Xu Xiang

Xu Xiang

Xu Xiang

Yunxian (1858-1895), born in Miaoli, Taiwan, was born in Jiaoling, Guangdong Province. He was a scholar and a general of Taiwan's Anti Japanese army in the late Qing Dynasty. Xu Xiang's family was engaged in farming, but he always had great ambition to "cultivate and read at the same time, and learn martial arts with his spare time". Xu Xiang is hardworking and good at uniting the masses. He often helps the poor villagers and wins the trust of local farmers. In mid September 1895, the Japanese army mobilized more than 7 thousand people and launched a massive attack on Chiayi, Tainan. The Taiwan volunteers fought bravely. They fought fiercely without flinching. Xu Xiang, the leader of the Anti Japanese rebel army, was seriously injured. He still jumped up and cried out, "I'm sorry to die for my country!" and finally died in the battle of defending Hsinchu against Japanese aggression.

Xu Xiang is one of the "three outstanding Hakkas" in Taiwan's Anti Japanese war. The other two are Wu tangxing and Jiang Shaozu. Xu Xiang represents the loyalty and righteousness of Hakkas, and is praised as the first Anti Japanese hero in Taiwan's "Yiwei war" by historians.

Profile

Xu Xiang (1867-1895), whose family name is laizhao and the word is Yunxian, is also known as Xu ang. His ancestral home is gucang village, Xingfu Town, Zhenping county, Guangdong Province. He is the 17th grandson of Xu tanxuan, the founder of the Xu family in Jiaoling. In 1765, his father Xu Juncai and his family moved to Toufen Town, Miaoli County, Taiwan. Xu Xiang, an 18-year-old scholar, once took charge of mengguan.

During the Sino Japanese War of 1894, the Qing government signed the Treaty of Shimonoseki with Japan and ceded Taiwan to Japan. After the Japanese army landed in Keelung, he served as Wu tangxing's right wing and set up ambush along the way to attack the enemy who invaded Hsinchu, killing more than 200 people.

Soon after the battle of Jianbi mountain, Liu Yongfu, commander in chief of the black flag army, sent Wu Pengnian, a staff officer, to help the army. Yang Zaiyun, commander in chief, Yuan Jinqing and Lin Honggui, generals of the black flag army, died. The Japanese army tried their best to attack with trickery, and the Japanese commander-in-chief, Prince nengjiu kitakawa, was also seriously injured. He and Wu tangxing retreated to Bagua mountain, and Wu tangxing died heroically.

After Wu tangxing died for the country, Xu Xu led the rest of his troops to Tainan to meet commander Liu Yongfu. Liu Yongfu thought Xu was young and promising, and advised him to return to the mainland temporarily. Moved with tears streaming down his face, Xu expressed his determination to fight against Japan with the people of Taiwan to the death, and begged Liu Shuai to allow him to recruit more volunteers and give assistance. After hearing this, Liu Shuai was deeply appreciative and immediately agreed to his request and closely united with each other to resist Japan. After that, they deployed to Neipu to recruit volunteers. The people of Tainan, including Hakka children, enthusiastically signed up. Liu Jin'an, Zhong rensan and Zeng zuolin were in charge of clerical work, military supplies and staff work. They formed a strong force of more than 730 people. They went to the front line of anti Japanese War and stationed at the Bank of Douliu River, determined to beat the Japanese army.

On October 7, 1895, the Japanese army increased troops to besiege Jiayi, and the city was captured. Wang Debiao, the general of the rebel forces guarding the city, returned to defend Tainan. Xu Xu led the rebel forces to retreat to Zeng Wenxi. The Japanese army launched the attack with all their strength. Xu Xiang took the lead, tied his head and waist, and directed the volunteers to fight to death. He took several bullets in the bloody battle. Before he died, he boldly said to the volunteers: "my husband died for his country, and I have no regrets for his death!" The story of Xu's death for the country has been recorded in the history of the country.

Life of the characters

Head of the militia

In 1895, Japan forced the Qing government to cede Taiwan and its affiliated islands, and the Japanese army landed in Taipei. Filled with righteous indignation, the people of Taiwan rose to revolt and elected Liu Yongfu, the black flag army, as the leader of the Anti Japanese war. However, with only a few thousand people in the black flag army, how can we reverse the critical situation? Xu Xiang stepped forward and called on the villagers to say, "although we entrusted the heavy task of Taiwan's Anti Japanese War to Duke Liu, he was helpless. We should organize ourselves, fight for ourselves, defend ourselves, and swear to live and die together with Taiwan Island! " The generous words moved everyone. As soon as the meeting was over, the townships selected strong men to form a militia and elected Xu Xiang as their leader. From then on, Xu and the Taiwan people's five classics turned to fight against the Japanese aggressors.

Team development

Xu Xiang automatically organized the people's army to resist Japan and was promoted by the masses as the leader of the people's army. When Taipei fell and the Japanese army continued to invade the south, Xu called on the villagers and said, "Taiwan is the hometown of our parents. The land of our people lies in yes, the descendants lie in yes, and the ancestral tombs lie in yes. When Taiwan is dead, will our people be safe? All the heroes are healthy. They are righteous and swallow all rivers. At this time of life and death, he Xinghu comes and holds that Liu (Yongfu) is a public aid. If you succeed, you will build a new nation, and if you fail, you will take the blood and bone of our people and do everything with the whole Taiwan! It is also the glory of national subjugation. The villagers responded with great enthusiasm, and they all "clenched their fists and hit their palms" to express their willingness to join the volunteer army and follow Xu Xiang, who died in the war. As a result, the townships selected strong men and organized teams to fight with the black flag army led by Liu Yongfu and hit the enemy hard.

Attack Hsinchu

At the end of June 1895, the Japanese captured Hsinchu. In July, Xu and the leaders of Taiwan's various rebel forces discussed the restoration of Hsinchu City. On the 10th, all the volunteers gathered around Hsinchu City. Xu Xiang led his elite troops to attack the enemy's flank from the North Road. Unfortunately, the military operation failed because of the informer. The enemy didn't know the terrain, so he didn't dare to rush into the bamboo forest. He just rushed outside. He persisted until the evening. The enemy was exhausted. Xu took the opportunity to attack the enemy head and tail, caught the enemy by surprise. In the confusion of the enemy, the rebel army calmly withdrew from the encirclement. After that, Xu Xiang led the volunteers to attack and invade the Japanese army around Hsinchu, which made the enemy scared. The Japanese book "Taiwan ruling annals" had to admit the "tenacity" and "bravery" of the Chinese Anti Japanese army and people.

A fierce battle

At the beginning of August 1895, in order to capture Jianbi peak, the Japanese army assembled two strengthened regiments and attacked the Taiwan volunteers in two ways. There are only over 500 people in Xu's headquarters, who are responsible for fighting in zhentoushan. On the 9th, the enemy sent out another three regiments, together with three warships, to attack Jianbi peak by land and water. Xu Xiang and other rebel generals led the militia to fight hard. Taking advantage of the familiar geographical situation, they copied from the enemy's rear areas, wiped out a large number of Japanese forces and captured many enemy officers and soldiers. But in the end, because we were outnumbered, we failed to win the whole game. Finally, we had to shift our positions, and jianbifeng finally fell into the enemy's hands.

Dajiaxi lost

On August 21, the enemy continued to attack dajiaxi in the south. Dajiaxi is the gateway of Taichung. It has natural dangers. If the enemy does not have dajiaxi, they can't invade Taichung. Taichung is backed by the mountains and the sea. It can control the whole Taiwan. Therefore, the gains and losses of dajiaxi are of great strategic significance. In order to win the battle, Xu Xiang gave advice to the generals of the rebel army before the war: "our army is weak, and there is no artillery, which is not conducive to confrontation. We can only use the situation of the tributaries of dajiaxi to throw profits, set up ambushes extensively, lure the enemy into depth, and then ambush suddenly, and we will win." This opinion was agreed by all. When the army was halfway across the stream, Xu Xiang led the regiment to shout in unison from the hiding place and cut the enemy into two sections. Then the righteous soldiers stormed fiercely, causing the enemy to fall into the water one after another and their bodies overlapped, so that the stream did not flow. The enemy suffered heavy casualties in dajiaxi. On the 25th of the same month, another Japanese army unit was ambushed by Xu Yi's volunteers near dajiaxi again. The Japanese army fought and retreated, killing and injuring them all. Xu's army and the Japanese army had a stalemate in dajiaxi for nearly a month. At last, they fell into the hands of the enemy because of the traitors, bandits and other national scum.

Changhua city lost again

After the loss of dajiaxi, the Japanese turned to attack Changhua. Under the unified command of Liu Yongfu, Xu Yi's army cooperated with the black flag army to attack the invading enemy from the mountain. On the mountain, the stones were falling like rain, and the dangerous stones roared down from the air, causing countless casualties. Xu's rebel army attacked the enemy camp at night, and the Japanese army disturbed each other and trampled on each other, resulting in more than half of the casualties. After that, the Japanese aggressors used their old tricks again and bribed the traitors and bandits to crawl to the top of the mountain and attack the volunteers. Only then did Xu's headquarters suffer heavy losses, and the Japanese army captured Changhua County.

Martyred to the country

At the end of October, Japanese troops attacked Tainan. Xu Xiang and Liu Yongfu stick to Zeng Wenxi in the southwest of Jiayi. Zeng Wenxi is only 20 kilometers away from Tainan Fucheng, so the situation is very important. Xu led the volunteers and Gaoshan people to meet the enemy in Xiwei village. Knowing the difficulty of fighting and the urgency of the situation, he made up his mind to fight to the death with the enemy. The enemy concentrated their powerful forces, marched forward with horses, and fired at the same time. On the other hand, the rebel army had neither artillery nor horse troops, but they were high spirited, fighting for themselves, and slashed and killed the enemy in a pool of blood. But in the end, because of the great disparity in strength, the rebels suffered heavy casualties. Xu was wounded by gunfire in the battle and died for his country. Before he died, he was still full of ambition and cried out: "China, China, my beloved. My husband died for his country without regret. It fully shows the patriotic enthusiasm of this Taiwan Anti Japanese hero. Shortly after the fall of Zeng Wenxi, Tainan was also occupied by the Japanese. Since then, Taiwan, China's sacred territory, has become a Japanese colony for 50 years.

historical background

In 1894, Japanese forces entered the Korean Peninsula to the west, and Emperor Guangxu of the Qing Dynasty decided to declare war on Japan. The result of the Sino Japanese War of 1894-1895 was the defeat of the Qing Dynasty, and the two sides began negotiations in Japan. Prior to that, Emperor Guangxu agreed with the reformers' request and said: "huge amount of compensation is allowed, and no land is allowed to be ceded." When the negotiations reached an impasse, Empress Dowager Cixi of the Qing Dynasty announced: "unite external forces to defend Liaodong; as a last resort, abandon Taiwan."

Finally, Li Hongzhang, the representative of the Qing government, ceded Taiwan under the pressure of Japan. When the news spread to Taiwan, people were indignant and the democratic state of Taiwan was established. The civil army, a non-governmental organization, seeks to unite with the people of the whole island to resist the Japanese army. Japanese troops in kawaka

Chinese PinYin : Xu Xiang