In June 1862, before his execution, King Chen Yucheng of England said: "If the Kingdom of Heaven loses me alone, the Country will lose half of it", and he spoke highly of his outstanding military achievements and position in the Kingdom of Heaven, and considered himself to be the pillar of the pillar. Of course, the opponent also recognized the British king, and Hu Linyi, the famous minister of Zhongxing Hubei, said: "The thief is elite, only four-eyed dog and one ear, he is worried about it!" "It is said that among the thieves, they are the opponents, just these four-eyed dogs, and the rest are scum, not to be afraid." Chen Yucheng, with moles under both eyes, looks like four eyes from a distance, so it is called "four-eyed dog". The rest of his life said in "The Capture of Jiluo": "The prestige of the world is shocking, and he is the first good character of the Heavenly Dynasty", saying that he is the number one fierce general of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. So, what is Chen Yucheng's actual level? Let's take a look at how Li Xiucheng, the King of Zhong, evaluates him. Li Xiucheng's evaluation of The King Chen Yucheng in the "Self-Statement" is: a young hero, full of righteousness, but there are also many shortcomings, and it is difficult to bear major events.
Also a fellow of Fujian County, Guangxi, Li Xiucheng, the King of Zhong, was more than ten years older than King Chen Yucheng. When he joined the Taiping Army, Li Xiucheng was already 28 years old, while Chen Yucheng was only 14 years old, which was twice as old. Li Xiucheng said in the "Self-Statement Book": "Lead five hundred strong men to enter the city and destroy Wuchang." It is said that when Wei Jun attacked Wuchang for the second time, Chen Yucheng, a 16-year-old teenager, led 500 death squads to climb the city wall, killed the Qing army defending the city, and then opened the door to meet the large troops, making great contributions to the Taiping Army's capture of Wuchang. In the spring of 1856, Qin Rigang, Chen Yucheng, Li Xiucheng and others led the Southern Anhui Taiping Army back to Tianjing, preparing to march east to Suzhou and Hangzhou, and rescue Zhenjiang, which was being besieged by the Jiangsu Governor Gilhang'a Tens of Thousands of Eight Banners and the Green Camp. The Taiping Army attacked Zhenjiang, but the Qing army's water division was strong, and Qin Rigang could not get close to the city, and it was difficult to achieve the purpose of breaking the siege. At this time, Chen Yucheng drove the lone boat alone, risking being shot as a hedgehog, and the lone army broke into Zhenjiang, discussed with the defender Wu Ruxiao about the internal and external attack strategy, and finally broke the Gilhang'a army and lifted the siege of Zhenjiang. Li Xiucheng said in the "Self-Statement Book": "Immediately and Cheng Tianyu made a strange plan, Cheng Tianyu drove a lone boat, broke into Zhenjiang, and informed Wu Ruxiao of the plan to attack inside and outside", and was very impressed with his courage, Chen Yucheng was a fierce man.
Chen Yucheng in Li Xiucheng's eyes is indeed a young hero, who is not afraid of death and is an absolute fierce general. Of course, King Chen Yucheng is also very moralistic, where there is danger, he will go where he goes; teammates have needs, he will also rush to the battlefield at the first time, give his friends the greatest support, and do his best. At the beginning of 1857, Li Xiucheng alone guarded Tongcheng, with only more than 7,000 winged wang Shi Da kai left behind after he left, but he had to face 40,000 Qing troops such as Qin Dingsan, and the pressure was very high. To this end, Li Xiucheng had to ask Chen Yucheng for help, hoping that he would bring troops to kill the enemy and defend Tongcheng. What about Chen Yucheng? Without saying a word, he directly led tens of thousands of elite soldiers from Ningguo to help, and Li Xiucheng attacked inside and outside, fiercely attacked the Qing army, and lifted the siege of Tongcheng. Li Xiucheng said in the "Self-Statement Book": "Sending a letter to Chen Yucheng, immediately pulling the soldiers of the Ningguo state to come to help, attacking inside and outside, and the siege of Tongcheng was lifted." Chen Yucheng, a fellow countryman, really preached righteousness. In addition, when Li Zhaoshou rebelled, Li Xiucheng's territory in the north of the Jiangsu River fell almost completely, and he was unable to recover it, so he invited Chen Yucheng to "immediately go down to Pukou", that is, to help him regain his territory. In this regard, Chen Yucheng is still very moralistic and brotherly.
Young hero, full of righteousness, this point Li Xiucheng admitted, but he still believes that Chen Yucheng is not difficult to bear big things, unable to grasp the overall situation from a macro perspective, he can only be regarded as a fierce general at most, not an excellent commander. Why did Li Xiucheng say this? Look at King Zhong's evaluation of the Battle of Anqing in the Book of Self-Descriptions. An Qing, the king of England Chen Yucheng's base camp, that is, the root of life, but he was young and vigorous, and he was angry, and he lost his wife and folded the army. In May 1861, Zeng Guoquan, Bao Chao, Duo Long'a, Yang Zaifu, Peng Yulin and other main water and land forces of the Xiang Army completed the siege of Anqing, and the fall of the city was a matter of time. Anqing's strategic position is very important, and it is also a very stupid way to throw all kinds of reinforcements into this "meat grinder" and kill them in vain when they know that they cannot be defended. At that time, the British king Chen Yucheng did not listen to the advice of the people, insisted on lifting the siege of Anqing, not only did not withdraw the army from the city, but also continued to put various reinforcements into battle, fiercely attacking the "high fortress" built by Zeng Guoquan and using it as cannon fodder. Li Xiucheng said in the "Self-Statement": "At this time, there was no way inside and outside the provincial city, the Nine Marshals were high and deep, and after opening the camp of Ling Lake, the King did not expect the King to retreat, and the Nine Marshals still camped by the lake", "The whole army was destroyed, Ontario fell, and no remnants were missed."
Li Xiucheng believed that when the Ninth Marshal Zeng Guoquan had already opened the gap, it was a good idea for the British king Chen Yucheng to withdraw the defenders in the city in time, preserve the living forces, and then move to fight. However, Chen Yucheng attached too much importance to Anqing's gains and losses, and was too concerned about the fall of his own territory, so that he did not hesitate to throw all the elite soldiers into this "meat grinder" and make a senseless struggle. As a result, the generals of various reinforcements were very dissatisfied with it, and when Chen Yucheng was trapped in Luzhou, no one came to the rescue, for its own reasons. After the fall of Anqing, Hong Xiuquan severely reprimanded Chen Yucheng and left him "dismissed from his post and left him in office", the British king could not bear this blow, "please order yourself to defend Luzhou, willing to die in the lonely city", continue to be angry, and run to the lonely city of Luzhou to die, which is a big mistake. After going to Luzhou, Chen Yucheng was first disheartened, and then he was in a hurry to go to the hospital, ignoring the bitter persuasion of the generals, "Ru waited for the words, the great Fu Wu yi", and forcibly went to Shouzhou to find Miao Peilin, hoping to make a comeback with the help of Miao Brother's million male teachers. Miao Peilin, a man of two sides and three knives, capricious, Chen Yucheng put a bet on him at a critical moment, and as a result, he was trapped, packed up and sent to Shengbao, and died of Ling Chi. Li Xiucheng's "Self-Narration" said: "Later, he went to Shouzhou, was captured by Miao Peilin against his heart, and sent to the Qing camp to be tortured", and died.
To sum up, in Li Xiucheng's view, The King Chen Yucheng is a young hero and a righteous man, a rare and good general with a full sense of justice. However, after all, King Chen Yucheng is a young man, who does not understand the importance of preserving strength, does not understand the principle of "gain and loss", and lacks a strong psychological quality. Therefore, it is difficult for Chen Yucheng to undertake major events unless there is guidance from a high person. As some scholars in later generations said, Li Xiucheng was good at planning, and Chen Yucheng was good at attacking and killing, and only by cooperating closely could he do so. What do you think about this?
Bibliography: The Complete History of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom War, Li Xiucheng's Self-Description