Chapter 82 3. Yongan system

Yong'an City is the seat of the state government, and it is a prosperous and sturdy medium-sized city.After conquering the city, Hong Xiuquan's family entered Yuanzhizhou Yamen on October 1.The homes of some wealthy families in the city were ransacked, and the proceeds from the ransacking were included in the "sacred treasury" for military use.But in general, the discipline of the Taiping Army is quite good.In Yong'an City, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom established its own system, which is called "Yong'an System" by historians. Here, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom promulgated a "Taiping Calendar" formulated by Feng Yunshan three years ago. It also retains the traditional twenty-four solar terms.

What is even more striking is that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom established its own set of bureaucratic systems here. Hong Tianguifu, the two-year-old son of Hong Tianwang, was named "Young Master" and called "Long Live", and all subsequent sons were called "Your Highness Thousand Years", and his daughters were called "Jin".Senior generals in the army are called "adults"; mid-level officers to the two Sima at the head and tail of the soldiers are collectively called "good people"; "Jade" and "Snow"; female generals are called "Zhenren".The wives of leaders at all levels are called "gui", and they are subdivided into "gui concubine", "gui concubine", "gui concubine" and "gui Qiang" according to the husband's specific title.

Hong Xiuquan is the "king of heaven" and is called "long live"; Yang Xiuqing is the "king of the east" and is called "nine thousand years old" (yes, it is the same age as the famous eunuch Wei Zhongxian of the Ming Dynasty); Xiao Chaogui is the "king of the west" and is called "eight thousand years old". Feng Yunshan is the "King of the South" and is called "Seven Thousand Years"; Wei Changhui is the "King of the North" and is called "Six Thousand Years"; Shi Dakai is the "Wing King" and is called "Five Thousand Years".The king of Edom controlled the kings, and the others were called military divisions or prime ministers.In order to avoid the taboo of the foreign god "Ye Huo Hua", all kings cannot be called "Wang Ye".

From these strict hierarchical systems, we can see that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, which claims that "there are many men in the world, are all brothers; there are many women in the world, all are sisters", and it is not as "flat" as imagined. The military system of the Taiping Army was designed by the intellectual Feng Yunshan by referring to "Zhou Li". There were five "armies" and five commanders; five "armies" had two commanders; The fifth and fifth ranks are carried in order, and then there are brigade commanders, division commanders, and army commanders.One army governs five divisions, theoretically 13,155 people.But Yang Xiuqing and Xiao Chaogui, the two "ignorant" old men, didn't take it seriously, thinking that this military system was not practical, and Feng Yunshan was purely showing off his knowledge.

The Taiping Army failed to gain a foothold in Yong'an.Although they had a strength of more than 20,000 at this time, the Qing army arrived quickly, and by the end of 1851 they had assembled 46,000 people.On December 10, Wu Lantai, the vice-capital of Guangzhou, who was known as a brave Qing army general, stormed Shuidou Village, a key point of the outer defense line of Yongzhou. Fall into passivity.Two days later, Xiao Chaogui, whose injuries had deteriorated, was named "Eight Thousand Years Old". One week later, Hong Xiuquan issued an imperial edict to confer "Five Kings". Only then did Xiao Chaogui become "West King".Because of this serious injury, Yang Xiuqing and Xiao Chaogui, who were originally equals, were separated from each other, forming a situation where Yang Xiuqing was the only one who controlled the kings as the Eastern King.

From the night of April 5 of the following year to the dawn of the next day, the Taiping army broke out from the southeast of Yong'an, where the Qing army was weakly defended. After breaking through from Yong'an, the Taiping Army went northward and went straight to Guilin, the provincial capital.Luo Gang, who was born as a pirate, was a rare general with rich military experience at the beginning of the Taiping Army. He sent hundreds of people wearing the uniforms of the Qing army to pretend to be the Xiangrong troops in an attempt to sneak into Guilin and seize the city.Coincidentally, Xiang Rong himself had just led an army into the city, and his strategy was seen through, and the surprise attack on Guilin turned into a tough battle.

The Taiping Army besieged Guilin City for 33 days. Seeing that the city was difficult to conquer, they turned around and planned to cross the Lingqu River and enter the Xiangjiang River System from the Lijiang River System.This road was opened by Qin Shihuang when he conquered Baiyue in the south, more than 2,000 years ago.When Huang Chao went north to fight for the world in the Tang Dynasty, he took this road.At this moment, Hong Xiuquan also followed in Huang Chao's footsteps and embarked on this road of no return. "There are so many beautiful mountains and rivers that attract countless heroes to bow their heads." No wonder future generations are filled with emotion.

Under the city of Quanzhou in the northernmost part of Guangxi, the Taiping Army suffered an extremely accidental and far-reaching loss.On May 24th, the forward of the Taiping Army arrived at the city of Quanzhou. Seeing that the city was solid, they prepared to go around the city.However, the Qing army at the head of the city of Quanzhou caused trouble. A gunner saw a gorgeously decorated sedan chair in the marching sequence of the other party, and his hands were itchy. He aimed at it and fired a cannon.This shot was surprisingly accurate, the sedan chair was destroyed, and the people inside rolled out, and it seemed that they were seriously injured.

Next, the Taiping army who were going around the city stopped one after another and began to attack the city of Quanzhou viciously.The Qing army following the Taiping Army did not dare to march in view of the disastrous defeat at the foot of Yong'an City. Even the prefect of Quanzhou wrote blood letters asking for help, but no one heeded them.On June 2, the city of Quanzhou was destroyed, and the Taiping Army uncharacteristically slaughtered the city for two days. Only a few people escaped. The person sitting in the sedan chair was none other than the Heavenly King's best friend, the founder of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the Southern King Feng Yunshan, and most of the officers in this army were recruited by him.How could such a character hit him with a cannon?

The battle of Quanzhou held back the rapid advance of the Taiping Army.In order to get rid of the pursuers, they continued on the road without taking a rest. Due to fatigue and carelessness, they did not send a reconnaissance team forward. On June 5th, the Taiping Army continued to march towards Hunan along the two waterways, and arrived at Suoyidu, which was only ten miles north of Quanzhou City, where they were surprised by Jiang Zhongyuan, the alternate prefect of the Qing Dynasty. Today, everyone knows Zeng Guofan, but few people still remember this Jiang Zhongyuan—his early death in battle is doomed to only become a shooting star in the vast history.

Jiang Zhongyuan, from Xinning, Hunan, is two years older than Hong Xiuquan.He was quite a rascal in his early years. When he visited Zeng Guofan, a fellow countryman in Beijing, the old Zeng actually asked the concierge to tell Mr. Jiang: "The master respects and appreciates the guests. The guest Xinning is a scoundrel scholar. He has worked all his life to drink pheasant ears. The master has no time to travel with you. The so-called "drinking pheasant" means gambling—translated into vernacular, it means "my master doesn't want to see you, a guy who can only gamble and play hooligans".Mr. Jiang said angrily, the matter is true, but "is there anyone in the world who refuses to change Zeng Guofan's evil"?The concierge reported that he was startled and greeted him personally, which was very respectful.Mr. Jiang's voice shook the roof tiles while talking and laughing, and he waved Gu Jian's tea cup to the ground, looking like a hero.Afterwards, Zeng Guofan commented that "I have never seen such a person in my life", and concluded that "although this person is famous all over the world, he should die with integrity." However, what Mr. Jiang did was even more shocking.Mr. Deng, a native of Zou Ju from Shaanxi Province, who went to Beijing to take the exam with Mr. Jiang, suffered from lung disease at the same time, vomited blood, and was too poor to hire a servant.Zou Juren struggled for several months and finally died.At his own expense, Mr. Jiang paid for the funeral of Zou Juren, whom he had never met before, and sent his family members to escort the coffin back to Shaanxi.As for himself, he personally escorted Mr. Deng, wanting to return to his hometown in Hunan.But on the way, Mr. Deng also died, and Jiang Zhongyuan returned to his hometown with a big coffin on his shoulders.This is not over yet, a few years later, another fellow of his, Zeng Chuntian, died in the capital, and he was escorted back to his hometown in Hunan by his escort.In those days, the traffic was not as developed as it is now, and it took half a year to travel thousands of miles, not to mention carrying such a big coffin!Don't say that Hunan's hometown is full of crowns. At that time, who could take care of these unlucky ghosts who died in foreign lands?Only this Jiang Zhongyuan was willing to stand up, so "at that time, the voice of righteousness has already shaken the capital."At that time, someone wrote a doggerel saying: "Send the coffin to Jiang Minqiao on behalf of him, and write the elegiac couplet to Zeng Disheng." The former is about Jiang Zhongyuan, and the latter is about Zeng Guofan—but Mr. Shaved is famous because he was exposed for writing elegiac couplets to living people. In the 28th year of Daoguang, Jiang Zhongyuan started a group training in his hometown Xinning, made great achievements in suppressing the local Yao people's uprising, and was promoted to the county magistrate of Xiushui, Zhejiang.Before the Taiping Rebellion, he happened to recruit hundreds of soldiers on the spot because of his father's death, called "Chu Yong", who went to Guangxi to help suppress the Taiping Army, and belonged to the Ulan Tai tribe.This is the beginning of the upgrading of Hunan local regiments to regular troops. Luoyidu is located at the turn of Hunan and Guangxi, with many mountains and complex terrain.The Xiangjiang River turns eastward here, and there is a sandy beach protruding from the river on the west bank. The riverbed at the ferry is narrow, only more than 100 meters wide, and the water is shallow and fast.Because the Taiping Army was delayed for ten days in Quanzhou, Jiang Zhongyuan's department was able to arrive first and had enough time to set traps. Jiang Zhongyuan's army cut down bamboo and wood, drove piles to block the river, and fixed these wooden piles firmly with large iron nails, so that ships could not pass through.Then, he ambushed his men in the jungle of Hexi, waiting for the Taiping army to appear. On June 5th, almost as soon as the rear team of the Taiping Army left Quanzhou City, the forward arrived at Suoyidu.The first fleet sailed through the shoal, and just turned around the meander, they bumped into Jiang Zhongyuan's wooden pile head-on, and were attacked by Qing army artillery.Because the current was too fast, the rear team couldn't stop the boats, and they bumped into the battleships in front one after another. The big and small ships were crowded together, and there was chaos.Thanks to Jiang Zhongyuan's lack of troops, the main force of the Taiping Army was able to abandon the ship and break out to the east bank of the Xiangjiang River.But even so, the losses were considerable, about 10,000 people were killed in battle, and more than 300 ships were burned or captured.The Southern King Feng Yunshan, who had been seriously injured, died of his injuries in this attack. His death has buried hidden worries for the future of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. The Battle of Suoyidu marked that on the way forward of the Taiping Army, the biggest enemy was no longer the regular army of the Qing Dynasty, but the leader of the rapidly rising local regiment training. The severely injured Taiping army entered Hunan by land from the east bank of the Xiangjiang River, conquered Yongzhou, and then conquered Daozhou on June 12. They rested here for a month and a half before they were able to regain their strength. On September 12, the Western King Xiao Chaogui, Lin Fengxiang, and Li Kaifang led the forward troops to Changsha, an important town in northern Hunan, and immediately began to attack the city.However, six days later, on September 17, when he was commanding the siege, he was spotted by a sniper on the top of the city and shot to death.At the beginning of October, Hong Xiuquan personally led the whole army to the city of Changsha, but at this time the number of Qing troops defending the city had increased to 40,000 to 50,000, and there were sufficient military supplies. Guarding Changsha is Luo Bingzhang, governor of Hunan, who has been dismissed due to "abolishment of officials".He was a fellow of Hong Xiuquan's Hua County, a Jinshi in 1832, and the first candidate in Guangdong at that time.Because he did not pay enough respect to Sai Shang'a, the passing imperial envoy years ago, he was dismissed on the charge of "abolishing the administration of officials". After the arrival of the new governor Zhang Liangji, the former governor Luo retired to serve as the nondescript "Changsha Defense Coordinator".This fierce offensive and defensive battle in Changsha has fully proved that Luo Bingzhang's charge of "abolishing the administration of officials" seems to be quite unfounded. After the Taiping Army entered Hunan, they recruited a large number of miners, mastered new tactics, and began to try to attack the city with blasting.The Taiping Army bombarded the city wall three times successively, but due to the effective defense of the city, they were unable to conquer it. The offensive and defensive battle lasted for 81 days, and ended with the Taiping Army withdrawing from the siege and heading north. There are often some extremely accidental episodes in history.If it hadn't been for the troublesome gunner in Quanzhou City who happened to hit Feng Yunshan, the Taiping Army would not have stayed in Quanzhou City for ten days; if not for these ten days, Jiang Zhongyuan would not have had time to design such an elaborate trap. There would be no Battle of Suoiyidu; if the Taiping Army had not been severely injured in this battle, the Taiping Army would have entered Hunan in a mighty manner and attacked Changsha a few months in advance; because the Taiping Army attacked Changsha in advance, Luo Bingzhang, who was caught off guard, might not be able to defend The city, lost the base camp of the Hunan Army... Then, not only the history of Hunan will be rewritten, but the entire history of China will also be rewritten. However, the gunner on the head of the city of Quanzhou, he didn't know what he had done-some troublemakers in history were like this, they edited the course of history indiscriminately, and then hid themselves laughing or died calmly , Let future generations blow their beards and stare at their eyes, and mess around in the wrong jokes. After Changsha was rescued, Zhang Liangji held a group training in Hunan University, and invited an old Juren who had been failing the Jinshi examination to help him.This Mr. Juren is shrewd and capable, but his temper is not very good. Fortunately, the world was in chaos at that time, and the government used people on their own merits, so he didn't think much of his bad temper.Not long after Zhang Liangji was promoted to governor, Luo Bingzhang returned to Hunan and relied even more on this Mr. Juren. He asked him for instructions, but he said brazenly: "Ask Mr. Ji Gao." Therefore, Hunan was said to have "two governors" at that time.Later, because of his bad temper, Mr. Juren called a second-rank general soldier a "bastard" in public, and the two had a falling out. It was reported that Juren was manipulated by the undercover, and the two families went through the lawsuit.In the end, Juren's backstage was a bit tougher, and the result of the court's handling was: the commander-in-chief was dismissed from his post as supervisor, and Mr. Juren resigned to find another job.In the second half of his life, Mr. Zongbing, Yanwu Xiuwen, trained his son to be a great scholar in the late Qing Dynasty; after Mr. Juren lost his job, he joined the army and led an army to fight in Zhejiang, Fugan and Shanxi. Finally, he regained Xinjiang from outsiders and planted three Thousands of miles of willows attract the spring breeze to pass through Yuguan. The famous comment "The country cannot live without Hunan for a day, and Hunan cannot live without Zongtang for a day" was bought by Juren's buddies for three thousand taels of silver in this case—after reading this, Take another look at such a large area in Xinjiang, can you tell me, is it worth the money?