Feng Zicai
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Feng Zicai (Traditional Chinese: 馮子才, Simplified Chinese: 冯子才, Pinyin: Féng Zǐcaī, Wade-Giles:Feng Tzu-ts'ai) (1818-1903) was a bandit from Qinzhou, Guangxi, China who later became a general in the Imperial Army during the Qing dynasty. His ancestry is Bobai, Guangxi.
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[edit] The Taiping Rebellion
In 1856, Feng, a lieutenant colonel, commanded a regiment stationed in northern Jiangsu during the Taiping Rebellion. He defeated rebel forces many times on their march across the Yangtze River toward the north and was promoted to lieutenant general in 1864. The war ended in 1871.
[edit] Sino-French War
In 1867, he established his base of command in Nanning where he worked to fight bandits, rebels, the Hmong, and other groups threatening the Qing Empire in south China and northern Vietnam. When the Sino-French War broke out in 1884, he was placed in command of a chiefly Zhuang armed force in South China, composed mainly of local peasantry and some of Feng's retired imperial troops.
He was responsible for the defense of, and counterattack at Zhennanguan Pass in Guangxi province, during a French incursion over the border in March 1885. He employed over 50,000 local peasants to build a wall across the pass and positioned several batteries along the ridges overlooking the pass. The original attack by the French was fierce and resulted in the capture of several batteries, pushing back the Chinese defenders. The following day, Feng Zicai and his two sons led a counterattack, in which they engaged the French in hand-to-hand combat with great success, destroying over a thousand of the two thousand-strong French army. Feng followed up this victory with an assault on the French position at Ky Lua, in front of Lang Son citadel on the Tonkinese side of the border; although the attack was repulsed, the acting French commander ordered a retreat. Soon after, the French signed a peace treaty with China.
His words are sculpted on a giant stone on Wuzhi Mountain, the highest mountain in Hainan.
[edit] See also
- Zhang GuoLiang, Feng's good friend and superior in the Green Standard Army
