Podcasts about Heavenly King

While the Northern Expedition dies in the freezing mud of Shandong, the Taiping's second strike — the Western Expedition — turns its sights on the provinces they've already ridden through on the Yangtze, a kingdom to go with their new Heavenly Capital. But waiting for them in Hunan is a man unable to ride a horse, or command an army... who will nevertheless set about constructing their ultimate doom.Time Period Covered:May 1853 – February 1854 CE Major Historical Figures:Taiping Heavenly Kingdom:Hong Xiuquan, the Heavenly King [1814–1864]Hu Yiguang, commander of the Anhui column, Western ExpeditionLai Hanying, commander of the Jiangxi column, Western ExpeditionShi Dakai, the Wing King [1831–1863]Li Xiucheng, future Loyal King [c. 1823–1864]Qing Dynasty:The Xianfeng Emperor (Aisin-Gioro Yinzhu) [r. 1850–1861]Jiang Zhongyuan, governor of Anhui [1812–1854]Zeng Guofan, founder of the Xiang Army [1811–1872]Tang Jian, Neo-Confucian scholar and Zeng Guofan's mentor [1778–1861] Major Sources Cited:Michael, Franz, and Chang Chung-li. The Taiping Rebellion: History and Documents, Vol. I.Platt, Stephen R. Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom.Spence, Jonathan D. God's Chinese Son: The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom of Hong Xiuquan. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Taiping Army commits to one of its most audacious acts yet – an assault on the Qing throne itself, a thousand miles north in Beijing. To reach it, it will launch its great Northern Campaign: a single spear-throw that, if its aim holds true, might end the entire war before the teeth of winter bite down.Time Period Covered:May 1853 – March 1855 CE Major Historical Figures: Taiping Heavenly Kingdom:Hong Xiuquan, the Heavenly King [1814–1864]Lin Fengxiang, co-commander of the Northern Expedition [d. 1855]Li Kaifang, co-commander of the Northern Expedition [d. 1855]Li Xiucheng, future Loyal King [c. 1823–1864] Qing Dynasty:The Xianfeng Emperor (Aisin-Gioro Yinzhu) [r. 1850–1861]Prince Senggelinqin [c. 1811–1865]Other:Theodore Hamberg, Swedish missionary, Hong Kong; author of the first European account of the Taiping [1819–1854] Major Sources Cited:Hamberg, Theodore. The Visions of Hung-Siu-tshuen, and Origin of the Kwang-si Insurrection. Michael, Franz, and Chang Chung-li. The Taiping Rebellion: History and Documents, Vol. I.Platt, Stephen R. Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom.Spence, Jonathan D. God's Chinese Son: The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom of Hong Xiuquan. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Finally pooled and stilled at Nanjing, in the afterglow of victory, the Taiping reflect on what they've become, and what they've yet to accomplish. In the cold light of the morning after, though, dreams do not equal result, nor clouds a working constitution. And as the world begins to take note and come knocking, the question hanging over it all remains: what will come next? Time Period Covered: Spring–Summer 1853 CE Major Historical Figures:Taiping Heavenly Kingdom: Hong Xiuquan, Heavenly King, Second Son of God [1814–1864]Yang Xiuqing, East King, Voice of God the Father [d. 1856]Xiao Chaogui, West King, signing from beyond the grave [d. 1852]Fu Shanxiang, first & only female zhuangyuan of the examination [fl. 1853; dates uncertain]Lin Fengxiang, general of the Northern Expedition [d. 1855]; The Women's Army of the Heavenly Kingdom [org. 1851]Qing Dynasty: Zeng Guofan, Confucian official, founder of the Xiang (Hunan) Army [1811–1872]Great Britain:Sir George Bonham, Governor of Hong Kong & plenipotentiary to China [1803–1863]Thomas Taylor Meadows, consular interpreter [1815–1868]Cmdr. Edmund Gardiner Fishbourne, HMS Hermes [1811–1887]Abroad: Karl Marx, correspondent, New-York Daily Tribune [1818–1883] Major Sources Cited:Michael, Franz, and Chang Chung-li. The Taiping Rebellion: History and Documents, Vol. I. Platt, Stephen R. Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom. Spence, Jonathan D. God's Chinese Son: The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom of Hong Xiuquan. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Heavenly Host arrives at last before the walls of the South Capital. What follows is not a battle so much as a verdict – rendered in powder, fire, and seven days of smoke and blood. A city is taken, renamed, and remade in the image of a kingdom the likes of which the world has never seen before. This is the story of the Becoming that finally arrived; of the current that finally found its place to pool... and what it cost to stop. Time Period Covered: Mar. 1853 CE Major Historical Figures: Taiping Heavenly Kingdom: Hong Xiuquan, Heavenly King, Second Son of God [1814–1864] Yang Xiuqing, East King, Voice of God the Father [d. 1856] Qing Dynasty: The Xianfeng Emperor, Aisin Gioro Yizhu [1831–1861] The Nanjing Manchu Garrison [est. 1645; d. 1853] Major Sources Cited: Michael, Franz, and Chang Chung-li. The Taiping Rebellion: History and Documents, Vol. I. Platt, Stephen R. Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom. Spence, Jonathan D. God's Chinese Son: The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom of Hong Xiuquan. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Heavenly Host marches north out of Hunan. Ahead of them lies the spine of China itself – the mighty Yangtze; maker and breaker of dynasties. The trading capitals strung along its southern bank glimmer like beads on a thread. They have and continue to transform, to build a fleet, a state. Now they will find out what it's all been leading toward. This is the story of the Kingdom In Motion, and the river that carried it east. Time Period Covered: Nov. 1852 – Mar. 1853 Major Historical Figures:Taiping Heavenly Kingdom:Hong Xiuquan, Heavenly King, Second Son of God [1814–1864]Yang Xiuqing, East King, Voice of God the Father [d. 1856]Shi Dakai, Wing King [1831–1863]Li Xiucheng, future Loyal King [1823–1864] Qing Dynasty:The Xianfeng Emperor, Aisin Gioro Yizhu [1831–1861]Chang Liangji, Governor of HubeiQian Jiang, the jiansheng from Zhejiang who pitched reform and walked Major Sources Cited:Michael, Franz, and Chang Chung-li. The Taiping Rebellion: History and Documents, Vol. I.Kuhn, Philip A. "Ch. 6, The Taiping Rebellion" in The Cambridge History of China, Vol. 10.Spence, Jonathan D. God's Chinese Son: The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom of Hong Xiuquan.Hamberg, Theodore. The Visions of Hung-Siu-tshuen, and Origin of the Kwang-si Insurrection. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Heavenly Host has arrived at the great provincial capital of Hunan - Changsha. The mighty bastion that will prove to be the first city on the long march north that simply refuses to fall. For two months in late 1852, the largest army the Taiping has yet fielded throws everything it knows at these walls... but the city endures. This is the story of the underground war fought by nameless men in the dark Time Period Covered: Oct. – Dec. 1852 Major Historical Figures: Taiping Heavenly Kingdom: Hong Xiuquan, Heavenly King, Second Son of God [1814–1864] Yang Xiuqing, East King, Voice of God the Father [d. 1856] Xiao Chaogui, West King, Voice of Jesus Christ [d. 1852] Shi Dakai, Wing King [1831–1863] Qing Dynasty: Luo Bingzhang, Governor of Hunan [1793–1867] Zeng Guofan, Commissioner of Local Defence for Hunan [1811–1872] Major Sources Cited: Kuhn, Philip A. "Ch. 6, The Taiping Rebellion" in The Cambridge History of China, Vol. 10. Platt, Stephen R. Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom. Spence, Jonathan D. God's Chinese Son: The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom of Hong Xiuquan. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The army that marches north out of Quanzhou in June 1852 is not the same one that left Jintian 18 months prior. It has left its prime architect in an unmarked grave, massacred the city that killed him, and crossed into the unknown territory of Hunan. At Daozhou, for the first time, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom starts speaking to Empire at large, calls upon brotherhood to honor their blood-oaths, & dares name the emperor himself a demon. It's beginning to get real, and all roads - it seems - lead toward Changsha... Time Period Covered:June – October 1852 Major Historical Figures:Taiping Heavenly Kingdom:Hong Xiuquan, Heavenly King, Second Son of God [1814–1864]Yang Xiuqing, East King, Voice of God the Father [d. 1856]Xiao Chaogui, West King, Voice of Jesus Christ [d. 1852]Wei Changhui, North King [1823–1856]Shi Dakai, Wing King [1831–1863] Qing Dynasty:Luo Bingzhang, Governor of Hunan [1793–1867] Other:Lan Chengzun, Yao tribesman, White Lotus chieftain [fl. 1836]Lei Zaihao, Yao chieftain [fl. 1847]Li Yuanfa, Han Triad rebel leader [fl. 1849] Major Sources Cited:Kuhn, Philip A. "Ch. 6, The Taiping Rebellion" in The Cambridge History of China, Vol. 10.Platt, Stephen R. Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom.Spence, Jonathan D. God's Chinese Son: The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom of Hong Xiuquan. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom has been proclaimed — but proclamations don't feed armies. As such, its Divine Host will enjoy all of 11 days before sheer arithmetic forces them back onto the road. What follows is eight months of movement through the hills and river valleys of Guangxi: not quite a military campaign, not quite a refugee march. When they finally stop, it will be inside the walls of a city called Yong'an - "Eternal Peace." There, for the first time, the blueprint of the kingdom they have been promising can at last be seen in outline. Kings will be named, & time itself will be reordered... But the walls keep closing in, and ahead - always ahead - is the only path left. Time Period Covered:Jan. 1851 – June 1852 Major Historical Figures:Taiping Heavenly Kingdom:Hong Xiuquan, Heavenly King, Second Son of God [1814–1864]Feng Yunshan, South King, Architect of the God-Worshipping Society [1815–1852]Yang Xiuqing, East King, Voice of God the Father [d. 1856]Xiao Chaogui, West King, Voice of Jesus Christ [d. 1852]Wei Changhui, North King [1823–1856]Shi Dakai, Wing King [1831–1863]Luo Dagang, pirate-turned-general [fl. 1851–1853] Qing Dynasty:Saishangga, Imperial Commissioner [fl. 1851–1852]Xiang Rong, Qing General [d. 1856]Ulantai, Qing General [d. 1852] Major Sources Cited:Hamberg, Theodore. The Visions of Hung-Siu-tshuen and the Origin of the Kwang-si Insurrection.Kuhn, Philip A. "Ch. 6, The Taiping Rebellion" in The Cambridge History of China, Vol. 10.Platt, Stephen R. Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom.Spence, Jonathan D. God's Chinese Son: The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom of Hong Xiuquan. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Superior Pleasures Of Following A Heavenly King Week 4 of the Ecclesiastes Series Speaker: Ben Wagenaar Scripture: Ecclesiastes 2:1-11 Download the slides for this message: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/21v1iwvfzpo1lq1lb7cdt/Ecclesiastes-Week-4-PDF.pdf?rlkey=qo9g2dox3n0p1zm46uiveor6b&st=n5wezwaz&dl=0 (If using on mobile, click the icon on the top right and click direct download)

The God-Worshippers of Thistle Mountain managed to survive their first test — but now the world itself seems dead-set on finishing the job. When unprecedented rains lead to flooding, famine, and pestilence across southern China, the last institutions holding things together collapse, leaving those on the margins to their own survival. Until, that is, the divine summons of the Second Son of God calls them — one and all — to the village of Jintian, a bold maneuver that will force a response from the Qing dynasty itself.Time Period Covered:1849-1851 CE Major Historical Figures:God-Worshippers/Taiping:Hong Xiuquan, prophet, Heavenly King [1814–1864]Feng Yunshan, chief evangelist and architect of the God-Worshipping Society [1815–1852]Yang Xiuqing, Eastern King, Voice of God the Father [d. 1856]Xiao Chaogui, Western King, Voice of Jesus Christ [d. 1852]Lo Daguo, Triad chief, Taiping recruit [fl. 1850–1851]Qing Dynasty:Lin Zexu, Imperial Commissioner [1785–1850]Ikedanbu, Manchu Colonel [d. January 1, 1851] Major Sources Cited:Hamberg, Theodore. The Visions of Hung-Siu-tshuen and the Origin of the Kwang-si InsurrectionKuhn, Philip A. "Ch. 6, The Taiping Rebellion" in The Cambridge History of China, Vol. 10Platt, Stephen R. Autumn in the Heavenly KingdomSpence, Jonathan D. God's Chinese Son: The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom of Hong Xiuquan. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The God-Worshippers of Thistle Mountain, under the dual leadership of Hong Xiuquan and Feng Yunshan, had gone from being a quirky, backwater oddity... to, by 1847, a real local headache. When they get bold enough to deface a local temple, the law finally takes action to end their machinations. Yet they emerge from this early crucible unbroken... harder, better, faster, stronger... and even weirder than they went in. Time Period Covered:1847–1849 Major Historical Figures:Hong Xiuquan, prophet and Heavenly King [1814–1864]Feng Yunshan, chief evangelist and architect of the God-Worshipping Society [1815–1852]Wang Zuoxin, local licentiate and militia leader [fl. 1847]Lu Liu, God-Worshipper [d. 1848]Yang Xiuqing, Eastern King, Voice of God the Father [d. 1856]Xiao Chaogui, Western King, Voice of Jesus Christ [d. 1852]Qiying, Governor-General of Guangdong and Guangxi [1787–1858] Major Sources Cited:Hamberg, Theodore. The Visions of Hung-Siu-tshuen and the Origin of the Kwang-si InsurrectionKuhn, Philip A. "Ch. 6, The Taiping Rebellion" in The Cambridge History of China, Vol. 10Platt, Stephen R. Autumn in the Heavenly KingdomSpence, Jonathan D. God's Chinese Son: The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom of Hong Xiuquan Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

https://wels2.blob.core.windows.net/daily-devotions/20260329dev.mp3 Listen to Devotion This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet: “Say to Daughter Zion ‘See, your king comes to you, gentle and riding on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.'” The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them. They brought the donkey and the colt and placed their cloaks on them for Jesus to sit on. A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Hosanna in the highest heaven!” Matthew 21:4-9 The Heavenly King Took Our Place It is a sad reality that you and I sin against our God every day. Because we sin, we don’t deserve to be in heaven in the presence of God for all eternity. And the alternative is not pretty. But God loves us, his creation, and took action to change what we deserved because of our disobedience. God, the ruler of all things, sent his Son, Jesus, into the world to be among us for a purpose. Instead of being an earthly king, Jesus lived a humble life and kept all of God’s laws for us. Then, even though innocent, he suffered and died for us. After three days, Jesus rose from the grave to show his power over death and the devil for us. Now you and I, by faith, can look forward to spending eternity in heaven because of our perfect substitute, Jesus. Because of what our King Jesus has done for us, we can shout with the crowd on the first Palm Sunday, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” In our excitement, we exclaim, “Blessed is he who came in the name of the Lord!” Prayer: Jesus, may your Spirit work in me the joyfulness to praise you for being my substitute and assuring me of heaven with you forever. Amen. Daily Devotions is brought to you by WELS. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. ™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.

https://wels2.blob.core.windows.net/daily-devotions/20260329dev.mp3 Listen to Devotion This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet: “Say to Daughter Zion ‘See, your king comes to you, gentle and riding on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.'” The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them. They brought the donkey and the colt and placed their cloaks on them for Jesus to sit on. A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Hosanna in the highest heaven!” Matthew 21:4-9 The Heavenly King Took Our Place It is a sad reality that you and I sin against our God every day. Because we sin, we don’t deserve to be in heaven in the presence of God for all eternity. And the alternative is not pretty. But God loves us, his creation, and took action to change what we deserved because of our disobedience. God, the ruler of all things, sent his Son, Jesus, into the world to be among us for a purpose. Instead of being an earthly king, Jesus lived a humble life and kept all of God’s laws for us. Then, even though innocent, he suffered and died for us. After three days, Jesus rose from the grave to show his power over death and the devil for us. Now you and I, by faith, can look forward to spending eternity in heaven because of our perfect substitute, Jesus. Because of what our King Jesus has done for us, we can shout with the crowd on the first Palm Sunday, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” In our excitement, we exclaim, “Blessed is he who came in the name of the Lord!” Prayer: Jesus, may your Spirit work in me the joyfulness to praise you for being my substitute and assuring me of heaven with you forever. Amen. Daily Devotions is brought to you by WELS. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. ™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.

https://wels2.blob.core.windows.net/daily-devotions/20260329dev.mp3 Listen to Devotion This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet: “Say to Daughter Zion ‘See, your king comes to you, gentle and riding on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.'” The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them. They brought the donkey and the colt and placed their cloaks on them for Jesus to sit on. A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Hosanna in the highest heaven!” Matthew 21:4-9 The Heavenly King Took Our Place It is a sad reality that you and I sin against our God every day. Because we sin, we don’t deserve to be in heaven in the presence of God for all eternity. And the alternative is not pretty. But God loves us, his creation, and took action to change what we deserved because of our disobedience. God, the ruler of all things, sent his Son, Jesus, into the world to be among us for a purpose. Instead of being an earthly king, Jesus lived a humble life and kept all of God’s laws for us. Then, even though innocent, he suffered and died for us. After three days, Jesus rose from the grave to show his power over death and the devil for us. Now you and I, by faith, can look forward to spending eternity in heaven because of our perfect substitute, Jesus. Because of what our King Jesus has done for us, we can shout with the crowd on the first Palm Sunday, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” In our excitement, we exclaim, “Blessed is he who came in the name of the Lord!” Prayer: Jesus, may your Spirit work in me the joyfulness to praise you for being my substitute and assuring me of heaven with you forever. Amen. Daily Devotions is brought to you by WELS. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. ™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.

minor O My Dear Father Heavenly King by Beth McGinnis

Дворец небесного Царя / The Palace of the Heavenly King Даниил 7:9-10Даниил 13I. Небесный престол / The Heavenly ThroneII. Херувимы / The CherubimIII. Сидящий на престоле / The One Seated on the ThroneIV. Ангелы / The AngelsV. Судейские престолы / The Judicial ThronesVI. Судьи / The JudgesVII. Книги суда / The Books of Judgment

Dr. R. Carlton Wynne speaks at the Reformed Forum Annual Theology Conference, held at Lakeland Church in Gurnee, Illinois on September 27, 2025. Dr. Wynne explores how the vast portion of the Old Testament covering the monarchy and prophetic periods (approximately 417 chapters) points to Jesus Christ. Dr. Wynne first establishes the central, Christ-centered scope of all Scripture, affirming that everything in the Old Testament looks forward to and finds its fulfillment in Christ's person and work, including his death and resurrection. The address then moves beyond viewing Christ merely as being prefigured in the Old Testament through "scale models" or "macro typology." Instead, it seeks a deeper sense in which the pre-incarnate Christ's power and heavenly kingdom principles were actively revealed through the history of Israel's kings and prophets, positioning these figures and institutions as intrusions of heavenly glory mediated by Christ himself. Chapter Markers 00:00 - Introduction: Reformed Forum Conference and Speaker/Topic Introduction 00:23 - Welcome and Scope of the Address (Monarchy and Prophets) 03:19 - Speaker's Three Goals for the Address 03:56 - The Gospel is First and Foremost About Jesus Christ 04:36 - Question 1: What exactly do we mean by Christ being in the Old Testament? * 05:44 - Christ's "Crash Course in Old Testament Hermeneutics" (Luke 24) 08:16 - Moving Beyond Mere Prediction: Was Christ's Power and Glory Revealed Before His Incarnation? 08:41 - The View of Macro Typology (Graeme Goldsworthy) 14:36 - Goal 2: Interpreting the Old Testament with Reformed Voices (Vos, Murray, Owen) 21:40 - Goal 3 (Main Topic): The Monarchy and Prophets as Intrusions of the Heavenly Kingdom 23:25 - The Davidic Covenant and the Kingdom's Typological Rest 25:27 - Israel's Demand for a King: Mistaking the Shadow for the Substance 28:25 - God's Design for the Davidic King (Insights from Proverbs) 30:17 - The Great Example: King David and the Heavenly King 35:23 - Jesus Christ as the Exalted King of all Flesh 36:48 - The Prophets' Role: Calling the Monarchy to its Christ-Centered Design 38:52 - The Suffering of the Prophets as a Type of Christ 41:26 - Conclusion: Christ is the Source, Foundation, and Substance of Every Blessing 42:28 - Christ, Our High Priest and King of Kings 43:54 - Final Exhortation and Benediction 44:30 - Closing Remarks

Q&A for Session 1

How do you make decisions in the face of fear? Today's episode follows three brave young men as they defy an earthly king to obey their Heavenly King. We explore the history of Babylon, learn about the plight of Judah, and follow Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego as they find themselves face to face with Jesus. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The parable of the talents from Luke 19 serves as a profound reminder that God has entrusted each of us with valuable gifts, abilities, and opportunities. Just as the king in the parable expected his servants to multiply what he'd given them, our Heavenly King anticipates growth and fruitfulness from the resources He's bestowed upon us.Get more out of today's teaching by visiting our Church Online page for things like our community guide, a weekly devotional, and the teaching slides. EthosOH.com/churchonline

Today, Pastor Al Dagel takes us to the throne room of our Heavenly King, as we spend time in the Psalms on this Saturday's episode of "Moments of Grace".

In this sermon series on The Psalms of Ascent, Pastor Nathan teaches that this is about a journey. Psalm 123 describes God's mercy. Pastor reads through the Scripture passage and preaches on how God cares for His people. The Lord is the Heavenly King, so: 1 – look up (keeps things in perspective), 2 – […]

Pastor: Danny D'Acquisto Passage: Matthew 16:21-28

The Heavenly King and Royal Son, and the HOPE of Christ this Advent season.

Sermon preached on John 18:36 by Rev. Alan D. Strange during the Morning Worship Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 10/27/2024 in Petaluma, CA. The post The Heavenly King of a Heavenly Kingdom appeared first on Trinity Presbyterian Church North Bay (OPC).

Visit us on the web at theancienttradition.com for more amazing comparative religion.

On Friday, October 18, 2024, Dr. Alan Strange opened the 2024 DFW Reformation Conference with his first of three lectures, "The Heavenly King of a Heavenly Kingdom" (John 18:36) Summary: Christ is a heavenly, not an earthly, king (though impacting all earthly kingdoms), and his church is a spiritual kingdom that must distinguish itself from the world even as it gives itself to the world. Outline: I. The nature of Christ's kingship A. Seen even in his humiliation 1. He entered that estate in the Virgin's womb. 2. He performed great miracles even in that estate. 3. His kingship was obscured in that estate. B. Its obscurity pertains to the nature of his kingship, which is spiritual. 1. This spiritual kingship baffles Pilate. 2. Jesus is clearly, as a heavenly king, a king of a different sort. II. The nature of Christ's kingdom A. It is a kingdom befitting its king--it is no of this world. 1. It is in the world, indeed. 2. Wherever Christians go, so goes this kingdom. B. The kingdom is not exhausted by but manifests itself especially in the visible church. 1. The power of the church is ministerial and declarative, moral and suasive, not magisterial and legislative, legal and coercive. 2. Here, you have a proper doctrine of the spirituality of the church.

St. Tikhon of Zadonsk, one of the most beloved Russian saints of the past few centuries, describes how fitting it is for man to love God and the signs that such love is true and genuine. "Truly is it said by all, 'How can we not love God?'" Text is from "Journey to Heaven: Counsels on the Particular Duties of Every Christian" by St. Tikhon of Zadonsk, p. 1-8 ⛪ FIND an Orthodox parish and monastery near you: https://orthodoxyinamerica.org/ _______ St. Tikhon writes: "Whom shall we love, if not God?" God is the supreme good, uncreated, without beginning, without end, existent, and without change. As the sun always shines, as fire always warms, so God is by nature good; He is and always does good, since there is none good, but One, that is God (Matt. 19:17). O the most beloved and beautiful of God's creation, man, the image of God! He bears it in himself as a royal seal. As the king is hon-ored, so is his portrait. As to God the Heavenly King is due all honor, so to His image, man. God poured forth this goodness on us in our creation, O Christian. How then can we not love God? As we all call Him, God is the Lover of Mankind; then man must be a lover of God. For nothing can be given in return for love but love and gratitude. Truly is it said by all, "How can we not love God?" Love, like every other virtue, must also reside in our heart. For if love does not reside in the heart, then it does not exist. God does not say, "Love, be humble, be compassionate, pray, beseech, call unto Me," and so on, to our lips, but to our heart. Then love, humility, compassion, prayer, and the rest, must reside in the heart. And if it abides in the heart, then it will inevitably appear outwardly like a belch from stomach. A hidden fire gives itself away by its heat, and a fragrant balm by its smell. The true lover of God disdains the world and all that is in the world, and strives toward God, his most beloved. He counts honor, glory, riches, and all the comforts of this world which the sons of this age seek, as nothing. For him only God, the uncreated and most beloved good, suffices. The true lover of God keeps God ever in mind, and His love toward us and His benefactions. We see this even in human love, for we often remember the one we love. So whoever loves God remembers Him, thinks of Him, and finds consolation in Him, and is enrapt in Him. _______ Orthodox Wisdom is dedicated to sharing the writings and lives of the Saints of the Orthodox Church. Glory to Jesus Christ!

How does the rule and reign of the Heavenly King answer the lament of the people?

