Although Zeng Guofan's Xiang army rose and defeated the Taiping army in succession, and the northern Qing army also blocked the Northern Expedition army of the Taiping Rebellion, on the whole, the battle situation did not reverse. In the Yangtze River Valley, the Xiang Army at this time was not yet an opponent of the Taiping Army, which was not only less numerous than the Taiping Army, but also strategically inclined to defend, so the crisis of the Qing government was far from being resolved.
Although the Northern Expedition of the Taiping Rebellion failed, the Northern Expedition ignited the flame of anti-Qing forces in the north. In the fifth year of Xianfeng (1855), the "twisters" composed of salt dealers and nomads active in Jiangsu, Anhui, Henan, Shandong and other places united to form the "twister army", with more than 100,000 people, active in the north and south of the Huai River.
Although the threat of the Qing army to the Qing government was less than that of the Taiping army, it was rooted in northern society and its survival ability was very tenacious. At the same time, in addition to the Taiping Rebellion in the south, there were also the Small Knife Society, the Red Money Society, the Triad Society, and the Three Points Society uprising of the Heaven and Earth Association system all over the country. In Yunnan and Guizhou, far away from the Emperor Tiangao, there were Miao uprisings, Hui uprisings, Yi uprisings and so on. The Qing army was tired of coping. It can be seen that the Xianfeng Emperor is facing a situation that is almost "the whole world is opposed". Of course, for the Xianfeng Emperor, the great trouble for his henchmen was still the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, as long as he could achieve the victory of suppressing the Taiping Rebellion, other uprisings would be easy to deal with.
As the war continued, the Xianfeng Emperor also faced another imminent problem - money. The continuous war consumed huge wealth, and the Xianfeng Emperor came up with various methods, and he even ordered Prince Gong Yi to throw three exquisite golden bells cast during the Qianlong period into the furnace, turning them into more than 27,000 taels of gold bars and sending them to the front line as military expenses (edited by the Ming and Qing Archives Department of the Palace Museum: "Qing Dynasty Archives Historical Series" Volume 1, China Book Company, 1978 edition, pages 26~27) but exhausted in a blink of an eye.
So he approved the proposal to impose a nationwide "centimeter" to levy a tax of 1% of the price of goods in the name of a "pass tax" on goods or a "transaction tax" on goods. Among the Chinese dynasties, the tax burden of the Qing Dynasty was relatively light, and there used to be only one kind of tariff to tax merchants, and it was said that the "pass tax" and "transaction tax" were not unavoidable, and the tax rate was not high, but after all, it was a move against the ancestral system and the people's will, and the implementation was full of checkpoints, different tax rates, and the people complained, but the Xianfeng Emperor could not take care of these anymore.
According to Fei Xingjian's "Records of Cixi Transmission", the disheartened Xianfeng Emperor combined with the allusions of the Ming Dynasty to Du Han with this sentiment: "When the apocalypse dies, the country dies, and Chongzhen does not die and dies." Emperor Xianfeng was silent for a while, and said bitterly: "The thief has crossed the river, and the Ming Dynasty has seen everything." In misfortune, it is also like Chongzhen who died and died. "It can be seen that the Xianfeng Emperor has already considered the issue of the death of the country.
Who would have thought that at this critical moment, there was a cannibalistic infighting in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, which was equivalent to giving the Xianfeng Emperor a "value-added gift", which suddenly reversed the situation between the two sides!
What's going on?
The Taiping Rebellion was a vigorous peasant uprising, and thousands of hungry and cold peasants threw themselves into this movement in order to survive, gathering under the banner of Hong Xiuquan to fight bloody battles.
Hong Xiuquan's original wish was to become an official of the Qing Dynasty. Wearing flower lings, eight palanquins, sounding gongs to open the way, avoiding silence, hey! That majesty...
But how can you be an official of the Great Qing Dynasty? There are three ways: first, to obtain meritorious fame through the imperial examination; second, spend money to buy officials; Third, if Hong Xiuquan's ancestor made great achievements to the imperial court, he could also become an official.
Hong Xiuquan was born in the eighteenth year of Jiaqing, the Gregorian calendar is 1814, a native of Huaxian County, Guangdong, eight generations of ancestors are farmers, ancestors are unreliable; As for buying officials, Hong Xiuquan came from a peasant family, with a few cows and a few acres of land in his family, and he could barely mix food and clothing, and it was impossible to buy officials, so Hong Xiuquan could only take the road of the imperial examination.
The first step in the imperial examination is to test Xiucai. You must not underestimate the reputation of Xiucai, once a person wins Xiucai, he becomes a gentleman, enjoys the status of equal courtesy with local officials, and is exempted from labor and military service for life and free further study, and then continues to take the exam, examining people and entering the sergeant. However, it is difficult to get into the Xiucai, generally four to six places in one county, so many readers in ancient China could not get a show talent after a lifetime of hard work. Everyone knows that the exam is very torturous, and it is very addictive, the more addictive the exam, the more addictive it is, and it will be tested again and again, and many readers have spent their lives like this.
The above two pictures are the authentic works of Hong Xiuquan, and it can be seen from between the lines that he is a person who is not good at writing.
Not only is the handwriting ordinary, but the typography is also very sloppy, so many netizens have said that after reading Hong Xiuquan's calligraphy works, they feel that they can also be king!
And the imperial examination during the Qing Dynasty was very important to the candidates' writing skills! If a candidate's calligraphy is not good, even if the writing is brilliant, if there is divine help, it may not be able to pass the exam.
Hong Xiuquan was born in a farming family, and has studied diligently since childhood, and the elders in the family have high expectations of him. Hong Xiuquan entered private school at the age of seven, and knew the Four Books and Five Classics, as well as all other books.
Hong Xiu's family conditions are average, the whole family has reduced food and clothing for him to study for a few days, and he feels that he is very knowledgeable, so he went to take the Xiucai exam, but he fell behind Sun Shan in several exams. In fact, let's think about it calmly, who dares to say that they are absolutely sure of the exam? What's more, Hong Xiuquan has no family background, second, no famous teacher to guide him, and third, he has no systematic education, and he can be admitted by reading for a few days just by working and reading for a few days? But Hong Xiuquan does not think so, he believes that the science field is dark and the society is unfair. Of course, the Great Qing Dynasty was indeed dark and socially unfair.
Hong Xiuquan is very persistent about the exam, and the failure after failure hit him very hard, especially the failure of the exam in the seventeenth year of Daoguang, Hong Xiuquan was in a coma for many days, and cried and laughed after waking up, and everyone thought he was crazy. In the twenty-third year of Daoguang, Hong Xiuquan only failed in the last exam, returned to his hometown, and simply smashed the Confucius tablet in the school. Hong Xiuquan's profession at that time was a rural "juku master", don't look at the peasants fighting big words and can't read a basket, but absolutely not allowed any blasphemy against Confucius, so the whole village drove Hong Xiuquan out of the village.
He couldn't stay in his hometown, so Hong Xiuquan left his hometown for Guangxi. What to do in Guangxi? --"Missionary".
Here, I have to explain Hong Xiuquan's faith, which has a lot to do with the outbreak of the Taiping Rebellion and the internal strife in which the Taiping Rebellion turned from prosperity to decline.
Hong Xiuquan went to Guangzhou several times for the exam, where he came into contact with Christian propaganda, and then figured it out for himself and founded the "God Worship Society."
Please note that Christianity is of course a religion and a major religion in the world, but is this "worship of God" founded by Hong Xiuquan a religion? Chinese historians have never considered "worshiping God" to be Christianity, or even whether it is a religion.
Although Hong Xiuquan adopted many terms and activities of Christianity, he added a lot of his own understanding and creation. For example, Hong Xiuquan said that God is his father, and he is God's second son. Some people may ask, since Hong Xiuquan said that he is the second son of God, then who is the eldest son, Hong Xiuquan's brother? According to Hong Xiuquan, it is Jesus Christ. Of course, you can't call your brother "brother in heaven". After Hong Xiuquan was expelled from his hometown, he once went to Guangzhou to find a foreign missionary, first introduced himself to his "origin" background, and the missionary immediately got up, touched Hong Xiuquan's forehead, and then turned him away. Hong Xiuquan looked confused, saying in his heart that you claim to be a believer in God, God is my father, you dare to be rude to me like this, let's walk and see! From then on, Hong Xiuquan no longer paid attention to these foreign missionaries.
You don't see Hong Xiuquan's statement that it does not scare foreign missionaries, but it is very effective for Chinese farmers.
Hong Xiuquan brought his faithful believer Feng Yunshan to Guixian County, Guangxi, and the peasants listened to his set of statements and felt very novel, although they did not dare to believe it all, but they did not have the courage to turn Hong Xiuquan away, after all, Hong Xiuquan has a father who cannot be provoked.
Hong Xiuquan decided to show his "mana", he led Feng Yunshan, carrying a big stick, chanting words in his mouth, to a small temple at the entrance of the village, smashed, and several statues were smashed. Hong Xiuquan threw away the stick, inscribed a poem on the wall, and then walked away.
This temple is offered to the "fierce god and evil", Pingsu villagers often burn incense to offer, pray that the fierce god and evil will not come out to harm people, stay well in the temple, we regularly contribute to ensure that you do not lack food and drink. Now that Hong Xiuquan has smashed it, won't he get into trouble?
However, a few days passed, the wind and waves were calm, Hong Xiuquan showed no sign of retribution, and now the villagers all obeyed, it seems that Hong Xiuquan is more "fierce and evil" than "fierce god evil", so Hong Xiuquan's situation gradually opened. At that time, the barren people in Guangxi were poor, and after years of famine, the hungry people were wandering around, which was very beneficial to Hong Xiuquan's absorption of believers, and more and more people joined his "meeting".
Hong Xiuquan gradually gained many followers, including Yang Xiuqing, Xiao Chaogui, Wei Changhui, Shi Dakai and others who later became the pillars of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
It is especially worth mentioning Yang Xiuqing.
Yang Xiuqing is nearly ten years younger than Hong Xiuquan and is a native of Guiping, Guangxi, but he is not a native of Guangxi, and his ancestors moved to Guangxi from Jiaying Prefecture, Guangdong, belonging to the Hakka family, and he was relatively ostracized locally. He had no parents since he was a child, and his family had no land, so he worked as a charcoal burner. Yang Xiuqing was bold and careful, and his insight was very unusual, and after he joined Hong Xiuquan's organization, he quickly stood out and became a backbone member.
In the twenty-seventh year of Daoguang, Hong Xiuquan used Bauhinia Mountain in Guiping County as his base, moving around, and his power became more and more powerful. This attracted the attention of the local government, and the local official meant to turn a blind eye, not willing to ask, and pretended not to see. But the local gentlemen and landlords do not do it, your magistrate will serve for three years, and when the time comes, you will slap your ass and leave, but we have a family and a business in the local area, how can we sit and watch the worship of God will mess around? As a result, a lot of pressure was put on the local government, and the county government had no choice but to arrest Feng Yunshan, so the situation became tense.
What to do? Hong Xiuquan said that he would go to Guangzhou to rescue Feng Yunshan. Everyone may wonder that Feng Yunshan was arrested in Guangxi, why did you go to Guangzhou to rescue him? Moreover, you Hong Xiuquan also have no friends in the Qing Dynasty officialdom, how can you rescue it? In fact, this is likely to be Hong Xiuquan's excuse to avoid the limelight. In short, Feng Yunshan was arrested, Hong Xiuquan was gone, and these people he gathered suddenly became leaderless, some people had no master, some people were afraid to retreat, some people wavered and watched, and worshiping God would collapse.
At this juncture, Yang Xiuqing stood up. He wanted to follow Hong Xiuquan's old method and smash another temple to establish prestige, but in the poor countryside, the only few temples had long been smashed by Hong Xiuquan, and Yang Xiuqing was helpless.
History records that Yang Xiuqing did not eat, drink, or speak.
One day in early March of the 28th year of Daoguang, Yang Xiuqing suddenly fainted, and everyone quickly gathered around him, pouring water and calling again. Suddenly, Yang Xiu came to his senses, and what was strange was that Yang Xiuqing's expression and tone of speech all changed, he said that he was a god, and it was impossible for others to believe it. Yang Xiuqing said it doesn't matter if you don't believe it, I have a son you all know, everyone says who is your son? He said it was Hong Xiuquan.
At this moment, the big guys believed it, so they knelt down and asked him how to get through the current difficulties. Yang Xiuqing said a lot of things like maintaining unity, strengthening faith, and daring to fight in the tone of God, asking everyone to believe in God, otherwise a plague will occur and many people will die. Everyone believed it and dispelled half-hearted thoughts.
In fact, Yang Xiuqing used the popular witchcraft of Chinese folk, and Chinese believed in this at the time. Soon, Feng Yunshan came to Bauhinia Mountain, and everyone may ask, isn't this Feng Yunshan arrested, and the worshippers are about to rescue him? It turned out that the Guiping County government ruled to "deport" Feng Yunshan, so Feng Yunshan "exited" and then secretly "entered". Moreover, Hong Xiuquan also returned, and Hong Xiuquan acquiesced to Yang Xiuqing's power to "spread rumors on behalf of the Heavenly Father". Since then, Yang Xiuqing has become the second person after Hong Xiuquan, of course, this is in the case that the "Heavenly Father" is not possessed, once the "Heavenly Father" is "possessed", Yang Xiuqing immediately becomes Hong Xiuquan's father, Hong Xiuquan can only kneel and listen to the training. This sowed the seeds for the subsequent division of the Taiping Rebellion.
Beginning in the summer of the 30th year of Daoguang, Hong Xiuquan and Yang Xiuqing ordered believers from all over the "God Worship Society" to gather in Jintian Village, Guiping County, Guangxi. On January 11, 1851, the Gregorian calendar was the 10th day of December, and the Jintian Uprising was officially held. Later, Hong Xiu's full title was Heavenly King, Yang Xiuqing was the Eastern King, Xiao Chaogui was the Western King, Feng Yunshan was the Southern King, Wei Changhui was the Northern King, and Shi Dakai was the Wing King. Jianguo "Taiping Heavenly Kingdom".
It is noted that Chinese historians have never considered the Taiping Rebellion to be a religious war, nor have they recognized Hong Xiuquan as a Christian.
The Taiping Army marched victoriously until it captured Nanjing. They took Nanjing as the capital of the Taiping Rebellion and renamed it Tianjing.
In this process, Yang Xiuqing showed outstanding political and military talent, he obtained a position second only to Hong Xiuquan, and because he monopolized political power, military power, and divine power, he actually held all the power of the Taiping Rebellion. History records that Hong Xiuquan "faced the dynasty without ignoring the government", and as an idol of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, he was hung high and became Yang Xiuqing's puppet.
1856 was almost the heyday of the Taiping Rebellion, a series of military victories, and the political system was basically perfected. It is not too much to say that it is a "small paradise", Hong Xiuquan, a poor and frustrated scholar, lived in the splendid and magnificent Tianwang Mansion, and the beauty of the harem was like a cloud. From then on, Hong Xiuquan neither went to kill the enemy on horseback, nor did he ask the imperial government, until the fall of the Taiping Rebellion, and did not take a step out of Nanjing, living in a group of beautiful women. Yang Xiuqing, the original charcoal-burning worker, became a "nine-thousand-year-old" (long live Hong Xiuquan), and every trip had to take a rhubarb sedan carried by 48 people. Nanjing summer heat, Yang Xiuqing changed to sit in the "water sedan car", his water sedan is made of glass, filled with water to raise fish, Yang Xiuqing sits in it. The honor guard hugged back and forth, stretching for miles.
However, although Hong Xiuquan is "long live", he is constantly challenged by Yang Xiuqing.
How did Yang Xiuqing threaten Hong Xiuquan? It turned out that Yang Xiuqing had two identities, as the King of the East, he was Hong Xiuquan's courtier; But once the "Heavenly Father" is "possessed", he is Hong Xiuquan's father. Moreover, after the capital was Nanjing, the "Heavenly Father" often "went to mortals". As soon as the "Heavenly Father" "went down", Hong Xiuquan immediately had to run to the East King Mansion, kneel at Yang Xiuqing's feet, listen to Yang Xiuqing's endless nagging, and when the nagging was over, Hong Xiuquan kowtowed to thank him.
Some of these "heavenly fathers" that Yang Xiuqing engaged in were for decision-making on major military affairs and unifying thinking, but most of them were for the purpose of showing their prestige. According to the third volume of the "Heavenly Father's Decree", in the middle of the night of August 25, 1855, the "Heavenly Father" suddenly "went to mortals" again, and the Heavenly King's Mansion informed the kings and courtiers in Beijing as quickly as possible to go to listen to the teachings, while arranging for Hong Xiuquan to go to the pilgrimage immediately.
At this time, an unexpected thing happened. It turned out that the gate of the Heavenly King's Mansion was very heavy, and the janitor could not open the door for a while. You may wonder, how can you not even open the door? It turned out that Hong Xiuquan never went out of the Heavenly King's Mansion except to "meet the Heavenly Father", and, unlike the Qing Dynasty, there were eunuchs in the Qing palace, and there were soldiers at the door, Hong Xiuquan used all women in the palace, just him a man, those women could not open the door with the strength to eat, the only way was to find more women. In this way, it took a lot of time to open the door, and by the time Hong Xiuquan arrived at the East King Mansion, the East King, no, the "Heavenly Father" was already on fire.
"Heavenly Father" speaks fluent Cantonese, expressing his dissatisfaction with "Son", saying that it took so long to come, it really deserves to be beaten! Hong Xiuquan quickly knelt down and begged for mercy, and the ministers also knelt to ask for pardon of the heavenly king, and the "heavenly father" was angry. After announcing the two personnel appointments and dismissals, Hong Xiuquan was dismissed and wanted to talk to the "daughter-in-law" - Hong Xiuquan's main palace concubine alone.
What did the "Heavenly Father" talk about with the "daughter-in-law"? According to historical records, the general meaning is to let her serve the king of heaven and manage other concubines. In addition, the "Heavenly Father" also said that Hong Xiuquan's child is not good for a little temper, and I heard that "domestic violence" is often used in the palace, and asked if he repented and converged after criticizing him last time.
Let's think about it, Hong Xiuquan and Yang Xiuqing are each other's vassals, can this system of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom not lead to contradictions? At that time, a man named Zhang Dejian, who specially collected intelligence on the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom for Zeng Guofan, asserted: "Xiuqing is sinister, and he really wants to falsely respect Hong Xiuquan as the leader, and he has the power to be alone." His intention is to imitate the treacherous power of occupation, and if it succeeds, he will kill him, and "it seems that there will be annexation soon." (Zhang Dejian: "The Collection of Thieves' Feelings" Volume 1, Taipei Wenhai Publishing House, 1968 edition)
Really let the "intelligence experts" of the Qing government say it right.
Yang Xiuqing implemented the plan to replace Hong Xiuquan step by step. At this time, the key figures in the early days of the Taiping Rebellion, Xiao Chaogui the Western King and Feng Yunshan the Southern King, had long been killed in battle, and the Northern King Wei Changhui and the Wing King Shi Dakai were leading troops in the field, and he single-handedly covered the sky in the dynasty, thinking that the time was ripe, and on August 15, 1856, Yang Xiuqing declared that "the Heavenly Father sent all things" and urgently summoned Hong Xiuquan to come to see him.
As soon as Hong Xiuquan heard that "Dad" was coming, he immediately felt a headache, but he didn't dare to go to the pilgrimage without forcing his head. Zhang Runan's "Jinling Province Difficult History" records this summoning.
Yang Xiuqing ("Heavenly Father") said: "Er and Dongwang are my sons, and Dongwang has great merit of meow (Cantonese meaning 'then'), why not call it nine thousand years old?" "
Hong Xiuquan knelt on the ground, cold sweat, he scanned the surrounding situation with his eyes, and saw the guards with solemn expressions, holding knives and guns, with a murderous face, standing all over the hall. He knew that if he did not agree, he would probably have to "come in standing and go out lying down", so he said with a cross heart: "Long live the king of the East when he fights the rivers and mountains." "
Yang Xiuqing ("Heavenly Father") also said: "Dong Shizi (son of Dongwang) is not just a thousand years old? "
Hong Xiuquan said: "Long live the East King, long live the son of the world, and long live all generations." "
Yang Xiuqing ("Heavenly Father") said with satisfaction: "I will return to heaven." (Zhang Runan: "Jinling Province Difficult Chronicle", in Modern Chinese History Information Series Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (IV), Shanghai People's Publishing House, 1957 edition, p. 703)
Yang Xiuqing was secretly proud, he thought that Hong Xiuquan had yielded. But after all, Hong Xiuquan has read the book for a few days and understands the truth that "there are no two days in the world, and there are no two masters in the country". However, in Nanjing, which is shrouded in Yang Xiuqing's forces, how can Hong Xiuquan counter Yang Xiuqing's challenge?
