Taiping Army fought bloody battles in Shouguang.

Taiping Army fought bloody battles in Shouguang.

1July, 864, Tianjing fell, loyal Li Xiucheng was captured, and young king Tianguifu Hong was captured by Xi Baotian on his way to Hubei, and was sentenced to death that year. However, this does not mean that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom will perish, nor does it mean that the Taiping Army will give up its weapons and surrender. They continued to fight the Qing army in the north and south of the Yangtze River, and won brilliant victories many times, but the general trend was gone and they finally failed. There are many reasons for the Taiping Army's final defeat, and repeated traitors at critical moments are one of them.

1867, 65438+ In February, more than 30,000 Taiping cavalry led by Wang Laiwenguang, Lu Wang Ren Huabang and Fan Ruzeng, the former king, fought a decisive battle with the elite Huai army led by Liu Mingchuan and Guo Songlin on the Miluo River in Shandong Province, once again panic in the Huai army, and Liu Mingchuan was about to collapse. At this time, the traitor Pan Guisheng attacked King Lu from behind and shot him dead. As a result, the Taiping rebels were in chaos, more than 20 thousand cavalry were killed and two princes were killed.

Shortly after the fall of Tianjing, Xiang Wang and Chen Decai's army of more than 200,000 troops continued to fight in Hubei, but Ma Rong and others defected and surrendered one after another. Xiang Wang committed suicide by taking poison in despair, and his troops basically collapsed. At this time, Lai neither surrendered nor committed suicide, but led 4,000 cavalry to break through, went to Huaibei to find an old friend, the "Nian Army" led by Ren Huabang, and joined hands with them to persist in the anti-Qing struggle under the banner of "recovering the kingdom of heaven".

After the Taiping Army and the Nian Army merged into one, it was named "New Taiping Army" or "New Nian Army". In view of the characteristics of mobile operations in the northern plains, the new Taiping Army reduced the number of infantry, greatly expanded the cavalry and enhanced the mobility of the troops.

As a result, a series of large-scale battles in the future, such as Lai and Ren Huabang, won by cavalry, and also got rid of the "river defense tactics" of the Qing army relying on cavalry, which once threatened the security of Gyeonggi. At the same time, Xiang and Huai armies are mainly infantry, and their mobility is not as good as that of the new Taiping Army.

After the reorganization of the army, because there was no fixed base area, Lai, Ren Huabang and others decided to use "rogue tactics" to sweep the Central Plains and seize the necessary strategic materials. When the time is right, they will enter Sichuan to establish a fixed base. As for why the base areas were not established in the Central Plains, a big reason was that Zeng Xiangjun's "turtle shell tactics" would consume him to death. The Taiping army took mobile warfare, and the Qing army naturally pursued it. Xiang and Huai armies basically have no cavalry, and they are both private armies. The Qing dynasty naturally won't let them get their hands on the military of the Central Plains. In this way, the task of hunting down the rest of the Taiping Army was undertaken by the famous monk Ge Linqin and his nearly 20,000 Mongolian fighters.

It's a pity that Sanger Jinqin is foolhardy and brave, but he can't beat Levin Guang at all. 1865 In May, Lai, Ren Huabang, Fan Ruzeng and others set an ambush in Gaolou Village, Heze, Shandong Province, luring monks to pursue them, and then wrapped them in a sedan chair. In this battle, seven Eight Banners military attaché s, including Senggelinqin, were killed, and more than 7,000 elite soldiers were all killed. Manchu "housekeeping" was badly hurt.

Without Senggerinchin, Empress Dowager Cixi could only risk the influence of the Han landlords to get their hands on the provinces in the Central Plains, and let Zeng Guofan and Li Hongzhang lead the troops to the north to hunt down the rest of the Taiping Army. After the Qing army changed its flag, Zeng and Li decided to adopt "defensive tactics" according to the tactical characteristics of the Taiping Army, using natural moats such as the Yellow River, canals and Haihe River to gradually narrow the living space of the Taiping Army and eventually destroy it.

Lai et al. I won't just sit back and wait. They broke through the weak points where the defense line was not yet built, and killed them from Henan to Hubei. Zeng Guofan resigned in desperation, and the important task of Du Fu's poems was handed over to Li Hongzhang. In this way, the Huai Army became the absolute main force to destroy the Taiping Army, and Liu Mingchuan, Pan, Pan were able to make great achievements. Of course, the cost is also very high. In World War I in Jingshan, Hubei, his left foot was cut off and he was killed. More than 4,000 elite Huai troops were killed. In the First World War of Yin Longhe, 5000 soldiers and horses of Huai Army were killed, but for the 16000 soldiers and horses of Bao Chao, an expert from Hunan Province, Liu Mingchuan would have been captured.

During the First World War in Yinlonghe, Hubei Province, Liu Mingchuan was very dissatisfied with Bao Chao, thinking that he was deliberately late and wanted the Huai army to be wiped out in the battle. Liu Mingchuan complained to Li Hongzhang, and Li Hongzhang went directly to the imperial court to safeguard the interests of Huai, saying that Bao Chao was rebellious and did not listen to his command, and it was a great sin to deliberately delay the invasion. The imperial court naturally knows what is going on. In order to balance factions and create contradictions, the Qing Dynasty "helped Huai and suppressed Xiang" and dismembered "whether it was an army". Bao Chao was forced to resign and go home.

Without Bao Chao and "whether the army", Liu Mingchuan became the absolute pioneer general of Taiping Army, and no one could compete with it. Yin Longhe's fiasco, Liu Mingchuan was outraged, and vowed to avenge, and would not give up until he reached his goal. To this end, Liu Mingchuan continued to pursue the Taiping Army, all the way from Hubei to Shandong, but did not achieve decent results. There is a simple reason. Lai and others fled everywhere, not because they were afraid of the Huai army, but to find food. They won't fight it unless they have to.

1August 867, that is, six months after the Battle of Yinlonghe, Lai, Ren Huabang and Fan Ruzeng successively moved to Hubei, Henan, Hebei and Shaanxi. Under the tactics of "strengthening the wall and clearing the wild" in the Qing Dynasty, the Taiping Army could not get any food at all, and its troops were exhausted. To this end, they decided to go to Shandong, then cross the canal and go to rich areas to find food and solve the problem of food and clothing. At this time, the autumn rain continued, the river rose, the combat area was narrow, food was scarce, and the morale of Taiping Army was low. In June+10, 5438, after a bloody battle, Lai, Ren Huabang and Fan Ruzeng successfully crossed the canal and came to the rich Weifang to get food.

Although the east of the canal is rich, it is a Jedi; Continue to the east is the sea, return to the west is the canal, and the north is the Yellow River. It can be said that Lai's crossing the river east this time has put the army in the most dangerous situation, and it is in danger of being surrounded by the Qing army at any time, but in order to find food, they can only do so.

Sure enough, the Taiping Army just passed the canal, and more than 40,000 people arrived with experts such as Liu Mingchuan, Ren and Fan.

In February of 65438, the two sides fought a decisive battle on the Mi River in Shouguang County, and Lai fought back. In order to highlight the tight encirclement, the Taiping Army became more and more brave. First, it defeated the 3000 Eight Banners cavalry led by Shan Qing, then defeated the Guo Songlin infantry, and finally concentrated its main force on fighting the Liu Mingchuan Middle Road Army. Liu Mingchuan is a famous soldier. When he met the main force of the Taiping Army, he first asked the infantry to block the offensive with foreign guns, and then rode a melee. He just repelled Fan Ruzeng.

However, Wang Renhuabang, praised by Li Hongzhang as "the reincarnation of Xiang Yu", is brave and invincible, especially good at using cavalry; Ren Huabang took Liu Mingchuan to deal with Fan Ruzeng and led the cavalry to flank from the rear. To this end, Liu Mingchuan quickly dispatched military forces from the front to guard against the flank and fought a decisive battle with Ren Huabang; Tens of thousands of soldiers and horses on both sides of the strait started hand-to-hand combat, and the Miluo River was dyed red with blood, and the river was blocked. As no way back has been established, all the soldiers of Taiping Army are going forward bravely, and their fighting capacity is quite amazing. Three hours after the war, Liu Mingchuan gradually became tired and was besieged by Taiping rebels again. The situation was very dangerous.

Bao Chao resigned and went home, and Ting Jun was forced to dissolve. Who will save Liu Mingchuan? As if nothing had happened, Lai, Ren Huabang, Fan Ruzeng, etc. Can win a great victory, then cross the canal and return to Hexi; Let "river defense tactics" become a joke of history.

Unfortunately, at the critical moment, the traitor Pan Guisheng led his troops to sneak up on the rear of King Lu and shot Ren Huabang in the waist with a foreign gun. King Lu died, the whole army was in chaos, and the Huai army took advantage of it to fight back. Fan Ruzeng, the late king, was shot and killed in a bloody battle, and more than 20,000 cavalry were killed. Lai only took 5,000 people to break through and went all the way south to Yangzhou. In this World War I, the Taiping Army lost its late king Lu and more than 20,000 cavalry, and its final demise was inevitable.