The Fragile Balance of Power in Southern China

In the turbulent mid-17th century, as the Ming dynasty crumbled before the advancing Qing forces, southern China became a battleground of shifting loyalties and desperate resistance. The Yongli Emperor, last ruler of the Southern Ming, saw his court reduced to a wandering existence while warlords and former Ming generals carved out their own domains. Among these figures stood Li Dingguo, a former rebel turned Ming loyalist, whose 1652 campaign through Guangxi would deliver one of the most stunning blows to Qing expansion.

This campaign unfolded against a backdrop of fractured Qing administration. The conquerors, though formidable, struggled to consolidate control over the mountainous south. Key Qing commanders like Kong Youde, the “Prince Dingnan,” operated with near-autonomy, their arrogance and strategic miscalculations creating vulnerabilities that Li Dingguo would exploit with brilliant precision.

The Road to Guilin: Li’s Lightning Campaign

Li Dingguo’s offensive began in June 1652 with a rapid march through Wugang and Xinning. His forces, hardened by years of guerrilla warfare, moved with startling speed. On June 28th, they annihilated Qing defenders at Quanzhou, killing commanders Sun Long and Li Yangxing. The news sent shockwaves through the Qing command structure.

Kong Youde, who had dismissed earlier warnings, now scrambled to respond. His belated attempt to fortify Yan Pass at Xing’an County ended in disaster—Qing forces were routed, their corpses “floating thick as rafts down the river.” By nightfall on June 29th, a humiliated Kong retreated behind Guilin’s walls, his aura of invincibility shattered.

The Siege and Fall of a Qing Stronghold

As Li’s army encircled Guilin on June 30th, the city’s fate became inevitable. Kong’s desperate summons to regional garrisons went unanswered. Inside the walls, defections began—notably former Ming general Wang Yuncheng’s secret negotiations with Li’s officer Ma Jinzhong.

The final assault came on July 4th. As Ming troops stormed Wu Sheng Gate, Kong Youde performed his last acts: executing his household, torching his palace treasures, then taking his own life. His wife Bai’s dying words—urging their son to “live as a monk, never emulate your father’s bandit life”—became a haunting epitaph for Qing overreach. The capture and subsequent execution of Kong’s son, along with collaborators like Chen Bangfu (flayed alive on Sun Kewang’s orders), marked the complete collapse of Qing authority in Guangxi.

Cultural Shockwaves and the Southern Ming Resurgence

Li’s victory resonated far beyond military circles. For Chinese literati like Shi Runzhang, who had witnessed Kong’s pre-campaign arrogance, the fall of Guilin became a moral lesson about hubris. The Ming loyalist camp, though fractured, saw renewed hope—Li’s establishment of a Guangxi administration under Governor Xu Tianyou demonstrated that resistance could be more than symbolic.

Yet the campaign also exposed deep fractures. The brutal punishment of collaborators like Chen Bangfu, while popular among anti-Qing hardliners, revealed the moral compromises of resistance. When censor Li Ruyue criticized these methods, his subsequent flaying by Sun Kewang created a propaganda disaster, allowing Qing sympathizers to frame Ming loyalists as equally tyrannical.

Strategic Consequences and Historical Legacy

Li’s Guangxi campaign represented the high-water mark of Southern Ming resistance. His subsequent victory at Hengyang against Prince Nikan’s forces further cemented his reputation. However, Sun Kewang’s decision to recall Li from Guangxi proved disastrous—by year’s end, Qing forces under Shang Kexi had retaken key cities including Guilin itself.

Historians debate whether Li could have consolidated his gains had he remained south. What remains undisputed is the campaign’s psychological impact: for the first time since 1644, a major Qing field army had been destroyed, its commander dead by his own hand. The episode delayed Qing consolidation of the south by nearly a decade and inspired later resistance movements.

Today, Li Dingguo’s campaign is studied both for its tactical brilliance—the rapid marches, psychological warfare, and siegecraft that prefigured modern maneuver warfare—and as a case study in how fragile imperial conquests can unravel when overextended. The ashes of Kong Youde’s palace serve as an enduring reminder that no occupation is secure without local legitimacy.