An uprising is brewing:
After the Opium War, the Qing government passed on all large military expenditures and huge indemnities to the working people. Due to the five-port trade, foreign industrial products poured into China. High-quality and low-price industrial products excluded China's traditional family sideline businesses and handicrafts, causing farmers and handicraftsmen in the southeastern coastal areas to go bankrupt and lose their livelihoods. At the same time, landlords intensified their exploitation of farmers, and land annexation became more serious. The Qing government's taxes increased year by year, making the farmers overwhelmed. From 1840 to 1850, floods, droughts, and locust plagues occurred continuously in Guangdong, Guangxi, and many areas across the country. Many farmers were devastated and fell into desperate situations. Peasants resisted and fought as many as 110 times. Especially in the Guangdong and Guangxi regions, social unrest became more intense due to the direct impact of the Opium War.
During this period, Hong Xiuquan was attracted by the single theocratic idea in "Good Words to the World" and the Christian concept of equality, and combined the Christian concept of equality with the Chinese farmers' "peace in the world" and "everyone is equal" Combining his thoughts on average and starting from the requirements and interests of the peasant class, he successively wrote "Song of Salvation of the Original Way", "Instructions on the Awakening of the Original Way" and "Instructions on the Awakening of the Original Way". At the same time, Feng Yunshan promoted anti-Qing ideology among the poor farmers and charcoal-burning workers in the Zijing Mountain area and carried out the organizational work of the God Worship Association. In 1849, the number of people worshiping God reached more than 10,000. Around 1850, the conflict between the God Worshipers Association and the Landlord Tuanlian became increasingly acute. It was under this situation that the Taiping Peasant Rebellion was brewed and launched.
Jintian Uprising:
On January 11, 1851, Hong Xiuquan led an uprising in Jintian Village, Guiping County, Guangxi, and founded the country as the "Taiping Heavenly Kingdom". In March, the Taiping Army moved to Wuxuandong Township, and Hong Xiuquan was officially called the "King of Heaven"; in September, the Taiping Army captured Yong'an Prefecture. During his stay in Yong'an, he carried out rest, replenishment and system construction, and initially laid the prototype of the political system of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. In April 1852, the Taiping Army broke out from Yong'an, went north to encircle Guilin, conquered the whole state, and entered Hunan. In the Battle of Quanzhou, Feng Yunshan died in battle. On the way to Hunan, the Taiping Army issued important proclamations such as "Feng Tian Chong Hu Xi Promulgated the Fourth Edict", which clarified the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's purpose of "eradicating evildoers and clarifying China" and called on the masses to respond. Trackers and boatmen on the Xiangjiang River; porters and porters on the docks; blacksmiths, traders, and carpenters in the towns; and coal miners in the mountains of Chenzhou and Guiyang participated in the uprising, and the Taiping Army grew rapidly. In January 1853, the Taiping Army conquered three towns in Wuhan, increasing its number to 500,000, and gaining great prestige. In February, the Taiping Army traveled eastward along the Yangtze River by land and water, conquering important towns such as Jiujiang, Anqing, and Wuhu. On March 19, the Taiping Army occupied Nanjing. Hong Xiuquan entered Nanjing and announced that Nanjing would be renamed Tianjing and Tianjing would be the capital. The Taiping Rebellion established a peasant revolutionary regime that confronted the Qing Dynasty.
On March 19, 1853, the Taiping Army captured Nanjing and renamed it Tianjing as the capital. After the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom established its capital in Tianjing, it launched the Northern Expedition and the Western Expedition in order to consolidate and develop its victory. In May 1853, Lin Fengxiang and Li Kaifang led their troops to march into Beijing. The Northern Expeditionary Army left Jiangsu, crossed Anhui, entered Henan, crossed the Yellow River, entered Shanxi, went straight to Zhili, and approached Tianjin. However, due to the lonely expedition, it finally failed. In order to control the middle reaches of the Yangtze River and ensure the safety of Tianjing, Hong Xiuquan sent troops to the west. In May 1853, Lai Hanying, Hu Yihuang, and Zeng Tianyang led their troops to the west of the Yangtze River and captured vast areas of Anhui, Jiangxi, Hunan, and Hubei. In Hunan, the Hunan Army, organized by Zeng Guofan and composed of landlord regiments as its backbone, was defeated many times. In the first half of 1856, the Taiping Army launched a fierce siege battle outside Tianjing, successively defeating the Jiangbei Camp and the Jiangnan Camp, reaching its military heyday. In the winter of 1853, the "Celestial Land Acquisition System" was formulated and promulgated, proposing the principle that "everyone in the world will cultivate the fields together". Trying to build an ideal society where "there are fields to cultivate together, people to eat together, clothes to wear, money to use, uneven everywhere, no one is not fed and warm". The "Celestial Land Acquisition System" is a peasant utopia that maintains absolute egalitarianism on the basis of a small-scale peasant economy, and it is impossible to put it into practice. However, it expresses the strong desire of farmers to obtain land. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom also implemented equality between men and women; reformed the examination system; and insisted on independence in foreign relations.
Just as the Taiping Army was victorious in the Western Expedition, in August 1856, an incident occurred in Tianjing City where Yang Xiuqing used the excuse of "Heavenly Father Comes Down to Earth" to punish Hong Xiuquan with a stick, forcing Hong Xiuquan to seal him as "Long Live". .
Hong Xiuquan felt that the development of the situation was not good for him, and ostensibly agreed to Yang Xiuqing's request; secretly, however, he secretly summoned Wei Changhui, Shi Dakai, and Qin Rigang who were on the front line to return to Beijing to rescue him. Wei Changhui immediately led 3,000 elite troops back to Tianjing. In the early morning of September 2, with the cooperation of Qin Rigang, they surrounded the Dongwang Mansion and killed Yang Xiuqing, his family, and more than 20,000 subordinates and soldiers. There was terror in Tianjing City. Shi Dakai rushed back from Hubei and reprimanded Wei Changhui for killing innocent people indiscriminately. Wei Changhui wanted to kill Shi Dakai again, but Shi Dakai had no choice but to lower the city in the middle of the night and escape from Tianjing. Shi Dakai's whole family was killed by Wei Changhui. Wei Changhui's behavior aroused the indignation of all officers and soldiers of the Taiping Army and the people. After Shi Dakai raised troops in Anqing, he asked Hong Xiuquan to obey the public opinion and kill Wei Changhui. On November 2, Hong Xiuquan killed Wei Changhui and more than 200 of his confidants, quelling the fratricidal civil strife. After Wei Changhui was executed, Shi Dakai was recalled to Beijing to "handle government affairs." After the "Tianjing Incident", Hong Xiuquan did not trust Shi Dakai, so he made Hong Renfa and Hong Renda kings and suppressed Shi Dakai. Shi Dakai had no real power and had doubts. In June 1857, he led 100,000 elite troops to the southwest. Shi Dakai's team fought alone. In June 1863, it was besieged by the Qing army on the banks of the Dadu River in Sichuan and the entire army was annihilated. The Tianjing Incident became a turning point for the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom from prosperity to decline.
The Tianjing Incident and Shi Dakai's departure forced the Taiping Army to shift from strategic offense to defense. The Qing army took the opportunity to counterattack, captured many places in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, rebuilt the camps in the south and north of the Yangtze River, and besieged Tianjing. In order to save the decline, Hong Xiuquan promoted Chen Yucheng, Li Xiucheng and other young generals and entrusted them with important tasks. In August 1858, Chen Yucheng and Li Xiucheng gathered generals from all walks of life and held a military conference in Songyang, Anhui. Armies from all walks of life worked together to defeat Pukou and wipe out more than 10,000 enemies in one fell swoop, and once again defeated the Jiangbei camp. In November, more than 6,000 elite Hunan troops were wiped out in Sanhe Town, Anhui Province, forcing the Qing army to withdraw from Anqing and stabilizing the situation in the upper reaches of Tianjing.
