User:Zrnstnsr/Sack of Jiading

Background

Up to July 1645, Qing had annexed large area in northern China.

Jiading was taken by Qing on 7 July when Zhu Changfang surrendered, and its magistrate was assumed ten days later. He issued the tifaling on 3 August, but citizens refused to obey. Hou Dongceng, a |senior officer of Office of Transmission, was asked about current events, responding that he would dispatch troops and resist Qing.

Arise

On 8 August, Hou entered Jiading along with his two sons, proposing a anti-Qing campaign. After discussing with gentry, he decided to guard the city leading its citizens. He divided citizens into three categories. Only one human in a poor family needed to be conscripted. Rich and medium family needed to provide supplies and money in addition to conscription. Each soldier were paid 60 wen every day. The city wall was devided to four parts, each part guard by a tu (a unit of troops), the leader of which was supposed to patrol his part.

The banner on the city read "Jiading's Restoration Army"(嘉定恢剿義師).

Fall

Li Chengdong, a former Ming general and now military commander of Wusong, immediately mobilized his army upon learning the uprising. Hou decided to use militia outside the city to block Qing's attack, who was actually farmers organized temporarily and had no military experiance. On 21 August, such an army of over 100,000 humans gathered on the east of a bridge. They were so crowded like gathered mosquitoes that their arms even knocked at one another. The milita was immediately routed by Qing, running for their life. Many were trod to death, while many others were forced out of the bridge and drowned.

Qing began to attack Jiading on 23 August, and capture the city on the next day. Hou drowned himself and was then beheaded by Qing troops thereafter. His two sons were also killed.

Sack

Li then commanded a slaughter. As Summaries of Jiading Massacre recorded:

Their soldiers then slaughtered outrageously. They hunted in every house, every family, every street and every alley; when they met bushes and thorns, they would definitely stabbed with spears until they knew there are no men. Each time a soldier met a citizen, he would say, "Give me money, barbarian!" and the citizen would give him all his money.

Even a poor man would hold a hairpin and an earring, claiming that they are money to buy his life.

If one could not give the soldier enough, he would be chopped three times, and die after running out of stuff. That was why bodies filling roads were full of injuries, for they were injured by multiple soldiers. My neighbor hid in bushes and saw the scene that soldiers killed a man. The man was chopped once and yelled for his life. After chopped twice, his voice was much lower. And then he was chopped several more times but he could not make a sound. The sound of chopping could be heard far and wide; the voices of begging lives were crowded like a market. One can saw hanged bodies, drowned bodies in wells, bodies with severed limbs, bodies with blood on face, and dying men with limbs struggling. The bones and flesh were piled in a mess. Three days later, there were so many bodies in the river from West Pass to Gelong Town, that one was unable to paddle.

Aftermath

The sack on 24 August was not the only massacre in Jiading. On 13 September, Zhu Ying led 50 citizens driving Qing troops out, but Qing recaptured the city two days later, decimating it. Wu Zhifan, a military commander of Southern Ming, took Jiading on 15 October but was defeated on the same day. Qing then decimated the city the third time.

The three massacres in Jiading(嘉定三屠) were infamously known in Chinese history for its cruelty and violence. Jiading saw approximately 100,000 citizens killed during the bloodly two months.

See also