There are few successful cases of the Northern Expedition in history, and the road from north to south is smooth, but from south to north, there are obstacles everywhere. Especially a Yangtze River graben, I don't know how many heroes and good men have been blocked.
In the Qing Dynasty, Wu Sangui and Hong Xiuquan were actually two rebel forces from the south to the north, one of them from Yunnan, the other from Guangxi, across the entire area south of the Yangtze River, and finally drank the Yangtze River, frightening the Qing government to almost move the capital to Guanwai.
However, these two forces stopped almost the same way on the south side of the Yangtze River, and after that, they scribbled to a scribbled end, making the Northern Expedition a failure. So what is the difference between their road map for the Northern Expedition?
01 Wu Sangui could not sit in Yunnan, and could only choose to rebel.
Wu Sangui opened the gate of Shanhaiguan to help the Qing army enter the customs, and then took the lead in helping the Qing army sweep through the northwest and southwest of the rebel army, suppressed the large armies of Dashun, Daxi, and Nanming, and became the number one hero of the Qing army to unify the world.
For this reason, the Qing court made Wu Sangui the King of Pingxi, and promised him the yongzhen of Yunnan, and Mu Ying of the Ming Dynasty was a treatment. However, after the Kangxi Emperor came to power, the situation changed.
Wu Sangui spent a lot of money every year, and arbitrarily monopolized the power to elect officials in the Yunnan-Guizhou region. This made the Kangxi Emperor very unhappy, so Kangxi planned to cut the domain.
So he summoned the general soldiers Bao, Qi Long, Zhi Fu, Zu Fa, Hui, Ping Zhen and other troops to rebel, and called himself the King of Zhou to recruit the Grand Marshal of Soldiers and Horses. Grow hair, easy to wear, white color, and ride with white as a hat. Li Xingyuan, the prefect Gao Xianchen, and Liu Kun, who knew Liu Kun, were not three Gui Qu, had Chu poison, and were placed on the miasma. Guozhu and the generals Du Hui and Ke Duo, and the envoy Cui Zhiying all surrendered. --- Draft History of the Qing Dynasty
The plan to cut the domain reached the ears of Wu Sangui, Geng Jingzhong, Shang Zhixin and others, where would they agree? Originally, he had told the Shunzhi Emperor, including Dorgon, that Empress Xiaozhuang could also testify, how could the Kangxi Emperor say that he would turn his face and turn his face?
For this reason, San Francisco held a meeting together, among the three domains, Wu Sangui's sphere of influence was the widest, and the soldiers and horses were the most majestic, so it was basically Wu Sangui who was in charge.
Wu Sangui had a hard time betraying the Ming Dynasty to have today's glory, and he naturally did not want to be deprived of all this, so San Francisco discussed it and wanted to revolt together. Among them, Shang Zhixin put his father Shang Kexi, who did not intend to start a military, under house arrest, and only then did he have the opportunity to start an army.
02 San Francisco uprising, the provinces responded, the road to the Northern Expedition was smooth.
After the news of the joint uprising of San Francisco came out, anti-Qing forces from other places also joined their ranks. These included Wang Fuchen of Shaanxi, Sun Yanling of Guangxi, and Zheng Jing, the son of Zheng Chenggong.
Huge alliances:
These people united and went north together, and the strength was so great that the Kangxi Emperor could never have predicted it. Among them, Geng Jingzhong killed the governor of Fujian, Fan Chengmo, sent troops to Jiangxi and Zhejiang, and agreed with Zheng Jinghui to attack guangdong.
Wu Sangui's power was even stronger, and his uprising was supported by Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan, and Shaanxi.
In the north, he instigated Wang Fuchen to raise an army, and in the south he led a large army to invade Hunan and came straight to Hubei.
At that time, parts of Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan, Hunan, and Hubei all fell into the hands of Wu Sangui.
Fujian, Jiangxi, southern Anhui, southern Zhejiang, and eastern Guangdong fell into the hands of Geng Jingzhong and Zheng Jing.
In addition, Guangxi was in the hands of Sun Yanling, and later fell into the hands of Wu Sangui, and most of Guangdong was in the hands of Shang Zhixin
The entire Great Northwest was under the control of Wang Fuchen, so the territory that the Qing court could control was very limited.
The most worrying thing is that san francisco's power is almost enough to occupy the entire area south of the Yangtze River. If the capital south of the Yangtze River became the territory of San Francisco, then Kangxi would really have to move the capital to Guanwai.
Sangui sent a letter to Pingnan and Jingnan Erhuan, as well as to the generals and acquaintances of Guizhou, Sichuan, Huguang, and Shaanxi, and asked them to respond to the offer. Sending Ma Bao's troops forward to Guiyang, Li Ben responded with deep planning. Wen Kunchi wrote to Cai Yurong, the governor of Sichuan Lake, and told Erken and Fu Dali to return to the capital from the party affairs ceremony of GuanLangzhong, The Outer Lang Samuha, the chief Xin Zhu, and the pen-ti-style Saltusu to return to the capital to report the change. --- Draft History of the Qing Dynasty
Obviously, the initial stage of the Northern Expedition under the leadership of Wu Sangui was very smooth, basically belonging to the state of looking forward to the wind. Except for the people and horses of the Eight Banners of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, not many soldiers and horses would fight Wu Sangui to the end.
The route taken by Wu Sangui is divided into two roads:
All the way in Yunnan and Guizhou, they met to attack Lizhou, Changde, Yuezhou, Changsha and other places in Hunan.
After occupying all of Hunan, Wu Sangui led his troops north and came straight to Hubei.
The other way is from Yunnan, marching into Sichuan, arriving in Chengdu to meet the local forces, and then heading straight for Baoning
。 He then captured Hanzhong and marched on Longyou. Thus seizing the entire Guanzhong region.
03 Kangxi divided San Francisco and Wang Fuchen, and the main force besieged the Hubei region.
Forced to stop Wu Sangui:
Kangxi reacted immediately to this, and the Qing army was basically all hoarded in Jingzhou, Yichang, Wuchang and other places in Hubei, where they planned to prevent Wu Sangui from crossing the river north.
However, the southeast, southwest, and northwest were full of soldiers and horses, and the Qing court could not cope with it at all. Kangxi planned to march directly south to Jingxiang, then Wang Fuchen in the northwest would have the opportunity to march directly from Shaanxi to Beijing.
Summoning his grandson Shi Fan in Yunnan, he did not arrive, Andi, Sangui died. Bao and Guozhu attacked Yongxing Fang anxiously, smelled the mourning, set themselves on fire, and led the army back to Hengzhou. Shi Bian (世璠), Ying Xiong Shuzi (應熊庶子), stayed in Yunnan, and the funeral of Ben Sangui (帔三桂) went to Guiyang, where he was proclaimed emperor and renamed Honghua , relying on Fang Guangchen and Guo Zhuangtu as his heart. Guang Chen, a scholar of the Sangui Institute, Zhuang Tu, was the Duke of Fengguo. --- Draft History of the Qing Dynasty
If you stick to Jingxiang, then it is equivalent to ceding the entire Jiangnan region to Wu Sangui and others. The Kangxi Emperor, who was embarrassed, fell into contemplation, and he had to come up with a way to defeat the enemy on all sides with a pair of fists.
At this time, the Kangxi Emperor showed his very high strategic wisdom, it seems that there are opponents in all directions, in fact, the real opponent is only Wu Sangui.
As long as Wu Sangui was defeated, then these other little minions would naturally fall in the wind. These people all watched Wu Sangui's face and ate, so Kangxi made up his mind to storm Hunan.
Divide the Wu Sangui Allies:
The main army was all placed in the Hunan region to mediate with Wu Sangui's main army, so the Qing army crossed the Yangtze River and went straight to Wu Sangui to fight with it in Hunan.
Since then, Wu Sangui has stopped in Hunan and does not dare to cross the river to fight a decisive battle with the Qing army. It was this failed decision that allowed Kangxi to divide Wu Sangui's allies one by one.
In the 15th year of Kangxi, Kangxi appointed Tu Hai as the general of Fuyuan and went straight to Shaanxi to encircle and suppress Wang Fuchen.
As a result, Wang Fuchen, with his troops trapped and without reinforcements, could only choose to surrender to the Qing court again.
In the 15th year of Kangxi, Kangxi appointed Jieshu the Prince of Kang as a general ordered to march into Fujian, and won many battles, while Zheng Jing plundered Geng Jingzhong's territory behind his back.
In desperation, Geng Jingzhong simply surrendered to the Qing court and helped the Qing court attack Shang Zhixin.
In the 15th year of the Kangxi Dynasty, seeing that Wang Fuchen and Geng Jingzhong surrendered successively, Shang Zhixin of Guangdong surrendered to the Qing Dynasty because of Wu Sangui's extortion of military salaries.
In this way, the strength of San Francisco is actually only the strength of Wu Sangui, a king of the clan.
After that, the Qing army concentrated its large army to severely damage Wu Sangui in Changsha, Yuezhou and other places, and launched a long-term tug-of-war with each other.
In the 17th year of the Kangxi Dynasty, the 67-year-old Wu Sangui hurriedly ascended the throne in Hengzhou, founded the Founding of the Great Zhou, and died of illness in the same year.
The leaderless Northern Expeditionary Army was devastated and eventually wiped out by Kangxi.
At the end of the 20th year of the Kangxi Dynasty, with the news of the suicide of Wu Sangui's grandson Wu Shipan, the Northern Expedition was completely declared a failure. It can be said that Wu Sangui's stay in the area south of the Yangtze River gave Kangxi plenty of time to fight back.
01 Can't pass the Xiucai, Hong Xiuquan learned the missionary uprising.
Hong Xiuquan is a relatively intelligent person, but his wisdom is not used in reading, he has only failed to pass the exam three times, but he has his own experience in preaching.
After Landing Xiucai became a missionary master, he co-founded his own religion of worship of God with Feng Yunshan and others, and called himself the second son of God, and the eldest son was Jesus, and some people had already been selected.
After that, Yang Xiuqing, Xiao Chaogui, Wei Changhui and others joined in, becoming a huge organization with a scale of more than 2,000 people, which was the prototype of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
In the 30th year of Daoguang, Hong Xiuquan decided to revolt against the Qing Dynasty, and gradually gathered a large number of worshippers in Jintian Village, Guangxi. By December of the first year of Xianfeng, the huge Jintian Uprising had broken out.
This is another rebel organization attacking from the southwest corner to the north, after experiencing the San Francisco Uprising, in fact, the Qing court did not have much fear of the rebel army in the south, on the contrary, they had their own set of response mechanisms.
As soon as this side revolted, the Qing court had already sent Li Xingyuan, the minister of Chincha, to suppress it. Moreover, the local military strength in Guangxi was still relatively sufficient, and the Qing court was very confident in it.
02 Taiping Army March route: Guangxi, Hunan, Hubei, Jiangxi all the way to Nanjing.
Suddenly, Hong Xiuquan's voice was huge:
Wan Wan did not expect that there were capable people in Hong Xiu's whole army, and although Yang Xiuqing had not read any books, his ability to understand the art of war was very strong. Therefore, the soldiers and horses in Guangxi could not suppress the Taiping Army at all, but were severely damaged by the Taiping Army.
After conquering the city of Yong'an Prefecture, Hong Xiuquan decided to repair the troops here and establish a corresponding administrative system to better command the whole army.
Xianfeng 2 years, has been in Yong'an Prefecture City for half a year, Hong Xiuquan finally decided to break through. Regardless of oh, this breakthrough was very tragic, almost all the people were soldiers, regardless of men, women and children, all went to the battlefield.
Xiu Quan drove a dragon boat, a tree yellow flag, a column of giant cannons, and thirty-six lights at night, he said that the ship was, dozens of miles of fire and light like day, so the east went down, November, trapped Hanyang. In December, wuchang was attacked. When Yang Xiuqing commanded the army, Li Kaifang, Lin Fengxiang, and Luo Gang were in charge of military affairs. When the winter water of the Second River in Wuhan dried up, the captive boats were used as pontoon bridges, and the ring was directly connected to the provincial capital with iron cables, and they were attacked by separate doors. --- Draft History of the Qing Dynasty
After the successful breakthrough, in April, Hong Xiuquan led troops to attack Guilin, Guangxi. After a month of fighting, he could not fight, so he had to continue to go north to lay down the whole state. Using this as a springboard, Hong Xiuquan planned to pass through Hunan and come straight to Hubei.
Unfortunately, in the Battle of Ziyidu, the Taiping Army suffered heavy losses, and Hong Xiuquan's most important comrade-in-arms Feng Yunshan was unfortunately killed. Hong Xiuquan had no choice but to change the waterway to land and enter the Hunnan region from the east bank of the Xiang River.
At the end of The Xianfeng Dynasty, Hong Xiuquan occupied Daozhou, and the time came to decide the future fate of the Taiping Army, because Yang Xiuqing had set a strategic route for the Taiping Army.
Yang Xiuqing's genius strategic deployment, transferred to Nanjing:
Yang Xiuqing believed that after marching into Hunan, he continued to go north into Hubei, and after capturing Hubei, he went straight east to the city of Nanjing, thus occupying a large area in the south.
This made certain changes to Wu Sangui's battle plan. Wu Sangui had been facing the Qing army in the Hubei region for a long time and missed the fighter.
However, Yang Xiuqing's idea completely solved the problem of not being able to cross the river to the north in a short period of time. After occupying Nanjing, the materials in the Jiangnan region could be used by them, and the Taiping Army could survive for a long time.
The city that could not be defeated was directly bypassed, and the final destination was to conquer Hubei and then advance into the city of Nanjing.
At the same time, the Taiping Army also formed a water army in Yuezhou, and the amphibious operations went straight to Hubei together.
In the 3rd year of Xianfeng, the Taiping Army conquered Wuchang as promised, and after that, there was no longer a force in the area south of the Yangtze River that could encircle and block the Taiping Army.
Hong Xiuquan led the land and water army from Wuchang to the east and headed straight for Nanjing.
Along the way, the Qing army basically fled in the wind, there was no opponent of the Taiping Army at all, Hong Xiuquan occupied Jiujiang and conquered Anqing.
On March 19, 2003 in Xianfeng, Hong Xiuquan conquered Nanjing.
He changed Nanjing to Tianjing and identified it as the capital of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. After that, the Qing forces in Zhenjiang, Yangzhou and other places in the east of Nanjing were purged.
Starting from Guangxi, passing through Hunan, Hubei, jiangxi, and thus reaching Nanjing, this route seems to be the road that the Northern Expeditionary Army should really take, and it is obvious that Yang Xiuqing's choice is very wise, at least occupying half of the southern part of the country in advance.
03 After drinking the Yangtze River, drunk and dreaming of death, thus missing the world.
After the establishment of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Hong Xiuquan, as the Heavenly King, began a life of drunken dreams and death. In addition to Hong Xiuquan, Yang Xiuqing, Wei Changhui and other people who started a business together have also become decayed.
The few incorruptible generals did not want to join the same stream, so there were differences within the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. At this time, the Taiping Army had already drunk the Yangtze River, and as long as it crossed the Yangtze River, it could start the next journey of the Northern Expedition.
Lu Jianying, the governor of Liangguang, led more than 20,000 troops and 1,500 ships to go up, and when he encountered Kou, he walked away without a fight, and the former army was completely destroyed, and Jianying returned to Jinling. Kou Bo went down the Jiujiang River, and the Military Commission abandoned the artillery battle, broke Anqing, and inspector Jiang Wenqing died. Kou seized the silver rice without counting, land and water, reached Jinling, built fortifications along the city for twenty-four, equipped with warships, and started the great victory of Xinzhou guan to the end of qizhou, attacked day and night, dug tunnels and destroyed the city, and the defenders collapsed. --- Draft History of the Qing Dynasty
Unexpectedly, within the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, there were tremendous changes at this time.
The contradictions between Hong Xiuquan and Yang Xiuqing and Wei Changhui gradually became apparent, especially after the outbreak of the Tianjing Incident, and the Taiping Army was in ruins.
After that, the Taiping Army collapsed, and no longer had the strength to cross the Yangtze River and compete with the Qing court.
After Hong Xiuquan brutally killed a group of old entrepreneurial generals, he wanted to cultivate young generals to restore their former vitality, but did not know that his opponents Zeng Guofan, Zuo Zongtang, Li Hongzhang and others did not give him this opportunity.
Before the destruction of Nanjing, Hong Xiuquan died, and in the 3rd year of Tongzhi, the commander of the Xiang Army, Zeng Guoquan, invaded the city of Nanjing, and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, which lasted for 14 years, was declared to be destroyed.
Summary: From the perspective of strategic deployment, Wu Sangui is not as good as Hong Xiuquan.
From a strategic point of view, these two people belong to the state of fifty steps and a hundred steps, because both people are drinking horses on the Yangtze River, suddenly stopped, and did not have the courage to march north.
Hong Xiuquan counted on the success of the Northern Expedition led by 20,000 horses led by Lin Fengxiang, Li Kaifang and others.
In fact, they were left alone to go deep, and Hong Xiuquan did not support the support forces, which showed that Hong Xiuquan had no intention of the Northern Expedition.
Wu Sangui was even more pitiful, and he hoped that Wang Fuchen of Shaanxi and Wu Zhimao of Sichuan would be able to take the land of Guanzhong into his pocket sooner.
However, he himself remained stationary in the Hubei region. As a result, Wang Fuchen fought alone, and finally surrendered.
Comparatively speaking, among these two people, Hong Xiuquan's strategic steps were stronger than Wu Sangui's. Hong Xiuquan had no northwest reinforcements, so he had to seize the rich land of Jiangnan as soon as possible as a foundation.
To this end, he took the city of Nanjing and received most of the taxes in the Jiangnan region. Wu Sangui, on the other hand, stagnated in Hubei and confronted the Qing army for many years, but did not think of dividing his troops to attack the Nanjing area.
Taking Jiangnan can not only make the southern clan kings unite as one, but also get powerful supplies. Unfortunately, Wu Sangui only focused on the long-term goal of Beijing, and his action ability could not keep up with this goal.
By the way, in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the military leader with a genius strategic concept was actually Yang Xiuqing himself, and going east to Nanjing was Yang Xiuqing's idea. If he could survive, the Taiping Army would not have been so defeated. It is often a power struggle that harms the overall strategy.
Resources:
Draft History of the Qing Dynasty