1
楊廷麟 〈（彭期生等）〉 萬元吉 〈（楊文薦梁於涘）〉 郭維經 〈（姚奇胤）〉 詹兆恒 〈（胡夢泰周定仍等）〉 陳泰來 〈（曹誌明）〉 王養正 〈（夏萬亨等）〉 曾亨應 〈（弟和應子筠）〉 揭重熙 〈（傅鼎銓）〉 陳子壯 〈（麥而炫朱實蓮霍子衡）〉 張家玉 〈（陳象明等）〉 陳邦彥蘇觀生
Yang Tinglin (See the biographies of Peng Qisheng and others)〉 Wan Yuanji (See the biographies of Yang Wensian and Liang Yusi)〉 Guo Weijing (See the biography of Yao Qiyin)〉 Zhan Zhaoheng (See the biographies of Hu Mengtai, Zhou Dingreng, and others)〉 Chen Tailai (See the biography of Cao Zhiming)〉 Wang Yangzheng (See the biographies of Xia Wanheng and others)〉 Zeng Hengying (See the biographies of his younger brothers He and Ying, and his son Jun)〉 Jie Zhongxi (See the biography of Fu Dingquan)〉 Chen Zizhuang (See the biographies of Mai Erxuan, Zhu Shilian, and Huo Ziheng)〉 Zhang Jiayu (See the biographies of Chen Xiangming and others)〉 Chen Bangyan and Su Guansheng
2
楊廷麟
Yang Tinglin
3
楊廷麟，字伯祥，清江人。 崇禎四年進士。 改庶吉士，授編修，勤學嗜古，有聲館閣間，與黃道周善。 十年冬，皇太子將出閣，充講官兼直經筵。 延麟具疏讓道周，不許。 明年二月，帝御經筵，問保舉考選何者為得人。 廷麟言：「保舉當嚴舉主，如唐世濟、王維章乃溫體仁、王應熊所薦。 今二臣皆敗，而舉主不問。 是連坐之法先不行於大臣，欲收保舉效得乎？」 帝為動色。
Yang Tinglin, whose style was Boziang, came from Qingjiang. He received his jinshi degree in the fourth year of the Chongzhen reign. After serving as a Hanlin bachelor, he was appointed compiler. Diligent in study and devoted to antiquity, he won renown in the academies and was close to Huang Daozhou. In the winter of the tenth year, as the crown prince was about to leave the palace school, he was made lecturer and also attended the Classics Colloquium. Tinglin submitted a memorial deferring the appointment to Daozhou, but the court refused. In the second month of the following year, at the Classics Colloquium the emperor asked which method—recommendation or examination selection—yielded better officials. Tinglin replied, "In recommendation, the recommender must be held strictly accountable. Tang Shiji and Wang Weizhang, for example, were advanced by Wen Tiren and Wang Yingxiong. Both of those ministers have since been ruined, yet their recommenders have not been called to account. If joint liability is not enforced upon high ministers first, how can recommendation ever produce its intended effect?" The emperor's expression changed at this.
4
其冬，京師戒嚴。 廷麟上疏劾兵部尚書楊嗣昌，言：「陛下有撻伐之誌，大臣無禦侮之才，謀之不臧，以國為戲。 嗣昌及薊遼總督吳阿衡內外扶同，朋謀誤國。 與高起潛、方一藻倡和款議，武備頓忘，以至於此。 今可憂在外者三，在內者五。 督臣盧升以禍國責樞臣，言之痛心。 夫南仲在內，李綱無功； 潛善秉成，宗澤殞命。 乞陛下赫然一怒，明正向者主和之罪，俾將士畏法，無有二心。 召見大小諸臣，咨以方略。 諭象升集諸路援師，乘機赴敵，不從中制。 此今日急務也。」 時嗣昌意主和議，冀紓外患，而廷麟痛詆之。 嗣昌大恚，詭薦廷麟知兵。 帝改廷麟兵部職方主事，贊畫象升軍。 象升喜，即令廷麟往真定轉餉濟師。 無何，象升戰死賈莊。 嗣昌意廷麟亦死，及聞其奉使在外，則為不懌者久之。
That winter the capital went on martial alert. Tinglin memorialized to impeach Yang Sichang, Minister of War, writing, "Your Majesty is resolved to strike the enemy, yet your ministers lack the ability to defend the realm. Their counsels are unsound, and they treat the state as a game. Sichang and Wu Aheng, governor-general of Jiliao, bolster one another inside and outside the court; their factional plotting has misled the state. Together with Gao Qiqian and Fang Yizao they have promoted peace talks, military readiness has been cast aside, and we have come to this pass. At present there are three dangers abroad and five at home. Supervising Minister Lu Sheng charged the chief ministers with ruining the state—words that cut to the heart. When Qin Hui held sway at court, Li Gang could accomplish nothing; when Wang Qinruo wielded authority, Zong Ze lost his life. I beg Your Majesty to blaze forth in righteous anger, clearly punish those who have advocated peace, and make officers and soldiers fear the law and stand as one. Summon ministers high and low for audience and consult them on strategy. Order Xiangsheng to gather relief armies from every route, strike the enemy when opportunity offers, and not be micromanaged from the capital. These are the urgent tasks of the day." At the time Sichang favored peace talks in hope of easing the external crisis, while Tinglin denounced him bitterly. Sichang was furious and, under false pretenses, recommended Tinglin as expert in military affairs. The emperor reassigned Tinglin as director in the Bureau of Operations of the Ministry of War, to assist in planning Xiangsheng's campaign. Xiangsheng was delighted and immediately sent Tinglin to Zhending to transport provisions for the army. Before long Xiangsheng was killed in battle at Jiazhuang. Sichang assumed Tinglin had died as well; when he learned that Tinglin was still abroad on mission, he remained displeased for a long while.
5
初，張若麒、沈迅官刑曹，謀改兵部，御史塗必泓沮之。 必泓，廷麟同里也。 兩人疑疏出廷麟指，因與嗣昌比而構廷麟。 會廷麟報軍中曲折，嗣昌擬旨責以欺罔。 事平，貶廷麟秩，調之外。 黃道周獄起，詞連廷麟，當逮。 未至而道周已釋，言者多薦廷麟。 十六年秋，復授職方主事，未赴，都城失守，廷麟慟哭，募兵勤王。 福王立，用御史祁彪佳薦，召為左庶子，辭不就。 宗室朱統钅類誣劾廷麟召健兒有不軌謀，以姜曰廣為內應。 王不問，而廷麟所募兵亦散。
Earlier, Zhang Ruoqi and Shen Xun of the penal section had plotted to transfer to the Ministry of War, but Censor Tu Bihong blocked them. Bihong was a fellow townsman of Tinglin's. The two suspected the memorial had been instigated by Tinglin and therefore allied with Sichang to frame him. When Tinglin reported on conditions in the army, Sichang drafted an edict rebuking him for deception. After the crisis passed, Tinglin was demoted and transferred to an outside post. When Huang Daozhou's case arose, the testimony implicated Tinglin and he was marked for arrest. Before the warrant could be executed, Daozhou had already been released, and many at court began recommending Tinglin. In the autumn of the sixteenth year he was again appointed director in the Bureau of Operations. Before he could take up the post the capital fell; Tinglin wept bitterly and raised troops to rescue the throne. When the Prince of Fu was enthroned, on Censor Qi Biaojia's recommendation he was summoned as left sublector, but he declined. The imperial clansman Zhu Tonglei falsely impeached Tinglin for recruiting bravos in a treasonous plot, naming Jiang Yueguang as his inside accomplice. The king took no action, and the troops Tinglin had raised dispersed as well.
6
順治二年，南都破，江西諸郡惟贛州存。 唐王手書加廷麟吏部右侍郎，劉同升國子祭酒。 同升自雩都至贛，與廷麟謀大舉。 乃偕巡撫李永茂集紳士於明倫堂，勸輸兵餉。 九月，大兵屯泰和，副將徐必達戰敗，廷麟、同升乘虛復吉安、臨江。 加兵部尚書兼東閣大學士，賜劍，便宜從事。 十月，大兵攻吉安，必達戰敗，赴水死。 會廣東援兵至，大兵退屯峽江。 已而萬元吉至贛。 十二月，同升卒。
In the second year of Shunzhi, after the Southern Capital fell, Ganzhou alone among the prefectures of Jiangxi still held out. The Prince of Tang personally wrote to promote Tinglin to right vice minister of the Ministry of Personnel and Liu Tongsheng to chancellor of the Directorate of Education. Tongsheng came from Yudu to Ganzhou and joined Tinglin in planning a major counteroffensive. Together with Grand Coordinator Li Yongmao they gathered the local gentry in the Hall of Bright Morals and urged contributions of troops and supplies. In the ninth month the Qing army encamped at Taihe. Vice General Xu Bida was defeated, and Tinglin and Tongsheng seized the opportunity to recover Ji'an and Linjiang. He was promoted to minister of war and concurrent grand secretary of the Eastern Pavilion, granted the ceremonial sword, and empowered to act at his own discretion. In the tenth month the Qing army attacked Ji'an. Bida was defeated and drowned himself. When relief troops from Guangdong arrived, the Qing army withdrew to Xiajiang. Before long Wan Yuanji arrived at Ganzhou. In the twelfth month Tongsheng died.
7
三年正月，廷麟赴贛，招峒蠻張安等四營降之，號龍武新軍。 廷麟聞王將由汀赴贛，將往迎王，而以元吉代守吉安。 無何，吉安復失，元吉退保贛州。 四月，大兵逼城下，廷麟遣使調廣西狼兵，而身往雩都趣新軍張安來救。 五月望，安戰梅林，再敗，退保雩都。 廷麟乃散其兵，以六月入贛，與元吉憑城守。 未幾，援兵至，圍暫解，已，復合。 八月，水師戰敗，援師悉潰。 及汀州告變，贛圍已半年，守陴者皆懈。 十月四日，大兵登城。 廷麟督戰，久之，力不支，走西城，投水死。 同守者郭維經、彭期生輩皆死。
In the first month of the third year Tinglin went to Ganzhou, induced Zhang An and four other Dong camps to surrender, and styled them the New Dragon Martial Army. Hearing that the king would travel from Tingzhou to Ganzhou, Tinglin prepared to go welcome him and left Yuanji to hold Ji'an in his place. Before long Ji'an fell again, and Yuanji withdrew to defend Ganzhou. In the fourth month the Qing army pressed the city walls. Tinglin sent envoys to summon wolf troops from Guangxi while he himself went to Yudu to hurry Zhang An's new army to the rescue. On the full moon of the fifth month An fought at Meilin, was defeated again, and withdrew to Yudu. Tinglin then dispersed his troops. In the sixth month he entered Ganzhou and with Yuanji defended the city. Before long relief troops arrived and the siege was briefly lifted, but soon the encirclement closed again. In the eighth month the naval force was defeated and all relief armies collapsed. When news came of the disaster at Tingzhou, Ganzhou had already been besieged for half a year, and the defenders on the walls had grown slack. On the fourth day of the tenth month the Qing army scaled the walls. Tinglin directed the fighting, but after a long struggle his strength failed. He fled to the western wall and cast himself into the water to die. Those who had defended the city with him—Guo Weijing, Peng Qisheng, and the rest—all died.
8
期生，字觀我，海鹽人，御史宗孟子。 登萬曆四十四年進士。 崇禎初，為濟南知府，坐失囚謫布政司照磨，量移應天推官，轉南京兵部主事，進郎中。 十六年，張獻忠亂江西，遷湖西兵備僉事，駐吉安。 吉安不守，走贛州，偕廷麟招降張安等，加太常寺卿，仍視兵備事。 城破，冠帶自縊死。
Qisheng, whose style was Guanwo, came from Haiyan and was the son of Censor Zongmeng. He received his jinshi degree in the forty-fourth year of the Wanli reign. Early in the Chongzhen reign he served as prefect of Jinan. After a prisoner escaped under his charge he was demoted to adjutant in the provincial administration commission, then transferred to investigating censor of Yingtian, then to secretary in the Nanjing Ministry of War, and finally promoted to director. In the sixteenth year, when Zhang Xianzhong rebelled in Jiangxi, he was transferred to military intendant of western Hunan and stationed at Ji'an. When Ji'an could not be held he fled to Ganzhou. Together with Tinglin he induced Zhang An and others to surrender, was promoted to vice minister of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices, and continued to oversee military affairs. When the city fell he hanged himself in full official dress.
9
一時同殉者，職方主事周瑚，磔死。 通判王明汲，編修兼兵科給事中萬發祥，吏部主事龔棻，戶部主事林琦，兵部主事王其狖、黎遂球、柳昂霄、魯嗣宗、錢謙亨，中書舍人袁從鶚、劉孟鍧、劉應試，推官署府事吳國球，監紀通判郭寧登，臨江推官胡縝，贛縣知縣林逢春，皆被戮。 鄉官盧觀象盡驅男婦大小入水，乃自沈死。 舉人劉日佺偕母妻弟婦子侄同日死。 參將陳烈數力戰，眾以其弟已降，疑之，烈益奮勇疾鬥。 及見執，不屈，顧謂贛人曰：「而後乃今知我無二心也。」 遂就戮。
Those who died with him at the same time included Zhou Hu, director in the Bureau of Operations, who was dismembered alive. Vice Prefect Wang Mingji; Compiler and concurrent military affairs supervising secretary Wan Faxiang; secretaries Gong Fen of the Ministry of Personnel, Lin Qi of Revenue, and Wang Qiyou, Li Suqiu, Liu Angxiao, Lu Sizong, and Qian Qianheng of War; secretariat draftsmen Yuan Cong'e, Liu Mengkun, and Liu Yingshi; acting prefect Wu Guoqiu; supervising vice prefect Guo Ningdeng; Linjiang investigating censor Hu Zhen; and Ganxian magistrate Lin Fengchun—all were executed. Local officer Lu Guanxiang drove all the men, women, and children of his household into the water, then drowned himself. Recommended man Liu Riquan died on the same day as his mother, wife, sister-in-law, son, and nephews. Assistant General Chen Lie fought again and again with great valor. Because his younger brother had already surrendered, the crowd suspected him, but Lie fought all the more fiercely. When he was captured he refused to submit. Turning to the people of Ganzhou he said, "Only now will you know that I had no divided loyalty." He then went to his execution.
10
萬元吉
Wan Yuanji
11
萬元吉，字吉人，南昌人。 天啟五年進士。 授潮州推官，補歸德。 捕大盜李守誌，散其黨。 崇禎四年大計，謫官。 十一年秋，用曾櫻薦，命以永州檢校署推官事。 居二年，督師楊嗣昌薦其才，改大理右評事，軍前監紀。 嗣昌倚若左右手，諸將亦悅服，馳驅兵間，未嘗一夕安枕。 嗣昌卒，元吉丁內艱歸。 十六年起南京職方主事，進郎中。
Wan Yuanji, whose style was Jiren, came from Nanchang. He received his jinshi degree in the fifth year of the Tianqi reign. He was appointed investigating censor of Chaozhou and later transferred to Guide. He captured the great bandit Li Shouzhi and broke up his gang. In the grand evaluation of the fourth year of Chongzhen he was demoted from office. In the autumn of the eleventh year, on Zeng Ying's recommendation, he was ordered to act as investigating censor of Yongzhou in the capacity of registrar. After two years, Grand Coordinator Yang Sichang recommended his ability. He was transferred to right assessor of the Court of Judicial Review and assigned to supervise records at the front. Sichang relied on him as on his right hand; the generals also respected him. He rode hard among the armies and never slept a peaceful night. When Sichang died, Yuanji returned home to observe mourning for his mother. In the sixteenth year he was appointed director in the Nanjing Bureau of Operations and later promoted to bureau director.
12
福王立，仍故官。 四鎮不和，元吉請奉詔宣諭。 又請發萬金犒高傑於揚州，諭以大義，令保江、淮。 乃渡江詣諸將營。 傑與黃得功、劉澤清方爭揚州，元吉與得功書，令共獎王室。 得功報書如元吉指，乃錄其槁示澤清、傑，嫌漸解。 廷議以元吉能輯諸鎮，擢太仆少卿，監視江北軍務。 元吉身在外，不忘朝廷，數有條奏。 請修建文實錄，復其尊稱，並還懿文追尊故號，祀之寢園，以建文配，而速褒靖難死事諸臣，及近日北都四方殉難者，以作忠義之氣。 從之。 又言：
When the Prince of Fu was enthroned, he retained his former post. The four garrisons were at odds; Yuanji asked to be sent under imperial edict to reconcile them. He also asked that ten thousand taels of gold be sent to reward Gao Jie at Yangzhou, instruct him in the larger cause, and charge him with defending the Yangtze and Huai. He then crossed the river and went in person to the generals' camps. Jie, Huang Degong, and Liu Zeqing were then fighting over Yangzhou. Yuanji wrote to Degong urging them together to support the royal house. Degong's reply followed Yuanji's intent. Yuanji copied the draft and showed it to Zeqing and Jie, and their resentment gradually eased. The court concluded that Yuanji could reconcile the garrisons and promoted him to vice minister of the Court of the Imperial Stud to supervise military affairs north of the Yangtze. Though he was away from the capital, Yuanji did not forget the court and submitted many detailed memorials. He asked that the Veritable Records of Emperor Wen be compiled, his honored title restored, and the posthumous honors of the Empress Yiwen returned; that sacrifices be offered at the imperial tomb park with Jianwen as consort; and that the ministers who died in the Jingnan campaign and those who had lately died for the state at Beijing and throughout the realm be swiftly honored—to rouse the spirit of loyalty and righteousness. The court approved. He also wrote:
13
先帝天資英武，銳意明作，而禍亂益滋。 寬嚴之用偶偏，任議之途太畸也。
The late emperor was naturally heroic and keen to govern brilliantly, yet calamity and disorder only grew worse. The use of leniency and severity was skewed, and the path of entrusting counsel was too distorted.
14
先帝初懲逆珰用事，委任臣工，力行寬大。 諸臣狃之，爭意見之異同，略綢繆之桑土，敵入郊圻，束手無策。 先帝震怒，宵小乘間，中以用嚴。 於是廷杖告密，加派抽練，使在朝者不暇救過，在野者無復聊生，廟堂號振作，而敵強如故，寇禍彌張。 十余年來，小人用嚴之效如是。 先帝亦悔，更從寬大，悉反前規，天下以為太平可致。 諸臣復競賄賂，肆欺蒙，每趨愈下，再攖先帝之怒，誅殺方興，宗社繼歿。 蓋諸臣之孽，每乘於先帝之寬； 而先帝之嚴，亦每激於諸臣之玩。 臣所謂寬嚴之用偶偏者此也。
At first the late emperor punished the treacherous eunuchs who had held power, entrusted his ministers, and vigorously practiced leniency. The ministers grew accustomed to it, quarreling over differences of opinion and neglecting careful preparation at home. When the enemy reached the suburbs they were helpless. The late emperor was shaken with anger; petty men seized the moment and persuaded him toward severity. Thereupon came court flogging and secret denunciation, added levies and drill taxes, so that those at court had no time to remedy faults and those in the countryside could barely survive. The hall proclaimed renewal, yet the enemy remained as strong as before and banditry spread ever wider. For more than ten years this was the effect of petty men's use of severity. The late emperor also repented and again turned to leniency, entirely reversing former policies; the realm thought peace was within reach. The ministers again competed in bribery and indulged in deception; each step went lower, provoking the late emperor's anger again. Executions were rising when the altars of state followed into ruin. The crimes of the ministers always rode upon the late emperor's leniency; and the late emperor's severity was also each time provoked by the ministers' laxity. This is what I mean by the skewed use of leniency and severity.
15
國步艱難，於今已極。 乃議者求勝於理，即不審勢之重輕； 好伸其言，多不顧事之損益。 殿上之彼己日爭，閫外之從違遙制，一人任事，眾口議之。 如孫傳庭守關中，識者俱謂不宜輕出，而已有以逗撓議之者矣。 賊既渡河，臣語史可法、姜曰廣急撤關、寧吳三桂兵，隨樞輔迎擊。 先帝召對時，群臣亦曾及此，而已有以蹙地議之者矣。 及賊勢燎原，廷臣或勸南幸，或勸皇儲監國南都，皆權宜善計，而已有以邪妄議之者矣。 由事後而觀，鹹追恨議者之誤國。 倘事幸不敗，必共服議者之守經。 大抵天下事，無全害亦無全利，當局者非樸誠通達，誰敢違眾獨行； 旁持者競意氣筆鋒，必欲強人從我。 臣所謂任議之途太畸者此也。
The state's fortunes are desperate and have now reached their limit. Yet those who counsel seek victory in principle and do not weigh the gravity of the situation; they like to press their opinions and often pay no heed to whether affairs are helped or harmed. In the hall they contend daily over factions; outside the gate command is second-guessed from afar; one man bears responsibility while many mouths pass judgment. When Sun Chuanting held Guanzhong, those with insight all said he should not march out lightly, yet there were already voices accusing him of delay. After the rebels crossed the river, I urged Shi Kefa and Jiang Yueguang to withdraw Wu Sangui's troops from Shanhai and Ningyuan at once and, following the chief minister, go to meet and strike them. When the late emperor held audience, the ministers also raised this, yet there were already voices calling it a reckless surrender of territory. When rebel power spread like prairie fire, some ministers urged a southern journey and others urged the crown prince to oversee the state at Nanjing—all sound expedients—yet there were already voices denouncing them as heterodox and reckless. Viewed after the fact, all regret that those who counseled had misled the state. Had affairs by chance not failed, all would surely have admired the counselors' adherence to principle. Generally in state affairs there is neither wholly harmful nor wholly beneficial course; unless those in charge are plain, sincere, and penetrating, who dares to defy the multitude and act alone; those standing aside compete in spirit and rhetoric, determined to force others to follow them. This is what I mean by the path of entrusting counsel being too distorted.
16
乞究前事之失，為後事之師，以寬為體，以嚴為用。 蓋崇簡易、推真誠之謂寬，而濫賞縱罪者非寬； 辨邪正、綜名實之謂嚴，而鉤距索隱者非嚴。 寬嚴得濟，任議乃合。 仍請於任事之人，嚴核始進，寬期後效，無令行間再踵藏垢，邊才久借然灰，收之以嚴，然後可任之以寬也。 詔褒納之。
I beg that the failures of the past be examined as lessons for the future, taking leniency as substance and severity as function. Honoring simplicity and advancing sincerity is true leniency; indiscriminate reward and indulgent pardon are not. Distinguishing right from wrong and coordinating names with realities is true severity; probing and hunting out hidden matters is not. When leniency and severity are properly balanced, entrusting counsel can work as it should. I further ask that those appointed to office be strictly vetted before they take up their posts and judged leniently by later results, lest the ranks again harbor hidden corruption and border talent lie unused like ash. Gather them with severity first, and only then may they be entrusted with leniency. An edict praised and accepted the memorial.
17
明年五月，南京覆，走福建，歸唐王。 六月，我大清兵已取南昌、袁州、臨江、吉安。 逾月，又取建昌。 惟贛州孤懸上遊，兵力單寡。 會益府永寧王慈炎招降峒賊張安，所號龍武新軍者也，遣復撫州。 南贛巡撫李永茂乃命副將徐必達扼泰和，拒大兵。 未幾，戰敗，至萬安，遇永茂。 永茂遂奔贛。
In the fifth month of the following year Nanjing fell. He fled to Fujian and joined the Prince of Tang. In the sixth month the Qing army had already taken Nanchang, Yuanzhou, Linjiang, and Ji'an. A month later it also took Jianchang. Only Ganzhou stood alone upstream, its forces few and weak. Prince Yongning of the Yi house, Ciyan, induced the Dong bandit Zhang An to surrender—the force known as the New Dragon Martial Army—and sent him to recover Fuzhou. Southern Ganzhou Grand Coordinator Li Yongmao then ordered Vice General Xu Bida to hold Taihe and resist the Qing army. Before long he was defeated. Reaching Wan'an he met Yongmao. Yongmao then fled to Ganzhou.
18
八月，叛將白之裔入萬安，江西巡撫曠昭被執，知縣梁於涘死之。 於涘，江都人。 崇禎十六年進士。 時唐王詔適至贛，永茂乃與楊廷麟、劉同升同舉兵。 未幾，王召永茂為兵部右侍郎，以張朝綖代。 甫任事，擢元吉兵部右侍郎兼右副都御史，總督江西、湖廣諸軍，召朝綖還，以同升代。 元吉至贛，同升已卒，遂以元吉兼巡撫。
In the eighth month the rebel general Bai Zhiyi entered Wan'an. Jiangxi Grand Coordinator Kuang Zhao was captured and Magistrate Liang Yusi was killed. Yusi came from Jiangdu. He received his jinshi degree in the sixteenth year of the Chongzhen reign. At that time an edict from the Prince of Tang reached Ganzhou, and Yongmao joined Yang Tinglin and Liu Tongsheng in raising troops. Before long the king summoned Yongmao to be right vice minister of war and replaced him with Zhang Chaoxuan. As soon as he took office, Yuanji was promoted to right vice minister of war and concurrent right vice censor-in-chief, grand coordinator of all armies in Jiangxi and Huguang. Chaoxuan was recalled and Tongsheng replaced him. When Yuanji reached Ganzhou, Tongsheng had already died, and Yuanji was made concurrent grand coordinator.
19
順治三年三月，廷麟將朝王，元吉代守吉安。 初，崇禎末，命中書舍人張同敞調雲南兵，至是抵江西，兩京已相繼失，因退還吉安。 廷麟留與共守，用客禮待之。 其將趙印選、胡一青頻立功，而元吉約束甚嚴，諸將漸不悅。 時有廣東兵亦以赴援至。 而新軍張安者，汀、贛間峒賊四營之一，驍勇善戰，既降，有復撫州功，且招他營盡降。 元吉以新軍足恃也，蔑視雲南、廣東軍，二軍皆解體。 然安卒故為賊，居贛淫掠，遣援湖西，所過殘破。 及是，大兵逼吉安，諸軍皆內攜，新軍又在湖西。 城中軍不戰潰，城遂破。 元吉退屯皂口，檄諭贛州極言雲南兵棄城罪，其眾遂西去。 四月，大兵逼皂口，元吉不能禦，入贛城。 大兵乘勝抵城下。 給事中楊文薦奉命湖南，過贛，入城共守禦，城中賴之。 文薦，元吉門生也。
In the third month of the third year of Shunzhi, as Tinglin prepared to attend court on the king, Yuanji held Ji'an in his place. Earlier, at the end of Chongzhen, the court had ordered secretariat drafter Zhang Tongchang to mobilize Yunnan troops. By this time he had reached Jiangxi; both capitals had fallen in succession, and he withdrew to Ji'an. Tinglin kept him to defend the city together and treated him as an honored guest. His generals Zhao Yinxuan and Hu Yiqing won merit repeatedly, but Yuanji's discipline was very strict and the generals gradually grew resentful. At the time Guangdong troops also arrived to reinforce the city. Zhang An's new army was one of four Dong bandit camps between Tingzhou and Ganzhou—fierce and skilled in battle. After surrendering he had recovered Fuzhou and induced the other camps to surrender as well. Because he trusted the new army, Yuanji looked down on the Yunnan and Guangdong forces, and both armies fell apart. Yet An remained a bandit at heart. Stationed at Ganzhou he raped and plundered, and when sent to relieve western Hunan he ravaged every place he passed. At this time the Qing army pressed Ji'an. All the armies were torn by internal discord, and the new army was again in western Hunan. The garrison collapsed without a fight, and the city fell. Yuanji withdrew to Zaokou and by proclamation to Ganzhou denounced the Yunnan army for abandoning the city; their force then marched west. In the fourth month the Qing army pressed Zaokou. Yuanji could not hold and entered Ganzhou. The Qing army, following its victory, reached the city walls. Supervising Secretary Yang Wensian, on mission to Hunan, passed through Ganzhou, entered the city to defend it, and the city relied on him. Wensian was Yuanji's student.
20
元吉素有才，蒞事精敏。 及失吉安，士不用命，昏然坐城上，對將吏不交一言。 隔河大營遍山麓，指為空營。 兵民從大營中至，言敵勢盛，輒叱為間諜，斬之。 江西巡撫劉遠生令張琮者，將兵趨湖東。 及贛圍急，遠生自出城，召琮於雩都。 贛人曰「撫軍遁矣」，怒焚其舟，拘遠生妻子。 俄遠生率琮兵至，贛人乃大悔。 琮軍渡河，抵梅林，中伏大敗，還至河，爭舟，多死於水。 遠生憤甚，五月朔，渡河再戰，身先士卒，遇大兵，被獲，復逃歸。 而新軍先往湖西者，聞吉安復失，仍還雩都。 廷麟躬往邀之，與大兵戰梅林，再敗，乃散遣其軍，而身入城，與元吉同守。 自遠生敗，援軍皆不敢前。 六月望，副將吳之蕃以廣東兵五千至，圍漸解，未幾復合，城中守如初。
Yuanji had always been talented and keen in handling affairs. After Ji'an fell the troops would not obey orders. He sat dazed on the wall and exchanged not a word with generals or officials. Across the river the Qing camps covered the foothills, yet he insisted they were empty. When soldiers and civilians came from the enemy camps and reported how strong the enemy was, he would denounce them as spies and behead them. Jiangxi Grand Coordinator Liu Yuansheng had ordered Zhang Cong to lead troops toward eastern Hunan. When the siege of Ganzhou grew urgent, Yuansheng himself left the city to summon Cong at Yudu. The people of Ganzhou cried, "The grand coordinator has fled!" They burned his boats in anger and detained his wife and children. Soon Yuansheng returned with Cong's troops, and the people of Ganzhou deeply repented. Cong's army crossed the river and reached Meilin, where it was ambushed and routed. Fleeing back to the river, the men scrambled for boats and many drowned. Yuansheng was furious. On the first day of the fifth month he crossed the river to fight again, leading from the front. He met the Qing army, was captured, and escaped back to the city. The new army that had earlier gone to western Hunan, hearing that Ji'an had fallen again, returned to Yudu. Tinglin went in person to summon them, fought the Qing army at Meilin, was defeated again, dispersed his army, and entered the city himself to defend it with Yuanji. After Yuansheng's defeat, no relief army dared advance. On the full moon of the sixth month Vice General Wu Zhifan arrived with five thousand Guangdong troops. The siege briefly loosened, then closed again, and the defenders held on as before.
21
王聞贛圍久，獎勞之，賜名忠誠府，加元吉兵部尚書，文薦右僉都御史，使尚書郭維經來援。 維經與御史姚奇胤沿途募兵，得八千人。 元吉部將汪起龍率師數千，雲南援將趙印選、胡一青率師三千，大學士蘇觀生遣兵如之。 兩廣總督丁魁楚亦遣兵四千。 廷麟又收集散亡，得數千。 先後至贛，營於城外。 諸將欲戰，元吉待水師至並擊。 而中書舍人來從諤募砂兵三千，吏部主事龔棻、兵部主事黎遂球募水師四千，皆屯南安，不敢下。 主事王其狖謂元吉曰：「水師帥羅明受海盜也，桀驁難制，棻、遂球若慈母之奉驕子。 且今水涸，臣舟難進，豈能如約。」 不聽。 及八月，大兵聞水師將至，即夜截諸江，焚巨舟八十，死者無算，明受遁還，舟中火藥戎器盡失。 於是兩廣、雲南軍不戰而潰，他營亦稍稍散去。 城中僅起龍、維經部卒四千余人，城外僅水師後營二千余人。 參將謝誌良擁眾萬余雩都不進，廷麟調廣西狼兵八千人逾嶺，亦不即赴。 會聞汀州破，人情益震懼。
Hearing that Ganzhou had been besieged so long, the king rewarded and comforted the defenders, granted the city the name Loyalty Prefecture, promoted Yuanji to minister of war and Wensian to right vice censor-in-chief, and sent Minister Guo Weijing to relieve the city. Weijing and Censor Yao Qiyin recruited troops along the way and raised eight thousand men. Yuanji's subordinate Wang Qilong led several thousand men; Yunnan relief generals Zhao Yinxuan and Hu Yiqing led three thousand; and Grand Secretary Su Guansheng sent troops as well. Liang-Guang Governor-General Ding Kuichu also sent four thousand troops. Tinglin also gathered scattered troops and raised several thousand more. They arrived at Ganzhou in succession and encamped outside the walls. The generals wished to fight, but Yuanji waited for the naval force to arrive so they could strike together. Meanwhile secretariat drafter Lai Cong'e recruited three thousand sand troops, and secretaries Gong Fen and Li Suqiu recruited four thousand naval troops—all stationed at Nan'an and dared not descend the river. Secretary Wang Qiyou told Yuanji, "The naval commander Luo Mingshou is a pirate—arrogant and hard to control. Fen and Suqiu indulge him like a doting mother with a spoiled child. Moreover the river is low and our boats can hardly advance. How can we keep our agreement?" Yuanji would not listen. In the eighth month, hearing that the naval force was about to arrive, the Qing army blocked the rivers by night, burned eighty great ships, and killed countless men. Mingshou fled back, and all gunpowder and weapons on the boats were lost. Thereupon the Guangdong-Guangxi and Yunnan armies collapsed without a fight, and the other camps gradually dispersed as well. Inside the city only Qilong's and Weijing's troops remained—little more than four thousand men. Outside the walls only the naval rear camp remained—little more than two thousand. Assistant General Xie Zhiliang held more than ten thousand men at Yudu and would not advance. Tinglin summoned eight thousand Guangxi wolf troops over the mountains, but they too did not come promptly. When news came that Tingzhou had fallen, fear spread through the city all the more.
22
十月初，大兵用向導夜登城，鄉勇猶巷戰。 黎明，兵大至，城遂破，元吉死之。 先是，元吉禁婦女出城。 其家人潛載其妾縋城去，元吉遣飛騎追還，捶其家人，故城中無敢出者。 及城破，部將擁元吉出城。 元吉嘆曰：「為我謝贛人，使闔城塗炭者我也，我何可獨存！」 遂赴水死，年四十有四。
At the beginning of the tenth month the Qing army used guides to scale the walls by night. Local militia still fought in the streets. At dawn the enemy arrived in force, the city fell, and Yuanji died. Earlier Yuanji had forbidden women to leave the city. His family secretly lowered his concubine from the wall to flee. Yuanji sent swift riders to bring her back and beat his household, so thereafter no one in the city dared try to escape. When the city fell, his subordinate generals tried to escort Yuanji out of the city. Yuanji sighed and said, "Give my thanks to the people of Ganzhou. I am the one who brought ruin upon the whole city—how can I alone survive!" He then cast himself into the water and died, aged forty-four.
23
楊文薦，字幼宇，京山人。 由進士為兵科給事中。 城破時，病困不能起，執送南昌，絕粒而卒。
Yang Wensian, whose style was Youyu, came from Jingshan. After receiving his jinshi degree he became military affairs supervising secretary. When the city fell he was too ill to rise. He was seized and sent to Nanchang, where he died by refusing food.
24
郭維經
Guo Weijing
25
郭維經，字六修，江西龍泉人。 天啟五年進士。 授行人。 崇禎三年遷南京御史，疏陳時弊，中有所舉刺。 帝責令指實，乃極稱順天府尹劉宗周之賢，力詆吏部尚書王永光谿刻及用人顛倒罪，帝置不問。 六年秋，溫體仁代周延儒輔政，維經言：「執政不患無才，患有才而用之排正人，不用之籌國事。 國事日非，則委曰我不知，坐視盜賊日猖，邊警日急，止與二三小臣爭口舌，角是非。 平章之地幾成聚訟，可謂有才邪？」 帝切責之。 憂去。 久之，起故官。
Guo Weijing, whose style was Liuxiu, came from Longquan in Jiangxi. He received his jinshi degree in the fifth year of the Tianqi reign. He was appointed palace messenger. In the third year of Chongzhen he was transferred to Nanjing censor and memorialized on the ills of the time, naming specific offenders. The emperor ordered him to specify his charges. He then praised Shuntian Prefect Liu Zongzhou's worth and vigorously denounced Minister of Personnel Wang Yongguang for harshness and perverse appointments. The emperor took no action. In the autumn of the sixth year Wen Tiren replaced Zhou Yanru as chief minister. Weijing wrote, "In governing one need not fear lack of talent, but fear talent used to exclude upright men and not used to plan state affairs. As state affairs worsened daily, he would say he did not know, sat by while bandits grew rampant and border alarms mounted, and only wrangled over words and right and wrong with two or three petty ministers. The chief minister's seat nearly became a public debating ground—can this be called talent?" The emperor sharply rebuked him. He left office to observe mourning. After a long while he was restored to his former post.
26
北都變聞，南都諸臣有議立潞王者，維經力主福王。 王立，進應天府丞，仍兼御史，巡視中城。 俄上言：「聖明禦極將二旬，一切雪恥除兇、收拾人心之事，絲毫未舉。 令偽官縱橫於鳳、泗，悍卒搶攘於瓜、儀，焚戮剽掠之慘，漸逼江南，而廊廟之上不聞動色相戒，惟以慢不切要之務，盈庭而議。 乞令內外文武諸臣洗滌肺腸，盡去刻薄偏私及恩怨報復故習，一以辦賊復仇為事。」 報聞。 尋遷大理少卿，左僉都御史。 命專督五城御史，察非常，清輦轂。 明年二月，隆平侯張拱日、保國公朱國弼相繼以他事劾罷維經，維經回籍。 唐王召為吏部右侍郎。
When news came of the fall of Beijing, some ministers at Nanjing debated enthroning the Prince of Lu; Weijing strongly advocated the Prince of Fu. When the prince was enthroned, he was promoted to vice prefect of Yingtian while still serving as censor inspecting the central city. Soon he memorialized, "The sage ruler has held the throne for nearly twenty days, yet in all matters of avenging the realm, removing traitors, and restoring public confidence, not the slightest step has been taken. False officials roam at Fengyang and Sizhou, fierce soldiers plunder at Guazhou and Yizhen, and the horrors of burning and pillage press ever closer upon Jiangnan—yet in the hall no one shows alarm, and only slow, inessential matters fill the court with debate. I beg that civil and military ministers inside and outside cleanse their hearts, cast off harshness, partiality, and old habits of private score-settling, and make punishing the enemy and avenging the realm their sole task." The court acknowledged the memorial. Soon he was transferred to vice minister of the Court of Judicial Review and left vice censor-in-chief. He was ordered to supervise the Five-City censors, investigate irregularities, and cleanse the capital region. In the second month of the following year Longping Marquis Zhang Gongri and Defender of the State Duke Zhu Guobi successively impeached and removed Weijing on other grounds, and he returned home. The Prince of Tang summoned him as right vice minister of the Ministry of Personnel.
27
順治三年五月，大兵圍贛州。 王乃命維經為吏、兵二部尚書兼右副都御史，總理湖廣、江西、廣東、浙江、福建軍務，督師往援。 維經與御史姚奇胤募兵八千人入贛州，與楊廷麟、萬元吉協守。 及城破，維經入嵯峨寺自焚死，奇胤亦死之。
In the fifth month of the third year of Shunzhi the Qing army besieged Ganzhou. The king then appointed Weijing minister of both Personnel and War and concurrent right vice censor-in-chief, general overseer of military affairs in Huguang, Jiangxi, Guangdong, Zhejiang, and Fujian, to lead the relief army. Weijing and Censor Yao Qiyin recruited eight thousand troops, entered Ganzhou, and defended the city together with Yang Tinglin and Wan Yuanji. When the city fell, Weijing entered Cuoe Temple and burned himself to death. Qiyin died as well.
28
奇胤，字有仆，錢塘人。 由進士授南海知縣。 地富饒，多盜賊。 奇胤絕苞苴，力以弭盜為事，政聲大起。 入為兵部主事，改監察御史，巡按廣東。 未任，與維經赴援，遂同死。
Qiyin, whose style was Youpu, came from Qiantang. After receiving his jinshi degree he was appointed magistrate of Nanhai. The district was wealthy and plagued by bandits. Qiyin refused bribes and made suppressing bandits his chief task. His reputation for good government spread widely. He entered service as war secretary, was transferred to investigating censor, and was assigned to tour Guangdong. Before taking up the post he went with Weijing to relieve Ganzhou and died with him.
