Preface
The Taiping Rebellion can be said to have accelerated the fall of the Qing Dynasty, and some people believe that the emergence of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was inevitable, and in a certain sense, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was a tumor formed by corruption within the Qing court.
The final defeat of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom actually showed that an unscientific uprising was doomed to fail, and Yang Xiuqing, Wei Changhui, and Hong Xiuquan, without exception, were all for their own interests, not for the interests of the broad masses of the people.
After the Qing government exterminated him, there was another survivor in the upper echelons of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, who quietly escaped from the pursuit of the Qing court, and later lived to be 96 years old, revealing the secret of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's internal strife before his death.
1. The death of Yang Xiuqing
As a veteran who started a business with Hong Xiuquan, Yang Xiuqing also got what he wanted after the Taiping Army captured Nanjing, and because he did have a hand in leading troops to fight, and his prestige in the army was also very high, he became one of the four heavenly kings second only to Hong Xiuquan.
Hong Xiuquan was called the emperor and began his arrogant and lascivious life, and most of the military was handed over to Yang Xiuqing and Wei Changhui.
It can be said that at this time, he has already grasped the real power of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Hong Xiuquan is just a symbol of honor, in order to achieve his goal of becoming the emperor, Yang Xiuqing has engaged in a lot of activities to pretend to be a ghost.
He first lied that Heavenly Father descended to earth and got on his body to control Hong Xiuquan. The reason why the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement was launched was, to put it bluntly, that Hong Xiuquan spread his own "God Worship Religion" everywhere and absorbed these believers into the army to form the Taiping Army.
It is conceivable that these supporters of Hong Xiuquan are illiterate, and seeing Yang Xiuqing doing this, Hong Xiuquan had to cooperate in order to maintain the correctness of his "worship of God".
Yang Xiuqing pretended to be, Hong Xiuquan took his wife to kneel for him, and the civil and military officials saw that the king of heaven Hong Xiuquan was kneeling, and they also knelt down one after another, Yang Xiuqing was proud in his heart, and gave orders in the tone of his father, and played Hong Xiuquan in the palm of his hand.
Wei Changhui couldn't escape Yang Xiuqing's teasing, once because of a trivial matter, Yang Xiuqing even scolded Wei Changhui as a heavenly father, you must know that Wei Changhui is the northern king of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and he Yang Xiuqing is the founder of the Jintian Uprising, how can he treat him in this way of treating his subordinates, and the two have a feud.
Yang Xiuqing acted like this, and finally let the situation develop to the point of uncontrollable, in the sixth year of Xianfeng, Yang Xiuqing once again pretended to be a ghost, and asked Hong Xiuquan to make him long live, which was a naked arrogance, and Hong Xiuquan reluctantly agreed to him.
However, Hong Xiuquan soon received a tip-off report, saying that Yang Xiuqing's move was to seize power, and he had already ambushed heavy troops, and when Hong Xiuquan sent him a long live, he would have a justifiable reason to be the emperor, and Hong Xiuquan would lose his value.
So, Hong Xiuquan immediately recalled Wei Changhui, who was outside, and sent troops to attack Dongwangfu in the first three months of August of that year, Yang Xiuqing was caught off guard and could only flee in a hurry, and was finally arrested in the toilet and the body was on the spot.
Under the instruction of Hong Xiuquan, Wei Changhui began a plan to cut down the grass and eradicate the roots, killing all the people related to Yang Xiuqing, implicating tens of thousands of people, and the cruelty was comparable to that of Zhu Yuanzhang.
2. Those who survived
After Yang Xiuqing was executed, the internal grievances of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom arose, in order to calm the anger of the people, but also to maintain stability, Hong Xiuquan pointed the finger at Wei Changhui again, he issued an edict against Wei Changhui, and finally Wei Changhui was dismembered and killed by Hong Xiuquan.
At this time, the two major forces of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom died in internal strife, which also indicated that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was about to fall, and in April of the third year of Tongzhi, Hong Xiuquan died of illness, and two months later, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom perished.
At this point, the peasant uprising that lasted for more than ten years finally ended, and the Qing court slaughtered the Taiping army in Nanjing in order to achieve the goal of cutting the grass and eradicating the roots, but in this catastrophe, there was a high-ranking person of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom who survived, he was Hong Xiuquan's brother-in-law - Lai Hanying.
Lai Hanying is a very good person, he is also one of the participants in the Jintian Uprising, although he was born in a poor peasant family, but he likes to read very much, not only proficient in medical skills, but also has a martial arts, and is a famous martial artist in the local area.
Thanks to his identity, he helped Hong Xiuquan a lot in the early days of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and he was Hong Xiuquan's think tank.
Emperor Tongzhi's order was to cut the grass and eradicate the roots, for the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, which had tormented the Qing Dynasty for more than ten years, only by cutting the grass and eradicating the roots could it be angry, and Hong Xiuquan's death could not vent the anger of the Qing court.
After Lai Hanying came to Hong Kong, he lived in the Kowloon Walled City, and the Qing soldiers did not dare to enter rashly, so they could only set up a net around it, and it was rumored that a large net with poison was set up near Lai Hanying's residence.
After the Qing soldiers attacked, Lai Hanying grabbed the window and fled, and he was in the trap set by the Qing army, and he had external injuries on his body, and the exposed wounds were stained with poison, resulting in a stubborn disease on his legs, which could not be cured, but Lai Hanying gritted his teeth and returned to his hometown.
3. Tell the truth
According to Lai's family's later recollections, when Lai Hanying returned home, the entire calf had ulcerated, and there were still a few dots of Chinese herbs on the wound, which was thought to have been treated by Lai Hanying, who was proficient in medical skills.
In order to avoid the search and arrest of the Qing army, Lai Hanying lived incognito in the countryside until 1908, on the eve of the fall of the Qing Dynasty, when the 96-year-old Lai Hanying died suddenly.
Before dying, Lai Hanying told a secret, that is, the truth of Yang Xiuqing's death, all along, people thought that Yang Xiuqing offended Hong Xiuquan, and then Hong Xiuquan ordered Wei Changhui to kill him, and later Wei Changhui killed too many people, which was also a sign to Hong Xiuquan, but the situation became out of control, and Hong Xiuquan had no choice but to take Wei Changhui under the knife.
But according to Lai Hanying, this is not the case, he said that Yang Xiuqing was proud of his achievements at that time, and he did offend the upper echelons of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, but Hong Xiuquan did not kill him in view of his merits, and was willing to crown him long live.
But Wei Changhui suffered a lot of humiliation from Yang Xiuqing, he wanted to take this opportunity to kill Yang Xiuqing, under his persuasion, Hong Xiuquan agreed, but Hong Xiuquan planned to pardon Yang Xiuqing's family and subordinates, Wei Changhui did not listen, and carried out extermination activities privately, which provoked Hong Xiuquan's punishment, resulting in his own end in a different place.