In the last years of the Qing Dynasty, due to the double oppression of the Qing government and foreign powers, the people at the bottom of the uprising, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was the largest peasant uprising. In the later period of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, as the kings killed each other, they gradually fell, relying on the bitter support of The English King Chen Yucheng and the Loyal King Li Xiucheng. After Chen Yucheng's defeat in the defense of Anqing, Zhongji was captured and tragically killed. But Li Xiucheng, the king of Zhong, still mixed well in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, occupying large areas of land and even hitting Shanghai at one point.
After the Taiping Army uprising, some readers, scholars, and officials organized regimental exercises to confront the Taiping Army. In Shanghai, where the invaders of Britain, France, the United States and other countries were entrenched, officials even colluded with foreigners for their own interests and even colluded with foreigners to organize foreign gun teams to fight against the Taiping Army. The official Yang Fang even married his daughter to the foreign devils in order to curry favor with them and let them help suppress the Taiping Army, but he did not expect to harm his daughter at the same time, but also harmed himself.
The official's name was Yang Fang, a native of Yinxian County, Zhejiang Province, whose experience was legendary, and he first worked as a partner in a silk satin shop in Ningbo, and later entered a church school and learned English. Due to gambling debts, Ningbo could not stay still, ran to Shanghai, and wandered in the Ten Mile Ocean Field. Later, he entered a foreign firm as a comprador, and after earning money, he simply opened a Taiji money house by himself, with a family of millions of dollars and a prominent reputation.
At that time, in order to raise money to suppress the Taiping Army, the Qing government adopted a system of donating officials, and Yang Fang, who had money, also donated a Tongzhi (正五品官).
In 1853, after the Shanghai Knife Society revolted and captured Su Songtaidao Wu Jianzhang alive, Yang Fang and the American merchant Pei Fuyang designed to rescue him. Later, Yangfang was sent by the Inspector of Jiangsu, Gil hang'a, to plan and suppress the Knife Society uprising with the British and French consuls, and built a wall outside the city. The knife will run out of food and soon fail. Yangfang was also able to continue to be promoted, and by 1856, he had been promoted to the position of salt transport envoy.
In 1860, Li Xiucheng, Hong Renjie and others led the Taiping Army to attack Shanghai. Under the direction of Wu Xu, an American from a sailor background, Wahl organized a foreign gun brigade to confront the Taiping Army.
The Yankee Corps took foreigners as officers, recruited Chinese as soldiers, initially only a few dozen people, and by 1862 it had grown to 5,000 people, renamed Changsheng Army. Wahl had close contacts with local officials, and Yang Fang, in order to motivate Wahl, actually married his daughter to Wahl. In order to show his determination to confront the Taiping Army to the end, Wahl also added Chinese nationality.
However, Wahl's ability was actually very limited, and in August 1860, he attacked Qingpu in conjunction with the Qing army, and fell off his horse with seven shots in his body, and was almost killed.
In September 1862, Hua'er led a foreign gun team to attack Cixi, was wounded by the Taiping Army, and died of his wounds in Ningbo the next day. Although Hua'er's foreign gun brigade had extremely bad military discipline and often robbed him, due to its hard work in suppressing the Taiping Army, after his death, the Qing government was deeply sorry and built a tomb and a shrine for him.
Within a few years of marriage, her husband died, and Yang Fang's daughter actually followed the habit of Chinese and kept the festival for Wale all her life.
After Wahl's death, the Anglo-American invaders competed for the leadership of the victorious army, and Wahl's deputies, Bai Qiwen and Falesde, competed. Li Hongzhang supported Farside, while Wu Xu, Yang Fang, and others, fearing that they would lose control of the Changsheng Army, supported Bai Qiwen. In order to win, Bai Qiwen even imitated Hua'er, married a Chinese wife, and became a Chinese citizen. In the end, Bai Qiwen won and became the leader of the Changsheng Army.
Unlike Wahl, Bai Qiwen is not very obedient. In September 1862, Li Xiucheng led an army of 400,000 men to attack Zeng Guoquan outside Tianjing City. Zeng Guofan dispatched Changsheng's army to reinforce, but Bai Qiwen was unwilling to leave because he did not receive military pay, and pestered Wu Xu and Yang Fang for money, forcing Yang Fang to immediately pay back the arrears of military pay. Because he did not achieve his goal, Bai Qiwen even personally led people to Shanghai, broke into Yangfang's home, flattened him, broke his nose and bones, snatched 40,000 taels of silver from his house, and then went to Suzhou to join Tan Shaoguang, the king of the Taiping Army.
Li Hongzhang, who was already at odds with Wu Xu and Yang Fang, seized the opportunity to file a complaint with the Qing Dynasty to hold Wu Xu and Yang Fang accountable. Wu Xu and Yang Fang lost their official positions for this reason, and Yang Fang was even more depressed from then on.
In order to suppress the Taiping Army, Yang Fang even married his daughter to a foreigner, trying his best to please the foreigners, but in the end he was beaten and robbed by the foreigners, leaving a laughing stock in vain.