29
詹兆恒
Zhan Zhaoheng
30
詹兆恒，字月如，廣信永豐人。 父士龍，順天府尹。 兆恒舉崇禎四年進士。 由甄寧知縣征授南京御史，疏陳盜鑄之弊，帝下所司察核。 十四年夏，言燕、齊二千里間，寇盜縱橫，行旅阻絕，四方餉金滯中途者，至數百萬，請急發京軍剿滅。 又言楚、豫之疆盡青燐白骨，新征舊逋，斷無從出，請多方蠲貸。 帝並采納。 明年，賊陷含山，犯無為，劾總督高鬥光。 又明年秋，賊陷廬州，臨江欲渡，陳內外合防策。 再劾鬥光，請以史可法代，鬥光遂獲譴。 時江北民避亂，盡走南京。 兆恒慮賊諜闌入，處之城外，為嚴保伍，察非常，奸宄無所匿。
Zhan Zhaoheng, whose style was Yueru, came from Yongfeng in Guangxin. His father Shilong had been Shuntian prefect. Zhaoheng received his jinshi degree in the fourth year of the Chongzhen reign. From his post as magistrate of Zhenning he was summoned to serve as Nanjing censor. He memorialized on the abuse of illicit coining, and the emperor ordered an investigation. In the summer of the fourteenth year he reported that within two thousand li of Yan and Qi bandits roamed freely, travelers were cut off, and millions in tribute silver stalled on the roads. He asked that capital troops be sent at once to exterminate them. He also reported that the borders of Chu and Yu were strewn with bones, and that new levies and old arrears could not possibly be met. He asked for broad remission and relief. The emperor adopted both proposals. The next year the rebels took Hanshan and invaded Wuwei, and he impeached Governor-General Gao Douguang. In the autumn of the year after that the rebels took Luzhou and were about to cross the Yangtze at Linjiang. He proposed a strategy of joint internal and external defense. He again impeached Douguang and asked that Shi Kefa replace him. Douguang was then punished. At the time the people north of the Yangtze fled the chaos and all poured into Nanjing. Zhaoheng feared rebel spies would slip in. He settled the refugees outside the walls, organized strict mutual-guarantee groups, investigated irregularities, and left evildoers nowhere to hide.
31
福王立，擢兆恒大理寺丞。 馬士英薦阮大鋮，令冠帶陛見。 兆恒言：「先皇手定逆案，芟刈群兇，第一美政。 今者大仇未報，乃忽召大鋮，還以冠帶，豈不上傷先皇靈，下短忠義氣哉！」 疏奏，命取逆案進覽，兆恒即上進。 而士英亦以是日進《三朝要典》，大鋮竟起用。 其秋，奉命祭告，尋進本寺少卿。 使事竣，即旋裏。
When the Prince of Fu was enthroned, Zhaoheng was promoted to vice minister of the Court of Judicial Review. Ma Shiying recommended Ruan Dacheng and ordered him to appear at court in full dress. Zhaoheng wrote, "The late emperor by his own hand fixed the treason cases and cut down a host of villains—this was his foremost good policy. Now the great vengeance is not yet repaid, yet suddenly Dacheng is summoned and restored to office—does this not wound the late emperor's spirit above and deflate the breath of loyalty and righteousness below!" When the memorial was submitted, the court ordered the treason cases brought for review, and Zhaoheng immediately presented them. But on the same day Shiying presented the Essentials of Three Reigns, and Dacheng was employed after all. That autumn he was ordered on a sacrificial mission and soon promoted to vice minister of the court. When the mission was completed he returned home at once.
32
唐王立，拜兆恒兵部左侍郎，佐黃道周協守廣信。 廣信破，奔懷玉山，聚眾數千人自保。 尋進攻衢州之開化縣，兵敗，歿於陣。
When the Prince of Tang was enthroned, Zhaoheng was appointed left vice minister of war to assist Huang Daozhou in defending Guangxin. When Guangxin fell he fled to Huaiyu Mountain, gathered several thousand men, and held out there. Soon he advanced to attack Kaihua County in Quzhou, was defeated, and died in battle.
33
胡夢泰，字友蠡，廣信鉛山人。 崇禎十年進士。 除奉化知縣。 邑人戴澳官順天府丞，怙勢不輸賦。 夢泰捕治其子，其子走京師，澳，令劾去夢泰。 澳念州民不當劾長吏，而劫於其子，姑出一疏，言天下不治由守令貪汙，以陰詆夢泰。 及得旨，令指實。 其子即欲訐夢泰，而澳念夢泰無可劾，乃以嘉興推官文德翼、平遙知縣王凝命實之。 給事中沈迅為兩人訴枉，發澳隱情。 澳下詔獄，除名。 夢泰聲益起。
Hu Mengtai, whose style was Youli, came from Qianshan in Guangxin. He received his jinshi degree in the tenth year of the Chongzhen reign. He was appointed magistrate of Fenghua. A townsman named Dai Ao served as Shuntian vice prefect and relied on his influence to refuse paying taxes. Mengtai arrested and punished his son. The son fled to the capital, and Ao had Mengtai impeached and removed. Ao felt that the people of the prefecture ought not impeach a chief official, but was coerced by his son and for the moment issued a memorial saying the realm was not governed because prefects and magistrates were corrupt—an indirect attack on Mengtai. When the response came he was ordered to specify facts. His son at once wished to denounce Mengtai, but Ao realized Mengtai had done nothing impeachable and therefore named Jiaxing investigating censor Wen Deyi and Pingyao magistrate Wang Ningming instead. Supervising Secretary Shen Xun appealed on behalf of the two men and exposed Ao's hidden motives. Ao was sent to the imperial prison and stripped of office. Mengtai's reputation rose all the higher.
34
十六年夏，吏部會廷臣舉天下賢能有司十人，夢泰與焉，行取入都。 帝以畿輔州縣殘破，欲得廉能者治之，諸行取者悉出補。 夢泰得唐縣。 京師陷，南歸。
In the summer of the sixteenth year the Ministry of Personnel, together with court ministers, recommended ten worthy officials throughout the realm. Mengtai was among them and was selected for transfer to the capital. Because the metropolitan prefectures and counties were ravaged, the emperor wished to send honest and capable men to govern them, and all those selected were sent out to fill posts. Mengtai was assigned to Tang County. When the capital fell he returned south.
35
唐王時，授兵科給事中，奉使旋裏。 順治三年，大兵逼城下，夢泰傾家募士，與巡撫周定仍等守城。 圍數月，城破，夫婦俱縊死。
During the reign of the Prince of Tang he was appointed supervising secretary of the military division, and after completing a mission he returned home. In the third year of Shunzhi the Qing army pressed the city walls. Mengtai spent his family's entire fortune to recruit soldiers and defended the city with Grand Coordinator Zhou Dingreng and others. After a siege lasting several months the city fell, and husband and wife both hanged themselves.
36
定仍，南昌人。 崇禎十六年進士。 與萬文英、胡奇偉、胡甲桂舉兵保廣信，唐王即以為右僉都御史，巡撫其地。 城破，死之。
Dingreng came from Nanchang. He received his jinshi degree in the sixteenth year of the Chongzhen reign. Together with Wan Wenying, Hu Qiwei, and Hu Jiagui he raised troops to defend Guangxin. The Prince of Tang immediately appointed him right vice censor-in-chief and grand coordinator of the region. When the city fell, he died.
37
文英，亦南昌人。 初為鳳陽推官，以子元亨代死，得脫歸。 福王時，起禮部主事，丁艱不赴。 唐王授為兵部員外郎，監黃道周諸軍，協守廣信。 諸軍敗於鉛山，文英舉家赴水死。
Wenying also came from Nanchang. He had first served as investigating censor of Fengyang. His son Yuanheng died in his place, allowing him to escape and return home. During the reign of the Prince of Fu he was recalled as a secretary in the Ministry of Rites, but he was in mourning for a parent and did not take up the appointment. The Prince of Tang appointed him vice director in the Ministry of War to supervise Huang Daozhou's armies and help defend Guangxin. The armies were defeated at Qianshan. Wenying and his entire family drowned themselves.
38
奇偉，進賢人。 歷官兵部主事。 唐王授為湖東副使，守廣信，兵敗，死之。
Qiwei came from Jinxian. He served in succession as a secretary in the Ministry of War. The Prince of Tang appointed him vice commissioner of the Hudong circuit to defend Guangxin. When the army was defeated, he died.
39
田桂，字秋卿，昆山人。 崇禎十二年以鄉試副榜貢入國學，授南昌通判。 遷永州同知，以道梗改廣信。 至則南昌、袁州、吉安俱失。 廣信止疲卒千人，士民多竄徙。 會黃道周以募兵至，相與議城守。 已而道周敗歿，勢益孤，甲桂效死不去。 城破被執，諭降不從，幽別室，自經死。
Tian Gui, whose style was Qiuging, came from Kunshan. In the twelfth year of the Chongzhen reign he placed on the secondary list of the provincial examination, entered the Imperial Academy as a tribute student, and was appointed vice-prefect of Nanchang. He was transferred to magistrate of Yongzhou, but because the roads were blocked he was reassigned to Guangxin. By the time he arrived, Nanchang, Yuanzhou, and Ji'an had all been lost. Guangxin had only a thousand exhausted soldiers left, and most officials and commoners had fled. When Huang Daozhou arrived with recruited troops, they discussed the city's defense together. Before long Daozhou was defeated and killed. Their position grew more desperate, and Jiagui resolved to die for the cause and refused to leave. When the city fell he was captured. Urged to surrender, he refused, was confined in a separate room, and hanged himself.
40
有畢貞士者，貴溪人，舉於鄉。 同守廣信，城破，赴水。 家人救之，行至五里橋，望拜祖塋，觸橋柱死。
There was one Bi Zhenshi, a native of Guixi who had passed the provincial examination. He helped defend Guangxin, and when the city fell he threw himself into the water. His family pulled him out, but as he walked to Wuli Bridge he turned toward his ancestors' tombs and bowed, struck a bridge pillar, and died.
41
陳泰來
Chen Tailai
42
陳泰來，字剛長，江西新昌人。 崇禎四年進士。 由宣城知縣入為戶科給事中。 十五年冬，都城戒嚴，泰來陳戰守數策。 總督趙光抃言泰來與同官荊祚永素晰邊情，行間奏報，宜敕二臣參預，報可。 泰來又自請假兵一萬，肅清輦轂。 帝壯之，即改授兵科，出視諸軍戰守方略，召對中左門。 至軍中，奏界嶺失事狀，劾副將柏永鎮論死。 以功遷吏科右給事中，乞假歸。 福王時，起刑科左給事中，不赴。 唐王擢為太仆寺少卿，與萬元吉同守贛州。 再擢右僉都御史，提督江西義軍。 李自成敗走武昌，其部下散掠新昌境，泰來大破之。 初，益王起兵建昌，泰來欲從之。 同邑按察使漆嘉祉、舉人戴國士持不可。 已而新昌破，國士出降，泰來惡之。 會上高舉人曹誌明等兵起。 泰來與相結。 十二月攻取上高、新昌、寧州，殺國士妻子，遂取萬載。 已而大兵逼新昌，守將出降，泰來走界埠，誌明等從上高移軍會之，進攻撫州，兵敗皆死。
Chen Tailai, whose style was Gangchang, came from Xinchang in Jiangxi. He received his jinshi degree in the fourth year of the Chongzhen reign. After serving as magistrate of Xuancheng he was appointed supervising secretary of the revenue division. In the winter of the fifteenth year the capital was placed on war footing, and Tailai submitted several plans for offense and defense. Grand Coordinator Zhao Guangbian reported that Tailai and his colleague Jing Zuoyong had long understood frontier conditions and filed reports from the field, and that the two officials should be ordered to take part. The court approved. Tailai also volunteered to borrow ten thousand troops to pacify the capital region. The emperor was impressed. He at once transferred Tailai to the military division, sent him out to inspect the armies' plans for war and defense, and summoned him for audience at the Central Left Gate. When he reached the army he memorialized on the disaster at Jieling and impeached Vice General Bai Yongzhen, calling for the death penalty. For his service he was transferred to right supervising secretary of the personnel division and requested leave to return home. During the reign of the Prince of Fu he was recalled as left supervising secretary of the punishment division but did not take up the appointment. The Prince of Tang promoted him to vice minister of the Court of the Imperial Stud, and he defended Ganzhou together with Wan Yuanji. He was promoted again to right vice censor-in-chief and placed in command of Jiangxi's volunteer armies. Li Zicheng was defeated and fled toward Wuchang. His followers scattered to plunder Xinchang, and Tailai routed them decisively. When the Prince of Yi first raised troops at Jianchang, Tailai wanted to join him. The surveillance commissioner of his home prefecture, Qi Jiazhu, and the provincial graduate Dai Guoshi argued that he should not. Before long Xinchang fell. Guoshi went out to surrender, and Tailai despised him for it. At that time Cao Zhiming, a provincial graduate of Shanggao, and others took up arms. Tailai joined forces with them. In the twelfth month they captured Shanggao, Xinchang, and Ningzhou, killed Guoshi's wife and children, and then took Wanzai. Before long the Qing army pressed Xinchang and the defending general surrendered. Tailai fled to Jiebu. Zhiming and the others moved their forces from Shanggao to join him, advanced to attack Fuzhou, were defeated, and all were killed.
43
王養正
Wang Yangzheng
44
王養正，字聖功，泗州人。 崇禎元年進士。 授海鹽知縣。 遭父喪，服除，起官秀水，中大計，補河南按察司照磨，累遷南康知府。 計殲巨寇鄧毛溪、熊高，一方賴之。 福王時，進副使，分巡建昌。 南都既覆，大兵下江西。 巡撫曠昭棄南昌遁，走瑞州，列城望風潰。 養正乃與布政夏萬亨、知府王域、推官劉允浩、南昌推官史夏隆起兵拒守。 閱三日，有客兵內應，城即破。 養正等被執，械至南昌，與萬亨等同死。 其妻張氏聞之，絕粒九日而死。
Wang Yangzheng, whose style was Shengong, came from Sizhou. He received his jinshi degree in the first year of the Chongzhen reign. He was appointed magistrate of Haiyan. After his father's death, when his mourning ended he was reappointed to Xiushui. He failed the grand evaluation and was assigned as registrar of the Henan Surveillance Commission, then was promoted step by step to prefect of Nanchang. He planned the extermination of the major bandits Deng Maoxi and Xiong Gao, and the whole region relied on him. During the reign of the Prince of Fu he was promoted to vice commissioner and made circuit intendant of Jianchang. After the Southern Capital fell, the Qing army swept into Jiangxi. Grand Coordinator Kuang Zhao abandoned Nanchang and fled to Ruizhou, and walled cities throughout the region collapsed at the mere rumor of the enemy's approach. Yangzheng then joined Administration Commissioner Xia Wanheng, Prefect Wang Yu, investigating censor Liu Yunhao, and Nanchang investigating censor Shi Xialong in raising troops to resist the invaders. Within three days allied troops opened the gates from within, and the city fell at once. Yangzheng and the others were captured, sent under guard to Nanchang, and executed together with Wanheng. When his wife, Lady Zhang, heard the news, she refused food for nine days and died.
45
萬亨，字元禮，昆山人，起家舉人。 南昌失守，避建昌，與養正同死。 妻顧、子婦陸及一孫、一孫女先赴井死。 仆婢死者復十余人。
Wanheng, whose style was Yuanli, came from Kunshan and entered official life as a provincial graduate. When Nanchang fell he withdrew to Jianchang and died together with Yangzheng. His wife Gu, his daughter-in-law Lu, one grandson, and one granddaughter had already thrown themselves into a well and died. More than ten servants and maids also died.
46
域，字元壽，松江華亭人。 舉於鄉，授宿州學正。 流賊至，佐有司捍禦有功。 屢遷工部主事，榷稅蕪湖。 都城陷，諸榷稅者多以自入。 域嘆曰：「君父遭非常禍，臣子反因以為利邪！」 悉歸之南京戶部。 尋由郎中遷建昌知府。 城破，械至南昌，與允浩、夏隆同日死。
Yu, whose style was Yuanshou, came from Huating in Songjiang. He passed the provincial examination and was appointed director of studies of Suzhou. When bandits arrived he assisted the local officials in defending the city and performed with distinction. He rose in succession to secretary in the Ministry of Works and collector of transit taxes at Wuhu. When the capital fell, many transit-tax collectors kept the proceeds for themselves. Yu sighed and said, "Our sovereign and father has suffered an extraordinary calamity—are we as ministers and sons to turn it to profit?" He returned everything to the Nanjing Ministry of Revenue. Soon he was transferred from director to prefect of Jianchang. When the city fell he was sent under guard to Nanchang and was executed on the same day as Yunhao and Xialong.
47
允浩，掖縣人。 夏隆，宜興人。 皆崇禎十六年進士。 時同死者六人，其一人失其姓名。 建昌人哀其忠，裒而瘞之，表曰：「六君子之墓」。
Yunhao came from Ye County. Xialong came from Yixing. Both had received their jinshi degrees in the sixteenth year of the Chongzhen reign. Six men died together at that time, but the name of one has been lost. The people of Jianchang, moved by their loyalty, gathered and buried them together and marked the tomb "Tomb of the Six Worthies."
48
初，建昌南城諸生有鄧思銘者，聞北都陷，集其儕數十人為庠兵，期朔望習射，學技擊，為國報仇。 請於有司，有司笑曰：「庠可兵邪？」 眾誌遂懈。 思銘郁郁不得誌。 明年，城破，死之。
Earlier, among the students of Nancheng in Jianchang there was Deng Siming. When he heard that the Northern Capital had fallen, he gathered several dozen of his fellows into an academy militia, set the new and full moons for archery practice, trained in combat, and sought to avenge the dynasty. They petitioned the local officials, who laughed and said, "Can academy students serve as soldiers?" The men's resolve then slackened. Siming was despondent and unable to carry out his plan. The next year, when the city fell, he died.
49
建昌既破，新城知縣譚夢開迎降，民潛導守關兵殺之。 夢開黨與民互相殘，彌月不靖。 唐王以邵武貢生李翔為新城知縣。 翔至，擒殺余黨，眾遂散。 然民習於亂，佃人以田主征租斛大，聚數千人，噪縣庭。 翔潛遣義兵三百，詭稱鄭彩軍，殺亂民。 明日復斬百余級，亂乃靖。 彩兵數萬駐新城，畏大兵，遁入關。 獨監軍張家玉、新城人徐伯昌與翔共守。 及大兵逼，家玉亦戰敗入關。 翔率民兵千余出城拒擊。 大兵從間道入城，民兵皆散，翔與伯昌皆死之。 伯昌，字子期，唐王時，由舉人授兵部主事，改御史者也。
After Jianchang fell, Xincheng Magistrate Tan Mengkai went out to welcome the invaders and surrender. The people secretly guided border-guard troops to kill him. Mengkai's faction and the local people slaughtered one another, and for a full month the region was unsettled. The Prince of Tang appointed Li Xiang, a tribute student from Shaowu, magistrate of Xincheng. When Xiang arrived he captured and killed the remaining ringleaders, and the mob then dispersed. Yet the people had grown used to disorder. Tenant farmers, protesting that landlords' rent levies were too heavy, gathered several thousand men and raised an uproar in the county yamen. Xiang secretly sent out three hundred volunteer troops, falsely claiming they were Zheng Cai's army, and killed the rioters. The next day he beheaded another hundred or so men, and the disorder was finally pacified. Zheng Cai's army, tens of thousands strong, was stationed at Xincheng, but fearing the Qing army they fled into the mountain passes. Only Military Supervisor Zhang Jiayu and Xu Bochang, a native of Xincheng, remained to defend the city together with Xiang. When the Qing army closed in, Jiayu was also defeated and withdrew into the passes. Xiang led more than a thousand militiamen out of the city to meet the enemy. The Qing army entered the city by a hidden route. The militia scattered, and both Xiang and Bochang were killed. Bochang, whose style was Ziqi, was a provincial graduate whom the Prince of Tang had appointed a secretary in the Ministry of War and later transferred to censor.
50
時江西郡邑吏城守者，又有李時興、高飛聲。 時興，福清人，舉於鄉，歷官袁州同知，攝府事。 會城已降，時興力城守。 無何，守將蒲纓兵潰，湖廣援將黃朝宣五營亦噪歸。 時興度不能守，自縊於萍鄉官舍，一仆亦同死。 飛聲，字克正，長樂人。 崇禎中，由鄉舉授玉山知縣，遷同知，氣養去。 唐王時，黃道周出督師，邀與偕，令攝撫州事。 大兵至，遣家人懷印走謁王，而身守城死焉。
At that time among the Jiangxi prefectural and county officials who held their cities there were also Li Shixing and Gao Feisheng. Shixing came from Fuqing, passed the provincial examination, served as magistrate of Yuanzhou, and acted in place of the prefect. Although the prefectural seat had already surrendered, Shixing vigorously defended his own city. Before long the defending general Pu Ying's troops collapsed, and the five camps of Huguang relief general Huang Chaoxuan also mutinied and withdrew. Seeing that he could not hold the city, Shixing hanged himself in the Pingxiang official residence, and one servant died with him. Feisheng, whose style was Kezheng, came from Changle. During the Chongzhen reign he entered office through the provincial examination as magistrate of Yushan, was promoted to assistant prefect, and then resigned to devote himself to moral self-cultivation. When the Prince of Tang reigned, Huang Daozhou went out as supervising general, invited Feisheng to accompany him, and put him in charge of Fuzhou affairs. When the Qing army arrived, he sent his family off with the official seal to seek audience with the prince, while he himself held the city and died in its defense.
51
曾亨應
Ceng Hengying
52
曾亨應，字子喜，臨川人。 父棟，廣東布政使。 亨應舉崇禎七年進士。 歷官吏部文選主事。 十五年秋，有詔起廢，亨應以毛士龍、李右讜、喬可聘等十人上。 御史張懋爵劾其納賄行私，亨應疏辨。 懋爵三疏力攻，遂被謫去。 福王立之明年，江西列城皆不守。 亨應命弟和應奉父入閩，而己與艾南英、揭重熙謀城守。 會永寧王慈炎招連子峒土兵數萬復建昌，入撫州，寓書亨應。 亨應募兵數百，與相掎角。 一日，方置酒宴客，大兵至。 亨應避右室，其從弟指示之，遂被執，並執其長子筠。 亨應顧筠曰：「勉之，一日千秋，毋自負！」 筠曰：「諾。」 先受刑死。 釋亨應縛，諭之降，不答，被戮。 和應聞兄死，曰：「烈哉！ 兄為忠臣，兄子為孝子，復何憾！」 既奉父入閩，又走避之肇慶，乃拜辭其父，投井死。 先是，棟弟栻為蒲圻知縣，栻兄益為貴州僉事，並死難，人稱「曾氏五節」雲。
Ceng Hengying, whose style was Zixi, came from Linchuan. His father Dong served as administrative commissioner of Guangdong. Hengying passed the jinshi examination in the seventh year of the Chongzhen reign. He served as a secretary in the Ministry of Personnel's Bureau of Appointments. In the autumn of the fifteenth year an edict ordered the recall of dismissed officials, and Hengying recommended ten men, among them Mao Shilong, Li Youdan, and Qiao Keping. Censor Zhang Maojue impeached him for bribery and favoritism, and Hengying submitted a memorial in his own defense. Maojue submitted three memorials pressing the attack, and Hengying was demoted and dismissed. The year after the Prince of Fu was enthroned, city after city in Jiangxi fell. Hengying sent his younger brother Heying to escort their father into Fujian, while he himself joined Ai Nanying and Jie Zhongxi in planning the city's defense. At that time Prince Yongning Ciyan recruited tens of thousands of native troops from Lianzi Dong, recovered Jianchang, entered Fuzhou, and wrote to Hengying. Hengying raised several hundred troops and coordinated with him in a pincer movement. One day, while he was hosting a banquet for guests, the Qing army arrived. Hengying hid in a side room, but a younger cousin pointed him out. He was seized, and his eldest son Jun was seized with him. Hengying turned to Jun and said, "Do your utmost! Make this one day count for a lifetime — do not disappoint yourself!" Jun answered, "I will." He was executed first. They unbound Hengying and urged him to surrender. He made no reply and was put to death. When Heying heard of his brother's death, he said, "What valor! My brother was a loyal minister and his son a filial son — what more could we ask! After escorting his father into Fujian, he fled to Zhaoqing. There he took leave of his father, bowed farewell, and drowned himself in a well. Earlier, Dong's younger brother Shi had been magistrate of Puqi, and Shi's elder brother Yi had been assistant commissioner of Guizhou. All died in the struggle, and people spoke of them as "the Five Constants of the Ceng Clan."
53
始，亨應為懋爵所訐，朝士頗疑之。 後亨應死節，而懋爵竟降李自成為直指使。
At first, because Maojue had denounced Hengying, many at court were inclined to doubt him. Later Hengying died a martyr's death, while Maojue ultimately surrendered to Li Zicheng and accepted appointment as his direct inspector.
54
揭重熙
Jie Zhongxi
55
揭重熙，字祝萬，臨川人。 崇禎十年以五經登進士，授福寧知州。 福王時，擢吏部考功主事。 外艱歸。 撫州破，與同里曾亨應先後舉兵。 唐王命以故官聯絡建昌兵，戰敗被劾。 用大學士曾櫻薦，以考功員外郎兼兵科給事中，從大學士傅冠辦湖東兵事。 瀘溪告警，冠不能救，重熙劾解冠任，兵事遂皆委重熙。 江西巡撫劉廣胤戰敗被執，復用櫻薦，擢右僉都御史，代廣胤。 攻撫州，不克而退。 俄聞汀州失，解兵入山。 永明王拜重熙兵部尚書兼右副都御史，總督江西兵，召募萬餘人，薄邵武，敗還。
Jie Zhongxi, whose style was Zhuwan, came from Linchuan. In the tenth year of the Chongzhen reign he passed the jinshi examination in the Five Classics specialty and was appointed prefect of Funing. When the Prince of Fu reigned, he was promoted to secretary in the Ministry of Personnel's Bureau of Merit. He returned home upon his father's death. After Fuzhou fell, he and his fellow townsman Ceng Hengying raised troops in turn. The Prince of Tang ordered him to serve in his former rank and coordinate with the Jianchang forces. After a defeat he was impeached. On Grand Secretary Zeng Ying's recommendation he was appointed vice director in the Bureau of Merit with concurrent duty as a supervising secretary in the Bureau of Military Affairs, and joined Grand Secretary Fu Guan in managing military affairs east of Dongting Lake. When Luxi came under attack, Guan could not relieve it. Zhongxi impeached him and had him removed, and all military affairs were then entrusted to Zhongxi. When Jiangxi grand coordinator Liu Guangyin was defeated and captured, Zhongxi was again recommended by Ying, promoted to vice censor-in-chief, and appointed in Guangyin's place. He attacked Fuzhou but failed to take it and withdrew. Soon after he heard that Tingzhou had fallen, he disbanded his army and withdrew into the mountains. The Prince of Yongming appointed Zhongxi minister of war with concurrent rank as vice censor-in-chief and put him in overall command of Jiangxi forces. He raised more than ten thousand men, advanced on Shaowu, was defeated, and retreated.
56
金聲桓，左良玉將也，已降於大清，復乘間為亂，據南昌。 大兵攻討之，聲桓死，諸軍盡散，獨張自盛眾數萬走閩。 重熙入其軍，約廣信曹大鎬並進。 自盛掠邵武，戰敗被執。 重熙走依大鎬百丈霡。 適大鎬還軍鉛山，惟空營在，眾就營炊食。 大兵偵得之，率眾至，射重熙中項，執至建寧，下之獄。 重熙日呼高皇帝，祈死不得。 至冬十一月，昂首受刃，顏色不改。
Jin Shenghuan was a general under Zuo Liangyu. He had already surrendered to the Qing, then seized an opportunity to rebel again and seized Nanchang. The Qing army attacked and suppressed the rebellion. Shenghuan was killed, his forces scattered, and only Zhang Zisheng escaped to Fujian with a force of tens of thousands. Zhongxi joined his army and arranged a joint advance with Cao Dahao of Guangxin. Zisheng raided Shaowu, was defeated, and captured. Zhongxi fled to Dahao's camp at Baizhang Mai. At that moment Dahao had withdrawn his army to Qianshan, leaving only an empty camp behind. Zhongxi's men went there to cook their meals. Qing scouts discovered them, and Qing troops rushed in, shot Zhongxi in the neck, seized him, brought him to Jianning, and threw him into prison. Day after day Zhongxi invoked the Hongwu Emperor and prayed for death, but death was denied him. In the eleventh month of winter he held his head high to receive the blade, his expression unchanged.
57
傅鼎銓，字維新，重熙同邑人。 崇禎十三年進士。 除翰林檢討。 李自成陷京師，鼎銓出謁，賊敗南還。 唐王時，曾櫻薦鼎銓，命予知府銜，赴贛州軍自效，尋復其故官。 贛州破，退隱山中。 已，聞金聲桓叛，鼎銓舉兵以應。 永明王命為兵部右侍郎兼翰林院侍讀學士。 聲桓滅，鼎銓往來自盛、大鎬軍。 順治八年，至廣信張村，為守將所執，系南昌獄。 諭之降，不從。 令作書招重熙，亦不從。 八月朔，乃從容就刑。
Fu Dingquan, whose style was Weixin, came from the same district as Zhongxi. He passed the jinshi examination in the thirteenth year of the Chongzhen reign. He was appointed a Hanlin reviser. When Li Zicheng seized the capital, Dingquan went out to pay him homage. After the rebels were defeated he returned south. During the Prince of Tang's reign, Zeng Ying recommended Dingquan. He was granted the rank of prefect and sent to Ganzhou to serve in the army, and soon afterward his former office was restored. When Ganzhou fell, he withdrew into the mountains in seclusion. Later, when he heard that Jin Shenghuan had rebelled, Dingquan raised troops in support. The Prince of Yongming appointed him vice minister of war with concurrent rank as reader-in-waiting in the Hanlin Academy. After Shenghuan's defeat, Dingquan moved between the armies of Zisheng and Dahao. In the eighth year of the Shunzhi reign he reached Zhang Village in Guangxin, was seized by a garrison commander, and imprisoned in Nanchang. They urged him to surrender, but he refused. They ordered him to write a letter summoning Zhongxi to surrender, but he again refused. On the first day of the eighth month he went calmly to his execution.
58
鼎銓自降流賊，為鄉人非笑，嘗欲求一死所。 至是得死，鄉人更賢鼎銓。 已，重熙、大鎬相繼敗，都昌督師余應桂亦以是歲亡，江右兵遂盡。
Because Dingquan had once submitted to the rebel bandits, his fellow townspeople scorned him, and he had long sought a place to die with honor. When at last he found his death, his fellow townspeople came to honor him. Soon afterward Zhongxi and Dahao were defeated in turn, and Yu Yinggui, the supervising general at Duchang, also died that same year. The armies of Jiangxi were thus spent.
59
陳子壯
Chen Zizhuang
60
陳子壯，字集生，南海人。 萬歷四十七年以進士第三人授翰林編修。 天啟四年典浙江鄉試，發策刺閹豎。 魏忠賢怒，假他事削子壯及其父給事中熙昌籍。 崇禎初，起子壯故官，累遷禮部右侍郎。 流賊犯皇陵，帝素服召對廷臣。 子壯言：「今日所急，在收人心。 宜下罪己詔，激發忠義。」 帝納之。 乃會諸臣，列上蠲租、清獄、使過、宥罪等十二事。 帝以海內多故，思廣羅賢才，下詔援《祖訓》，郡王子孫文武堪任用者，得考驗授職。 子壯慮為民患，立陳五不可。 會唐王上疏，歷引前代故事，詆子壯，遂除子壯名，下之獄，坐贖徒歸。 久之，廷臣交薦，起故官，協理詹事府。 未上，京師陷。
Chen Zizhuang, whose style was Jisheng, came from Nanhai. In the forty-seventh year of the Wanli reign he placed third in the jinshi examination and was appointed a Hanlin compiler. In the fourth year of the Tianqi reign he presided over the Zhejiang provincial examination and used the policy question to attack the eunuch faction. Wei Zhongxian was enraged and, on a pretext of other offenses, struck Zizhuang and his father, supervising secretary Xichang, from the official rolls. At the beginning of the Chongzhen reign Zizhuang was restored to his former office and was eventually promoted to vice minister of rites. When rebel bandits desecrated the imperial tombs, the emperor put on plain mourning dress and summoned the court ministers for counsel. Zizhuang said, "What matters most today is winning the people's hearts. The emperor should issue an edict of self-reproach to rouse loyalty and righteousness. The emperor accepted the advice. He then assembled the ministers and submitted twelve measures, including remission of rent, clearing of prisons, employing the meritorious despite past faults, and pardoning crimes. With troubles mounting throughout the realm, the emperor sought to recruit talent more broadly and issued an edict citing the Ancestral Instructions: descendants of princely houses who proved capable in civil or military affairs might be examined and given office. Fearing that the policy would bring harm to the people, Zizhuang immediately submitted five reasons against it. The Prince of Tang then submitted a memorial citing precedents from earlier dynasties to denounce Zizhuang. Zizhuang was struck from the rolls, imprisoned, and sentenced to exile with ransom before being sent home. After some time court ministers jointly recommended him. He was restored to his former office and appointed to assist in managing the Household of the Heir Apparent. Before he could take up the post, the capital fell.
61
福王立，起禮部尚書。 至蕪湖，南京亦失守，乃歸。 唐王立福建，召相子壯。 以前議宗室事，有宿憾，辭不行。
When the Prince of Fu was enthroned, Zizhuang was appointed minister of rites. He reached Wuhu, but Nanjing had also fallen, and he returned home. When the Prince of Tang established his court in Fujian, he summoned Zizhuang to serve as chief minister. Because of his earlier opposition on the question of imperial clansmen, the prince bore him a long-standing grudge, and Zizhuang declined the appointment.
62
明年春，張家玉、陳邦彥及新會王興、潮陽賴其肖先後起兵，子壯亦以七月起兵九江村。 兵多蜒戶番鬼，善戰。 乃與陳邦彥約共攻廣州，結故指揮使楊可觀等為內應。 事泄，可觀等死。 子壯駐五羊驛，為大兵擊敗，走還九江村。 長子上庸陣歿。 會故御史麥而炫破高明，迎子壯，以故主事朱實蓮攝縣事。 實蓮，子壯邑子也。 九月，大兵克高明，實蓮戰死。 子壯、而炫俱執至廣州，不降，被戮。 子壯母自縊。 永明王贈子壯番禺侯，謚文忠，蔭子上圖錦衣衛指揮使。
The following spring Zhang Jiayu, Chen Bangyan, Wang Xing of Xinhui, and Lai Qixiao of Chaoyang raised troops in turn. Zizhuang also raised troops at Jiujiang Village in the seventh month. His force consisted largely of boat people and foreign fighters, and they were skilled in battle. He then agreed with Chen Bangyan to attack Guangzhou together and secured former commander Yang Keguan and others as inside collaborators. The plot was discovered, and Keguan and his co-conspirators were executed. Zizhuang encamped at Wuyang Post Station but was defeated by the Qing army and fled back to Jiujiang Village. His eldest son Shangyong was killed in battle. Former censor Mai Erxuan then captured Gaoming, welcomed Zizhuang there, and put former director Zhu Shilian in charge of county affairs. Shilian was a fellow townsman of Zizhuang. In the ninth month the Qing army captured Gaoming, and Shilian was killed in battle. Zizhuang and Erxuan were both captured and brought to Guangzhou. They refused to surrender and were put to death. Zizhuang's mother hanged herself. The Prince of Yongming posthumously enfeoffed Zizhuang as Marquis of Panyu, gave him the posthumous title Wenzhong, and granted his son Shangtu hereditary appointment as commander in the Embroidered Uniform Guard.
63
而炫，字章闇，高明人。 由進士歷上海、安肅知縣。 唐王時，擢御史。 實蓮，字子潔。 由舉人歷官刑部主事。
Erxuan, whose style was Zhang'an, came from Gaoming. After taking his jinshi degree, he served in turn as magistrate of Shanghai and Ansu. During the reign of the Prince of Tang, he was promoted to censor. Shilian, whose style was Zijie. A provincial graduate, he rose through the ranks to become a secretary in the Ministry of Justice.
64
初，聿之自立於廣州也，召南海霍子衡為太仆卿。 子衡，字覺商，舉萬歷中鄉試，歷袁州知府。 及官太仆時，而廣州不守。 子衡乃召妾莫氏及三子應蘭、應荃、應芷語之曰：「《禮》，『臨難毋茍免』，若輩知之乎？」 三子皆應曰：「惟大人命！」 子衡援筆大書「忠孝節烈之家」六字，懸中堂，易朝服，北向拜。 又易緋袍，謁家廟。 先赴井死。 妾從之，應蘭偕妻梁氏及一女繼之，應荃、應芷偕其妻徐氏、區氏又繼之。 惟三孫得存。 有小婢見之，亦投井死。
When Zhu Yujie first declared himself ruler at Guangzhou, he summoned Huo Ziheng of Nanhai to serve as minister of the Court of the Imperial Stud. Ziheng, whose style was Jueshang, passed the provincial examination during the Wanli reign and later served as prefect of Yuanzhou. By the time he took office at the Court of the Imperial Stud, Guangzhou had fallen. Ziheng then gathered his concubine Lady Mo and his three sons Yinglan, Yingquan, and Yingzhi and said to them, "The Rites teach that in facing peril one must not seek to save oneself at the cost of honor—do you understand? All three sons answered, "We await only your command, Father!" Ziheng then wrote in large characters the phrase "A House of Loyalty, Filial Piety, Integrity, and Heroic Devotion," hung it in the central hall, changed into court dress, and bowed toward the north. He then put on a crimson robe and paid his respects at the family temple. He went first to the well and drowned himself. His concubine followed him. Yinglan went next with his wife Lady Liang and a daughter; then Yingquan and Yingzhi followed with their wives, Ladies Xu and Ou. Only three grandsons were left alive. A young maid who witnessed it also threw herself into the well and died.
65
張家玉
Zhang Jiayu
66
張家玉，字元子，東莞人。 崇禎十六年進士。 改庶吉士。 李自成陷京師，被執。 上書自成，請旌己門為：「翰林院庶吉士張先生之廬」，而褒恤範景文、周鳳翔等，隆禮劉宗周、黃道周，尊養史可程、魏學濂。 自稱殷人從周，願學孔子，稱自成大順皇帝。 自成怒，召之入，長揖不跪。 縛午門外三日，復脅之降，怵以極刑，卒不動。 自成曰：「當磔汝父母！」 乃跪。 時其父母在嶺南，家玉遽自屈，人鹹笑之。
Zhang Jiayu, whose style was Yuanzi, came from Dongguan. He received his jinshi degree in the sixteenth year of the Chongzhen reign. He was appointed a Hanlin bachelor. When Li Zicheng captured the capital, Jiayu was taken prisoner. He wrote to Zicheng asking that his gate be inscribed "Residence of Mr. Zhang, Hanlin Bachelor," and proposing that Fan Jingwen, Zhou Fengxiang, and others be honored posthumously; that Liu Zongzhou and Huang Daozhou be treated with the highest respect; and that Shi Kecheng and Wei Xuelian be generously provided for. He styled himself a subject of Yin yielding to Zhou, professed his wish to follow Confucius's example, and addressed Zicheng as Emperor Dashun. Zicheng was furious and summoned him in. Jiayu made a deep bow but refused to kneel. He was bound outside the Meridian Gate for three days. They again tried to force him to submit and threatened him with torture, but he would not budge. Zicheng said, "I shall dismember your parents! Only then did he kneel. His parents were then in Lingnan, and Jiayu had suddenly yielded. Everyone mocked him for it.
67
賊敗南歸。 阮大鋮等攻家玉薦宗周、道周於賊，令收人望，集群黨。 家玉遂被逮。 明年，南都失守，脫歸。 從唐王入福建，擢翰林侍講，監鄭彩軍。 出杉關，謀復江西，解撫州之圍。
The rebels were defeated and fled south. Ruan Dacheng and others accused Jiayu of having recommended Zongzhou and Daozhou to the rebels in order to win public prestige and build a faction. Jiayu was thereupon arrested. The following year, when the Southern Capital fell, he escaped and returned home. He followed the Prince of Tang into Fujian, was promoted to Hanlin reader-in-waiting, and was put in charge of Zheng Cai's army. He marched out through Shangguan Pass, intending to recover Jiangxi and relieve the siege of Fuzhou.
