The Defense of Anqing was a matter of life and death for the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and the defeat of this battle determined the fate of the ultimate defeat of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
For Zeng Guofan, this battle can be called the most outstanding masterpiece of his military career, and its far-reaching strategy and meticulous arrangement exude the brilliance of traditional Chinese military philosophy everywhere, which can be said to have reached the peak of China's ancient military history. Even in the entire world's military history, there are few practical examples of such a clever and heavy sword.
After the modern era, the Chinese warriors of all generations admired the conception and planning of the Battle of Anqing of Zeng Guofan, and carefully experienced and studied it, hoping to learn from it. Let's introduce and analyze the process of zeng guofan's battle of Anqing, and see where his mastery is.
(i)
The Battle of Anqing was actually fought by Zeng Guofan under tremendous pressure, and this pressure was so great that ordinary people simply could not bear it.
The Battle of Anqing in 1860 began with the Taiping Army crushing the Jiangnan camp and attacking Jiangsu and Zhejiang on a large scale. Although the area of southern Jiangsu and northern Zhejiang was not large, the taxes provided at that time accounted for more than half of the Qing court's fiscal revenue.
The loss of Jiangsu and Zhejiang was a completely unbearable loss for the Qing court. Therefore, at that time, from the Xianfeng Emperor down to the local officials, they all unanimously demanded that Zeng Guofan immediately lead troops to rescue Jiangnan and put Anqing down first.
On June 8, 1860, the Xianfeng Emperor issued an edict to Zeng Guofan, clearly stating: "... Now Changzhou is in danger, wuxi has traces of thieves, can go straight to Sioux City, jiangnan overall situation almost disintegrated. Zeng Guofan received this order, that is, to command the troops of the army to be brave, take the Ningguo, Guangdong, and Jianjian areas, go straight to Suzhou, and go to Suzhou to suppress it, in order to preserve the overall situation in the southeast, without any delay! ”
Xian Feng's edict said it so clearly that even the route of the march was prescribed, which showed that he was really in a hurry.
Such a strict order, any other person would not dare to disobey it, but Zeng Guofan just wouldn't go!
Of course, Zeng Guofan did not simply refuse, he always wanted to save some face for the emperor. Ostensibly, he also claimed that he had moved to Qimen in southern Anhui and would lead Bao Chao and Zhang Yunlan's troops to reinforce Jiangnan.
In fact, Bao Chao and Zhang Yunlan's task was to prevent the Taiping Army in the southern Anhui region from reinforcing Anqing, and they had no intention of going to Jiangsu and Zhejiang at all. Only Zeng Guofan himself arrived at Qimen, which was a gesture to show that he was following the order.
At the same time, Zeng Guofan also successively sent shangshu to the emperor, urging Chen to attack the importance of Anqing, and actually asked Xianfeng to abandon Jiangnan and fully support him in fighting Anqing.
In this case, Xianfeng had to make concessions and issued another edict: "If the city of Anqing is recoverable, the governor may as well first conquer Anqing, go down the river, and take advantage of the emptiness of the Jinling thieves to directly pound the nest." ”
XianFeng actually gave an ambiguous answer. "If... These words are actually used for future shirking of responsibility. If Zeng Guofan lost this battle, Xianfeng could just put all the responsibility on Zeng Guofan's head.
By August, more severe tests had come, and the Anglo-French forces began to attack Beijing. The Xianfeng Emperor could not even keep the old nest, and naturally he would even issue a strict order urging Zeng Guofan to go north to rescue him.
However, Zeng Guofan still prevaricated and delayed for various reasons, that is, he did not send troops. In order to fight Anqing, he didn't even care if the emperor himself was dead or alive!
From this, we can see how much risk Zeng Guofan took in insisting on fighting the battle of Anqing, and at the same time, we can also realize that if this battle is lost, what will be the fate of Zeng Guofan.
Zeng Guofan actually unified his own life and life to "stud", bet on the gambling table, and bet on Anqing that he could win the battle.
A person like him, who has always been old and heavy,This time he was so decisive and did not leave himself the slightest way to retreat, which can only show that after repeated consideration, he was convinced that the Battle of Anqing would be won, so his attitude would become so firm.
