In 649, after Li Shimin fell asleep, he traveled to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom 1,200 years later. When he woke up, Li Shimin became the king of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, replacing Hong Xiuquan's position and continuing to fight against the Qing Dynasty.
So, if Li Shimin had taken Hong Xiuquan's script and traveled to the late Qing Dynasty, would the Taiping Army have been able to destroy the Qing Dynasty? There is no doubt that Li Shimin had a very strong level of fighting, but it was very difficult, the probability of victory was too small, and the chances were slim.
"Since ancient times, emperors have led troops, and there is no one on the right side of Li Shimin, followed by Zhu Yuanzhang. At the age of 18, Li Shimin followed his father Li Yuan to raise troops in Jinyang to seize the world of his relative Yang Guang; at the age of 19, he began to command thousands of troops and horses to eliminate the heroes for the Tang Dynasty; at the age of 26, he killed his brothers Li Jiancheng, Li Yuanji and their 10 nephews in Xuanwumen and seized the throne.
It is undeniable that Li Shimin is a generation of heroes. On the other hand, Hong Xiuquan should be the bottom of the peasant uprising leaders in the past dynasties, and he is not as strong as Huang Chao, Li Zicheng, and Zhang Xianzhong. Li Shimin and Hong Xiuquan, one in the sky and the other underground.
However, since ancient times, heroes have been created, and heroes must adapt to and grasp the situation in order to achieve a career. Li Shimin took Hong Xiuquan's script and came to the late Qing Dynasty to start a business, which was also enough.
With Hong Xiuquan's script, whether Li Shimin can succeed in counterattacking, we need to consider 3 conditions and solve 2 thorny problems. If Li Shimin meets these three conditions and solves two problems, there will be no suspense about replacing the Qing Dynasty, and if he can't do it, the situation is not good.
The first condition is the emperor's own ability, which Li Shimin has no problem. Since ancient times, if the emperor wants to succeed in entrepreneurship, his comprehensive ability must be very strong, and his politics, military, and economy are all first-class.
Starting a business is the redistribution of power, everyone wants to be the emperor, why should you be the emperor? In this way, the leader needs to have a strong ability, especially the ability to plan strategically, and the ability to march and fight, so as to establish prestige in the army.
Hong Xiuquan obviously can't do it, strategic planning can't work, and it can't lead troops to fight. In the 14 years of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement, Hong Xiuquan has never been seen personally leading troops to the front line to command, which impressed the soldiers.
Li Shimin has strong comprehensive ability. At the age of 19, he commanded thousands of troops and horses, successively eliminated Xue Rengao, Liu Wuzhou, Song Jingang, Dou Jiande, Wang Shichong and other separatist forces, and defeated the "brave general" Liu Heimin, and confronted the Turks on the bank of the Weishui River to keep Chang'an.
Li Shimin's only military deficiency was that he led his troops to attack Goguryeo in his later years, and he could not adopt the opinions of Li Ji and Gao Yanshou, and was blocked under the city of Anshi and failed to achieve his strategic goals.
Purely looking at military ability, even if Li Shimin has shortcomings, it is enough to kill all the famous generals of the late Qing Dynasty in seconds. Hu Linyi, Zeng Guofan, Li Hongzhang, Seng Lingqin and others are nothing in front of Li Shimin, and they are not at the same level at all.
The second condition is team building, having a strong team. Considering that with Hong Xiuquan's script, Li Shimin came to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and it was impossible to bring the "Twenty-four Heroes of Lingyan Pavilion" and the Guanlong Group that supported the founding of the Western Wei, Northern Zhou, Sui and Tang dynasties, but came alone and "parachuted" to Bauhinia Mountain.
The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom team, in the entrepreneurship of the emperors of the past dynasties, the overall strength is also okay. Yang Xiuqing and Xiao Chaogui mainly started by performing "Dancing God", and their abilities are good, but they are not top-notch. You must know that Yang Xiuqing has made a lot of big mistakes, if it weren't for the blessing of "Heavenly Father", the high fault tolerance rate, Yang Xiuqing would have been out of the game early in the morning.
Wei Changhui, Shi Dakai, Chen Yucheng, Li Xiucheng, and Qin Rigang can fight at a good level, but compared with Bai Qi, Wang Qian, Li Jing, Li Ji, Xu Da, Chang Yuchun and other top celebrities, it is still much worse. Feng Yunshan, a think tank, is slightly less deficient than Xiao He, Zhang Liang, Liu Bowen, Fang Xuanling, and Du Ruhui.
Considering Li Shimin's special ability, even if the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom entrepreneurial team cannot reach the level of Liu Bang's "Peixian Group", the Tang Dynasty's "Lingyan Pavilion 24 Heroes", and the Ming Dynasty's "36 Founding Fathers", it is also close to Liu Xiu's "Yuntai 28 Generals" and gets the ticket to participate in the competition for the Central Plains.
The third condition is that the world is in chaos, and the heroes rise together, and they do not make a big move. During the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the conditions for the chaos in the world and the rise of the heroes were not met. Liu Bang started a business, the end of Qin was in turmoil, the nobles of the six countries rose together, and the Qin Dynasty had "lost its deer". Zhu Yuanzhang started a business, and at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, they were even more heroes, and they fought each other internally.
As for the end of the Ming Dynasty, Chongzhen took over the mess, and there was almost no solution. Li Zicheng was beaten by Sun Chuanting to only 18 cavalry, and soon after leaving Shangluo Mountain, he encountered a famine in the Central Plains, and his army instantly increased to 1 million, what is this concept.
During the Taiping Rebellion, the Qing Dynasty had a strong control over the whole country. The so-called "rogues" such as the Twist Army Uprising, the Northwest Uprising, and the Southwest Uprising were not only unambitious in themselves, but also limited in strength, and the Qing Dynasty never regarded them as its main opponents, and the Qing Dynasty's main energy and resources were used to eliminate the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
In this way, Li Shimin did not have such good conditions when he started a business with his father Li Yuan. At that time, the world was already in chaos, and the Sui Dynasty not only faced the threat of rebel troops, but the internal Guanlong group also abandoned them and chose a new spokesperson, that is, the Li Hu family, one of the "Eight Pillars".
Of the three conditions, Li Shimin meets the first one, the second condition is okay, and the third condition is lacking. Considering that Li Shimin is a rare hero, these deficiencies or weaknesses can be gradually improved or made up for in the war.
However, in addition to these three conditions, Li Shimin must also consider two more difficult issues. The first is how to resolve the conflict between God-worshipping religion and traditional culture, as well as the internal power contradictions brought about by it.
The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was founded and relied on the worship of God. Yang Xiuqing and Xiao Chaogui performed "Dancing God", and successively obtained the qualifications of the rumors of the Heavenly Father and the rumors of the Heavenly Brother, as long as they feel that it is necessary, they can override Hong Xiuquan (Li Shimin), how can this be good.
To deny the existence of Heavenly Father and Heavenly Brother is to deny the foundation of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom to worship God, and it is difficult for Li Shimin to solve it. If this problem cannot be solved, it will not be supported by the gentry. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the gentry were the main force in grassroots social governance, and without their help, how could Li Shimin build the country?
Of course, it is also possible to solve the problem of Yang Xiuqing and Xiao Chaogui. With the support of Feng Yunshan, Wei Changhui, and Shi Dakai, these rational and powerful factions, coupled with Li Shimin's eloquence, Yang Xiuqing did not dare to be too arrogant. In addition, in military battles, Heavenly Father and Heavenly Brother may also be killed.
Taking a step back, Yang Xiuqing and Xiao Chaogui were not killed, and Li Shimin also had a way to deal with it. You must know that Li Shimin is the top player of the "Xuanwumen Change", and in Chang'an, which does not belong to his sphere of influence, he can actually deal with Li Yuan, Li Jiancheng, and Li Yuanji at the same time, and the means are unfathomable.
Solve Yang Xiuqing and Xiao Chaogui, but the banner of worshipping God is not easy for Li Shimin to solve, so he can only slowly dilute it, which will take time.
The second, even more thorny, issue is the attitude of the great powers. In modern warfare, no one is the opponent of the great powers, and the powers that have entered the industrial age have almost dealt a dimensionality reduction blow to Asia in the agricultural era. In this way, the support of the great powers became one of the key reasons for the victory of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
If you want the support of the great powers, there is a premise, that is, the price offered is high enough. The Qing Dynasty could do this, but the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom couldn't. The same is true for Li Shimin's replacement of Hong Xiuquan. Hong Xiuquan is unwilling to compromise and betray national interests, will Li Shimin dare?
Li Shimin had the experience of compromising with the Turks, and later let Li Jing lead his troops to destroy them. However, the conditions prescribed by Jieli Khan back then were not the same as those of the great powers. Jieli Khan's request was nothing more than some gold and silver to obtain economic benefits.
The great powers are different, in addition to economic interests, there are more privileges, and unequal relations, which are fixed in the form of law. The humiliation of the Xiongnu to the Han Dynasty and the Turks to the Tang Dynasty was far from being as harmful to China as the great powers.
In this way, Li Shimin would not agree to the unreasonable demands of the foreign powers, and he would not be able to get their support. The great powers chose the Qing Dynasty as their agent, how could Li Shimin win the war? The generational gap between industrial civilization and agricultural civilization cannot be changed by one person, especially within a generation.
In the Battle of the Crimea, without the support of Britain and France, the Ottomans would not have been able to win the Polar Bears and annihilate the Black Sea Fleet. Li Shimin is tough, Nikolai is not bad, the Taiping army can fight, and the polar bear is not without bravery. However, in front of the steel monsters, flesh and blood are too fragile.
Of course, Li Shimin is not without a chance to win, but it is too few. Li Shimin wanted to win only before 1856, that is, when Britain and France were too busy with the battle of Crimea to look east. In this way, Li Shimin only has 5 years, from the Jintian Uprising to the destruction of the Qing Dynasty, which is too hasty.