The Northern Expedition

It was determined at this time to harass Beijing with an expedition to the north .The expedition reached within 100 miles of Beijing and demonstrated to ineffectiveness of the imperials to fight it .

The Army is divided into three parts, one to defend Nanjing, one to retake and hold the cities passed on the Yangtziand another to march north to threaten Beijing .This army departs for Beijing in May 1853 with some 70,000 Guangxi veterans and new recruits . They encounter many more problems going north than they did marching to Nanjing. The towns are better prepared to resist and being southerners, they are unprepared for the harsh northern winter, and many freeze to death or are maimed by frostbite .Despite these troubles, they reach the outskirts of Tianjin .There is no steady supply train to the force. By May, 1854, the Qing armies have surrounded the remaining Taiping forces with earthworks and divert the waters of the Grand Canal into the Taiping camp at Lianzhen, wiping out the Taiping Army .The Taiping commander Lin Fengxiang was captured and executed . At this time , British Consul T. T. Meadows, who accompanied the Hermes to Nanjing, made a report full of sympathy; but the failure of their expedition to the north deterred the nation from any formal recognition of the Taiping government.

Qing painting of the defeat of the Taiping Northern expedition at Lianzhen, close to the Grand Canal

Shi Daikai into Jiangxi 

An army under Shi Dakai is sent to Jiangxi, who takes most of the Provence with the help of triad forces from Guangdong. Only an area around Nanchang and Lake Poyang remains in Qing hands. Jiangxi becomes a great food source for the Taipings .

After the Battle of Hukou, Jiangxi in 1855, Gen. Zeng Guofan considered suicide after losses to the Taiping Gen.Shi Dakai. Left, state of Gen.Zeng, right, mausoleum for the Qing soldiers and sailors lost in the naval battle, where the Taipings were able destroy many Qing ships at the meeting of the Yangtze River and Boyang Lake .

  Taiping advance into the Yangtze Valley 1851-53

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