【Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Series 574, Original Works of Little Buddha History, Please Do Not Reprint】
After the Tianjing Incident, Hong Xiuquan urgently needed someone to help him manage the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and Chen Yucheng, Li Xiucheng, Li Shixian, and others were recommended to Hong Xiuquan by the courtiers, chen Yucheng became the military leader of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and Li Xiuquan was his deputy. According to Li Xiucheng in his self-report, in the years since he was reused until The fall of Tianjing, Li Xiucheng led his troops to relieve the siege of Tianjing several times.
In the spring of 1858, the Jiangnan battalion sent troops to surround the northeast and south gates of Tianjing, and the situation was very critical, which was the third siege of Tianjing mentioned by Li Xiucheng in his self-report.
At that time, Li Xiucheng assisted Hong Xiuquan in managing government affairs in the DPRK, and in his words, "At this time, the government affairs of the DPRK were all taken care of by me, and at that time, the director was dedicated, and the law was strict, so it was stable." But in the face of Tianjing being trapped, the only person who could lead the troops outside to relieve the difficulties was Chen Yucheng, and Li Xiucheng seemed to feel that Chen Yucheng could not be trusted, so he repeatedly applied to leave Tianjing and go out of the city to open up a new battlefield to solve the difficulties of Tianjing.
Hong Xiuquan may have thought about it for many days and felt that letting Li Xiucheng out of Beijing should be a good way, so Li Xiucheng rushed to Wuhu with a whip in one day to discuss with Li Shixian the strategy of breaking the enemy, and at that time, Li Xiucheng did not have many soldiers, and the generals who obeyed his orders were just some old subordinates.
Li Xiucheng planned to divide the army into three branches and launch a joint attack on Luzhou, but this battle plan had to be abandoned because of the shortage of manpower under his men, and instead changed his operational strategy, directly attacked Chao County, and fought against the Qing army, but unexpectedly encountered the Qing army's water division, and was defeated in the initial battle. Li Xiucheng once again changed the established battle plan and allowed the army to assemble through Wuhu and XiliangShan to Hanshan, and it was at this time that the Qing army captured Hezhou. Li Xiucheng then led his troops to the rescue, broke through 20 camps of the Qing army, recaptured Hezhou, and then took advantage of the victory to take Quanjiao and Chuzhou, according to Dexing'a's statement in the middle of the recital, "(Li Xiucheng's department) broke Hezhou, and also went to Quanjiao, Wujiang, and Jiangpu, and then hit Pukou", to put it bluntly, Li Xiucheng's purpose was to relieve the siege of Tianjing.
The Qing army lost the state and the qing army, so that the Qing army was alert, and the Jiangbei camp sent reinforcements to prevent Li Xiucheng from relieving Tianjing. The two armies encountered in many places and fought a deadly battle, Li Xiucheng was not willing to fight with the Qing army all the time, which would delay his established plan, so he decided not to entangle the Qing army anymore, directly from the whole pepper to Jiangpu Da Liu Zhuang, and then take the bridge forest, march into Jiangpu and Pukou.
Dexing'a anticipated Li Xiucheng's plan, so he made a comprehensive arrangement, and a major battle between the two sides was indispensable, which was the Battle of Daliuzhuang.
Li Xiucheng, in addition to some of the men and horses left behind in Chuzhou and Quanjiao, took more than 3,000 elites to Jiangpu; at the same time, Chen Kunshu arrived with his own men and horses, met Li Xiucheng, and actively deployed for a battle with the Qing army, but no one expected that Li Xiucheng would suffer a disastrous defeat in this battle.
Dexing'a mobilized more than 3,000 horse soldiers and infantry to lay ambushes in the low-lying areas of the hillside, cutting off the rear road of the Taiping Army, and directly charging with horsemen on the front, the Taiping Army faced the Qing army's swooping, and it quickly became chaotic, and the position fell into chaos, some people said that the reason why Li Xiucheng's army was chaotic was because others were insufficient, they had to "wrap" the people, the people did not fight the front, naturally fled for their lives, but made it difficult for Li Xiucheng's more than 3,000 elites to fight, and finally the whole army collapsed, and more than ten camps of the Taiping Army were all captured by the Qing Army. Chen Kunshu, who was in a hurry to cooperate with Li Xiucheng in the battle, had not yet had time to join the battle, the battle was over, and 5,000 elites withdrew without a fight.
Since Li Xiucheng was promoted, there have been few times when he has been defeated so badly, which has directly led to the failure to relieve Tianjing as planned, and it is not unreasonable for people to think that Li Xiucheng's ability to lead the army is inferior to Chen Yucheng.
Reference: Oral Accounts of Li Cheng, King of Zhongwang