The tragedy of the eight generals of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the head falling to the ground during the banquet, the historical mystery behind it
Historical Records"Hongmen Banquet"tells the story of the banquet between Xiang Yu and Liu Bang, two famous anti-Qin generals. The story takes place in 206 BC, Xiang Yu specially set up a banquet to kill Liu Bang, but Liu Bang was already preparing. Xiang Yu was indecisive and finally let Liu Bang go, and the war between the two began. Hence the classic saying:"People are swordsmen, and I am fish and meat"。
Since then, the Hongmen Banquet has become"Killing game"is synonymous with , often referring to people who die nine times and live a life. The Hongmen Banquet we are going to talk about today took place at the end of the Qing Dynasty during the reign of Cixi.
In 1863, the Qing army and the Taiping army clashed at full speed, and the two armies were at loggerheads. But Li Hongzhang effortlessly took the city of Suzhou, why is this? It turned out that Li Hongzhang had long been at odds with the eight generals of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and the eight generals handed over Suzhou City to Li Hongzhang. So, how did Li Hongzhang get their support?
In the history of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, there were two major generals, King Ying and King Zhong, who were the mainstays of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's anti-Qing rebellion, and the general sent by the Qing Dynasty to suppress the Taiping Army was Zeng Guofan. In 1861, Zeng Guofan and Chen Yucheng's army fought a bloody battle in Anqing, but who knew that it was a conspiracy to eliminate the Taiping rebels? Just when Zeng Guofan and Chen Yucheng were fighting each other, Li Xucheng took the opportunity to seize the Suzhou and Hangzhou regions and establish a base in southern Jiangsu.
Cixi was shocked by the launch of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and ordered Zeng Guofan to go east again to suppress the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. Zeng Guofan said that the Hunan army had suffered heavy losses in the previous battles, the strength of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was not yet known, and a rapid march would only be in vain, so he suggested that the Hunan army take a temporary rest for a while. During this period, Li Hongzhang stepped forward, took the initiative to ask for battle, and took the initiative to ask Ying to lead the army to Suzhou, Hangzhou and other places.
Li Hongzhang spent a period of time studying foreign technology and understanding their power. Therefore, when he asked for troops and was approved, he first returned to his hometown to organize elite troops, then negotiated with the British Gordon, and finally withdrew the camp and sent troops. They took foreign ships and carried foreign guns as far as Shanghai. The Empress Dowager Cixi often heard the good news of Li Hongzhang and was overjoyed in the temple. Subsequently, Li Hongzhang went to Taicang, Kunshan and other places, and finally approached the south of Suzhou - the Suzhou base.
When Li Xiucheng heard that Li Hongzhang's army was approaching Suzhou, he immediately transferred his troops back to the camp. On the way back to Suzhou, there was fighting in the area where the Huai army was located. During the battle, Li Xiucheng ordered reinforcements to Suzhou, but the generals who knew that they had received the news ignored them, but Li Xiucheng did not send a single soldier, and finally Li Xiucheng was defeated.
Although Li Xiucheng has been defeated, it is obviously impossible for Li Hongzhang to easily capture Suzhou City, and if he directly attacks Suzhou now, Li Hongzhang himself will have to pay a heavy price, which Li Hongzhang does not want to see. Li Xiucheng is also in a dilemma now, because when he withdrew his troops back to Suzhou, he found that although the eight generals in Suzhou had many soldiers and horses, they did not have the idea of resisting foreign enemies, and there were only"Old Guangxi"Tan Shaoguang still has patriotic beliefs, so when he was evacuating Suzhou, Li Xiucheng specially instructed Lao Guangxi to accompany the soldiers in the city every step of the way! When Li Xiucheng evacuated Suzhou, he specially instructed Lao Guangxi to monitor the every move of the generals in the city to prevent them from treason.
At the same time, the Englishman Gordon-Lee presented a plan to Li Hongzhang. He suggested that Li Hongzhang use the method of recruiting troops to negotiate with the main generals in Suzhou, and Li Hongzhang decided to give it a try. However, he did not expect this strategy to work well, and eight major generals agreed to surrender. In order to ensure the effective implementation of the conscription policy, Li Hongzhang specially sent negotiators and chose the initial surrender of Cheng Xueqi's Taiping army. After Cheng Xueqi arrived in Suzhou, he immediately told the eight generals about the friendship of compatriots, and the two sides talked very happily, and the negotiations went very smoothly. Coupled with the fact that the Englishman Gordon had tried to use himself as a guarantor in this matter, the eight generals immediately decided to surrender.
However, one of them, Tan Shaoguang, the king of Mu, disagreed with everyone's opinion and refused to betray the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. Therefore, at the last meeting of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, he still refused to surrender and persuaded everyone not to pull back from the precipice. However, the overall situation has been decided, and Tan Shaoguang, the king of Mu, has no power to return to heaven, and everyone finally dedicated him to Li Hongzhang.
According to the agreement, the eight generals also dedicated the city of Suzhou to Li Hongzhang. For the sake of expression"Thank you", Li Hongzhang personally went to the camp to report the victory and reward Qing**. In this way, the eight generals did not bring a single soldier to Li Hongzhang's camp. They hung their official uniforms in their tents, stunned to think that victory and wealth were within reach. But who knows, just as they were trying on clothes, they were suddenly surrounded by a group of officers and soldiers, and eight heads were cut off by axe-wielding hands, and the Taiping army was killed by Li Hongzhang without leaving a piece of armor. So far, Li Hongzhang did not kill a single soldier and captured the city of Suzhou.
Sugar bomb as bait, arsenic as sword,"Hongmen Banquet"It has always been a favorite intrigue of emperors, generals, and politicians. There are also many in life"Hongmen Banquet"While we are benefited, we must also be wary of the traps buried in it. This is the lesson of history.