The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement was a peasant uprising war against the feudal rule of the Qing Dynasty and foreign capitalist aggression initiated by a leading group composed of Hong Xiuquan, Yang Xiuqing, Xiao Chaogui, Feng Yunshan, Wei Changhui and Shi Dakai from Jintian Village in Guangxi Province from Jintian Village in Guangxi Province to oppose the feudal rule of the Qing Dynasty and foreign capitalist aggression during the period from the first year of Xianfeng to the third year of Tongzhi (1851-1864), and was the largest large-scale anti-Qing movement in China in the middle of the 19th century. In 1864, with the fall of Tianjing (Nanjing), the capital of the Taiping Dynasty, it marked the defeat of the movement.
Historical background
China after the Opium War
After the defeat of the Opium War, in order to pay huge reparations to the great powers, but also to make up for the financial deficit, the Qing government increased the collection of taxes. Officials at all levels often collect money and grain in a flashy manner, levying expropriations and extortions, and the peasants' burdens are even heavier.
Due to the invasion of Western capitalism, China's natural economy combining agriculture and cottage industry gradually disintegrated. The opium trade spread further after the war, which led to a more serious outflow of silver and the phenomenon of expensive money, which also increased the burden on the peasants.
Cruel oppression and exploitation force the broad masses of the people, especially the peasant masses, to embark on the road of resistance and struggle. Between 1842 and 1850, there were more than a hundred anti-Qing uprisings of people of all ethnic groups across the country. The Qing government mobilized troops to suppress it, but the mass struggles arose one after another, brewing a larger scale of resistance. It was in this context that the Taiping Peasant Revolt broke out.
Speaking of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement, we must first introduce Hong Xiuquan.
Hong Xiuquan
Born in a family of cultivators and readers, he began to study at the age of 7 and was familiar with the Four Books and Five Classics, but he seemed to have no connection with the imperial examination, and the three child tests ended in failure. In the spring of 1843, he again took the academy examination, but failed again. This time, he completely lost confidence in the imperial examination.
In 1836, he inadvertently turned to the Christian Liang Fa's "Good Words of Persuasion", and after reading it carefully, he was moved by the above Christian doctrine and began to preach the Christian doctrine he had now understood, which he called "worship of God". He calls himself the second son of God, the younger brother of Jesus.
He initially preached near Guangdong, but was not very successful, so he persuaded his friend Feng Yunshan to convert to Christianity and spread the teachings to the villagers.
Jintian Uprising
In the summer of 1850, Hong Xiuquan issued a regimental camp order, requiring the congregation to form a regimental battalion in Jintian Village, Guiping County, Guangxi, and at the end of the same year, the Taiping Army fought against the Qing army at Siwang and Caicunjiang, thus beginning an armed confrontation with the Qing court, initially under the name of "Taiping", and later under the name of "Taiping Heavenly Kingdom", and implemented the system of public property.
On January 11, 1851 (December 10, 1851), Hong Xiuquan's birthday, the worship of God congregation "congratulated long life" in Jintian Village, and later generations set this day as the anniversary of the Jintian Uprising. On March 23, Hong Xiuquan ascended the throne in Wuxuan, Guangxi, as the King of Taiping, and later changed his name to Heavenly King.
Yong'an establishment
Divide the kings
Crowned King
In the autumn of 1851, the Taiping Army occupied Yong'an Prefecture (present-day Mengshan County) in Guangxi. In December, the kings were divided into kings in Yong'an City, and Yang Xiuqing, the former chief general of the Chinese army, was named the "Left Auxiliary And Vice Army Division" Eastern King, called 9,000 years old, the former former military commander Xiao Chaogui was the "Right Bow and Zhengjun Division" Western King, called 8,000 years old, the former rear army commander Feng Yunshan was the "leading deputy army division" Southern King, called 7,000 years old, the former right army commander Wei Changhui was called the "Rear Guard and Deputy Army Division" Northern King, called 6,000 years old, the former left army general Shi Dakai was made the wing king, the former deputy general Liu Luran was the Black God King, and the edict ordered all the kings to be subject to the eastern king's moderation. On the basis of the conception of Feng Yunshan, the Southern King, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom established the initial official, ceremonial, and military systems, and implemented a self-created calendar, the "Taiping Heavenly Calendar".
Set the capital in Tianjing
Heavenly King's Mansion
On January 12, 1853, the Taiping Army captured Wuchang. On March 19, Jiangning (present-day Nanjing) was captured, and lu Jianying, the governor of Liangjiang, was killed. On March 29, 1853, Hong Xiuquan, amid the kneeling cheers of Yang Xiuqing and the hundred officials of Wenwu and Li Min, entered Jinling City, temporarily stayed at the Imperial Household Bureau, and soon repaired the Governor of Liangjiang, Yamen, and changed it into the Heavenly King's Palace, and announced that the capital was Jinling, renamed Tianjing, and officially established the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom peasant regime that confronted the Qing Dynasty.
