For the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement, which swept most of China, the Tianjing Incident in 1856 was a turning point from strength to decline.
Before this, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's soldiers were strong and strong, their morale was strong, they were forbidden, and their arms were free, moving from one victory to another. During the Northern Expedition and the Western Expedition, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom only sent a few tens of thousands of people, and the Qing soldiers were beaten on horseback and exhausted. At the beginning of his departure with the Xiang army, Zeng Guofan was beaten twice by the Taiping Army, and both times he was so depressed that he wanted to commit suicide and martyrdom.
Taiping heavenly kingdom
After this, the most effective army of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was destroyed. Elite generals die, flee, and people are scattered. Affected by this, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was repeatedly defeated in major battlefields, forced to shrink its defense line, and abandoned most of the bases in Hubei and Jiangxi.
However, if we look at the timeline, we find that although the Tianjing Incident seriously weakened the leadership and military strength of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom still persisted for 8 years. During this period, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom even attacked the Jiangnan camp and the Jiangbei camp for the second time, and captured Hangzhou and Suzhou, expanding the control area to the rich and prosperous Jiangsu and Zhejiang areas for the first time.
The question is, why did the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, which had undergone the Tianjing Incident, persist for 8 years?
Hong Xiuquan
On the one hand, it was Shi Dakai, Li Xiucheng, Chen Yucheng and a number of other young generals who played the role of mainstay.
In the Tianjing Incident, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom lost Yang Xiuqing, Wei Changhui, and Qin Rigang, three military leaders who could fight a good war, and drove away Shi Dakai. The 5 kings who were enfeoffed in the Yong'an system at that time, namely Yang Xiuqing the Eastern King, Xiao Chaogui the Western King, Feng Yunshan the Southern King, Wei Changhui the Northern King, and Shi Dakai, the Wing King, suddenly disappeared 3. Because Xiao Chaogui and Feng Yunshan were killed in battle before long ago, the five kings of Yong'an disappeared.
Fortunately, when Shi Dakai left Tianjing, he did not defect to the Qing court, but led an army to anhui, Jiangxi, Zhejiang, Fujian, Hunan, Guangxi, Sichuan and other places, fighting with the Taiping Brotherhood troops, or rescuing the Taiping army besieged by the Qing army.
Shi Dakai was an outstanding military general with great prestige in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. Under the leadership of Shi Dakai, this army won many victories. Although Shi Dakai's efforts to create base areas in Zhejiang and Fujian ultimately failed, it contained a large number of Qing troops and greatly reduced the pressure of the Qing army on Tianjing.
Shi Dakai
Outside of Shi Dakai, a group of young generals stood out and became the pillars of the late Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. They were represented by Li Xiucheng and Chen Yu.
After the Tianjing Incident, the withering of the veteran made Hong Xiuquan face an embarrassing situation where no one was available. To this end, he had to use a group of young generals, 33-year-old Li Xiucheng and 27-year-old Chen Yucheng, to get the opportunity to emerge. They also used their excellent performance to repay Hong Xiuquan's trust.
At the beginning of 1858, the Qing army rebuilt the Jiangnan camp and the Jiangbei camp on the outskirts of Tianjing, and besieged Tianjing heavily. In that year, Li Xiucheng and Chen Yucheng cooperated in the battle, attacked the Jiangbei camp in one fell swoop, and killed the Xiang army general Li Xubin in the Battle of Sanhe. In 1860, Li Xiucheng and Chen Yucheng cooperated again, and with the strategy of "encircling Wei and saving Zhao", they attacked the Jiangnan camp and invaded the Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions with a single blow, occupying Hangzhou and Suzhou, and threatening Shanghai.
Lee So-sung
However, although Shi Dakai, Li Xiucheng, and Chen Yucheng achieved certain victories and delayed the process of the collapse of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, they could not fundamentally reverse the situation in which the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom turned from prosperity to decline, and failure was inevitable.
On the other hand, it was the outbreak of the Second Opium War.
In 1856, the same year as the Tianjing Rebellion, the Second Opium War broke out. Under the pretext of the "Yarrow Incident" and the French under the pretext of the "Father Horse Incident", The British jointly launched this war of aggression.
Anglo-French coalition
The Second Opium War was fought intermittently for 4 years. During this period, the Anglo-French army captured the city of Guangzhou, and in 1860 it passed through Tianjin to capture the capital. The Xianfeng Emperor fled the capital with Empress Dowager Cixi. When the British and French troops came to the famous royal garden Yuanmingyuan, they plundered and set a fire to cover up their crimes.
Undoubtedly, due to the outbreak of the Second Opium War, the Qing court had to draw a large number of elite troops to deal with the Anglo-French coalition forces, and was forced to be in a two-front combat state. The military and political pressure faced by the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was alleviated to a certain extent, allowing it to survive the most difficult years after the Tianjing Incident.
In 1860, the Qing court signed the Treaty of Beijing with Britain, France, and Russia, declaring the end of the Second Opium War. The war ended, and Britain and France, in turn, supported the Qing court in fighting the Taiping Army. The "Changsheng Army", a foreign gun team formed by the British officer Gordon, and the "Chang jie army" formed by the French officer Ri Yige, appeared on the battlefield and brought great trouble to the Taiping Army.
Taiping Army vs. Foreign Gun Brigade
In the end, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was snuffed out by the alliance between the Qing court and the British and French powers.