#头条首发大赛#
If you go outside, you must first settle inside
In May 1857, after the capture of Jiujiang, the arrogance of the Hunan army approached the height of Mount Everest.
As early as when he was encircling Jiujiang, Zeng Guofan was shouting that Changmao "does not suffer from the injustice of this year"; After laying Jiujiang, Zeng Guofan even said wildly - long-haired "counting days can be flat".
Xianfeng certainly liked to hear such inspiring rhetoric, especially when he was facing a crisis that was even more dangerous than that of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
Compared with Hong Xiuquan, Xianfeng's life is more pitiful. As soon as he came to power, he was tossed by the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. By 1856, the internal troubles had not subsided, and the external troubles had reappeared.
The cause of the incident has to start with Xianfeng's Laozi Daoguang. In 1840, the United Kingdom provoked the Opium War on the grounds that Lin Zexu burned their smuggled opium, and two years later they came to Jiangning and signed the "Treaty of Nanjing", and then France and United States took advantage of the fire to rob and signed the "Whampoa Treaty" and the "Wangxia Treaty" with the Qing government, both of which fiercely extorted the Qing government.
In 1854, the United Kingdom government, which was desperate to fill the gap, submitted a request to the Qing government to revise the treaty on the grounds that it had been twelve years old, hoping to carry out the extortion to the end. At that time, the Qing government, including the new legal representative Xianfeng, faced with the diplomatic problems left by his father, was not as soft as the later ones, and clearly rejected such endless and shameless demands.
Two years later, the United States government came forward again, with Britain and France behind it, and once again demanded a revision of the treaty. According to the one-sided most-favored-nation treatment, that is, the unilateral preferential policy, Britain and France will enjoy two treatments.
The Qing government once again rejected collective extortion.
The United Kingdom Government had no choice but to resort to the usual tactic of waging a war of aggression - to find a pretext. Of course, there is no excuse, so you have to make up excuses.
This far-fetched excuse is known in history as the "Yarrow" incident. The Yarrow was a smuggling ship whose owner had registered in Hong Kong to facilitate the smuggling of opium. In October 1856, a month after the civil strife in the Taiping Heavens, Cantonese sailors captured several pirates aboard the Yarrow.
The Yarrow incident
The United Kingdom government feels that this is a rare opportunity, as long as it can be touched, it will always be reliable to make up for it.
The acting consul of the United Kingdom in Guangzhou, Pa Xiali, claimed that this matter violated the judicial sovereignty of the United Kingdom, how can you Chinese run to the United Kingdom ship to enforce the law and arrest people? How to explain the extraterritoriality written in the treaty - that the United Kingdom committed crimes in China and were not under the control of the Chinese government, but by the United Kingdom government? Moreover, your Chinese anti-smuggling law enforcement officers on the Yarrow used to be disrespectful to the United Kingdom flag flying on the ship, so you must release the people first, and apologize secondly.
The highest magistrate of Guangzhou in charge of liaison with the United Kingdom was Ye Mingchen, the governor of Liangguang, who had a very hard bone and an even harder attitude, and only released people without making amends or apologies. In Ye Mingchen's view, this is not only a matter of face, but also a matter of national system.
The United Kingdom decided to destroy Ye Mingchen's verbal toughness with substantial toughness. On October 23, 1856, the British army, under the command of Ergin, attacked the Humen Fort, and a few days later attacked Guangzhou, and after a retaliatory robbery of Ye Mingchen's office (governor's office), he withdrew from the city due to insufficient troops to wait for help.
This battle started because of the Yarrow, and is also known as the Yarrow War in history.
France, seeing that United Kingdom was ahead of the curve, was not far behind, and decided to find an excuse from the historical archives to catch this robbery shuttle.
The France government believes that you United Kingdom government can be shameless, and I can be even more shameless than you.
