human excrement to be mixed with tung oil, fried and boiled, and the cowhide was scalded and poured on the Qing soldiers. The flesh rotted and died. The Qing soldiers who were not burned fled in panic. Crossbows were used in the city to shoot at the fleeing Qing soldiers. Those who were hit by the hook would enter the city and bow their heads. The Qing soldiers were at a loss and fled one after another. The enemy camp thought they had killed the defenders, so they ordered them to fire wooden muskets to defend them, injuring countless of their own horses and infantry. In desperation, Liu Liangzuo ordered the camp to be moved to Deng's tomb.

While holding on, Jiangyin asked for help from all directions. Huang Fei and Wu Zhikui led their troops to Taihu Lake and met the Qing Beileboluo army. After the two were defeated and captured, they surrendered to the Qing Dynasty. The pirate Gu Sanmazi admired Yan Yingyuan's character and led his navy to come to the rescue. After three days of hard fighting, he failed and sailed away. In addition, King Yiyang came to help, but was defeated by Shashan; Xiucai Gold Mine gathered more than 400 brave men to come to help, but Liu Liangzuo intercepted Zhouzhuang with 3,000 cavalry, and the entire army was wiped out. Foreign troops were defeated repeatedly, and Jiangyin became an isolated city. Even so, Liu Liangzuo was still frightened and did not dare to attack the city again. He only used artillery to attack the North City all night long. The battlements collapsed several feet under the bombardment of artillery fire. Yan Yingyuan ordered the masons to build the wall, but the masons were afraid and could not move forward. Yan Yingyuan's words were sincere and emotional. The masons were deeply moved, so they risked their lives to repair the battlements and make them as strong as ever.

On the 14th, Yan Yingyuan took advantage of the Qing army's opportunity to persuade them to surrender, and sent more than a hundred warriors, in the name of a "surrender gift", to secretly carry firearms into the Qing army's camp and kill more than 2,000 Qing soldiers. people. On the night of the 17th, Yan Yingyuan selected a thousand warriors to go out from the south gate to rob the camp. Some holding axes, daggers, or poles, they broke into the enemy camp and injured more than a thousand people. By the time his battalion came to rescue him, Ying Yuan's soldiers had returned to the city. After this battle, Liu Liangzuo retreated again and camped at Shifang'an.

On the 18th, Liu Liangzuo ordered the monks from Shifang Nunnery to kneel down and weep to the city, state the pros and cons, and persuade Jiangyin soldiers and people to surrender early. Everyone in the city was willing to die to serve the country and asked him to leave quickly. That night, the monk came again to persuade him to surrender, but was sent away again. On the 19th, Liu Liangzuo rode his horse to the city and persuaded Ying Yuan: "Hongguang has reached the north, and the south of the Yangtze River is down. If you can turn misfortunes into blessings with one step, why would you suffer like this if you have a good title?" Yan Yingyuan said calmly: " The people of Jiangyin have been eating hair and soil for three hundred years. They are deeply grateful for their country and cannot bear to surrender. Retreating cannot protect Jiangzuo, so how can we see our loyal and righteous people in Jiangdong?" Liang Zuo felt ashamed and used the Qing court's summons to persuade Jiangyin's people to accept the recruitment. Ying Yuan said angrily: "There are surrenders for generals, but there is no history of surrender.

"There was a bang, and the rockets were fired. Liang Zuo jumped three or four horses and sighed: "The people of Jiangyin are hopeless! ”

Prince Duduo of the Qing Dynasty was extremely angry when he heard that Jiangyin could not be captured for a long time. He first sent the obedient king Kong Youde to "lead his troops to assist in the attack", and then sent Beilebolo and Berenikan to lead the Manchurian troops. He went to attack the city with his red cannon. After Bellebolo pacified Songjiang, he led his 200,000 troops to the city of Jiangyin. He believed that Liu Liangzuo had been an earl of the Ming Dynasty and had a heavy army, but he could not even capture a single Jiangyin county town. He was extremely incompetent. , so he was beaten. He climbed the mountain and inspected the city defense of Jiangyin, and said to his subordinates: "This city is shaped like a boat, with the south end and the north end. If we attack the north and south, it will not be broken." But if you attack it, it will be destroyed. He ordered people to tie up the surrendering generals Huang Fei and Wu Zhikui to the city and ordered them to write a letter to persuade them to surrender. Huang Fei said: "I have no acquaintances in the city, so what's the use of writing a letter to persuade them to surrender?" Wu Zhikui burst into tears and raised his head to persuade Yan Yingyuan to surrender. His words were sad, and Yingyuan scolded: "The minister is bound and will die immediately, so why keep talking!" " Zhikui bowed again and cried, and Fei was silent.

