Feng Zicai

Feng Zicai

Feng Zicai (July 29, 1818 - September 18, 1903) was born in Shawei village of Qinzhou, Lianzhou Prefecture, Guangdong Province (now belonging to Shawei village of Qinzhou, Guangxi). He was a general and national hero of the late Qing Dynasty who resisted France.

Feng Zicai's parents were both exiled when he was young. Later, he took part in the anti Qing uprising and accepted the recruitment after failure. During the reign of Xianfeng, Xiang Rong and Zhang Guoliang suppressed the Taiping army. He once served as governor of Guangxi and Guizhou. At the time of the Sino French war, he was nearly 70 years old. He was appointed as Guangxi's military assistant outside the pass. He won the battle of zhennanguan, conquered Wenyuan and Liangshan, and severely damaged the French commander Nigri. More than 1000 French troops were annihilated, resulting in the downfall of French Prime Minister ruferi. He was granted the title of governor of Yunnan. During the Sino Japanese War of 1894-1895, he was transferred to garrison Zhenjiang, where he ended up as the governor of Guizhou Province, and finally as the prince Shaobao. Feng Zicai has been in charge of the army for more than 40 years.

In 1903, Feng Zicai died of illness at the age of 85. After his death, Feng Zicai was buried in Qinzhou. The imperial court ordered to build a memorial hall for Feng Yongyi in the southeast corner of Qinzhou City, which is called "Gongbao Temple".

(general drawing reference)

Life of the characters

Miserable childhood

Fengzicai is located in shangshitou, Guangdong Province. During the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, the polder suffered from floods, and Feng Zicai's grandfather moved to Shawei village outside Qinzhou City to settle down. Feng Zicai was born here on June 27, 1818. At that time, Qinzhou belonged to Guangdong.

As a child, Feng Zicai lived a very hard life. He lost his mother at the age of 4 and his father at the age of 10. His uncle Li wanted to adopt Feng Zicai, but Feng Zicai refused. He was dependent on his grandmother and elder brother and left school after only two months of schooling. In order to survive, little Feng Zicai had to sell salt, work as a carpenter, fish for shrimp, and escort cattle gang. After the fence house was washed down by the flood, he had to live in the temple. He was hungry and cold, and was in danger. When his grandmother died at the age of 15, his desire for survival drove Feng Zicai, who was wandering in the street, to use swords and swords. When he was in his twenties, he learned all kinds of martial arts. It is said that more than 100 people could not beat him. From then on, he made a living as a bodyguard, escorting cattle merchants to drive farm cattle to Lianzhou (now Hepu County) to sell them.

Suppress the kingdom of heaven

In 1850, Feng Zicai gathered in Bobai, Guangxi to fight against the Qing Dynasty. In April of the first year of Xianfeng (1851), Liu Ba, the leader of Guangdong society of heaven and earth, who opposed the Qing Dynasty, led more than ten thousand people to attack Bobai. Feng Zicai took the opportunity to join this team. In May, Liu BA's attack on Bobai failed. Feng Zicai accepted the Qing government's "Zhaoan", surrendered to magistrate you Changling, and was reorganized as "Changsheng" YONGYING. Later, he was promoted to Qianzong with Guangxi governor Xiang Rong to suppress the peasant uprising army on the border of Guangdong and Guangxi. After pacifying Bobai, he was awarded the title of "sergulengbatulu" by the Qing government. Later, when he suppressed the Taiping army, he followed Xiang Rong all the way to Jiangnan.

In April of the third year of Xianfeng (1853), Feng Zicai led his troops to defend the "Jiangnan camp" in Xiaoling outside Nanjing to resist the Taiping army.

In June 1856, the Jiangnan camp of the Qing Dynasty was destroyed by the Taiping army, and Feng Zicai was forced to flee to Danyang. After Xiang Rong died of illness, Feng Zicai became a subordinate of Zhang Guoliang, who helped to run the military affairs. He followed Zhang Guoliang to conquer Zhenjiang and Danyang successively. He once swept more than 70 enemy barracks in one day. Zhang Guoliang once stroked his back and praised him: "you are brave, I am ashamed, I am not as good as you." Feng Zicai was promoted to deputy general.

In January 1858, the Qing army set up a camp in the south of the Yangtze River between cangbomen and Gaoqiao, dug Changhao, built a high base, and besieged the Taiping Army in Tianjing. In September, Chen Yucheng and Li Xiucheng, the chief generals of the Taiping army, led their troops to Wuyi, Chuzhou (now Wuyi Town, Nanqiao District, Chuzhou City, Anhui Province), to attack the "Jiangbei camp" of dexing'a, the imperial envoy of the Qing Dynasty. Feng Zicai led 5000 soldiers and was ordered to cross the river to support them. Almost all Feng's troops were destroyed, leaving only three or four hundred soldiers to flee back to Jiangnan.

In May 1860, the Taiping army broke through the "Jiangnan camp" of the Qing army for the second time. Feng Zicai fled to Danyang with Zhang Guoliang and was defeated by the Taiping army. Zhang Guoliang drowned outside the South Gate of Danyang. After that, Feng Zicai gathered up the remnant army and retreated to Zhenjiang. Later, he led his troops to conquer Lishui and was promoted to the rank of commander in chief.

At the beginning of the first year of tongzhi (1862), Feng Zicai led 3000 people to guard Zhenjiang. At that time, most of the Qing generals in Jiangbei set up their own checkpoints to collect taxes. To this end, Feng Zicai said, "is this what the military should do?" He asked Zeng Guofan to send officials to deal with it. Later, his ministry reached 20000 people, but the food and pay were often insufficient, but he never complained. He has been guarding Zhenjiang for six years. He has good governance and people are willing to use it. The Taiping army attacked Zhenjiang more than 100 times, but it could not shake Feng Zicai.

In July of the third year of tongzhi (1864), Tianjing fell, and Feng Zicai was appointed as the governor of Guangxi. He wore a yellow mandarin jacket and was granted the post of commander-in-chief.

Jingbian

In 1865, Feng Zicai was ordered to go to Luoding and Xinyi in Guangdong Province to destroy the local anti Qing troops. Two months later, he moved to fight against the peasant uprising of Guizhou and Miao, conquering Quanming and Ganxu.

In 1869, Feng Zicai was ordered to lead the army into Vietnam from zhennanguan (today's friendship pass). The purpose was to pursue the anti Qing peasant army led by Wu Yazhong and capture Anbian and Heyang occupied by Wu. After Wu Yazhong died in battle, he recruited some of his remaining troops and prepared to return home in that year. On the way, the Wu General Liang Tianxi came down and rebelled again. Feng Huishi continued to pursue him, and returned to China the following year after the incident. The Qing government rewarded him for his official position.

In 1871, Vietnam was unable to pay tribute to the Qing Dynasty because of the Vietnam border war. Feng Zicai was once again ordered to lead troops out of the pass to calm the war and dredge the tribute road before entering the pass.

In 1875, Feng Zicai was appointed governor of Guizhou by the Qing government. In 1878, Li Yangcai, the former head of Feng Zicai's army, was frustrated in officialdom, so he led his army into Vietnam to overthrow the Ruan Dynasty of Vietnam on the pretext of restoring the Li family's ancestral estate. Feng Zicai was ordered to enter Vietnam to seek Li. The next year, he completely annihilated Li Jun and captured Li Yangcai. After that, he led his division back to China.

In 1881, Feng Zicai returned to Guangxi. In 1882, Feng Zicai returned home with illness.

Zhennan great victory

In December 1883, the Sino French war broke out, and the Qing army retreated in Vietnam. In 1884, Zhang Shusheng, the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, invited Feng Zicai to train the regiment and sent envoys to invite him to drive. When the messenger arrived, Feng Zicai was wearing a short dress and barefoot. He and the shepherd boy yelled the calf back together. The messenger explained his intention, and Feng Zicai refused. Later, when Feng Zicai heard that Zhang Shusheng was wise, he went to Guangzhou to meet him. When Zhang Zhidong, who succeeded Zhang Shusheng as governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, arrived in Guangzhou, he treated Feng Zicai with courtesy and asked him to lead the avant-garde troops to guard Guangdong and Guangxi.

In 1885, the Qing government ordered Feng Zicai to assist in handling military affairs outside the border of Guangxi. At that time, Su Yuanchun was the supervisor, and Feng Zicai was often depressed because he was promoted more than himself. It was said that there were police in Liangshan, so they rushed to zhennanguan immediately, while the French army had burned zhennanguan and then retreated. When Longzhou was in danger, Feng Zicai thought that it was very dangerous for the pass to cross the East and West Mountains, so he ordered to build a long wall, lead his troops to guard it, and send Wang Xiaoqi's army to the rear. The enemy claimed that one day when he attacked the pass, Feng Zi decided to strike first when the enemy arrived ahead of time. Pan Dingxin, governor of Guangxi, stopped him, and no one else wanted to fight. Feng Zicai argued and personally led the army to attack Wenyuan. The night approached the enemy fortress, killing and capturing many enemies.

The French attacked in three ways. Feng Zicai said to the soldiers, "if the French invade the pass again, what are we going to see? We must fight to keep the pass So the morale went up. The French attack on the long wall was the most intense, followed by the black soldiers and the bandits. The sound of the guns shook the valley, and the bullets were more than an inch thick in front of the position. All the troops of the Qing army joined forces to attack fiercely, and the enemy gradually retreated. After a day, the French army swarmed in again. Feng Zicai was in the middle of the command. After su Yuanchun's palace, Wang Xiaoqi was on the right, Chen Jia and Jiang Zonghan were on the left. Feng Zicai's commanders stood still and killed those who retreated. He rushed out of the barracks with a spear and led his two sons Feng Xiangrong and Feng Xianghua into the battle. Because Feng Zicai was 70 years old, all the soldiers were inspired and fought to the death. Scattered soldiers and overseas Chinese from outside the pass also came to help, killed dozens of French generals, and came back 20 miles outside the pass. Two days later, he conquered Wenyuan and received a reward. After that, he successively recovered Liangcheng and Changqing, captured one of the three painting soldiers and one of the five painting soldiers who had been beheaded. He took advantage of the victory to pursue Lamu and recovered all the occupied land.

The Vietnamese people could not bear the tyranny of the French army. When they heard that Feng Zicai had led the army to Vietnam, they all came to meet them and vied for rewards and sympathy. Feng Zicai called them to appease and sympathize with them, and discussed the strategy of suppressing Beiqi. The Vietnamese people vied with each other to set up the regiment, and were willing to serve as a guide for the Qing troops under the banner of Feng Zicai's troops. Beining, Hanoi, Haiyang and Taiyuan all responded. Feng Zicai also resolutely took on the important task, leading the whole army to attack Langjia, and dividing troops to attack Beining. At this time, the edict of armistice arrived. Feng Zicai angrily asked for war and was not approved, so he had to return home. On the day he left, the Vietnamese people were crying, and Feng Zicai could not help crying. After entering Longzhou, the army and the people knelt down together to greet him for 30 Li. After returning from Vietnam, Feng Zicai was ordered to supervise the defense of Qinlian (now Guangxi) and jointly handle the military affairs of Guangxi. He was awarded the title of Prince Shaobao and was changed to third-class light truck captain.

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