to launch the northern and western expeditions.
The goal of the northern expedition was to capture Beijing and overthrow the Qing dynasty. The commanders of the northern expedition army were Lin Fengxiang, Li Kaifang and Ji Wenyuan, all the bravest and most brilliant generals of the Taiping Army. The Northern Expedition Army (NEA), which was comprised of more than 20,000 soldiers, was renowned for its combat effectiveness, unparalleled in all of the fifty Taiping brigades. The NEA’s vanguard landed at Pukou in May, 1853 and crushed Qing’s defending force. It then captured cities such as Chuzhou. The NEA’s rear guard suffered a setback. When informed about this, Yang, the East King, sent out an order that the NEA must achieve its strategic goals as soon as possible as they were unable to provide more support.6 Despite this news, the NEA still marched forward courageously and entered Henan, where it attacked the enemy without mercy. By late June, the NEA had swelled to a huge army of about 40,000 men and continued north across the Yellow River. However, a very dangerous situation lay ahead for the soldiers.
The NEA spent two months besieging Huaiqing (present-day Qinyang in Henan), but failed to capture the city. As more of Qing’s armies arrived, the NEA had to retreat to Shanxi. The failure of the Huaiqing campaign had a serious impact on the Taiping Army’s northern expedition and it suffered heavy losses. Worst of all, it wasted fifty-six days there. However, in late September it won a series of battles against the Qing army, encouraging the hope that it would be able to launch an attack on Beijing, Qing’s imperial capital, before winter. Yet the NEA was exhausted and couldn’t go further, needing to rest in Shenzhou, a prefecture south of Beijing.
It was rumored that the Taiping Army had captured Dingzhou, which was close to Beijing. This news appalled the imperial court. Emperor Xianfeng (r. 1850–1861) appointed a prince and Sengge Linqin, one of the most renowned Qing generals, to defend Beijing at all costs. Sengge led an army of four or five thousand men to Zhuozhou, a prefecture south of Beijing. At the same time, another high commander stationed his troops in Baoding, Beijing’s southern gate. Qing was determined to fight the Taiping Army to the death. However, the NEA did not head straight for Beijing but instead pushed eastward toward Tianjin. In late October, the NEA arrived in Yangliuqing, a town in Tianjin. By then, the NEA had nine brigades and 30,000 soldiers in total.
The NEA was stationed there for more than three months. It was in this period that the northern expedition began to face problems. The biggest threat at this time was not the opposing forces but the bitter cold of winter. Most of the NEA’s soldiers came from the south and did not know how to protect themselves from the cold. As a result, the NEA lost half of its elite soldiers due to bad weather. Quite a few Taiping soldiers froze to death. In February, 1854, the NEA began to retreat southward and the NEA’s commanders desperately hoped for reinforcements.
In December, 1853, Nanjing arranged relief troops. However, of the sixty thousand soldiers recruited, many were not well-disciplined, nor did they want to head north. By the following April, the reinforcements were utterly defeated. In June, 1854, Nanjing made a second vain attempt to save the NEA. Li Kaifang and Lin Fengxiang, the NEA’s two leading generals, were defeated and captured in the first half of 1855. They were later taken to Beijing and brutally executed. A leader in the Taiping Army reflected that the failure of the northern expedition had a bad effect on the entire rebellion.
The Taiping Army’s western expedition aimed to capture the entire middle region of the Yangtze River and turn the region into a base to provide protection and supplies to Nanjing. Unlike the NEA, which was particularly good at fighting on the ground, the Western Expedition Army (WEA) made the best of its navy. In June, 1853, the WEA left Nanjing with a fleet of more than 1,000 ships. It captured several cities in Anhui and Jiangxi and attacked the strategic city of Nanchang. While attacking Nanchang, the WEA tried its utmost to transport grain to Nanjing. Lai Hanying, the WEA’s commander, underestimated the enemy, and the WEA finally failed to take Nanchang and had to end its siege in September. Lai was dismissed and replaced with Shi Dakai, the Wing King. The WEA began its retreat in October and started to attack Hubei.
In November they concentrated on northern Anhui, attempting to capture Luzhou (present-day Hefei) in one go and in January of the following year, Shi achieved his goal. The Governor of Anhui had to drown himself in the river. The result was that the Taiping Army successfully controlled more than twenty prefectures and counties in Anhui.
In the meantime, the Taiping Army attacked Hubei with greater force. They took Wuchang, Jingzhou and Yichang. When they began to head south, the Taiping Army encountered the Hunan Army led by Zeng Guofan 曾国藩 (1811–1872), the most ferocious yet. In Hunan’s Xiangtan, the southern brigade of the Taiping Army was almost completely wiped out by the Hunan Army. It was here that the Hunan army successfully defeated the Taiping Army. The Taiping Army was forced to give up the strategically important Wuchang. Just a month later both sides engaged in fierce fighting. In the face of the unstoppable Hunan Army, the WEA was put to rout all along the line. The Hunan Army continued its pursuit of victory and began to close in on Jiujiang, a city of strategic importance. It was in Hunan and Hubei that Taiping suffered the most humiliating and most disastrous defeat since the 1851 Jintian Uprising. The Taiping navy was entirely annihilated by the Hunan Army and had to give up their control of the Yangtze River.
Shi Dakai was appointed to restore the western effort and was able to successfully defend Jiujiang, leading the Hunan Army to attack Hukou instead. Shi lured the Hunan Army into the Poyang Lake where it was forced to split in half. In the end, the WEA destroyed thirty-nine battleships of the Hunan navy and was even able to capture Zeng’s flag. Zeng himself fled in panic in a small boat. The WEA in Hukou and Jiujiang inflicted heavy causalities on the Hunan Army and launched a large-scale counteroffensive, recapturing Hankou, Hanyang and Wuchang. As a result, the Hunan Army’s entire offensive collapsed. At this time, Hu Linyi, a famous general of the Hunan Army, was appointed the Governor of Hubei. He did his best to turn the tables on the Taiping Army but the situation in Wuchang grew worse again. Shi sent in more reinforcements and in January, 1856, the insurgents of the Tiandihui of Guangdong joined the WEA, giving Shi’s army an enormous capacity. Shi and his troops swept through Jiangxi, bringing most parts of Jiangxi under their control. Zeng, who was defending the besieged Nanchang, was desperately in need of Qing’s relief troops. Shi, however, was hastily recalled by Nanjing to attack Qing’s Southern Barracks, giving Zeng and his troops some breathing space.
As mentioned above, Qing’s Southern and Northern Barracks posed a great threat to Nanjing, Yangzhou and Zhenjiang. Two years later, the imperial court ordered the Governor of Jiangsu, together with the Southern Barracks, to attack Zhenjiang. The defending forces in the first two months overwhelmed the Qing army and destroyed more than one hundred and twenty of Qing’s military camps. Then, in April, the Taiping Army retook Yangzhou. In May, they killed the Governor of Jiangsu and, in June, they forced the Qing army to retreat to Danyang. Soon, Shi and his troops joined the defending forces. Shi led the united army directly toward the Southern Barracks. He wiped out the Barracks and seized all its armaments and supplies. The head of Qing’s army fled and died in August. The threat from the Southern Barracks was thus neutralized.
The basic socio-political programs of the Heavenly Kingdom of Great Peace were religious, utopian and revolutionary. Hong aimed to create a universally harmonious and peaceful heaven on earth. In one of his treatises, he argued that the reason for social ills lay in selfishness and that men and women all over the world should live with one another as if they were the brothers and sisters of one family.7
After the Jintian Uprising, the leaders such as Yang Xiuqing and Xiao Chaogui told the public that their goal was to overthrow the Qing dynasty and liberate all oppressed people.8 They collaboratively started to rebuild after establishing the capital in Nanjing. They decreed that people should change their hair style and way of dressing as well as worship God.
