Text/Fu Huaxuan
One day in July 1843, this was an ordinary day, but also an extraordinary day, on this day, the "Worship of God" was established, on this day, Hong Xiuquan himself was baptized, becoming the first person to worship God. In order to avoid the secret of the Lord's fire, in order to herald himself to become the king of men (Xiuquan can be split into I am the king of man), Bo Haocaitou, he officially changed his name to Hong Xiuquan.
After the establishment of the "Worship god cult", Hong Xiuquan's close friend, Feng Yunshan, a private school master, not only recruited more than 3,000 loyal believers in Guangxi in three years, but more importantly, he organized a strong six-person leadership team, in addition to the Heavenly King Hong Xiuquan, the other five people were arranged as follows:
Yang Xiuqing, a Hakka, a well-known illiterate, is an excellent charcoal burner, this person in addition to burning a good hand of charcoal, but also very moral, extremely organizational talent and ambition, and later conferred the title of King of dong.
Xiao Chaogui, a peasant, a good martial artist, good at war, and later the King of the West.
Feng Yunshan, who liked to read the history of scriptures, astronomy and geography since childhood, once took the imperial examination, but did not pass, and later set up a museum in the village to teach apprentices, and took the school as a teacher. This Teacher Feng was later crowned King of the South.
Wei Changhui, a Hakka, a peasant with a little education, was later crowned King of the North.
Shi Dakai, a Hakka family, well-off family, has a certain cultural standard, is a natural general, joined the team when he was only sixteen or seventeen years old, and later became the king of the wings.
The distribution of power among the six-member leadership team is this model: separation of church and state. Hong Xiuquan is the sect leader and boss in terms of status, and Yang Xiuqing is the second oldest in terms of status, and he controls the other four people. That is to say, the real power is in the hands of Yang Xiuqing, and the other four people divide the power to balance Yang Xiuqing.
Repeat the names of these six people again: Hong Xiuquan, Yang Xiuqing, Feng Yunshan, Xiao Chaogui, Wei Changhui, and Shi Dakai. It was these six iron brothers who started their careers, and it was these six iron brothers who made themselves yellow.
The taiping army's method is to fight and go, to fight and raise war, and to temper an army with combat effectiveness in battle! What kind of army is the most effective? Not an army with good weapons, nor an army of many people, but an army of faith.
If the soldiers do not have a firm belief and fight only to eat and earn money, then there is certainly no combat effectiveness, and defeat is inevitable, which has nothing to do with numbers and weapons and equipment. At this time, most of the taiping army generals were loyal believers in the cult of God, and they deeply believed that the Lord of the Hong Sect was sent by God to destroy injustice, and if they sacrificed their lives for this cause, they would ascend to heaven and be with God forever.
Therefore, they have a strong cohesion with common beliefs, and can burst out with great energy at the critical juncture of life and death, so they are small in number and their weapons and equipment are also very poor, but they have far surpassed their Qing army in terms of personnel and weapons and equipment.
More and more peasants joined the ranks of the Taiping Army in the middle of the way, and the Taiping Army continued to grow, invincible and unstoppable. Although the Taiping Army was victorious, victory had to pay a price. In June 1852, Hong Xiuquan's close friend and most loyal comrade-in-arms Feng Yunshan, the King of the South, was killed in battle.
In December of the same year, Xiao Chaogui, the King of the West, was killed in battle. There are four people left in the core team of six people. In March 1853, the Taiping Army invaded Nanjing. Jiangnan's economy is developed and rich in products, which is convenient for raising grain and raising funds, and can also cut off the source of finance and taxation for the Qing government. King Hong Tianwang renamed Nanjing Tianjing and set the capital here. But Hong Xiu could never have imagined that he would never have the opportunity to go out of Nanjing again in this life.
Desire is a double-edged sword Turning over all the history of human struggle, you will find that what infernal affairs, anti-conspiracy, killing people with a knife, etc., are all good ways to start from the other side's interior, and they all have magical effects. Coincidentally, the historical lesson of most of the failures of peasant uprisings also profoundly confirms this truth: fortresses are breached from within. "Rabbits carrying guns in the nest" is the cruel reality of self-destruct martial arts. The Hong Sect Leader in Nanjing and his men repeated the mistakes of infighting after the powerful. Since the death of Feng Yunshan, who had a high prestige and great ability, all the military and political power had fallen into the hands of Yang Xiuqing, whose ability and ambition were directly proportional.
After Master Hong entered Nanjing, he focused his main energies on engaging in religious activities, writing and writing oil poems, and playing with beautiful women (the history books record that the number of Hong Xiuquan's wives was more than eighty). Hong Xiuquan's indulgence in the inaction of a corrupt life made Yang Xiuqing ideologically prepared for his own plots. Yang Xiuqing thought in his heart: Over the past few years, on handling political affairs and sending troops to fight wars, what role has He Hong Xiuquan played, and what would he do except pretend to be a ghost? Can he match me! Who fought down in this world, it is me Yang Xiuqing! He Hong Xiuquan must abdicate! Yang Xiuqing's heart was rapidly expanding, expanding.
In 1856, Yang Xiuqing felt that the time had come. Two major events occurred this year: First, Yang Xiuqing's proud work in this life led the Taiping Army to defeat the Qing army's Jiangbei and Jiangnan camps. Second, the Second Opium War began. By the way, the great powers were originally very optimistic about the Christian regime of the Hong Sect Leader, and they had the intention of cooperating with the Hong Sect Leader to eliminate the Qing Dynasty, and then engage in commercial cooperation or something. But after sending people to contact the Hong Sect Leader, this idea was shattered.
First of all, the Christian doctrine of the Hong Sect Lord is too copycat, which is Christianity, it is simply full of mouths running trains, which is unacceptable, and then the Hong Sect Lord is too unserviceable to keep pace with the times, and stubbornly insists: The great powers are the vassal states! Yang Xiuqing's attitude toward the great powers was also consistent with that of the Hong Sect Leader: The strength of our Taiping Army is enough to eliminate bed bugs (Qing army), so why cooperate with Er and other overseas countries! Although Mr. Yang Xiuqing did not look down on the strength of such a feudal state as Britain and France, he still appreciated the behavior of the Anglo-French coalition army fighting with the Qing army to share the firepower for himself.
Heavenly King Hong Xiuquan only knew how to shut himself in the palace and live happily, and he did not take half a step out of the palace. Yang Xiuqing seemed to see himself ascend to the top spot of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. The ambition is big enough, the strength is strong enough, what else can stop Yang Xiuqing's steps in seizing power? As a result, Yang Xiuqing, who will also pretend to be a ghost, is more and more enthusiastic about the performance of God's mortals, but the performance is to turn over and over is those few words: Xiuquan! You made a mistake, you know?
What you just said should be so, so, so and so... For example, Yang Xiuqing's opinion is very pertinent, why, you are not willing to do it? Well, get your ass ready, and you'll know what to do if you get spanked. This is Yang Xiuqing's performance, although the performance is very lame, old routine, nothing new to speak of, but the effect is very good. The faithful worship and are extremely religious.
At this time, Hong Xiuquan found that the effective scope of the orders he issued was limited to his own palace, and almost all the people in Tianjing City were Yang Xiuqing's people. I Hong Xiuquan was completely overhead!
Yang Xiuqing, who felt good about himself, let down his vigilance. In Yang Xiuqing's eyes, the current Hong Xiuquan is just a doll at his mercy. But Yang Xiuqing was wrong, he made a fatal mistake, he underestimated his opponent! His opponents were not only Hong Xiuquan, but he had offended too many high-ranking colleagues, including Wei Changhui, the founding father of the country, Wei Changhui, the new upstart Yan king, and even Chen Chengyao, a central official who was regarded by Yang Xiuqing as a confidant.
These people have a common characteristic: they have all been whipped by the imperious Yang Xiuqing in front of the generals, good guys, in front of the soldiers, take off their pants, whip their butts, too humiliating! It hurt their self-esteem too much, they were all fed up with this endless spiritual torture under the Heavenly Father, and they all wanted Yang Xiuqing to die! Moreover, Hong Xiuquan is not really stupid, and the reason why he allowed Yang Xiuqing to act was only because of one word: forbearance. He knew that he didn't have many chances and had to hit a shot, so he needed to wait for a suitable counterattack opportunity. Now that the opportunity has come, Yang Xiuqing despises him and will not move for the time being, for him, this is a perfect opportunity.
Thus, a famous tragedy was officially staged according to the laws of history.
In September 1856, Hong Xiuquan secretly ordered Wei Changhui and Qin Rigang (some historical records say that Qin Rigang did not receive Hong Xiuquan's secret order, but was dragged into the water by Wei Changhui) to lead troops back to Beijing to rescue them. Wei Changhui responded positively, led three thousand elite troops to quietly rush forward, secretly rendezvoused with Qin Rigang outside tianjing city, and under the assistance of Chen Chengyao, took advantage of the cover of night to smoothly enter the city and raid the Eastern Palace. Yang Xiuqing, who was empty-eyed, did not have the slightest ideological guard, and a generation of tyrants was confused and cursed in his sleep! According to the theory, Yang Xiuqing was finished, and Hong Xiuquan should have been very happy, but Hong Xiuquan was really unhappy, because although Yang Xiuqing died, his domineering spirit did not go with it. Comrade Wei Changhui perfectly inherited Yang Xiuqing's dictatorship and arrogance.
After Wei Changhui killed Yang Xiuqing, he did not give up, but continued to hold aloft the butcher knife and killed nearly 20,000 people, oh my God! The great enemy present, killed so many people, self-destructed the Great Wall. Of course, Wei Changhui said that he was a counter-rebel, and he killed Yang Xiuqing's people, who were anti-thieves. However, the power to define who is an anti-thief is in the hands of Wei Changhui, who he wants to kill. Many people who usually offended Wei Changhui were also unlucky this time, not dying under the sword of the Qing army, but at the hands of their own people. Wei Changhui neither asked Hong Xiuquan before killing the people, nor did he inform Hong Xiuquan after the killing, which made Hong Xiuquan very worried.
Worried that Wei Changhui will become the next Yang Xiuqing, there is no one to control. Just when the White Terror of Tianjing was in full swing, Shi Dakai reprimanded Wei Changhui for killing innocents indiscriminately, and the two dispersed unhappily. Shi Dakai was worried about his own safety, and only took a few retinues from Tianjing to escape and return to his camp, and before Shi Dakai could enjoy the joy of the rest of his life, he received the bad news that his whole family had been killed. Shi Dakai gritted his teeth and said, Wei Changhui, do not repay this revenge, I Shi Dakai swear not to be a man! Shi Dakai quickly marched into Nanjing, demanding that Hong Xiuquan kill Wei Changhui to thank the world. Wei Changhui originally wanted to catch Hong Xiuquan and break the net, but outside Shi Dakai Chen Bing City, the soldiers and civilians in the city had already hated him as a murderous maniac, and there were male soldiers on the outside and a mass base inside, how could Wei Changhui succeed?
Unsurprisingly, Wei Changhui's rebellion failed. It's over, it's all over, and the fire player will bury himself in the fire! Next, Hong Xiuquan killed Wei Changhui, Qin Rigang, and Chen Chengyao on the charge of rebellion, "rehabilitated" Yang Xiuqing, and nominally made Shi Dakai the prime minister, but in fact promoted his brothers to be king, and held Shi Dakai hostage at every turn.
In 1857, Shi Dakai, who deeply felt that he was not trusted by the leadership, did not want the tragedy of the struggle for power to cause a fight in the nest to reappear, so he started another stove and led his troops on an "expedition" and did not return. Six years later, Shi Da turned to Sichuan, and was blocked by the early rise of the Dadu River, which had not been encountered in a hundred years, and the tired hero went to the end. There were natural dangers in the front, and there were pursuing soldiers in the back; the bitter battle was not won, and the soldiers were defeated and captured. Later, he was tortured by Ling Chi, ending his brilliant meteor-like life at the age of 32.
At the beginning of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the core team of six people was only Hong Xiuquan.
The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom turned from prosperity to decline and soon perished. In fact, the infighting between their internal dogs biting dogs and hairs, the person responsible is Hong Xiuquan, his leading big brother is too bad, if he has the ability to have a level, twist the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom into a rope, history will definitely be rewritten.