This also shows that Zeng Guofan's courage and boldness were also first-class, unmatched at that time. And this is exactly the quality that a great military man must have.
(ii)
When it comes to the Battle of Anqing, people who don't know much about history may have such a picture in their minds: the smoke-filled Anqing City is undergoing a fierce battle. Hordes of Xiang troops climbed the ladder and braved the rain of bullets and bullets to attack the city. The Taiping army in the city resisted desperately, and the casualties on both sides were heavy, and the corpses in the city were numerous...
In fact, in the so-called Battle of Anqing, such a scene has never appeared. It was only at the last moment that the Xiang army launched an attack on the city wall and conquered it in one fell swoop. Previously, for more than a year, standing at the head of the city of Anqing, even the shadow of the Xiang Army could not be seen.
This is exactly the unique siege tactic of Zeng Guofan: do not attack, do not attack, separate but not encircle, encircle but not fight, first prune the branches and leaves, then take the root, the water to the canal, the melon ripe and fall.
Zeng Guofan believed that in large cities like Anqing and Nanjing, the enemy was bound to be strongly defended. You go directly to the siege, that is the enemy's underbelly. There will be no gain other than adding casualties to yourself.
Therefore, in order to fight places like Anqing and Nanjing, we must first clear the periphery, cut off the grain routes leading to the city, encircle but not fight, and sit and wait for the grain and grass in the city to be cut off, and naturally we cannot persist. If you attack the city at this time, you can easily take it down.
This is exactly what the great German military strategist Clausewitz said: the concept of defense is waiting. All defenses are waiting: waiting for reinforcements, waiting for the enemy to change. If you leave the defender with nothing to wait for, then his morale is bound to collapse and the attacker can win in one fell swoop.
Zeng Guofan's concept of first sweeping away the periphery is like this.
However, in important cities such as Anqing and Nanjing, the enemy is bound to go all out to rescue them. It is inevitable that you will besiege the city again and help again. If you are besieging the city with all your might and attacking enemy reinforcements at the same time, I am afraid that you will be undermanned and stretched.
Therefore, after serious consideration, Zeng Guofan went further and simply did not even engage in "encircling but not fighting", but engaged in "partition without encirclement".
"Separating but not encircling" means that even the siege of the city is not carried out, but only chooses the key points outside the enemy's city to garrison, deep ditches and high fortifications, and will not easily take the initiative to attack, mainly waiting for the enemy to attack.
Although this will not cut off contact between the enemies inside and outside the city, but I am standing in front of your house with a knife, you can't ignore it, right? What's more, the Xiang army occupies all the strategic points of the enemy, which will make the enemy very, very uncomfortable, and will definitely send troops or request reinforcements to fight.
It was easy to fight, and the Xiang army relied on deep ditches and high bases to kill and injure the enemy in large quantities. In this way, the tasks of siege and reinforcement are actually taken into account.
Zeng Guofan's bizarre siege tactics are actually an offensive defense, or defensive attack. The Xiang army did not absolutely not attack, but attacked as if it were defending. The Xiang army's attack was always as slow as a turtle crawling, and with each step forward it had to build fortifications again, deep ditches and high barriers, ready to meet the enemy's counterattack.
This precisely embodies the essence of Zeng Guofan's combat thinking -- to harden the village and fight a stupid battle.
This kind of fighting in a stiff village makes the Xiang army always look defensive on the surface, but in fact, the Xiang army is attacking.
Such a wonderful style of play fully brought into play the advantages of the Xiang Army's strong combat effectiveness and elite soldiers, while at the same time basically covering up the weakness of the Xiang Army's small number and fear of dividing troops. It can be said that it has brought its own advantages to the extreme, but it has hit the key point of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and the subtlety of the overall strategic conception cannot but be sincerely admired.
In concretely implementing the operational intent, Zeng Guofan, Hu Linyi, and others, after repeated deliberations, formulated the following plan for entering the army:
First, the Xiang army captured the town of Zongyang to the northeast of Anqing. There is a broken gang lake between the town of Zongyang and Anqing, and the grain, grass and reinforcements of the Taiping Army can first reach the town of Zongyang and then arrive in Anqing by water.
