【Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Series 551, Original Works of Little Buddha History, Please Do Not Reprint】
Speaking of the famous generals of the late Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, everyone's first reaction is Chen Yucheng and Li Xiucheng, they are the pillars of the late Taiping Army, they have all worked hard for the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom to support and expand the territory, and they all ended up in the same end - they became prisoners of the Qing government, and then they were killed.
When Li Xiucheng was captured, the Xiang army had already breached the Tianjing City, and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom had reached the final moment of struggle, and the significance of recruiting Li Xiucheng was not great, moreover, once Li Xiucheng was alive, the property that the Xiang army obtained in Tianjing would be known to the Qing government, Zeng Guofan did not want Li Xiucheng to live, plus Li Xiucheng's prestige in the Taiping Army still existed, and the Qing government did not want Li Xiucheng to live, and Li Xiucheng had to die.
Compared with the Xiang army and the Qing government that captured Li Xiucheng, who did not want him to live, after Chen Yucheng was captured, there were people who wanted him to live, and this person was no one else, it was Shengbao.
Shengbao, a Manchu, was demoted to the throne at the beginning of the reign of Xianfeng, and was directly transferred to the front line of the Qing army to fight against the Taiping Army, becoming one of the deputies of the Qin dynasty minister Qi Shan. From 1852 to 1862, Katsuho rose all the way to become a man with a heavy army by virtue of his experience in fighting the Taiping Army. After the Xianfeng Emperor fell ill and died in Rehe, he actively participated in the coup d'état between Cixi and Prince Gong, taking the lead in giving allegiance to the empress dowager, and after the successful coup, he received many benefits, such as being promoted to du tong and Zuo Shilang.
In the spring of 1862, Katsuho recruited Miao Peilin, the leader of the Twist army, and Katsuho had a plan to have Miao Peilin assist in trapping Chen Yucheng. At that time, Miao Peilin's surrender was not known to the outside world, and when Chen Yucheng was trapped in Luzhou, Miao Peilin issued an invitation to Chen Yucheng, hoping that Chen Yucheng would come to Shouzhou, and Chen Yucheng would go happily.
However, Chen Yucheng was still more cautious, first sending his own people to Shouzhou to explore the news, and only then personally leading the army to go there without bad news, but Chen Yucheng did not expect that the people he sent were easily co-opted by Miao Peilin and did not report the situation according to the facts. Chen Yucheng became a prisoner of the Qing army.
After Katsuho recruited Miao Peilin, he tasted the sweetness of recruiting the rebel commander, and in the face of Chen Yucheng, a figure who had a pivotal role in the Taiping Army, Katsuho naturally wanted to recruit Chen Yucheng in order to gain more political capital.
To tell the truth, the main force fighting against the Taiping Army at that time was the Xiang Army, the army led by Shengbao was mainly the Eight Banners and the Green Battalion, and judging from the records of the previous confrontations between the Eight Banners, the Green Battalion and the Taiping Army, these two armies were not opponents of the Taiping Army, plus Shengbao had been ordered to suppress the Twist Army in Henan and Anhui before recruiting Miao Peilin, but there was no result, and he was directly dismissed from his post by the Qing Dynasty, you must know that it was the first year of Tongzhi, he was the main force assisting the coup d'état of Cixi and Prince Gong, and neither of them could see that he had achieved nothing during the period of annihilation. It can be seen that this person is only an official with military positions and no military ability.
Katsuho wanted to recruit Chen Yucheng, but it was just his wishful thinking. On the one hand, Chen Yucheng did not want to surrender at all, and we can know from Chen Yucheng's confession that he would rather die than surrender, "I am blessed by the Heavenly Dynasty, I cannot surrender, and the general of the defeated army has no face to survive." On the other hand, the Qing government was very jealous of people like Chen Yucheng, and did not want to give Chen Yucheng a chance to live.
The Qing government demanded that Shengbao kill Chen Yucheng so that the night would not be long and dreamy. However, Shengbao wanted to sacrifice prisoners and sent Chen Yucheng to the capital to ask for merit, and the Qing government was particularly afraid that Chen Yucheng would be rescued by the Taiping Army on the way to the capital, and scolded Shengbao, and Chen Yuchengdi, who was escorted to Yanjin, Henan, was executed by Ling Chi at the age of twenty-seven.
References: Draft History of the Qing Dynasty, Confession of Chen Yucheng