Since the Taiping Army sounded the trumpet of righteousness in Jintian, it began to spread throughout the Qing Dynasty, which lasted for a total of 14 years, during which it captured many places of the Qing Dynasty. However, in this process, we will find that there are few Qing officials who surrender to them. Logically speaking, the momentum of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom at that time was so great that it had a tendency to sweep through the entire Great Qing Kingdom, so why were there few imperial court officials who saw the wind and made the rudder turn against the enemy?
Could it be that the Officials of the Qing Dynasty were all iron-boned and unmoved by profit? Of course not, in fact, there are three main reasons for this.
First, the terrifying image of the Taiping Heavenly Army. Although the Taiping Army was very strong in the early stages, their actions also brought great panic to the people, so that there were countless people who took refuge at home at that time, and some fled to the mountains because of panic, or took refuge in the wilderness, or left their hometowns. Moreover, wherever the Taiping Army went, it caused serious damage to the local economy, especially in the Jiangnan region, inflation was extremely serious, and the prices of various daily necessities and food soared.
For example, in the first year of Tongzhi, a pound of pork costs only about 120 yuan, but as soon as the Taiping Army arrived, the price of meat doubled instantly. The same is true of the price of grain and oil, which undoubtedly adds a great burden to the people, which creates the people's instinctive rejection of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. Even ordinary people rejected the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and as the qing dynasty's feudal officials, they naturally did not want to get on their "thief ship".
Second, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's policy toward the returnees was not good. Although the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom developed rapidly, the regime was extremely unstable and did not have a vision of long-term development. In fact, it is not that none of the Qing dynasty officials have surrendered to them, in fact, there are still some, but the number is very small, but because of the serious internal struggle, the Qing generals who surrendered to the past have no chance to be reused, and it is often a state of being despised.
The fundamental reason for this was that the main leaders of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom did not have the pattern of accomplishing great things at all, and did not know how to use all their strength to strengthen themselves. It is said that it was to overthrow the Qing Dynasty, but the actual action showed the idea of small peasants. Therefore, they did not know how to recruit talents, and they were very casual in their treatment of Qing officials who were willing to surrender. Some of them were even persecuted by their own people in the back, just imagine, just treat the returnees like this, who will be foolish to surrender to you next?
Third, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's actions were excessive. Although the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom seemed to be in a big position, what did they do? In order to promote their ideas, either by burning the Confucius Temple or by wantonly killing the readers, this kind of behavior not only endangers society, but also angers the entire intellectual class. Especially the officials of the Qing Dynasty, they were all meritorious names obtained through the examination, and the actions of the Taiping Army were completely opposed to them, and if they were in league with them, it would be a shame for them. Therefore, when the Taiping Rebellion broke out, many people actually wanted them to perish sooner, especially the intellectual class. Therefore, it is not surprising that Qing officials were reluctant to defect to the Taiping Army.