In the Battle of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, killing and descending is far more famous than surrendering. Even friends who do not know much about this history will have heard of the Suzhou Killing. In October of the second year of Tongzhi, eight subordinates of Li Xiucheng, the loyal king of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and Eight other people, including King Gao Yunguan of Na, surrendered to Li Hongzhang, the commander of the Huai army, with Suzhou as a gift. Who knows, after Li Hongzhang laughed at Suzhou, he immediately raised the butcher knife, and in an instant, eight human heads rolled to the ground. Immediately afterward, the Huai army began a massacre in the city of Suzhou, and it is said that tens of thousands of Taiping soldiers died at the hands of Li Hongzhang.
To be surrendered is to be treated as an enemy, and it is said from the position of the victor. In fact, there is only a thin layer of paper between surrender and surrender. So, if a certain army of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom planned to surrender to the Qing Dynasty, what type of Qing generals did it like to look for?
In the top article "Taiping Army in Zhenjiang", the editor mentioned a person named Yu Wanqing. During the Battle of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, he was responsible for besieging Zhenjiang, which was guarded by the Taiping army general Wu Ruxiao for a long time. If Wu Ruxiao's combat effectiveness is counted as 100, Yu Wanqing is only 5. Therefore, as a siege party, Yu Wanqing was always abused by Wu Ruxiao, who was defending the city.
However, Yu Wanqing is a kind and kind grandfather. The Taiping Army in Zhenjiang City believed that if Yu Wanqing was chosen to surrender, not only would he not be killed and surrendered, but he would also be properly resettled. Therefore, they sneaked out of Zhenjiang City and surrendered under Yu Wanqing's pomegranate pants. Even the Taiping Army, which did not surrender for the time being, had many people secretly serving Yu Wanqing. Before the change of Tianjing, Wu Ruxiao sent official documents to Yang Xiuqing, and the messenger always had to go to Yu Wanqing's camp first, let him see it, and then send it to Tianjing. Naturally, Yang Xiuqing's reply, Yu Wanqing will also have a sneak peek.
In the eyes of the uncertain surrender faction, the gentle scum of the war can give them a sense of security, thus strengthening the heart of surrender. However, there are always exceptions to things. For example, the most effective general in the Xiang Army is also the king in the field of recruitment. Looking at the Xiang Army Group, there was not a single person who could match this person in terms of recruiting rebels.
Yes, the person xiaobian said is Bao Chao, a famous general of the Xiang Army. Bao Chao, the character Chun Ting, was a Fengjie person in Sichuan in the late Qing Dynasty. Because of his words, bao Chao's army was called the Thunder Army.
Looking at the famous generals of the Xiang Army, there are generally two major characteristics, one is a Hunan person, and the other is a reader. However, the illiterate Bao Chao and these two are completely incompatible. So, why didn't the Xiang clique fire Bao Chao and admit that he was the first general of the Xiang Army with his back teeth?
There are two answers:
One is that Bao Chao is too capable of fighting. Facing the Taiping Army, Bao Chao almost won every battle.
After the fall of Tianjing, Hong Rengui, the military master of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, was captured and sent to Shen Baozhen, the governor of Jiangxi.
Shen Baozhen asked, "Who is the most feared of thieves?" ”
Hong Renjie replied, "Wen Ze Zeng Guofan, Wu Ze Bao Chao." (Tongzhi 3rd year, September 25, Shen Baozhen)
Therefore, the credit for expelling Bao Chao and the Xiang Army in pacifying the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom will be incomplete.
The second is Bao Chao's subordinates, and there are many people in Hunan. At the beginning of the establishment of the Thunder Army, Bao Chao was recruited in Changsha, the capital of Hunan Province. Later, Bao Chao expanded his army several times, but the Hunan people were still the main echelon of the Thunder Army.
In the late Qing Dynasty, one of the specialties of Hunan was excellent soldiers, and it was said that Xiang was not an army. In the Battle of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Hunan people were almost everywhere, not only the Xiang Army, the Green Camp of the Qing Army and the Taiping Army, but also many Hunan soldiers and generals. At the same time, the people of Hunan are also deeply impressed by their fearlessness and courage to resist.
In the early years of Guangxu, zeng Guoquan, the commander of the Xiang Army, was serving as an inspector in Shanxi, just in time for the largest disaster of the Qing Dynasty, known in history as the Ding Pengqi Famine. As a Hunan native who had personally experienced the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom War, he knew that if the same disaster occurred in his hometown, the locals would have already risen up. In addition to his surprise, Zeng Guoquan sighed in the report: "Father and Elder Xian said that it was a disaster that had not occurred in more than two hundred years. However, the people's nature is pure and good, and they regard starvation to death as a due punishment, and there is no case of robbery and robbery. ”
At this point, let's compare the Hunan people in the ordinary Xiang Army and Bao Chaoting's army. Zeng Guofan instructed his subordinates to recruit braves, suggesting that they recruit more "simple and less knowledgeable people". Obviously, Zeng Guofan chose the soldiers, and chose the best bullies among the Hunan people. However, Bao Chao chose the soldiers, but the people in Hunan were not good at bullying. Zeng Guofan told us: "The camp of the Thunder Army is Brave, and the city of Changsha province is mostly populated, but there are very few simple people. However, Bao Chao, as a Native of Sichuan, can bully a bunch of bad Hunan people to death.
According to Zeng Guofan, Bao Chao bullied his subordinates in 3 ways:
1. Withholding of military salaries. "[Bao Chao] was quite profit-loving, and his subordinates became accustomed to Ben, often seizing the property of the descendants and withholding Yongding's rations." (Tongzhi 4th year, March 15, Zeng Guofan)
2. Meritorious service is not rewarded. "Bao Chao's army, there is no shortage of generals, fighting hard for many years, and no one has to make up for the lack." (Tongzhi first year of May 17 Zeng Guofan)
3. Verbal and corporal punishment are both violent. "Bao Chao is strict under the command, although he is guaranteed to the second product, he often reprimands and reprimands." (Ibid.)
At a glance, Bao Chao exuded murderous and domineering spirit from the inside out. He didn't look like he could surrender horizontally, he didn't look like he could surrender vertically, he turned his head over, and looked at the big ding... Well, how Bao Chao looks, how is it more like a killer than Li Hongzhang. However, facts have proved that Bao Chao's recruitment and surrender work has been in full swing and has ranked first in the Xiang Army. Below, Xiaobian will list the four major moves that Bao Chao has done.
First, recruit Zhang Yuchun's tens of thousands of people.
Zeng Guofan said: "Qingyang is a city, which has been fallen for ten years, and is the gateway to southern Anhui, according to Jiang Jie's key point." In the last year of Xianfeng, Qingyang became the territory of King Gu Longxian because of the land division system implemented by the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. Zhang Yuchun was a subordinate of Gu Longxian, with an official position of general and 10,000 horses in his hands.
On the seventh day of the first month of December in the eleventh year of Xianfeng, Bao Chao led the Thunder Army to Qingyang and began a siege that lasted for more than three months. During the siege, Zhang Yuchun led his troops to surrender. Bao Chao reduced 3,000 of Zhang Yuchun's 10,000 people and organized them into the Chunzi Battalion, and the rest were all dismissed.
2. Many people in the 2nd and surrendered children
If it is said that Zhang Yuchun is only a small test of the cattle knife in Bao Chao's career, then the surrender of Bao Wang Tong Ronghai can be described as the first snake swallowing elephant in Bao Chao's career.
Tong Ronghai, whose original surname is Hong, is a man of none in Anhui. In the third year of Xianfeng, the Taiping Army passed through Hong Ronghai's hometown, and Hong Ronghai joined the army with his family. Because of Hong Xiuquan's surname, he changed his name to Tong Ronghai.
Three years later, the Tianjing Rebellion broke out. After another eight months, Shi Dakai left Beijing and fled. On May 18, 7th year of Xianfeng, king Yi arrived at Wuwei from Tianjing and immediately sent people around to post the "Five Words Notice", which had been printed and was quite famous in the history of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. Among them, it is said: "Or with this lord, it is also enough to mark the father." Tong Ronghai looked at it and decided to follow Shi Dakai to achieve fame.
Who knows, after Shi Da drove away, the more chaotic and miserable he became. Tong Ronghai followed him from Anhui-Jiangxi-Zhejiang-Fujian-Jiangxi-Hunan all the way to Shi Dakai's hometown of Guangxi. Guangxi was a poor province with poor land and could not feed Shi Dakai's army at all. As a result, "the six divisions of the Wing King, the officers of the Staff Protection, the Chengxuan, the Servants, and the soldiers under the command all wanted to go out of the river." ”
Tong Ronghai returned to the Dynasty with the flow of thousands of miles in this wave of "abandoning Shi Dakai" and became Li Xiucheng's subordinates. Soon, Hong Xiuquan began to be crowned king, and Tong Ronghai was given the title of "Bao Wang".
So, how did Tong Ronghai, the protector of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, hook up with Bao Chao, the fierce general of the Xiang Army?
It turned out that after Bao Chao captured Qingyang, the next important town of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom that he was ready to take was the capital of Ningguo Province. At that time, Ningguo Mansion was the territory of Yang Fuqing, the auxiliary king of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. In order to deal with Bao Chao, Yang Fuqing personally defended the city, and rushed around, bringing in a lot of reinforcements. The 60,000 people in Tong Ronghai's department were sent by Li Xiucheng to rescue Ning Guo.
As a result, Tong Ronghai held an army of 60,000 men, and watched Yang Fuqing and other reinforcements fight hard with Bao Chao outside the Ningguo Mansion, not sending a single soldier or pawn, and also sending people to Bao Chao's camp to beg. Soon after Bao Chao captured the city of Ningguo, Tong Ronghai surrendered to the Qing Dynasty with his 60,000 men and restored the Hong surname.
However, when he captured the city of Ningguofu, Bao Chao's thunder army was only more than 10,000 people, which was obviously unable to eat Hong Ronghai's 60,000 troops. Soon, Hong Ronghai's subordinates Zhang Desheng and Zhu Dashu successively pulled away more than 40,000 people and returned to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. In the end, Bao Chao only recruited more than 10,000 people from Hong Ronghai.
Bao Chao reduced Hong Ronghai's 10,000 men to 4,800 men, organized the Qihua Battalion, and incorporated them into the Thunder Army.
Third, the domino-style move starting from Jianping
It is said that after Bao Chao captured the city of Ningguofu, he would continue to go north, through Jianping and Dongba into Jiangsu, and all the way to Tianjing, the capital of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. Who knows, due to the plague, the war in Jiangbei and Jinling, it was not until October of the second year of Tongzhi that Bao Chao restarted the Ningguo-Jinling customs clearance plan.
At this time, more than a year had passed since Zhang Yuchun and Tong Ronghai surrendered. Bao Chao's ability to recruit has become a brand widely spread within the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. Zeng Guofan once said: "Bao Chao has achieved the greatest feats in battle, repeatedly received huge shares, and the thieves have served his prestige." (Played on August 13, 2003)
Moreover, although Bao Chao was overbearing, he was still good to the generals who surrendered. After the conquest of Ningguo Province, a great plague broke out in the Thunder Army, "there were more than 10,000 brave men with sick people, thousands of dead, and few cooks." Bao Chao himself was also infected.
In order to avoid illness and recuperate, he ran to Wuhu for recuperation. At that time, another rebel general of the Taiping Army who surrendered to the Qing army, Wei Zhijun, the younger brother of Wei Changhui of the Northern King, was mixed with Bao Chao, and both he and Tong Ronghai were infected with the plague. The considerate Bao Chao took these two to Wuhu for healing. XiaoBian guessed that Wei Hong and his life in Wuhu should be quite moist. This is probably the reason why Wei Zhijun chose to live in seclusion in Wuhu after the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom War.
Below, Xiaobian will list Bao Chao's domino-style moves one by one.
1. Zhang Shenglu of Jianping
From Ningguo, Jianping was the first barrier to the thunder army's journey.
In the history of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Jianping was once an incomparably glorious city. In the xianfeng decade, tianjing, the capital of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, was surrounded by large camps in jiangnan, to the point of killing horses for food. Not only the government and the public, but also foreigners believe that Tianjing City will be captured by the Qing army within this year.
At the critical moment, Li Xiucheng, the King of Zhong, asked for orders to go out of Beijing to move reinforcements. Since Chen Yucheng was fighting with the Xiang army in Taihu County, Anhui, Li Xiucheng came to Wuhu on the south bank of the Yangtze River. At that time, Wuhu was still in the hands of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
Li Xiucheng scattered heroic posts all over the place, summoning Yang Fuqing, Li Shixian, Liu Guanguan, Gu Longxian, Huang Wenjin, Lai Wenhong and other princes of southern Anhui to rescue Tianjing. However, at that time, people's hearts were scattered, and no one except Li Xiucheng's cousin Li Shixian took care of Li Xiucheng.
Therefore, Li Xiucheng decided to raid the large city of Hangzhou, which was managed by the Qing Empire. If he fails, his head will hang at the head of Hangzhou; if he succeeds, then a miraculous victory will give him the prestige to unite people's hearts.
Li Xiucheng spent the New Year in Wuhu. On the nineteenth day of the first month of the Xianfeng Decade, the second day of the Lunar New Year, Li Xiucheng left Wuhu. On February 27, Li Xiucheng broke hangzhou with 1,250 pioneers. On March 3, Li Xiucheng withdrew from Hangzhou and returned to Jinling.
On the way, he chose the small city of Jianping and once again spread the hero's post. With the prestige of conquering Hangzhou, people from all walks of life gathered in Jianping. Under the presidency of Li Xiucheng, the Jianping Conference was successfully convened. At the meeting, they united as one, united as one, and issued an unwilling roar to the Jiangnan camp that besieged Tianjing like an iron barrel. After the meeting, they worked together to return to Tianjing and won the victory of the second broken Jiangnan camp.
Therefore, the life span of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was extended for four years, and the starting point was in Jianping.
Now, Jianping's defender will be wang Lanrende. He unswervingly supported the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, intending to defend Jianping with his life, even in the face of the invincible thunder army, he would not shrink back half a step.
However, the others in Jianping City did not want to fight with Bao Chao. Before the Thunder Army arrived, led by Zhang Shenglu, Lan Rende's twelve subordinates began a secret conspiracy. When Bao Chao's army pressed the border, they quickly controlled the commander and immediately sent a letter to the Thunder Camp to surrender the city. When Bao Chao sent people to Jianping to contact him, Zhang Shenglu immediately beheaded Lan Rende and surrendered the city.
Counting, Zhang Shenglu and twelve other people killed Wang Lanren on October 7 of the second year of Tongzhi. Seventeen days later, eight others, including King Gao Yunguan of Na, Wang Anjun the King of Kang, Wu Guiwen of Biwang, and Zhou Wenjia of Ning, assassinated Tan Shaoguang, the King of Mu, in Suzhou. The prelude to the suzhou slaughter began, and the Eight Kings only lived two days longer than Tan Shaoguang.
However, the fate of the twelve people in Jianping was obviously much better than that of the eight in Suzhou. They were not killed by Bao Chao, and they were given the false titles of Dusi and Garrison respectively.
In the history of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Jianping is a city that began with cooperation and finally betrayed.
2. Li Lixin of Dongba and Yangliu Valley
Zeng Guofan said: "In the areas bordering the Chajiang River (Jiangsu) and Anhui (southern Anhui), the East Dam is the most important key. ”
Dongba is the gateway between Suzhou and Hangzhou and Tianjing. As early as before the Tianjing Rebellion, Yang Xiuqing sent troops to attack Dongba many times, with the purpose of attacking Suzhou and Hangzhou through Dongba. However, Dong Wang's efforts were repelled by the Jiangnan battalion. After the Jianping Conference in Xianfeng for ten years, Yang Fuqing returned to Tianjing via Dongba and easily took this place. Since then, Dongba has become Yang Fuqing's territory.
Today, the defender of Dongba will be Yang Fuqing's subordinate, Xiao Transparent Li Lixin. Obviously, he cannot be the opponent of the famous Bao Chao. In order to help Li Lixin defend Dongba, Yang Fuqing personally camped outside Dongba City and prepared to face Bao Chao. At the same time, he also brought in Yang Liugu, who was also the king of Yang Guozong, to help. In Yang Fuqing's plan, he wanted to fight a vigorous defense battle of Dongba.
However, the vigorous defense war turned into a vigorous surrender ceremony. Not only Li Lixin, who was defending the city, but even Yang Fuqing's own brother Yang Liugu was a surrender faction. They carried Yang Fuqing on their backs and secretly communicated with Bao Chao and hooked up with each other. When Bao Chao's army had just reached the outskirts of Dongba City, Li Lixin and Yang Liugu immediately joined forces and turned against each other. Yang Fuqing was also alert and fled to Liyang in the rebel army.
3. Yang Yingqing of Lishui.
Although Yang Fuqing escaped, it did not prevent xiaobian from praising him. The reason is simple, because he fled to Liyang and did not flee to Lishui. A few days after Dongba and Jianping were retaken by the Qing army, the Taiping army guards in Lishui immediately sent people to Bao Chao's camp to present a surrender book. He was none other than another Yang guozong, Yang Yingqing. Just imagine, if Yang Fuqing ran to Lishui, I am afraid that he would be tied to the Thunder Camp by his brother with a rope and made a meeting gift.
Jianping, Dongba and Lishui, Bao Chao totaled tens of thousands of Taiping troops.
Fourth, listen to Wang Chen Bingwen's trio.
In Li Xiucheng's military career, he once conquered two famous cities, one is Suzhou and the other is Hangzhou. And Hangzhou, Li Xiucheng attacked twice. On November 28, 1111, when Hangzhou was captured by Li Xiucheng for the second time, he was already able to rely on his military strength to secure the second place in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
At that time, if a number two person was selected in the Li Xiucheng Group, this person was definitely Chen Bingwen. Soon, Li Xiucheng handed over Hangzhou to Chen Bingwen. Because Chen Bingwen is not only a tough general, but also a good job in civil affairs.
However, on February 24 of the third year of Tongzhi, after several months of siege by Zuo Zongtang, Chen Bingwen left Hangzhou and fled to Jiangxi with his men and horses. Before and after the fall of Tianjing, many of the defeated Taiping Army troops ran to Jiangxi. According to the statistics of Mr. Li Chun, a historian of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, there were five large armies entering Gansu before and after. Chen Bingwen belongs to the second road. In addition to him, there were Also Kang Wang Haiyang, Ning Wang Zhang Xueming, Prize King Tao Jinhui and Pingdong Wang Zhai Tianfeng.
It is said that Chen Bingwen is the second person in the Li Xiucheng Group and should be the boss of the Five Kings Group. However, Kang Wang Wang Haiyang was obviously stronger, strong enough to the point where Chen Bingwen and others were bullied. Moreover, Wang Haiyang was a die-hard loyalist of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and he did not have the word "descending" in his head. But Wang Haiyang will only use the word "descending" to form one word, that is, "fraudulent surrender"!
Therefore, in the case of the Death of the Heavenly King, the fall of Tianjing, the capture of the King of Zhong, and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Pill, although Chen Bingwen and others wanted to surrender with their hearts and eyes, they did not dare to shake Wang Haiyang's obscenity.
Just when Chen Bingwen was in a dilemma, Bao Chao drove a hero to save the United States with colorful clouds.
Originally, due to the remnants of the Taiping Army entering Jiangxi, Zeng Guofan hurriedly transferred Bao Chao's Thunder Army into Jiangxi. On July 4 of the third year of Tongzhi, Bao Chao defeated Wang Haiyang, the king of Kang, at Xuwan, Jiangxi, and captured Zhai Tianfeng, the king of Pingdong. Seeing that his own people had suffered defeat, Chen Bingwen and the three of them were overjoyed. They were like widows who had broken free from the feudal shackles, and they were busy sending three love letters to Bao Chao proposing marriage. Crossed out, it is a three-letter begging letter. The flesh and blood written in this text are not to be said, and it is particularly uncultured. For example, when Chen Bingwen thanked Bao Chao for his grace of not killing, he used the idiom "immortality" to bless the other party. Fortunately, the even less literate Bao Chao did not find anything wrong and agreed to Chen Bingwen's surrender.
Let's take a look at the strength of Chen Bingwen's three men at the time of surrender: Counting, listening to Wang Chen Bingwen's 60,000 horses, including a foreign gun team composed of 7,000 foreign guns; Zhang Xueming, the king of Ning, had 20,000 horses; and The prize king Tao Jin would have 10,000 horses. The three kings totaled ninety thousand people.
Chen Bingwen led Zhang Tao and the two to surrender to Bao Chao, is it not like the folk song singing: "Take your sister, take your dowry"? However, the Battle of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom had obviously come to an end, and even the Thunder Army was facing the fate of disarmament, so how could there be extra space reserved for the surrender.
Soon, Chen Bingwen and 90,000 other people were dismissed to three battalions of 1,800 people, and Chen Zhangtao's three men became battalion officers and led a battalion each. The rest of the men and horses were all dismissed. Soon, the three battalions shrank again and gave one battalion of 600 men. Chen Bingwen was also a battalion officer, and Zhang Xueming and Tao Jinhui were demoted and became sentinel officers under Chen Bingwen.
Chen Bingwen's surrender is not only incomparable with Zhang Yuchun and Hong Ronghai' predecessors, but also a loss-making business compared with himself. When Chen Bingwen was under Li Xiucheng, the two Jiangsu inspectors Xue Huan and Li Hongzhang both approached Chen Bingwen in the name of surrender, and the conditions were extremely favorable. Just when Chen Bingwen hesitated, his value plummeted, and finally there was a discount sale.
Zhang Ailing said: "Fame should be early!" "It seems that not only fame, but also this surrender must be early!"
However, Bai Fumei Chen Bingwen became Bao Chao's licking dog, and in the end he almost had nothing to do, but the Thunder Army ate almost five times the size of the army, which was a well-deserved snake swallowing elephant.
After saying Bao Chao's four major moves, children may have a lot of question marks. How did Bao Chao, who has a killing face, become a big guy in the recruitment and descending world? What was the secret of his surrender? What happened to those Taiping Heavenly Kingdom generals who surrendered? Will the Qing court and Bao Chao settle accounts after the war and cook rabbits and dead dogs a few times? Also, how did Bao Chao, a Sichuanese, claim hegemony among Hunan people? I will make the ultimate reveal in the next article.
When Bao Chao marched from Ningguo to Dongba, the Xiang Army's marine division cooperated with it. At that time, yang zaifu and Peng Yulin, the two big men of the marine division, were in the army. Peng Yulin was a man of letters, and Yang Zaifu was Bao Chao's old leader, so Zeng Guofan basically wrote down the merits of the surrender in the report under the names of Yang Peng and the two. However, in the later stages of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the marine division only played an auxiliary role in the war, and the surrendered Taiping Army was all army, and with Bao Chao's reputation in the recruitment and surrender world, he should be the protagonist of the Domino surrender.