The Illusion of Alliance
After seizing Beijing and rapidly occupying northern China, the Qing forces under Prince Dorgon faced a complex political landscape. To the south, the Ming loyalists remained entrenched along the Huai River, while the rebel regimes of Li Zicheng (Great Shun) and Zhang Xianzhong (Great West) controlled the west. Prioritizing the elimination of Li Zicheng, Dorgon dispatched Ajige and Wu Sangui to pursue the Shun army. Simultaneously, envoys arrived from Nanjing, representing the newly established Southern Ming regime.
Following the death of Emperor Ming Sizong, officials in the secondary capital of Nanjing sought to continue the Ming lineage. They enthroned Zhu Yousong, the Prince of Fu (son of the executed Zhu Changxun), as the Hongguang Emperor. His cabinet included Shi Kefa and Ma Shiying. Viewing Li Zicheng as the primary enemy, the Nanjing court proposed an alliance with the Qing: they would recognize the Qing’s control north of the Great Wall and pay an annual tribute of 100,000 taels of silver in exchange for joint military action against the rebels.
Dorgon dismissed this proposal with contempt. He declared that the Qing had entered the pass to rule all of China, not to retreat. Through his minister Ganglin, he rebuked the envoys – led by Zuo Maodi – for establishing a new emperor without Qing sanction. Instead of negotiation, Dorgon ordered the Qing armies to march south, rejecting any restoration of the Ming.
Internal Decay and the Fall of Yangzhou
While the threat loomed, the Hongguang court in Nanjing disintegrated from within. Factional strife between former Donglin partisans and the eunuch faction paralyzed the government. The Hongguang Emperor, indolent and pleasure-seeking like his father, neglected state affairs for operas and wine. Empowered by the emperor’s favor, Ma Shiying and Ruan Dacheng purged their rivals, forcing the capable Shi Kefa out of the cabinet and assigning him to defend Yangzhou.
This internal chaos triggered further instability; General Zuo Liangyu marched on Nanjing to “purge” Ma Shiying, forcing the redeployment of northern defenses to face him. Although Zuo died en route, the northern frontier was left exposed. Shi Kefa, despairing of the court’s infighting, prepared for a last stand in Yangzhou. Despite pleas from subordinates like Li Qifeng to surrender, Shi refused. When the Qing commander Duoduo besieged the city and breached the walls with artillery, Shi Kefa was captured. Refusing Duoduo’s offer to serve the Qing, he chose death, becoming a symbol of unyielding loyalty.
The Collapse of the Hongguang Regime
Following the brutal sack of Yangzhou, Qing troops crossed the Yangtze River. Terrified, the Hongguang Emperor fled Nanjing, only to be captured by the defecting general Tian Xiong and handed over to the Qing. A puppet successor, the Prince of Lu (Zhu Changfang), was briefly installed in Hangzhou but surrendered immediately upon the Qing’s approach. Both princes were executed in Beijing, marking the end of the Hongguang regime after just one year.
The Queue Order and the Spirit of Defiance
As the Qing consolidated control over Jiangnan, they issued the infamous “Queue Order,” demanding all Han Chinese men shave their foreheads and wear a queue – a Manchu hairstyle – as a sign of submission. This provoked fierce resistance, encapsulated by the slogan: “Keep your hair and lose your head, or keep your head and lose your hair.” This cultural imposition sparked massive uprisings, most notably in Jiangyin and Jiading.
In Jiangyin, the populace rose against the magistrate Fang Heng, who enforced the order. Led by local scholars and officials like Chen Mingyu and Feng Houdun, and later commanded by the retired clerk Yan Yingyuan, the citizens transformed the county town into a fortress. For eighty-one days, a force of barely tens of thousands held off over 200,000 Qing troops. When the city finally fell, the defenders fought to the last man in street battles. Yan Yingyuan, wounded and captured, refused to kneel, famously declaring, “There are defeated generals, but no defeated clerks,” before his execution.
The Tragedy of Jiading
Similarly, in Jiading, peasants organized militias to attack Qing positions. Under the leadership of Hou Tongzeng and Huang Chunyao, the town resisted fiercely despite lacking military experience. After breaching the walls, the Qing unleashed a massacre, slaughtering over 20,000 people. This event became known as the “Three Slaughters of Jiading,” as the city was retaken by loyalists twice more, only to be brutally suppressed again each time.
The Martyrdom of Xia Wanchun
Among the young heroes was Xia Wanchun from Huating. A literary prodigy married at fifteen, he joined the resistance alongside his father Xia Yunyi and teacher Chen Zilong. After their suicides following a defeat, the teenage Xia continued to fight until his capture.
Brought before Hong Chengchou – the very man the Ming had once mourned as a martyr – Xia feigned ignorance. He praised the “martyr Hong Chengchou” who supposedly died for the Ming, shaming the defector sitting before him. Hong, red-faced and silent, could not save the boy. Xia Wanchun was executed, leaving behind poems likeFarewell to Yunjian, radiating youthful patriotism.
The Schism of the Southern Ming
Despite the heroism of the common people, the Ming royal remnants remained divided. After the fall of Nanjing, two rival regimes emerged: the Prince of Lu (Zhu Yihai) in Shaoxing and the Prince of Tang (Zhu Yujian, the Longwu Emperor) in Fuzhou. Although the Prince of Tang was the senior claimant, the Prince of Lu refused to submit to his authority, even executing the Longwu envoy. This fratricidal discord between the two Ming courts crippled their ability to coordinate a unified defense against the advancing Qing dynasty.
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