In September 1856, the Tianjing Incident broke out, which was the starting point of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom from prosperity to decline, and the important reason was that the "old brothers" from Guangdong and Guangxi suffered heavy losses, and the composition of the Taiping Army changed. In order to revitalize the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and continue to persist in the anti-Qing struggle, Chen Yucheng and Li Xiucheng had to recruit soldiers from a crowd of displaced people, scattered soldiers, heaven and earth, goons, and hooligans. In this way, the Taiping Army was huge in scale, but its combat effectiveness and will to fight were greatly reduced, and it was difficult to confront the Xiang Army.
In the later period of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the Taiping Army was of low quality and poor discipline, and often surrendered to the Xiang Army. However, the "old brothers" who came out of Liangguang were still brave and good at fighting as always, their combat effectiveness was strong, their will was firm, they would not easily surrender to the Xiang Army, and they were the elite of Chen Yucheng and Li Xiucheng's army. The protagonist of this article, Huang Longyun, the King of Xiang: During the battle, his arm was broken, and he was surrounded by layers of the Xiang Army, still fighting to the end, which is worthy of admiration.
Huang Longyun, a native of Guiping, Guangxi, was an early member of the Cult of Worship and a founding father of the Jintian Uprising. In 1847, Feng Yunshan preached in Guiping, Guangxi, calling on the poor masses to rise up against Qing rule and change their destiny. Huang Longyun's family is poor, Feng Yunshan can speak the Tao, understand the propaganda strategy, grasp the psychology of the characters, Huang Longyun naturally and quickly joined the club and became a member of the Worship of God.
In January 1851, the Jintian Rebellion broke out, and Huang Longyun was under the command of Yang Xiuqing. However, at this time, Huang Longyun did not have much opportunity to perform, and Luo Ergang's "History of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom" did not record in detail his deeds before the capital Tianjing. However, Huang Longyun killed all the way from Guangxi to Tianjing and was still able to survive, proving that he still had some real skills. It should be known that the "old brothers" of the two Guangdong can successfully reach Tianjing, that is, more than 10,000 people.
In September 1856, the Tianjing Incident broke out, Yang Xiuqing, Wei Changhui, Shi Dakai, Qin Rigang and other "Shouyi princes" died and walked, Chen Yucheng and Li Xiucheng sang the protagonist. At this time, Huang Longyun was subordinate to Li Xiucheng and served under King Zhong.
In August 1863, Li Xiucheng led a large army from Suzhou to rescue Wuxi, and Huang Longyun, who had been crowned as the Prince of Xiang at this time, led the Taiping Army's marine fleet to fight fiercely with the Huai army under the bridge. In this battle, Huang Yunlong showed great bravery, he drove the warships to rush to the front line, used artillery to violently bombard the Huai army fleet, and achieved the record of sinking several enemy ships.
After this battle, Huang Longyun became famous and was deeply appreciated by Li Xiucheng. Shi Zai: "The battle of the Huai army at the corner of the bridge with the steamship cannon was first heard. "In the Battle of Wuxi, Huang Longyun performed bravely and achieved good results, but the Huai Army had the assistance of the British and French powers, and the number of flowering cannons was large, and the Taiping Army still failed to break the Huai Army's blockade line.
In December 1863, Gao Yongkuan and eight other generals defected and surrendered, and Li Hongzhang captured Suzhou, and then gathered heavy troops to besiege Wuxi. At this time, Li Xiucheng was in Wuxi, and the situation was quite dangerous, but Huang Longyun fought hard, covered the King of Zhongwang to break through the siege, and marched in the direction of Danyang.
After Li Xiucheng broke through from Wuxi, his cousin Li Shixian suggested that he stay in Danyang and not return to Tianjing to "send him to death". Li Xiucheng was reluctant to stay in Danyang, because his old mother, who was over seventy years old, was still in Tianjing and was surrounded by the Xiang Army. Li Xiucheng was a filial son, and he rushed back to Tianjing overnight, but asked Huang Longyun to stay, asking him to assist Li Shixian in battle, go to Jiangxi to collect grain, and then lead his troops back to Beijing after the autumn harvest to "Qin Wang".
Li Shixian, a native of TengXian County, Guangxi, and a cousin of Li Xiucheng, the Prince of Zhong, was crowned as the Prince of Chitose, and was one of the four "famous generals of Zhongxing" in the late Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, with many soldiers and horses. At this time, Li Shixian still had more than 200,000 people under his command, and his strength was still there, but he was unruly and dissatisfied with Hong Xiuquan, and he had no enthusiasm for the "King of Qin".
In July 1864, tianjing fell, and Li Shixian not only did not go to greet the young king, but also directly "ran errands" to Fujian and Guangdong. Tianjing fell, the morale of the Taiping army was low, the Xiang army took advantage of the victory to pursue, and Li Shixian could not escape. At this time, Huang Longyun was ordered to attack Zhangzhou, Fujian, to find a foothold for the army.
Huang Longyun fought bravely and strategically, Zhangzhou was soon captured, Li Shixian had a foothold, and the morale of the Taiping Army improved. Unfortunately, there were many contradictions between Li Shixian and Wang Haiyang, the king of Kang, zuo Zongtang led the Xiang army to besiege Zhangzhou, and Li Shixian asked Wang Haiyang for help, asking him to lead his army to attack the Xiang army inside and outside. Who knows, Wang Haiyang ignored Li Shixian, and he directly led his troops south to Guangdong and watched Zhangzhou being besieged by the Xiang army.
In the Battle of Zhangzhou, Li Shixian's army suffered heavy losses, more than 100,000 people were either killed or surrendered to the Xiang army, Li Shixian broke through in a bloody battle, leaving only more than ten people and forced to flee into the mountains and forests for refuge. When Li Shixian broke through, Huang Longyun undertook the task of breaking the rear, and fought fiercely with Huang Shaochun, Wang Debang, Gao Liansheng and other fierce generals of the Xiang Army, and the pressure was very great. In order to allow the commander to break through smoothly, Huang Longyun took the lead and took the initiative to attack the Xiang army and attract Zuo Zongtang's attention.
Huang Yunlong fought hard and successfully covered the retreat of the commander, but he was surrounded by layers of the Xiang Army. The Xiang Legion besieged, and Huang Longyun fought and retreated, looking for opportunities to break through.
After some fighting, Huang Longyun broke out of the siege, but was intercepted and killed by the regimental training armed forces halfway through, and suffered heavy losses. Gao Liansheng, Wang Debang, and Huang Shaochun pursued the Taiping Army with the regimental training. In this way, Huang Longyun fell into a desperate situation, and there was no hope of breaking through, but he still fought to the end and was unwilling to surrender to the Xiang army.
The Xiang army was numerous, but Huang Longyun had no fear, even if his arm was broken, he still rushed to kill with his knife and fought with the Xiang army. Shi Zai: "Gao Liansheng and Huang Shaochun were chased by each other, and the Overseers of The King of Xiang fought to the death, did not support, and fought but fought, retreated to the absolute ridge, fought and folded their arms, and then fought with the Heavenly Generals Chen Youcai and Hu Aisen to be killed." ”
His arm was broken, and Huang Longyun did not give in, but continued to fight, only to be killed by the Xiang army. In this regard, Huang Longyun is also a tough general, which is admirable.
Bibliography: History of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom