In the first month of 1864 (the third year of Tongzhi), Zeng Guofan led the Xiang army to conquer Zhongshan and besiege Tianjing, and after several months of hard work, he finally attacked Tianjing in July, so Zeng Guofan immediately wrote a fold and handed it to the emperor, writing "Hong Xiuquan was anxious when he was anxious, and he was irritable every day, that is, he died of poisoning."
Emperor Tongzhi was very happy after reading it, and the "Draft History of the Qing Dynasty" clearly recorded: "It was Yue Hongxiu who was in danger of Jinling and took poison to death." The chieftains used God to teach the burial method, embroidered satin shrouded corpses, no coffins, and in the palace of paralysis, and there was no mourning. ”
Therefore, people in later generations believe that Hong Xiuquan knew that he was not an enemy of the Qing Dynasty, so he chose to commit suicide by taking poison. However, the truth of the matter was not so, and Zeng Guofan told a big lie to everyone. In the 1960s, people found a hundred-year-old manuscript in Zeng Guofan's home, which revealed the truth of the matter and listened to the author's details.
The person who left this manuscript was named Li Xiucheng, who was a famous general in the late Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and also a loyal king of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, with a very high status, when Zeng Guofan led the Xiang army to attack Tianjing, Hong Xiuquan died, at this juncture, Li Xiucheng stepped forward to support the heir of the young King of Heaven (Hong Xiuquan's eldest son Hong Tianguifu) and calm people's hearts.
But it is a pity that the arrival of the Young Heavenly King can not reverse the decline, at that time the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's army in the city was not more than 10,000 people, including a large number of wounded, unable to fight soldiers, food is also extremely scarce, Li Xiucheng is very clear, the Xiang army broke the city is only a matter of time, but Li Xiucheng is not willing to surrender, nor is he willing to flee, with thousands of people to die, and burned countless enemies with gunpowder, the Xiang army suffered heavy casualties, Zeng Guoquan (the ninth brother of Zeng Guofan) hated Li Xiucheng to the bone.
Therefore, after breaking the city and successfully capturing Li Xiucheng, Zeng Guoquan "held the cone in short clothes and walked out alone", and then "stabbed the cone all over" for Li Xiucheng, so that Li Xiucheng was bleeding profusely, but even so, he was still unwilling to bow his head, from this point of view, Li Xiucheng was indeed a man.
Li Xiucheng, who was imprisoned, knew that he was not far from death, and in order to leave something for posterity, Li Xiucheng picked up a pen, and he wrote a self-statement at a speed of 7,000 words a day, reviewing his life and the rise and fall of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement, which has extremely high historical value. Zeng Guofan honored him as a man and asked him to complete his self-description, and on August 7 of the same year, Li Xiucheng was executed by Zeng Guofan at the age of 42.
However, because Li Xiucheng's self-statement contained too many "secrets", Zeng Guofan naturally could not let the world see, so he privately took away the manuscript and collected it, (at the same time Zeng Guofan made the "deleted version" public) Until more than a hundred years later, Zeng Guofan's family discovered the manuscript and chose to make it public, at this time people knew that Zeng Guofan had told a big lie.
"Li Xiucheng's Relatives Confession handwriting" is written: At this time, about the end of March, april will be the beginning of the waiting, When I was in the East Gate City, Tianwang Si was very ill, and died on April 21.
Obviously, Hong Xiuquan did not commit suicide by taking poison, but fell ill and died, but Zeng Guofan handed in the fold wrote that "Hong Xiuquan died on April 27, taking poison", first, the cause of death was tampered with, and secondly, the time of death was tampered with.
So the question is, why did Zeng Guofan do such a thing? Do you have to say that Hong Xiuquan committed suicide? In fact, we compare carefully, and the difference between the two is still very large. As the leader of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Hong Xiuquan actually committed suicide by taking poison in the face of the Xiang Army, which proves that he was afraid of the Xiang Army? If the emperor saw such a recital, he naturally had admiration for the Xiang Army. But if Hong Xiuquan died of illness, it had nothing to do with the Xiang Army.
In fact, in addition to tampering with the cause and time of Hong Xiuquan's death, Zeng Guofan also lied about other lies, such as when the Xiang army captured Nanjing, Li Xiucheng successfully broke through with the Young Heavenly King, but Zeng Guofan told the imperial court that the Young Heavenly King was dead. And Zeng Guofan also relied on these "merits" to receive countless awards, was named the Crown Prince Taibao, a first-class marquis, hereditary resignation, and rewarded with dazzling eyes, and his power can be described as reaching its peak.