If, in a strict sense, Li Zhaoshou could not be fully counted as a general of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, or more strictly, it seems more appropriate to call him a former member of the Taiping Army.
Because this shameless villain, in his short military career of more than twenty years, rebelled back and forth between the major forces of the Twist Army, the Manchu Qing And the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, there was really no way to accurately summarize him into a certain camp.
Whoever benefits himself depends on whom, "having money is a father, and having milk is a mother", there is no morality, principle, faith or bottom line to speak of.
Because of its twilight and capriciousness, later generations often compared it to the famous "three surnames of the family slave" Lü Fengxian in the Three Kingdoms period, called "Late Qing Lü bu".
Judging by his personality, Zeng Guofan, the commander of the Xiang Army, once pointed out to the point: "This generation is violent and sinister, and it is the most difficult to tame."
Until his death, Mr. Luo Ergang, a giant researcher in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, still gritted his teeth and commented, "This traitor whose hands were stained with blood finally ended his dirty life by rolling in a pool of his own blood."
This gambler, who had been engaged in political speculation and military adventure all his life, in the complex and difficult living environment of the late Qing Dynasty, flattered and skillfully between the two major forces of the Qing dynasty and the Tai Dynasty, and was able to maneuver from side to side, and even became an important official of the Qing court, but in the end, after losing his use value, he was ruthlessly executed, ending his dirty and despicable criminal life.
Below, let's take a look at the surrender expert of the late Qing Dynasty, the veteran of rebellion - Li Zhaoshou.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="160" > is a hooligan in the township</h1>
In 1822, Li Zhaoshou was born into a shabby landlord family in Gushi, Henan.
Although the family fell, his parents still offered him to go to private school with hard work, hoping that he would one day be able to pass the meritorious name Guangzong Yaozu.
But Li Zhaoshouzhi is not here, truancy has become a common thing, stealing chickens and dogs is the reason for interest.
Because of his tall and strong stature, he has practiced the ability to walk on the wall with flying cornices since he was a child, so he wandered between the villages and did some illegal activities of pit abduction and chicken singing and dog theft.
In the course of a long period of wandering, the young Li Zhaoshou gradually became a rogue in the city who harassed the party, and according to historical records, he was "bald and bald", and the people of the clan were extremely disgusted with him, calling him "thief bald".
Born in a dilapidated family and not willing to be poor, not thinking of merit and enterprising, hoping to profit through illegal means, in the long run, finally brought Li Zhaoshou a prison disaster.
As an adult, Li Zhaoshou did not change his bad habits, and was imprisoned in prisons in Shangcheng, Gushi, Huoqiu and other places for repeated violations of the law, because he had no money to bribe the jailers, and was tortured and insulted in prison.
There was a jailer who tied him to a toilet, and when the jailer peed, it would splash on his teeth, and he begged the jailer not to spread too quickly, and the jailer opened his mouth and put the urine into his mouth.
Fortunately, an old jailer pitied him and gave him food so that he could barely survive that unbearable time and get out of prison alive.
The early years of poverty and unlearned skills made Li Zhaoshou's body more characteristic of a rogue proletarian, which also determined his later life value orientation - no principles, only interests.
The inhuman abuse he suffered in prison afterwards also made him harbor a deep hatred for those in power in his heart, which also contributed to his future move to join the Twist Army and expose the anti-Qing Dynasty.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="174" > gathered the crowd to rebel and join the Twister Army</h1>
In 1853, Lin Fengxiang and Li Kaifang of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom led 20,000 elite Northern Expeditions, and the Taiping Army marched into Henan from Anhui, attacking the city strategically, with a huge momentum, and the Twister army in Henan, Anhui and other provinces also rose up one after another, responding to and cooperating with the Northern Expedition of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
The storm is coming, and the turbulent times have finally given Li Zhaoshou a chance to move.
In the same year, Li Zhaoshou joined forces with Xue Zhiyuan and also took advantage of the chaos to revolt in Huoqiu, gaining thousands of troops, attacking local regimental training, and containing some Qing troops in Henan and Anhui.
