Chapter 22 Kingdom of Heaven—"Heaven" Collapsed in a Pool of Blood

In August 1856, the sky over Tianjing, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, was overcast.Dongwang Yang Xiuqing is ill. Surrounded by civil and military officials from the Heavenly King's Mansion, Hong Xiuquan went to the East King's Mansion to see a doctor in person.Looking at Sheng Chen Bingwei inside and outside the palace, his sword unsheathed as if facing an enemy, Hong Xiuquan frowned unconsciously, but no one seemed to notice. When the group arrived at the magnificent bedroom that was almost indistinguishable from the Heavenly King's Mansion, Yang Xiuqing was still in a coma, lying on her back with her eyes closed.Seeing her, several court ladies around her wanted to wake up Xiuqing, but Hong Xiuquan waved her hand to stop her, and sat on a small couch in front of the bed, watching Xiuqing silently, her eyes seemed to reveal infinite sorrow.

After an unknown amount of time in the silence, Yang Xiuqing suddenly groaned in pain a few times on the hospital bed. Everyone was startled, but Xiuqing didn't wake up, she just muttered something in her mouth, it seemed that she was seriously ill.Xiuquan listened carefully, and suddenly her expression changed. "It is said that there are no two suns, but there are two days fighting each other in the sky, why is that?" It turned out that Xiuqing had repeatedly said this sentence. Hong Xiuquan quickly returned to normal, after pondering for a moment, he immediately ordered the officials of the Heavenly King's Mansion who came with him to kneel down in front of the bed and kowtow nine times, shouting "Long live the Eastern King" three times.Immediately, Xiuquan said to change clothes, and moved back to the palace.

In the empty bedroom, Yang Xiuqing sat up suddenly with a stunned expression.He didn't expect that the king of heaven would suddenly order the official to call him long live, and his original plan of pretending to be sick and raving to irritate Xiuquan and force her to abdicate completely fell through. Looking at the small couch where Xiuquan sat, Yang Xiuqing let out a long sigh and lay down on her back again. Hong Xiuquan returned to the palace, feeling deeply in danger, and summoned the Northern King Wei Changhui in a blood-gnawing letter... The above-mentioned public case comes from "Taiping Heavenly Kingdom War Records" compiled by modern scholar Luo Dunhao on the basis of Wei Yicheng's "Tianguozhi" by Wei Changhui's son.Although many people are skeptical about the details and even the authenticity of this book, Yang Xiuqing's domineering force to force Hong Xiuquan to seal her long live and seek power and position is fully proved by various historical materials and recognized by all historians.

The next step is the internal strife in Tianjing that everyone is familiar with.Wei Changhui and Qin Rigang killed Yang Xiuqing, and also wanted to kill Shi Dakai; Shi Dakai escaped from the city and raised troops to Jingnan, Hong Xiuquan killed Wei Changhui and Qin Rigang... In this massacre, at least 20,000 brave soldiers of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom died under the butcher's knives of their comrades-in-arms. The seeds of tragedy were actually planted eight years ago.Before the incident started, Feng Yunshan was arrested, Hong Xiuquan went back to Guangzhou to rescue them, and the Bauhinia Mountain Worshiping God Society faced dissolution without a leader.Yang Xiuqing acted decisively and used the Hakka and Zhuang "children descending" method to pretend that the "Heavenly Father" came to the world to stabilize the congregation.This was originally an expedient measure—but after Hong Xiuquan came back and admitted Yang Xiuqing’s qualifications to speak on behalf of the Heavenly Father, the Heavenly Father seemed to suddenly become interested in the land of China, and went down to earth frequently, sometimes even going back and forth several times a day without being afraid of going up and down.There are more and more things in charge. Of course, the military and state affairs are firmly grasped. Later, it even developed to interfere with the palace affairs of the king of heaven. It was once said that Hong Xiuquan treated the palace maids harshly, and even had to punish forty in public!

Embarrassed, Hong Xiuquan was dumb and couldn't tell if he was suffering from eating Coptis chinensis. He could only grit his teeth secretly, but he still had to kneel in front of Yang Xiuqing in a respectful manner—who told him to admit that this kid could speak for the heavenly father? The killing intent has already been laid.But Yang Xiuqing didn't feel the danger at all, and her arrogance was still rampant day by day... The dense cloud over Tianjing finally turned into a bloody storm. The Heavenly King dared to kill the spokesperson of the Heavenly Father. Although this was the only solution that had to be done when the conflict became irreconcilable, it also revealed that in the heart of the Heavenly King and other kings, the Heavenly Father, the Brother, and so on, absolutely Not so sacred and unquestionable.

Yang Xiuqing's forgetfulness is because he firmly believes that with the support of the heavenly father, the heavenly king of the son's generation would never dare to lay hands on him? ——What's more, with military power in hand, why fear it? However, did Yang Xiuqing ask himself, can he believe this nonsense? I shouldn't believe it, he may not even have the self-suggestion of modern psychology, he is very sober.Otherwise, how could the Heavenly Father whom he speaks for insult and threaten the Heavenly King and his own son day by day?Moreover, this is clearly a planned way to lower the prestige of the Heavenly King: For example, Hong Xiuquan’s original hymn only praised the Heavenly Father and Heavenly Brother, but Yang Xiuqing coerced him to focus on praising the Heavenly Father, Heavenly Brother, and Eastern King, lest it would arouse the resentment of the kings, and It is set off by praising the King of the West and the King of Yu, but not the King of Heaven.Isn't this trying to win over the kings and belittle Hong Xiuquan in isolation? (According to Dong Caishi's "A Brief Discussion on the Contradictions between Hong and Yang during the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Period")

Regarding this magic-like trick of Wu Gong, Taoist Difu's "Jinling Miscellaneous Notes" mentioned the people's views at that time: "You can coax the savages in the cave. Today in Jinling, even a three-year-old child knows the deceit." "That is to say, the person who was threatened before knew it was false, but dared not tell the truth to his face, because the robbers killed too much." Although a three-year-old child, he also knows its deceit!Although Hong Xiuquan himself may have always believed that he was really the second son of the heavenly father and the younger brother of Jesus after he dreamed of being summoned by God when he failed the imperial examination, how could you, Yang Xiuqing, be possessed by the heavenly father?Back then, admitting that you spoke for the Heavenly Father was really just forced by form!Besides, even if Heavenly Father used you to pass on the message, he wouldn't keep rambling like this to save face for his son!You kid seems to be really dizzy, and you still want to sit on an equal footing with me?How dare you even think...

Heavenly father and brother, etc., are more often just means.Later, Li Xiucheng made it very clear in his confession: "The name of the Heavenly King is the country of Heavenly Father, Heavenly Brother and Heavenly King. , let it be called..." Smart people take care of each other. Yang Xiuqing should know this best, but it was because he played too hard that he died. Propagating the possession of ghosts has been a very effective means of gathering crowds in ancient China, especially in the ignorant remote villages.It is said that the gods came down to lead the rebellion, and it did not start with Hong Xiuquan. Behind the peasant uprisings in all dynasties, there are more or less shadows of gods.From Manichaeism, Maitreya Sect to White Lotus Sect, there is a long history, and from time to time he shouted the slogan "Maitreya is born, Ming Wang is born" to cheer him up for a while.There are countless small gangs that have been derived, and the Boxers later developed to the extreme. The sky is full of gods and Buddhas, and even the great sage Hongjun in the novel is on his body.

Regardless of whether Hong Xiuquan believed in that idea or not, judging from the objective effect, he succeeded in gathering a large number of people by using Heavenly Father and Brother Heavenly Brother.After five years of organization and mobilization, by 1851, the influence of the God Worship Association centered on Zijing and Jintian had expanded to 10 states and counties, and as many as 20,000 men, women and children gathered in Jintian at the time of the uprising. With this foundation, it will be easy to handle, and the team has flourished and grown rapidly since then.Heavenly Father and Heavenly Brother still preach that with such a large crowd, it is easier to be coerced.When the team arrived, Li Xiucheng's confession said: "Those who worship God don't have to be afraid to flee, and eat at home", so what about those who don't believe in religion?When the Taiping army stationed in one place, they "take the food and clothing in the village as soon as they come to the village." If you worship a god, you can eat others, but if you don't believe in it, you will be eaten. How many people can't turn the corner?But the revolution is not about inviting guests to dinner. The Taiping Army has another trick, and the confession also says: "When leaving camp, all houses that worship God will be set on fire. Han's family has no food, so I will cut you off from him." the back road.

"People in the countryside don't know how far to go. They travel hundreds of miles away without turning their heads, and then they are pursued by soldiers"—— From then on, he was determined to fight the world with the king of heaven. On March 19, 1853, the Taiping Army captured Nanjing and established its capital here, called Tianjing. After the Opium War, internal and external oppression, and economic bankruptcy made religious sects all over the world. It is said that there are more than a hundred kinds of Bailian, Tianli, Bagua, Tiandihui, Niandang, and Qinggang.However, most of them were local fights, and only Hong Xiuquan's Taiping Army was able to move to half of China in just two years and conquer the most important city except Beijing.

Such a result was achieved precisely because they passed the bottleneck that most gangs could not overcome: what should they do after gathering the crowd?Do you gather in the mountains and forests to rob the rich and help the poor, have a big bowl of wine and eat meat;still…… From the very beginning, Hong Xiuquan's goal was very clear. This move is not to be a bandit or a bandit, but to "go down to earth under the decree of God and the decree of brother Jesus, and be the only Allah of all nations in the world!" Xi, reprimanded the Qing court: "Where there is a flood or drought, a little sympathy, just sit and watch the hungry and wandering, exposed as reckless... and let the corrupt officials spread all over the world, so that the people will be stripped of fat, and the scholars and women will cry on the road...Officials Get it with bribes, avoid punishment with money, the rich are in power, and the heroes are desperate." ——The eyes are not wandering in the slightest, you and I swear to be incompatible: the sword points to the Forbidden City!His mission is to lead the Taiping Heavenly Army to sweep away the world of "Yan Luo Yao", and establish a paradise on earth where "everywhere is uneven, and no one is without warmth; all men in the world are brothers, and women in the world are all sisters". Leaving aside the heavenly father and heavenly brother, it is just that "everywhere is uneven, and no one is not full and warm", and the poor in dire straits are already a huge temptation.The rapid growth of the Taiping Army is not only because of religion and coercion. Having political goals is only the first step.What is rare is that the kingdom of heaven created a detailed official military system in a short period of time.The king, marquis, prime minister of the six officials, the checkpoint in front of the palace, the commander in front of the palace, the general, the general system, the supervising army, and even the two Sima, a total of sixteen.The army is organized in accordance with the "Zhou Li", with the army as the basic unit, with 13,156 people: the army has a commander in charge of 5 divisions; the division has a division commander in charge of 5 brigades; Set up pawn chiefs, governing 4 liang; set up two Sima, govern 5 corps;In this way, the farmers who were still holding hoes and planing in the fields not long ago were tightly organized into a standardized army with strict military discipline and well-trained training. Being able to gather crowds, be organized, have a goal that conforms to the hearts of the people, and have a heavenly father and brother, from now on the army is unstoppable. After the establishment of the capital, Hong Xiuquan quickly promulgated the program to realize the imaginary world of Datong: "The System of Tian Mu in the Heavenly Dynasty", calling on the whole family to cultivate the same land and eat the same food; at the same time, foot binding, prostitution, opium, and slaves were banned; and Busy with the Northern Expedition and the Western Expedition,—— Do it all at once. Amid the roar, the lifeless land of China planted a seed of heaven in a pool of blood. Xianfeng couldn't sit still any longer, his head was covered with cold sweat.The elite of the Qing army came almost all over the country, and established Jiangnan and Jiangbei camps in the eastern suburbs of Nanjing and the outskirts of Yangzhou, and tightly clamped Tianjing. However, not to mention the Eight Banners Army, even the Green Battalion was already weak. The most famous general at that time, Xiang Rong, led his Green Battalion soldiers all the way from Guangxi to Nanjing.Now they are losing more and more, and they are frightened for a while. They can only sit and watch the Taiping army come in and out, helpless.The news came that there was a great earthquake in the capital. According to the records of the time: "About 400 families of officials left the city. The Complete Works of Shanfang "Volume 9) At the critical moment, more than 17,000 soldiers of Zeng Guofan's Hunan Army marched by land and water, and marched eastward to Tianjing. Winning and losing, fighting for more than ten years, the kingdom of heaven was finally strangled by Zeng Guofan. At the beginning of Hong Xiuquan's uprising, he played the banner of racial revolution openly and squarely, calling on the world to expel the Manchu and Qing aliens. The beginning of "Feng Tian Hu Xi" is: "The world is the world of China, not the world of the Hulu"; then bloodyly uncovered the scars of the Han people: "Gao Zi Youming lost power, Manchuria took advantage of provocations to chaos China, and robbed China. The world of China, robs China of food and clothing, and abuses China's children and people... The people in Manchuria are no more than a few hundred thousand, while the people in China are no less than fifty million. It is also a hole to control the people of more than five million to one hundred thousand. It's ugly!" Finally, he shouted loudly: "There is a general principle of obedience and rebellion, and there are names for Huayi." Zeng Guofan is a Han Chinese who has read poetry and books, and is known as an agent of Confucianism.For thousands of years, one of the greatest principles of the sage scriptures is to keep the defense of Huayi: the pain of the subjugation of the former dynasty and the humiliation of haircuts twitched day and night in the hearts of many scholars; the struggle against the Qing Dynasty and the restoration of the Ming Dynasty accompanied the entire Qing Dynasty There was never a moment's rest. The Qing court remained suspicious of the Han people, and the military power was firmly in the hands of the Manchus.Even when it was all due to Zeng Guofan's desperate suppression of the Taiping Army, he still couldn't dispel his suspicions, and only gave empty titles but no real power.Once Zeng Guofan asked the court to grant the title of governor for the convenience of adjusting the army and raising salaries, but Xianfeng still refused.Although Zeng Guofan eventually ascended to a high position, the Han people who were heavily armed would always be a confidant of the Qing court. It is against the righteousness of the saints, and the foreign court is so jealous, why is Zeng Guofan still working so hard to suppress his compatriots? Did Zeng Guofan think that Hong Xiuquan's path was more dangerous than Aixinjueluo's rule? When Zeng Guofan led his army to march eastward, he published "A Call to Discuss the Bandits in Guangdong" and posted them along the way.The call to action King Kong’s angry eyes and mustaches, said that Hong Xiuquan’s rebellion “poisoned millions of lives and ravaged more than 5,000 miles of prefectures and counties”, and wanted to make “China’s thousands of years of rituals, righteousness, human relations, and poems and books can be wiped out once it is swept away!” At the critical moment, "how can anyone who can read and write sit back and watch without thinking about what to do?" It is reasonable to say that the emperor's order is orthodox when ordered to hunt down thieves, but Zeng Guofan only symbolically said a few good words of the emperor at the end of the essay: "Today, Ziyou is diligent and diligent, respects the sky and cares for the people. "Puffing Ding" and so on, but the previous article has already covered it. This move "not only relieves the hard work of the emperor and father, but also comforts the hidden pain of the relationship between Confucius and Mencius; Regret of humiliation" - not only for the king, but also for justice and the people, all should punish the Cantonese bandits.It is said that someone suggested that he add "raise the flag of righteousness to appeal to heaven" in his writing, but Zeng Guofan did not adopt it. Obviously, Zeng Guofan deliberately played down the sensitive ethnic issues, but made it clear to the world that it is nothing more than to protect the country with diligence. More importantly, I have done this to defend thousands of years of etiquette, righteousness, human relations, The famous teaching of Confucius and Mencius!Rather than saying that the Hunan Army is the teacher of King Zhiqin, it is better to say that it is a teacher of defense and education! The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom has spoiled enough of the famous teachings of Confucius and Mencius that have been aloof for thousands of years. The banner was raised, and the exclusivity of religion was combined with the resentment of failing the imperial examination. The king of heaven issued an edict to declare the Four Books and Five Classics as "demonic books and heresy", and ordered that "all monsters and monsters' documents should be destroyed. If anyone keeps them privately, they will be found Beheaded and never left", categorically, without leaving any leeway.All the way to battle, every temple was burned, and the statue was smashed. Confucian classics and Confucian classics were "burned, that is, used to smoke mosquitoes and burn tea, and even wiped with writing paper after leaving arrows." For thousands of years, the road of Confucius and Mencius When did you suffer this great humiliation? Even Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong, who were as fierce as Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong back then, did not dare to offend the holy religion like this. No civilization is eternal, and the teachings of Confucius and Mencius are not eternal truths, which must be worshiped forever.Especially after the country was blasted by foreigners, a series of failures and humiliations have aroused some people who woke up early to look back at their own origins and examine whether the principles they were based on are outdated.However, for the traditional Chinese Confucian culture, which has been deeply rooted for thousands of years, it cannot be reconverted simply by saying it is outdated. Moreover, the attitude of Hong Xiuquan and others is to kill with a stick indiscriminately: all the holy ways of Confucius and Mencius are all evildoers! It is a dream come true for Chinese people who have been immersed in Confucianism for generations to turn their heads abruptly and convert to a strange so-called Heavenly Father. Perhaps at the bottom of the society, there will be some people who can do it effortlessly: Many people in the folk worship gods as soon as they see them, regardless of whether you are a fairy, a demon, a Buddha or a Taoist, it is always right to burn more incense and kowtow.But he ordered you to burn the rest and pray to only one!Cowardly and kind people, how many people dare to offend all the gods and Buddhas for a foreign bodhisattva who doesn't know how to deal with mana?And for a scholar who has to beg for his life from old papers, this is even more of his life-aside from this thing, how can such a fool survive if he can't carry it on his shoulders or hands? Even if it is not so utilitarian, the belief of thousands of years is smashed to pieces in one day, like a tree being uprooted suddenly, how can we live the days of being at a loss like a sap? Those who are worried about the world are even more frightened: For generations, the world has to rely on the truth of Confucius to maintain order. Once it is destroyed, tigers will come out, wolves will appear in the world, and evildoers will run rampant. If Hong Xiuquan's argument is reasonable and tactful, and can convince the world to abolish old ideas and catch up easily, it will be an opportunity for social advancement.But what is his trick? They keep saying "thirty-three days", "eighteen levels of hell", "Yama demon", "Donghai dragon demon", "monster head", "grandfather and my child". Scholars who are "strange powers and chaotic gods" are suddenly disgusted, and have the temptation to fall into the evil temple of obscenity.Such a theory, in the face of the delicate and flexible Confucian Neo-Confucianism, is simply rustic and vulgar. Let’s take a look at the most solemn decree in the kingdom of heaven, such as this one: “At the fifth watch, I was in the palace of the first moon, and I heard a voice from the sky in my dream. There was a voice in the sky that said: Please be broad-minded, the world will be peaceful, and you will see a peaceful heaven.” Pass. There is a piece of southern Japan with the gate of heaven open, close and fight for eternal glory." When this word appeared on the literati's case, someone must have laughed out of breath; When the army was in full swing. In fact, there is no need to say anything else, just the name of the country and the title of the king are enough to explain the problem: what is the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom; The heavens are everywhere—this is simply a farce of the Romance of the Gods! Wouldn’t it be absurd and terrifying for such a group of people to cause trouble in the name of an inexplicable Jehovah? Zeng Guofan should think that the most dangerous thing in the Chinese world is not the Manchus who have sinicized Confucianism, but this nondescript cult.If the responsibility is based on the righteousness of the nation, our holy religion is turning the barbarians into China, but you are turning the barbarians into the barbarians!Therefore, when it comes to this section in the proclamation, it’s just a matter of anger: "Is this the only change in the Qing Dynasty? It is the strange change of the famous religion since the founding of the country! I, Confucius and Mencius, cried bitterly in Jiuquan!" You, Hong Xiuquan, have gone too far Well, I want to turn thousands of years of China into foreign lands—— How can anyone who reads and reads sit idly by? By the way, Zeng Guofan's brush strokes slanted, angering the reckless and heroic folk who didn't read much: Hong Xiuquan not only swept away the insults of Confucius, Mencius and Confucianism, but even the formidable Guan Diyue King—"No Temple If it is not burned, nothing will be destroyed, and all ghosts and gods will be enraged!" Well, everyone who thinks Hong Yang Yue Bandit is absurd and terrifying shout out, let's defend the way! When Hong Xiuquan's heavenly army roared like a gust of wind and rushed left and right, the traditional Chinese culture, which has been so high and unchallenged for thousands of years, felt a sharp pain; when it couldn't bear it anymore, it finally sent out this army A powerful self-defense force - Zeng Guofan and his Hunan Army. So from another perspective, the Hunan Army's efforts to cull the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom are not just as simple as being loyal to the emperor. Xiao Yishan, the "first person in the study of Qing history", said with emotion when he mentioned that after the feudalization of the Kingdom of Heaven, he gradually changed his policy towards Confucius and Mencius, and he was not as strong and repulsive as he was at the beginning. Get up? Unfortunately, it's too late!" But if Hong Yang could do this earlier, he would just fall into an old cycle again. If the future is successful, Liu Bang and Hong Wu will lose, and then Huang Chao and Li Chuang.And Hong Xiuquan's great wish is to create an unprecedented paradise on earth - a holy kingdom of heaven on this troubled land. Yes, the kingdom of heaven is so holy, Hong Xiuquan drove out all the people he considered evil. It is said that Zuo Zongtang had met Hong Xiuquan when the Taiping Army conquered Changsha, and hoped that he would abandon Jesus and worship Confucius and Mencius, and follow the old routine. Heavenly Father and Brother Tian’s method of gathering crowds in the early days of the uprising should have also fulfilled its historical mission. Hong Xiuquan flatly refused, and Zuo Zongtang fled overnight. Soon Zuo Zongtang became a general in the Hunan Army, and later one of the most famous ZTE officials in the Qing Dynasty. Such talents as Zuo Zongtang, I don’t know how many people turned to the Hunan Army, so that Li Xiucheng lamented in his confession that "most of the officers and soldiers use scholars, but there are no scholars among the thieves." Zeng Guofan Zuo Zongtang and the like seem to be determined to fight against the Kingdom of Heaven.Hong Xiuquan didn't take it too seriously, and called it "Zeng Yao" in line with the character of the Heavenly King.For a long time, the Kingdom of Heaven repeatedly inflicted heavy losses on the Hunan Army, forcing Zeng Guofan to commit suicide several times.It should be said that the fighting power of the Taiping Army is still very strong. After all, in the atmosphere of Heavenly Father and Brother for many years, many soldiers really believed that their Heavenly King had incomparable supernatural powers. The battle is particularly heroic - at worst, you will be promoted to heaven soon! When the situation was excellent, Tianwang's foreign brothers came to investigate.However, after a few days, the foreign brothers in the church were very annoyed: they found that the heavenly king under the banner of God was a terrible heretic; More than seventy places!The aversion to the blessings of the British is very representative. He said: "The Christianity of the king of heaven is just the greatest blasphemy of a madman. Burn him!" In the end, Fu Lici concluded: "It is really hopeless for the Taiping Army to gain the right to rule the whole of China." The stories of the missionaries spread, and the envoys stationed in China from various countries were very happy. They hurriedly reported the absurdity of the kingdom of heaven to the country, and asserted that it would not be a big deal. It's because they are worried that if the kingdom of heaven comes to fruition, whether they can still honor the oily treaties. Under the guise of "neutrality", foreign guns and cannons have long been polished. At home, Zeng Guofan and others are gnashing their teeth against the Kingdom of Heaven, and the foreign brothers have no confidence in the Kingdom of Heaven. It seems that they can only rely on the Kingdom of Heaven. Fortunately, the soldiers of the Taiping Army believed in the King of Heaven wholeheartedly. With this belief, everything can be done. This is also the reason why Hong Xiuquan resisted Yang Xiuqing's domineering and did not attack for a long time - he could not destroy this rare piety by himself. But things always have to be resolved, so there is the tragedy at the beginning of the article. After the incident, Tianjing quietly spread such a folk song, and even some people in the barracks hummed it in a low voice: "Heavenly Father kills Brother Heavenly, and the country cannot be broken through; Changmao is not the rightful owner, so let Xianfeng still." After the establishment of the capital, the kings were extravagant and extravagant, but they managed the people in a hierarchical and inflexible militarized manner; in their own three palaces and six courtyards, the common people had to be allowed to meet even husband and wife, saying one thing and doing another, long ago It has made some people who believe in the world one family have doubts.Now God's own bloody massacre has finally made people see clearly the illusion of the kingdom of heaven. If we say that after the incident is cleared up, there is still a chance for reorganization-after all, the incident unified the center of the revolution, not to mention the fact that there is no major loss of troops.From now on, either simply put aside this set of superstitions that people are not human inside and out, and be down-to-earth, and be a Ming Taizu; or, wholeheartedly learn from the foreign brothers, and take the road of Western democracy that is many times better than the feudal Qing court.Sadly, from then on, Hong Xiuquan's suspicion became more and more serious, and the generals, big and small, felt uneasy, and even Shi Dakai was forced to leave.The scariest thing is: When the public gradually woke up from the delusional dream of heaven, Hong Xiuquan himself became more and more addicted to that illusory world. If Hong Xiuquan was quite sober when he killed Yang Xiuqing, he was more or less able to use belief as a means, to distinguish priorities, and to temporarily put aside the constraints of belief; but after that, he seemed to gradually be unable to distinguish which is reality and which is illusion up... Li Xiucheng said that Tianfu Tianxiong's trick "is the scheme of the heavenly king", but now it seems that this may be wrong as a normal person's guess: the most deeply tricked is obviously Hong Xiuquan himself. From then on, he plunged headlong into the extravagant deep palace and rarely came out, so that some people in the Qing Dynasty once suspected whether "Hong Xiuquan" was a wooden idol.Most of the decrees issued were confusing nonsense, as recorded by Chen Qingjia of the time: "Every day in the afternoon, nine cannons were fired, and false edicts were hung outside the palace gate. Human affairs make people laugh." A few years ago, the foreign brothers said that the king of heaven was almost a mental patient, so from the later stage, it is basically a certain fact that Hong Xiuquan suffered from mental illness. After 1860, Hong Xiuquan "incredibly refused to be played by others. He believed in the spirit of heaven. He blindly relied on heaven and refused to believe in people." "You are afraid of death! I was born with the true destiny, and there is no need to use troops to achieve peace and unification!" In December 1863, Tianjing was in danger. Li Xiucheng explained the general situation and pointed out that "the capital cannot be guarded. , there is no food and grass inside, and there is no rescue from outside", only "tell the city not to go".But Hong Xiuquan sternly reprimanded him: "I have come down to earth by the decree of God and the decree of my brother Jesus, to be the only God of all nations in the world, so why not be afraid of it! You don't need to play it, you don't need to deal with political affairs, if you want to go out or stay in Beijing, let it be. If you don’t support me, someone will help you. You say that I have no soldiers, and I have more heavenly soldiers than water, so why be afraid of the demons!” If decision makers are like this, military confusion is inevitable.Even though Li Xiucheng and Chen Yucheng galloped east and west, and the trapped beasts fought furiously, they were not without their might, but after all, they were going downhill day by day... However, the Hunan army is connected with fellow villagers, teachers and students, relatives and friends in layers, united in one commander, and taught with loyalty and righteousness every day, becoming stronger and stronger... Zeng Guofan gritted his teeth, desperately withstood the onslaught of the Taiping Army, advancing steadily and steadily, and even the Qing court's decree to deploy troops was in vain, with only one goal: From Jiujiang to Anqing——from Anqing to Tianjing! The rope around his neck is getting tighter and tighter, Tian Guo can't breathe day by day... It is true that there are more troops appearing on the city walls of Tianjing Iron Barrel than water, but they are not Hong Xiuquan's Heavenly Soldiers, but Zeng Guofan's Hunan Army. Hong Xiuquan didn't see this water-like army. He went to his holy heaven more than a month ago. The cause of death is said to be the lack of food in Tianjing and the poisoning of the nectar after eating for too long—Hong Xiuquan believed that it was a holy object like the manna dropped by God when Moses led the Hebrews out of Egypt.But after all, they are just weeds. When Tianjing fell, the corpses of the massacred Taiping Army were floating densely on the Yangtze River, and it is said that several British warships passing by were unable to sail... From generation to generation, the heavenly dream of "everywhere is uneven, and everyone is full and warm; all men in the world are brothers, and women in the world are all sisters", thirteen years of struggle, finally turned into a river of blood, rolling east to the sea. The long hair is not the rightful owner, so let Xianfeng still. In 1867, it was the sixth year that Tongzhi took over the world of Xianfeng, and it was three years before the recovery of Nanjing. One night in June, Zeng Guofan and his aide Zhao Liewen had a long talk in the study while holding candles. Speaking of Chaoli's absurdity, the two felt heavy.After a long silence, Zhao Liewen said slowly: "It's so fundamentally upside-down—" He paused, looked around and said softly: "The Qing Dynasty will hardly last fifty years." Zeng Guofan looked at the dim flame of the oil lamp with a serious expression, and was speechless for a while. After a long time, he let out a long sigh and said softly: "I just want to die quickly - I really don't want to see such a disintegrated and out-of-control situation." At that time, he seemed to have lost faith in everything - including the Neo-Confucianism of the saint. It was late at night, and it was pitch black outside the window, and Geng watched weakly beating.