#头条首发大赛#
April 22, 1859, was a special day for both Hong Renji and Hong Xiuquan, and it was also a memorable day.
Twelve years have passed, and with the flick of a finger, my childhood partner, my entrepreneurial comrade-in-arms, and the high-spirited scholar at that time are now middle-aged.
One is the Heavenly King, the commander of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and the other is a scholar who has returned from "overseas", for them, all this is like a dream and an illusion.
Hong was undoubtedly excited. He went through a turning point and suffered a lot, and finally returned to the kingdom of heaven that haunted his dreams, at this time the kingdom of heaven was going downhill, but he still had his own capital, his own territory, and if he managed it properly, he could still become bigger and stronger.
Hong Xiuquan's excitement will not be less than Hong Renji.
The six righteous kings of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, except for themselves, walked and died, and they have completely withered. Now his right-hand men are all the second generation of the Kingdom of Heaven.
Hong Xiuquan misses his old brothers, old comrades-in-arms, and old subordinates, and that is the trusted veteran who has followed him all the way.
Hong Xiuquan's happiness can be described in four words - extraordinarily happy. In addition to joy, Hong Xiuquan still has a trace of guilt towards Hong Renji, the original patriarchs have already been crowned kings in Yong'an. With qualifications, loyalty, relationships, and talent, as long as Hong Renji arrived in Jintian in time, Yong'an would not be without his share when he was crowned king.
Looking at the old brother with a face of vicissitudes, dust, and thousands of miles to defect, Hong Xiuquan felt that he had the obligation and responsibility to make up for Hong Renji and give him the honor and name he deserved.
On the day of Hong Xiuquan's reunion, he named Hong Renji as a blessing for the heavens, as a meeting gift, to pick up the wind and wash the dust for him. Half a month later, Hong Xiuquan again crowned Hong Renji as "Gantianyi" and crowned "The Chief General of the Nine Gates of the Heavenly Forest".
Yijue was in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom at that time, except for the palm rate, it was already the highest title. After the Tianjing Incident, Hong Xiuquan rearranged the title, and added six levels of titles of Yu, Yan, Fu, An, Yi, and Zhangshu above the marquis.
The so-called sixth-class title has some historical origins and sayings. Yu Jue is to take the title of Yu King Hu Yihuang who was awarded the title of Protecting the Sky by King Ge. Yan Jue is the title of Dingtian Yan who was crowned by King Qin Rigang by King Ge. These two titles were both titles before the Tianjing Incident. In June of the seventh year of Ding Si (1857), Hong Xiuquan was forced by the dissatisfaction of the military and people of the Heavenly Kingdom with his nepotism, so he had to remove the two princes of Hong Renfa An and Hong Ren Dafu, and renamed Hong Renfa as Tian'an, Hong Renda as Tianfu, and Fu Jue and An Jue were taken from the titles of these two people. The source of Yijue is related to Shi Dakai.
In the seventh year of Ding Si, Hong Xiuquan once named Shi Dakai as the righteous king, Shi Dakai did not accept it, and he was still called the king of wings, so he took this one as the righteous word of the king. When the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom promulgated the Taiping Rite System in the eighth year of Wuwu (1858), the six titles of Yi, An, Fu, Yan, Yu, and Hou were officially determined. Later, there were too many titles, and the Chinese characters were not enough, so they were replaced by numbers and numbered.
By 1859, the title system had been changed by Hong Xiuquan into a mess, completely messed up, and there were many kinds of records in the literature alone: Heavenly General, Commander Command, Commander, Although, Shence, Dynasty General, Protector of the Beijing General, Liubu, Yi, and Main Auxiliary General.
Attentive readers may notice that no matter how the titles change and become rich, there is one key title, and Hong Xiuquan has always been very cautious.
Hong Xiuquan's forbidden area is the king.
In the matter of sealing the king, Hong Xiuquan was extremely cautious, far less casual than other titles.
Why?
I'm afraid I have to start with Tianjing's self-harm. Due to the fear of kings in the Tianjing Incident, except for his two elder brothers who had been named King An and King Fu for a short period of time, the prince of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom has been vacant. In fact, the reason why Hong Xiuquan added six levels to the marquis was just that he had been avoiding the topic of being crowned. Chen Yucheng has made countless achievements, but he is only crowned as a righteous man.
