In the eventful autumn of 1960, the Qing Dynasty, which had just suppressed the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, ushered in the more humiliating Bali Bridge on September 21, and at the Bali Bridge on the outskirts of Beijing, the 17,000 Mongol cavalry led by Senggelinqin fought the fiercest battle with the Anglo-French coalition forces.
The brave and arrogant Mongol cavalry wielded sabers and launched wave after wave of attacks on the positions of the British and French allied forces that were waiting in strict positions, but under the intensive gunfire and terrible artillery bombardment of the invaders, the Qing army and horse team were almost completely destroyed, and more than 8,000 people died in the battle alone.
After the Collapse of the Qing Army, the Anglo-French army went straight to the Forbidden City in Beijing. The Xianfeng Emperor panicked and coerced his harem concubine "Northern Hunting" at the Chengde Summer Resort. In the end, the British and French troops rushed into the Yuanmingyuan, and after plundering, a fire burned the "Garden of Ten Thousand Gardens" into ruins. At a time when the Anglo-French coalition army was raging, why did the Xiang army of Zeng Guofan, the main force of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, not have the Qin King of Beijing, but sit back and watch the Jingshi being brutally poisoned by foreign races?
In fact, compared with the Eight Banners, Mongolians or Green Battalion soldiers, the Xiang Army, which was trained in the regiment, had a much higher position in the Manchu Qing army. This phenomenon can be seen only from the fact that the green battalion soldiers' uniforms are written as "soldiers", and the Xiang army uniforms are written as "brave", and people do not regard these temporary workers of the Xiang army as their own.
In the previous battles with the Taiping Army, it can also be concluded that the hard bones of the hard battles were fought by the Xiang Army first, and when it came time to pick the fruits of victory and take advantage of them, the Eight Banners and the Green Battalion were scrambling. In addition, the suspicion and suppression from Xianfeng was also one of the reasons why the Xiang army was not popular in the imperial court. Therefore, when the Jiangnan camp collapsed under the iron hooves of the Taiping Army, the Xiang Army was quite schadenfreude inside.
When the British and French allied soldiers pointed directly at Beijing, Zeng Guofan was storming Anqing, the last barrier of the Taiping Army, and seeing that the destruction of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was just around the corner, and the British and French coalition forces were sharp in their guns, Zeng Guofan was not willing to fail in his achievements, nor was he willing to take Laodice to feed the British and French coalition bullets. Therefore, Zeng Guofan said with "great righteousness" in an awe-inspiring manner: "If Yu Chen steals a high position and steals a false name, if he does not go to the difficulty of the king's father, he will not only regret the future, but also fear the ridicule of the world, and the success or failure will be blunt, and he will not dare to count it." ”
By September 6, outside Beijing, the Anglo-French forces were within easy reach, and just as Xianfeng and Zeng Guofan were bargaining, Senggelinqin's majestic horse team had been defeated at the Bali Bridge, and the Beijing division fell into the hands of the enemy. Only Prince Gong Yi, the "Devil Six" who remained in Beijing, presided over the peace talks with the invaders, and finally signed the "Beijing Treaty" that lost power and humiliated the country.
After the success of the peace, Zeng Guofan, who was in a wait-and-see state, saw that there was naturally no need to send troops to serve the king, and immediately stepped up the offensive against Anqing, and in July 1861, Anqing was broken, and more than 10,000 Taiping soldiers and civilians in the city were almost slaughtered, and the entire city was reduced to ruins. After the fall of Anqing, Zeng Guofan excitedly said: "Then the overall situation has the hope of redemption, and Jinling has a period of recovery!" ”