Taiping Heavenly Kingdom War

Taiping Heavenly Kingdom War

After the Opium War, the old feudal oppression and the new capitalist aggression intensified China's already sharp class contradictions and ethnic contradictions forced by foreign aggression against Japan, forcing the broad masses of the people to embark on the road of resistance.

185 1 year 1 month, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom peasant war broke out, which was unprecedented in the history of China and the world. This war lasted for 15 years, covering 18 provinces. It not only dealt a heavy blow to the feudal rule of the Qing Dynasty, but also bravely resisted the armed interference of foreign invaders, and opened the prelude to China's anti-imperialist and anti-feudal democratic revolution. Under the influence and promotion of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom War, people of all ethnic groups in various places revolted in succession, forming the first climax of the people's revolutionary war in the late Qing Dynasty.

1. From jintian uprising to its capital, Tianjin.

Hong Xiuquan, the leader of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, is a poor intellectual from a peasant family in Hua County, Guangdong Province. He witnessed the corruption and incompetence of the Qing government, foreign aggression and bullying, the resistance struggle of people everywhere, and the frustration of the imperial examination hall, and was determined to embark on the road of anti-Japanese war. 1843, he and Feng Yunshan * * * jointly founded the secret organization "Worship God". Since then, they have traveled long distances to Zijingshan and other places in Guiping County, Guangxi to publicize and organize the masses. After more than two years, they have absorbed two or three thousand congregations and formed a leading group headed by Hong Xiuquan.

/kloc-in the summer of 0/850, there was a great famine in Guangxi, and the Heaven and Earth Association organized riots in succession. Hong Xiuquan believes that the time for the uprising is getting more and more mature, so it is convenient to issue a general mobilization order in July, calling on local congregations to "form a camp" in Jintian Village, Guiping County, that is, to form a camp and an army. At the end of the same year, more than 20,000 people came to the "group camp". Hong Xiuquan and others stepped up preparations for the uprising. 185 1 year 1 month1day, "worshiping the gods" officially announced the uprising in Jintian village, established the name of "Taiping Heavenly Kingdom" and publicly raised the banner of anti-Qing dynasty and seizing power.

On the third day after jintian uprising, Hong Xiuquan moved eastward and captured the Dahuanghekou (now Jiangkou Town) on the Jiang Xun River in Guangxi. Soon, it accepted more than 2000 people from the Ministry of Heaven and Earth, and the momentum became more and more fierce. When Emperor Xianfeng learned of this, he ordered "gathering elites and making all-out encirclement and suppression" in an attempt to annihilate the Taiping Army in one fell swoop. The Taiping Army was blocked from developing to the southeast and fought fiercely in Guiping, Wuxuan and Xiangzhou for more than half a year.

In September, the Qing army was defeated by Guancun, Pingnan County, and Yongan could occupy it. Here, Hong Xiuquan made a letter to enfeoffment Yang as the East King, Xiao Chaogui as the West King, Feng Yunshan as the South King, Wei Changhui as the North King and Shi Dakai as the Wing King; All kings below the Western King are under the control of the Eastern King. In this way, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom regime began to take shape.

At this time, the Qing court appointed Cezanne as an imperial envoy and led more than 40,000 troops to besiege Yong 'an. 1in April, 852, the Taiping Army broke through in the rain and ambushed heavily in Dadonggu, Longchaling, killing four company commanders and 2,000 soldiers. Subsequently, the north attacked Guilin Weike, that is, marched into Hunan, first breaking Xing 'an and Quanzhou, and then occupying Quanzhou.

In Daozhou, while resting, I discussed the next marching direction, and finally decided to follow the river to the east, avoid reality and make an imaginary March into Hunan and Hubei, "focusing on Jinling". After the Taiping Army made clear the strategic offensive direction, it abandoned Daozhou in August and crossed the river to the west. In June+February, 5438, Yiyang and Yuezhou were occupied, and then land and water went hand in hand and went straight to Wuchang. Although there were more than 4,000 Qing troops in Wuchang City and more than 0,000 reinforcements 10000, they were finally attacked by Taiping Army at 1853+0. At this time, Taiping Army has become a 500,000-strong army composed of land camp, water camp and earth camp.

After a short break, the Taiping Army withdrew from Wuhan in February and successively conquered Jiujiang, Anqing, Chizhou, Tongling, Wuhu and other important towns along the river. In less than a month, it traveled more than 1200 miles and arrived at the gate of Jinling. Jinling, called Jiangning in ancient times, is a famous metropolis and political, economic and cultural center in the south of the Yangtze River. Enemy at the Gates, the Taiping Rebel, fell into a panic. After the completion of the siege of Jinling, on March 19, 2009, Taiping military blew down the wall near Yifeng Gate with gunpowder and rushed into the city, killing Lu Jianying, governor of Liangjiang, and Hou Xiang, general of Jiangning. 1On March 29th, 853, Hong Xiuquan took the yamen of the Governor of Liangjiang as the Heavenly Palace, changed Jinling into Tianjing, and made its capital, thus establishing the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom regime against the Qing court.

From jintian uprising to Tianjing, its capital, the Taiping Army moved to six provinces in two years and three months, invincible, and realized the decision of "focusing on Jinling". This period is a period of great development from small to large and from weak to strong. Before marching into Wuchang, it was necessary for the Taiping Army to abandon the land. However, it is a major mistake in strategic guidance to give up all the places we have gained and not pay attention to maintaining control over key towns in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River.

2. The Battle of the Northern Expedition

After the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom made Tianjing its capital, Hong Xiuquan and others attempted to quickly conquer Beijing, seize Anhui, Jiangxi, Hunan, Hubei and other important places, and wipe out the Qing Dynasty in one fell swoop while defending Kyoto, so they adopted the overall plan of dividing troops for the northern expedition and the western expedition at the same time.

1At the beginning of May, 853, the deputy prime minister of Tianguan, the prime minister of Emperor Guan Li and the prime minister Ji were ordered to lead a powerful team of more than 20,000 people to start the Northern Expedition from Pukou. According to Hong Xiuquan's demand of "learning from foreigners, fighting with Yan and seizing land without greed", journey to the south, the northern expedition army, went from Anhui to Henan and attacked Guide (now Shangqiu) in the west, reaching Kaifeng. As a result of a large number of twisting the Party along the way and joining the army with the poor, the military situation became stronger. At the beginning of July, the main force crossed the Yellow River and entered Huaiqing House (now Qinyang), where they were deadlocked with the Qing army for two months. Back to Shanxi, into Pingyang (now Linfen) and Hongdong area. The Qing court hastily dispatched troops, leaving generals behind, in an attempt to wipe out the Northern Expeditionary Army in the south of Shanxi.

Who knows that the Northern Expeditionary Army turned from Hongdong to the East, re-entered Henan via Shexian, Wu 'an and Lintaoguan, invaded Zhili and occupied Zhaozhou (now Zhaoxian) in Renxian County. The Northern Expeditionary Army originally wanted to attack Beijing via Baoding. Because the Qing court sent heavy troops to Zhuozhou (now Zhuoxian) and attacked Tianjin, it occupied Jinghai and Liu Du in the southwest of Tianjin on June 29th 10. Due to the arrival of the Qing court reinforcements, the Northern Expeditionary Army failed to realize its plan to capture Tianjin, so it had to be stationed in Jinghai and Liu Du. Report to Tianjing and ask for reinforcements; While building a city, we dug trenches and held on to it. From then on, we changed from active combat to defense.

At that time, more than 20,000 Qing troops, led by an imperial envoy Sheng Bao, had surrounded the Jinghai and Liu Du respectively, and relied on sophisticated weapons and adequate supplies in an attempt to annihilate the Northern Expeditionary Army in one fell swoop. Li Lingbing's tenacious resistance made the Qing army unable to attack for a long time. The Qing court ordered the monk Qin to move to the front of the army and join forces with more than 30 thousand soldiers to besiege. At this time, the weather turned cold, and the besieged Northern Expeditionary Army waited for reinforcements to arrive, running out of food, grass and clothing, and the troops suffered huge losses. The situation was very critical, so we had to break south on February 1854 and be surrounded again in Fucheng. At this time, the Qing court ordered the Qing army with a winning percentage of more than 10,000 to go to Shandong to stop the reinforcements of the Northern Expedition, which temporarily reduced the pressure on Fucheng and enabled the Northern Expedition army to hold on for two months.

1in February, 854, Tianjing finally sent 7500 northern expedition reinforcements led by Vice Premier Xia Guanhe. In March, reinforcements attacked Qingcheng in the east, only 200 miles away from Fucheng. However, due to the fear of death of some leading members at that time, the reinforcements did not continue northward, but retreated southward. As a result, under the pursuit of the Qing army and the attack of the landlord armed forces, it was wiped out before the Northern Expeditionary Army.

