Wen | reversed the north
If before the rise of the Xiang Army, it was necessary to find out the biggest opponent of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom from within the Qing court, it was none other than the Minister of Qincha, Xiang Rong. From the beginning of the Taiping Army's "Yong'an Fengwang Jianguo" to 1856, when the main force of the Taiping Army broke through the two large camps in Jiangbei and Jiangnan, Xiang Rong led the Green Battalion to chase from Liangguang all the way to Jiangnan, which can be said to be quite difficult for Hong Xiuquan and others.
However, after all, Xiang Rong was from a civilian background and did not understand the military brigade, not to mention that as the commander-in-chief, it was impossible for him to lead the charge alone. Therefore, Xiang Rong must support himself in the future by promoting Luo Luowu. And Zhang Guoliang, who was once called "big-headed sheep" by the Jianghu people. Because of his outstanding military talent, he was reused by Xiang Rong. It was also in this way that Zhang Guoliang became the fiercest enemy of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom besides the Xiang Army.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="7" >01 went straight up to Qingyun under xiangrong's protection</h1>
Zhang Guoliang, whose ancestors were from Gaoyao, Guangdong, had done small business in Guangxi in his early years, and later offended the local local tycoons because he was angry for his friends, and then he fell into the grass as a thief, and it is said that he once defected to Luo Gang, who later became the vanguard of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
After the Jintian Uprising, the Taiping Army contacted and co-opted other civilian anti-Qing forces, and Luo Gang also led his troops, including Zhang Guoliang, to join the Taiping Army. However, as a latecomer, Zhang Guoliang soon experienced the feeling of not being trusted and valued by the other side, and when the Taiping Army sent him to deceive the Qing army, the result was false, resulting in his own defeat by the Qing army, the Taiping Army calculated this account to Zhang Guoliang's head. The Taiping Army thought that he was the first to kill his family members at both ends, and then began to monitor Luo Gang and others, but fortunately Yang Xiuqing waited for a timely halt to avoid a greater degree of division, but Zhang Guoliang could never retreat.
After Zhang Guoliang learned of the tragedy of the murder of his family, he simply went out and told Xiang Rong, who was the minister of Chincha, the details of his surrender. Xiang Rong, because he had repeatedly lost battles with the Taiping Army at that time, also felt that after taking Zhang Guoliang under his wing, it would be more conducive to his own grasp of the other side's situation and thus win. Therefore, Zhang Guoliang was quickly accepted by Xiang Rong to change the court and throw himself into the Qing army camp (there are also Qing notes that Zhang Guoliang was recruited by The Guangxi envoy Lao Chongguang, which is now said in the "Biography of the General Shuai bei" of Zhongxing). He also bravely attacked in the attack on Yong'an and other battles, killing and wounding many Taiping troops.
After that, the Taiping Army besieged Guilin and turned into Hunan, planning to further besiege Changsha. When Zhang Guoliang learned of this, he led his headquarters to pursue and kill Xiang, intending to attack the main force of the Taiping Army with the Qing army defending the city. At that time, the Taiping Army failed to attack the city, losing a number of key members such as Xiao Chaogui, the Western King, and was in an embarrassing dilemma, and the killing of Zhang Guoliang's troops further worsened the war situation that was already unfavorable to the Taiping Army. In the end, the Taiping Army had to abandon the attack on Changsha and instead attack Yuezhou and other cities, seize ships from there, and rush eastward. Zhang Guoliang was further reused by Xiang Rong because of his meritorious efforts in breaking the siege and his bravery in the previous Guangxi campaign, and by the time he led his army to follow the Taiping Army into Jiangnan, he had changed from an outlaw to a general soldier of the Qing army.
During the war in Jiangnan, Xiang Rong set up a large camp (i.e., "Jiangnan Camp") outside the city of Nanjing (that is, the capital of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, "Tianjing"), and formulated a strategy of long-term siege. Zhang Guoliang was responsible for carrying out Xiang Rong's strategic arrangements, and successively fought the Taiping army to the death at key passes such as Taiping and Zhenjiang.
Zhang Guoliang's luck was really good, and soon after he followed Xiang Ronggang to the vicinity of Nanjing, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom threw part of the main force from Guangxi into the Northern Expedition, and the other part was sent to the Two Lakes region to open up new battlefields and seize grain-producing areas. In this way, there are few strong troops left near the capital. Soon, yangzhou and other important towns that had been occupied by the Taiping Army were encroached upon by Zhang Guoliang's army, and by the beginning of 1856, only a town of Zhenjiang, which could fall at any time, remained.
Zhang Guoliang's battle exploits not only made Xiang Rong feel face, but also gave a glimmer of hope to The Xianfeng Emperor, who was at that time in the Beijing Imperial Palace who was struggling with the Anglo-French coalition and the suppression of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement, and when the Xianfeng Emperor learned that the finger was injured, he immediately sent someone to bring good gold sore medicine to heal the wound. It is reasonable to say that Zhang Guoliang's injuries are insignificant, but it is enough to see the Xianfeng Emperor's appreciation for Zhang Guoliang.
02 Xiang Rong suffered marginalization after his death
After that, the Taiping Army, under the command of Qin Rigang, launched a counterattack, first lifting the siege of Zhenjiang and eliminating the Qing court's garrison in Jiangbei, and then concentrating its forces non-stop to attack the Jiangnan camp where Xiang Rong was located. Because the situation changed too quickly, he fled to the Rongcang Emperor, and Zhang Guoliang once again exerted his talents, gathering scattered troops while fighting with the pursuing troops of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and finally retreating to Danyang, he temporarily blocked the large army of Qin Rigang, the King of Yan of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and Zhang was given the title of governor for his meritorious efforts in defending the city.
Zhang Guoliang was able to preserve his strength as much as possible in the overwhelming offensive of Mount Taishan in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, on the one hand, because he usually led his troops to advocate Grace and Power, for example, once someone took the lead in mutiny, he immediately executed him, and the means were stable and fierce, but if he knew that there were officers and soldiers who were forced by poverty, he would also generously donate money and live under the help of his subordinates. This was rare within the Qing army camp at that time.
On the other hand, although Qin Rigang won the victory in relieving Tianjing, he was soon involved in the cruel infighting between the fire and the Eastern King Yang Xiuqing under the control of the Heavenly King Hong Xiuquan, and because the top level of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom experienced a crazy power reshuffle, there was no time to take care of Xiang Rong and his defeated soldiers for the time being, so Zhang Guoliang was able to regroup and continue to fight with the Taiping Army. I have to say that Zhang Guoliang has been favored by the god of destiny again.
However, after Xiang Rong's death, the newly appointed Minister of Chincha and Chun were less friendly to Zhang Guoliang. He Chun despised Zhang Guoliang's origins, but had to rely heavily on the latter in military affairs. In order to balance Zhang Guoliang, in addition to stabilizing Zhang Guoliang, a brave and resourceful "military deputy", he also appointed his close confidant Wang Jun as the wing commander and governor, and the two men jointly controlled the supply of money and food for the whole army, and also controlled a part of the army. When Hechun used the chaotic energy of the "Tianjing Incident" to re-encamp Xiaolingwei to restore the Jiangnan camp, Zhang Guoliang's power remained the same as usual, which further stimulated him to prove himself.
03 The Great Wall in the eyes of the Xianfeng Emperor, the hero in Li Xiucheng's eyes
After changing his superiors, Zhang Guoliang became more and more fierce in the use of troops, often putting himself in danger, which also brought a lot of trouble to chen Yucheng, a general of the Taiping Army. For example, when Zhang Guoliang discovered that the Taiping Army was lax in its defenses of Jiuzhuzhou in jiangbei, opposite Xiaguan in Nanjing, he immediately crossed the river to attack and occupied most of the opposing camps. After dawn, Chen Yucheng bullied Zhang Guoliang,with few people, sent a large army to counterattack, and was defeated by the other side, not only did not recover the lost position, but even the temporarily saved camp was lost. Of course, Chen Yucheng also had his own difficulties, because although Zhang Guoliang was alone in this attack, he was supported by the fire support of the Yangtze River Shangshui Division.
In addition, compared with Zhang Guoliang's strong troops, the Taiping Army, which was responsible for the defense of Nanjing's outskirts, had just experienced infighting, morale had plummeted, and training was neglected, and many soldiers were recruited temporarily. In this way, it is not difficult to understand that Zhang Guoliang will gain a firm foothold in Jiuhuanzhou. However, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was now more critical, because the Qing army's soldiers had already been inserted into the heart of the Heavenly Kingdom under the command of Zhang Guoliang.
If Hechun had given Zhang Guoliang more troops at this time, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement might have failed four years in advance. However, at the instigation of Wang Jun and others, Hechun did not take advantage of the situation opened by Zhang Guoliang to further expand the results of the battle. At this time, the mediocrity of Hechun spread within the camp, and many people were not convinced. When the Green Battalion soldiers learned that Zhang Guoliang had fought for them to transfer the military salary they had owed to Hechun, they had a good feeling for Zhang.
