Hong Xiuquan is from Huaxian County, Guangdong Province. I have been to Guangzhou many times to take part in the imperial examination, but unfortunately I came last. 1844 (twenty-three years of Daoguang), he and his cousin Feng Yunshan and younger brother Hong Rengan absorbed some Christian teachings from Good Persuasion, and were later baptized by themselves. That year, Hong Xiuquan and Feng Yunshan went to Guixian, Guangxi to preach, and Hong soon returned to Guangdong, while Feng stayed in Guangxi to develop, and his local followers increased. From 65438 to 0847, Hong Xiuquan and Hong Rengan went to Guangzhou to study the Bible with American southern Baptist missionary Luo Xiaoquan. Deceived by Luo Xiaoquan's assistant China, Luo Xiaoquan postponed his plan to baptize him and left Guangzhou to see Feng Yunshan in Guiping, Guangxi.

/kloc-at the beginning of 0/848, Feng Yunshan was captured by the local Yong ying in Shiren Village, Meng Chong Township, Zijingshan, and sent to Yamen, Guiping County, Guangxi for detention. On the grounds of "freedom of missionary work", Hong Xiuquan went to Guangzhou to seek assistance from upper-level relations. Feng Yunshan was released after his followers raised money to bribe Wang Lie, the magistrate of Guiping County.

/kloc-in the summer of 0/850, Hong Xiuquan issued a joint venture order, asking the congregation to organize troops in Jintian Village, Guiping County, Guangxi. At the end of the same year, the Taiping Army fought against the Qing army in Wang Si and Caicunjiang successively, and began an armed confrontation with the Qing court. Originally called Taiping, it was later founded as the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and the public property system was implemented.

185 1 year 1 month1day (December 10th, 30th year of Daoguang), Hong Xiuquan's birthday, many people prayed to God in Jintian Village to "wish you a long life", and later the world designated this day as jintian uprising Memorial Day. On March 23, Hong Xiuquan ascended the throne in Wuxuan, Guangxi, and was later renamed King of Peace.

Yong' an organizational system

185 1 autumn, Taiping Army occupied Yong 'an House (now mengshan county) in Guangxi. In February, 65438, the kings enfeoffed Yong 'an City, and Yang Feng, the former commander-in-chief of the Chinese army, was appointed as the East King, who was nine years old. Xiao Chaogui, the former army commander-in-chief, was named the right-bi-zheng military adviser, the Western King, at the age of 8,000. Feng Yunshan, the former commander-in-chief of the rear army, was named the South King, the leading deputy strategist, at the age of 7,000. Wei Changhui, former commander of the Right Army, was appointed as a defender. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom established the initial official system, ritual system and military system on the basis of Feng Yunshan's thought, and implemented its own calendar-"Taiping Calendar".

1April 5, 852 (the second year of Xianfeng), the Taiping Army broke through Yong 'an and surrounded the provincial capital Guilin in the north. But continued northward, and was intercepted by the Jiang Zhongyuan Department of the Qing army in Suoyidu. Feng Yunshan was hit by artillery fire from the Qing army and died of serious injuries. On May 19, he left Guangxi and entered Hunan Province, Kedao Prefecture and Chenzhou. In August, Xiao Chaogui, the Queen Mother of the West, heard that Changsha was empty, led a division to attack Changsha, and died in September 12. Hong Xiuquan and Yang rushed to the gate of Changsha when they heard the news, but by this time, the Qing army had assembled heavily, and the Taiping Army had failed to attack Changsha for nearly three months, so they retreated to the north to conquer Yuezhou.

Ding Du Tianjing

1853 65438+1October 12. The Taiping Army conquered Wuchang, and the governor of Hubei often committed suicide. The number of Taiping Army increased to 500,000 (including refugees). /kloc-in March of 0/9, Jiangning (now Nanjing) was captured and Lu Jianying, governor of Liangjiang, was killed. 1On March 29th, 853, Hong Xiuquan entered Jinling City with the cheers of Yang, civil and military officials and the common people, and stayed at the imperial palace. Soon after, he restored the Governor's Office of Liangjiang and changed it to Tianwangfu, and announced that Jinling would be its capital and Tianjing would be renamed, thus formally establishing the peasant regime of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, which opposed the Qing Dynasty.

On April 27th, 1853, British warship HMS Hermes arrived in Jiangning. British Minister Samuel George Bonham (concurrently governor) received Wei Changhui, king of the North, Shi Dakai, king of the Wing, and Thomas Taylor Meadows, the Chinese leader, as the translator.

Britain expressed its current neutral attitude towards the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and the Qing Dynasty. At the end of the year, the French ambassador to China, Bourbrown, visited Tianjin.

Start the northern expedition

On May 8, 1853, He Li was ordered to lead more than 20,000 people to the Northern Expedition. Although the Northern Expeditionary Army once entered the vicinity of Tianjin, it was besieged by the Qing army because it fought alone. 1In March of 855, he was injured and captured in Lian Town, Dongguang County, Zhili, and was escorted back to Beijing for execution soon. Li was arrested in Fengguantun, Chiping County, Shandong Province and executed in Beijing in June.

Western Expedition and Tianjingguan

1June 3, 853, Lai, Zeng Tianyang, Kai and others were ordered to supervise more than 1,000 warships and return to the Western Expedition. Has captured Anqing, Jiujiang, Wuchang and other places.

In order to fight against the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom,1at the end of March, 853, Xiang Rong, an imperial envoy of the Qing Dynasty, built the "Jiangnan Camp" in Xiaoling outside Jinling. /kloc-in April of 0/6, Qishan, an imperial envoy of the Qing Dynasty, built "Jiangbei Camp" outside Yangzhou.

1854, the Western Expedition Army met the newly established resistance of Xiang Army in Hunan, and Xiang Army counterattacked near Jiujiang. /kloc-at the beginning of 0/855, Shi Dakai, the wing king, defeated Xiang and fell back to Wuchang.

1On April 5, 856, the Taiping Army attacked Yangzhou again and broke the "Jiangbei Camp". 1856 (the sixth year of Xianfeng) In June, the Taiping Army broke through the "Jiangnan Camp" and solved the three-year siege of Tianjing. Xiang Rong, commander-in-chief of the Qing army, committed suicide on August 9.

Tianjing incident

In the early days of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the military and political affairs were in the charge of military advisers, and Hong Xiuquan retired behind the scenes, ignoring state affairs, and the power fell into the hands of East Wang Yang.

1856, Taiping army attacked the prosperous "Jiangnan camp" of the Qing army. Three years after the siege of Tianjing, the East King Yang saw that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was in a good situation at that time and had other plans. Yang pretended to be the "heavenly father" and forced the heavenly king to change himself from "nine thousand years old" to "long live". Wei Changhui, the northern king, asked the heavenly king to kill the eastern king, but the eastern king refused. Later, Chen told Tianwang that the East King had an attempt to kill the king and usurp the throne. Tianwang secretly ordered the North King, the Wing King and the Yan King Qin Rigang to eradicate the East King.

Wei Changhui, who had a conflict with Yang, arrived in Tianjing on September 1 and entered the city with Qin Rigang at night. On the morning of the second day, the Yang family was killed when they attacked the East Palace. More than 20,000 people, including soldiers and civilians under the East King's shogunate and their families, were also killed, known as the Tianjing incident in history. Wing king Shi Dakai accused Wei Changhui of killing indiscriminately after arriving in Tianjing, and the two broke up in discord. Shi Dakai escaped from Jinling City that night. Later, under the secret order of the heavenly king Hong Xiuquan, Wei Changhui killed all the family members of Yong 'an Palace.

