In the previous article, we introduced the top five of the top ten generals of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and today we will continue to take stock of the remaining six, the sixth of which is Wei Changhui.
Wei Changhui: One of the early leaders of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom born in Guangxi, and one of the Five Heavenly Kings of Shouyi. He had a close relationship with Feng Yunshan, the founder of the Church of God, so he joined the Church of God.
During the Jintian Uprising, he poured all his family wealth to build ** and made a lot of preparations for the uprising. He fought in the north and south, and made a significant contribution to the stability of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
He had a great influence among the Taiping army and the masses, so much so that the Qing Dynasty regarded him as a "rebel", and placed his status above Hong Xiuquan in many twists and turns.
In December 1851, he was made King of the North and 6,000 years old for his meritorious service. He is best known for executing the "Tianjing Incident". In 1856, according to Hong Xiuquan's secret order, he led his subordinates back to Tianjing, attacked the Dongwang Mansion, and killed Yang Xiuqing and his entire family.
Then he searched for Yang Xiuqing's relatives and subordinates throughout the city, and killed all the people related to Yang Xiuqing. This big ** lasted for two months, killing 20,000 people, including many high-ranking members of the Taiping Army, and was very cruel.
Wei Changhui's indiscriminate killing of innocents aroused the anger of the Tianjing military and civilians, and Shi Dakai left Tianjing in order to avoid the disaster. Wei Changhui killed his family in retaliation for Shi Dakai's accusations.
Shi Dakai rebelled in Anqing and asked Hong Xiuquan to kill Wei Changhui. In order to appease the anger of the public, Hong Xiuquan could only execute Wei Changhui. In the end, Wei Changhui, who was only 31 years old, was split by five horses.
Yang Fuqing: From the general of the rebel army to the prince who was executed by Ling Chi Yang Fuqing, a native of Guiping, Guangxi, is the younger brother of Yang Xiuqing. Because of his relationship with Yang Xiuqing, he participated in the Jintian Uprising and became the emperor of the country.
Guozong was equivalent to a prince in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, specifically referring to the brother of the "Heavenly King", who had no real power but a very high status. Most of the monarchs of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom were mediocre people, but Yang Fuqing was not.
He participated in many military activities of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, fought many victorious battles, and made many contributions to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and was one of the rare generals within the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
When the "Tianjing Incident" broke out, after Wei Changhui killed Yang Xiuqing, the king of the East, he wantonly hunted and killed Yang Xiuqing's clansmen, as Yang Xiuqing's brother, Yang Fuqing was naturally in the list of killings.
He was leading his troops out and running, so he escaped. After Wei Changhui was killed, because of the discord between Hong Xiuquan and Yang Xiuqing, he did not dare to return to Beijing, so he chose to follow Shi Dakai, who left Tianjing.
Later, Hong Xiuquan rehabilitated Yang Xiuqing, and Yang Fuqing left Shi Dakai and chose to return to Hong Xiuquan. He participated in the second attack on the Jiangnan camp of the Qing army, and successfully suppressed the rebellion of Wei Changhui's younger brother, and was named the auxiliary king by Hong Xiuquan.
After the fall of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Yang Fuqing successfully escaped, he came to Shanghai incognito, after the rumors passed, he returned to Guangxi, and then traveled to many places, united with heroes from all walks of life, ready to make a comeback.
However, Yang Fuqing's dream did not come true. In 1874, Japan invaded Taiwan, and the Qing Dynasty recruited troops in the provinces. Yang Fuqing felt that the time was ripe and was ready to blend into the Qing army and wait for an opportunity to create an uprising.
As a result, he was betrayed and was in Fujian**. Later, Yang Fuqing confessed to his past experience. In July of the same year, the Taiping Heavenly Prince, who had endured for ten years, was executed by Ling Chi.
His story makes people lament the cruelty of history and the impermanence of life.
Zeng Tianyang, a native of Wuyuan County, Guangxi Province, was a famous general of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and was known as one of the "Five Tiger Generals".
He joined the Society of God when he was young, and after the Jintian Uprising, he began to fight in the north and south, bravely and well, and had the courage of ten thousand people, and was promoted to five levels in a row by virtue of his outstanding military exploits within half a year.
After the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom established the capital, it began a vigorous Northern Expedition, the goal of the Northern Expedition was to capture Yanjing, the capital of the Qing Dynasty, and the commanders of the Northern Expeditionary Army were Zeng Tianyang and Lin Fengxiang, who was also a general of the Five Tigers.
The Northern Expedition War was definitely the glory of the Taiping Army, under the leadership of Zeng Tianyang and Lin Fengxiang, the Northern Expeditionary Army won successive battles, even several cities, invincible in the Central Plains, such as entering the realm of no one, deeply shocked the Qing Dynasty, and the Xianfeng Emperor almost followed in the footsteps of Emperor Chongzhen.
However, due to the in-depth solitary army of the Northern Expeditionary Army and the lack of logistical supplies, in winter, the soldiers could not stand the severe cold in the north, and their combat effectiveness declined.
After suffering losses with hundreds of thousands of troops led by Seng Lingqin, Zeng Tianyang had no choice but to withdraw to Gaotang Prefecture to wait for reinforcements, and in March 1855, Lin Fengxiang was captured, and then escorted back to Beijing Lingchi to be executed.
In May, the reinforcements had not arrived, and Zeng Tianyang's station was flooded by Monk Greenqin, and the soldiers' bodies were soaked in water. He couldn't bear to watch the soldiers suffer, so he wanted to take the opportunity to break out of the siege, but he didn't expect Monk Greenqin to see through it, capture him when he surrendered, and then escort him to Beijing.
After being escorted back to Beijing, Zeng Tianyang was executed by Ling Chi! There were also five generals who were punished together! In the face of torture, they all raised their eyebrows and looked around angrily, showing contempt for the enemy and heroic unyielding spirit.
What a hero!
Zeng Tianyang, a native of Guiping, Guangxi, who is more than 100 and a half years old, is an outlier general in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. Although he was already over half a hundred years old when he participated in the Jintian Uprising, this did not affect his achievements.
His people are tall and strong, and his arm strength is outstanding, even if he is old, he is still fierce and abnormal, and is known as the "flying general". After the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was established as the capital, as the vanguard of the Western Expeditionary Army, he was invincible along the way, passed the test, and made great achievements, and the soldiers admired him very much.
His bravery and tenacity are awe-inspiring. However, even such heroes cannot resist the ruthlessness of fate. In 1854, Jiang Zhongyuan arrived in Luzhou, Zeng Tianyang led the Taiping army into Luzhou, the city of Luzhou was broken, and Jiang Zhongyuan, a generation of feudal officials, committed suicide by throwing himself into the water.
After Zeng Tianyang broke through Luzhou, he and Wei Jun jointly defeated the Qing army, killing more than 4,000 Qing troops, and Wu Wenrong, the governor of Huguang, committed suicide. After that, Zeng Guofan, who cooperated with other Taiping military departments, committed suicide by throwing himself into the lake twice.
However, when the Taiping Army was at its peak, due to Yang Xiuqing's improper use of personnel, the main force of 20,000 troops of the Western Expeditionary Army was killed. The situation on the battlefield took a sharp turn, the main force of the Western Expeditionary Army was almost killed, and the only available people were more than 4,000 people led by Zeng Tianyang, while the Hunan army had nearly 20,000 people, and the Taiping army was in a difficult situation.
Even when the enemy was outnumbered, Zeng Tianyang also defeated the Qing army several times and killed Chu Ruhang, who was known as the first fierce general of the Hunan army.
However, the disparity between the forces of the two sides, the Qing army continued to reinforce the army, and finally because of his advanced age, when he fought with Taqib in front of the battle, he was physically exhausted, accidentally fell off his horse, and was killed by the Hunan army that surrounded him, and his head was cut off, and the 64-year-old veteran died on the battlefield.
His bravery and loyalty will always be remembered in the hearts of the people.
Wei Jun: The younger brother of Wei Changhui, the northern king of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, was both wise and brave, and went to Wuchang three times, and became famous for a while. After the Jintian Uprising, he followed Hong Xiuquan all the way north and made many military exploits.
Especially after capturing Wuchang for the third time, he defended Wuchang City, repelled the Qing army, captured Hu Linyi alive, and ordered the Qing army to implement a long-term siege and long-term siege strategy for Wuchang, and both sides were miserable.
However, after the outbreak of the Tianjing Incident, Hong Xiuquan divided Wei Changhui's five horses into corpses in order to calm the anger of the public, and Wei Jun was also suspicious of Hong Xiuquan, and the promised reinforcements were delayed.
Wei Jun knew that Hong Xiuquan had given up on him and Wuchang City, and that there was a shortage of food and grass in the city, so he finally chose to surrender to the Qing Dynasty. After the surrender, the Qing Dynasty reused him, and he also made great contributions when attacking Anqing.
However, when he returned to his hometown of Jintian, he was considered a traitor by the villagers and scolded him as "anti-Gu Wei XII". In the end, he spent his old age in Wuhu, Anhui Province, and died at the age of 57.