In January 1858, when the Qing army took advantage of the internal strife in Taiping Heaven to restore the camps in Jiangbei and Jiangnan and besiege Tianjing again, Shi Dakai had already advanced on the road of "self-reliance as king", so even if the king Hong Xiuquan issued an order to Shi Dakai asking him to return to the division to rescue Tianjing, Shi Dakai could not carry it out again. In April, Hong Renji arrived in Tianjing and was named the king of the gods.

In 1858, the main force of the Twist Army returned to Huaibei, resisting the attack of the Qing army with the Battle of Polder, and attacking Henan, Shandong, and the Soviet Union with a rapid mobile combat method on the other hand, annihilating a large number of Qing troops, and cooperating with the Taiping Army to carry out many important operations.

On April 12, the Shizhen Ji Department of the Taiping Army was led by Xian Tianyan and Cheng Mou, the secretary of military administration, to occupy Yongkang, and the only recalcitrant ones were Vice Master Xie (Xie Lansheng), Xu Yiren and a few others. After the occupation, the 10 townships were divided into 5 army commanders, 25 division commanders and 125 brigade commanders. Huangxitan led the people to defect to the Taiping Army at the request of Fajie, and the number of troops grew to more than 2,000 people. On the morning of the seventh day of June, the militia group suppressed Huangxitan, and more than 100 people were killed. Then tens of thousands of people gathered in Youxian, Yihe, and Taiping townships to surround the county. The Taiping army made a tactical retreat, and withdrew slightly before the militia group encircled, and the eighth swim in early June was occupied by Zhou Tianpei, the general soldier of the Qing Dynasty.

In late May, Zhang Lexing led his troops northward, passing through Zhengyang Pass and Xiashikou, occupying the two cities of Huaiyuan, Linhuai and Fengyangfu County, controlling the traffic between the north and south of the Huaihe River, and cutting off the salt transportation from the north and south of the Qinghuai River. In November, he went south with the Luzhou Taiping Army, cooperated with the Battle of Sanhe commanded by Chen Yucheng and Li Xiucheng, and defeated the Hunan army. In the summer of the following year, Gong Deshu was sent to lead his troops across the Huai River and unite with Wu Ruxiao, the defender of Luzhou of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, to conquer Huaiyuan, and since then the two armies have occupied the area as one. In November, the south retreated to Dingyuan.

In 1858, in June of the eighth year of Xianfeng, Sun Kuixin went north to attack Huaiyuan and Dingyuan, swept away the Jianghuai Qing soldiers, and made many military achievements. Later, he was surrounded by the Qing army and Miao Peilin, and after breaking through the siege, he had a disagreement with Zhang Lexing, returned to Huaibei to form an army of his own, and fought jointly with Liu Yuyuan, the lord of the black flag. In September, Sun Kuixin, Liu Yuyuan, Liu Tianfu and others led their troops into Shandong, breaking Cao County and Wucheng.

In August 1858, Hou Shiwei, the leader of the Twist Army, had a conflict with his cousin Hou Shizhong for a loan and the loss of a donkey. Zhang Minxing (Zhang Lexing's brother) subordinate Zhang Zhengjiang is the owner of the Yellow Banner and has a close relationship with Zhang Minxing's father and son and Hou Shiwei. One day, Zhang Minxing's son Zhang Jin coerced Zhang Zhengjiang to serve Zhang Laoer, and in the name of Zhang Zhengjiang, invited Hou Shiwei to Zhang Zhai, where Zhang Zhengjiang's ministry was stationed. Hou Shiwei was convinced and led several entourages to Zhangzhai. The entourage was immediately lured and confined by Zhang Jin's department. Hou Shiwei saw that something was wrong, fled to the second aisle, and was stabbed to death by Hou Bubiao, Hou Shizhong's son. Soon, Hou Shiwei's son Hou Shan was also killed in Guadi. The vendetta of the Zhang and Hou families caused serious discord within the Red Banner, so it was split into two parts, with Hou Shiwei's soldiers in favor of the Zhengjiang Department in the Yellow Banner Banner, and the other part led by Hou Bubiao and merged into Zhang Minxing's department. The Hou Shiwei incident greatly weakened the combat effectiveness of Zhang Lexing's pro-army in his headquarters, so that he could not resist the enemy alone and was defeated by the Qing army.

In September 1858, Gong Deshu, the leader of the Twist Army, went south with Wu Ruxiao of the Luzhou Taiping Army to seize Lotang Town and besiege Dingyuan. Chen Yucheng and Li Xiucheng led the army to capture Pukou and Yangzhou, and broke the Qing army's Jiangbei camp. The Qing army took the Taiping army to the east, attacked Anhui, according to Taihu Lake, and attacked Anqing, and Li Xubin led the Hunan army to capture Qianshan, Tongcheng, Shucheng, attack Sanhe Town, and enter Luzhou (Hefei). Chen Yucheng led his troops to the rescue, and Li Xiucheng continued to reinforce the army. On November 14, Chen Yucheng's troops conquered the Sanhe Qing camp, and the next day the two armies fought a decisive battle. The Taiping army annihilated 6,000 Qing troops and killed Li Xubin (one said to hang himself) and Zeng Guohua. Qing troops withdrew from the periphery of Anqing.

In December, Su Tianfu led his troops to fight in southwest Lu, and soon went south.

Beginning in 1858, the Taiping Army won victories in a series of battles, such as the Battle of Pukou, the Great Victory of Sanhe, the two breaking of the Jiangnan camp, and the advance into Jiangsu and Zhejiang, reversing the military crisis. Politically, a "New Chapter of Information Administration" has been promulgated, and a series of reforms have also been carried out in various fields such as economy, diplomacy, and culture, thus changing the passive situation. Heavenly King Hong Xiuquan set up the chief general of the five armies, and Li Xiucheng was named the chief general of the rear army.

In March 1859, Sun Kuixin, Liu Tianfu and others fought in Yuncheng and Wuyang in southern Henan, defeated the Qing army in Wudu in the north, and killed Qiu Lianen, the general of Nanyang Town, and Furui, the general of Shanxi. On July 17, Gong Deshu conquered Dingyuan.

In 1859, Hong Xiuquan named Li Xiu as the loyal king. In the spring, Shi Da drove into Hunan and launched the "Battle of Baoqing", hoping to take advantage of the upstream trend, and then go down to Hubei, cooperate with the Anhui Taiping Army to fight, and wait for the opportunity to divide troops into Sichuan. At that time, the Hunan army was planning to divide its troops into three ways to attack Anqing, and when Wen Shida drove straight into the hinterland of Hunan, the army's heart was shaken on all fronts, so he had to take advantage of the situation and go all out to aid Hunan. In the face of the heavy reinforcement of the Hunan army, Shi Dakai fought alone, failed to conquer Baoqing, and was forced to retreat to Guangxi to recuperate.