Fell down seven times and got up the eighth time.

- Yamato proverb

In 1894, Han Suleiman, a native of Salur who lived in the Xunhua Department in the Hehuang Prefecture of Gansu Province, was already a 34-year-old adult. He owns a small and well-to-do family, and runs a mutton shop in Xunhua City, specializing in selling sheep from Tibetan areas.

Han Suleiman is a cheerful person, with a long beard face always with a smile, big eyes, a high nose bridge, and a sturdy body, looking handsome and magnificent.

Recently, Han Suleiman had a troublesome thing on his mind. Their whole family originally belonged to the Huasi eunuch of the Muslim Hufeiye. Not long ago, the eunuchs of Huasi unexpectedly split.

After the death of Ma Laichi, the founder of Huasi Eunuch, Xunhua Ma Rubiao went to Mecca for Hajj in the Guangxu period, learned the theory of Shazilinye (that is, Zhehe Renye), and after returning to China, he was ready to reform the eunuch according to what he learned, and was severely reprimanded by his high-ranking uncle Ma Yonglin.

The uncle and nephew had a dispute over doctrinal differences, which eventually led to the separation of the followers of the Huasi Eunuch into two factions. People call the faction headed by Ma Rubiao in favor of reform Protestantism, and the faction headed by Ma Yonglin that opposes reform as Old Christianity.

The devout believers of both sects believed that they were reading a canon, and they swore to defend the sacred authenticity to the death.

At first, the Protestant Ma Rubiao had the support of Ma Zhanao, who was back to the head, and Ma Yonglin did not dare to do anything to him. After the death of Ma Zhanao, the big patron, Ma Yonglin, as an uncle and sect leader, began to suppress his nephew Ma Rubiao and Protestantism.

As a result, there were frequent disputes and fights between the two factions.

Han Suleiman is a traditional old religion. His wife embraced Protestantism when she returned to her parents' home. He and his wife became two opposing factions, arguing all day long about who was right and who was wrong, causing trouble at home.

On a Sunday in the autumn, Hanul Ahun, a Salul who had changed his name to the Salar at that time, was explaining the Old Religious scriptures in public and met the Protestant Salar Hanmusa Ahun.

The two self-righteous fighters were disrespectful to each other, and a fierce argument ensued, causing the two factions of believers to fight with each other.

The followers of the old religion not only injured the Protestant followers, but also set fire to the houses and other property of the Protestant church. Han Suleiman also participated in the fight, turning his wife's pink face green with anger, and ignored him for several days.

The Protestant believers were so angry that they ran to the Xining Mansion, the superior of the Xunhua Department, and took the old religion to court.

Tang Yanhe, the chief soldier of Hezhou Town, thought that this was a factional struggle within Muslimism, so he arranged for Ma Yongrui and Ma Yonglin, the leading figures of the Protestant and Old Christians, to go to Xunhua to mediate the conflict.

Ma Yonglin was ostensibly adjusting and persuading peace, but secretly supported the old sect leader Hannule Ahong, which caused this mediation to go down the drain.

The powerful old believers besieged two Protestant Ahuns in Zhanggagong, and finally beat them to death, and tortured some Protestant believers to force them to shave off their beards.

The Protestant believers saw that Xining Mansion could not do its job, and reported Ma Yonglin and Lao Jiao to the Governor's Mansion in Lanzhou.

After listening to the report, Yang Changjun, the governor of Shaanxi and Gansu, thought that this was a matter under the jurisdiction of Xining Prefecture, so he ordered Chen Jiaji, a Taoist of Xining, and Xu Xiqi, a Taoist, to personally go to Xunhua to investigate and deal with it.

Chen Jiaji and Xu Xiqi changed their previous practice of favoring the old religion and suppressing the new religion, and unanimously decided that the incident was provoked by the old religion, so they showed the heads of the 11 leaders of the old religion to the public regardless of 3721.

The government's actions aroused the indignation of the followers of the old religion.

On the eighth day of March 1895, Hannule led more than 10,000 Laojiao believers to besiege Xunhua City, opening the prelude to the anti-Qing uprising in the Hehuang area.

Han Suleiman packed his bags and prepared to plunge into the battle.

His wife hurriedly grabbed his shirt and begged bitterly: "Shopkeeper, is the scale of the trouble in the Tongzhi period large?" Big! The result? The flat-headed people lost their heads and went to prison! What about the leading Ma Zhanao and Ma Haiyan? stepped on the corpses of ordinary people and became a bigger official. You can't go! ”

When Han Suleiman heard his wife's words, he felt that it made sense, so he asked, "Then you say, is the old religion correct or the new religion correct?" ”

Wiping her tears, her wife said, "That's right." Nau will never argue with you again. We do business, we do business, we live in peace. ”

Han Suleiman stayed and became a businessman who only made money and did not care about political affairs.

In 1894, the Sino-Japanese War broke out between the Qing Dynasty and Japan. Beijing is not far from the theater of operations, and defense is tight for a while.

The imperial court urgently summoned Dong Fuxiang to return to Beijing from Xinjiang to defend the Forbidden City, and specially took care of Dong Fuxiang, alas, when he passed through Gansu, he must bring the fierce and heroic Hui army to the north.

At that time, Ma Zhanao, the king of Gansu, had died, and his son Ma Anliang succeeded his father.

Dong Fuxiang immediately ordered Ma Anliang and Ma Haiyan and other 10 battalions to return to the army and follow them to Beijing.

As soon as the Hui army left, Gansu's defense suddenly became empty. It was at this time that the Huihui Uprising broke out in the Hehuang area.

Yang Changjun, realizing that the situation had suddenly deteriorated sharply, hated his subordinates for iron and steel, and hurriedly mobilized a large army into the Hehuang area to conquer and suppress, and at the same time strengthened the defense of Hezhou, Bayanrong (today's Hualong County, Qinghai Province), Xining, and other areas with a large number of Muslim believers.

This time, the government has shown no favoritism to anyone. They think that the old and new sects are all the same thing, and they are all restless and self-defying mobs. Therefore, regardless of whether it is a Protestant or an old religion, it will be dealt with.

The believers of both factions had hoped that the government would uphold justice and give themselves a fair explanation, but now they are facing a catastrophe. Their blood-boiling brains cooled down suddenly: This is the government taking the opportunity to exterminate our Muslims! If we continue to fight like this, I'm afraid the whole clan will be wiped out.

As a result, the two factions immediately stopped the religious dispute and united to resist the repression of the government. Ma Yonglin took the lead in leading the united old and new factions to besiege Hezhou City.

The sectarian struggle quickly turned into a struggle against the Qing Dynasty.

Muslims everywhere rose up in response. The Salar people and Ma Zhanlu besieged Xunhua. Min Fuying, Ma Weihan and others attacked Di Dao. Han Wenxiu of Xining Province once surrounded the Xining Government Office. Liu Sifu and Bao Liang of Datong County, Bao Youfu of Xining Prefecture, Li Changfa and Haisihu of Haiyuan County, Ma Chenglin of Bayan Rongge, Yezhuma of Nianbo County, Ma Datou Sansan of Duoba (today's Huangzhong County, Qinghai Province), and Liu Fu of Beidatong (today's Menyuan County, Qinghai Province) revolted one after another. The founder of the Ikhwani faction, Ma Wanfu of the Sarta, also led his people to join the rebels.

At one point, the uprising reached more than 100,000 people, shaking the whole province of Gansu.

Yang Changjun urgently ordered all the troops in Gansu to fight at the place where the uprising took place. However, the Qing army was overwhelmed and suffered defeats at every turn: first, the army of Tang Yanhe, the commander-in-chief of Hezhou Town, was completely annihilated at Jiatangwan (today's Xinji Town, Linxia County, Gansu Province). On the way to Xunhua, the troops of Deng Zeng, the commander-in-chief of Xining Town, were besieged and defeated by the rebel army in Gandutang (present-day Gandu Town, Hualong County, Qinghai Province). The army of Lei Zhengxuan, the governor of Hezhou, was also surrounded by the rebels, and the situation was critical.

Subsequently, the Datong Battalion and the Gandu Battalion fell into the hands of the rebel army one after another.

The situation in Bayan Rongge Hall and Datong County is also very urgent.

Yang Changjun ordered Li Peirong, the governor of Gansu, to march from Pingfan (present-day Yongdeng County, Gansu Province) to Xining via Nianbo County.

Li Peirong attacked the Dongdaemun Gorge in Xining and defeated the rebel army stationed there.

Li Peirong walked to the vicinity of Dongying Fort (located in today's Ping'an District, Haidong City, Qinghai Province) and unexpectedly encountered reinforcements from the rebel army, and a fierce battle began.

The two sides fought to the death, and more than 3,100 people were killed.

Dongying Fort was full of corpses and rivers of blood.

Li Peirong successfully broke through and occupied Pingrongyi (today's Ping'an District, Haidong City, Qinghai Province).

Because of Yang Changjun's ineffective suppression, the imperial court dismissed him and repatriated him to his hometown, and recruited Dong Fuxiang, the governor of Kashgar, to supervise the military affairs of Gansu.

Dong Fuxiang was a veteran of suppressing the anti-Qing rebels. He led his troops from Beijing day and night to aid Gansu.

In mid-November, Dong Fuxiang arrived in Hezhou.

He continued to use the tried and tested old method of "using Hui to govern Hui", first using the relationship between Ma Fulu and Ma Yonglin and Ma Yongrui to lure the brothers down, then killing their entire family, and then using the relationship between Ma Anliang and Ma Haiyan to lure Han Nule down.

Ma Wanfu surrendered before the arrival of Ma Anliang and Dong Fuxiang's Qing army.

Dong Fuxiang's army brought advanced new European-made weapons from Beijing, such as Mauser and Remington shotguns, which undoubtedly had an overwhelming advantage over the rebels, who were no more than meagre cold weapons and front-loading guns.

Ma Anliang led a fierce cavalry to defeat the rebel army at Niuxin Mountain. The blood of the rebels stained his official hat red.

Ma Yonglin, his son, and more than 600 people were captured, beheaded, and their ears cut off. Their heads were used by Ma Fuxiang and Ma Fulu to decorate their offices.

On December 4, Ma Anliang lifted the siege of Hezhou by the rebel army, and immediately led the cavalry to Xunhua to massacre the Salar rebels there who had agreed to negotiate with the imperial court.

Dong Fuxiang was stationed in Hezhou City and ordered Ma Fulu and others to handle the aftermath in Xunhua.

Xunhua's anti-Qing struggle failed.

Han Suleiman witnessed the beginning and end of the Xunhua uprising, and the bloody scene told him that his wife was right.

At the beginning of 1896, there was another danger of uprising in Xining.

The imperial court sent several urgent telegrams to Dong Fuxiang, urging him to personally go to Xining Mansion to supervise the suppression.

Dong Fuxiang immediately ordered He Debiao and Zhang Mingxin to open Xining Mansion first.

Ma Anliang then sent four battalions to surround Xining.

The rebel army in Xining fought stubbornly. Because the Qing army's strength increased dramatically and the guns were excellent, the five forts occupied by the rebel army in Nanchuan were broken by the Qing army.

The rebel army also occupied Houzihe, Changningbao, Nalinliang, Sujiabao and other places in Beichuan. Sujiabao was the center of the Beichuan Rebel Army. The fortress here was very strong and strong, with about 40,000 or 50,000 infantry and cavalry. If the strength of the surrounding more than 30 small forts is counted, the total strength is about 60,000.

Liu Sifu was the leader of the Sujiabao Uprising.

On the seventh day of the first month of the first month of 1896, Dong Fuxiang's Gan army and Hunan army began to attack Xining Beichuan.

In the face of the surging offensive of more than 20 battalions of the Qing army, the rebel army fought bravely, and finally due to the disparity in strength, the fortress was broken by the Qing army one after another. The rebel strongholds in Toba, Beidatong, Milagou, and Banuanying were also lost one after another.

On the 21st day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar, Dong Fuxiang arrived in Xining Mansion.

After he had a general understanding of the situation in Xining, he sent more cutting-edge troops to concentrate their forces on the key attack, and used Ma Fulu as the southern route to persuade surrender, Ma Anliang as the northern route to appease, and Cui Wei and others to divide the rebel army on the western route. At the same time, he united with the Qing army in Xinjiang in the north, the joint defense of Sichuan in the south, and the princes and nobles of Tibet and Mongolia in the west, and jointly agreed on a plan for external blockade and internal pursuit, and a quick victory.

In July, the rebel army in Xiasanzhuang was defeated and left Dongchuan, and none survived.

On August 2, the Qing army carried out another massacre, killing 8,000 people in one place alone, and women were sold into slavery.

Around 400 Muslims in Toba did not participate in the uprising and repeatedly pledged allegiance to the imperial court.

One day, a Han Chinese man in Dangar had an argument with his Hui wife.

The wife deliberately frightened her husband, saying, "The Hui of Toba are coming to attack our city of Tangar. When the time comes, they will send a signal to the returnees to evacuate and burn down the temple on the top of the mountain. ”

The man was frightened when he heard this, and quickly reported to the government what his wife had said.

In the early morning of the next day, all these Toba Hui people were killed by the Qing army in their dreams.

One day in September, the rebel army pounced on Pingrongyi again from the Dongdaemun Gorge in Xining, but was defeated.

Within two days, the rebels again surrounded Pingrongyi.

