Podcasts about banditry

Banditry in Nigeria has severely impacted farmers, particularly in the northern regions, threatening lives and food security. Despite these challenges, farmers in Taraba State have shown remarkable resilience, successfully harvesting their crops amid deadly threats. This episode of Nigeria Daily examines their strategies and explores lessons for other states facing similar crises.

Insecurity in northern Nigeria has led to the displacement of millions of people, who often end up in camps with little access to food, water, or healthcare. With reports of attacks occurring almost daily, it has become a monster that appears to have developed resistance to conventional means of securing lives and property. Can local vigilante groups, the community-driven defenders of neighbourhoods, therefore, be the answer? In today's episode of Nigeria Daily, we critically examine the role played by vigilantes in the security sector, find out if they are the solution Nigeria desperately needs.

•You Are NOT The Fathercita! •Praise Be To Walter •Arizona Bay Walter Fleshlights •Free DOUGLIFE Tattoo •Loud Hard Wall Gets In The Way Of Flying Baby •Man Not Retarded Enough To Be A Cop •$29 An Hour Is A Lot Of Blood •Deadly Muslim Incest (is a good band name) •Crucify ‘Em. Why? Banditry! •Brown Dot Isaac Won Candy •Poor Walter Didn't Know How To Ride A Motorcycle •Doug Promises To Put His Mouth On A Thick Veiny Black Cup •RIP Henry …And MUCH More!   ---------------------------   Support Us on Patreon Become a Dougalo and get weekly bonus episodes and ad free public episodes by joining our Patreon. Join us at http://patreon.com/whosright For superchat sounds, send them over to Doug at doug.whosrightpodcast@gmail.com with "superchat" in the subject line. Got burning questions for Dear Flabby? Submit them for our next episode! Head to www.whosrightpodcast.com and click on the "Dear Flabby" link to share your queries. We're eager to hear from you! Love our intro song? Check out Masticate on Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/52psn3dk (Original Who's Right Theme Song by Peter Noreika: https://open.spotify.com/artist/3wYqlhflN3lNA5N5BUgeeR) This episode is sponsored by Arizona Bay Candy Co. Indulge your sweet tooth with Arizona Bay Candy Co.'s range of freeze-dried candies. Treat yourself to something special at http://www.arizonabaycandy.com Stay Connected! Don't miss any updates or content. Find all our social media links conveniently located in our Linktree: http://linktr.ee/whosrightpodcast Follow Us: Twitter: @whosrightpodcast Instagram: @whosrightpodcast Facebook: Who's Right Podcast

How About Some Real Taxes In Order To Resolve The Issues We Never Seem To Be Able To Resolve I 1% Financial Transaction Tax: Financial Transactions Escape Scott-Free From The Goods And Services Tax I 1% Stockmarket Turnover Tax Every Time A Share Is Bought And Sold I Revolve - Revolution - Francesco Fantin: Why Bother? I 3-Tier Economy: What Is It? Gaza - Lebanon: The Carnage Continues. The War Mongers Keep Arming The Israeli State I Billionaire Rapist vs War Mongers: Is That The Best The Land Of 'The Brave And Free' Can Come Up With? I 11th November 1854 - 1880  - 1918 - 1975

SCOTTISH BORDERS – PART 2 So many people who rush to the Highlands and Islands of Scotland miss the amazing beauty of the Lowlands, and the Borders area of Scotland in particular. This Podcast takes up where we left off in Part 1 and we start at the incredible Jedburgh abbey with a walk around the town to see the Old Castle jail before heading off to Mary Queen of Scott's house where you'll hear of her ill health after visiting her lover, Bothwell. Then we'll drive to another lovely ruin at Melrose and I'll let you know a little more about the lives of the monks who lived in these places to give you an insight into Monastic life. And what does Melrose Abbey have to do with the heart of our greatest king,  Robert the Bruce? We'll also look at the towns of Selkirk and Galashiels that have so much to offer and we will then head over to have a look at Abbotsford House, the home of Sir Walter Scott the most celebrated Scottish author of his generation. Before we end, I'll tell you about the Border Reivers, renegades and outlaws, who controlled the Border area for hundreds of year. You will also hear from previous Guests, the Wood family, and an incredible chance meeting with a close relative they never knew existed. This will have quite an effect on you. You will also hear from another of my guests, the celebrated American author Mary Anne Edwards, who writes the Detective series ‘Charlie McClung' and it was apt that we finished our tour at Abbotsford House where Mary Ann could study Sir Walter Scott, our own celebrated author. You can find her 'Charlie McClung' series of books on Amazon.

After the saddest episode in GIRML history, the boys reluctantly head to the email inbox to get a listener debrief on how the news of Price's competition departure has been received... did he leave the course prematurely, or was that the correct response to an abhorrent case of Banditry. You decide! - Email - thetom@golfisruiningmylife.co.uk Tik Tok - https://www.tiktok.com/@golfisruiningmylife Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/@GolfIsRuiningMyLife - New episodes every Monday & Thursday!! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In episode 419, Jon Vaughan returns to the show to examine leadership and culture building through the lens of sport—specifically, the head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers, Mike Tomlin. Before the 2022 season began, Tomlin joined the The Pivot Podcast, featuring former NFL stars/hosts, Ryan Clark, Fred Taylor and Channing Crowder. It was this interview that both Jon Vaughn and Hartmann agreed was a leadership masterclass that explains how Tomlin has never had a losing season in 17years leading the Steelers, not to mention the pair of Super Bowls he's won as well. Vaughn highlights Tomlin's focus on helping players achieve their dreams and the importance of setting clear expectations. Jon also discusses the fundamental attribution error and the danger of seeking comfort in leadership. Overall, the conversation emphasizes the importance of effective leadership and creating a culture that allows individuals to be their authentic selves. The episode concludes by honoring the memory of John Ruhlin, a friend and mentor who taught them the power of gifting and building enduring relationships.   Chapters 02:11 :: Pete Rose documentary and Banditry v. Stupidity 08:35 :: Introducing Mike Tomlin 10:06 :: “The Standard is the Standard” 12:30 :: Tomlin's Leadership Style 16:38 :: Leader's job is helping others achieve their dreams 19:36 :: Pitfalls of seeking comfort in leadership 30:12 :: Building a culture of authenticity 42:54 :: Power of vulnerability and intimacy 43:21 :: Upside of catchphrases 51:05 :: Honoring the Memory of John Ruhlin     This episode is brought to you by The Simple Sales Pipeline® —the most efficient way to organize and value any construction sales rep's roster of customers and prospects in under 30 minutes once every 30 days. *** If you enjoyed this podcast, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts. Your feedback will help us on our mission to bring the construction community closer together. If you have suggestions for improvements, topics you'd like the show to explore, or have recommendations for future guests, do not hesitate to contact us directly at info@bradleyhartmannandco.com.  

It is no secret that several states in the North-west and North-central regions have been grappling with banditry for over a decade.Zamfara and Niger, which are blessed with abundant mineral resources are now plagued by illegal mining and terrorism.Join us on today's episode of Nigeria Daily as we explore the relationship between banditry and illegal mining, and the devastating impact these activities have on local communities.

A Premium Times podcast with Kabiru Adamu, CEO Beacon Security and Intelligence

A southern Chinese government is set up in Guangzhou. Sun Yat-sen is named Generalissimo. The First Fleet joins with 9 warships.The Anfu Clique wants to attack the south and fails to defeat rebels in Hunan. Then Wu Peifu is sent south and makes progress, but stops his advance and criticizes Duan Qirui for siding with Japan against his fellow Chinese.Wu then supports the May Fourth Movement and gains southern friends and northern enemies.War breaks out between the Anfu and Zhili Cliques. After initial losses, Wu Peifu helps to defeat the Anfu Clique in battle. Duan Qirui resigns and a new administration is set up by the Zhili and Fengtian Cliques.Meanwhile, the people are suffering from warlords, taxes, duties and destruction. Banditry is often the last resort of the unemployed. But the difference between soldiers and bandits is less than first appears.Please share your advice and make the podcast even better here .Image: "Wu Peifu with sword" by Unknown authorUnknown author is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Last time we spoke about the conclusion of the first Sino-Japanese War and we took a side trip speaking about overseas Chinese in the 19th century. The treaty of Shimonoseki ended the war between Japan and the Qing dynasty. The Qing dynasty was humiliated yet again, but so too was Japan because of the triple intervention of Germany, France and Russia. The balance of power in the east had shifted dramatically. Such dramatic change that was seen in the 19th century led to massive emigration within and outside of China. The wealthy and common Chinese people wanted to improve their lives and they moved within China seeking lands to farm and outside China seeking new opportunities. Overseas Chinese were heavily influenced by the great Gold Rushes of the 19th century and of course the colossal railway projects. In many ways it was a dark part of the histories of numerous nations, but in the end it was also the beginning of a new international community.     #56 This episode it's not always sunny in Shandong   Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. Shandong, anytime you hear about a conflict in Chinese history it always seems to originate with Shandong. Indeed Shandong has been at the heart of an unbelievable number of conflicts, it just always seems to be the birthing place for trouble, but hell it always gave us Confucious. Not going to lie, this is going to be a bit of a bizarre episode. The purpose of this episode is to somewhat explain, how certain groups emerge historically because….well of just a place. Shandong is unique, its been at the heart of so many events. We are soon going to be jumping into another major event in Chinese history, but to best tell how it comes about, I wanted to cover the origin of those responsible. It just so happens where the majority of these people come from, that is northwest Shandong by the way, makes for quite a story. So let us explore Shandong and perhaps touch just a bit, like a teaser upon a group of people that will become known to the western world as the Boxers. In the late 19th century Shandong held an enormous population, cereal agriculture and numerous impoverished villages. The climate of the region could go from just above freezing for the winter months and blazingly hot and humid for the summer months. China took its time modernizing as we all know, so the peasants of Shandong had to rely mostly on mother nature for irrigation and mother nature in China could be quite cruel. Floods were common, so were droughts. Shandong is quite diverse, its eastern portion was very productive, producing grain, fruits and vegetables. Its streams carried gold dust which was panned by locals. It was part of an ancient silk-raising region. Along the peninsula was a relative immunity to natural disasters. Landlords were more plentiful here than Shandongs western half and it held numerous important port cities like Qingdao which today produces Tsingtao beer, one of my favorites. Commerce was quite bountiful in the port cities and by far and large the peninsula and northern slope of eastern shandong were the most developed parts of the province. In the mid 19th century 58% of Shandongs provincial degree holders came from either the northern slope or peninsula. However when you look at the northwest plains of Shandong province you begin to see a discrepancy. Stretching across the entire region north of the Yellow River, held one of the most populous regions, with 250 people per square kilometer covering around 26% of Shandongs land area. 93% or so of these people were peasants and the region was purely agricultural, but it could be described as anything but prosperous. Average yields were the lowest of any region in Shandong, reflecting the persistent problems of waterlogging and salinity of the soil. The northwest was prone to natural disasters. The yellow river became quite problematic to this region in the 1880s. The bed of the river had risen above ground level through most of Shandong, and the floods became increasingly bad. Though bad, the yellow river was not the only source of misery for northwest Shandong. Lesser streams frequently caused local floodings and as funny as it sounds, too much water was an issue, but often it was too little that brought upon real calamity. In 1876 a terrible drought was said to have carried off nearly 2 million people. 10 years later, famine hit again, truly making Northwest Shandong a disaster area. As bad as mother nature could be, man could also be problemsome.  West of Jinan is an imperial highway that runs north and south. It passed into the province of Dezhou, then through Haotang and Chiping before crossing the yellow river's northern course at Dong'e. This area since ancient times saw numerous invading armies cross it from north to south. The Mongols used it and then the Manchu in a similar fashion. It was ripe also for rebels to take up shop. As we saw, the Taiping's northern expedition in the mid 1850's brought them into Shandong, when they attempted to hit Beijing. But Prince Sengge Rinchen managed to turn away the Taiping, ironically by flooding them out. The Nian rebels likewise raided Shandong, first in its southwest, but then in its northwest by the late 1860's. Even the White Lotus Rebellion saw much spreading in the region. It was often said by travelers that this area “suffered quite as much from the imperial soldiers as they did from the rebels, and at times even worse”. With such conditions it was no surprise numerous rebels and bandits would emerge. Banditry was an important part of both northwest and southwest Shandong. It was prevalent especially along the southern border with Zhili were bands of around 8-13 men would often perform highway robbery. Roving bandits would prey upon innocent villages, with the prime time being winter as most of these men were not full time bandits, oh no most had homes and grew crops, it was seasonal work. One account in July of 1897 had this to say “the season when highwaymen are especially numerous and dangerous is upon us. The kaoliang is in its prime, and being 7 or 8 feet high and very thick affords a most convenient ambush. It is unsafe to travel alone even in daylight over lonely roads”.  Now northwest shandong was disaster prone leading to barely any landlords. The region was simply not wealthy enough to support many landlords. Poverty and peasantry was the norm. It was not unheard of for entire villages to take up the road, carrying entire families of men, women and children begging for food. There was a ton of mobility, and a lot of young men would sell themselves as laborers to make ends meet. There was a constant migration of people in northwest Shandong because of the harsh conditions. All of these conditions lent the region into a certain mentality. Now Shandong is the birthplace of both Confucious and Mencius, the very foundation of orthodoxy in China, so why do so many rebellions seem to spurt up here? Confucian tradition holds that a ruler should educate, and lead people to do what is right. But Shandong has historically been seen to be a stubborn place for sectarianism, especially during the Qing dynasty. Something Qing officials took notice of, was how rebellions often came about with the marriage of a sect, take for example the White Lotus and martial arts, which we can also refer to as boxing. The Ming had set a law against Heterodoxy which the Qing adopted, it proscribed a penalty of strangulation for the leaders and banishment of 3000 li distance for followers. Here is a passage of the laws “all teachers and shamans who call down heterodox gods [jiang xieshen, write charms, [chant] incantations [to make] water [magically efficacious: zhou-shui], perform planchette and pray to sages, calling themselves duan-gong (First Lord), tai-bao (Great Protector) or shi-po (shamaness); and those who wildly call themselves the White Lotus Society of the Buddha Maitreya, the Ming-zun [Manichaean?] sect, or the White Cloud Assembly with their heretical and heterodox [zuo-daoyi-duan] techniques; or those who hide pictures [of heterodox gods or patriarchs] and gather in groups to burn incense, meeting at night and dispersing at dawn, pretending to do good works but [actually] arousing and misleading the people” So as you can see with this passage, the law made it clear that incantations or charms were particularly concerning to the Qing court. Mere worship was tolerated or at least treated leniently. But what was definitely not ok was the formation of hierarchies, such as master and disciples, or the use of lets say magic. These actions were seen as instrumental to providing the organization needed for subversive activity, ie rebellions. In the early Qing days, these prohibitions were pretty effective, while sectarian worship still flourished, at least no rebellions were kicking off. However by the late 18th century things began to change, rebellions emerged. Now I spoke extensively about the White Lotus Rebellion, but there were two other significant rebellions took place around this time, the Wang Lun rebellion of 1774 and the eight Trigrams uprising of 1813. Both broke out in the Shandong region and both involved significant participation from martial arts groups, more notably both involved those known as Yi-he-quan, aka those who the west would call Boxers by 1898.  The Qing noted the persistence of sectarianism in Shandong, the province was a major source of what was called ‘meditational sects” built upon the White Lotus tradition. These meditational sects had no great halls, sutras or views, they usually were just people prescribing certain diets. They stressed meditation and breathing exercises, sometimes with recitation of incantations. They were pretty simplistic, groups with rituals based around certain times of the day. Both the Wang Lun rebellion and eight Trigrams uprising were begun by these so called “meditational sects”. Wang Lun was a former Yaman runner who managed to get rich working as a healer in Shouzhang county in southwest Shandong. He was the leader of the White Lotus sect in Shandong province in the 1770s. He was a self-taught physician and a martial arts master. He taught his followers yoga, meditation and  the ability to fast for long periods of time. Honestly you could really call these people modern day yogi's. His sect was noted for their fasting techniques and martial arts prowess. By 1774 his sect numbered several thousand. It was in this year, Wang Lun began spreading rumors of an impending turn of the Kalpa. In the Hindu and Buddhist faiths, Kalpa refers to a period of time between creation and the recreation of the universe. He was telling his converts that the reincarnation of Maitreya was upon them, and he was destined to become the Emperor of China. He mobilized his followers and marched upon the city of Shouzhang on October 3rd of 1774. With some help from followers already inside the city, the rebels seized it and ransacked everything they could. The rebels held Shouzhang for a few days before abandoning it to attack the city of Yangku. Yangku was easily captured as its local garrison had just been sent to relieve Shouzhang. From there the rebels captured Tangyi and Liulin before marching upon the larger city of Linqing. By this point the rebels had defeated multiple Qing forces and rumors spread this sect were utilizing invulnerability magic. Many officials in Linqing fled in fear of this. For weeks Wang Lun's forces besieged the city, but the Qing defenders led by Qing Zhanhun resisted their attacks. Wang Lun's forces soon were surrounded and Wang Lun elected to burn himself alive rather than surrender. The Eight Trigrams rebellion was a short lived revolt that broke out in Zhili, Henan and of course Shandong. It too was a sub branch of the White Lotus, led by 3 notable figures. The Eight Trigram sect goes back to the late 17th century of the Ming Dynasty founded by Liu Zuochen and the Liu family of Shandong which maintain it for decades. It was the first folk religion to develop civil and martial work methods, this is referred to as “wen and wu” a conceptual pair in Chinese philosophy, referring to civil and military realms for governance. They believed in meditation techniques to overcome human limits, to reach salvation. They were organized into eight trigrams and predicted a time of troubles and a new kalpa and mobilized themselves through master-disciple relationships. A major component of them was practicing martial arts.  Now like I said during this rebellion they had 3 leaders, the first was Lin Qing who was described as a hustler who loved gambling and took on some odds jobs like being a night watchman, an enforcer, and even a minor healer. Eventually he took over a small white lotus sect and in 1811 he met Li Wen-cheng who at the time was trying to assume leadership over a larger white lotus sect network spanning across Henan, Zhili and Shandong. Both Lin and Li were inspired by the appearance of a comet in 1811 that they believed was a sign that they could topple the Qing dynasty. They also met Feng Keshan who was a martial arts master, who was not really interested in their crazy religious stuff, but he was seen to be a great leader in his own right and he joined them as a means of recruiting followers from boxing groups within Henan, Zhili and Shandong. In July of 1813 the main leaders of the eight trigrams met and discussed a date for a rebellion. What really began their necessity to rebel, was a series of droughts and floods that had brought upon a famine which in turn led to a sharp increase in the price of wheat. The emperor at the time had scheduled a hunting trip on September 15th, so the rebels knew the Forbidden city would be lightly guarded. The plan called for ambushing the Emperor as he was coming back from the trip, just outside the city. Qing court officials heard rumors of the planned rebellion and quickly arrested Li Wen-cheng on September 2nd. They began torturing him, but soon his followers broke in and rescued him. The rebellion was then pushed forward and the Eight Trigrams quickly seized Huaxin, Dingtao and Caoxian in southern Zhili and Shandong. Lin Qing took charge of an attack upon the forbidden city, although he notably did not participate in the attack. The rebels hid in ships outside the eastern and western palace gates as Lin paid off palace eunuchs to lead his forces through the gates. The rebels wore white cloths around their heads and waists and were armed mostly with knives or iron bars. They tried to attack during a mealtime when they assumed the guards would be eating. The Emperor at this time was around 50 miles away from the city walls. Around 80 rebels managed to get through the gates before they were closed and fighting erupted inside. With the element of surprise lost, the rebels soon routed as the Imperial guards brigade hunted them down. Several thousand supported continued to besiege cities for months, but all would be suppressed in January of 1814.  Li Wen-chang along with 4000 followers died while besieging Huixian. Over 20,000 or so eight trigram members would be killed and an estimated 70,000 people would die as a result of the short rebellion. So Shandong was kind of a breeding ground for sects, particularly from the White Lotus faith. Shandong also was a place notable for martial arts. As early as the Song dynasty, the people of Shandong were noted for being warlike and brave. Their reputation only strengthen with time. During the late 19th century a western source labeled the people of shandong “Warlike, industrious and intelligent. The natives of Shantung [Shandong] ... whose overflow has peopled the rich lands of Manchuria, enjoy the finest record for both physical and moral qualities. It is from them the Chinese navy drew its best recruits; it is they who proved their prowess either as brigands or as a self-reliant and self-defended exploiters of the resources of Liaotung [Liaodong] and Manchuria.” It was not just westerners who took notice of Shandong's martial arts prowess, the Qing dynasty looked to Shandong often for its military. Shandong was an area of China that had seen repeated invasions, take out a map of China, you see it immediately, anyone who comes from the north pretty much has to go through shandong. Repeated invasions by forces from the north encouraged the development of martial habits in self defense, add natural and human disasters that continuously disrupted the social order, and you eventually end up with bandits. The people who settled in shandong had to deal with constant banditry and attacks from invaders. Shandong also had a greater military/civil ratio than most provinces. From 1851-1900 the northwest ratio was around 1.22 to 1 and the southwest 2.38 to 1 while the ratio for the entire province was around .57 to 1. And those areas with the higher rations just so happen to be the areas where boxers and members of the Big Sword society emerged. We will talk more about them later. The martial arts tradition of western shandong spawned numerous martial arts groups. There was a popular culture which stressed military virtues, boxing and swordsmanship. Seeing martial arts teachers displaying their prowess in the market places was a very common sight. In 1899 the Zhili magistrate Lae Nai-xuan wrote a pamphlet urging the prohibition of boxers and he wrote about certain martial arts groups along the borders of Jiangsu, Anhu, Henan and Shandong.  “In this area there are many vagabonds and rowdies (wu-lai gun-tu) who draw their swords and gather crowds. They have established societies of various names: the Obedient Swords (Shun-dao hui), Tiger-tail Whip (Huwei bian), the Yi-he Boxers,* and Eight Trigrams Sect (Ba-gua jiao). They are overbearing in the villages and oppress the good people. The origin of these disturbances is gambling. They go to fairs and markets and openly set up tents where they take valuables in pawn and gather to gamble. They [also] conspire with yamen clerks who act as their eyes and ears. “ The people Lai Nai-xuan are describing are the Yi-he-quan Boxers. Who the hell are these guys? These were young men, the type to gamble, drink, perform petty crime to get by, the thuggish types. They most often than naught were bandits, involved in things like salt smuggling. As seen with the Wang Lun and the eight trigrams rebellions, these types of young men practicing boxing were greatly sought after as followers, so sects often created civil and military like divisions to attract them. Adding martial arts to a sect's repertoire could help greatly to recruit. Take the White Lotus sect overall, many of its members, perhaps the majority were historically women. Females were much less likely to take an active role in violence, so white lotus leaders who were usually always looking to start a rebellion began seeing the necessity to recruit able bodied young men, those who knew some boxing to get things cooking. Boxing was often used as a way of luring people into sect activities. It was also a deceptive little trick. If a sect members was teaching youth boxing, it did not necessarily mean they were followers of his sect, it was like a foot in the door process. Thus Shandong was the breeding grounds for both sects and boxers, who often intermingled.  Another interesting thing that has a lot of roots in Shandong is the long history of invulnerability rituals. When rebels kicked up, they were as you can imagine met with force by the Qing authorities. Facing well armed Qing soldiers, rebels often tried to enhance the fighting capabilities of their followers by the use of magic, specifically invulnerability magic. This goes back to ancient times of course, but the advent of firearms from the west during the 17th century really enhanced the appearance of such magic. Several rebel groups during the Ming dynasty would use the allegedly polluting power of women to stop gunfire from walled cities that were being besieged. Wang Lun famous used large numbers of women who would attempt summoning goddesses to prevent the approach of bullets or stop guns from firing. The eight trigrams rebellion used a particularly invulnerability technique known as “jin-zhon-zhao / the armor of the golden bell”. This technique would later be famously employed by the Big Swords society, again future episodes will delve into this more. The technique was a form of kung-fu that employed “Qigong”. Qigong is a system of coordinating body-posturing, like movement, breathing and meditation. Those performing it would perform breathing exercises which they claimed helped protect their bodies against blades and even bullets as if a large bell was covering their body. Some who practiced this would chant incantations like “a song does not tell his father; a father does not tell his son”. During the mid 19th century rebellions were tearing China apart. The Taiping, Nian, local white lotus were all hitting different parts of China simultaneously. By 1860 the Qing government was cracking down left right and center, increasing land taxes to support the suppressing efforts. In 1861, in Qiu county, the very extreme edge of western Shandong saw rebels rise up, a majority of them were of the white lotus.  They were joined by martial artists of the Black Flag Army under the leadership of Song Jing-shi a professional boxer and swordsman who made a living as a highway escort, like a armed guard for wealthy nobles.  Unlike the previous rebellions that had marriages between boxers and sects, these rebellions in the mid 19th century brought upon a new flavor, an anti-manchu one. The Taiping and Nian rebellions inspired a vigorous hate against the Manchu, particularly against the corrupt officials that made up their dynasty. Certainly when the Qing began to suppress the rebels, it led to a ravaging of the countryside seeing flocks of boxers join the rebels in response. While many boxers joined such rebels, others would join the Qing to combat them as well. In 1861, Song Jing-shi was forced to surrender to the Qing and he would claim he only joined the rebellion because he and his followers were facing persecution by yamen runners. He then offered his services against the rebels, but he had one condition, that his forces would stay intact. His forces indeed fought against the Nian rebels, marching into Henan. The Qing asked him and his followers to go to Shaanxi to fight them there, but he elected to take his men to western Shandong where his original base was and just rebelled again. The story of Song Jing-shi showcases how martial artists and sectarians were a mainstream aspect of peasantry life in shandong. The participation of boxers on the side of rebels and the government shows it was really part of the social fabric of the region. Western Shandong by the late Qing period saw greater numbers of military examination graduates. Boxing was becoming much more popular as a recreation for youthful men and a means of protecting one's home. As one Gazetter said “The local people like to practice the martial arts—especially to the west of Linqing. There are many schools: Shao-lin, Plum Flower and Greater and Lesser Hong Boxing. Their weapons are spears, swords, staff and mace. They specialize in one technique and compete with one another” . In rural villages of Shandong you would see what “ying-shen saihui / inviting the gods to a performance”. This can be described as a sort of opera, where a center for attention was erected. Shows would be put on to benefit the local temple gods, large tents went up and people came from all around for some good ol' R & R. Relatives from surrounding villages would come and drink, eat, gamble, have fun and such. And here at these opera places, many boxers would showcase their skills. Many of the gods being worshiped were military figures, especially for western shandong. Marital themes of the Water Margin, the romance of the 3 kingdoms and enfeoffment of the gods were notably loved spectacles. It was all a blend of social drama and theater and it was a beloved part of communities, and something they wanted to protect, and to protect it they had Boxers. Young men began studying martial arts to protect their communities, leading to things like crop watching associations. Poverty was getting worse and worse by the late 19th century, driving more into banditry and thus more boxers emerged to counter balance them. The late Qing dynasty would see an increase in military applicants from Shandong and it seems boxing was pushing it. Boxing was a popular part of the culture in Shandong, particularly in its western half and this led itself to providing the dynasty with good soldiers. The boxers were tolerated, hell they kind of became seen as defenders of local communities. But as the 19th century saw many internal rebellions, it also saw external threats. The British, French, Russians, and Japanese, amongst others, were encroaching and humiliating China. The threat of western imperialism would prove to be the final ingredient to see the rise of a new sort of movement. After the first opium war, 5 treaty ports were opened in China, but they were most confined the the southern and southeastern coast. Then the second opium war opened major ports in the north, like Tianjin and Chefoo along the Shandong peninsula in 1862. The Boxer movement was thus introduced to foreigners. Foreign cotton textiles began to enter Shandong through these ports, increasing during the 1880s and much more so during the 1890s. Despite the disruption of the first sino-Japanese war, cotton textile imports in Shandong rose rapidly. The increase in textile imports was seriously interfering with Shandong home grown textiles. In 1866 the Commissioner of customs at Yantai noted that the native Shandong textiles were "very good and durable, and are largely used in this province." Twenty years later, this same port reported that "the increase in its [cotton yarn's] import is said to be seriously interfering with the local industry ofspinning, which affords a means of support to many poor women." Then  in 1887, the same commissioner reported that "I gather that the reeling of Native Cotton Yarn in this province is almost at a standstill." Foreign imports were having a disastrous effect particularly on northwest Shandong. The war with Japan hit the Shandong peninsula when the Japanese attacked weihaiwei. Qing forces were rushed northward and to the coast from interior parts of Shandong. The wars primary affect on Shandong was stripping it of its garrison forces as more and more men were sent to the front. This left a power vacuum in which two types of forces emerged; bandits and self defense forces, such as the Big Sword Society. When the war came to an end it provided dramatic evidence the Qing government was incompetent. There was a immediate feeling that China was breaking apart and that the Great Powers intended to carve it up for themselves. You all probably have seen the famous painting showing the great world powers leaders carving into china. 1897-1898 saw what we call the scramble for concessions and this was a very real crisis. Every since the opium wars, Christian missionaries gradually flooded China. In Shandong, catholic missionaries began at first in secret to convert the Chinese, by 1850 its estimated there were nearly 6000. By the late 19th century this grew to 16,850 in 1887 and during the 1890's it rose up dramatically to 47,221. The catholics remained in western Shandong and parts of Zhili while protestants grew along Shandongs coast around the treaty ports. The converts began to gain advantages with foreigners and this was met with resentment from those non christians around them. The church would intervene countless times in China's domestic politics and justice. The missionaries were protected and held extraterritoriality provisions from the many treaties of the 19th century. Their converts would also by extension be able to use some rights. For example if a convert Chinese stated they were being oppressed because of their faith, the foreign missionaries could intervene, and this was most definitely a system that was exploited. The missionaries would often intervene in any sort of temporal dispute, but the most common exploit was converts using their christianity to escape government punishments. Who else do you think would convert to Christianity to escape punishment, well bandits of course. In western shandong, bandits began seeking the protection of the church. So all of the sectarian groups that had been flourishing alongside the boxer groups were decaying and sought Christianity for protection. Likewise bandits would seek the same protection. The Boxers were losing their sense of being, those who they often aligned with to protect were seeking alternatives, and those they were protecting them from, were seeking the same thing. It looked to many of these youthful men that the missionaries were evil and ruining their lives. The situation was ripe for a major conflict. I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. Shandong, why is it always Shandong? It's sort of reminiscent of Bismarck talking about the balkans before WW1. Shandong was producing youthful men, who were watching their nation decay, and at some point enough would be enough.  

Tip Of The Week Would you consider penning up grazing livestock every night? Rural Crime In The U.S. https://www.oneidadispatch.com/2023/06/02/oneida-police-begin-more-foot-patrols-as-part-of-rural-violent-crime-reduction-initiative/ https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/jun/03/former-pot-worker-jailed-in-seed-theft/ https://www.wcax.com/2023/06/01/police-search-person-responsible-atm-theft-truck-fire/ Across The Pond, Down Under And Up Above https://www.politico.eu/article/farm-machinery-gps-theft-uk-rural-crime-ukraine-russia-war-sanctions/ https://uk.news.yahoo.com/drivers-caught-stolen-vehicles-drug-062852292.html https://www.farmersjournal.ie/call-out-service-open-to-farmers-to-combat-farm-theft-768002 Africa https://www.kenyanews.go.ke/27-farmers-groups-benefit-from-136-dairy-goats-in-marakwet/ https://dailynews.co.tz/tz-eyes-to-become-leading-meat-exporter/ Chalk One Up For The Good Guys https://www.wjfw.com/news/purchaser-pleads-guilty-of-taking-trees-from-chequamegon-nicolet-forest/article_ac88c5f8-018e-11ee-abea-830fb5026fb7.html https://www.mysuncoast.com/2023/05/31/man-convicted-sentenced-connection-with-theft-death-horse/ More Places You Can Listen to Off-Farm Income And Matt Brechwald:      

This episode is titled "Important Tips to Aid Personal, Family, and Community Action in the Face of Kidnapping, Armed-Rubbery and Banditry"Our guest is Barr. Panmak Mark Lere - A Lecturer with the University of Jos.Happy Listening NASCO GroupClick Here to follow us on Instagram

“Banditry is a type of organized crime committed by outlaws typically involving the threat or use of violence. A person who engages in banditry is known as a bandit and primarily commits crimes such as extortion, robbery, and murder, either as an individual or in groups. Banditry is a vague concept of criminality and in modern usage can be synonymous for gangsterism, brigandage, marauding, terrorism, piracy and thievery.” Revenge rapes (“honor rapes”) and revenge killings (“honor killings” would often occur inside and outside of prisons for retaliatory purposes. I heard of “Snitches get stitches”!, and “Rats get bats!” Don't do crime and you won't have to worry about being reported to law enforcement. Do what's positive and the right people will report your positive behavior. That's the best way to end the street codes and start living by moral excellence. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/antonio-myers4/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/antonio-myers4/support

On 25 February, Nigerians go to the ballot box to vote for their next president. For the first time in a long time, the Incumbent president will not be contesting the elections – having already served the maximum allowed two terms. Since 2016, the country has spiralled down as inflation has hit over 20% and unemployment rides at around 30% overall, and 60% for the young. Banditry and kidnappings have become lucrative methods of making a living in the country and a pervading sense that this could be now or never for Nigerians hangs ominously. Three candidates have emerged as the front runners for the elections. The stalwarts Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the All Progressive Congress, or APC, and Atiku Abubakar, of the People's Democratic Party, or DPD, are familiar faces from familiar parties. Power has been shared between the two parties since 1999. Peter Obi is the outsider who has taken a dramatic lead over recent weeks in the polls. He represents the Labour Party who have never held power and is offering to run the country in a different manner to what the country has been used to thus far. Foreshadowing the entire event is the expectation that Nigeria is expected to reach a population of around 400 million by 2050, making it the fourth largest country in terms of population by this date. That is an increase of around 60-80% of the current population estimates. Ensuring the infrastructure is in place for such a boom in population will be pivotal to Nigeria's ability to both maximise the potential for its citizens whilst gaining the most from them. Presenter: Charmaine Cozier Producer: Christopher Blake Researcher: John Cossee Editor: Tara McDermott (Photo: Supporter of Nigerian opposition the Labour party waves a green and white flag in a street procession in Ikeja district, Lagos, Nigeria. Credit: Kintunde Akinley/EPA-EFE/Rex/Shutterstock)

1. Intro   2. E58 - Battle of Britain  3. E55 - Gladiator  4. E59 - Artillery  5.  E47, 53 & 62 - Bloody Russia  6. Banditry  7.  E48,49 & 50 -  I.E.D  8. What's coming in 2023Bloody Violent History Season 2 is drawing to a close - this being our valedictory episode for 2022.  James Jackson and I have published 29 episodes since our last summary in 2021.  I hope you agree the range has been wide and that you have enjoyed our output.  Listen to all episodes on our website or via your podcast app.  Please send us feedback and requests to talk@bloodyviolenthistory.com – we read and respond to all your messages. And fear not the airways wont collapse into silence on this channel – Jamie will record a Bloody Bite for you, to keep you ticking over until the New Year.  So if you haven't listened to our show yet, or need a gentle reminder of what we like to talk about, here are some snippets from 2022.So it goesTom Assheton & James Jacksontalk@bloodyviolenthistory.com YouTube: BloodyViolentHistoryhttps://www.instagram.com/bloodyviolenthistory/https://www.jamesjacksonbooks.comhttps://www.tomtom.co.uk If you enjoy the podcast, would you please leave a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes, Spotify or Google Podcast App? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really helps to spread the wordSee https://simplecast.com/privacy/ for privacy information

I depart my usual style to give you a mini informational episode on Carlo Cipolla's 5 Laws of Stupidity. In this episode, I convert this theory in to a working model and transformational tool towards sustainable abundance. I spoke about this in Jessa Reed Comedy's Patreon briefly and I expand on it to give you a roadmap to sustainable abundance. Let me know if you'd like to hear more. Hugups. Also, GET A FAIRY READING! Check out Hugups merch! Subscribe to my Youtube Channel, Seraphina Tarot and I am now starting a Patreon! For Bonus Episodes, My Magic School and all things Woo, let's hang out. https://patreon.com/seraphinafraggle Go check it out ! You can find all of Seraphina's links and projects https://linktr.ee/seraphinafraggle and her YouTube Collaboration is MEOWW Podcast with the Grooving Goddess. Thank you for listening!

Stephen Mutinda Mutuku is a teacher, youth leader, and activist who lives and works in Northern Kenya. This area is vast and rural, with poor roads and infrastructure, leaving a very small footprint for the Kenyan state and local police to address crime and other forms of violence that regularly occurs in these northern communities. Though these crimes are not large enough to be understood as an intra-state "conflict" by most conflict analysts, it is certainly coordinated and widespread, representing to some degree a challenge to state authority that is headquartered in Nairobi, over 500 miles away.  Cattle rustling has been cited as the main cause of insecurity in places like Marsabit, where I spoke to Mr. Mutuku by phone. This practice undermines the security protocols that are aimed at ending killings and banditry in Kenya's largest county by land mass. Civilians have died in the north as a result of this violence, and, according to the Marsabit County Commissioner, is its primary security concern. From the state's perspective, cattle rustling isn't isn't only a crime but a deeply entrenched retrogressive tradition among the pastoralist communities. In a single operation last year, police uncovered and seized over 300 guns and 3,000 rounds of ammunition from tibes engaging in the practice. I visited South Ethiopia and North Kenya last year and saw first hand the cattle in question. Tribes like The Samburu, Rendille, Turkana, Daasanach and other warriors usually raid neighbouring communities and return with hundreds of cattle. While others may think this is a barbaric practice, these tribes consider it an act of bravery that earns them accolades from young women and elders. Cattle rustling was also a way of replenishing the communities' stocks after their herds perished during droughts, getting livestock stolen by bandits from other communities or getting animals to pay as dowry. It has now resulted in a continuous upheaval of violence that gets very little attention because it doesn't readily meet the conventional stereotypes we hold around African conflicts. I spoke with Mr. Mutuku about this, how he is helping to reshape his community through re-education and positive interference among the youth to disengage from these practices, and how this conflict is shaping the security norms in the north of the country. 

What has become of North-West Nigeria's chronic security crisis following the Abuja-Kaduna train attack, the Kuje prison break, and the fallout of the BBC Africa-Eye's documentary "THE BANDIT WARLORDS OF ZAMFARA"? Guest starring scholar/adventurist James Barnett (@jh_barnett), this episode revisits the topic of Nigeria's 'other' insurgency, variously known as the crisis of 'Banditry', of 'Fulani herdsmen', or simply as the spread of 'Boko Haram'/terrorism. After musing about the possible 'sponsors' of James' own extensive research in North West and North Central Nigeria -- research which has included speaking to many of the so-called bandits themselves -- we attempt to grapple with the origins, causes, and possible trajectory of the crisis. The wide-ranging discussion also considers the evidence for possible links between this crisis and Nigeria's various jihadist movements, as well as both the role of the state in all of this and the possibility that various parts of Nigeria are witnessing a slide into what James refers to as 'Warlordism'. Surely one of our more informative episodes -- so we've decided to release the entire thing for free. Enjoy. Further readings: Are Nigeria's bandits a new Boko Haram cell or rival ‘terrorists'? Northwestern Nigeria: A Jihadization of Banditry, or a “Banditization” of Jihad? Finally, be so kind as to check out our Patreon for past and future exclusives.

1.  Intro  2. Myth & Psychopathy  3. Ancient & Classical    4. Merry England  5. Wild West   6. Bounty Hunters  p.s. Biker GangsWhether myth or reality, Robin Hood or Jesse James, the truth behind Outlaws is often darker and more bleak than we suppose.  There was a great deal of bloodshed beyond the songs and fictional gun smoke.  John Brown was not averse to killing people in cold blood.  The bushranger, Ned Kelly, was little more than a robber and a murderer.  As for Jesse James, he was a Confederate guerrilla and known participant in the massacre of unarmed Union soldiers.  Later still, Bonnie and Clyde died in a hail of gunfire down in Louisiana, having had an infamous career of brutal robberies and car jackings.  Free spirits they might have been, but often it was a tale of trial and woe, betrayal and slaughter.  They were not nice people.  Like pirates and highwaymen, they join our trio of episodes on Banditry through the centuries.  They created hell and were certainly no angels. So it goes,Tom Assheton and James Jackson All episodes available on Amazon Podcast  Reading: The Trial of John Brown from Flashman and the Angel of the Lord by George MacDonald FraserClips: John Brown's Body and The Outlaw Josey Wales - The Malpaso CompanyReference:  Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy See also:YouTube: BloodyViolentHistoryhttps://www.instagram.com/bloodyviolenthistory/https://www.jamesjacksonbooks.comhttps://www.tomtom.co.uk If you enjoy the podcast, would you please leave a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes, Spotify or Google Podcast App? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really helps to spread the wordSee https://simplecast.com/privacy/ for privacy informationShow Less

Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow may be the more infamous, "Killer Couple," but, there's another couple in this story who deserve to be just as notorious: Clyde's brother, Buck, and his wife, Blanche. Banditry need not be a boy's club. Forget the Bloody Barrow Brothers for a moment. Bonnie and Blanche are badass, action anti-heroes in their own right. Listen to Bonnie and Blanche go to the mattresses. In, "Wheels, Barrows & Blood," PART THREE. Only on Kinda Murdery.

Patch notes, and the risks associated with failure to patch. Finland's parliament comes under cyberattack. Killnet says there will be blood, but they may just be grandstanding for the home crowd. Cyberattacks against a UK firm that's criticized Russia's war. We're joined by FBI Cyber Division AD Bryan Vorndran and Adam Hickey, deputy assistant attorney general for the National Security Division with an introduction to Watchguard. Our guest is Matthew Warner from Blumira with tips on avoiding burnout. And not all criminal organizations are working for Russia. For links to all of today's stories check out our CyberWire daily news briefing: https://thecyberwire.com/newsletters/daily-briefing/11/151 Selected reading. Already Exploited Zero-Day Headlines Microsoft Patch Tuesday (SecurityWeek)  Microsoft August 2022 Patch Tuesday fixes exploited zero-day, 121 flaws (BleepingComputer). IBM Patches High-Severity Vulnerabilities in Cloud, Voice, Security Products (SecurityWeek) Adobe Patch Tuesday: Code Execution Flaws in Acrobat, Reader (SecurityWeek)  ICS Patch Tuesday: Siemens, Schneider Electric Fix Only 11 Vulnerabilities (SecurityWeek)  VMSA-2022-0022 (VMware)  Emerson OpenBSI (CISA)  Emerson ControlWave (CISA) Mitsubishi Electric GT SoftGOT2000 (CISA)  Multiple attackers increase pressure on victims, complicate incident response (Sophos News) Life After Death—SmokeLoader Continues to Haunt Using Old Vulnerabilities (Fortinet Blog)  NBI launches probe into attack on Finnish Parliament site (Yle) Russian hacker warns cyberwarfare will turn deadly (Newsweek)  Russian hacker warns cyberwarfare will turn deadly (Newsweek) Suspected Russian cyber attack on British soil as firm subjected to ‘daily' hacks (The Telegraph) Meet DUMPS Forum: A pro-Ukraine, anti-Russia cybercriminal forum | Digital Shadows (Digital Shadows)

Last time we spoke about the harrowing tale of what could be one of the most evil leaders in human history, depending of course which sources you read about him. Indeed Zhang Xianzhong, regardless if he was fully, half or less guilty of the crimes against humanity laid against his name, has gone down in Chinese history as a significant figure. The people of Sichuan underwent a horror and it would take two full centuries for Sichuan to regain its lost population. Thus with the fall of Zhang Xianzhong, Li Zicheng and countless South Ming claimants to the throne, who was left for the remnants of the former to rally around? Well one of the self proclaimed Emperors to the South Ming regime was still alive and….fleeing. Emperor Yongli now had an opportunity to harness the scattered Dashun, Daxi and other Ming loyalists to his cause.    This episode is the Flight & Fight of Emperor Yongli   Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on the history of asia and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War.   Well after a rather horrifying episode dedicated just to Zhang Xianzhong's regime in Sichuan we now come back to the South Ming regime. Now while Zhang Xianzhong was busy turning Sichuan into a cemetery, the South Ming Loyalists were engaged in a life or death struggle for central and southeast China. A series of Ming claimants to the dragon throne rose and fell. Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong are both dead leaving their Dashun and Daxi followers in a power vacuum to be swallowed up by mere Banditry, or perhaps defecting to the Qing or Ming. As for the largest victims, the common people, they were once again caught in the middle, soon to be subjugated to war, famine and general hardship. As one scholar one put it “The long conquest of central and south China required armed struggle in county after county, community after community, forcing countless people to face the grim choices on their own doorsteps.”. When the Qing took Beijing, they faced multiple enemies. Li Zicheng fled west and the South Ming Regime sprang up in the south. It meant the Qing would be forced to divide their forces, resources and attention. But their enemies were not only not cooperating, they we're all fighting another. Hell the South Ming Regime was arguably fighting another more than the Qing at many points. It made sense to take out Li Zicheng first of course, he was an easier target since the Qing smashed his army, and there was the bonus of looking like they were avenging the regicide of Emperor Chongzhen. In the meantime the South Ming Regime was killing itself allowing the Qing to kick the door to the rotting structure and soon a bunch of South Ming self proclaimed Emperors were defeated one by one. Yet when they got to Emperor Yongli…well he kept fleeing. Then they diverted their attention to Zhang Xianzhong and took him out, probably for the betterment of humanity. Now so many remnants of Dashun, Daxi, other Ming loyalist military groups and other bandit armies were roaming around. Many warlords sprang up taking control over them. What would happen if someone began to win over all these free chess pieces so to say to their side of the war?  Now we are going to go back to Emperor Yongli's situation. As I had mentioned 2 episodes ago Qu Shishi had argued with Emperor Yongli that they needed to make a stand, and one would be made at Guilin. Qu Shisi said to the Emperor ““If you want to defend Yue, you should stay in Yue. If you abandon Yue, then Yue will be imperiled. If we take one step forward, then the people will take one step forward. But if we flee far away in a single day, the people will also flee far in a day. If we run, then we cannot defend [territory]. How can we attract people to our cause?”. Well Emperor Yongli fled regardless for the 4th or 5th time I lost count at this point, Qu Shishi stayed behind at Guilin. Qu Shisi understood the necessity not to abandon cities so easily so as to rally more forces to the cause. He had seen the previous South Ming Regimes collapse because they abandoned bases too swiftly, undermining their causes.   Qu Shisi was accompanied by Jiao Lian and they would defend Guilin from multiple Qing attacks in April and June of 1647. During the first assault Jiao had led the defense of the city facing greater numbers and having lesser firearms at his disposal. Despite the deficiency in firearms Jiao's forces defended Guilin using sword and bow to great effect. Several hundred Qinq archer cavalry charged Guilin and pelted the defenders with arrows, one of them striking Jiao, but he kept fighting and held the south gate against the invaders. This inspired his troops and soon they charged out the south gate against the Qing force, smashing many troops of the Red banner. The Qing had to flee, and Jiao's men chased them killing thousands.Eventually Jiao and his men went too far and were surrounded and outnumbered by the Qing who wheeled around on them. It is said Jiao screamed and struck the invaders with his spear, raining blood and flesh all over as he and his men hacked their way out of the encirclement. They fought for some miles, just a force of 300 men against thousands but managed to make it back to Guilin.    This minor victory prompted Qu and Jiao to stress the tactical and strategic importance of Guilin and Wuzhou, urging Emperor Yongli to return and to make Guilin a base of operations. Meanwhile Emperor Yongli was being escorted by Liu Chengyin, an ambitious career military man who was nicknamed “the Iron Club” who protected him in western Huguang. For 3 months no rations were delivered to Guilin and when the Qing learnt about its supply issues they attacked again, this time at the Wenchang gate. Jiao charged out against the enemy covered by some western cannons given to him by some catholic missionary friends. The cannons cut the Qing forces to ribbons, killing hundreds as Jiao charged out to fight them in the fields. The fighting went on for 2 days with the cannons never stopping and although the Qing regrouped to attack again they were smashed so much they had to make a retreat, being pursued yet again by Jiao's forces losing thousands of men. For this victory, Jiao was made military commissioner in chief of the left, military superintendent of Guangxi, and the Earl of Xining. Liu “Iron Club” Chengyin, it seems had been holding Emperor Yongli under house arrest at Wugang the entire time and this began to look really bad. In May of 1647, the Qing captured Baoqing and in a series of battles defeated Liu Chengyin. Emperor Yongli barely was able to escape, sometimes only being just a few miles ahead of Qing scouts. Emperor Yongli made his way through the Guni Pass to Liuzhou, but soon had to reroute to Xiangzhou. By this point locals were shooting arrows at his royal barge, not a good look at all. After the constant urging of Qu Shishi, Emperor Yongli finally decided to return to Guilin by the end of 1647.    The Qing found they were having a hard time pacifying southern and western Huguang province, it held rough terrain and a large number of enemies. Bandit groups were operating by both land and water in numbers ranging from hundreds to thousands. To make matters worse the bandits had multiple spies working within the Qing giving them warning of their movements, allowing them to hide into mountains and forests when needed. Han bannerman Luo Xiujin argued that despite their victories, the enemy would always escape their clutches via mountains. The Qing like their Ming counterparts, were having the exact same problems dealing with confrontations with wandering bandits, particularly in the rugged border country between provinces. Qing officials complained repeatedly of ambushes in mountain passes and heavy casualties. There were also reports that such ambush attacks were making common cause with the Ming loyalists, and this was certainly concerning. The Qing were realizing that the Ming could offer legitimation to bandit groups and use them to ware the Qing down.   In Autumn of 1647, after the Qing attacked Yongzhou, after 10 days of combat, the Ming suddenly charged out of the city and pushed the Qing to flee near Quanzhou where they managed to defeat Qing commander Geng Zhongming forcing him to flee for miles. This was considered the first military triumph for Emperor Yongli's regime.    By early 1648, the Qing seized Quanzhou and managed to defeat some Ming forces near Guilin who routed. The forces who had routed ended up fleeing to Guilin and they quickly set about looting the city before further fleeing. Qu Shishi remained stern as some of his fellow Ming commanders looted, burned and fled Guilin as the situation deteriorated. Guilin soon fell into a mutiny as the city was engulfed in flames. Qu refused to leave his post but  was wounded and had to leave the city by river. When the Qing prince Jirgalang heard of the problems in Guilin he seized the opportunity to assault the city. This prompted, I guess the 6th flight of Emperor Yongli at this point. Qu Shishi was urging the Emperor to stay as Jiao came rushing from Pringle to help, but Qing forces blocked his route to Guilin. Qu urged the emperor “Victory or defeat is still unsure. But if your plan is to run away, then how can this place not be in danger?” Yongli replied, “Surely my minister does not want to see the Altars of State and Grain perish?”.  Qu tried to gather forces and calm things down to defend Guilin as the enemy approached, while Jiao kept fighting to get to the city. Soon Jiao found himself surrounded and fought with his spear courageously, buying enough time for the Ming commander Hu Yiqing to show up from the east joining the fight with his cavalry. It is said, Hu Yiqing had his horses manes clipped in such a way that the Qing thought they were riding bulls and proclaimed “This bull- riding monster is not easy to stand up against!”. The cavalry of Hu managed to smash the Qing force, sending them fleeing for a few miles. Despite all of this, Emperor Jongli continued to flee all the way to Nanning, much to the outrage of Qu Shishi “How can you flee every time the wind blows two hundred li away? How can the people take heart if their leader is so tremulous?”. His words had no effect on the Emperor, in only 18 months Yongli had traveled over 1800 miles across 3 provinces, spending no more than 4 months in any given place. This led to waves of defections, and the court of Yongli began to discuss where would be the best place to set up a base of operation.    Despite the flights of Yongli, in 1648 the Ming had some major successes. Ma Jinzhong took back Changde, He Tengjiao took back Quanzhou and this drove many to the Ming cause, even Yongzhou was taken back after a 3 month siege. Riding the wave of victories, the Ming took Hengzhou and they also began to capture valuable supplies, horses and other war materials. This all forced Qu Shishi to yet again urge Emperor Yongli to go back to Guilin and this time make it his capital. Qu's reasoning was quite sound, Guilin was centrally located in a resource rich area along a river. It was easy to communicate with other sectors and coordinate offensive campaigns. But time and time again Emperor Yongli refused and this had a damaging effect on morale. Soon Ming commanders recaptured Xiangyang and Yichang and this led Emperor Yongli to feel secure enough to return to Zhaoqing, which he hoped to turn into a base of operation. At this point Yongli and many in his court thought that a Ming restoration was truly possible and they now sought to push north of the Yangzi and seize Nanjing and Kaifeng. Sun Kewang had opened up negotiations with their regime and it was expected that he could be relied upon. Qu Shishi for his part argued that now they could push east from Sichuan and north cutting Qing supply lines from Hugaung. Things would all take a dramatic turn for the worse however.   One of the Ming's commanders, Li Chixin who was a former commander under Li Zicheng had been continuously stating in public that Li Zicheng was the former emperor, making quite a bit of trouble. Li then requested permission to take Changsha and Yuezhou on his own. He managed to defeat the Qing commander Xu Yong and marched north to assault Changsha where Xu Yong had retreated. He killed thousands, captured boats, horses and other war materials and word spread of his great success. However the people of Changsha, did not see Li Chixin as their liberator, in fact they threw their lot in with Xu Yong to defend their city. Let us not forget, Li Chixin like many other former commanders of the Dashun or Daxi bandit armies had a reputation of course, who knows what populaces thought of him. Thus Li Chixins command boat when approaching the city was struck by a cannon ball and he lost over 1000 men. Xu Yong was hit by an arrow, but this did not stop him from rallying the defense of the city atop the walls. Li kept up the pressure with his siege ladders, artillery and sappers. But Xu Yong fired arrows, cannons down upon the enemy and led men into the tunnels to attack the Ming sappers costing Li Chixin some thousand men. Then Xu Yong sent secret attacks with boats on the Xiang river and they hit Li's flanks forcing him to retreat.   When Li Chixin was defeated at Changsha he was order to simply move on and relieve forces at Nanchang, but he ended he only went as far as Chaling and hunkered down. In the meantime the two Ming commanders, Du Yinxi and He Tengjiao were forming plans in Xiangtan. Du decided he would head east to rescue Jiangxi while He would try to go to Nanjing linking up with other Ming loyalists there. As part of their campaigns, Li Chixin was appointed vice minister of war and supreme commander of Shandong and Henan, while other commanders received supreme commands over other areas. But nothing came of these appointments as the Qing quickly advanced and hit He Tengjiao as he was departing from Xiangtan. He tried to find allies to help him out, but none could do anything, thus Prince Jirgalang was able to defeat He and took him as a hostage. Prince Jirgalang knew He Tengjiao had quite a lot of military capability and spent many days trying to get He to defect, but it was to no avail. Eventually Prince Jirgalang ordered his execution, or He committed suicide, no report is sure of his fate. When He Tengjiao was dead, many of his men fled to join Qu Shisi at Guilin. Another issue however was the countless “Loyal and True” who were under He Tengjiao's command, since his death they were now without any semblance of order. Bandits will be bandits and soon they were looting and pillaging everyone.    The Qing soon besieged Nanchang and took it in short time, thus dramatically collapsing the Ming control in Huguang. Many Ming commanders defected to the Qing and Emperor Yongli put Qu Shishi in charge of defending the Huguang-Jiangxi Guangdong corridor, but at this point the Qing held the Fujian coast and much of Huguang. By 1649, Li Chixin's troops began to scatter and plunder the area as the Qing pursued them. Eventually Li's forces plundered their way back north earning the moniker “white felt bandits” for the way they dressed. It was hoped by the Ming that they could still coerce Li Chixin and his white felt bandits to return back into the fold, but Li Chixin would die of illness in Guangxi in the late year. The white felt bandits soon scattered off and fell into pillaging under new commanders mostly in Huguang and Sichuan provinces.     As the Ming forces collapsed at Yongzhou in late 1649, Qu Shishi said in anguish “For 2 years I've tried to create a bulwark, and in a single morning everything has collapsed. How can it be believed that Heaven if for the Ming?”. With the death of He Tengjiao and the absolute collapse of the South Ming regime's position in Huguang, Emperor Yongli, you guessed it, fled Zhaoqing for Wuzhou in early 1650. Thus the South Ming regime was barely a thing in Huguang anymore. Now Qu Shisi began begging the emperor to stay in Zhaoqing stating “Yuedong has lots of rivers alongside mountains; [even] good cavalry cannot unite in the wilderness [to attack here]. Since the time [Li] Chengdong returned to allegiance, this has been the secure area. Its resources and tax base are abundant, ten times that of Yuexi, and both competent officials and troops north and south are connected, and we can strengthen ourselves from within and defend ourselves from outside enemies. Moreover, Zhaoqing is one thousand li from Shao[xing]. With stout crossbows mounted on the walls and entrenched brigades in defense, we can wait for royal rescue troops to come from the four [directions]. Wherever we can go, the bandits can go as well. Although the realm is vast, there is only one boundary. If we retreat an inch, we lose an inch; if we retreat a foot, we lose a foot. Now if the court hears of danger and climbs aboard a boat in the middle of the night, where can you go?”.   As you probably guessed, Yongli did not listen and continued his flight. Qing commander Kong Youde, remember that guy all the way back from the very first episodes? Well he sent Qu Shisi a letter, trying to get him to surrender. Kong Youde had been battling the Loyal and True throughout the southwest smashing many of their armies. Qu allegedly burned the letter and killed the messenger. Meanwhile back in Sichuan, Sun Kewang had begun his own program of state building and was beginning to ask the South Ming Regime to install him as a Ming Prince.    Following in his former master's gruesome footsteps, Sun looted Guizhou and severed hands, ears and noses of those who resisted, apparently only 30% of the populace was left alive. Sun set to work training his troops for months, made deals with local cities to establish economic relations all while simultaneously harassing local Ming armies. His forces eventually captured the provincial capital of Guiyang and its surrounding area and he soon began to set up a new entire new regime. But just as Sun was settling down he received word of an extraordinary opportunity unfolding in Yunnan. Thus he and his Da Xi commanders marched southwest entering Yunnan, entering a new dawn for them all.    The collapse of the Ming dynasty at Beijing and that of the Hongguang South Ming regime in Nanjing had led the people of Yunnan to revolt against their former Ming leaders. Yunnan was one of the very last places conquered by the Ming Dynasty in the late 14th century and it remained relatively the same it had been prior. It had a huge aboriginal population governed by chieftains in a system called the Tulsi system. Yunnan thus was always a bit of a quasi-feudal state controlled by the strongest chieftains. Once the Ming Dynasty fell, the chieftains began to fight another for dominance. The Chieftain family that had the largest influence historically because of their relationship with the Ming royal family was known as the Mu clan. The Mu clan was pretty oppressive to the people and even more so when the Ming collapsed. When Hongguang's regime fell, most in Yunnan began to view the Mu clan as being weak and many other clans began to attack them. One clan, the Wu clan to make this all sound more confusing, was rising to prominence at the time and challenged the Mu clan. The Wu had limited military power and the Mu quelled their challenge fairly easily. But the challenge simply encouraged more and more clans to rise up and a leader named Sha Dingzhou used the opportunity. Sha was a military officer for a chieftain who died and Sha managed to get a stronghold of the clan. While the Mu's and Wu's fought, Sha began a campaign that extended to the Vietnamese border. Then Sha tried a coup against the Mu after they quelled the Wu. Sha's force stormed the Mu palace and burnt it down, killing many in the capital of Yunnanfu. This began a war between Sha and the Mu clan for several months with Sha gaining control of the east of Yunnan. However Mu's forces and other chieftains were fighting a war of attrition and likely would win, thus Sha sought external help.    Sha Dingzhou sent a letter to Sun Kewang “inviting” him to come to the rescue of Yunnan in 1647. Unfortunately, this would be a very very big mistake. Sun Kewang claimed to be the brother in law to Mu Tianbo and declared he would avenge his sister's family. Sun Kewang showed up with 100,000 battled hardened veterans who saw a force of just a few thousand disorganized local units under Sha's command. Sun Kewang defeated Sha's army easily and piled corpses in the streets of the first city they took, immersing the city in 3 to 4 inches of blood so it is said.    Sun then took Quijing, a city he expected to simply open up the gates and submit to him as he had just massacred a previous city sending fear throughout the region. They chose to not submit and fired cannons upon the invaders. Soon Sun's men tossed up a cloud of ladders and swarming over the walls of Quijing like ants. Sun's men rounded up all those in the city and severed hands   Sun then ordered his fellow adopted brothers Liu Wenxiu to the west and Li Dingguo to the east to kill all those who would not submit. Sha Dingzhou tried to send armies to attack the invaders where he could, but every army was defeated with ease. Sha would proclaim to all his confidence with his army, but secretly he was pulling his hair out knowing soon Sun would take the province.  Sun eventually marched on Yannanfu and smashed the Sha army defending it, but rather than immediately occupying the city, Sun Kewang instead announced he was going to restore the Jiao clan, that being his sister's clan who was married to a Mu husband. By this point Liu Wenxiu and Li Dingguo had spread a ton of fear into the populace with their campaigns in the east. Despite Yannanfu having a tiny garrison within it, the city was simply falling apart because of low supplies as Sun Kewang's army simply surrounded it and waited. Thus after a few months the gates of Yunnanfu opened and Sun's forces entered the city. Soon Sun Kewang began to proclaim all those who fled the city should come back, or they would soon be killed as rebels. All the wives within Yunnanfu who lost husbands were given to Sun's men. Then he began to force the children to work cutting grass and collecting firewood. Girls of the age 10 and up were forced into drama troupes, some put into brothels. Boys 12 to 20 years of age were castrated. The adult men were killed and their bodies were tossed into the wilderness. Many former Ming officials were killed or they themselves committed suicide. To restore a semblance of order, Sun began practices employed by Zhang Xianzhong such as prohibited fires at night amongst many other rules which could earn a citizen of Yunnanfu a beating or execution depending on the rule. Yunnanfu was basically becoming a Chengdu 2.0, but perhaps not nearly as bad. Then Sun sent his armies to scour the countryside of the city killing many. It was estimated that perhaps half the population of Yunnanfu was dead. It was even alleged that coffin makers ran out of wood in Yunnanfu. Within a month, Sun's forces began to conscript laborers to cultivate enough food for the army to survive. Many homes around the city were razed to make for space for Sun's army training grounds any who resisted were killed. Sun eventually established order through fear, but realized that in Yunnan you required the support of the Tulsi system to truly control the province, so he soon began to establish relations with all the chieftains. Those who resisted of course were threatened.    Sun then began calling himself Ping Dong Wang “Prince who pacifies the East” which was met with animosity from his adoptive brothers. Sun began to place royal titles on everyone, but kept his position elevated from his adoptive brothers who were supposed to all be equal. The 3 other brothers all recognized Sun Kewang nominally as the leader, but had agreed they should all have equal rankings.  Li Dingguo began to argue they should all be equal as things were with Zhang Xianzhong, which angered Sun. Sun then publicly punished Li Dingguo, though Liu Wenxiu and Ai Nengqi would manage to get the punishment lightened. Regardless Li Dingguo was livid stating ““We are brothers. How dare you strike me? Since the death of our father we have been like hands and feet with no ruler among us, yet now we are to honor you as superior? If this is how things are going to be from now on, how can we live together in peace?”. It is alleged Sun went to Li in private and told him he had to do it publicly because if not there could be a mutiny. Sun then tried to make amends with Li, tasking him with hunting down and killing Sha Dingzhou who was on the run.   Sha had run to Lin'an and had held out against the forces of Liu Wenxiu for quite a few months. When Li Dingguo's force showed up the defenders of Lin'an showered them with gunfire, but Li being a veteran commander easily broke their walls in no time using gunpowder. Sha's forces were shocked by the speed and efficiency of Li's army as they quickly overwhelmed the city. The entire city was torched in a single day, it is said 78 thousand were massacred. Sha and his family managed to escape to a nearby town called Ami. After the massacre at Lin'an, Li Dingguo was noted to not again perform such horrible acts against civilians, it seems he was trying to build himself a reputation afterwards that he was not like Zhang Xianzhong or Sun Kewang. In early 1648, Li Dingguo surrounded the town of Ami, cutting off its water supply. After 20 days, the defenders with Sha Dingzhou ran out of water and Li began sapping Ami's walls. Li then invited Sha to a fake banquet making it seem they would allow Sha to defect and take up a grand position in the new regime. The effect led many of the defenders to defect who soon simply opened the gates to Li's men. Li was brought to Sha and his family and instead of the banquet he promised he had the entire household brought to Yunnanfu and flayed alive. Li's successes were extravagant, showing his extreme capability as a military leader. Unfortunately they also bolstered Li Dingguo as a great leader and Sun Kewang began to become quite jealous of this.    Once Sun Kewangs army had secured enough food to sustain themselves for a year, they began government building efforts. Taxes began, agricultural reform, mines were opened, weapons manufacturing, the works. The weather proved great during that year and the harvests did very well, mines produced salt, gold, silver, iron and copper and the faith in the government rose up. In fact Sun had done better than some of the former Ming officials had in the past and he soon began to mint coins, print paper notes and open new roads, which all helped reduce conflict in the province. Within a year Sun's government was gathering much praise and the people were quite content. Things were really looking good and Sun began to explore the idea of formally uniting with the Ming to resist the Qing. Sun had heard the reports about how well the Loyal and True bandits had done under the Ming regime and thought his regime might benefit from this relationship as well. This would help Sun and his inner circle gain legitimacy and at the time it looked like the Ming were doing well. However old dogs can't learn too many new tricks, and Sun's administration still held some Zhang like favorites, like harsh punishments such as decapitation, flaying and flogging. Though Sun disregarded the policy of rewarding soldiers for body counts, so there was that.   But Sun Kewang was not content, he continued to make it more apparent that his position was more and more elevated compared to his adoptive brothers. He began to erect an ancestral temple for Zhang Xianzhong and referred to him as Taizu and linking himself to Zhang. Then he asked Emperor Yongli to invest with the Ming title of prince of blood “qin wang”. Ai Nengqi was perplexed by this and said ““I can name myself prince. What's the point?” Li Dingguo also added, “We haven't conquered an inch of territory, so how can we accept enfeoffment from the court?”. Sun explained to them that only an investiture from the Ming court was legitimate and that after he was invested with the title they would all refer to him as “you highness”. As you can imagine this would also most certainly help Sun alleviate himself over another rising star, Li Dingguo who was highly popular as a field commander. Li was appointed with the major responsibility of training the troops and was noted to share hardships with the men and always led from the front gaining their respect. Li was what you call a soldier's soldier. Li Dingguo soon established 5 rules for his army; done kill people, dont commit arson, dont commit rape, dont steal livestock and dont take money from peasants. Given how soldiers usually acted in this time in history, the response of the populace was ecstasy.    In the summer of 1649, Sun dispatched his court official Yang Weizhi as his emissary to Yongli's court to ask for the investiture of Prince of Qin and offered to fight the Qing on their behalf. By this time Sun had relocated his operations in Guizhou as it was more centrally located, leaving Li Dingguo in Yunnan to train the military. For Emperor Yongli's court the request was quite disturbing, to make Sun a blood prince might put him in line for the throne. Many in the Ming court had no illusions about Sun Kewang, they thought he was trying to vie for the dragon throne himself.  The title of Prince of Qin was normally reserved for the royal family. The court was divided, Qu Shisi called for Sun's execution, many argued Sun was nothing more than a bandit. But they were in a terrible situation, suffering many military defeats at the hands of the Qing. Eventually the court consented to giving Sun the lesser  title of Duke of Jingguo. Yang Weizhi was terrified of relaying the response to Sun who might simply execute him for failing to get the title Sun wanted and made a stop at Wuzhou before returned to Guizhou. In Wuzhou Yang met with Du Yinxi who advised him to simply forge a document to make Sun think he received a better title than what he had been given. Thus with Du Yinxi's help they forged a document stating Sun was invested with the title of Prince of Pingaliao. Meanwhile another official in the Ming court forged another document stating Sun was being invested with the Prince of Qin title he had originally asked for. Turns out that official, named Chen Bangfu wanted to curry favor with Sun.  All of this was done without the awareness of Yonglis court of course.    Thus the first to arrive in Guizhou was the envoy with Chen Bangfu's forgery and Sun was absolutely delighted upon seeing it. Then Yang Weizhi showed up with his forgery of the Prince of Pingliao title, enraged Sun Kewang. Then yes as you might imagine, a real envoy from Yongli's court arrived and Sun found out the truth that he actually received the Duke of Ingguo title, really really pissing him off. To add insult to injury, his 3 other adoptive brothers were also given titles by that envoy of Yongli   In his rage, Sun  sent more emissaries to Yongli who offered him the title of Prince of Yi, but Sun refused this, demanding the title he originally requested. In the meantime Ai Nengqi died as a result of a poisoned crossbow bolt while he was pacifying a rebellious region. He had been ambushed in a forest and his army was significantly battered. He had managed to return to Yunnanfu, but the doctors there could do little to nothing to stop the poison. His army was handed over to Sun Kewangs command, significantly increasing his power. Thus the first of the adoptive children of Zhang Xianzhong was dead, and he would not be the last. Now all the way back in Sichuan the struggle raged on between the Ming loyalists and the Qing. The Qing had sent commander Li Guoying into Sichuan on a pacification campaign and as he entered the wasteland that once was Sichuan he said “For a thousand li there is no smoke [from cooking fires] and on account of the depredations of the bandit gangs, the value of rice is greater than that of pearls.”. His forces occupied Baoning in northern Sichuan where he was attacked multiple times by bandit armies such as the Kuidong bandits, Tan Hong and others. Li eventually rode out of Baoning and attacked the bandit armies fast and hard sending them fleeing into the countryside. Soon his army took Shunqing and he began to stock up supplies in preparation  for a gradual march south. In spring of 1647 he marched into Chengdu and lamented at the ghastly scene, he said to those around him“Chengdu has been down a hard road. Where are all the people?”. Bones were strewn everywhere, and there was no sign of life to be seen. He was given reports that the people of Chengdu had first fled to Yazhou and ate grass and wild plants until they starved so much they resorted to cannibalism. Li left Zheng Desheng as commander of Chengdu which must have been the worst appointment ever, but soon his troops starved, killed their commander and fled back north. Li got a report that 1330 of the 1390 men assigned to Zheng Desheng died of starvation or disease. Even Li himself was quite ill through 1647-1648 and he was hampered by bandit attacks and a very stretched supply line. Reports flooded in that every fortress was ridden with hundreds of sick and starving troops. All the garrisons the Qing commander would set up in Sichuan amounted to a few hundred starving men. The starvation did not allow him to perform a sufficient offensive, the situation became so dire most of the Qing forces had to withdraw from Sichuan with a meager force left occupying Baoning. It was not just the starvation and disease alone they had to worry about, anywhere the Qing set up shop, bandit armies emerged to harass them.    Later on in 1650, the pacification commissioner of Sichuan Zhang Chun made a report that gives quite a lot of insight. He began by describing Sichuan as a den of tigers and that of the Yao-Huang bandits. One could travel for a great distance without seeing any smoke from cooking fires. He estimated that 2-3% of the population in Sichuan was still alive. He laid blame upon the destruction caused by the Yao-Huang bandits, while leaving out that of the Qing's actions and goes on to talk about man-eating tigers found everywhere. People in Sichuan were  terrified to travel just because of tiger attacks. He claimed that in one distinct of a previous population of 506, 228 people were killed by tigers, 55 died of illness and 223 were left alive. He ended the report stating “Many people escaped the clutches of bandits only to end up in the mouths of tigers”. Wow I am just trying to imagine, surviving the horrors of Zhang Xianzhong, then the war between the Qing and Ming and now you got tigers everywhere eating people yikes.   Li Guoying immediately began demanding assistance, and Qing emperor Shunzhi began to promise supplies would be on their way from places like Shaanxi. But all supplies were quickly used up and Li still had little in terms of soldiers. Li kept arguing that as his enemies grew larger in Sichuan his forces grew smaller. The problem was the supplies and men quickly starved and got sick because there was no foundation within Sichuan to feed them. Basically it was like putting bandaids upon bandaids upon even more bandaids for a large wound that needed a doctor to fix it. Thus the situation forced Li to develop a new plan which was “tuantian” “to nourish the troops, soothe the people, and allow for both offensive and defensive warfare”. He sent Qing officials into the countryside to investigate and promote agricultural productivity. As for his army he sent them throughout the north and east of Sichuan, killing and capturing thousands of bandit armies, many part of the Yao-Huang bandits. But like always, bandits could run and hide in mountains, and thats just what they did.  It was estimated by Li that upto 100,000 Yao-Huang bandits could be in Sichuan.    By 1649, Li was promoted to minister of war and vice censor in chief of the right with jurisdiction over the armies of Sichuan. He had multiple victories, one was dislodging Liu Wenxiu from Chongqing where he killed many Daxi.  If you remember way back when, Emperor Yongli dispatched a distant family member named Zhu Rongfan to Sichuan in 1647. Zhu Rongfan began parading around as a Prince of Chu, though in reality he wasn't and amassed 100,000 followers forming a base in Kuizhou. His forces fought the Qing and scored quite a few victories, but in reality they were just a bunch of opportunistic bandits. Then Zhu Rongfan picked a fight with the Ming loyalist commander Yang Zhan who brought the Ming attention upon him. As you might have guessed, he was preparing to proclaim himself emperor as one does and South Ming officials began to investigate the situation. When pressed by them Zhu claimed to be acting on behalf of Emperor Yongli and that he was merely suppressing bandits. They also accused him of trying to claim himself as an heir apparent despite not being a prince of blood. Zhu then tried to make a getaway but was caught by other officials in 1649 who executed him.    Meanwhile the situation in Sichuan kept growing worse and worse. Just because the tyrant Zhang Xianzhong was dead did not mean his lasting effects on the province were gone. In the midst of the war between bandits, Qing and Ming, the common people were starving and dying. Rice was selling at unbelievably inflated rates. Dogs ate human flesh and lurked in city streets. Most cities were empty though because tigers and wolves were prowling them. It was reported that bandits were robbing graves and that people were resorting to cannibalism en masse. Many people fled to mountains away from the threat of other people or tigers. Lighting a fire became like a death sentence inviting anyone to attack you. Disgusting euphemisms began to be said because of all the cannibalism such as “poor man's broth / xia geng” “surplus lamb / yang rao” “scorched bones  / gu yang”. On top of the famine were the terrible diseases which there were many. “Big head plague” as it was called was when one's head erupted in red boils, it was associated with the chills, fever, swelling of the head and neck and was very contagious. There was a similar disease known as “frog fever” where the boils were more so on the shoulders and back. Then there was “horse eye” a sickness when one's eyes became big and yellow. It is also assumed the Qing brought smallpox with them and this invested the south.   By autumn of 1649 most of north and western Sichuan was pacified and a quarter of the province under nominal control of the Qing. In Southern Sichuan the South Ming loyalist Yang Zhan had held control for quite awhile, aided greatly by the hoard of treasure he salvaged from Zhang Xianzhong's naval catastrophe in 1646. He was capable of feeding his own troops and thousands of refugees who stormed over to him. Despite all his good fortune, he had to contest with warlords in Sichuan named Li Qiande, Wu Dading and Yuan Tao. The 3 warlords  invited Yang to a banquet, its always a banquet eh? And yup, they poisoned his wine, typical. After killing Yang they divided his treasure and troops and southern sichuan yet again fell into chaos.    As this all went down, word spread and Sun Kewang, similar to how he took the opportunity with Yunnan's turmoil came back to Sichuan when he heard the south was fractured.  Sun seeking to put further pressure on Emperor Yongli to invest him as a Prince of Qin, sent Liu Wenxiu and Bai Wenxuan with 200,000 to avenge Yang Zhan. Sun's forces made quick work of the warlords and bandit leaders in southern Sichuan taking several cities.Yuan and Wu were captured and sent back to Sun who mocked them saying he would enroll them as regular soldiers in his army. Wu actually did end up serving in Sun's military and for quite a long time. Yuan managed to escape and flee but was caught and killed by Liu Wenxiu. Li Qiande drowned himself when Liu Wenxiu caught up to him. Sun's forces killed countless warlords, bandit leaders and such. Now Sun's army even had elephant cavalry from Yunnan. Many simply submitted to Sun Kewang joining his forces and growing his power.   Meanwhile Li Guoying had initially profited heavily from the death of Yang Zhan, but saw with horror the force of Sun Kewang sweep through the province like a swarm. Li Guoying pleaded with Emperor Shunzhi for more troops to combat the warlord in the south and was promised a mix of Han and Manchu troops under the control of Wu Sangui. Yet even with the extra forces, now the Loyal and Trust, Kuidong bandits, Yao-Huang bandits and other groups were flocking to Sun Kewangs banner and the south of Sichuan was just a minefield of trouble.  Sun asserted his control from Guizhou and began building it up similar to what he did in Yunnan and in a short time the southwest of Sichuan became an armed camp designed specifically to resist the Qing.    Kong Youde was made prince in charge of rectifying the south in 1649 and alongside the Manchu prince Jirgalang both were dispatched and in 1650 they took Longhu, Wugang and Jingzhou. Through their efforts they took 50,000 surrendered Ming troops and many officers and moved to take Quanzhou and then entered Guangxi. Qu Shishi tried desperately to rally troops to defend Guilin, but all efforts were in vain and no significant numbers came. Qu refused to leave as all his colleagues urged him to do so. In november of 1650, Kong Youde's army surrounded Guilin. To help defend the city, Qu Shishi was aided by the Ming official Zhang Tonchang a who had served the Shaowu Emperor and aided in defeating Zhu Rongfan. He had a Fu Manchu style mustache, was loved and respected by his men for being fearless in battle. When Zhang arrived Qu said to him “I have been entrusted with staying to defend [Guilin]. So I should die here. Those without such responsibilities can flee. The frontier has already been lost. How can I think of easily fleeing?” Zhang replied that he was impressed and called Qu a true gentleman, requesting permission to die alongside him, saying, “If it's to be death, then we die together.”Qu was delighted, and the two shared wine. Qu gave his seals of office to another official to send to Yongli. So a sort of bromance if you were.   Kong Youde repeatedly offered Qu and Zhang the chance to defect, but both men refused. Kong then wined and dined them, trying to win them over but to no avail. Zhang spat back at Kong “You are no more than a dog or a sheep. You disgrace the former Sage, and you deserve to die for your crimes!” You're nothing more than the slave who used to carry a bedpan in Mao Wenlong's house! How dare you sully the name of the Sage.”. For this Zhangs feet were severed, but Kong still did not kill him. He kept insisting the Qing were better for all and gave stories of his 20 years as a soldier. Then Kong tried to have their own family members come and talk sense into them, but still it was to no avail.  Both men were eventually  imprisoned and wrote depressing and falistic poems during the captivity before being executed outside Windy Cave at the foot of the celestial crane peak in what is called today, Diecai Shan (folded Brocade hill) public park. Kong Youde allowed proper burials for the two and soon took up residence in the mansion of the former Ming Prince of Jingjiang. Now Guilin and nearby Pingle were in Qing hands. Kong Youde sought to secure Guangxi by 1651, but he was also itching to face Sun Kewang in the west.   In the wake of Qu and Zhang's deaths, Yongli fled to Nanning, hahahahaha this guy. With a more vulnerable Emperor Yongli now in Nanning, Sun Kewang saw an opportunity to establish greater control over him. Sun Kewang sent him welcoming parties, offering him military protection and boasted of how powerful and wonderful he was.    After annoying Yongli enough he was finally invested as the Prince of Qin, though he had already taken to calling himself “guozhu” “ruler of the realm” and had been making appointments on his own authority at Guiyang. Once a bandit, always a bandit as they say. He was absolutely delighted by the news and renamed Yunnanfu Kunming and Yunnan as Yunxing province. Then he dubbed his personal troops the “jiaqianjun” “royal vanguard”. Li Dingguo and Liu Wenxiu retained their old titles and sat at Sun's left and right side begrudgingly.  Yang Weizhi, the poor guy who had to bear bad news and was punished harshly for it managed to become grand secretary at Emperor Yongli's court and would subsequently try to impeach Sun. Sun responded by having his thugs bring Yang to Guiyang and upon his arrival screamed “Traitorous bandits like you will never be anything else.”. Sun had Yang beaten and dragged through the streets and was trampled to death by horses. His loss was felt heavy by many, particularly by Li Dingguo and Liu Wenxiu who had become close friends with him. They took his corpse and buried him with a ceremony. With Yang well out of the way, Sun began to construct an imperial palace in Guiyang and used imperial forms of address in his decrees and instructions. Any officials who resisted him were trampled to death by horses. Only Liu Wenxiu and Li Dingguo were exempt from calling Sun “guozhu”. He minted his own coins and constructed more ancestral temples, making further links to Zhang Xianzhong. Sun then declared his state the “Later Ming” regime. His ascension ceremony was attended by 100 officials on July 3rd 1651.   Meanwhile the Qing captured Pingle and Qingyuan as well as other towns along the Huguang-Guangxi border. Jiao Lian was captured by the Qing who tried to persuade him to join them, but he opted for suicide. Emperor Yongli feeling pressured, you guessed it, fled Nanning. This time he and his court debated whether they should flee to Fujian or Vietnam. Most wanted to go east arguing they should join up with Sun Kewang. But Emperor Yongli thought the coast was too distant and the travel too dangerous, for the time being they would camp at Xixing. But as the Qing took Nanning, Emperor Yongli fled again, almost being caught by the Qing who were within just a few miles of his entourage. This prompted Emperor Yongli to accept Sun Kewangs offer of protection. At the beginning of 1652, Sun ordered his subordinate Lt. Genge Sanpin with 3000 troops to escort Emperor Yongli to Anlong. By the time Emperor Yongli arrived his entourage was down to 2900 members. Sun figured the location was convenient for the court of Yongli as it lay in conjunction with Yunnan, Guizhou and Guangdong provinces. It was also close enough to Guiyang for Sun to keep an eye on the Emperor. Sun then set himself up as Yongl's military protector, but refused to personally greet Yongli on the principle that quote “2 dragons cannot see one another”. Thus Anlong became the ostensible Ming capital, but in reality it was just a safe place where Sun could keep the Emperor while he pursued his own objectives.   I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me.  So the great and horrifying father Zhang Xianzhong is dead, but his 4 adoptive sons quickly took over the family business and are causing mayhem. Sun Kewang emerged the largest brother and soon built himself an empire, matching that of  the fleeing Emperor Yongli. Now Kewang had Emperor Yongli basically under house arrest, or better said kidnapped, all was his for the taking, what stood in his way, but the might of the Qing dynasty?

Nigeria's broadcast regulator has fined four broadcasters, including Multichoice Nigeria Ltd, 5m naira each for airing a BBC documentary on the activities of bandit gangs in north-western Nigeria. The National Broadcasting Commission says the documentary glorified the activities of bandits and undermines national security and contravened the provisions of the Nigeria Broadcasting Code. The BBC says the story is overwhelmingly in the public interest and that it stands by its journalism.

The Zamfara State Government has suspended the Emir of Birnin ‘Yandoto of Tsafe Local Government Area, Aliyu Marafa, for conferring a chieftaincy title to a notorious bandit leader. Secretary to the State Government, Kabiru Sardauna, announced the suspension in a statement on Sunday. Governor Bello Matawalle approved the appointment of a Committee to investigate the circumstances leading to the action of the Emir.

The act of terrorism has been a source of worry and concern to the people and government of Nigeria.However, in an effort to deal decisively with the situation, the Zamfara government has henceforth, directed individuals to prepare and obtain guns to defend themselves against the bandits.How will the government achieve this?In this Episode of Nigeria Daily, we find out how 

The Ondo State Police Command has ordered an investigation into the attack on a Catholic church in Owo town, the headquarters of Owo Local Government Area of the state. The spokesman of the command Odunlami Funmilayo, says the CP has ordered Forensic Investigation into the attack to ascertain the actual or remote cause of the attack and for immediate arrest of the assailants as all hands are on deck to forestall any similar attack in any part of the state.

The Nigerian government has cancelled the resumption of train services between the capital Abuja and the northern city of Kaduna earlier scheduled. Families of the hostages had been angered by the planned resumption saying the decision was a sign of insensitivity by the authorities. The Nigerian Railway Corporation appealed to the families of the abducted people to be patient and co-operate with the authorities trying to ensure the safe release of their loved ones. It has also apologised to train passengers for the further delay saying a new resumption date will be announced soonest.

