Shi Dakai was defeated in the Dadu River in Sichuan because of a tactical mistake. 1June 857 (the seventh year of Xianfeng in Qing dynasty) to1June 863 (the second year of Tongzhi in Qing dynasty), during the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement, Shi Dakai, the wing king of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, left Tianjing (now Nanjing) and fought independently in the wars in southern provinces. 1June, 857, Shi Dakai, who was in Beijing Fuzheng, was forced to leave because he was suspected of being excluded, and led tens of thousands of his men to Anqing, refusing to be retained by the heavenly kings Hong Xiuquan and He Chao. At the beginning of l0, he led his troops from Anqing to Jiangxi, assembled the old staff in Jingdezhen and began to fight against the Qing army independently. After Shi Dakai Army occupied several counties in eastern Jiangxi, it arrived in Fuzhou (now Linchuan City) at the end of June 165438+. In February, 65438, he led the army to the west to aid Linjiang (southwest of Zhangshu City) and Ji 'an, both of which were frustrated. He returned to Fuzhou in June, 1858. On February 26, he led the army from Fuzhou to the east, ready to go to Zhejiang. On April 20, the siege of Quzhou began, and another army captured more than ten counties in southwest Zhejiang. However, the siege of Quzhou lasted for three months, but it was withdrawn from the south in mid-July and attacked Fujian. In mid-August, he joined forces with Guo Zong Yang Fuqing and Yang Yiqing in Pucheng, Fujian. Yang Fuqing and others didn't want to be transferred to Shi Dakai, so they led their men back to Jiangxi and Tianjing via southern Anhui. At the end of August, Shi Dakai led the army to continue southward. On the 17th, Luo captured Tingzhou (now Changting) and turned to Gannan. After Ruijin, Huichang, Anyuan and Xinfeng, Nan 'an (now Dayu) was captured at 1859+0.3, and Chongyi was taken again at 1 1. At this time, most counties in Jiangxi were occupied by the Qing army again, and the Shi Dakai army was isolated in Nanshan Township, Jiangxi Province, which made it difficult to develop. Entering Sichuan via southern Hunan is a strategic goal. At the end of February, he gave up Nan 'an and Chongyi and entered Hunan and Lianke County. Hunan Governor Luo Wen learned that Shi Dakai led more than 654.38 million people into Hunan on a large scale, and urgently dispatched various Xiang armies to prevent congestion. Hubei Governor Hu Linyi also sent troops from Hubei to help. In April, Shi Dakai led an army to besiege Booker in Yongzhou, but moved northward to Baoqing House (now Shaoyang City). In May, they arrived outside the city one after another and finished camping in mid-June. Subsequently, the magistrate Liu Yuezhao, Taoist Liu Changyou, Li Xuyi and other Xiang troops came to help, bringing the total strength of the Qing army in the region to 40,000. On July 25th, Governor Shi Dakai stormed Xiang Xiang and fought fiercely for several days. On the 28th, the attack on Taiping Army West Road was frustrated and forced to retreat. In view of the strong forces of the Qing army and the difficulty in breaking the city, Shi Dakai ordered the whole army to withdraw southward on August 14, and entered Guangxi via Dong 'an (now southwest of Dong 'an) and Xinning. At that time, Shi Dakai's Ministry of State Shi had already entered Guangxi through Guangdong in advance and was besieging Guilin. Shi Dakai then crossed Xing 'an, Yining (now Lingxi), Yongfu and other places. On June 10, he took Qingyuan House (now Yishan) lightly and went deep into the hinterland of Guangxi. The mansion is a barren and sparsely populated mountainous area, which is seriously short of food. The Shi Dakai Army has been stationed here for a long time, and its morale is low and scattered. Men refused to obey control, or left home, or moved to other places, and many of them were wiped out by the Qing army. There are only over 10,000 troops left in Shi Dakai. Facing the advance of the Qing army, at the end of May 1860, Shi Dakai abandoned Qingyuan and led his troops south, and stationed in the areas of Pennsylvania (now northeast of Binyang) and Wuyuan (now Wuming). Shi Dakai was depressed and wanted to retire, but he had to struggle because he had no place to live. 186 1 in August, 2008, Dacheng State established by Chen Kai and Li Tiandi Society rebels fell (see Dacheng State Uprising), and 30,000 or 40,000 people of his department defected to Shi Dakai, and the team expanded. In order to create a new situation, Shi Dakai once again shouldered the banner of expedition to Sichuan. 