【Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Series 575, Original Works of Little Buddha History, Please Do Not Reprint】
After the taiping heavenly kingdom was infighting in Tianjing, the previous harmonious atmosphere was gone, and The wing king Shi Dakai sadly chose to leave Tianjing, lead the development of his own troops, and embark on the road of resistance to the Qing Dynasty that broke away from the large troops. After him, there were old men of the Taiping Army who were forced to surrender to the Qing army by rogues, such as Wei Changhui's younger brother Wei Jun, who was ostracized by Yang Xiuqing's younger brothers Yang Fuqing and Chen Yucheng, and surrendered to the Qing army for self-protection, although his surrender was forced by helplessness, but some generals of the Taiping Army saw another choice in life - to surrender to the Qing Dynasty with the army and the city, you can get the high-ranking official Houlu.
With the passage of time, the Qing Dynasty increased the intensity of recruiting officials of the Taiping Army, and Li Zhaoshou, Cheng Xueqi and other middle-level officials of the Taiping Army surrendered to the Qing army because their families fell into the hands of the Qing army, which was also reused. Since then, there have been many middle and high-ranking officials of the Taiping Army who surrendered to the Qing army, including some landlords and gentry who surrendered to the Taiping Army in the early years due to the great strength of the Taiping Army, and of course, there were also old guangxi brothers who followed Hong Xiuquan very early on. However, some people want to surrender to the Qing army but have no chance, can only choose to die on the battlefield, the representative of which is Chen Kunshu.
Chen Kunshu was born in the countryside of Guiping County, Guangxi, and he was already one of them as early as the beginning of the Taiping Army uprising, and he was already a middle- and low-level officer after the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom set the capital of Tianjing.
In 1854, Chen Kunshu "served as the deputy bodyguard of Cao Gong in front of the palace, accompanied by the chancellor Zeng Jinqian to guard Luzhou in Anhui Province, and to guard Chao County." Later, under the command of Li Xiucheng, the deputy commander of the rear army, Li Xiucheng was enfeoffed as the queen, and Chen Kunshu was promoted to the position of deputy commander and rear admiral of the rear army (succeeding Li Xiucheng's original official position)", that is to say, Chen Kunshu later became one of Li Xiucheng's right-hand men.
In 1860, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom carried out the second western expedition, the main forces were Chen Yucheng and Li Xiucheng, at that time Li Xiucheng had taken Suzhou and the surrounding cities, established Sufu Province, and used it as his base, replacing Li Xiucheng to manage Suzhou and other places was Chen Kunshu. However, Chen Kunshu failed to restrain himself and his subordinates, and there was an incident of arsonists disturbing the people, resulting in the displacement of the people.
The following year, Li Xiucheng returned to Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and the people went to complain about Chen Kunshu's bad deeds, and Chen Kunshu, fearing that Li Xiucheng would pursue responsibility, left Suzhou with his army without authorization, went to Changzhou, and built it into his base area. Chen Kunshu's unauthorized departure directly led to the emptiness of Suzhou, and some officials who were no longer optimistic about the future of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom moved to surrender, actively contacted, and prepared to surrender chengcheng, but due to the return of the army, they failed to surrender.
As we all know, Hong Xiuquan was promised a prince in the late Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and Chen Kunshu also took advantage of this wind and was named a protector, but as the situation changed, he thought of finding an opportunity to surrender to the Qing Dynasty.
In 1863, Tianjing was weak, Suzhou and other places were attacked by the Huai army led by Li Hongzhang, Li Xiucheng originally planned to defend Suzhou and Hangzhou and protect the rear, but Hong Xiuquan was bent on keeping Tianjing, and more than ten years of stable life made him reluctant to leave Tianjing, so he constantly urged Li Xiucheng to go to Tianjing to relieve his difficulties. Li Xiucheng obeyed the order, but although he was in Tianjing, his heart was always worried about Suzhou, and finally exchanged tens of thousands of taels of silver for the opportunity to go to Suzhou alone. The siege of Suzhou needed to be lifted, but he had no soldiers in his hands, so he set his sights on Chen Kunshu and asked Chen Kunshu of Changzhou to lead troops to support Suzhou, however, Chen Kunshu did not listen to Li Xiucheng's dispatches at all, and only wanted to wait for Suzhou to fall and surrender to the Qing army directly.
Li Xiucheng had no troops to adjust, Chen Kunshu's army was near Changzhou, and Li Xiucheng issued two urgent orders on September 16 and 20 to dispatch him to send troops. Chen Kunshu did not obey orders. He had already infiltrated the enemy, plotted a rebellion, stood still, waited for Suzhou to fall, and then surrendered Changzhou to the enemy.
However, Chen Kunshu failed to surrender to the Qing army as he wished, all because several Taiping Army officials who were guarding Suzhou were killed by Li Hongzhang after surrendering with all the people and horses in the city. In the face of this change, Chen Kunshu was directly frightened, realizing that surrender was a dead end, it was better to stick to Changzhou City, and perhaps there was a glimmer of life.
On December 25, 1863, the Huai generals Liu Mingchuan and Zhou Shengbo approached the city of Changzhou, and two months later, the foreign mercenary Chang Sheng army arrived in Changzhou from Kunshan under the leadership of Gordon. After a few months, the Huai army completed the complete siege of Changzhou, and when the general offensive was launched, the Huai army used artillery to break through a gap in the city wall, the Huai army and the Changsheng army poured in like a tide, Chen Kunshu led his subordinates to start a street battle with the Qing army, "he (Chen Kunshu) led several officers and thirty or forty soldiers to fight a final death battle in front of his palace", and even "he fought fiercely with a large number of enemies alone... Many enemies died under his big sword", Chen Kunshu and others were finally exhausted and captured.
Soon after, Chen Kunshu was executed by the Qing government Ling Chi.
Reference: Luo Ergang, History of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom