Qing Dynasty When Emperor Tongzhi first succeeded to the throne, the population of the Qing Dynasty reached 350 million. However, after the Taiping Rebellion and the Shaanxi-Gansu Rebellion during the Tongzhi period, two catastrophes in modern Chinese history, the population of the Qing Dynasty dropped sharply to 220 million.
History books dare not tell too dark historical facts. When Zeng Guofan suppressed the Taiping Rebellion, he massacred the cities of Jiujiang in Jiangxi, Anqing in Anhui, and Nanjing (Tianjing) in Jiangsu, and many times brought the rebels and The historical fact that innocent people were massacred together and the historical fact that Bai Yanhu and other rebel forces massacred innocent Han people in Shaanxi-Gansu provinces during the Shaanxi-Gansu Rebellion are not even mentioned in the history books.
The Taiping Rebellion and the Shaanxi-Gansu Rebellion caused very serious losses to modern China, including population and economic losses.
Today I will tell you the cruel historical truth about the Taiping Rebellion and the Shaanxi-Gansu Rebellion, which resulted in the deaths of more than 100 million innocent people.
Let me first tell you about the tragic experiences of innocent people during the Taiping Rebellion.
The leader of the Taiping Rebellion Hong Xiuquan and Taiping Army were in a good situation in the early days of the uprising. However, after Hong Xiuquan established his capital in Nanjing (Tianjing), he lost his original high fighting spirit, began to be content with the status quo, and gradually became greedy. It was comfortable, and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom gradually became disunified, and even internal strife broke out.
Statue of Hong Xiuquan
The disunity and internal strife of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and their complacency with the status quo gave the Qing government the opportunity to pacify them. Zeng Guofan led by fierce An army composed of brave militiamen began their journey to suppress the Taiping Rebellion. However, the Taiping Army was very powerful in combat. Both sides had victories and defeats. At first, the Taiping Army had the upper hand. Zeng Guofan lost several battles, and even tried to commit suicide by jumping into the river twice. They were all rescued.
When Zeng Guofan lost another battle and attempted suicide for the third time, news suddenly came that a Qing army had won the battle. This made Zeng Guofan ecstatic and instantly inspired him to fight. At this time, Zeng Guofan felt that victory or defeat was This is common for military strategists. Several setbacks do not mean that they will always be set back. As long as you persist, you may have a chance to turn defeat into victory.
Portrait of Zeng Guofan
Zeng Guofan then led the Qing army to fight back against the Taiping Army. From this time on, the Qing army had the upper hand. Zeng Guofan was nicknamed "Zeng Shatou" , meaning that Zeng Guofan was bloodthirsty and could be described as killing people like crazy; in the process of quelling the Taiping Rebellion, every time Zeng Guofan conquered a Taiping Army city, he would definitely slaughter all the Taiping Army soldiers in the city. Even the Taiping Army soldiers who surrendered were not spared. , even innocent people cannot escape this disaster.
Before the expedition, Zeng Guofan claimed that he would pay attention to Confucian spirit and Confucian morality when leading his troops, and he would definitely save the people from fire and water. However, Zeng Guofan did not reflect his principles of leading troops at all when leading his troops.
After Zeng Guofan led his army to conquer Jiujiang City, he allowed his soldiers to massacre the people in the city and plunder their property. Tens of thousands of innocent people, young and old, were killed by the Qing army's butcher knives.
The then governor of Huguang was named Wang Jia Guanwen . After he learned that Zeng Guofan massacred the city in Jiujiang and the tragic situation in the city, he wrote to the court describing the misfortune of the people in the city: "There was no way to run, and the howling was inaudible. From Mao to noon, everyone was wiped out, the corpses piled up, and the water was red."
Later Zeng Guofan led his army to break through Anqing City, and the Qing army destroyed the Taiping Army in the city. All 16,000 soldiers were executed. In addition, Zeng Guofan The Qing army allowed the Qing army to massacre innocent men and women, resulting in tens of thousands of deaths and injuries; Zeng Guofan's close confidant Zhao Liewen lamented: "More than 10,000 thieves were killed, all the men died, and more than 10,000 women died."
Zeng Guofan led the Qing army to attack Nanjing City (Tianjin) Beijing) once again allowed the Qing army to massacre the city. None of the rebel soldiers or innocent people survived, not even children of two or three years old. Zeng Guofan's close confidant Zhao Liewen once again lamented: " Nine out of ten dead bodies along the street are old. Children under the age of two or three are also killed for fun."
After the Taiping Rebellion was put down, the population of the Qing Dynasty dropped sharply from 350 million to 240 million. The number of people who died directly in wars and massacres reached 70 million, and another 40 million people died of starvation due to displacement.
Next, I will tell you about Shaanxi and Gansu. The tragic experiences of innocent people during the Rebellion
During the Tongzhi Period. , Bai Yanhu, Ma Hualong and others deliberately intensified the contradiction between the Hui and Han people, forming a rebel force headed by Bai Yanhu, which resulted in a large number of innocent Han people being killed by Bai Yanhu and other rebel forces. Northern Shaanxi, Guanzhong The people in Gansu suffered the most tragic experiences during the Shaanxi-Gansu Rebellion.
Bai Yanhu and other rebel forces suffered. They massacred the people in many villages in northern Shaanxi until no one survived, and also set fire to the houses, causing most of northern Shaanxi to be desolate at that time.
After causing great damage to northern Shaanxi, the rebel forces such as Bai Yanhu moved south again. The people in Guanzhong were massacred, and the people in Guanzhong suffered as tragically as the people in northern Shaanxi.
"Lintong." "County Chronicle" records: In the seven years from 1862 to 1869, more than 300,000 people were killed, and not a single person in the villages in the north and south of the Weihe River was spared.
At that time, many places in Guanzhong suffered the same fate as Lintong. All counties and counties in Guanzhong reported this. There are records, and I will list the records in the county records of three of the counties htm. l3
"Fuping County Chronicle" records: In 1855, there were 46,579 households in the entire county, and the number of people was estimated to be about 250,000. However, in 1876, another count showed that only 28,543 households were left, and the number of households was about 250,000. It became about 120,000 people.
"Sanyuan County Chronicle" records: Before the Shaanxi-Gansu Rebellion, The population of Sanyuan County was about 160,000, and after the Shaanxi-Gansu Rebellion was suppressed, there were only about 40,000 people left.
"Gaoling County Chronicle" records: The population of Gaoling County before the Shaanxi-Gansu Rebellion was nearly 70,000. , after the Shaanxi-Gansu rebellion was put down, it was calculated again that more than half of the population of Gaoling County had been lost.
Later, Bai Yanhu and other rebel forces came again. Southern Shaanxi and Gansu (Gansu at that time included Ningxia, northeastern Qinghai and southeastern Xinjiang) massacred innocent Han people. Gansu lost a total of six-tenths of its population during the Shaanxi-Gansu rebellion
Shaanxi-Gansu Hui. During the rebellion, a total of 20 million innocent Han people were killed by the rebel forces. At this critical juncture, Zuo Zongtang led the soldiers of the Qing army to fight bravely, and it took ten years to completely quell the Shaanxi-Gansu rebellion.
Statue of Zuo Zongtang
Bai Yanhu led the remaining rebel forces to escape to Xinjiang, and helped Agubai, who controlled most of Xinjiang at that time, kill. attracted many people of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang.
Later, Zuo Zongtang persuaded the Empress Dowager Cixi to agree to his Western Expedition, so Zuo Zongtang began the journey of the Western Expedition to regain Xinjiang. Zuo Zongtang commanded the Qing army to successfully regain northern Xinjiang, followed by the military front. Directly to the southern border, Aguba Knowing that the situation was over, he took poison and committed suicide in Korla. Bai Yanhu led the remaining rebel forces to flee to Tsarist Russia. Their descendants are the Dungan people in Central Asia today.
Zuo Zongtang is one of the greatest national heroes in modern Chinese history. The army he commanded was a thousand times better in style than the army commanded by Zeng Guofan. Although the armies led by Zuo Zongtang and Zeng Guofan were both Hunan troops, After all, the commander-in-chief Zuo Zongtang was good at running the army, and Zuo Zongtang selected his soldiers carefully.
Today, Zuo Zongtang has been smeared by history books as a villain who suppressed the peasant uprising, and even Zuo Zongtang’s recovery of Xinjiang has been removed from the history books, but Zeng Guofan is called a saint. This is very important to Zuo Zongtang. It is really unfair to regard a great national hero in China’s modern history.
I read history and classics. Thank you all for reading my articles. I read history and classics. I create wonderful articles on history and classics for you in Toutiao every day. I read history and classics and bring you different excitement every day. .
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