The Qing army shot thousands of rebels with foreign guns and bombarded them with flowering cannons.

The rebels were defeated.

Dong Fuxiang led his troops to join forces with Deng Zeng and other troops to capture Shangwuzhuang (the general name of the five villages centered on Bangba Village in Huangzhong County) and the fortress of Xiasanzhuang, and slaughtered more than 2,000 rebels.

The uprisings throughout Xining were largely suppressed.

After the uprising subsided, Dong Fuxiang ordered his subordinate Ma Fulu to deal with the aftermath of Hehuang.

Ma Fulu led the Anning Army to slaughter nearly 30,000 Hui people. Han Wenxiu, Ma Datou Sansan, Ma Chenglin, Yezhu Ma and other important leaders were all killed.

Ma Anliang and Ma Fulu began to hunt and kill, plant and confiscate property. Xining, Xunhua, Bayanronge, Xiasanzhuang and Shangwuzhuang are the key places to be cleared.

Once, the Hui people of Xining Dongguan knelt on the street to listen to the government's speech.

Suddenly, an order to slaughter was heard, and the common people fell to the ground and died one after another under the random wielding of the government's knives. Crimson blood flowed like a river all over a street in Dongchenggen. To this day, this lane is still known as Water Gudong Lane.

The rebel army that was slaughtered in Sixiang and Bafang also amounted to more than 1,000 people.

In order to show his loyalty to Dong Fuxiang, Ma Anliang promised to hand over the heads of 50 rebel soldiers every day.

Ma Fulu slaughtered more than 100 people a day in Maying, Milagou and Bazhou in Nianbo County. He thought it was inconvenient to hand over the head, so he simply turned over the dead man's ear instead. I handed over the ears of two large baskets at once. More than 5,000 people were killed.

He also extorted atonement silver from the people in the Hehuang area, extorting a total of more than 30 taels and donating more than 1,000 stone of grain, filling the private pockets of Dong Fuxiang and Ma Shi.

The whole territory of Qinghai was immediately declared Jing'an.

The Battle of Sujiabao in Beichuan was different from the Battle of Nanchuan in the rebel army. After the Battle of Beichuan, the rebel army of tens of thousands of people moved to Lajiao (today's south gate of Lanlongkou Town, Huangzhong County) and Shangwuzhuang in the upper reaches of Xinachuan. Among them, the rebel army transferred from Sujiabao was the largest.

Because of Dong Fuxiang's contribution to suppressing the uprising, the imperial court promoted him to the rank of Xinjiang general and colonel of Hezhou.

In order to escape the catastrophe, the Hui people, who used to live along the fertile Yellow River and Huangshui, fled with their families into the remote and impoverished mountains and old forests, and struggled to endure the hardships.

The remnants of the Xining rebel army moved to the Qaidam Basin and fought against the Qing army many times. One route is led by Liu Sifu, from the Qaidam Basin to the north of the Qilian Mountains. The other route was the Yong'an battalion led by Ye Ba, and went north from the Yeniugou out of Qilian Mountain.

Part of the rebel army fled to Nanshan in Ganzhou, Gansu Province, where they held out until their final defeat in October.

In order to avoid the round-up of the Qing army, Liu Sifu planned to follow the example of Bai Yanhu in the Shaanxi-Gansu Uprising, so he went west from the direction of Yumen and Dunhuang, passed through the desolate barren land, and entered the Lop Nur area of Xinjiang.

Eventually, the imperial court gathered the remnants of the rebel army and the returnees who had fled westward, and settled them in the area of Yinggekeli and Yingqigai (in present-day Yuli County) on the north bank of the Tarim River. Because the land here is extremely barren and the grain harvest fails year after year, people continue to flee.

In 1903, Liu Jiade, the prefect of Yanqi, relocated the remaining Hui people to the Machangtai area with fertile water and grass on the south bank of the Kaidu River in Yanqi Prefecture, and named it Fuhuizhuang.

These Hui people multiplied and became the main source of the Hui population in Yanqi Hui Autonomous County, Bayingolin Mongolian Autonomous Prefecture, Xinjiang. Their arrival changed the ethnic structure of the Lop Nur area, and also made certain contributions to agricultural production and social development in southern Xinjiang.

The Hehuang Rebellion was the last large-scale Hui uprising of the Qing Dynasty. The uprising, which lasted one and a half years, effectively weakened the rule of the Qing court in Gansu and sounded the death knell of the Qing dynasty's demise.

Finally, it is important to emphasize that the Qing court also recognized that the uprising was caused by the unfair handling of local officials.