Chapter 16 Chapter 15 Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement

After the Opium War, the Qing government was forced to sign a series of unequal treaties, not only to cede land, but also to pay a large amount of compensation.In order to pay these huge indemnities, the ruling class of the Qing Dynasty had no choice but to transfer the debts to the peasants, and desperately searched for people's wealth.The vast number of peasants could not bear the oppression of the landlord class, and the sudden heavy debts made their lives even worse.Unable to survive, they had to stand up and resist, and finally another large-scale peasant uprising broke out. This was the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement led by Hong Xiuquan.

Hong Xiuquan, a native of Hua County, Guangdong, was born in a peasant family in 1814.It is said that his distant ancestor first moved to Chaozhou from Jiangxi. Later, due to the insult and oppression of the rich, the Hong family moved from Chaozhou to Jiaqingzhou (now Meixian), and his great-grandfather Hong Yinglun moved from Jiazhou to Huaxian, Guangdong.Hong Xiuquan's father, Hong Jingyang, was an upright man. His mother, Wang Shi, died of illness in his early years. He had two older brothers named Renfa and Renda, one older sister named Xinying, and one younger sister named Xuanjiao.Due to the poor family background, his father and brother both depended on farming for a living. When Hong Xiuquan was seven years old, he was sent to a private school to study.Because of his extraordinary intelligence, he has been familiar with the Four Books and Five Classics within a few years, which has won people's approval. Several private school masters voluntarily waived tuition fees as encouragement; his relatives also volunteered to donate clothes to support him; Caring for the young son, regardless of the poverty and hardship of his family, he tried his best to support Hong Xiuquan's studies, hoping that he could pass the imperial examination and embark on an official career.

Hong Xiuquan worked hard and read a lot of books. From the age of sixteen, he went to Guangzhou to take exams many times, but he failed repeatedly. In 1843, Hong Xiuquan regrouped and went to Guangzhou to take the exam again, but failed again.This failure hit him extremely hard. From then on, Hong Xiuquan completely gave up his dream of seeking fame through the imperial examination, and became dissatisfied with the reality.Just when Hong Xiuquan was hesitating, confused, and unable to find a way out, one day he met a Western missionary wearing Ming Dynasty clothing on the streets of Guangzhou, who was carrying out missionary activities with an interpreter. This is called "talking the street".The next day, he met these two people again on that street, and got a copy of Christian Ecclesiastes - "Worthy Words for the World".This book has changed Hong Xiuquan's life path ever since.

This book preaches that everyone is equal before God, regardless of rich or poor, high or low, people should worship God, not other evil gods, so that they can enter the kingdom of heaven and so on.These ideas inspired Hong Xiuquan a lot. He couldn't help but think: If everyone can sincerely believe in God and build a world where everyone is equal, regardless of high or low, then the world will be peaceful and peaceful.One day, he poured a bucket of clean spring water on his head, expressing a change of appearance and a break with the old world.In this way, Hong Xiuquan became a fanatical and pious preacher. Everywhere he went, he would spread propaganda and agitation, saying:

"Brothers and sisters who are suffering, I am here to rescue you by the order of the heavenly father. The heavenly father believes that all people are born equal, regardless of whether they are rich or poor, high or low. As long as you believe in God, you will be able to live a peaceful life in the future. May If you can all change from evil to good, abandon the old and welcome the new, then the day of peace will not be far away." Under the influence of Hong Xiuquan, his classmate Feng Yunshan and his younger brother Hong Rengan joined the ranks of believing in God. They smashed the tablets of Confucius and Mencius at home and burned many Confucian classics.This action aroused great repercussions at the time, and also aroused strong attacks from the clansmen and Taoist defenders. In April 1844, they had no choice but to leave their hometown and go to Guangxi to preach.Along the way, they have gone through untold hardships, but with little success.Later, Feng Yunshan came to Zijing Mountain, Guiping County, where the terrain was difficult and the people suffered the most, and began arduous missionary work, where he founded the "Worshiping God Association".Hong Xiuquan returned to Huaxian County, Guangdong Province, and began his writing activities for more than two years. He wrote "The Original Dao Salvation Song" and "The Original Dao Awakening the World". The views of equality and the distinction between rich and poor, high and low, have been further systematized and popularized.These ideas later had a great influence on farmers.

In 1847, Hong Xiuquan came to Zijing Mountain to look for Feng Yunshan. To his surprise, the "Worshiping God Association" had grown to more than 3,000 people with Feng Yunshan's active efforts. Therefore, they jointly formulated religious rituals and rituals. Ten clauses. In December 1847, they led a group of people to destroy the vicious statue of King Gan in the local area, thus gaining a great reputation and spreading their reputation everywhere. Seeing that they had a mass base and prestige, Hong Xiuquan and Feng Yunshan secretly began to actively plan for an uprising.At this time, Hong Xiuquan wrote "Original Dao Jue Shi Xun", in which he mentioned for the first time the two opposing camps in society - good and evil, and he vigorously called on brothers and sisters all over the world to fight against evil gods.He also made up a myth in "Taiping Tianri", saying that Hong Xiuquan went to heaven when he was sick in 1837, and he also saw the heavenly father. The heavenly father God gave him a sword and a big seal with his own hands. He is Jesus The younger brother is the "Son of True Destiny". This time he was ordered by the Heavenly Father God to go down to the earth to eliminate evil, uphold righteousness, do justice for the heavens, and bring peace to the world.

Through this series of activities, the ideological, theoretical, and public opinion preparations for the uprising were basically completed, and the timing gradually matured. At this time, the Worship of God Association had formed a group led by Hong Xiuquan, Feng Yunshan, Yang Xiuqing and others. They were sincerely united, Ready to do a great job. In July 1850, Hong Xiuquan ordered members from all over the country to gather in Jintian Village before November 4th. By the end of the year, their team had grown to more than 20,000 people.One day, Hong Xiuquan and Feng Yunshan were plotting an uprising at the home of Hu Yihuang, a native of Huazhou Mountain. Unexpectedly, someone reported it. The government got the news and immediately sent troops to surround Hong Xiuquan and others. Yang Xiuqing then led the crowd to rescue them. Finally, the rebel army wiped out all the enemies.This is the "Battle of the Lord" in the history of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

Then, Iqtanbu, deputy general of the Qingjiang Association, led the Guizhou soldiers to launch a fierce attack on Jintian Village. Unexpectedly, the Taiping Army had already prepared for it. They deployed a large number of ambushes around Jintian Village, and completely demolished the wooden bridge in Caicun, which the Qing soldiers must pass through. , completely cutting off its retreat. In January 1851, when Iqtambu led the officers and soldiers passing by here, there was a sudden sound of killing, and the Taiping army poured in from all directions, like soldiers descending from heaven, and the officers and soldiers were caught off guard and dizzy.When Iqtanbu saw that the situation was not good, he was about to escape when he was surrounded by the Taiping army and beheaded on the spot.In this way, the Taiping Army won another victory in Caicunjiang.

The victories in these two battles greatly increased the morale of the Taiping Army, and the Taiping Army became stronger. On January 11, 1851, which happened to be Hong Xiuquan's 38th birthday, the entire congregation of the Worshiping God Association officially announced an uprising in Jintian Village, naming the country "Taiping Heavenly Kingdom".From then on, the vigorous Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement began. After the uprising in Jintian Village, Hong Xiuquan immediately issued an order, with strict discipline and no offense to the people.The rebel army united as one, brave and tenacious, invincible, entered Guiping.

In order to suppress the Taiping Rebellion, Li Xingyuan, the imperial envoy of the Qing court, dispatched more than 10,000 troops from Guangxi, Guangdong, Yunnan, Guizhou, Hubei, and Fujian to Guiping, with Xiang Rong, the admiral of Guangxi, as the front-line commander.Facing the siege of the Qing army, the Taiping Army fought bravely. In February 1851, they defeated Xiang Rong's troops in Pailing. In March, the Taiping Army entered and camped in Dongxiang, Wuxuan County.In Dongxiang, Hong Xiuquan ascended the throne and proclaimed himself King of Heaven. At the same time, he appointed Yang Xiuqing as the chief general of the Chinese army, Xiao Chaogui as the former general, Feng Yunshan as the rear general, Wei Changhui as the right general, and Shi Dakai as the left general.

In May, Li Xingyuan died of illness in Wuxuan.The Qing government sent Sai Shang'a, an academician and minister of military aircraft, as an imperial envoy to Guangxi to supervise military affairs, and ordered Wu Lantai, the deputy governor of Guangzhou, to besiege the imperial court of the Taiping Army.In September, in the battle between the Taiping Army and the Qing Army in Pingnangong Village, they defeated most of the Qing Army and won an unprecedented victory.Subsequently, the Taiping Army took advantage of the victory and advanced to conquer Yong'an Prefecture in one fell swoop.This is the first city occupied by the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom after the Jintian Village uprising. In Yong'an, the Taiping Army carried out rest and replenishment, and formulated various systems.In December, Hong Xiuquan promulgated the imperial decree, enshrining Yang Xiuqing as "East King", Xiao Chaogui as "West King", Feng Yunshan as "Southern King", Wei Changhui as "Northern King", and Shi Dakai as "Wing King". The Taiping army stayed in Yong'an for more than half a year, and more than 30,000 Qing troops marched to Yong'an one after another and surrounded the city of Zhou.Due to the long-term siege and lack of food, salt, and ammunition in the city, the Taiping Army decided to abandon the city and break through to the north. On April 3, 1852, Hong Xiuquan issued an order to break out of the encirclement. The Taiping Army broke through the encirclement and caused heavy damage to the Qing army. All four general soldiers were killed, and Ulan Tai was also killed. To avoid death. After Yong'an successfully broke through, on June 3, the Taiping Army conquered Quanzhou. In the Quanzhou Battle, Southern King Feng Yunshan was shot and died in Shuitangwan.On September 11, the Taiping Army advanced to Changsha, the capital of Hunan Province. On the 12th, Xiao Chaogui personally commanded the siege and took the lead. Unfortunately, he was wounded by a cannon and died later.Hong Xiuquan and Yang Xiuqing heard the news and led the whole army from Chenzhou to Changsha for reinforcements.In December, conquer Yiyang and Yuezhou on the outskirts of Changsha.During the period in Yiyang and Yuezhou, the Taiping Army acquired a large number of arms and ships, and thousands of boat people and trackers actively joined the rebel army to form a water camp.Since then, the Taiping Army has not only a powerful army, but also a huge navy. At the end of 1852, the Taiping Army abandoned Changsha, set out from Yuezhou, divided into water and land, and went down the river, even conquering Hanyang and Hankou, the important towns in Hubei, and besieged Wuchang. At dawn on January 12, 1853, the Taiping Army occupied the entire city of Wuchang, and Chang Dachun, governor of Hubei Province of the Qing court, was defeated and killed.In February, Hong Xiuquan and Yang Xiuqing abandoned Wuchang, commanded a large army, advanced by land and water, and conquered Jiujiang in Jiangxi Province and Anqing in Anhui Province. Jiang Wenqing, the governor of Anhui Province, was defeated and killed.On March 8, the Taiping Army approached the city of Nanjing.On March 19, the outer city of Nanjing was breached, and Lu Jianying, governor of Liangjiang, was beheaded.On the 20th, the inner city was conquered, Jiangning general Xiang Yuanhou and others were killed, and the Taiping Army finally occupied the whole city of Nanjing and won the biggest victory since the uprising. Subsequently, Hong Xiuquan changed Nanjing to "Tianjing", made it the capital of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and formally established a regime that opposed the Qing Dynasty.Soon, Hong Xiuquan promulgated the "Tianchao Tianmu System" and put forward the slogan "the tiller has his land". At this time, under the intimidation of the Taiping Army, the Qing government panicked.The Qing soldiers and the landlord armed Hunan army led by Zeng Guofan encircled Tianjing with heavy troops. Hong Xiuquan sent Li Kaifang and Lin Fengxiang to lead 20,000 Taiping troops to continue the Northern Expedition. The Northern Expedition Army went straight to Zhili and threatened Beijing.At the same time, Hong Xiuquan sent generals such as Lai Hanying to lead a navy army of more than 1,000 warships to march westward along the Yangtze River. After three years of hard work and hard work, by the first half of 1856, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom had controlled Jiangxi, Anhui, Hubei and other regions. Most of Jiangsu, and successively defeated the Jiangbei Camp and Jiangnan Camp of the Qing Army.The Taiping Army fought more and more bravely, with frequent success reports, but the officers and soldiers were repeatedly defeated and retreated.At this time, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom reached an unprecedented heyday both militarily and politically. After the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom established its capital in Nanjing, the strength and development of the Taiping Army quickly reached its heyday.But at this moment, an unexpected big turmoil occurred in Tianjing. Serious internal strife broke out within the leading group of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. In order to compete for power, several leaders did not hesitate to use force to kill each other. At this time, the strength of the Eastern King Yang Xiuqing in the leading group of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom increased, and he wanted to establish his supreme dominance, so he "forced Long Live" to Hong Xiuquan. On August 22, 1856, Yang Xiuqing was so confident that he sent someone to summon Hong Xiuquan to the Dongwang Mansion, put on a domineering look, and proudly said to Hong Xiuquan in the tone of "Heavenly Father": "You and Dongwang are both My son, the Eastern King has made great contributions, why is he only called nine thousand years old?" Hong Xiuquan was forced to say helplessly: "Eastern king should be long live when he conquers the country. Since the east king is long live, the son is also long live, and the generations are long live." Afterwards, Hong Xiuquan was very dissatisfied and annoyed by Yang Xiuqing's actions. He immediately secretly recalled Wei Changhui in Jiangxi and Qin Rigang in Danyang, and planned to take decisive measures to put Yang Xiuqing to death to prevent future troubles. Soon, Wei Changhui led 3,000 elite soldiers to Tianjing in the middle of the night on September 1, quietly surrounded the East Palace, and ordered soldiers to break into the East Palace and kill Yang Xiuqing and her family.After that, the ministries led by the two sides fought fiercely in Tianjing City. More than 20,000 people under Yang Xiuqing's unit were wiped out by Wei Changhui. Qin Rigang followed Wei Changhui and also participated in the massacre of Yang Xiuqing and her family.King Yi Shi Dakai rushed back to Tianjing from Hubei with his entourage after hearing the news, and angrily reprimanded Wei Changhui for being cruel and merciless for killing innocent people indiscriminately.Wei Changhui was very annoyed when he heard this, and wanted to send someone to kill Shi Dakai, but Shi Dakai was so frightened that he ran away overnight.It was not until November that Hong Xiuquan was forced by the situation and had to order the killing of Wei Changhui and Qin Rigang to quell the tragic civil strife. After Wei Changhui was killed, Hong Xiuquan called Shi Dakai back to Tianjing to assist in the administration.Soon, Hong Xiuquan became suspicious of Shi Dakai again. In order to prevent problems before they happened, he made his two elder brothers kings to contain Shi Dakai. In June 1857, Shi Dakai was very dissatisfied with this situation. In a fit of anger, he led more than 100,000 elite troops of the Taiping Army to leave Tianjing and march towards Sichuan.Since then, the political and military power of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom has become more dispersed and weakened. This civil strife had a great impact on the fate of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and internal disunity caused a great blow to the regime.Under such circumstances, Hong Xiuquan took control of the political power himself. He promoted and reused talented young generals to re-establish the leadership core.He appointed the rising generals Chen Yucheng, Li Xiucheng, Li Shixian, Wei Zhijun and Meng De'en as the main generals of the five armies, and Hong Xiuquan himself served as a military adviser.In this way, the leadership vacancy after the death of Yang and Wei and the departure of Shi Dakai was temporarily filled.Chen Yucheng, Li Xiucheng, and Li Shixian really made a difference later, becoming the military pillars of the late Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and achieving some military victories. After the turmoil of the Tianjing Change was over, Shi Dakai rushed back to Tianjing from Hubei at the end of November, and was warmly welcomed by everyone. Hong Xiuquan listened to everyone's opinions, and made Shi Dakai the leader of the Shengshendiantong Army, King Yi, and the prime minister for military and political affairs.However, since the Yang and Wei incident, Hong Xiuquan has also become wary of Shi Dakai. He is afraid that Shi Dakai will follow in the footsteps of Yang and Wei if he becomes stronger, posing a threat to himself and forming a passive situation of authoritarian coercion again. The king tried his best to contain and weaken Shi Dakai's power, and let the Hong family brothers participate in the government, and named his two elder brothers as King An and King Fu, saying that they "jointly participated in the government" with King Yi.No matter what it is, it will not work if King An and King Fu don't nod their heads.But the two brothers An Wang Hong Renfa and Fu Wang Hong Renda are ignorant and incompetent.If they participate in military affairs, they often miss military affairs.Shi Dakai couldn't bear it anymore, and went to see the king of heaven angrily, and wanted to report his interests to him.But Hong Xiuquan avoided seeing him, and sent someone out to tell him: "Long live the Heavenly King has a decree. If there is something to do with the Dazu, you can discuss it with the two kings of Anfu." So in a fit of anger, Shi Dakai led his cronies to leave Tianjing angrily and never looked back.He moved to Anhui, Jiangxi, Zhejiang, Hunan, Guangxi, Hubei, Yunnan, Guizhou and other provinces. Although he wiped out and defeated the Qing Dynasty's army many times, he had no fixed base, wandered around, was untenable, and his troops could not get it. Rest and replenishment of munitions. In 1861, Shi Dakai's subordinates Qing Jiyuan, Zhu Yidian, Peng Dashun and others led the first army and the second army to leave Shi Dakai and return to Tianjing. This not only weakened Shi Dakai's strength, but also affected the mood of the rebel army.Shi Dakai had no choice but to organize the remaining army into five armies: front, rear, center, left, and right, which actually only had 50,000 troops.Shi Dakai moved from Shizhu, Sichuan to Zhaotong, Yunnan, and recruited some troops along the way. The team grew to more than 100,000 people, but the quality of the soldiers was too poor, and some stragglers and bandits were also mixed in. In February 1863, Shi Dakai considered that Zhaotong was not a place to stay for a long time, and wanted to imitate Kong Ming and stationed in Sichuan to rest and prepare for war, and then map the original.He also knew that the governor of Sichuan at that time was Luo Bingzhang, the former governor of Changsha. Therefore, Shi Dakai sent general Li Fuyou to lead 30,000 troops from Guizhou to Sichuan, and sent former military minister Lai Yuxin to lead 20,000 troops to Ningyuan Mansion, hoping to attract Luo Bingzhang to block the attack, thereby containing Luo Bingzhang; then Shi Dakai personally led 70,000 troops out of Zhaotong. Crossed the Jinsha River, went straight into Sichuan, and ordered the other two departments to keep in touch at any time, and to join forces to attack Chengdu before May 20. Unexpectedly, Lai Yuxin led an army of 20,000 into Sichuan, and was attacked by Luo Bingzhang in Zhongzhoukan, and the whole army was wiped out. Lai Yuxin was seriously injured in the fierce battle and died a heroic sacrifice.However, Li Fuyou's 30,000 army was constantly intercepted by Luo Bingzhang's army along the way. They failed repeatedly, had no hope of advancing, and could not contact Shi Dakai, so they had to retreat to Yunnan. Both armies had failed, and Shi Dakai had no idea that when Shi Dakai led his army to Ningyuan Mansion in Sichuan, the Qing general who guarded the city was Luo Bingzhang.Shi Dakai ordered the siege of the city, but he suffered consecutive defeats, suffered heavy casualties, and made no progress. Meanwhile, several other groups of Qing soldiers also gathered towards Ningyuan Mansion one after another.Shi Dakai found himself surrounded by Qing soldiers and immediately ordered the troops to retreat.When the team retreated to Menghugang, they were ambushed by Luo Bingzhang again, and more than half of their food and supplies were lost.Shi Dakai ordered the soldiers to choose the enemy's weak spots to break through, but when they arrived at Anshunchang, the turbulent Dadu River was in front of them, and the menacing Qing soldiers were behind them, and they were constantly attacked by the local chieftains. Shi Dakai wanted to fight desperately to break through, but supplies were limited, soldiers were exhausted, morale was low, and the army basically lost its combat effectiveness.No matter in terms of combat effectiveness, geographical environment or material supply, it was extremely unfavorable to the Taiping Army, and there was no hope of breaking through.During the days of being trapped, Shi Dakai struggled fiercely in his heart. On June 6, 1863, as the chief general of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Shengshen Diantong Army, he wrote a letter to Wang Qianhu, the general commander of Songlindi, in which he said: "I respectfully command the army and assist Holy Lord, restore the building, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom will definitely unify the world in the future, I hope General Wang will put the overall situation first, understand the situation clearly, and suspend troops to make way as soon as possible." But Wang Qianhu was not persuaded, and Shi Dakai led his army to persevere in the difficult environment, but over time, Shi Dakai's own thoughts were also shaken, and the negative emotions that were once in his heart swelled up again.He felt more and more that he spent his entire life as a soldier and galloped the world, but in the end he was empty-handed, and war would only waste people and money, and even chickens and dogs would suffer accordingly, so he couldn't help sighing: "Oh, the sky doesn't fulfill people's wishes, since it is destined, what can I do! " In just half a month, Shi Dakai seemed to be a different person.On June 22, he wrote another letter to Luo Bingzhang, governor of Sichuan in the Qing Dynasty, saying: "I have thought in private that if I work for the imperial court, I must have inexhaustible glory and wealth. Regardless of the two masters, I, Shi Dakai, am also a righteous person. I am willing to sacrifice my life to save the lives of soldiers of the three armies, so as to express my admiration for God. Even if the ax is placed on the neck, I will die. No regrets." Then, Shi Dakai took his six-year-old son, accompanied by three generals Huang Yuanzhong, Zeng Shihe, and Wei Shancheng, to the enemy camp to negotiate calmly.Shi Dakai thought that Luo Bingzhang was a fellow-townsman and classmate of the Heavenly King Hong Xiuquan, and that he must be more enlightened than other court officials and could leave a way for the soldiers of the Taiping Army, but Shi Dakai thought the problem was too simple. Seeing Shi Dakai coming to the door by himself, he thought happily: "You have a good idea, first arrest you, and then deal with those traitors." When Shi Dakai and others entered the camp, dozens of ambush soldiers rushed out from inside and outside the camp and tied up all five of Shi Dakai.Only then did Shi Dakai wake up, the enemy will always be the enemy.That night, Luo Bingzhang ordered to attack Shi Dakai's troops from all directions with rockets as a banner. Thousands of Taiping Army officers and soldiers were massacred overnight. On June 25, 1863, Shi Dakai and other five people were all killed in Chengdu. Luo Bingzhang didn't even spare a six-year-old child, which shows his cruel heart. Luo Bingzhang stained his crown red with the blood of Taiping soldiers, and was soon promoted to Prince Taibao. However, the good times did not last long, and he died of illness in Sichuan four years later. After Shi Da drove away, Hong Xiuquan remembered that since the Jintian Village uprising, six brothers with different surnames died and walked away, and he was the only one left.The tragic scene of Xiao Chaogui and Feng Yunshan's death in battle, and the injustice of Yang Xiuqing and Wei Changhui made him regret doubting Shi Dakai's loyalty, but he also felt that Shi Dakai was too heartless.He immediately removed his slanderous and incompetent elder brother from the throne, but within four years, he made Hong Renda the King of Yong and Hong Renfa the King of Xin. With his military genius, Li Xiucheng became an important general of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and the main commander in the later period, and was named the King of Loyalty.As early as 1853, when the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom established its capital in Nanjing, Li Xiucheng was promoted by Yang Xiuqing to be the commander of the Fourth Right Army, and then he was successively promoted to the Fourth Supervising Army of the Back Four, the 20th Commander of the Palace Right, the 22nd Checkpoint, the Deputy of the Local Official, and the Chief Prime Minister, He Tianhou and other positions.Shi Dakai left Beijing: he was appointed deputy commander, in line with the righteousness of heaven, and shared the military administration with Chen Yucheng, and was soon promoted to the commander-in-chief of the army.He echoed the Nian army, fought against the Qing soldiers many times, and lifted the siege of Tianjing by the Qing soldiers. In 1858, Li Xiucheng and Chen Yucheng joined forces, occupied Pukou and broke the Jiangbei camp of the Qing soldiers. In May 1860, Li Xiucheng mobilized several troops, broke through the Jiangnan camp of the Qing army, took advantage of the victory to conquer Danyang, Changzhou, Wuxi, Suzhou and other places, and approached Shanghai. In Shanghai at that time, there were concessions of colonialists such as Britain and the United States. They colluded with the rulers of the Qing Dynasty and were a clear threat to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.Pruss, the British envoy to China, once said: "The Royal Navy and Army authorities should take appropriate measures to defend Shanghai against any attack by any force." He formed a "foreign gun team" and prepared to work with the Qing army to vigorously suppress the Taiping army. In mid-July, when the Taiping Army arrived near Shanghai, Li Xiucheng sent a note to the ministers of Britain, the United States, and France, announcing to them that the Taiping Army would protect foreign residents in Shanghai from being invaded.However, the ministers of Britain, the United States and France were very arrogant and ignored this note.On July 16, Hua Er led the "Foreign Gun Squad" to violently attack Songjiang and Qingpu, two places occupied by the Taiping Army.On August 2, reinforcements from the Taiping Army arrived in Qingpu in time and smashed the "foreign spear team" and the Qing army.The Taiping Army fought hard against the enemy and achieved brilliant results. They killed six or seven hundred foreign soldiers, obtained two thousand foreign guns, more than ten artillery pieces, more than one hundred foreign guns, and hundreds of ships. I was badly wounded in five places. At the beginning of 1861, Hong Xiuquan ordered Chen Yucheng to lead the North Route Army and Li Xiucheng to lead the South Route Army to march west again.He ordered the two armies to set off at the same time, meet up in the outskirts of Wuhan in March, and attack Wuhan together.Chen Yucheng rushed all the way, like a broken bamboo, successfully captured Huangzhou, which is only a hundred miles away from Wuhan, and stationed in Huangzhou, waiting for Li Xiucheng.At this time, Li Xiucheng was fighting with the Qing army and the foreign gun team in Fengxian, Nanjiang, and Chuanhe in Shanghai and Zhejiang. The fighting was so fierce that he couldn't get away.Chen Yucheng waited until April before Li Xiucheng arrived. At this time, he received a military report that Anqing was in danger, and stayed Lai Wenguang in Huangzhou to wait for Li Xiucheng, and led his own troops to reinforce Anqing.The Qing soldiers who besieged Anqing were very powerful. As a result, Anqing fell, and more than 10,000 Taiping troops defending the city died.Chen Yucheng had no choice but to retreat to Luzhou.Li Xiucheng arrived in Wuhan in June. After arriving, he saw that Chen Yucheng had left and did not attack Wuhan. He returned to Jiangsu and Zhejiang soon after. After the fall of Anqing, Chen Yucheng was dismissed from the position of King of England, and made great contributions to the crime.When the news reached Zeng Guofan, Zeng Guofan was overjoyed and said loudly: "Okay, we can send troops to attack Luzhou." Chen Yucheng fought a bloody battle with the Qing soldiers in Luzhou, and the Qing army was repeatedly defeated. However, Chen Yucheng mistakenly fell into the trick of surrendering to the Qing army Miao Peilin, and after being captured, he sacrificed himself for the Kingdom of Heaven. After Chen Yucheng's death, Zeng Guofan captured Luzhou, and then ordered his younger brother, the army commander and Jiangsu chief envoy Zeng Guoquan, to enter Yuhuatai. The navy commander Peng Yulin drove across the moat and surrounded Tianjing, the capital of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.Hong Xiuquan issued an imperial edict three times a day, ordering Li Xiucheng to quickly return to his teacher to save Tianjing. So Li Xiucheng led 300,000 main troops to leave the Shanghai battlefield and return to Tianjing to attack the besieged Hunan army.It was the severe winter weather at this time, and his army did not bring warm winter clothes, and the supply of food and grass was cut off, but the soldiers still fought bravely.Although Hong Xiuquan knew that Li Xiucheng was talented, he was suspicious of him, fearing that Li Xiucheng's power and self-esteem would turn against him, so he restricted and guarded against him in every possible way.So at this time, Hong Xiuquan ordered Li Xiucheng to march forward in the snow to rescue Tianjing from the upper reaches of the Yangtze River; on the other hand, he transferred generals from Li Xiucheng's troops to weaken his strength.Li Xiucheng fought alone in Jiangbei, tried his best to attack the enemy's stone base, persisted for forty-six days, but failed to rescue Tianjing.Hong Xiuquan ordered Li Xiucheng to return to Beijing, and Li Xiucheng had to divide the army again.In this way, more than 100,000 people died in battle, died of disease, starved to death, and left behind. In this extremely unfavorable situation, Li Xiucheng rushed to Tianjing and persuaded Hong Xiuquan: "There is no food and grass inside, and no reinforcements outside. We should let Tianjing out, move it out, and then plan big plans." But Hong Xiuquan said: "How do you Do you know that Tianjing can’t be defended anymore? I came to the world to kill monsters and bring peace to the people by God’s holy order, and I am the only true king in the world. I have heavenly soldiers and generals, so I will surely succeed in defending the city and killing the enemies.” Li Xiucheng's suggestion of "let the city go away" was rejected by Hong Xiuquan, and Hong Xiuquan's two elder brothers, Hong Renfa and Hong Renda, also guarded against Li Xiucheng day and night. After Hong Xiuquan rejected Li Xiucheng's suggestion, his mental depression, psychological distortion and excessive enjoyment made him exhausted, his condition became worse and he refused medical treatment, and finally died on June 1, 1864 at the age of 50. His son Hong Tiangui succeeded to the throne. After a month, Tianjing fell.Li Xiucheng escorted the young master to break through the gap in the broken wall of the Taiping Gate and go south with several hundred riders in the night. On the way, the pursuers broke up and the young master fled to Huzhou. Li Xiucheng hid among the people.Later, he was captured by Zeng Guofan because of an adulterer's informant, and was executed shortly thereafter. The rest of the Taiping Army continued to fight for another year or so, and was finally suppressed by the Hunan Army of Zeng Guofan and Zuo Zongtang, the Huai Army of Li Hongzhang, and the British and American foreign gun teams. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement, which lasted for 14 years and spread across 18 provinces, was the largest peasant uprising in Chinese history.Throughout history, why are peasant uprisings, large or small, difficult for human beings to oppose autocratic tyranny and pursue a life of freedom, equality and happiness?Even if some struggles are won, will they eventually fall under the consciousness of absolutism?All the sages and sages lacked a comprehensive analysis of human nature and the world in their design of human ideals, and their thoughts and ideas were still born out of their bodies and attached to feudal autocratic consciousness.