Seeing that Yan Yingyuanyi was immobile, Boluo launched a general attack. He divided his troops first and cut off the reinforcements in each town. He used bamboo cages to hold artillery and encouraged them to go forward. The gunners wore red They were given three days to break the city. From the 20th to the 27th, the Qing troops took turns to attack the city. Yan Yingyuan commanded the defense and fought bloody battles to finally protect the city of Jiangyin.

In early August, Jiangyin was saved. The militiamen were guarding day and night and were very tired. Some people began to leave the city and surrender. Like an enemy. Seeing that the city defense was tight, Yan Yingyuan took away the hair of the people and threw them into the city to lure the enemy. The Qing soldiers were surprised and reported to Liu Liangzuo: "You still can't believe it, go and see if the people guarding the city have their hair shaved?" "After the Qing soldiers inspected it, they found out that it was a false surrender.

Bolo could not attack for a long time, and he was anxious, so he tried to persuade him to surrender again, saying that as long as the flag of the Ming Dynasty and Zhongxing was removed, and the flag of the Qing Dynasty was hung on all four gates, he would only be able to surrender. He will kill and behead a few people, but ignore the rest. Even if he doesn't shave his head, he will withdraw his troops. Yan Yingyuan saw Bo Luo's delaying strategy and said: "Only kill me?" I am not guilty, why should you kill me? "The discussion stopped without a decision. Boluo also said that as long as the Qing flag was raised in the four cities, he would immediately withdraw his troops. Yan Yingyuan knew that there was a fraud, but still did not respond. Wang Haifang, the former governor of the Wu Army Gate, went to the river and slaughtered cattle and sheep. He swore an oath to the generals that after Jiangyin surrendered, he would never kill or loot. He relied on his good faith in Jiangyin and asked Ying to persuade him to surrender. However, no one responded when he came to the city to appeal. People shot arrows into the city, saying that it was already dead, so why bother to defend it? Yan Yingyuan ordered people to add at the end of the book: "I would rather die than surrender!" "Shoot them back to the Qing soldiers. The Qing court tried to persuade them to surrender many times, and some people in the three cities began to hesitate. However, because the north gate guarded by Yan Yingyuan vowed to hold on to the death, everyone gave up.

After being trapped for a long time, Jiangyin City suffered casualties. The battle was severe, the city was running out of limestone, and it was impossible to build the city at night. Rice was getting less and less, so we had to collect rice from the people to prepare for the shortage. Yan Yingyuan ordered that rice should be collected every two days, and no one should collect it in advance before and after the Mid-Autumn Festival. The common people climbed up to the tower with pots and cups, raised their glasses and drank. The students imitated Chu songs and composed the "Wu Geng Zhuan Song", and asked those who were good at singing to climb up and sing, and the sky was clear with sheng, flute, flute and drum. , the bright moon is in the sky, the clear dew is in the thin fields, the swords and halberds are silent, the yellow crossbows, the drums and the huqin are singing in the enemy tower in the west city, and the soldiers of the Qing Dynasty are rushing forward to listen, some are scolding, some are lamenting, and some are even crying. . The song goes: "Yixing people, a gun. People from Wuxi are full of fragrance. The people from Jingjiang quickly knelt on the beach. A man from Changzhou sacrificed his daughter and his mother. The people of Jiangyin fought for more than eighty days and would rather die than surrender. "There are many other songs, but the meaning is roughly the same. Liu Liangzuo responded tit-for-tat and ordered his soldiers to sing to persuade each other to surrender. He and his staff were drinking in the tent. After a while, cannons and arrows were fired from the city and they dispersed.

