The Taiping Rebellion was the largest peasant uprising in modern Chinese history, with many soldiers and generals, occupying half of China, and even showing the possibility of dominating the world.
However, the intensification of internal high-level contradictions led to the "Tianjing Incident" that shocked the world. This event brought the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom from prosperity to decline, and finally came to an end.
Yang Xiuqing and Wei Changhui, the king of the north, were the two protagonists of the "Tianjing Incident" and the decision-makers of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. Originally, it was planned to kill Yang Xiuqing, the king of the East, and his four brothers, but this big ** eventually led to the death of 20,000 people.
The culprit of all this is Wei Changhui, the king of the North, whose motive is only out of his own personal vendetta. So, what kind of hatred made Wei Changhui kill 20,000 people so brutally?
This incident eventually led to the demise of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. Let's dive into the causes and consequences of this tragedy.
Yang Xiuqing, a native of Guiping County, Guangxi, was born in poverty. The Worship of God was founded by Hong Xiuquan and Feng Yunshan, while Yang Xiuqing and Xiao Chaogui were the core figures in the early days of its establishment.
In 1848, Feng Yunshan** and Hong Xiuquan were in the field, and the Worship of God was in a state of leadership vacuum.
However, Yang Xiuqing stepped forward at this critical moment, taking advantage of the religious beliefs of the people in the remote mountainous areas of Guangxi, pretending to be the "Heavenly Father" to descend to earth, while Xiao Chaogui cooperated with him to pretend to be possessed by the "Heavenly Brother", which stabilized the morale of the army and saved the situation of the God Worship Society.
Therefore, Yang Xiuqing and Xiao Chaogui's status in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was second only to Hong Xiuquan. After the establishment of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Hong Xiuquan became the "Heavenly King", while Yang Xiuqing became the Eastern King, in charge of military power, and the other four kings were under his control, so he was the second-in-command in the Taiping army.
Although Yang Xiuqing is not highly educated, he has extraordinary bearing, decisive action, and excellent leadership skills. He did lead the Taiping army to many victories, and Yang Xiuqing contributed greatly to the vast country established by the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
Therefore, in the Taiping army, he enjoyed high prestige. After the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom established the capital of Tianjing, under the command of Yang Xiuqing, the Taiping army launched the Northern Expedition and the Western Expedition, defeating the Qing army again and again.
Later, they broke through the Qing army's Jiangbei camp and Jiangnan camp, and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom reached its peak at this time, and both sides of the Yangtze River, from Wuhan to Zhenjiang, were the territory of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
However, in the face of a huge victory, Yang Xiuqing became pretentious, no longer satisfied with the status of one person above ten thousand people, he wanted to be on an equal footing with Hong Xiuquan.
Because the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom believes in "worshipping God", according to the theory of worshipping God, Yang Xiuqing is the "Heavenly Father" and Hong Xiuquan is the "Heavenly King", that is to say, Hong Xiuquan is the son of Yang Xiuqing.
As a result, Yang Xiuqing often pretended to be the "Heavenly Father" to go down to earth, make things difficult for Hong Xiuquan in front of hundreds of civil and military officials, and forced Hong Xiuquan to crown himself as Long live, and his rebellious heart is known to everyone.
Although Hong Xiuquan was dissatisfied with Yang Xiuqing's behavior, Yang Xiuqing held great power in his hands, and Hong Xiuquan could only adopt a delaying strategy and promised Yang Xiuqing to hold a ceremony for the East King to live long live on Yang Xiuqing's birthday on 17 August.
The two protagonists of the "Tianjing Incident" are Yang Xiuqing and Wei Changhui.
Wei Changhui, born in Guiping County, Guangxi, has a wealthy family, and his father is a landlord with 200 acres of land. He was clever and well-behaved since he was a child, and he was good at showmanship and gambling. When Feng Yunshan developed the God Worship Society, he took a fancy to the Wei family's power and successfully persuaded the Wei family to join the God Worship Society.
During the Jintian Uprising, the Wei family father and son generously donated money and grain to provide cover, and made great contributions. Therefore, Wei Changhui was named the king of the north. After the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom established the capital of Tianjing, the watchtower of the North Wangfu became the command center of the soldiers in the city, and Wei Changhui was in charge of military command.
However, with Yang Xiuqing taking power, Wei Changhui was deprived of his military power, and he was indignant. Once, Wei Changhui's brother had a dispute with Yang Xiuqing's brother-in-law, and Yang Xiuqing asked Wei Changhui to divide his brother's five horses.
These events made Wei Changhui full of hatred for Yang Xiuqing. Wei Changhui knew that Yang Xiuqing was powerful, and pretended to be afraid on the surface, but secretly he was waiting for an opportunity. In the end, Wei Changhui launched the Tianjing Incident, personally eliminated Yang Xiuqing and Shi Dakai, and became the de facto ruler of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
Yang Xiuqing forced Hong Xiuquan to seal himself as long live, but Hong Xiuquan was dissatisfied in his heart, Shi Dakai was also dissatisfied with Yang Xiuqing's behavior, and Wei Changhui was extremely dissatisfied with Yang Xiuqing. Wei Changhui and Shi Dakai conspired to kill Yang Xiuqing, and Shi Dakai proposed to kill only Yang Xiuqing and his three brothers so as not to kill innocents indiscriminately.
Yang Xiuqing sensed their plot and transferred Wei Changhui and Shi Dakai out of Tianjing to ensure his own safety. However, Yang Xiuqing's henchman Chen Chengying held a grudge because he was scolded by him and decided to betray Yang Xiuqing.
He told Hong Xiuquan that Yang Xiuqing wanted to kill him and usurp the throne, and expressed his willingness to serve Hong Xiuquan. After Hong Xiuquan listened to Chen Chengying's whistleblowing, he decided to kill Yang Xiuqing.
He secretly sent Wei Changhui, Shi Dakai, and Qin Rigang, the king of Yan, back to Beijing and ordered them to kill Yang Xiuqing. Wei Changhui and Qin Rigang quickly rushed back to the capital, and with Chen Chengying, they surrounded Yang Xiuqing's Dongwang Mansion.
In the early hours of the morning, Wei Changhui's army broke into the Dongwang Mansion and killed anyone he saw, regardless of men, women, old and young.
Yang Xiuqing was awakened by the shouting of killing, and before he could react, he was forced to see the king of Hades. He didn't expect that a generation of heroes didn't even know the cause of death. **It lasted until dawn, and both the Dongwang Mansion ** and the family servants were all killed.
It's not satisfying to kill the East Palace, and the next thing is the civil and military ** and the army to which the East King Mansion belongs. The Heavenly King originally planned to end the matter, but Wei Changhui was red-eyed, and for his own personal revenge, he wiped out all the 5,000 subordinates and soldiers of the East King in Tianjing City.
After the 5,000 soldiers were killed, Wei Changhui still did not give up, and began to ** other innocent people in Tianjing City, which lasted for two whole months, including newborn babies.
A total of more than 20,000 people were brutally killed, and their bodies were pushed into the Yangtze River, and the river became blood-red. This inhuman bloody ** stunned Hong Xiuquan. At the beginning, Shi Dakai and Wei Changhui agreed to kill only Yang Xiuqing and his four brothers, and the others would not be held accountable.
However, Wei Changhui violated the original agreement and indiscriminately killed innocent soldiers and civilians in Tianjing City. After Shi Dakai returned to Beijing, he saw this scene, and immediately reprimanded Wei Changhui in person and asked him to stop immediately.
But Wei Changhui, who lost his mind, is now blocking people and killing people, and Buddha blocking and killing Buddha. In the face of Shi Dakai's reprimand, Wei Changhui even wanted to kill Shi Dakai. Shi Dakai felt the danger, because his large army had not yet arrived, so in order to avoid its edge, he did not even return home, and left the capital overnight and went to Anqing.
After Shi Dakai left, Wei Changhui killed all Shi Dakai's family members in the capital.
Shi Dakai returned to Anqing and decided to suppress Wei Changhui by force. The people in Tianjing City hated Wei Changhui very much. On the fifth day of the first month of October, the king of heaven led the soldiers and civilians in the city, plus Shi Dakai's army outside the city, to launch a ** against Wei Changhui.
Under internal and external attacks, Wei Changhui's unpopular people quickly collapsed, he himself was captured alive, Qin Rigang was killed, and his father and family were executed. Wei Changhui was tortured by splitting the body of five horses to vent the anger of the people.
The Heavenly King ordered Wei Changhui's body to be divided into two-inch pieces and hung in the Tianjing City and on the fence for public display, and only people were allowed to see it, not to take it.
The Tianjing Incident"The outbreak shook both home and abroad, and the tragedy ended with the execution of Wei Changhui. However, Wei Changhui's actions during the incident deviated from his original intention and killed innocents indiscriminately, causing the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom to suffer a heavy blow.
Yang Xiuqing, the king of the West, was killed, Qin Rigang, a fierce general, was killed, and many loyal soldiers who made great achievements in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom were innocently victimized. This upheaval made Hong Xiuquan suspicious, causing Shi Dakai, the best general of the Tianping Heavenly Kingdom, to lead 100,000 elite soldiers out of the capital.
More importantly, this accident shook the faith of the vast number of soldiers and people in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and a folk song appeared: "Heavenly Father kills Heavenly Brother, the country cannot be connected, and he returns to his hometown to do long-term work."
From then on, the situation of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom turned from prosperity to decline, and finally came to an end.