Several times worse than the Nanjing Massacre, how tragic was the "Ten Days of Yangzhou" in history? Why didn't the Qing army seal the sword for ten days?
At the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, the Qing army invaded the Central Plains on a large scale, and the north at that time was occupied by the Qing army, Li Zicheng immediately established a new regime - Dashun, and took advantage of the victory to pursue, ready to defeat the Ming Dynasty in one fell swoop, when the Qing army approached the city of Beijing, the Ming Dynasty Chongzhen Emperor hanged himself in coal mountains, but the Ming Dynasty did not really end, the Fu King Zhu Yousong established the Southern Ming Dynasty in Nanjing under the support of Shi Kefa and others, even so, the demise of the Ming Dynasty is still unavoidable.
In 1645, Shi Kefa committed a crime in the Qing army, can only retreat to Nanjing to protect Yangzhou, but Yangzhou only has more than 20,000 defenders, but there are 100,000 Qing troops outside Yangzhou, from the perspective of the number of both sides, it is obvious that the Qing army's chances of victory are greater, Shi Kefa is also quite persistent, hard to take the defenders and people of Yangzhou for more than twenty days, but Yangzhou's more than 20,000 defenders can not defeat 100,000 Qing troops after all, on May 20, The Yangzhou garrison almost disappeared, the city defense collapsed, and the Qing army began to enter the city of Yangzhou one after another. After 5 days, Yangzhou no longer had the strength to resist, Shi Kefa saw that the general trend had gone, did not choose to surrender, but chose to be heroic and righteous, and the 19 staff members who followed Shi Kefa were not spared, originally thought that Shi Kefa's sacrifice could be exchanged for the stability of the people of Yangzhou, and never expected that it was the beginning of Yangzhou's nightmare.
At that time, after the Qing army invaded Yangzhou, it did not have the intention of killing them all, because in ancient times, although human life was like grass and mustard, it could be removed at will, but during the war, the most scarce thing was human resources, under normal circumstances, the people would choose to surrender, unless they encountered a very small number of people who refused to obey, the invaders would kill them, so even if the Qing army entered the city of Yangzhou, it would not massacre the people in a big way, after all, the establishment of a new regime was the real purpose of the Qing Dynasty, and the Qing army mutilated the people For the Qing Dynasty, it was harmful and not beneficial. But why did the Qing army kill the people of Yangzhou? In just ten days, the Qing army slaughtered a total of 800,000 Yangzhou people!
At the beginning, the Qing army did not take extreme measures against Yangzhou, so why did it gradually become crazy in the back?
According to the "Ten Diaries of Yangzhou" recorded by Wang Xiuchu, a survivor of the "Ten Days of Yangzhou", we can more intuitively see how the Qing army turned Yangzhou into a purgatory on earth.
On May 20, the Qing army entered the city of Yangzhou, the common people in order to protect themselves, have hidden the gold and silver jewelry, they did not realize that the danger has quietly come, most of these Qing troops are poor, every day not only to worry about whether they died in battle, but also to worry about whether their own Feng Lu can support themselves, so, after they successfully attacked Yangzhou, the first thing they did was to loot the people's gold and silver treasures everywhere, at first, the Qing army only threatened to extort money, but gradually, the Qing army was no longer satisfied with these visible gold and silver treasures. They also want more money, people's desires are constantly expanding, especially these Qing troops are entering the city with a victorious posture, of course, they do not want to miss this opportunity to accumulate wealth, a large number of Qing troops poured into Yangzhou, and soon there was a situation of less porridge and more monks.
In less than half a day, the Qing army has all been plundered, so in the evening, the Way the Qing army looted money became brutal, from verbal extortion to threatening life, for a time, the people's wailing continued, these people saw that the Qing army was more and more arrogant, they could only choose to hide to avoid the Qing army's "blackmail", who expected, the next day, the Qing army issued a notice, with a pardon to tempt those who hid, the people who lived under the coercion of the Qing army all day, who did not want to be pardoned? Many people took the initiative to turn themselves in to the Qing army to ask for forgiveness, but the Qing army pardon was false, squeezing more money was true, the Qing army tied these people up with ropes, stabbed them to death with one knife after another, and the unarmed people of Yangzhou could only watch as the Qing army mutilated their families.
