In May 1860, Li Xiucheng, the loyal king of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, with the cooperation of Chen Yucheng, the king of England, and Yang Fuqing, the auxiliary king, led an elite army to attack the Jiangnan camp and lift the Siege of Tianjing by the Qing army. In order to expand the results of the battle, Li Xiucheng and Chen Yucheng marched eastward and entered the Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions, defeating the Qing army in this area.
After Li Xiucheng occupied Suzhou, the soldiers pointed directly at Shanghai.
Lee So-sung
After more than ten years of development, Shanghai has surpassed Guangzhou and become the largest port city in China with "foreign goods and department spokes". If Li Xiucheng could occupy Shanghai, on the one hand, he could control the lifeblood of the Qing court's water transport, and on the other hand, he could use this port city to obtain valuable military supplies from foreign countries.
Li Xiucheng knew very well that the Foreigners were the biggest obstacle to the Taiping Army's attack on Shanghai. In order to occupy Shanghai at the lowest cost, Li Xiucheng sent a letter to the British and French ministers, hoping that they would not interfere with the Taiping Army's attack on Shanghai, saying that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom would adopt an equal and reciprocal trade policy. However, the British and French ministers ignored this, and they had already made a decision to assist the Qing army in protecting the Shanghai Concession and the county seat by force, and sent more than 1,200 people to participate in the defense.
At this time, the infamous Yankees team appeared.
The Yankees
When the Taiping Army approached Shanghai, Wu Xu, the acting envoy of Jiangsu Province, together with the wealthy Merchant Yang Fang in Shanghai, hired the American Huaer to form a team of foreign guns, purchased foreign guns and cannons, recruited foreigners and Chinese as soldiers, and defended the city of Shanghai.
Initially, the yankees were only more than 300 people, too small in number, lacking discipline, and not strong in combat effectiveness. Soon, Li Xiucheng's general Lu Shunde led a partial division to Songjiang and engaged in a fierce battle with the foreign gun brigade stationed here. The Yankees were defeated, retreated to mishi, regrouped, and replenished hundreds of men.
Perhaps victory came too easily, and Lu Shunde inevitably had the idea of a light enemy. On July 15, when Lu Shunde led the main force out of the city to attack Baoshan, he did not close the city gate. The foreign gun brigade in MiShi heard the news and took advantage of the night to sneak up on Matsue and occupy Matsue. Songjiang's gains and losses disrupted the Taiping Army's arrangements. Li Xiucheng had to abandon his plan to attack Baoshan and defend the cities of Qingpu and Jiading with all his might.
On August 2, Li Xiucheng personally led a large army to fight the foreign gun team under Qingpu City, and the foreign gun team was defeated, killing and wounding one-third of the troops. Wahl was injured 5 times and almost lost his life.
Taiping Army vs. Foreign Gun Brigade
Unfortunately, when Li Xiucheng led his troops to attack the county seat of Shanghai, they were fiercely blocked by the British and French troops. British and French warships anchored on the Huangpu River also shelled the Taiping Army. Li Xiucheng was forced to retreat on August 24, ending the first attack on Shanghai.
In the spring of 1862, after Li Xiucheng led his troops to retake Hangzhou, he sent a large group of men and horses, divided into five roads, and attacked Shanghai for the second time, intending to pull out the last nail of the Qing Dynasty in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. Li Xiucheng warned the British and French invaders not to help the Qing army, "each should love himself, and the two should not disturb each other," and "if you do not obey our kingship, but turn your aid into evil, and resist the enemy with our division, it is a moth to put out the fire and kill yourself." ”
When the Taiping Army attacked Shanghai for the second time, Huaer's foreign gun team had expanded to more than 1,000 people, and after nearly two years of training, its combat effectiveness had been greatly improved, creating certain troubles for the Taiping Army.
However, the Taiping Army was not afraid. At the beginning of January, Li Xiucheng's troops progressed smoothly, and Lianke Jiading, Qingpu, Wusongkou Gaoqiao and other places occupied almost all of Pudong.
In February of that year, the Anglo-French coalition and the Foreign Gun Corps counterattacked the Taiping Army and launched a major attack on Takahashi. The Taiping Army fought bravely against the enemy at Takahashi with outnumbered enemies and backward weapons. Because the British and French forces and the foreign gun brigade attacked too fiercely, in order to avoid the total annihilation of the army, the Taiping Army withdrew from Gaoqiao, retreated to Jiading and Qingpu, and ended the second attack on Shanghai.
After the Battle of Gaoqiao, the Foreign Gun Brigade, the British and French combined forces and the Huai Army led by Li Hongzhang joined forces and took the initiative to launch an attack on the Taiping Army, capturing Jiading, Jingpu, Nanqiao and other places.
Li
After entering the city, the foreign gun team wantonly burned and looted, and robbed more than 200,000 yuan worth of property in Jiading alone. The Qing army also had a tradition of burning and looting, but compared with the foreign gun team, they were "small witches see big witches". When the foreign gun brigade robbed, it would guard the city gate and not allow the Qing army to enter and participate in the robbery. If the Qing army dared to complain, it would be beaten.
In May 1862, when Li Xiucheng learned that the foreign gun brigade was about to attack Taicang, he personally led a large army from Suzhou to attack Shanghai for the third time.
On May 17, the Taiping Army defeated the Qing army in Taicang, capturing countless cannons and foreign guns. Next, the Taiping Army fought fiercely with the Foreign Gun Team and the Anglo-French Coalition army in Jiading, Qingpu, Gaoqiao and other places, and once besieged the commander of the Foreign Gun Team, Huaer, in Songjiang City, and also captured the deputy commander of the Foreign Gun Team, Farside. While fighting the Anglo-French forces, the Taiping Army also killed Rear Admiral Brode, commander of the French invasion fleet.
In the face of the huge momentum of the Taiping Army, the Foreign Gun Team and the British and French allies were frightened and frightened, and they cowered in Shanghai City, not daring to fight the Taiping Army easily.
However, just as Li Xiucheng was defeating the Anglo-French coalition and the foreign gun brigade several times, Zeng Guofan and Zeng Guoquan attacked Anqing and went down the river to Tianjing. Hong Xiuquan ordered Li Xiucheng to rescue Tianjing. On May 21, Li Xiucheng led his troops to withdraw from Fengxian County, ending the third attack on Shanghai.
Hong Xiuquan
Since the First Opium War, the British and French invading armies have been almost invincible and invincible in China. The Qing army was repeatedly defeated in front of the British and French forces. Only when Li Xiucheng attacked Shanghai three times, he dared to confront the foreign gun team and the British and French allies, and played Chinese incomparably strong fighting spirit.