Anqing, located at the source of the 800-mile Wanjiang River, is known as the "hometown of culture and drama". According to legend, Guo Pu, a poet and geomancer in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, once visited Tangshan to see the Yangtze River, feeling that "this place is suitable for the city", so Anqing City was nicknamed "Yicheng". However, this small town full of cultural heritage also had a period of smoke-filled years, including ten years of Qing Xianfeng, Xiang Jun and Taiping.
First, the Western Expedition
After the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom made Tianjin its capital, Anqing became the most important western gateway and grain source of Taiping Army. The Yangtze River flows eastward through Anqing, transporting grain to the rear of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. At the same time, Anqing's unique geographical advantage as the "key to Tianjing" also made the Qing army want to attack Tianjing but not, and repeatedly looked at Anqing and sighed.
It can be said that Anqing is safe for one day and Tianjin is safe for one day. For Zeng Guofan, who is eager to destroy the Taiping Army, laying Anqing will become the key battle of "the overall situation of Huainan and the foundation of Jinling in the future".
1860, Zeng Guofan led a land and water army of 50,000 people to besiege Anqing. At this time, there were only more than 20,000 Taiping rebels in Anqing. News came that Hong Xiuquan urgently ordered Chen Yucheng and Li Xiucheng to go west to Wuhan to solve the siege of Anqing.
Regrettably, Chen and Li tried to emulate the plan of "encircling Wei to save Zhao", but the process of capturing Wuhan was not smooth. At first, Chen Yucheng's army was invincible, and it took only 12 days to capture Hubei. The Qing army in Wuchang city was scared to panic. Fortunately, the British navy prefect James Hope and Counsellor Parkes stood up in time and blocked the advance of Taiping Army on the grounds of "guaranteeing foreign trade", which made the Qing army breathe a sigh of relief.
Seeing that the intention of the Western Expedition to Wuchang failed, Chen Yucheng simply rescued Anqing and camped in Chigangling overnight, ready to cooperate with the defenders in Anqing. Who knows, the Qing army acted quickly. They took advantage of Chen Yucheng's request for reinforcements when he returned to Tianjing, and suddenly attacked the Taiping rebels in Chigangling. Without the commander-in-chief, the Taiping Army immediately went into chaos, and the 4,000 elite Taiping Army left behind in Chigangling was completely annihilated. Qing soldiers went straight to Anqing city.
Second, a bloody battle.
While Chen Yucheng's Western Expedition failed, Li Xiucheng's plan to attack Wuhan was not smooth. 1860 During the autumn and winter, Li Xiucheng led the South Road Army into Yixian through Fanchang and Shitai, which was once only 60 miles away from Zeng Guofan's Qimen command post. Zeng Guofan was so scared that he wrote a suicide note, but Li Xiucheng did not continue to March as planned. But led the army to send troops to Zhejiang, and the western expedition plan failed.
Seeing that Wuhan is besieged, the plan to save Anqing is no longer feasible. Chen Yucheng immediately went to the front. With the determination that the whole army was wiped out, we divided our troops and confronted the Qing army head-on, and launched a vigorous defense war in Anqing.
At the beginning of the battle, Chen Yucheng was advancing tens of thousands of troops, each carrying a pile of thatch, and rushed to the front of the trenches of the Qing army against the fire, slashing the enemy and filling the trenches with thatch. The Qing army occupied favorable terrain and fired wildly at the Taiping Army, and the fire reflected the sky with strange blood marks. The vanguard troops of Taiping Army fell one by one under the artillery fire of the Qing army, but soon the follow-up troops continued to charge against the artillery fire of the Qing army.
The bodies of the sacrificial soldiers fell in the trenches layer by layer, and the trenches were filled like the ground with thatch. The fighting lasted for several days and nights. There were mountains of bones outside Anqing, and even the river was dyed red. Unfortunately, even though Chen Yucheng has fought so far, the enemy can't compete with the intensive attack of the Qing artillery. Finally, he had to submit to humiliation and return to Tongcheng to find another way to rescue Anqing.
Third, the city is broken.
After Chen Yucheng's defeat, Zeng Guofan put forward the six-character operational policy of "building a strong village and fighting a protracted war" in order to reduce the casualties of the Qing army, and prepared to encircle Anqing City without attacking, waiting for the garrison of Anqing City to be trapped.
Under the blockade of the Qing army, the materials in Anqing city dropped sharply. After summer, there is little food left in the city. Taiping soldiers had to search everywhere for pigs, dogs, leaves and bark to satisfy their hunger, but these things soon became "tight commodities", so the hunger on the roadside gradually became the "delicious food" that people competed for.
However, although the Taiping soldiers were in such a difficult situation, they still stubbornly stuck to their own city and would never surrender to the Qing army even if they starved to death. The difficult situation of the soldiers and civilians in Anqing City worried Chen Yucheng.
186 1 At the end of August, with the determination to put all your eggs in one basket, Chen Yucheng sent troops to Anqing City again, vowing to save Anqing. Under the command of Chen Yucheng, the Taiping Army and the Qing Army launched a bloody battle. When the Taiping rebels in the city saw the reinforcements, regardless of hunger and fatigue, they stood in Chengtou and sang military songs for Chen Yucheng.
Seeing that the Taiping Army was powerful, the Qing army rushed to mobilize troops to help. In the bullets, the bodies of Taiping rebels were everywhere, bleeding and standing on their feet. Finally, after consuming170,000 kilograms of gunpowder and numerous lead bullets, the Qing army finally repelled Chen Yucheng's attack. In this battle, the Taiping army killed and injured more than 20 thousand people, and at that time there was blood all over the mountains and plains.
Although Chen Yucheng was defeated, it dealt a great blow to the arrogance of the Qing army. In order to prevent Chen Yucheng from making a comeback, the Qing army dug a tunnel at the foot of Mashan Mountain in Anqing overnight, leading to the gate of Anqing. Subsequently, the Qing army buried a large amount of explosives under the gate of Anqing North City through the tunnel, blasting the thick city wall into a gap of dozens of feet. Anqing city was thus breached, and the Qing army flooded into the city like a flood, and launched a fierce hand-to-hand combat with the Taiping defenders who stayed in the city.
Ye Yunlai and Wu Dingcai, captains of the Taiping Army, resisted the attack of the Qing army and led the soldiers of the Taiping Army to block the gap in the city wall with their bodies and make heroic sacrifices. At the same time, there was a fierce battle in the city, and the sun and the moon changed color. Defending the city, more than 20,000 Taiping rebels vowed to survive in the position of * * * *, dragging their weak bodies to fight to the death with the Qing army, and all died heroically.
At this point, Anqing city completely fell into the hands of the Qing army. On the second day after the fall of Anqing, Chen Yucheng saw that the tide was gone and had to withdraw very reluctantly. On the way back to Li, Chen Yucheng sighed, and her skirt was wet with tears. The young general, known as Tianzhu, understood that once Anqing fell, the western front of Tianjing could no longer be held, and it was only a matter of time before the kingdom of heaven was shattered.
Sure enough, three years later, the Qing army besieged Jinling, Tianjing was broken, and the once vigorous Taiping Heavenly Kingdom disappeared in the storm of history.