Hong Xiuquan stabilized Yang Xiuqing on the one hand, saying that more than a month would be the birthday of Yang Xiuqing, the king of the East, and when the time came, Yang Xiuqing would be crowned, which would be regarded as a "birthday gift"; On the other hand, he sent his henchmen to summon Wei Changhui, who was in Jiangxi, back to Nanjing to King Qin. Yang Xiuqing was triumphant, but he didn't know that a catastrophe was coming.
Wei Changhui was one of the leaders of the Jintian Uprising, he hated Yang Xiuqing, and before, Wei Changhui's brother and Yang Xiuqing's concubine's brother fought for a property, Yang Xiuqing was furious, ordered Wei Changhui's brother to be tied up, and convicted of "five horses and corpses". In fact, Wei Changhui and the generals of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom generally did not have a good impression of Yang Xiuqing, so after Wei Changhui received Hong Xiuquan's secret edict, he immediately led 3,000 soldiers from Jiangxi and more than 200 ships to Nanjing. Arriving in Nanjing on September 1, he took control of key parts of Nanjing overnight and surrounded the Dongwangfu. In the early morning of the next day, Yang Xiuqing, the king of the east, was kidnapped by Wuhua and escorted out of the palace. According to the "Jinling Miscellaneous", Wei Changhui said to Yang Xiuqing: "Er wants to seize the throne, I will kill Er on the order of my second brother!" After killing Yang Xiuqing, Wei Changhui carried Yang Xiuqing's head to see Hong Xiuquan.
Hong Xiuquan saw that he had done this, and immediately issued an edict, announcing that Yang Xiuqing had "stolen the artifact, long live the capital, and had been killed by heaven", and ordered Yang Xiuqing's subordinates to turn themselves in, and it is said that more than 20,000 people were arrested within a few days.
At this time, Nanjing had become a hell on earth, and Wei Changhui decided to cut the grass and remove the roots, and Yang Xiuqing's subordinates were not left behind, and all of them were killed. At the same time, the remnants of the Eastern King Yang Xiuqing were engaged in senseless resistance, which lasted intermittently for two months, and even some of the Eastern Prince's cronies from other places were relieved of their duties and transferred back to Nanjing to be killed, and more than 30,000 people were killed.
The development of the situation tended to get out of control, and Hong Xiuquan soon discovered that Wei Changhui and Yang Xiuqing, who had just become a ghost under the knife, were simply "raccoon raccoon raccoons". According to historical records, when Yang Xiuqing was killed at that time, there was no controversy, but further purging Yang Xiuqing's subordinates was not very popular, and even Hong Xiuquan had the idea of stopping as soon as possible and accused Wei Changhui. But Wei Changhui immediately crooked his neck and glared, and asked Hong Xiuquan with great enthusiasm: "I have eliminated great harm for you, and now I want to make a name for myself?" It means that I have a big trouble for you, and now I put all the basins on my head, and you want to sell your reputation? Hong Xiuquan immediately bowed his head and did not dare to speak, he knew that although all the personnel in his court were armed, these delicate "female soldiers" were not at all the opponents of the thousands of red-eyed outlaws under Wei Changhui. How dare a person under a low eaves not bow his head?
However, Hong Xiuquan still has a "card" in his hand - Shi Dakai. He wanted to summon Shi Dakai to Beijing to resist Wei Changhui just as he had summoned Wei Changhui to kill Yang Xiuqing.
On September 26, 1856, Shi Dakai, the wing king, rushed back to Nanjing, which was in a state of slaughter, with only a few entourage. In front of Hong Xiuquan, he quarreled with Wei Changhui, he accused Wei Changhui of killing innocents, Wei Changhui was angry and corrupted, and the two scolded each other. That night, Shi Dakai, who felt that he was insecure, escaped from Nanjing, and he stayed in Nanjing for less than a day.
Wei Changhui ransacked Shi Dakai's house, killed his family and subordinates who did not have time to escape, and blackmailed Hong Xiuquan into presenting a reward order for Shi Dakai.
Shi Dakai was shocked, ran back to Anqing in one breath, immediately mobilized the army, raised the banner of avenging Yang Xiuqing, wanted to send troops to Nanjing, and gathered 780,000 troops on the front line of Wuhu and Ningguo.
Hong Xiuquan was forced by Wei Changhui internally, and Shi Dakai's army was pressing the border outside, which was really difficult at home and abroad. However, at this time, Hong Xiuquan was still clear-headed, and he decided to sacrifice Wei Changhui. Indeed, in the past two months, Wei Changhui has killed the prosperous city of Nanjing to the point of blood, completely lost people's hearts, and is no less a threat to himself than Yang Xiuqing. So, on November 2, 1856, Hong Xiuquan commanded the capture of Wei Changhui. How Hong Xiuquan captured and killed Wei Changhui lacks enough historical materials to explain the truth, and the existing historical materials are very brief, generally known as "unity of the DPRK", "two days of war", etc., it is estimated that a scheme was used.
At this point, the bloody and bloody infighting in Nanjing that lasted for two months basically ended.
The gunfire in Nanjing basically stopped, and the first thing Hong Xiuquan thought of was to send Wei Changhui's head to the Shi Dakai military camp in Ningguo, Anhui, and summon Shi Dakai to Nanjing. Shi Dakai returned to Nanjing and accepted Hong Xiuquan's appointment as prime minister. However, at this time, Hong Xiuquan could not believe anyone, he was afraid that Shi Dakai would become another Yang Xiuqing or Wei Changhui, and he would make every effort to make Shi Dakai difficult and hostage. On June 3, 1857, Shi Dakai fled Nanjing and came to southern Anhui, where he parted ways with Hong Xiuquan and led his army to resist the Qing army independently, and six years later the entire army was destroyed on the banks of the Dadu River in Sichuan.
The Qing army near Nanjing noticed that there was a big mess in Nanjing from late August, because they saw a large number of corpses floating from the Guanyinmen into the Yangtze River, and they were excited to count, until later the corpses were too many to count. Soon, intelligence came out of Nanjing, and the Qing army learned the details of this incident and immediately reported it to the Xianfeng Emperor. After being convinced, the Xianfeng Emperor was excited to bow to the gods in the temple, thanked him for the protection of the Qing Dynasty, and at the same time ordered the front-line Qing army to "take advantage of the discouragement of its people, supervise the soldiers bravely, and annihilate them with a drum", and pay attention to counter-surrender. (Records of Emperor Wenzong of the Qing Dynasty, vol. 209, October of the 6th year of Xianfeng)
However, when Zeng Guofan learned the news of the Taiping Heavenly Civil War, he sneered contemptuously and did not move. His staff knew that Zeng Guofan really looked down on Hong Xiu. For the Xianfeng Emperor's edict, Zeng Guofan did not implement it, he knew that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was killing each other, he wanted to leave enough time and space for the internal strife of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, he could not interfere, he was afraid that once he intervened, the Taiping Army would stop the internal strife, and all he had to do now was to reap the benefits of the fishermen. As for the Xianfeng Emperor's plan to lure the Taiping army, Zeng Guofan was even less interested, he was a loyal person, he himself practiced the tenet of loyalty, and was unwilling to do things that lured others out of line.
This infighting dealt a fatal blow to the Taiping Rebellion. In the end, only one "Heavenly King" remained (Shi Dakai and Hong Xiu all parted ways and started a new business). There are no talents at the central level who can control the overall situation, tens of thousands of elites have been killed, and the power has been greatly weakened, and it is certain that the heyday of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom has passed. At the same time, this inner river also led to confusion in people's minds and the dispersion of people's hearts, those admirable kings killed each other, tens of thousands of brothers fell under the butcher's knife of their own people, the myth of "God" was shattered, and the pillars that sustained people's spirits collapsed, so it seems that the road to heaven is not possible. As a result, a song circulated in the area occupied by the Taiping Army: "When the Heavenly Father kills the Heavenly Brother, it will always be empty." Pack up and go home, or do long-term work! However, there is another version of this ballad: "Heavenly Father kills Heavenly Brother, Jiangshan can't get through." Longhair is not the right lord, still let Xianfeng. "
The Xianfeng Emperor survived the most difficult time, on the contrary, the history of the Taiping Rebellion took a turn.
Let's leave the big scene of sword and shadow and enter the court life of the Xianfeng Emperor, where there were a few seemingly trivial things at the time, but later profoundly affected the fate of the dynasty and the course of Chinese history.