Most of the fierce generals who participated in the Taiping Rebellion were executed by Ling Chi (cutting a thousand knives), such as the famous King Chen Yucheng, the Wing King Shi Dakai, the Zun King Lai Wenguang, the Gan King Hong Renjie, and so on. Of course, there are also many lucky stars, although they have killed a lot of Qing soldiers, but they can still get a good death. For example, Wei Jun, who defeated Luo Zenan, the second-ranking figure of the Xiang Army, during the two zhenshou Wuchang period, almost captured Hu Linyi, the famous minister of Zhongxing in Hubei; Gu Longxian, the number one general under Wei Jun, surrendered to the Qing Dynasty twice, and also returned home early to retire, giving birth to 7 children, which is considered a "lucky star". However, if it is said that who is the "king of luck" in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Gu Longxian is estimated to be unable to rank up, after all, he is carrying 70,000 soldiers and horses, three cities surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, and the capital is relatively strong. Then, who can be regarded as the "King of Luck", it should be Li Xiucheng's adopted son, Li Rongfa, His Highness Zhong'er. After this person was captured, qing officials saw that he was extraordinary, so they secretly released him and sent a maid to him as a wife, which was definitely a winner in life.
Li Rongfa, a native of Wuhan, Hubei Province, joined the Taiping Army in December 1852 at the age of 10, was included in the Scout Order, and was also adopted by Li Xiucheng, who was plucked and cultivated by one hand. Li Rongfa joined the Taiping Army, not to worship the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, but to be forced to be helpless, lonely and bitter, it was difficult for him to survive in the chaotic world, so he had to join the army. Joining the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the 10-year-old Li Rongfa basically had no chance to fight, but acted as a boy scout, picketing Qing spies who had mixed into the revolutionary camp in Tianjing City. The Boy Scouts of the Taiping Army have two major characteristics, one of which is that they are young and vigorous, very fanatical, and suitable for acting as death squads. Second, the revolutionary conviction is firm and it is not easy to defect, and Chen Yucheng, Tan Shaoguang, Fan Ruzeng, and others are the representatives. Throughout the 14 years of the Taiping Movement, although the Boy Scouts were not the first-line fighting force, they always appeared at key moments and fought a decisive battle. For example, in the first Battle of Wuchang, Chen Yucheng led 50 death squads to risk being blown up by mines, rushed into the gap, killed the Qing army defending the city, and then Lin Fengxiang led the main force to keep up, and Wuchang was taken.
The Boy Scout Army is a relatively fanatical armed force, and Li Rongfa is naturally no exception, and with his extraordinary courage and strategy, he soon acted as a scout commander and arrested traitors in Tianjing City. At the beginning of 1854, Zhang Jigeng, the former Zhixian of the Qing Dynasty, mixed into the revolutionary camp and acted as a traitor, instigating a rebellion of soldiers from the "Three Rivers and Two Lakes" and provoking a "regional conflict" within the Taiping Army. In addition, Zhang Jigeng also secretly contacted Xiang Rong, the commander of the "Jiangnan Camp", in an attempt to cooperate with the outside world, take Tianjing in one fell swoop, and destroy the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. However, this could not escape the golden eye of Li Rongfa, the boy scout's fire eye, and after he collected information about Zhang Jigeng, he played the Eastern King and assisted in the arrest operation. Zhang Jigeng got the news in advance and hid in the mountains, without any news. At this time, Li Rongfa led more than ten boy scouts into the mountains to search, and happened to encounter Zhang Jigeng and his colleagues, and after a fight, Li Rongfa successfully captured Zhang Jigeng. In this way, Li Rongfa became famous and became the new leader of the Boy Scouts, and was increasingly valued by the leadership of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
In May 1857, the wing king Shi Dakai led his troops to go out alone, pulling away more than 100,000 soldiers and horses, and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was seriously injured for a while, falling into a dangerous situation of "no one in the country and no general in the DPRK". At this time, Chen Yucheng, Li Xiucheng and other famous generals stepped forward and undertook the heavy responsibility of ZTE Heavenly Kingdom. Li Rongfa, as the son of Li Xiucheng, the King of Zhong, also began his military career, stepping on the front line and killing the Qing army. At the beginning of 1863, Li Rongfa led 20,000 soldiers and horses to the north first, crossed the Yangtze River, and implemented the strategy of "attacking the south from the north", lianke Tianchang, Chuzhou, and Lai'an, opening up a good situation for Li Xiucheng. Then, Li Rongfa led an army to attack Lu'an, killing more than 1,500 Qing troops, but could not be conquered because the logistics could not keep up. In July, li xiucheng's army returned to Beijing from jiangbei, but was jointly blocked by the xiang army's marine division and land division, and was trapped on the north bank, and the situation was extremely dangerous. At the critical moment, Li Rongfa led his own soldiers to act as a pioneer and killed a bloody road for King Zhong, although the Taiping Army lost 70,000 or 80,000, but after all, more than 10,000 people were still able to cross the Yangtze River back to Tianjing, thus avoiding the situation of the total annihilation of the army.
After crossing the river and returning to Beijing, the base camp of southern Jiangsu was in a hurry, suzhou and Changzhou were jointly attacked by the Huai army and the "foreign gun team", Tan Shaoguang, Chen Kunshu and others tried their best to resist, and the Taiping army suffered heavy casualties. At the beginning of 1864, Li Rongfa led 20,000 elite soldiers to rescue Changzhou, fought against Liu Mingchuan, Pan Dingxin, Zhang Shusheng, Huang Yisheng, Guo Songlin and other tough generals, and intercepted the Gordon foreign gun team that came to reinforcement. Directly attacking the Huai army camp, Li Rongfa did not achieve much success, so he led the main force to attack Changshu, Jiaxing and other places, attracting the Qing army to divide the troops and eliminate them in the field battle. Li Rongfa rushed to Changshu, and Gordon led 4,000 "foreign gun teams" to rush to the rescue. Hearing that Gordon was coming, Li Rongfa set up an ambush in the valley in advance and sent elite soldiers to lure the "foreign gun team" in pursuit. When Gordon came to the valley, the cavalry that had been ambushed on both sides of the valley suddenly came out and attacked the "foreign gun team" on both sides. At this time, heavy rain fell from the sky, and the power of the "foreign gun team" firearms could not be used, and the Taiping Army killed them, so the two sides engaged in fierce hand-to-hand combat. Li Rongfa personally commanded the battle, and the Taiping Army became more and more courageous, killing more than 800 people of the "foreign gun team", and Gordon himself had his thumb broken.
Li Rongfa defeated Gordon, but still could not save the overall situation, Changzhou was still taken by Liu Mingchuan, and Tianjing was also in danger. In July, the Xiang army 'Jizi Battalion' attacked Tianjing, the Zhongwang Li Xiucheng was captured, and Li Rongfa led his own troops to fight the Xiang army in blood, covering the breakthrough of the young king Hong Tianguifu and going to Huzhou to find Huang Wenjin, the king of Huzhou. After arriving in Huzhou, Li Rongfa escorted the young heavenly king to Hubei to find Chen Decai, the king of Fu, hoping to go to Guanzhong to establish a base area and preserve the essence of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and then make a comeback. However, Li Shixian, Wang Haiyang, and others led more than 200,000 troops to leave Jiangxi, Huang Wenjin, Li Rongfa and their party did not respond, and Huang Wenjin was also a personal heroism, but as the commander-in-chief, he rushed to the front line every time, and was killed by a shot. As soon as Huang Wenjin died, Li Rongfa was soon unable to support himself, and as a result, he was captured alive by Chen Baozhen, an alternate qing dynasty candidate in Zhi County, and became a prisoner. According to common sense, for rebel leaders, especially those who are captured, they are generally punished with Ling Chi and cut a thousand knives to set an example. Li Rongfa, a boy scout, had firm convictions and was unwilling to surrender to the Qing Dynasty, full of backbone.
Fortunately, it was Chen Baozhen who captured Li Rongfa, not Zeng Guofan, who not only was not delayed by Ling, but also escaped smoothly and married Chen Baozhen's maid. Why? Chen Baozhen, an enlightened person in Jiangxi, supported the "Restoration and Reform Law" when he was the inspector of Hunan, and was the only feudal official who supported the change. Chen Baozhen saw that Li Rongfa was very good-looking, extraordinary, and young, and could not bear to put him to death. To this end, Chen Baozhen secretly released Li Rongfa, and also gave his maid to him as a wife, so that they could quickly return to the countryside and hide their names from then on. As a prisoner of the Qing army, His Highness Li Rongfa was not only not delayed by Ling, but also married the maid of a Qing dynasty official, which should be regarded as the "king of luck" in the Taiping Army, and can be called a winner in life. By the way, Chen Baozhen is also very powerful, he has a good education, and cultivates a good grandson - the four famous teachers of Tsinghua Guoxue, the professor among professors, Mr. Chen Yinke.
Bibliography: The Complete History of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom War, General History of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom