Good morning fellow Beijingers, you know what Chinese history is, in a minute…you’re going to here the REST of the story.
150 years ago today, in the province of Anhui, the Taiping general Chen Yucheng launched a daring attack at the key strategic point of Sanhe Zhen.
Earlier that year Chen had caused full-fledged panic in the Qing court by seizing the city Luzhou (today’s Hefei). When government soldiers, including 5000 crack troops from the Hunan Army, under the command of the famous Qing military officer Li Xubin, were advancing to retake the city, it was General Chen who rode to the rescue of the rebel garrison there and scored a stunning victory for the Taiping.
Sanli Zhen was a crossroads for both land and water routes which also guarded the southern approaches to Luzhou. The Taiping forces occupying the Luzhou reinforced the city walls with brick and held fast against Li Xubin’s army in a bloody defensive stand, repeatedly sending messages urging Chen to hurry with reinforcements. Chen in turn sent word to his fellow Taiping general, Li Xiucheng.
Two years earlier, when the smoke finally cleared following the circular firing squad that was the Taiping leadership crisis of 1856, Chen Yucheng and Li Xiucheng emerged as the two most capable generals for the rebel forces. Together they had seized or retaken over a dozen important points along the Yangzi River and had become the bane of the government forces. Now both marched their armies in relief of Luzhou. On November 14, 1858, Chen and Li, with a total of 10,000 troops, were camped to the southeast and southwest of Luzhou, cutting off the line of retreat for the government soldiers under General Li Xiubin.
Li Xiubin’s officers saw the danger and urged the Qing commander to withdraw, but General Li felt that victory was close at had and boldly refused to give up the attack. Seeking to neutralize the threat to his south, Li Xiubin ordered a risky night attack on Chen Yucheng’s forces. Chen was ready. Leaving a smaller force at the front, his officers led the main part of his army in a flanking maneuver, surprising the Qing troops and causing the government lines to fall into disarray. As dawn broke on November 15, the fog rolled in, causing officers and soldiers to struggle to see through the mist shrouding the battlefield. It was then that Li Xiubin realized his error, with Chen’s forces now in control of his left flank. It was at this moment Chen’s fellow general Li Xiucheng attacked, sending his men into the government’s right flank. In the coup de grace, the Taiping troops in charge of defending Luzhou poured out of the gates to attack Liu Xiubin’s government soldiers from the rear. Li Xiubin, a veteran of dozens of campaigns who was responsible for some of the loyalist’s greatest successes against the rebels, found himself hopelessly surrounded. By nightfall he was dead, either shot to death by Taiping troops or, in an alternate version, committing suicide to avoid capture.
Not only did the Qing lose a capable commander, but the Taiping forces under Li and Chen rode the momentum of their victory at Sanhe Zhen eastward, capturing a number of cities and transportation hubs in Anhui, consolidating Taiping control in the region and protecting the supply lines and the approach to the rebel’s capital at Nanjing.
What’s most fascinating about this battle? [And here, it's best if you read it with Paul Harvey in mind] Chen Yucheng…the general whose decisiveness, steely nerves, and tactical experience led to a crushing defeat for Qing imperial forces…was 22 years old. He was made a Taiping prince by Hong Xiuquan for his valor in the campaign but would be dead by 1864, killed in battle…at the age of 26. And now you know….the rest of the story. Good DAY!