On the 21st, Boluo ordered hundreds of people to move more than 200 cannons to Huajiaba, specifically to attack the Northeast City. It also passed through several layers and landed several feet deep. It was raining heavily that day, and a cowhide tent was used to protect the cannons. The city was as dangerous as a fortress. When the enemy's cannons were fierce, they hid behind the cannons. After the sound passed, they climbed onto the tower. Seeing this, the Qing soldiers deliberately fired the cannons, and the cannons were filled with smoke. Soon they entered, but they didn't know that the Qing soldiers had sneaked across the city river and swarmed up from the smoke. They had no time to defend and collapsed. When the Qing soldiers came to the city, a group of militiamen lined up against the city. Afraid of an ambush, they stayed in a stalemate for a long time and did not dare to attack. By dusk, the city was abuzz and the militiamen were in disarray, so the Qing soldiers dared to go down to the city.

When the city was broken, Yan Yingyuan was sitting on the east wall of the enemy tower. I asked for a pen and wrote on the city gate: "On the 80th, I pledged my allegiance to Taizu as a figure in the 17th dynasty. One hundred thousand people died with one heart and soul, leaving behind three hundred miles of Ming Dynasty." "After finishing the question, he led a thousand men on horseback to fight and killed countless Qing soldiers. He tried to break through the west gate but failed. He looked around at his followers and said, "Thank you people for me. I have finished serving the country!" "He pulled out his dagger, stabbed his chest and blood came out, and threw him into the lake in front of him. Lu Zheng, a righteous man, wanted to pull him out of the water. Just when Liu Liangzuo sent troops to capture him, Liangzuo claimed that he had an old relationship with Yan Yingyuan and wanted to capture him alive, so the Qing troops He picked him up and tied him up, but did not kill him. Liang Zuoju was sitting in the Mingfo Hall. When he saw Ying Yuan coming, he jumped up, patted Ying Yuan's back and cried, "There is nothing to cry about. It's over." So far, there is only one death. Kill me quickly! "Bolo was sitting in the county office and asked Ying Yuan to go to the hall.

Yan Yingyuan stood upright and unyielding, turned his back to Baylor, and kept cursing. A soldier stabbed his calf with a spear. Yan Yingyuan was bleeding profusely and fell to the ground. Boluo ordered people to imprison him in Qixia Temple. That night, the monks in the temple kept hearing the voice of "Kill me quickly". At dawn, they were finally killed.

After Yan Yingyuan died, there were still more than ten servants, but they were all killed for refusing to surrender. Lu Zhengxian also died together. The official Chen Mingyu ordered the county government to be closed down and burned to death forty-three men and women. He held a knife and fought bloody battles with the Qing soldiers. He was seriously injured and stood frozen with the knife in hand. When he died, he was leaning against the wall and standing tall. Don't fall. He taught Feng Houdun to hang himself in Minglun Hall, and his wife and sister threw themselves into a well. Zhongshu Qi Xun and Zhusheng Xu Yong burned themselves to death with their families. On August 22, the Qing soldiers began to massacre the city. The people either fought to the end or died calmly. They all thought they were lucky to die first, and no one obeyed. Two days after the Qing army massacred the city, they "came out to calm the people." There were only "fifty-three people, big and small" left in the city.

According to "Jiangyin City Shou Ji": Yan Yingyuan has a plump torso, erect eyebrows, thin and long curved eyes, and a red face with beard. Every time he patrols the city, there is a person following him with a big sword, which makes him feel like he is reborn. When the soldiers of the Qing Dynasty saw it, they thought it was a god. Yan Yingyuan's orders are serious, and those who live in peace and do not abide by the law will be severely punished to warn everyone, even the squires and powerful men at that time are no exception. And when the soldiers were in trouble, he would personally boil medicine, pour wine, and express condolences; when someone was killed, he would personally buy a coffin, cry and bury him; when meeting the soldiers of the death squad, he would call them brothers instead of their names. When encountering an important task, he will inevitably ask everyone: "Which of my brothers can complete this task?" Someone shouted on the street: "I want to kill the enemy, but I don't have a short sword." Yan Yingyuan immediately took off his clothes worth twenty or thirty gold. Bring a short sword for him. Yan Yingyuan set an example in everything he did and treated others with sincerity. Therefore, both scholars and people were virtuous and fearful of power, and would not regret even if they were about to die.