Send us a Text Message.The adversary is masterful at twisting righteousness with unrealistic comparisons, aiming to make us feel inadequate. We don't have to buy into his lies, and we talk through dismissing his distractions of comparison and tuning into truth directly from God.You are a beloved daughter of a Heavenly King and Queen who love you infinitely. This episode will remind you of your precious worth and the infinite love that surrounds you.----------------------You were Born to Lead- Sheri Dew Talk

God With Us: The Book of Matthew

From Come Follow Me:      "When you hear the word king, you might think of crowns, servants, and thrones. In Mosiah 1–3, you will read about a different kind of king. Rather than living off the labors of his people, King Benjamin “labored with [his] own hands” (Mosiah 2:14). Instead of having others serve him, he served his people “with all the might, mind and strength which the Lord [had] granted unto [him]” (Mosiah 2:11). This king did not want his people to worship him; rather, he taught them to worship their Heavenly King, Jesus Christ. King Benjamin understood that it is “the Lord Omnipotent who reigneth” (Mosiah 3:5), who came “down from heaven” and went “forth amongst men, … that salvation might come unto the children of men even through faith on his name” (Mosiah 3:5, 9)."Support the show:www.patreon.com/SaintsintheSouthCwic Media video referenced in this episode:https://youtu.be/Ojq8DZzYJ2s?si=hzFEOW0HBO3giAwN(The thoughts, ideas, and beliefs we express on this channel do not officially represent The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  For additional information or official statements, please visit the website below.  The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/?lang=eng)#biblestudy #oldtestament #religion #churchofjesuschrist #ldspodcast #christianpodcast #missionary #lds #biblestories #christ #faith #faithinchrist #scriptures #bookofmormon #doctrineandcovenants #pearlofgreatprice #temples #houseofthelord #mormon #mormonbeliefs #christiansandmormons #god #endure #ironrod #faithineveryfootstep #generalconference #prophets #followtheprophet #commandments #love #service #charity #keepstriving #keeponstriving #gospelgrowthandgoodtimes #become #newtestament The LYLAS PodcastIf you know what LYLAS stands for, then this podcast is for you! Two besties since...Listen on: Apple Podcasts SpotifySupport the show

OnSaturday night and Sunday, we will celebrate Purim Lastweek we discussed the power of Adar and more specifically Adar Bet Someoneasked Whyis Purim celebrated in Adar Bet ? BySephardim, any yahrzeit or birthday which occurs in a regular year in Adar ismarked in a leap year in Adar bet. Welearn in Shulchan Aruch under the Laws of Passover Siman 429 Seif 1, we arecommanded to start (re) learning the Passover laws thirty days after Passoverright after Purim. Thus, Purim needs to remain thirty days before Passover andis pushed to Adar Sheni. Additionallywe celebrate Purim during Adar II, in order to juxtapose the joy of the Purimredemption with the redemption from Egypt. We also read the Four Parshiyotduring this month, because Parashat Shekalim, Parashat Para, and Parashat Ha-ĥodesh were instituted as apreparation for the month of Nisan, and Parashat Zakhor must be readimmediately before Purim, which we celebrate in Adar II ( We read Zachor thisShabbat – Question if we are commanded toremember what Amalek did and also not to forget – then why not just unfurl a poster or a sign or simplyget up and say I remember or add it to our prayers which many of us do each day.Why must we come to the synagogue and hear the Torah? Remind me at the end tobring it back to this. Beforewe begin Iwant you to image a 100 yard dash Arace in a straight line Thestarting line and the finish line are the two points furthest from each other Nowlet's imagine a race in a stadium arounda track Therewe circle the track and the start line becomes the finish line Inthis case the starting line and the finish line are the two points closest toeach other Howdo you look at time? As a straight line or as a circle? Ourclass today is based on the beautiful words of Rav Pinchas Friedman of Belz,The Shvilei Pinchas Wehave learned in the Gemarah (Taanis 29a): “משנכנס אדר מרבין בשמחה” — since this month ushers in the time during which thegreat miracles of Purim and Pesach occurred. Thecommentaries wonder: What provoked Rashito associate the miracles experienced by the Jewish people on Purim, in themonth of Adar, with the miracles that they experienced on Pesach in the monthof Nissan? Infact, the Gemarah's statement -- ” משנכנס אדר מרבין בשמחה “ Achashverosh ascends the throne of Persia Achashverosh's Feast, lasting 180 days Esther taken to Achashverosh's Palace Haman casts lots First decrees dispatched by Haman Three days' Fast ordered by Esther* Haman's downfall and execution by hanging* Second decrees, reversing the first Sadness turned to gladness; Haman's ten sons executed Purim celebrations everywhere, except Shushan where a second day of reckoning is added 14, 3405 (356 BCE) celebration in Shushan The Megillah recorded; Festival of Purim instituted for all generations — including the first day of Pesach. It is written inthe Megillah (Esther 4, 15): Then Esther sentback this answer to Mordecai: “Go, assemble allthe Jews who live in Shushan, and fast in my behalf; do not eat or drink forthree days, night or day. I and my maidens will observe the same fast. Then Ishall go to the king, though it is contrary to the law; and if I am to perish,I shall perish!” So Mordecai wentabout [the city] and did just as Esther had commanded him. RASHI עַל דָּת, לְהִתְעַנּוֹת בְּיוֹם טוֹב רִאשׁוֹן שֶׁל פֶּסַח, שֶׁהִתְעַנָּהי'ד בְּנִיסָן וְט'ו וְט'ז, שֶׁהֲרֵי בְּיוֹם י'ג נִכְתְּבוּהַסְּפָרִים: (Masechet Megillah 15a) by fasting on thefirst festive day of Pesach, for he fasted on the fourteenth, the fifteenth*I.e., Pesach. Although the holiday feast is obligatory, Mordechai bypassed theobligation and ordered the fast, using the special authority of the Sanhedrinto suspend such obligations in times of extreme need. * “ויעבר מרדכי, אמר רב שהעביר יום ראשוןשל פסח בתענית” — the thirteenth, fourteenth andfifteenth of Nissan. Mordechai questioned her request on the grounds that oneof those days was the first day of Pesach. She replied, אמרה לו זקן שבישראל למה הוא פסח “Elder of Yisrael, what isthe point of celebrating Pesach?” Upon hearing her reply, he confessed that she was in the right and proceededto carry out all of her demands — to eat matzah on the first night of Pesach -- and aRabbinical commandment — Elder of Yisrael, what is the point ofcelebrating Pesach? Surely,she was not suggesting that it is permissible to annul or ignore Hashem's mitzvos whenever Yisrael is facedwith an imminent danger. Rather,hear this well, she was trying to stir things up in the heavens above. Even so,why did she specifically choose to annul the mitzvot related to the first nightof Pesach? Imaginefor a moment the great Rabbi Yisrael of Rozhin's, zy”a, festive Purim meal. Howcan I ask you to imagine if you have no idea who this Rabbi was? Hewas the great grandson of the Magid of Mezerich. He was born in 1796 and passedat 54 years old in 1850. He was orphaned at 6 and grew up in the home of Rav Menaḥem Naḥum Twersky, whose daughter he married. Yisra'el's elder brother, Avraham succeeded his father after the latter's death and, at the age of 15,became the first yenuka (child officiating as a tsadik) in Hasidic history. AfterAvraham's death 10 years later, Yisra'el, himself then only 16, was calledupon to take his place. In 1815, he moved his court to nearby Ruzhin, and hisfame spread quickly. From the very beginning of his “reign” he stood out for his sharp wit, his organizingabilities, and his original religious approach. Rejecting asceticism andself-imposed poverty as religious ideals, he adopted a maximalistinterpretation of the idea of “worship throughcorporeality” (i.e., the positive religious valuehidden in trivial, earthly life, such as eating or drinking, sexual relations,making a living) as equivalent to Torah study or prayer. Iimagine we can say that the test is to find Hashem in everything! Inspiredby this philosophy, his court was based on an ostentatious display of thematerial wealth and luxury in which the tsadik and his family lived. His palaceat Ruzhin—a mecca for admirers of all socialranks, including Russian aristocrats—was famed not only for its splendor, but also for its carriages, thethoroughbred horses in its stables, and the klezmer bands that entertainedvisitors and accompanied the tsadik on his travels. He amassed a tremendousfortune, mainly from donations from his admirers. He became wealthy enough tobe registered in the Second Merchants Guild—an official standing that earned him various privileges and stood him ingood stead later, when he was forced to flee Russia. .The dramatic events in which he was involved—imprisonment on suspicion of aiding and abetting the violent murder ofinformers, flight from Russia to Austria—made him a legend in his own lifetime, revered by his followers butdespised and ridiculed by his opponents, mainly maskilim. Descended from adistinguished Hasidic family thatclaimed descent from King David, and possessing exceptional religious charisma,sharp natural intelligence, and organizational talents, he was not only one ofthe most prominent and impressive Hasidic leaders in the period of the greatestgrowth of Hasidism, but also the founder of a new style of Hasidism known asthe “regal way.” Sonow imagine, you are sitting at a table similar to one set by nobility at thetime with as much opulence as you can imagine and at that seudah, the Rabbi presenteddivine and enlightening insights encompassing the entire festival of Purim withincredible clarity. Hiswords are cited in the sefer Irin Kadishin. He addresses the issue of why thewicked Haman specifically chose to carry out his decree in the month of Adar.Here are a few of his remarks that are quoted: “והטעם שהוא בחודש אדר, כי יש י”ב צירופי הוי”ה כנגד י”ב חדשי השנה, ובחודש ניסן אזי מאיר שםהוי”ה כסידורו והיא התגלות החסדים, ואחר כך נעשה צירופים בכל חודש וחודש, וכל חודשאשר הצירוף מתרחק מן השורש יותר הוא בהסתר, ובחודש אדר שמאיר בו הצירוף האחרון הואהצימצום וההסתר יותר מכל חודש. ועל כן טעה המן והפיל פור, וכל זה בכדי לעשות רע לישראלח”ו מחמת שהוא צירוף וההסתר האחרון, אך טעה בזה, כי סוף מעשה במחשבה תחילה, ונעוץסופו בתחילתו, כמו שמזל יום שבת קודש הוא מזל אחרון ]יום השביעי[, ודוקא יש בו התגלותהקדושה, וכמו שאנחנו בעיקבתא דמשיחא שהוא ההסתר היותר אחרון, אנו מצפים להתגלות אורהיותר עליון”. He explainsas we discussed last week that there are twelve permutations of the four letteredname Havaya corresponding to the twelve months of the year, i.e. the letters ofthe four-lettered name can be arranged in twelve different ways. Themonth of Nissan is illuminated by the name Havaya with its letters in theiroriginal order; this permutation signifies the revelation of Hashem's favors and kindness. Thereafter,each subsequent month is influenced by its particular permutation of the holyfour-lettered name. The farther a month and its permutation are from theoriginal source, the greater the degree of obscurity and concealment. Hesuggests that the month of Adar, which is illuminated by the last permutationof the holy name, reflects the greatest degree of concealment and restriction. This,in fact, was Haman's mistake. He reckonedthat the month of Adar being the farthest away from the source (Nissan andredemption of Pesach) was the ideal time to harm Yisrael, chas v'chalilah. The truth of the matter,however, is that the end of the year is intimately connected with the beginningof the year. We read(Shemos 12, 2): “החודש הזה לכם ראש חדשים ראשון הוא לכם לחדשי השנה” — the heavens will rejoice and theearth will be glad. Whenthe letters of the holy name are in their proper order, the attribute of mercyprevails in the world; hence, the heavens and the earth rejoice. During the remainingeleven months of the year, the permutation of the name Havaya changes frommonth to month. Thefarther the month is removed from Nissan, the greater the change in that month's permutation of the holy name. As aconsequence, the greater the degree of concealment in that month — the most distant and different from the permutationof Nissan — like a flame in a burning coal. For,the Master is singular; he has not second. Inother words, the end of something in kedushah is always inherent in the beginning.It is a continuous circle; the end and the beginning are connectedmagnificently and incomparably. Inthis manner, we find that Shabbat Kodesh, on the one hand, is the final day ofthe week. On the other hand, however, it is the beginning and source of whattranspires in the week to come. As the Zohar hakadosh teaches (Yisro 88a), Shabbatprovides the blessings for the week to come and influences the week to comewith abundant good: “כל ברכאן דלעילא ותתא ביומא שביעאה תליין” . Similarly,the cycle consisting of the twelve months of the year — is like a circle where theend is intimately connected with the beginning. This,in fact, was the wicked Haman's fatal error. He figuredthat being the last month of the year, Adar possessed the greatest degree ofconcealment. Therefore, he would be able to succeed in executing his diabolicaldecree aimed at the people of Yisrael. He was unaware that in matters ofsanctity, kedushah, the end is inherent in the beginning. Thus, Adar, the finalmonth of the year, is intimately related to Nissan, the first month of the year— whenever the Megillah mentions “King Achashverosh,” it is referring to theactual flesh and blood king with that name; however, whenever the Megillahemploys the generic term “king,” it serves a dual purpose — “That night the king's sleep was disturbed.” Rabbi Tanchum says that the possukis telling us that the King of the Universe's sleep was disturbed. Likewise, when Esther says: “if it pleases the king,” employing the nonspecific term “king,” she is also referring to the King of the Universe, HKB”H. Thiscoincides beautifully with a teaching of the Arizal's. He teaches us that with thisstatement Esther intended to awaken the King of the Universe's attribute of mercy on behalf ofthe people of Yisrael; mercy emanates from the blessed name Havaya. So shedirects her entreaty to HKB”H with the introduction: ” אם על המלך טוב “ -- if it pleases the king — note that the first letters of thesefour words spells out the name Havaya in its original and ideal order, whichconnotes pure mercy. Now,let us apply the illuminating concept of the great Rabbi of Rozhin, zy”a, to gain a deeper appreciation ofEsther's wise intentions. She realized thatHaman's lot fell on the month of Adar — invoking the ultimate permutation of the name Havaya,the permutation that reigns during the month of Nissan. By doing so, she establishedthe connection between the end of the year and the beginning of the year — is contained or dwells within the last month ofthe year. Now,upon closer examination an amazing fact becomes evident. The preparations forthe miracle of Purim already took place eleven months earlier during the monthof Nissan. Firstly, Esther put her lifein jeopardy immediately after Haman issued his decree on the thirteenth ofNissan. She entered the King Achashverosh's chambers without an invitation to do so; this was an act punishable bydeath under the laws of that regime. Yet, she miraculously found favor in theking's eyes and he extended his golden, royalscepter to her — the month designated by Haman for the exterminationof the Jews — Haman was unaware that notonly did Moshe pass away on that date, but he was also born on the seventh ofAdar. HKB”H wished to teach us that concerningmatters of kedushah, the concept of finality and conclusion do not apply.Instead, the end is always intimately connected to the beginning. Consequently,the end of a tzaddik's life, the day of hisdeath, is related to the day he was born. Thisindicates that their Torah and their life's work are eternal and continue to live on in this world. This is thesignificance of Chazal's statement: ולא היה יודע שבשבעה באדר מת ובשבעה באדרנולד” “ — the Rabbis taught in a Baraise: Whatwas Esther's reason for inviting Haman? . . . so that the Jews wouldnot say, “We have a sister in the royal palace,” and neglect praying for divinemercy. Estherendeavored to bring Yisrael to a state of: ” עד אנה אשית עצות בנפשי “ — as we have learned from the greatRabbi of Rozhin, zy”a. Let us attempt toexplain precisely how the miraculous events that transpired in the month ofNissan — affected the events of Purim in the month of Adar. Letus begin by presenting an incredible principle which the Ramban teaches ustowards the end of parshas Bo (Shemos 13, 16) concerning the miraclesassociated with the exodus from Egypt. Thisis a principle that is so fundamental and should be reviewed on a daily basis.He teaches us that the purpose of the supernatural miracles that HKB”H performed on our behalf during theexodus from Egypt were designed to make us aware of the incredible miraclesthat are performed on our behalf daily within the guise of natural occurrences.Here are his famous words: “ומן הנסים הגדולים המפורסמים, אדם מודה בנסים הנסתרים שהם יסוד התורה כולה, שאיןלאדם חלק בתורת משה רבינו, עד שנאמין בכל דברינו ומקרינו, שכולם נסים אין בהם טבע ומנהגושל עולם, בין ברבים בין ביחיד, אלא אם יעשה המצוות יצליחנו שכרו,ואם יעבור עליהם יכריתנוענשו, הכל בגזירת עליון כאשר הזכרתי כבר”. Inother words, everything we experience is a miracle performed by Hashem; thereis no such thing as laws of nature. This applies both to events experienced bythe general public or by individual. If one observes the mitzvos, he will berewarded; if he transgresses them, he will be punished. Everything is governedfrom above. Itis well known that it is not permissible to pray for a miracle. This isexpressed by the Sefer Chassidim as follows ( ואסור להתפלל שיעשה לו הקב”ה נס בשינוי העולם” :( 794 “. He proves his point from the Gemarah (Taanit 26a)which states that one is prohibited from praying that a tree should bear its fruitprematurely. Thereason being that HKB”H created the world tooperate in accord with the laws of nature; yet, it is essential that a personbelieves with all of his heart that HKB”H governs nature. So,it is prohibited to pray for a miracle, because HKB”H does not want to change nature. Atthe time of the exodus from Egypt, however, Yisrael had sunk to the forty-ninthlevel of impurity. As a consequence, HKB”H performed supernatural miracles on their behalf in order to instill inthem faith in Hashem. Still, the main purpose for these extraordinary feats wasto bring the people to the realization that even nature is governed by Hashem's hand — due to the obvious miracles, aperson becomes aware of and grateful for the hidden miracles, which are the basisfor the entire Torah. Withthis, let us present an important principle from the teachings of the KedushatLevi (First Kedushah for Purim). He points out that the miraculous featssurrounding the exodus from Egypt involved an upheaval and departure from thelaws of nature established at the time of creation. Beginningwith the ten plagues and concluding with the splitting of the sea, the laws of naturewere disregarded. Thatwas in stark contrast to the miraculous events that occurred at the time ofPurim — Elder of Yisrael, what is the pointof celebrating Pesach under these circumstances. She was suggesting to him that it was necessaryfor them to cause a stir in the heavens. After all, as we learned from theRamban, the entire reason for celebrating Pesach — is solely so that a person will believe in themiracles that are concealed within the framework of nature. Hence, if themiracles of Purim do not occur within the framework of nature, there is no purposefor the miracles of Pesach. Atthis point, we can revisit Rashi's poetic comment: “משנכנס אדר מרבין בשמחה - ימי נסים היו לישראל פורים ופסח” -- when Adar begins, we increasejoy -- since this month ushers in the time during which the great miracles ofPurim and Pesach occurred. He teaches us that we rejoice in Adar in celebration of both the events ofPurim, which appeared to transpire within the natural realm, and the events ofPesach, which transpired above and beyond the natural realm. After all, it wasonly in the merit of the Pesach miracles that we merited the Purim miracle. So,clearly, Purim and Pesach are intimately connected and inseparable. Wecan now truly appreciate the depth and significance of the great Rabbi ofRozhin's, zy”a, illuminating words. Haman cast his lot on the month ofAdar believing that, as the last month of the year, it possessed the greatestdegree of divine concealment. He was unaware of the intimaterelationship that exists between the end of the year and the beginning of theyear — a month highlighted by supernatural events — to believe in miracles thatoccur within the framework of nature. So we see that the month of Adar, thelast of the twelve months of the year, is firmly connected to the first monthof the year, Nissan. Thisalso illustrates the deeper significance and wisdom inherent in Queen Esther's plea to our Heavenly King, HKB”H: י'בוא ה'מלך ו'המן ה'יום” “ — the permutation associatedwith the month of Nissan. She fully intended to solidify the connection betweenthe last month, Adar, and the first month, Nissan. For, it is impossible toappreciate the miracles of Purim that were concealed within the realm of natureif not for the visible, supernatural miracles that took place during the monthof Nissan. She invoked the auspicious permutation of the name Havayarepresented by the possuk: י'שמחו ה'שמים ו'תגל ה'ארץ -- the heavens will rejoice andthe earth will be glad. The Arizal explainsthat when the snake touched Chava, the negativity of the snake entered her andcame out in her first born Kayin. Kayin rebelled against G-d and we wonderwhere did he come up with murder. He explains it was the influence of thenachash. The negative side passes through into Esav and Amalek who stirs doubtand kills without fear. In attempting to save his own skin, he does his best toprevent us from getting to the finish line. I want to concludewith the words of the Netivos Shalom, as explained by Rabbi Winston and then myown Sholom NoachBerezovsky 1911 - 2000) was the Slonimer rebbe. His teachings were published asa series of books entitled Netivos Sholom He explains Amalekattacked the Jewish people during their 50 day ascension to Mt. Sinai and theacceptance of Torah. He didn't stop it from happening, but he was able tolessen its impact, and hold of the Final Redemption. The next time Amalektries to block such an opportunity for complete redemption, is just as theJewish people are entering the land. This time Amalek attacks through Balak andBilaam, who, the Zohar explains, were rooted in Amalek. The name Amalek is evenbuilt into their names. Once again, he didn'tstop the event, but he lessened it enough to hold off the Final Redemption fora while longer, once they caused Gad, Reuven, and Menashe to choose to live inthe Diaspora instead of Eretz HaKodesh. The next potential fora complete redemption was in Mordechai's and Esther's time, which, as theTalmud says, was really the completion of what began at Har Sinai over amillennium before. Once again, Amalek showed up, not preventing redemption, butlessening its impact and its ability to eradicate evil from Creation. After that, there werebattles with Amalek, but mostly started by the Jewish people, especially inShaul HaMelech's time. The next war anAmaleki seems to go out of his way to fight against the Jewish people was inWorld War II, which, as Hitler, y”s, himself admitted, was really a war againstthe Jews. And, in pure Amaleki style, he sacrificed the war effort, put himselfat risk, just to harm and murder more Jews. He may not have physicallydescended from Amalek, but he certainly did spiritually. And if I can suggest.We are again at the cusp of history. Amalek through Hamasattacks us when? Shemini Aseret – The day set aside for us and Hashem. We arein the ikvei Meshicha. Just as Amalek didwhen we left Egypt, they attack those who are defenseless and it is up to us fightthem. And finally why do werecall Amalek through the reading of the Torah. Amalek implies doubt That doubt infects us The antidote is Torah The Torah reminds usthat Hashem whether we can “see” or not is always with us. Its up to us to find Him!

Daniel's vision in chapter 7 teaches us that God raises up earthly kingdoms and just as easily knocks them down. It is the Heavenly King who will win the day. SERIES SUMMARY: The Book of Daniel chronicles a time in the history of God's people when the Israelites found themselves in exile in a society that didn't understand or tolerate the truth of the one true God. As such, it is arguably the most relevant book in the Bible for 21st century Christians navigating a pluralistic society that encourages them to privatize their faith. The courage of Daniel and his friends, emboldened by God's promises, provides us with a pathway forward. If you'd like to leave an offering or monetary donation to our ministry please click here: https://tinyurl.com/stmarcusgive

Daniel's vision in chapter 7 teaches us that God raises up earthly kingdoms and just as easily knocks them down. It is the Heavenly King who will win the day. SERIES SUMMARY: The Book of Daniel chronicles a time in the history of God's people when the Israelites found themselves in exile in a society that didn't understand or tolerate the truth of the one true God. As such, it is arguably the most relevant book in the Bible for 21st century Christians navigating a pluralistic society that encourages them to privatize their faith. The courage of Daniel and his friends, emboldened by God's promises, provides us with a pathway forward. If you'd like to leave an offering or monetary donation to our ministry please click here: https://tinyurl.com/stmarcusgive

As Kristina and Elissa explore the prayers we pray every day, they explore why we open with this prayer to the Holy Spirit.

As Kristina and Elissa explore the prayers we pray every day, they explore why we open with this prayer to the Holy Spirit.

As Kristina and Elissa explore the prayers we pray every day, they explore why we open with this prayer to the Holy Spirit.

Choosing grace and poise instead of hot takes and big reactions isn't popular in our culture, but maybe it's just the thing we need to have more peace in our lives. When is the last time you thought about what it means to be poised? Elder Mark A. Bragg said, “poise is not spoken about much these days and practiced even less in turbulent and divisive times.” Developing poise is a deliberate way to be active peacemakers in a world where having the loudest reaction gets the most attention. Poise rises above the noise and provides us with personal, steady calmness which then allows us to create more peace in the lives of others.   "Part of developing poise is remembering and owning and believing in who we are."   Elaine Dalton joins Kathryn on this week's episode where they discuss the lost art of poise and how it is an important part of peacemaking.   Top takeaways from this episode: At times, we can lose a sense of our nobility and who we are. Poise is remembering that we are divine and we are queens and daughters of a Heavenly King. Poise can bring calm and confidence into our lives. When we walk into a situation with faith in Jesus Christ, there is a confidence that comes. We were set apart to come to the earth in this time, and seeing others with those same eyes will help us remember that those around us are noble and great. Having charity will bring more poise into our lives. The Savior's example can help us remember to always respond with poise.   Small and simple challenge: Repent daily! None of us are perfect, when when we utilize the atonement of Jesus Christ in our lives daily, we can change. When we do that quickly and daily, we will become more like Him.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today Mother Natalia reflects on Pentecost, the return of praying the Heavenly King prayer, and kneeling and penance that is reintroduced after the celebration of Pentecost. Plus we've got a mini-topic on angels!Follow and Contact Us!Follow us on Instagram and FacebookWe're on YouTube!Join our Goodreads GroupFr. Michael's TwitterChrist the Bridegroom MonasteryOur WebsiteOur NonprofitSupport the show

The conclusion to the saga of the Taiping Rebellion! Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/lionsledbydonkeys

Last time we spoke Cholera spread like a plague taking countless lives on either side of the conflict. The loss of so much life hurt the Xiang armies positions, and Zeng Guofan worried dearly for the life of his brother fighting at Yuhaitai. Zeng Guofan desperately tossed any men he could to help his brother and it proved effective as Li Xiucheng was forced to flee for the safety of Nanjing's walls. The EVA force lost Ward and gained Chinese Gordon as its leader. But it was to be a short lived command as Gordon and the British became outraged with their allies atrocities and slights against them and thus took back on the stance of neutrality. Yuhaitai was taken and now Nanjing was under siege by the Xiang army, it was only a matter of time for the Taiping to finally fall.   #35 This episode is The Taiping Rebellion part 12: The Fall of the Heavenly Kingdom   Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. The populace of Nanjing were terrified, with only two gates left open, provisions were becoming very limited and there was almost no way to get out. Roughly 30,000 people were inside the city, 10,000 of which were soldiers. After the fall of Suzhou to Li Hongzhang in December, Li Xiucheng returned to Nanjing pleading with the heavenly king, to simply abandon Nanjing and take the entire movement into Jiangxi province. The heavenly king was livid, saying Li Xiucheng lacked faith in the cause. Without much choice, Li Xiucheng began to prepare the city for a bitter siege. Meanwhile the heavenly king was becoming more and more paranoid and angry. His anger led him to cruelty and he began punishing the people in horrifying ways. For example the new crime of communicating with those outside the walls of the city saw people pounded to death between rocks or flayed alive in public. The people would have fled the city, but they knew the fate of what happened to those who did, as was the case when Anqing fell. By late December they heard the rumors about the fate of Suzhou thus sealing their fate to Nanjing. Zeng Guofan sent reports to his brother in spring of 1864 not to even let women and children escape the city, so their fear was well founded. Zeng Guofan justified this by stating, to force the Taiping to support the entire population within the city would accelerate their starvation.    With Chen Yucheng dead, Li Xiucheng spread too thinly, Hong Rengan found himself yet again thrust into the role of military commander. Hong Xiuquan told his cousin he had to go out of the city to rally troops from nearby territories to help relieve Nanjing. But it was not possible to head north or west, nor was it possible to traverse the river. Hong Rengan set out the day after Christmas of 1863. His first destination was Danyang around 50 miles east of Nanjing which was commanded by an uncle to the late Chen Yucheng. The commander told Hong Rengan he could not spare any troops to help Nanjing, so Hong Rengan continued on to Changzhou. While enroute he found out Li Hongzhang had taken the city, forcing him to winter in Danyang. When spring came, he took his force south into Zhejiang, where Hangzhou was still holding out. Back in 1861 when Hong Rengan went out to get recruits, the work was much easier. This was no longer the case, in the cities of Danyang and Huzhou he found people too afraid to leave their garrisons to go back to Nanjing. Meanwhile the Xiang army was exponentially growing, by 1864 Zeng Guofan had 120,000 troops, Zeng Guoquan 50,000, another 30,000 garrisoned Anhui, 13,000 moved around with Bao Chao and 10,000 were in the area between Anhui and Suzhou.    Li Hongzhang's Anhui army followed up its conquest of Suzhou by marching upon Nanjing from the east. They seized Changzhou and Wuxi with ease as Zuo Zongtang battled Taiping in Zhejiang province. All these armies would eventually converge upon Nanjing. Zeng Guoquan's forces managed to take the Fortress of Heaven on the Dragon's shoulder, pitting it against the Fortress of Earth. With the vantage point upon Dragon's shoulder the Xiang forces were able to create stockade camps at the Shence Gate and eastern Taiping Gate, thus cutting off the city completely. By the end of March, Hangzhou fell to Zuo Zongtang forcing its survivors to flee to Huzhou seeking refuge with Hong Rengan. With the loss of both Suzhou and Hangzhou, the Taiping no longer held any significant cities in the east. There were no more avenues for rescue for the Taiping capital, all that was left was a siege.   Zeng Guoquan's siege army was running dry on provisions, the devastation of the countryside was hitting his men as bad as it was the Taiping. Even though they held the Yangtze, by spring of 1864 there was no longer much food coming from it. His men ate rice gruel and basically nothing else. He confided to his secretary, “If we don't break this city in a month, our whole army is going to crumble to pieces.” Within Nanjing the garrisons first crop of wheat was breaking the surface in april. Zeng Guofans men atop forts and mountain lookouts could see within the city the crops growing with bitterness. They held into the early summer, but Beijing's patience was wearing thin and so were their stomachs. Zeng Guoquan wanted the glory of taking Nanjing for himself, so he resisted the advice of Li Hongzhang to come supplement his forces. Zeng Guofan was torn by this, he understood his brothers ambition, but it was terribly unwise. He wrote to his brother “Why must you have sole credit for conquering Nanjing? Why should one person be the most famous under heaven?” Li Hongzhang realized the family predicament and offered to save face for the Zengs by forming an excuse that he was unable to come help after all.   Zeng Guoquans siege had been enlarged, they built a 3 mile road for supplies through a bog, connecting the river to Yuhuatai. While on the surface it looked like the Xiang forces were loafing around, this was far from the truth, the real siege work was being done under the earth. They did not have large enough cannons to break the walls of Nanjing, so they had to tunnel and mine, the good old fashion way as they say. They would even have to tunnel under moats some 90 feet underground. Each tunnel was made hauling out dirt and rock by hand, but the spotters in Nanjing were always watching. A cool fact I did not know before writing this series, when sappers begin tunneling for long periods of time, the grass on the ground level above them turns brown leaving a kind of path the tunnellers are taking towards a wall. Spotters looked for this and for ventilation holes, after all if you are digging far you have to get air into the work space. Inside Nanjing Taiping sappers dug their own counter tunnels to thwart mines. They often did this by exploding their own mines, flushing gas into the tunnels or flooding them with boiling water or sewage. Imagine dying in a tunnel full of sewage, horrid. At one point a Xiang miner exploded a mine close enough to a wall, but the explosion failed to make a breach and the Taiping quickly went to work building more parts to the wall near it.   By June, the Xiang had mines exploded up in over 30 areas of the walls, but their results were nothing less that 4000 dead sappers. Then on July 3rd, after they captured the Fortress of Earth at the base of the Dragon's shoulder they had a vantage point so close to part of Nanjing's walls they could fire cannons over. Throughout the night and day they fired cannons into part of Nanjing thwarting the Taiping tunnelers while their own worked. The most ambitious tunnel yet was dug, around 70 yards out, digging at a rate of 15 feet per day. It lead to a part of Nanjing's walls 50 feet thick. The Taiping knew what was coming, but the bombardment never ceased, and even the noise from the cannons prevented spotters from figuring out precisely where the tunnel was. By the 15th of July Li Xiucheng was forced to launch a night sortie to try and attack the tunnel opening, but the Xiang army forced them right back into the city. Three days later the tunnel had just about reached its target for the explosives. Zeng Guoquan was impatient, pressured by Beijing, so he ordered his men to pack 6000 cloth sacks under the wall containing over 20 tons of gunpowder. The explosion went off at noon on the 19th, as 400 hand picked veterans crouching hiding on the ground to launch themselves through the breach. The explosive experts lit the fuse and waited, 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 20, 30 the fuse took that long to travel the tunnel. Then a tremendous blast was heard forming a convulsion sending part of the wall to go up blasting outwards and skyward raining parts of the rubble everywhere killing tons of the 400 men hiding on the ground. When the smoke cleared, a 200 foot wide breach could be seen.   The Xiang forces sounded the drums and stormed down the Dragon's shoulder towards the breach screaming. The clambering over dead bodies and rumble surging forward, many of them holding maps of the inner city. The first troops to breach the hole specifically dodged the defenders rushing further into the city with maps in hand as they had the specific mission to rush to the palace of the Heavenly King to kill the self proclaimed brother of jesus. But Li Xiucheng beat them to their mission and he spirited away Hong Xiuquans son, before they could capture the would-be future monarch. When the Xiang troops entered the palace they found nothing but an eerie silence. Hong Xiuquan the heavenly king, the self proclaimed brother of Jesus was already dead.   Going back in time, to the spring of 1864, Li Xiucheng said to the heavenly king “There is no food in the whole city and many men and women are dying. I request a directive as to what should be done to put the people's mind at ease.” Starvation was hitting the people, but the heavenly king did not seem to pay any notice. Hong Xiuquan began to talk to Li Xiucheng about the 16th chapter of Exodus, how god would preserve the Taiping faithful, just as he preserved the children of Israel for 40 years as they wandered the desert, by scattering manna on the ground amidst the dew each morning. Beginning in 1862, Hong Xiuquan had begun ordering his subjects to emulate the lives of the israelites, storing 10 bushels of manna every year to see them through their times of trouble. What exactly manna is, hard to say, if you read the bible it says it was a small, white flower with the scent of coriander that tasted like honey. The Chinese Taiping bible describes it as “Tianlu and Ganlu” which means sweetened dew. Hong Xiuquan said to Li Xiucheng “everyone in the city should eat manna. This will keep them alive” he then issued an order “Bring some here, and after preparing it I shall partake of some first.” Li Xiucheng states “the Sovereign himself, in the open spaces of his palace, collected all sorts of weeds, which he made into a lump and sent out of the palace, demanding that everyone do likewise, without defaulting. He issued an edict ordering the people to act accordingly and everyone would have enough to eat.” Thus Hong Xiuquan began to eat the weeds he called manna within his palace.    In April of 1864 he began to fall ill with his 50th year of life. He seems to get better in may, but then becomes sick again. The cause of his illness is not understood, but Li Xiucheng account states “its from him eating manna, and when this man was ill he would not take remedies”. Hong Rengan account states “a lingering illness of 20 days took him”. Tiangui Fu the son of Hong Xiuquan said “my father succumbed to sickness”. On May 30th, Hong Xiuquan or one of his aides announces it is time for the Heavenly king to go to Heaven where he will request the Heavenly father and Heavenly Elder brother to send a celestial army to defend Nanjing. There is no grand funeral for the heavenly king. On June 1st he is wrapped in a shroud of yellow silk by his palace women and buried in the bare ground, which was the regular service for the Taiping. No coffins were necessary, because he was expected to rise soon to go to heaven. Hong Xiuquan had ordered coffins to be abandoned prior and that the word “death” to be taboo, because they were all going to ascend to heaven.    Five days after his death, his son Tiangui Fu takes his fathers throne. While the Qing forces are busy sieging the city, for 6 weeks the Young monarch reigns. He is basically at the mercy of Li Xiucheng and Hong Rengan. Li Xiucheng gives this account  “After the Young Sovereign came to the throne,there was no grain for the soldiers, and there was chaos in the armies. . . . The Sovereign was young and had no ability to make decisions, no one, civil or military, in the capital, could think of a solution.” When the explosion went off on July 19th and the slaughter and chaos began within the city, Tiangui Fu stood bewildered in his palace beside his 4 wives. They tried to grab him, to stop him from fleeing, but he broke away from them and ran into the crowds with his 2 younger brothers heading for Li Xiuchengs palace. They grabbed the nearest horses and their bodyguards clustered around them. During the chaos they try to escape through the different gates in turn, each time turned back. Li Xiucheng eventually finds the royal group and whisks them to a safe location. They hide for some time in an abandoned temple on the western side of the city, perched atop a hill from which they can see the Qing forces scattering into the city. The Young monarch and his comrade put on Hunanese clothing as a disguise, something that had been prepared weeks before. They seize the cover of darkness as the Xiang army are busy raping and plundering the city. Li Xiucheng bids a tearful farewell to the Young monarch as he and his small party charge through the breach Zeng Guoquans sappers made, with the sun against their backs they vanish. The horse of Li Xiucheng collapses and his guard leaves without him. Dazed and confused, Li Xiucheng climbs back to the abandoned temple on the hill. He wakes up to find peasants robbing him of his valuables, when he is left with nothing to take, they grab him and bring him to Zeng Guoquans forces.   No one knows where the Young monarch is, but Zeng Guoquan has Li Xiucheng in his hands and interrogates him. Without the leadership of Li Xiucheng the Taiping forces might linger on in the rest of the country to form some small kingdom, but they would never be able again to become a large movement. With the capture of Li Xiucheng, the Taiping rebellion was pretty much dead. Li Xiucheng writes a very lengthy confession before his execution. Before his death he begs the Qing officials to stop the slaughter of Nanjing, to spare the old Taiping veterans who had marched from Guangxi and Guangdong, to give them permission to go back home. “engage in some trade. If you are willing to spare them, everyone will hear of it, and everyone will be willing to submit.” He even provides his captors with some advice, to buy the best cannons from the foreigners, alongside efficient gun carriages and other weapons, so that the best Chinese craftsmen could reverse engineer them and teach the people of china how to make their own. “one craftsman can teach ten, ten can teach a hundred and everyone in our country will know. . . . To fight with the foreign devils the first thing is to buy cannon and get prepared early. It is certain that there will be a war with them.” “Our Heavenly Kingdom is finished . . . and this is because the former Heavenly King's span was ended. The fate of the people was hard, such a hard fate!”  Li Xiucheng speaks to his captors believing the Young Monarch is already dead, but Tiangui Fu was safe accompanied by a few hundred loyal soldiers. Tiangui Fu and his small force circle the shore of Lake Tai, fleeing for Huzhou where Hong Rengan commands a small Taiping garrison. Yet before talking about that I want to talk about the horrors that befall Nanjing.    The Xiang army's discipline broke at Nanjing, they were starving when they stormed the great city, filling their stomachs for the first time with food and the achievement of their ultimate goal, ending the war. After bitter years of campaigning, far away from their homelands, they began to break ranks and laid waste to the capital in an orgy of rape and plunder. Zeng Guofan issues proclamations forbidding troops from murdering civilians, rape of looting, but his commanders ignore this. The bloody occupation of Nanjing sees the fanatical death of many Taiping, refusing to surrender who fight to the bitter end. As Zeng Guofan reported to Beijing “On the 17th and 18th, Tseng Liang-Tso and others searched through the city for any rebels they could find, and in three days killed over 100,000 men. THe Ch'in-huai creek was filled with bodies. Half of the false wangs, chief generals, heavenly generals, and other heads were killed in battle, and the other half either drowned themselves in the dikes and ditches or else burned themselves. The whole of them numbered 3000 men. The fire in the city raged for 3 days and nights…Not one of the 100,000 rebels in Nanjing surrendered themselves when the city was taken but in many cases gathered together and burned themselves and passed away without repentance. Such a formidable band of rebels has been rarely known from ancient times to present”.   The slaughter of Nanjing was the combination of fanaticism from the Taiping and the policy of Zeng Guofan who was determined that the surrender from the veterans Guangxi/Guangdong Taiping was not to be accepted. His goal was the extermination of the whole movement, via the death of its core leadership. He wanted no residue of any successors to try and carry on the Taiping ideology. He performed a ruthless extermination, thus forcing many of the Taiping to fight to the very end or commit mass suicide. Zeng Guoquan's aides reported to him that mass looting, murder and rapes were occuring. Soldiers could be seen running off with gold, silver, furs, jade and any other valuables. At first soldiers burned palaces, but then they moved onto homes, eventually the entire city was aflame. Only when a heavy rainstorm occurred on July 25th did the fires go out. On the 26th, Zeng Guoquans secretary entered the city and was overwhelmed at the sight. All the male Taiping still alive were being used by the Xiang soldiers to carry loot or dig up buried treasure. It seemed like many of them were being set free to flee the city after, but many were also slaughtered after. Countless, elderly who could not perform labor were killed outright. Countless children lay dead in the streets alongside the old, as the secretary wrote in his diary “Children and toddlers, some not even two years old, had been hacked up or run through just for sport. There wasn't a single women left in the city under 40 years old.  Sometimes they had ten or twelve cuts on them, sometimes several times that. The sound of their weeping and moaning carried into the distance all around.” A female Taiping survivor named Huang Shuhua was 16 years of age during the capture of Nanjing. She had this to say about when the soldiers came. “They killed my two older brothers in the courtyard, then they went searching through the rooms of the house. One of the strong ones captured me and carried me out. My little brother tugged on his clothing, my mother threw herself down before him, weeping. He shouted angrily, ‘All rebel followers will be killed, no pardons—those are the general's orders!' Then he murdered my mother and my little brother. My eldest brother's wife came out, and he killed her too. Then he dragged me away, so I don't know what became of my other elder brother's wife. I was grief-stricken, sobbing and cursing at him, begging him to kill me quickly. But he only laughed at me. ‘You, I love,' he said. ‘You, I will not kill.' ” The soldier tied her up and took her aboard a boat back to his home in Hunan. The soldier was from the home county of Zeng Guofan, Xiangxiang. She would spend the rest of her life as the wife of a man who had murdered her entire family. She wrote down her story on two slips of paper one evening while traveling and when at an Inn she secretly slid the papers to someone at the inn before hanging herself.   Zeng Guofan took possession of Nanjing, arriving from Anqing on July 28th, 9 days after his brother's forces breached its walls. Apparently officers from his brothers forces took him around the city in a sedan chair, telling him tales of the battles fought and won, showing him the scenes of the destruction. Poetry, plays, banquettes, song and wine, celebrating was made by the victors. Soon honors would be poured over said victors from Beijing once Zeng Guofan sent news of the fall of the Taiping capital. Zeng Guofan sent inflated numbers of Taiping killed, as you may have noticed when I read those quotes, there was absolutely not 100,000 dead in Nanjing. He was inflating the glory of his family, that of his armies prowess, and he masking over the rape and plundering of the second capital of the dynasty. He was very careful with what information got out. When he came face to face with Li Xiucheng, he had direct orders from Beijing to send the man alive back to Beijing, instead he executed him where he was making sure to overlook the interrogation process himself so he could make sure the writing of Li Xiucheng was exactly the way he wanted it.    Now Hong Rengan was in Huzhou during the downfall of Nanjing, helplessly trying to find help for the capital. When news came that Nanjing had fallen and Li Xiucheng was dead, Hong Rengan found himself in possession of the Young monarch who fled to Huzhou for safety. At this time Huzhou was being attacked by Li Hongzhang's Anhui army and remnants of the EVA force. Not the Ever victorious army, no this was the Ever triumphant army. Basically the remnants of the EVA force were taken by some French officers who continued to work alongside the Qing. The roads to leading to Huzhou were strewn with corpses and severed heads to ward off the Qing/Anhui/EVA forces. The coalitionary forces are too much for the defenders of Huzhou who at the end of August of 1864 flee south. Hong Rengan intends to take the Young Monarch to Guangdong where the Taiping movement started. They rode for 3 months making it to the Meiling Pass, searching for safety. Their escapade left them in a mountainous country 15 miles northeast of a town called Stone Wall where they were finally attacked. Qing soldiers came upon them during the night before the Taiping loyalists could even mount their horses. Hong Rengan fled alone on foot wilding running through a forest where he is captured on October 9th. He is interrogated by the local Qing officials, where he tells them “The heavenly King was nine years older than I and gifted with extraordinary powers of intelligence. A glance at anything was all that was required to impress the subject on his memory. The uprising at Thistle mounted undoubted evidence of the display of divine power throughout those years,and despite the ultimate collapse of the Taiping movement, among those who have enjoyed the smiles of fortune for the longest time the Heavenly King stands pre-eminently forward,”. Hong Rengang is executed in Jiangxi's capital of Nanchang on November 23rd.    As for the Young Monarch, Tiangui Fu, he manages to slip away with 10 followers. His band crosses a small bridge and climbs a nearby hill to hide, but they are discovered by their Qing pursuers. Somehow Tiangui Fu manages to evade them, hiding out in the hills, afraid and alone. He shaves off his long hair and finds work with a local farmer pretending to be a man named Zhang from Hubei. After the harvest for that year, he travels onwards but is finally caught and arrested on October 25th by a Qing patrol. He throws himself at the mercy of the state, confessing “The old Heavenly King told me to study religious books, and would not allow me to study ancient books, which he said were all demonic. I managed, however, to read secretly thirty or more volumes, and still retain some recollection of their subjects and contents. The conquest of the empire was the ambition of the old Heavenly King, and I had no part in it.” He tells his captors if they release him, he will study the Confucian classics and try to gain the lowest degree, that of Licentiate. Instead the Young Monarch is executed on November 18th, a week before his 15th birthday. The Heavenly King is dead, the Young Monarch is dead, all the kings, north, south, east, west, flank, shield, loyal, brave and countless others are all dead.    The day Zeng Guofan took control of Nanjing was a triumph, not for the Qing dynasty but for him. He was at that moment the most powerful man in all of China. His Xiang army was dominant, he was that of a military dictator controlling the vast eastern and central parts of China. He was not fully under the Qing courts control, in fact the Qing relied upon him almost entirely to retain their own control. Until the Taiping menace was defeated, the Qing court watching his efforts without dread, once it was done that all changed. Rumors spread like wildfire, some said Zeng Guoquan told his brother the time was right to abandon the crumbling Qing dynasty and to start a new dynasty from his base in Nanjing. But Zeng Guofan did not do this. In truth, by the time Nanjing was under its last siege, Zeng Guofan began a process for disbanding his grand Xiang army and to relinquish his power. He sought to hold onto his positions as governor general over Anhui, Jiangsu and Jiangxi, and help rebuild Nanjing to its former glory. Many watched expected him to take his army and march upon Beijing, to rid China of the Manchu, but he sent his soldiers home. And thus Zeng Guofan remained a loyal subject, to a child emperor and the Empress Dowager Cixi.   If you are bewildered by this, you are most definitely not alone, countless historians and contemporary figures were confused. Zeng Guofan's ruthlessness and brilliance led him to possess basically unlimited power. All of his top ranking commanders were people he knew, they all had strong personal ties to him, their loyalty was set in stone. What could have possibly stopped him from taking over China? Well, according to his closest family members and friends, they say Zeng Guofan was a man wrecked by anxiety and depression. He was reluctant from the very beginning to be given command, quite uncertain of himself. He was a true scholar and sought nothing but to go back to his books and to lead a life of moral scholarship. He was deeply influenced by Confucian beliefs, but many also think he was influenced by the horrible levels of corruption, greed and incompetence he saw within the Qing bureaucracy. He was never heard to question the legitimacy of the Emperor, and being very devout to Confucianism, he probably really believed in the mandate of heaven. There are also those who point out, to such a brilliant mind, was ruling China a desirable thing? He say how tumultuous the era they lived in was, was it a good era to rule over? Perhaps his uncertainty about himself, left him thinking he could not live up to the task.    Regardless, the Xiang army demobilized in August of 1864, less than a month after the fall of Nanjing. In May he gave a notice for sick leave, which as he told his brother was just an excuse to go into hiding after the war was done. He wanted to escape all of his critics who were growing suspicious of his power. He recommended his brother should do the same, but it seems Zeng Guoquan resented this advice. Zeng Guoquan apparently was beginning to expand his economic powers and Zeng Guofan had this to write to his brother, “Military commanders who have usurped fiscal power have never brought anything but evil to the country and harm to their own families. Even if you, my brother, are a complete idiot, surely you cannot be ignorant that you have to distance yourself from power to avoid being slandered.” Well the Qing court went to work on Zeng Guoquan and his subordinates accusing them of corruption and usurpation. Likewise they hounded Zeng Guofan by proxy, and for the 8 years left of his life they tormented him, not allowing him to retire or pause from duties. Zeng Guofan's dreams of returning to scholarship, his homeland, a quiet life, would never come to be. In 1867 he wrote on the issue of his looming death “I would be happier there, than I am in this world”.   The estimates on the death toll of the Taiping Rebellion are simply impossible to gauge fully. If you go to wikipedia, or pick up any book they all fall on 20-30 million people. There were no reliable censuses at the time, the estimates are based mostly upon demographic projections on what the Chinese population should otherwise have been in later generations. In an American study performed in 1969, by the year of 1913, almost 50 years after the fall of Nanjing, China's population had yet to recover to its pre 1850 levels. In 1999 it is estimated the provinces hardest hit by the Taiping Rebellion, Anhui, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Hubei and Jiangxi suffered a population loss of around 87 million people between 1851-1864. Around 57 million of them dead from war, the rest never born due to decreased birthrates. The projection for the full scale of the war in all provinces is around 70 million dead with a total loss for the population at 100 million. As you might imagine there is a large amount of skepticism over such unbelievable numbers. Regardless the scars of the event were most definitely felt for decades as attested by countless travelers and inhabitants of China. It was frankly one of if not the deadliest civil war in human history.   What is rather incredible is the fact the Qing dynasty did not fall then. Don't get me wrong, it was a mortal wound, but the Qing dynasty would limp on for another 5 decades. Did the Qing dynasty win the war? Not entirely, its safer to say the efforts of Zeng Guofan, foreign intervention and the Qing defeated the Taiping movement. The Qing dynasty was basically put on life support by Zeng Guofan and foreign interests if you really think about it. The Opium wars linked the Qing dynasty to nations like Britain and France who had financial stakes in China and wanted the devil they knew rather than the Jesus they didn't to ensure the flow of unequal trade, see what I did there? Zeng Guofan, was simply in my opinion a strong conservative. I told you bits and pieces about his reluctance to work with foreigners and utilize their technology. He came around to it all of course, but he did so gradually and begrudgingly, there are countless tales of him butting heads over the issue. That issue being modernization, something his successor Li Hongzhang will become a champion of might I add. Zeng Guofan was devout to Confucianism and traditions, honestly he is a large part as to why the Taiping were unable to destroy much of Chinese culture. Zeng Guofan would be villainized by many as a traitor to his race, someone who held up the Manchu.   In the end China suffered immensely, this was after all occurring during the century of humiliation. I will end with this to say about the intertwining years of the Second Opium War and the Taiping Rebellion. These years were a time of chaos and change for Asia as a whole. China would end up slowly moving towards modernization, but another nation would take the opposite route and usher in hyper modernization. The balance of power in Asia was turning, leaving more room for conflict on an unprecedented scale.    I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. Sheesh, 12 parts my god, would you believe it if I told you there was a lot more left out? Remember there were other rebellions like the Nian and Dungan, and perhaps given a audience desire I might talk about those as well.  

Last time we spoke Hong Rengan was in misery, nothing was going as planned. Li Xiucheng went off on his own to perform a campaign in the east, but it was drawing ire from the foreign community to make Hong Rengans life even worse. To defend Shanghai from Li Xiuchengs men, Ward's mercenary force became the Ever Victorious Army and began to work alongside the foreign community and Qing. Chen Yucheng was hunted down and executed, yet another great Taiping king gone. Zeng Guoquan made an extremely bold move and began a siege of Yuhuatai, a fort guarding Nanjing. Then the foreigners it seems quasi joined the Qing, thus ending any chance of the Taiping earning their support. With what seems the rest of the world against the Taiping, and the enemy nipping at their doors, what could they do to stop the inevitable? #34 This episode is The Taiping Rebellion part 11: The Siege of Heavenly Kingdom   Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. Meanwhile, refugees from across Jiangsu and Zhejiang flooded into Shanghai seeked protection. In 1862 alone nearly 1.5 million refugees crammed into the Chinese and foreign held parts of the city. Where there are so many people, comes issues. One particular issue was human waste, with so many people crammed into the city, the waterways literally became clogged with fecal matter and other waste. The rivers were also the primary supply of water for the city and even with the custom of boiling the drinking water, the washing water and that used to prepare food was not. A massive cholera outbreak began in may of 1862 causing the usual symptoms, cramps, vomiting and diarrhea. Death ran rampant and by June it was a full blown pandemic. 10 to 15 Europeans were dying a day based on records, but obviously the Chinese population suffered the most. Hundreds of people died each day and by July thousands. At its peak the Cholera outbreak killed 3000 people a day in the foreing settlement, the streets were ridden with unburied bodies. Some local Chinese called it “fan sha, the foreign infection”. The pandemic spread, first going north to the Taku forts, then Tianjin where it claimed 20,000 lives in a few weeks. From there it hit Beijing, but it was not limited to this northern route, it also went south and over the Yangtze going into the interior of CHina. Zeng Guofan's HQ was hit and men began to die. 10,000 men under Zeng Guoquan at Yuhuatai became sick, 10,000 more under Bao Chaos army in southern Anhui and Bao Chao himself also became sick. 50% of Zuo Zongtangs army in Zhejiang were sick and with the massive amount of illness, the Xiang army simply could no longer continue to be on the offensive.    Zeng Guofan ordered his commanders to distribute Korean ginseng to the sick troops hoping it would at the least alleviate symptoms. Over in Shanghai the British military distributed “cholera belts”, these were wide cummerbunds of flannel wrapped around the persons torso to keep it warm because the belief was the disease was caused by sweaty chills in the bowels. Another British medical officer in Beijing, did not believe the disease was the result of insanitation and instead suspected quote “the operation of certain electrochemical changes in the atmosphere on certain constitutions.” Within Nanjing it seems they fared a bit better, which is understandable as they were more rural and less crowded then places like Shanghai or Tianjin. The disease spread via the trading routes, which were pretty much closed off to the Taiping. Those Taiping around the Shanghai area however got just as smashed by the disease as the rest. The disease would petter off during the winter, but found its way to Manchuria and then Japan. For those of you who know your Bakumatsu period history, the Cholera outbreak began in Shanghai. Overall, in the region surrounding Shanghai for about 40 miles, by September it was estimated by missionaries that cholera had wiped out ⅛ of the population, a population in the several million.   Zeng Guoquans position at Yuhuatai was a precarious one, even before Cholera wreaked its ugly head. Zeng Guofan was shocked by his brothers boldness to dig in so close to the heart of the rebellion. When Cholera began to steal away half of Zeng Guoquans forces, his brother dispatched reinforcements, literally everything he could spare but the Xiang army was fewer than 30,000 strong. The men at Yuhuatai held firm in their trenches, fighting off the occasional Nanjing sorties against them from the southern gate. The Cholera epidemic also gave Li Xiucheng an opportunity to breakoff the Shanghai campaign and return to Nanjing, something  the Heavenly King was begging him to do. Well after a very long time of ignoring the poor heavenly king, Li Xiucheng decided in the late summer to withdrew to Suzhou where he gather 3 separate armies to form a relief expedition back to Nanjing. Each army had its own objective: one was going to attack Bao Chao in southern Anhui, one was going to attack the Xiang and Qing naval forces and logistics line and the third led by Li Xiucheng personally would attack Zeng Guoquan's force at Yuhuatai. By late September his armies were marching, with 120,000 under his immediate command. Rumors at the time talked about his force being as large as 300 to a possible 600,000 men. When Geng Guofan received reports of the Li Xiuchengs force moving back to lift the siege on Nanjing he began to frantically ship provisions and supplies to his brother, but there was simply no way he could send enough men to hold off such a goliath army. Bao Chao was busy fighting in southern Anhui and likewise Duolonga had chased Chen Yucheng north, despite receiving direct orders to turn back to help at Nanjing. It seems the Manchu commander was a bit jealous of Zeng Guofan's brother and was dissatisfied with the special treatment of the Zeng family members. So after the death of Chen Yucheng he went northwest into Shaanxi to suppress another rebellion that was going on at the time, remember there's so many simultaneous rebellions. The Dungan Rebellion was a Muslim rebellion led primarily by Hui groups in Shaanxi, Gangsu and Ningxia. It was a brutal and bloody conflict and would claim the life of Duolonga two years later.    The assault upon Yuhuatai would commence on October the 13th, while Zeng Guofan was tossing as many reinforcements as he could to help his brother, but these figures were in the mere hundreds. Zeng Guofan sent letters to his brother trying to raise his morale, claiming Li Xiucheng would require incredible logistical capabilities to keep his army provisioned and perhaps it would lead to his downfall, but privately he was falling into despair. He had this to write in his diary “Last night, I thought about my brother Guoquan, facing danger in ten thousand forms. Anxiety burned my heart. I repaired to my inner chamber and tried laying out scenarios on a Go board [to distract myself]. Then I paced back and forth, circling the room. At eleven o'clock I went to bed but could not fall asleep. Sometime after three in the morning I finally slept, and had nightmares.” It is alleged, Zeng Guofan began to stop sleeping and refused any visitors while he received daily letters from his brother fanning his anxiety. In one letter dated on October 24th, Zeng Guoquan said his forces were holding the Taiping at bay after 7 days of constant attack. He also noted the enemy were using new weapons purchased from the foreigners, that fired explosive shells, “luodi kaihua pao, shells that bloom like flowers when they fall to earth”. It was two days later, Zeng Guofan learned another Taiping army of at least 100,000 led by Li Xiuchengs cousin the Attending king had left Zhejiang province to help attack the Xiang forces at Yuhuatai. The report was greatly delayed, by the time it reached Zeng Guofan, that said army had been marching for over 3 weeks. There were no letters from his brother after that.   Riddled with anxiety, Zeng Guofan wondered about the fate of his brother. It would turn out his brother was hit by shrapnel from a shell, it struck his face and nearly killed him. Zeng Guoquan was still alive, but there was basically no chance he could escape Yuhuatai. Zeng Guofan pleaded with Li Hongzhang to help send reinforcements, but Li could spare none, though he did recommend sending the EVA force up river using steamships to help. Zeng Guofan was truly desperate as he allowed the EVA force to help, but this did not change the fact it would take weeks for them to get to Nanjing. In the meantime Zeng Guofan sent orders to his brother to retreat at any possible moment the enemy left an opening to flee. His brother refused, and while this sounds like a bit crazy, in reality Zeng Guoquans forces were dishing terrible casualties to the Taiping. The defenses at Yuhaitai were firm with heavy walls and trenches. Each time the Taiping launched an attack several thousand of them paid for it while Zeng Guoquans men faced casualties in the hundreds. While Li Xiucheng's sappers mined under the outer walls of Yuhaitai, the defenders frantically fed the cannons and fired their matchlocks at the Taiping. The defenders tried their best to gauge where the sappers were digging to breach their tunnels before they got under the walls, but just incase they began to build secondary walls in the interior.   Zeng Guofan was so afraid for his brother, he even wrote to his eldest son Jize, in Hunan province asking him to leave home for the first time to come and join him at his HQ in Anqing. Yet Zeng Guoquan managed to hold on, his men wrecked the Taiping tunnels before they could breach his walls. The Xiang force on Yuhaitai survived 45 days of attacks and Li Xiucheng finally broke off the attack on November 26st, absolutely incredible. It turns out Zeng Guofans words of comfort to his brother proved true, Li Xiuchengs logistics failed him. Li Xiucheng was forced to use stores from Nanjing and this began to threaten the city, alongside this the army he sent to attack the Xiang/Qing naval forces failed. Winter was coming and Li Xiuchengs men didnt not have proper winter attire nor equipment. Thus he began to send parts of his army back to Jiangsu and Zhejiang while he took the rest to Nanjing hoping to launch an attack later to dislodge the Yuhaitai force. Zeng Guofan did not give up trying to get his brother to abandon Yuhaitai, insisting that the preservation of his army was more important than maintaining the position. Yet Guoquan kept refusing to budge. Well as Guofan kept worrying about his brother Guoquan, something indeed would occur, but to his other brother Guobao. The younger brother had taken 5000 men to help support Guoquan at Yuhaitai. He had sworn vengeance upon the Taiping whom killed his brother Zeng Guohua in 1858. Zeng Guoquan sent a letter to Zeng Guofan that their brother had fallen gravely ill, he had typhoid. On the morning of january 11th, Zeng Guofan got another letter stating Guohua had died.    Back in the Shanghai front the rambunctious Ward had taken a bullet to his stomach on September 21st and died an apparently very agonizing and slow death the same night of 1862 while in Ningbo. Ward had been campaigning in conjunction with Li Hongzhang's troops taking advantage of Li Xiucheng's massive pull out of the region. In Ward's dying breath he apparently demanded money and declared Wu Xu and Yang Fang, the two juggernaut financial backers in Shanghai owed him 140,000 taels in back pay. He threatened that his family back home would press upon them to make good on their debts. Things began to crumble for the EVA forces after Ward's death, Li Hongzhang began to advise who should take up the mantle of command. One notable prospect was the North Carolinian Henry Burgevine, whom was favored by Admiral Hope and Frederick Bruce. Both Brits of course were keen to have the EVA commander be an American since it certainly took the limelight off their nation. Burgevine was said to be a model southerner type, gallant, charming, but he also loved his alcohol and had a terrible temper.    During the fall of 1862, Burgevine led the EVA to drive the Taiping out of a few towns on the outskirts of Shanghai and by winter the 30 mile radius was met. Burgevine was butting heads however with undue payments from Yang Fang, several months worth. When Li Hongzhang ordered him to take the EVA forces to Nanjing to help Zeng Guoquan, Burgevine refused. It was obvious as to why, being closer to Nanjing greatly risked his and the EVA forces lives and there would be less chance of plundering. Yang Fang then refused to make good on his debts to the EVA force unless they complied with going to Nanjing and apparently Burgevine blew a gasket. On January the 4th of 1863, Burgevine showed up to Yang Fang's house with a few bodyguards and punched the man in the face, robbing him of 40,000 silver dollars before fleeing to Songjiang to pay his men. This led Li Hongzhang to place a bounty over the man's head of 50,000 taels. Well needless to say Burgevine disappeared rather quickly, leaving Frederick Bruce to need to find a new commander. This time Bruce wanted to avoid finding any more filibuster, cowboy types and to find someone more professional, more honorable, who would be more accountable. Thus obviously no Americans were going to fit that role, haha, and Bruce reluctantly had to look towards his fellow Brits.   Bruce eventually found, a rather famous name today, but back then he was a young British officer in the Royal Engineers named Charles Gordon. You may have heard his more famous title as “Chinese Gordon”, he was very much akin to Lawrence of Arabia, similar stories. Gordon was painfully british looking, with an awesome mustache might I add in his defense. Fun fact one of his grandfathers owned a ship that was ransacked during the Boston Tea Party, go USA. One of my sources state he was quote “religiously asexual, never married, and had as early as age fourteen expressed a wish that he were a enuch. He also happened to speak with a pronounced lisp”. There were several allegations to suggest he was gay, seemingly based on the fact he did a lot of charitable work for male youth and that he had a fondness for handsome young men. Honestly if you look him up you will find a wide array of bizarre theories, some suggesting he was a homosexual who was so repressed by his Christian faith that he channeled his frustration into being the perfect soldier. One British historian, Paul Mersh suggested he was not a homosexual, but had Asperger syndrome and this made it extremely difficult for him to express emotions towards women. I have to say that is a wild theory, but I personally don't know enough about the man, nor am I in any way his biographer to say much about this fascination on his sexuality. I will say one thing though as a general rule, when you find older historians, those writing lets say up to the mid 20th century, making excuses as to why some figure was not gay, key words “oh he was just very good friends with so and so”, usually its because the figure was gay, haha. Sigh we have come a long way in the world and there is a lot to be said about prejudices of the past and some that still linger, but anyways.    Gordon inherited a very demoralized force in march of 1863. There were 3000 Chinese soldiers left after many desertions, alongside 30 pieces of artillery and 2 paddle steamers. Gordon unlike his 2 predecessors, was very willing to work closely with Li Hongzhang. He took a leave of absence from the Royal Engineers so he could serve under the Qing, therefore allowing him to campaign outside the 30 mile radius of Shanghai. After a brief period of training he began his campaign by joining the Qing commander Cheng Xueqi to march into Jiangsu province and reclaim lost territory to the Taiping. Gordon's smaller force became the spearhead driving up the waterways to take walled cities by surprise by bashing them with artillery, while Cheng Xueqi's larger army came in to swarm everywhere they struck. By the summer of 1863, their combined forces were approaching Suzhou. All was going great for Li Hongzhang and Charles Gordon, but then came a familiar face to disrupt things, Burgevine. Burgevine showed up to Beijing backed up by the US minister Anson Burlingame, trying to claim back his role as the commander of the EVA forces. Burlingame was able to lobby on his behalf and got Prince Gong to agree to the matter, but Li Hongzhang wanted nothing to do with the ill tempered man who punched Yang Fang in the face. Burgevine showed up to Shanghai with an imperial commissioner instructing Li Hongzhang to put him back in charge, but it is alleged by Li Hongzhang that the letter Prince Gong had sent was more of a suggestion rather than direct order. Regardless, Li Hongzhang was not going to play ball and to get away with not having to take back Burgevine Li Hongzhang simply left on campaign with Gordon to attack Suzhou without taking Burgevine. Well the ill tempered Burgevine got riled up again and quickly made his way into Shanghai where he rallied up 70 foreign mercenaries, many of whom had served Ward but were discharged. He took all these men and stole one of the EVA steamers and they made their way up the waterway to Suzhou to join the Taiping.   Burgevine began training the Taiping in Suzhou how to defeat Gordon's forces and when the battle commenced it seemed the rebels had the upper hand. Burgevine at one point went out at night over to Gordons camp to try and get the man to quit his position, something Gordon allegedly considered because he was having a rough time with the logistics of the EVA force. Regardless while Burgevine looked like he might turn the tides for the Taiping, another event occurred that would give the Qing a distinct edge, Captain Osborn showed up on September 1st to take command of the war fleet. Now what is interesting about the situation was that Prince Gong envisioned using the new naval forces to hit the Taiping along the rivers and then be employed as a patrol force for the eastern coast. But someone else had different ideas about the use of these naval units, Zeng Guofan. Prince Gong had planned to use multiethnic crews, sailors from Shandong, gunners from Hunan and Manchu for marines. Well Zeng Guofan thought the new naval forces would be better employed as an addition to his own naval forces. He began to advise against mixing ethnic groups, because it might cause disunity. He advised instead that all crews should be Hunanese, hmmmm. Thus the squadron of steam powered gunships would be absorbed into his fleet of Long Dragons, Fast Crabs and sampans. With such a fleet Zeng Guofan would control the entire Yangtze River system.   And here emerges the balance of power swinging within the Qing Dynasty. This general with a large amount of autonomy was quasi dictating against the Qing central government. When Captain Osborn arrived he found an official letter from Prince Gong informing him that a Hunanese Admiral would be serving as the new fleets commander in chief, Osborn had just been demoted to assistant commander. Furthermore the letter stated the fleet would take orders from Zeng Guofan and Li Hongzhang. Osborn went to Beijing to protest these changes, but Prince Gong refused to budge on the matter. In fact rumors began to spread that Prince Gong had no choice in the matter, because Zeng Guofan quote “threatened to shut off all the supplies to the Imperial Government”. Osborn was furious “I came here to serve the Emperor, and under him the Regent, not to be the servant of mere provincial authorities.” Osborn resigned, while refusing to surrender control of the fleet to Prince Gong. Then came a real tense situation for Anson Burlingame, because the Confederates had envoys in China who sought to purchase the fleet for themselves so they could use it to fight the Union. Anson Burlingame lobbied hard to make sure this did not occur and in the end the fleet was sold at a loss back to India and then to Britain.   Meanwhile while Gordon was facing the decision to step down at the behest of Burgevine, he decided instead to counter by convincing Burgevine to defect back to the Qing side. Burgevines frequent visits to Gordon were drawing suspicion from his Taiping comrades and his drunken ill tempered behavior did not help his cause too much. Apparently Burgevine really pissed off one Taiping commander, who had sent funds to purchase western guns and ammunition through Burgevines contacts only to find cargo of Brandy showing up. Not only was Burgevine getting on the Taiping's nerves, he also drew ire from his western comrades. On on occasion a western officer brought up Burgevines drinking problem only to have Burgevine fire a shot through the mans cheeks. Thus on October 15th, in the midst of an assault upon Suzhou by Gordons men, several of Burgevines officers defected, forcing Burgevine to do the same. Burgevine was exiled from China, as per the terms of his amnesty, but would show back up later on trying to raise another militia. No one knows for sure how, but Burgevine was captured by Qing soldiers and somehow ended up drowning in a river tied in chains. Local authorities said he had some sort of accident aboard a boat that capsized, but we all know that is not true.    With Burgevine gone, a major obstacle had been overcome for the campaign against Suzhou. Despite this, the battle for Suzhou remained a stalemate by November. The Taiping commander of Suzhou was Tan Shaoguang, he also held the title of “Wang Mu, Esteemed King”, the son in law of Li Xiucheng. He wanted to defend Suzhou to the bitter end, but it turns out many of his subordinate commanders did not feel the same way. On November 28th, one of his subordinates secretly met with Chen Xueqi, promising to give up Suzhou peacefully while getting rid of Tan Shaoguang and his loyal officers. The man's name was Gao Yongkuan whom held the title of “receiving king” though by this point every commander was being given these titles. He offered to open the gates of Suzhou, but was very fearful of being caught by Tan Shaoguang. Gordon and Chen Xueqi agreed with Gao to take the city with minimal bloodshed.   On the morning of December 4th, Tan Shaoguang held a banquet and during a speech he was stabbed by Gao Yongkuans group of mutineers and had his head cut off and sent to Cheng Xueqi. The gates of Suzhou were opened and Gordon with his EVA forces were the first to enter the city peacefully. Gordon spoke with the mutineer commanders and they all shaved their heads ready to surrender, grateful that Gordon kept his word to not slaughter them. Li Hongzhang showed up by boat to take control over the city with his personal guard and this is where things turned dark. Musket fire could be heard, and Gordon went to investigate finding Cheng Xueqi outside the walls of Suzhou looking very uneasy. Gordon asked him what was going on and Cheng replied that the Taiping commanders never showed up to surrender. Gordon rode back into the city to see what was going on, finding Qing forces looting the city. Gordon suspected this was the work of Cheng Xueqi who must be deceiving him, so he hunted down Li Hongzhang for answers. Yet he could not find Li Hongzhang, nor the Taiping commanders, he went back to Cheng Xueqi who simply told him he had no idea what was going on. Now the sources are mirky on this one. One thing to take note is that Cheng Xueqi was a Taiping defector himself, thus it gives some plausibility for his side of the story. Cheng Xueqi was said to be seen weeping on the ground as he sent a western officer to send a message to Gordon. The message was an apology, stating he did what he did because he had to follow Li Hongzhangs orders. Gordon eventually found the remains of the Taiping commanders, he had this to say of the scene. “The hands and bodies were gashed in a frightful way and cut down the middle, the receiving king's body was partially buried.” Gordon was livid, he had promised these men their safety and Li Hongzhang brutally executed them. To this breach of his honor, Gordon renounced his service under Li Hongzhang and this spread to the foreing community like wildfire. This spelled the end of military cooperation between Britain and the Qing dynasty. The British parliament fell back upon the policy of neutrality, but allowed for the defense of Shanghai. Ironically, by the time Britain had finally reached its decision to go back to neutrality, their assistance was basically no longer needed.   The situation in the interior of China was becoming quite horrid. Zeng Guofan wrote in his diary on June 8th “Everywhere in southern Anhui they are eating people”. It was not the first note of cannibalism from his diary entries and not to be the last. He carried on to write it was not new news that human flesh was being eaten, but the price for said flesh had gone up considerably. The price per ounce had gone up four times that which it was sold at the year prior. Cannibalism was found in Jiangsu province as well. Northern Anhui was a wasteland reported Bao Chao who was desperately trying to scout for a supply line for the drive upon Nanjing. Yet as absolutely horrifying as the situation was in central china, it did benefit the Qing, because the Taiping depended on the peasants amongst them, and the famine was creating internal conflict. As Zeng Guofan put it in his diary about the situation of the Taiping around Nanjing. “Campaigning in a region with no people, the rebels will be like fish out of water. In a countryside devoid of cultivation, they will be like birds on a mountain with no trees.”   On June 13th, Zeng Guoquan finally seized the stone fort atop Yuhuatai. Having control of it meant Zeng Guoquan was able to shut Nanjing's southern gate. The west and northern gates of Nanjing open onto the Yangtze River and their defense laid in these large Taiping forts across the mile wide Yangtze corridor to the city. On June 30th, the Xiang navy attacked these forts in a intense bombardment battle. The Taiping fort shore batteries fired back upon the Xiang, causing 2000 casualties, but in the end the Xiang forces were able to take the forts, slaughtering their defenders. Having taken the forts, the Xiang forces now controlled the Yangtze River northwest of Nanjing. Before the Yangtze River way was closed, Li Xiucheng had left in February of 1863, 3 months after failing to defeat Zeng Guoquan. He took his force into northern Anhui, searching for a supply line for Nanjing. Much like Bao Chao, he found a wasteland and his troops suffered immensely. They were starving, forced to eat grass while facing the Xiang forces who were better provisioned. When word spread that Zeng Guoquan took the fort atop Yuhaitai, Li Xuicheng immediately headed back to Nanjing, managing to cross the river just 10 days before the northern Taiping forts fell. He estimated the campaign into northern Anhui cost him 100,000 men. Yet as soon as he returned to the capital he had to leave yet again because Li Hongzhang was attacking Suzhou and Zuo Zongtang was attacking Hangzhou.    Nanjing's western gate was shut because of Xiang dominance along the Yangtze and its southern gate was shut because of Zeng Guoquans dominance over Yuhaitai. With this in mind Zeng Guofan turned his attention to the remaining easternand northern gates. He sent Bao Chao to lay siege to the Shence Gate, the primary northern inland gate. But Bao Chao faced a terrible epidemic. Simultaneously there were troubles breaking out in southern Anhui and Jiangxi provinces, so he sent Bao Chao to quell them. Meanwhile Zeng Guoquans forces expanded their position at Yuhaitai, seizing 10 bridges and mountain passes allowing them to control the supply roads southeast of Nanjing. By November Zeng Guoquans focus were blocking the eastern approach to the city. The eastern gate to Nanjing was still open and 2 large forts defended atop a mountain that edged towards the city. The mountain was known as the Dragon's shoulder and its fort was the Fortress of Heaven, to its bottom was the Fortress of Earth. By December the eartern gate and the Shence gate were the only points of entry still under Taiping control, out of Nanjing's 23 mile circumference.  I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. The Qing coalition lost their foreign support, but it seems it was no longer needed anyways. Zeng Guoquans gambit payed off brilliantly and now the great city of Nanjing was finally under siege, it was only a matter of time for the end.  

Last time we spoke The foreign community of Shanghai did not take the Taiping advances lightly and fired upon the rebels as they approached the great port city. The filibuster Frederick Townsend Ward created a foreign mercenary team to fight the rebels with pretty mixed results. Hong Rengan tried to smooth things over with the foreigners to earn their support, but nothing was going the Taiping's way. Meanwhile Zeng Guofan was building up his Xiang army, falling into despair at the prospect that Beijing might be captured by foreigners. Yet this did not stop Zeng Guofans resolve to take Anqing, a major stepping stone to seize Nanjing. It seems Hong Rengans grand strategy was falling apart as a result of the foreign community, could he turn things around before Zeng Guofan crushed his plans?   #31 This episode is The Taiping Rebellion part 8: The Fall of Anqing   Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. When the Taiping generals and officers were around things went relatively well for the populaces that came in contact with the Taiping assaults. However as the Taiping armies moved onwards, large groups of bandits followed in their wake, many Taiping secretly amongst them. They would plunder, rape and murder, the usual as it were. Horrible atrocities were common, one account from Xiangshan county in Zhejiang province had a recently groom disemboweled before 12 bandits raped his bride and killed her as well. In the same province one story told that “there were those who would cut open the stomach and drink the blood, and others who chopped off the four limbs. Some would dig out the heart and eat it…my pen cannot bear to write this”. They would carry off women to rape and young boys to be made into future conscripts. Often the Taiping vanguards if they could not find Qing officials, they would kill citizens of a city and dress up their corpses in Qing official attire, to invigorate the rest of the army. Heads went on stakes, placards were nailed to them. The violence between the Qing and Taiping was becoming indistinguishable. But as so often in China, alongside the horror, taxes were collected, crops were grown, new officials were appointed, life simply went on.    The frank truth about this time period, is the Chinese commoners did not care who was in charge whether it be Taiping or Qing, they simply wanted the damn fighting to end so they could carry on with their lives, they just wanted some order and to be able to provide for their families. Facing so many new territorial gains and countless differing population under their control the Taiping established agreements with local leaders, such as the gentry class who were willing to play ball. Thus a lot of these territories held a lot of autonomy, that is if they paid taxes and made sure not to help the Qing. There was an interesting element of class struggle going on as well. Where the Qing ruled, the wealthy landowner gentry class or scholars generally called the shot. But where the Taiping ruled, you could join their ranks, no matter what class you came from and move up the social ladder.   Real control still lay outside the Taiping's grasp. Though the Qing were weakened by the European victory of them and even with the Emperor literally fleeing the capital, the mandate of heaven still remained and as long as it did, those loyal to it would resist the rebels. Hong Rengan and Li Xiucheng did not agree on a great many things, but one thing they certainly saw eye to eye on was the need to consolidate the fertile southern provinces, to take what was once the old Ming empire and use it to starve the Qing in the north. By autumn of 1860, Li xiucheng was forced to leave his command in the eastern provinces, to come to relieve Anqing from Zeng Guofan's siege. Hong Xiuquan actually sent orders for Li Xiucheng to march north to hit Beijing again now that it was weakened, but he refused, ironically similar to how Zeng Guofan refused Emperor Xianfeng. Instead Li Xiucheng insisted he should go west into Jiangxi and Hubei provinces, were several hundreds of thousands of people could be recruited into the Taiping ranks. He would use these men to lift the Anqing siege and this all meant a clash with Zeng Guofan in Qimen. Before Li Xiucheng left Nanjing for his campaign he told the citizens ‘if Anqing can be held, there is no need to worry, but if it is not firm, the capital will not be secure, everyone needs to start stockpiling food”.   In 1861 Hong Rengan took to the field under orders from the heavenly king, to help relieve Anqing. It was the first time he commanded an army, he himself had never really fought in a battle before. All the way over in Beijing, Prince Gong was begging Emperor Xianfeng to return to the capital, hell the war was over, the foreign barbarians had left, the sovereign was needed in the capital to reassure the people. Yet Xianfeng refused to go back to Beijing, he was furious that Pring Gong agreed to allow foreign envoys to be in Beijing, he could not be around them. Thus Xianfeng stayed at his hunting retreat with his empress and harem of concubines, busying himself by ordered his staff to make improvements to what had become his new home. Prince Gong meanwhile was received terrible reports from Zeng Guofan about difficult situation at Anqing. Prince Gong understood the Taiping menace was akin to a disease in ones inner organs, they were the most urgent problem the dynasty had to deal with, the foreigners were actually a secondary threat when compared. Thus he decided to do what was ever necessary to appease the foreigners  while everything should be directed at defeating the Taiping. Once the rebellion was over then they could do something about all the foriegn encroachment. At the same time he wondered if it was time for the Qing to seek aid from the foreigners to quell the Taiping. Russia unlike the others, was free from the obsession of neutrality and had been hassling Qing officials to offer direct military aid. The Russians also offered shipping aid, suggesting they could coordinate with the Americans to bring southern rice to Tianjin by ocean routes. The Russians were the oddball out when it came to foreign powers in China. They were still angry about the Crimean War and while the Americans British and French fought tooth and nail for maritime trade rights, Russia alone shared a land border with the Qing, one that was thousands of miles long. The Russians saw the enormous opportunity a weak Qing government offered them, they could perhaps expand their territory or develop cross border trade. Thus the Tsar sent representatives who offered Xianfeng rifles as early as 1857, and during the negotiations in Tianjin in 1858 they went a step further offering military advisors. All they asked was for a little control over the territory north of the Amur river, which was in the Manchu homelands.    As you can imagine Xianfeng didn't like that deal and said no, but then in 1860 when the Europeans defeated the Qing and forced them to sign the treaty of Tianjin, the Russian diplomat, Nikolai Pavlovich Ignatiev managed to negotiate a secret Sino-Russian treaty on the side. Ignatiev said he would help the Qing to not be toppled by the other Europeans, if Prince Gong granted Russia control over the north region of the Amur river, an area 300,000 miles large, that was bigger than Korea. The Russians offered a gift of rifles and 400 russians aboard steam powered gunships to coordinate with the Qing military and attack Nanjing. Prince Gong took the offer seriously and pressed the question over to many high ranking Qing officials, one of which was Zeng Guofan. There was a ton of bickering amongst those in support of the deal and those against, Zeng Guofan was one of those for it. Zeng argued Russian and China had no real qualms between another, and it was not unprecedented to accept such help, the previous dynasty after all accepted help from the Dutch to fight the Taiwan rebels in the 17th century. But Zeng Guofan also argued what he needed was not naval forces, no they needed land forces, there was simply no route by which to advance on Nanjing otherwise. He advised modifying the offer to such means. Zeng Guofan finished by arguing what they really needed was to improve their own technological abilities, so they would not need external help in the future. “If we study how they make their cannons and ships, it will be of great benefit to us in the long run.” In the end Xianfeng agreed to taking 10,000 rifles and 8 cannons from the Russians, but declined naval services.    In february of 1861 Admiral Hope sailed up the Yangtze river to see if relations could be opened with the Taiping without permission from the British government. The government back home was bickering over the civil war issue, many demanded Britain must remain neutral, a few thought it would be a good idea to help the Qing defeat the rebels, they did after all have a treaty with them and expected the weakened dynasty to pay up, and a select few thought the Taiping cause might be just. Regardless Admiral Hope was enroute to Nanjing with a small squadron of gunboats and it took them two weeks to navigate 200 miles up the river to Nanjing. They were the largest foreign party to visit Nanjing and their lead negotiator was none other than the racist nutcase Harry Parkes. They reached Nanjing on February 24th, missing Hong Rengan who had left in early February to help Anqing. On march 1st, Harry Parkes explained the British sought trade along the Yangtze river as was their right under the new treaty they signed with the Qing. Regardless of which side held control over the river banks, Britain wanted to sail freely and they intended to leave a 6 gun paddle frigate, the Centaur in Nanjing to protect British subjects who might visit the city. The Taiping officials relayed the messages to Hong Xiuquan and he sent word back warning his followers not to allow the British to leave their gunboat, he could simply not allow this. Apparently Parkes had a screaming match with the officials saying “he must have another vision!”. And somehow this led to the Taiping agreeing, then Parkes warned them if they attacked Zhenjiang or Jiujiang, both under Qing control, they had best not harm any British subjects or property. In return he promised British forces would not interfere nor harm Taiping. After this apparently the officials just kept pestering Parkes for weapons and he had this to write about it all “The rebels want arms it is the same … on the side of the Imperialists, opium and arms, opium and arms, is the one cry we hear from mandarins, soldiers, and people, at every place we have yet come to.” Admiral Hope meanwhile observed the Taiping and concluded they were a destructive force that should be kept at arms length. He deduced “a period of anarchy, indefinite in duration in China, in which the commercial towns of the empire will be destroyed, and its most productive provinces laid waste.” To this end Hope urged that a 30 mile radius around Shanghai be defended to prevent the Taiping from entering the city.   By the end of March, Parkes demanded the Taiping not approach Shanghai with a 2 days march of the city or any other treaty port. Hong Xiuquan agreed to not let his forces within 30 miles of Shanghai, but made no promises for the other cities. Admiral Hope told the Taiping officials, Britain would put an end to any renegade British subjects helping the Qing as mercenaries, but would ask the same be done for the Taiping side. Speaking about those foreign mercenaries on the Taiping side, a British representative named Robert Forrest was sent from Shanghai in march of 1861 to go to Nanjing to investigate if and who were aiding the Taiping. It turns out there were around a hundred or so foreign men working as mercenaries for them. They were the same group of men that had been led by Savage before his death, now their leader was a man named Peacock. On the other side, the British consul reported they had caught 13 members of Frederick Townsend Ward's mercenary men at Songjiang and one of them said he had another 82 men under his command. 29 of these men were royal navy deserters. By May 19th, Ward was caught and arrested as he was trying to recruit more men in Shanghai. Since he was an American, the only person with jurisdiction over him was the US consul. When Ward was questioned the man said he was no longer American and now a subject of the Qing emperor. He was even engaged to a Chinese woman, though that would prove to be a quick ruse. On top of that the provincial governor of Shanghai happened to be a patron of Ward and produced papers proving his Qing citizenship. All of this was so convincing the US consul refused to prosecute Ward and he was set free to keep luring more foreigners into the service of the Qing. There was no real legal basis to go after Ward and a very frustrated Admiral Hope simply grabbed the man and locked him up on his flagship. But Ward jumped out a window and swam away.   Now back to the Anqing front, Zeng Guofan had begun his campaign against the fulcrum point to Nanjing in the summer of 1860. The city was the domain of the Brave king, Chen Yucheng. In the spring of 1860 he decamped with the bulk of his army to help Li Xiucheng break the Qing siege of Nanjing, leaving behind a garrison of around 20,000 to hold the city of Anqing. The garrison were unseasoned recruits mostly from Hunan and Hubei provinces. Zeng Guofan took advantage of Chen Yucheng's sortie by sending his brother with 10,000 men through the Jixian pass to prod Anqing. Anqing did not flinch, their defenses were quite strong and they were very well provisioned. Initially Zeng Guofans siege of Anqing was of little concern to the Taiping leadership. They knew the city was strong enough to hold out and took their time to gradually send a relief force in september of 1860. However, this was also part of Hong Rengans strategy's second phase. After consolidating the southern reaches of the Yangtze east of Nanjing, he directed the Taiping forces upstream. Once it became very apparent the foreigners in Shanghai would not sell steamships to them, which Hong Rengan was depending on to get the forces to hit Wuchang, he opted to simply march overland to capture the city.    After the fall of Suzhou, Chen Yucheng and Li Xiucheng formed a massive pincer operation against Wuchang. Chen Yucheng would take a 100,000 strong army around the north through Anhui while simultaneously breaking the siege of Anqing in early winter en route to Wuchang. Li Xiucheng would mirror this by going south of the great river hitting Zeng Guofans HQ in Qimen alone the way and send his forces to smash Zeng Guoquan at Anqing before marching on Wuchang. Now Zeng Guofan had staked just about all his forces on the siege of Anqing, he only had a defensive garrison at Qimen of 3000 troops. All of his troops were in danger of being cut off from their supplies and reinforcements. Cheng Yucheng went through Anhui recruiting some Nian rebels who help create feint attacks to confuse the Qing as to where they were marching. Eventually in late november his army turned south to hit Anqing, but between them lay the Taiping held city of Tongcheng and alongside it Chen Yucheng ran right into an enormous Qing cavalry force of 20,000 men led by the Manchu general Duolonga. Duolonga had been sent by Zeng Guofan to protect the approach of Anqing from its north and the cavalry force proved a major obstacle to the Taiping. Chen Yucheng was forced to take his men to Tongcheng for its walls protection and had to abandon his march upon Anqing. Remember the Taiping were rather weak when it came to cavalry, it was one of the few advantages the Qing held over them. Thus a force of 20,000 Qing cavalry was quite a force to be reckoned with.   Chen Yucheng held Tongcheng against the Qing through the winter and decamped in March around the same time Hong Rengan left Nanjing. He led his force northwest beyond the range of the Qing cavalry and then turned sharply southwest to rush over to Wuchang. Along the way his men had to smash several Qing militia forces while a Qing cavalry detachment tried to cut their way off. But by march 17th of 1861 Chen Yuchengs men got to Huangzhou on the Yangtze's northern bank just 50 miles downstream from Wuchang. There his men surprised the Qing garrison of 2000 men slaughtering them all. By capturing Huangzhou, Chen Yucheng had the perfect base of operations to attack Hankou and then Wuchang.    Meanwhile in Qimen, Zeng Guofan was anxious about the Taiping advances that seemed to be converging. The attending King, cousin to Li Xiucheng had captured Xiuning, 30 miles to his immediate east. He dispatched Bao Chao to take back the city while he was receiving news his brother Guoquan was not doing well at Anqing. Then terrible news came on November 26th, Li Xiuchengs entire army was approaching from the north. Zeng Guofan quickly dispatched riders to call for help, but his nearest forces had left with Bao Chao to take back Xiuning and Li Xiuchengs forces had appeared directly between them. All he could do was send a letter to his brother at Anqing stating “the rebels are only 15 miles from my Headquarters, just a stones throw and there are no obstacles to stop them….All we can do now is study our defenses and, when they come, try to hold out until someones comes to help us”. However Li Xiucheng did not immediately attack Qimen, he had no idea of the HQ's strength and paused to gather intel. This pause allowed Bao Chao to come sweeping in with his cavalry to smash into the Loyal King's army who were exhausted from their long march. Bao Chao's force was much smaller so he continuously harassed the Taiping army, but never fully dedicated his army to a full battle. Li Xiucheng simply took his men and marched into Jiangxi as per the pincer plan. Despite Li Xiucheng moving on, 3 smaller Taiping forces were still harassing Zeng Guofan and he suspected this was a feint to mask an offensive against Anqing. His HQ were severed off from their supply routes because of the Li Xiuchengs cousin, thus he had to disband his HQ and tried to march east, only to be attacked and pushed right back to Qimen.   Meanwhile Chen Yucheng awaited Li Xiucheng's forces to meet up with him at Hankou, but he was in a bit of a situation. Hankou was a new treaty port for the British and it just so happened Admiral Hope's expedition was on its way back from Nanjing. Harry Parkes showed up to pay a visit warning the Taiping not to cause any harm to the treaty port. Chen Yucheng spoke with Parkes, talking about the plan to take Hankou and Wuchang. Parkes had gone past these cities and knew they were weakly defended and because some British subjects were there stated this.  “I commanded his caution in this respect and advised him not to think of moving on Hankou because they could not take the city without seriously interfering with British commerce”. Thus Parkes basically threatened Chen Yucheng, that he would face the same fate as Li Xiucheng had at Shanghai. Chen Yucheng tried to negotiate, stating his forces would absolutely make sure not to hinder the British, but Parkes was adamant and Chen Yucheng was forced to agree not to advance on the city.   Now Chen Yucheng had no idea what to do, so he sent word back to Nanjing asking for instructions and thus the opportunity to smash Hankou was slipping away. The Qing cavalry that was chasing him across Anhui province made it to Wuchang sounding the alarm forcing him to dig in at Huangzhou. It would take months for Nanjing to give Chen Yucheng a message back and in the meantime Wuchang and Hankou would be heavily reinforced. Downriver at Anqing the siege had reached its 8th month. Zeng Guoquans trench lines surrounded the city with sequences of walls and moats about 2 miles from Anqing's walls. It was like an extra fortified wall around Anqing that defended against anyone coming out of the city or coming to relieve it. Zeng Guoquan even had riverine units blockading Anqing from receiving aid via the river, but there was a major flaw in this, foreign ships. At Anqing's southern gate, foreign steamships could drop anchor and unload food or weapons at very inflated prices for the people of Anqing. If Zeng Guoquan tried to stop them it violated the treaty of Tianjin, which the Taiping were trying to abide by to win over western support. And alongside this, believe it or not a small market emerged between the besiegers and besieged. Zeng Guofan had not dished out the payroll for over 9 months, forcing the besiegers to seek salaries elsewhere, thus many began to smuggle food into Anqing for money. War can be quite silly at times.   Back to Li Xiucheng, his army moved past Qimen in December and made its way through southern Anhui to see if Zeng Guoquan would back off of Anqing. Li Xiucheng also sent forces into Jiangxi and Hubei where hundreds of thousands of possible new recruits lay for the plucking. Slowly but surely, his army made its way to Wuchang to meet up with Chen Yucheng's army, but he was expected by April and he missed this deadline. By April most of his army was still in Jiangxi province, more than 200 miles away from the assembly point. By early May his forces got to the city of Ruizhou, 150 miles from Wuchang. But instead of carrying on, the citizens of Ruizhou begged him to stay and Li Xiucheng found himself doing so as he likewise recruited another 300,000 followers over the course of a few weeks. Now as incredible as it sounds, for him to gain so many, these were all untrained forces, given weapons yes, but not exactly trustworthy. Zeng Guofan understood this and he understood that such an army had a large mouth to feed.    Li Xiucheng would only arrive to Wuchang in June, 2 months late for the expected rendezvous. He expected Chen Yucheng to be in Hankou ready to launch an assault on Wuchang, but soon learnt his colleague had left and worse yet, he never took Hankou. By this point, Wuchang had enjoyed 3 full months of warning of the impending Taiping armies and had called up reinforcements. With such vast numbers of untrained men, Li Xiucheng did not dare approach Wuchang too close and set camp on the outskirts of its county. Chen Yucheng had left a garrison at Huangzhou to coordinate with Li Xiucheng, but when Li arrived in the area the river was being controlled by Zeng Guofans navy making it impossible to communicate with Huangzhou. In desperation Li Xiucheng turned to the British consul at Hankou to deliver a message to Huangzhou. The British consul kept that letter as a souvenir and did not deliver it. With no reply from Chen Yucheng, and with no idea where or what he was doing, Li Xiucheng had basically no options left when it came to Wuchang. He could not remain where he was, his new forces were untested and he did not believe they could take Wuchang. He received word Bao Chao was coming from the east to attack him and he knew such veteran troops could do carnage to his green forces. Thus at the end of June he abandoned the western campaign and took his goliath sized army into Hubei. Bao Chao tried to pursue him, but Li Xiucheng had a good headstart and made his way over land and sea eventually moving through southern ANhui and then into Zhejiang.   With Li Xiucheng failing to show up in time, Chen Yucheng had to act on his own. He received no further instructions from Nanjing about whether or not to attack Hankou so he decided to leave a garrison at Huangzhou and took his forces downriver to hit Anqing. On April 27th he made it to the Jixian pass with 30,000 troops easily scaring off the quite outnumbered Xiang troops there. Then he began the process of building fortifications outside Zeng Guoquans fortified encirclement…basically it was a fort, covered by another fort, covered by now another fort, infortception? So now there were 2 rings surrounding Anqing, meanwhile Chen Yucheng managed to sent rafts with supplies across the river to Anqing. After 3 days of trying to break through parts of Zeng Guoquans walls, Duolonga's pursuing force had gotten between his forces and the nearest Taiping held city of Tongcheng. This threatened Chen Yuchengs supply and communications line to Nanjing and without Li Xiucheng it seemed he would be unable to break Zeng Guoquans defensive lines. Thus Chen Yucheng looked like he was going to have to depart, but then on May 1st, a Taiping army 20,000 strong showed up led by Hong Rengan at Tongcheng.    By May 6th, Hong Rengan sent scouts to meet up with Chen Yucheng, but they were beaten back savagely by Duolonga's cavalry force. It was at this point Chen Yucheng made a grave mistake. He left 12,000 men behind to hold the encirclement defenses and withdrew with the rest of his men northwards to strike at Duolonga's cavalry in coordination with Hong Rengan from the north. On May 24th the two Taiping armies attacked Duolonga in 3 columns, 2 from the north and 1 from the south, but a Qing spy had revealed this strategy to Duolonga. Duolonga set up an ambush, using a detachment of cavalry going around Chen Yuchengs forces rear, falling upon the men and sending them into a rout. Soon Chen Yucheng's army was running to Tongcheng receiving massive casualties in the process. The rout also severed Chen Yucheng from his 12,000 men back at the encirclement of Anqing, leaving them helpless without leadership nor possible reinforcements. As for Hong Rengan, it was his first foray into military command and it would effectively be his last. At the same time Hong Rengan's army was receiving its defeat, the Heavenly King was hosting a visit from Harry Parkes and was greatly unnerved by it wishing for Hong Rengan to return to Nanjing to deal with such matters. Thus an order was sent out for him to return and he did so.   Chen Yuchengs blunder left 12,000 men in a terrible situation, 4000 were manning the Jixian pass and around 8000 were at Waternut Lake with only the supplies they had brought with them. They outnumbered Zeng Guoquans encirclement forces, but only by a bit and now the Qing would smash them. Zeng Guofan had ordered Bao Chao to help ferry his army across the Yangtze river to get over to his brother to help. The day after Chen Yucheng had fled to Tongcheng, Zeng Guofan and his brother's armies swept over the Jixian Pass force, breaking them within a week. On June 7th, the Taiping at Jixian Pass surrendered, Bao Chao's men killed 3000 of them. Then they went on to smash the Taiping at Waternut Lake, eventually defeating them by July 7th. 8000 Taiping surrendered, handing in 6000 foreign rifles, 8000 long spears, 1000 jingalls, 800 Ming dynasty matchlocks and 2000 horses, a very nice haul.    Zeng Guoquan had no idea what to do with all the prisoners, a force almost as large as his own who were very dangerous. One of his battalion commanders suggested they just kill them all and he made a suggested plan. They could open the gates of the camp and let the prisoners in 10 at a time so they could be beheaded in batches, “in half a day, we could be done”. What a monster. Zeng Guoquan didnt have the stomach for such a thing and left it all to the said commander who by his own accounts oversaw the butchering of 8000 POW's in the course of a single day. Apparently they started at 7am, and were done by sun down, my god. It seems Zeng Guoquan was deeply troubled by the slaughter and I don't blame him.    Despite the great victory, the siege of Anqing still ground on as Bao Chao and Zeng Guoquan smashed Taiping relief forces. It was the foriegn ships bringing provisions into the city that was making the difference. Zeng Guofan tried to send word to the British to stop making deliveries, but they kept ignoring his messages. By mid July he was fed up after finding out a foreign ship had unloaded nearly 200 tons of rice to Anqing, so he sent a complaint to Beijing. It seems his complaint worked like a charm, Prince Gong sent word to Bruce on July 18th protesting the British help of the Taiping at Anqing, demanding Qing forces be allowed to search every ship that went to the city. Thus Bruce halted any British ships from going to Anqing and in the late summer Zeng Guofan began to receive captured letters from Anqing defenders indicating they were finally running out of food.   Chen Yucheng tried one last time to try to lift the siege at Anqing, taking the remnants of his battered army along with the survivors of Hong Rengans he marched in a long northern sweep around Duolonga's forces to get to the Jixian Pass where his force reoccupied the defenses they had made there. Chen Yucheng planned for all out offensive leading him to perform a desperate mission to rescue his family from Anqing by river while Zeng Guofan's navy fired upon any and all ships departing from the city. August saw a symphony of gun and cannon fire with Taiping waves of men throwing themselves against Zeng Guoquans encirclement, row upon row of them pouring out from Anqing and from Chen Yucheng. The dead piled up against the defensive works on either side as the living clambering over them to try and kill the gunners atop. Then on the night of september 3rd, with the sound of guns, cannons and blades sundering the landscape, all went quiet as Chen Yucheng tossed the towel at last. He burnt the stockade at Jixian Pass to the ground and left Anqing to suffer its fate to the Qing.    Most of the defenders managed to escape Anqing during the battle, escaping through some tunnels made underneath Zeng Guoquans encirclement. The burning of the Jixian Pass stockades provided a decent distraction, though there is evidence that the great escape of so many Taiping was actually an arrangement made by a Qing commander. In exchange for handing over Anqing without a fight they perhaps let the Taiping defenders go. Regardless, all the civilians remained in Anqing alongside some poor defenders chained to the wall mounted cannons. The Xiang forces entered the city unopposed on September 5th. The depths of horror found within the city would leave a long last nightmare. After the foreign ships were banned form bringing provisions, the inhabitants of Anqing ate all the food, then the animals including rats, until nothing was left, all except for one thing. The Xiang forces found out while all the food had run out, the markets were still open for business, the business of selling human flesh, at around half a tael per catty, or 38 cents a pound. Around 16,000 people were left alive in the city. Zeng Guofan wrote to his brother asking what they should do with the people “When we conquer the city, the proper thing to do will be to kill a lot of people. We shouldn't let compassion lead us to err in the grand scheme of things. What do you think?” There are differing accounts of the slaughter, one states Zeng Guofans officers first separated the women and children from those being killed, another states all were treated the same.   I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. Zeng Guofan finally captured the great city of Anqing, a stepping stone to taking Nanjing. The Taiping pincer strategy failed utterly and now they were left in disarray. Can the Taiping come back from these defeats?

