Chapter 86 7. The Tianjing Incident

At the beginning of September 1856, the Qing army in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River suddenly discovered many unknown floating objects in the river.After investigation, they were all the corpses of various people from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, most of whom were soldiers and their families, and there were many senior leaders in yellow clothes and coats.The Qing army was at a loss, but quickly reported the enemy's situation.According to the judgment of the intelligence department, the notification is: internal strife in the Taiping Heavenly Heaven! This event was known as the "Tianjing Incident" in history.

In the autumn of 1856, Yang Xiuqing forced Hong Xiuquan to call him "Long Live" under the pretext that his heavenly father was possessed. Hong Tianwang pretended to agree, but the excuse was fulfilled on Yang Xiuqing's birthday two months later.Then, Hong Tianwang secretly summoned Wei Changhui from Nanchang, Jiangxi, Shi Dakai from Wuchang, Hubei, and Qin Rigang from Danyang, Jiangsu to return to Beijing to punish the rebels. Qin Rigang arrived in Tianjing first, but did not dare to move lightly.At midnight on September 1st, Wei Changhui led more than 200 warships and more than 3,000 elite soldiers into Tianjing from the south gate. He immediately held a short meeting with Qin Rigang, Lai Hanying, Hu Yihuang and others. I asked for instructions.In the early morning of the next day, Wei Changhui and others first controlled the dangers in the city and cut off all the roads leading to the East Palace, then broke into the East Palace, beheaded Yang Xiuqing, cut off his head, and hung it on a wooden tree in the market on the pole.The servants, guards and family members of the East King's Mansion rushed to fight and were all killed.

Since the parties involved in the city were all killed one after another, most of the specific documents handed down from generation to generation describe them vaguely. On the contrary, the foreign mercenaries who were in the city at a few times can describe them in detail. There was an illiterate Irishman nicknamed "Ken Neng", who admired the customs and customs of my country, traveled thousands of miles across the ocean, and came to China to support various causes of trouble.He first fooled around in Shanghai, worked in the Qing army, and later participated in the "Small Knife Club" uprising.After the Qing army recaptured Shanghai, he went west along the river and joined the Taiping Army in Zhenjiang. Because he was proficient in firearms and made great achievements in many battles, he was summoned by Qin Rigang and Yang Xiuqing successively, and was transferred to Tianjing to serve as an idler in the East Prince's Mansion.

He lived in Dongwang's wife-in-law's house, and often had drinks with the master—and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom actually banned alcohol.The last time he saw Yang Xiuqing alive, he was reprimanding 3,000 old brothers from Guangdong and Guangxi, saying that they were war-weary. At around four o'clock in the morning on September 2, Ken Neng, who was soundly asleep, was awakened by the sound of gunfire. He and another foreign friend rushed to the gate to find out what happened, but were driven back into the house by the security post set up by Wei Changhui and Qin Rigang.It was not until dawn that they slipped out of the house and ran to the East Palace to check the situation.They found corpses everywhere on the street, most of them were officials of the East Prince's Mansion, some of them were acquaintances - it seems that the troops of Wei and Qin did not spare even the musicians, scribes, and servants of the East King's Mansion.

After the tragedy, Uranus finally made an appearance.In front of the Heavenly King's Mansion, the maids posted a two-meter-long yellow silk notice written in cinnabar, severely condemning the indiscriminate killing and robbery of Wei and Qin in Yang's house, and announced that they would be punished five times each. Hundred sticks.All suspected "Eastern King's Remnants" were summoned to watch the execution, and the execution ground was set in the courtyard of the Heavenly King's Mansion. Although Yang Xiuqing was domineering, he was a hero who founded the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom after all. During his reign, he opened hundreds of miles every day, and he was somewhat respected by some people.He was massacred, and most people in Tianjing City expressed sympathy and condolences, so there were not a few people who were present to watch Wei and Qin being tortured—and these people were not necessarily Yang Xiuqing's henchmen.

Since the execution ground was set in the Heavenly King's Mansion, everyone who entered the venue consciously handed over their weapons--what else is there to worry about when you go to the Heavenly King's Mansion to watch the excitement?However, all the gates of the Heavenly King's Mansion were suddenly closed, and the beating on the execution ground also stopped... These "Eastern King's Remnant Party" who tried to come to watch the excitement were divided and surrounded, escorted to several large rooms and imprisoned. Ken Neng stayed with the guards guarding the front gate of Tianwang Mansion and witnessed the massacre with his own eyes: "At dawn the next day, the doors and windows of the hall where the Dongwang Yudang were held were opened, and some explosives were thrown at the detainees, and the exit They were closely guarded. The soldiers rushed into one of the halls without any resistance and killed all the detainees. But in the other hall, the detainees used bricks from the hall wall and partition wall The block resisted desperately for more than six hours before being wiped out. In addition to shooting the resisters with rifles, the massacre also fired a two-pound grape bullet at the detainees-these poor people took off their upper body clothes, many People die from exhaustion."

The soldiers of Wei Changhui and Qin Rigang rolled up their right sleeves, rushed into the hall and hacked wantonly.When Ken was able to go in, he found that the inside was horrible: there were five or six layers of corpses in some places, some were burnt by explosives, and some people hanged themselves.In the next few weeks, some of the "Eastern King's Remnant Party" who were lucky enough to slip through the net were also arrested one after another. Dozens or hundreds of people were taken to the execution ground and beheaded, even women and children were not spared. Shi Dakai then rushed back to Tianjing. After seeing the tragedy in the city, he condemned Wei Changhui for killing too much.Wei Changhui, who was red-eyed, was about to kill Shi Dakai again.Shi Dakai, who had just returned to Tianjing City for a few hours, had to rush out of the city, but dozens of members of his family failed to escape and were all killed by Wei Changhui.Shi Dakai returned to the army, just in time for the Qing army to attack Ningguo. He took the overall situation first and sent his troops to save Ningguo.

However, to Shi Dakai's surprise, before he returned to his teacher, Wei Changhui's head was sent by the king of heaven, and there were more than 200 more people on the list of unlucky ghosts.It is said that Wei Changhui was brutally dismembered. In the alleys of Tianjing City, two-inch-wide strips of meat were hung everywhere, with the words "Northern traitor meat, you are only allowed to look at it, and you are not allowed to take it." At the end of 1856, Shi Dakai returned to Tianjing City and was greeted like a hero in triumph. However, in Wang Yi's heart, he felt the pain of losing his family, the sadness of losing his comrades in arms, and the confusion about the future of the kingdom of heaven.As the last of the five kings of Yong'an, he endured his grief and shouldered the responsibility of assisting the government.He lived alone, correcting the documents received during the day every night, and the next morning his attendants posted the instructions on the wall outside his residence.

But Hong Xiuquan didn't trust him. He made his two elder brothers Hong Renfa and Hong Renda king, and let these two stupid guys who "have no talent, no calculations, and are stubborn" restrain Shi Dakai everywhere.In April of the following year, Shi Da, who couldn't bear it anymore, left Tianjing in anger, and more than 100,000 elite soldiers followed him.However, Shi Dakai, who left Tianjing City, became a Titan who left the mother earth, and lost the invincible power of the past. He was defeated repeatedly, and finally the whole army was surrounded by the Dadu River.He personally went to the Qing army camp to "surrender himself", wanting to sacrifice his life to save his subordinates, but in the end his subordinates were still massacred by the Qing army.On June 25, 1863, Shi Dakai was executed by Ling Chi in Chengdu. When he was about to be executed, he looked dignified and did not flinch in the slightest.

Zeng Guofan, Zuo Zongtang and others commented that "Shi Ni's cunning is the crown of all thieves", "Shi Ni's cunning and cunning are well-known, and he has always won the hearts of the thieves. I am quite anxious to seek talents by building people's hearts, and I don't pay much attention to the slang of cults. I am the suzerain of thieves, and I am afraid of it."The foreigner McGowan also commented: "This young leader is heroic, chivalrous, brave and upright, and he is the backbone of the entire army. His title is 'Electrician', which really expresses his actions. He's educated and man of action."

He was the most tragic hero of his time. In the "Tianjing Incident", Yang Xiuqing, who was known as a human elf who could speak for God and who was also the son of God with Hong Xiuquan, died; Wei Changhui, who was also the son of God who donated all his family wealth to support the God Worship Association, also died; the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is important Qin Rigang, the military leader of the Communist Party of China, also died; tens of thousands of elite soldiers from Guangxi also died; Shi Dakai, the only surviving hero among the heroes, went to him in anger, and the whole army was wiped out by the Dadu River... The backbone of the heaven on earth collapsed. To make matters worse, the "Tianjing Incident" completely buried the dreams and myths of the kingdom of heaven, and made people wake up from their dreams.Li Xiucheng believes that if the Qing Dynasty did not pursue a strict killing policy, perhaps the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom would have ended by then.At that time, the Qing Dynasty recorded folk songs saying: "The heavenly father killed the heavenly brother, the country was blocked, the long hair was unorthodox, and Xianfeng was still allowed." This reflected the great shock and impact of the incident on the people of the heavenly kingdom.