Why can't 300,000 troops in Shi Dakai capture a small town?

Shi Dakai is definitely the most legendary figure in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. /kloc-participated in jintian uprising at the age of 0/9, and was named Wing King in Yong 'an in his early twenties, becoming the sixth person in the kingdom of heaven. This speed is like going to heaven in a spaceship. 1856, Shi Dakai, the governor of Jiangxi, cut off Zeng Guofan's navy at Hukou and Jiujiang, forcing him to drown himself. The battle of Zhangshu Village almost wiped out the elite troops of Xiang army, forcing Zeng Guofan to retreat to the isolated city of Nanchang, and Jiangxi was almost in the hands of Taiping rebels except Nanchang. Shi Dakai, the King of Wings, also won a great victory in the Western Expedition, washing away the shame of being hanged by Jiang Zhongyuan, a famous Guangxi player, and his prestige in the Taiping Army reached its peak.

After the Tianjing Incident broke out, Shi Dakai led the elite troops out of the Hong family and went out alone. Its strategic intention is to March into Sichuan and seize the land of abundance, then recuperate, train and practice the navy, wait until the world situation changes, then learn from Han Xin and sneak into Guanzhong, and finally compete with the Qing court for the Central Plains. According to common sense, Shi Dakai, the wing king, has outstanding ability and led hundreds of thousands of troops. It was not difficult to enter Sichuan, but he was frustrated in a small town with only 10 thousand people stationed in central Hunan, and his strategic plan to enter the land of abundance died.

Baoqingfu (Shaoyang City, Hunan Province) is Shi Dakai's eternal pain in his life. However, hundreds of thousands of troops led by him failed to conquer a small town with only 30,000 or 40,000 defenders at most, which reduced its prestige to historical freezing point and opened the prelude to Shi Dakai's heroic tragedy. Why can't hundreds of thousands of troops in Shi Dakai beat 30,000 to 40,000 troops? This is a very interesting question. In fact, before the war, ZTE officials had already concluded that Shi Dakai would be defeated by Jiancheng. Zeng Guofan said in his letter to Hu Linyi: "It is in Zhejiang, in Fujian, in Yongqing after entering Hunan, in Baoqing, threatening people, and fewer and fewer people are willing to follow. Without a nest, they think that grain and rice will be taken captive, medicine will be moved, and they will return from the valley." This letter reveals the real reason why hundreds of thousands of troops in Shi Dakai are doomed to be defeated at Baoqing Gate, which is summarized as follows.

Shi Dakai is skilled in fighting, good at attacking and circuitous cavalry, but not good at offensive and defensive warfare. A close reading of the History of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom reveals that Shi Dakai is not good at offensive and defensive warfare, nor does he have the courage to persist in siege, put all your eggs in one basket and go ahead, which makes him inferior to Chen Yucheng. Shi Dakai pays attention to "cleverness" rather than "fierceness" in fighting, so he often changes his goal immediately when he meets the stubborn resistance of the other side, and lacks the winning spirit of fighting the enemy to the end and breaking through, so that he has been repeatedly stopped by thousands of Yinghong landlords who are guarding the city. In Quzhou, Zhejiang Province, when several bloody battles failed to be conquered, Shi Dakai immediately changed his target and stopped attacking. Quzhou City is defending Serenade, but it is the land of four wars. If Shi Dakai stormed, it would occupy the city before the Qing reinforcements arrived, and then stick to the city and destroy all the reinforcements at the fortified gates. Even if it is not wiped out, it can be delayed to create conditions for the cleanup of Tianjing. This scene was staged again in Baoqing War. Shi Dakai personally led 300,000 troops to surround the small city from the east, west and south, and the famous generals Mou, Fu Zhongxin and Lai Yuxin were closely United around him. At this time, the best operational policy is to attack the whole army, take it before the arrival of a reinforcement, and capture Luo and Zuo alive. It is puzzling that Shi Dakai did not storm the cities where the recruits were stationed, but was keen to fight the Qing army outside the city. After the attack failed, he simply adopted the policy of "encircling without fighting", hoping to besiege Baoqing City for a long time. Shi Dakai alone, logistical support, no retreat; Neither storm the city, nor immediately clear the way into Hubei, but station troops under the fortified city, and it is strange not to fail.

Shi Dakai frantically expanded his army and paid no attention to military training. He was just a mob. As the saying goes, there are not many elite soldiers, and elite soldiers are the key to ensure the victory of the campaign; When Chu and Han contended, Liu Bang led more than 600,000 troops to besiege Pengcheng, but was defeated by 30,000 soldiers of Xiang Yu. It is precisely because these more than 600,000 troops have joined forces from all over the country, and their combat effectiveness is quite low, lacking tactical cooperation. When East Wang Yang was in charge of the political affairs of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the Taiping Army was often outnumbered, and even the elite troops of the Xiang Army would not fall behind. Just like when the Taiping Army was invincible in the Western Expedition, it swept the two lakes like a tiger, but only dispatched 40,000 people. The reason lies in Yang's "elite soldier policy", which pays attention to the training of the army and the coordinated operations of various services and arms, rather than blindly expanding the number of troops. Shi Dakai is different. After going it alone, he expanded his army crazily. Heaven and earth will join rebels, stragglers, unemployed people and so on. As long as they are willing to join the Taiping Army, they will accept it, and the maximum number will reach 500,000 to 600,000. Although Shi Dakai has many soldiers, he does not pay attention to training, and the quality of his troops is extremely low. When fighting the Qing army, once the back road is copied, the birds and animals can immediately scatter and have no courage to fight to the end. When Shi Dakai entered Hunan, he seized left opportunities everywhere, but his troops were of low quality and poor mobility. All the strategic plans made were quickly seen by Zuo, which also gave him time to calmly arrange his troops. In addition, when fighting outside the city, the Xiang army led by Li Xuyi and Lu Changyou often collapsed; Hundreds of thousands of troops are still fighting with more than 10 thousand Qing troops outside the city

Tactics are too rigid and lack the ability to be flexible. Since Shi Dakai wants to March into Sichuan and occupy the land of abundance, it should not put all its main forces in the small town of Baoqing, because it will seriously affect the speed and time of marching. Shi Dakai's strategic attempt to plot and then attack Hubei into Sichuan has long been seen through by Zuo. Xiang of Hengyang has arrived in Baoqing. At this point, if Shi Dakai can give up attacking Baoqing and go straight to Zeng Guofan's compound in Hengyang, it will be too late for Zuo to assemble troops to help defend, so the whole game will be reversed immediately, so the attack at this time is extremely wrong. Since we are going to attack, Shi Dakai will fight a bloody battle to the end, and we will never give up until we break the city and capture Luo and Zuo alive. Although Shi Dakai is a mixed-brand army, its strength is absolutely superior. As long as the storm, you can break the city before Liu Changyou and Li Xuyi arrive, and then go straight to Hubei to enter Sichuan, making Xiang unprepared. Shi Dakai did not attack the city in the battle, but fought fiercely with the Qing army outside the city. After encountering setbacks, he learned the tactics of "attacking the city and aiding others" used by the Xiang army when it besieged Jiujiang, hoping to attack the city for a long time. Shi Dakai's operational policy is exactly what Xiang wants, because Shi Dakai has no base areas, and long-term operations are beneficial to Xiang.

In the absence of base areas, it is a big mistake to station troops in fortified cities. The biggest mistake Shi Dakai made after leaving Tianjing with elite troops to go it alone was that he didn't try his best to capture bigger cities and then create base areas, which was fatal to him. First, there is no reliable source of supply without base areas; Soldiers' morale will naturally be low if their salaries are not supplemented in time. Hundreds of thousands of troops and their families consume 1000 stone of grain every day, which is really too big. Therefore, when Shi Dakai attacked Baoqing House, he also divided his troops to plunder nearby villages to replenish food and materials for the troops, which was also a big joke in the history of war. Second, without base areas, there is no way to provide soldiers with a reliable place for long-term rest and training. Once stopped at the fortified city, it is impossible to advance and retreat freely, and failure is inevitable. Shi Dakai has no base area, and all he can do is storm Baoqing and never give up until he breaks the city. Either bypass Baoqing, take Hengyang directly, then enter Hubei, and fight in Hu Linyi, thus realizing the strategic plan of entering the land of abundance. Therefore, it is inevitable that Shi Dakai finally defeated the Dadu River and was executed by Luo in Chengdu.

To sum up, Shi Dakai personally led more than 300,000 troops to besiege Baoqing City, but was beaten out of the water by 30,000-40,000 mixed soldiers led by Zuo, Li Xuyi and Liu Changyou. He can only run for his life in Guangxi with 700 cavalry, which is a great shame for Wang Hao. Not only did his troops suffer heavy losses, but his personal prestige also dropped to freezing point. Zeng Guofan knew as early as before the war that Shi Dakai was bound to be defeated by the Baoqing government, which was his conclusion by combining various factors. It can only be said that Zeng was indeed a master of strategy. With Zeng in the Qing Dynasty, it will not be destroyed by long hair, and the emergence of "Tongzhi Zhongxing" is inevitable.