Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 infoGuangxi. The birthplace of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the largest peasant uprising in modern Chinese history, has been rampant in half of China in just a few years since Hong Xiuquan and others began with the Jintian Uprising in 1851. Everything seemed so smooth, so smooth that the Manchu Eight Banners, who were known for their bravery and good at fighting and thus entered the Central Plains, fled when they heard the news; Everything seems so natural, so natural that the "doctrine of God", a sutra recited by foreign monks, can be recited by countless Chinese believers with devout and blind obedience. But is this normal? No. Throughout history, every person who can change the dynasty upside down is to examine and improve his own scabies in the midst of cruel failures again and again, and after learning from the pain, he spit out the old and accept the new to create a new world. And vice versa? Often blind because of the victory that is too easy, and because of the victory contains the original decay, the metabolism that is less but effective is naturally not so healthy. When a certain level is reached, blindness, decay will inevitably repeat and become irreversible. Li Zicheng of Dashun is it, and so is the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. The success of the Kingdom of Heaven is because the Eight Banners have degenerated into the ** ghosts who raise birds, not that they are so strong; And the nature of the Kingdom of Heaven is so natural that Hong Xiuquan, who originally created this doctrine to deceive people, finally deceived himself.

Li Zicheng was defeated by the capture of Beijing, and it was blindness and decay that defeated him. Hong Xiu set the capital of Nanjing, and he was still blind and rotten to defeat him. The wise and wise king of heaven has been reduced to a godly pervert, who spends his days with the vanity of God and the beauty of ecstasy; The death of the foundation stone of the kingdom of heaven, such as Yang Xiuqing, the king of the east, Wei Changhui, the king of the north, and Qin Rigang, the king of Yan, and other high-ranking generals, and the departure of Shi Dakai, the king of Ji (before the "Heavenly Incident", the southern king Feng Yunshan died in Quanzhou, Hunan, and the western king Xiao Chaogui died in Changsha, Hunan, so far the five kings of Shouyi died and one left). What's more, the severed hands are still bleeding, and someone urgently needs to come out to help it plug the wound, so that the blood will not dry up so quickly and die so quickly. At this time, a pair of young people from Teng County came out at the right time, not only blocking the blood spray from the wound, but also leading the person with the severed hand through the last seven or eight years of his life. They are the dazzling "twin stars" Li Xiucheng and Chen Yucheng in the late Heavenly Kingdom.

The twin stars are emerging

Although Li Xiuqing and Chen Yucheng have worked closely before, in the end, they are still young generals under Yang Xiuqing and Shi Dakai, and they are favored by bravely winning the enemy by force, and they are still good at fighting. However, in 1856, the siege of Zhenjiang was slightly exempted, and it can be said that it was completely relied on their resourcefulness and internal and external cooperation to win. At that time, the situation in the Tianjing area became increasingly tense, and the Qing general Ji Er'a and the general soldier Zhang Guoliang led troops to besiege Zhenjiang and threaten Tianjing. Li Xiuqing and Chen Yucheng went to the rescue with Qin Rigang, the king of Yan, but met with the Qing army in the middle of the road, Chen Yucheng braved the rain of bullets and bullets of the Qing army, took a small boat, and rushed to Zhenjiang to get in touch with the guard Wu Ruxiao and Li Xiucheng attacked inside and outside, severely damaged the Qing army, and then relieved the siege of Zhenjiang.

Immediately afterwards, under the leadership of Yang Xiuqing and Shi Dakai, he participated in the battle of breaking the Jiangnan camp, and after four days and nights of fierce fighting, he broke through more than 20 places in Xiaoling Weiman and Han camp. Directly killed the commander of the Qing army, Xiang Rong was defeated and fled to Danyang, and hanged himself to death. The destruction of the Jiangnan camp not only relieved the elbow and armpit that had threatened Tianjing for three years, and made the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in its military heyday, but also the status of the political system and the essence of the revolution made the whole world pay attention and re-examine.

The twin stars shine

After the "Tianjing Incident" in 1856, the Kingdom of Heaven suddenly fell into a disorderly vacuum, and Hong Xiuquan, who was suffering from the "general who had no government in the court", had no choice but to appoint himself as a military adviser, prime minister of the country, and vigorously promoted young generals to actively set up a new leadership core. In 1858, the system of commanders of the five armies was restored (mainly the system of commanders of the five armies was implemented in the early stage, with Yang Xiuqing, the commander-in-chief of the Chinese army, Xiao Chaogui, the commander-in-chief of the former army, Feng Yunshan, the commander-in-chief of the rear army, and Wei Changhui, the commander-in-chief of the right army. Li Xiu became the chief general of the rear army, and Chen Yu became the chief general of the former army. So far, although the dark clouds cover the moon in the dark night of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, there are also twin stars shining brightly and eye-catching.

In the defense of Tianjing, one took into account the overall situation and the region, and the other was invincible with a roundabout maneuver. When they defeated the main force of the Qing army, Dexing'a, and won the Bao Department in the southeast of Chuzhou, they attacked Pukou and destroyed the Jiangbei camp, and the Qing army was wiped out more than 10,000 people. Later, he took advantage of the victory and divided his troops to sweep the battlefield in northern Jiangsu, clearing troops from all walks of life, and the wind was scattered. This series of victories not only made Li Chenwei famous, and the Taiping army regained the military spirit that it had lost, but more importantly, it destroyed the Jiangbei camp, relieved the enemy's threat of cutting off Tianjing's supply, and alleviated the Tianjing crisis, so that the passive situation of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom after the Tianjing Incident and Shi Dakai's departure began to be reversed, and the strategic deployment also changed from defense to offense."' The Great Victory of the Three Rivers 'annihilated the enemy's 6,000 troops of Li Xubin. Solve the siege of Liuhe and pull out more than 60 military camps. Twice broke the Jiangnan camp, broke more than 50 Qing army camps, tens of thousands of Qing soldiers were scattered, most of Jiangsu and Zhejiang were liberated, and the Qing army in Jiangnan almost completely collapsed".

Chen Yucheng and Li Xiucheng showed outstanding military talents and outstanding contributions in the battle, which made this Taiping Heavenly Kingdom reappear in a situation that was about to sink and reappear as a state of prosperity. During this period, although they and Hong Xiuquan were not so harmonious, this could not stop their steps forward, erase their achievements, Li Xiucheng was named "Loyal King", Chen Yucheng was named "King of England", both reached the peak of their lives, although they seemed so young (Li Xiucheng is 37 years old, Chen Yucheng is 23 years old).

The twin stars fall apart

After the siege of Tianjing was lifted, Hong Xiuquan organized the second expedition to the west, "to attack Wuhan and rescue Anqing. Chen Yucheng walked the north bank of the Yangtze River to brush Anhui into Hubei and attack the north of Wuchang. Li Xiucheng's troops walked the south bank of the Yangtze River, entered Hubei through Jiangxi, and attacked the southwest of Wuchang. After the plan was determined, Chen Yucheng led the Northern Route Army to cross the river from Tianjing to the north, and arrived at the Guidong River southwest of Tongcheng in November, preparing to relieve the siege of Anqing by the way, but it was not very smooth, and he listened to the rumors of the British counselor Pashali and the obstruction of the British army, and stopped in Huangzhou, which was only 160 miles away from Wuhan, and led the main force back to aid the siege of Anqing after no result.

But at this time, Li Xiucheng had his own small abacus and did not want to participate in the western expedition, and advocated holding the new territory in the southeast. After learning that Chen Yucheng's troops had lost the battle at Jixian Pass and other places, he withdrew his troops and withdrew from Hubei. Due to Li Xiucheng's negative attitude towards the Western Expedition, the meeting was defeated, and the plan to meet in Wuhan fell through. After Chen Yucheng broke the siege of Anqing and launched an unprecedented fierce battle with more than 10,000 main forces in the north and south of the Hunan army in the history of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, due to the lack of Li Xiucheng's cooperation, the troops lacked unified and effective command (at that time, there were also some troops such as Hong Renji and others who came to reinforce), on September 5, the Hunan army blew down the city wall of the north gate of Anqing, broke into the city, and more than 16,000 Taiping soldiers died heroically. After the fall of Anqing, Chen Yucheng retreated to Luzhou, and was captured by the tricks of the credulous traitors, and on June 4, 1862, the twenty-five-year-old Chen Yucheng was loyal and unyielding to the righteousness in Yanjin, Henan.

In September 1861, Li Xiucheng returned to Jiangxi and entered Zhejiang. After conquering Hangzhou in December, he was obsessed with the establishment and operation of the Suzhou and Hangzhou regions, and the concept of sequestering and preserving strength gradually penetrated into his heart, and gave up the strategic deployment in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River. During this period, although there were many small local victories, this was also a blind small victory, and there was a lack of a clear long-term plan. On the one hand, he wanted to consolidate the Suzhou and Hangzhou regions, seize the land of money and grain, and led the army to Shanghai directly, and made the strategic mistake of prematurely having direct contradictions with the foreigners. On the one hand, it was difficult to disobey Hong Xiuquan's orders, and he had to return to the army again and again to relieve the siege of Tianjing. In such a north-south rush, Li Xiucheng lost tens of thousands of soldiers of the Taiping Army, lost his soldiers and lost his generals, and his spirit was greatly injured. In desperation, he proposed to Hong Xiuquan: "The capital cannot be defended, the Qing army is very strict, the Hao is deeply fortified, there is little grain and grass inside, and the outside cannot be saved, so let the city not leave". After being rejected by Hong Xiuquan, who had already gone mad, he had to do it knowing that he couldn't do it, and he was determined to die and die to die and die to defend the country, until the last day when he was martyred at the age of forty-one.

< > pointed out: "When Li Xiucheng was in his infancy, he always relied on Chen Yucheng's corps or cooperated with each other, and once he grasped the military power, the phenomenon of Li Xiucheng sitting on the throne became more and more serious." Indeed, Li Xiucheng was worthy of Chen Yucheng, and when Chen Yucheng fought a bloody battle in Anqing, he refused to rescue him when he had a heavy army, which directly caused the loss of the important town of Anqing and finally caused Chen Yucheng's defeat and death. Although this is said to be related to the chaotic feudal system at the end of the Heavenly Kingdom, it is not accidental that he still lacks the overall concept of the overall concept in his bones, and is satisfied with the inherent territory and does not pay enough attention to Anqing, and puts himself above the overall situation and finally collapses alone.

There are so many things in common with the young "Gemini", even the very prominent advantages and disadvantages are so similar. All were born in poor families in Teng County, Guangxi, with low education and little literacy; In the long-term hard struggle, he has been trained to be brave and resourceful. It is also due to the lack of steady old age, low culture and narrow view of the overall situation. As the proverb goes, "A tiger leading a flock of sheep can defeat a flock of tigers led by a sheep." In history, there is no shortage of tiger generals who came from humble backgrounds and won with wild roads, but the ultimate success and fame were all achieved under the leadership of tigers with more political wisdom. It's a pity that Li Xiucheng and Chen Yucheng, the leaders of the tigers, are a sheep. Although this does not prevent them from using their wisdom to seek every partial glory, it is also doomed to their demise long ago.