The Tianjing Incident had very serious consequences, and Wei Changhui, the King of the North, killed Yang Xiuqing, the Eastern King, and more than 20,000 subordinates of the Eastern King's Mansion in more than two months, and washed the city of Nanjing in blood. After that, there were also incidents such as the killing of Wei Changhui, the Northern King, and Qin Rigang, the King of Yan, as well as the departure of the Wing King Shi Da and the parting of the main forces of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. This series of events not only greatly affected the strength of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's army. More importantly, the entire theocratic system of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom collapsed, the political system was chaotic, and the generals of the Taiping Army were mentally weak and detached from morality. Since then, the Taiping Army has been in a slump in fighting, and more and more defectors have defected to the enemy. In the end, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom went to the tragedy of its demise.
(Tianjing Incident)
Some people believe that the biggest bane of this disaster is Wei Changhui. The reason why Wei Changhui created the disaster was because of his hatred for Yang Xiuqing. Is that true?
Wei Changhui is indeed the biggest bane, let's take a look at the crimes he committed: first, he killed Yang Xiuqing and brutally killed the Eastern Wangfu; second, he killed the Yiwang Shi Dakai family; and third, he led troops to attack the Tianwangfu to seize power and rebel.
Wei Changhui did have hatred for Yang Xiuqing. According to some historical records, there were two main points in the festival between Wei Changhui and Yang Xiuqing: First, there was a property dispute between Wei Changhui's relatives and Yang Xiuqing's relatives, and Yang Xiuqing kicked the ball to Wei Changhui and asked Wei Changhui to discuss the crime. Wei Changhui said that he simply divided his relatives into five horses. Second, Yang Xiuqing had struck Wei Changhui hundreds of times, causing Wei Changhui to be unable to get up.
(Yang Xiuqing stills)
However, speaking of which, this festival is not too big. Wei Changhui's relatives and Yang Xiuqing's relatives had a dispute, saying that Wei Changhui's relatives were "divided into five horses" or Wei Changhui said it himself. If Wei Changhui insisted on a fair decision, or proposed "let him three feet and why bother", I believe Yang Xiuqing would not say anything. As for Yang Xiuqing's staff attacking Wei Changhui, it was also in accordance with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom theocratic system. As Yang Xiuqing, who can make the "Heavenly Father" go down to mortality, even Hong Xiu can make him kneel down and beat Wei Changhui, so what is it? As for after that, every time Wei Changhui and Yang Xiuqing spoke, they knelt down after three or four sentences at most and said, "Not the fourth brother (Yang Xiuqing) teaches, the younger brother has a tender belly and intestines, and he hardly knows." And when Yang Xiuqing's palanquin arrived, Wei Changhui ran up and gave Yang Xiuqing a car. All of this was what Wei Changhui himself wanted to do, and no one forced him to do so.
Therefore, it is obviously unreasonable to think that Wei Changhui has killed so many people because of personal hatred.
Then, what was the fundamental reason for Wei Changhui's brutal killing of Yang Xiuqing and his Eastern Palace? I think it's still the desire for power. Why the desire for power?
(Wei Changhui stills)
First, the political pattern of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom being ruled by the Eastern King and not by the Heavenly King gave Wei Changhui thoughts. Let Wei Changhui feel that since the Eastern King can be above the Heavenly King, his own three-in-command Northern King (at that time, the Southern King and the Western King were dead) can also become big and become emperor.
Second, Wei Changhui blindly greeted Yang Xiuqing, in fact, he had two plans: First, if Yang Xiuqing eventually became bigger and he could not shake Yang Xiuqing, he could enjoy glory and wealth under Yang Xiuqing. Second, even if he wants to get rid of Yang Xiuqing and tie up Yang Xiuqing, he can paralyze Yang Xiuqing's attention and prepare for the final complete defeat of Yang Xiuqing. So these are all manifestations of the desire for power.
Third, the reason why Wei Changhui wanted to exterminate Yang Xiuqing and the Eastern Palace during the Tianjing Incident was not because of hatred, but because he wanted to maximize his power and make the Eastern Palace collapse from then on and would no longer pose a threat to him.
Fourth, Wei Changhui finally dared to attack the Heavenly King's Mansion, which showed how ambitious his power was.
Therefore, on the surface, it seems that Wei Changhui killed Yang Xiuqing and the Eastern Wangfu because he had hatred in his heart, the fundamental reason was still the desire for power, or because he wanted to replace Yang Xiuqing, replace Hong Xiuquan, and become the emperor himself.
(Reference: History of the Rise and Fall of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom