History is the memory of things that have been said and done. —Carl Baker
The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was a peasant uprising of unprecedented scale in the history of our country, but although this peasant uprising lasted for ten years, it eventually ended in failure, and the most crucial point in the overthrow of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was the Tianjing Incident.
After Tianjing was trapped, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom gradually fell, and many people believed that Shi Dakai was a sinner in this matter, and if it were not for Shi Dakai leaving Tianjing and taking away the elite, then Tianjing would not have fallen, and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom might not have collapsed.
The reason why there was such an idea was not without reason, because the team led by Shi Dakai when he left was the elite of the Taiping Army, numbering more than 60,000 or 70,000 people, and when Shi Dakai was besieged in Tianjing later, Shi Dakai was close to Anqing but ignored it.
It is precisely because of this that many people believe that Shi Dakai is the real sinner of the fall of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, but in fact, this is not the case, and Shi Dakai's move is not splitting the Taiping Army.
In fact, as early as after the Tianjing Incident, the contradictions between several leaders in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom deepened day by day, and Hong Xiuquan began to be wary of Shi Dakai and other important ministers, and even secretly sent people to assassinate Shi Dakai and his 60,000 troops.
In addition, although Shi Dakai and Hong Xiuquan deepened their contradictions, he was still holding his position, and one of the reasons why he stayed in Anqing was to ease the situation in Tianjing, otherwise Tianjing would probably have fallen long ago.
However, for the precarious Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Shi Dakai's 60,000 troops at that time could no longer save this dangerous regime, because Hong Xiuquan had lost the hearts of the people before, and at this critical juncture, he still put his confidants in Tianjing to rescue.
Therefore, it is really empty to say that Shi Dakai is a sinner who collapsed the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, after all, judging from Shi Dakai's performance in the war, he is enough to be called a hero!