On February 21st, the first year of Xianfeng (A.D. 185 1), Hong Xiuquan was officially called the King of Heaven in Wuxuan Dongxiang. 1On October 25th, Hong Xiuquan issued an imperial edict in Yong 'an, appointing Yang, Xiao Chaogui, Feng Yunshan, Wei Changhui and Shi Dakai as the four kings of East, West, South, North and Wing respectively, forming the leading core of the peasant regime in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. Hong Xiuquan established the system of commanders of five armies in the Taiping Army, and named Yang as the military adviser, commanding the commanders of China's army, ranking ahead of the commanders of Xiao, Feng, Wei and Shi, and becoming the second leader of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
On February 15th, the second year of Xianfeng, the Taiping Army broke through Yongan, and its attack on Guilin was blocked. Then retreat from the north, join Xing 'an and Quanzhou, and continue to March to Hunan. Along the way, the mountain road was rugged and the March was difficult. From time to time, it was besieged and blocked by the Qing army. When entering Xiangxi on April 25th, there were only five or six thousand people left in the team. At this time, some people looked up with the idea of moving to another place and lost confidence in moving on. At this time, in order to inspire the soldiers' fighting spirit and call on the people of the whole country to respond to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Uprising, Yang and Xiao Chaogui jointly published three famous essays: The Imperial edict to kill demons and save the world and protect the people, the Imperial edict to ask for help, and the Imperial edict to save all China people born in heaven. Yang also put forward the strategic goal of giving up Guangdong and Guangxi, continuing northward, and then moving eastward along the Yangtze River to occupy Nanjing. After some work, the Taiping Army survived the crisis, defined its strategic objectives and operational strategies, and the uprising team also grew rapidly. Since then, according to the established strategic objectives, the insurgents have captured Changsha, broken Yuezhou, Hanyang and Wuchang, then descended along the river, connecting Huangzhou, Jiujiang, Anqing, Tongling and Wuhu, and captured Nanjing on February 1 1 2003. Hong Xiuquan changed Nanjing to Tianjing and made its capital, and established the peasant regime of confrontation between the north and the south in the Qing Dynasty.
After the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom made Tianjing its capital, Hong Xiuquan officially promulgated the China Tiangong system, which was the general program of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's founding, covering all aspects of politics, economy, culture and social life. Politically, this program announced the implementation of the township official system. According to the management of two Sima's for every twenty-five companies, the military system of commander, brigade commander, Shi Shuai, commander, military supervisor, general manager and other officers is set up to closely organize all the people. Economically, private ownership of land will be abolished, and land will be distributed equally according to population, so as to achieve the goal of "all the people in the world plow their fields together". At the same time, according to the principle of "everyone in the world is private and everything has its owner", an absolute egalitarian distribution system is implemented for all property. This program has played a catalytic role in calling on the broad masses of people to rise up against the rule of the Qing Dynasty. However, due to its strong utopian color and the constraints of fierce war environment, it has not been implemented in fact.
After Hong Xiuquan made Nanjing his capital, he gradually lived in seclusion and handed over the military and political power of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom to Yang. In view of the situation that the Qing army's Jiangbei camp and Jiangnan camp besieged Tianjing, Yang made a three-way strategic plan to take the initiative to attack: to lead the army out of Zhenjiang to the east with Luo Outline, to monitor the Soviet Union and Song Dynasty, and to guard the southeast gateway of Tianjing; Li, Ji and others led 20 thousand soldiers to the northern expedition, aiming at Beijing, the ruling center of the Qing king; Hu Yihuang and Lai led the army westward, with the goal of occupying the vast hinterland of Anhui and Jiangxi, then attacking the two lakes and occupying Bashu in the west.
The Northern Expeditionary Army set out from Yangzhou and advanced southward, sweeping across Hebei and reaching near Tianjin. The Qing court urgently sent Senggelinqin as a counselor, and the governor led the capital to Zhuozhou to stop it. After the Northern Expeditionary Army moved to Cangzhou and moved eastward to Jinghai and Liu Du, Monks and Monks led the troops into Yongqing to stop the Taiping Army from moving northward. The northern expeditionary army went deep alone and had no backup. Under the blockade of the Qing army, he retreated to Fucheng in the south, and Sangrinqin, together with the imperial Shengbao, pursued all the way and surrounded Fucheng. Ji, one of the commanders of the Northern Expeditionary Army, died. In April of the fourth year of Xianfeng, the Northern Expeditionary Army broke through to the towns of Dongxilian and split in two. Li led the troops south to meet him, and stayed behind. The Qing army also sent Shengbao to pursue Li, and Senggelinqin led the troops to besiege the east and west towns. Sanggelinqin dug a city and built a base on the periphery of Taiping Army, and besieged it tightly. The two armies confronted each other until the spring of the fifth year of Xianfeng, when Taiping stores were exhausted. Monk Qin took the opportunity to attack and captured Donglian Town in the Spring Festival. On the 19th day of the first month, he captured xilian town and Lin Fengxiang. At this point, Shengbao besieged Li in Gaotang Prefecture, Shandong Province, and could not attack for a long time. The Qing court arrested Shengbao in Beijing, and sent troops to attack Gaotangzhou. On the 29th of the first month, Li broke through to Fengguantun, chiping, followed by the Sanglinqin Army. The storm failed, Li was forced to surrender, and the Taiping Army failed in its northern expedition.
The Western Expedition Army successively captured Anqing, Jiujiang and Wuchang, occupying a large hinterland of the Yangtze River basin. At this time, Zeng Guofan changed from a Yong ying villager in Hunan to a Xiang army. Xianfeng four years, training Xiang naval army. There are more than 430 ships of all kinds and more than 570 guns of all kinds. There are more than 5,000 people in the land camp and the water camp. Together with the sailors, there are more than 7,000 people in the whole army. After the meeting in Changsha, they started the war against Taiping Army. In Hunan, the Taiping Army met with stubborn resistance from Zeng Guofan and Xiang Army, and was defeated in Xiangtan, Wuchang and Tianjia Town. The situation on the western front suddenly became tense. Yang then sent Shi Dakai to Anqing to preside over the overall situation of the Western Front. By the time Shi Dakai led his troops into the hukou, Xiang Navy had crossed Jiujiang East. Shi Dakai led his troops up to inspect the enemy's situation, only to see the enemy commanding in the middle with a fast crab boat and fighting in a canoe. The ship is well organized and equipped with western iron guns. The generals were afraid at first glance, but Shi Dakai soon found the enemy's weak link. This is that although the enemy has a strong ship and a strong gun, those fast crab boats are heavy and difficult to move, and they must be escorted by boats to play their role. After Xiang left the Yangtze River, he was very tired after continuous fighting, and he was easy to be proud and despise his enemy. If you can lure the enemy deeper, cut off the connection between the big ship and the small boat first. Shi Dakai was advancing one army to keep Hukou, while the other two armies kept Jiujiang and Xiaochikou. They were at odds with Xiang, but they didn't hit them. At night, they sent small troops to harass the enemy, making them alert and uneasy all night. Stalemate for more than a month, Shi Dakai saw that the enemy had lost his morale and was in high spirits. Suddenly he voluntarily withdrew from the garrison at Hukou. Sure enough, the enemy was fooled, and 120 canoes rushed into Poyang Lake, while the heavy ship remained outside the river. Shi Dakai saw that the enemy had been caught in a trap, suddenly blocked the water sign in Hukou, cut the Hunan Navy into two parts, the inner lake and the outer river, and then sent ships to attack their ships at night, thus winning Hukou victory. 1On the evening of February 25th, 100 more than one canoe entered the great river from Jiujiang and Xiaochikou, stormed the Xiang Navy with incendiary bombs and nozzles, destroyed more than one enemy ship 10, and then besieged Zeng Guofan's ship in clusters. Zeng Guofan abandoned the ship in panic and fled, ashamed to throw himself into the water. In the battles of Hukou and Jiujiang, Zeng Guofan's proud Xiang navy was defeated, and the Taiping Army was defeated in one fell swoop from Xiangtan. Since then, Shi Dakai led the army to the west, recovered Wuchang on February 17, Xianfeng two years, and took control of the upper reaches of Tianjing.
Zeng Guofan spared no effort to rally troops to fight back after being frustrated at the mouth of the lake. He led the troops to attack Wuchang with Hu Linyi and Jiujiang with Taqibu, and he coordinated in Nanchang. In August, Wuchang was in an emergency, and Shi Dakai was ordered to lead the army to help again. Shi Dakai analyzed the battlefield situation and thought that Zeng Guofan would attack Wuchang with all his strength, and his Nanchang was bound to be empty, so he made a decision not to fight directly with Wuchang and Jiujiang Xiang, but to attack Jiangxi by taking advantage of his weakness. This can not only solve the siege of Wuchang and Jiujiang, but also control Jiangxi and connect Hunan, Fujian and Zhejiang. Therefore, Shi Dakai ordered Wuchang garrison to stick to aiding Jiangxi, and led his army to attack Jiangxi, so as to destroy bamboo, and even Xinchang, Ruizhou, Linjiang, Ji 'an, Zhangshu and other important towns, quickly controlled more than 50 counties in eight of the thirteen provinces in Jiangxi, and then surrounded Nanchang. Zeng Guofan trapped in Nanchang was indeed Shi Dakai. He first withdrew his troops from Jiujiang to rescue, and then withdrew his troops from Wuchang East Road and returned to Yuanjiang. Shi Dakai's strategy of attacking Jiangxi by taking advantage of weakness not only solved the siege of Wuchang and Jiujiang, but also controlled most areas of Jiangxi. At this moment, Shi Dakai was ordered to be transferred back to Tianjin, leaving Huang Yukun in charge of Jiangxi military affairs.
In May of the sixth year of Xianfeng, Shi Dakai, Wei Changhui, Qin Rigang and others launched an siege war on the periphery of Tianjing, and successively defeated the Jiangbei camp and Jiangnan camp of the Qing army that besieged Tianjing, thus stabilizing the situation around Tianjing.
After the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was stabilized in Tianjing, the internal struggle of the leadership intensified day by day. Hong Xiuquan gradually divorced from reality, was tired of managing government affairs, built a spectacular Temple of Heaven on a large scale, fell in love with the luxurious "Little Paradise" life, and handed over the military and political power of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom to Yang. After monopolizing power, Yang became increasingly arrogant, abused his power to his subordinates and humiliated Hong Xiuquan many times. He even called Hong Xiuquan to East Wang Fu in the name of the heavenly father and forced him to call him "Long live". At the same time, Hong Xiuquan was forced to grant him permission, and at the same time sent secret letters to Wei Changhui and Shi Dakai to return to Beijing. After Wei Changhui returned to Beijing, he attacked the East Palace and killed Yang. Because Wei Changhui killed innocent people and aroused public anger, Hong Xiuquan wrote a letter to kill Wei Changhui. Since then, Hong Xiuquan called Shi Dakai back to Beijing to assist the government, but he was suspicious of Shi Dakai and reused his brothers Wang An Hong Renfa and the axe king Hong Renda. Seeing this situation, Shi Dakai left in May of the seventh year of Xianfeng and led a large number of elite troops on an expedition.
Among the five commanders after the Taiping Rebellion, Feng Yunshan and Xiao Chaogui were killed, Yang and Wei Changhui were killed, and Shi Dakai left, which made the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom face the situation that there were no generals in the DPRK and no one in the country. Hong Xiuquan had to select a group of young generals, such as Chen Yucheng and Li Xiucheng, to re-form the leadership core of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
At that time, the situation facing Tianjin was grim. The Jiangnan camp of the Qing army is approaching Xiaoshuiguan outside Tianjing, and the Jiangbei camp has also moved to Pukou, forming a trend of encirclement of Tianjing. After analyzing this situation calmly, Li Xiucheng thinks that it is imperative to lift the siege of Tianjing, and the specific operational strategy should be to attack the camp north of the Yangtze River first, and then concentrate the superior forces into a converging attack to completely defeat the camp south of the Yangtze River. In June of the eighth year of Xianfeng, Li Xiucheng held a military meeting with Chen Yucheng in Zongyang, Anhui Province to unify their understanding and revive their morale. After the meeting, Chen Yucheng organized troops to conquer Luzhou from Shucheng, and Li Xiucheng marched into Chuzhou from Quanjiao. After the two armies joined forces, they first annihilated more than 3,000 Qing troops under the command of Dexing, the battalion commander of Jiangbei, in Wuyi town, and defeated more than 5,000 troops of Feng Zicai's department of Jiangnan camp in Jiangpudian, and then stormed Pukou to annihilate the enemy. At this time, Zeng Guofan took advantage of this opportunity. After gaining power in Jiangxi, he even fell into several cities in Anhui, and besieged sanhe town, the grain and munitions supply place of Taiping Army. Li Xiucheng and Chen Yucheng cooperated with the aid, attacked sanhe town from front to back, annihilated more than 6,000 elite troops of Xiang Army, and further changed the passive situation of Taiping Heavenly Kingdom on the battlefield.
In the spring of Xianfeng nine years, Hong Xiuquan's younger brother Hong Rengan came to Tianjin from Hongkong. He was one of the earliest people in China who received western education and influence. After Feng Ren came to Tianjin, Hong Xiuquan was overjoyed and named him king and military and political prime minister. Chen Yucheng is king of England, and Li Xiuwei is loyal to the monarch. Hong Rengan, Chen Yucheng and Li Xiucheng became important leaders in the late Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. Although Hong Rengan lacked experience in leading battles, with his political experience and strategic vision, he played a key role in several major military decisions in the late Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. At this point, Zeng Guofan's Xiang army had captured Wuchang and Jiujiang, and then advanced to Anqing, while Tianjing was surrounded by the Jiangnan camp of the Qing army, and the extermination became the primary task after Hong Rengan took office. He and Li Xiucheng studied and formulated the operational strategy of "encircling Wei to save Zhao". They attacked Huzhou and Hangzhou with raiders, lured Jiangnan camp to divide their troops to help, and then attacked Jiangnan camp by taking advantage of their weakness. In the first month of the tenth year of Xianfeng, Li Xiucheng rushed to Wuhu from Pukou, and agreed that Li Shixian led a feint against Huzhou, while he himself led seven thousand Qingqi to attack Hangzhou day and night. On February 17, Li Xiucheng captured Hangzhou. When ChunChunZhen, commander-in-chief of Jiangnan Camp, heard the news, he divided his troops into more than 12,000 people and rushed to Hangzhou for rescue. When the Qing soldiers arrived in Hangzhou, Li Xiucheng immediately abandoned the city and rushed to Jianping from the mountain road to meet the generals. He divided his troops into five roads and went straight to Tianjing to concentrate more than 100,000 superior troops and defeat the Qing army's Jiangnan camp in one fell swoop.
After Tianjing was cleared, Zeng Guofan's Xiang army besieged Anqing again. Hong Xiuquan called his men to discuss the next strategic deployment. Chen Yucheng advocated going all out to rescue Anqing, while Hong Rengan thought that we should take advantage of the situation to move eastward into Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and then move westward after a quick victory. Hong Xiuquan adopted the latter's opinion. Xianfeng ten years in April, Li Xiucheng led the troops eastward. In less than two months, it successively captured more than ten counties such as Danyang, Changzhou, Suzhou, Jiading and Jiaxing, and arrived outside Shanghai. Li Xiucheng wrote to the ambassador in Shanghai, hoping that they would not interfere in the military action of Taiping rebels, but when Taiping rebels attacked Shanghai for the first time, they were jointly resisted by Chinese and foreign reactionary forces. At this time, the situation of Taiping rebels in the western front is very critical. Zeng Guofan concentrated his main force to besiege Anqing, trying to open the gap from the upstream and attack Tianjing. In August, Hong Xiuquan urgently called Chen Yucheng and Li Xiucheng back to Beijing to discuss ways to save Anqing. It was decided that Chen Yucheng and Li Xiucheng would lead the troops to the Western Expedition from both sides of the Yangtze River respectively, and Wuchang would be captured in March of the following year, forcing Zeng Guofan to divide his troops to help the West and solve the siege of Anqing. After the meeting, Chen Yucheng went west as scheduled and advanced to Wuchang about ten days earlier than the appointed time. Due to the critical situation in Anqing, only Lai Jun waited for Li Xiucheng to arrive, and led the main force to Huiyuan Anqing, and the chariot