Between the muddy waters, Li Zhaoshou's rebel army continued to grow, considering the next survival and development problems, Li Zhaoshou then joined the camp of Zhang Lexing, the leader of the "Twist Army", with 7,000 soldiers and horses, respecting him as the "Lord of the Great Han Alliance" and officially becoming a member of the Twist Army.
Whether it was to expose the uprising or join the Twist Army, in fact, Li Zhaoshou did not have any revolutionary ideals and ambitions, nor did he talk about how much class hatred he had against the Manchu Qing, and his rebellion was nothing more than a gamble in the pursuit of glory and wealth, and the chips were these thousands of people and horses under him.
But after all, Li Zhaoshou's people are all rabble-rousers, and it is okay to make small fights, but it is difficult to become a climate after all.
In the subsequent battles with the Qing army, Li Zhaoshou lost more than he won, and during this time he also contacted the Anhui Taiping Army to discuss jointly capturing shangcheng, but in fact, the Xiang army was already thriving, and the Taiping army was tired of coping and had no time to separate.
Li Zhaoshou could only fight alone, surrounded shangcheng, and the Qing soldiers who did not want to go to shangcheng were waiting in a strict position, and the Shangcheng county commander who commanded this Qing army was Zhang Yao, who later created the "Songwu Army".
Li Zhaoshou was repeatedly defeated by the Qing army in Shangcheng, and the loss of troops was not allowed to advance, and finally had no choice but to defeat Huoshan, but was besieged by the Qing army with superior troops.
In October 1854, Li Zhaoshou was cornered, and after consulting with his fellow party member Ma Chaojiang, he led a crowd of 6,000 people to surrender to He Guizhen, the "Anhui Ningchi Taiguang Military Preparation Road", and was subordinate to him as a soldier.
In the fourth year of Xianfeng (1854), Li Zhaoshou, a scoundrel in the city who had joined the Twister Rebellion after the rebellion of the masses, finally became a member of the government army. From this beginning, it also opened the prelude to his many surrenders and rebellions.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="192" > surrendered and then rebelled</h1>
He Guizhen, who had surrendered Li Zhaoshou, although he had meritorious service in suppressing bandits in Shangcheng, was impeached by his superior, Fu ji, the inspector of Anhui Province, to rescue Lujiang, and was dismissed from his official position as a Zhengsipin Daoist.
At the time of losing his official position, He Guizhen did not consider his personal future, but was worried that Li Zhaoshou and others, who had just surrendered, would once again follow the old path of gathering the masses to rebel, and repeatedly exhorted and encouraged them to be loyal to the king and patriotic, restrain their subordinates, and sooner or later they would be used by the state.
He Guizhen, who was born a literati, can be described as well-intentioned to Li Zhaoshou, and simply hopes that he can reform himself and become a material that can be created for the benefit of the country and the people. I don't know how a mercenary villain like Li Zhaoshou, in addition to personal gains and losses, where will there be any feelings of family and country, and how can there be loyalty to speak of.
Shortly thereafter, due to the decadence of the war in Anhui, He Guizhen re-emerged from the mountains, organized a regiment to practice banditry, and was rewarded by the Qing court with six pins for his merits.
However, at this time, he Guizhen, a small official of the six pins, and the original "Anhui Ningchi Taiguang Bingbei Dao" Four Pin Senior Officers are not the same, not only people are light-hearted, but more importantly, there is no financial power, and when marching and fighting, logistics supplies are particularly difficult.
With the development of the war process and the addition of General Li Zhaoshou and other generals, He Guizhen, who was already naked and hungry, was even more stretched.
Out of practical difficulties, He Guizhen had to reduce the grain quota of Li Zhaoshou's people many times, which was a helpless move, but it did not get Li Zhaoshou's understanding.
Whether it is rebellion or surrender, what he pursues is glory and wealth, but now even food and clothing are a problem, and he can't help but feel dissatisfied with his former benefactor He Guizhen.
In order to keep Li Zhaoshou, He Guizhen asked the Qing court for an official position, but was obstructed by the old enemy Fu Ji and did not achieve it.
At this time, Li Zhaoshou's fellow party member Ma Chaojiang was accidentally killed by bandits, and Li resented that the government could not arrest the murderer and avenge his good brother, so he set up a private spiritual hall for Ma Chaojiang with a hot head, and wantonly summoned the old department of the Twist army to worship with hanging.
This move aroused great criticism for Li, and for a while, rumors spread in Henan and Anhui provinces, pointing out that he had the idea of rebellion.
Li Zhaoshou knew that a catastrophe was coming, hurriedly found He Guizhen, crawled to his knees, and cried bitterly, showing him that he had no second thoughts.
The benevolent He Guizhen chose to believe the tearful subordinate in front of him, but he did not think that the benevolence of the first thought at this time had laid the disaster of killing himself in the future.
Soon after, Inspector Fu Ji, who had heard about the incident, informed He Guiqing by secret letter and suggested that he secretly remove Li Zhaoshou to avoid any trouble.
However, I don't know whether it was intentional or unintentional, this fatal top-secret document actually made the ghost fall into the hands of the party Li Zhaoshou.
In November 1855, Li Zhaoshou, who decided to be the first to attack strongly, set up a banquet at the Xiaonan Gate of Yingshan Mountain to entertain He Guizhen, and set up an ambush to kill all 47 of his party, and then led his men and horses to defect to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="211" > switched to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom</h1>
After Li Zhaoshou surrendered to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, he was classified as a subordinate of Li Xiucheng, and at this time Li Xiucheng was far from His Highness the Loyal King who later called the wind and rain in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, but he still showed great enthusiasm and sincerity for Li Zhaoshou's arrival, and directly ceded the three cities of Chuzhou, Tianchang, and Quanjiao to him from his own small territory that was not surplus.
Li Zhaoshou also knew how to repay Li with a peach, and immediately used his connections from the twist army to win over and persuade Zhang Lexing, Gong Deshu and other leaders to lead 70,000 people to defect to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
Although the quality of the 70,000 soldiers and horses of the Twist Army was uneven, it greatly alleviated the shortage of soldiers caused by the departure of the Wing King after the Tianjing Incident, and for the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom at that time, it was tantamount to "sending charcoal in the snow".
And because of the merits of recruiting the Twister Army, Li Xiucheng was quickly promoted, and Li Zhaoshou, the "meritorious minister", won the trust of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
But this short honeymoon period was not over, and the essence of Li Zhaoshou's rogues in the city was exposed, acting as a mighty and fishy people on his own turf, and allowing his subordinates to run rampant in the township.
At the beginning of 1858, Chen Yucheng led an army to attack Gushi in Henan and ordered Li Zhaoshou to send troops to cooperate, but he not only could not advance, but also smoked opium in the camp at the time of the great war.
Disobeying military orders and destroying military discipline, Chen Yucheng is not Li Xiucheng, tell you about feelings and mercy, the king of England will be on the spot under the anger of the law, Li Zhaoshou repeats the same technique, kneels down, weeps bitterly, and pleads bitterly to escape the disaster.
Chen Yucheng missed the military plane with his intention to behead it, and Zhaoshou knelt down to thank him, and jiuzhi was already there
In the spring of the eighth year of Xianfeng (1858), Li Zhaoshou's family members hiding in Weishi County were captured by Katsuho, who used this as a bargaining chip to blackmail Li Zhaoshou into surrendering.
Previously, li zhaoshou held a grudge against Chen Yucheng because of the incident of Gushi sending troops, and now that his family was being held hostage, Li Zhaoshou, who was already unsteady in his will, was shaken again.
At the beginning of 1859, Li Zhaoshou sacrificed the three cities of Chuzhou, Lai'an, and Tianchang, and led his troops to defect to the Qing Dynasty's Minister of Chincha, Shengbao, and not only that, but also persuaded the Pukou shou general to surrender xue zhiyuan, who had previously joined him in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and surrendered to the Qing Dynasty.
After Li Zhaoshou surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, he was made a staff general by the Qing court, and more than 40,000 of his troops were reduced to 18,000 people by Shengbao, called "Yusheng Camp", and provided monthly salaries and salts, so that they could sell themselves to pay for the army.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="226" > descended to the Qing court</h1>
Li Zhaoshou can be described as infamous, but for him to lead tens of thousands of people and sacrifice the three cities to qing again, the Qing court was quite satisfied, and while he was pleased, he gave him the name "Shi Zhong".
