For Chinese, the feast is an indispensable part of life. Literati gather and communicate with each other, and what is placed is a banquet of literary meetings; the banquet of scholars, or the promotion of official positions, is a banquet of burning tails; the elderly and the elderly gather together, and they are placed in a feast of a thousand monks; and the one who hides the opportunity to kill and has bad intentions is the feast of the Hongmen Gate.
At that time, Xiang Yu held a grand banquet in Hongmen, on the outskirts of Xianyang, and specially invited Liu Bang to dinner in order to find an opportunity to assassinate Liu Bang, hence the name "Hongmen Banquet". Coincidentally, in the late Qing Dynasty, Li Hongzhang also staged a "Hongmen Banquet", 8 generals gladly went to the appointment, the result was that the dishes were not served, and the heads fell to the ground, this meal was also known as "the most difficult meal in the Qing Dynasty". So what really happened back then? Why did Li Hongzhang kill the 8 generals?
In the late Qing Dynasty, social unrest, corrupt feudal rule and heavy exploitation stimulated class contradictions again and again, and finally, the toiling masses who could not bear the torment revolted one after another, wanting to regain their rights and interests, in 1851 AD, Hong Xiuquan, a native of Fuyuanshui Village, Xinhua Town, HuaXian County, Guangdong (now Huadu District, Guangzhou), rose up, founded the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and officially opened an armed uprising against the Qing Dynasty, in just a few months, Hong Xiuquan received the support of tens of thousands of toiling masses. Then he captured more than 600 cities with lightning speed, shocking the government and the public.
In 1853, the Taiping Army ushered in its heyday, occupying almost half of the Qing court, and there was a trend of continued expansion, if this continued, the Taiping Army occupied the whole country is not difficult. However, the great joy of victory overwhelmed the minds of the leaders of the Taiping Army, and after they settled on Nanjing, they began to think of not thinking of making progress and indulging in a life of arrogance and lavishness, and Hong Xiuquan, Yang Xiuqing and others began to fight among themselves.
Li Hongzhang and others saw the situation, overjoyed, immediately seized the opportunity, led the army to launch an attack, successive victories, in September 1863, Li Hongzhang led the army to besiege Suzhou, and the town guarding Suzhou was the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom general Li Xiucheng.
After several battles, Li Xiucheng obviously felt the gap between the enemy and us, if he continued to fight in this way, Suzhou would definitely fall into the hands of Li Hongzhang, coupled with the internal chaos of the Ping Heavenly Kingdom today, morale was low, and retreating to preserve strength was the best choice, so Li Xiucheng proposed to retreat and abandon Suzhou.
However, Li Xiucheng's confidant General Tan Shaoguang stood up, he said that he "is bound to coexist and die with Suzhou", as soon as this remark came out, it immediately caused a commotion, Gao Yongkuan, Wang Anjun and other generals were not accustomed to Tan Shaoguang, seeing that everyone was about to be defeated by the Qing court, you also jumped out to say what "the situation and Suzhou coexist and die", you want to kill everyone? As a result, a group of people broke out into a fierce quarrel, Li Xiucheng could not take care of so much, and retreated first, while Tan Shaoguang, Gao Yongkuan and 9 other people continued to stay in Suzhou.
As soon as Li Hongzhang's spies discovered this situation, they immediately reported it to him, and Li Hongzhang knew that the opportunity had come. The next day, Li Hongzhang entrusted the former Taiping Heavenly Kingdom general Cheng Xueqi to make secret contact with Gao Yongkuan, and promised that as long as they surrendered, they would not be held responsible in the future, and the Qing court would reuse them.
On December 5, 1863, Gao Yongkuan held a "Hongmen Banquet", 8 of them "graciously invited" Tan Shaoguang to participate, Tan Shaoguang did not know, of course, he was happy to go to the banquet, as a result, he just sat down, he was cut by Wang Anjun, the other 7 people saw the situation, also immediately took out a knife to cut Tan Shaoguang, he died.
Afterwards, Gao Yongkuan cut off Tan Shaoguang's head and prepared to give it to Li Hongzhang, at the same time, Li Hongzhang also set up a "Hongmen Banquet" and invited 8 generals to participate, and Gao Yongkuan, who had just finished the "Hongmen Banquet", did not have the slightest doubt, and took the other 7 people to the banquet.
On December 6, Gao Yongkuan and 8 other people went to the banquet on time, everyone was smiling and smiling, imagining a better future, and when everyone was seated, Li Hongzhang immediately let the 8 Wu Ben (samurai military attaches) around him, holding the red-crowned flower plume official uniforms, sent to the 8 generals, Gao Yongkuan and the others looked at it, the heart was called a beauty, just ready to take over the official clothes, only to listen to a few sounds, 8 Wu Ben killed Gao Yongkuan and 8 other people with knives. Then they were shown to the public, and the Qing army quickly invaded the city and took Suzhou.