How to describe Zeng Guofan and Hong Xiuquan’s mortal enemies? Hong Xiuquan established the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in Tianjing and occupied half of the southeastern half of the country. Zeng Guofan's Hunan Army continued to pursue the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. After the Tianjing Incident, the situation in the Heavenly Kingdom deteriorated. Hong Xiuquan eventually committed suicide by taking poison under internal and external pressure. After the Hunan Army obtained Hong Xiuquan's body, , before Empress Dowager Cixi issued the decree, Zeng Guofan immediately executed Hong Xiuquan and let Hong Xiuquan's body disappear into ashes. How much hatred must be required to do such a thing?
Since the Jintian Rebellion was launched in Jintian Village, Guangxi in 1851 The uprising began, and in 1864 he committed suicide in the Tianjing Palace under the roaring bombardment of the Hunan Army. In just thirteen years, how did the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, led by Hong Xiuquan, go from fighting against the Qing Dynasty and dividing the river to rule, to finally dying and destroying the country, and the whole building collapsed? At the beginning of the establishment of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the stars were shining brightly, and there were things like Yang Xiuqing, Feng Yunshan, Shi Dakai, and Lin Fengxiang are famous generals who are good at fighting and possess both wisdom and courage. In the middle and later stages, young generals such as Chen Yucheng, Li Xiucheng, and Yang Fuqing were able to take the lead. But why did the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom finally fail in just thirteen years? It prospered but then declined, and quickly headed for destruction?
There were two people who played a key role in the final victory of the Qing army and the final destruction of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. They were Zeng Guofan and Hong Xiuquan. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom fell, and Hong Xiuquan, the supreme leader, was primarily responsible. Hong Xiuquan was fascinated by women. According to "Jiangnan Chunmeng Notes", there were about thousands of women in Tianjing's palace, and there was only one male thief, Hong Ni. The lewdness and evil among them can be seen. Since ancient times, the word "sexuality" has been used as a sword. The king of heaven, Hong Xiuquan, and his brothers who were born and died, fought all the way from Guangxi to Tianjing. The demon was not exterminated, but he plunged into the harem and indulged in sex with beauties day and night. With the age of 52, he When he died at the age of 18, his body was actually worn down by sexual immorality. Before the "Tianjing Incident" broke out, Hong Xiuquan used a villain's heart to judge a gentleman. He took extreme measures against the arrogance and rudeness of the Eastern King Yang Xiuqing, and tacitly allowed the Northern King Wei Changhui to massacre everyone in the Eastern Palace, and then solved the problem by cooking the rabbit to death and the dog. He killed Wei Changhui and let his two incompetent brothers preside over the government, forcing King Yi Shi Dakai to angrily lead 100,000 soldiers of the Kingdom of Heaven to flee. Hong Xiuquan's actions of self-destroying the Great Wall again and again ultimately ruined the great future of the Tianping Heavenly Kingdom.
The people who finally destroyed the once indestructible mountain of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom were Zeng Guofan and his Hunan Army. The intersection between Zeng Guofan and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom began in 1853. In January of that year, the Taiping Army left Guangxi and marched north to enter the two lakes. Zeng Guofan was ordered by Emperor Xianfeng to organize regiment training in Hunan. Hunan was Zeng Guofan's hometown. Therefore, the Hunan that Zeng Guofan trained Soldiers, fighting bravely and very united. When the Qing army led by Seng Gelinqin and others always lost more than they won in the battle against the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Zeng Guofan and his Hunan army became the only Qing army that could compete head-on with the Taiping Army. In 1854, the Hunan Army suffered a major defeat during the encirclement of the Taiping Army. Zeng Guofan tried to commit suicide by jumping off a ship twice but was stopped. This defeat almost made Zeng Guofan fall into the spotlight. However, he quickly proved himself. He regrouped and defeated the Taiping Army several times by dividing and disintegrating, shaking people's hearts, and encircling the army. Not only did it defend Hunan, it also controlled the four provinces of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui and Jiangxi, and used the Jiangnan and Jiangbei camps to achieve a tight siege of Tianjing.
As a Han bureaucrat, Zeng Guofan brought out a well-disciplined, well-trained, and powerful local armed force with his bookish temperament, and finally used his strength to destroy the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, which put the regular army of the Qing Dynasty to shame. After years of bloody fighting by Zeng Guofan and his Hunan Army, the territory of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom became smaller and smaller, while the Hunan Army took back more and more land. In the end, there was almost no ship in the three thousand miles of the Yangtze River that did not fly our flag. But these did not make Zeng Guofan feel relaxed. On the contrary, he often suffered from heart palpitations and insomnia: "The power is too heavy, the position is too high, the false hopes are too high, and the panic is so great." As a Han bureaucrat who could become a frontier official, he had to be careful in everything he did. After all, he had to face an inherently suspicious Empress Dowager Cixi.
In 1864, Zeng Guofan's Hunan army captured Tianjing. Hong Xiuquan, the king of heaven who had been bedridden for a long time, committed suicide by taking poison in despair. After his death, Zeng Guofan did not stop, but "burned it with fire". He gave a more detailed description of the disposal of Hong Xiuquan's body in the memorial he wrote to the Empress Dowager Cixi afterwards:
The Pseudo King Hong Xiuquan The soldiers were indignant, but they were willing to get it. It was not until June 27 that they began to dig it out from the puppet palace. On the 28th, he was carried to the camp. I checked with my brother Guoquan and found out that among the committee members were Le Fangqi and Pang Jiyun, who had served in the Autumn Trial Department of the Ministry of Punishment, and other civil and military officials. The corpse followed a cult and did not use a coffin. The whole body was wrapped in yellow satin embroidered with dragons. Even though the feet were bound, they were also tied with dragon satin. The head was bald and hairless, and all the beard was still intact. It was already white. There was still no flesh on the left thigh and right arm. After taking off the body, after examination, he stabbed the corpse and burned it with fierce fire.
After Hong Xiuquan died, he was buried in a religious ceremony in Tianwang Mansion. The Qing army entered the Tianwang Mansion and dug Hong Xiuquan out of the tomb. It can be seen from the memorial written by Zeng Guofan to the Empress Dowager Cixi that the Qing army soldiers Although he was so angry that he wanted to be reconciled to him, Zeng Guofan's treatment of the dead Hong Xiuquan was relatively restrained. He stabbed the corpse and burned it with fire. There was nothing inappropriate in this treatment. After all, everyone dies. No matter what tricks you come up with, it will be of no use. Therefore, the Empress Dowager Cixi was quite satisfied with the results after receiving the memorial.
However, although the young king Hong Tianguifu escaped from Tianjing, he was quickly captured by the Qing army. The Qing Dynasty wanted to eradicate the problem. Although the young king was willing to submit and surrender, he was still executed by the Qing court with a severe punishment of Lingchi.