Hong Xiuquan died on June 1, 1864, April 27, Tongzhi three years, at the age of 51.
Hong Xiuquan's life has been full of glory and wealth. Nanjing was the capital of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom for 11 years. Hong Xiuquan never went out of Nanjing Gate once, and he only went out once to live in the Heavenly Mansion to visit the sick Eastern King Yang Xiuqing.
No matter how you look at it, the time of Hong Xiuquan's death is really strange. Half a month after his death, Tianjing fell. God's curse? Impossible. In May 1864, the Hunan Army marched on land and water and surrounded Tianjing. Zeng Guoquan led the army to camp at Yuhuatai, and Peng Yulin led the navy into the river mouth. As the city ran out of ammunition and food, Hong Xiuquan took the lead in taking out the grass to satisfy his hunger, causing illness.
If the above statement is true, it means that Hong Xiuquan died of illness. Li Xiucheng was the main general in the late stage of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. After Hong Xiuquan's death, this person presided over the defense of Tianjing and had a more accurate understanding of the situation before and after Hong Xiuquan's death.
Li Xiucheng failed to escape and was arrested by Zeng Guofan. From July 29 to August 7 of that year, Li Xiucheng in prison wrote a confession of more than 70,000 words. After reading Li Xiucheng's confession, Zeng Guofan personally made some deletions and corrections. As for the reason for the deletion and modification, Zeng Guofan gave the reason, "change the other character; those who praised the Chu Army (Hunan Army) will delete it; those who repeat the gossip will delete it; if it turns to beg for a living (framework), please invite Jiangxi, The thieves in Hubei used to redeem their crimes. There are ten important things about surrender. There are ten mistakes in Yanhong's defeat and death, and all of them have been deleted. In fact, the literature is unreasonable and the facts do not match. A memorial was sent to the Qing court, mentioning the cause of Hong Xiuquan’s death, "According to (Li Xiucheng), Hong Xiuquan did not see his ministers for many years during his lifetime. On April 27, he died due to a sudden attack by officials and soldiers. The group of thieves in the city and the officers and soldiers outside the city have been propagated and announced in more than ten days."
Zeng Guofan defined Hong Xiuquan as committing suicide by poisoning. Is the truth really the case? Because "Li Xiucheng's narrative" was reprocessed by Zeng Guofan. Its authenticity needs to be verified, but the historian has been suffering from a lack of historical data to testify.
The truth will not be covered up, time will prove it. At the beginning of the sixties of the last century, "Xiangxiang Zengbabentang·Li Xiucheng's Handwritings", which was collected in Zeng Guofan's home for more than 100 years, was officially photocopied and released. The cause of Hong Xiuquan’s death is clearly recorded in
, “At this time, it is about the end of March and the beginning of April. At that time, I was on the East Gate City. The king, Sishi, was already very ill. He died on April 21.” "This person's disease, do not take prescriptions, let the disease heal, and do not take the medicine. So he died on April 21. ... The disease of the king of heaven was caused by eating, and he refused to eat. The prescription, so death."
At this point, Hong Xiuquan's death was confirmed.
