The church power in Shandong is extremely rampant, and the people's struggle against foreign religions is extremely fierce. After the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, the people in northwest Shandong, whose imperialist military strength was relatively weak, rose up against religion after a long period of brewing, and eventually became the main birthplace of the boxer's anti-imperialist patriotic movement. By 1899, the Boxer Rebellion in guanxian, headed by Yan, and the Boxer Rebellion in chiping, Yucheng and Pingyuan, headed by Zhu Heben's monk (also a sincere monk), had been quite active and huge. In the struggle against foreign religions, they supported each other, which effectively dealt a blow to the aggressive forces of the church and shocked imperialism and the Qing government.
For a long time, the people of Zhili have also constantly resisted the oppression of the church, and the masses involved in the struggle are quite extensive. After Heyan set up the flag in guanxian, Shandong Province, the activities of the Boxer Rebellion quickly appeared in the border area of Zhili and South Zhili, attacking churches from time to time.
After the rise of the Boxer Rebellion, many anti-imperialist slogans were put forward, such as "Help protect China and exile foreign countries", "Help clear up and destroy foreign countries, and do justice for heaven", "Revive and destroy religion" and "Foreigners can be destroyed". During the struggle, the Boxer Rebellion also posted anti-Qing posters, such as "Kill Jesuits, kill Oriental ghosts, and then disturb the Qing Dynasty".
The boxer movement took the unity of politics and religion as its organizational form. The grass-roots units are altars (or factories, furnaces, fields and regiments), and the number of people in each altar ranges from 100 to 50 or 25. Several or more altars make up the total altar (total group). Altars are independent of each other and do not belong to the same family. Each sentry has 50 to 100 people, and the person in charge is called the sentry (or captain, captain). There are 10 people in each shift, and there is a monitor (or captain). Generally speaking, the Boxer Rebellion is a loose organization without unified leadership and command. Mainly by exposing posts and getting together. When something happens, "a flyer comes out and a thousand people gather" (4), and the matter is over. Young women also have similar organizations called red lanterns and blue lanterns. They usually serve as attendants and sometimes take part in combat.
The head of the boxer's general altar is called the master or the founder, and the head of each altar is called the big brother and the second brother. Eldest brother is usually responsible for all kinds of affairs in the altar, and is responsible for leading the team to direct operations in wartime. The Boxer Regiment in Shandong has various names, such as general manager, commander, spy, patrol camp, former enemy, urging array, organizing sentry team and so on. Some Boxers also have the titles of Grand Marshal, Deputy Marshal, Pioneer, Military Strategist and General Manager Liang Tai. Among them, the general manager and director are generally prestigious teachers; The former enemy and the urging array are served by brave warriors (riding horses first and supervising the war). Boxers mainly use cold weapons such as broadswords and spears, and have a small number of shotguns, rifles and other firearms.
Boxers have a strong color of feudal superstition, such as advocating Shinto mutual assistance and invulnerability. However, some league rules formulated by the Boxer Rebellion, such as "Don't engage in personal grievances, oppress the poor with the rich, bully the weak, and take power as wrong" (1), "Don't be greedy for money, don't be lascivious" (2) and so on. It reflects the moral values of the working people, such as the boxer movement, against evil, against oppression and protecting goodness, thus winning the support of the people.
The Boxer Rebellion directly attacked the imperialist aggression, and the Qing government, terrified by the arrogance of imperialism, repeatedly ordered "chop quickly, search for troops", "suppress forcefully, keep out of trouble" and "hell to pay, pacify the place". However, the military repression of the Qing army could not shake the boxer's anti-imperialist determination, so it was impossible to "suppress" one after another. Therefore, some officials believe that if we blindly "support education and suppress the people", we will inevitably "turn the trick into danger" and advocate "turning private gatherings into public events and boxing into vigilante groups" and "listening to their self-defense assets and helping each other" in order to achieve peace between the people and education. The Qing government changed the policy of "repression" into "appeasement" and was forced to recognize the Boxer Rebellion as a legal organization, which gave the Boxer Rebellion favorable conditions for its public activities, made it stronger and stronger, and dealt a more powerful blow to the fierce flames of missionaries and parishioners.
1899 At the beginning of October, the Boxer Rebellion attacked the local church in Gangzi Lizhuang, Pingyuan County, Shandong Province, because the parishioners bullied the masses. Magistrate Jiang Kai sent troops to suppress. Zhu led a team of two or three hundred people (nearly a thousand people) to fight against the Qing army and defeat it. In the middle of June, 65438+10, Zhu commanded the boxer to repel the attack of hundreds of cavalry of the Qing army, and then entered the hall, only eighteen miles away from Pingyuan county. Soon, Zhu led the masses out of the tight encirclement and moved to chiping. In June of the same year 165438+ 10, Zhu and his monk were captured by Ma Jinsu, a guerrilla of the Qing army, and later killed in Jinan. Since then, the Boxer Rebellion in northwest Shandong has continued its struggle under the leadership of Wang Liyan, a native of Gaotang County.
Under the pressure of imperialism, the Qing court was determined to suppress the Boxer Rebellion in Shandong. 1899 12.6, sent Yuan Shikai, the right assistant minister of the Ministry of Industry, to act as the governor of Shandong and send troops to suppress it. On February 25th, 65438, Yuan Shikai led 7000 well-equipped Wuwei Right Army troops to Jinan. He saw that the people of Shandong were "strong" and the Boxer Rebellion was "everywhere", so he split his troops and bounced around. (4) By the early summer of 1900, "all boxing factories were closed", and some were "hiding in the backcountry and teaching privately". (5) Wang Liyan and other leaders have died. Under the leadership of Yan and others, the surviving group members either turned into secret activities or entered Zhili to continue their struggle.