There is an old saying in China that success should be "time, place, people", so is failure to say the other way around?
The defeat of the Twister Army is generally analyzed from the class nature of its organizational personnel, and it is rarely implemented to "people". However, in an event, the leader is always a person. As the leader of the rebel army, his "humanity" will certainly have a profound impact on his cause.
In the middle of the 19th century, there was a sudden upsurge in the north and south of the great river. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and Heaven and Earth in the south will stir up the earth to "fly sand and stones", and the "twist army" in the north and the ethnic minority uprisings in the southwest and northwest are also "earth-shattering".
But in the end, they all failed, and none of them escaped the tragic fate of the peasant uprisings of previous generations. Because they are a peasant class and their consciousness is still limited, the revolution is not successful. In fact, such an analysis is only a shallow borrowing of theory. Therefore, we should look at it objectively and think about this question from a human point of view: Why did the Twister Army and other peasant rebel armies fail?
Xian Feng must be extremely depressed, the Manchu Qing Dynasty has been too peaceful for so many years, how come as soon as he became emperor, everyone rebelled. Moreover, at the same time, there is a clear appeal. In fact, the purpose of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is very clear, that is, to point the sword at the Qing Dynasty: "I want to be the boss of this world." However, the twister army in the north, the political demand is not so strong: "I just want to live a good life." ”
Why did the Twister Army also embark on the path of rebellion?
In fact, just like the good men of Liangshan in those days, they were forced out. If the harvest is not good, there is no food, and the government does not care, it can only be solved by itself. This is not fundamentally different from those "thieves" who occupy the mountain as kings. Their original intention in making trouble was to be a "white-headed thief", but as for overthrowing the government, it was not the idea of most people.
The composition of the chief is "varied", and the most common are uneven, and there are also rogue proletarians. Like the "Water Margin Song Jiang", many people were politically persecuted and had to rebel. Take Zhang Lexing, for example, people are originally rich people in the locality, eat well and dress well, and are respected, even if they think that one day they will become "thieves". However, this person is competitive, opens casinos, makes trades, guarantees private salt, and as long as he can make profits, he will not give in a step, and he will inevitably make unpleasant trouble with the forces of all sides.
In addition, Zhang Lexing is still righteous, loves to fight and hold uneven, and more and more people turn to him. Just imagine, it was another armed struggle, and it was also the elimination of local evil forces, which offended the government and finally forced him to rebel. However, this "forced rebellion" was easily shaken, and he was recruited twice. In 1855, the Pheasant River Assembly League, Zhang Lexing was elected as the core leader, so far, there is no way back. Although there were some mistakes during this period, on the whole, Zhang Lexing was still an outstanding leader, and in the end, he was heroic and righteous.
Zhang Minxing was also forced: first, environmental persecution; second, Zhang Lexing made things unmanageable, so that he had to join the Twist army. Gong Deshu and Su Tianfu themselves came from poor families, could not eat enough, made a living in various struggles, and sent themselves to the road of rebellion. The fuse was the "Su Tianfu Incident", and as soon as this head opened, everyone stood up and resisted.
Hou Shiwei was "politically oppressed" by the landlords of the same village, participated in the fighting, and finally, twisted the flag and rebelled. Liu Xueyuan and Liu Yuyuan were also persecuted and revolted. Zhang Zongyu ran away from home because of family conflicts, and then, he had nowhere to go, and finally, he joined the uprising. Han Qifeng's experience is more bizarre, people directly put up the flag at his doorstep, which was really "forced out".
All kinds of characters, various reasons have embarked on this road, but it can be summed up in nothing more than two points:
One is that survival is threatened;
Second, it is unable to withstand political persecution.
In the final analysis, they are not voluntary rebellions, their demands are only to seek a free body, and there is no longer-term consideration in their hearts. Therefore, this also determines that this rebel army lacks real cohesion, will not fight for the goal of unification, and it is reasonable to fail.
Let's look at their organizational form.
In China's history, clans, gangs, and associations have always been the three major forms of non-governmental "organizations." It plays a very crucial role in stabilizing the normal development of grass-roots society and in maintaining the ruling regime. In modern history, such as the Heaven and Earth Society, etc. are organized movements, while the Twister Army relies on the "clan", which is the link between the entire rebel army, and one person entering the army is equivalent to "raising the family and the whole clan to join the army".
In the early days, the core force of the Yellow Flag Twister Army was the Zhang surname, and the north of the Yellow Flag Twister Army was north of the Yanhe River Set as its sphere of influence; the main body of the Blue Flag Twister Army had the surnames of Han, Liu, and Li, and operated in the Shunhe Ji area; the surnames of the White Flag Twister Army were even more, and the south of the Pheasant River was their territory; the Black Flag Twister Army also had many surnames and gathered in the northwest of the Pheasant River Set; the Red Flag Twister Army had few troops, small localities, and no influence.
These groups are all "alliances" with the clan as the core and in a loose form. Later, this alliance was broken, and only the three clan groups of Zhang, Gong and Su became the core force of the rebel army. This form of composition was rather primitive, not easy to manage, and fought each other for their own interests, giving the Qing army the opportunity to break through one by one.
This can also explain a phenomenon that emerged later, that is, why everyone else was watching the hilarity when the people within these groups were fighting each other.
In the final analysis, this is determined by the nature of the rogue proletarian, who only cares about the interests of his own territory and does not care about things that have nothing to do with himself, which is that the concept of clan and the concept of geography are "at work". It is only the unity of local "same sects", and they try their best to exclude the "outsiders", as long as they occupy their own mountain. While fighting with the Qing army to the death, while killing each other internally, this is not digging a grave for oneself. Turning over the history of the Twister Army, there are all kinds of betrayals in the eyes, who has summed it up?
In addition, in the composition of this rebel army, the landlords were rich and poor.
After the rebellion, the first to attack were the local landlords, who were either killed or fled. Ordinary people are basically poor, and the landlords become leaders. The aforementioned Zhang Lexing is a landlord and has done all kinds of trades. Zhang Zongyu's family has a lot of land and also employs many people. Therefore, the Surname Zhang is basically a rich man, but there is a distinction between size and size.
Lu Xiaoling is also a rich man, his family background can be, he is still a martial artist. The three generations of the family are martial, which can be said to be the local "strong and powerful". And Su Tianfu can only be regarded as a small rich man. Therefore, counting the history of these leaders, their family background before the rebellion was good, but for various reasons, they were forced to embark on a "black road".
Don't they miss the days of stability of the past, the days of enjoyment?
It's just a matter of circumstances.
So, in the beginning, these people's inner political demands were almost non-existent. Without clear political goals, how can there be clear political motivation? Like a boat in the sea, it cannot discern the direction and can only "go with the flow". However, the Qing court did not allow this "anti-current" to continue, so how could they compete with the purposeful imperial court army to the end.
Although they also won several battles during this period, they could not really understand the intricate political environment in front of them, so the final outcome was bound to be tragic.
In fact, those poor eggs who were born poor have a strong spirit of resistance in their bones. But they went down this path simply for survival, even for narrow personal gain, or for revenge. Therefore, they are just to change their current state of existence, and they will not think too much about what to do next, whether they want to turn themselves into masters, whether they want to overthrow the existing regime.
Without ideas, without the guarantee of the rear, the struggle can only be carried out to the end.
Of course, there are also people who take this into account, such as poor eggs such as Li Zhaoshou and Miao Peilin... However, they think more about themselves and want to avenge their personal vendetta. Because, their ideas before and after the uprising, not much difference, just to serve the interests of the individual. In their view, there is no real enemy, no eternal friend, as long as the purpose can be achieved, the brothers born into death can be betrayed. So, on an epistemic level, they don't really think about what they really want.
There is no direction, no goal, and no internal unity, it has always been forced by the environment, forcing them to be "thieves", forcing them to fight with the Qing army all the way, forcing them to the end, these people have entered a dead end.
Resources:
["Records of Woyang County", "Draft History of the Qing Dynasty, Liechuan 25· 418", "Preliminary Investigation of the History of the Twisted Army"]