He went out on the Northern Expedition
Northern Expedition of the Taiping Army
On May 8, 1853, Lin Fengxiang, Li Kaifang and others were ordered to lead a division of more than 20,000 people on the Northern Expedition. Although the Northern Expeditionary Army once advanced to the vicinity of Tianjin, it was besieged by the Qing army because of the depth of the lone army. In March 1855, Lin Fengxiang was wounded and captured in Lianzhen, Dongguang County, zhili, and was soon taken to Beijing for execution. Li Kaifang was captured in Fengguantun, Chiping County, Shandong Province, and executed in Beijing in June.
The Western Expedition and the Siege of Tianjing were lifted
The Taiping Army marched west
On June 3, 1853, Hu Yihuang, Lai Hanying, Zeng Tianyang, Lin Qirong, and others were ordered to supervise more than a thousand warships and trace the Jiangxi Expedition. It successively attacked Anqing, Jiujiang, Wuchang and other places. In order to counterattack the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, at the end of March 1853, Xiang Rong, the minister of Qing Qin, built the "Jiangnan Camp" at Xiaoling outside Jinling City. On April 16, Qi Shan, the minister of Qing Qin, built the "Jiangbei Camp" outside Yangzhou. In 1854, the Western Expeditionary Army encountered resistance from the newly established Xiang Army in Hunan, and the Xiang Army counterattacked near Jiujiang. At the beginning of 1855, The Wing King Shi Dakai broke the Xiang Army and recaptured Wuchang. On April 5, 1856, the Taiping Army again conquered Yangzhou and attacked the "Jiangbei Camp". In June 1856 (the sixth year of Xianfeng), the Taiping Army broke through the "Jiangnan Camp" and lifted the siege of Tianjing for three years. Xiang Rong, the commander of the Qing army, committed suicide on August 9.
The Tianjing Incident
In the early period of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the military and political affairs were responsible for by the military division, and Hong Xiuquan retreated to the background to manage the government, and the power fell into the hands of Yang Xiuqing, the eastern king. In 1856, the Taiping Army attacked the Qing army Xiang Rong's "Jiangnan Camp", and after the siege of Tianjing for three years, Yang Xiuqing, the Eastern King, saw that the situation in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was very good at that time, and he had another plan. Yang pretended to be "heavenly father under the mortals" to force the heavenly king to seal himself from "nine thousand years old" to "long live". At this time, Wei Changhui, the King of the North, asked the Heavenly King to kill the Eastern King, but the Heavenly King refused. Later, Chen Chengyao informed the Heavenly King that the Eastern King had attempted to usurp the throne, and the Heavenly King secretly ordered the Northern King, the Wing King, and the Yan King Qin Rigang to eliminate the Eastern King. Wei Changhui, who had always had a conflict with Yang Xiuqing, went to Tianjing on September 1, entered the city at night with Qin Rigang, and secretly attacked the Eastern Palace in the early morning of the 2nd, Yang Xiuqing and his family were killed, and more than 20,000 subordinates of the Eastern King's shogunate, their families and other soldiers and civilians were also killed, which is known as the "Tianjing Incident". After the Wing King Shi Dakai arrived in Tianjing, he blamed Wei Changhui for killing indiscriminately, and the two of them dispersed unhappily. Shi Dakai escaped from Jinling City that night. Later, under the secret orders of the Heavenly King Hong Xiuquan, Wei Changhui killed the family members of the Yi King's palace. Shi Dakai raised an army in Anhui to jingnan, and wrote to the heavenly king, asking him to kill the northern king to make the civilians angry. The Heavenly King saw that all the soldiers and civilians supported Shi Dakai, so he issued an edict against Wei. In November, Shi Dakai was ordered to return to Beijing, and was honored by Hong Xiuquan as the "Righteous King", and the united dynasties held the same "ti li government affairs". He did not care about personal grievances, and when he was held responsible for the massacre, he only punished the first evil and did not blame his subordinates, and the northern princely clan was also protected and reused, and the people's hearts quickly settled. Although Wuchang fell shortly after Shi Dakai returned to Beijing due to the exhaustion of grain, under Shi Dakai's deployment, the Taiping Army held a key pass and waited for an opportunity to counterattack, and Chen Yucheng, Li Xiucheng, Yang Fuqing, Shi Zhenji, and other rising stars began to take the lead and take the lead alone, and the passive situation caused by infighting was gradually reversed. After the Tianjing Incident, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom recommended Shi Dakai to preside over the imperial government, but Hong Xiuquan was jealous of Shi Dakai's prestige and ability, refused to grant him the status of "military master", and only named him "The Righteous King of the Holy Spirit Telegraph Army". And Hong Xiuquan elbowed him with his brother Hong Renfa. In order to avoid another outbreak of infighting, Shi Dakai was forced to lead thousands of people to escape from Tianjing and go to Anqing. Finally, he fought with the Qing soldiers in Zidadi, Sichuan, but was defeated and lured down by the Qing soldiers, and was escorted back to Chengdu to be executed by Lingchi. The Tianjing Incident killed the Three Kings and the Wing King fled, which was a turning point in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
Shi Dakai expedition
Shi Dakai
Shi Dakai's Crusade
In September 1857, Hong Xiuquan was forced by the deterioration of the situation and sent an envoy to ask Shi Da to return to Beijing, and Shi Dakai said that he would not return to Beijing, but would transfer Chen Yucheng, Li Xiucheng, Wei Jun and other generals to come back to help, and continued to fight for the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom as the "general of the Tong Army". Hong Xiuquan approved this plan, and the Tianjing officials recognized Shi Dakai's subsequent battles as an expedition of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. After that, Shi Dakai successively moved to fujian, Zhejiang, Gansu and other provinces on the outskirts of Tianjing, pinning down a large number of Qing troops and supporting the battlefields of Tianjing and Anhui. In the spring of 1859, Shi Da marched into Hunan and launched the "Battle of Baoqing", hoping to take the upstream momentum, and then go down to Hubei, cooperate with the Anhui Taiping Army, and wait for the opportunity to divide the troops into Sichuan. At that time, the Xiang army was planning to attack Anqing in three ways, and Wen Shida drove straight into the hinterland of Hunan, and the army's heart was completely shaken, so it had to take advantage of the situation and fully assist Xiang. Faced with the heavy reinforcements of the Xiang army, Shi Dakai fought alone, failed to capture Baoqing, and was forced to retreat to Guangxi to rest. In September 1861, Shi Dakai crossed the Yangtze River in the north, captured Chengdu, established the Sichuan base area, transferred to the three provinces of Shu, Qian, and Yunnan, successively entered Sichuan, and in April 1863 crossed the Jinsha River to break through the Yangtze River defense line. However, it was blocked by the early rising of the Dadu River, which had not been encountered in a hundred years, and fell into a heavy siege, and many breakthroughs failed. Luo Bingzhang, then the governor of Sichuan, sent envoys to negotiate in the Taiping Army. By agreement, the Taiping Army dismissed 4,000 men on its own, leaving 2,000 samurai to keep their weapons to accompany them, and after Shi Dakai was escorted to Chengdu, the Qing army betrayed its faith and 2,000 Taiping troops were slaughtered. On June 27, 1863, Shi Dakai was lingchi in Chengdu, Sichuan, and the rest insisted on fighting.
The Taiping Army marched back and the Qing army counterattacked
The Taiping Army crusades
From February to May 1860, after Li Xiucheng broke through the Qing army's Jiangnan camp for the second time, he took advantage of the victory to capture a number of places in southern Jiangsu. In September of the same year, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom deployed the Second Western Expedition, with Chen Yucheng and Li Xiucheng as the two main forces in the north and south of the Jiangsu River, with the purpose of attacking the rear of the Qing army to rescue Anqing.
In the first half of 1861, Chen Yucheng of North Road did not dare to attack Wuhan due to the intervention of British officials; Li Xiucheng of South Road advanced to southeastern Hubei and recruited 300,000 troops in nearby places.
In September 1861, Anqing fell.
In January 1862, Li Xiucheng led an army to attack Shanghai, the Qing army and the foreigners jointly resisted, and the Taiping Army failed to occupy Shanghai after a long attack. This war caused dissatisfaction among the Western powers that controlled Shanghai, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom affected the interests of European and American countries in China, and western countries turned against the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom movement. In May, Chen Yucheng was arrested by the traitor Miao Peilin in Shouzhou and escorted to the Qing army Shengbao. In June of the same year, Chen Yucheng was executed by the Qing army.
In June 1862 (the first year of Tongzhi), Hong Xiuquan ordered Li Xiucheng to return to Tianjing, and Li gathered 200,000 troops, and from October onwards, he fought the Xiang army for more than 40 days, but failed to win. In December, Li Xiucheng was ordered to cross the Yangtze River north. In the same year, Li Hongzhang attacked southern Jiangsu, and Zuo Zongtang attacked Zhejiang.
On December 4, 1863, the Suzhou garrison general Tan Shaoguang was killed by his subordinates, and Suzhou fell
The fall and fall of Tianjing
On December 21, 1863, when the fortresses outside Tianjing were lost and there was a shortage of grain, Li Xiucheng, the King of Zhong, suggested that "let the city not go", but Hong Xiuquan was not allowed.
On June 1, 1864, Hong Xiuquan died of illness after several days of starvation with wild grass, and the young king Hong Tianguifu succeeded to the throne.
After the Xiang army attacked Tianjing, the Taiping army set fire to the city, and the Xiang army also set fires everywhere after the large-scale robbery.
Li Xiucheng and Hong Rengui escorted the Young Heavenly King to break through. Li Xiucheng gave the good horse to the young lord, and in the confusion, he was separated from the young lord, and was captured on the 22nd of the same month at Fangshan, outside nanjing, and executed by Zeng Guofan on August 7.
On October 9, Hong Renjie was defeated and captured at Shicheng, Jiangxi (present-day Guling Group, Xinhe Village, Mulan Township, Shicheng County, Jiangxi), and killed in Nanchang on November 23.
On October 25, the young king Hong Tianguifu was captured in a barren mountain cave in Shicheng, Jiangxi, and executed by Ling Chi in Nanchang on November 18
A vigorous peasant uprising war The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement is over!!