About the issue of "Liu Houji", the admiral of the Qing Dynasty.

Qing Dynasty - A thousand-year historical record of the Battle of Shilipo

The Battle of Shilipo was the largest ambush of the Western Nian Army. The Battle of Shilipo occurred in the fifth year of Tongzhi of the Qing Dynasty. (1866) A famous battle with Liu Rong's troops of the Hunan Army at Shilipo in the eastern suburbs of Xi'an. After the Battle of Gaolouzhai, the Nian army continued to fight on the move and continuously attacked the Qing army in vast areas of Shandong, Anhui, and Henan. The Qing government ordered Zeng Guofan to deploy and suppress the Nian Army. Zeng Guofan successively implemented the combat policies of "stopping with silence" and "gathering troops to defend rivers", but both ended in bankruptcy. On December 7, 1866, the Qing government appointed Li Hongzhang as the Imperial Envoy, responsible for controlling the armies in Hunan and Huaihe and suppressing the Nian Army uprising. Although the Nian Army has achieved a series of victories, its long-term non-stop mobile operations have deprived the troops of necessary rest and replenishment, and at the same time they have not received any support from friendly forces. The strategic passive situation has become increasingly serious. The leader of the Nian Army, Lai Wenguang and others, deeply felt that "it is difficult to be independent and it is difficult to stand alone" and tried to change this passive situation. So in October 1866, they decided to divide the Nian Army into two, with Zhang Zongyu, Zhang Yujue, Qiu Yuancai and others leading part of the Nian Army. March westward to Shaanxi-Gansu and contact the Shaanxi-Gansu Hui uprising army, thinking that they are the horns of power and are the Western Nian Army. Lai Wenguang, Ren Huabang, Li Yun and others led part of the Nian Army to stay in the Central Plains area and deal with the enemy. They were called the Eastern Nian Army. There are about 30,000 people in the West Nian Army. Under the leadership of Zhang Zongyu and others, in October 1866, they passed through Xuzhou, Luoyang, Shaanzhou (now west of Sanmenxia City), and Nuxiang (now northwest of Lingbao) from eastern Henan, and entered Huayin County, Shaanxi Province on November 9. Liu Rong, the acting governor of Shaanxi, was leading 14,000 Hunan troops to block the Hui uprising army at the junction of Shaanxi and Gansu. After learning that the Nian army had entered Shaanxi, he felt that the situation was serious and requested the Qing government to send reinforcements quickly. However, Zuo Zongtang (who had just been appointed governor of Shaanxi and Gansu) stopped his troops in Hubei on the pretext of preparing food and wages and hesitated to move forward. It was difficult for Qing reinforcements to enter Shaanxi quickly, which provided favorable conditions for the Western Nian Army's combat operations. After the Western Nian Army entered Huayin, they immediately marched westward to Huazhou (now Huaxian) and Weinan. Liu Rong had to transfer his troops eastward to deal with the Nian Army. On November 14, Admiral Liu Houji led 3,000 troops to march eastward from Weinan. They encountered the Nian Army in Chishui Town. They collapsed at the first touch and retreated to Weinan. On the 25th, the prefect Tang Jiong commanded each battalion of the Hunan Army and divided the troops into three groups to launch another attack. The Nian army set up an ambush in the woods east of Aoshui, Huazhou, and defeated the Hunan army, annihilating nearly a thousand enemies. After winning the first battle, the Western Nian Army took advantage of the victory and marched westward, arriving at Baqiao Town east of Xi'an on December 14. Then turn to the southeast and occupy Xiehu, Lanqiao and other places in Lantian County. In order to mobilize the Qing army in Xi'an, he later pretended to go to Shangzhou (now Shang County) and Luonan (now Luonan). When the Qing army pursued eastward, the Nian army moved north to Weinan, and falsely attempted to attack Tongguan from the east. When the Hunan Army moved north to intercept, the Nian Army quickly moved westward, setting up a posture to attack Xi'an, and set up ambushes in the villages around Shilipo Baqiao, setting up ambush circles and waiting for the arrival of the enemy. On January 23, 1867, the Hunan army pursued Xinfeng Town in the northeast of Lintong. The Nian Army sent a small number of troops to lure the enemy, fought and retreated with the Hunan Army, and lured the Hunan Army to Shilipo. Named admiral Yang Desheng, commander-in-chief Xiao Deyang, admiral Liu Houji, Taoist member Huang Ding and other enemy troops entered the ambush circle one after another. The Nian army lured the enemy troops to immediately return their horses to counterattack. The ambush troops rushed out from the village forts on both sides. The cavalry troops surrounded the Hunan army from both sides, and the Hunan army was in chaos. It was windy and snowy, and the soldiers of the Hunan Army were exhausted from running for days. They were cold and hungry, their morale was low, and they had no intention of fighting. The gunpowder was wetted by rain and snow and could not be fired. The Nian army had high morale and charged bravely, engaging in hand-to-hand combat with the Hunan army. Within half a day, they killed the commander-in-chief Xiao Deyang, the admiral Yang Desheng, Xiao Jishan, Xiao Changqing, the chief envoy candidate Xiao Degang and other Hunan generals, annihilated more than 3,000 enemy troops, surrendered thousands of people, and achieved the largest victory since entering Shaanxi. a victory. The West Nian Army always had the initiative on the battlefield during the Battle of Shilipo. First, use mobile tactics, take the initiative to attack, mobilize the enemy, lure the enemy to pursue, and tire the enemy; then choose a favorable battlefield, preset an ambush, lure the enemy to the ambush circle, and cooperate with infantry and cavalry to surround the enemy; finally, through hand-to-hand combat, A total victory. The Hunan Army pursued blindly and was passive everywhere. It was led by the Nian Army and its combat effectiveness was dragged down. Finally, it fell into a tight siege and was defeated at Shilipo. Liu Rong was also dismissed and returned home

The Hui rebels were in Tongchuan

Tongzhou City is located on the transportation artery from Guanzhong to northern Shaanxi, and has jurisdiction over urban areas, suburbs and Yaoxian County , Yijun County.

The city and suburb districts were called Tongguan County in the Qing Dynasty, and were changed to Tongzhou County in 1946. Yao County was originally called Yaozhou.

According to the book "Qinlong Huiwu Jilue", during the Tongzhi period of the Qing Dynasty, Shaanxi had a population of more than 10 million, of which three-tenths were Hui people, who mainly lived in prefectures and counties on both sides of the Weihe River in Guanzhong. The Hui people in Yaozhou live in the Sigou and Miaowan areas and have built mosques. There are very few Muslims in Tongguan. According to the "Tongguan County Chronicle": "Only the Han family in Xixiang has dozens of Muslim families" and no mosque.

There is no fundamental conflict of interest between the Hui and Han working people. For a long time, they supported each other in the struggle against the feudal rulers, and formed a profound fighting friendship through adversity and hardship.

For example, Ma Shouying, one of the leaders of the peasant uprising army in northern Shaanxi in the late Ming Dynasty, was known as "Lao Huihui" and was a Muslim in Suide County. Many of his subordinates were poor Han farmers. However, due to the instigation of feudal officials and landlords and gentry, there were also some conflicts between the two peoples. Feudal rulers often used these contradictions to create troubles, provoke ethnic disputes, and profit from them. Whenever disputes arise, local officials always favor the Han people. "All arguments and fights, no matter the merits, suppress the Hui people" (Zhang Jixin: "Records of Daocheng Officials"). Pu Yao, the prefect of Huazhou, even publicly announced: "If the Hui people are hurt by the Hui people, they will pay ten for each; if the Hui people are hurt by the Han, they will pay ten for one" (Liu Dongye: "Record of Huazhou's Rebellion in Renxu"). In Tongchuan, there has been a popular saying among the people that "if a Han kills a Hui, he will pay a sheep or a dog; if a Hui kills a Han, several Hui will die." It can be seen that the situation of the Tongchuan Hui people is no better than that of other places.

In May of 1862 AD (the first year of Tongzhi), the Weinan Han landlord armed regiment distributed chicken feather notices, which read "Qin will not leave Hui", "God will destroy Hui", "Hui will be washed and killed" When all is done, go back to your house and burn it, leaving nothing behind.” Then they hunted and killed Hui people everywhere, looted Hui villages and burned mosques. Then, similar incidents occurred in Xi'an, Fengxiang and other places. Yaozhou Tuanlian killed dozens of Hui people in Sigou and burned down the mosque. Then they broke into fellow official Han Jiayuan, opened fire and fired artillery, besieged and searched for and killed the Hui people. The Hanjiayuan Hui people originally had firearms in their possession, and they rose up to resist. Zhang Deli, the magistrate of Tongguan County, arrested several Hui people indiscriminately and put them in jail. The Hanjiayuan Hui people couldn't bear it anymore and rushed to the county seat, demanding their release. Zhang Deli was frightened by the power of the Hui people and had to release the arrested Hui people. This year, the Hui people in the Guanzhong area launched anti-Qing struggles, but there was no major unrest in Tongguan and Yijun.

In the autumn of 1862, the Shaanxi Hui people developed into a powerful armed force of 300,000 people. They stormed the city of Xi'an. After capturing Xi'an, they planned to use Guanzhong as their base and join forces with the Gansu Muslim rebels to march directly to Beijing via Shanxi and overthrow the Qing Dynasty. The Qing government was frightened and frightened. They successively appointed Shengbao and Duolong'a as imperial envoys, and brought heavy troops to Shaanxi to suppress the Hui army. The Hui people were not cowardly in the face of powerful enemies. After many bloody battles, they were finally outnumbered and forced to take their families with them and retreat to Dong Zhiyuan in eastern Gansu Province from the end of 1863 to the beginning of 1864.

Dong Zhiyuan has a vast area and fertile land, and is a famous agricultural base in Gansu. The locals proudly said: "The eight hundred miles of Qinchuan are not as good as the Dongzhiyuan side." The Shaanxi Hui Army has eighteen major camps here, and the leaders of each camp are called marshals. Yu Deyan and Sun Yibao successively served as general marshals of the 18th Battalion. Sun Yibao once called himself the "King of the Han Dynasty to the West". He imitated the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom system, grew his hair long, changed into Taiping Heavenly Kingdom clothes, and was determined to fight the Qing Dynasty to the end with the Taiping Army. It can be clearly seen from this incident that the struggle goals of the Hui and Han people are the same. During the Dong Zhiyuan Camp activities, the Shaanxi Muslim Army and the Gansu Muslim Army united together and launched three large-scale attacks on Shaanxi. The first and second of them all affected the territory of today's Tongzhou City.

In May 1866, Sun Yibao and others led a Shaanxi-Gansu Muslim Army of 50,000 to 60,000 people to attack Shaanxi and advance towards Xi'an. At the end of the year, the anti-Qing armed West Nian Army of Han farmers in the Huaihe River Basin invaded Guanzhong and fought side by side with the Shaanxi-Gansu Hui Army. They responded to each other and defeated the Qing army in Shaanxi Province. In January 1867, the Western Nian Army fought in succession and reached the vicinity of Xi'an. The Qing army hurriedly attacked and was beaten by the Western Nian Army in Shilipu, Baqiao. The ground was covered with corpses and they fled. The Western Nian Army immediately surrounded Xi'an, and the feudal regimes at all levels in the province were terrified. The Shaanxi-Gansu Muslim Army took advantage of this extremely favorable opportunity and stepped up its attack on the Qing army. In February, a Hui army invaded Yaozhou and Pucheng from Yijun County. Qing army leader Liu Xiaozhong, Qiu Shicheng, Hong Dianyuan, He Lingbi and others successively led troops to intercept, but they were unable to stop the Hui army's offensive. After the Hui people's army attacked Fuping County, Liu Houji, the Qing army's admiral, personally led a large number of troops to Sanyuan County and commanded the troops to fight back desperately. The Hui army was outnumbered and retreated from Fuping to Liulin Village in the west of Yaozhou City. They avoided the truth and sent a group of troops to attack their fellow officials. The Qing army of the same officer was careless and caught off guard, and the Hui army once captured the county seat. Later, because Liu Houji's troops attacked Liulin Village, the Hui army abandoned their baggage, withdrew from Yaozhou and Tongguan, and retreated to northern Shaanxi.

In August 1867, the Hui army invaded Tongguan and Yaozhou. Qing army leaders Liu Dian and Gao Liansheng hurriedly led their troops to counterattack, and the Hui army retreated to the central part (today's Huangling County).

In October 1867, the Western Nian Army failed in its siege of Xi'an and decided to move to northern Shaanxi. In order to ensure that the main force moved northward smoothly, a team was dispatched to cooperate with the Hui people and invade the territory of Yaozhou and Tongguan to contain the Qing army. The Huinian Allied Forces attacked Huangbao Town, a military important town in the south of Tongguan County, and seized 2,700 kilograms of military rations. The Qing army Liu Zhongzhong's troops rushed to Huangbao, and the back-to-nian coalition forces retreated to Yixing Village and Gaojiayuan near Tongguan County. Liu Xiaozhong followed and pursued, and the coalition forces withdrew to Jiaojiaping in Yijun County.

At the end of the year, the Western Nian Army crossed the Yellow River near Hukou in Yijun County and invaded Shanxi. Due to the loss of important friendly forces, the Shaanxi-Gansu Muslim Army was weak and gradually withdrew from Shaanxi and returned to Dong Zhiyuan in Longdong.

In 1868, the Shaanxi-Gansu Muslim Army launched its second attack on Shaanxi.

