December 28, 1673 · Southern China (Yunnan, Guangdong, Fujian) Theater
December 28, 1673
The young Kangxi Emperor's decision to abolish the three feudatory kingdoms in the south — autonomous fiefdoms granted to Chinese generals who had helped conquer the empire for the Qing — provoked the largest internal war of the Qing dynasty. Wu Sangui, the same general who had opened Shanhai Pass to the Manchus in 1644, now raised the standard of rebellion, claiming to restore the Ming. At its peak, the revolt controlled half of China. But Wu Sangui's allies fell away one by one, and the Kangxi Emperor's patient strategy of isolating the rebels and winning defectors gradually turned the tide. Wu Sangui died in 1678, and the last rebels surrendered in 1681.
Commanders