"Counting the tears of the plum blossoms, February is bright." This is a famous couplet of Shi Kefa's ancestral home in Yangzhou. Plum blossom, bright moon, national subjugation and veteran, these desolate and sad words remind people of the national heroes who passed away more than 200 years ago.
Shi Kefa, a wise man, was born in Xiangfu, Henan Province in the 30th year of Wanli (today's Kaifeng). His ancestors were well dressed when they were in Ming Taizu. Although his official position is not high, he is a close minister of the emperor. Grandfather is a Wanli juren, a magistrate and an honest official. Father has no fame, he is a filial man. Shi Kefa's grandfather once said, "My family will prosper!" It can be seen that the family is full of expectations for the birth of Shi Kefa. However, when Shi Kefa was born, not only was his fortune bad, but his national fortune was even worse. On March 18th, the seventeenth year of Chongzhen, Li Baicheng led the peasant army into Beijing. The next morning, Emperor Chongzhen hanged himself on a locust tree in Jingshan Park. The mansion of the Ming Dynasty, which Shi Kefa strongly supported, collapsed overnight.
At the beginning of the second year of Shunzhi, Regent Dourgen ordered Prince Yu to transfer more troops from Annan to Southeast as originally planned, and destroy the Hong Guang regime in Nanming. Hong Guang regime was a famous bureaucrat in the south of Ming Dynasty. After learning the news of the fall of Beijing and the martyrdom of Emperor Chongzhen, he established the Zhu Youyong regime in Nanjing, inherited the orthodoxy of the Ming Dynasty, and got the title of Hong Guang.
In July of that year, Dourgen sent a letter to Nanming's "celebrity leader", University of Dongge, and Yangzhou overseer Shi Kefa, accusing them of having an axe king illegally, and should immediately cut his title to Francisco to make him "Yongfu". And lured that if "Zhou Nan and Yan Qun came to visit", that is, Nanming's courtiers surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, they would "divide the fields" just like Wu Sangui who had fallen to the Qing Dynasty. Shi Kefa was warned that "this option should be examined and approved as soon as possible" and that "the security of the south is in jeopardy". This is the surrender. Although Shi Kefa was unmoved, he still naively imagined that he could "make friendship with hatred, be virtuous from beginning to end, learn from teachers and criticize Qin Zhong". But at the same time, it also expressed the attitude of loyalty to the country: "The law is today, the bow is fatal, and the minister is exhausted."
In the first month of the second year of Shunzhi, Xu Dingguo, the company commander of the Ming Dynasty who was bought by the Qing Dynasty, lured and killed Xingping Bo Alex Gao, one of the four northern commanders of the Ming Dynasty. Shi Kefa lost an enemy general who was determined to recover lost territory, and deeply felt that the Qing army would go south at any time, so it was necessary to strengthen the river defense. It is urgent to send troops and deploy blockade lines. Unexpectedly, Duo Duo, who acted quickly, had led the troops to kill him. On the eighth day of February, Duoduo was ordered to take Nanjing, and his soldiers marched in three ways. Take Guide (now Shangqiu South) on March 22nd and arrive in Yingzhou (now Fuyang) on the 29th.
On April 19th, seize the soldiers around yangzhou. In order to capture Shi Kefa alive, Duo Duo ordered the armies to suspend the siege. Before that, Dodo had written to Shi Kefa, saying "Your Excellency Mr. Shi Lao, King Yu", but Shi Kefa forwarded his book to the court. After that, a lot of surrender books were issued five or six times in a row, but history is "nothing started, just thrown into the fire." At this point, Duo Duo, in desperation, ordered Ming to surrender. Chris Lee took the book to Yangzhou to surrender at the gates. Shi Kefa condemned his treason and collaboration with the enemy. Chris Lee said, "Loyalists don't believe in the DPRK. What's the use of dying!" Shi Kefa was so angry that he shot an arrow at Li.
After many failed surrenders, Duo Duo knew that Shi Kefa's martyr ambition was unshakable, so he stepped up his siege. On the 25th, Yangzhou City was breached in the following days. Because of the hatred and disobedience of the soldiers and civilians in Yangzhou, many people ordered the Qing army to kill people, leaving a historical record of killing Yangzhou for ten days.
After the destruction of Yangzhou City, Shi Kefa's whereabouts became a mystery. At that time, Hong Chengchou once asked, "Will you die? Not dead? " Since then, there have been many records and legends about Shi Kefa's whereabouts.
Some say that Shi Kefa escaped from the city when it was broken. The specific escape process is also holding one end. One is to escape from the city. Ji wrote in Ming Nan Lue: On April 25th, the Qing soldiers lied that reinforcements from the Ming Dynasty general Huang Fei had arrived, and Shi Kefa ordered the West Gate to be ceded. When the Qing soldiers entered the city, they attacked the Ming army. When Shi Kefa saw this scene in the city, he knew that it was irreversible, that is, he drew his sword and killed himself, so he and the company commander Liu Qian entered the city. Second, crossing the mule out of the city, Qianlong's "Jiangdu Zhi" recorded what Yangzhou old man said: When the city was broken, Shi Kefa "crossed the mule out of the south gate". For this reason, someone wrote a poem saying: "Xianggong swore to death and still cried. One hundred and twenty rode on the head of the city. In an instant, the city destroyed the iron horse and ran away, and the green mule left without a trace."
During the reign of Emperor Kangxi, Confucius' Peach Blossom Fan believed that Shi Kefa had drowned in the river. After Shi Kefa left the city, he rode across the river and drowned. Or he went out of the East Gate, was stopped by the Qing soldiers, and felt hopeless, so he just drowned himself.
It is also said that Shi Kefa disappeared when the Qing soldiers attacked Yangzhou. Ji died in the sixth year of Shunzhi. On the way, I met a Jiaxing man who took a boat and claimed to have escaped after Yangzhou failed in its anti-Qing campaign. Shi Kefa's whereabouts were unknown when he said the city was broken.
General historians believe that Shi Kefa was captured and killed in the Battle of Yangzhou by analyzing the historical materials of Qing Dynasty. "Qing Shi Lu" said: "If you conquer Yangzhou City, you will win its cabinet, Shi Kefa, and be beheaded in front of the army." "Ming History" said that Shi Kefa tried to commit suicide, was taken to Xiaodongmen by the Ministry and was captured by the Qing army. Shi Kefa shouted, "I am a historian." He was killed. Shi Kefa's successor, Stevie, wrote in The Martyrdom of Weiyang that when Yangzhou fell, Shi Kefa attempted suicide and was captured by the Qing army. Duo Duo "treated Shi Kefa as a distinguished guest and greeted him" and advised him to surrender: "I will do whatever it takes to clean up Jiangnan for me." Shi Kefa replied: "I am an important official in China, so I don't want to drag out an ignoble existence and be a sinner forever! My head can be broken, my body can't bend ... The city is dead, and I have made up my mind to split the body into 10,000 pieces, and I want to be happy. " Ding was killed. In addition, Shi Kefa wrote five suicide notes around April 20th, as well as books for his mother, wife, uncles and brothers and his adopted son Stilwell, all of which expressed his firm attitude of "serving the country to the death and consolidating the points". It can be seen that he has already made up his mind to die, and it is not credible to say that he can escape. Moreover, his Ministry Liu died in the middle stream before the fall of Yangzhou, and it is impossible to "sneak into the city" with Shi Kefa.