The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement arose in Jintian Village, Guangxi, and then under the leadership of Hong Xiuquan, Yang Xiuqing, Shi Dakai, Xiao Chaogui and others, after two years, they went all the way north to conquer the city of Nanjing, and established the capital here, and the huge Taiping Army greatly shocked the Qing Dynasty court. After the capital Tianjing was established, Hong Xiuquan and Yang Xiuqing ordered Lin Fengxiang and Li Kaifang, two young generals, to lead the Northern Expedition of more than 20,000 Taiping Generals with high morale.
After the Northern Expeditionary Army set out from Nanjing, it entered the territory of Anhui, and under the leadership of Li Kaifang and Lin Fengxiang, the Taiping Army conquered Chuzhou, Linhuaiguan, Fengyang, Bozhou and other places, and then the Taiping Army entered the Henan territory, and after crossing the Yellow River, the Taiping Army came to the city of Huaiqingfu.
Due to their remoteness from the base area of Nanjing, coupled with the siege and plunder of the land along the way, these Taiping Army officers of the Northern Expedition had long been short of food and ammunition, and they were also relatively tired. As an important military town in western Henan, Huaiqing Province is rich in gunpowder and the materials in the city are relatively rich, and the generals of the Taiping Army want to attack this city in one fell swoop, so as to replenish ammunition and adjust and rest in time.
The horse infantry officers of the Taiping Army, which stretched for tens of miles, surrounded the Huaiqing Mansion, and the prefect Yu Bingtao and Qiu Baoyong of Zhixian County heard the news and ordered people to set up artillery and strengthen the defense of the city, but there were only more than 300 Qing troops in the city, and in the face of this scene, the people in the city were panicked and fled one after another.
In the face of the enemy's outnumbered, the Taiping Army generals set up cloud ladders and other siege equipment, and the attack on Huaiqing Province was just around the corner, but at this time, the Qing army that assisted arrived, and in the face of internal and external attacks, Li Kaifang on the one hand ordered some Taiping Army generals to attack the reinforcements, and on the other hand, ordered the Taiping Army generals who attacked the city to change their siege strategy.
The Taiping army dug tunnels from a distance to the bottom of the city, and placed gunpowder, used bamboo poles to lead the way, ignited the gunpowder, and blew up three city walls, but they were all blocked by the Qing army's rubble and debris that stubbornly resisted in the city.
So back and forth, Li Kaifang and Lin Fengxiang led the Taiping Army generals to besiege Huaiqing Province for 57 days without being able to do so. Li Kaifang had to take the initiative to withdraw his troops and lead his army to capture Jiyuan.
Then, the Northern Expeditionary Army led by Li Kaifang could easily break through the city and plunder the land before the second time, so why couldn't it break through Huaiqing Province, which was only guarded by 300 people?
Xiao Bian felt that on the one hand, it was because the generals of the Taiping Army were already sleepy and lacking, their combat ability was declining, and coupled with the backwater battle of the defenders in the city, they stubbornly resisted, so the Taiping Army fought very hard.
Coupled with the timely arrival of qing reinforcements, the Already exhausted Taiping Army had to fight on both sides and could not take care of both ends, so the Taiping Army could not win.
Here, Xiaobian had to admire Li Kaifang's outstanding military ability, just imagine, in the face of internal and external attacks, if Li Kaifang resolutely did not retreat but resisted the enemy, then these Taiping Army generals are likely to be completely annihilated by the Qing army under internal and external attacks, because they are far away from the Taiping Army's base area, lack of reinforcements, and lack of grain and grass.