For Hong Renji's rocket-like promotion, the generals of the Heavenly Kingdom were not only surprised, but also surprised. What surprised them even more was that just two days after the title of Yijue, Hong Xiuquan once again canonized Hong Renji as "the king of the Jingzhong Army of the Kai Dynasty".
The king of heaven also solemnly issued an edict: "I will know the brothers, the masters, and the jade brothers: there is always no time to respect the lord and brother, and the old father and brother will give glory." Get heaven to enjoy the blessings of the gods, and the blessings of the children and grandchildren are endless. In the past, there were many people who were humiliated because of my grandfather's name, and my compatriots were stunned to be the same as the king of the south, and they were strong for a long time. Therefore, my grandfather can see that he can see that he is the prince of the palace and will always be glorious, and he will be honored forever with the grand ceremony of blessing and goodness, and he will be in the position of the Communist Party of China, and the world will be in the Heavenly Dynasty. Chin this. ”
Since Yang Xiuqing was killed, the position of military advisor has been nominally vacant, but in fact it was annexed by the Heavenly King, and the military power was firmly controlled by the Heavenly King. The so-called Zhengzhang was favored by the so-called leader, at best, he was only the head of the Heavenly King's Mansion, that is, the director of the logistics office of the Heavenly Empire Palace.
Hong Renji's rocket-like promotion, the soldiers and civilians of the Heavenly Kingdom were not only surprised, but simply dumbfounded.
The most shocking thing is probably the powerful factions of Li Xiucheng and Chen Yucheng. They have heavy troops in their hands, and they have fought with their blood and lives against the enemy for so many years, and they never thought that they could become the king, where are you Hong Renji, why are you a newcomer, and you are a military division and a king?
What kind of evil is this? How unreasonable! Hong Xiuquan's thoughts and intentions are naturally not something that others can understand.
For the Heavenly King, the first is the need for affection. This is not difficult to see from the edict that Hong Xiuquan compared Hong Renji with Feng Yunshan. In Hong Xiuquan's heart, Hong Renji's status was even before Shi Dakai, and the "Yu Cell, Da Cell, and Jade Cell" in the edict had been fully revealed (although Shi Dakai left, he did not openly raise the banner of separatism, and Hong Xiuquan did not publicly expel him from the Heavenly Kingdom).
In addition to emotional factors, Hong Xiuquan named Hong Renji as a military advisor, and he was also playing his own small calculations. It is indeed his top priority to find a capable and trustworthy person who can share the handling of military affairs for himself.
Since Yang Xiuqing was killed, especially after Shi Dakai left, Hong Xiuquan no longer dared to easily entrust the power of the military state to others, so he had to do it himself. But he himself knows that he is not the material to be a general manager at all. The clapper can barely deal with it, and if it comes to dealing with everyday facts, it will really kill him. First, he was short-tempered and restless, and it was really difficult to take care of everything; Second, it is really not my strong point to personally manage military affairs, especially to command such a large military strategy.
Now, an old brother, a die-hard fan, capable since childhood, and has drunk foreign ink, isn't he the best candidate?
The reason why Hong Xiuquan was determined to promote Hong Renji beyond the level was also related to Li Xiucheng.
Hong Xiuquan felt that Li Xiucheng, who had recently been promoted, was not as obedient as Chen Yucheng, and he promised himself at every turn that Wei Zheng, a minister who liked to pour cold water on the leaders in history, and often played some feasible suggestions, although it was not as torturous as Yang Xiuqing's performance of Heavenly Father's descent to earth, but it was already very unpleasant.
What made him even more intolerable was that Li Xiucheng actually took the opportunity to promote the chief general of the Fifth Army and brought his cousin Li Shixian in by the way, what is the intention of persuading me not to develop the second brother, but you reuse your cousin to cultivate your own power?
Hong Xiuquan urgently needs a right-hand man of the family surnamed Hong to lead the central government of the Heavenly Kingdom to restrain Li Xiucheng, a group of powerful factions with heavy troops. How could these little abacus of his be perceived and comprehended by the civil and military generals of the Heavenly Kingdom?
In particular, the two pillars of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Li Xiucheng and Chen Yucheng, are busy dealing with Li Zhaoshou and Xue Zhiyuan, to be precise, it should be Li Shizhong and Xue Congliang, the two traitors, to recapture Pukou and open up the traffic on Tianjing North Road.
Hong Renji's futility to become the king made it even more difficult for Li Xiucheng and Chen Yucheng's hearts to balance.
The art of kinghood
How to evaluate the incident of the surprise canonization of the king and the seductive prince is not Li Xiucheng's top priority. How to minimize the losses caused by Li Shizhong's rebellion is the difficult problem he has to solve.
Li Xiucheng, who had just arrived in Chaohu in Anhui Province, heard the news of the fall of Liangpu and hurriedly led his troops south to try to recapture the important places in Jiangbei.
If Liangpu cannot be recaptured, not only will the results achieved after the Zongyang rally be greatly reduced, but I am afraid that Tianjing will also be difficult to hold for a long time. Jiangnan has been surrounded by Hechun, and Jiangbei is surrounded again, so it is strange that the king of heaven is not forced to go crazy.
In addition to worrying about the safety of Tianjing and the Heavenly King, Li Xiucheng also had a trace of unspeakable worries. He was afraid that the Heavenly King would put the account of Li Zhaoshou's rebellion on his head. After all, Li Zhaoshou is his subordinate, and when it comes to accountability, he still has the leadership responsibility of not knowing people and employing people without notice.
What Li Xiucheng didn't expect was that Li Shizhong seemed to be determined to follow the "Qing Demon" this time. This traitor actually gave Xianfeng a bad idea, he proposed that Changmao had two major weaknesses: one is gunpowder, and the other is grain and grass.
As long as you find a way to control these two things, Longhair will destroy itself without a fight. Gunpowder and grain and grass are indeed the two indispensable material foundations for the maintenance of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, especially the survival of Tianjing.
The most terrible enemies are still their own people, after all, they know their past best. In order to gain the trust of the new master, traitors often reveal the most fatal weaknesses of the old master to show their loyalty and wisdom.
Li Shizhong put forward a very vicious and feasible proposal to Xianfeng - an economic blockade of Changmao, and strict wartime control of gunpowder raw materials and grain and grass!
Xianfeng was overjoyed, believing that this suggestion was indeed vicious, and immediately issued an order requiring all the generals and commanders of Zhili, Shandong, Shanxi, Henan, Shaanxi, Jiangsu, Anhui, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Fujian, Hunan, Hubei, and Sichuan provinces to strictly manage the raw materials of gunpowder; Sulfur produced in Shanxi and other places is strictly forbidden to be sold to the market; For the purchase of prohibited items such as sulfur, there must be a letter of introduction with the official seal; Those who traffic such items on the way, without a letter of introduction and certificates, will be confiscated and severely punished; It is strictly forbidden for private people to sell, and those who accept bribes and release them without permission, as well as those who trade privately with long hair, shall be severely punished.
Although this plan could not fundamentally cut off the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's economic resources and weaponry, it did cause great trouble. If the economic channel of Liangpu cannot be broken, Tianjing will be strangled sooner or later.
But recovering Liangpu is not easy!
The opponent Li Xiucheng has to face is no longer the illiterate and incompetent Dexing. At this time, Hechun had already sent general soldiers Li Ruozhu and Zhou Tianpei from Jiangnan to defend Jiangpu tightly, and Zhang Guoliang personally went to give tactical guidance.
Li Xiucheng was defeated by Li Ruozhu and Li Shizhong in several attacks, and Li Xiucheng had no choice but to ask the Heavenly King to transfer Li Shixian, the commander of the left army, from Jiangnan to come from Wuhu to help in the battle.
On March 15, 1859, Li Xiucheng and Li Shixian joined forces to attack Li Shizhong in Pukou, but they were blocked by Zhang Guoliang and Li Ruozhu, and then the two main generals turned to attack Jiangpu, but they were also repelled by Zhou Tianpei.
Li Xiucheng saw that Liangpu was a hard bone, and his own and Li Shixian's soldiers were not enough in number, and secondly, their combat effectiveness was not strong, and if they wanted to defeat Liangpu, they had to help alone.
Li Xiucheng thought of Chen Yucheng, the former army commander. Chen Yucheng's troops, like himself, have a special temperament - fierce and pungent.
His troops, well-disciplined, well-trained, high-morale, good at attacking fortifications, and their combat effectiveness was second to none in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom at that time, and they were the trump cards among trump cards.
Although Li Xiucheng is fourteen years older than Chen Yucheng, he still admires this little brother from the bottom of his bones. Chen Yucheng's combat effectiveness left a deep impression on Li Xiucheng in the battles of Luzhou, Jiangbeiying, Lu'an, and Sanhe.
Chen Yucheng, who was confronting the Hunan army in the area of Susong and Taihu on the western front of Anhui, received Li Xiucheng's invitation, but did not refuse his invitation because of Li Xiucheng's passive cooperation in the Battle of Erlanghe.
In Chen Yucheng's heart, there is only the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and there are no personal grievances. Now that Tianjing is in trouble, how can he stand idly by?
Chen Yucheng arranged the front-line war, led the troops to rush to the east, Chen Yucheng went north through Qianshan, crossed Huoshan, captured Lu'an, and then led the army forward, defeated the Qing army of Anhui governor Li Mengqun, and captured Li Mengqun alive, brought to Luzhou to behead, and then defeated Shengbao, beheaded Baishan, the general soldier of Nanyang Town, and rushed to Jiangpu through the boundary card.
Chen Yucheng's strong offensive made Li Xiucheng marvel again, and he was full of confidence in breaking the two pools. On April 15, Chen Yucheng and Li Xiucheng joined forces to attack Jiangpu, but they didn't expect Zhang Guoliang to be a little capable, and he actually used the stupid method of building a long wall to resist the attack of the Taiping army.
Although the method is clumsy, the effect is very significant, Rao is Chen Yucheng's strong ability to attack tough problems, he was helpless for a while.
It seems that there is no hope of a quick victory, and you can only fight for a long time. After Li Xiucheng and Chen Yucheng discussed, they decided to divide the troops into two routes, Li Xiucheng continued to attack Jiangpu, and Chen Yucheng went to rescue Liuhe.
Those who are besieging Liuhe are Dexing'a, the former minister of the Jiangbei camp, in addition to the deputy capital Fuming'a, the general soldier Zhang Yuliang sent by the Jiangnan camp and Chun.
Chen Yucheng defeated the three-way army of Bao, Zhang Yuliang and Li Shizhong with his own strength, and turned to fight in Liuhe and Yangzhou, defeated Li Shizhong and Shengbao successively, captured Tianchang and Xuyi and other places, and entered a no-man's land on the eastern front of northern Anhui.
Chen Yucheng made great achievements, but he was still only named Cheng Tianyi, which made many generals very dissatisfied: We are desperately fighting on the front line to shed blood and sacrifice, why does Hong Renji sit leisurely and happily in Tianjing to become the king? In the more than two months since he was crowned king, have you led the troops to fight and made great contributions?
Although Hong Xiuquan doesn't want to be crowned king with a different surname, it is difficult to disobey the will of the people, so he can't want the horses to run and not let the horses eat grass, right?
Without enthusiasm, the front-line soldiers were chilled, and they had to lose the battle.
After thinking about it, Hong Xiuquan felt that Chen Yucheng should be given a little reward. For so many years, loyalty, heroic battles, and hard work, it is not too much to be crowned a king. Besides, this young man also grew up watching from a baby soldier, and he is also a veteran, since he is brave and invincible in battle, he will be crowned the king of England!
In June 1859, the king of heaven Hong Xiuquan finally began to divide the kings with different surnames again, and the spirits of the generals from all walks of life were lifted, and they were all excited that the king could come out of the shadows, reward and punish clearly, and revitalize the dynasty.
The title of British king, Chen Yucheng is naturally well-deserved.
After fighting with the Jiangbei army for half a year, Chen Yucheng defeated the Jiangnan battalion and Feng Zicai's general army sent by Chun to reinforce it in one fell swoop.
This Feng Zicai is also a not simple character. In the Sino-French War in the future, he defeated the French army at Zhennanguan and became a famous national hero. But this General Feng, fighting against the Taiping Army, basically never tasted the taste of victory, especially when he met Chen Yucheng, he was bound to lose every battle.
Chen Yucheng took advantage of the victory to pursue, joined forces with Li Xiucheng, and broke through the Qing army camp in Liuhe Hongshan Yao on November 1, killing 3,000 Qing soldiers.
Twenty days later, the Chen and Li coalition forces attacked Pukou again, defeated Zhou Tianpei and Zhang Yuliang, destroyed 50 camps, beheaded Zhou Tianpei, captured Pukou, and once again opened the communication line on the north bank of Tianjing, relieving the siege of the capital.
As soon as the siege of Beijing was lifted, the king Hong Xiu couldn't help but be overjoyed, and soon Li Xiu became the loyal king. This is the second king with a different surname named by Hong Xiuquan since the Tianjing Rebellion after King Chen Yucheng of the British Dynasty.
In terms of merit and resourcefulness, Li Xiucheng is not inferior to Chen Yucheng. In addition to the fact that his combat effectiveness is almost a little worse, Li Xiucheng does not have anything to find fault with militarily, but Li Xiucheng's title of king is nearly half a year later than Chen Yucheng, which is a little puzzling.
Li Xiucheng's personality is generally feminine, he is not only delicate, but also very introverted, unassuming, and calm. People with this kind of personality are often difficult to guess their minds, and are considered to be very deep and elusive.
Hong Xiuquan even felt that he didn't see through Li Xiucheng, an old subordinate.
In Hong Xiuquan's impression, he seems to prefer Chen Yucheng. Chen Yucheng, a young man, speaks straightforwardly, what to say, at first glance, he is a simple loyal minister. But Li Xiucheng always has a melancholy temperament and looks preoccupied.
During Chen Yucheng's transfer to northern Anhui, Li Xiucheng was responsible for attacking Pukou and fought for more than half a year, but he could not conquer it. This made Hong Xiuquan suspicious, and felt that Li Xiucheng had the possibility of defecting to the enemy, so he did not contribute to the work and did not try his best to attack the Qing army.
In order to prevent Li Xiucheng from having two hearts, Hong Xiuquan immediately sent someone to take his mother and wife to Tianjing, saying that he would take good care of him, let him fight with peace of mind, and not return to Tianjing for the time being. Hong Xiuquan's behavior of taking hostages hurt Li Xiucheng's heart fiercely.
Li Xiucheng was not only sad, but also felt very aggrieved.
At that time, there were Zhang Guoliang and several other people in Pukou who were strictly guarded, Li Xiucheng had no military salary, and there were no rescuers, and Hong Xiuquan and Hong Renji did not have any good ideas in Tianjing, so they had to hold on to the Qing army in Pukou, wait and see what happened, and look for opportunities to break the city.
Li Xiucheng was misunderstood by Hong Xiuquan and also had a relationship with Li Shizhong.
After Li Zhaoshou defected to the enemy, Li Xiucheng still did not give up, and wrote many letters to persuade him to return to the kingdom of heaven, make meritorious contributions to his crimes, and create a great cause together. After Hong Xiuquan knew about this, he suspected that Li Xiucheng was suspected of rebellion.
This matter really wronged Li Xiucheng.
After learning of Li Zhaoshou's public rebellion, Li Xiucheng did write a letter to him, in which Li Xiucheng made it clear that he wanted to break off his love with Li Zhaoshou and draw a clear line. Next, Li Xiucheng expressed his hatred for the traitor and said that he must be severely punished. In the end, Li Xiucheng expressed the hope that Li Zhaoshou would give up his evil thoughts, turn back to the shore, and not blame the past, and make meritorious contributions.
It's a pity that Li Zhaoshou has neither feelings nor faith, and only regards Li Xiucheng's words as the wind in his ears, and wholeheartedly pushes Shengbao to get promoted to become rich.
It wasn't until Li Xiucheng united with Chen Yucheng to break Pukou for the second time and save Tianjing, that the king of heaven Hong Xiuquan knew that he had wronged a good person and wronged a loyal minister, so he was named the king of loyalty, and he also sent a pennant of honor, with the book "Eternal Loyalty" four people
Li Xiucheng received the title, and he was mixed with joy, happy that he was finally a great minister, and worried about the doubts of the king of heaven, which still did not completely dissipate.
Li Xiucheng was keenly aware that Hong Xiuquan named himself the loyal king, which was not only a commendation, but also an encouragement, and a warning.
Hong Xiuquan's trick is ruthless! Since then, Li Xiucheng has always warned himself that he must keep the word loyalty in mind.
Posts often train people, especially the scarce position of the number one. From the point of view of the art of sealing the king, Hong Xiuquan, who has been in the position of the king for many years, has grown into a mature politician, and compared with the shrewd emperors of all dynasties, he will not be inferior in the slightest.
Hong Xiuquan's superb and skillful art of sealing the king failed to retain another high-ranking general who openly threw himself into the arms of the Qing court.
He is the No. 1 traitor of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, one of the second generation of the main generals of the Fifth Army - Wei Jun, the chief general of the Right Army.