Chapter 43 Li Xiucheng defeated the British and French allied forces

On May 17, 1862, the day after Li Hongzhang severely repaired Wu Xu and Yangfang, Li Xiucheng, a talented military strategist in the Taiping Army, suddenly appeared outside Shanghai. The city was suddenly in extreme danger. The first battle was the Battle of South Bridge. Hua Er's ever-victorious army failed to attack Taicang and lost troops. Instead, Li Xiucheng drove him back to the Songjiang base camp. generally.Li Xiucheng ordered Hua Er to surrender immediately, otherwise he will not be polite. An important reason for the failure of the Ever Victorious Army was the underestimation of the Taiping Army's weapon advantages.The Changsheng army thought that the Taiping army was the same as before, and their weapons were mainly spears and swords, so when they attacked Taicang, they first bombarded the city wall with heavy artillery, and when the gap was opened, the soldiers began to charge.Unexpectedly, at this time, fierce foreign gunshots sounded from the top of the city, and the soldiers of the Changsheng Army were knocked down one by one.The American military officers commanding the battle were greatly surprised and hurriedly held a pre-war military meeting.Unexpectedly, the Taicang Taiping Army suddenly launched a bombardment, and took away the headquarters of the Changsheng Army with one shot, leading to the defeat of the Changsheng Army.

In the second battle, the fierce British and French allied forces that had invaded Beijing and forced Emperor Xianfeng to flee to Rehe suffered heavy losses in Fengxian. Under the leadership of the major general, he rushed towards the city of Shanghai in a hurry like a stray dog, like a fish slipping through the net.Li Xiucheng led tens of thousands of Taiping troops to follow and kill them.The Taiping Army approached Qingpu, Songjiang, Qibao, Hongqiao, and went straight to Shanghai. An important reason for the failure of the British and French allied forces was the overestimation of the Taiping Army's weapon disadvantages.At that time, the British and French allied forces were jointly attacking a thin city wall. The artillery unit only had a dozen shells, and the wall wobbled and collapsed. Then the allied soldiers strode forward with volleys of guns.Unexpectedly, at this time, there was a dull, dull sound in the ruins of the collapsed city wall, and the sky was full of bricks and stones, dancing wildly.In the dust covering the sky, a small iron ball hit the abdomen of the French major general, Mr. Broad, and sent him to heaven.

Killing Broad, capturing Falside, trapping Huaer in Songjiang, and chasing Shi Difu in the suburbs of Shanghai, this shows that Li Xiucheng, the loyal king of the Taiping Army, was really angry. At first, Li Xiucheng was very friendly to the British and French allied forces and tried to avoid conflicts between the two sides.It was the first time to attack Shanghai, because the Taiping army killed a foreign missionary by mistake, Li Xiu established the plan to kill the Taiping army, and notified Britain and France, expressing his willingness to plead guilty. As far as Li Xiucheng is concerned, he is really interesting to the British and the French, and he hopes that the other party can reciprocate.

Poor Li Xiucheng is a rare famous general who has become famous for his compassion, but how does he know that his friendly intentions to foreigners in Shanghai are completely useless.Because these foreigners don't count at all. Then who has the final say? The UK's long-term commercial interests are what matters. Sir Parker, who is most familiar with Chinese customs, commented: The rebel party in Nanjing or along the Yangtze River has been seizing the lifeline of this country for eight years. They are powerful enough to destroy, but they cannot build.They could and are quite successfully overthrowing the Qing, but I doubt at all that they will be able to build another government on the ashes of their destruction.

The British government fully agreed with Bacharley's views. Afterwards, a letter sent by Lord Russell to the British Minister in Beijing clearly instructed: The Queen's Government, after a long experience, believes that the rebels, who have ravaged their country with savage tyrants, can neither establish a formal government nor protect the peaceful inhabitants, but they can only ravage that country with savage mobs.Even though they did not actually kill the women and children of the cities they occupied, they aroused such terror that all the inhabitants of the places they ruled fled one after another, and all normal intercourse ceased.

British Bernard M. Allen said: (Taiping Army) slaughtered about 28,000 Manchus—men, women, and children when they captured Nanjing, and all the areas that the Taiping Army passed through were devastated and ravaged. destroy. The arrogance of the "king of heaven" is also becoming more and more appalling.He taught Shinto, commanded worship, issued edicts, and claimed to belong to the holy family of the Trinity, that is, Father, Brother, and Brother—himself. What Li Xiucheng didn't know was that the conflict between him and foreigners was a conflict of ideas, because the ideologies of the two sides were completely different.

Foreigners advocate construction, because foreigners want to do business, make money, and make a fortune.If he wants to make money from you, the premise is that you must have money in your hands, so if you build a building, become decent, and have money in your hands, foreigners will sell their goods to you and make a lot of money. Wouldn’t it be fun? what?This is the value and significance of capitalism. Although it is widely criticized, it still has its merits. Therefore, bourgeois revolutions in history all have an appeal for equality and justice.This is because only fairness can give everyone a chance, money can flow in and out, and everyone can benefit from the system.

And Hong Xiuquan is an out-and-out violent dictatorship, the purpose is to allow himself to gain more power and possess more women.Power hates equality the most, and if everyone were equal, power would cease to exist.For example, Hong Xiuquan, ever since he entered Nanjing City, built a large imperial palace, captive women in the palace, and formulated ten administrative management rules that should be beaten: If you serve ungodly, you should be beaten; if you are stiff-necked and disobedient, you should be beaten; If you look at your husband with your eyes, you should hit him three times; if you ask the king if he is ungodly, you should hit him four times;

If you are irritable and impure, you should be hit five times; if you speak too loudly, you should be hit six times; If there is a beak that does not make a sound, seven should be beaten; if the face is not happy, eight should be beaten; If you look left and right, you should strike nine times; if you don't speak leisurely, you should strike ten times. Seeing these ten should hit, we will know immediately.Paradise really exists, but this paradise is for Hong Xiuquan alone, and the rest of the sentient beings are just slaves of the Hong family, even more miserable than slaves.The women who were taken into the palace were brutally beaten even if they even looked at Hong Xiuquan with their eyes.Hong Xiuquan established a slave regime, and as the largest slave owner, he oppressed the weakest women and acted like a domineering one.

As far as Hong Xiuquan is concerned, he has so many female slaves, this life is enough, and he still needs to start a bullshit business with foreigners?Moreover, the most important thing is that these women who were taken captive into the palace have since forced a smile to survive, and have lost their basic human rights.Of course, Hong Xiuquan could not allow them to trade fairly with foreigners. Once the palace gate opened, these female slaves realized that they were equal to Hong Xiuquan, so why would he beat them up again?Therefore, in addition to the most basic needs of weapons, the Taiping Army is absolutely impossible to trade with foreigners.

In this way, foreigners could not do business, so they did not hesitate to get involved in the Chinese civil war and never allowed the Taiping Army to turn the wealthy Shanghai into Hong Xiuquan's enslaved area.But what the Shanghai elders and foreigners didn't expect was that Li Xiucheng's military ability was too good. Once he got angry and made a real move, even the British and French coalition forces would be no match. Shanghai is facing a catastrophe, and everyone's eyes turned to the acting governor Li Hongzhang. On this day, Li Hongzhang once again received a handwritten letter from his teacher Zeng Guofan.At this time, Zeng Guofan was already a little frustrated, and ordered him to set off immediately with the Huai army to Zhenjiang to rescue Zeng Laojiu who was in desperation.