Although Hong Xiuquan is dead, but the living people still have to continue, the kingdom of heaven is still in danger, the kingdom of heaven can not be without a master for a day, on June 6, that is, the fifth day after Hong Xiuquan's death, the young lord Hong Tianguifu took the throne in the cannon fire of the Qing army, he is the second generation of heavenly kings of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom has only two generations of heavenly kings, Hong Tianguifu made the young heavenly king for seven days and forty-nine days on the Golden Dragon Hall of Tianjing.
What Hong Tianwang left behind was a mess, and the young Heavenly King's life was very difficult. At this time, the Xiang army had completed the encirclement of Tianjing on all sides, building fortifications everywhere outside the city gate, reinforcements were no longer allowed to enter the city, and it was difficult for the defenders to leave the city.
At this time, a person known as "Shen Zhenren" suddenly appeared in the power center of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, named Shen Gui, who was a core member of the Young Heavenly King's presidency of the dynasty, but his record can only be found in the Confession of Hong Tianguifu. It's just that there is no qualification, no origin, no merit, how can he enter the court and rank high, which is very surprising:
1. He was a native of Shexian County, Anhui Province, not an old brother of Liangguang, who joined the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom halfway through.
Second, according to the strict regulations of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, a single name cannot be used, and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom believes that "the single name is a demon name".
Known as "Shen Zhenren", those who can be called "Zhenren" are usually high-ranking people outside the Fang and Daomen. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was the abolition of The Buddhist religion, so why did a "real person" emerge that was contrary to God's Heavenly Brother?
"When the kingdom is about to perish, there will be demons." How much role did this Shen Zhenren play in the rise and fall of the Kingdom of Heaven? However, because most of the documents of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement were destroyed and there were no other records of him, it was difficult to check them.
After Hong Tianguifu ascended the throne, Hong Renfa Hong Renda, Xiao Youhe the Prince of Youxi, and Shen Zhenren jointly presided over the imperial government; Hong Renda was also in charge of the silver treasury and the money and grain of the officials, and Li Xiucheng was in charge of military power.
Shen Gui had obviously been favored and reused by Hong Xiuquan in his later years, otherwise he would not have been placed in the position of presiding over the government side by side with the Hong brothers and the first leader Xiao Youhe of Youxi. According to the confession Chen, his suggestion, left and right, can make the Heavenly King into the ear, the Hong brothers resonate, Li Xiucheng and so on also agree, can be described as eight exquisite, everyone is happy.
Although Tianjing City was repeatedly besieged at this time, the city defense was arranged in place, arranged in an orderly manner, repeatedly smashed the attacks of the Xiang Army, and destroyed more than 30 tunnels, and occasionally took the initiative to attack, successively killing more than 4,000 officers and men of the Xiang Army, holding on to Tianjing, in the long run, the Taiping Army was favorable, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom also made long-term plans, in the open space of the city also planted rice, the Taiping Army in the siege, although small in number, but very effective.
As the days passed, at this time, Chen Decai's troops in the northwest had led 400,000 troops from Hanzhong, divided into three roads, starry night, and rushed to the aid of Tianjing.
The Qing court was extremely anxious, afraid that this large army was approaching Tianjing, and the Xiang army's efforts to besiege Tianjing for nearly two years would be abandoned
Therefore, on the one hand, the empress dowager of the two palaces urgently ordered the monk Greenqin and the local armies of Henan and Anhui to join forces to intercept the northwest reinforcements, on the other hand, to severely rebuke Zeng Guoquan for failing to attack the city and spending money for a long time, and on the third hand, in the 20 days from mid-June to early July, she gave Li Hongzhang six edicts, asking him to lead the Huai army to rush to the capital city and attack the city with the Xiang army.
Li Hongzhang received the edict, it was quite difficult, because he clearly knew that the great merit of capturing Tianjing was estimated to be useless, not to mention that Zeng Guofan was his teacher, and he had a great favor for him, he could not go to grab the merit, just Zeng Guoquan died and nailed Tianjing for two years, in these two years the Xiang army suffered heavy losses such as plague and war losses, but Zeng Laojiu was stubborn and did not retreat, for what, in addition to the merit, there was also the huge gold and silver jewelry wealth in Tianjing City.
On the side of the bed, will you allow others to sleep peacefully? Zeng Guoquan and his subordinates would never give in to each other, and Li Hongzhang had been in the official arena for a long time and knew the stakes involved, so he did not move for a long time, allowing the empress dowager of the two palaces to urge him, and also wrote to Zeng Guoquan to express his attitude: "Repeatedly sending instructions, rao sending our army to assist in suppressing Jinling, despising that my husband and son have worked hard for two years, and they have not finished it, and they dare not go near the forbidden body and peep at the bed."