A Heroic Song from Kui Dong: The Legend of the Thirteen-Family Alliance

In the second year of the Shunzhi reign, the rebel king Li Zicheng was killed at Jiugong Mountain. Liu Tichun, Yuan Zongdi, and Hao Yaoqi led the remnants of their forces on a long journey of a thousand li, entering eastern Sichuan through Kuimen and putting down roots deep in the Bashan Mountains. They established their main camp and anti-Qing base at Chenjiaba, now Jiaochangba in Yanduhe Town, Badong County. They cleared fields, farmed, and made salt to benefit the people, laying down the military rule: "Drive out the Qing and care for the people." Li Laiheng joined them with his troops and built a commander's residence on Maolu Mountain. Refugees from all directions came at the news, weeping as they recounted the horrors of the Ten Days of Yangzhou and the Three Massacres of Jiading. Liu Tichun knelt to accept a Confucian robe and vowed to restore China's traditional attire.

Liu Tichun personally traveled to Liangshan to forge an alliance with the Yi and Han peoples. In the seventh month of the third year of the Yongli reign, July 1649, Grand Commander Wen Anzhi came in person to eastern Kuimen to deliver the emperor's edict. Liu Tichun was named Duke of Wan, Yuan Zongdi Duke of Jing, Hao Yaoqi Duke of Yi, and Li Laiheng Duke of Lin. The leaders of the thirteen families swore a blood oath and unanimously chose Liu Tichun as their alliance leader. Their 200,000 troops were divided among the sixteen camps of the Loyal and Chaste Battalion, each guarding its own position while working in alliance. The great banner of the Thirteen Families of Eastern Kuimen flew high in the wind.

In the twelfth month of 1663, in front of Tianchi Fort, Liu Tichun hanged himself with his bowstring for his country. He was only a little over fifty. On Huangcaoping, Yuan Zongdi and Hao Yaoqi fought fiercely, were captured, and died unyielding. In the eighth month of 1664, in the Maolu Mountains, Li Laiheng set his entire family on fire, a household of loyal martyrs.

From the second year of the Shunzhi reign to the third year of the Kangxi reign, the Thirteen Families of Eastern Kuimen resisted the Qing for nineteen years, fighting more than a hundred battles, large and small. They were the last stalwart force to hold out for the Southern Ming Yongli court, composing with their blood and bodies an epic song of heroism that shook heaven and earth. Their names will forever be engraved in the Bashan and Shu waters; their spirit will inspire the Chinese people for generations to come to persevere, resist oppression, and safeguard China's traditional attire and righteous spirit.