10 year 10 in late October, with a rate of 100, entered Hunan via Huaiyuan (now Ronganbei), went north along the border between Hunan and Guizhou, entered Laifeng in Hubei via Longshan at the end of 1862, and entered Sichuan via Lichuan in Hubei in mid-February. On the 20th, it occupied Shizhutang (now Shizhu) in East Sichuan, which followed the trend of Jiangxi and failed to capture Fuzhou (now Fuling) and Qijiang. After entering Renhuaitang (now Chishui) in Guizhou, he returned to Sichuan, and took Xuyong on May 26th and Changning (now Changning South) on June16th. Because the road to the north was blocked by the Qing army, it was forced to enter Guizhou again in the east, attack Dadingfu (now generous) through Zunyi, go to Bijie in the west, enter Yunnan, and enter Sichuan all the way, which made the Qing army unable to take care of both. 1 1 year 10 in the middle and late October, he entered Sichuan from Zhenxiong, northern Yunnan, occupied Junlian and Gaoxian, and then left hengjiang town, Shuanglongchang and Yuhuanglou, preparing to cross Jinsha River and enter Xutufu (now Yibin). Sichuan Governor Luo urged all the Qing troops to cross the river in order to prevent Shi Dakai from entering Sichuan. In February 65438, the two armies fought fiercely in Hengjiang. By the end of 1863 10, Shi Dakai was defeated and suffered heavy casualties, so he had to withdraw to Yunnan and be stationed in Zhaotong area. In March, he entered Sichuan again, leading his troops westward along the Jinsha River, waiting for an opportunity to cross the river northward. /kloc-in may of 0/2, 30,000 to 40,000 people entered ningyuan mansion (now Xichang) and wanted to take advantage of the gap to go north. 14, from Mianning Road to Zidadi on the south bank of Dadu River (near Anshunchang, Shimian County). The purple earth has a narrow pass, with the Dadu River in front, the Songlin River on the left and the old crow vortex on the right. It coincided with the heavy rain and the river surged. It is extremely difficult for the Qing army to strictly observe the ferry crossing the other side. On February1day, Shi Dakai sent four or five thousand troops to cross the river, which was shelled by the Qing army, and the boats and rafts were completely destroyed, causing heavy casualties. Xuanxi crossed Song Lin and was stopped by the toast Wang Yingyuan and other departments. On the 29th, the rear road was cut off by Tuxiling, and the whole army fell into the Jedi. The Qing army lured the enemy deep and promised to save the lives of its soldiers. /kloc-in June of 0/3, Shi Dakai plunged into the camp of the Qing army, fantasizing about giving his life to protect all the people. As a result, he was sent to Chengdu and was killed on August 6 at the age of 33. More than 7,000 of his subordinates were also executed. Comments: Shi Dakai expedition, which lasted for 6 years, moved to 10 province and defeated the Qing army many times, which played a certain role in promoting mass uprisings in these areas. However, he ignored the overall situation politically and practiced the principle of roving bandits militarily, which led to the total annihilation of tens of thousands of elite soldiers of Taiping Army and caused great losses to Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. Shi Dakai cleverly defeated Zeng Guofan's navy in the winter of 1854. Zeng Guofan led the Xiang navy down the Yangtze River and headed for Hukou. Shi Dakai was ordered to lead Taiping rebels to protect Hukou River to meet Xiang. Hukou, located at the mouth of the Yangtze River into Poyang Lake, connects northern Chu and southern Anhui. Known as "the thoroughfare of seven provinces and the gateway to three rivers", it has been a battleground for military strategists since ancient times. The Taiping Army set up a huge floating raft on the Hukou River, surrounded by a wooden city and a watchtower, guarded by hundreds of officers and men, and guarded by several gunboats on both sides of the raft. With this floating fortress, Taiping Army smashed many attacks of Xiang Army, and Zeng Guofan became angry from embarrassment and poured all his navy into a decisive battle with Taiping Army. After eight hours of fierce fighting, the Taiping army killed nearly a thousand enemies, but in the end, the raft broke because it was outnumbered. This creates a gap in the passage from the Yangtze River to Poyang Lake. Once the enemy drives straight in, it will pose a serious threat to the rear of the Taiping Army. Shi Dakai didn't lose his mind because of the fighting. After calm thinking, a good strategy to reverse the defeat quickly formed in his mind. It turns out that the Xiang navy division is composed of two kinds of warships with different sizes. The big ships are called "Fast Crab" and "Long Dragon", which are relatively heavy. The ship is equipped with heavy guns, which can be used for long-range bombing and logistics supply. The boat is called "three boards" and "four boards" and has no canopy. Each boat has more than 20 oars and three or five small guns, which are flexible