Speaking of King Chen Yucheng, the first impression of everyone is that he is full of righteousness, often rescues his comrades in danger, as he said when he was captured: "Where there is danger, where there are many demon soldiers, I will go to support", and now "the kingdom of heaven has lost me, and the country and mountains have lost half.". Objectively speaking, Chen Yucheng was indeed righteous enough, and his fellow countryman Li Xiucheng was trapped in Tongcheng, and he sent troops to rescue him; Li Xiucheng suffered twice in Pukou, and it was also Chen Yucheng who sent troops to help. However, Chen Yucheng was young after all, only 17 years old when he became famous, and he was 26 years old when he was captured and killed.
In 1859, Wei Jun, who was in internal and external difficulties, crossed the river to defect to Li Xiucheng, but Chen Yucheng openly sent troops to intercept and blockade the Yangtze River, provoking the "Hezhou Mutiny", and Wei Jun was forced to surrender to the Qing Dynasty. Wei Jun, who is it? Chen Yucheng's former superior, Chen Yucheng became famous in the Battle of Wuchang, which was commanded by Wei Jun, known in history as the Battle of Wuchang. Wei Jun was kind to Chen Yucheng, and Chen Yucheng not only did not appreciate it, but also openly sent troops to intercept and kill him, why was it?
01, Tianjing Incident, Wei Jun is in a passive situation
In September 1856, the Tianjing Incident broke out, and Wei Jun, the emperor of Guozong who was guarding Wuchang, fell into bad luck. Wei Jun, the younger brother of Wei Changhui of the Northern King, the most capable "Guozong" of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, belonged to the offensive and defensive generals, and twice conquered Wuchang, killing Luo Zenan, the founder of the Xiang Army, and shocking the enemy. At the time of the Tianjing Incident, Wei Jun was guarding Wuchang and fighting against Hu Linyi, a famous minister of Zhongxing, and was not involved in internal fighting.
The town guarded Wuchang, Hubei Province, but also failed to stay out of the matter, because his brother Wei Changhui killed innocents indiscriminately, and the Wei clan was criticized by all parties. At this time, Wei Jun had to bear the pain of his family being killed, and he also had to face the bitter scolding of the family members of the people who were killed by Wei Changhui; after evacuating Wuchang, Hong Xiuquan also had to cure him of the crime of losing Wuchang.
The situation was passive, but Wei Jun still adhered to the bottom line and repeatedly refused to be "appeased" by the Qing Dynasty. The Governor of Huguang, Guan Wen, said in the recital: "Willing to die, there will be no remorse in the end", which is also a hanzi. After evacuating Wuchang, Wei Jun moved to southern Anhui, entered Jiangxi, and defeated Liu Changyou (a fierce general who later proposed an expedition to Japan) at Xinxu, temporarily stabilizing the situation in Ji'an.
02. Yang Fuqing returns to Tianjing, and Hong Xiuquan wins over people's hearts and attacks Wei Jun
Hong Xiuquan disregarded qinghong and had to cure the crime of losing Wuchang, and Wei Jun was helpless. You must know that the fundamental reason for the loss of Wuchang was the Tianjing Incident, and the fundamental cause of the incident was the intensification of the contradiction between Hong Xiuquan and Yang Xiuqing, so how can we blame Wei Jun? Fortunately, Wei Jun had heavy troops in his hands, Li Xiucheng interceded for him again, and Hong Xiuquan did not dare to do it, otherwise it would inevitably be a civil war.
In the autumn of 1858, Yang Xiuqing's younger brothers Yang Fuqing and Yang Yiqing broke away from Shi Dakai, entered Jiangxi from Fujian, and returned to the embrace of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom again. In order to win the hearts and minds of the people, Hong Xiuquan rewarded the soldiers who broke away from Shi Dakai generously, and also added various officials to the knighthood. Soon, Yang Fuqing served as the main general of the Chinese army, nominally higher than the former military general Chen Yucheng, the rear army general Li Xiucheng, the left army general Li Shixian, and the right army general Wei Jun, which could control the whole army.
Yang Fuqing's appointment as the main general of the Chinese army was nothing, the problem was that Hong Xiuquan had allocated southern Anhui to Yang Fuqing, and the jurisdiction overlapped with Wei Jun. There was a bloody feud between Yang Fuqing and Wei Jun, and Hong Xiuquan actually let the two stay together, the intention was very obvious, and Wei Jun then encountered a series of troubles.
03. Wei Jun crossed the river to defect to Li Xiucheng, and Chen Yucheng supported Yang Fuqing and publicly intercepted and killed him
Jurisdictions overlapped, and Yang Fuqing was bullying, often commanding Wei Jun in the name of the main general of the Chinese army, and even openly occupying his territory, provoking unnecessary conflicts. What about Wei Jun? The overall situation was relatively strong, compromise and concessions were made everywhere, Yang Fuqing was besieged by the Qing army in Dongliu, and could not handle it himself, and the result was that Wei Jun led the army to reinforce, and only escaped the disaster. Wei Jun complained with virtue, and Yang Fuqing, instead of being grateful, had to go in and continue to provoke the other side.
At the beginning of 1859, Yang Fuqing was even more excessive, and wanted to occupy Chizhou, which was wei jun's headquarters. What about Wei Jun? If it was solved by force, Yang Fuqing could be easily dealt with, but he did not do so. Wei Jun decided to withdraw, led his army across the river, and prepared to go to Pukou to join Li Xiucheng to avoid the outbreak of civil war. Yang Fuqing still did not give up, and led his troops to pursue Wei Jun's army; Chen Yucheng supported Yang Fuqing, sent troops to blockade the Yangtze River, prevented Wei Jun from crossing the river, and provoked the "Hezhou Mutiny".
When the Hezhou Mutiny broke out, Wei Jun was completely desperate: there was a dead end to staying in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and retreating to the mountains and forests was also a dead end, and the only way out was to surrender to the Qing Dynasty. In other words, the Hezhou Mutiny became the last straw that crushed Wei Jun.
04, Chen Yucheng has a strong sense of territory, but he is too young to do things with little consideration
Yang Fuqing attacked Wei Jun, and it is understandable that compared to the two, there is a deep hatred in the blood sea. Then, why did Chen Yucheng have to send troops to intercept it? You know, Wei Jun was once Chen Yucheng's superior, and not long ago they attacked Henan together, and there was no hatred between them. There are two main reasons. First of all, Chen Yucheng had a strong sense of territory, and Wei Jun's army of more than 40,000 people, if he turned to Li Xiucheng, the Jiangbei base was bound to be controlled by Li Xiucheng, which was quite unfavorable to himself.
Secondly, Chen Yucheng was only 23 years old at this time, too young, did things with lack of consideration, and the overall pattern was not good. Li Hongzhang commented on Chen Yucheng: "The kings of loyalty, service, zhang, and gan are all at odds with dogs, and they are feared by the outside and hated in the middle." What does it mean? The "dog rebellion" is Chen Yucheng (nicknamed "four-eyed dog"), who has a very bad relationship with Li Xiucheng, Li Shixian, Lin Shaozhang, Hong Rengan and others; everyone is very afraid of him and hates him very much.
Chen Yucheng is too young, considering his own vital interests everywhere, and ignoring the feelings of his teammates. In 1861, King Chen Yucheng of England ignored the opposition of the people and let all the elite soldiers throw themselves into the "meat grinder" of the Battle of Anqing, and everyone also wanted to cry without tears. At this time, Chen Yucheng intercepted Wei Jun, completely out of self-interest and very unauthentic.
Of course, what Chen Yucheng did not expect was that during the Battle of Anqing, Wei Jun led his troops to attack Zongyang County, cut off the main grain routes in the city, and stabbed him in the back with a cold knife. Hu Linyi commented: "Anqingzhi must be in Zongyang, not in Zongyang, that is, in the next year or two of Dunbing City, thieves can wander freely, and when they do not have time, they will march elsewhere, and I cannot be anyone else", a phrase said the importance of Fir Yang. In this regard, I don't know how Chen Yucheng feels.
Wei Jun crossed the river to surrender to Li Xiucheng, and Chen Yucheng openly sent troops to intercept and kill, provoking a mutiny in Hezhou, which was really a pity. When the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom collapsed, it was not the Xiang Army, the Huai Army, and the Chu Army that were able to fight, but how could they win?