Some knowledge about the defense war in the later period of the Taiping Rebellion.

Anqing Defense

Anonymous

During the Taiping Peasant War, the Taiping Army fought against the Hunan Army’s siege of Anqing (now part of Anhui) from 1860 to 1861. A strategic battle.

In the summer of 1860 (the 10th year of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the 10th year of Gengshen and the 10th year of Xianfeng in the Qing Dynasty), when the Taiping Army broke through the Jiangnan camp and marched eastward against Su and Changchun, Zeng Guofan, the Imperial Envoy of the Governor-General of Liangjiang and Hu Linyi, the Governor of Hubei, took the opportunity to command Hunan. The army's 50,000-strong navy and land divisions invaded eastward from Hubei on a large scale. After the siege of Taihu and Qianshan in Anhui Province, with the goal of capturing Anqing, Taoist officer Zeng Guoquan was ordered to lead 8,000 land divisions and admiral Yang Yuebin's 4,000 naval divisions to take charge of the siege; he ordered deputy commander Duolong'a and inspector Li Xuyi to lead the siege. With 20,000 troops on horseback, they were stationed at Kuchehe and Qingcaoyuan in the southwest of Tongcheng to undertake reinforcement tasks. On June 20, Yang Yuebin's navy captured Songyang Town (today's Songyang), an important area on Anqing East Road, and surrounded Anqing. Zeng Guoquan dug two long trenches outside the city, the front trench surrounded the city, and the back trench refused reinforcements. Zeng Guofan and Hu Linyi took command in Qimen in southern Anhui and Taihu in northern Anhui respectively.

Since it was occupied by the Taiping Army in 1853, Anqing has been a western barrier and an important food source for Tianjing (now Nanjing). At this time, more than 10,000 people led by Shou Tian'an Ye Yunlai, Xie Tianfu and Zhang Chaojue were stationed waiting for help. When the Taiping Army marched eastward against Su Chang, they decided to send two troops to "jointly capture Hubei", forcing the Hunan Army to withdraw westward in order to break the siege of Anqing.

In September 1860, Hong Xiuquan mobilized troops from the battlefields of Jiangsu and Zhejiang and marched westward from north to south in five directions: King Chen Yucheng of England led his troops from the north bank of the Yangtze River to the west, passing through northern Anhui and entering eastern Hubei; Zhongwang Li Xiucheng led his army westward from the south bank of the Yangtze River, passing through southern Anhui and Jiangxi and entering southeastern Hubei; Auxiliary King Yang Fuqing and Dingnan General Huang Wenjin led their troops along the south bank of the Yangtze River towards northern Jiangxi; Prince Li Shixian led his army through Huizhou (today's She County) into eastern Jiangxi; Liu Guanfang, the leader of the right army, led his army to attack Zeng Guofan's camp in Qimen. Among the above five groups, Chen Yucheng and Li Xiucheng are the main forces, attacking from the north and the south, and are scheduled to join forces in Wuhan in April of the following year. The remaining three routes contained the Hunan Army in southern Anhui and Jiangxi, and waited for opportunities to annihilate the enemy. As the Chen and Li armies' plan to "jointly capture Hubei" was abandoned halfway, the "five-way rescue Anhui" plan came to nothing.

In the spring of 1861, the Tianjing authorities decided to mobilize large armies from the north and south of the Yangtze River again to directly attack the enemies besieging Anqing. In late April, Chen Yucheng led his main force of more than 10,000 people back from Huangzhou in eastern Hubei to Jixian Pass in Anqing, approaching the besieging Hunan army. On May 1st, more than 20,000 troops of Qian Wang Hong Rengan, Zhang Wang Lin Shaozhang, and former military commander Wu Ruxiao, who came from Tianjing to help, arrived in the area from Xin'andu, Hengshanpu to Liantan near Tongcheng, and camped for more than 30 miles. Arriving in Anqing, he met up with Chen Yucheng and tried to break the siege of the city. On the 2nd, they were blocked by Duolong Abe, and Hong Rengan and others were defeated and retreated to Tongcheng. Huang Wenjin, the commander-in-chief of Dingnan, led another 7,000 to 8,000 troops from Wuhu to come to the rescue. Together with Lin Shaozhang's army, he gathered more than 20,000 Nian troops. On the 6th, he attacked the enemy forces at Xin'andu and Kuoche River again. He was defeated by Duolong Abe and retreated to Tian. Linzhuang, retreated to Kongcheng Town. At that time, Chen Yucheng learned that Qing commander-in-chief Bao Chao and Cheng Daji would rush to Jixian Pass with more than 10,000 troops, so he left Jingdong General Liu Xuanlin and other thousands of elite troops to guard Chiganling and other four bases, and brought five to six thousand of his own. Withdrew to Tongcheng on the 19th. On May 23, Chen Yucheng joined Hong Rengan, Lin Shaozhang, Huang Wenjin and other troops with 30,000 troops in Tongcheng, and attacked the enemy in the trailer river separately to aid Anqing. However, he was defeated by the Hunan Army and the aid was blocked. . Because the Taiping Army's Chiganling bases were also isolated and helpless, they were successively captured by Bao Chao and Cheng Daji's troops. Liu Xuanlin and thousands of his elite soldiers all died.