They divided their troops into two groups. One group entered Fengxiang, passed through Baoji and Xianyang, bypassed Xi'an, and fought all the way to Weinan; the other group attacked Yijun, Sanshui (today's Xunyi County) and counties in Weibei. Liu Dian, the governor of Shaanxi, and Gao Liansheng, the governor of Gansu, went to Yaozhou successively to command the Qing army to fight against the Hui army in Weibei. In July, the deputy general of the Qing army, He Maolin, met the Hui army cavalry at Miaowan, Yaozhou. The Qing army bombarded them with artillery fire, and the Hui army was unable to withstand it. It passed through Tongguan Wenwang Mountain (now part of Yaoxian County) and fled northeast. Gao Liansheng and He Maolin joined forces to pursue them all the way to Luochuan. Later, the Qing army met the main force of the Hui army in Yangjiadian, Yijun County. After a bloody battle, the Hui People's Army lost again.

At that time, many local soldiers and junior officers in the Shaanxi-Gansu Qing army participated in the Ge Laohui, a non-governmental organization that "anti-Qing and restored Ming". Gao Liansheng believed that the Ge Lao Hui Party among his subordinates was a nuisance and decided to purge them. Ding Yulong and Zou Hongsheng, the leaders of the Ge Laohui in the Gaobu, were unwilling to wait for the Cambodians to be killed. They plotted to launch a mutiny on April 9 and secretly contacted the Hui People's Army to join the uprising. Gao Liansheng learned about the time of the Ge Laohui uprising and arranged to suppress it. Ding Yulong and others learned of this and launched a sudden mutiny on April 1 in advance. The Qing army was caught off guard. Admiral Gao Liansheng, commander-in-chief Huang Yufu, and deputy general He Maolin were all killed. This incident shocked the two provinces of Shaanxi and Gansu. Subsequently, Ding Yulong and others led more than 1,000 people from Yangjiadian eastward and surrounded Tongguan County. After five days of fierce fighting, they failed to enter the city and were defeated by the Qing army. When Bai Yanhu, the leader of the Hui Army, came with his troops to respond, Ding Yulong's soldiers had already fled.

In November of that year, Zuo Zongtang led the Qing troops armed with foreign guns and cannons into Shaanxi and attacked the Hui people's army in five groups. The Hui army was defeated and once again returned to Longdong Dong Zhiyuan.

In October 1869, the Hui army invaded Shaanxi for the third time and was defeated by Zuo Zongtang in Binzhou (today's Bin County). Zuo Zongtang relied on superior troops to attack Dong Zhiyuan. The Shaanxi Muslim Army was forced to withdraw from Longdong and successively moved to fight in present-day Ningxia, Inner Mongolia, Gansu Hexi Corridor and Xinjiang. Later, some of them entered Central Asia. The other part was taken over by Zuo Zongtang and placed in some places in Qingyang, Pingliang, Tianshui and Ningxia in present-day Gansu Province. They reclaimed wasteland and built villages there. Some of the village names still adopted the names of the places where they lived in Shaanxi.

The fighting process of the Hui rebel army in today's Tongzhou City clearly reflects the deep affection between the Hui and Han people. In the struggle against the feudal rulers, the enemy of the Communists, they always They support each other and are allies that cannot be broken apart by any force.

After the Tongzhi period, there were no Hui people in Tongguan, Yaoxian and Yijun for a long time. It was not until 1940 that seven Hui households moved into Tongguan. Their origins were Xi'an, Henan, and Hebei. Two years later, eight more Hui households moved into Tongguan. Some of them work as coal miners, some sell beef and mutton, and some drive carriages to eke out a living. In 1946, the Hui people in Tongchuan County (formerly Tongguan) donated money to buy a three-hole cave dwelling on Baishu Slope in Sanxingdong and built it as a mosque. After liberation, with the development of industrial construction, the number of Hui people who moved into Tongchuan County gradually increased. In 1955, there were 85 households and 320 people. This year, the Hui people in Tongzhou County built a relatively complete mosque on Huidipopo, Qingnian Road, hired imams, and recruited Manla. During the Cultural Revolution, mosques were forced to close. After the "Cultural Revolution", a complete mosque was built in Adong, Qingnian Road. The number of Hui people in Yaoxian County also continued to increase. A mosque was built on the bank of Qishui River outside the east gate of the county. During the "Cultural Revolution", it was occupied by street factories. In 1979, a new two-story, six-room mosque was built in Nantong Lane, Dongguan.

In 1986, there were 2,326 Muslims in the urban and suburban districts of Tongchuan City (formerly Tongchuan County), 619 in Yao County, 50 in Yijun, and 2,995 Muslims in the city