and are the main attack force. These two kinds of warships can only cooperate with each other and cannot be separated. Shi Dakai also keenly realized that Zeng Guofan was arrogant and competitive, and the development of the war situation might make his canoe break away from the ship formation and take the lead in breaking into Duyang Lake. So as long as the camera blocks the river, the enemy ship and the dinghy can be separated and clearly distinguished. So Shi Dakai ordered that the gap on the raft should not be repaired temporarily, and the enemy's movements should be monitored in situ. Unsurprisingly, Zeng Guofan regarded Shi Dakai's decoy strategy as a sign of Taiping rebels' inability to resist. He ordered 120 boats carrying more than 3,000 sailors to enter Duyang Lake through the gap in the raft. When Shi Dakai saw the enemy's success, he immediately ordered the river to be blocked. Overnight, two floating rafts magically appeared on the Hukou River, splitting the enemy navy fleet in two. At the same time, dozens of Taiping ships loaded with firewood and saltpeter rushed into the Xiang fleet outside the river and set it on fire. At that time, the river at the mouth of the lake was ablaze, just like a fierce battle in Chibi, Wuwei. Due to the lack of ship cooperation, Xiang's ships were out of order, most of them were burned, and the rest fled in panic. A canoe that rushed into Poyang Lake learned that the Waijiang fleet was burned and quickly turned its bow to rescue it. At this time, the retreat had already been blocked, and under the fierce attack of the Taiping Army, it suffered the same fate as the big ship. At the Battle of Hukou, the Taiping Army won a great victory, thus reversing the War of the Western Expedition. In the Tianjing incident, everyone in Shi Dakai disputed Shi Dakai. Some people think that he is an alien who has infiltrated the revolutionary ranks, planning separatist activities for a long time, and even mentioning him with Wei Changhui, a "northern evil"; Others think he is a tragic figure with mixed merits and demerits. Among them, the most controversial is his performance before and after the Tianjing Incident. In order to evaluate Shi Dakai more objectively, it is necessary for us to know about Shi Dakai before and after Tianjing Incident. The author tries to discuss it from three aspects. 1. Did Shi Dakai participate in Zhu Yang's secret discussion? Some people think that Shi Dakai participated in the secret meeting with Wei Changhui. The main basis is Li Xiucheng's self-report: "The east, the north and the wings are not harmonious, but the north wing is United. One was angry with the East, and then the North King killed the East King. It turned out that the North (King) and the Wing King conspired and killed the East King alone. Because the East King was sincere and had too much power, he had to force the heavenly king to seal him long live ",thus inferring this conclusion. However, when we turn to Shi Dakai's self-report, we get such an account: "Yang Ping was arrogant and domineering, and Wei Changhui was repeatedly humiliated. In seven years, the letter of civil strife in Hubei was widely heard. Wei Changhui asked Hong Xiuquan to punish Yang, but Hong Xiuquan refused. He added Yang's fake name, but Wei Changhui refused to accept it and killed Yang. Dakai returned to Jinling and wanted to talk to them. Hong Xiuquan has doubts about stopping Wei Changhui. Dakai went to Anhui by mistake, and his wife and children stayed in Jinling, all of which were killed by Wei Changhui. Dakaifu returned to Jinling from Anhui, and Hong Xiuquan killed Wei Changhui with the intention of murdering Dakaifu and then escaped from Jinling. " It is clearly written in Shi Dakai's Self-Report that Wei returned to Jinling after killing Yang, also to "talk to them". This is quite different from the account in Li Xiucheng's self-report. I think Shi Dakai's self-report is basically credible. He didn't participate in the secret discussion of Yang at all. The reasons are as follows: (1) When the Tianjing Incident happened, Li Xiucheng just went to Zhenjiang, Jiangsu with Qin Ri, but he was not in Beijing at that time. His news may have been heard indirectly. At that time, Li's official position was still small, so it was impossible to know the inside story of the incident. Li was probably released according to Wei Changhui (who was in power at that time). In order to justify their actions, Wei Changhui and his gang probably described the killing of Yang as Hong Xiuquan's acquiescence, and Shi Dakai supported it, because Shi Dakai's position in the eyes of the military and civilians at that time was very high, which can be seen from the title of "righteous king". Besides, Li Xiucheng's accomplice in Wei Changhui's Qin Rigang department at this time is more likely. (2) As we all know, Li Xiucheng's Self-Report was written in a cage. In order to save his life, Li proposed "Ten Points of Surrender" to Zeng Guofan, shamelessly calling the suppression of Zeng Guofan, the executioner of Taiping Army, "a great boon in the main hall". In this account, Li probably tried to exaggerate the internal contradictions of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom leading group to cater to the Qing rulers and set off Li Xiucheng's supreme achievements. (3) Later, after Shi Dakai left, Hong Xiuquan and others pushed the responsibility of leaving to Shi himself, which probably distorted the facts and found the necessary basis for them to force Shi Dakai away. Visible, Shi Dakai did not participate in the "Tianjing incident" in the secret discussion about Yang, and did not participate in the killing of Dong. Second, who is responsible for Shi Dakai's resignation? Some people say that Shi Dakai's departure is a separatist activity, trying to dominate one side, and putting the responsibility of leaving Tianjing entirely on Shi Dakai. The author thinks that after the Tianjing incident, Shi Dakai always focused on the overall situation, but Hong Xiuquan's performance was disappointing. When Wei Changhui killed the Shi Dakai family, Hong didn't take any protective measures, not even a symbolic gesture. Shi Garrison Ningguo asked Hong to dispose of Wei Changhui, and Hong Congshi asked to be killed in Wei Changhui for one month. According to mcgowan, a foreigner, in the end, Hong saw that all morale belonged to him and he "had to obey his ideas". Please pay attention to the word "submission". Hong's intention is obvious. He used Wei to contain Shi Dakai and profit from it. Hong wants to kill Wei, why not kill Wei Changhui with the support of the broad masses of soldiers and civilians? After the incident, it was "the United States and North Korea raised their wings to handle government affairs, and everyone was happy, but the master was unhappy and dedicated it to the second king of Anfu", with the intention of "forcing the wing king." In this case, Shi Dakai's departure is the best way to ease contradictions and avoid large-scale war, which of course means saving his life. Who can guarantee that even if the king doesn't kill Shi Dakai, the two kings of Anfu won't kill Shi Dakai for their own benefit? In this way, the responsibility for Shi Dakai's departure lies entirely with Hong Xiuquan and others, not Shi Dakai himself. Three, about Shi Dakai's intention to leave some people say that Shi Dakai's intention to leave is to engage in independence and betray the revolution. The author thinks this view is worthy of criticism. Shi Dakai has always been loyal to the revolution, even after he left, he still thought about the anti-Qing tasks of "encouraging the Lord's grace" and "unifying the Taiping Day and inviting God's grace". I think it is inappropriate to say that it is a betrayal of the revolution to reform some systems of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom after Shi left. The system of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is not sacred, but also has drawbacks. It is necessary to carry out some beneficial reforms. If Shi Dakai wants to be independent, why not use its heavy forces in Tianjing instead of Hong Xiuquan to launch a military coup, occupy the imperial city of Jinling, which is "eyeing up", and take the natural barrier of the Yangtze River as the dominant party to explore the southwest? Shi's real intention is to "occupy Sichuan for a long time", seize Chengdu, an important town in the southwest, and compete with the Qing army for the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, so that the upper, middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River can be connected in a line, which can not only cut off the ties between the northern and southern Qing armies, but also use the favorable conditions of the "land of abundance" to expand the power of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. Once the situation changes and the East and the West jointly attack Beijing, there is a great possibility of success. Shi Dakai left with two hundred thousand chosen men, which shows that Shi is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, and also shows that the soldiers support Shi Dakai's strategy. Imagine: If Shi Dakai crossed the Dadu River and captured Chengdu (it was entirely possible at that time). If the water in the Dadu River doesn't soar, then I think the history of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom should be rewritten. The contingency of things plays a very important role here. Although Shi Dakai's plan failed, materialists never regard success or failure as a hero. In this way, Shi Dakai is a tragic hero with persistent pursuit and complete loyalty to the revolution.