The young hero Chen Yucheng has two powerful brigades with super strong combat effectiveness, one is a small right brigade with infantry as the mainstay, and the source of soldiers is basically two Guangdong nationals, and the combat effectiveness and will to fight have nothing to say; the second is the small left brigade with cavalry as the mainstay, and the source of soldiers is basically from the "twist army" in the Lianghuai region, and the combat effectiveness and mobility are first-class, but the willpower is worrying. In terms of combat alone, the Little Left Team is undoubtedly the most powerful force under the British King, and these people can still maintain a high degree of accuracy when firing guns on fast and mobile warhorses, which is very suitable for use as an assault force. Ma Ronghe, a native of TengXian County, Guangxi, was related to Chen Yucheng, and later served as the leader of the Xiaozuo Brigade, leading cavalry battles, making countless contributions, and was awarded the title of Yongtian'an. However, Ma Ronghe led 70,000 soldiers and horses to surrender to the Qing Dynasty at a critical moment, causing Chen Decai, the king of Fu, to commit suicide by taking poison in despair; what was even more cruel was that Ma Ronghe captured Yang Fuqing, the last "Four Kings of Zhongxing", the last "Four Kings of Zhongxing" in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and interrupted the last hope of the revival of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. However, Ma Ronghe was never reused by the Qing Dynasty, although he was willing to serve the imperial court.
In September 1861, the Ninth Marshal Zeng Guoquan led an army to attack Anqing, all 16,000 defenders were slaughtered, Chen Yucheng had no choice but to withdraw his troops to Hubei, but Ma Ronghe and others strongly opposed, and the British king could only go north to Luzhou and find another way out. After the defeat of the army, Ma Ronghe actually contradicted the commander, and Chen Yucheng's relationship with him began to deteriorate and became more and more intense. The Chronicle of the Kingdom of Heaven says: "Shi Ronghe has a gap with the king, and he is afraid of harm and himself, so he asks himself to go on a northern expedition to avoid it. After the conflict, Ma Ronghe led his cavalry out of Luzhou and went to Huaibei to join forces with Zhang Luoxing to attack Yingzhou, seize territory, and expand the base. At this time, Chen Yucheng was ill and went to Shouzhou to contact Miao Peilin, hoping to use the soldiers and horses in his hands to make a comeback. Unfortunately, Chen Yucheng was in the middle of the plan, and was packaged by Miao Peilin and sent to the Commander of the Qing Army, Shengbao. Knowing that the commander was captured, Ma Ronghe joined forces with Zhang Luoxing and attacked Jiangkou Ji and prepared to rescue the hostages by force. Unfortunately, Ma Ronghe was brave and brave, and his wisdom was insufficient, but he was ambushed by the Qing army. The hostages were not rescued, and they were defeated and fled to Henan.
After Chen Yucheng's death, Ma Ronghe was nominally dispatched by Li Xiucheng, the king of Loyalty, but in fact he was a warlord on one side, "listening to the seal and not listening to the tune", and playing with his own. Li Xiu became the one who lifted the siege of Tianjing, let Chen Decai, Ma Ronghe, and others enter Shaanxi to recruit troops, and 24 months later led the army south, copying the back road of the Xiang army and winning the victory. However, Ma Ronghe did not intervene and refused to march west, but instead fought guerrillas in Henan and Huaibei, plundering merchants everywhere, as if he were the emperor of the earth. As for why he did not march west, the reason was that he hated the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom for not making him a prince, and the Chronicle of the Kingdom of Heaven reads: "Ran Ronghe was noble and meritorious, and he could not go out of the king first, and his heart was often yang, so he divided the headquarters out, crossed the Eyu and Anhui, and did not try to enter southern Shaanxi." "You know, in the late Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Hong Xiuquan successively sealed 2,700 princes, and used up all the more than 3,000 commonly used Chinese characters. In this way, Ma Ronghe naturally harbored a grudge in his heart and did not want to serve Hong Xiuquan in vain. In April 1863, Li Xiucheng carried out the "Attack on the North and Attack the South" operation, and Ma Ronghe did not take any action except to cooperate with a small number of troops.
In January 1864, the Xiang army basically encircled Tianjing, and Chen Decai, the King of Fu, led an army of 200,000 people from Shaanxi to the south in three ways, and invited Ma Ronghe to act together. At this time, the monk Greenqin, Cheng Daji, Zhang Yao and others led tens of thousands of cavalry to sweep through northern Anhui, hunting down and killing various rebels, Ma Ronghe, under the pressure of survival, agreed to Fu Wang's request, led 70,000 troops to Henan to meet, and then entered Hubei, preparing to copy the back road of the Xiang army. Chen Decai and Ma Ronghe invaded Hubei and prepared to march east to Jinling, but the news of the fall of Tianjing came, and their subordinates were scattered and had no fighting spirit. At this time, the monk Greenqin came from Henan to pursue and kill, preparing to surround and annihilate this Taiping army. In November, the two sides fought a decisive battle at Heishidu in Huoshan, Anhui, with Chen Decai the Prince of Fu facing the battle head-on, and Ma Ronghe leading his cavalry to copy the Qing side, and the Senggelinqin army was defeated. Although the battle was won, the Taiping Army was still unable to break through the Qing blockade line and was dragged to death by the "long trench tactics" of the monk Gelinqin. More than 200,000 troops, in the absence of base supplies, it is naturally difficult to maintain morale. In December, Ma Ronghe, in the name of pursuing and killing traitors, led an army of 70,000 all the way west and voluntarily surrendered to Yinghan, the governor of Anhui. In this way, Chen Decai was desperate, and in order to avoid being caught alive, he committed suicide by taking poison.
70,000 troops surrendered to the Manchu Qing, and the capital brought by Ma Ronghe was quite strong, but the Qing Dynasty did not look favorably on him. At first, Ma Ronghe also wanted to get official positions such as chief soldier and deputy general, but the Qing Dynasty only gave him a guerrilla position, and he was an alternate, and he was not actually awarded. What about the 70,000 troops? After the demobilization, only 1,000 men remained, organized into 2 battalions. In this way, Ma Ronghe changed from commander of the military region to battalion commander, and his status plummeted. The Chronicle of the Kingdom of Heaven says: "The descent of harmony is also meritorious and exalted, and it is thought that it will be a special reward." The Qing official Shi Nianzu was worried about his difficulty in controlling, and he was frustrated and did not dare to be strong. QingXuan ordered the dismissal of the troops, the retention of a thousand people to form two battalions, and the granting of rong and guerrilla titles, thinking that the two battalions were divided. "Ignore Ma Ronghe directly." Naturally, it is one of the reasons, the key is that at this time, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom has perished, and Ma Ronghe has little use value, so naturally there is no need to give high-ranking officials Houlu to attract generals. Being able to survive is already the greatest luck, because Shi Dakai can't even save his life when he "please descend".
Without having to reuse it, Ma Ronghe was unwilling to lead 70,000 soldiers and horses to surrender, and had to go to a guerrilla position, which was simply too deceitful. In order to get promoted and rich, Ma Ronghe continued to look for opportunities. In 1874, Yang Fuqing, one of the "Four Kings of Zhongxing" of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, secretly came to Fujian to join the army and prepare to gather a crowd to launch an uprising and establish the Kingdom of Heaven again. At this time, Ma Ronghe happened to be in Fujian, and he and Yang Fuqing had fought side by side and were considered old acquaintances. To this end, he informed the governor of Fujian and Zhejiang of the news, and personally led his troops to arrest him, capturing Yang Fuqing in his hands and punishing Ling Chi.' In this way, the last prince of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Yang Fuqing, was killed by Ma Ronghe. It is reasonable to say that the arrest of the Prince of the Taiping Army is a great merit and should be rewarded heavily. However, the Qing Dynasty seemed to have an opinion on it, and there was no reward at all, "Although the Qing court issued an edict to order the reward for contributing personnel, and the generals who were reconciled and demoted were not allowed to cooperate with them." In this regard, Ma Ronghe is also quite depressed and helpless.
Ma Ronghe, the leader of the Xiaozuo team, led 70,000 soldiers and horses to qing, and did not have to be reused; after capturing the last prince of the Taiping Army, he still did not have to be reused, and could only be regarded as a tool of the Qing Dynasty. In this regard, I don't know whether Ma Ronghe regrets it. Of course, after all, he was lucky to survive. What do you say?
Bibliography: Draft History of the Qing Dynasty, Chronicle of the Kingdom of Heaven