In 1859, Hong Rengan proposed the "New Chapter of Zizheng". He advocated "the return of power to one person" and opposed "party alliances"; he advocated wide open channels of speech and "unity between superiors and subordinates". Follow the example of the West and establish industrial, mining, transportation and financial services; allow private investment and hire labor; reward private utensil-making skills and allow patents to be sold for self-sale; free trade and equal exchanges between China and foreign countries; establish schools, hospitals, and social welfare institutions. As the political program of the late Taiping Rebellion, "The New Chapter of Zizheng" has an obvious capitalist tendency. In the first half of 1860, Li Xiucheng and Chen Yucheng destroyed the Jiangnan camp and opened up the southern Jiangsu base area. In September 1861, Anqing fell. In May of the following year, Chen Yucheng was defeated and fled to Shouzhou, where he was captured and died. The Western Front of the Taiping Rebellion fell into irreversible danger.
After the Second Opium War, foreign invaders colluded with the Qing government to suppress the Taiping Rebellion. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom resolutely fought bravely against the invaders, severely inflicting heavy losses on the "Chang Victory Army", "Chang An Army", and "Chang Jie Army", and killed Hua Er, dealing a heavy blow to the invaders. After the fall of Anqing, the Taiping Army's base areas in Jiangsu and Zhejiang were also lost one after another, leaving only Tianjing and a small area around it. At this time, Tianjing had no food and grass, and no reinforcements from outside, and the situation became increasingly critical. Li Xiucheng proposed to "leave the city alone" and establish another base area, but Hong Xiuquan rejected it. On June 1, 1864, Hong Xiuquan died of illness. On July 19, the Hunan army dug tunnels and used gunpowder to blow down the city walls. After fierce street fighting, Tianjing fell. Most of the Taiping soldiers died heroically, and a few broke through. Young Heavenly King and Hong Rengan were captured in Jiangxi and died heroically. Li Xiucheng was captured when he broke out of Tianjing and was killed by Zeng Guofan. The remaining Taiping troops fought across the country and continued fighting until 1868.
The Taiping Peasants’ War, an unprecedented scale in Chinese history, fought for 14 years, spread across 18 provinces, and shocked the whole of China. It finally failed under the joint efforts of the Qing government and foreign aggressive forces.
Uprisings in various places:
The Nian Army is the main force of the revolutionary armed forces active in the north. After the fall of Tianjing in 1864, the Nian Army and the Taiping Army, which had originally entered the northwest, promoted Lai Wenguang as their leader and launched an armed struggle in the Huanghuai Plain. In the autumn of 1866, the Nian Army was divided into east and west branches in Xuzhou, Henan (today's Xuchang City). The East Nian Army, led by Lai Wenguang, stayed in the Central Plains and operated in the Central Plains; the West Nian Army, led by Zhang Zongyu, advanced to the northwest.
From the 1850s to the 1870s, ethnic minorities in the southwest and northwest also held armed uprisings to resist the dark rule of the Qing government. In 1855, Zhang Xiumei launched an uprising of Miao people in Guizhou.
In 1856, Yi farmer Li Wenxue launched an armed uprising with the help of Taiping Army soldiers Wang Taijie (Han nationality) and Li Xuedong (Yi nationality). In 1856, Hui people across Yunnan revolted one after another, among which an insurgent army led by Du Wenxiu was the most powerful. Du Wenxiu established political power in Dali, supported the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, advocated the integration of Han and Hui, and overthrew the Qing Dynasty with the Communists. In 1862, the Hui people of Shaanxi held an uprising to oppose the national oppression of the Qing government. The rebel army established 18 camps. Under the leadership of Ren Wu and others, they occupied vast areas on both sides of the Wei River and invaded the provincial capital Xi'an. In the same year, the Gansu Hui people uprising in Pingliang soon spread throughout the province and occupied Lingzhou (now Lingwu County, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region), Hezhou, Xining and other places. The Qing government's rule in the northwest was shaky. Under the influence of the Shaanxi-Gansu Hui uprising, people of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang, mainly Uighurs, launched a struggle against the Qing Dynasty.