Li Xiucheng was the Optimus Pillar of the late Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, without him. It may be that Zeng Guofan's Hunan army was almost able to attack Nanjing after Shi Dakai left. The reason why Hong Xiuquan was able to survive for nearly eight years in the later period was that Li Xiucheng contributed a lot as a mainstay.
For many generals of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Zeng Guofan, Zuo Zongtang, and Li Hongzhang were mostly called "cunning thieves" in their correspondence, but Li Xiucheng was the only one, and they all called him "generals". Liang Qichao especially admired Li Xiucheng, and when he wrote "The Biography of Li Hongzhang", he left a lot of pen and ink for Li Xiucheng, calling him "intelligent, sensitive, strategic, and courageous". However, the confession written by Lee Xiucheng in the last moments of his life caused great controversy about his personality.
Li Xiucheng, a native of Tengxian County, Guangxi, joined half a year after the outbreak of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, at the age of 28, and was not a veteran of the First Rebellion. Although he was born in a farmer's house, he had super strong organizational and management skills, and after entering Nanjing, he was promoted to the rank of deputy prime minister of the local government, ranking among the middle and upper officers. Later, he was valued by Yang Xiuqing, followed Hu Yihuang, the king of Yu, to Luzhou, and followed Shi Dakai's expedition to the west, with outstanding military achievements. After the Tianjing Incident in 1856, the talents of the Heavenly Kingdom were cut off, and Li Xiucheng came to the forefront. In June 1858, the Qing army Zhang Guoliang and He Chunbu captured Zhenjiang and rebuilt the camp in Jiangnan. Dig a deep trench for more than 100 kilometers to besiege Nanjing. After hard fighting, Chen Yucheng and Li Xiucheng broke through the Jiangnan camp again in June 1860, and Tianjing was the first to be safe. After breaking through the camp in the south of the Yangtze River, Li Xiucheng conquered Suzhou and established Sufu Province, which became the largest material place in Nanjing. Chen Yucheng led his troops to attack southern Anhui and wanted to drive Zeng Guofan out of Anhui. Li Xiucheng even discussed with the cadre king Hong Renji to prepare for the formation of a powerful modern naval force.
However, Zeng Guofan's method of "hardening the village and fighting a dumb battle" made the Taiping army's movement warfare gradually lose its effect, and it had to be tough on the Hunan army head-on. After Chen Yucheng was killed in June 1862 as a traitor, Li Xiucheng became the first person in the military circles of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and served as a firefighting captain in Anhui, Shanghai, and Zhejiang. Shanghai was forced to give up, Zhejiang was also occupied by Zuo Zongtang, and Zeng Guoquan on the western front arrived at Nanjing with 30,000 people. Tianjing fell into a heavy siege again, and Li Xiucheng had to give up the struggle with Li Hongzhang on the outskirts of Suzhou and return to his division to relieve the siege of Tianjing. After the failure of the siege of Tianjing, Li Xiucheng was "severely reprimanded for reprimanding the Jue", and attacked Hubei in the west, and the Hunan army was very tightly blocked, and the strategy of "encircling Wei to save Zhao" failed several times. Suzhou was in an emergency, Li Xiucheng wanted to leave Nanjing and return to the division to coordinate the overall situation, but Hong Xiuquan thought that he was going to run away, pointed at him and scolded: I have an iron bucket of rivers and mountains, and I don't help myself! As a result, Suzhou eventually fell, and the city of Nanjing lost its last strategic hinterland and fell into a military death. On July 19, 1864, the Hunan army breached the gates of Nanjing, and Hong Xiuquan had died of illness a month earlier.
Li Xiucheng escorted the little heavenly king Hong Tianguifu to break through from the Taiping Gate, gave him his good horse, and rode a weak horse himself. Some people saw Li Xiucheng and said, you can't run far at all, why don't you shave your head? Li Xiucheng said: "I am a minister of the imperial court, and it is a loss for the country to shave my head. Besides, I'm a general, what will they think of me if I shave my head and see my soldiers? Three days after escaping from Nanjing, Li Xiucheng was caught by the villagers and sent to the Zeng Guoquan military camp. Zeng Guoquan asked the soldiers to cut the flesh of Li Xiucheng's arms and thighs, blood flowed, and stabbed Li Xiucheng with an awl. Li Xiucheng looked at Zeng Guoquan, who was crazy, and said sarcastically: "Why do you bother? Zeng Guofan interrogated Li Xiucheng and gave him kind words and comfort.
Maybe Li Xiucheng suffered too many grievances in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, or Zeng Guofan's heart-attacking skills were too strong, and he was moved and expressed his willingness to write a self-confession. Subsequently, he wrote his "self-confession" at a rate of 7,000 words a day. Li Xiucheng has only studied private school for two years, and there are many typos in the self-confession book, which originally had more than 50,000 words, and the version that has been handed down is only 2More than 70,000 words. The deleted part should be a factual description of Zeng Guofan's unfavorability, but the original version of the specific content has not been traced to this day.
According to the content of the existing "self-confession", Li Xiucheng first reviewed the process of participating in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, expressed his views on the Tianjing Incident, and lamented to the Zeng brothers that he "made mistakes in his life and did not meet Mingliang". Subsequently, he summarized the "Ten Defeats of the Kingdom of Heaven" and the "Ten Surrenders". A British friend of Lee so-sung came to see him and recalled that he was somewhat happy to see the loyal king Lee so-sung. When it was over, Li Xiucheng also said, "The personnel are exhausted, and the rest depends on the destiny of heaven." In Li Xiucheng's self-confession, there are some words that dwarf himself, I don't know if he is currying favor with Zeng Guofan. After Zeng Guofan discussed with his henchman Zhao Liewen, he thought that Li Xiucheng was too cunning and won the hearts of the people, so he was afraid that something would change and he would have murderous intentions. Zeng Guofan violated his promise to protect his life, and under the pretext that "the king's order is difficult to disobey", he showed his head to the public.
Because there is such a rewritten self-confession book, not only Li Xiucheng's personality is controversial, but even the reason why Zeng Guofan killed Li Xiucheng also makes people suspicious, and many people think that it is because of the content of Li Xiucheng's self-confession that Zeng Guofan has a murderous intention. It is also said that Li Xiucheng was the core figure of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, who had a large number of secrets, and once the weapon was sent to Beijing, it was difficult to guarantee that it would not become a tool for the Qing court to suppress Zeng. It is said that Li Xiucheng mentioned the treasure of the Heavenly Sacred Treasury in his confession, which was also the most important thing for the rulers of the Qing Dynasty. The Qing **, who was suffering from internal and external troubles, was extremely short of money, and originally hoped to get some spoils of war by exterminating the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, but Zeng Guofan's recital said that Nanjing was burned to the ground. Tianjing City is broken, Hong Xiuquan is dead, and as for the gold and silver treasures, there is none. How could a Qing ruler believe it? Fooling a three-year-old naughty boy?
Therefore, once Li Xiucheng confirmed that Zeng Guofan had embezzled the spoils of war, "Zeng shaved his head" was afraid that he would turn around. Therefore, Li Xiucheng, who has too many uncertainties, will definitely not be able to enter Beijing. In addition, going north to enter Beijing had to pass through the sphere of influence of the Twist Army's activities, and the Twist Army has always echoed the Taiping Army, although they are not subordinate to each other, but they have always respected the banner of the "Taiping Heavenly Kingdom". Li Xiucheng has a high reputation, is gentle and elegant, has the amount of tolerance for people, and treats the people very well. The people of Suzhou even shouted the slogan "not against the king, only against the Taiping army". Once this kind of character is robbed by the Twist Army, the dragon enters the sea, and it will inevitably set off another bloody storm. Zeng Guofan didn't dare to take this risk! In addition, Zeng Guofan once explained to the Qing court that one of the reasons why Li Xiucheng needed to be executed on the spot was because Chen Defeng, the "Song King" of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, who was later captured, still bowed to him for a long time when he saw Li Xiucheng, who had been imprisoned, which shocked Zeng Guofan who was present.
Whether it is out of public intentions or selfishness, Zeng Guofan will inevitably kill Li Xiucheng. Although the Qing court had a will to send Li Xiucheng to Beijing, Zeng Guofan had murderous intentions, and how could he let Li Xiucheng enter Beijing alive, and it was best to die without proof. How could the Empress Dowager Cixi not see Zeng Guofan's thoughts? However, the suppression of the Han warlords who held military power in their hands was not sure that the Qing court would win. Therefore, Cixi expressed her anger by shrinking the reward. Before Emperor Xianfeng died of illness, he promised to crown the hero of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom as king: "....It is said that those who can recover Jinling can be crowned the king of the county. However, the Empress Dowager Cixi "used the reason that it seemed too sudden for Wenchen to be crowned king, and there was nothing in the old system", and only named Zeng Guofan, a first-class Yiyong Marquis. For Zeng Guoquan, who personally led troops to conquer Tianjing, he was awarded the first-class Wei Yibo. Li Hongzhang, who conquered Suzhou, was awarded the title of first-class Su Yibo by the imperial court. The matter of "king" was not mentioned at all. The Qing court gave the explanation that the Qing court responded to the Zeng Guofan to fight, but in fact once the Zeng brothers had a problem, they would immediately go south to quell the rebellion.
After Li Xiucheng was killed, Ding Bingheng (director of the Changshu Library in the Qing Dynasty) recorded: "The people burn paper money, and the ashes are like a fu", and the paper money is piled up like a mountain. Liang Qi overloaded "the people of Suzhou, men, women and children, all runny nose", so far Changshu still has the historical relics of the monument of the loyal king. The Taiping War was a catastrophe for the whole of South China, but Li Xiucheng was undoubtedly the protector of Suzhou at that time. What time is the night light, and the boat of shrimp and vegetables is rocked. "It was a rare prosperity in the war in the south at that time.
Li Xiucheng had a soft personality on the outside and strong on the inside, and he was born in poverty and knew how to sympathize with the people, and he implemented the policy of "collecting grain from tenants" in southern Jiangsu, complied with the demands of the peasants, and issued "land certificates", and the peasants "rented the land for their own production after receiving the certificates", which made the rural areas of southern Jiangsu at that time a "scene of good years". At the same time, he is also one of the few Taiping Heavenly Kingdom generals who know how to respect intellectuals, and when he captured Hangzhou, the governor Wang Youling committed suicide, Li Xiucheng heard that Youling had a good reputation, and sighed his loyalty, so he sent 500 soldiers to escort the coffin back to his hometown for the burial of Youling. Later, Zeng Guofan also said to his subordinates that he had "great pity" for Li Xiucheng. Li Hongzhang also admitted that "he not only admired his cunning, but also hated his loyalty and bravery", and called Li Xiu a "heroic figure". Another example is the Englishman Gordon, who led the "foreign gun team" to fight against Li Xiucheng, also sighed: "If you are lucky enough to witness the demeanor of King Zhong, you will believe that people like him are destined to succeed." ......He was the bravest, most talented, and most entrepreneurial leader the rebels had. ”
Li Xiucheng's "apostasy", judging from what he wrote after being captured, has a very high strategic vision, and he is a rare strategic figure in the Taiping Army. This article is inclined to the concession he chose to write the "self-confession" only to cover the transfer of the Taiping army in order to confuse Zeng Guofan, and to allow Zeng Guofan to pardon his subordinates. It may also be that Li Xiucheng's self-statement was tampered with by Zeng's shaved head, most of which are lies, after all, sycophancy to Zeng Guofan is not like the character of King Zhong's own. Started in the army, made countless achievements, held Nanjing, and after the city was broken, he gave his mount to the young king and fled, and he was captured. He did everything he could. He is a first-class figure in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. Considering the comparison comprehensively, in fact, Shi Dakai is not as good as him. His short life is worthy of the word "loyal to the king".
Li Xiucheng's "Ten Mistakes of the Kingdom of Heaven" can be said to reflect on the reasons for the final failure of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement from the bottom of his heart. It's just that "Zhongwang" was still a little naïve until the last moment of his life - maybe he was just "a dead horse as a live horse doctor": the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is no longer qualified and no one is qualified to listen to his heartfelt words, and Zeng Guofan is already a top Han official, and he has no rank to rise, and he doesn't need to "add bricks and tiles" to himself.
Maybe Li Xiucheng knows perfectly in his heart: since the moment of **, death is his only destination. A character, even if he has the potential to become a hero, is still small when viewed in the context of the times - there are too many variables that affect fate. And as later spectators, all we can do is to leave some sighs and sighs.