On September 1, 1856, after receiving a secret edict from the Heavenly King Hong Xiuquan to kill Yang Xiuqing, the Eastern King, Wei Changhui, the Northern King, led 3,000 elite soldiers into the Tianjing City at night and rushed into the Eastern King's Mansion in the early morning to kill him, which triggered the Tianjing Incident.
Wei Changhui did this, just to obey the edict, why was Wei Changhui finally split up by Hong Xiuquan's five horses and cut off his head?
(Wei Changhui stills)
Wei Changhui was the broadest of the early leadership core circles of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and his family was rich, but because of his "few people, no merit, no merit, no wealth and no power", he was quite oppressed by local officials, so he hated the rule of the Qing Dynasty to the bone.
In 1848, at the instigation of Feng Yunshan, Wei Changhui sacrificed his family wealth and led the people to return to Hong Xiuquan, making great contributions to the preliminary preparations for the Jintian Uprising. At the same time, he was talented, one of the few literate people in the early leadership of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and he was also quite insightful in military and political affairs, so he soon became an influential figure in the Taiping Army.
In 1851, Hong Xiuquan established the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in Yong'an, and Wei Changhui was crowned king of the North.
At that time, Hong Xiuquan proclaimed himself the Heavenly King, the Eastern King Yang Xiuqing ranked second, the Western King Xiao Chaogui ranked third, the Southern King Feng Yunshan ranked fourth, and the Wing King Shi Dakai ranked sixth. Wei Changhui, the Northern King, ranked fifth.
When the capital was to be fixed in Tianjing, Xiao Chaogui and Feng Yunshan had already been killed in battle during the revolutionary expedition, so Wei Changhui was actually the third person in the leadership core of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
Although Yang Xiuqing, who ranked second, had not read a book, he was a natural leader. He acted vigorously, did things fairly, and had clear rewards and punishments. In addition, he was often able to command battles by surprise, so his prestige in the Taiping Army was extremely high.
After the establishment of the capital Tianjing, Hong Xiuquan, who was content with pleasure, simply entrusted Yang Xiuqing with the power of the imperial government, and all the kings were subject to Yang Xiuqing, which meant that Yang Xiuqing was the supreme leader in the actual sense.
(Yang Xiuqing stills)
The reason why Yang Xiuqing can hold a high position is not only because of his outstanding leadership ability, but also because he often uses the name of "Heavenly Father's Lower Mortals" to give orders to Hong Xiuquan, who calls himself "the second son of Heavenly Father". That is to say, in the entire Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Hong Xiuquan could not restrain him.
Yang Xiuqing, who was not coerced, soon swelled, he suppressed dissidents, installed cronies, and almost all of the court was his confidant.
Of course, the kings who were commissioned by Yang Xiuqing did not have a good life, such as Wei Changhui.
Wei Changhui's brother had fought with Yang Xiuqing's concubine's brother for real estate, but was tied up by Yang Xiuqing and ordered to hand it over to Wei Changhui to deal with himself. In order to please Yang Xiuqing, Wei Changhui had to execute his brother.
On another occasion, because Yang Xiuqing's soldiers despised Wei Changhui, Wei Changhui's henchmen were angry and beat him. When Yang Xiuqing learned of this, he scolded Wei Changhui hundreds of times as a sign of humiliation.
All kinds of criticisms made Wei Changhui hate Yang Xiuqing to the bone. In fact, the only one who hated Yang Xiuqing to the bone was Wei Changhui!
Not only did the kings have a grudge with Yang Xiuqing, but Hong Xiuquan was also quite angry with Yang Xiuqing. As Yang Xiuqing became more and more stubborn, the humiliation of him under the pretext of "Heavenly Father's Mortals" also increased.
Recently, Yang Xiuqing actually forced Hong Xiuquan to seal his long life in the name of "Heavenly Father's Mortals", which is obviously to seize the throne!
(Hong Xiuquan stills)
Hong Xiuquan secretly contacted Wei Changhui and Shi Dakai, who had a vendetta against Yang Xiuqing, and planned to kill Yang Xiuqing. But before they could act, Shi Dakai and Wei Changhui were sent by Yang Xiuqing to Wuhan and Jiangxi to supervise the battle.
In one city, Hong Xiuquan and Yang Xiuqing were left.
Hong Xiuquan fidgeted, lest Yang Xiuqing poison him. Therefore, wei Changhui, Qin Rigang, and Shi Da marched into The King of Jingqin and killed Yang Xiuqing.
After receiving the secret edict, Wei Changhui responded positively, and immediately went to Tianjing with 3,000 elite soldiers, and washed the Eastern Palace with lightning speed and blood, killing Yang Xiuqing.
If at this point, Hong Xiuquan came out to preside over the overall situation, saying that Yang Xiuqing had committed a crime and that Wei Changhui had the merit of being a diligent king, then Wei Changhui's killing of Yang Xiuqing would become a matter of justice.
But Hong Xiuquan had no intention of expressing his position at all. In this way, Yang Xiuqing's henchmen stopped doing it and decided that Wei Changhui was an anti-thief, so they wanted to avenge Yang Xiuqing.
Almost all of Tianjing City was filled with Yang Xiuqing's forces, and under the banner of revenge, they actually proceeded from their own interests and fought with Wei Changhui to the death in Tianjing City. If it were not for qin Rigang's army entering the battle in time, whether Wei Changhui would be able to win was still uncertain.
Seeing that tens of thousands of Taiping troops had fallen into a pool of blood, Hong Xiuquan still did not justify Wei Changhui's name.
(Shi Dakai stills)
At this moment, Shi Dakai, who had also received a secret edict from King Qin, rushed to Tianjing, where he reprimanded Wei Changhui for "killing too much" and demanded that Hong Xiuquan immediately stop Wei Changhui from continuing to kill.
But what Shi Dakai did not expect was that Hong Xiuquan not only rejected him, But Wei Changhui also thought that he was suspected of plotting to seize power, so he killed the red-eyed Wei Changhui and killed him.
Shi Dakai sensed that something was wrong and escaped from tianjing city alone, but the Yiwang mansion was slaughtered.
Shi Dakai led the Taiping Army to launch a jingnan in Anqing, and issued an ultimatum to Hong Xiuquan, saying that only by killing wei Changhui, the culprit, could the people be angry.
Hong Xiuquan did not expect that Shi Dakai was in a big position, coupled with the anger of the soldiers and civilians in Tianjing City, so he came out to "uphold justice."
At this time, Wei Changhui had less than 200 people under him, and where was the opponent of Hong Xiuquan and Shi Dakai. Wei Changhui resisted in vain and was captured by Hong Xiuquansheng, and after the five horses were divided into corpses, he cut off the first rank and handed it over to Shi Dakai, who was outside the Tianjing City, to comfort the hearts of the army.
It was only at this time that the Tianjing Incident subsided, but after this infighting, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom went into decline.
(Reference materials: History of Taihei Heaven)