The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the peasant uprising with the best hope of overthrowing Manchu rule, took a wrong step at the most critical time. Otherwise, relying on the momentum of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom at that time, it could completely replace the Manchus and establish a peasant regime. It's really a wrong move, and you lose the whole game.
The birth of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom can be said to be a situation that has occurred in all dynasties, that is, at the end of each feudal dynasty, more or less because the peasants will rise up to rebel because they do not have enough to eat. However, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was different from other peasant uprisings, but it had its own strict organizational structure, with civil servants and military generals, and it can be said that it had everything in place, which could not be compared with other peasant uprisings.
The purpose of the Taiping Rebellion was very clear, that is, to overthrow the rule of the Manchus, so from the very beginning, the goals of Hong Xiuquan and Yang Xiuqing were very clear. Originally, everything from the Jintian Uprising to the Yong'an Crowning King to the founding of Tianjing was carried out according to the plan, especially when Tianjing was founded, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom already owned half of the Jiangnan River, and it was completely able to compete with the Manchu court.
But at this time, the generals led by Hong Xiuquan and Yang Xiuqing made a serious mistake at this time, and even said that the thriving cause of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was completely ruined. This crucial step was not to continue to send troops north to directly overthrow the rule of the Qing court, but to start a life of pleasure, corruption and depravity in Tianjing.
You must know that the Manchu Qing Dynasty was already crumbling at this time, and the predicament of internal and external troubles became more and more apparent. It has become the norm to suffer from foreign aggression and reparations, and various internal uprisings and rebellions have continued, and the masses at the bottom have completely lost confidence in this dynasty established by the Manchus. It was by seizing this opportunity that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom would be able to achieve various victories with great momentum.
As we all know, Yang Xiuqing also sent Lin Fengxiang and Li Kaifang to lead the army to the north, but only gave 30,000 horses, isn't this an obvious rhythm of death. To attack and seize the center of Manchu rule, how could this be enough. There is also a theory here that Yang Xiuqing borrowed the hand of the Manchu Qing to get rid of Lin Fengxiang and Li Kaifang, who were once Xiao Chaogui's loyal subordinates, so as to concentrate all the power in his own hands. After all, Xiao Chaogui had already died at this time, and the generals who followed Xiao Chaogui before switched to Hong Xiuquan, thus weakening Yang Xiuqing's power.
To say that the Taiping army led by Lin Fengxiang and Li Kaifang is also very strong, that is, relying only on these 30,000 horses and horses to fight alone, they have fought to the vicinity of Tianjin, which is only one step away from the capital. You must know that these 30,000 horses are fighting all the way, and basically have not received any replenishment and support. It can be said that they have neither a stable rear, nor the support of other Taiping troops, and they are completely relying on themselves to fight alone, and this is how they have achieved such brilliant results. In the end, the Manchu Qing found that this was simply an army sent to death, and if it was not destroyed, it would directly threaten the capital to pay back, so they hurriedly mobilized the surrounding troops to eliminate it. In the end, the 30,000 expeditionary Taiping troops were completely defeated under the siege of more than 100,000 Qing soldiers.
From here, we can see that the Taiping army with only tens of thousands of horses can fight to Tianjin. If Hong Xiuquan and Yang Xiuqing could send the main force of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom at that time, they would need 100,000 horses, which would basically be able to capture the capital. At that time, the Manchu Qing Dynasty must have been overthrown long ago, where will there be a later Cixi disaster for the country and the people. In fact, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was just a little bit closer to winning the Central Plains and becoming the master of the Chinese land. However, because of this wrong step, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom later entered the point of no return.
When the Qing army came to their senses, they immediately sent a large army to encircle and suppress Tianjing. In particular, many Han people were appointed and reused, and the Hunan army and the Huai army were established to besiege together, which made it difficult for the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom to further develop. The Taiping army survived and developed in the cracks, and then there was the Tianjing Incident, many heroes and generals were cut off together, and the military strength of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom plummeted. In the later period, it was basically under the siege of the Qing army, and it was difficult to make great achievements.
On the whole, the most fundamental reason for the failure of the Taiping Rebellion was that it took the wrong key step, that is, to send a small number of troops to go on a lone expedition. There was no stable rear and no troops were sent to assist, resulting in an instant reversal of the originally good situation, and it had to be difficult to maintain. In the end, under the vigorous encirclement and suppression of the Qing Dynasty, the great opportunity to overthrow the Manchu Qing Dynasty was lost.