Last time we spoke Hong Rengan, the cousin of the heavenly king made a long pilgrimage to get to Nanjing. When Hong Rengan finally made it to Nanjing, the heavenly king rejoiced and began showering him with titles. Hong Rengan soon became the Shield King, but this drew jealousy and resentment from the Loyal king Li Xiucheng. Hong Rengan quickly went to work restructuring the movement, making dramatic improvements and began a campaign to win over foreign support. A grand strategy was formed to break the encirclement of Nanjing and it succeeded in a grand fashion, bringing the Taiping closer to Shanghai where a large foreign community awaited. However rumors spread that the Taiping wished to attack Shanghai creating fear amongst the foreigners they sought to ally with. Could Hong Rengang turn the tides in favor for the Taiping? #30 This episode is The Taiping Rebellion part 7: Ward's Mercenaries & the Battle for Shanghai   Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. Shanghai was not a typical Chinese city, it had a complicated division of jurisdictions such as the international city with each nation having its own military force and each foreign citizen was liable only to their nations authorities. Trading vessels came and left, exchanging not only cargoe but crews from all around the world. People from all walks of life came to Shanghai and much like Mos Eisley, “you will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy”. Now in 1860, just 12 miles due west of Shanghai a group of irregular military men began to run drills in a muddy little village. There were around 200 Europeans and Americans in a unit, wearing a hodgepodge of uniforms. Some wore red coats and dark pants, typical British marine getup, other blue jackets with white bell bottoms, that of french sailors, others tattered fabrics of merchant crews. For weapons, many had colt revolvers others sharp repeating rifles and the reason they drilled was to capture the Taiping held town of Songjiang, 10 miles further away from Shanghai. Alongside Qingpu, Songjiang was a strategic walled town and a necessary stepping stone for one to invade Shanghai from Hangzhou or Suzhou. The motley crew of mercenaries were being paid for by a banker named Yang Fang at the incredibly high rate of 100 dollars per month per man. On top of their handsome salaries these men were promised rewards of a hundred thousand dollars if their unit was able to defeat the Taiping garrison at Songjiang alongside anything they could loot. The commander of this unit was an American named Frederick Townsend Ward. He was 29 years old, from Salem Massachusetts and had deep black eyes and a thatch of unruly raven like hair worn long over his ears.    Wards army was modeled on the so called filibusters, those American soldiers who frolicked in latin america in the 19th century. Ward was not drawn just by money but also the dream of establishing a new state to govern. Ward had been frustrated during his military career, he had failed to gain admission to West Point in 1846 and spent a year at Norwich university, a private military college in Vermont, without even graduating. His real military training came informally, in central america in 1852 when he enlisted with the infamous William Walker who led a small army of Americans to fight a civil war in Nicaragua to overthrow its government with the intent to form a new Yankee state. Ward fought hard for Walker, but left his camp to form his own, while Walker conquered Nicaragua and installed himself president in 1856. It was a short lived state to be sure, 4 years later the British captured Walker and arrested him for breaking neutrality laws. Meanwhile Ward traveled to Shanghai to launch his own venture against the Taiping, while his former mentor was executed by firing squads in Honduras.    The Taiping-Qing civil war was a fantastic opportunity for a would be filibuster and initially ward came to china to join the rebels and overthrow the Manchu. However upon making it to Shanghai, making contact with the Taiping proved difficult. Ward first found work aboard a french steamer named Confucius, hired by some wealthy Chinese merchants to protect them against Yangtze pirates. Eventually Ward and the captain of the Confucius found themselves employed by local military authorities, thus Ward ended up selling his sword to the Qing. They saw in him some leadership qualities and had him begin recruiting Europeans, Americans and Filipinos to create a mercenary force to defend the region outside Shanghai. His army was strictly illegal, a complete violation of the neutrality laws. His force of mostly deserters could not even be treated for wounds in Shanghai lest they be arrested.    Despite the small size of his force, the practically mythical belief in western arms being vastly superior led many of their enemies to simply surrender upon seeing a causasian opponent. Wards army was meant to be a spearhead for a 10,000 strong Qing force that followed behind it as they invaded garrisoned cities. Wards unit attacked Songjiang in april of 1860 and it did not go very well. With zero artillery to blast open the gates, Wards planned to sneak over the city walls under the cover of darkness using scaling ladders. Ward's men got so shit face drunk before their daring attack, that all their singing and swearing alarmed Songjiangs defenders when they approached. As they tried to climb, the Taiping cut them to pieces. After the failure ward sent men to purchase artillery pieces in Shanghai, managing to grab 2 pairs of half ton Napoleon field guns and Ward also procured a ton more men. Now he attacked Songjian again in July, this time with 500 troops, a great many being Filipino's. Under the cover of a fog, and less drunk the artillerymen bombarded the gate of Songjiang with 12 pound shells as the unit stormed the city. This assault proved to be a worse disaster than the last one. When they got through the outer gate, the found out the inner gate was undamaged. Thus Ward and his men were stuck in the wall, they couldn't get past the inner gate and could not bring their Napoleon cannons across the moat to hit it. The Taiping defenders were above them tossing stinkpots filled with burning sulfur all night long. Ward's men managed to budge the inner gate a couple of feet using bags of gunpowder, but they were being fired upon all the while. If it was not for their repeating rifles being so effective at close range, they probably would have not survived the night. Luckily they survived the night and soon their Qing backup showed up at dawn forcing the Taiping garrison to flee. Most of Wards 500 men were dead and all by 27 survivors were severely wounded.   It was a terrible victory, but the city was theirs and Ward set up his new HQ in a Confucian temple. With Songjiang as a base, he regrouped, recruited and set up a new offensive for August the 1st to hit Qingpu 10 miles northwest. It did not go well, turns out the Taiping in Qingpu had managed to assemble their own type of Ward army led by an English coastal pirate named Savage who rangled up several of his comrades along the Taiping to man some big guns. Wards Qing backup army also did not show up and during the fighting Ward took a bullet right through both of his cheeks. Wards extremely drunk lieutenant tossed the new recruits, made up of mostly greeks and italians to throw themselves at the walls of Qingpu again 2 weeks after the first failed attack, this time with the Qing backup showing up, but all they managed to do was stir up a Taiping garrison now reinforced to a whopping 50,000 men led by Li Xiucheng himself. Li led a surprise flanking attack that routed the Ward army, not only winning the battle for Qingpu but also threatening Songjiang as Li Xiucheng chased them all the way there. The Taiping harassed Songjians gates for over 2 weeks and the only saving grace for Ward was the fact Savage was alongside the Taiping and he got shot dead.    As we have seen, not all the foreigners were so hostile to the Taiping, Ward initially and Savage were willing to sell their swords to them. And in early july of 1860 as Ward had been preparing his attack on Songjiang, a small boat left Shanghai for the interior carrying 5 British and American missionaries who sought to contact the Taiping in Suzhou. One of them was Joseph Edkins and friend to James Legge, who was trying to find out if Hong Rengan had made it to Nanjing. The group ran into some Taiping units who told them Hong Rengan was the prime minister of Nanjing. The group were mortified when they got to Suzhou seeing the savagery committed there and as Griffith John described of seeing the ruined temples ““It is common to see the nose, chin, and hands cut off. The floors of these buildings are bestrewn with relics of helpless gods. Buddhist and Daoist, male and female. Some are cast into the canals, and are found floating down the stream mingled with the debris of rifled houses and the remains of the dead.” Li Xiucheng was in Suzhou at the time and he invited the missionaries for an audience. It was not a long meeting, but the missionaries found the man to be gentle, intelligent and he kept his soldiers well disciplined. They found themselves in agreement when it came to religious doctrine, but the missionaries knew the merchants of Shanghai cared for only one thing. Thus hey asked Li Xiucheng if he would allow the silk trade to continue under Taiping rule and Li Xiucheng replied that was exactly what the Taiping sought. Thus the group returned to Shanghai and countless newspapers in SHanghai began to publicize pro Taiping accounts. Edkins declared “They are revolutionists in the strictest sense of the term; both the work of slaughter and of plunder are carried on so far as is necessary to secure the end. These are evils which necessarily accompany such a movement, and are justifiable or otherwise in so far as the movement itself is so.” The idea the Taiping would be a state friendly to the west gained momentum. At the end of July, Edkins and Griffith returned to Suzhou for a second visit upon letters of invitation from Li Xiucheng and Hong Rengan.   This time they found an even warmer welcome, with Hong Rengan present draped in silk robes wearing an embroidered gold crown. Hong Rengan insisted they do not kowtow nor kneel as this was not the western fashion, but instead give him a hearty handshake, and he dismissed servants so they could talk informally. They talked of old times like old friends about missionary work, they prayed and sang hymns and talked of China's future. Hong Rengan said for his part all he wanted was to lead the Taiping towards a correct understanding of Christianity. The missionaries were delighted by all of this, a man they knew and worked with was in the seat of power and he wanted to bring real christianity to China. By November nearly all of the major missionary organizations in England joined together to sent a letter to the foreign minister calling for Britain to continue its strict policy of neutrality. In many ways the veil of the Taiping had finally been lifted and there gleamed a chance perhaps at some western support.    Now let us not forget, while the Taiping forces were launching this massive campaign to break the siege of their capital, the Qing were dealing with another campaign, the second opium war. Lord Elgin was writing back to Britain all the while and he had some interesting points to make. In one letter to Lord Russel in July of 1860 he wrote “We might annex the Empire if we were in the humour to take a second India into hand, or we might change the Dynasty if we knew where to find a better.” According to Putyatin, Elgin had privately said in his presence “Britain should recognize as Chinese Emperor one of the leaders of the rebel movement assuming he would agree to the favorable conditions of the Tianjin treaty.” He argued that it could give Britain the desired trade concessions, end conflict and perhaps prevent future wars. He took it a step further saying “if the capital of China were moved nearer to our military presence like Nanking … England could control the Chinese Empire with four gunboats.Let the north disappear or form a separate government, we don't have any trade interests there.”   Meanwhile his brother Bruce was anxious that the Taiping would still march on Shanghai. The two events were simultaneous, the war in the north with Elgins coalition marching upon Beijing and the loomed threat in Shanghai. Luckily for Bruce, Elgin showed up to Shanghai on June 29th of 1860 with a fleet of French and British gunboats. Bruce sighed with relief, surely his brother would look out for their interests in Shanghai. Yet the coalitionary forces had no intention of helping Bruce defend Shanghai, they were going to depart shortly to head north and hit Beijing. They departed and left a scant defensive force of a couple gunboats and some stray divisions of Sikh soldiers. The foreign community of Shanghai lamented they had been abandoned in their hour of need. Despite the work of the missionaries to present Hong Rengan as a friend and not foe, Bruce did not buy it. He assumed the missionaries were being duped, like he had been at the hands of the Qing. Despite his opinions of the Manchu, Bruce told those around him they were still the legitimate authority in China. Many tried to change Bruce's mind on the matter of the Taiping, but none succeeded.   In july of 1860 Bruce was brought a sealed letter addressed to the representatives of the US, France and Britain from Li Xiucheng. Bruce apparently refused to even open it. Then he received another letter, this time from Hong Rengan, but Bruce again refused to open it. These letters were fatally important, in the first Li Xiucheng notified the foreign authorities that the Taiping were on they way to Shanghai and intended to take possession of the Chinese held section of the city. He stated the Taiping had no quarrel whatsoever with their “foreign brethren” and pledged no harm to them nor their property. Any Taiping who harmed a foreigner would be put to death and he hoped the foreign representatives would call upon their people to stay indoors and hoist yellow flags above their doors to signify they were foreigners in said homes.    In the later afternoon of August 17th, the sky to the west of Shanghai suddenly grew dark with smoke. The next morning saw fleeing Qing soldiers rushing to the Shanghai gates pursued by Taiping cavalry. The British let in a few Qing in before they destroyed the bridge going across the moat. The Taiping advance guard surged forward as suddenly the British and French opened fire with their artillery. Alongside this, the Taiping were fired upon by a hodgepodge of differing muskets, rifles and such. The Taiping force was small, just a few thousand men, lightly armed with a few notable foreign mercenaries with them. The British and French gunners atop the walls, watched the Taiping hide behind buildings and other structures, with clear baffled faces. None of them shot back, then one Taiping detachment tried to advance forward waving Qing flags they had stolen, but they were shot at. Next another detachment rushed forward waving an enormous black flag that the Taiping used to drive reluctant troops with. One very lucky shell lobbed from half a mile smashed right in the middle of the unit flattening the flag bearer into the ground.   In a bewildered disarray the Taiping ran into houses for cover, but the wall artillerymen kept firing at them. As the night came upon them, word spread that Qing forces within Shanghai were executing Taiping POW's, prompting the British to demand they be surrendered over to them unmolested. Then the French frustrated it seems by the Taiping using all the houses for cover decided to simply start blowing them down with artillery. The next morning, French troops marched through the city firing their muskets at will. One eye witness reported to the North-China Herald “French soldiers were rushing frantically among the peaceful inhabitants of the place, murdering men, women and children, without the least discrimination. One man, was stabbed right through as he was enjoying his opium-pipe. A woman who had just given birth to a child, was bayoneted without the faintest provocation. Women were ravished and houses plundered by these ruthless marauders without restraint”. Another eye witness estimated the French left tens of thousands of Chinese homeless in the course of defending against 3000 lightly armed Taiping. The Taiping force retreated, but the suburbs of Shanghai burned for days as the Europeans claimed victory. The Taiping attack on Shanghai honestly did more to build sympathy for their cause, the news paper ran rampant stories about how the europeans fired upon a group who called themselves brethren and did not fight back.    Now we have not talked about a key player in all of this for awhile. On October 16th of 1860, General Zeng Guofan was in his HQ in Qimen of Anhui province sick out of his mind. He was vomiting heavily, suffering some bad heart palpitations, had a bad case of insomnia, just not doing all that great. At lunch he received a message that the emperor had fled to his hunting grounds in Manchuria and that the British and French armies were literally a few miles from Beijing. There was nothing he could do, he apparently broke down in tears feeling helpless. Zeng Guofan was stuck fighting a protracted rear action campaign against the farthest Taiping stronghold up the Yangtze river. Zhang Guoliang and He Chun were both dead, the siege camps around Nanjing were shattered. He knew he could do nothing to stop the european march on Beijing so he pulled himself together and focused on a task he actually could do something about.   Up until 1860, Zeng Guofan's Xiang army on the Yangtze played only a supporting role in the overall Qing campaign. Zhang Guoliang and He Chun's blockade of Nanjing was much more of a focus compared to that of Zeng Guofans offensives. Yet when victory seemed within grasp, Hong Rengan's daring plan was unleashed. The Taiping broke out of the encirclement and ran rampant marching east. In the leadership vacuum that ensued, Zeng Guofan's time had finally come. In June of 1860 Emperor Xianfeng appointed him as the governor general of Anhui, Jiangsu and Jiangxi the provinces most ravaged by the civil war. By late august the emperor named him imperial commissioner in charge of the military affairs in those 3 provinces and the new commander in chief of the Qing dynasty's forces in the Yangtze river valley. Boy oh boy the Chinese love bestowing so many titles on one person, that tradition just keeps living on. The frustrations of having to constantly provide for his Xiang army was beginning to ease as the desperate emperor had no one else to turn to. After years of scrambling to make his army's ends meet, while the Green Standard army enjoyed full funding and support, now Zeng Guofan was in charge of both military and civil administrations for the primary theater of war.    His years of service had shown him how ineffective the bureaucrats of the Qing government could be, how inexperienced and self-gratifying they could be, and he would not tolerate them to affect his campaign. He had refused orders in 1859 to chase down Shi Dakai into sichuan, and now in 1860 he was given new orders to abandon his campaign in Anhui and to rush over to instead protect Suzhou and Shanghai. He offered instead the excuse he did not have the forces necessary to help at the moment and would stay put where he was finishing his campaign. The strategy he was performing was one of encirclement. Now back in 1859 Zeng Guofan tried to explain to the Qing court that the dynasty was not facing one kind of rebel force, but rather 2. The roving bandits constantly moving, and the pretender bandits, those who actually sought to attack Beijing and take the dragon throne. Shi Dakai, the Nian rebels and numerous vagabond armies on horseback were roving bandits. The only way to fight roving bandits was to hold a position and try to blunt their momentum. But for the pretender bandits the most important being the Taiping with their capital in Nanjing, you could only defeat them by “severing their branches and leaves”. What he meant by this was you had to cut off their foraging armies, ie: their logistics, before crushing them. He pointed out that the Green stand army had failed to encircle Nanjing completely, there had always been a single pathway open. He argued Nanjing must be completely encircled and once that was met the Qing forces could gradually conquer the fortified cities along the Yangtze one by one. He sought to begin with the Brave Kings base of operations, Anqing in Anhui province. Anqing had been under Taiping control since 1853, and was the farthest stronghold up the Yangtze. It protected both the river and land approaches to Nanjing and thus was a major choke point. As long as it stood, the Taiping in Nanjing could not be properly sieged, Anqing had to be crushed.    Now this was not going to be any simple task, in 1860 Zeng Guofan had a force of 60,000 men while the Rebels had vastly more. Zeng Guofan could not contend with them in the open field. His intelligence reports indicated the Taiping were using irregular formations known as “crab formations”. This was a cluster of troops in the middle (the crabs body) and 5 lines reaching out on either side that could rapidly reconfigure itself as 2 columns, 4 columns or a crosslike configuration of 5 phalanxes, depending on the enemy. There was also the “hundred birds formation”, in which a large division would disintegrate into small clusters of 25 soldiers, each roaming freely, making it impossible for their enemies to figure out how large their force was. Then there was “crouching tiger”, usually applied to hill terrains where 10,000 troops would hide close to the ground in total silence and then ambush their enemy as they passed through a valley, suddenly leaping up like a tiger.   To defeat these innovative rebels, would require manipulation of the battlefield. In every engagement Zeng described the situation as being either a host or guest. The host always enjoyed the advantage, such as being defenders of a wall city. The same situation could be said of a fortified camp. If two armies were to meet in the open field, it was the first army to reach the site of battle that would be the host. Now having the weaker army, Zeng tried to ensure the Taiping would always be the guest, by trying to lure them into attacking his defensive works or if failing that to try and provoke them to make the first move. To that end he got his men to build up fortified camps always in close proximity to the Taiping in the hopes of drawing them in to make the first move. In June of 1860, when the Taiping were focused on their eastern campaign, Zeng Guofan had moved into Anhui from the west with his brother Zeng Guoquan who began a siege of Anqing. Guoquan had 10,000 Hunanese forces who pitched a camp near Anqing's walls, building high earth walls with 20 foot wide moats. The idea was simple, they protected their fronts to the city and their backs from Taiping relief forces. For further protection against relief forces, a 20,000 strong Manchu cavalry unit led by Duolonga was set up in Tongcheng, 40 miles north of Anqing while Zeng Guofan led naval forces to blockade the Yangtze river just a few miles below the city. In late July, Zeng took the rest of his forces, 30,000 men into the mountains south of Anhui where he formed his HQ in Qimen, which is in a valley around 60 miles southeast of Anqing.   However the summer of 1860 changed everything as the new war with the Europeans in the north erupted. Beijing sent orders on October 10th instructing him to send his best field commander, Bao Chao along with 3000 troops to help Prince Seng's banner forces fight the Europeans in the north, but Zeng Guofan believed without these men who would not be able to hold the encirclement of Anqing. It would take Bao Chao until January to reach the area of Beijing, far too late to be of help, thus Zeng reasoned it was useless. Alongside that, if the Taiping were allowed to break out of Anqing they could march upon Wuchang and threaten Hunan again. So Zeng cleverly sent word back to the Emperor asking him to choose another commander to come help in the north, and that message would take 2 weeks to get over to Beijing over 800 miles away thus earning him at least another 4 weeks time.   October was quite depressing and cold for Zeng Guofan. The Taiping in Anqing apparently had plentiful stores and could wait quite long for reinforcements. One of his most beloved commanders holding a garrison in the nearby town of Huizhou was overrun by Taiping raiders and reports indicated there were many Taiping forces encircling his base of Qimen. Then on November 6th, he received a letter from a colleague in the north, stating the Europeans had successfully invaded Beijing and burnt down the summer palace . Zeng wrote in his diary “I have no words to describe the depths of this pain,”. The eight banner army lost to the Europeans and now he was all alone commanding a breaking army, all he had left was this damn Anqing campaign. We will come back to the plight of Zeng Guofan soon, but now we will be venturing back to the Shanghai situation.   On August 21st, 2 days after his men were sent back from the walls of Shanghai by European grapeshot and shells, the Loyal King Li Xiucheng wrote a very angry letter to the British and American consuls there. “I came to Shanghai to make a treaty in order to see us connected together by trade and commerce. I did not come for the purpose of fighting with you.” Li Xiucheng accused the French of setting up a trap, stating a few of them had come to Suzhou earlier that year inviting the Taiping over to Shanghai to establish relations. He could not believe the French would be deluded by the Qing demons and betray them. He said he heard reports of the Qing sending large amounts of money to the French to defend Shanghai and it seemed they were sharing that money with the Americans and British since they opened fire on his men! He went on to say the event could be forgiven, in the case of his fellow protestants, but not the French, oh no there would be a day of reckoning for them when the Taiping took control of China. Yet he finished his angry letter swallowing his pride and said the Taiping still sought friendly relations with their christian brethren.    Though it was a letter from Li Xiucheng, in reality it was sentiment sent by Hong Rengan, whose entire strategy depended on gaining support from the British and Americans in Shanghai. They needed to buy steamships to control the Yangtze river. Yet Li Xiucheng hated Hong Rengan and began to talk within his inner circle about how foolish Hong Rengan was thinking the foreigners would ever help them. The unexpected conflict with them at Shanghai proved his point and thus a rift was widening more so between the 2 leaders. Hong Rengan for his part, blamed Li Xiucheng and not the foreigners, stating they must have heard of Li's belligerent attitude towards them before he showed up and thus they assumed he was going to attack. Despite the 2 men's bickering, they both knew Shanghai needed to be secured for its rich financial stores and to be a point of which the Taiping could purchase weapons from the west. It was now up to Hong Rengan to smooth things over with the foreigners.    A letter was sent to the foreigners of Shanghai stating they wanted to open up trade and that they had vast amounts of teas, silks and other desired goods. It asked why not make a treaty, perhaps with the United States? John Griffith went over to Nanjing and returned to Shanghai in December with an edict from the Heavenly King written in imperial vermillion ink on yellow satin, welcoming foreign missionaries to take up residence in Nanjing. An interesting gesture, given the British were so obsessed with having the same in Beijing only to be continuously thwarted by the Qing court. However the missionaries were reluctant to go, because no formal communications had been established between Nanjing and Shanghai, thus to go meant they would be at the mercy of the rebels. On December the 2nd, Lord Elgin returned to Shanghai in triumph after marching upon Beijing and getting Prince Gong to sign the treaty. He quickly learnt from his brother how the Taiping threatened the city. But the treaty had been signed with the Qing and the letters from Hong Rengan and the HEavenly king suggested the Taiping wanted no hostilities with the foreigners at Shanghai. Thus everyone expected no further conflict to occur and the European coalitionary forces that had marched on Beijing were disbanded and sent home. By the end of December, half the British forces were already returning to India and Britain with the others being stationed in Hong Kong, Tianjin and the Taku forts, just incase Beijing decided not to meet their end of the treaty terms yet again.    As for Shanghai, by the end of 1860, just 1200 British soldiers were left for the city and Elgin argued they were far too many. Elgin spent a good month in Shanghai before leaving China. Though his work with Beijing was over, he did have one last task before leaving, he wanted to gauge the possibility for Britain to form relations with the Taiping. The Taiping at this time controlled the riverway and thanks to the new treaty with the Qing, trade was finally open for business. Elgin was not too pleased to hear about the supposed defense that his brother erected against the Taiping. He was even more disgusted to find out about the damage caused by the French to the outer suburbs and population of Shanghai. Elgin tried to counsel his younger brother that the Taiping were not necessarily all bad, he said “as bad as the imperials and Taiping both are, the rebels might provide a brighter future. From what I have seen of the regions under their control, they exhibit honesty and power”. He also rebuked his brothers refusal to read the Taiping letters warning not to accede to any Qing requests for Britain to avoid contact with the rebels. “it will never do to come under any obligation not to communicate with them on the Yangtze. It would be wrong in principle … and impossible in practice.”    When winter came Elgin had to leave China, he had no time to make another voyage up the Yangtze, so he left orders for Rear admiral Hope to pay a visit to Nanjing to investigate if there might be a basis for relations between the rebels and Britain. Elgin knew it was a delicate situation, they had after all just signed a treaty with the Taipings enemy, thus he added a private note to Hope “at any rate it is clear that we must not become partisans in this civil war”. For his part General Hope after defeating the Manchu, was quite open to forming relations with the Taiping. Meanwhile the Taiping were consolidating their control over China's wealthy eastern province of Jiangsu. By September they controlled every county around Shanghai except for this under the protection of the foreigners. They were capitalizing on the people losing faith in the Manchu. They would make such proclamations as “The emperor of the Qing is the emperor of a lost country, and his ministers are all the ministers of a lost country. They extended their control over Jiangnan which encompassed the confluence of Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui. Within Jiangsu province they held the capital, Suzhou along with the major cities of Wuxi and Danyang. They held Anqing, the capital of Anhui, and in Zhejiang they had the major trading city of Ningbo. I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. Hong Rengans efforts to gain foreign support were falling to pieces. Zeng Guofan was building up his army hoping to capture Anqing, a major stepping stone to take Nanjing. Who was going to win the battle for the east?  

Last time we spoke Shi Dakai went into exile while performing a western expedition, riding out into an eventual oblivion. Hong Xiuquan fell into depression, paranoia and seclusion as he began to only trust his close family members and appointed them to grand positions despite the fact their skills might not be up to par. The Taiping kings were gone, now the new military leadership lay in the hands of Li Xiucheng and Chen Yucheng. The Nian rebels began to work closely with the Taiping to campaign against the Qing, but it was ultimately not working out. The taiping sought foreign support, but things simply were not going well on that front and they were gradually finding themselves being more and more isolated from allies to defeat the Qing.   #29 This episode is The Taiping Rebellion part 6: Rise of the Shield King Hong Rengan   Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. Our old friend, the cousin to the Heavenly King, Hong Rengan had heard so much news over the years about his famous cousin and the Taiping. He decided to try and visit the Taiping capital of Tianjin. He left Hong Kong in may of 1858, traveling first to Canton which was at that time under British and French occupation, thus safe to him who was friends with missionaries. From there he set off northeast through Guangdong province along the riverways. For the most part, he ran into travelers trying to sell wares and Qing soldiers patrolling for bandits. He got to a junction at Nanxiong country and turned north upon an ancient stone road that led to the Meiling pass, the gateway dividing the southern part of the empire from the Yangtze valley. Beyond was Jiangxi province and beyond that Nanjing, or as I keep fumbling back and forth, Tianjin. He dressed as a peddler so he would be unremarkable to anyone, especially Qing troops and thus pass without incident. Once he entered Jiangxi he continued northeast along the Gan River where he came to the edge of the active war zone just outside the Taiping realm of control. Many Qing encampments were found along the way, many massive in size. Hong Rengan was able to attach himself quite easily to an outlying unit, joining them on their march eastward towards the porcelain producing city of Jingdezhen. There the Taiping attacked, forcing the Qing into a rout. Within the chaos Hong Rengan was lucky to escape the slaughter, escaping with only his clothes on his back.    After escaping the heated battle, he worked his way west for a time, away from the active fighting, then further north towards the Yangtze river towards Hubei province. This territory had been fought over for more than 5 years at this point, being conquered and reconquered by the Qing and Taiping. Countless cities he came across were empty, houses stripped of wood to make cooking fires for passing armies. Even in the more prosperous parts of the province, underpopulated farms were unable to muster enough hands to bring in the harvests. Hong Rengan eventually came across a Qing soldier. THe man told him he sought to purchase goods in the Qing held river town of Longping and then to sell the goods downriver in Nanjing to the rebels. The soldier seemed to have many contacts, thus Hong Rengan gave him a piece of gold leaf he had kept sewn safely into the fabric of his jacket and they partnered up.   While the soldier went to Longping to buy the goods, Hong Rengang waited for him in the city of Huangmei around 15 miles northeast with one of the soldiers contacts, a magistrate named Tan. Tan found Hong Rengan's intelligence and education so impressive he offered him a job on the spot as a secretary. It was quite a coveted job for an unemployed scholar,but Hong Rengan was still fixated on getting to Nanjing and gave Tan an ambiguous reply. The soldier did not seem to show up, leaving Hong Rengan with no way to get to Nanjing so he stayed with the magistrate for many months. Hong Rengan began to hear rumors about the Qing encircling the Taiping capital, strangling them into submission. Hong Rengan began to become anxious so he left Huangmei with a letter of introduction and a bit of money given to him by Tan.    Hong Rengan took back the mantle of a peddler, but in October a Qing patrol captured him, though they had no idea how valuable a bounty he truly was. He was kept a prisoner for several days, but in the end they simply let him go, sending him on his way to Longping where he found a secret house serving as a way station for Taiping refugees. In December of 1858, he crossed paths with Lord Elgin. From the secret house he heard that foreign ships had been spotted on the Yangtze on their way back to Shanghai. He ventured down the waterfront just in time to see Elgins small fleet at anchor and he soon become acquainted with Thomas Wade, Elgin's interpreter. Turns out he knew the man from Hong Kong and he tried to get board on one of the vessels to receive passage as far as Nanjing. He was unable to get the ride, but he did manage to get a letter delivered to Hong Kong addressed to some missionary friends letting them know he was alive and trying to get to Nanjing.    Some months later he found himself in Anhui province in the spring of 1859 where he finally found a Taiping patrol. When he told them his story, they took him for a Qing spy and sent him with armed guard to a garrison in Chentanghe. While under interrogation from the garrison commander, he opened a seam in his jacket providing a scrap of paper describing his family history. It was enough to convince the commander that he was indeed from the same village as the heavenly king. Thus the commander escorted him personally down the river on a Taiping vessel arriving in Nanjing on april 22nd of 1859, nearly a year after Hong Rengan began his journey.    Tianjin, was of course Nanjing, one of the greatest Chinese cities in its heyday, the secondary capital and former Ming capital. It was rich in temples, government offices, trading houses and such, a wide metropolis. It was now built for war, with countless fortifications and cannon placements everywhere. When the Taiping took it they burnt the Daoist and Buddhist monasteries, creating something of their own version of Jerusalem. In the Ming days, the city had a population in the millions, but now it seemed rather empty. The civilian residents were allowed to come and go and many had drifted off into the countryside. The Heavenly King's palace was incredible, there were drummers that flanked its main gate, a reception hall with lacquered wood carvings of dragons, walls inlaid with gold and nearly everything that touched the heavenly kings fingers, chopsticks, bowls, brushes and such were fashioned from gold. It is said his chamber pot was made out of silver, Trump would love that one. Behind the main hall lay the vast inner sanctum where Hong Xiuquan and his harem lived.   By the time Hong Rengan had come to Nanjing, Hong XIuquan had retreated from public life, spending his days behind the palace walls. Almost no one was allowed to meet with him, save for the women in his service. Hong Rengans reunion with his cousin, as he accounts it was bittersweet. It had been over 8 years since they last saw another and well…a lot had happened to say the least. Hong Rengan had heard the rumors that despite the weakness of the Manchu forces against the Europeans, Nanjing was almost encircled and being bled. The mass of Taiping armies had left the city marching in 3 separate armies on long range foraging expeditions, while the Qing forces concentrated all of their might to strangle Nanjing from its provisions. Hong XIuquan's seclusion from his active leadership role had hindered the Taiping. What Hong Xiuquan needed was an adviser, someone he could trust and that man was to be Hong Rengan.    Hong Xiuquan showered his cousin with titles and promoted him swiftly through the Taiping ranks. Little more than 2 weeks since his arrival, Hong Rengan earned the rank of king amongst the Taiping, even though this broke a promise Hong Xiuquan had made to not appoint anymore. Hong Rengangs title was “founder of the dynasty and loyal military adviser, the upholder of heaven and keeper of order in the court” he was henceforth known as the “shield king”. Hong Rengan joined the echelon of Taiping military officials and was in charge of the entire civil government of Nanjing. Basically he became Yang Xiuqing 2.0 and was only second to the heavenly king. His unexpected arrival seemed a sign from god for Hong Xiuquan, but as you would imagine a lot of jealousy and resentment emerged from the Taiping leaders. One particularly resentful man was Li Xiucheng who commanded the defenses of Nanjing. Li Xiucheng proved himself quite capable and a very trustworthy general, but he was not a king. To watch this other man come from out of nowhere and suddenly be promoted above him after so many years of loyal service, well anyone would be jealous. Li would actually gain the rank of King months later as the “loyal king”, but it seems it came too late and the jealousy over Hong Rengan only grew.    Hong Xiuquan was well aware of the dissatisfaction over Hong Rengan amongst his officers, so he called a full congregation of Taiping officials to honor the appointment of the Shield King. There he announced all matters in need of decision making were to be referred to the sole authority of the SHield King and as the crowd began to show audible disapproval Hong Rengan tried to turn down the appointment, but Hong Xiuquan whispered to him “all will be well, the wave that crashes with great force, soon spends itself and leaves peace”. Thus Hong Rengan accepted the official seal and began to preach to the crowd. He also began criticizing the policies made by the late Yang Xiuqing, offering improvements. In his own words about their reaction “They saw that I could stand in front of a multitude and hold forth flawlessly on doctrinal issues, and so they accepted me as their model of wisdom.”   It was clear to Hong Rengan that commanding the loyalty of the Taiping followers meant more than just giving them spiritual salvation; they also needed earthly rewards, such as the promises of a better state, and that of a better life. Hong Rengan sought a long lasting structure for the future Taiping government and society, for this he needed to weave together threads of Chinese tradition with his knowledge of the industrial societies of the west. He tried to infuse a prototype of ethnic nationalism that had not been seen in China since the Manchu conquered it. His first major proclamation served to fan the flames of ethnic resentment towards the Manchu calling the people to  “rejuvenate China and resist the northern barbarians, in order to wipe out the humiliations of two hundred years. We mouth their language … we live together with their members, and our people suffer from the vileness of the Manchu dogs.” The cause to get rid of the Manchu did not only resonate amongst the Taiping, but also many of those on the sidelines. And this was not limited to the Chinese, foreigners also took noticed to this fight against the tyranny of the Manchu. As one American in SHanghai put it  “Americans are too firmly attached to the principles on which their government was founded and has flourished, to refuse sympathy for a heroic people battling against foreign thraldom.”   Hong Rengan hashed out his vision of the new Taiping state in a document titled “a new work for the aid of government”. Now the traditional dynastic viewpoint had always been that CHina was the center of world civilizations and that barbarians were welcome come and trade, but they must acknowledge China's cultural superiority. Hong Rengan knew full well this annoyed foreigners and that foreign nations like Britain were both militarily powerful and very proud people. So he began to encourage not using the term barbarian and instead express ideas of “equality, friendship, harmony and affect”. Alongside this he thought the tributary model of diplomacy needed to be abandoned as a relic of the past with no use in the contemporary world. He argued that human beings were not willing to be considered inferior and that the foreigners in the past only performed the tributary customs out of force. The new China needed to establish friendly relations and long lasting respect from other nations.   Hong Rengans experience with foreigners in Hong Kong showed him China was merely one state among many with much to gain from studying other great powers in the 19th century. He also believed the christian religion was the key to the strength of western nations. He pointed out the Protestant nations of Britain, the US, Germany, the scandinavian nations were all the strongest and most prosperous followed by the slightly weaker French catholics and Orthodox Russians who held onto miracles and mysticism. By his reckoning, Islam or even worse Buddhism were unfiromly weak and nations who abided them found themselves colonized. He argued the Manchus were like Persia, where people accepted their slavelike status without complaint. The most powerful nation to Hong Rengang was Britain whose ruling he thought lasted more than a thousand years making it longer than any dynasty of China. He explained to the masses that Britains strength derived from the intelligence of its populace, a system of laws which China could and should emulate. But Hong Rengans greatest admiration was saved for the United States which was known as the “flowery flag country” to many of the CHinese, because of its flag. He called it “the most righteous and wealthy country of all, she does not encroach upon her neighboring countries. ” Well that last part certainly changed haha. He talked about American democracy, the notion that all people of virtue should have a say in choosing their leaders and setting policy. Hong Rengan began to list his western friends such as British missionary James Legge, the swedish missionary Theodore Hamsberg and countless americans he knew in Shanghai. He proposed to use his connections to help establish cooperation with the west. He proposed CHina tap into the global industrial economy, it was necessary to become strong. He pointed out that Siam had learnt from the west how to build steamships and thereby made itself a “nation of wealth and civilization”. Likewise Japan unlike the Qing rulers of China had opened themselves willings to foreign trade “and will certainly become skillful in the future”. Boy oh boy is that one ominous. This he argued was the path of a Taiping ruled China. Hong Rengans ideas in many ways were a vision of China as a modern industrial power. A lot of what he argues will be adopted by future Chinese leaders, some of whom were currently fighting the Taiping, such as Li Hongzhang. Now before anything could be down, the state needed to be founded and for that the war needed to be won.    To establish some central administration, financial and military authority, Hong Rengan needed the backing from military commanders. He could not expect support from Li Xuicheng so he began securing support from the other big heads such as Chen Yucheng. Chen Yucheng seemed quite willing to accept the new system Hong Rengan was advocating for. Shortly after taking the title of Shield King, Chen Yucheng and Li Xiucheng were also made kings; Chen became the Ying Wang and Li Zhong Wang; ie: the brave king and loyal king. These appointments were obviously done to placate any jealousy the generals might feel towards Hong Rengan. These men had been on their own for quite awhile and by no means eager to accept subordination under a newcomer. But for better or worse these 3 men were the top officials who would control Taiping politics and military strategy.    Now Li Xiucheng was very ambitious and was the one who sought the most self glory out of the Taiping leaders. His area of command was by his own design, that to protect Nanjing and he made every effort to place himself close to the heavenly king as his protector. Thus far he had managed to become the new Yang Xiuqing, but he did not like Hong Rengan nor was he open much to his ideas. Chen Yucheng on the other hand was more willing to accept a new political leadership role of Hong Rengan and would become his main supporter. Aside from his role as a commander in the field he also helped Hong Rengans governmental reorganization. Chen Yucheng became a member of Hong Rengans board for a newly organized state examinations. Hong Rengan wanted a government based on law and stressed therefore the need of education for the Taiping people.   One of Hong Rengans first proclamations was to revamp the examination. Interestingly to do this he advocated to blend confucian classics, the four books and 5 classics with the taiping christian texts. Though none of these texts survived, scholars assumed the general principles of the confucian work were revised heavily before being adopted. Hong Rengan wanted to carry on some of the imperial tradition; to formulate an elite that would be characterized not only by ranks and titles but also exempt from labor service. While the examinations and privileges of those who passed them looked similar to the imperial systems of before, the substance of the system was quite different. The imperial gentry was a statum that took its uniform based on the study of confucian classics, but Hong Rengan wanted a CHristian gentry. Thus the new examinations looked more so at qualifications for official service. At the same time Hong Rengan took the time to clarify “yes thats a good word”, the visions of Hong Xiuquan in a way that would make more sense in traditional christian literature. This was not just for the CHinese, but also for foreigners who were greatly weirded out by the fantasifull aspects of the Taiping doctrine. Hong Rengan was trying to have the Taiping version of christianity mesh more so with the protestant one so foreigners would accept it more.    Hong Rengan suggested that foreign missionaries and technical advisers be permitted to come to Nanjing. He was trying to establish some westernization and friendly relations with western powers and many missionaries would come to Nanjing such as T.P Crawford, J.L Holmes, J. Roberts and Hartwell of the American Baptists and Josiah Cox of the British Wesleyans. However the year 1860 brought with it an end to the Second Opium War and the signing of the treaty of Tianjin, thus the western powers had effectively tossed their lot in with the Qing. Hong Rengans hopes of gaining the western aid to defeat the Qing was snatched.    In the meantime, while Chen Yucheng proved a valuable ally to his cause, in the absence of having Li Xiucheng on his side, Hong Rengan was unable to overcome the resistance to his authority. Regardless he attempted to take a leading role in planning military campaigns; and his strategies were initially successful.    When Hong Xiuquan and his cousin spoke in their younger years they envisioned building a kingdom that did not include the north. Instead it set its foundation in Nanjing and reached down over the 7 southern provinces. It would abandon the larger expanse of the Qing dynasty for something more akin to the Ming. However when the Taiping took Nanjing, they tried to take the south and north failing in the process. Now the Taiping capital was in a dire situation, the had lost most of their southern territory that they acquired in the initial campaign. They still held the strategic city of Anqing upstream, but the Qing had retaken Zhenjiang. Qing forces had established encampments with 10s of thousands of soldiers guarding strategic points north and south of Nanjing keeping them firmly under siege. These encampments represented the leading forces of the Qing empire, the counterparts to Prince Seng's army in the north. The southern camp had dug in just 10 days after the fall of Nanjing to the Taiping and stood its ground almost continually ever since. Zhang Guoliang commanded the southern encampment and He Chun the north.   Zhang Guoliang's siege forces were too large to be easily scattered by the Taiping sorties from Nanjing. But at the same time Nanjing was too strong for the besiegers to mount an attack upon it. Thus a stalemate occured for a long time, peppered with Taiping victories in 1856 that did shatter the Qing siege, but then the Taiping internal collapse undid this. 3 years after the Qing rebuilt their ranks and commenced digging trenches below Nanjing that would stretch 45 miles with more than 100 guard camps along the length blocking access to the capital. He Chun and Zhang Guoliang prepared for what they thought would be the final assault to crush the rebel capital. Hong Rengan presented a bold plan to relieve Nanjing. The Taiping would send a small expeditionary force in a wide, sweeping arc beyond the rear guard of the Qing armies within Zhejiang province to attack its weakly defended capital Hangzhou. Hangzhou was 150 miles southeast of Nanjing and was the supply line supporting the southern Qing encampment. Now because He Chun and Zhang Guoliang concentrated all of their forces around Nanjing, there was little real defense left for Hangzhou, so they would be forced to transfer troops from the large encampments around Nanjing to lift a siege of the city.    As per Hong Rengans plan, they would recall two roving armies led by Chen Yucheng and the younger cousin of Li Xiucheng, known as the attending King who would return to Nanjing from their distant foraging campaigns. As soon as the Qing forces around Nanjing thinned out sufficiently, the expeditionary force at Hangzhou would secretly retreat as the combined armies of the Brave, loyal and attending King's would sweep in from 3 sides to crush the weakened Qing camps, thus raising the siege. Even Li Xiucheng agreed such a plan might break the siege, but he did question what lasting effect it might accomplish. He argued it would reconcentrate the Taiping forces in Nanjing where they had limited supplies, thus Hong Rengan laid out the full scope of his revised strategy for winning the war. The rice growing southern provinces, sichuan in the west and the Great Wall to the north were over 1000 miles from Nanjing, but to the east were grand and wealthy cities like Suzhou and Hangzhou who had access to the sea. It was to the east they should strike. Once they performed the siege lifting offensive they should turn east and conquer the cities between Nanjing and Suzhou in a swift and precise campaign. With access to the sea they could ensure supplies, arms, wealth and new recruits. If all went well they could get help from foreign allies and using the wealth taken from Suzhou and Hangzhou they could purchase perhaps 20 steam powered ships from the foreigners in shanghai. With such naval forces they could patrol the Yangtze unopposed and begin taking the southern coast along Fujian, Guangdong all the way to Hong Kong. From there they could march on Jiangxi, Hunan, Hubei and seize Hankow, solidifying the Taiping control over the entire Yangtze river valley and cutting the Qing empire effectively in 2. By consolidating the south, they could take Sichuan, Shaanxi and the original dream of Hong XIuquan and Hong Rengan would be complete. The former Ming empires borders would be theres and Beijing and the northern provinces would eventually be starved and wither away. The success of his grand plan depended heavily on the support of foreigners in Shanghai, but would they be open to it?   On February 10th of 1860, the Loyal King left Nanjing with 6000 handpicked men disguised in Qing uniforms stolen from slain enemies. The coordination between the Green Standard, Yung-Ying armies and local militias was so weak, the Loyal King's force managed to seize several garrison towns along their way before looping around to hit Hangzhou. They surprised the city on March 11th when hundreds of Taiping banners began to be erected around the great city indicating its was under siege. The main Taiping force battered the front gate of Hangzhou using sappers and tunnels and a hole was blasted by march 19th. Hell unleashed upon the city as its untrained militia routed fleeing to their homes in neighboring towns. The leaders of Hangzhou likewise abandoned their offices taking their bodyguards with them, with many also ransacking the city as they fled. Li Xiuchengs men fought against the local residents who stood their ground and the local women did as moral instructions proscribed, they began to kill themselves en masse. The women hanged themselves, poisoned themselves, stabbed themselves and threw themselves into wells to drown. The Manchu commander of Hangzhou fled with his troops back into the inner garrison holding out against the fierce Taiping invaders. Li's men were unable to break into the Manchu garrison after 6 days, so he abandoned the attack and began the retreat back to Nanjing. He had accomplished his objective and the plan would work out perfectly. Zhang Guoliang received reports of the attack on Hangzhou, without any clear indication of the size of the Taiping force. He shifted nearly a quarter of his total siege forces to relieve Hangzhou as a result while the Loyal King and his men took to their Qing disguises yet again easily slipping past Zhang Guoliangs men. Zhang's force arrived to Hangzhou to find no Taiping, nor any civil government, so they looted the city hahahaah.    By April the main Taiping armies of the Brave and Attending kings went to the outskirts of Nanjing and join up with the Loyal Kings forces to throw their combined weight on the weakest point of the southern QIng encampment. The southern camp fell apart in a rout as 100,000 Taiping overran them from 3 different directions. Li's cavalry smashed into the Qing rear lines crushing the men under their own defensive works. Thousands were cut down with their bodies left in the trenches they had dug. The waterways overflowed their banks raising corpses everywhere. The routed Qing dropped their weapons as they fled, but the Taiping pursued them for weeks cutting more and more down. Soon the Taiping overran the city of Danyang, 45 miles to the east of Nanjing. General He Chun committed suicide by eating raw opium and Zhang Guoliang drowned while trying to escape from Danyang. Thus in the central theater of the war, no more capable Qing commanders were left.   In the spring of 1860, suddenly the Taiping came out like a scourge from their capital marching to the east. Local militias fled before them, Jiangsu province was swarmed, countless cities fell without a fight. By mid may the Taiping captured Changzhou a few days later Wuxi. Then the Taiping plucked one of the greatest cities, Suzhou which held a population of 2 million, providing them with a vast source of new recruits and plunder. The Taiping's momentum was unbreakable, Suzhou simply opened the gates to them. For those who were in the path of the Taiping choices were always the same, be brave and fight to protect your homes, or cut your manchu queues and join them. Many peasants tried to appease both sides by growing their hair long on top when the Taiping took over, but kept their Manchu braid wound up underneath their long hair in case the Qing came back. Soon the Taiping spread past Jiangsu to Zhejiang forcing countless to flee to the protection of the international city of Shanghai. Yet rumors spread to those in Shanghai that an army of 100,000 Taiping was going to march upon Shanghai with a flotilla of 10,000 boats so large it would take 3 days to fully pass the river.   The treaty port of Shanghai held half a million Chinese inhabitants, a figure growing daily with refugees. Shanghai was divided into 4 sections; the east going to Jiangsu province; the south was the old Chinese city with a circular defensive wall 25 feet high governed by the Qing holding most of Shanghais population; to the north was the French and British concessions and to the east was the Suzhou creek where past that was the American concession. The foreign population numbered around 2000 settled people and shipping crews numbering another 2000 or so. The British dominated the community, seconded by the French, leaving the Americans a minority. It was not a beautiful city. Countless newcomers had grand visions of “an El dorado of wealth, hope and fortune, only to find a dirty, overcrowded settlement with “ill built houses reeking with impurities and fevers and vile stenches”. One missionary said of the city  “one of the filthiest in this world. I have seen nothing to be compared to it in dirt and filth, it surpasses everything.”   Shanghai had access to the sea and the Yangtze river making it an ideal point of trade for tea and silk from China's interior. Shanghai quite frankly was built specifically for the purpose of dominating the China trade. As the Taiping edged down the river, British authorities in Shanghai issued an injunction from trading with the rebels and fear set into the foreign community that their immensely profitable commerce was about to be destroyed. The top ranking British official in Shanghai was our old friend Frederick Bruce, the younger brother to Lord Elgin. After failing at his job to get the Qing to abide by their treaty, he left his brother to finish that work up as he took up the mantle to manage Shanghai. Because of his experiences he sought to walk a very fine line when it came to his new role and he was determined to remain neutral towards the civil war. He issued the trade injunction believing to even trade with the Taiping was breaking neutrality. He also simultaneously tried to avoid aiding the Qing, but Britain had interests with the Qing and the Qing knew how to twist an arm. The Qing had an official named Wu Xu who hounded Bruce for British support in defending Shanghai from a possible Taiping attack. Wu Xu warned if the Taiping took Shanghai, it would shut down all trade and the British would be cast out. Bruce began to hear rumors about horrible dealings in Hangzhou by the hands of Li Xiuchengs men and began to worry what might unfold in Shanghai.   It was not just the Taiping that were a threat, there were legions of renegade Qing forces who had taken up residence in Shanghai who had fled from Suzhou and Hangzhou. Bruce wrote  “the defeated imperialists have revenged themselves for their defeat by pillaging the defenceless villages on their line of retreat. The beaten troops, the victorious insurgents, and the vagabonds of the city itself, all join in plundering the wealthy and respectable inhabitants.” There were continuous false alarms being made that the Taiping were attacking Shanghai causing the city to become a powder keg. Weighing the options, Bruce decided it was Britain's moral duty to protect Shanghai, but not just the foreign settlements, also the Chinese city under the Qing civil governments control. He made it clear any British defense of Shanghai would strictly be limited to the city itself. Wu Xu tried to press Bruce that a preemptive British led force at Suzhou to halt the Taiping would be a good idea, but Bruce rejected this immediately. The French however heard reports that another French catholic missionary had been murdered by the Taiping, and they decided to rally a force of 3000 men to march on Suzhou, but Bruce was able to scuttle the mission. The British merchants began to hound Bruce to mount a sturdy defense of the city, but Bruce had to wait, probably months for Britain to give him permission to deploy defenses. Thus in the meantime Bruce began calling up volunteers, and only a handful of cannons were dragged together with a few hundred inexperienced men to man the walls to face if rumors were true, legend of Taiping.    I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me.  Hong Rengan went on a great pilgrimage to Nanjing and became the Shield King. His reforms were grand, but he drew ire from his fellow the Loyal King. Could Hong Rengan turn the movement around?  

Last time we spoke tension was brewing within the Taiping capital between the the heavenly king and his subordinate kings. The Foreigners were debating who would win the civil war for China and who would be the best bet for trade. The new Yung-Ying armies, such as the Xiang army of Zeng Guofan began to encircle Nanjing in an effort to strangle the Taiping. Within the Taiping capital, conflict finally broke out and Yang Xiuqing was murdered by his comrade King Wei Changhui. When Shi Dakai found out he demanded blood, leading to Wei Changhui's death and almost his own, but he fled Nanjing, taking a large army with him to campaign in exile. Now Hong Xiuquan fell into a depression and fell into seclusion, who would lead the movement now that the great taiping kings were all gone? #28 This episode is The Taiping Rebellion part 5: Out with the old kings, in with the new   Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War.   With Shi Dakai's departure, Hong was put in quite a pickle, as one of his commanders, General Li said “morale declined and there was no unified policy. Each went his own way. The Sovereign did not place complete confidence in anyone. He had been frightened by the East, North and Flank Kings and dared not trust other ministers, but placed all his trust in members of his own clan”. Thus the Taiping fortune had turned dramatically, the period of swift campaigns and sweeping victories had ended. They would not be able to exploit the blitzkrieg like momentum they once held. Now the Qing provincial armies would organize and begin the process of wrestling back control over vital and strategic territories in the upper Yangtze valley. Hong Xiuquan was alone in Nanjing with none of his original comrades to pick up the much needed leadership roles. As bad as Yang XIuqing had been, he was at least effective as an organizer and strategist.    On the other side of the coin, the Qing were unable to take advantage of all the Taiping upheaval. Their main besieging camps around Nanjing were smashed in 1856 and they faced two other large threats. The first ws another rebellion taking place in northern CHina, that of the Nian rebellion. The Nian rebellion was severing lines of communications from north to south making it extremely difficult to coordinate against the Taiping. The second was of course the second Opium war which threatened the eastern coast and cut off contact with the sea, effectively leaving local regional commanders in the south and center of China to have to formulate their own strategies against the Taiping. The financial records show at this time Emperor Xianfengs treasuries were significantly reduced. The Qing court had begun suspending orders for silk and porcelain and these sort of goods were necessary to showcase imperial glory. Alongside this, weddings and funeral stipends for Manchu Banner troops were canceled, golden bells, buddhist statues and other items made of gold, silver and such were melted down to make coins. The Qing court forced officials to reduce staff, canceled repairs to palace buildings and by 1857 some Imperial Banner families had reached starvation levels of just a few pounds of relief grain per month. The Emperor was allowing his Banner troops to use their own banks and rice stores in an attempt to shield military personnel from the effects of inflation. Despite the economic hard times, and enemies left right and center, the Qing armies could have crushed the Taiping altogether during this turbulent time, had it not been for the Qing leaders insistence on the policy of having veteran Taiping troops executed if captured without exception. There was really little incentive to stop serving the Taiping.   Now Hong Xiuquan did not stop at just placing his two brothers in high positions. There was Hong's sister, his wife Lai and his children, the 8 sons of his eldest brother, 2 from his second eldest brother. Hong also had 8 daughters from various consorts, many of whom were married. Hong also had a dozen or so cousins, the Hong family had roots in Guangdong and Guangxi and many had made the trek from Thistle mountain to Nanjing. Now that Yang was dead, Hong was able to do things with less scrutiny, thus he began to extend his family as he saw fit. Hong's palace was run entirely by women under his general supervision. Allegedly 2000 women worked for him divided into 3 categories, female ministers and bureaucrats, maids and attendants and the women of his immediate family. That last group included consorts of which according to his son Tiangui, Hong Xiuquan had 88 consorts in Nanjing. Tiangui was around 9 years old in 1857 is told he is too old to remain in the palace and is forced to live in an outer palace and given 4 wives. He is forbidden from seeing his mother or sisters, bound by stern rules set forth by his father. Hong Xiuquan dictated at four, his sons are no longer allowed close contact with their older sisters; at seven, they can no longer sleep in their mothers' or other consorts' beds; they must also stay ten feet or more away from their sisters, and learn to bathe themselves; by nine they should not even see their grandmothers. Their sisters' separation from their brothers is similar: after five, they must never be touched by their brothers, and after nine they stay entirely with the women and are not meant to see even their younger brothers any more. In 1857, a year after the assasination ordeal, Hong Xiuquan issued the only official publication of the time known as “poems by the heavenly father”. They show us how Hong Xiuquan concerned himself with maintaining order and harmony among his hundreds of concubines and maids in his giant harem. He then explained “heavenly principles” admonishing his women to please their master and to follow his ordained rules. The mixture of fantastic ideas and fanatical beliefs in these writing to his women showcase the decline of the heavenly king. He was so concerned with having his own personal religious experience, that to ascent to heaven, rather than focus on the Taiping revolution. Whatever governmental structure existed was handled by Hong Xiuquans family rather than him, most at the hands of Hong Rengfa/Rengfu. Later on when one of the leading Taiping commanders, General Li Xiucheng is captured by Zeng Guofan he tells him “In Nanjing there was no one at court to carry on the government, the morale of the soldiers and people was broken and troubled. The military leaders were greatly displeased with the Hong brothers as both men were deficient in talent and had no plans”.   Yet the Hong clan did not seem to have anyone who could pull everything together. Hong Renfa and Renfu were said to be “deficient in talent and military tactics. THey were obstinately bent on carrying out their own views, and were obsessed with the notion that Heaven would support them in everything”. Shi Dakai was the last real hope for the revolution and when he left he also took with a significant part of the military and some of the best commanders. When the Qing court received news of Shi Dakai's departure they instructed Zeng Guofan to invite Shi Dakai into the fold. Shi Dakai refused to surrender to the Qing and instead marched his army through Jiangxi, Zhejiang, Fujian and then westward into Hunan. From Hunan he tried to gain entry to Sichuan. Shi Dakai had thus conducted a ceaseless and exhausting campaign across 15 different provinces over a distance of more than 6000 miles, seeking first a permanent base, and then it became more of a game of survival. Countless troops got sick, died or deserted. By June, Shi Dakai found himself cornered, helpless and exhausted, so he simply walked into the encampment of the commanding Qing general pursuing him and gave himself up. He hoped by forfeiting his life he could have 2000 other Taiping veterans be pardoned. He prepared for all of this by having having his 5 wives commit suicide and his drowned, to save them from the inevitable shame and agony they would have faced at the hands of the Qing troops. He was interrogated for over 6 months by Luo Bingzhang who had directed the defenses at Changsha which killed the west king. Shi Dakai was executed slowly via dismemberment and his 2000 of his most loyal followers who had been held under guard at a local temple were slaughtered. Though Shi Dakai had assumed new titles and gave many to his commanders, he never promulgated any new political programs, nor did he have any grand purpose for his military campaign, and thus he was more of a military adventurer rather than a revolutionary leader in the end.   Shi's forces would remain a threat to the Qing and Zeng Guofan's Hunan forces. Shi had permitted many of his men to leave for home and the Taiping who went back to Guangxi province would survive to the end of the rebellion, slaughtering many more Qing. Shi also continuously recruiting as he marched his forces, in 1858 Shi's forces were said to be several hundred thousand strong before Zeng Guofans armies decimated them. Shi Dakai's force was quite the diversionary campaign, forcing Zeng Guofan to dispatch many of his best commanders to deal with him, but he was never distracted from his main target, the Taiping stronghold of Nanjing. Initially when the Qing ordered Zeng Guofan to march into Sichuan to stop Shi's invasion of the provin, he refused the follow the Qing strategy. He argued with the Qing court stating the difference between the rebels who occupied and developed strategic areas for economic bases, ie: the main Taiping force in the lower Yangtze versus what he called the “roaming bandits” who never settled down. Those roamers were Shi Dakai and the Nian rebels. The real threat he insisted was the Taiping in Nanjing and Anhwei and they must be dealt with first. The Qing government…well they had no real way to coerce Zeng Guofan at this point and just followed his advice.    Meanwhile in Nanjing, Hong Xiuquan's choice to appoint his own kin as officials was backfiring. He had made this appointment in the hopes of re-establishing a working organization. However the proliferation of titles contributed to disorganization and chaos. He had appointed Meng De'en as chief of staff. Meng had been a member of the administrative staff and Taiping documents indicate he was an official responsible for providing women for the heavenly king's harem but had no experience in military matters. And despite his nominal role in the central administration and his new military authority he really held no real influence over either the courts or the armies. Alongside this Hong's brothers were using their positions to amass wealth and live lives of luxury. So the field commanders became the only ones making actually military decisions. The attitudes of these commanders towards the new appoints in Nanjing can be seen strongly be the remarks of Li Xiucheng who again as a prisoner under Zeng Guofan wrote “there was no one at court to carry on the government, the morale of the soldiers and people was broken and troubled”. From his perspective, the military leaders were very dissatisfied with the Hong brothers and distrustful of Meng who in his words “was a great favorite of the heavenly king and had not been outside the capital. He alongside his second in command Li Kaifang were both men without ability and moreover kept in hand by the Hong brothers”.   Its easy to see the Taiping were in a major crisis and Li Xiucheng wrote one passage that shows us that it could have very well fallen to pieces by 1858. “The feeling of the people has undergone a great change. Government affairs were in disorder, and each man was pursuing his own course. The sovereign had become mistrustful of others. The affairs between the kings had so alarmed him that he was distrustful of ministers of other surnames and put his confidence in his own family and relations. There was a unanimous desire at this time to separate. However, they did not dare to separate on their own, since they had heard that whenever the Qing generals and soldiers capture Guangxi men they decapitated them, not sparing a single one. Hence they banded closely together instead of dispersing. Had the Qing dynasty been willing at this early date to spare Guangxi men, a breakup would have taken place long ago”. A very revealing passage to be sure. The inability of the Hong brothers and Meng De'en to manage military campaigns forced Hong Xiuquan to give the military leaders a free hand and he even created new titles and positions for them within the Taiping hierarchy. The first two important men to emerge in 1856 were Chen Yucheng and Li Xiucheng who received the titles of second chief commandant and deputy commandant. Left to their own by the useless Taiping court, they were forced to make their own strategic decisions and coordinate based on their need for self preservation.    The military situation for the Taiping was critical. Control over the Yangtze had been lost to Zeng Guofan's Xiang army and with it came the loss of transportation for military supplies and provisions. In december of 1856, Wuhan had been recovered by the Qing which threatened Taiping control over the south Yangtze areas. The 2 Taiping commander thus came together in January of 1857 at a conference in Anqing to figure out how to coordinate a campaign. This led to a joint strategy to strengthen the Taiping military position in the Yangtze area. Now neither commander had played a large role in the Taiping campaigns prior to taking Nanjing. Chen Yucheng was too young to take an active role during the march from Guangxi to Nanjing. At Nanjing he was appointed to the rank of corps superintendent in charge of provisions for the Taiping left fourth army, to be blunt it was a desk job. By 1854 he petitioned for combat duty and got his wish in june that year to occupy Wuchang. He distinguished himself as the 38th commander then the 13 senior secretary commanding the Taiping rear 13th army and front 4th army of river troops. His military achievements and personal bravery earned him fame amongst the Taiping, and he also became well known to the Qing who targeted him as an important Taiping commander.   Li Xiucheng was a fellow villager of Chen Yucheng. He did fight during the march from Guangxi to Nanjing, but was not promoted to important military positions until later on. At Nanjing he became an assistant to another Taiping leader, Hu I-Kuang before receiving an appointment by Yang Xuiqing as a new corps general and later corps superintendents leading troops in 1853. Before the power struggle, Li had been sent with other Taiping officers to Chenchiang in Guangxi. After the power struggle Li was in command at Tongcheng in Anhwei and found himself in quite a struggle. He had a small force of less than 3000 men in a city isolated by Qing forces, he was surrounded, by his own account by over 10,000 Qing troops in over a 100 camps. To break out of this terrible position, Li cooperated with Chen Yucheng and collaborated with a Nian rebel force.    I have not spoken too much about the Nian, but at this time the area of northern Anhwei along the borders of Henan, Shandong and Jiangsu were under their control. They had started as groups of local corps formed during all the disarray of the 1840's and 1850's. They rose up to defend their villages against local bandits and raids from neighboring forces. By the mid 1850's these groups banded together into a regional force held together by a secret society affiliation and by support from some local gentry clans. They held a formidable cavalry force and used a system of defense in depth, allowing them to perform campaigns into neighboring areas. They were anti-Qing and thus rebels, making it easy for them to cooperate with the Taiping when possible. Honestly I am contemplating writing an episode on the Nian rebellion and on many of the other lesser known rebellions of the 19th century, but my god there are many and its easy to become sidetracked. Who knows maybe at some point I will have to make a patreon to produce exclusive content, wink wink, anyone who might be interested in such things let me know, comment on my private channel, the pacific war channel or catch me in the KNG discord perhaps, really want to hear from you guys and gals what you want to hear more about.   There does not seem to be significant coordination between the Nian and Taiping prior to this, and perhaps that can be explained by a simple difference in goals of the two movements. The Nian were a local rebel group that had little program nor major political purpose beyond control and exploitation of the area their forces dominated. They did not hold the ambition to establish a new dynasty, let alone some sort of proto-marxist revolution like the Taiping sought. The Taiping for their part had little interest in local bandit or rebel groups who were unwilling to submit to the Taiping faith. At the start of the Taiping rebellion in Guangxi province they had already alienated many secret society and bandit groups who were quasi interested in the Taiping cause. Yang Xiuqing in Nanjing did little to change this policy. But after the breakdown of centralized command in Nanjing, men like Li Xuicheng who held purely military interests to heart saw joint action with groups like the Nian.   Thus the first significant joint action between the Taiping and Nian came about in early 1856 when the Nian leader Li Chaozhou from southern Huai area joined up with Li Xiucheng to perform a campaign in Chenchiang. When Li's position was in crisis at Tongcheng he quickly tried to establish contact with Li Chaozhou the southern Nian leader, but also the northern Nian leader Zhang Luoxing. Zhang pledged collaboration with the Taiping forces under Li Xiucheng, claiming the Nian forces under his control to be a million strong. This forced the Qing in northern Anhwei to go on the defensive easing the pressure upon Li Xiuchang. The military alliance also raised Li Xiuchangs status amongst the Taiping, earning him a promotion in rank. The joint military campaign led to a number of cities in the Huai area to be taken between 1857 and 1859. But this cooperation remained purley on a military basis and would not last. It never extended beyond the Huai area and even within the area it was quite nominal in scale as a result of the Nian not having any real political structure. The Nian were more of a federation of autonomous communal units and the incapability with the Taiping ideology made any further integration impossible. The southern Nian leaders such as Li Chaozhou who had been the chief collaborators with Li Xiucheng could not be trusted for very long. They were not Guangxi men like Li Xiucheng, and thus could surrender to the Qing and keep their heads, which they eventually did. The cities they were defending were handed over much to Li Xiuchengs despair.    Li ascribed their surrender to be a result of undisciplined troops stating “Li Chaozhous troops were a disorderly lot; they were constantly troubling the people and plundering any city that was taken, and when this could not be effected they vented their rage on the peoples themselves. Li chastised the assistant generals of the districts until he was ashamed to meet me and finally sent his submission to the Qing”. Li was also dissatisfied with the northern Nian leader Zhang Luoxing who according to him “His men were only interested in promotions but not in serving when called”. Li was angered by the lack of cooperation or to be more blunt the fact the Nian's disobeyed Taiping directions as to why the Taiping campaigns failed. However the push to perform joint actions led to Taiping victories in the central Yangtze area which most definitely helped their cause.   For one thing the joint actions led the Nian to hit Qing supply lines which further contributed to a major victory over the Qing at Tongcheng on february 24th of 1857. After this victory the Taiping leaders pursued the retreating Qing forces northwards alongside their Nian allies. But then many Nian forces attempted a western campaign and lost ground in Hubei. There were 2 major thrusts made in April and september of 1857 and then april and may of 1858, but both were frustrated by the Xiang army and other Qing forces. The Nian began a general retreat back into northern Anhwei which was their economic base. Meanwhile Li Xiucheng acquired a base closer to Nanjing establishing supply lines and from then on took on a key role defending the Nanjing region.    Though the Taiping/Nian joint operations slowed the advance of the Xiang army in Hunan, Zeng Guofan's strategic plan still proved itself and his forces slowly but surely advanced in the Yangtze area. In may of 1858 contingents of the Xiang army recovered the city of JiuJiang which was the last remaining Taiping strategic base in the center of the Yangtze area. It was a vital base that provided them with resources from the provinces of Jiangxi and Hunan as well as a major recruitment point. From Jiujiang, Zeng Guofans army could prepare to march into Anhwei. Zeng Guofan also sought to advance forces into the upper Yangtze area to strangle the Taiping, while other Qing forces rebuilt the camps that were surrounding Nanjing in 1856. The northern and southern blockading camps were rebuilt in 1857 under the command of the Manchu generals He Chun and Zhang Guoliang. By the end of 1857 their forces were marching upon the city of Chenchiang which the Taiping had been holding since 1853.   To face the new threat, a Taiping military conference was held and alongside Li Xiucheng and Chen Yucheng a number of other Taiping generals gained prominence. Two of the most important were Yang Fuqing and Li Shixian. Yang was actually a cousin of Yang Xiuqing who escaped the slaughter by being in Jiangxi province performing a military campaign. Li Shixian wsa a cousin of Li Xiucheng and fought under him, until 1858 when he assumed his own command campaigning in southern Anhwei. The Taiping government depended on the loyalty of these key generals rather than any efforts made by Meng De'en and other useless Taiping administrators within Nanjing. In August of 1858 when the Qing began to strangle Nanjing, Hong Xiuquan gave the military commanders new titles and assignments. Now ever since the Yong'an campaign way back when, the Taiping military was more or less divided as such: the forward army, rear army, central army and left army. Chen Yucheng was appointed chief general of the forward army, which originally had been Feng Yunshans title; Li Xiucheng became chief general of the rear army; Yang Fuqing became the chief general of the center army, but was forced to share this position with Meng De'en who somehow was going to command men from Nanjing; and last Li Shixian was made chief general of the left army previously held by Shi Dakai.   At the conference Li Xiucheng called for unified action, here is some of what he said in his own words “I then wrote to the garrison generals of the different places, calling on all officers of the Heavenly dynasty to hold a council of war on an appointed day at Ts'ung-yang near Anqing. The generals and officers of the various places responded to my call…we each took an oath that we would support each other and agreed to join forces in the conflict before us”. The result of the conference led Chen Yucheng to march upon Shuch'eng, luzhou, chuzhou, then to link up with Li Xiucheng at the Anhwei-Jiangsu border to hit the Qing forces at Wuxi and Pukou dealing a complete defeat to the northern Qing camp trying to strangle Nanjing. The Taiping broke the northern half of the Qing blockading forces ending a large threat to Nanjing.   However these forces the Taiping defeated at the northern blockade were regular Qing forces. Fresh from that victory the Taiping now had to face the Xiang army who were marching into Anhwei. These forces were being led by Li Xubin who was accompanied by Zeng Guofans brother, Zeng Guohua. Their Xiang army was threatening the entire Taiping position in Anhwei and to face it Chen Yucheng rushed his army over to its defense, followed by Li Xiucheng. A major battle occurred on November 15th of 1858, resulting in the complete annihilation of the Xiang force and the deaths of Li Xubin and Zeng Guohua. Thus the Taiping control over Anhwei remained firm and Zeng Guofan suffered a terrible setback. Chen Yucheng and Li Xiucheng quickly recaptured all the lost territories in Anhwei and parted ways. Chen Yucheng chose to establish a base in the northern and western parts of Anhwei around Anqing, while Li Xiucheng took the eastern section closer to Nanjing.    Because Li Xiucheng was closer to Nanjing he was able to assert more control and began to introduce some order to the chaotic Taiping capital. According to his own account Li Xiucheng requested of the heavenly king ‘to select men according to talent, enact laws for the relief of the people, promulgate strict decrees, renovate court discipline, enforce rewards and punishments, treat the people with compassion, reduce taxes in grain and money”. Apparently the only response he got was a demotion, though he was soon promoted right back. A demotion really did nothing to affect any of the field generals actual power as they were basically the only ones doing anything. Later in 1858 when Nanjing was yet again under siege, Li Xiucheng went to Nanjing where he claimed he succeeded in re-establishing order and control. He convinced the heavenly king that to save Tianjin, they must collect forces outside for its relief. Each of the leaders continued thus to hold their own areas of supply, until messengers from Nanjing showed up demanding their armies come help break another blockade against Nanjing at the cities of Chianpu and Pukou.    Now during the years of 1856 to 1859, the Taiping were firmly on the defensive. Their military actions were almost always done by commanders working amongst themselves without any regard for the Nanjing government. These commanders thought in military terms and were no longer really concerned with the Taiping ideology, thus their revolutionary purpose was dying. This also resulted in each commander becoming shortsighted and their focus shifted simply to their own respective regions. They only coordinated with each other during times of immediate threat and had proven themselves capable of defeating not just the regular Qing forces, but that of Zeng Guofan. No attempt was made by the Taiping leaders to regain the initiative and the disintegration of central control was crumbling Nanjing. Transporting supplies to Nanjing had become an issue as Zeng Guofan began attacking riverways, especially along the Yangtze. Earlier, Tianjin enjoyed dominion over the Yangtze river and supplies poured in from 50-100 miles away inland. Yet by 1856 the Yangtze and other lakes were severed from Tianjin, and this resulted in a large loss for communication and the supply network. Even though the Taiping held numerous important cities on the banks of the Yangtze, the waterway itself was denied to them.   The general decline of the Taiping became quite apparent to foreign observers, between the years of 1857 and 1859 only one significant foreign mission would journey up the Yangtze and it was led by Lord Elgin. Yes if you remember from our Second Opium War series, Elgin tried to go up the Yangtze to navigate the commercial prospects of the region and to investigate the political situation. Elgin departed from the new treaty port of Hankou which was in the hands of the Qing and the furthest up the Yangtze river. Elgin wanted to test if the Chinese authorities would respect the status of the British flag under the new treaty of Tianjin, but it was also a chance to investigate the Taiping. Elgin had only heard rumors in SHanghai about the rebels and he wanted to gauge them first hand. As Elgin wrote to the foreign secretary “As we have seen fit to affect neutrality between the Emperor of China and the rebels. We could not, of course, without absurdity, require him to give us rights and protection in places actually occupied by a Power which we treat with the same respect as his own.” When Elgin could see from the bridge of his ship, the Furious and a few inland excursions, it looked like the civil war was more devastating than any rumors in SHanghai led one to believe. He reported this about the state of the city of Zhenjiang “I never before saw such a scene of desolation. heaps of ruins, intersected by a few straggling streets.“[We] might have imagined ourselves in Pompeii. We walked along deserted streets, between roofless houses, and walls overgrown with rank, tangled weeds; heaps of rubbish blocked up the thoroughfares, but they obstructed nobody.In order to save repetition I may here observe, once for all, that with certain differences of degree, this was the condition of every city which I visited on my voyage up and down the Yang-tze.”   Elgins first direct contact with the Taiping came in the form of a cannonball that roared over the deck of his ship as they passed by Nanjing on November 20th. Elgin did not expect hostilities and thought they would merely pass by unmolested. In response he sent a few gunships back downriver to hammer the rebel forts. The Taiping then sent messengers offering an apology for firing upon Elgins ships and asked for aid in fighting the Qing dynasty. A month later on Christmas day of 1858, as Elgins fleet was passing the city of Anqing on their way back to Shanghai he received a letter from Hong Xiuquan inviting him to join the Taiping in their divine mission to destroy the Manchu. “The Father and the Elder Brother led me to rule the Heavenly Kingdom, to sweep away and exterminate the devilish spirits, bestowing on me great honor. Foreign younger brothers of the western ocean, listen to my words. Join us in doing service to the Father and Elder Brother and extinguishing the stinking reptiles.” There were many attempts at communication and trade. Many individual Taiping commanders sent letters expressing hope to procure foreign rifles and cannons, but the British continuously stated they were abiding by a neutrality stance. Many of the Taiping tried to appeal to the British on the basis of their shared religion. “are both sons of the Heavenly Father, God, and are both younger brothers of the Heavenly Elder Brother, Jesus. Our feelings towards each other are like those of brothers, and our friendship is as intimate as that of two brothers of the same parentage.” The shared christianity between the two remained a sticky situation. There were many in Britain who pointed out the need to help the Christians in China. At a time when Britain and France were at war with the Qing, it seemed like there was quite a rationale for simply allying with the Taiping. But there were two major obstacles in the way, the first being the principle of neutrality. If they helped the Taiping, they may lose any relations they had left with the Qing. The second issue was that it was hard to understand if the Taiping were really christian or not. Multiple missionaries tried to investigate this matter and they were not convinced. It also did not help that the Heavenly King began sending the foreigners a manifesto demanding their come pay their respects to him as god's son.   The foreigners in the end would have little sympathy for the Taiping cause and it would actually lead to them contributing to the Qing side of the war in the end. The rationale for this was to secure the treaties they signed with the Qing and quite honestly, the Taiping did not look like they were going to win the war by the late 1850s. But were the Taiping defeated? Many would argue this is not the case, they could have reorganized and revamped their revolutionary purpose, and in 1859 a man arrived to Nanjing to do just that.   I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me.  The Taiping found new leadership figures in Li Xiucheng and Chen Yucheng. The Nian rebels proved valuable allies initially, but in the end it simply was not working out. The Taiping desperately needed foreign support but were burning those bridges.