I don't know if I don't flip it, and I'm scared when I flip it. After reviewing the archives, it was found that as early as February 1856, a France missionary, Malai, whose religious title was priest, that is, priest, was also the head of a church. This person went to Xilin County, Guangxi Province to commit crimes and scoundrels, and harmed the local people, and was sentenced to death by Xilin County in accordance with national law.
Isn't that a ready-made excuse?
France government took the opportunity to send Gro in 1857 to lead the French army into the war. Due to the joining of France, history refers to this battle as the Anglo-French battle.
On December 12, 1857, the British and French troops arrived in Guangzhou and issued an ultimatum to Ye Mingchen, demanding that he give an answer within ten days.
Ye Mingchen received Xianfeng's instruction to "rest the army for the sake of peace", which means to compromise and seek peace, so he did not repair war preparations, but he did not want to raise his noble hand to surrender to the robbers, so he only sat in the governor's yamen.
Enraged by Ye Mingchen's ambiguity, Erjin and Gro launched an early attack on the 28th, landing on the shore to attack the city, and due to Ye Mingchen's policy of inaction, Guangzhou soon fell.
Governor Bai Gui immediately surrendered, becoming the first traitor in modern history and establishing the first puppet traitor regime in modern history.
The Anglo-French forces successfully reached the Governor's Palace, and they could not forget this hard-line governor.
The next scene surprised the British and French forces, and they saw Ye Mingchen dressed in court clothes, sitting upright, as if there was no one around, with a leisurely expression.
Ergin's "no war, no peace, no defense; Don't die, don't surrender, don't go", the governor prisoners are also helpless, and they don't know how to deal with it.
In desperation, Ergin had to take him to Calcutta, India, to make another calculation.
More bloody things are still to come. This was the first Chinese governor to go abroad in modern times, and he sat on a ship bound for a foreign country, did not eat, drink, make trouble, or throw himself into the sea, and died of hunger strike.
Ye Mingchen, born as a Jinshi, a first-class master, died in a foreign country, leaving the world not only incredible mystery, but also incomprehensible sighs.
Erjin and Ge Luo abandoned Ye Mingchen and marched north in the second year, captured the Dagu Fort, and forced Tianjin.
As soon as Xianfeng saw that he had hit the doorstep, he immediately relented, surrendered on his knees, and sent representatives to sign the Treaty of Tientsin with Britain and France in June 1858. At the same time, Russia and the United States also took advantage of the fire to loot and extort money.
In Xianfeng's view, the most important thing at the moment is the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, not the Anglo-French alliance.
For Xianfeng, of course, his country is the most important. Hong Xiuquan wants his life, and foreigners want his money. The lesser of two evils, Xianfeng believes that it is more important to keep the country than to be a miser. Messing with Lao Maozi, it's not a joke to beat Beijing!
Because Xianfeng did not go all out to fight outside first and then at home, Britain, France, the United States and Russia once again won the victory of the joint robbery.
How easily can the desires of robbers be satisfied? How can the father's debt be paid by the son? What Xianfeng didn't expect was that the British and French robbers really entered Beijing soon after and burned down his office - the Old Summer Palace.
Perhaps, in Xianfeng's eyes at that time, the top priority was to take advantage of the good situation of the Hunan army to conquer Jiujiang, and then go down to Anqing, besiege Tianjing, and eradicate Hong Xiuquan, a big henchman!
An unprecedented rehabilitation
Everyone has a scripture that is difficult to read, and Hong Xiuquan is no exception. Compared with Xianfeng, the situation of the Heavenly King Hong Xiuquan is not much better.
After Shi Dakai left, Hong Xiuquan, the chairman, reached the lowest point since the opening of Jintian.
When people are at a low point, they are often prone to nostalgia for the past, and Hong Xiuquan is no exception.
The first one that Hong Xiuquan misses is Feng Yunshan. This is a good brother, a good comrade-in-arms, a good subordinate, but it's a pity to go too early and too fast!
Thinking of Nanwang, Hong Xiuquan remembered the years when he started a business in Bauhinia Mountain, and there was a famous saying circulating at that time: "Men learn from Feng Yunshan, and women learn from Yang Yunjiao."
Yang Yunjiao was the number one female of the God Worship Society back then, and Hong Xiuquan was full of gratitude to her at first. Hong Xiuquan still remembers that when he first arrived at Bauhinia Mountain, the male disciples were very good, but the enthusiasm of the female disciples was not high.
Fortunately, Yang Yunjiao was smart enough to reverse this situation. Yang Yunjiao was originally surnamed Huang, but later became a brother and sister with Yang Xiuqing, and then changed her surname to Yang, and she was the first disciple to sing a duet with Hong Xiuquan.
When Hong Xiuquan first came to Bauhinia Mountain to preach, Yang Yunjiao said that she had a dream as early as 1837, that is, the year when Hong Xiuquan failed to make the list for the third time, and when she was seriously ill, she happened to have a dream. Yang Yunjiao said that she saw an old man in a dream and said that in ten years, there will be a person from the east who will tell you how to worship God, and you should sincerely support his work.
The "old man" Yang Yunjiao said is God, and the one who came to preach was of course Hong Xiuquan. Yang Yunjiao's dream story proved for the first time the authenticity of Hong Xiuquan's dream that he was ordered by God. For a time, people were even more convinced of Hong Xiuquan, and the female believers enthusiastically joined the church and supported their husbands' work.
In order to let herself go further on the altar, Hong Xiuquan immediately became a brother and sister with Yang Yunjiao, and Yang Yunjiao immediately changed her name to Hong Xianjiao, and later listed her as the sixth daughter of God. Because of the homonym, later generations often write Hong Xuanjiao, and some refer to her as Yang Xuanjiao, all referring to her.
There are unforeseen circumstances in the sky, who would have expected that Yang Xiuqing and Xiao Chaogui, two buddies, would successively perform the show of Heavenly Father and Heavenly Brother. Hong Xuanjiao doesn't know the current affairs, ignores the nonsense of her brother and husband, and still talks about her dreams and talks to herself. Hong Xuanjiao continued to say how she was in her dreams, but she was scolded by Yang Xiuqing and Xiao Chaogui for being "politically brainless", and in the name of Heavenly Father and Heavenly Brother, Hong Xuanjiao was repeatedly attacked.
Hong Xuanjiao is indeed too confident, even Hong Xiuquan is not dreaming much at this time, what kind of dream do you have?
There are two people who stifled Hong Xiuquan's hobby of dreaming.
First Yang Xiuqing, then Xiao Chaogui.
Yang Xiuqing took advantage of Hong Xiuquan's return to Guangxi, shook around, went to the sky, and said to everyone after coming back that he wanted to be the father of Sect Leader Hong intermittently.
What made Hong Xiuquan angry was that everyone actually believed it, just like believing in his heavenly dream.
What made Hong Xiuquan even more angry was that everyone not only talked about Heavenly Father's program, but also respected this "father" who was nine years younger than him.
Silence is golden. For your own sake, for the sake of heaven, bear with me! Hong Xiuquan couldn't debunk Yang Xiuqing's ghost tricks, and he remained silent.
Just when Hong Xiuquan was silent, Xiao Chaogui hurriedly seized the opportunity to perform a great drama of Brother Tian's descent to earth.
There is another brother who is several years younger than him, Hong Xiuquan is speechless: When have we seen these two big guys?
But Hong Xiuquan can only knock out his teeth and swallow blood, which cannot be said explicitly, otherwise his dream will not be believed.
One person dreams, two people go down to earth, one to two, the strength is obviously a little thin!
It is the majority who pays attention to politics, and Hong Xiuquan is a little lacking in confidence.
You must stop the wind that will go to the sky with a shake, otherwise, I don't know how many brothers will come out, maybe there will be sisters, or even "little three"!
Hong Xiuquan returned to Huaxian County, Guangdong, found his henchman Feng Yunshan, and discussed countermeasures.