President Muhammadu Buhari has issued fresh directives to security agencies to rescue all those in captivity across the country and advance the acquisition of intelligence. The National Security Adviser, Babagana Munguno says the President is not happy with the prevailing security situation. He says the last straw was the recent attack on the Abuja/ Kaduna train leading to the killing of some passengers and the kidnapping of scores. He added that Insufficient technology and human intelligence particularly from the wider society has led to the persistent war and unless this is defeated, the war might become insurmountable.

Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Malam Mohammed Musa Bello, has summoned an emergency meeting of the FCT Security Committee on how to strategise to contain the escalating banditry, kidnapping and robbery on the fringes of the seat of power, Abuja. The Commissioner of Police, FCT Command, Babaji Sunday, says the emergency meeting raised a lot of concerns about kidnapping and banditry in FCT suburbs, adding that the security agencies also resolved to do their best to ensure the incidents were brought to the barest minimum. He added that all the security chiefs would meet again to further strategise on what was discussed at the emergency meeting. He, however, advised FCT residents to be security conscious and provide security agencies with actionable intelligence on criminal activities.

Banditry in Nigeria is one of the most challenging security threats the country is facing.In this episode of Nigeria Daily, we will hear the untold story of the origin and evolution of the crisis with the Daily Trust Deputy General Editor who ventured into the bush to speak with all the stakeholders.

Northern Nigeria has a heavy burden of out-of-school children and with the increased security situation, the Number of out-of-school children has gotten worse, as schools are forced to close down due to attacks.The attacks and abductions are not just scaring children, but parents and teachers are also deeply affected.In this episode of Nigeria Daily, we look at the effect of Banditry on Education in Northern Nigeria.

Former Director of Army Public Relations, Brigadier General Sani Usman, says that hardcore elements should face justice as part of efforts to curtail banditry activities in some parts of the country.Usman frowned at the idea of granting amnesty to bandits.He says that many public assets have been destroyed by both terrorists and bandits in Monguno, Baga, as well as several lives, were lost, thereby leaving many people as orphans.The retired general called for a system that will distinguish between those bandits that committed heinous crimes from those that were coerced into seeking repentance.

Former Director of Army Public Relations, Brigadier General Sani Usman, says that hardcore elements should face justice as part of efforts to curtail banditry activities in some parts of the country.Usman frowned at the idea of granting amnesty to bandits.He says that many public assets have been destroyed by both terrorists and bandits in Monguno, Baga, as well as several lives, were lost, thereby leaving many people as orphans.The retired general called for a system that will distinguish between those bandits that committed heinous crimes from those that were coerced into seeking repentance.

Former Director of Army Public Relations, Brigadier General Sani Usman, says that hardcore elements should face justice as part of efforts to curtail banditry activities in some parts of the country.Usman frowned at the idea of granting amnesty to bandits.He says that many public assets have been destroyed by both terrorists and bandits in Monguno, Baga, as well as several lives, were lost, thereby leaving many people as orphans.The retired general called for a system that will distinguish between those bandits that committed heinous crimes from those that were coerced into seeking repentance.

The Sokoto State government has shut down telecommunications networks in 14 of the 23 local government areas of the state.The Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to Governor Aminu Tambuwal, Muhammad Bello says the order was in response to the situation of insecurity in the eastern flank of Sokoto State.Bello stated that 13 of the local governments were initially affected by the Security Challenges Order approved on September 1.He explained that the order led to the closure of some roads to motorists, suspension of animal trades, prohibition of transportation of cattle, as well as transportation of more than three persons on motorcycles and tricycles, among others.

The Sokoto State government has shut down telecommunications networks in 14 of the 23 local government areas of the state.The Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to Governor Aminu Tambuwal, Muhammad Bello says the order was in response to the situation of insecurity in the eastern flank of Sokoto State.Bello stated that 13 of the local governments were initially affected by the Security Challenges Order approved on September 1.He explained that the order led to the closure of some roads to motorists, suspension of animal trades, prohibition of transportation of cattle, as well as transportation of more than three persons on motorcycles and tricycles, among others.

The Sokoto State government has shut down telecommunications networks in 14 of the 23 local government areas of the state.The Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to Governor Aminu Tambuwal, Muhammad Bello says the order was in response to the situation of insecurity in the eastern flank of Sokoto State.Bello stated that 13 of the local governments were initially affected by the Security Challenges Order approved on September 1.He explained that the order led to the closure of some roads to motorists, suspension of animal trades, prohibition of transportation of cattle, as well as transportation of more than three persons on motorcycles and tricycles, among others.

For some days now, telecommunication lines have been down in Zamfara State  based on a government order as a way to curb banditry. The development comes after a temporary lockdown on communities prone to banditry in Katsina, Kaduna, Niger, and Zamfara states.Will the ban on telecommunications make a difference in the fight against banditry?

Gov Akeredolu signs judicial and legislative bills, OAU sacks lecturer over sexual harassment, Deputy Provost's children, NBC Director, and daughter abducted in separate attacks as gunmen kill three in Katsina abduct 18 others in Kaduna, Ministry of Trade and Investment inaugurates PIA review commitee etc.

The governments of Katsina, Kaduna, Niger and Zamfara states have locked down most of the communities prone to banditry and other criminal activities. These states suffer most from the activities of bandits.  On Nigeria Daily, we are looking at the level of effectiveness of this new development, and how the members of the involved states feel about it.

Banditry in Nigeria has reached a new level with a group of bandits attacking the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA), killing two officers and abductimg another.Nigerians have been asking: if a facility like this could be attacked, where in the country is safe?This is the question Nigeria Daily asks.

The rate of abductions and killings is growing by the day and the entire country has become a danger zone which has been an issue of grave concern

This episode talks about what I think is the after effect of the END SARS PROTEST…the arrest of Nnamdi Kanu and the current situation surrounding Sunday Igboho and his detainment in Benin. With a lot of people worried about the government focusing on arresting leaders of certain tribal groups rather than attending to the crucial needs of this Nation, ranging from Banditry to Kidnapping to School closure… is there still hope?

Welcome to Nostalgia Pilots! This week, Spence, Jurd, Jason and Hugh consider Mobile Fighter G Gundam Episode 3: Beat the Dragon Gundam! This week, The Dragon Gundam has a wicked ponytail, Neo China's Space Colony is Asgard, and Sai Saici is a bit of a brat. Plus, Domon gets wrapped up in fashion and where […]

Welcome to Nostalgia Pilots! This week, Spence, Jurd, Jason and Hugh consider Mobile Fighter G Gundam Episode 3: Beat the Dragon Gundam! This week, The Dragon Gundam has a wicked ponytail, Neo China's Space Colony is Asgard, and Sai Saici is a bit of a brat. Plus, Domon gets wrapped up in fashion and where... Continue Reading →

In one of the funniest episodes yet, Laz delivers a truly unforgettable tale of attempted prison rape and the hi;larious aftermath. Watch Laz tell the stories here. Listen to Laz's Hip-Hop podcast The Super Facts Show here. Follow St. Laz on Instagram here. Listen to St. Laz music here.

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo and popular Islamic scholar, Sheikh Abubakar Gumi, met to discuss and propose possible solutions to the security challenges in Nigeria.The meeting was part of efforts to find solutions to the menace of banditry, kidnapping, and payment of ransom, among other security threats in the land.Discussions centred on the causes, effects and implications of the various security threats, as well as the reactions by communities, local authorities, state governments, and the Federal Government, as well as authorities in neighbouring countries and nations within West Africa.Obasanjo and Gumi agreed that banditry, kidnapping, and other crimes that have led to general insecurity were a nationwide phenomenon.They acknowledged that people from various parts of the country and outside Nigeria were involved, although some people were more predominantly involved than others.

Chairman of Nigerian Governors Forum, Governor Kayode Fayemi says proceeds of banditry and kidnapping are being used to fuel insurgency within the North East.Governor Fayemi was of the opinion that military action alone will not be sufficient in the war against the insurgents.Fayemi insisted there are reasons to believe that there is a correlation between activities of bandits in the Northwest, kidnapping in the Southwest, and insurgency in the Northeast.He says the nation is in urgent need of a political will to bridge the gap between the government and the youths as well as synergy among security operatives to tackle the Boko Haram crisis.The governor further disclosed that the president has accelerated moves to procure additional security equipment through partnerships with other countries and is confident that the National Assembly would speedily work in tandem.

Rising insecurity has been a very big challenge across communities especially in the Middle Belt Area of Nigeria. This problem has taken various dimensions ranging from insurgency, Banditry, Kidnapping, armed robbery among other prevalent acts of criminality within the region and country at large. Many communities / Villages have been ransacked and scores have lost their lives and property. Several stakeholders and socio-cultural groups have expressed dissatisfaction at the manner and seriousness with which the government is handling these emerging challenges of insecurity across communities. while others, have also expressed dismay over the country's security architecture to handle the matter. These conversations have also birthed the demand for state police to better safeguard the security of lives and property across communities. However, this agitation has been downplayed by the government on various grounds. Although, section 214(1) of the 1999 constitution states that “There shall be a Police Force in Nigeria, which shall be known as the Nigerian Police Force, and subject to the provisions of this section, no other Police Force shall be established for the federation or any part thereof.” But the same Constitution guarantees in sections 33 – 35 the right to life, dignity of the human person and personal liberty. What happens when communities remain vulnerable to attacks with little or no support from the those saddled with the responsibility of protecting them? The right to life, dignity of human person and personal liberty are inalienable and every Nigerian citizen or community has a right to do all that is within their powers (without violating the right of other persons or other communities or breaking any law) to protect these rights. What can be done when the failings of Government in this role become persistent? What can residents do to safeguard their communities in the face of rising crimes and criminality? Are there structures in the community that can be leveraged for this purpose? What are these structures? How can these structures be strengthened in the face of continuous provocative attacks? All these will form the basis of our discussion on this edition of building bridges with Mr. Obadiah Samuel and Mr. Godwin as guests.

Return guest James D’Amato is back to resolve the question of currency on Campaign Skyjacks. So man the rigging and secure lines because we are headed into the sky. Stay till the end for a special insight into the future of 2021, as James draws a luminary to reveal what lays ahead. Errata The Traitor … Continue reading "Brokerage and Banditry in Conversation with James D’Amato" The post Brokerage and Banditry in Conversation with James D’Amato appeared first on Androids and Assets.

"Armed bandits" have continued to abduct school children across the country, the most recent was two days ago at Zamfara. Let's talk about insecurity - kidnapping and banditry. Why schools and students? Join the conversation, #LetsTalk. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/jay-fm-podcast/message

The Catholic Church has backed Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Most Rev. Fr. Hasan Kukah's position on the state of the nation.Bishop Kukah had in his Christmas message which has generated a lot of reactions opposed the nepotism, which according to him, had potray the government of President Buhari.The cleric claimed there could have been a coup or war in the country if a non-Nothern Muslim was the President in the last five years and did some of the things Buhari was doing.The Director of Social Communication, Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria, in CSN, Rev. Fr. Mike Umoh, in a statement expressed concern over allegations that Kukah was trying to instigate violence and hinder national integration with his message.Rev. Umoh, describing the attackers as ‘agents of evil', said that the Catholic Church of Nigeria stands with Kukah owing to the continued security and economic challenges facing the country.Umoh said, “As expected, the agents of evil have gathered to attack the person of the Bishop and to discredit the simple obvious truth of the message. This is the stock in trade of evil people.“However, they often succeed when good people, Christians, choose to do nothing. We are therefore calling attention to this new development so that we can all rise in unison and stand for truth.”‌The Catholic Church urged Christians to stand up for the truth and not choose to do nothing.“The truth about our nation is also that there are only two parties now existing: the good and the evil, the oppressed and the oppressor, the suffering people and the benefiting government officers and their families,” the statement added.Meanwhile, The Christian Association of Nigeria defended the bishop, saying that given current events n Nigeria “with kidnapping, banditry, horrible atrocities committed against hapless citizens by members of Boko Haram, Nigerians should be united in condemning and finding solutions to the awful condition that we are in as Bishop Kukah has rightly done.”Muslim leaders in northern Nigeria condemned his message , but the coalition of Nigerian Muslim Professionals has asked those insulting the Bishop for speaking against the current administration to refrain from things that could ruined the peace of the country.