In July 1864, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement, which had traversed the north and south of the great river for 14 years and almost overthrew the Qing Dynasty, finally collapsed in a pool of blood. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement failed, and many generals, in order to avoid being hunted down and killed by the Qing Dynasty, hid their names and lived their entire lives. For example, after Qin Bingxian, a native of Mengshan, Guangxi, and shi Dakai, the commander of the dadu river, went to Lichuan City, Hubei Province, to live in seclusion and multiply, and his descendants already had more than a hundred households.
Unlike Qin Bingxian, Liu Huicheng did not live in seclusion, but chose to cooperate with the Qing Dynasty and open a manor in his hometown of Huangzhou City. In 1900, the Cixi and Guangxu Emperors went to Xi'an to "hunt" and asked Liu Huicheng to send silver and two condolences. Cixi was very pleased and awarded him the plaque of "Happy Charity and Good Charity", and was named as a candidate for the title of Governor and received the title of Shang Shu.
Liu Huicheng, a native of Huangzhou, Hubei Province, was a general of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, who later defected to the Qing Dynasty and opened a manor. Speaking of Liu Huicheng, perhaps everyone is not very familiar with him, he has another name, that is, Liu Weizhen, whose deeds are included in the Huangzhou Local History. Liu Huicheng was his name, and after defecting to the Taiping Army, he avoided Chen Yucheng and changed his name.
Like most people, Liu Huicheng studied in his early years, striving for the imperial examination and changing his destiny. Very helpless, Liu Huicheng is not the material of the imperial examination, he only won the Xiucai, many examinations can not be selected, so decided to find another way out. Without Fan Jin's persistence, Liu Huicheng was very pragmatic, he learned "bamboo baskets" from his father and made a living by handicrafts.
If you only rely on "bamboo fence", Liu Huicheng will be difficult to get ahead in his life, unless he relies on today's network to make him popular overnight, otherwise it is difficult to change his fate. The Qing Dynasty did not have a network, but there was the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement, and Liu Huicheng used the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom as a platform to eventually enrich the party.
In the summer of 1857, Chen Yucheng led troops to conquer Hubei and seize the area around Huangzhou, in order to change his fate, Liu Huicheng joined the Taiping Army, followed Chen Yucheng in battle, and was subordinate to Lai Wenguang. Because of his bravery in battle and the courage to fight and dare to kill, Liu Huicheng soon became a fierce general and served as Lai Wenguang's deputy. Who knows, Liu Huicheng pit Lai Wenguang at a critical moment, making Chen Yucheng want to cry without tears.
In early 1861, Chen Yucheng led an army to conquer Wuchang in the west and captured the Huangzhou region. Due to the slow pace of Li Xiucheng's advance, Chen Yucheng could not wait, so he withdrew his troops from Huangzhou and directly rescued Anqing. At this time, Chen Yucheng left Lai Wenguang to defend Huangzhou City, waiting for Li Xiucheng's army, and then attacked Wuchang, forcing the Xiang army to retreat from Anqing City.
Li Xiucheng was keen to run the Jiangsu and Zhejiang bases and had little interest in the western conquest of Wuchang. In May 1861, Li Xiucheng led an army to the outskirts of Wuchang, and the city was in a hurry, but Li Xiucheng did not attack the city, but returned to Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and Lai Wenguang continued to stay in Huangzhou.
There were many contradictions between Chen Yucheng and Li Xiucheng, and the shrewd Liu Huicheng saw it in his eyes, and he thought that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom had exhausted its qi and was not a climate, so he had to find another way. In September 1861, Anqing fell, and Chen Yucheng's army was almost completely destroyed, and Yuan Qi was seriously injured. At this time, the Xiang army besieged Huangzhou, and Liu Huicheng, as a "fellow of the two lakes", contacted Jiang Ningxue to discuss surrender.
After the fall of Anqing, the Taiping soldiers in Hubei and Anhui were panicked, and Liu Huicheng could only find a way to live for himself. To surrender to the Qing Dynasty, you must be sincere and come up with a gift of meeting. In this regard, Liu Huicheng did not have any problems, he not only dedicated his plans to the Qing Dynasty and captured Huangzhou, but also personally led troops to help the Qing Dynasty capture De'an and Suizhou, and Chen Yucheng's bases in Hubei were all lost.
In order to reward Liu Huicheng, the Qing Dynasty reorganized its troops and gave them the name of "Zhongyi Battalion", with the zhejiang admiral as an alternate and ready to be on standby. The so-called "alternate" naturally did not follow, because many of the fierce generals of the Xiang Army were "candidates" of the admiral, and it was not his turn to be a demoted general.
The so-called line out of the yuan, Liu Huicheng "rapids and courageous retreat", he resigned and returned home to continue business. So, where did Liu Huicheng get the funds? The answer is very simple, when Chen Yucheng returned to Anqing from Hubei, he left a large amount of belongings in Huangzhou, Suizhou, and De'an to prevent accidents. As a result, almost all of Chen Yucheng's belongings fell into Liu Huicheng's hands.
According to the Local Chronicle of Huangzhou, after Liu Huicheng captured De'an, he used mules to transport silver and silver, purchased 50,000 mu of land, and opened a manor. Due to the proper management and the period of the "foreign affairs movement", Liu Huicheng's cake is getting bigger and bigger. According to records, Liu Huicheng had 7 granaries, 5 pawnshops, 8 various businesses, and 3 large merchant ships, claiming to be "seven warehouses, five classics, eight merchants and three ships".
After making his fortune, Liu Huicheng paid for the construction of schools, academies, yizhuangs, shantangs, and nursery halls, and sponsored the Hubei inspectors to repair the Yellow Crane Tower. Of course, Liu Huicheng was still very shrewd, and he also tried to find a way to get closer to Cixi and Guangxu and keep his cake.
In 1900, in order to escape the Eight-Nation Alliance, Cixi and Guangxu fled overnight, and due to the lack of time, they hardly carried anything, and the road was very difficult. Cixi and Guangxu fled to Xi'an, known in history as "Xi Hunting", that is, to go hunting in Shaanxi and relax their minds, which is a kind of "Spring and Autumn Brushwork".
Cixi and Guangxu went to Xi'an to "hunt", and Liu Huicheng, as a courtier, hurriedly sent someone to send silver two to help the empress dowager and the emperor solve their problems. Cixi was very pleased and awarded him a plaque of "Happy Charity and Good Charity", named Admiral, and added the title of Shang Shu as a reward.
The Jin merchant Qiao family also sent silver two to Cixi and Guangxu to save the emergency. It has to be said that the Jin merchants had a great influence on the Qing Dynasty, and the Qing army could not enter the customs without the Jin merchants; Cixi and Guangxu went to "hunt", and the Jin merchants were also very generous. Unfortunately, Jinshang could not adapt to the changes in the situation, and eventually declined.
Bibliography: History of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom