Wen | reversed the north
As the saying goes, heroes are born in a chaotic world, in fact, behind this, there are some hidden points of helplessness of those so-called heroes who "have to do it". Just think, who wants to give up the peaceful days of food and clothing and lick the blood on the knife edge? If it were not for the turbulent social order that has threatened the stable living conditions of individuals, the so-called "heroes of the chaotic world" would not have been forced out.
01 attacked Anqing, making Zeng Guofan look at it differently
Cheng Xueqi is such a person. When the Taiping Army first arrived in Jiangnan and had not yet gained a foothold, he was still a farmer in tongcheng, Anhui Province, and although his life was not rich, he was not hungry and cold. However, the fierce battle between the Taiping Army and the local Qing army involved him and countless peasant families in Anhui. In the fierce tug-of-war between the two sides, both the Qing army and the regimental training armed forces attached to them, as well as the Taiping Army, tried their best to grab local resources to enter the war. Later, Cheng Xueqi found that the land could not be planted with peace of mind, so he resolutely gave up this life and threw himself into the taiping heavenly kingdom of The British King Chen Yucheng, hoping to make meritorious contributions by killing the enemy.
Cheng Xueqi's courageous battle left a deep impression on Chen Yucheng. However, within the Taiping Army, especially within Chen Yucheng's lineage, veterans of the Taiping Army from Liangguang were extremely repulsive to up-and-coming stars like Cheng Xueqi and were unwilling to share power with them. Chen Yucheng was still a little dissatisfied at first, but later in order to unite these "founding heroes", he had to acquiesce. This was naturally unacceptable to Cheng Xueqi. Therefore, he hid his resentment in his heart and prepared to look for an opportunity to change camps. After all, starting from the purpose of eating mixed food, who is it not a life to sell? Maybe the Qing army's treatment will be better.
Zeng Guoquan besieged Anqing City, providing a good opportunity for Cheng Xueqi. In the face of the Wanyu Xiang army attacking Anqing, Chen Yucheng did not pay attention to them at first, and later, with the loss of the outer passes one after another, the King of England began to be anxious, he first tried to "encircle Wei to save Zhao", through an expedition to the three towns of Wuhan to relieve the siege of Anqing, and later because of his intelligence collection mistakes, he missed the opportunity to take Wuhan, and finally could only be reluctant to return to help. However, the strong barriers and strong artillery superiority of the Xiang army outside Anqing City caused heavy losses to the counterattacking Taiping Army, and the absolute superiority of the Xiang Army's water division in controlling the Yangtze River channel seriously affected the supply of Chen Yucheng's army. Chen Yucheng saw that the siege could not be solved, and he encountered the problem of supply difficulties, so he had to hurriedly return to Tianjing to move his troops.
(Stills from "Taiping Heavenly Kingdom")
Cheng Xueqi saw that Chen Yucheng had repeatedly failed to break the siege, and the Qing army was strong, and realized that this was a good opportunity for him to rebel. Therefore, under the persuasion of his relatives of the same ethnic group, he used one night to leave Anqing City and run to the Qing army camp. When ye Yunlai and Wu Dingcai, the taiping generals who were defending the city, learned of this, they were greatly annoyed and slaughtered Cheng Xueqi's family to vent their anger. And this also made Cheng Xueqi more revenge and revenge psychology after the bloody battle with the Taiping Army.
In the face of Cheng Xueqi, the commander of the Xiang Army, Zeng Guofan, looked down on him and was unwilling to give much trust. Therefore, in the process of attacking Anqing, they all let Cheng Xueqi take his old troops to fight in the front, and when the Taiping Army counterattacked, they did not let Cheng Xueqi's troops take refuge in the trenches, but deliberately exposed them to the threat of the Taiping Army's guns. Cheng Xueqi also understood the reason for his unfair treatment, so he was more courageous, because he had originally assisted Ye Yun to guard Anqing, and was familiar with the surrounding geography, and there were some friends in the Taiping Army camp who sympathized with his own suffering. Cheng Xueqi took advantage of these advantages and decisively surprised the Taiping Army's camp north of the city and conquered it.
(Cheng Xueqi)
This victory of Cheng Xueqi completely cut off the contact between the defenders in Anqing City and the outside world, and also laid the foundation for the Xiang army to seize Anqing. When the Xiang army attacked Anqing City in general, Cheng Xueqi and his subordinates were the first to attack the city. Because of these "contributions", Cheng Xueqi got a different eye from Zeng Guofan, and when Li Hongzhang organized HuaiYong to go to Shanghai for reinforcements, he transferred Cheng Xueqi's troops to his protégé to contain the troops on the eastern front of the Taiping Army.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="21" >02 reinforcements to Shanghai and the bad deeds of killing and descending</h1>
After arriving in Shanghai by boat, Cheng Xueqi, a former general of the Taiping Army, had become a staff general. When he led his "Kaizi Battalion" into the theater, he was just in time for Li Xiucheng's pro-unification army to fight shanghai for the second time. Cheng Xueqi's troops caught fire with the Taiping Army around xinqiao. In order to defend the new bridge, the Taiping Army built a company camp to support each other. But Cheng Xueqi did not care, but first used the purchased split mountain cannon to open a gap, and then took the lead and attacked the Taiping army camp. Since most of the Taiping army guarding the new bridge was temporarily recruited and lacked guns and ammunition, it was even more chaotic when it encountered such a lifeless attack as Cheng Xueqi. On this day, Cheng Xueqi rushed back and forth to kill nine times, forced down thousands of Taiping troops, and made the first contribution.
Later, Cheng Xueqi, supported by the firepower of Hua'er's Changsheng Army, captured Qingpu and defeated Tan Shaoguang's main force at the Battle of Qibao. The Taiping Army was not willing to withdraw, and concentrated its forces to attack the Qing army's position at the mouth of the Four Rivers, Cheng Xueqi learned of it and then hurriedly led his troops to help, this time the surprise attack, Cheng Xueqi from the Taiping Army back road to kill, and the besieged Qing army formed a joint force, once again defeated several times his own Taiping Army main force. Li Hongzhang was greatly surprised and won him the official title of viceroy. Cheng Xueqi worked harder, and after that, Kunshan and Taicang were taken by him, and the Taiping Army had little power left in Shanghai. Cheng Xueqi decided to set his sights on Suzhou, the center of Sufu Province in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
(A part of the Huai Army under Cheng Xueqi)
Suzhou was surrounded by water on all sides, and the attack was relatively difficult, and in the face of changes in the enemy's situation, Cheng Xueqi decided to adopt a strategy of taking the battalion step by step and encroaching on the other side's periphery, and gradually encircling and trapping the Taiping Army in Suzhou.
When Cheng Xueqi attacked the city, he was just in time for Li Xiucheng, the king of Zhong, to return to Tianjing to rescue him, and although tan Shaoguang, the king of Mu, remained, although he fought bravely, his prestige was limited, and it was difficult to control Gao Yongkuan and other kings. Like Cheng Xueqi at the time of the Battle of Anqing, Gao Yongkuan saw that the commander had run away, and he was unwilling to be a "substitute ghost", so he used his old acquaintance in the Qing army and Cheng Xueqi's relationship with Zheng Guokui under Cheng Xueqi to make direct contact with Cheng Xueqi and Gordon, the commander of the Changsheng Army. After discussion, Gao Yongkuan and others designed to assassinate Tan Shaoguang, and then opened the city gate to welcome Cheng Xueqi into the city. But new problems have arisen.
What's the problem? Originally, after Cheng Xueqi entered the city, he found that there were still more than 100,000 Taiping troops in the city, consuming a huge amount of grain and grass, while Gao Yongkuan and others used blood as an alliance to maintain effective control over the Suzhou Taiping Army, and their hands could not reach in. What made Cheng Xueqi even more unhappy was that Gao Yongkuan and others thought that they had made meritorious contributions to the city, and not only refused to give up their military power, but also reached out to Cheng Xueqi to ask for an official reward.
