In June 1856, the Taiping Army swept through most of China through the Western Expedition and the Northern Expedition, and carried out a military peak stage. However, under this excellent situation, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom suddenly changed chaos, and the Northern King Wei Changhui, with the support of the Heavenly King Hong Xiuquan, raided the Eastern King Yang Xiuqing. Caught off guard, Yang Xiuqing was killed on the spot by the rebels, and more than 20,000 people of the Eastern King faction were also brutally killed.
In the system of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Hong Xiuquan, the Heavenly King, was the spiritual leader and was mainly responsible for religious work. The shrewd and capable Yang Xiuqing was the general person in charge of the military and political work of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and he used the "possession of the Heavenly Father" to give orders, and the victories in the early stage of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom were all by Yang Xiuqing's hands. According to common sense, the position of the Eastern King was very important, and the elite soldiers in his hands were naturally the most, but why was he easily defeated at the hands of Wei Changhui, and why did he not organize effective resistance. Scholars have been puzzled by this.
In 1983, the famous scholar Wang Qingcheng visited the United Kingdom and accidentally found a batch of "holy wills" from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom period from the London Library. These holy wills did not come from Hong Xiuquan, but from Yang Xiuqing, the Eastern King, and Xiao Chaogui, the Western King. In the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Yang Xiuqing was the medium of the "possession" of the Heavenly Father Jehovah, while Xiao Chaogui was the medium of the "possession" of the Heavenly Brother Jesus, and his position was very important in the Taiping Army, so he had the right to issue holy wills. Among these holy decrees, more than 120 of them were issued by Yang Xiuqing, which has considerable historical value. After that, Wang Qingcheng took these photos and brought them back to China.
In the Divine Will of the Heavenly Father, scholars have discovered many first-hand historical sources that have never been recorded in the history books. For example, in the Holy Will, the female leader "Fu Shanxiang" that we are familiar with is written as "Fu Shanxiang", I don't know if it is to avoid secrecy, or whether we have been mistaken about the surname of this talented woman.
In addition, we can also find out from the Holy Will the operating system of the Eastern Palace. As we all know, there were no eunuchs in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, so in Hongxiu's palace, all affairs were completed by female officials. However, reading through the "Divine Will of the Heavenly Father", scholars found that the system of the Eastern King's Mansion was very similar to that of the Heavenly King's Mansion, and there were also no male officials. When Yang Xiuqing gave orders, he would first notify his subordinate female military divisions and female ministers, so that they could convey or announce the male officials to see them:
These official seal documents of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, except for 11 articles that did not mention people, the remaining 9 articles explicitly ordered female military divisions and female ministers:
Erke ordered the female proclamation official to hurry up and urge Hou Xiang and the officials to gather early." "Ersu went to summon the male officials to come in!" "Immediately ordered the female officials to pass on the male chengxuan officials, Pass Wei Zheng, Ding Tianyan and Hou Xiang and wait for the palace... ”
That is to say, Yang Xiuqing is surrounded by women in the palace, except for her son, it may be difficult to see even a man. According to many records, the "female champion" that Fu Shanxiang took was not the national examination of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, but the "recruitment examination" within the Eastern Palace. In that year's examination, Fu Shanxiang, Zhong Xiuying, Lin Lihua and others were selected.
In addition to being responsible for conveying government decrees and taking care of the internal affairs of the Eastern Palace, female officials of the Eastern Palace were also engaged in work similar to wives and concubines. Therefore, Yang Xiuqing is no less than Hong Xiuquan of the harem beauty three thousand in terms of fishing color. The world has not yet been obtained, and there are many wives and concubines, and Yang Xiuqing's corruption can be imagined.
Ironically, Yang Xiuqing himself was extremely absurd, but he did not allow other men in the Taiping Army to eat and sleep with their wives, even senior officers like Qin Rigang. For example, on the evening of the 27th day of the first month of the fourth year of Jiayin, Yang Xiuqing was again "possessed by the Heavenly Father" and captured two officers, Lu Xianba and Chen Zongyang, on the basis that they had "private intercourse" with their wives. Subsequently, Chen Zongyang was beheaded and paraded in public, and Lu Xianba was allowed to wear guilt and make meritorious deeds.
In addition, Yang Xiuqing also repeatedly interfered in Hong Xiuquan's private life under the pretext of being possessed by his heavenly father. For example, late one night, When Yang Xiuqing "came to heavenly father", he broke into the Heavenly King's Mansion and called all of Hong Xiuquan's wives and concubines out of the bed, commanding:
In the inner temples of the whole palace and the Qing Dynasty, all matters must be selected as the old lady of the pepper as the niangniang and the wang niang to take charge of the internal affairs, as the internal help. They thought about it and returned to heaven.
As a normal man, the perception caused by Yang Xiuqing's absurd measures is conceivable. Before the Tianjing Incident, Hong Xiuquan was once again reprimanded by the "Heavenly Father" Yang Xiuqing for family affairs (although he did not really fight). At the same time, the Northern King Wei Changhui and the general Qin Rigang were also repeatedly attacked by Yang Xiuqing's staff. Eventually, the bullied Hong Xiuquan, Wei Changhui, and Qin Rigang formed an alliance and began to plan the Tianjing Incident.
In 1856, Wei Changhui and Qin Rigang gathered elite troops to raid the Eastern Palace and take advantage of the night to enter the palace, and the troops outside the Eastern Palace had no time to react. It is conceivable that since there are no men in the house, it is naturally difficult to resist the attack of the Northern King's elite soldiers. It is true that there are many "bigfoot women" in the Eastern Palace who can fight in battle. However, it was difficult to resist Wei Changhui's attack as a female soldier, and Yang Xiuqing was also in a different place in the chaos.
A generation of Haojie, in the end, ended up with such a fate. Yang Xiuqing was shrewd and capable, but he was eager for profit, not only buried his own life, but also pushed the cause of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom into the abyss of failure. If more male soldiers gathered in the Eastern Palace, it was still unknown whose hands Yang Xiuqing, Wei Changhui and Hong Xiuquan would die. If Yang Xiuqing did not die, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement might not have failed.