In 1962, Taipei World Bookstore welcomed an elderly man who asked to meet directly with the person in charge of the bookstore. Later, he was arranged to meet with the chairman of the bookstore, and the old man solemnly handed over a yellowed paper manuscript to the chairman and stated that this was the true confession written to Zeng Guofan 100 years ago after Li Xiucheng of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was captured.
This old man was the great-grandson of Zeng Guofan, the founder of the Xiang Army at that time, Zeng Yunong, who was then the president of Tunghai University in Taiwan. And that yellowed paper manuscript is the original manuscript that was once named "Li Xiucheng's Confession" by historians!
This historical material spanning a century, a precious cultural relic that was painstakingly pursued by the historians, immediately caused a sensation in the academic circles as soon as it was published. The Taipei World Book Company immediately photocopied and published it, and the top Historians of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom on both sides of the strait praised this important historical fact. Mr. Luo Ergang, the grandmaster of the History of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom on the mainland, even more on the basis of this "Confession of Relatives", did not hesitate to overthrow the original version of "Li Xiucheng's Self-Described Original Manuscript" that condensed his decades of painstaking efforts, but instead adjusted and reprinted it according to this edition.
So how did a confession of less than 40,000 words cause such a huge shock? This matter should also start from the capture of Li Xiucheng.
1. The loyal king is disloyal
Li Xiucheng (1822-1864), a native of Tengxian County, Guangxi, joined the Taiping Army during the Jintian Uprising of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, was one of the two major military pillars of the late Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and was named the King of Zhong.
However, this loyal king, due to his later defection and surrender, was called "loyal to the king and disloyal" by historians.
After the spring of 1864, the territory of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom gradually shrank to a corner of Tianjing. The Xiang army continued to advance, and Li Xiucheng led more than 200,000 troops of the thirteen kings from the southeast battlefield to attack the besieging troops of Zeng Guoquan of the Xiang army several times, but the situation could not be opened for a long time.
On July 19, 1864, the Xiang army blew up the walls of Tianjing and invaded the city. Li Xiucheng protected the young king Hong Tianguifu from escaping from the siege, but because he gave up the good horse to Hong Tianguifu, Li Xiucheng did not run far, and was recognized by the townspeople and kidnapped by the Xiang army.
Li Xiucheng had caused headaches to the Xiang army and killed many generals of the Xiang army. As soon as Zeng Guoquan saw Li Xiucheng, he jumped like a thunderbolt and immediately wanted Ling Chi to be executed. Fortunately, Zhao Liewen, an important aide of the Xiang Army, advised him not to be reckless, and Zeng Guofan did not advocate the immediate execution of Li Xiucheng, but instead gently persuaded Li Xiucheng to review the history of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and write a confession.
The kings and generals of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, most of those who had been captured in the past, were executed by Ling Chi. At this time, Zeng Guofan's words also revealed some vitality, which inevitably made Li Xiucheng feel extravagant, so according to Zeng Guofan, he wrote a confession of more than 36,000 words in the cage, roughly reviewing the situation since joining the army, the main achievements and mistakes of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and the characteristics of Hong Xiuquan, Yang Xiuqing, Hong Rengui and others.
But what is quite surprising is that Li Xiucheng did not swear to die like other kings and generals, but made a one-hundred-and-eighty-degree turn, praising the Zeng Guofan brothers and revealing the intention of surrendering.
He promised Zeng Guofan that if he did not die, he could also write a letter to gather the remnants of the Taiping Army, which was still active in the south, and let them all surrender.
Zeng Guofan got Li Xiucheng's confession as he wished.
Why did he do that? It turned out that before the Qing army captured the kings of the Taiping Army, although there were heavyweight figures like Shi Dakai and Chen Yucheng, they had more or less written a little confession, but they were all fragmented and unsystematic. This is not conducive to reflecting the achievements and merits of the Xiang Army from the mouth of the Taiping Army.
Li Xiucheng was the most important king of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom at that time, he experienced the Taiping Army uprising throughout the whole process, and his familiarity with the situation was unmatched, even if hong Renjie, the king of Gan, who was later captured, was far inferior to Li Xiucheng.
So what was dug out of his mouth was naturally quite convincing. This was Zeng Guofan's deliberate intention to seduce Li Xiucheng.
Therefore, once the purpose was achieved, Zeng Guofan said that he would turn his face. On the evening of August 7, just 15 days after Li Xiucheng was captured, Zeng Guofan executed Li Xiucheng despite the imperial court's order to send Li Xiucheng to Beijing.
Second, what did "Li Xiucheng Confession" say?
Li Xiucheng is also a generation of Haojie, he has been dealing with Zeng Guofan for many years, and naturally knows the purpose of Zeng Guofan. Therefore, when writing his confession, he truthfully reflected the true situation of many Taiping Heavenly Kingdoms.
And probably anxious to get out of the cage, Li Xiucheng wrote very quickly, writing about 7,000 words a day, a total of eight to nine days, about 60,000 words. Later, Zeng Guofan told his son Zeng Jize that Li Xiucheng had written more than 50,000 words.
It is reasonable to say that these confessions are very important and should be handed over to the imperial court intact.
However, as soon as Li Xiucheng finished writing, Zeng Guofan and Zhao Liewen deleted and revised it behind closed doors, and finally formed a version with only 27818 words, which was played to the imperial court on the one hand and engraved in Anqing for officials everywhere to read.
So, from 60,000 words to 27,818 words, why did Zeng Guofan delete so many pages, and what Li Xiucheng wrote, what could not let the imperial court know?
In fact, the main body of the confession written by Li Xiucheng is to review the gains and losses of the Taiping Army's wars over the years, that is, the Ten Mistakes of the Kingdom of Heaven. For example, the Tianjing Rebellion in 1856, the Second Western Expedition in 1861, and the Shou Tianjing in 1864.
Li Xiu grew up in the military, so he knew more about the military than politics, and the main thing that could show the merits of the Xiang Army was the war between the two sides, and most of the confessions showed these contents.
So what did Zeng Guofan delete?
First, Zeng Guofan's leniency towards Li Xiucheng. For example, in the ashram, he talked with Li Xiucheng warmly and proposed that things could be slowed down. Zeng Guofan did this in order to trick Li Xiucheng, but after Li Xiucheng said it, if it was transmitted to the imperial court, perhaps someone would arrange for Zeng Guofan to appease and raise adultery, so as to avoid trouble, so it was deleted.
Second, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom won the hearts and minds of the people at first. In the end, Li Xiucheng still had feelings for the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Newspaper, so he recorded some things about the taiping army's good military discipline at the beginning of the taiping army, and Hong Xiuquan's popularity in Guangxi. To say that the rebel army is good is to say that the imperial court is not good, this is not to talk about politics, and these contents naturally cannot be preserved in the world.
Third, Li Xiucheng's criticism of the Huai Army. Li Xiucheng's military activities in the later period were basically in the Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shanghai areas, and the main people who fought against him were li Hongzhang's Huai army. Although Li Xiucheng was in prison, he was still very dismissive of the Huai Army, believing that the combat effectiveness of the Huai Army was far inferior to that of the Xiang Army. Around 1860, when the Taiping Army attacked Shanghai, the reason why the Taiping Army did not enter Shanghai was not because of Li Hongzhang's resistance, but because of the obstruction of the foreign gun team. Li Hongzhang formed the Huai Army, it can be said that Zeng Guofan is of the same nature, both are independent of the Qing Dynasty's military training category, the two are of the same origin, both of glory and loss, so it is said that the Huai Army is not good, can not stay.
Fourth, the emptiness of Tianjing. In the later period, Li Xiucheng once had a strategic plan to abandon Tianjing and develop in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Gansu, Fujian and other provinces, and he did not want to stick to the empty Tianjing and fall into the strategic noose of the Xiang Army. In his confession, he said that in fact, the Tianjing City was extremely tired, there were very few soldiers, and there were many old and weak soldiers, so it was impossible to hold out. This is a relatively objective military record, and I did not expect to touch the taboo of Zeng Guofan. When the Xiang army besieged Tianjing, it has been trying to show the outside world that the Taiping Army is strong and the Xiang Army is fighting hard. If according to Li Xiucheng's words, the Xiang Army could not even break through a Tianjing City that was old, weak, sick and disabled, wouldn't it be too incompetent? Therefore, this kind of statement must be deleted in its entirety.
Fifth, the cause of Hong Xiuquan's death. According to the research of contemporary historians, Hong Xiuquan died of pure illness. Li Xiucheng originally wrote that he also died of illness, but Zeng Guofan changed it to suicide by taking poison. Hong Xiuquan was a thorn in the eye of the imperial court, a thorn in the flesh, and a giant tyrant of the Yuan Evil, so that he could die of illness in peace and security, so that all day long, it was inevitable that the face of the imperial court would be dull, and Hong Xiuquan was forced to take poison under the pressure of the Qing army, which had a little political meaning of rebellion and elimination of evil.
All in all, most of the confessions written by Li Xiucheng recall military gains and losses, and most of them Zeng Guofan knew in the past, such as the siege of Tianjing by the Xiang Army and the weakening of the Taiping Army's combat effectiveness, which he had known for a long time. However, the Xiang army fought for a long time, and there was also a situation of hunger and arrogance, and Zeng Guofan wanted to confess for one purpose, that is, to borrow Li Xiucheng's mouth to publicize his own merits, so those information contents that reflected his own unfavorable information must be deleted.
Third, what Li Xiucheng called the heavenly domestic struggle
After all, Li Xiucheng was the head of the Taiping Army, and he knew a lot of heavenly domestic affairs. In his confession, he also outlined many unknown details and secrets.
In his confession, for example, he reflected his dissatisfaction with Hong Renjie, the King of Gan.
After the tianjing rebellion, Hong Xiuquan vigorously used his own clan to appoint his brother Hong Renjie as the king of Gan, making him the chief auxiliary minister. Li Xiucheng said of Hong Renjie, "When he first came to seal the chief, he also had talent and affection," and "the person who is now crowned the king, who is Hong Rengui, came to Beijing for nine years, he was particularly happy, and when he arrived in Beijing for less than half a month, he was named a military master, called the king of Gan, and sent down to the world, and he wanted people to return to his system, and after the sealing, he did not see a single plot." ”
In Li Xiucheng's eyes, at that time, only he and Chen Yucheng were the heads of the heroes who protected the country, and Hong Rengui was not qualified to sit on it at all, and even restrained the kings.
At that time, the Huai army probably knew that Li Zhaoshou, a rebel general of the Taiping Army, even sent people to Li Xiucheng's army to persuade him to rebel, but Li Xiucheng refused. At that time, Hong Xiuquan was also extremely wary and suspicious of Li Xiucheng, Li Xiucheng's family was detained in Tianjing, and the ships at Tianjing Pukou were strictly controlled, and it was strictly forbidden for someone in Beijing to go out without permission.
Li Xiucheng said to himself that Hong Xiuquan was constantly sending people to the front, one to monitor Li Xiucheng and the other to inspect military intelligence. When Li Xiucheng was dying, he also indignantly wrote about this, which showed how far the heavenly kingdom had been dispersed at that time.
Coincidentally, after Hong Rengui was captured, in his confession, he criticized Li Xiucheng for attacking Shanghai, believing that his military policy toward the Huai army and foreign forces had led to the destruction of the overall situation of peace talks between the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and foreigners.
Fourth, why Zeng Guofan wanted to execute Li Xiucheng quickly
As the number one military commander of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Li Xiucheng actually received some recognition from Zeng Guofan.
For example, Li Xiucheng said in his confession that the reason why the Taiping Army suffered repeated defeats in southern Jiangsu was inseparable from the intervention of foreigners. He believed that after the defeat of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the number one trouble in the southeast must be foreigners. He suggested that foreign guns and cannons should be purchased in large quantities and equipped with troops on a large scale to resist the fierce firepower of the foreigners.
He also said that in the long run, it is also necessary to use foreign guns and cannons as a model to organize Chinese craftsmen to imitate themselves, so as to completely solve the problem of unmanned weapons.
Zeng Guofan greatly agreed with this article, and wrote in red pen under this article, "This article is acceptable."
So why did Zeng Guofan kill Li Xiucheng quickly, instead of recruiting and using it for his own purposes?
At that time, there were several rumors:
First, Li Xiucheng wanted to emulate Jiang Wei of the Three Kingdoms, and after falsely surrendering the Zeng clan, he used the old Taiping Army to make a comeback. Zeng Guofan learned of Li Xiucheng's treacherous plot, so he killed Li. This statement is undoubtedly too blunt, Zeng and Li are people who are familiar with the allusions of the Three Kingdoms, they have been engaged in war for many years, for this kind of pediatric historical allusion, Li will not be so naïve, once would not be so shallow, killing or not killing, has nothing to do with this kind of plot.
Second, Li Xiucheng persuaded Zeng Guofan to claim the title of emperor. This claim was proved by the descendants of the Zeng clan, and Mr. Luo Ergang also mentioned it in his authoritative tome The Complete History of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. Zeng Guofan had no intention of claiming the title of emperor, and he was afraid that after Li Xiucheng was sent to the capital, he would say such words, which would be detrimental to himself, so he simply killed him to avoid future troubles. This rumor is that Zeng Guangshan, the granddaughter of Zeng Guofan, mentioned in her later years when she was chatting with her children, and Zeng Guangshan's daughter Yu Dajian talked about it, but she regretted very much that she did not ask her mother who personally mentioned this matter at that time.
In any case, this statement has a certain degree of credibility because of the testimony of the parties.
Zeng Guofan restrained himself with confucian traditional morality, and had neither the idea of being an emperor nor the mind of self-esteem of the Xiang Army. Once Li Xiucheng's words spread, whether you Zeng Guofan did it or not, it was the handle of the imperial court.
Third, in order to cover up the atrocities of the Xiang Army. Some people believe that after the Xiang army broke the Tianjing, it burned and looted in the city, and the palaces of the Tianjing kings accumulated a large amount of wealth, which had long been coveted by the imperial court and local feudal officials.
In order to make the Xiang army monopolize the merits of destroying the city, Zeng Guofan did not hesitate to force the Xiang army from the imperial court to leave the Xiang army, and Zeng Guoquan did seize the astronomical wealth after entering the city. However, what was later handed over to the imperial court was only a small amount, which could not but make the Gonggong princes of the government and the opposition have some criticism. If Li Xiucheng came to Beijing, the initiative was not in the hands of Zeng Guofan, and the imperial court dug something out of Li Xiucheng's mouth, it would be difficult to say. From this point of view, killing Li Xiucheng is also imperative.
Although Li Xiucheng died, because he had revealed to Zeng Guofan the intention of begging, the evaluation of Li Xiucheng by scholars and people for more than a hundred years has been constantly changing. What Li Xiucheng said at that time, "Confession" is the only basis. Therefore, for more than a hundred years, some people have made a lot of research and questions about the Anqing inscription that Zeng Guofan deleted, and some people suspect that Zeng Guofan has a full version of the confession hidden in his hand.
In the 1960s, Zeng Guofan's great-grandson, Mr. Zeng Yunong, finally took out the original book hidden in Zeng Guofan's hometown in the conscience of history. This "Confession of Relatives" has been examined by many historians, whether it is Li Xiucheng's handwriting or zeng guofan's annotated handwriting, it belongs to his own handwriting, so it has become the most authoritative Confession of Li Xiucheng today.
However, it is regrettable that the full text of nearly 60,000 words written by Li Xiucheng at that time was destroyed by Zeng Guofan when it was first written, and Zeng's own preservation, later after modern sorting, only 36,100 words remained. Those destroyed words, what exactly did they say about the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, became a mystery of history that could never be cracked.