The Xiang Army and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom competed for more than ten years, and finally destroyed the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, an important reason is of course that the Xiang Army is a fierce general like a cloud, to introduce the Generals of the Xiang Army one by one can not be introduced for several days and nights, today Xiaobian to introduce the character, he is definitely the strongest general of the Xiang Army, he is a pioneer in every battle, even if he can still retreat with the rain of guns and cannons, he has participated in more than five hundred battles in his lifetime, and he is a major contributor to the destruction of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, he is Bao Chao.
Portrait of Bao Chao
Bao Chao was born in 1828 (the eighth year of Daoguang), his father died when he was young, he followed his mother for his life, and when he was young, he worked as a miscellaneous servant and burned charcoal, and his poor life cultivated his strong and resolute character.
In the early years of Xianfeng, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement broke out, and the viceroy of Guangxi, Xiang Rong, recruited soldiers, and when Bao Chao learned of this, he felt that this was a great opportunity for him to make meritorious achievements, so he enlisted in the army and rushed to Guangxi to suppress the Taiping Army.
At first, Bao Chao was just an ordinary soldier, but Xiang Rong found that every time he fought, he fought very bravely, a large number of Qing soldiers were afraid to retreat, he always rushed to the front, killed the most enemy soldiers, and every time he was injured, he could save his life and retreat, Xiang Rong decided to promote Bao Chao as a garrison (Wupin military attaché).
After Zeng Guofan created the Xiang Army, Bao Chao and the Xiang Army successively attacked Yuezhou, Wuchang, Hanyang and other important towns, when attacking Wuchang, the famous general Hu Linyi of the Xiang Army was besieged, Bao Chao led his soldiers to risk death to save Hu Linyi, in the rescue Bao Chao was wounded by artillery fire on the arm, but he simply bandaged the wound and continued to fight, his bravery and fierceness shocked the Taiping Army.
Bao Chao was praised by the Qing court for his battle merits, promoted to counselor general (Sanpin military attaché), and given the title of Zhuang yong Batulu (Manchu for warrior), at this time Bao Chao could not have to fight the front line personally, but he was brave and unchanged, every time he fought as a soldier, even if he was in the rain of guns and cannons, he could always retreat with his whole body, which made the Xiang army very admirable, and Zeng Guofan praised him even more.
In 1857 (the seventh year of Xianfeng), Chen Yucheng, the king of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, personally went out on horseback and defeated the Xiang army continuously, Bao Chao led the Xiang army to block, until July of the same year, Chen Yucheng never broke through Bao Chao's defense line, helplessly defeated, Bao Chao was promoted to the rank of general soldier (Erpin military attaché) because of this merit, and then the two sides fought fiercely at Taihu Lake, because the Xiang army had absolute superiority in strength and weapons, the Taiping army was defeated again, in 1858 (Xianfeng EIGHT years), the Battle of Sanhe Town, the famous general of the Xiang army Li Xubin was killed, the Xiang army suffered a major defeat, Bao Chao retreated slightly to avoid major casualties.
In the following years, the war situation gradually tilted towards the Xiang army, Bao Chao assisted the famous General Zeng Guoquan (the ninth brother of Zeng Guofan) to capture Nanchang, Anqing and other places, in 1862 (the first year of Tongzhi), and the xiang army departments besieged Tianjing, and in 1864 (the third year of Tongzhi) to capture Tianjing, destroy the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, after the Qing court on merits, Bao Chao was promoted to the post of viceroy (Yipin military attaché), reaching the peak of his official career.
Later, Bao Chao also participated in the suppression of the Twist army uprising, pacifying the Shaanxi-Gansu rebellion, recovering the Xinjiang region and other major battles, in 1883 (Guangxu 9), the Sino-French War broke out, Bao Chao led his troops to the front line, strengthened defense, and made certain contributions to resisting foreign aggression, but unfortunately, the Qing court even if it won the battle, it was humiliated and peaceful, ordered the Qing army to withdraw, Bao Chao was very angry, shouted: "Holy faint, there is a negative heavenly dynasty!" He immediately resigned from the government and went home to live in seclusion.
Until October 1887 (the thirteenth year of Guangxu), Bao Chao died quietly of illness under the worry of the country and the people, at the age of 59, and the Qing court was given the title of "Zhongzhuang".
In his early years, Bao Chao rose all the way to the viceroy by suppressing the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, participated in more than five hundred battles in his life, and was wounded more than a hundred times, but he was still able to retreat with his whole body in the face of guns and cannons, and it has to be said that he was the strongest general of the Xiang Army, insisting on the main battle when resisting foreign aggression, and was also regarded as a patriotic general, but unfortunately it ended in the end of withdrawing defense, resigning from office and living in seclusion, and quietly dying of illness, which is emotional.
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