In May 1857, Yiwang Shi Dakai came to the Yuhuatai camp in Tianjing City to review the generals of the Taiping Army, and then left Tianjing and crossed the Yangtze River from Tongjing with his cronies. Along the way, Shi Dakai issued a "notice" calling on the Taiping Army to follow him out to start a business, do a big job, and part ways with Hong Xiuquan. In June 1863, Shi Dakai fell into a desperate situation on the banks of the Dadu River, failed to "ask for surrender", was executed by Ling Chi, and worked alone for six years in failure.
In his "Self-Statement", Li Xiucheng regarded Shi Dakai's going out to work alone as one of the ten major reasons for the demise of the Taiping Army, "The wrong lord and the Wing King were at odds with each other, and they were jealous of each other, and the Wing King led an expedition and has not returned so far." From Li Xiucheng's "Self-Statement", it can be seen that Shi Dakai went out to work alone, which was caused by Hong Xiuquan and Shi Dakai's mutual suspicion, and a slap could not be made. Then, from The perspective of Hong Xiuquan, why should he be jealous of the auxiliary chancellor Yi wang Shi Dakai? Shi Dakai led his troops back to Beijing to "Jing Difficulty" and killed Wei Changhui, the King of the North, doomed him to have no need to be in Tianjing, Hong Xiu could not tolerate him, and Shi Dakai could only lead troops on an expedition. Let's take a look.
Shi Dakai killed Wei Changhui, the king of the North, and the problems here are very complicated, full of power struggles and games. According to Li Xiucheng's "Self-Statement", Wei Changhui and Shi Dakai were very dissatisfied with Yang Xiuqing's imperious style, and in order to protect their own interests, they formed a strategic alliance and looked for an opportunity to kill Yang Xiuqing, "The Northern King and the Wing King secretly discussed, killed Yang Xiuqing, and his brothers, Yuan Qing, Fu Qing, and the rest were not allowed to kill more." ”
Wei Changhui and Shi Dakai formed an alliance, did Hong Xiuquan participate? Li Xiucheng did not explicitly say in the "Self-Statement", but from the factual reasoning, Hong Xiuquan acquiesced to their action, even if he was not an ally. First of all, Hong Xiuquan was often humiliated by Yang Xiuqing, and was threatened with scepters in public, and even forced to be canonized as "Long Live", and he hated Yang Xiuqing. Secondly, without Hong Xiuquan's acquiescence, Wei Changhui and Shi Dakai would dare to attack "God" Yang Xiuqing; without the Divine Will of the Heavenly King, actions would not have legitimacy, and no one would bear the consequences. Finally, if they had not consulted beforehand, Hong Xiuquan would have issued secret edicts to Wei Changhui, Shi Dakai, Qin Rigang and other princes at the same time. You must know that Yang Xiuqing is powerful and powerful, and if he does not grasp the victory, how dare the princes come back.
In order to deal with Yang Xiuqing, Hong Xiuquan, Wei Changhui, and Shi Dakai reached a certain tacit understanding and maintained a common advance and retreat. However, in the process of power game, everyone has their own "little nine-nine", and it is difficult for the Tianjing Incident to ensure that the head promise of "only killing brothers and brothers, and the rest are not allowed to kill more", and the incident has seriously expanded, which they did not expect.
For Hong Xiuquan, as long as the "military division responsibility system" continues to exist, whether it is Yang Xiuqing, Wei Changhui, or Shi Dakai in power, there is no difference in essence. In the Tianjing Incident, Hong Xiuquan not only wanted to get rid of Yang Xiuqing, but also wanted to exclude Wei Changhui, Shi Dakai and other "shouyi princes" and become a real absolute monarch. Therefore, after Yang Xiuqing was killed, Hong Xiuquan did not issue the holy will in time, admit the legitimacy of the incident, and put the charge of killing the "god" Yang Xiuqing on Wei Changhui's head, so that the Northern King fell into passivity.
Yang Xiuqing, the 9,000-year-old king of the East, enjoyed the power of "God Rumors" and was the spiritual bond of the Taiping Army's faith. Without Hong Xiuquan admitting that Wei Changhui was the culprit in killing "God", everyone was condemned. Moreover, the Eastern King's forces that remained in Tianjing were very strong, with 6,000 elite soldiers under Fu Xuexian's command, and their combat effectiveness crushed Wei Changhui's 3,000 "Qin Wang" army. Without the Heavenly King's Holy Will, Fu Xuexian and others were afraid and uneasy, he was not willing to sit still, and in the case of superior troops, he was bound to launch a counterattack.
After killing Yang Xiuqing, Hong Xiuquan did not come out to issue a holy decree and admit the legitimacy of the incident, Wei Changhui was in a very passive situation, but he had not yet reached the point of desperation, and Shi Dakai's failure to abide by the agreement left Wei Changhui with no way to retreat. The reason is very simple, "the prince will have a kind of Xiang ning, and the soldiers are strong and strong", Wei Changhui and Shi Dakai joined forces, and no one in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom could match, even if Yang Xiuqing was alive. Shi Dakai promptly led his troops back to Beijing, the strength of the "Qin Wang" army increased greatly, Fu Xuexian and other Eastern Kings Yu Dang did not dare to act rashly, and Hong Xiuquan was also under pressure and had to issue a holy will. In this way, the Tianjing Incident will "only kill the brothers, and the rest will not be allowed to kill more", and this will end there.
The result was just the opposite, Shi Dakai had his own plan, he wanted to sit back and watch Yang Xiuqing and Wei Changhui fight and reap the benefits of the fisherman. When the Tianjing Incident broke out, Shi Dakai was in Wuchang, did not follow the edict of "King Qin", the incident was seriously expanded, and when the situation was chaotic, Shi Dakai returned from Wuchang, "with Zeng Jinqian and others, rushed back to the Beijing Division, taking into account the matter of avoiding killing." As a result, we all know that Wei Changhui not only did not stop killing, but also aimed the butcher knife at Shi Dakai's family, slaughtering more than a thousand people up and down the Yiwang Palace, once again pushing the incident to a climax.
Wei Changhui was indeed cruel enough to be slaughtered in the Yiwang Mansion, but Shi Dakai also had to bear the corresponding responsibility. After Shi Dakai returned to Beijing, he indiscriminately rebuked Wei Changhui and protected Yang Fuqing, who was among the killers, which angered Wei Changhui. Raising the butcher's knife, Wei Changhui was already angry and resentful, and his ally Shi Dakai also sprinkled salt on the knife edge, who could bear it? Even if Wei Changhui stops killing, he will still bear the crime of incident and be the murderer of "God". In this way, for Wei Changhui, stopping killing and killing less at this time is essentially no different from continuing to kill and killing more, and he has no way to retreat.
Wei Changhui killed the red eye, and even the Heavenly King Hong Xiuquan did not spare it, and he personally led his troops to besiege the Heavenly King's Palace, pushing the incident to the climax. At the same time, after Shi Dakai fled Tianjing, he returned to Wuchang, Hubei Province, to form the "Jingnan" Army, and slaughtered Wei Changhui in a mighty and mighty way to Tianjing, as if it were a righteous army. However, Shi Dakai led his troops back to Beijing, and his aggressive posture made Hong Xiuquan panic, which doomed him to stay in Tianjing to assist the government in the future, and it was inevitable to go out alone.
The formation of the "JingNan" legion occupies the moral high ground and has a very high prestige. At this time, Shi Da opened his eyes to everything, and his momentum was fierce, and he openly threatened Hong Xiuquan, "If Wei Changhui's dog head is not allowed, then Ban Shi will return to the dynasty and attack Tianjing." Under pressure from Shi Dakai, Hong Xiuquan had to order the capture of Wei Changhui and the cutting off of his head and sending him to Shi Dakai to prevent the QinWang army from continuing to advance. Soon, the courtiers wrote letters one after another, asking the Heavenly King to let Shi Da return to Beijing to assist the government, clean up the mess, and revitalize the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, "unite the dynasty and move together, improve government affairs, and the people are happy." ”
However, Shi Dakai was doomed not to stay in the Tianjing Auxiliary Government, and the aggressive posture when he killed Wei Changhui made Hong Xiuquan panic and worry all day. What does it mean that "The Banshi returned to the Dynasty and attacked Tianjing"? Hong Xiuquan is a king, Shi Dakai is a subject, how can "attacking Tianjing" be the work of a loyal subject? It should be known that Yang Xiuqing's humiliation of Hong Xiuquan and even the forced canonization of "Long Live" were carried out in the name of "God", not in the name of the Eastern King. What about Shi Dakai? The naked armed threat was even more excessive than yang xiuqing, the eastern king, and Hong Xiuquan could not bear it. In addition, Shi Dakai dared to threaten to "attack Tianjing", which meant that he had military power at this time, and there were many elite soldiers under his command, and no one could resist, and he wanted to replace Hong Xiuquan, and no one could stop him.
Shi Da's aggressive posture showed that the Wing King was not a thing in the pool, and he was no worse than Yang Xiuqing. With heavy troops in hand, Shi Dakai, whose prestige was too high and imposing, posed a great threat to Hong Xiuquan. In this way, Hong Xiuquan naturally wants to squeeze Shi Da out of the game, which is the inevitable game of power. As Li Xiucheng said in the "Self-Statement": "The Heavenly King and the Wing King are jealous of each other, and the Wing King has led an expedition and has not yet returned", in which the word "mutual" shows that Hong Xiuquan and Shi Dakai do not trust each other, they are wary of each other, the contradictions between the monarchs and the ministers are sharp, and one of them must be out.
Bibliography: History of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Li Xiucheng's Self-Narration