The day of the fall of the Taiping Rebellion is somewhat controversial in history. Some scholars believe that the demise of the Taiping Army occurred in 1872 when Li Wencai led the entire army. However, most scholars agree that the day of the fall of the Taiping Rebellion was the Battle of Yangjialing, where Hong Tianguifu was captured. In this battle, the elites of the Taiping Army, such as Wang Hong Renxuan, Huang Wenying the King of Zhao, Hong Renzheng the Prince of Shi, and Liu Qinghan the Prince of Zun, were all captured, and only Tan Tiyuan and his guards fought to escort Hong Tianguifu from the Qing encirclement, but they were lost on the way. Tan Tiyuan was unsuccessful in his search for Hong Tianguifu, so he had to switch to King Kang's Wang Haiyang Army. More than ten days later, Hong Tianguifu was arrested for suspicious words and deeds, clothing and appearance, and without waiting for torture, the young and ignorant Hong Tianguifu gave everything he had in order to save his life, and even fantasized about going home to study and test for the fame of the Qing Dynasty. Despite this, a few days later, Lin Zexu's son-in-law Shen Baozhen received orders to put Hong Tianguifu to death. According to historical records, the young king cried on the day of his execution.
So, what happened to Yangjialing in Yangjialing, causing the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, which "flourished and died suddenly"?
It starts with the fall of Tenjing on July 19, 1864. On this day, after Tianjing, the capital of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, was besieged for two years, Zeng Guofan of the Xiang army attacked it. The loyal king Li Xiucheng escorted the young king out of the city, but Li Xiucheng was betrayed by the traitors and captured because he gave his war horse to the young king to ride.
Hong Tianguifu rushed to Guangde, Anhui under the protection of 300 loyal guards left to him by Li Xiucheng. Not long after, the god king Hong Renxuan also came to Guangde, and his arrival temporarily calmed the fearful military heart.
At that time, Huzhou was defended by Huang Wenjin, one of the few remaining veterans of the Taiping Army. When Huang Wenjin heard that the Young Heavenly King had come to Guangde to join him, he immediately ordered his younger brother Huang Wenying to go to Guangde to welcome the Young Heavenly King to Huzhou.
When the Taiping army heard that the young king was in Huzhou Huang Wenjin, they went to Huzhou one after another. In just a few dozen days, Huang Wenjin gathered more than 100,000 troops.
Huang Wenjin and Hong Renxuan agreed that they believed that Huzhou was now surrounded by Qing forces and that the only way out was to join Li Shixian, the most powerful servant of the Taiping army, and then contact Chen Decai, the king of Fu who had expeditions to Henan and Shaanxi. If successful, the Taiping Rebellion may still have a chance for revival.
However, what Huang Wenjin never expected was that since Li Shixian became king, he had never put Hong Xiuquan in his eyes, let alone the young king. When he heard that the young king was going to Huzhou to join him, he hurriedly left Huzhou to run Guangdong, avoiding the burden of Hong Tianguifu.
More unfortunately, when Huang Wenjin marched with his army to Ningguo, he suddenly died of his wounds. After Huang Wenjin's death, Hong Renxuan, Huang Wenying and others were simply unable to command this army. So they continued to fight and retreat at a loss, during this period, except for those killed in battle, most of them either surrendered to the Qing army or fled, and within a few days, only more than 10,000 people remained in the ranks of more than 100,000 people.
When these more than 10,000 people arrived at Yangjiapai, a small village in Shicheng, Jiangxi, they were cooking when they were overtaken by Xi Baotian, who was originally the inspector of Jiangxi and is now an alternate prefect. The Taiping army had become as timid as rats, and immediately abandoned the young king, Hong Renxuan and others, and only a few hundred guards fought the Qing army to the end.
These hundreds of people should not be underestimated. Under the command of the dry king Hong Renxuan, they first protected the young king to break through smoothly, and the rest surrounded Hong Renxuan and fought until the last man. They killed and wounded many enemies in the fierce battle with the Qing army, and none of them surrendered, all of them were killed.
Since Hong Renxuan, Hong Renzheng, and Huang Wenying were all civil officials, after the death of the guards in battle, they were all captured by Xi Baotian. King You Li Yuanji was killed in battle, and Liu Qinghan, the king of Zun was arrested after his hands and feet were cut off, and only Tan Tiyuan, the king of Kai, luckily broke through and defected to Wang Haiyang, King Kang.
After escaping the siege, the young king Hong Tianguifu hid in a cave. When the Qing army's search team dispersed, he left the cave to look for work because of hunger, but was soon found by the Qing army.
Under the deception of Xi Baotian, the young Hong Tianguifu not only immediately confessed everything, but also fantasized that he would be able to take the merit examination in the future to serve the Qing Dynasty.
Shen Baozhen, the governor of Jiangxi, believed that only by destroying Hong Tianguifu could the hope of the remaining Taiping Army be eliminated. With the approval of the imperial court, Hong Tianguifu, Hong Renxuan and others were sentenced to Ling Chi together.
