Hong Xiuquan, king of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, knew that the tide was over. As early as a few months ago, he committed suicide by drinking medicine in the palace, leaving a young master, Hongfutang. In the Battle of Tianjing, Li Xiucheng, a loyal monarch of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, took advantage of the chaos to bring the young master out, intending to lurk down and look for a chance to make a comeback. Unexpectedly, Li Xiucheng disguised as an ordinary citizen, was recognized by nearby villagers, was captured and presented to the Qing army, and eventually became Zeng Guofan's prisoner.
After Zeng Guofan captured Li Xiucheng, he didn't kill him directly, but put him in prison for interrogation. In prison, Li Xiucheng wrote a 30,000-word self-report and confessed many events and history inside the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. Li Xiucheng also used "Ten Mistakes" in his confession to sum up the reasons for the final failure of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
First, the country's first mistake, the East King ordered Li, Li and Li to sweep the north and perish; Second, after the defeat of Li and Xu, the Prime Minister Zeng, Chen Shibao and Xu were transferred to rescue, which led to the defeat of Linqing State.
Third, Zeng and others accidentally hit Linqing and failed to save Li, and the prince Qin Richang led the troops to save them, and the soldiers returned to Yangjiadian in Shucheng;
Fourth, Lin should not be sent to Xiangtan, when Lin was completely annihilated in Xiangtan;
The above four items are the mistakes of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in military strategy. Especially the first one, Li Xiucheng thought that the Eastern Jin Dynasty Wang Yang sent Li and the Northern Expedition was "the first mistake of the country".
Li Xiucheng thought the Northern Expedition was a big mistake, not because he didn't agree with it, but because the Taiping Army's way of northern expedition was incorrect. In the third year of Xianfeng (1853), the Taiping Army conquered Jinling (Nanjing) and renamed it Tianjing, making its capital here.
Because the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's control over the south was not firm at that time, there were two choices: one was to pacify the south of the Yangtze River, consolidate the rear, and then plan to go north; The second is to give up cities such as Jinling directly, enter the Northern Expedition with large troops, and directly win Beijing.
However, they did not take these two roads. The ruler of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is unwilling to leave the comfort of the Jiangnan water town. They only sent Li and led 50 thousand people to the Northern Expedition. As a result, they went deep alone without reinforcements, resulting in heavy losses for the Qing army. Later, many rescue troops were ambushed by the Qing army prepared in advance, which led to the low morale of the Taiping Army and lost the opportunity to overthrow the Qing Dynasty in one fell swoop.
5. Because the East King and the North King kill each other, this is a big mistake; Sixth, the king's wrong wing is not harmonious, the monarch and the minister are jealous and suspicious, and it is a big mistake to bring the good civil and military soldiers to the DPRK;
The above two mistakes are the famous "Tianjing Incident" within the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. The origin of Tianjing incident lies in the power struggle between East Wang Yang and Heavenly King Hong Xiuquan, and the result of infighting is that the rulers of Taiping Heavenly Kingdom kill each other, which greatly hurts their vitality.
Shi Dakai, the wing king, was one of the few generals in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, but he was suspected by Hong Xiuquan, the heavenly king. After the Tianjing incident, Shi Dakai saw the essence of Hong Xiuquan's unscrupulous means for power. In order to save his life, he led the masses to flee, formed his own army, and dispersed the power of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, so that he was divided by the Qing army, which led to his own defeat.
Sixth, the Lord does not believe in foreign ministers, and the big brother and the second brother are supplemented. This person has no talent, can't protect the country and make mistakes; Seven, the Lord does not ask political affairs;
Eight, there are too many kings, which is a big mistake;
Nine, the country does not need talents.
In Li Xiucheng's confession, the "sixth mistake" appeared twice, which should be caused by a clerical error when writing the confession. The above four items are aimed at Hong Xiuquan's lack of ability to govern the country.
After the Tianjing Incident, Hong Xiuquan became more suspicious, trusting only his brothers Hong Renfa, Hong Renda, Hong Rengan and others. Although Hong Xiuquan's brothers are incompetent, they have military and political power, which has become a constraint for rising stars such as Li Xiucheng and Chen Yucheng.
In the later period of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Hong Xiuquan was addicted to studying his own religion of worshipping God and didn't ask about political affairs, which led to the chaos of state affairs. The title of Sir Alex Ferguson, which should represent the highest status, began to spread in the later period. When Li Hongzhang captured Suzhou, there were eight princes in one city.
There are hundreds of princes in Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. These people are at odds with each other, disobey orders and even kill each other. In the decisive battle between the Taiping Army and the Qing Army in the later period, although Li Xiucheng was the commander in chief, he could not command these princes, resulting in a large number of Taiping Army, but he could not get unified command, and it was difficult to defeat Zeng Guofan's Xiang Army.