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Taiping Rebellion.com 1850-71 |
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Taiping Rebellion.com 1850-71 |
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The Purges of Sept-Oct 1856 or the 'Tianjing Incident' 天京事變
Taiping print showing Li Xiucheng, Chen Yucheng and Hong Xiuquan The brotherhood of the kings soon feel victim to the ambition of Yang Hsiu-ching, the Eastern King .Hung's progressive mental deterioration led to his withdrawal from active governing . Yang was a brilliant administrator, and his downfall stems from trying to replace Hung from supreme power .Becoming aware of this threat by August 1856, Hung summoned Wei Chang hui and Shih Ta-kaito the capital with instructions to kill Yang. On Sept 1 Wei struck, whose forced were closest and in the battle with his forces an estimated 20,000 were killed .When Shih Ta-kai arrived a few days latter he was appalled at the carnage and urged Wei to cease .Wei now suspected Shih of treason, and Shih left the capital. Wei then killed Shih's family. Shih then marched on Nanjing with a huge army to take revenge .In mid Nov wei and 200 of his followers were killed . In addition to the loss of life and destruction of the Taiping original vision, there was no able administrator as Yang to take over .Shih was thwarted by the brothers of Hung, and Shih departed the capital with his own army.The Qing took advantage of this situation to retake wuchang and large areas of Wuchang .However, there was a revival of military fortunes in 1858 under the leadership of Chen Yu-cheng and Li Hsin cheng, dealing the Hunan army a defeat at san-ho-chen (Sanhe) in Anhui . However, the Qing forces were not able to take advantage of this situation due to many reasons: the growing Nian rebellion in north China,who had a strong cavalry, well-trained and fully equipped with modern firearms, which has cut off communication to the south, continued trouble with the British over trade and other issues which would soon lead to the Second Opium War and the insistence that all Taipings troops would be beheaded if captured, which gave the Taiping troops reason not to surrender .
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