In fact, there is no need to negotiate options, because there is no choice; You can only choose how to do it.
The solution is simple, fix the heavenly family members. In this way, you can not only keep your position as the boss, but also prevent people from saying that they are a member of the family when they go to heaven.
Six brothers, one sister, so be it!
Since then, Hong Xiuquan has become even more silent, and he no longer talks about his dreams, unless Yang Xiuqing and Xiao Chaogui need their own cooperation when performing.
Hong Xiuquan also stopped dreaming. Since Yang Xiuqing performed Heavenly Father's descent to earth, until Yang Xiuqing's ascension to heaven and return to the throne, Hong Xiuquan has never had a "strange dream" like back then.
It's not that he doesn't want to do it, it's that he can't do it.
First, there are two people who go down to earth, and he is the only one who dreams, and the balance of power is a bit different.
Second, it is the father and brother who go down to earth, and the son and younger brother who dream are not at the level.
Third, it is intuitive, everyone can see and hear, and it is persuasive, but in comparison, dreaming is not so obvious and credible, isn't it?
Hong Xiuquan expressed doubts about Hong Xuanjiao's understanding: I don't dream anymore, what are you still tossing around?
Because Yang Xiuqing and Xiao Chaogui did not allow anyone to snatch the right to speak in religion, and Hong Xiuquan did not want anyone to share his dream, Hong Xuanjiao's status suddenly plummeted, and even the propaganda slogan was changed to "Men learn from Feng Yunshan, and women learn from Hu Jiumei".
Hong Xuanjiao no longer talks in her dreams, because Yang Xiuqing wants to talk about heaven.
The memories and feelings that Yang Xiuqing left to Hong Xiuquan are complicated.
Although Yang Xiuqing relied on his outstanding performing arts and outstanding military and political talents, he was majestic and unstoppable, and even ambitious to force him to live the title, which made Hong Xiuquan both scared and faceless, and also faced a job crisis. Fortunately, Wei Changhui took Yang Xiuqing's life with a sword, which freed Hong Xiuquan from an embarrassing and dangerous situation, but also pushed Hong Xiuquan into another embarrassment and danger.
Hong Xiuquan's embarrassment comes from the unprecedented spiritual crisis brought to Heaven by the Yang Wei incident.
Although Hong Xiuquan calmed down Wei Changhui's indiscriminate killing, he could not heal the scars in the hearts of the soldiers and civilians of the Heavenly Kingdom. At that time, there was a limerick poem circulating among the people of the heavenly kingdom: "When the heavenly father kills the heavenly brother, it will always be empty, and he will go home to do long-term work." The common people also echoed from afar: "Heavenly Father kills Heavenly Brother, the country can't be turned, the long hair is not the right master, and it still makes Xianfeng."
With the bankruptcy of the theory and thought of the worship of God, the spiritual pillar of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom collapsed, and the crisis of faith followed.
What makes it even more incomprehensible to the common people is that with Yang Xiuqing's physical disappearance, everything about him is also disappearing rapidly.
First of all, a series of his military titles, including the chief general of the Chinese army, the left auxiliary army division, and the king of the east, were all written off. Then there were his political titles, including Comforter, Holy Divine Wind, Honaishi, and Redeemer, all of which were completely stripped away. Finally, his blood position in God's family, including the fourth son of the Father and the spokesman of the Father, was completely eliminated.
This is not easy to understand, Yang Xiuqing is dead, can it be that Heavenly Father is also dead?
This is a nerve-wracking question, and it's not easy to justify itself.
But Hong Xiuquan must give a reasonable explanation, otherwise how can the magical dream he had back then be publicized and hyped to the people? How can the common people maintain their worship of his old man?
It's a dead end!
But Hong Xiuquan must get out of this dead end! Otherwise, what awaits Hong Xiuquan will really be a dead end.
Hong Xiuquan felt the serious consequences caused by the disunity of the team: the twin brothers whose spiritual pillars collapsed were completely passive in the military.