The Anqing Taiping Army had been besieged for nearly a year and was running out of food and ammunition. The Tianjing authorities decided to transfer the troops of King Yang Fuqing from southern Anhui to rescue them. Yang Fu's Qing unified army set out from Ningguo (today's Xuanzhou) in late July, crossed the Yangtze River from Wuwei to Tongcheng, and joined Chen Yucheng's army to march westward, detouring through Lu'an, Huoshan, Yingshan (today's Hubei), Susong (today's Hubei) Anhui) to Taihu Lake. On August 7, the Taiping Army marched eastward from Taihu Lake, passing through Xiaochiyi, Sanqiaotou (today's Huaining North) and other places, and went straight to the rear of the Hunan Army's encirclement division. At the same time, Lin Shaozhang and Wu Ruxiao's six to seven thousand troops marched from the west. Attack the Kwache River; Huang Wenjin's five or six thousand men went south from Lutingyi to support Chen Yucheng and Yang Fu's Qing army. From August 21st to 24th, Chen Yucheng and Yang Fu's Qing army of 40,000 to 50,000 people entered Jixian Pass and set up more than 40 camps in the pass, Maoling, and Shilipu areas. The city's defenders also formed formations near the west gate to respond. From the 25th to the 28th, more than 10 Taiping troops stormed the enemy's rear trenches. They fought bravely and attacked more than 10 times in turns. They once broke through the first trench of the enemy camp, but were eventually repelled by the Hunan Army, with the loss of more than 3,000 people. From September 28th to September 2nd, the Taiping Army organized another night attack, but failed. At that time, the city was running out of food and ammunition, and the Hunan army took the opportunity to attack fiercely. In the early morning of the 5th, the Hunan Army destroyed the northern city of Anqing, and armies of land and water swarmed in across the trenches. When Anqing fell, Ye Yunlai, Wu Dingcai and more than ten thousand defenders chose to die rather than surrender. They died in battle or threw themselves into the river and died heroically.

When the Taiping Army rescued Anqing, they directly attacked the enemies besieging Anqing without clearing the perimeter first, which was exactly the plan of the Hunan Army to besiege the city and rescue it. After the fall of Anqing, the barrier on the western front of Tianjing was lost, and the war situation worsened. The Hunan army took advantage of the victory and marched eastward, approaching Tianjing.

The 100 wars that affected China - the Battle of Tianjing

Zhang Xiuping, Mao Yuanyou, Huang Pumin

The Battle of Tianjing was the Taiping Army’s effort to defend the capital Tianjing. Beijing, defensive operations conducted from 1862 to 1864.

After the fall of Anqing, Chen Yucheng was dismissed from his post and stayed in Luzhou. In May 1862, he abandoned Luzhou and went north to Shouzhou. He was trapped by Miao Peilin, the leader of the landlord regiment, and sent to the Shengbao Camp of the Qing Army. , was killed in Yanjin, Henan Province on June 4. He was only 26 years old. Chen Yucheng's sacrifice and the fall of Luzhou caused the Taiping Army's defense in northern Anhui to collapse. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom could only rely on Li Xiucheng and other newly opened Jiangsu and Zhejiang bases to support the crisis.

After the Hunan Army captured Anqing, Zeng Guofan immediately set up a camp here. On the first day of the first lunar month of the first year of Tongzhi (January 30, 1862), the Qing government appointed Zeng Guofan as the co-organizer of the bachelor's degree, still in charge of the military affairs of the four provinces of Jiangxi, Jiangxi, Anhui and Zhejiang. Zeng Guofan immediately planned a comprehensive military operation with the main goal of the eastern expedition to Jinling. The specific deployment is: Zeng Guoquan's troops go straight from Anqing to Jinling along the north bank of the Yangtze River; Zeng Zhen's cadres attack Wuhu from Chizhou; Peng Yulin and others lead the Hunan Army's navy down the river to cooperate with the operations of the land divisions on both sides of the strait and assume the responsibility of transportation and relief; Bao Chao's troops Entered Anhui from Jiangxi and attacked Ningguofu; Zuo Zongtang's troops attacked Zhejiang, and Li Hongzhang's Huai army attacked the Taiping Army around Shanghai, and then moved westward.