Shi Dakai in jingnan, Anhui, wrote to the king, please kill the north king, to vent public anger. Seeing that both the army and the people supported Shi Dakai, Tianwang wrote to punish Wei. 1 1 month, Shi Dakai returned to Beijing by a letter, and was honored as the "righteous king" by Hong Xiuquan, who "managed government affairs" in the DPRK. Regardless of personal grievances, he only punished the first evil when investigating the responsibility for the massacre, and did not blame his subordinates. The relatives of the Northern King were also protected and reused, and the people soon settled down. Although Wuchang fell shortly after Shi Dakai returned to Beijing for lack of food, under the deployment of Shi Dakai, the Taiping Army stuck to the pass and waited for an opportunity to counterattack. Chen Yucheng, Li Xiucheng, Yang Fuqing, Shi and other rising stars began to win the top spot, and the passive situation caused by infighting gradually reversed. /kloc-in the spring of 0/857, Li Xiucheng and Chen Yucheng defeated the third division of Qin Ding of the Qing army, went north to Lu 'an and Huoqiu, and joined forces with the Nian Army. The soldiers were directed at Hubei.

After the Tianjing Incident, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and North Korea elected Shi Dakai to preside over the political affairs, but Hong Xiuquan was afraid of Shi Dakai's reputation and talent, refused to grant him the status of "military adviser" and only named him "the righteous king of the commander of the Holy Spirit Communication Army". After the situation improved slightly, there was an intention to murder him. Hong Xiuquan elbowed him with his brother Hong Renfa. In order to avoid another civil strife, Shi Dakai was forced to lead thousands of people to flee Tianjing and go to Anqing. Finally, he fought against the Qing soldiers in Zida, Sichuan, and was lured by the Qing soldiers to surrender. He was taken back to Chengdu to be executed in Lingchi.

The Tianjing incident led to the killing of the three kings and the departure of the wing king, which was a turning point in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

Shi Dakai expedition

1In September, 857, Hong Xiuquan was forced to send envoys to ask Shi Dakai to return to Beijing. Shi Dakai said that he would not return to Beijing, but transferred Chen Yucheng, Li Xiucheng, Wei Jun and other generals to Huiyuan to continue to fight for the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom as a "general". Hong Xiuquan approved this plan, and Tianjing officials admitted that Shi Dakai's subsequent action was an expedition of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

Since then, Shi Dakai moved to Fujian, Zhejiang, Jiangxi and other provinces around Tianjing, containing a large number of Qing troops and supporting Tianjing and Anhui battlefields.

1858, after the infighting of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the Qing army rebuilt its camps in Jiangbei and Jiangnan. In April, Hong Rengan arrived in Tianjing, and was made king.

/kloc-in the spring of 0/859, Shi Dakai entered Hunan and launched the "Battle of Baoqing". He wants to use the upper reaches and then go down to Hubei to cooperate with the Anhui Taiping Army and wait for an opportunity to divide his troops into Sichuan. At that time, Xiang was planning to attack Anqing in three ways. When he heard that Shi Dakai had gone straight to the hinterland of Hunan, his morale was shaken across the board and he had to take advantage of the situation to help Hunan. Faced with the heavy support of Xiang Army, Shi Dakai fought alone, failed to conquer Baoqing, and was forced to retreat to Guangxi to rest.

186 1 September, Shi Dakai crossed the Yangtze River in the north, seized Chengdu, established Sichuan base area, moved to Sichuan, Guizhou and Yunnan provinces, and entered Sichuan in the fourth place.1April, 863 crossed the Jinsha River, breaking through the Yangtze River defense line. However, due to the unprecedented early flood of the Dadu River, it fell into a tight encirclement and failed to break through many times.

Ambassador Luo Paite, then Governor of Sichuan, negotiated with Taiping Army. After the agreement was reached, the Taiping Army dismissed 4,000 people by itself, and the remaining 2,000 warriors carried weapons with them. After Shi Dakai was taken to Chengdu, the Qing army was treacherous and 2000 Taiping troops were slaughtered. On June 27th, 1863, Shi Dakai was killed in Chengdu, Sichuan, and the rest of the troops kept fighting.

Taiping army's eastward expedition and Qing army's counterattack

1from February to may, 860, after the second attack on the Jiangnan camp of the Qing army, Li Xiucheng took advantage of the attack to capture many places in southern Jiangsu. In September of the same year, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom deployed the second Western Expedition, with Chen Yucheng and Li Xiucheng armies as the two main forces in the north and south of the Yangtze River to attack the rear of the Qing army and rescue Anqing.

186 1 In the first half of the year, Chen Yucheng of Hokuriku was afraid to attack Wuhan because of the intervention of British officials. Li Xiucheng, on the south road, went to the southeast of Hubei and recruited 300,000 people nearby. After learning that other Taiping troops were defeated, Li gave up attacking three towns in Wuhan and moved eastward to capture most of Zhejiang.

In September, 186 1, Anqing fell.

1862 1 month, Li Xiucheng led an army to attack Shanghai, and the Qing army and foreigners jointly resisted, but the Taiping Army failed to occupy Shanghai after a long attack. The war caused dissatisfaction among the western powers that controlled Shanghai. In addition, some Christians claim that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is a heresy, and its words are strange and do not conform to Roman Catholicism or Protestantism. And the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom affected the interests of European and American countries in China, and western countries turned against the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom movement. In May, Chen Yucheng was captured by the traitor Miao in Shouzhou and escorted the Qing army to win the battle. In June of the same year, Chen Yucheng was executed by the Qing army.

1862 (the first year of Tongzhi) In June, Hong Xiuquan ordered Li Xiucheng to return to Tianjing, and Li assembled 200,000 troops. 10 Since June, it has been fighting Xiang for more than 40 days and failed to win. In February 65438, Li Xiucheng was ordered to cross the Yangtze River northward. In the same year, Li Hongzhang attacked southern Jiangsu and left Zhejiang.

186365438+On February 4th, Suzhou garrison commander Tan Shaoguang was killed by his men, and Suzhou fell.

End of folding movement

The decline of Tianjin

1863 65438+February 2 1, the outer fortress of Tianjing was completely lost, and there was a shortage of food. Zhongjun Li Xiucheng suggested "Don't let the city go", but Hong Xiuquan refused.

1 June, 8641day, Hong Xiuquan died of weeds that had been hungry for many days, and the young king Tianguifu Hong succeeded him. /kloc-in July of 0/9, Tianjing fell, and then the Qing army slaughtered the city, and many civilians were killed (in contrast, there was no massacre when the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom captured Nanjing). Its tragic situation is indescribable.

After the Xiang army captured Tianjing, the Taiping Army set fire to the city, and after the Xiang army looted, it also set fire everywhere.

Li Xiucheng and Hong Rengan escorted the young king to break through. Li Xiucheng gave the good horse to the young master, and was separated from him in the chaos. On the 22nd of the same month, he was captured in Fangshan, just outside Nanjing, and was executed by Zeng Guofan on August 7th after a confession of tens of thousands of words (Li Xiucheng readme).

654381October 9, Hong Rengan was defeated and captured in Shicheng, Jiangxi (now Guling Formation of Xinhe Village, Mulan Township, Shicheng County, Jiangxi Province), and was killed in Nanchang on October 23.

On October 25th, 65438/kloc-0, the young king Tianguifu Hong was captured in the barren mountain cave in Shicheng, Jiangxi Province, and was executed by Ling Chi in Nanchang on October 28th.

The rest of the battle

Tan Tiyuan's troops, the remnants of Taiping Army south of the Yangtze River, broke through in the direction of Guangdong and were annihilated in Meixian County, Guangdong Province at the beginning of 1866.

The Taiping Rebellion in Jiangbei joined the Nian Army, killed the famous Qing soldier Senggelinqin in 1865, and continued to fight with the Qing army until 1868. 1On June 5th, 868, the Dongnian Army was wiped out in Wayaobao, northeast Yangzhou, and on August 6th of the same year, the Xinian Army was wiped out by the Huai Army of Li Hongzhang in Tuhai River, chiping, Shandong. Yuan Dakui, the last remnant of the Nian Army that left the title of Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, was wiped out by Zuo in Baoan, northern Shaanxi on 1869.

1in April, 872, Li Wencai, the remnant of Shi Dakai, fell in Datang, Guizhou, which was the last verifiable anti-Qing armed force under the banner of Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and theoretically the last Taiping Army. Many scholars believe that the end of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement should be marked by the collapse of Li Wencai Department. [ 1]