The Taiping Rebellion and the Murder of Yang Xiuqing

The Taiping Rebellion Implodes

The western powers had been following the Taiping Rebellion since the battles in Guangxi province. They sent representatives once the capital was established in Nanjing. While initially impressed with the discipline and organization of the force, and intrigued by the Christian influences on the movement, they were disappointed in the attitude at Nanjing. They believed that the new regime continued to have a typical Chinese attitude to foreigners and would not respect existing treaties unless compelled. The Taiping claimed superiority over all others, which was concerning to the foreigners. For now, the westerners remained neutral in the fight between the Qing and the Taiping.

The Taiping didn’t gain western allies. And they weren’t coordinating with the other rebellions that had broken out around China. In last episode, the Nian rebellion was mentioned. But there were others too. Neither the founder Hong, who was increasingly reclusive, or Yang, the de facto leader, was publishing anything to inspire his followers, gain converts or build alliances. Other than rescinding the policy of separating men and women and allowing marriage, Yang’s only publication for about 2 years was on military tactics.

The government was trying to cut off Nanjing and its supplies. They installed a northern camp and a southern camp around the Taiping capital and starved it. The initial stores of food were being depleted as trade was cut off.

The Taiping responded by allowing women and children to leave the capital, to decrease its needs. And Yang ordered some of the Western expedition troops to return to attack the blockading armies. Rather than fight the Hunan provincial army, they attacked the government camps. Entirely successful, the Taiping ended those blockades.

But now that external threats were weakened, internal conflict reached a boiling point. The original leadership concept was that of Brotherhood, with multiple kings. But Yang, the East King, had increasingly consolidated power. That was unpopular among the remaining kings and possibly even among the soldiers and followers.

On September 2, 1856, once the blockade had been lifted, the North King assassinated Yang. It was a planned and coordinated attack as Yang’s family and followers, perhaps 20,000 in all, were also killed. The fact that the spy master was taken out shows how his powers had declined. He had the largest harem of all and perhaps was enjoying life too much to notice the dangers. The scope of the attack also suggests that the Heavenly King, Hong, would have been in on it.

Because Hong had called Yang the Holy Spirit, his memory was not extinguished. Instead, Hong said that Yang had ascended to heaven. His importance in the religion was not diminished, although he was no longer a rival.

The Assistant King heard of the assassination in the Heavenly Capital and returned there from Hubei province. He criticized the North King, who now tried to take out the Assistant King too, whose troops were mostly still in Hubei. The Assistant King found out, escaped from the city wall by being lowered in a basket and rejoined his troops. They then marched on the Heavenly Capital. In the meantime, the Heavenly King had the North King killed, along with his family and followers.

The North King had no religious importance and his record was scrubbed by the Heavenly King.

Of the original Brotherhood, only the Heavenly King and the Assistant King were left. Hong sent the head of the North King to the Assistant King and invited him to return. He made the Assistant King his chief of staff.

It seems like the Heavenly King was increasingly paranoid. He invited the Assistant King to return because, “he had no assistants”. But once he arrived, Hong became suspicious of his new Chief of Staff.

The Heavenly King’s real brothers had taken increasing importance in the capital and the Assistant King preferred to leave and undertake his own campaign in the west. He gave followers the choice of whether to stay or go and some of the greatest military talent left with him.

Zeng learned of this and invited him to surrender, but instead the Assistant King carried on his fight in a generally south and west direction, eventually aiming for Szechuan province in the southwest. He issued no propaganda and became an autonomous military force, aligned with the rebels. Zeng had to divert forces to fight him and the battles continued for years as the former Assistant King gained recruits to offset his losses. He was eventually defeated after a few years.

Beijing ordered Zeng to exterminate that new marauding force, but Zeng prioritized the Taiping instead. He explained to his superiors that roaming bandits were less of a long-term threat than a settled rebellious force. He continued to focus on strangling the Taiping centre.

Hong made his real brothers kings, but they showed no skills other than in accumulating wealth and property. The commanders in the field were increasingly autonomous and disillusioned.

Within the military, there was still advancement by capable soldiers. The rebellion was too far advanced for them to reconcile with the government. Surrender or capture would lead to beheading. And there was no strategy coming from the capital coordinating them. The commanders did try to work together, but without any real command structure. For instance, the commanders did agree that regaining control of the central Yangtze River was important and coordinated enough to accomplish this.

One advantage from the death of Yang was that the Taiping military commanders were more independent minded and less insistent that any allies join the Taiping. Until then, the Taiping and the Nian rebels had not coordinated, because the Nian were not willing to join the Taiping structure. Now, in early 1856, the commanders were willing to ally as equals with the Nian and more cooperation resulted.

The Nian were particularly strong with cavalry and were centred in northern Anhui province, northwest of Nanjing and north of the central Yangtze River. The Nian were a federation, so cooperation was not formalized or eternal. Between 1857 and 1859, there was considerable coordination and joint captures and control of some captured cities. But the Qing also allowed the Nian to surrender which made them unreliable allies for the Taiping, who had no such possibility.

The Hunan provincial army was also advancing slowly on the Yangtze. They were able to take a strategically important city in the central Yangtze and gain control of the upper Yangtze River. They also rebuilt blockading forces closer to Nanjing. At the end of 1857, Chinese generals were able to take Zhenjiang, just downriver from Nanjing, which had been under Taiping control for 4 years.

The commanders conferenced to deal with this threat to the capital and Hong gave new titles to these military leaders. They were able to break the northern half of this new siege of the capital and end the immediate threat.

The Hunan provincial army, however, was advancing towards them from the west. It was now well beyond the Hunan provincial boundaries and was a growing challenge for the Taiping.

From time to time, the Taiping commanders would meet to coordinate repelling the Hunan forces or an attempt to besiege Nanjing. They were able to do so, but not to gain any real ground.

The capital depended on transfer of funds and food from its commanders. It had no central military or agricultural force.

And the provincial army had gained control of the river itself. The Taiping were relegated to controlling some cities along its banks and had lost their previous large sphere of control.

It was around this time, in 1858, that Lord Elgin’s fleet navigated the Yangtze River to determine its trade potential during this civil war. The first time the British passed, the Taiping fired upon them. But they later apologized multiple times. The Taiping also shared a political document with the British which demanded that the foreigners pay respect to the “son of God”. The British sent inquiries out and found that the peasants had no sympathy for the Taiping and felt oppressed by them. Their men were demanded for service, the people were squeezed and the best-looking women taken. The British believed that the defeat of the Taiping was inevitable.

Things are looking grim for the Taiping.