troops were stationed at Jixian Pass in Anqing. Li Xiucheng held a negative attitude towards attacking Wuchang and saving Anqing under the control of the thought of managing Jiangsu and Zhejiang. Under the repeated urging of Hong Xiuquan, it was not until late September that he led the army to the Western Expedition. When attacking yi county, it was only eight miles away from the Qimen camp of Zeng Guofan, and Zeng Guofan left a will in his panic. At this time, if Li Xiucheng can capture Qimen, he will probably force Anqing to divide his troops to save him, but he missed this opportunity. When he passed through western Zhejiang, southern Anhui and northern Jiangxi and approached Wuchang, it was already two months later than the agreed time. At this time, if we can attack Wuchang jointly with Lai North and South, we can still play a role in containing the item's aid from Anqing. However, after receiving the news that Chen Yucheng was defeated in Jixian Pass, and Li Shixian and Liu were frustrated in Dongping and Yixian respectively, he no longer had no intention of fighting Wuchang, and soon led the troops to withdraw eastward along the original road. After Li Xiucheng gave up the Western Expedition, Anqing soon fell, and the Xiang army went down the river and reached Tianjing. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom once again fell into a passive situation militarily.
After returning from Wuchang, Li Xiucheng quickly occupied Hangzhou and other places, took control of large areas in Zhejiang and southern Jiangsu, and became the main base area in the late Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. In the spring of the first year of Tongzhi (A.D. 1862), Li Xiucheng launched the second Battle of Songhu. At this time, the western powers have established the policy of armed intervention in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and formed Chinese and foreign reactionary forces to jointly fight against the Taiping Army. The Taiping Army still fought bravely in the face of powerful opponents, successively wounding the British naval commander, killing the French naval commander Blaude in Fengxian Nange, capturing the deputy commander Faside in Qingpu County, and besieging the city wall commander Chang in Songjiang City. At this time, Ceng Xiang Quanguo's troops were stationed in Yuhuatai in the southern suburbs of Tianjin in early May, and Peng Yulin's water army was also moored at Huhekou in Jinling. Hong Xiuquan issued three strict orders a day, demanding that Li Xiucheng quickly Huiyuan Tianjing. Li Xiucheng was forced to withdraw his main force from Songjiang to Suzhou. Li Xiucheng originally planned to temporarily avoid the edge of Xiang, and transport grain, arms and materials to Tianjing to prepare for long-term defense, while the main force sought development outside. After two years, Xiang was tired and war-weary, so he concentrated on defeating him. After being severely criticized by Hong Xiuquan, he had to leave Tan, lead more than 100,000 elite troops to guard Suzhou and Hangzhou, and personally led thirteen Wang Jun to Huiyuan Tianjing.
After Li Xiucheng led his troops back to Tianjing, he launched a 46-day Tianjing campaign, but ultimately failed to solve the siege of Tianjing. After losing in the frontal storm, Hong Xiuquan made Li Xiucheng launch a new campaign of "attacking the south from the north", that is, crossing the river to the north, Anhui and Hubei, meeting the troops fighting in the northwest, leading the war to the rear of Zeng Guofan, forcing the Xiang troops on the periphery of Tianjing to return to Li's rescue, so as to alleviate the pressure of Tianjing. Although Li Xiucheng reluctantly carried out the order, he didn't approve of the plan in his heart. Into Lu' an, under the pretext of lack of food, returned to the south.