At this point, Cheng Xueqi had to sum it up well, and he thought that Gao Yongkuan and others had done so, no doubt trying to overwhelm the battle achievements they had made in the months since they had reinforced Shanghai. "Now that Li Hongzhang relies on himself, if Gao Yongkuan and others get their wish, won't he be marginalized?" Weighing his interests, Cheng Xueqi decided to borrow a knife to kill people, that is, with the help of Li Hongzhang's hand, fire and Gao Yongkuan and others, and then firmly grasp their army in their hands.
Coincidentally, Li Hongzhang also had similar considerations, but how could Li Xueqi let Cheng Xueqi take advantage of it, and in the face of Cheng Xueqi's advice, he first pretended not to allow it and temporarily left the front line, and then Cheng Xueqi came forward to set up a banquet, feasted on Gao Yongkuan and eight other major generals, and then dispatched ambush troops to kill him when the other side was unprepared.
In this way, the taiping army in suzhou was leaderless and had to accept the adaptation of Li Hongzhang and others, and Cheng Xueqi also received the "glory" of erpin martial arts and wearing a yellow coat. Undoubtedly, this was all exchanged by Cheng himself by betraying Gao Yongkuan and others.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="61" >03 The end of political life</h1>
Cheng Xueqi was complacent about the execution of Gao Yongkuan and others, and was planning to continue to lead the troops to the west, but as a result, the news of a possible mutiny came from Suzhou City, and Li Hongzhang was quite worried about this, and Zheng Guokui and Gordon, who were originally responsible for giving Gao Yongkuan the middleman, were also dissatisfied with Cheng Xueqi's approach. Seeing that Cheng Xueqi had committed public anger, Li Hongzhang "pushed the boat along the water", pushed the responsibility on Cheng, and falsely rebuked him - "You were also a descendant before, why did you do so excessively?" ”
(Suzhou killing incident in the movie "Submission of Names")
Li Hongzhang's change in attitude made Cheng Xueqi angry, but he knew that his glory and wealth were all counting on Li Hongzhang alone, and not long ago, Zeng Guofan had offered to borrow him to share the pressure on Zeng Guoquan, who was fighting outside Nanjing, and was rejected by Li Hongzhang. This shows that Li Zhongtang still has him in his heart.
Coincidentally, after Li Hongzhang blamed Cheng Xueqi, he personally came to his camp to appease him, giving Cheng Xueqi a face in front of his subordinates. Li's "slap a date to eat" made Cheng gradually let go of his previous unhappiness and decided to continue to fight for merit and strive to conquer Nanjing in front of Zeng Guoquan.
However, where did Cheng Xueqi know that the future war became more and more difficult, on the one hand, the towns in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, which were still under the control of the Taiping Army, knew the inside story of Suzhou's killing and surrender, so they resolutely resisted Cheng Xueqi and were unwilling to surrender easily. On the other hand, these areas were the core ruling areas of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and the combat effectiveness and equipment of the soldiers were relatively strong, so it was not difficult to understand that Cheng Xueqi's attack was more difficult.
For Cheng Xueqi, a chaotic and powerful person who made his fortune by relying on a steady stream of military merit, not being able to win the battle means the end of political life.
Cheng Xueqi saw that the attack was not going well, and personally went to the front-line command to set up a pontoon bridge to attack the city, and as a result, he was shot in the head during the attack on Jiaxing and was carried down the line of fire. Cheng Xueqi was seriously injured, anxious and angry, and there was a broken bone in his neck that could not be removed, and he was tortured. After another month of hard work, Cheng really couldn't stand it, and even directly used his own knife to pull out the bone. Such an extreme approach undoubtedly worsened his injuries. After another week or so, Cheng Xueqi died on the eve of Nanjing being attacked by the Xiang army because of the difficulty of swallowing food and water.
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