In order to control the people of Yangzhou, three Qing troops were responsible for dozens of Yangzhou people, the Qing army used bayonets to force the people to advance one after the other, and there was a Qing army spurring the slow-moving Yangzhou people, the streets were full of infant cries, the Qing army had completely lost their minds, as long as the yangzhou people could not hand over money, they finally died under the bayonets of the Qing army.
In order to sweep Yangzhou more thoroughly, what means did the Qing army use to force the people of Yangzhou who were hiding everywhere to appear?
At that time, some yangzhou people in order to survive, did not hesitate to hide in the garbage heap, even if the body was contaminated with all kinds of filthy things, they did not want to die under the bayonet of the Qing army, but when the Qing army searched the city, even the garbage heap would not let go, they would stab into the garbage heap with a bayonet to ensure that no corner was missed, some people naively thought that if they reported some people's hiding places to the Qing army, they could survive, but in addition to the Qing army, the people of Yangzhou did not have a good end. Even in order to force the people of Yangzhou to appear on their own, the Qing army did not hesitate to set fire to let these people die and burn and kill the people of Yangzhou, which was the usual means used by the Qing army in the past 10 days.
However, the brutality of the Qing army is far more than this, the Qing army is without exception all men, they are at the age of flesh and blood, all desires will be magnified to the extreme, the number of women victimized in Yangzhou alone is innumerable, in addition to these persecuted women, there are also those women who have been plundered, among them, Duo Duo, the Prince of Yu, who led 100,000 Qing troops to attack Yangzhou, plundered a total of 103 young and beautiful women, and he dedicated all these women to the imperial relatives and nobles of the Qing Dynasty, what is the difference between this and the robbers? By May 25, the Qing army had stopped slaughtering the people of Yangzhou. Of course not, because the people of Yangzhou were killed by them! The Qing army ordered the monks to clean up the corpses in Yangzhou, and according to the statistics of these monks, more than 800,000 people died under the bayonets of the Qing army, which was more than the number killed by the Nanjing Massacre! There are very few records of the "Ten Days of Yangzhou" in history, it seems to be deliberately erasing this dark history, for the Qing army slaughtering the city, there are also many people who put forward their own interpretations, some people say that it is related to the decrees issued by the Qing Dynasty, we all know that the Qing Dynasty followed the principle of shaving hair, during the Ming Dynasty, most of the central plains were Han and Mongolian.
Similarly, the people of Yangzhou are no exception, of course, they do not have Manchu customs and habits, when the Prince of Yu Duoduo broke into the city of Yangzhou, he found that the people of Yangzhou did not comply with the Manchu demand to shave their hair, so he ordered the slaughter of the city; there is also an explanation is that the Qing army slaughtered the city because yangzhou this place made them suffer heavy losses, the only resistance of the Qing army in the process of southern invasion was Yangzhou, and the Prince of Yu Duoduo also mentioned the slaughter and other information in the "Imperial Decree on The Civil and Military Officials in Nanjing and Other Places", which shows that the Qing army slaughtered the city was personally ordered by the Prince of Yu In addition, some people think that the geographical location of Yangzhou is more important, if the Qing army can not fully control Yangzhou, then the future may bring disasters, Yangzhou carries the ancient water transport and salt transport, coupled with the previous under the leadership of Shi Kefa, the Yangzhou defenders and the people's determination to resist the Qing army is very strong, which undoubtedly aroused the Ambition of the Qing army to conquer, so after the occupation of Yangzhou, the Qing army will establish prestige, so that the people of Yangzhou do not dare to rebel. The Qing Dynasty as a victor, of course, they do not want to have a negative impact, some people recorded the "Yangzhou Ten Days", the crimes committed by the Qing army, and the Qing Dynasty in order to show the good side to future generations, all the books that recorded the event were burned, until before the Xinhai Revolution, Wang Xiuchu's "Yangzhou Ten Diaries" was known to the world, all the covered up past will be unveiled in other ways, no matter how to hide can not erase that period of history, "Yangzhou Ten Days" forever engraved in people's hearts. Although we were born in times of peace and have not experienced those wars, we must still firmly remember the humiliating history of the past, so that we will not be beaten.