After the Taiping Army's "northern attack on the south" failed again, the Xiang army quickly encircled Tianjing, and Li Hongzhang's Huai army and the Taiping Army often took advantage of the situation to attack the Taiping Army in southern Jiangsu and eastern Zhejiang. The Xiang army led by Zuo also attacked from western Zhejiang. The battlefield situation is very unfavorable to Taiping Army. Tongzhi two years, the fall of Suzhou, Li Xiucheng back to Tianjing. He proposed to Hong Xiuquan that "let the city run away and make no other plans", that is, give up the base areas of Tianhe and Jiangsu and Zhejiang, withdraw troops from Jiangxi and Hubei, meet the Taiping Army in the northwest and open another base area. This suggestion, which might save the Taiping Army, was rejected by Hong Xiuquan. Li Xiucheng had to let Li Shixian and others go to Jiangxi for dinner first, and he and Hong Xiuquan stuck to Tianjing. On April 29th, the third year of Tongzhi, Hong Xiuquan died in Tianjing, and Li Xiucheng's master Tianguifu Hong acceded to the throne. On June 16, the Xiang army captured Tianjing, and Li Xiucheng gave his war horse to the young master to protect him from the emergency exit. A chase, master escape, Li Xiucheng captured. Li Shixian and others entered Jiangxi, were stopped by the Qing army, and went south to the border of Fujian and Guangdong. Hong Rengan and his party went to Shicheng, Guangchang, to protect the young master. They were attacked by the Qing army at night and were defeated and captured.
After Shi Dakai left, on August 16th, the seventh year of Xianfeng, he led 200,000 Taiping troops from Anqing, entered Jiangxi via Jiande, and fought between Fujian, Zhejiang and Jiangxi. After the Spring Festival in Xianfeng nine years, Shi Dakai divided his troops from Jiangxi to Hunan and Guangdong. In April, he arrived in Baoqing, Xiangxi, intending to enter Sichuan from here. He was forced to return to Guangxi because of the obstruction of Governor Luo of clear lake. On September 15, Shi Dakai led troops to capture Qingyuan Fucheng, trying to establish political power here. However, after the Taiping Army went north that year, the anti-Qing struggle in Guangxi fell into a trough. Landlords, officials and gentry organizations should always set up camps and attack the Taiping Army from time to time, and the Taiping Army soon fell into the predicament of food supply. In those days, most of the troops who fled with Shi Dakai were from Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Huaibei. When they encounter difficulties, they will miss home and rebel from time to time. In this case, Shi Dakai had to give up Qingyuan City and continue mobile operations. Two months later, Peng Dashun and other 67 generals defected collectively and led 200,000 troops back to Tianjing. After repeated setbacks and betrayals, Shi Dakai was forced to lead his cronies back to his hometown of Guixian. Shi Dakai wanted to live in seclusion in the mountains, but he was chased by the Qing court and had to retreat again. In August of the 11th year of Xianfeng, Shi Dakai assembled tens of thousands of people, from Youxian county to the north, out of Guangxi, into the two lakes, to the spring of the first year of Tongzhi, and from Lichuan, Hubei, into Sichuan, recruiting troops along the way to Fucheng, and the team has expanded to more than 200,000 people. Unable to advance because of being blocked by the Qing army, Shi Dakai wandered and fought on the border of Hubei, Sichuan, Guizhou and Yunnan. In the spring of Tongzhi two years, Shi Dakai deployed troops to March into Sichuan in three ways. Shi Dakai led the main force from Zhaotong, Yunnan, and rushed to Jinsha River. When they reached Ningyuan Prefecture in Sichuan, the other two armies were blocked on the road and turned back. Shi Dakai led the army to continue northward. When we arrived at Anshunchang, we were blocked by the Dadu River. Fighting for more than 20 days, failed to break through the encirclement. In a dilemma, Shi Dakai wrote to Sichuan Governor Luo, expressing his willingness to "lay down his life for the whole army", that is, sacrifice himself to protect his subordinates. In April of the first year of Tongzhi, Shi Dakai took his five-year-old son Shi to Qingying, was taken to Chengdu and was killed.
The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom revolted in Jintian Village, Guangxi in December of the 31st year of Daoguang reign (AD 1850). Soldiers went out of Guangxi, into Hunan and into Hubei. Then they moved eastward, conquered Nanjing, renamed Tianjing, and made their capital, thus forming a confrontation with the Qing government. During the prosperous period of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the internal contradictions intensified due to the pursuit of pleasure by the leadership, and finally the Tianjing Incident occurred, which led to the decline of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and the failure of Tongzhi for three years (A.D. 1864). The rise and fall of Taiping Heavenly Kingdom 14 years reflects the strategy and talent of General Taiping in fighting against the Qing army, winning many major battles and dealing a heavy blow to the Qing army. However, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, like many peasant uprisings in history, had its own weaknesses and limitations and eventually failed.