On July 19, 1864, it was noon, and with a loud noise, the wall of the Taiping Gate in Nanjing Collapsed violently, and a gap of more than 20 inches appeared, and the Qing army then swarmed in. The battle continued until dusk that day, when the Qing army completely occupied the city of Nanjing, and the "little paradise" of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom ceased to exist. In October of that year, the young heavenly king Hong Tianguifu and the dry king Hong Rengui were all captured, and the vigorous Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement was completely defeated.
Although the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was overthrown, there was a prince who had been hiding his name for ten years, running thousands of miles, actively contacting anti-Qing forces everywhere, and trying to rebuild the Kingdom of Heaven, and this person was Yang Fuqing, the auxiliary king! According to historical records, Yang Fuqing's real name was Yang Jinsheng, his nickname was Ah Qi, nicknamed Qimazi, and he was a native of Guiping County, Guangxi Province. Yang Fuqing and Yang Xiuqing were brothers of the same clan, so they also participated in the Jintian Rebellion and became Emperor Guozong.
As mentioned before, most of the Guozong of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom were mediocre people, and among the more than forty Guozong, only fourteen of them had the rank of military governor, of which Yang Fuqing, Wei Jun, Shi Zhenxiang, and Shi Zhenji had the highest status. Yang Fuqing's contribution to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was mainly in the military field, and he began to participate in the military as Emperor Guozong until the fall of the Heavenly Kingdom, and made many military achievements, which can be called one of the rare generals within the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
Originally, at the time of the Tianjing Incident, Yang Fuqing had also been included in Wei Changhui's list of kills, but it was only because he was leading troops in Jiangxi at this time that he was spared. Later, Wei Changhui was killed, Shi Dakai fled, and Yang Fuqing garrisoned in Fuzhou, Jiangxi, and was enfeoffed with Tianyan, but he did not dare to return to Tianjing, but followed Shi Dakai to fight. In 1857, Yang Fuqing and Shi Dakai fought in Fujian and Jiangxi, repeatedly breaking the Qing army.
With Hong Xiuquan rehabilitating Yang Xiuqing, Yang Fuqing finally chose to return to heaven, and he parted ways with Shi Dakai in 1858. In June 1859, Wei Jun (Wei Changhui's younger brother) stationed in Chizhou led an army to defect, and Yang Fuqing joined forces with other generals to successfully retake Chizhou with the rebels. When the news reached Tianjing, Hong Xiuquan, the Heavenly King, was very happy and immediately crowned Yang Fuqing as an auxiliary king.
At this time, the Qing general Zhang Guoliang rebuilt the "Jiangnan Camp", which seriously threatened the security of Tianjing. Yang Fuqing was ordered to rescue Tianjing, and in 1860 he joined forces with various Taiping armies and attacked the Jiangnan camp in one fell swoop, the Qing commander He Chun committed suicide, and Zhang Guoliang fell into the water and died. However, the Xiang army led by Zeng Guofan continued to win victories and eventually besieged Tianjing City. In 1864, when the Xiang army attacked the city of Nanjing, Yang Fuqing lost his hair and fled by boat from Huzhou to Shanghai.
Since then, Yang Fuqing began to live in anonymity, and the reason why he did this was not to survive, but to rebuild the kingdom of heaven. Yang Fuqing later sneaked back to his hometown and went to Guizhou, Guangdong, Hunan, Anhui and other places to make friends with Haojie everywhere, in a vain attempt to one day raise an army again. In 1874, japan invaded Taiwan, the situation was very tense, and the southeastern provinces of the Qing Dynasty recruited troops.
Yang Fuqing thought that the time had come, infiltrated Fujian, and wanted to break into the Qing army, but plotted an uprising. As a result, Yang Fuqing was betrayed and arrested by the local government in Jinjiang County, Fujian Province. For the past experience, Yang Fuqing confessed that he had been hidden for ten years, and finally failed. In July 1874, with the approval of the imperial court, Li Henian, the governor of Zhejiang and Fujian, executed Yang Fuqing Lingchi and "showed his head to the public", which was the end of the last prince of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom!
References: 1. History of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom; 2. Taiping Heavenly Kingdom