In December 1863, Li Xiucheng, the King of Zhong, hurried back to Tianjing, and before he could eat a bowl of rice, he went directly to the Tianwang Mansion and proposed his own strategy to save the country. Li Xiucheng said bluntly that the Xiang army blockaded Tianjing, there was no grain in the city, and if it went on like this, it would only be slaughtered by others. Nowadays, the only way is to "let the city go", the main force shifts, and looks for opportunities to make a comeback.
Li Xiucheng said it brilliantly, but Hong Xiuquan refused to "let the city not go", he believed that there would be "heavenly soldiers" to help, and it would be easy to eliminate the Xiang army. In July 1864, the Xiang Army's "Jizi Battalion" attacked Tianjing and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom collapsed. In this regard, many people said that Hong Xiuquan was stubborn and did not take the initiative to evacuate, which eventually led to the destruction of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. In fact, the fall of Tianjing was a meaningless insistence, and Hong Xiuquan did not believe in "Heavenly Soldiers", but he had no choice.
Refusing to "let the city not go", the reason given by Hong Xiuquan was that "there are as many soldiers as water in the sky, and there is no fear of the demon". This means that I have a million Heavenly Soldiers and Heavenly Generals to assist, and the Xiang Army is just a matter of time, not enough to be troubled, and can easily get him. So, Hong Xiuquan is really ignorant and believes that there are "heavenly soldiers"? The answer is that Hong Xiuquan is very sober, and the so-called "Heavenly Soldiers and Heavenly Generals" are just dealing with Li Xiucheng's words.
Yang Xiuqing, the Eastern King, enjoys the power of "Heavenly Father Rumors" and is Hong Xiuquan's "father" in the human world, with high prestige. The result? With the help of Wei Changhui's hand, Hong Xiuquan easily took down Yang Xiuqing, resulting in the "Tianjing Incident". It can be seen that Hong Xiuquan himself did not believe in "God", and he pretended to recognize God in order to let more people join the Taiping Army and strengthen his own strength.
Since the Xiang Army's Eastern Expedition, the Taiping Army has been defeated in successive battles, and if Hong Xiuquan really has "heavenly soldiers", Zeng Guofan and Hu Linyi do not know how many times they have died. Hong Xiuquan refused to leave the Beijing Division, not waiting for the "Heavenly Soldiers", but waiting for a large army, which Hong Xiuquan believed could bring surprises and delay the demise of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
Chen Decai, the uncle of King Chen Yucheng, was the leader of the Shaanxi Army of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. In June 1862, Chen Yucheng refused to surrender to the Qing Dynasty and was executed by Ling Chi, and Chen Decai was transferred to Li Xiucheng's command and ordered to march into Shaanxi to recruit troops. Chen Decai and Li Xiucheng had an agreement, and 24 months later, he led his troops south to "Qin Wang" and attacked the rear of the Xiang army, forcing Zeng Guofan to lead troops to rescue the old nest.
Chen Decai was strong in ability, recruiting 200,000 troops in Guanzhong and invading Hanzhong. As Chen Decai said in his self-description: "Where the soldiers are headed, they are invincible and invincible." 200,000 troops, this is Hong Xiuquan's last straw; Li Shixian and Wang Haiyang have 300,000 troops in Jiangxi, but they are untamed, do not obey commands, and are not easy to use without Chen De.
The 200,000 fresh force looks very powerful on the surface, but in fact it is not. The reason is very simple, the vast majority of the 200,000 troops are hungry people, scattered soldiers, brothers and elders, although the number is large, the combat effectiveness and will to fight are worrying. At this time, the Xiang army was at its peak, and with the support of the great powers, Chen Decai could not defeat the Xiang army.
In September 1862, Li Xiucheng led 13 princes and 400,000 troops back to Beijing to "Qin Wang" and fought with 20,000 Xiang troops for 44 days. The result? Li Xiucheng once invaded the Xiang Army camp, but because of the logistics supply could not keep up, he finally withdrew his troops. The Taiping Army, equipped with a large number of foreign guns and cannons, could not get 20,000 Xiang troops, let alone 200,000 miscellaneous troops. In this way, Hong Xiuquan's waiting for Chen Decai to "Qin Wang" was a meaningless wait.
Facts have proved that Chen Decai's 200,000 troops are indeed powerless, and the will to fight is too weak. In July 1864, Chen Decai had entered Hubei and was ready to fight a decisive battle with the Xiang Army along the Yangtze River. Who knows, when the news of the fall of Tianjing came, Chen Decai still wanted to continue the eastern crusade, but the soldiers were already thinking of "kidnapping" Chen Decai, and then asked the Qing Dynasty for merit and reward.
The morale of the troops was low and the people's hearts were scattered, and Chen Decai committed suicide by taking poison to avoid being captured. It should be known that at this time, Lai Wenguang, who was born from the "old brother" in Guangxi, was still fighting, and the 200,000 troops, except for Lai Wenguang, almost all surrendered to the Mongolian county king monk Gelinqin. In this way, the 200,000 troops disappeared, and the monk Greenqin won again and became famous.
It can be said that hoping that Chen Decai will return to "Qin Wang" is a meaningless wait, and Hong Xiuquan put the chips on Chen Decai, and the result was very tragic. However, without relying on Chen Decai, who can Hong Xiuquan rely on? Li Shixian and Wang Haiyang had strong troops, but they did not obey the command, they held hundreds of thousands of troops, but they did not participate in the defense of Tianjing, and repeatedly refused to "Qin Wang", and Hong Xiuquan had no choice.
Li Shixian and Wang Haiyang are unreliable, can they adopt Li Xiucheng's strategy of "letting the city not go"? The answer is that dying worse is not feasible. The reason is very simple, Hong Xiuquan has not been able to go out, from the Tianjing breakout, the difficulty is not very large, where to develop is the key. At all costs, abandoning his harem wives and concubines, Hong Xiuquan can go out of Beijing, but he has nowhere to go.
In Jiangsu and Zhejiang, which are close at hand, Zuo Zongtang and Li Hongzhang have already sharpened their knives. To develop in Guanzhong and join Chen Decai's army, the ideal is very happy, the reality is very bone, the Taiping Army has no water division, can not cross the Yangtze River. Going to Sichuan is simply a fantasy, and the end is the same as Shi Dakai. Back in Guangdong and Guangxi, the contradictions between the natives and the guests were already sharp, and Hong Xiuquan could not go back.
To sum up, Tianjing was in crisis, and Hong Xiuquan could not rely on the unruly Li Shixian and Wang Haiyang because they did not obey the command. Adopting Li Xiucheng's strategy of "letting the city not go", it was not difficult for Hong Xiuquan to break through, but he also had nowhere to go, and he became a "rogue" and could not jump for long.
Staying in Tianjing and waiting for Chen Decai's army to come to "Qin Wang" was Hong Xiuquan's choice under helplessness. Hong Xiuquan hoped that Chen De would be able to return and attack the rear of the Xiang army, alleviate the Tianjing crisis, and continue the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. Unfortunately, the general trend of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom had gone, the qi had been exhausted, and Hong Xiuquan's waiting was meaningless.
Bibliography: History of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom