Why did the Taiping Rebellion’s Northern Expedition go through Shanxi instead of heading directly northeast from Shandong?

The Northern Expedition led by Lin Fengxiang and Li Kaifang did not want to go to Shandong, but they were besieged by the Qing army along the way. They had no choice but to detour to Shanxi, and after a long detour, they finally headed towards the capital. On May 8, 1853, Yang Xiuqing, the Eastern King who had just occupied Nanjing, appointed Lin Fengxiang and Li Kaifang, who were guarding Yangzhou, to lead the Ninth Army with more than 50,000 troops in the Northern Expedition, with the goal of capturing the capital and overthrowing the Qing Dynasty. The Northern Expeditionary Army set out from Yangzhou, went up the Yangtze River from the waterway, met up with Zhu Xikun's troops at Pukou (now Nanjing), and moved towards Anhui.

Except for the setback in Liuhe County, the Northern Expeditionary Army continued with great momentum. It captured Chuzhou on May 16, passed through Fengyang, Mengcheng, and Bozhou, and arrived at Guide (now Shangqiu City), an important town in Henan, on June 12. , defeated the Qing army led by Lu Yinggu, governor of Henan, at Songjiaji. Liujiakou, forty miles away from Guide, is an important ferry on the Yellow River. Merchant ships from Henan and Shandong gather here. The north bank of the Yellow River is Caoxian County, Shandong. The Taiping Army was planning to cross the river from Liujiakou, but Yao Jingchong, the magistrate of Caoxian County, had the foresight to collect all the ferry boats and burn them on fire. The Northern Expeditionary Army could only watch the river on the south bank and sigh.

With no choice, the Northern Expeditionary Army chose to march westward along the river, passing through Kaifeng, Zhuxian Town, Zhongmou, Zhengzhou, Xingyang, Sishui, and Gongxian. It took more than 20 days and finally arrived in Sishui on June 27. They found civilian boats to cross the river at the domino port between , Gong County, and Qing generals Tuoming'a and Xiling'a took the opportunity to launch a surprise attack. The Northern Expedition suffered heavy losses and lost all their baggage. After 7 days, the large army finally successfully crossed the river, leaving only a small number of soldiers who did not cross the river. He chose to turn around and go south, but was wiped out by the Qing troops in Anhui along the way. After crossing the river, there were only more than 20,000 Northern Expeditionary troops left, but they remained entrenched under the city wall of Huaiqing Mansion (today's Qinyang City) on the north bank for more than 60 days. Lin Fengxiang led his troops to besiege Huaiqing, using the Taiping Army's magic weapon - acupuncture points that had been repeatedly displeased. They attacked the city, but the prefect Yu Bingtao led the soldiers and civilians in the city to defend it to the death.

In order to replenish his troops, Yu Bingtao even released prisoners from prison to participate in the defense of the city. Among the prisoners was Ren Suicheng, who had been a coal digger. He relied on his previous experience in coal mining and invented the concept of "Guancao Shi". The color method is to crack the hole and attack the city, that is, stand at the top of the city in the early morning and look at the wild grass outside the city. If there is no exposed grass on the grass, there are tunnels underneath. The distance and twists and turns are clear at a glance. This is simpler and more convenient than the "urn-buried sound debate method" invented by Zuo Zongtang, and has become a magic weapon for cracking "hole siege". While the Northern Expeditionary Army was entangled with Yu Bingtao, Emperor Xianfeng granted the title of Imperial Envoy to the Governor of Zhili, Na'er Jing'e, to control people from all walks of life in the north and south of the Yellow River. The famous generals Dong Zhanyuan, Suiyuan General Tuo Ming'a, and Cabinet Bachelor Shengbao led them respectively. The reinforcements rushed to Huaiqing, occupied strongholds outside the city, and implemented counter-siege against the Northern Expeditionary Army that besieged Huaiqing, putting it in a dangerous situation of being attacked from both sides.

On September 4, 1853, the Northern Expedition withdrew and marched westward, crossed Wangwu Mountain in Jiyuan, entered Shanxi, and defeated Yuanqu, Jiangxian, and Quwo. On September 16, it defeated Pingyang Prefecture (now Linfen). city). Then it turned eastward, crossed Shanxi, and advanced towards Zhili. The reason why the Northern Expeditionary Army withdrew from Huaiqing and marched westward, detouring through Shanxi, was mainly due to the heavy encirclement of the Qing army, and the Qing army in Shanxi was relatively weak. It can be seen from the march route map that the march route in Shanxi is relatively smooth. Since the Northern Expeditionary Army went deep alone and lacked backup, it was unable to engage in a head-on confrontation with the Qing army. Therefore, it adopted tactics to avoid the enemy's edge and advance in a roundabout way.

As for why we did not march from Shandong, as mentioned earlier, we originally planned to cross the river from Guide and enter Shandong. Unfortunately, there was no ferry, so we had to give up this shortcut and chose the difficult and tortuous road of the Northern Expedition. .