Wen | Zhao Guren
In 1862, Chen Yucheng, a general in the middle and late period of the Taiping Army, was escorted by Miao Xiulin to the Qing army camp, and the "Chronicle of captivity" records that Miao tied up the British king Chen Yucheng and sent them to Shengbao. When Chen Yucheng knelt down. Chen Yucheng scolded and said, "Ersheng child, the first wrong country in the demon dynasty." The president was the founding father of the country in the Heavenly Dynasty, and the president washed Hubei three times, nine times under the Jiangnan, and ran when he saw the battle. At the Twenty-fifth Battalion of Baiyun Mountain, the whole army was destroyed, and Er led more than ten horses to hold their heads, and I told you to spare your life. How can I be worthy of kneeling on you? Good not to be self-respecting objects! Shengbao wanted to summon him, and Chen Yucheng drank, "If the eldest husband dies, he will die, and He Rap will also!"
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This scene is the final toughness of the first figure of the late Taiping Army.
Although he was only 26 years old at the time of his death, he had already become famous in the world and became a rare military expert among the Taiping Army at that time.
Although ultimately defeated, Chen Yucheng broke two hitherto unsurpassed records in military history. At the age of fourteen, Chen Yucheng also wanted to change his fate of poverty and orphans through the imperial examination, but he was brushed off when he took the boy exam.
Therefore, in the taiping army Jintian Village to participate in the Boy Scouts soon, when fighting with the army, brave and clever, ascending to the high and wading in danger, such as walking on the ground, coupled with short stature, quick movements, a white face under the two eyes have a black spot, so it seems to be particularly eye-catching, by the Qing army called "four-eyed dog". Although there were many boy scouts in the Taiping Army, no one could be reused as quickly as Chen Yucheng.
At the age of sixteen, he was promoted to the canonical holy food of the Fourth Left Army, equivalent to the supervision army, but he did not want to do this kind of logistical management, and took the initiative to ask to fight on the front line. In the following year, due to military merit, he was promoted to the thirty checkpoints on the right side of the palace and entered the senior command level of the Taiping Army.
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Before and after the Tianjing Incident, Chen Yucheng had already been promoted to the rank of Winter Official Zhengxiang for his continuous military achievements, and after Shi Da's departure, a large number of generals followed him, which led to an emergency situation in Hong Xiuquan's Tianjing that no one could use. After recommendation, coupled with his previous outstanding military achievements, Chen Yucheng was appointed as the former military commander in charge and became the third in command, while the front of him was only to manage internal affairs and did not know how to fight, in fact, Chen Yucheng became the supreme front commander of the Tianping Army. Li Xiucheng, who was fourteen years older than him, was appointed as his subordinate, equivalent to four chiefs, and the two jointly presided over military affairs, and Chen Yucheng was only twenty years old.
Becoming the commander-in-chief of the whole army at such an age may be a rare example in Chinese and foreign history. Ganluo was a teenager as a secretary of state, that is a civilian official. At the beginning of Zheng Chenggong's rebellion against the Qing Dynasty and the restoration of the Ming Dynasty, he was very young, and he was also twenty-two years old. 16-year-old Chen Yucheng led 500 people to climb the city during the siege of Wuchang, and was the first to kill the city wall, so the first merit was promoted to "thirty checkpoints on the right side of the temple".
thereafter. On the Battlefield of Jiujiang. He used to lure the enemy deeper, cooperate with Lin Qirong to hold the Jiujiang River, and contain the main force of the Xiang Army, so that Shi Dakai achieved the complete annihilation of the Zeng Guofan Water Division at Poyang Lake, almost rewriting modern history.
Portrait of Zeng Guofan
In 1856, the Qing army formed an encirclement of Jiangnan and Jiangbei camps, Chen Yucheng and Li Yucheng in Zhenjiang to achieve the qing army encirclement, forcing the Qing dynasty general Gil Hang'a to collapse the army, and finally forced to commit suicide, after that, Chen Yucheng swept through the Qing army in Jiangnan like a hanging, once again leading to the front line Qin Cha Xiangrong forced to commit suicide.
In 1858, Chen Yucheng broke through the Jiangbei camp, opened the water blockade, and conquered the key gap of Liuhe, followed by consecutive defeats with the Twist army, and at the end of this year, an important "Three Rivers Campaign" was fought, which completely annihilated more than 6,000 people of the Xiang Army, resulting in the suicide of Li Xubin, the first general of the Xiang Army.
In 1859, Chen Yucheng was the first king of the Hong family for his military achievements. Hong Xiuquan also clearly announced, "Ask the king about unresolved matters outside Beijing." Chen Yucheng's position as commander in the army was officially affirmed again, when he was only twenty-two years old.
Even Li Xiucheng, who was also appointed deputy commander- at the same time, had no objection to his position as commander-in-chief, and no one else from the other generals expressed dissatisfaction.
He was not Hong Xiuquan's imperial relative, and his origin was extremely low, so he created two "Guinness World Records", and in only seven years, he became the number one person in the Taiping Army from an ordinary big head soldier, and had to be said to be a great strength player. ”。 The Qing intelligence material "Compilation of Thieves' Feelings" described it as " Yucheng sacrificed his life to fight hard, besieged the city and trapped the front, corrected the shortcuts and ascended first, and was the most hateful of the thieves." Zeng Guofan often called Chen Yu a "four-eyed dog" and "dog rebel" in his diaries and family letters, and even said: "Since the Han and Tang Dynasties, there has not been such a thief. ”
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It can be seen that Chen Yucheng did cause strong pressure on the Qing army.
So why did Chen Yucheng quickly go to his demise after that? What is the reason for this? In the final analysis, is it Hong Xiuquan's blind command, or Chen Yucheng's misjudgment that he is too young? Or Zeng Guofan's strategic determination is more superb.
Fighting for the Anqing case, soon Chen Yucheng quickly slipped down, what is the reason for hiding?
Zeng Guofan's strategic determination was to take Anqing with an iron heart, and Chen Yucheng, in accordance with hong Xiuquan's command, launched a "siege of Wei to save Zhao" and finally failed, resulting in Chen Yucheng eventually going to ruin.
In the compromise, he reported the overall strategy and deployment to the Qing court: "Since the thieves of the ancient Pingjiang River, they will be able to succeed in the upstream trend and build a downward trend." "The Anqing First Army, which is currently related to the overall situation of Huainan, will be the foundation of the Restoration of Jinling in the future." This minister repeatedly pondered the fact that the siege of Anqing City could not be withdrawn. ”
"Now that the thief is blazing, the people's hearts are shocked, but the firmness of the foothold is no matter how much the atmosphere grows." Hu Linyi cooperated with Zeng Guofan, and the two agreed to use the "siege and reinforcement" tactics to carry out a comprehensive response.
Hulin Wing
As the first general of Anqing, Zeng Guoquan said, "In every day and night of bitter fighting, tens of thousands of thieves and thousands of people died, and more than 100 people died in our army, using 170,000 kilograms of gunpowder and 500,000 kilograms of lead." "The Diary of Being Able to Live Quietly" shows that this war was extremely cruel and fierce.
The Taiping Army clearly realized the extreme danger of Zeng Guofan's strategy, so it concentrated a large number of superior forces and launched a "siege of Wei to save Zhao" in an attempt to force Zeng Guofan to divide his troops or shift his strategy. Attacking Hangzhou first, he was surprised, returned to the division to attack the Qing army's Jiangnan camp, and took advantage of the victory to pursue, taking Suzhou Changzhou, and Jiangnan was all in the hands of the Taiping Army.
Jiangsu and Zhejiang had always been the main source of taxation and grain supply for the Qing government, so the Qing Dynasty was very worried about the gains and losses of Su and Hangzhou, and ordered Zeng Guofan to abandon his plan to besiege Anqing, go east to rescue Su and Chang, and said that "for the sake of the present, I think defending Su Chang is the first priority."
At the insistence of Zeng Guofan, Zeng Guoquan's Xiang army spared no effort to solve the siege of Anqing.
As Zeng Guofan expected, Chen Yucheng's attack on Wuhan was blocked, and he had to directly return to the division to rescue Anqing, tossing and turning back and forth, but instead gave the Xiang army the best opportunity, and finally the Taiping army not only failed to relieve the siege of Anqing, Chen Yucheng was also captured on the way to the battle.
Previously, in order to establish the prestige of his brother Hong Rengui, Hong Xiuquan adopted Hong Rengui's policy. It turned out that Hong Rengui had not made any meritorious achievements, and as soon as he arrived in Nanjing, Hong Xiuquan made him a thousand kings, and he was in charge of the leadership, and the premier Chao Gang, that is, the second in command. But the Taiping Army officials were not convinced. Therefore, Hong Xiuquan was anxious to let him make a meritorious contribution, and the tree was famous and powerful. Out of this mentality, he adopted Hong Renjie's battle plan, "first take Su (prefecture), Chang (prefecture), and then attack Hubei." This plan is not without reason. The problem is that Li Xiucheng did not approve of "attacking Hubei later" in his heart, and Chen Yucheng's stay away from Anqing, which must be protected by Gongwei Nanjing, appeared to be "Guo Wei saving Zhao" on the surface, in order to fight Hubei to relieve the pressure on Anqing, but in fact it was a way to take far water to save the thirst of the near world.
Hong Renjie
Zeng Guofan's strategic vision is far above that of Hong Renkai, who can only talk about fantasies. He just ate and lived in Anqing to death, and Hubei didn't care much about gains and losses.
However, Hong Xiuquan insisted on following Hong Renjie's plan and ordered Chen Yucheng and Li Xiucheng to march west to Hubei. Because Li Xiucheng was not resolute, the Chen and Li armies did not coordinate well. And because Chen Yucheng was ignorant of the situation in Hubei and was afraid of the interference of the "foreign brothers", Wuhan was at his fingertips, but he did not dare to attack and lost the fighter. Therefore, not only did this western expedition gain nothing, but it left An Wei empty, and An Qing was extremely critical. When Chen Yucheng was tired of running for his life and led his army back to rescue Anqing, Zeng Guofan was ready for a strategic decisive battle. At this time, Hong Xiuquan sent Hong Renjiu and Lin Shaozhang, a group of cronies, to support Chen Yucheng. As a result, not only could not the siege of Anqing be solved, but the rescue army was first crushed, Anqing was occupied by the Qing army, and Chen Yucheng's elite was lost. The loss of Anqing, the loss of Nanjing's upstream arch guard, but also the loss of an important grain supply base. Chen Yucheng's army was almost completely destroyed, and the combat effectiveness and morale of the Taiping Army were severely damaged. The fiasco that affected the overall situation this time was mainly the responsibility of Hong Xiuquan, and secondly, it was Chen Yucheng's turn.
But Hong Xiuquan always pretended to be wise and correct. After Chen Yucheng retired from Anqing to Luzhou, Hong Xiuquan, instead of taking responsibility and coming up with a way to deal with the aftermath, instead sternly reprimanded and dismissed him. This actually sent Chen Yucheng to his death. His subordinates advised Chen Yucheng to return to Nanjing in the hope of regrouping, but he was unwilling and did not dare to return to Nanjing.
Unwillingly, he was very conceited and proud, thinking that he was a hero in the world, and refused to admit that he had lost this battle. I didn't dare, because I was afraid that Hong Xiuquan's brothers would be punished, and they would lose the opportunity to lead the troops to fight, and even be thrown out as a scapegoat and killed. There was no grain in Luzhou and could not be defended, and the letter to the three northern people and horses was like a stone sinking into the sea, so they did not listen to the advice of their subordinates and came to Shouzhou to find Miao Peilin. This Miao Peilin, Chen Yucheng also once promoted him as a high-ranking official of the Taiping Army, there were illusions about him, it can be said that after all, his youth was insufficient, but he had secretly trapped himself on the orders of the Qing Dynasty minister Shengbao. As soon as he arrived in Shouzhou, he was arrested. As a result, on the way to Beijing, the Qing court was afraid of being robbed, and ordered him to be executed, when he was only twenty-five years old.
Chen Yucheng's fatal weakness may lie in the youthful vigor of young people, which eventually leads to the misjudgment of the situation of immature strategy.
Chen Yucheng was brave and good at fighting, bravely and bravely, and led the way for his subordinates, winning more and losing less, achieving outstanding battle achievements, and having a high prestige in the Taiping Army. However, from an overall point of view, due to the low level of education, the lack of a broad spiritual vision, and the poor overall situation, the vanguard combat general is undoubtedly outstanding, and there are obvious defects in serving as commander-in-chief. He did not oppose Hongren Khan's plan for a western expedition, failed to coordinate and unify with Li Xiucheng when he sent troops, and hesitated when he advanced into the Wu 8 Han Dynasty; The strategic decisive battle to save Anqing and the failure to get the coordination of Li Xiucheng and Li Shixian showed that he was not a suitable commander.
Zeng Guofan played the fold
Not listening to the advice of his subordinates, he went to Miao Peilin's camp to throw himself into the net, showing that he was too conceited, inaccurate in his self-positioning, and unable to listen to different opinions. He counted down and ridiculed Katsuho's words, although he was full of great husbandhood, but he revealed the emotions of intoxication and arrogance and overconfidence of his own often victorious victories. As commander-in-chief, he has all kinds of limitations and shortcomings, and sooner or later he will fail and be killed. His premature defeat in 1862 was due, in addition to his own reasons, but also because of Hong Xiuquan's objective harm. If Hong Xiuquan had not insisted on marching west according to Hong Renjie's suggestion, Chen Yucheng would not have lost Anqing and had nowhere to stand. If it were not for Hong Xiuquan's stern rebuke and dismissal after the fall of Anqing, Chen Yucheng could have returned to Nanjing and tried to regroup, without having to go to Shouzhou to find Miao Peilin and throw himself into the net. Therefore, Hong Xiuquan led to the early death of Chen Yucheng, and Chen Yucheng, a young general, was like a dog that lost his family, with nowhere to take in, and eventually slipped away like a meteor in a hurry.