The Taiping March on Nanjing

The Taiping Rebellion Part II

A new dynasty, the Taiping Tian Guo – The Heavenly Kingdom of Great Peace, had been pronounced in January 1851.

At this moment, this new dynasty was mostly limited to the southeast part of Guangxi province and was doing battles with government officials, who sometimes included river pirates who were part of the Triad Society. Other river pirates joined the Taiping. Those that didn’t, mostly didn’t like the religious restrictions. Having members who understood river navigation would be crucial as the Taiping expanded. Later, when pirates left the movement, the situation would reverse.

The Taiping now instituted organizational reforms: the Zhou li (The Rites of Zhou). These come from an ancient text, one that has been known for at least 2000 years prior to this rebellion. It was considered the organizational structure of the mythological Duke of Zhou. Military and civilian organization were combined. The people work as farmers / soldiers. They do productive work and take up arms when the need arises. The military leaders are also judges and civil administrators. The Taiping organized the military in Rites of Zhou fashion and mixed people from different regions in a squad, to prevent divisions and to prevent units from becoming autonomous. By doing so, they ended the cohesion of village groups, by dividing up their members among various units.

The Taiping also innovated and had followers gave up their own property and conferred to a common treasury. That seems to have assisted the rebellion to be a mobile force, since members were not slowed down by attachment to land or goods.

Men and women were also separated into different units with no contact between them. This was consistent with the religious doctrine of complete celibacy until victory was achieved.

Women’s groups were mostly involved in labour, such as weaving. However, there were also women fighting groups, especially those involving the Miao tribes. Men and women were legally equal in this regime.

By now, the leadership was divided from the followers. The leaders were called the brotherhood. They controlled the common treasury and for now, its use seemed to be for necessities and expansion. Later, they would enjoy a life of luxury in their new capital and exempt themselves from the celibacy requirements and enjoy harems of women.

Yang continued to build his power. He had a system of information gathering. He would then use that information during trance like proclamations for dramatic effect. One example was when a new recruit made a deal with the government to open the Taiping gates at a pre-arranged time. Yang revealed this during a trance. Using details of the plot, and asserting the heavenly source of the information, Yang was able to get the traitor to confess.

There was then a re-organization of power, to reflect Yang’s growing influence.

The founder, Hong, downgraded his religious authority and said that “only God and Jesus were holy”. Hong “should not be called holy”, he said. He may be addressed as Sovereign. He took the title Tian Wang or Heavenly King.

Yang became East King.

Yang’s compatriot Xiao became West King.

There also were a South King, North King and Flank King, the latter sometimes being translated as Assistant King.

The Heavenly King said that the other kings would be under Yang, the East King, as Superintendent.

Each of the kings had his own staff and followers, and there were also administrators and junior title holders...but all reported to the East King who controlled communication to Hong, the Heavenly King.

The East King encouraged the followers and peoples to attack the Manchu demons and vilified that minority ethnic group at the top of the Qing Empire.

For many outsiders, the political attacks on the Manchu were a more compelling reason to join the Taiping or to ally with them, then the new religious dogma.

The Taiping also instituted a policy that those groups who surrendered or welcomed them were well treated and never looted. However, those that resisted were slaughtered, often to the last woman and child. Towns that resisted and fell were completely wiped out. They were devils to be exterminated. Their property was added to the common treasury and any private hording was punished, even by death.

The Taiping, at this point, were well organized, disciplined and much more effective than the government troops. Soldiers were also quickly promoted or demoted according to performance in battle.

The Qing authorities were reacting. Imperial commissioners were appointed to put down the rebellion. The first one died on his way to the assignment and the second died soon after starting his appointment. The third, Saishanga, was a Manchu Grand Councillor. He concentrated his forces to siege the city of Yung-an in Guangxi, where the Taiping were. He had a substantial number of Green Standard Army troops, that outnumbered the Taiping. The rebels at this point, might have been 40,000- 50,000 people, not all of whom would have been combat soldiers.

But the government soldiers were underpaid, poorly trained and had little fighting spirit. The rebels were fanatical, disciplined and determined.

The siege was starving the rebels of food, but the Taiping were able to break out. The rear guard suffered losses.

Those losses were minor and the Taiping marched north. They generally avoided garrisoned cities, except for the Guangxi provincial capital, which they surrounded for a month, but were unable to break into. They were moving in the direction of the Yangtze River valley.

They entered Hunan province and there was a major development. There were government troops, but also a well-trained local corps led by Jiang Zhongyuan. He was a local gentry and successful examination taker. He was defending his home district. Saishanga, the Manchu military leader appointed him for assistance. He led a small group and it defeated a larger Taiping group, killing some of the rebels’ best and most veteran fighters.

This was a prelude to how the Taiping would ultimately be defeated. By a local gentry warlord, defending his region.

This loss forced the rebels to alter their route. Instead of following a rival valley, they had to choose a slower, hillier route. That region had experienced significant unrest in previous years. Tenant farmers had been ill treated and there had already been small scale uprisings and activity by secret societies. The Taiping were able to gain recruits from the disgruntled.

Their march was remarkable. It was fast by the standards of the day. It was also political. Rural peasants were attracted by the idea of a common treasury and their needs being taken care of, at a time of great hunger. Urban elite’s ambitions were stoked by advance guards spreading the word that the Taiping would hold examinations and that there would be career opportunities for their supporters. Many joined voluntarily, but others were forced to join when their community became part of the rebellion and whole villages were incorporated and divided by gender. The rebels’ ranks swelled from around 50,000 to over 1 million.

At Changsha, the Taiping attempted a siege. They used their miners to try to tunnel to the city walls but had mixed results. The West King, Yang’s compatriot Xiao was picked off while donning royal robes. After about 3 months, the Taiping called off the attack and moved further north to the Yangtze River where they had more success at Yiyang.

As they started taking cities along that prosperous and large river, the Taiping gained wealth, supplies and ships.

They then sailed down the Yangtze River valley towards Nanjing. They took Wuhan - yes that Wuhan- although it was 3 cities on both sides of the river at this time. Then they took Jiujiang after a one-week battle and then Anqing, capital of the Anhui province in about another week. Within a month of that, they had taken Nanjing and made it their capital. This is the same city where the British had stopped their advance in the Opium War and made their peace treaty. The Taiping had come there from the inland route, from the south and west, with their speedy advance at the end down the major Yangtze River.

Their victory at Nanjing was helped by advance troops that had infiltrated the city before the main force’s arrival. In a coordinated attack, the hidden troops attacked the Manchu from inside the walls, while the main group attacked from the outside.

The Taiping renamed the city Tianjing: The Heavenly Capital.

It now had more than 1 million followers and only perhaps 20,000 were from the original group from Guangxi province. Feng, an original loyalist of Hong, had died along the way in battle and as mentioned, Xiao, the West King had also died.

The Taiping had rapidly changed, had swelled in size and now had decided to settle down in a new capital city rather than continue to push the attack. This would have far-reaching consequences.