Lishui Surrenders Intact as the Qing Cross the Yangtze, 1645

Background

In 1645, the second year of the Shunzhi era, Qing troops crossed the Yangtze and moved south.

The surrender

大清顺治二年乙酉，大兵渡江南，溧水知县王观瀛弃官去之，典史方至道率民众以全城降。征南大将军豫王札知县罗佳士，谕民剃发。免设镇兵，民德之。

Translated: In the second year of the Shunzhi era, yiwei, the great army crossed the Yangtze southward; the Lishui magistrate Wang Guanying abandoned his office and left, and the dianshi Fang Zhidao led the people in surrendering the intact city. Prince Yu, the great general commanding the southern expedition, appointed Luo Jiashi by warrant as magistrate and ordered the people to shave their heads. No garrison troops were to be stationed, and the people were grateful for it.

The magistrate Wang Guanying abandoned his post and left; the dianshi, a minor county officer in charge of the jail and registers, led the people in surrendering the intact city. The Qing side appointed Luo Jiashi as magistrate by warrant of Prince Yu, the general commanding the southern expedition, and ordered the people to shave their heads; it also exempted Lishui from having garrison troops stationed in it, of which the gazetteer says the people were glad. At the same time an order was issued pardoning the grain tax arrears of the late Ming, which were not to be collected, and remitting seven tenths of that year's two tax payments.

The events of the twelfth month

冬十二月，土贼乘夜逾城，焚毁县堂及库，义士刘虔战死。知县罗佳士挈印驰省，请兵援剿。内院大学士洪遣兵复之，即札参将（朋）［彭］永琦来镇，署印知县萧谱元守焉。寻奏罗以失守典法。是月，瑞雪六出盈尺。

Translated: In the winter, in the twelfth month, bandits climbed the wall by night, burned the county hall and the treasury, and the loyalist Liu Qian died fighting. The magistrate Luo Jiashi took the seal and rode to the provincial capital to ask for troops to suppress them. The Grand Secretary Hong of the Inner Secretariat sent troops to recover the town, and appointed the canjiang Peng Yongqi to hold it by warrant, while the acting magistrate Xiao Puyuan guarded it. Luo was shortly afterwards impeached for having lost the town. In that month snow fell in six-pointed flakes to a depth of a full foot.

That December bandits climbed the city wall by night, burned the county hall and the treasury, and the loyalist Liu Qian died fighting. The magistrate Luo Jiashi took the seal and rode to the provincial capital to ask for troops; the Grand Secretary Hong of the Inner Secretariat — the gazetteer gives only his surname — sent troops to recover the town, appointed the canjiang, a senior military officer, Peng Yongqi, to hold it, and left the acting magistrate Xiao Puyuan to guard it. Luo Jiashi was impeached soon afterwards for losing the town. The same entry also records that snow fell in six-pointed flakes to a depth of a full foot that month.

Consequences

After the change of dynasty Lishui had no garrison troops, and its taxes were remitted. The burning of the county hall and treasury had long consequences: the magistrate thereafter held court among the rubble, sheltered by reed matting, until the magistrate Min Pailu rebuilt the county hall in 1654, the eleventh year of the Shunzhi era (see the entry for that year).

Uncertainties

First, records from the change of dynasty are thin: the gazetteer gives neither the exact date on which Qing troops entered the city nor their numbers, and the course of events is not described, which is why this entry is set at medium confidence. Second, the "bandits" are not identified; the gazetteer says nothing of their origins or numbers. Third, the "Grand Secretary Hong of the Inner Secretariat" is given by surname only, and the man remains unidentified. Fourth, the gazetteer sets the fall of snow beside the military events, which belongs to its idiom of natural anomalies; this entry repeats it without merging it into the military narrative.