Li Hongzhang planned to break through from the inside and successfully recruit the eight generals of the Taiping Army, but these generals did not enjoy the glory and wealth as they wished, but fell into danger. In 1863, Li Hongzhang served as the governor of Jiangsu and led the Qing army from Shanghai to capture the city of Suzhou.
At the same time, the British official Gordon also led the "Changsheng Army" to assist the Qing army, and they cooperated with the "Changsheng Army", the predecessor of Wall's "Foreign Gun Team", with the primary goal of capturing the city of Suzhou, the capital of Jiangsu Province.
At that time, Suzhou City had become the base of Li Xiucheng, the loyal king of the Taiping Army, for many years, and it was also an important stronghold of the Taiping Army in the southern region of Jiangsu. In addition to the Tianwang Mansion in Tianjing, the Chung Wangfu is one of the most luxurious and magnificent mansions in the country.
According to common sense, Li Xiucheng should sit in Suzhou and desperately resist foreign aggression. However, at this time, Tianjing was also facing a major crisis, and Li Xiucheng had to turn back to Tianjing and hand over the city of Suzhou to his subordinate Tan Shaoguang, the king of Suzhou.
Tan Shaoguang is from Jintian Township and has participated in the Jintian Uprising since he was sixteen years old. In addition to Tan Shaoguang, there are eight generals such as Gao Yongkuan, Wang Anjun, Wu Guiwen, Zhou Wenjia, Fan Qifa, Zhang Dazhou, Wang Youwei, and Wang Huaban stationed in Suzhou City.
After Gordon occupied Hushu Pass, he successfully captured some strongholds around the Taiping army. In this way, all access to Suzhou was cut off by Gordon, except for the mountain paths, and his aim was to isolate the Taiping army in the city.
Both the Qing army and Gordon hoped to capture the city of Suzhou at minimal cost. The deputy general Gao Yongkuan already had the idea of surrendering, so he focused on Tan Shaoguang to persuade him to surrender.
However, Tan Shaoguang did not accept the persuasion to surrender, but more actively purged the army and prepared for war. Seeing that there was no hope of persuasion, Gordon decided to use a sneak attack instead.
On November 27, Gordon planned to take advantage of the darkness to launch an attack on Shi Lei outside the building. But unfortunately, this action was detected by Tan Shaoguang in advance, and he immediately led the elite soldiers to resist.
Thus, the Battle of Suzhou officially began.
In the fierce battle, Tan Shao commanded his men barefoot and shirtless with great determination and courage, and their heroic performance was admirable. Gordon's victorious army suffered an unprecedented defeat in this battle, losing more than 200 men, the first major setback since Gordon assumed command of the victorious army.
The siege of the Qing army, as the main force, did not go well, and the capture of Suzhou became more and more difficult. Faced with this situation, Li Hongzhang thought of a strategy of surrender.
He knew that his subordinate Zheng Guokui and Gao Yongkuan, the deputy general of the Tianping Army, were once brothers, so he ordered Zheng Guokui to persuade Gao Yongkuan to surrender. Zheng Guokui was a unique figure, he was a smuggler of salt, and later joined Li Hongzhang's Huai army.
During his time in the Taiping Army, he became acquainted with some of Li Xiucheng's subordinates. This time, he was ordered to infiltrate the city of Suzhou and persuade the lieutenants to surrender. In fact, the eight lieutenant generals who controlled the city of Suzhou were not all Tan Shaoguang's henchmen, and they had long had the idea of surrendering to the Qing army.
Zheng Guokui's appearance gave them a chance to take refuge.
In the deep night, a small boat quietly sailed on Yangcheng Lake in the northeast of Suzhou City. Li Hongzhang's subordinate Cheng Xueqi, accompanied by the foreigner Gordon, secretly met with Gao Yongkuan, Wang Anjun and others, the deputy generals in Suzhou City, to discuss the strategy of surrender.
Cheng Xueqi didn't know where he came from, and actually proposed to them that if he killed Tan Shaoguang and gave up Suzhou City, he would make them "second-rank military attachés". However, the two officials who were obsessed with ** actually believed this lie.
Cheng Xueqi's official position has not yet reached the level of Li Hongzhang, where did he get the power to make them second-class officials? This is a big lie.
Swear to defend the city to the death, and the blood alliance will not regret it. Vice generals Cheng Xueqi and Gao Yongkuan exchanged birthdays and became friends of life and death. However, the rebel general's plan to dedicate the city was rejected by Li Hongzhang, who only wanted the death of King Tan Shaoguang.
As a result, the lieutenants reworked their assassination plans. Although Tan Shaoguang had heard the news of the surrender, he didn't know that these people were the deputy generals. He decided to convene a meeting to discuss the strategy of counter-surrender.
At a high-level military meeting in the Suzhou Palace, Tan Shaoguang, the king of Mu, had a fierce quarrel with Wang Anjun, the king of Kang. Suddenly, Wang Anjun got up angrily, took off his court clothes in public, and pulled out a dagger and stabbed Tan Shaoguang's neck.
Tan Shaoguang was caught off guard and fell to the ground and died. The other lieutenants immediately stepped forward to grab Tan Shaoguang and cut off his head. On the evening of the same day, the adjutant general Gao Yongkuan presented Tan Shaoguang's head to Li Hongzhang, and the city gate of Suzhou was opened to accept the surrender.
Tan Shaoguang's direct officers put up desperate resistance, they surrounded their wives and children in the middle, and broke through to the west gate of Suzhou. However, in the process of breaking out, they suffered heavy losses, and only a few thousand soldiers managed to break through.
After Gao Yongkuan and others surrendered, they thought they were high and powerful, and they were pretentious. Without shaving their hair and surrendering their military powers, they made various demands to Li Hongzhang's subordinate Cheng Xueqi, including taking up the position of chief soldier, demanding that the city of Jiangsu be divided into two and managed by them in half, and demanding two months' military salaries.
Cheng Xueqi originally showed power and courage when he was a second-rank official, but in the face of these specific requirements, he seemed to have no power and no courage, and said that he needed to consult Li Hongzhang.
However, when he came to Li Hongzhang's tent at night, he first raised the eight lieutenants as unreliable and suggested that they be killed as soon as possible. As a civil official, Li Hongzhang has a higher official rank than Cheng Xueqi, and he has reservations about killing and surrendering.
He is well aware that killing and surrendering will cause great damage in terms of credibility and personality.
Cheng Xueqi angrily reprimanded Li Hongzhang, fearing that the fake surrender would trigger a mutiny. After Li Hongzhang was enraged, the two reached an agreement to kill and surrender. Li Hongzhang decided to hold a banquet to meet with the eight deputy generals, and rewarded Gao Yongkuan as the chief soldier in person.
The eight lieutenants did not take precautions and happily went to the banquet. Li Hongzhang pretended to read out the list of rewards and invited them to the table to celebrate.
At a banquet, Li Hongzhang suddenly received an urgent letter and took the opportunity to leave for a while. When he returned, the eight lieutenants were enjoying their wines, unaware of his departure.
At this time, eight soldiers wearing Qing Dynasty official uniforms walked in, knelt in front of the banquet, and respectfully asked Li Hongzhang to change his official uniform. The lieutenant generals were in a state of drunkenness and began to take off the court clothes of the Taiping army.
However, the eight soldiers quickly drew their daggers from under their official uniforms and stabbed at the lieutenants, just as suddenly as they had assassinated Tan Shaoguang in the first place. In the blink of an eye, the eight lieutenants were in different places, and they didn't even have time to put down their chopsticks.
After the lieutenant was killed, their subordinates found out that they had been deceived and began to fight to the death against the Qing army. However, due to the lack of clear leadership of the generals, they could only fight on their own, and the Qing army was fully prepared.
A tragic ** was staged in Suzhou City, and 100,000 elite troops were annihilated in a short time. General Gordon angrily accused Li Hongzhang, and the square under the twin towers was full of blood and piles of corpses, which was shocking.
In the river near the city of Suzhou, there were mountains of Taiping corpses, and the Qing army had to hire boatmen to push the corpses into the large river outside the city to dredge the blocked river.
Although some women were lucky enough to escape, they became prisoners of the Qing army and suffered from them. Such a tragic situation is heartbreaking. After Li Hongzhang surrendered in Suzhou City, he was rewarded by the Qing court with the title of Prince Shaobao, and he was proud of it.
In the letter, he said to Zeng Guoquan: "I was able to capture the city of Suzhou because of human strength......I am grateful to the court for rewarding me. However, this cruelty cannot hide the harm it has done to the people, let alone erase the memory of this **.
Gordon was thrilled when he received the news that eight lieutenants had been killed. He has always respected the spirit of contract, so he is very angry at Li Hongzhang's behavior.
He received the news from Margery, and Gao Yongkuan's uncle came to see him and asked him to protect Gao Yongkuan's family. This uncle is the ** of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and his status is lower than Gao Yongkuan.
When Gordon heard the news, he was even more furious, and he immediately arranged to personally lead the family members of Nawang Gao Yongkuan through the street and send troops to protect them.
Hearing is false, seeing is believing. Gordon decided to go to the other side of the Grand Canal in Suzhou himself. He saw several wrecks and severed heads, one of which he recognized as Gao Yongkuan's.
The more Gordon thought about it, the more angry he became, as a "witness", but he was "backtracked" by Li Hongzhang. He decided to immediately go to Li Hongzhang with his head to ask for clarification and an explanation.
Gordon's plan may have been a little unrealistic, but his heart was filled with anger against Li Hongzhang. He felt that his honor and the honor of the British Empire would be wiped out because of Li Hongzhang's actions.
In the first step, he planned to arrive at Li Hongzhang's base camp directly by steamer, arrest him by force, and then force him to abandon his official position and abandon the seal. In the second step, he planned to submit a letter to the Qing court, accusing Li Hongzhang of indiscriminate killing of innocents and treacherous crimes.
If Li Hongzhang refused, Gordon planned to return the various cities in Jiangsu that he had conquered for the Qing army to the Taiping army as a way to compensate for Li Hongzhang's sins.
In the face of Gordon's threat, Li Hongzhang chose to avoid it, and he invited Margery to mediate. Li Hongzhang argued that the killing of the kings was also out of helplessness, and he originally intended to be lenient, but the other party put forward unacceptable conditions, and claimed that if he did not comply, he would not surrender.
When Margery learned of this, he immediately rushed to Gordon's tent, hoping to persuade him not to carry out an ultimatum against Li Hongzhang. Gordon had Gao Yongkuan's head on his desk, and it was obvious that he was dissatisfied with Li Hongzhang.
After Gordon's mood eased, Margery conveyed Li Hongzhang's words in the hope that he would consider the possibility of a greater war and chaos in China, as well as the impact of Sino-British diplomatic relations.
However, Gordon insisted on his opinion, and Margery feared that he would retaliate against Li Hongzhang's base camp, so he sent people to Li Hongzhang's base camp as soon as possible, and was on guard.
On December 10, Li Hongzhang sent his cronies to visit Gordon to apologize. However, Gordon asked Li Hongzhang to admit his mistake in writing. In this regard, Li Hongzhang said that this matter is only China's internal affair and has nothing to do with foreign countries, and he cannot admit his mistake for Gordon because of this.
This shows that there was a contradiction between the foreigners and the Qing army. Despite this, the foreigner Gordon was not depressed for too long because of the Suzhou killing turmoil. Soon after, he received the expected benefits.
In order to improve his relationship with Gordon, Li Hongzhang changed his attitude towards the "ever-victorious army" and made very thoughtful arrangements for their military supplies, ringing silver, and their lives. Li Hongzhang added Xiangyin and gave pensions to wounded and disabled soldiers.
After a series of efforts, Gordon's view of Li Hongzhang changed slightly and agreed to ease the relationship between the two sides.
So, on February 1 of the following year, Gordon and Hurd visited Li Hongzhang at the Futai Yamen in Suzhou. During this time, the three had a relatively friendly conversation.
Li Hongzhang, on the other hand, frankly stated that he was personally responsible for the execution of the eight lieutenants, completely exempting Gordon from responsibility. Li Hongzhang emphasized that these Taiping rebels were killed, and they were all to blame.
Moreover, at the time of the execution of these rebels, Gordon had already traveled to Kunshan, and even though Li Hongzhang wanted to inform him, he was too short of time to do so. Gordon expressed satisfaction with this and said that he would not pursue the issue again.
In addition, Gordon also understood that if he abandoned his cooperation with Li Hongzhang, other powers might take advantage of the opportunity to enter and lead to the British Empire's interests in the area. Moreover, he heard that some of his "victorious army" were interested in defecting to the Taiping army.
He knew that if the relationship with Li Hongzhang was not properly handled, many people in the Changsheng army would defect to the Taiping army, and the situation would be even more turbulent and unfavorable to British interests.
Therefore, no matter from which point of view, Gordon felt that it was necessary to resolve the contradiction and support Li Hongzhang's actions. According to Hong Kong**, France will undoubtedly be happy despite the refusal of Britain to cooperate further with the Qing**.
Gordon believed that France might provide the supplies needed by the Qing army and act as the Qing army demanded. Moreover, Gordon also knew that whatever he did, he was likely to be severely criticized by the authorities; And no matter what Li Hongzhang does, ** will support him.
After the rapprochement between Gordon and Li Hongzhang, the Qing army and foreigners also quickly recovered Wuxi after successfully recovering Fuzhou. Li Hongzhang commanded his army and attacked on two fronts.
One main force attacked Changzhou, and the other pointed directly at Pingwang Town in the north of Wujiang, and hoped to further capture Huzhou in Zhejiang through the occupation of Pingwang Town.
However, Changzhou was well walled and fortified, and Li Hongzhang's Qing army lacked a strong heavy **, so it could not be conquered in a short time.
After careful consideration, Li Hongzhang thought of Gordon and his flowering cannon. He quickly resumed his partnership with Gordon and asked him for artillery support. With Gordon's help, the artillery successfully reached the front line, providing strong fire support for the Qing army's offensive.
The city wall of Changzhou was blasted open, and the Qing army quickly occupied the city head and gained the upper hand. This incident made Li Hongzhang and his subordinates once again deeply realize the advanced ** of the West.