The Taiping Army is the abbreviation of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Army, which refers specifically to the peasant army under the leadership of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom from the establishment of Hong Xiuquan Yong'an in 1851 to the fall of Tianjing in 1864. In the early days, the Military Discipline of the Taiping Army was strict and its combat effectiveness was extremely strong, which made the regular army of the Qing government invincible. The Taiping Army was a weapon to implement the ideals of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and it fought to the death against the Qing government's armed forces and foreign forces from beginning to end.
After the Tianjing Incident, the discipline and combat effectiveness of the Taiping Army were much worse than before, and in the process of fighting against the Xiang Army established by Zeng Guofan, it gradually fell into the ascendant.
The reason is that most of the elite of the Taiping Army were killed in battle, and the former faith was also destroyed by ruthless infighting, the quality of new recruits declined, and many Qing soldiers often joined the Taiping Army after defeat, which further aggravated the decline of the Taiping Army's strength.
At the same time, it is also a thorn in the side of Western countries, which is also one of the reasons.
The Manchu Qing suppressed the Taiping Army
In 1852, the Taiping Army entered Xiang from Gui, and the officers and soldiers of Hunan were scattered. Guo Songtao urged Zuo Zongtang and Zeng Guofan, who also lived in the countryside, to come out and make meritorious achievements. In the following years, Guo Shi has been with Zeng Guofan counselor military affairs, and has made many achievements. At the end of 1856, he left Xiangbei and went to Beijing to serve as an editor of the Hanlin Academy. On April 12, 1858, the Taiping Army's Shizhen Jibu was led by Xian Tianyan and military and political secretary Cheng Mou to occupy Yongkang, and the only recalcitrants were Vice Grandpa Xie (Xie Lansheng), Xu Yiren and a few others. After the occupation, the 10 townships were divided into 5 army commanders, 25 division commanders and 125 brigade commanders. Huangxi Tan led the crowd to defect to the Taiping Army, and the number of troops grew to more than 2,000. On the morning of the seventh morning of the first month of June, the vigilante group would suppress Huangxi Beach, and more than a hundred fathers and sons of YingFa Jie were killed. Then tens of thousands of people from Youxian, Yihe, and Taiping township groups gathered to encircle the county seat. The Taiping army made a tactical retreat, retreating slightly before the militia group was encircled, and in early June, Bayong recovered and was occupied by Zhou Tianpei, a Qing general.
Taiping Army
In May of the eleventh year of Xianfeng (1861), Li Renshou of the Taiping Army occupied Yongkang, and the township militia groups desperately held on, and the Taiping Army advanced and retreated. In August, tens of thousands of Taiping troops, led by Xiao Dafu of Tian'an, occupied the county seat and sent Wei Tianfu to fight Zhiying. The Taiping Army informed An Min that "every door in all parts of the county should hang a door sign", each township and every road should set up a military card, and the whole county except Fangyan Mountain and Absolute Dust Mountain were under the occupation of the Taiping Army.
On April 11, 1862, in the first year of Tongzhi (1862), the local militia attacked the county town in several ways, and when the Taiping Army hidden in the Area of Dongku was unstable, it attacked from behind the enemy and flanks, catching the vigilante groups by surprise, killing and injuring countless militia groups, and capturing more than 10,000 people. The next day, Xiao Dafu led hundreds of taiping soldiers to attack the militia at Li Xi, and was ambushed by the militia at the Niujiling Mountain, all of which were killed. On the fourteenth day, the militia group surrounded the county town, and the Taiping Army defending the city fought bravely and held its position, and the militia group attacked for three consecutive days and could not advance half a step. On the seventeenth day, tens of thousands of Taiping troops from Jinhua and Wuyi reinforced Yongkang from Tongqin, and the militia disintegrated. After that, the county seat was garrisoned by Mercy Tianyi, and the three leaders of Zhu, Lu, and Gong were divided into Zhiying. During this period, Li Xiucheng, the King of Zhong, Fan Ruzeng, the first king, and other generals of the Yongkang Taiping Army in the past "did not know their hundreds of thousands, and the villages of Heyi came and went, everywhere." On October 15, the Taiping Army retreated to Nanzhai and then to the Dongyang HutouLu area to fight the museum. On the thirteenth day of the first month of the second year of Tongzhi (1863), the Taiping Army stationed in Yongkang withdrew from Yongkang, and Yongkang was occupied by Lin Wencha, the commander-in-chief of the Qing min army.
source
Battle map of the Taiping Army and the Qing Army
(The following is an excerpt from Numzero's article "Noun Interpretation, Ge Ge, Xiang Yong, Family Letter, Long Hair, Tai Ping Jun")
On more than one occasion, such a plot appeared in the CCTV drama "Taiping Tianyuan" -- the officers and men of the Kingdom of Heaven said to the common people, "We are not called Long Mao, we are called the Taiping Army," and Pan Xulan, the author of "Taiping Miscellaneous Theory," who claimed to "restore the true face of history," also said conclusively, "No matter what viewpoint and appraisal you hold, if you want to write a historical treatise or a historical drama for it, you should call it the Taiping Army." Both sides who hold positive and negative attitudes toward the Taiping Heavenly Pavilion seem to believe that there was really an army called the "Taiping Army" in history.
However, after searching through the historical materials, only records of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom calling its army "Heavenly Army" and "Holy Soldier" could not be found, and there was not a single "Taiping Army" as conclusive evidence of self-proclaimed self-proclaimed.
Taiping army soldiers wearing Hanfu shorts
In fact, the name "Taiping Army" is similar to "Long Hair", which also originates from the people, except that "Long Hair" is a neutral title without a position, and the tendency of "Taiping Army" is obvious. If Mr. Pan had a little more common sense of that period of history (in fact, in the "Compilation of Thieves' Feelings", which he claimed to have read and cited repeatedly in the "Taiping Miscellaneous Sayings", he did not know why he ignored it, was he focused on choosing the arguments he needed? ), understanding the tendency contained in the background of the emergence of the term "Taiping Army", I believe that I will not advocate changing the neutral title of "Taiping Heavenly Kingdom" to "Taiping Army Uprising" and dropping stones on my feet.
The name "Taiping Army" originated from the second half of the Taiping Tianyuan from the Jintian Regiment Battalion to the Dingdu, during which it was called "Taiping" for 3 years. At the beginning, there was no national name, Hong Xiu was called "Taiping Wang", and although he was later renamed "Heavenly King", the founding number was "Taiping Tianyuan", but the flag was always written with "Taiping" and no "Heavenly Kingdom", which was found in the records such as "Taiping Guangxi Guiping Yellow Banner", "Taiping Water Camp", "Taiping Left Army Commander" and so on. The red-headed document of the Taiping Tianyuan on the establishment of the army, the first engraving of the Taiping Military Catalogue, stipulates that the flag is also written in the book "Taiping" instead of the book "Tianyuan". (This is the "military purpose" of the "Taiping" regime, not the purpose of the "Taiping Army", such as the official documents engraved in the early days of the Taiping Heavenly Decree called the "Taiping Regulations" and the "Taiping Edict") The common people who supported them saw that they were always under the banner of "Taiping" and called them "Taiping Army".
In 1854, the Taiping Army conquered Luzhou and played the banner of "Taiping Tianyuan Chunguan Zheng Xiang Gongxun Plus First Class Hu", which is the earliest existing record of the word "Taiping Tianyuan" appearing on the banner, since then, the Taiping Tianyuan army has been called "Taiping Army", and those who have a good feeling for it are mostly called "Heavenly Army", "Holy Soldier", "Western Soldier" and "Long Hair", and the enemy is called "thief" and "bandit", only in areas where they have been active in the early years and have a lot of support, there are still the titles of "Taiping Army". This title is obviously spontaneous and voluntary, because the rulers of the Taiping Heavenly Order will not ask others to call them "Taiping Army", and the speculators will only call them "Heavenly Army" and "Holy Soldier", so this title can be said to include the people's uncomplicated recognition of the "Taiping" regime.
At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the People's Republic of China, the revolutionaries took the deeds of the Taiping Heavenly Pavilion as an anti-Qing call, and the title of "Taiping Army" was popularized by Sun Yat-sen and other revolutionaries of two Guangdong nationalities, and by the end of 1928, Zhang Xueliang announced the change of the northeast and the Nationalist government had completed the "unification" in form in 1929, and the Propaganda Department of the Central Committee of the Kuomintang in Nanjing banned the slander of the Taiping Tianyuan case the following year, and wrote to the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Education for reference, and soon formally issued a stipulation that "later, if there is a record of the history of Taiping, it is forbidden to use the name of Cantonese thieves." Since then, the "Taiping Army" has become the official name of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Army, so that the authenticity of the false has been indistinguishable for more than half a century, and has been used by historians to this day.
activity
Northern expedition
The Northern Expedition route of the Taiping Army
On January 11, 1851, Hong Xiuquan (1814-1864) launched the Jintian Uprising in Jintian Village, Guangxi, and established the Taiping Tianyuan, and the rebel army was called the Taiping Army. On March 19, 1853, the Taiping Army occupied Nanjing and changed Nanjing to Tianjing. After the capital Tianjing, Lin Fengxiang, Li Kaifang, and Ji Wenyuan were sent to lead more than 20,000 people on the Northern Expedition. In May 1853, the Northern Expeditionary Army set out from Yangzhou, passed through Anhui, Henan and other places, entered Zhili, and approached Tianjin, and the Xianfeng Emperor declared martial law in Beijing. In August, the Northern Expeditionary Army attacked Tianjin and lost. In March 1855, Lin Fengxiang was captured in Lianzhen. The uprising was inaugurated in Beijing on April 3. Li Kaifang retreated to Shandong Province. After being captured, he was escorted to Beijing and executed on June 11. After the Second Opium War, the Qing government borrowed divisions from Britain, France and other countries to help suppress the Taiping Tianyuan Movement. Incidents such as Yang Wei's rebellion and Shi Da's exodus occurred within the Taiping Heavenly Pavilion. In 1862, Zeng Guofan besieged the Taiping Army in three ways, and the main force attacked Tianjing from Anqing. On June 3, 1864, Hong Xiuquan died of illness, and on July 19, Tianjing fell, and Taiping Tianyuan fell.
The Taiping Army's Northern Expedition, the Lone Army Expedition, and the Long Drive to Six Provinces, although it was an elite division, but the support could not be continued, and eventually the entire army was destroyed. The vast number of soldiers fought bravely, shook the heart of the Qing Dynasty, pinned down a large number of Qing soldiers, and objectively played a supporting role in the struggle between the Southern Taiping Army and the people in the north.
Attack Changsha
In 1852, the Taiping Army entered Hunan. After the expansion of the army in Shonan Province, it went all the way north, and the momentum was like a bamboo. In July, it had reached the southern gate of Changsha, and at this time, it encountered the strenuous resistance of the Qing army stationed in Changsha. Since the Taiping Army entered Hunan Province, it had not encountered a decent resistance from the Qing army, and the attack was quite smooth, so that it gradually became very contemptuous of the Combat Effectiveness of the Qing Army, believing that it was vulnerable. At this time, Xiao Chaogui, the King of the West, took it lightly and attacked Changsha on light horses. During the attack on the gate of the Tianxin Pavilion in the south of Changsha, the Shells of the Chinese Qing Army were killed, and the Later Qing Army had Xiao Chaogui's corpse under the Miao Peak and burned it. This incident shocked the Taiping Army. After that, the Taiping Army besieged Changsha for several months.
At that time, after the Taiping Army expanded its army in Shonan, there were tens of thousands of people. In the case of repeated attacks on Changsha, the army was tired, so it found a place to camp in the south of the city. This place was chosen at the foot of Erhushan Mountain (now the Erhushan Group in Jinping Village), and there were three reasons why the Taiping Army stationed its troops here at that time:
First, at the foot of the Erhu Mountain at that time, there was a well, called the Royal Well, which had excellent water quality, sweet taste, abundant water sources, and the water level had not dropped during the great drought, plus the name of this well was very suitable for Hong Xiuquan's "emperor" psychology: drinking the water of this well was a royal person. So it was decided to be stationed here. This well is located in the Zhujiaqiao Group of present-day Jinping Village, the famous Wangjiajing, which is still an important water source for the production and life of the local and surrounding people and agricultural irrigation, and is applying for key protection of cultural relics.
The north side of the Second and Second Tiger Mountains is a series of mountains and mountains, the terrain is dangerous, forming a natural barrier, which can be attacked and defended, and the strategic location of the camp is very superior. So the yellow flag was planted here, creating a momentum, boosting morale, and the soldiers were able to rest here. At that time, the place where the yellow flag was planted was the Yellow Flag Ridge Group in today's Jinping Village.
Third, according to legend, when the Taiping Army attacked Changsha, a bronze bell in the city of Nanjing suddenly could not ring for unknown reasons, and the city of Nanjing was the place where the Taiping Army was preparing to capture and serve as the capital, and this matter repeatedly attacked Changsha. This incident caused extreme panic among the members of the Society of God, so they invited the Star Master and the Fortune Teller to find out the cause, and after a period of investigation and speculation, it was believed that the cause was in a place where the Taiping Army passed when it attacked Changsha- Lion Mountain (now The Mentang Group of Jinping Village). According to the local old people, there was originally a temple on this mountain, called Zhang Shi'an, and there was an ancient tomb next to the temple. When the Taiping Army passed through here at that time, it did not go up to the mountain to worship according to local customs, breaking the rules. After this matter was heard by the Wing King Shi Dakai, he was furious: Taiping Heaven sealed me Shi Dakai as five thousand years old, it was you 'Zhang Shi'an' who violated me Shi Dakai, even if there is a reason for me to worship you. He then ordered his men to destroy Zhang Shi'an and the Ancient Tomb. And strongly stationed in this perimeter.
After that, the Taiping army attacked Changsha, and for several months it did not conquer and went to Ningxiang.
Expedition to the West
In March 1853, after the Taiping Heavenly Heavens established the capital Tianjing, in order to capture Anhui and Gansu, enter Tuxiang and Hubei, control Military Strongholds such as Anqing and Jiujiang, and shield Tianjing, and decided to launch a western expedition at the same time as the Northern Expedition. On June 3, Taiping Tian ordered Lai Hanying, the deputy chancellor of Xia, to lead an army of 20,000 to 30,000 warships and more than 1,000 warships to begin a march from Tianjing Shuo to Jiangxi. On June 10, an important town on the north bank of the Yangtze River was occupied, and Lai Hanying led more than 10,000 soldiers to continue to march westward, lianke along the river towns, into nanchang. The siege did not take place for three months, and the siege was withdrawn to the north. Shi Xiangzhen, Wei Junxi Aid, Ke Jiujiang, defeated Qing soldiers in Tianjia Town, took advantage of the victory of The Second Ke Hanyang and Hankou. After that, Hu Yihuang and Zeng Tianyang sent troops from Anqing and occupied Jixianguan, Tongcheng, and Shucheng in the north. In January 1854, in Kelu Prefecture (present-day Hefei), the Qing governor Fu Jiang Zhongyuan was defeated. In February, Shi Xiangzhen, Wei Jun, and Zeng Tianyang once again marched westward, defeating Wu Wenrong, the governor of Qinghuguang, and occupying Hanyang three times. The rearrangement was divided into three: Zeng Tianyang passed through northern Hubei, Wei Jun crossed the river to besiege Wuchang, and Shi Xiangzhen captured Hunan. After the Taiping Army entered Xiang, Zeng Guofan formed the Xiang Army to resist. In April, Shi Xiangzhen defeated the Xiang Army's marine division at Jinggang. At the beginning of May, Lin Shaozhang's troops defeated Xiangtan and lost about 2,000 warships. In June, Wei Jun'er ke Wuchang. From July to August, the two armies met in the Battle of Northern Hunan province, and because the Xiao general Zeng Tianyang was killed in chenglingji, the Taiping army was defeated and retreated continuously. In October, three towns in Wuhan were lost one after another. In December, Qin Rigang's troops defeated Tianjia Town, and the Xiang army marched directly into Jiujiang. In January 1855, Shi Dakai and others led an army to the west, organized the battles of Jiujiang and Hukou, annihilated the Xiang Army's marine division, took advantage of the victory and counterattacked, defeating Yang Pi, the governor of Huguang, four occupying Hanyang, and three Grams of Wuchang. In November, the Taiping Army abandoned Luzhou, and the situation in northern Anhui was reversed. At the end of this year, the Xiang army besieged Wuhan, and Shi Dakai led his division to the west to aid Hubei, but because the Xiang army blocked it, it turned into Jiangxi. In March 1856, Shi Dakai defeated the Xiang army zhou fengshan at Zhangshu town, occupied more than 50 prefectures in Jiangxi, and besieged Zeng Guofan in Nanchang. However, Wuhan was still besieged by the Xiang army, so the war situation was maintained. The Taiping Army's western expedition lasted nearly three years, controlled the three major towns of Anqing, Jiujiang, and Wuchang in the upper reaches of Tianjing, and became the main strategic base of Taiping Tianyuan, effectively shielding Tianjing, ensuring grain sources, and creating conditions for Taiping Tianyuan to persist in the struggle.
Yuyao activities
On October 20, 1861, the Taiping Army was led by the local eighteen-bureau rebel army Huang Laichang, under the command of Huang Chengzhong, the King of Dai, to conquer Yuyao. Gung Tien Yi Nguyen Shi Zhen presided over the county government. Show the hair of the whole people, set up township officials everywhere, and the officials have the names of supervising military divisions, brigade divisions, Sima and pawn commanders, and household names. Peasants from various villages joined the Taiping Army one after another. In Ansanqiao alone, 70% of young adults participated.
On October 27, the consular representative of Ningbo Anglo-American Law, You Yazhi, came to Yao Gurudwara Huang Chengzhong to discuss the matter of protecting foreign nationals after the Taiping Army entered Ningbo, and Huang agreed not to help the Qing army.
On April 22 of the first year of Tongzhi (1862) (May 22 of the Gregorian calendar), fan Ruzeng and Huang Chengzhong of the Taiping Army retreated from Ningbo to Yuyao, built fortifications in the suburbs, dug tunnels, and arranged wooden stakes at the water pass. Daotai Zhang Jingqu led Yuyao Huangtouyong, Cixi Baitouyong, and former Zhejiang admiral Chen Shizhang led the Qing army to attack the city twice, both of which were repelled. On the seventh day of the first month of July (August 2 of the Gregorian calendar), the British general Ma Chun led the Changsheng army to Ningbo. Hechang Jie attacked Yuyao. He was also repulsed by the Taiping Army. The next day, the british sailors general Dürrlede, the deputy general of the French water division Lebole Donghe Changsheng army led Ma Chun, the Changjie army led the Japanese Yige, and the Qingdaotai Zhang Jingqu led the army to attack again, and the warships sailed straight to the city wall to bombard, and the Taiping army bravely attacked, and the fierce battle lasted all day. The county seat fell, Huang Chengzhong's troops retreated to Shangyu, and Fan Ruzeng's troops retreated to Mazhu.
birthday
At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the People's Republic, in the hengtou area of Haining Jiaoshi Town, every August 23rd, every household burned brown sugar taro porridge to eat, which was said to be a "birthday" for the Taiping Army. According to legend, in the tenth year of Qing Xianfeng (1860), the Taiping Army team attacked Jiaoshi, and on August 23, it was stationed in Jiaoshi, because it had saved pregnant women and babies, and then the local people set August 23 as the "birthday of the Taiping Army", burning brown sugar taro porridge to eat, this custom continued until the eve of the War of Resistance Against Japan. According to the word-of-mouth survey, the source of this custom has another meaning, and it is impossible to examine it in depth.
Taiping Army
One of the earliest books published in the Taiping Tianyuan, known to the Taiping Dynasty, there are four kinds of publications, namely 1851 (Xianfeng Yuan), 1852, 1853 and early 1854. It is rumored to have been written by Feng Yunshan. According to the 1852 edition quoted in Zhang Dejian's "Compilation of Thieves's Feelings", its content mainly describes the Taiping Army's organizational method and flag pattern. Taking the First Army as an example, it is fully equipped with its organizational establishment, with five people in charge, and the commander of the five armies is in charge, breaking the enemy, winning victory, and playing the victory; the five armies are two, and the two simas are strong, brave, fierce, resolute, and mighty, and the five commanders are 25; the four or two are pawns, and the commander of the guards is in charge of the four simas in the east, west, south, and north, 104 people; the five pawns are the brigades, and the brigade commanders are in charge of the first, second, third, wantnest, and five pawns; the fifth brigade is the division, and the division commander is in charge of the front battalion, the rear battalion, the right battalion, the left battalion, and the middle battalion, 2625 people (in fact, it should be 2630 people), and the fifth division is the army. The commander of the five divisions of the front battalion, the rear battalion, the left battalion, the right battalion, and the middle battalion had 13,125 men (actually 13,155 men). Above the military commanders, there are supervisors, generals, generals, commanders, inspectors, ministers, and even military commanders. It also stipulates that the flags used from the two Sima to the military division are diverse, and the flags are divided into 5 colors. In terms of an army, there are as many as 656 large and small yellow flags.
(Source: Toutiao Encyclopedia)