In March 1862, Zeng Guoquan's troops left Anqing and headed east, kicking off the attack on Tianjing. The Taiping troops in various places were retreating steadily under the enemy's all-out attack. In May, the Hunan Army captured Dangtu, Wuhu, Banqiao, Moling Pass, Dasheng Pass, and Sanchahe. On May 30, Peng Yulin led the navy to enter the mouth of the Jinling moat. Zeng Guoquan's troops were approaching Yuhuatai, and Zeng Zhenqian also arrived with his army. Tianjing was under direct threat from the Hunan army.

The Hunan army quickly arrived at Tianjing City, much to Hong Xiuquan's surprise. Hong Xiuquan issued three edicts a day urging Li Xiucheng to return reinforcements from the Shanghai front. Li Xiucheng had to stop attacking Shanghai, retreat to Suzhou, and send some troops back to Tianjing to strengthen defense, while he remained in Suzhou.

In July 1862, the situation outside Tianjing became even more serious. On July 11, the southwest barrier Ningguofu was breached by the enemy. Yang Fuqing and Hong Renyi returned from southern Anhui to aid Tianjing and attacked the Hunan Army at night, but were also repelled by the Hunan Army. On August 6, Hong Xiuquan issued a strict order to force Li Xiucheng to return aid as soon as possible. On September 14, Li Xiucheng set out from Suzhou, commanded 13 kings and more than 100,000 troops, met in Dongba, and returned to Tianjing to aid.

On October 13, the offensive and defensive battle outside Tianjing began. Li Xiucheng led his army and cooperated with the defenders in Tianjing City to launch a fierce attack on the Hunan Army. The Hunan army held fast. On November 3, the Taiping Army concentrated its forces to attack the Hunan Army's East Road and destroyed two parts of the Hunan Army's camp wall near Zeng Guoquan's Yuhuatai Camp. The Hunan Army resisted desperately, and the Taiping Army rushed back and forth five or six times, but was finally unable to enter. The Taiping Army also used tunnels to attack the enemy. The enemy dug in and out. Every time a tunnel was dug, they would smoke it with poisonous smoke, fill it with filthy water, or block the entrance of the hole with wooden stakes, causing the Taiping Army's tunnels to fail one after another.

On November 26, Li Xiucheng and Li Shixian besieged Zeng Guoquan's camp in Yuhuatai for more than a month, so they had to order the withdrawal of the siege. Li Shixian led his troops to retreat from Moling Pass, and Li Xiucheng led his troops to Tianjing. At this point, the 13 kings' battle to return to Tianjing completely failed.

After the failure of the Tianjing siege rescue mission, Li Xiucheng was "severely punished and dismissed". Soon, Hong Xiuquan ordered him to lead his troops across the river and attack Hubei from the west, in an attempt to mobilize Tianjing to surround the enemy. In December 1862, the first batch of tens of thousands of Taiping troops crossed the river from Tianjing to Xiaguan and occupied Hanshan, Chaoxian and Hezhou. At the end of February 1863, Li Xiucheng led the second batch of troops to cross the river and occupied Pukou in March and Jiangpu in April. After entering northern Anhui, they were constantly resisted by the Hunan Army and failed repeatedly. After entering Liu'an, it was a time of drought, food shortage, and the enemy's tight defense. Li Xiucheng gave up his original march plan, withdrew from the siege of Liu'an on May 19, turned back to Shouzhou, and then returned eastward. By this time, the number of Hunan troops besieging Tianjing had increased to more than 30,000, and on June 13 they occupied the stone fortresses outside Jubaomen. Hong Xiuquan urgently ordered Li Xiucheng to return to Tianjing as soon as possible. On June 20, Li Xiucheng led his troops from Jiusuzhou to the south and arrived in Beijing.

During the process of crossing south, many people were killed by Hunan Army artillery fire and died of hunger. Less than 15,000 Taiping troops crossed to the south bank and entered Tianjing City. On June 25, the Hunan Army captured Jiangpu and Pukou, and on the 30th, it fell into Jiusuzhou. The Taiping Army lost another 20,000 people. At this point, the north bank of the Yangtze River was completely occupied by the Qing army. The strength of the Taiping Army was further weakened, and the hope of Tianjing's relief became even slimmer.

At the same time, the Jiangsu and Zhejiang battlefields also tended to collapse under the attacks of the Huai Army, the Foreign Gun Corps, and the Hunan Army under Zuo Zongtang.

After the Hunan Army broke through Jiusuzhou at the end of June 1863 and took control of the north bank of the Yangtze River, Bao Chao's troops crossed south and camped along the river outside Shence Gate (today's Central Gate). In September, Zeng Guoquan's troops captured Shangfang Bridge in the southeast of Tianjing City and Jiangdong Bridge in the southwest of the city. In early November, they successively captured Shangfang Gate, Gaoqiao Gate, Shuangqiao Gate, Qiqiao Urn, Molingguan Pass, and Zhonghe Bridge in the southeast of the city. , the Taiping Army lost all its key points southwest of Purple Mountain.

On November 25, Zeng Guoquan entered Xiaoling Guards in the east of Zhacheng. At this time, the Hunan Army had captured all key towns outside Tianjing. Only Taipingmen and Shencemen in Tianjing City were still connected to the outside world. Foreign aid is cut off. Li Xiucheng suggested to Hong Xiuquan on December 21 that since the Hunan army was deeply entrenched and the siege was tight, and there was no food and grass in Tianjing, and it was difficult for foreign aid to arrive, it was better to leave the city alone, but Hong Xiuquan refused. In this way, the last glimmer of hope for the Taiping Revolution was lost.

On February 28, 1864, the Hunan army captured Tianbao City on the top of Zijin Mountain. On March 2, Zeng Guoquan's troops stationed outside Taipingmen and Shencemen, completing the encirclement of Tianjing.

After Zeng Guoquan’s troops surrounded Jinling, they used ladders to attack the city on March 14, but failed.

Beginning in April, more than ten tunnels were dug outside the Chaoyang, Shence, and Jinchuan gates in preparation for demolishing the city walls. The Taiping Army organized forces to dig out and destroy the city walls while building a moon city so that they could continue to organize resistance after the city walls collapsed. .

On June 1, 1864, King Hong Xiuquan died of illness (some say he committed suicide) at the age of 51. Since then, people in Tianjing have become increasingly unstable. The young king Hong Tianguifu came to the throne, and all military and political affairs were under the control of the loyal king Li Xiucheng.

On July 3, the Hunan Army captured the last stronghold outside Tianjing City, Dibaocheng (i.e. Longneck), so that they could condescendingly monitor the movements in the city. The Hunan Army built dozens of forts at the foot of Longneck Mountain, bombarded the city day and night, suppressed the Taiping Army's artillery fire, and covered the excavation of tunnels. At the same time, a large amount of reeds and wormwood were filled between the foothills of Longneck Mountain and the city wall, covered with sand, and the height was as high as the city, paving the way for the attack. Half a month later, the Hunan Army's preparations for siege were basically completed.

Li Xiucheng saw that the Hunan Army was about to attack the city. Late at night on July 18, he sent more than a thousand people to pretend to be the Hunan Army and rushed out of the city in an attempt to destroy the tunnel near Taipingmen. However, the Hunan Army saw through it and had to Return to the city.

On the morning of July 19, the Hunan Army’s main offensive troops gathered outside Taipingmen.

At noon, the Hunan army used landmines to destroy the city wall. The Hunan army swarmed in. The Taiping Army responded with guns and artillery. Although they caused heavy damage to the enemy, they were unable to stop the Hunan Army's offensive. At the same time, the naval battalions of the Hunan Army, together with the land division, captured the Shuixi and Hanxi gates. Around dusk, all gates in Tianjing were captured by the Hunan Army.

After Li Xiucheng was defeated at Taipingmen on the morning of the 19th, he returned to the Tianwang Mansion. He took the young Tianwang alone, escorted by thousands of civil and military personnel, and rushed to the Hanxi Gate in an attempt to break out of the city. The result was that the Hunan Army Chen Shi was blocked by his troops and had no choice but to turn up Qingliang Mountain. At night, they turned back to Taipingmen, pretended to be the Xiang Army and rushed out of the gap in the mountain, and broke out in the direction of Xiaolingwei. Soon, Li Xiucheng and the young king were separated and ran away. On July 22, Li Xiucheng was captured near Fangshan. On August 7, after writing his confession, he was killed by Zeng Guofan at the age of 40. The defenders in the city started fighting in the streets with the Hunan troops entering the city. Most of them died in the battle, and some set themselves on fire. No one of more than 100,000 people surrendered.

The fall of Tianjing marked the failure of the Taiping Revolution. The battle to defend Tianjing lasted for three years, with hundreds of thousands of troops mobilized, but ultimately failed due to many reasons. Strategically speaking, the fall of Tianjing was the inevitable result of the passive defense strategy pursued by the leaders of the Taiping Rebellion. When Tianjing was besieged, although Hong Xiuquan proposed a plan to attack Hubei westward, Li Xiucheng failed to implement it well and failed to achieve the expected goal. In the end, he still trapped the isolated city. When the Hunan army completed the siege, Hong Xiuquan still refused to let the city leave, resulting in Missed the final meeting to withdraw from Tianjing in order to rise again. From the perspective of combat command, the former enemy generals did not coordinate enough and did not form centralized and unified leadership. They still went their own way. All of these are closely related to the increasingly conservative and corrupt politics of Taitian Kingdom in the later period, and the final failure is inevitable.