68
順治三年，風聞大兵至，彩即奔入關，家玉走新城。 大兵來攻，出戰，中矢，墮馬折臂，走入關。 令以右僉都御史巡撫廣信。 廣信已失，請募兵惠、潮，說降山賊數萬，將赴贛州急。 會大兵克汀州，乃歸東莞。
In the third year of Shunzhi, hearing that the Qing army was approaching, Cai immediately fled back through the pass, and Jiayu retreated to Xincheng. When the Qing army attacked, he went out to fight, was struck by an arrow, fell from his horse and broke his arm, and fled back through the pass. He was appointed right vice censor-in-chief and grand coordinator of Guangxin. Guangxin had already fallen. He asked permission to raise troops in Huizhou and Chaozhou, persuaded tens of thousands of mountain bandits to submit, and prepared to hurry to Ganzhou's relief. But the Qing army captured Tingzhou, and he returned to Dongguan.
69
四年，家玉與舉人韓如璜結鄉兵攻東莞城，知縣鄭霖降，乃籍前尚書李覺斯等貲以犒士。 甫三日，大兵至，家玉敗走。 奉表永明王，進兵部尚書。 無何，大兵來擊，如璜戰死，家玉走西鄉。 祖母陳、母黎、妹石寶俱赴水死。 妻彭被執，不屈死，鄉人殲焉。 西鄉大豪陳文豹奉家玉取新安，襲東莞，戰赤岡。 未幾，大兵大至，攻數日，家玉敗走鐵岡，文豹等皆死。
In the fourth year Jiayu joined with provincial graduate Han Ruhuang to raise local militia and attack Dongguan. Magistrate Zheng Lin surrendered, and they seized the property of the former minister Li Juesi and others to reward their men. After only three days the Qing army arrived, and Jiayu was defeated and fled. He submitted a memorial to the Prince of Yongming and was promoted to minister of war. Before long the Qing army attacked. Ruhuang was killed in battle, and Jiayu fled to Xixiang. His grandmother Chen, his mother Li, and his sister Shibao all drowned themselves. His wife Peng was captured and died rather than submit, and the people of the town were slaughtered. Chen Wenbao, a powerful local leader in Xixiang, rallied to Jiayu, took Xin'an, raided Dongguan, and fought at Chigang. Before long a large Qing force arrived. After several days of fighting Jiayu was defeated and fled to Tiegang, and Wenbao and the others were all killed.
70
覺斯怨家玉甚，發其先壟，毀及家廟，盡滅家玉族，村市為墟。 家玉過故裏，號哭而去。 道得眾數千，取龍門、博羅、連平、長寧，遂攻惠州，克歸善，還屯博羅。 大兵來攻，家玉走龍門，復募兵萬余人。 家玉好擊劍，任俠，多與草澤豪士遊，故所至歸附。 乃分其眾為龍、虎、犀、象四營，攻據增城。
Juesi hated Jiayu bitterly. He desecrated the family tombs, destroyed the ancestral temple, wiped out Jiayu's entire clan, and reduced villages and market towns to ruins. Jiayu passed through his old home, wept aloud, and went on. Along the way he gathered several thousand followers, seized Longmen, Boluo, Lianping, and Changning, then attacked Huizhou, took Guishan, and withdrew to encamp at Boluo. When the Qing army attacked, Jiayu fled to Longmen and raised another force of more than ten thousand men. Jiayu was skilled with the sword, lived by the code of the knight-errant, and consorted with bold men of the wilds, so wherever he went men rallied to him. He divided his force into four camps—Dragon, Tiger, Rhinoceros, and Elephant—and attacked and took Zengcheng.
71
十月，大兵步騎萬余來擊。 家玉三分其兵，掎角相救，倚深溪高崖自固。 大戰十日，力竭而敗，被圍數重。 諸將請潰圍出，家玉嘆曰：「矢盡炮裂，欲戰無具； 將傷卒斃，欲戰無人。 烏用徘徊不決，以頸血濺敵人手哉！」 因遍拜諸將，自投野塘中以死，年三十有三。 明年，永明王贈家玉少保、武英殿大學士、吏部尚書、增城侯，謚文烈。 其父兆龍猶在，以子爵封之。
In the tenth month more than ten thousand Qing infantry and cavalry came to attack. Jiayu divided his army into three wings to support one another and held fast on deep ravines and high cliffs. They fought for ten days until their strength was spent and they were defeated, then found themselves encircled on every side. His generals urged him to break out of the encirclement. Jiayu sighed and said, "Our arrows are spent and our cannon burst—we would fight, but have no weapons; our officers are wounded and our soldiers dead—we would fight, but have no men. What use is there in lingering in indecision, only to let the enemy have our blood on his hands! He then bowed to each of his generals in turn and drowned himself in a wild pond. He was thirty-three years old. The following year the Prince of Yongming posthumously enfeoffed Jiayu as Junior Guardian, Grand Secretary of the Hall of Military Glory, minister of personnel, and Marquis of Zengcheng, with the posthumous title Wenlie. His father Zhaolong was still living and was enfeoffed as a viscount in honor of his son.
72
廣東之失也，龍門破，裏人廖翰標以二幼子托從父，從容自縊死。 番禺破，裏人梁萬爵曰「此誌士盡節之秋也」，赴水死。 翰標，天啟中舉人，官江西新城知縣，廉惠，民為建祠。 萬爵，字天若，唐王時舉人。
When Guangdong fell and Longmen was taken, Liao Hanbiao, a local man, entrusted his two young sons to an uncle and calmly hanged himself. When Panyu fell, Liang Wanjue, a local man, said, "This is the hour for men of resolve to die with honor," and drowned himself. Hanbiao had passed the provincial examination during the Tianqi reign and served as magistrate of Xincheng in Jiangxi. Incorrupt and benevolent in office, he was honored with a shrine built by the people. Wanjue, whose style was Tianruo, was a provincial graduate during the reign of the Prince of Tang.
73
陳邦彥
Chen Bangyan
74
陳邦彥，字令斌，順德人。 為諸生，意氣豪邁。 福王時，詣闕上政要三十二事，格不用，唐王聿鍵讀而偉之。 既自立，即其家授監紀推官。 未任，舉於鄉。 以蘇觀生薦，改職方主事，監廣西狼兵，援贛州。 至嶺，聞汀州變，勸觀生東保潮、惠，不聽。
Chen Bangyan, whose style was Lingbin, came from Shunde. As a student he was bold and high-spirited. During the reign of the Prince of Fu he went to court and submitted thirty-two essential proposals on governance. They were rejected, but the Prince of Tang Zhu Yujian read them and was deeply impressed. Once he had declared himself ruler, he appointed Bangyan supervising-recorder magistrate at his residence. Before he could take up the post, he passed the provincial examination. On Su Guansheng's recommendation he was transferred to secretary in the Bureau of Military Appointments, put in charge of wolf troops from Guangxi, and sent to relieve Ganzhou. When he reached the pass he heard of the fall of Tingzhou and urged Guansheng to secure himself in Chaozhou and Huizhou to the east, but Guansheng would not listen.
75
會丁魁楚等已立永明王監國於肇慶，觀生遣邦彥入賀。 王因贛州破，懼逼己，西走梧州。 邦彥甫入謁，而觀生別立唐王聿於廣州，邦彥不知也。 夜二鼓，王遣中使十余輩召入舟中。 王太后垂簾坐，王西向坐，魁楚侍，語以廣州事。 邦彥請急還肇慶，正大位以系人心。 命南雄卒取韶，制粵東十郡之七，而委其三於唐王，代我受敵，從而乘其敝。 王大悅，立擢兵科給事中，賫敕還諭觀生。 抵廣州，聞使臣彭耀被殺，乃遣從人授觀生敕，而自以書曉利害。 觀生猶豫累日，欲議和，會聞永明王兵大敗，不果。 邦彥遂變姓名入高明山中。
By then Ding Kuichu and others had already installed the Prince of Yongming as regent at Zhaoqing, and Guansheng sent Bangyan to offer congratulations. When Ganzhou fell, the prince, fearing he would be pressed too hard, fled west to Wuzhou. Bangyan had just arrived to pay his respects when, unbeknownst to him, Guansheng separately enthroned Zhu Yujie as Prince of Tang at Guangzhou. At the second watch of the night the prince sent more than ten palace envoys to summon him aboard his boat. The queen dowager sat behind a screen, the prince faced west, and Kuichu stood in attendance as they spoke to him about the situation at Guangzhou. Bangyan urged the prince to return at once to Zhaoqing and formally ascend the throne to rally the people's hearts. He proposed sending troops from Nanxiong to take Shaozhou and hold seven of eastern Guangdong's ten prefectures, while leaving three to the Prince of Tang to bear the enemy in their stead, then strike when the foe was exhausted. The prince was greatly pleased, immediately promoted him to supervising secretary in the military division, and sent him back with an imperial edict for Guansheng. When he reached Guangzhou he learned that the envoy Peng Yao had been killed. He sent a follower to deliver the edict to Guansheng while he himself wrote a letter explaining the stakes. Guansheng hesitated for days and even considered negotiating peace, but when he heard that the Prince of Yongming's army had suffered a crushing defeat, the plan came to nothing. Bangyan then changed his name and took refuge in the mountains of Gaoming.
76
順治三年冬十二月，大兵破廣州，觀生死，列城悉下，邦彥乃謀起兵。 初，贛州萬元吉遣族人萬年募兵於廣，得余龍等千余人，未行而贛州失。 龍等無所歸，聚甘竹灘為盜，他潰卒多附，至二萬余人。 總督朱治忄間招降之，既而噪歸。 四年春，大兵定廣州，克肇慶、梧州，敗走治忄間，殺魁楚，前驅抵平樂。 永明王方自梧道平樂，走桂林，勢危甚。 邦彥乃說龍乘間圖廣州，而己發高明兵由海道入珠江與龍會。 且遣張家玉書曰：「桂林累卵，但得牽制毋西，潯、平間可完葺，是我致力於此而收功於彼也。」 家玉以為然。 然龍卒故無紀律，大兵自桂林還救，揚言取甘竹灘，龍等顧其家，輒退，邦彥亦卻歸。 既，乃遣門人馬應芳會龍軍取順德。 無何，大兵至，龍戰敗，應芳被執，赴水死。 四月，龍再戰黃連江，亦敗歿。 大兵攻家玉於新安。 邦彥乃棄高明，收余眾，徇下江門據之。
In the twelfth month of the third year of Shunzhi the Qing army took Guangzhou. Guansheng died, the surrounding cities all submitted, and Bangyan then planned to raise troops. Earlier Wan Yuanji of Ganzhou had sent his clansman Wannian to raise troops in Guangdong, gathering more than a thousand men under Yu Long and others, but before they could march Ganzhou fell. Long and his men had nowhere to go. They gathered at Ganzhutan as bandits, and many other scattered soldiers joined them until their force reached more than twenty thousand. Governor-general Zhu Zhihe tried to recruit them to submit, but soon they mutinied and returned to the hills. In the spring of the fourth year the Qing army secured Guangzhou, took Zhaoqing and Wuzhou, put Zhu Zhihe to flight, killed Kuichu, and the vanguard reached Pingle. The Prince of Yongming was then fleeing from Wuzhou by way of Pingle toward Guilin, and the situation was desperate. Bangyan then persuaded Long to seize an opportunity to strike at Guangzhou, while he himself would raise troops in Gaoming and enter the Pearl River by sea to join him. He also wrote to Zhang Jiayu, saying, "Guilin hangs by a thread. If we can only tie the enemy down and keep them from marching west, the regions of Xun and Ping can be saved. We exert ourselves here and reap the reward there. Jiayu agreed. But Long's men had never been disciplined. When the Qing army turned back from Guilin and proclaimed they would take Ganzhutan, Long and his followers, anxious for their homes, withdrew at once, and Bangyan fell back as well. Later he sent his disciple Ma Yingfang to join Long's army in an attack on Shunde. Before long the Qing army arrived. Long was defeated, Yingfang was captured, and he drowned himself. In the fourth month Long fought again at Huanglian River and was likewise defeated and killed. The Qing army attacked Jiayu at Xin'an. Bangyan then abandoned Gaoming, gathered his remaining forces, marched downriver, took Jiangmen, and held it.
77
初，廣州之圍，大兵知謀出邦彥，求其家，獲妾何氏及二子，厚遇之，為書招邦彥。 邦彥判書尾曰：「妾辱之，子殺之。 身為忠臣，義不顧妻子。」 七月與陳子壯密約，復攻廣州。 子壯先至，謀泄，將引退。 邦彥軍亦至，謀伏兵禺珠洲側，伺大兵還救會城，而縱火以焚舟。 子壯如其計，果焚舟數十。 大兵引而西，邦彥尾之。 會日暮，子壯不能辨旗幟，疑皆敵舟也，陣動。 大兵順風追擊，遂大潰。 子壯奔高明，邦彥奔三水。 八月，清遠指揮白常燦以城迎邦彥。 乃入清遠，與諸生朱學熙嬰城固守。
During the siege of Guangzhou the Qing army learned that the plan had originated with Bangyan. They searched out his family, captured his concubine Lady He and his two sons, treated them well, and wrote a letter urging Bangyan to surrender. Bangyan wrote at the end of the letter, "If my concubine is dishonored, let my sons kill her. As a loyal minister, duty forbids me to spare wife or children. In the seventh month he made a secret pact with Chen Zizhuang to attack Guangzhou again. Zizhuang arrived first, but the plan was leaked and he was about to withdraw. Bangyan's army also arrived. They planned to lay ambush on the flank of Yuzhu Isle, wait for the Qing army to turn back and relieve the provincial capital, and set fire to burn their boats. Zizhuang carried out the plan and burned several dozen boats. The Qing army withdrew westward, and Bangyan pursued at their rear. At dusk Zizhuang could not make out the banners and flags, suspected every vessel was an enemy boat, and his formation fell into disorder. The Qing army, with the wind at their backs, gave pursuit, and the Southern Ming forces were routed. Zizhuang fled to Gaoming and Bangyan to Sanshui. In the eighth month Bai Changcan, a commander at Qingyuan, opened the city gates to welcome Bangyan. He entered Qingyuan and, with the student Zhu Xuexi, barricaded the city and held it fast.
78
邦彥自起兵，日一食，夜則坐而假寐，與其下同勞苦，故軍最強，嘗分兵救諸營之敗者。 至是精銳盡喪，外無援軍。 越數日，城破，常燦死。 邦彥率數十人巷戰，肩受三刃，不死，走朱氏園，見學熙縊，拜哭之。 旋被執，饋之食，不食，系獄五日，被戮。 邦彥死，子壯被執。 逾月，家玉亦自沈。 永明王贈邦彥兵部尚書，謚忠湣，蔭子錦衣指揮。
From the day Bangyan first raised troops he ate only one meal a day; at night he sat upright and dozed, sharing hardship with his men. For this reason his army was the strongest, and he often sent detachments to rescue other camps that had been beaten. By then his best troops were gone and no relief force came from outside. Within days the city fell and Changcan was killed. Bangyan led several dozen men in street fighting, took three blade wounds on his shoulder and still did not die, fled to the Zhu family garden, found Xuexi hanged, and bowed and wept over him. He was soon captured. Food was brought to him, but he refused to eat. After five days in prison he was executed. Bangyan was dead, and Zizhuang was taken prisoner. A month later Jiayu drowned himself as well. The Prince of Yongming posthumously made Bangyan minister of war, gave him the posthumous title Zhongmin, and granted his son hereditary appointment as commander in the Embroidered Uniform Guard.
79
蘇觀生
Su Guansheng
80
蘇觀生，字宇霖，東莞人。 年三十始為諸生。 崇禎中，由保舉授無極知縣。 總督範誌完薦其才，進永平同知，監紀軍事，尋遷戶部員外郎。 十七年，京師陷，脫還南京，進郎中，催餉蘇州。 明年五月，南京破，走杭州。 會唐王聿鍵至，觀生謁王。 王與語大悅，聯舟入福建。 與鄭芝龍、鴻逵兄弟擁立王，擢為翰林學士，旋進禮部右侍郎兼學士。 設儲賢館，分十二科，招四方士，令觀生領之。 觀生矢清操，稍有文學，而時望不屬。 王以故人，恩眷出廷臣右，乃超拜東閣大學士，參機務。
Su Guansheng, courtesy name Yulin, was a native of Dongguan. He did not become a licentiate until he was thirty. During the Chongzhen reign he was recommended for office and appointed magistrate of Wuji. Grand Coordinator Fan Zhiwan recommended his ability, and he was promoted to subprefect of Yongping with charge of military affairs. Soon after he was transferred to assistant department director in the Ministry of Revenue. In the seventeenth year of Chongzhen the capital fell. He escaped to Nanjing, was promoted to bureau director, and was sent to press for grain payments at Suzhou. The following year, in the fifth month, Nanjing fell and he fled to Hangzhou. When the Prince of Tang, Zhu Yujian, arrived, Guansheng went to pay him homage. The prince spoke with him and was greatly pleased. They traveled together by boat into Fujian. Together with Zheng Zhilong and the Hong brothers he enthroned the prince, raised Guansheng to Hanlin academician, and soon after promoted him to right vice minister of rites with concurrent rank as academician. They established the Hall for Gathering Worthies, divided into twelve categories, to recruit scholars from all quarters, and put Guansheng in charge of it. Guansheng held himself to a spotless reputation and had some literary ability, but he did not enjoy the esteem of his contemporaries. Because the prince knew him from before, his favor exceeded that of the court ministers, and he was extraordinarily promoted to grand secretary of the Eastern Pavilion with a seat in state affairs.
81
觀生數贊王出師。 見鄭氏不足有為，事權悉為所握，請王赴贛州，經略江西、湖廣。 王乃議觀生先行。 明年，觀生赴贛州，大征甲兵。 餉不繼，竟不能出師。
Guansheng repeatedly urged the prince to take the field in person. Seeing that the Zheng clan could accomplish little and that they held all real power, he asked the prince to go to Ganzhou and take charge of Jiangxi and Huguang. The prince then decided that Guansheng should go ahead first. The next year Guansheng went to Ganzhou and raised a large army. Supplies did not keep coming, and in the end he could not take the field.
82
時順治三年三月，大兵破吉安，總督萬元吉乞援，觀生遣二百人往。 元吉令協守綿津灘，遇大兵，潰走。 元吉乃退回贛州，大兵遂圍城。 觀生走南康，贛人數告急，不敢援。 六月，大兵退屯水西，觀生發三千人助贛守。 久之，他將戰敗。 九月，大兵再攻贛州，三千人皆引去。 時觀生移駐南安，閩中急，不能救。 聿鍵死於汀州，贛州亦破，觀生退入廣州。 監紀主事陳邦彥勸觀生疾趨惠、潮，扼漳、泉、兩粵可自保。 觀生不從。
At that time, in the third month of the third year of Shunzhi, the Qing army took Ji'an. Governor Wan Yuanji begged for relief, and Guansheng sent two hundred men. Yuanji ordered them to help hold Mianjin Shoals, but they met the Qing army, broke, and fled. Yuanji then fell back to Ganzhou, and the Qing army at once besieged the city. Guansheng fled to Nankang. The people of Ganzhou sent repeated appeals for help, but he dared not go to their relief. In the sixth month the Qing army withdrew and encamped west of the river. Guansheng sent three thousand men to help defend Ganzhou. After some time other generals were defeated. In the ninth month the Qing army attacked Ganzhou again, and all three thousand men withdrew. By then Guansheng had moved his headquarters to Nan'an. Fujian was in urgent peril, and he could not save it. Zhu Yujian died at Tingzhou, Ganzhou also fell, and Guansheng retreated into Guangzhou. Supervising-recorder Chen Bangyan urged Guansheng to hurry to Huizhou and Chaozhou, hold Zhangzhou and Quanzhou, and thereby keep the two Guang provinces secure. Guansheng would not listen.
83
永明王監國肇慶，遣給事中彭耀、主事陳嘉謨賫敕往諭。 耀，順德人，過家拜先廟，托子於友人。 至廣州，以諸王禮見，備陳天潢倫序及監國先後，語甚切至，因歷詆觀生諸人。 觀生怒，執殺之，嘉謨亦不屈死。 乃治兵日相攻，以番禺人陳際泰督師，與永明王總督林佳鼎戰於三水。 兵敗，復招海盜數萬人，遣大將林察將。
The Prince of Yongming, acting as regent at Zhaoqing, sent supervising secretary Peng Yao and recorder Chen Jiamo with an edict to instruct him. Yao, a native of Shunde, passed his home on the way and paid homage at the ancestral temple, entrusting his son to a friend. When he reached Guangzhou he was received with the ceremony due a prince. He set forth in full the order of the imperial lineage and the precedence of the regency, spoke with deep earnestness, and went on to denounce Guansheng and his associates one by one. Guansheng was enraged, seized Yao, and had him killed. Jiamo likewise refused to submit and was put to death. He then drilled troops and attacked daily, putting Chen Jitai of Panyu in command of the army to fight Inspector General Lin Jiading of the Prince of Yongming at Sanshui. When his army was defeated he recruited tens of thousands of pirates again and sent the great general Lin Cha to command them.
84
十二月二日，戰海口，斬佳鼎。 觀生意得，務粉飾為太平事，而委任捷先及朝鍾。
On the second day of the twelfth month they fought at Haikou and beheaded Jiading. Guansheng grew complacent, set about dressing everything up as peace and order, and entrusted affairs to Jiexian and Chaozhong.
85
捷先，由進士歷官監司，小有才，便筆劄。 朝鍾舉於鄉，善談論，浹旬三遷至祭酒。 有楊明競者，潮州人，好為大言，詭稱精兵滿惠、潮間，可十萬，即特授惠潮巡撫。 朝鍾語人：「內有捷先，外有明競，強敵不足平矣。」 觀生亦器此三人，事必咨之。 又有梁鍙者，妄人也，觀生才之，用為吏科都給事中，與明競大納賄賂，日薦用數十人。
Jiexian had passed the jinshi examination and risen through provincial commissioner posts. He had modest talent and was quick with the brush. Chaozhong had passed the provincial examination and was skilled at discourse. Within ten days he was promoted three times until he reached the post of chancellor of the Imperial Academy. There was one Yang Mingjing, a man of Chaozhou, fond of grand talk. He falsely claimed that crack troops filled the country between Huizhou and Chaozhou, numbering as many as a hundred thousand, and was at once specially appointed grand coordinator of Huizhou and Chaozhou. Chaozhong said to people, "Within we have Jiexian; without we have Mingjing. No formidable foe remains that we cannot subdue." Guansheng also valued these three men and consulted them on every matter. There was also Liang Kuan, a reckless man whom Guansheng considered talented and made chief supervising secretary of the Office for Scrutiny of Personnel. Together with Mingjing he took bribes on a vast scale and recommended several dozen men for appointment every day.
86
觀生本乏猷略，兼總內外任，益昏瞀。 招海盜資捍禦，其眾白日殺人，縣肺腸於貴官之門以示威，城內外大擾。 時大兵已下惠、潮，長吏皆降附，即用其印移牒廣州，報無警。 觀生信之。
Guansheng had never possessed deep strategic insight. Holding combined civil and military responsibility, he grew ever more muddled and blind. He recruited pirates to fund the defense, and their bands killed people in broad daylight, hung lungs and entrails at the gates of noble officials to terrify the city, and threw Guangzhou into turmoil inside and out. By then the Qing army had already taken Huizhou and Chaozhou. Local officials all surrendered, and using their official seals they sent dispatches to Guangzhou reporting that all was secure. Guansheng believed them.
87
是月十五日，聿視學，百僚鹹集，或報大兵已逼。 觀生叱之曰：「潮州昨尚有報，安得遽至此。 妄言惑眾，斬之！」 如是者三。 大兵已自東門入，觀生始召兵搏戰。 兵精者皆西出，倉卒不能集。 觀生走鍙所問計。 曰：「死爾，復何言！」 觀生入東房，鍙入西房，各拒戶自縊。 觀生慮其詐，稍留聽之。 鍙故扼其吭，氣湧有聲，且推幾仆地，久之寂然。 觀生信為死，遂自經。 明日，鍙獻其屍出降。 朝鐘聞變赴池，為鄰人救出，自經死，聿方事閱射，急易服逾垣匿王應華家。 俄縋城走，為追騎所獲。 饋之食，不受，曰：「我若飲汝一勺水，何以見先人地下！」 投繯而絕。 吾騶、應華等悉降。
On the fifteenth day of that month Zhu Yujie inspected the schools. All the officials assembled, and someone reported that the Qing army was already pressing close. Guansheng scolded him, saying, "Only yesterday there was still a report from Chaozhou. How could they suddenly be here already? Spreading false words to confuse the multitude—behead him!" This happened three times. The Qing army had already entered through the east gate before Guansheng at last summoned troops to fight. The best troops had all gone west and could not be gathered in time. Guansheng ran to Liang Kuan's residence to ask his counsel. Kuan said, "Death—that is all. What more is there to say?" Guansheng entered the east room and Kuan the west room. Each barred the door and hanged himself. Guansheng, fearing a ruse, paused a moment to listen. Kuan deliberately clutched his throat so that his breath surged with audible gasps, pushed over a table so it fell, and after a long while all was silent. Believing him dead, Guansheng then hanged himself. The next day Kuan presented Guansheng's corpse and surrendered. Chaozhong, hearing of the upheaval, ran to a pool to drown himself but was pulled out by neighbors and then hanged himself. Zhu Yujie was just then at an archery review; he hurriedly changed clothes, climbed over the wall, and hid in Wang Yinghua's house. Soon he was lowered by rope over the wall to flee but was captured by pursuing horsemen. Food was offered him, but he refused, saying, "If I were to drink even one dipper of your water, how could I face my forebears beneath the earth!" He put a rope around his neck and died. He Wuzao, Yinghua, and the rest all surrendered.
88
贊曰：自南都失守，列郡風靡。 而贛以彈丸，獨憑孤城，誓死拒命。 豈其兵力果足恃哉，激於義而眾心固也。 迨汀、贛繼失，危近目睫，而肇慶、廣州日治兵相攻，自取兩敗。 蓋天速其禍，如發蒙振槁，無煩驅除矣。
The historians comment: After the Southern Capital fell, prefectures toppled like grass before the wind. Yet Ganzhou, no larger than a pellet on the map, alone held its isolated city and vowed to resist to the death. Was its military strength truly something to rely on? Men were stirred by righteousness, and the hearts of the multitude held firm. But when Tingzhou and Ganzhou fell in succession, peril drew near enough to brush the eyelashes, while Zhaoqing and Guangzhou daily drilled troops to attack each other and brought mutual ruin upon themselves. Heaven had hastened their calamity. Like lifting a blindfold from the eyes or shaking dry stalks, no further effort at expulsion was needed.