Speaking of the fall of Tianjing and the fall of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Zeng Guofan has since been called "Zeng shaved his head", and it has to be said that the Xiang army led by Zeng Guofan conquered the taiping capital of Tianjing. I will continue to analyze the specific things for you.
First, things go through
After Hong Xiuquan's death, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was taken over by the young lord Hong Tianguifu, assisted by Li Xiucheng, the King of Zhong, and the Xiang army of Zeng Guofan looked at them with great anticipation.
In order to achieve an early victory in the suppression of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Zeng Guofan took the initiative to ask Zeng Guofan to go and conquer tianjing, the capital of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, but Zeng Guofan did not agree to his brother to gnaw on this hard bone, and persuaded Zeng Guofan to go elsewhere. However, Zeng Guoquan did not listen to his brother's words and preferred to go.
Because of the Battle of Tianjing, Zeng Guoquan completely lost the opportunity to become a higher-level official, Tianjing was originally a daunting place, but Zeng Guoquan did not realize it.
Zeng Guofan saw that he could not stop Zeng Guoquan, so he asked him to lead the Xiang army to fight, and as a result, in the Battle of Tianjing, it was three years, and Zeng Guoquan's soldiers were full of oil from the beginning to the end without military pay and could only nibble on steamed bread to maintain their lives.
However, everyone still insisted on conquering Tianjing, because everyone knew that there were many treasures inside, as long as they conquered Tianjing, they could get rich overnight, and it was this belief that made all the soldiers persist until the end of Tianjing.
However, at this time, an interesting thing happened, Zeng Guofan told his brother Zeng Guoquan not to accept the surrender of the Taiping Army, let alone accept the dismissal of the people from the city, because Zeng Guofan felt that the Taiping Army was too cunning and worried that they would dress up as peasants and flee.
More importantly, Hong Tianguifu, the young lord of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, had not yet been caught, which was a big thing, and in the end Zeng Guoquan dug tunnels to infiltrate Tianjing, beat the Tianping Army to the ground, and carried out a large-scale massacre, as long as he saw that all the people like the Taiping Army were killed, resulting in Zeng Guoquan's Xiang army mistakenly killing many people in tianjing city.
In addition to killing people, Zeng Guoquan's Xiang army also wantonly robbed the money inside, taking all the valuable things, and it is said that even the eaves were dismantled and transported to Hunan by ship. Some people say that at that time, Zeng Guoquan estimated that he had robbed tens of millions of taels of silver, which was obviously exaggerated.
Because the Xiang army was busy grabbing money, they accidentally let the young lord Hong Tianguifu go, and in the end, Zeng Guoquan not only did not receive praise from the imperial court, but was also scolded by Cixi, and asked him where the treasure in Tianjing City was.
Second, the fate of the Taiping Army
Hong Tianguifu escaped, but Li Xiucheng was caught by Zeng Guoquan, and the new hatred and old hatred were counted together, and Zeng Guoquan tortured him to extract a confession, and Li Xiucheng regarded death as a homecoming.
The short coat grasped the cone, walked out alone, stabbed the cone all over the place, and the blood flowed like a flood.
The above description is the scene of Zeng Guoquan's treatment of Li Xiucheng at that time, because on the battlefield, Zeng Guoquan had repeatedly defeated Li Xiucheng, and the two had a deep vendetta in the blood sea, and now they finally captured Li Xiucheng, and Zeng Guoquan certainly would not let him go.
After Zeng Guoquan's severe torture to extract a confession, Li Xiucheng still did not say a word, and Zeng Guoquan felt that he would have to go to Zeng Guofan for help. Under zeng guofan's interrogation of reason and emotion, Li Xiucheng wrote a "self-statement" for several days and nights, totaling more than 100,000 words, explaining everything clearly, and also persuaded Zeng Guofan to establish himself as king, and he was willing to support Zeng Guofan.
It was precisely because he said that he was willing to support Zeng Guofan's self-reliance, so that Zeng Guofan suddenly realized, at this time the imperial court was still questioning the two Zeng Guofan brothers because of the financial situation of the Tianjing War, if Li Xiucheng told Cixi about the self-reliance again, then the two zeng guofan brothers would not be safe.
Therefore, in the end, Zeng Guofan beheaded him and gave him a coffin, the purpose of the beheading was twofold, one was to die without proof, and the other was to feel that Li Xiucheng was a hero and did not want him to suffer more flesh and skin. Sending him a coffin is an expression of appreciation for Lee So-sung, who thinks he is a hero.
It can be said that Zeng Guofan does contain a lot of philosophy in dealing with people that deserves our deep consideration and study. After Li Xiucheng's death, he deleted the part of Li Xiucheng's "Self-Description" that advised Zeng Guofan to stand on his own, and the rest was handed over to Cixi.
Later, he vigorously dismantled the Xiang army and let his brother Zeng Guoquan pretend to be ill and go home to rest, avoiding Cixi's suspicion of their Zeng brothers and keeping the prosperity of the entire Zeng family.
As for the rest of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, such as Hong Tianguifu, they were later exposed to the Qing government and eventually sentenced to Ling Chi's capital punishment, which was very cruel. Hong Tianguifu, so young, suffered such a cruel punishment, it is really a bit regrettable, compared to being executed by Ling Chi, Li Xiucheng's result is undoubtedly the best!
epilogue
It is this war that is unwilling to accept the surrender of the enemy, which laid the foundation for the status of Zeng Guofan, but it is also these wars that have achieved the title of "shaved head" of Zeng Guofan's brothers, which is really very interesting, about why Zeng Guofan did not accept the surrender of the Taiping Army, in fact, Zeng Guofan himself said that "the chaotic world uses heavy codes", think carefully, intriguing!