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Author: Sasha
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Why was the Taiping Army able to defeat a large number of Qing troops many times? October 25, 1864: Hong Tianguifu, the youngest king of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and Hong Xiuquan's eldest son, was captured by Qing troops in the barren mountains of Shicheng, Jiangxi.
Many friends wonder why the Taiping Army was able to support the Qing government, which had 800,000 troops for more than 10 years, at the beginning, only 3,000 people.
One of the important reasons is that the Taiping Army attaches more importance to the use of Western firearms. As early as the Jintian Uprising, the Taiping Army was basically all cold weapons, such as knives, guns, spears, hooks and sickles, and three-toothed rakes, and only a few captured the local Qing army's poor muskets, such as arquebuses, muskets, lifting guns, and earthen cannons.
In a series of battles to the north, the Taiping army defeated a large number of Qing troops, especially contributing to the cities controlled by the Manchus, and captured many firearms, including some standard artillery, that is, the main artillery unified by the Qing government.
This kind of artillery is generally the Hongyi cannon in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, and there are certain standards for casting, which is better than the homemade artillery in various places.
During this period, the Taiping Army also suffered great losses from Qing firearms. The famous Southern King Feng Yunshan was hit by artillery fire from Jiang Zhongyuan, an ambush by the Qing army, Jiang Zhongyuan, while leading his troops through Fengyi Ferry in June 1852, and was seriously wounded and killed.
In July 1852, when the Western King Xiao Chaogui led his troops to attack Changsha City, he was killed in the chest by artillery set up by the Qing army at Kuixinglou.
During the Taiping Rebellion's journey north, five kings sacrificed two kings, and both kings were killed by artillery.
Facts speak louder than words, and the combat performance of firearms is indeed very strong.
The Taiping Army is basically Han Chinese, with a very strong pragmatism, not limited to the concept that this is a foreigner's weapon and this is a kitkat. As long as you can win the battle, you can use it like a foreign gun and a foreign cannon.
This is standard takeism, pragmatism!
The Qing army believed that the Taiping army in the north was very good at using all kinds of firearms: according to the "Xiang Rong Sonata", when the Taiping army attacked Wuchang, the Qing general Xiang Rong found that the Taiping army "had a lot of artillery in each battalion, the sound boom was like thunder, and the zi was as dense as rain", "to the two lakes Anhui and Jiangning town Yangsanfu, large and small artillery positions, as well as carrying shotguns are all thieves, on the city and in various thief camps, every time our soldiers receive battles, thieves are shot like rain..."
Before arriving at the fixed capital Nanjing, the Taiping Army's firearms were basically captured, and their performance was poor, and the common ones were: fireballs, fireballs, lifting cannons, five-child cannons, and mother and child cannons. Among them, the five sub-cannons and the mother and child cannons are very old, which are the improvement of the light artillery of the Furlong machine at the end of the Ming Dynasty, and have long been eliminated in the West.
Fortunately, in terms of the number of artillery, there is still a certain guarantee.
In December 1852, the Taiping Army conquered Yuezhou, Hunan. According to the "Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Documents and Historical Materials", this battle can be called a turning point, the Taiping army captured a large number of Qing weapons, including more than 280 cannons alone, including various sailor ships, even Wu Sangui's cannons used in those years were occupied for themselves.
If you think about it, the artillery cast by Wu Sangui is in the Kangxi era, that is, more than 100 years ago. Even if these guns are in good condition, they are definitely not advanced in performance, but they can barely be used.
As for muskets, it is even worse, basically they are smoothbore arquebuses, and the flintlock guns, firing guns, and rifled guns commonly used by foreigners are not available in the Taiping Army.
Fortunately, the Qing army did not have it at that time, everyone was on the same level.
After the capital was fixed in Nanjing, the Taiping Army began to systematically manufacture firearms on the one hand, and on the other hand, it occupied Suzhou and opened a channel for smuggling weapons with foreigners.
So far, the number and quality of firearms in the Taiping Army have been greatly improved.
First of all, self-made firearms, the Taiping Army attaches great importance to it, and has set up special departments with special officials in charge.
For example, the position of superintendent cannon, which is specially responsible for the manufacture of cannons; the position of cast copper cannon, specializing in the manufacture of copper cannons; In addition, there are those who supervise the construction of warships, lead bullets, gunpowder, and frying sulfur.
There are many arsenals of the Taiping Army, such as Xingguozi Pharmaceutical Factory; Hukou Gunpowder Bureau, Artillery Casting Bureau; the Ship Artillery Bureau in Ji'an; Ship Artillery Factory in Anqing; Wuchang's Artillery Casting Bureau, Gunpowder Bureau, etc. In all the areas ruled by the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, there were thermal weapons manufacturing factories almost everywhere.
Most of these guns were cast by themselves using old technology, but some hired foreign consultants to build cannons using more advanced Western technology.
For foreigners' firearms, especially artillery, the Taiping Army was more appreciative: "The manufacture of huge cannons, spray canisters, very precise, can reach far."
Therefore, the Taiping Army gave priority to casting artillery, followed by the use of other firearms.
At the same time, the Taiping Army offered huge rewards for foreigners who wanted to make profits to smuggle foreign guns and cannons, and also bought weapons from corrupt Qing army generals.
Li Hongzhang believed that for every city captured by the Taiping Army in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, half of the gold and silver captured was used to buy foreign guns and cannons.
For example, a foreign company in Shanghai smuggled 3,000 foreign guns, 800 cannons, and a large number of firearms and bullets to the Taiping Army.
Within one year, Singapore's foreign companies transported 3,000 cannons to the Taiping Army-controlled area.
In the summer of 1862, the British merchant ship Barragang smuggled 300 cannons and a large number of small arms and ammunition.
Even so, the Taiping Army's firearms were still inferior to those of the Qing Army.
The Taiping Army controlled only part of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Ganwan and other provinces, and its economic strength was far inferior to that of the Manchu Qing, which controlled all of China.
In the early days of the Taiping Uprising, the Qing court spent almost half of its revenue on suppressing the uprising every year for the first three years. This is a total annual consumption of 18 million taels. In the middle and late post-war period, the annual military expenditure reached about 36 million taels. By the end of the uprising, the Qing court had invested a total of 450 million taels of silver, or 450 million taels.
You know, before 1840, the Manchu government had an annual financial surplus of only 3 million taels. Think about it, what is the concept of spending 450 million silver?
And the silver of 18 million to 36 million taels per year is not something that the Taiping Army can handle. Therefore, in addition to the Taiping Army's professional foreign guns and artillery units, ordinary Taiping Army still has fewer firearms.
There are 10 people in a squad, usually only 2 are equipped with muskets, and the rest are fighting with cold weapons.
Even the main force of the Taiping Army, 25 people are equipped with 2 lifting guns (large muskets) and 5 muskets, a total of only 7.
In the past, the Taiping Army could repeatedly defeat the Qing army, especially the newly created Xiang army, not because the Xiang army did not have firearms, but because it did not attach importance to firearms.
In the early days, the Xiang Army emphasized traditional cold-weapon warfare, rejected or even hated firearms, and suffered repeated losses as a result.
Under the advice of Li Hongzhang and others, Zeng Guofan began to attach importance to the use of firearms. Since the Xiang Army had sufficient military expenditure, it could also legally purchase Western guns, and soon there were essential changes in firearms. In the middle and late stages of the war, the Xiang army's firearms and cold weapons could reach a ratio of 1:1, and Li Hongzhang's Huai army was even higher. In the late war, the Huai army was rarely equipped with cold weapons, and the main forces mostly fought with foreign guns.
In addition to the gap in muskets, the gap in artillery in the Taiping Army is not small.
Although the Taiping Army has a large number of artillery, its performance is poor, and it is basically light or even miniature artillery.
In the battle with the Hua Er Yang Gun Team and the later Chang Sheng Army, the foreigners could easily suppress the Taiping Army with advanced artillery, and the range of the two artillery was too far apart.
The Taiping Army is often beaten and cannot fight back, and if the army is not well-trained, it is easy to collapse.
Another manifestation of the lack of firearms was the destruction of the Yangtze River Water Division of the Taiping Army. The Yangtze River Marine Division had the size of thousands of civilian ships, but it was quickly annihilated by the Qing Army Marine Division.
Why? The main thing is that the guns of the ships of the two sides are too far apart.
The Qing ships were all foreign cannons or imitation foreign cannons, which had excellent performance. The ships of the Taiping Army were all earthen artillery and even muskets, with a short range and weak power, and they were not opponents of the Qing army at all in the artillery battle on the Yangtze River.
In the battle with the Taiping Army, Li Hongzhang, Zuo Zongtang and others deeply realized the importance of firearms. Later, Zuo Zongtang relied on a large number of new weapons to defeat Aqubo, who divided Xinjiang, in one fell swoop. Li Hongzhang's Huai army was equipped with more Western weapons and completely defeated the twisted army across the north.
The question is, decades ago knew the power of foreign guns and cannons, why did Cixi still use the invincible Boxer Rebellion to deal with foreigners?
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