1In May, 854, the Northern Expeditionary Army broke through from Fucheng to the east and occupied Lianzhen, Dongguang County. In order to contain the Qing army, Li led more than 600 people to break through the important town again, enter Shandong and occupy Gaotang. Six or seven thousand Taiping troops who stayed in Lianzhen town were starved and frozen for three months under the tight siege of the Qing army several times. 1in March, 855, the camp was breached and most of the Taiping rebels were killed. Lin Fengxiang was captured by injury and sent to Beijing, where he died generously. Even the town was trapped, and the Qing army attacked Gaotang with all its strength. Li came to Fengguantun, Chiping County. Sanggelinqin diversion canal irrigation chariots, the camp was broken, and most of the soldiers of the Northern Expeditionary Army died. Li was captured, escorted back to Beijing and executed by Ling Chi. The Northern Expedition finally failed.

The annihilation of the Northern Expeditionary Army and its reinforcements was the most serious setback for the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom since jintian uprising. Just after the establishment of the celestial regime, the urgent task is to break the siege of Tianjing by the Qing army and form a solid base area centered on Tianjing. Hong Xiuquan hastily pulled out the main force of Taiping Army to fight in the Northern Expedition, far away from the rear, and finally failed. This is a major strategic mistake of the leaders of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

Therefore, Li Xiucheng said: "It was a big mistake for the East King to order Li and sweep the north to die." However, the Northern Expeditionary Army fought alone for two years, moved to six provinces and went deep into the hinterland of the Qing Dynasty, which not only dealt a heavy blow to the Qing Dynasty, expanded the influence of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and promoted the resistance struggle of the northern people, but also contained tens of thousands of Qing troops and eased the military pressure around Tianjing and the battlefield of the Western Expedition.

3. The Battle of the Western Expedition and the Rescue of Tianjing

In order to seize and control important places in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, such as Wuhan, Jiujiang and Anqing, so as to shield Tianjing, the Taiping Army started the Northern Expedition at the same time, that is,1at the beginning of June, 853, and sent the Prime Minister and Xiaguan Deputy Prime Minister Lai. , rate of 20000 to 30000 troops, warships 1000. After the Western Expedition Army set out, Anqing, the important town of cyclamen, followed Nanchang, where it was deadlocked with the Qing army for three months and was forced to evacuate in September. After Nanchang retreated, the troops of the Western Expedition were divided into two ways: one was led by Shi Xiangzhen, the founder of the country, and the other was Hubei; Hu Yihuang and Zeng Tianyang led a team to attack northern Anhui.

Shi Xiangzhen led the Taiping Army to occupy Jiujiang and Banbi Mountain first, then concentrated its forces to conquer Tianjia Town, the land and water gateway of Hubei Province, and then seized Wuhan for the second time. Subsequently, in order to focus on the battlefield in Anhui, the main force turned to northern Anhui.

Hu Yihuang and Zeng Tianyang led the Taiping Army to capture Tongcheng and Shucheng in June 5438 +065438+10; 65438+ February, captured Luzhou (now Hefei), the capital of Anhui Province. Since then, northern Anhui has become the western barrier and food source of Tianjing. 1854 65438+ In October, the Taiping Army marched into Hubei, defeated the Qing army in the blocked city north of Huangzhou, and killed the governor of Huguang, Wu Deliang and the magistrate Cai Runshen. In February, it captured Hankou and Hanyang for the third time and attacked Wuchang. At the same time, the soldiers were divided into north and south, attacking Hunan and northern Hubei.

Under the leadership of Zeng Tianyang, more than 10,000 people of the North Road Army entered Hubei, Xiaogan, Yunmeng and Jingmen in March and April, and then moved to Jingzhou and Yichang. Due to the interception of the Qing army, they went south to Hunan and planned to join forces with the Taiping Army on the South Road.

More than 20,000 Taiping troops from South Road marched into Hunan in the spring of 1854 under the command of Lin, the deputy prime minister of Hezuan, and were immediately resisted by the Xiang army formed by Zeng Guofan, the right assistant minister of the Qing court. Taiping Army successively captured Yuezhou, Xiangyin, Jinggang, Ningxiang and other places, and then captured Xiangtan on April 24, preparing to besiege Changsha. On April 28th, Zeng Guofan personally led the 5th Navy Battalion and 800 people from Lu Yong to attack Jinggang from Changsha.

Taiping military bombarded the command ship with heavy artillery, and then dispatched more than 200 small rowing boats to attack the Xiang navy, causing heavy losses. Zeng Guofan was ashamed and drowned himself twice, and was rescued by his entourage. At this time, the Taiping rebels stationed in Xiangtan fought fiercely with the Xiang army, causing heavy casualties. In May 1, Xiangtan fell and Taiping Army had to retreat separately. The defeat of Xiangtan had a great influence on the Western Expedition, so the Taiping Army was forced to retreat and could not develop in Hunan and other places. In June, Zeng Tianyang learned that the South Road Army had fallen in Xiangtan, led the North Road Army south from Yichang, joined forces with Lin in Changde, and then retreated to Yuezhou. After more than two months' rest and supplement, the Xiang army, led by Zeng Guofan, attacked the north with 20,000 men in July 1854.

On July 25, Zeng Tianyang was forced to retreat to Linxiang. In order to recapture Yuezhou, the Western Expeditionary Army organized several counter-attacks, with fewer victories and more defeats. In the battle on August 1 1, Zeng Tianyang, a veteran who was nearly 60 years old and was known as the "Tiger Head Army", rode alone behind enemy lines and died heroically. The Western Expedition Army was defeated and retreated to Wuchang. Xiang followed closely and launched an attack. In June 5438, Wuchang fell+10. In June+February, 5438, Tianjia Town and Banbishan River were breached, and the Western Expedition Army lost nearly 10,000 ships, which was very unfavorable. Zeng Guofan was famous for a while, known as "Qinghe goes straight into Jinling".

In order to reverse the passive situation, Shi Dakai was ordered to lead the army westward and take command in Hukou. In view of the Xiang army's eagerness to win, the Taiping Army stuck to the city wall and was deadlocked with the enemy. Zeng Guofan saw that Jiujiang could not be captured and attacked Hukou instead.

1855 65438+1On October 29th, the Xiang army attacked Meijiazhou in Hukou, and one of the navy divisions rushed into Poyang Lake. The Taiping Army seized the fighter plane and blocked the way out with a pontoon bridge, which was a "canoe" and a "good soldier" of the Navy. Blocked in the lake, the heavy ship was isolated from the outer river, making it lose its advantage. That night, the Taiping Army attacked and burned more than 40 large ships, and the Xiang Navy retreated. ?

On the evening of February 1 1, Taiping troops in Jiujiang and Xiaochikou used the cover of darkness to raid the Xiang navy again with more than 100 canoes, burning more than 100 warships and detaining Zeng Guofan's ships. Zeng Guofan fled by boat ahead of time, then failed to throw himself into the water again and fled to Nanchang. After the victory of Hukou and Jiujiang, the Taiping Army pursued the victory and launched an all-round counterattack. It fought bloody battles from Hubei to Jiangxi, and successively occupied dozens of towns such as Jiujiang and Wuhan, as well as parts of Anhui, Hubei and Jiangxi provinces, which turned the Western Expedition battlefield into victory.

When the situation of the Western Expedition battlefield improved, the Qing army near Tianjing stepped up its attack, and the situation became increasingly severe. As early as shortly after the Taiping Army conquered Nanjing, the Qing court sent an imperial envoy Xiang Rong to lead the army to establish a Jiangnan camp in Xiaolingwei, east of Nanjing. The imperial envoy Qishan set up Jiangbei camp in Yangzhou, which often threatened Tianjing.

From 65438 to 0855, the Qing army successively captured Wuhu, an important town in the west wing of Tianjing, and Luzhou, an important town in the north of Anhui, and at the same time stepped up the siege of Zhenjiang, a throat area downstream of Tianjing. /kloc-at the beginning of 0/856, Chen Yucheng, the prime minister of the winter official, and Li Xiucheng, the deputy prime minister of the local official, were ordered to lead tens of thousands of Taiping rebels back to Tianjing from western Anhui to help Zhenjiang in the east. In April, together with the defenders of Zhenjiang, they defeated the Qing army, broke the enemy camp 16, reached Zhenjiang, defeated the enemies of Hongqiao, Pu Shu Bay and Sanhe Branch, and broke the enemy camp 130. Then, taking advantage of the virtual occupation of Yangzhou, it destroyed the Jiangbei camp of the Qing army and operated for three years.

At the same time of aiding Zhenjiang in the east, Shi Dakai led the army, conquered Wuhu in May, attacked Moling Pass, and threatened the Qing army's Jiangnan camp. In June, he ordered the South Road Army to capture Lishui and induced Xiang Rong to divide his forces and intercept it. At this point, the East King Yang saw that the Qing army near Tianjing was empty, so he ordered Chen Yucheng and Li Xiucheng, who were about to return to Beijing, to attack the Jiangnan camp.

On June 20, all the Taiping rebels launched a general attack, and the Xiaolingwei camp was breached. The Qing army killed more than a thousand people, Xiang Rong and others defeated chunhua town, and the Jiangnan camp was wiped out. The Taiping Army concentrated its main force and pulled out two nails that threatened the safety of Tianjing in one fell swoop, greatly improving the situation in Tianjing. At this time, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom reached its heyday militarily.