In June 1857, Shi Dakai, the wing king who had been in power in Tianjing for less than a year, left Beijing to return to Anqing because he could not bear Hong Xiuquan's suspicions, because he did not want to be Yang Xiuqing's second reason, and then issued an announcement to tell the soldiers and people of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom about his reasons for leaving Beijing, and then led the Taiping Army generals who supported him to start his expedition.
Shi Dakai's expedition began with his departure from Anqing in October 1857 and ended in June 1863, when the entire army of the Dadu River was defeated, lasting a total of six years and traveling more than 50,000 miles, passing through fifteen provinces of Suzhou, Anhui, Gansu, Zhejiang, Fujian, Guizhou, Xiang, Guangdong, Qian, Dian, Hubei, Sichuan, Xikang, Shaanxi, and Gansu.
Because Shi Dakai was separated from the main battlefield of the Taiping Army, although he himself was very talented in military ability, but because he did not have a stable base to rely on, his expeditionary army had become a rogue force, so although he had achieved brilliant results along the expedition, his defeat was already doomed from the time he left Tianjing.
Shi Dakai's old rival Zeng Guofan once commented on Shi Dakai's expedition, saying, "Shi Dakai's trip has become a wandering, and it is bound to be long!" ”
Zeng Guofan's strategic vision was to be powerful, Shi Dakai, the wing king of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom who had once been an opponent, since the day he embarked on a single job, Zeng Guofan no longer regarded him as his opponent, but regarded Chen Yucheng, the rising star of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, as his main target and the Xiang Army.
When Shi Dakai left Anqing for the expedition, he set his main target on the rich Zhejiang region, trying to use this as a basis to lay the foundation for his future grand cause.
Since Zhejiang was the main taxation place of the Qing Dynasty, in order to protect Zhejiang, the Xianfeng Emperor issued a strict order to mobilize all the powerful troops from all over the country to rush to Zhejiang, all of which were to deal with Shi Dakai's army. In this weak situation, Shi Dakai had to give up the capture of Zhejiang.
After the unsuccessful attack on Zhejiang, Shi Dakai consulted with the strategist Zhang Suimou and decided to take Hunan first, then hubei, and then move to Sichuan and establish his own political power there.
Their plan was perfect, but it was difficult to implement. On the way to Hunan, Shi Dakai's army suffered the first major setback of his expedition at Baoqing Province, Hunan.
Baoqing is a strong city, and Shi Da kai originally intended to be determined in a war. However, he made the biggest strategic mistake since he joined the army, when his large army Baoqing City was down, he could have taken Baoqing in one fell swoop, who knew that Shi Dakai wanted to yield the soldiers without a fight, in a vain attempt to make baoqing's Qing army move out to sacrifice the city by besieging it. As a result, because his troops were under the fortified city, the Qing army completed the defensive facilities, and finally Shi Dakai's army was defeated and left under the Attack of the Qing Army's internal and external Qi.
The Battle of Baoqing caused heavy losses to Shi Dakai's troops, and in desperation, he had to lead his troops into Guangxi. Because Shi Dakai had been wandering around for two years after leaving Beijing, his subordinates were disappointed in him, and the generals led by Zhu Yidian and Peng Dashun decided to lead their respective subordinates back to Tianjing.
After Zhu Yidian and the others left, Shi Dakai was once disheartened, and once germinated the intention of returning to the hidden mountains and forests to stay away from the world, but his reputation was too loud, and it just so happened that at this time, tens of thousands of people in the Dacheng state rebel army were attached to him due to defeat, so Shi Dakai's army was revived.
In June 1861, Shi Dakai led his troops from southwest Guangxi into Hubei, and then found a way to attack Sichuan, trying to capture Chengdu and then occupy the whole of Sichuan.
Shi Dakai's fierce general Lai Yuxin was appointed as the vanguard, and he progressed smoothly along the way, and Shi Dakai was able to cross the Jinsha River smoothly and approach the Dadu River.
Originally, if Shi Dakai ordered the whole army to cross the river, he had a good chance, because the Qing army on the other side of the river had not yet arrived, and the toast that guarded the bank of the Dadu River was bribed by him with heavy money, but at this time, Shi Dakai's concubine gave birth to a son for him, and he thought that this was an auspicious omen, so he forgot the words of the soldiers and nobles. What is even more incredible is that when the soldiers were in danger, Shi Dakai actually made a ghostly decision to send the whole army to celebrate the birth of his son for three days.
In just three short days, the situation changed dramatically, one was that the Qing army had occupied the opposite bank, and used more money to buy the various toasts along the Dadu River, and then heavy rain fell, causing the Dadu River to rise sharply.
Seeing this, Shi Dakai hurriedly ordered the capture of the opposite bank, but the river swelled, and most of the Taiping Army generals were swept away by the rapids when a boat entered the river, and a small number of them were killed by the guns of the Qing army before reaching the other side of the river. If they were rushed several times in a row, thousands of Taiping Army warriors all died in the river.
After a few days, the Taiping army ran out of food, and Shi Dakai, who was helpless, only took a few people to the Qing camp in order to save the lives of the remaining thousands of people.
This time Shi Dakai was too naïve, and just as he entered the Qing camp alone to negotiate with Luo Bingzhang, the governor of Sichuan, thousands of his subordinates who had laid down their arms were all killed by the Qing army sent by Luo Bingzhang, except for a few who escaped. Shi Dakai was executed by Luo Bingzhang Lingchi.