Li Xiucheng listed the "Ten Mistakes" of the Fall of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in the Book of Self-Description, of which the first three mistakes were related to the Northern Expedition. They were: Lin Fengxiang and Li Kaifang's Northern Expedition; Zeng Lichang reinforced the Northern Expedition; and Qin Rigang reinforced the Northern Expedition again. It can be seen from this that the Northern Expedition in Li Xiucheng's eyes was definitely a major strategic failure, the first of the "Ten Mistakes", and an important factor in the demise of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
In terms of the number of troops, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom had more than 1 million armed forces at its peak, and its scale was very large. When nanjing was invaded, the veterans and recruits of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, totaling 200,000, were not to be underestimated. At this time, the Northern Expedition also lost 20,000 soldiers and horses, why did Li Xiucheng say that it was the first of the "ten mistakes"?
01
The Northern Expedition is an elite veteran, a super tough general, and the losses cannot be repaired
As the saying goes, "the soldiers are fine but not many", the 20,000 people lost by the Northern Expedition are all elites in hundreds of battles, and they are strong troops from Guangxi and Hunan that have fought all the way, and they are not comparable to the millions of troops recruited by Li Xiucheng in the later period. At the time of the Jintian Uprising, the Taiping Army and its families were more than 20,000 people; in the Battle of Yidu, thousands of people were lost and their vitality was injured. When entering Hunan, the miners and the Heaven and Earth Association were armed, and the Taiping Army regained momentum, with a fighting force of 60,000.
The 20,000 people dispatched by the Northern Expedition, some from Guangxi and mostly from Hunan, were veterans of the Hundred Wars. At this time, 60,000 elite soldiers lost 20,000, missing a third, and naturally they were seriously injured. In addition, Lin Fengxiang and Li Kaifang are absolute fierce generals, second only to Luo Gang, often acting as pioneers and fierce. Lin Fengxiang and Li Kaifang were delayed, and this loss was really difficult to make up.
02
The Elite Soldiers of the Western King were completely killed, Yang Xiuqing's family was dominant, and the power structure was unbalanced
20,000 veterans are the elite of hundreds of battles, Lin Fengxiang, Li Kaifang, Ji Wenyuan, etc. are invincible generals, but they all have an "identity". That is to say, the attributes are the same, they are all under the gui of the Western King Xiao Dynasty. It can be said that the 20,000 elites sacrificed in the Northern Expedition were all the armed forces of the Western King, and this had a great impact.
Xiao Chaogui and Yang Xiuqing, the most powerful princes in the early Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, often competed with each other. For example, Xiao Chaogui played "Heavenly Brother Xia Fan" and executed Yang Xiuqing Yue Fei Chen Lai; Yang Xiuqing played "Heavenly Father Under Fan" and engaged in ambiguity with Hong Xuanjiao, the wife of the Western King. The Eastern And Western Kings fought fiercely, but they were also evenly matched, thus maintaining an internal balance of power.
At this time, Xiao Chaogui had already died in Changsha, and the generals under the Western King, such as Ke Luo, Lin Fengxiang, Li Kaifang, and Ji Wenyuan, all supported the Heavenly King (Xiao Chaogui's brother-in-law) and could resist the Eastern King. The Western King's soldiers and horses were completely lost, and Yang Xiuqing's family was the only one, and no one could compete with it. In this way, the imbalance of the internal power structure laid hidden dangers for the outbreak of the Tianjing Incident.
03
He lost the opportunity to blitz Yanjing and overthrow the Qing Dynasty, and could no longer carry out the Northern Expedition
In May 1853, 20,000 veterans of the Taiping Army went north to the north, and arrived in Tianjin in October, frightening the Xianfeng Emperor. The fact that 20,000 troops have been rampaging for more than a thousand miles in half a year, attacking the Central Plains as if they were in no man's land, is enough to show that the Qing Dynasty at this time has been quite decayed, and the military defense situation in the north is also very bad. Indeed, when Lin Fengxiang and Li Kaifang arrived in Tianjin, the Xianfeng Emperor cobbled together two legions, Shengbao and Senggelinqin, totaling more than 50,000 people.
Even these 50,000 soldiers and horses, some of which were transferred from the three eastern provinces and Mongolia, could not stop the Northern Expeditionary Army, and it was only because the logistical supplies could not keep up that Lin Fengxiang and Li Kaifang were forced to withdraw their troops. At this time, if the Taiping Army went all out to the north and there was no problem in overthrowing the Qing Dynasty, whether it could unify the whole country was another question.
However, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom missed the opportunity, lost 20,000 veterans, and also made the Qing Dynasty pay attention to the defense of the north. Since then, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom has never had the opportunity to go north again, and until its demise, it was still fighting in the Jiangnan area, and it did not become a climate.
04
Zeng Guofan took advantage of the situation to set up the Xiang Army, and eventually overthrew the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom
The defeat of the Northern Expedition was not just about losing 20,000 elite soldiers. Zeng Guofan took the opportunity to build the Xiang Army and form a new type of armed force, which was the biggest loss of the Northern Expedition. In June 1853, the Taiping Army marched west, swept across the two lakes, and seized many bases in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River. In April 1854, Lin Shaozhang suffered a crushing defeat at Xiangtan, Zeng Guofan was desperate, and the Xiang army also avoided stillbirth and thrived.
So, why did Lin Shaozhang fail miserably? In addition to the command mistakes, it had a lot to do with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom division of troops. In order to reinforce the Northern Expedition battlefield, Yang Xiuqing twice drew troops from the battlefield of the Western Expedition and the Battlefield of Tianjing, and even abandoned Yangzhou. Unfortunately, the troops reinforcing the Northern Expedition were also completely annihilated due to Zeng Lichang's command error.
It can be imagined that if Lin Fengxiang, Li Kaifang, Ji Wenyuan and other tough generals were allowed to command 20,000 veterans to march west without dividing the troops into northern expeditions, could the Xiang army still rise? Perhaps in the first confrontation, the Xiang army was crippled, and Zeng Guofan's plan to organize and train the Xiang army came to an end.
In summary, the 20,000 elite soldiers of the Western King lost by the Northern Expedition lost the opportunity to blitz Yanjing and seize the Central Plains; it led to an imbalance in the internal power structure, laying hidden dangers for the Tianjing Incident; and zeng Guofan had a good environment for the establishment of the Xiang Army, and finally extinguished the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement. In this regard, Li Xiucheng said that the Northern Expedition was the first of the "ten mistakes", which had its own reason.
Bibliography: Li Xiucheng's Self-Description