Translated from reference material.
elleman, bruce a. (2005). modern chinese warfare, 1795-1989. routledge
perry, elizabeth j. (15 august 2016). "worshipers and warriors". modern china
perry, elizabeth j. (1980). rebels and revolutionaries in north china, 1845-1945. stanford, california: stanford university press.
The rebels were largely desperate poor peasants who formed bandit gangs in order to survive. However, as natural disasters intensified, these bandit groups grew in size and eventually became armies capable of directly challenging **. However, the main interest of most members of the Twisted Army remained to plunder the wealth of wealthy regions.
American historian Elizabeth JPerry argues that the Twisting Army movement was "primarily an expression of secular survival strategies for poor peasants" who were never revolutionaries and lacked a clear goal other than "getting rid of corruption and the rich mouthpiece" and hope for a more just society. Some of the Twisters became real rebel movements, mainly due to the "ambition of individual Twisters to become legitimate rulers".
The Twist rebels were armed with a large number of guns (including advanced Western guns) and a large number of cannons weighing up to 5,000 pounds. In 1851, the Twisters began to loot the village's grain and silver depots. After the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom occupied Nanjing, some of the Twist Army leaders sought an alliance with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
Although Hong Xiuquan conferred the title of leader of the Twist Army, and the Twist Army and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom sometimes cooperated, the two forces never achieved full and coordinated cooperation. Examples of the Twist army defecting or joining the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom altogether are still rare, as most of the Twist armies are still bandit armies only interested in "immediate gain and survival".
In 1855, Zhang Lexing, the leader of the Twist Army, launched a direct attack on the official army in Central China. By the summer, the "well-trained, well-equipped, modern, and mobile" Twist Army had cut off the lines of communication between the Qing army in Beijing and the south to fight the Taiping rebels.
With rebellions breaking out across China, the Qing army was severely overwhelmed, and the Twist army was able to conquer large swaths of land and control important economic regions. The Twist Army fortified the captured cities and used them as a base to launch cavalry attacks on the Qing army in the countryside, prompting the local towns to strengthen their defenses against the attacks of the Twist Army. This led to constant fighting that devastated the previously wealthy provinces of Jiangsu and Hunan.
The failure of the Twist Army Rebellion to overthrow the Qing Dynasty was largely due to its failure to ally with other rebels, particularly the Taiping Rebellion. The Twist Army only symbolically supported the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, accepting the "appointment" of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, but refusing to carry out the orders of the Heavenly Kingdom. If the Twist Army fully cooperated with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and the European powers, the Qing Dynasty would face a huge threat.
Although the Twist Army failed to seize power, the rebellion dealt a heavy blow to the Qing Dynasty. Environmental disasters of 1851 and 1855 devastated China's wealthiest provinces, depriving the Qing regime of taxes and tariffs. The Twist Army fought endlessly with the Qing army, and extensively used scorched earth tactics, destroying the countryside and suffering countless casualties.
Although the Twist Army Rebellion was smaller in scale than the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, it severely drained the imperial court's finances, destroyed the richest regions of China, and left the Chinese economy in a very unstable state. In the long run, the rebellion was also one of the main factors that accelerated the decline and demise of the Qing Dynasty.
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