In addition to the honeymoon period when the team was united, what Hong Xiuquan missed, of course, was Dongwang's outstanding governing ability and military talent. If it weren't for Chen Chengying telling him that the East King was going to poison him, Hong Xiuquan would not have shown his sword last.
Hong Xiuquan's nostalgia for the king of the east who has ascended to heaven is entangled and lingering, and often appears in his dreams: "I am waiting for the eleventh and fifth year of this month, and I personally visit my father and emperor (in my dream). On the fifteenth and fourth day, I went to the same as the young lord and the king of the east, and I asked the young lord to be bold, and there was no need to panic with the grandfather. The king of the east played the army to hand over his brother-in-law, and there was Yidang who killed demons and destroyed ghosts. The fifth watch is in the New Moon Palace, and there is a sound in the dream. ("The Edict of All Nations Coming to the Dynasty and Respecting and Avoiding")
Hong Xiuquan started with a different dream, and has always had supreme trust in dreams, because missing the East King in his dream is not only his call to Nengchen, but also an opportunity for him to reevaluate the East King.
Hong Xiuquan realized that whether it was from the cause of the Kingdom of Heaven or in order to satisfy his own personal emotional needs, it was imperative and urgent to rehabilitate the Eastern King and restore the theory and ideological system of the Worship of God Religion, and besides, the military and people of the Kingdom of Heaven must also wait and see.
Hong Xiuquan's rehabilitation of Yang Xiuqing has begun consciously or unconsciously since 1857.
In the winter of this year, Hong Xiuquan issued the dedication of the seventh year of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (1857) (the document submitted for approval of the new calendar of the eighth year of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom), which read: "Spread the Heavenly Father, the Lord God, the Emperor, God, the True God, the True Divine Decree, the Comforter, the Holy God, the Wind and the Grace, the Master of the Redemption of the Sick, the Zuo Fu, the Army, the East King", a long series of honorary titles.
It is not difficult for careful friends to find that in November 1857, Hong Xiuquan returned the titles of "Comforter" and "Holy Divine Wind" to Yang Xiuqing.
In the eighth year of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (1858), the rehabilitation work was further intensified.
In the "Xingshi Wen" published in this year, Hong Xiuquan began to eulogize the immeasurable merits of the East King. Soon after, Hong Xiuquan wrote a limerick poem to foreign religious colleagues in "The Edict of Giving Western Brothers", specifically explaining this matter.
This limerick poem is written like this: "The king of the east came to atone for his illness, his eyes were blinded, his ears were deaf, his mouth was silent, he suffered endless hardship, and the war demon broke his neck and fell horizontally. Grandpa sent a holy decree in advance, and the teacher went out to suffer and cleared, and the period was framed for the court, and grandpa's holy decree was finally carried out. ”
The first four lines of the poem summarize the merits and hard work of the Eastern King. "Lord" refers to the Heavenly Father, and the first sentence means that the Heavenly Father sent the Eastern King to descend to the world to pray for the people to atone for their illnesses and blessings instead of the Heavenly Father; The second sentence is that Yang Xiuqing deliberately pretended to be blind and deaf and dumb in advance during the Jintian Uprising, and everything returned to normal afterwards, which not only boosted morale but also improved his prestige; The third sentence says that the king of the east has suffered enough for the cause of heaven and has had enough of sin; The fourth sentence refers to Yang Xiuqing's personal presence on the front line in Daozhou to direct the war, but as a result, he fell from his horse and sprained his neck.
In the last four sentences, Hong Xiuquan explained the death of the East King. Grandpa, still refers to God the Father. The meaning of the first two sentences is that the death of the king of the east is called by God, so the decree has been issued in advance to inform him that the death date of the king of the east has arrived, and the atonement is over. Chaoguan is Hong Xiuquan's palace of the Heavenly Dynasty. The meaning of the last two sentences is that because the time of the death of the Eastern King has arrived, someone (Chen Chengying) ran to the palace of the Celestial Empire to report it, and as a result, he was killed by someone (Wei Changhui), which was arranged by God in advance.
Hong Xiuquan's feelings are complex, and his intentions are good. On the one hand, he highly summarized and affirmed the hard work of the East King; On the other hand, he used religious language and fatalism to make a self-justifying lie about Yang Xiuqing's death, which not only concealed the truth of Dongwang's forced palace, but also washed away the fact that he listened to the false accusation of killing Yang Xiuqing.
The climax of the rehabilitation work was in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (1859). This year, Hong Xiuquan upgraded the 27th day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar, that is, the day Yang Xiuqing was killed, to the "Dongsheng Festival" to commemorate the ascension of the East King to heaven and completely restore the honor of Yang Xiuqing. Hong Xiuquan also wrote in "The Edict of the Historian to Make the Moon Order": "On the twenty-seventh day of July, the Dongsheng Festival, the Kingdom of Heaven will not be forgotten from generation to generation. Xie Ye entrusted the sick lord with redemption, and the world turned to heaven (there is a common word below). The kingdom of heaven is threefold from generation to generation, and the blessings of heaven and truth are endless. What's the benefit of speculation? Poor traitor becomes a bedbug. ”
Hong Xiuquan's mourning is painful, the penmanship is dignified, the heart is painful, and right and wrong are clear. He can only helplessly advise those who are still "speculating" - in the past, let it pass, there is no need to talk nonsense and speculate! Let's forget what we should forget! Of course, there is one person we can never forget, and that is the East King! As for Wei Changhui, Qin Rigang, and Chen Chengying, who have become bed bugs, you can forget about them.
Hong Xiuquan personally wrote "Reading the Seventh Dongsheng Festival in July, and the Kingdom of Heaven will not be forgotten from generation to generation", which was printed on the new calendar printed and issued every year, so that the soldiers and people of the Kingdom of Heaven will always miss the King of the East. In the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the Dongsheng Festival is the only three major religious festivals alongside the birthdays of Heavenly Father and Heavenly Brother, and it is also a great festival celebrated by the people of the whole country.
The rehabilitation work is still not over. In the tenth year of Gengshen (1860), Hong Xiuquan succeeded his fifth son Hong Tianyou to Yang Xiuqing, taking over the throne of Yang Xiuqing's eastern king, calling him 9,000 years old, continuing Yang Xiuqing's incense and political life. He also ordered the construction of the Nine Heavenly Court in the name of the young lord Hong Tianguifu, as the palace of the king of Youdong.
Hong Xiuquan's rehabilitation of Yang Xiuqing is unprecedented, and after Yang Xiuqing ascended to the Kingdom of Heaven, he received more titles and honors than when he was alive, and it was more dazzling.
If the soul of the East King has knowledge under the Nine Springs, he doesn't know how to feel! We have all ascended to heaven, can we afford such a toss?
Hong Xiuquan's unprecedented rehabilitation work for Yang Xiuqing is not just so simple as nostalgia, but there are more hidden motives behind it.
If we examine in detail the other details of the New Year's dedication in November 1857, it is not difficult to find that this was a major religious rectification action carefully planned by Hong Xiuquan.
In this recital, in addition to restoring Yang Xiuqing's two religious honorary titles, Hong Xiuquan also made three changes to the religious honorary titles of the leadership team: depriving one, demoting one, and promoting one. Wei Changhui's title of "Thunder Master" was revoked, Shi Dakai was demoted from "Holy Spirit Electricity" to the original Electricity Master, and Xiao Chaogui was upgraded from Rain Master to Holy Spirit Rain.
After more than a year of rehabilitation and rectification, Heavenly Father and Heavenly Brother were once again exalted, and Hong Xiuquan finally re-established his religious system and completely regained his own religious power, even political power.
Tossing the dead does not solve the substantive problem, and in the war years, in the final analysis, it is the barrel of the gun that has the final say. Hong Xiuquan began to look for a new commander to rebuild his kingdom of heaven on earth.