After the fall of Tianjing, Li Xiucheng, the loyal king of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, fell into the hands of the Hunan army. Before he was killed, he wrote the famous "Li Xiucheng's Self-Statement". In this self-report, Li Xiucheng made a summary of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom movement from his own perspective. He summarized the important Ten Errors of the Heavenly Kingdom, and among these Ten Mistakes, he listed the Northern Expedition of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom as the first of the Ten Mistakes.
After the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom conquered Nanjing, it decided to settle its capital here and renamed it Tianjing. At the same time, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom launched the Northern Expedition. The main force of the Northern Expedition was 20,000 Taiping soldiers led by Lin Fengxiang and Li Kaifang. This army carried out Yang Xiuqing's order of "the division and the road, rush to Yandu, and do not be greedy for time to attack the city", and went through difficulties along the way, and finally reached the vicinity of Tianjin. However, due to the lack of backup, the enemy was outnumbered, and the whole army was finally annihilated.
We see that this Northern Expeditionary Army only had more than 20,000 people, which was only a minority compared to the million people when the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom occupied Tianjing. But why did Li Xiucheng make the failure of the Northern Expedition the first of the ten mistakes?
This was because the Northern Expedition was strategically and tactically wrong, which made the Northern Expedition suffer a crushing defeat. And the impact of its defeat on the Taiping Rebellion was far-reaching. Therefore, Li Xiucheng will be obsessed with this.
After the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom conquered Nanjing, discussions were held for the next step of development. Hong Xiuquan means to send troops to Henan and develop northward. But Yang Xiuqing meant that the capital of Nanjing would be set and then the Northern Expedition and the Western Expedition would be carried out. In the end, Yang Xiuqing's opinion prevailed, and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was set as its capital in Nanjing.
The debate over which of the two plans of fixing the capital of Nanjing or continuing the Northern Expedition is better has not subsided until now. However, this argument does not make much sense. It is only a difference of strategic opinion, and whichever opinion is adopted, it depends on whether or not the national power can be seized.
If Hong Xiuquan's plan is adopted, the Taiping army will take an offensive posture to occupy Henan, and the next step will be to attack Beijing. There is a certain amount of adventure in this scheme. However, Yang Xiuqing's plan to establish a base area in Nanjing, the capital of Nanjing, has its rationality. So, there is nothing wrong with either option.
However, after the capital of Tianjing, Yang Xiuqing's command made a huge strategic mistake. This mistake was a miscalculation of the situation and the adoption of a strategy of both the Northern Expedition and the Western Expedition. This also determined the fate of the defeat of the Northern Expeditionary Army.
At that time, although the Taiping army won a brilliant victory, the situation of strong enemy and weak enemy still objectively existed. Under these circumstances, since the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom had established its capital at Tianjing, it was necessary to establish a consolidated political power with Tianjing as the center. In this way, as one's own power grows, the enemy's power decreases day by day. Wait until there is a fundamental change in the balance of strength between the two sides, and then launch a decisive battle against the enemy, so that the final victory can be achieved.
Yang Xiuqing was carried away by the victory in front of him, and the smooth situation during the march to Nanking made him underestimate the enemy's strength. After establishing the capital of Tianjing, he turned a blind eye to the enemy's Jiangnan camp entrenched under Tianjing City, and instead launched the Northern Expedition and the Western Expedition, which was an extremely obvious mistake.
In view of the situation of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom at that time, it was necessary to concentrate forces and clear the enemy near Tianjing, and then develop around Tianjing with Tianjing as the center. The north should control at least one line of the Huai River as a barrier. The army of the Western Expedition was to control the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, and send troops to cooperate with the rebel armies in Jiangsu and Zhejiang. In this way, it was possible to control the richest areas of China at that time and solve the problems of personnel, finance, and taxation.
The enemy, on the other hand, will suffer a huge blow to its strength because of the loss of half of the south of the Yangtze River and the loss of the main tax-collecting areas, Jiangsu and Zhejiang. When the time is ripe, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom will launch the Northern Expedition again, which will be much more advantageous at this time.
However, Yang Xiuqing did not see the situation in which the enemy was strong and we were weak, and thought that the enemy was vulnerable. He violated the basic principles of warfare, ignored the Jiangnan battalion under his nose, and placed his fundamental importance under the enemy's forces. However, the Northern Expedition and the Western Expedition were carried out with insufficient troops, and as a result, Tianjing, the Northern Expedition, and the Western Expedition were all in a hurry at the same time, which caused great difficulties to the cause of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
In terms of the tactics of the Northern Expedition, Yang Xiuqing also formulated a wrong tactic for the Northern Expeditionary Army. His instructions to the Northern Expeditionary Army were "to divide the road, rush to Yandu, and do not be greedy for time to attack the city". This was an order given to the Northern Expeditionary Army not to attack Beijing without the rear.
The Northern Expeditionary Army dispatched from Yangzhou passed through Henan in Anhui, crossed the Yellow River, detoured to Shanxi, broke through Hebei, and finally reached the vicinity of Tianjin. However, here, they were besieged by superior enemies, coupled with the cold weather, and the difficulty of clothing and food and grass, they could only retreat south. Under the encirclement and interception of the superior enemy, the Northern Expeditionary Army still marched step by step, hoping to wait until the reinforcements arrived. However, in the end, the ammunition and food were exhausted, and the whole army was wiped out.
The tactics formulated by Yang Xiuqing for the Northern Expeditionary Army were actually a desperate tactic. The Northern Expeditionary Army did not establish any base areas along the way, and only relied on attacking the enemy to replenish it. In the north, the replenishment of grain and grass became a difficult problem for the Northern Expeditionary Army to solve. Lin Fengxiang reported to Tianjing, "The number of soldiers is increasing day by day, but the only thing that is the lack of grain and rice." All this is a consequence of the rear-less operation.
And Lin Fengxiang and Li Kaifang were too rigid in implementing Yang Xiuqing's instructions. Yang Xiuqing instructed them to wait for reinforcements to arrive in the Beijing-Tianjin area before trying to figure out Beijing. Lin Fengxiang and Li Kaifang, when attacking Tianjin Buke and the enemy's army gathered, still stuck to Yang Xiuqing's instructions and stubbornly waited for reinforcements, which was in the hands of the enemy.
And several groups of reinforcements sent by Tianjing were routed halfway. In this case, Lin Fengxiang and Li Kaifang should have resolutely retreated south, so that they could save part of the backbone and reduce losses. However, the two were not able to act decisively after all, but instead stuck to a corner, fought hard under the siege of the enemy, and finally perished.
The tactics formulated by Yang Xiuqing for the Northern Expeditionary Army not only required the Northern Expeditionary Army to conduct operations without rear, which required a high degree of mobility and great autonomy. And Yang Xiuqing gave the Northern Expeditionary Army a stipulation of death, so that they could achieve the goal of attacking Beijing and Tianjin. Such contradictory tactics made Lin Fengxiang and Li Kaifang at a loss, and finally failed.
Although the Northern Expedition of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom failed, although the loss of troops was only 20,000, we know from the performance of this army that this army is an elite division. This army was originally Xiao Chaogui's subordinates, and Lin Fengxiang and Li Kaifang led them to serve as the vanguard of the Taiping Army.
This army is basically a veteran of Guangxi, with high belief in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, rich combat experience, and brave combat, which can be called the essence of the Taiping Army. Although the Taiping Army is known as a million people, there are many old and weak women and children in it, and there are not many soldiers who can fight. Therefore, the loss of such an elite is an immeasurable loss to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
Secondly, let's look at Li Xiucheng's Ten Mistakes in the Kingdom of Heaven, which are related to Lin Fengxiang and Li Kaifang's Northern Expedition, as well as the first.
The second and third mistakes were all to rescue the losses suffered by the Northern Expeditionary Army, which were all chain reactions brought by the Northern Expeditionary Army. These armies were all urgently needed in the Western Expedition, and they were all lost with the Northern Expeditionary Army. This made the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's army even more stretched.
In order to rescue the Northern Expeditionary Army, the Western Expeditionary Force was insufficient, and Tianjing was surrounded by the Jiangbei Camp and the Jiangnan Battalion. This caused a series of chain reactions, causing difficulties for the Taiping army in other battlefields due to insufficient troops. The good situation when the Taiping army first conquered Tianjing was discarded in vain.
And most importantly, this army was originally Xiao Chaogui's army. Xiao Chaogui is Hong Xiuquan's brother-in-law and a person loyal to Hong Xiuquan. Although Xiao Chaogui is dead, the army's loyalty to Hong Xiuquan has not changed. If this army was not buried in the Northern Expedition, it could restrain Yang Xiuqing's ambitions to a certain extent under the command of Hong Xiuquan. This may not have happened in the later "Tianjing Incident".
After the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom established its capital Tianjing, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom sent an army of more than 20,000 people led by Lin Fengxiang and Li Kaifang to carry out the Northern Expedition. This army fought bravely and bravely all the way to Tianjin. However, due to the lack of rear operations, no supplies, no reinforcements, and in the end, under the siege of the superior enemy, the entire army was annihilated.
The defeat of the Northern Expeditionary Army was caused by Yang Xiuqing's erroneous strategic and tactical approach. He strategically despised the enemy, did not formulate plans in accordance with military principles, and rashly launched the Northern Expedition when the conditions were not ripe. In terms of tactics, on the one hand, he demanded that the Northern Expeditionary Army adopt a flexible and mobile tactical approach and fight without rear. On the one hand, it also demanded that the Northern Expeditionary Army take Beijing as its goal and limit the tactical freedom of the Northern Expeditionary Army. Under this paradoxical tactic, Lin Fengxiang and Li Kaifang were at a loss and ultimately failed.
The Northern Expeditionary Army led by Lin Fengxiang and Li Kaifang was the elite of the Taiping Army, and their defeat had a profound impact on the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. In order to rescue them, Yang Xiuqing dispatched troops from all over the country to organize reinforcements, but not only did the reinforcements fail one after another, but the troops were lost. And it has seriously affected the war everywhere. In the end, the good situation when the Taiping army captured Nanjing was lost in vain.