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 has also had a period of smoke-filled years. In the tenth year of Xianfeng in Qing Dynasty, Xiang Army and Taiping Army fought a bitter battle in Anqing City, which decided the fate of Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. This is the battle of Anqing that shocked the world.
0 1, 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 was eager to destroy the Taiping Army, laying Anqing became 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 on an expedition to Wuhan to relieve the siege of Anqing. Regrettably, Chen and Li's attempt to attack Wuhan by imitating the plan of "encircling Wei to save Zhao" 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 in a panic. Fortunately, the British navy prefect James Hope and Counsellor Parkes stepped forward in time to stop the Taiping Army from advancing on the grounds of "ensuring foreign trade", which made the Qing army breathe a sigh of relief. Since then, Chen Yucheng and Xiang have fought many times, winning and losing each other, but they have never been able to rescue the siege of Anqing. Seeing that the intention of the Western Expedition to Wuchang failed, Chen Yucheng simply rescued Anqing and camped overnight in Chigangling area, ready to cooperate with the defenders in Anqing city.
Who knows, the Qing army is moving fast. 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 was suddenly in chaos, and the 4,000 elite Taiping Army left behind by Chigangling was completely annihilated. The front of the Qing army reached the gate of Anqing.
02, 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, and once hit the place 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 didn't know why. Instead of continuing to March according to the original plan, he led troops to Zhejiang, and the plan for the Western Expedition failed.
Seeing that the plan to save Anqing around Wuhan was 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 gunfire, slashing the enemy and filling the trenches with thatch.
The Qing army occupied a favorable terrain and fired wildly at the Taiping rebels. The fire reflected a strange bloody color in the sky. 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 filled the trenches like the ground with thatch.
After several days and nights of fighting, 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, in order to rescue Anqing, he had to submit to humiliation and return to Tongcheng.
03, 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. The materials in Anqing city were drastically reduced under the blockade of the Qing army. In summer, there is almost no food in the city. Taiping soldiers had to eat pigs, dogs, leaves and bark to satisfy their hunger, but these things soon became "hot goods", 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, they stood together to sing military songs for Chen Yucheng, regardless of their hungry and tired physical condition. Seeing that the Taiping Army was powerful, the Qing army urgently dispatched troops to help. In the bullets, the bodies of Taiping rebels were everywhere, bleeding and floating. In the end, after consuming 6.5438+0.7 million Jin 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 20,000 people. At that time, there was blood all over the mountains. 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 the northern city of Anqing through the tunnel, blasting the thick city wall into a gap of dozens of feet, and Anqing City was broken.
The Qing army flooded into the city and fought fiercely with the Taiping defenders who stayed in the city. Ye Yunlai and Wu Dingcai, captains of the Taiping Army, led the Taiping Army soldiers to block the gap in the city wall with corpses and sacrificed heroically. At the same time, there was a fierce battle in the city, killing the sky and darkening the sun and the moon. More than 20,000 Taiping troops guarding the city vowed to live and die together with their positions, dragging their weak bodies and fighting the Qing army to the death, all of whom 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 reluctantly retreat. On the way to Li, Chen Yucheng couldn't help sighing, and her skirt was wet with tears. The young general, known as Tianzhu, knew that once Anqing was lost, the western front of Tianjing could no longer be maintained. It is only a matter of time before the kingdom of heaven collapses. Sure enough, three years later, the Qing army besieged Jinling and Tianjing was broken. The once vigorous Taiping Heavenly Kingdom disappeared in history.