Li Xiucheng finally died heroically. Without his records of the last ten days, everyone would not see the real history of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom at all, because it would be biased to look only at the records of the Qing Dynasty. Finally, this record of Li Xiucheng restored the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom to some extent.
Li Xiucheng was captured.
1864, Ceng Guoquan, the general of Xiang army, led troops to attack Tianjing, the capital of Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, which is now Nanjing, and then Xiang army carried out a massacre in Tianjing. Zeng Guofan's younger brother, Zeng Guofan is the commander-in-chief of the Xiang army and a frontline expert. This family is both civil and military, which is very rare.
Hong Xiuquan died more than a month before Tianjing was breached, that is, in June of 1 year. After Hong Xiuquan's death, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was actually led by loyal Li Xiucheng. He should be regarded as the pillar of the late Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. At that time, there were constant internal disputes in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. The North King killed the East King, and then the Wing King came to kill the North King. Finally, Shi Dakai, the wing king, left with the main force, and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was weakened.
At the climax of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the Northern Expedition almost reached Beijing, but it was weakened after infighting. In the later period of Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Li Xiu, the loyal monarch, was the core, so it should be called the leading group. Of course, as we all know, King Chen Yucheng of England and a few kings who were good at fighting, but most of the generals were corrupt and didn't have as strong fighting capacity as during the uprising.
At that time, Li Xiucheng, a loyal soldier, led many expeditions and swept Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, laying a solid foundation in Suzhou and Hangzhou. He won Lien Chan and was invincible, but he was always held back by Hong Xiuquan. Li Xiucheng is a bit like Jiang Wei in the Three Kingdoms period. At that time, as long as Jiang Wei won, (Dou) shouted, Come back to Chengdu and protect me. Li Xiucheng, too, no matter how he wins battles outside, Hong Xiuquan always holds him back. As long as there is any trouble around, including digging trenches outside Tianjing, call Li Xiucheng back quickly. Li Xiucheng had no choice but to come back with his troops. Finally, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was at the end of its tether, and Li Xiucheng was stuck in Tianjing, where there was nothing to do.
After the death of Hong Xiuquan, Li Xiucheng was actually in charge of the whole state affairs. Li Xiucheng assisted Hong Xiuquan's youngest son to become the new king. At the last break, Li Xiucheng gave him his good horse, but no one escaped. Finally, the team broke up, and Li Xiucheng had to hide in a temple alone. He has a lot of treasures with him. Although he disguised himself as an ordinary citizen, he was discovered by local farmers and sent to the Qing army camp. After Li Xiucheng was captured in Tianjing, he was not taken to Beijing. Zeng Guofan executed Li Xiucheng directly in Tianjing without the order of the imperial court.
Why did Zeng Guofan kill Li Xiucheng?
Because after Li Xiucheng was arrested, he wrote a book, which recorded in detail the real situation of the war between Taiping Army and Qing Army, which was inconsistent with the letter submitted by Zeng Guofan to the court. Zeng Guofan was worried that the king knew he lied about his military situation, so he killed Li Xiucheng.
At the end of the Qing Dynasty, because of the fatuity of the imperial court, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom movement broke out among the people, and Zeng Guofan was ordered to go out to suppress the Taiping Army. After years of arduous war, Zeng Guofan won the victory and captured Li Xiucheng, the leader of the Taiping Army at that time. However, Zeng Guofan did not escort him into Beijing according to the rules, but executed him on the spot.
Li Xiucheng is the main leader of Taiping Army since Hong Xiuquan. Under his leadership, the Taiping Army fought for several years and finally ran out of ammunition and food. The main forces of Taiping Army were exhausted in several wars, and important generals were also captured. Li Xiucheng also became a prisoner and was put into Zeng Guofan's camp. According to the rules, Zeng Guofan asked Li Xiucheng a routine question. Li Xiucheng refused to answer all questions at first and was a stubborn fighter.
But a few days later, Li Xiucheng suddenly changed his tune. He asked Zeng Guofan to send pen and ink to himself, and everything could be recorded. Zeng Guofan accepted it gladly, but what he didn't expect was that what Li Xiucheng wrote was not a confession, but a detailed record of the development history of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement. In addition, many wars are described in detail.
After the Zeng Guofan brothers captured Tianjing, the court ordered Zeng Guofan to find out the vault of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and report it to the Ministry for preparation. However, the gold, silver and jewels left by the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom have already been looted by Zeng Guofan's brothers, leaving no trace. In order to explain to the court, Zeng Guofan wrote a report saying: "It is unheard of to take back the old nest without any goods, which is beyond the original intention of my officials."
If Li Xiucheng is escorted to Beijing, he knows the vault of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom like the back of his hand. Once the truth came out, Zeng Guofan committed the crime of deceiving the monarch. That is the great sin of genocide.
Zeng Guofan was immediately frightened to disgrace after seeing this record. It turned out that Zeng Guofan had been at war with Taiping rebels for many years and suffered dozens of defeats, big and small. In order not to be criticized by the king, Zeng Guofan basically reported good news without worrying, and sometimes wrote victory. After all, the mountain is high and the emperor is far away, so the king can't know everything. But now that Li Xiucheng has recorded all this, the book can be destroyed. But Li Xiucheng is a living man. If he is brought into the capital, it must be.
Empress Dowager Cixi knew it well, but because of Zeng Guofan's face, she didn't go into it.