Author: Qi Yunke, Wang Guangtai, a native of Anding, with his elder brother Wang Guangen and younger brother Wang Chang, they were both poor peasants at first, and later joined the peasant uprising army with Zhang Xianzhong. In the late Chongzhen period, the three brothers were s

2025/06/1303:37:35 hotcomm 1162

Author: Qi Yunke

Wang Guangtai, a native of Anding, and his elder brother Wang Guangen and younger brother Wang Chang, were both poor peasants at first, and later joined the peasant uprising army with Zhang Xianzhong . In the late Chongzhen period, the three brothers were surrendered by Gao Doushu, the minister of the Ming Dynasty, and were ordered to station in Yunyang. After the Qing army advanced south, they surrendered to the Qing Dynasty.

1. The brother was arrested

In the fourth year of Shunzhi (1647), the Qing Dynasty Xiangyang General Wang Guangen and Yunyang Fuyuan Pan Shiliang broke up because of trivial matters. Pan Shiliang relied on his surrender to the Qing Dynasty earlier, and falsely accused Wang Guangen of secretly colluding with the local rebel army led by Chen Jiao to conspire against the Qing Dynasty.

The Qing government believed Pan Shiliang's words and arrested Wang Guangen, and then took him to Beijing for treatment.

This is not counting. The Qing government transferred the surrounding commanders Yang Wenfu and Qi Shangyou to the Wang brothers' garrison in an attempt to adapt the army.

The troops brought by Yang Wenfu and Qi Shangyou were stationed on the periphery and surrounded the garrison of the Wang brothers' army. Then, Yang Wenfu and Qi Shangyou asked Wang Guangtai and Wang Chang to welcome him in the name of rewarding the army.

Seeing this, the Wang brothers knew that they were bad people, so they refused to go out on the pretext that the disease was prevalent due to the epidemic in the army and the epidemic had not been effectively controlled yet, and asked them to go back first.

2. The younger brother raised an army

The Wang brothers understood that the Qing army is now at the city, and it seems that the brother is in danger. I can’t sit still and wait for death for my brother. If you wait any longer, I am afraid that the brothers will become fish and be slaughtered.

In order to protect this army of seven or eight thousand people, the Wang brothers decided to take the initiative first. On April 29, they found that Yang Wenfu, Qi Shangyou and local officials patrolled Gan Wenkui, Xiangyang Prefect Yang Mine, Promoter Li Shifa, Xiangyang Prefect Pan Chaoyou and others had a banquet and dinner. They led their troops to go in with lightning speed and beat them all in one go.

Then, they led their troops from Xiangyang to Yunyang, killing officials appointed by the Qing Dynasty Liu Kaiwen, Yunyang Prefect Dong Yousheng, the regent Sun Yangsheng, and Yunxian Prefect Zhao Picheng.

At the same time, the Wang brothers sent people to the Huguang area to Nanming Supervisor He Tengjiao to report the anti-Qing and returning to the Ming Dynasty to the surrounding areas, and issued an anti-Qing and returning to the Ming Dynasty manifesto to the surrounding areas, exposing the fact that the Qing government harmed the people, raising the banner of Yongli Emperor , and calling on the locals to rise up and resist the national oppression of the Qing Dynasty.

soon, Emperor Yongli sent officials to the Wang brother camp and named Wang Guangtai as Zhenwubo, Wang Chang as the general of Yunxiang, and Li Shiying as the general of Henan.

At this point, the brothers Wang Guangtai and Wang Chang have completed the task anyway and returned to the Ming Dynasty from the Qing Dynasty.

Qing Dynasty After learning that the Wang brothers rebelled, they understood that it was the consequences of arresting Wang Guangen, so they released Wang Guangen and restored their posts. I hope this will be used to exchange for the Wang brothers to stop rebelling and become the hawks of the Qing Dynasty to suppress the uprisings and civilians in various places against the Qing Dynasty.

Unfortunately, the Wang brothers had seen the intention of the Qing Dynasty and decided to break with the Qing Dynasty without hesitation, and executed many local officials appointed by the Qing Dynasty.

Seeing this, the Qing government knew that the Wang brothers were determined to fight with him to the end, so they executed Wang Guangen.

3. The final outcome

In June of that year, the Qing Dynasty's Huguang Admiral Sun Dingliao led 4,000 Qing troops to attack the Wang brothers. The Wang brothers took advantage of Sun Dingliao's first arrival and had not yet established a stable foothold, so they sent troops to attack the Qing army and defeated the Qing army. Even Sun Dingliao was captured and killed by the Ming army in the battle.

In September, seeing the Qing army's troops approaching, the Wang brothers understood that the strength of the enemy and us were very different, so they had to move and attack Nanyang, Henan to the north. They were defeated and forced to return to Yunyang.

After returning to Yunyang, the Wang brothers understood that the Qing Dynasty would not let them go. Although they had been guarding the Yunyang area for many years and had a good mass base, it was impossible to protect this area once the large Qing army troops came. So, they decided to evacuate to another place. In order not to leave a material foundation for the Qing Dynasty, they burned all the Yunyang Prefecture City and the garrison's village building before leaving, and finally entered Sichuan through Fang County to insist on resisting the Qing Dynasty.

From then on, the Wang brothers led their troops to join forces with the remaining troops of the former Dashun Army to fight against the Qing Dynasty in the Kuidong area where natural conditions were very poor. They persisted for sixteen years. By October of the second year of Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty (1663), the Qing army was in a hurry and they were unable to turn the situation around. In order to survive, they were forced to surrender to the Qing Dynasty again.

After the Qing Dynasty was surrendered to the Qing Dynasty again, the Wang brothers were gradually lifted from military power and sent to Beijing city to live in idyllic life. Although it was like house arrest, it actually meant that they had retired. They also had to live by the way and ended up living in Yu's family. Compared to their brother being killed, their ending was quite good.

[Author Profile] Qi Yunke, male, born in 1988, educator. Since 2007, more than 700,000 words of work have been published in media at all levels. The signed author of Reading Yuedu Platform. He is a member of Henan Writers Association , Vice Chairman of Runan County Writers Association, and Special Director of Xincai County Writers Association.