After the Qing army attacked the city of Tianjin, the escape of Hong Xiuquan's son, the young heavenly king Hong Tianguifu, is recorded in detail in his confession. Our current understanding of this history is also mainly based on these confessions.
Hong Tianfugui's confession consisted of three main copies, one for Tang Jiatong, a junior Qing Dynasty officer who had captured him. Two other copies were written to Xu Benyong, the prefect of Nanchang, and Shen Baozhen, the governor of Jiangxi. In addition, there are several hymns written to Tang Jiatong. For example, "Now I don't do long hair, but I am bent on assisting the Qing Dynasty." Long live the emperor of the Qing Dynasty, and it is always difficult for chaotic courtiers and thieves to run" These are full of arguments that belittle the Taiping Army and the Qing government.
These confessions are very roughly written, some places do not understand semantics, some places have the order reversed, and there are many discrepancies before and after the three confessions. To sum up, we can roughly figure out the escape of Hong Tianguifu after the destruction of Tianjing City.
(Hong TianGuifu stills)
When the Tianjing City was broken, 15-year-old Hong Tianguifu saw the Qing army pouring into the city like a tide on the city tower, and quickly ran under the city. At that time, Hong Tianguifu's four wives pulled him to prevent him from running, and he said to go down and come back. After he went down, he ran into Li Xiucheng, the King of Zhongwang. Li Xiucheng, the King of Zhong, and Liu Qinghan, the Prince of Zun, took more than a thousand men and six or seven hundred horses, disguised themselves as Qing troops, and escorted Hong Tianguifu to escape from the Taiping Gate. However, they were soon discovered by the Qing army. Li Xiucheng turned to block the officers and soldiers (and was finally arrested), and Hong Tianguifu fled. Hong Tianfugui also said here which people were arrested, which people committed suicide, and which people were killed.
Hong Tianguifu fled to Guangde, southern Anhui. When Hong Rengui, the King of Gan, learned of this, he led his army to join Hong Tianguifu. They stayed there for more than half a month, and when they heard that Li Shixian was in Jiangxi, they took 70,000 or 80,000 people to Jiangxi to meet Li Shixian. In addition, there were also citi army led by King Huang Zongbao.
In the process, many Taiping troops came to converge. However, along the way, they were chased and intercepted by various Qing troops. Later, Hong Tianguifu unfortunately fell into a deep pit. At that time, there were many people who fell into the deep pit, and strangely, the Qing army took all those people away, but left Hong Tianguifu there.
Hong Tianguifu got up from the pit and climbed onto a mountain. After four days of starvation in the mountains, he met an old man dressed in white without a beard who gave him a tea bowl of bread, and after giving it to him, he suddenly disappeared. Hong Tianguifu stayed on the mountain for two more days, then went down the mountain and pretended to be "Zhang", and came from the refugees. He stayed at the Tang family for four days, cut his hair, and went on the road again.
(Lee So-sung stills)
Along the way, Hong Tianguifu met the officers and soldiers again, and they stripped him of his clothes. Then he forced Hong Tianguifu to take the burden. Because Hong Tianguifu could not pick, he finally exposed the stuffing and was arrested by the Qing army.
After Hong Tianfugui was arrested, he was first interrogated by Tang Jiatong, then handed over to Xu Benyong, the prefect of Nanchang, and then to Shen Baozhen, the governor of Jiangxi. On November 18, 1864, Shen Baozhen executed Hong Tiangui Fu Lingchi in the city of Cao.
From Hong Tianguifu's confession, we can roughly see the above situation. However, in the escape experience of Hong Tianguifu described in these confessions, we seem to see something else.
First, when Hong Tianguifu fled, he ignored his wife and children. As a young king, when he fled, he completely ignored his wife and children, and also deceived his wife and children.
Second, although Hong Tianguifu was the leader of the Taiping Army, he did not actually play any role. Moreover, the Taiping Army actually had no leader at that time, and neither Li Xiucheng, Nor Hong Renjie, nor Li Shixian could take on the heavy responsibility of turning the tide.
Third, when the Taiping Army failed, the people's hearts were already scattered, although by the time of Guangde, there were still as many as 120,000 or 30,000 people from all walks of life, but they died quickly, fled, and descended, completely looking like trees falling down and scattering.
(Hong Xiuquan stills)
Fourth, Hong Tianguifu himself also hated the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and his father Hong Xiuquan were simply a kind of stranglehold for his life. Hong Xiuquan not only did not allow him to read ancient books (he said he had secretly read more than thirty books) and did not let him go out, but also brainwashed him religiously. What is even more bizarre is that Hong Xiuquan emphasized the difference between men and women, and even forbade him to meet with his mother and sisters. Because he was afraid that other men would enter the harem, he kept letting a woman named "Tianjiao" (some people say that this is Hong Xuanjiao) to teach him. Hong Tianguifu hated this kind of life very much, he wanted to read the sages, and even wanted to marry and have children normally, and to take the exam in the future.
In short, from Hong Tianfugui's confession, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is completely a demon and a strange story on earth.
I don't know how much truth Hong Tianguifu's confession has. However, the "demonization" of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom revealed from this confession was indeed much greater than the shock caused by Ling Chi's execution of Hong Tianguifu.
(Reference: "Nanchang Fu Xun Hong Tiangui Fu Offering", "Headquarters Courtyard Pro Xun Hong Tian Gui Fu Offering")