Since Chen Sheng and Wu Guang led more than 900 pawns to rise up in the first year of Qin II (that is, 209 BC), the peasant uprising war has become a kind of struggle against the feudal regime that has never been absent in China's nearly 2400 years of feudal history.
Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement
The historical topic that Xiaobian wants to discuss with you today is closely related to the largest peasant uprising "Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement" that broke out in the late Qing Dynasty (also in the middle of the 19th century). This peasant uprising began on January 11, 1851, when Hong Xiuquan gathered more than 20,000 people in Jintian Village, Guangxi Province, to establish the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and lasted until the fall of Nanjing City by qing forces on July 19, 1864, and finally failed after 14 years.
Heavenly Dynasty Field Mu System
However, although this vigorous anti-imperialist and anti-feudal peasant uprising failed, it had a great impact on the development of China's history. To put it simply, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement not only played a certain role in blocking the aggression of the great powers, but also directly caused a heavy blow to the already decaying Qing Dynasty. There are also many important ideological programs such as the "Heavenly Dynasty Tianmu System" advocated by the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, which has also aroused the deep thinking of countless revolutionaries in later generations.
Taiping Heavenly Kingdom stills
It is a pity that this huge peasant uprising war did not overthrow the rule of the late Qing regime in the end. As for the root cause of the ultimate failure of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement, in the final analysis, it was the limitations of the peasant class itself. Especially in the later stage of the war when the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement had already been defeated, the problem of the limitations of the peasant class itself was exposed.
Take the battle in September 1863 when the Qing army besieged the city of Suzhou, when the Qing army only relied on more than 20,000 soldiers and horses (equipped with artillery supported by the British and French powers), but finally slaughtered the Taiping Army of nearly 100,000 people in Suzhou. The problems exposed in this war involve many aspects of the limitations of the peasant class itself.
First of all, from the general course of this war.
Originally, the two sides had been in a stalemate confrontation, but since the Qing army began to attack Tianjing in October 1863, Li Xiucheng, who was stationed in Suzhou City, left Suzhou City to help Tianjing on Hong Xiuquan's orders. With Li Xiucheng away, the rest of the Taiping army kings stationed in Suzhou began to plan their own retreat at the moment.
Among them, the "Eight Kings" of the Taiping Army, led by Gao Yongkuan, knew that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, where Tianjing was in danger, was already a great trend, so they had the idea of sacrificing the city of Suzhou to surrender to the Qing army. Subsequently, the "Eight Kings" soon launched a mutiny in the city, and after Tan Shaoguang and other main warriors in the city were killed, his 10,000 Taiping army was also ruthlessly slaughtered.
Immediately after that, the "Eight Kings" of the Taiping Army immediately began to throw olive branches to the Qing army, and Li Hongzhang also said that he wanted to "treat" the 8 Taiping Army generals, and also set up a banquet in the camp to entertain them. Who knew that this banquet was actually a "Hongmen banquet", and the 8 sincere Taiping Army generals were arrested by the Qing army just after going to the banquet, and all died of waist beheading and torture.
Li
However, the matter did not end there, when these 8 "thieves" were all ambushed, Li Hongzhang ordered Cheng Xueqi to enter the city and issue a notice. It probably means: "The eight kings were accused of surrendering, and had nothing to do with those who sincerely surrendered in the city, and if anyone wanted to resist, they would be killed without mercy, and if they were willing to disband on the spot, they would be paid to return to their hometowns." ”
Stills of the Qing Army
For a time, the leaderless Soldiers of the Taiping Army were all pardoned, and soon laid down their weapons and went out of the city with them at the request of the Qing army. But they could never have imagined that the Qing army outside the city was already waiting in a strict position, and then a unilateral massacre initiated by the Qing army began. The whole of Suzhou instantly turned into hell, and the corpses of Taiping Soldiers were piled up everywhere.
According to incomplete statistics, more than 200,000 people were killed in this massacre, of which in addition to the 70,000 Taiping Soldiers, most of them were their families and innocent refugees who fled here. The Qing army wantonly killed innocents without asking questions, and even the British could not bear to look at it. Gordon, the leader of the Yankees who witnessed the massacre at the time, expressed strong dissatisfaction with the Qing army's move.
Second, from the point of view of the causes of this massacre.
The first point is that it is because it was seduced by the Qing army.
In other words, all this was due to a lie by Li Zhongtang (that is, Li Hongzhang) who gave preferential treatment to the prisoners, and this false promise was also the direct cause of the massacre.
The second point is that after the "Eight Kings" have exhausted their numbers, the soldiers in the city have no leader and can only go with the flow.
After all, the vast majority of the soldiers of the Taiping Army were of the lower peasant class, and once these people had no leader, the selfish nature of each person would be exposed. Even if they go out of the city and find that the situation is not right, everyone thinks of running for their lives (it is impossible to organize effective resistance in a short period of time). Therefore, the Taiping Army, which originally had the superiority in troop strength, would be easily slaughtered by more than 20,000 Qing troops.
The third point is the limitation of the peasant class itself.
These rebel armies, composed of peasants and low-level citizens, simply do not have a firm revolutionary will, and they mostly choose to protect their own interests when they encounter a critical situation. Therefore, when the "Eight Kings" felt that the general trend of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom had gone, they soon developed the idea of surrendering the city.
However, they still underestimated the determination of the Qing army to suppress the taiping heavenly kingdom forces, so no matter whether the last 70,000 soldiers killed were defeated or directly surrendered, the Qing army would wipe them all out. Only pity these more than 200,000 people who were slaughtered tragically, in fact, more than 100,000 people are innocent and killed. I have to say that the Qing army's move is indeed a little too cruel.