Follow the History Encyclopedia editor to explore the real Yang Yinglong in history.
The Yang chieftain of Bozhou in Zunyi, Guizhou, ruled the Bozhou area for over 700 years before ultimately being destroyed by the 29th generation chieftain Yang Yinglong.
Since the late Tang Dynasty, Bozhou tusi has become the largest tusi in the southwest region, experiencing four dynasties of Song, Yuan, and Ming, promoting local economic and cultural prosperity. But in the late Ming Dynasty, what did Yang Yinglong do to make the Ming Dynasty deploy a 240000 strong army to attack and make the Yang chieftain disappear from then on?
To understand why the Yang chieftain of Bozhou was defeated by Yang Yinglong, we need to first understand Yang Yinglong.
01
Who is Yang Yinglong?
Due to the hereditary system of ancient tusi, Yang Yinglong was no exception. After his father passed away, he inherited the position of Bozhou Pacification Commissioner at the age of 20 and became a young tusi.
Yang Yinglong was good at maintaining good relations with the court, taking advantage of the abundant rare timber in the southwestern mountains and spending a lot of manpower and material resources. He presented 70 pieces of good wood to Emperor Wanli of the Ming Dynasty, and was highly valued by Emperor Wanli, who appointed him as the “Commander in Chief of the Capital”.
What made the court even more pleased was that Yang Yinglong used his elite soldiers to act as the court’s enforcers, constantly attacking indigenous tribes in the southwest region. Therefore, the court awarded Yang Yinglong gold coins for his meritorious service in pacifying the barbarians.
As his achievements increased, Yang Yinglong began to become arrogant. Coupled with the extravagant lifestyle of Emperor Wanli and his lax management of local tusi, Yang Yinglong had even greater ambitions.
Yang Yinglong not only extensively built his palace, but also decorated it with dragon and phoenix patterns, calling himself the “Thousand Year Old Lord”. He forcibly brought some children from Bozhou into his palace, castrated them into eunuchs, and served himself and his wives and concubines.
02
Continuous internal strife
At that time, Bozhou had a relatively large area and was under the jurisdiction of the “Nine Surnames and Five Departments”. Due to the fact that the “Nine Surnames and Five Departments” were all local hereditary nobles (equivalent to small tusi), they were quite prestigious.
For a long time, the relationship between Yang tusi and the “nine surnames and five bureaus” was very harmonious, but after the era of Yang Yinglong, internal conflicts began to occur.
Yang Yinglong, in order to maintain his extravagant lifestyle like an emperor, began constantly blackmailing the common people and various aristocratic leaders, imposing excessive taxes, and even robbing them if he didn’t comply. This has caused dissatisfaction among the people of Bozhou and the nine noble families.
And the trigger happened to a woman.
According to tradition, Yang chieftains maintain their alliance with local nobles through marriage alliances. Yang Yinglong also married a woman surnamed Zhang, one of the nine surnames.
However, after marrying Yang Yinglong, Zhang was not favored and was falsely accused by one of Yang Yinglong’s concubines of disloyalty, leading to her expulsion from the Tusi Mansion.
However, Yang Yinglong did not spare the Zhang family and directly slaughtered the entire Zhang family, which caused strong dissatisfaction among the Zhang aristocrats. He then joined forces with eight other aristocrats, including Luo, Song, He, Zheng, to report the news of Yang Yinglong’s intention to declare himself king to the court.
Yang Yinglong was furious and executed all those who complained, so he decided to rebel in the 20th year of the Wanli reign.
03
The Ming Dynasty dispatched 240000 troops to besiege Yang Yinglong
When the Ming Dynasty first attacked Yang Yinglong, the main force was the Ming army from Guizhou and Sichuan provinces, with a total of four routes. Except for one route that was defeated by Yang Yinglong, the other four routes invaded Bozhou.
In the 22nd year of the Wanli reign, Yang Yinglong surrendered and not only offered 40000 taels of silver to the court, but also sent his son named Yang Kedong to Chongqing as a hostage.
The court showed a good attitude towards Yang Yinglong’s confession and forgave him. Unexpectedly, Yang Kedong died suddenly in Chongqing for no apparent reason, which made Yang Yinglong very angry. He suspected that his son had been framed and not only did he not pay the fine of 40000 taels of silver, but also rebelled again.
The scale of Yang Yinglong’s rebellion this time is very large, and it is also very cruel. Any city captured will be slaughtered. Due to the fact that the Ming Dynasty was sending troops to Korea to help them attack the invading Japanese pirates, they did not have the strength to attack Yang Yinglong. Therefore, the Bozhou Army not only burned, killed, and looted in Guizhou and Sichuan, but also invaded the Huguang area.
In the 28th year of the Wanli reign, the Liaodong army, who had returned from Korea, headed south to the southwest and joined forces with the southern army of the Ming Dynasty. Under the command of the famous Ming general Li Hualong, the army split into eight routes and attacked Yang Yinglong’s stronghold – Hailong Tun.
The scale of the Ming Dynasty’s military deployment this time was very large, with 240000, which was half of the Ming army’s strength.
Under the fierce attack of the Ming army, Yang Yinglong was trapped in Hailong Tun.
Due to Yang Yinglong’s unpopularity, there were traitors within who led the Ming army into Hailong Tun through a little-known narrow waterway.
Yang Yinglong saw that the situation was hopeless and, in despair, led his several wives and concubines to set themselves on fire. The Yang chieftain of Bozhou, with a history of over 700 years, was defeated by Yang Yinglong and collapsed from then on.
Nowadays, Hailong Tun has become a famous tourist attraction in Zunyi. If you enter the Tun, you can still see the sturdy fortress built by Yang Yinglong back then.
The Yang tusi of Bozhou had a great influence on Zunyi and even the entire southwestern region. While integrating local indigenous culture, they also played a certain role in promoting local civilization. Due to the strong strength of the Yang tusi of Bozhou, they were not greatly affected in wars during the Song, Yuan and other dynasties.
But Yang Yinglong’s destructive power in the southwest was also great. Due to his rebellion and ruthless killing habits, many people died under his butcher’s knife.