However, Zhang Guoliang did not have financial power after all, and Hechun also found this problem tricky at first, and later in order to "appease people's hearts", he perfunctorily took Nanjing and paid again. I never thought that doing so would make the officers and men of the battalion more and more alienated.
Zhang Guoliang was not on the front line, and It was difficult to convince the people with Chun, and the outwardly powerful Qing army was actually full of internal contradictions, just at this time, Li Xiucheng, the loyal king of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, used the strategy of "encircling Wei and saving Zhao" to attack Hangzhou from a distance, drawing out part of the troops of the Jiangnan camp, and later meeting with Yang Fuqing, Li Shixian and other troops to attack the camp in general and win victory. Hechun was unable to restrain his troops, and the soldiers were defeated like mountains. Ironically, among the materials captured by the Taiping Army after the war, more than 200,000 taels of silver were withheld by Hechun and others.
The loss of the Jiangnan camp forced Zhang Guoliang to play the role of a "firefighter" again, however, the Taiping Army's attack was not like the last time, and the Heavenly King Hong Xiuquan ordered Li Xiucheng and others not to give the other side time to breathe, but to attack Su Chang in one fell swoop and occupy the wealth and wealth of the Qing Dynasty.
The Taiping army on the eastern front came down like a fierce tiger and directly attacked the remnants of Hechun's troops, and Zhang Guoliang saw that the situation was critical and wanted to retreat to other places, and he was worried about the good impression he had left on the Xianfeng Emperor. In the end, he still decided to go to Danyang to command the defense.
On the first day of the confrontation, Li Xiucheng's army was blocked by Zhang Guoliang, but the next day, Li Xiucheng adjusted his strategy, and the surprise soldiers first captured the commanding heights of Tushan mountain west of Danyang City, and then quickly broke through the city and cut off the retreat of Zhang Guoliang's army.
When Zhang Guoliang saw the changing banner of Danyang City, he realized that his end had come, and seeing that the soldiers around him were in an unstoppable situation, he had to reluctantly retreat to the moat outside the south gate of Danyang. However, the gunshot wounds on his body became more and more painful, and these were mixed with the exhaustion and fear of fighting for several days, and finally dragged down his fighting spirit. Amid the shouts of the Taiping Army, the Qing generals on the Eastern Front, who had fought with them for ten years and almost captured Nanjing, even took their horses and planted themselves into the river. As for Hechun, who escaped because of his death, after learning that Zhang Guoliang died in battle, he also vomited blood and died of fear of being pursued by the imperial court.
When the Xianfeng Emperor, who was far to the north, learned of the rout of the Jiangnan camp, especially the news of Zhang Guoliang's death, he also helplessly issued in the edict - "If Zhang Guoliang is there, why did Su and Chang decay like this?" (Referring to the Taiping Army's occupation of the Suzhou-Hangzhou region)".
Similar to the Xianfeng Emperor's understanding of Zhang Guoliang as the "Great Wall of southeast", as a victor, Li Xiucheng, the King of Zhong, also sincerely admired this opponent, and after Danyang was captured, Li Xiucheng specifically ordered the search for Zhang Guoliang's body and buried it under the pagoda root of Danyang. In "Self-Description", he explained it as having a "heart for heroes".
Zhang Guoliang died, which was naturally unfortunate for the Xianfeng Emperor, but for Zeng Guofan and his Xiang army who were far away in Qimen, it was not a purely bad thing. After that, because the Jiangnan camp no longer existed, the imperial court had to rely on the Xiang army advancing towards Anqing with all its strength, and reluctantly handed over the position of governor of Liangjiang to Zeng Guofan to appease his heart that had been hurt by the defeat of Sanhe.
From this point of view, the future life of the Taiping Army will only be more difficult.
bibliography:
Luo Ergang, "Notes on the Original Manuscript of Li Xiucheng's Self-Description", Zhonghua Bookstore
Wang Rongsheng et al., History of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement, People's Publishing House
Zhao Erxun et al., Draft History of the Qing Dynasty, Zhonghua Bookstore
(Qing) Zhu Kongzhang, "Biography of the Zhongxing General Shuai Bei", Yuelu Book Club
Shen Weibin, "Soldiers and the Era of Great Change", Beijing Normal University Press