Therefore, Zongyang Town is actually an important traffic artery in Anqing. However, the Taiping Army's defense of this area was quite lax. Therefore, the Xiang Army sent people to secretly dig the embankment between the Broken Gang Lake and the Yangtze River, and the Xiang Army's marine division directly attacked the town of Zongyang.
On June 20, 1860, Wei Jun, a famous general of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom who surrendered to the Qing army, led his troops to conquer the town of Zongyang in one fell swoop. After that, Wei Jun led 7,000 people to hold firm here, and Yang Zaifu led the Xiang Army's marine division to provide support at any time. An important passage in Anqing was cut off.
Second, the Xiang army advanced into Tongcheng. Although the town of Zongyang is very important, Anqing still has tongcheng as a back road to pass, and the Taiping army in Tongcheng is strongly defended, and it is impossible to conquer for a while and a half.
Zeng Guofan and Hu Linyi sent Duolong'a to lead more than 10,000 Xiang troops into the Trailer River near Tongcheng to implement the typical "separation without encirclement" strategy.
Although the connection between Tongcheng and Anqing has not been completely severed, the communication between the two places has become difficult because of Dolonga's troops here.
Finally, the Xiang army marched straight to anqing city. Zeng Guoquan led more than 14,000 Xiang troops directly to Jixian Pass north of Anqing City, where he camped and built fortifications. But never take the initiative to attack Anqing.
In addition, there were nearly 20,000 Xiang troops of Bao Chao and Zhang Yunlan in southern Anhui, who were specifically responsible for blocking the Taiping Army from southern Anhui to rescue Anqing. Li Xuyi's Wan Yu Xiang army was arranged in the grassy area between Tongcheng and Anqing, as a general reserve, ready to receive soldiers and horses from all directions.
In this way, Zeng Guofan used the limited forces in his hands to complete the strategic encirclement of Anqing, and at the same time laid a net of heaven and earth for the Taiping army that came to help.
(iii)
The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom obviously did not have a deep understanding of Zeng Guofan's strategy, and when the Xiang army advanced to the city of Anqing, Hong Rengui, Li Xiucheng, and other leading figures were still busy marching into Jiangnan, and even Chen Yucheng, whose base was located in Anhui, obviously despised the attack of the Xiang army and followed Li Xiucheng to sweep through Jiangnan. They all believed that it was completely too late to occupy the Jiangnan region and then turn back to save Anqing.
However, in fact, just as the Xiang army began to "isolate but not encircle" Anqing, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom had already lost the opportunity to win this battle.
If he really wanted to save Anqing, he had to start the decisive battle with the Xiang army from the time of Chen Yucheng's victory in the Three Rivers.
For the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, there were only two choices left at this time: either send all the elite main forces and fight with the Xiang army to lose both; or simply withdraw from Anqing and preserve the strength of Chen Yucheng's army.
However, under the circumstances at that time, no one would think of this step, not even most people on the Xiang Army side. Except for a few people such as Zeng Guofan, the vast majority of people would decide that the victory or defeat of this battle was unpredictable, and the Taiping Army definitely had a chance to win.
The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom side copied the "Siege Wei and Rescue Zhao" attack on the Jiangnan camp, allowing Chen Yucheng and Li Xiucheng to attack Wuchang together, hoping to mobilize the Xiang army and obtain fighters.
However, this obviously does not work. Just imagine, Zeng Guofan did not even go to the rescue of the British and French allied forces in Beijing, how could he send troops to save Wuchang? Even if the Taiping Army occupied Wuchang, but with the Xiang Army's marine division controlling the Yangtze River, logistics supplies could still be kept open. Attacking Wuchang would obviously not mobilize the Xiang army.
Previous history books, when discussing the Battle of Anqing, regarded Li Xiucheng's failure to cooperate well with Chen Yucheng as the main reason for the defeat of the battle. However, in fact, even if the two of them worked well together, at most they would fight with the Xiang Army and lose both.
If both of their main corps were exhausted, then even if the Xiang army lost its combat effectiveness, the Qing army could once again mobilize heavy troops to launch an attack, and the losing side would still be the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
In reality, it was only Chen Yucheng's corps that was exhausted, and Li Xiucheng's corps was preserved and strengthened, but it made the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom persist for a few more years.
In addition, Chen Yucheng and Li Xiucheng did not cooperate well, and the responsibility was not all on Li Xiucheng, and Chen Yucheng himself was also responsible.
In October 1860, when Chen Yucheng led a large army to march toward Hubei according to the pre-agreed agreement, when he arrived in northern Anhui, he suddenly changed his mind and wanted to fight a few major battles in northern Anhui.
Chen Yucheng first attacked Duolong'a, who threatened Tongcheng, but he could not move at all. He then went to fight Wei Jun in Zongyang Town. Wei Jun was still indestructible with the support of the Xiang Army's marine division.
Chen Yucheng's attack was fruitless, but instead wasted five months of time. More importantly, his actions in northern Anhui gave Li Xiucheng an excuse to delay and not move. Li Xiu saw that Chen Yucheng was not marching into Wuchang, so he also changed his plan with the trend, and with a clever move, changed the main goal of his western expedition to expand the army.
Li Xiucheng then marched continuously toward southern Anhui, Jiangxi, and Hubei. Along the way, the people were recruited into the army, and the number of the troops swelled rapidly.
But Li Xiucheng did not fight a hard battle with the Qing army, and once he encountered stubborn resistance, he would immediately take a detour. Zeng Guofan, who was in the Qimen camp, was gently let go by him in this way.
Now many history books will regret that Li Xiucheng did not attack the Qimen camp where Zeng Guofan was located, as if Li Xiucheng attacked Qimen and the Battle of Anqing could be reversed.
However, this is not the case. First of all, Li Xiucheng did not know that Zeng Guofan was in Qimen.
Secondly, Zeng Guofan's original intention at Qimen was to deceive the Xianfeng Emperor and make a gesture to rescue Jiangnan, and he could withdraw at any time. If the situation is critical, he just has to go away.
Zeng Guofan did write a suicide note, but it was just for precautions, similar to the way soldiers who go to the battlefield in modern warfare have to write a will.
Therefore, neither Chen Yucheng nor Li Xiucheng hit the key point of the Xiang Army, and there was no way to reverse the situation on the Anqing battlefield.
(iv)
Chen Yucheng and Li Xiucheng, two major strategic corps, circled around Anqing for a year, trying to mobilize the Xiang army, but they simply could not do so.
The Xiang army was not moved at all, and continued to crawl slowly towards Anqing, although the pace was slow, but each step was solid, the situation in Anqing City became more and more passive, and by the spring of 1861, Anqing basically became an isolated city, and the situation was very critical.
In this case, Chen Yucheng, a young commander at the age of twenty-four, was obviously extremely frustrated and angry, and he could not think of a way to defeat the enemy and win.
Driven by despair, Chen Yucheng decided to make a desperate bet and concentrate all his forces to fight a decisive battle with the Xiang army under Anqing City.
In May 1861, Chen Yucheng, with the cooperation of Huang Wenjin, Lin Shaozhang and others, led more than 60,000 troops to take Anqing directly and began a crucial decisive battle.
This is exactly what Zeng Guofan hopes to see. He did not simply want to capture Anqing, and taking advantage of the siege to annihilate the main army of the Taiping Army was his fundamental purpose.
To this end, Zeng Guofan let Hu Linyi at the front line command, and at the same time transferred Bao Chao's troops from southern Anhui to Anqing to participate in the battle.
On May 1, Chen Yucheng's army reached Linghu Lake (present-day Linghu Park) north of Anqing City. Chen Yucheng hoped to open a road to Anqing through Linghu lake and send reinforcements and grain and grass into Linghu. However, the Xiang army had already made preparations, dug through the waterway, and drove the water division into Ling Lake. The two sides launched a "naval battle" in the palm-sized Ling Lake.
While the two armies were engaged in a fierce battle at Linghu Lake, Duolong'a, Bao Chao, and other troops on the periphery quickly assembled toward Anqing. Hu Linyi planned to use his superior forces to reunite Chen Yucheng's troops and annihilate them under Anqing City.
Chen Yu saw that the situation was not good, and immediately abandoned Linghu and led his army to retreat north to Jixian Pass.
At this time, the Xiang Army brigade gathered under Anqing City. Chen Yu's prejudiced views had no way to take advantage of it, so he had to temporarily withdraw to Tongcheng and reorganize his forces. Before leaving, he ordered Liu Yulin and Li Sifu to lead more than 4,000 people to stay at Jixian Pass. Four forts were erected at Jixian Pass, ready to receive reinforcements.
The most elite and effective of Chen Yucheng's troops was the Five Flags Battalion, which was divided into five colors: dividends, yellow, white, black, and blue. Among them, the Red Flag Battalion has the strongest combat effectiveness and is known as the "Red Ape". Liu Xuanlin was the leader of the "Red Ape".
After Chen Yucheng's army withdrew, on May 20, Bao Chao and Zeng Guoquan immediately launched a fierce attack on Jixian Pass. It can be seen from this that the Xiang army did not attack, but attacked only when it was time to attack.
The two armies fought fiercely at Jixian Pass, fighting from May 20 to June 9, with the Xiang army losing heavily, while the Taiping army was completely destroyed, Liu Yulin was captured, and Chen Yucheng lost his most elite troops.
Chen Yucheng overestimated the combat effectiveness of the "Red Ape" and rashly put his lone army to death, which was a major loss for Chen Yucheng.
Due to the annihilation of the core troops, Chen Yucheng's corps lost at least half of its combat effectiveness.
(5)
After the Battle of Jixian Pass, the Xiang army completely completed the siege of Anqing. Chen Yucheng was eager to rescue Anqing, but at this time Li Xiucheng had already begun to lead his men and horses to attack Zhejiang, and he could not count on it at all.
In the end, Chen Yucheng only got the support of Yang Fuqing. At first, Yang Fuqing led his army to attack Taihu County, west of Anqing, and still hoped to mobilize the Xiang army, but it had no effect.
There was no way, and in August 1861, Chen Yucheng and Yang Fuqing joined forces, totaling about 50,000 people, and once again prepared to fight a decisive battle with the Xiang Army.
On August 21, the Taiping Army once again reached Jixian Pass and began a fierce attack on the Xiang army's camp. Chen Yucheng ordered each soldier to carry a bouquet of thatch to fill the trenches of the Xiang army, and under his command, the Taiping army divided into more than ten roads and began to attack.
Zeng Guoquan personally commanded the Xiang army to fight, and the guns and artillery were fired in unison, and the Taiping Army suffered heavy casualties. The two sides fought fiercely for seven consecutive days, and it was not until August 27 that the Taiping Army broke through the first trench of the Xiang Army.
However, it was too late. Zeng Guoquan had already begun to dig tunnels and prepare to blow up the anqing city wall. By September 4, everything was finally ready. In the early hours of the morning, a violent explosion occurred in the north of Anqing City, and the city wall collapsed immediately. The Xiang army rushed into an anqing city, and Anqing fell.
Seeing that Anqing had fallen, Chen Yucheng and Yang Fuqing had no choice but to stop fighting and withdraw their troops from Jixian Pass. The Xiang army took advantage of the situation to attack, and Chen Yucheng's troops lost morale and lost consecutively.
The Xiang army occupied Tongcheng on September 7, Shucheng on September 11, and lujiang, Susong, Puzhou, Chizhou, Tongling and other places, and Chen Yucheng's base in Anhui collapsed.
The above is the whole process of the Battle of Anqing, and it can be seen that the entire campaign was carried out in accordance with Zeng Guofan's prior design, and zeng guofan's military ideas were fully implemented from beginning to end, and finally won a complete victory.
From the very beginning, the Taiping Army had no chance of victory, and could only step by step into the trap set by Zeng Guofan.
Comparing the overall situation of the Taiping Army and the Qing Army before the war, you will find that the results of the Battle of Anqing are really amazing.
The Battle of Anqing is undoubtedly one of the most classic military masterpieces in Chinese history, and it contains profound wisdom. Whether it is a military scientist or an ordinary person, seriously understanding the connotation of this battle will benefit us a lot in our work and study.