I really don't know whether Xian Feng was confused or deliberately gave such an ironic name to this immoral little man at both ends of the first rat.
During Li Zhaoshou's period of defending Chuzhou, his "Yusheng Battalion" troops rapidly expanded from less than 20,000 to 50,000 to 60,000.
He supported the army and was self-respecting, arrogant and lawless, "west of Chuzhou, north of the five rivers, all of which are guanzhen", the local court officials are useless, Chuzhou seems to be an independent kingdom, and Li Zhaoshou is like a "tu emperor".
However, at that time, the Qing government was in a fierce battle with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and Li Zhaoshou was strong, and whichever camp he was in was a force that could not be ignored, the Qing court temporarily chose to be patient in order to consider the overall situation.
By 1863, the Xiang army had gradually taken the initiative in the confrontation with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and Li Zhaoshou, who had a bad deed, still did not know how to restrain himself, selling private salt in Chuzhou, extracting taxes, not to mention, and fighting with Miao Peilin, another warlord in northern Anhui, at Hongze Lake for the transport of private salt by salt ships.
Soon after, Shengbao was convicted of the unfavorable war, and Li Zhaoshou, who did not know the height of the heavens, wrote a letter to intercede, and was severely reprimanded by the imperial court, and at the same time secretly ordered Zeng Guofan and others to begin to rectify Li Zhaoshou, who was acting recklessly, and ordered him to sacrifice his position and various likas, and his troops were handed over to Zeng Guofan to select and submit to the Xiang army.
Li Zhaoshou, who was cunning rabbit dead, running dog cooking, and who had lost his use value, finally smelled a hint of danger, and this shameless person who coveted wealth and nobility understood the truth of "those who know the times are Junjie" at the crucial moment, and took the initiative to give up their powers, hand over the territory, and dismiss the soldiers, hoping to make a safe transition from then on and raise a long life.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="237" > volta is cursed</h1>
After his resignation, Li Zhaoshou did not return to his hometown in Henan, but temporarily lived in Anhui, spending days and drinking with a large number of wives and concubines, so unhappy.
At this time, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom no longer existed, the Twist Army was also in turmoil, and the Qing court had no interest in this notorious villain, a civilian "Li Shizhong", there was no longer any force to turn to, and began to do the ugly business of betraying his friends.
In the sixth year of Tongzhi (1867), Li Zhaoshou's former friend Li Yuntai, who was in the Twist Army, was completely destroyed and fled to Wuhe, Anhui Province, where he fled to Li Zhaoshou's house to hide. Li Zhaoshou did not hesitate to tie up Li Yuntai and personally send him to Anhui to inspect Yinghan.
And this is not the first time that Li Zhaoshou betrayed his friends, before that, his nemesis and fellow countrymen, that is, Xue Zhiyuan, who had been instigated by him to surrender together, once again led the people to rebel in 1860.
Later, when Xue was defeated by the viceroy Li Ruozhu and was cornered, he hid in the residence of Li Zhaoshou in Anhui, and Lord Shizhong simply and neatly executed all of Xue Zhiyuan's family, cut off their heads, and sent them to Shengbao for merit.
In 1871, the twister generals Zhang Teteng, Ren Wen, and Zhang Kun defected to Li Zhaoshou, but without exception, they were also kidnapped and killed by him in the Qing army camp.
In 1881, Li Zhaoshou, who had been running amok in the township for many years, helped people collect debts and arrested Gongsheng Wu Tingjian. Li Zhaoshou hated the readers the most and beat Wu half to death. YuLu, the governor of Anhui, was furious and ordered Li Zhaoshou's arrest.
Li Zhaoshou didn't care at first, he thought that his battle achievements were outstanding, and it was okay to kill people like hemp before, but this time it was just a tribute. Who knew that the Qing court had long been displeased with what he had done, and directly beheaded Li Zhaoshou.
Before his death, this little man who had committed many crimes also defended himself with great words: I have no great sin, but I killed He Guizhen in vain, and it is advisable to have this retribution. ”
Throughout Li Zhaoshou's life, he was ruthless and unjust, mercenary, that is, there was no brotherhood, and there was no friendship with the same robe, and he regarded apostasy and surrender as a common thing, and finally he was ruined and ruined, and it was not a pity to die.