Let me tell you about Yuxian, the governor of Shanxi, and how he got himself into a whole heap of trouble. Yuxian has been ordered to be executed, with the execution scheduled for the sixth day of the first month. His crimes deserve death, which may not be well known to everyone, so I have transcribed a letter from Taiyuan to let everyone know that he deserves his punishment, and it is not that the court's laws are too harsh. The letter went on to say:
Here, rumors started in May of the 26th year of Guangxu, and things turned into a real mess in early June. Yuxian, upon taking office, spread rumors among his subordinates about killing foreigners and eradicating religion. Some subordinates jumped on the bandwagon, while others opposed it. The prefect of Taiyuan, Xu Handu, the magistrate of Taiyuan County, Bai Chang, and the head of the local academy all joined in the chaos. As early as mid-April, advertisements were posted full of talk about profiting from the killing of foreigners. Bishops Ai and Fu and a British priest repeatedly requested Yuxian to put a stop to the rumors, but he ignored them, leading to the situation getting worse day by day.
In early June, the massacre of missionaries started, and numerous foreign missionaries and believers were killed or injured, resulting in heavy losses. Instead of stopping it, Yuxian incited the violence and even said that those killed deserved to die. His actions were simply helping the killers! The letter also mentioned that after the chaos, he sent people to various places to rip off the people for personal gain, a testament to his greed and cruelty! He should have been punished long ago for these crimes! It is not the court's intention to target him, but he truly deserves death!
Around May 20th, several edicts were issued from above ordering the governor to protect the missionaries, but he completely ignored them. On the 24th, bandits from Datong Prefecture raided a church and looted items. On the 27th, the bishop urgently sent a letter for help, but Yuxian still ignored it. By the 30th, the Boxers from the north entered the city and set up a boxing ring in front of the governor's office to practice. By this point, Yuxian's inaction had created a climate of violence and terror.
On June 1st, Yu called the bishop to the government office. In the afternoon at around four o'clock, Bishop Fu personally went to seek help, but Yu made excuses not to see him, only offering some empty reassurances. After the bishop returned, Yu ran around the city, preparing sulfur, torches, kerosene, and other fire-starting supplies. In the evening at around eight o'clock, the British church caught on fire, and Yu stood by and did nothing. Soldiers from three battalions who wanted to put out the fire were stopped by Yu, and as a result, soldiers and civilians went on a rampage, killing and looting.
The British priests were anxious and afraid. One person said, "Way back when, during the early Guangxu years, when Shanxi suffered a major disaster, we all raised tens of thousands of silver taels to save people and saved countless lives. How can we be treated like this now?" A British woman ran out holding a child, shouting, "I am a doctor, saving three to four hundred people every year. Can't I even save one life now?" The marauders beat her, threw her into the fire, and when she crawled out, they threw her back in, and she was finally crushed to death by a collapsing beam, with the child also suffering. It is unknown how many other injured people managed to escape.
The next day, soldiers were stationed at all six city gates, not allowing the churchgoers to enter or exit, and anyone who did was arrested. On that day, the priests in the church and more than a dozen workers were all arrested, and most of the things they carried were taken by the guards at the gate. In the morning, bandits went to rob the British church, but luckily the owner came out to stop them, and the building was not burned. In the afternoon, tens of thousands of people surrounded the Catholic church because yesterday British priests shot several bandits. Yu was afraid that there were weapons hidden in the church as well, so he did not dare to order it to be burned down. Instead, he sent the magistrate and several officials to the church to inspect it, putting on a show of sympathy.
Until eleven o'clock at night, he sent Nie, the magistrate's assistant, to see if the bishop had escaped. Then he sent soldiers to guard the church door. There were more than two hundred and twenty girls in the orphanage, who were transferred to the cotton mill that night and were told they would be sent back in two or three days after the situation calmed down. The bishop reluctantly agreed. On the third day of the first month, Magistrate Yu ordered the believers to abandon their faith, or their lives would be in danger. From that day on, rumors spread more fiercely, with people guarding inside and outside the church day and night, and officials coming to inspect every day without a break. On the ninth day of the first month, Magistrate Bai said to the bishop, "It's inconvenient to have soldiers guarding, so why don't you all live together temporarily and come back another day?" The bishop agreed, falling into her trap. Magistrate Bai then wrote down the names of all the people in the church on a piece of paper and forced the bishop, priests, monks, nuns, and more than thirty others to go to Slaughterhouse Alley together. Then she ordered the church door to be sealed and all the mules and horses to be taken away. The next day, the family of seven British missionaries was also locked up. In the afternoon of the thirteenth day, Magistrate Bai pretended to come to console them, and after she left, Yu came in disguise and led a team of soldiers to surround Slaughterhouse Alley, ordering the soldiers to arrest these people and take them to the military camp. At that time, about seventy people were arrested. Yu asked the bishop, "How many people have you harmed since you came to China?" The bishop replied, "I have never harmed anyone; I only know how to help others." Yu said, "You should know that I am not afraid of you now!" He then ordered the use of torture. The soldiers and bandits dared not act, so Yu, in great anger, drew his sword and personally killed two bishops. The bandits then began to hack wildly, killing dozens of Christians, both Western and Chinese, and more than twenty servants. They then chopped off the heads of the Westerners, opened their chests, and left their bodies to rot in the sun for several days.
Next, he ordered an official to take dozens of soldiers and tie up the remaining people in the church and send them to the county magistrate's office, forcing them to renounce their faith. Among them was a man named Li Fu, the Pingdingzhou garrison commander, who was home on sick leave and refused to give up his faith, and was imprisoned until his execution on the 29th. Han Yuantai and Zhao Haisheng were falsely accused of poisoning a well and were also executed. Wang Denian, 79 years old, and Wang Xiaohuo both refused to renounce their faith and eventually starved to death in prison.
That day, the troops and townsfolk looted everything in the church and set it on fire. A main hall, two small halls, and more than four hundred rooms were all burned down. All the stolen money was taken by the authorities.
On the 14th, they looted the homes of over a hundred households of believers in the city and suburbs. On the 15th, the authorities ordered the believers to renounce their faith. On the 18th, the Boxers were ordered to kill forty-four church members in the city, both men and women. Those who were not killed were also forced to renounce their faith, and if they did not, they were driven outside the city. The Boxers and bandits were allowed to search for and kill believers everywhere to make money. With nowhere to hide, thousands of Christians scattered.
The most severely affected areas were Datong, Shuozhou, Wutai, Taiyuan, Xugou, Yuci, Fenzhou, and Pingding counties, where priests and believers were killed or injured in large numbers.
On July 16th, Governor Yu was about to leave his post, and before leaving, he instructed the Boxers to burn and kill church members, ignoring the local officials' attempts to stop them. As a result, the Boxers became even more arrogant, gathering over a thousand bandits to antagonize the believers and kill at will. There were even cases of surrounding and burning entire families to death. Luckily, Governor Li Xiaoxuan intervened, issuing a strict ban that brought some calm.
