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Taiping Rebellion.com 1850-71 |
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Taiping Rebellion.com 1850-71 |
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Major Defeat of the Qing Jiangnan Army 1860 May 3, 1860 at Nanjing
The large Qing Jiangnan ( also spelled Kiangnan) force of 200,00 had been besieging Nanjing since 1858. There were only an estimated 20,000 Taiping soldiers inside the city, and it seemed certain that by 1860 Nanjing would be taken. On May 2, the armies of Li Xiucheng and Shi Dakai came upon the rear of the Qing force and routed the Qing, who lost an estimated 60,000 men and many of their top Manchu commanders . This is one of the few times the Taipings used cavalry, having captured about 20,000 horses proir to the battle . Cixi Appoints reformer Zeng Guofan commander This major defeat led the Qing leadership led Cixi, the defacto leader of China, as the emperor was a child, to appoint the top military leader based on merit. Zeng Gougan, was appointed the Gov of the Liangkiang area and supreme military commander . Unlike most previous supreme Qing military leaders, he was not a Manchu but Han Chinese. He had scored one of the few Qing victories against the Taipings with an army he raised in defense of Hunan and came to the notice of the court .Once Zeng was in power, he raised like minded reformist to high command, such as Li-Hongzhang of Anhui and Zuo Zongtang of Hunan. Zeng Guo-feng and the Hunan Army The eventual suppression of the rebellion was largely due to Zeng Guo-feng (1811-72)A Han Chinese native of Hunan, passed the highest level of civil exams. When the Taipings invaded Hunan, here started his own armed force to fight them. After early reverses, retook Changsha, and destroyed the rebel fleet and made war commissioner and viceroy Jiangsu, Jiangxi and Anhui.,Zeng Gu-fan, a Han Chinese native of Hunan .When the Taipings advanced into Hunan, took command of a military force to battle the Taipings. Zeng recognized the weaknesses of the Manchu banner armies, particularly the need for personal relationships between Officers and their soldiers, discipline and training. The Manchus moved their officers about to keep them from building up a power base .He created the Hunan army, the model for later provincial armies, which were not part of the Manchu banner system. His Hunan army stressed officer-soldier relationships and Confucian vales.As to not raise the suspicion of Manchu officials, he placed a Manchu in a major command position .The Hunan Army grew to a size of about 130,000.The Hunan Army faced a serious defeat at San-ho-chen or San He in Anhui, in 1858, but went on to win many victories later.
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