In the eleventh year of the Qing Dynasty (1861), when the peasant uprising began, the Taiping Army suppressed a peasant uprising in a village in Zhuji County, Zhejiang Province. The leader of the peasant uprising, Bao Lishen and his sister Bao Fengying, were killed. This is

This war lasted for nine months and involved nearly 100,000 troops. It was known in history as the Battle of Baocun. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom itself started as a peasant uprising. Why would they send heavy troops to fight the peasants in a village?

Bao Lishen, also known as "Lisheng" and "Lisheng", was more than 20 years old. He was an ordinary farmer's son. He had lived in Bao Village for a long time and was not very literate.

Legend has it that Li Shen once met an old man with a white head (Bai He Zhenren, also known as "White Jade Toad" and "White Roar Spirit"), who taught him the art of war and the skills of Dunjia.

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He claimed to have received immortality and attained enlightenment. He often burned incense and sat in silence to predict good and bad luck. The villagers called him "Bao Shenxian".

Bao Lishen, a native of Bao Village, has been working as a farmer for generations. He is tall and tall. It is said that he can make soldiers by spreading beans and call the wind and rain; his sister Bao Fengying is also very powerful, similar to him.

The Bao brothers and sisters organized local warriors and called them the "Dongan Rebels." Bao established himself as the leader, wearing white clothes, white hats, and white flags.

Bao Lishen was neither a local gentry nor a traditional rural celebrity. He was not a vested interest in the old order and system. He was actually a genuine farmer.

In the notes and diaries of literati at that time and later, there are many records of being a "farmer", "a farmer's son", "a gangster in this village", and "a farmer with a family background".

Bao Lishen not only engaged in farming, but was also recorded as "trading lime on his shoulders". He also engaged in business to supplement his family's income, which shows that he had a humble beginning.

The core members of the Dong'an Rebel Army are also lower-class people.

Therefore, although the composition of the villagers in Baocun has become increasingly complex due to the large number of defectors, there is no doubt about the civilian nature of the Baocun uprising.

The cause of the matter is that after the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom army captured Jiangsu and Zhejiang, the entire territory was thousands of miles long. Naturally, in order to establish a local government, local taxes must be collected to support the war. However, anti-tax groups emerged in Bao Village in Zhuji.

, refused to compile house numbers, refused to change ID cards and other things, blatantly resisted some government activities of the Kingdom of Heaven, and even killed local officials sealed by the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. When this kind of thing happens, punishing the murderer is naturally the first priority of any regime.

Subsequently, Bao Lishen openly rejected the Taiping Army and took in a large number of fugitive gentry from four villages. However, several campaigns by the Taiping Army ended in failure, and their attempts to persuade him to surrender were rejected.

So, in anger, the reckless heroes of the Taiping Army made an extremely unwise decision: they would rather lose Tianjing than capture Baocun!

They mobilized armies from all over the Yangtze River to attack Bao Village.

When the Taiping Army was pressing down on the territory, Bao stood up and raised a flag to launch an uprising. He established the name "Dongan Rebel Army" and divided it into four camps with the four characters Dong, An, Zhong and Yi.

Battalion total system.

He ordered the Dong'an Rebels to wear white uniforms and shave their heads. This was strictly different from the Taiping Army's clothing and hairstyle, and the intention of confrontation was obvious.

In terms of defense construction, the village built an outer city with earth, weaved fences into the inner city, stored weapons extensively, and manufactured guns. Bao Village was like an independent kingdom.

Bao Village is located seventy miles northeast of the county. It has a meandering scenery, with Fengxi in front, Baita Lake surrounding it, and dense forests. This is a small village with a small river in front of the village and a lake behind the village.

Surrounded by mountains and covered with dense forests, the Bao clan lived here. It was originally a quiet and peaceful village with no reputation.

In order to mobilize everyone to fight against the Taiping Army, Bao Lishen, the leader of Bao Village, posted notices everywhere in the name of "Commander of the Dong'an Rebel Army", announcing the ten major crimes of the Taiping Army and calling on the villagers to join in the resistance: 1. Worshiping cults; 2. Abuse.

Kill innocent people; 3. brutally capture soldiers; 4. plunder and collect tribute; 5. exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes; 6. harsh punishments; 7. desolation and extravagance; 8. annihilation of culture; 9. arrogance of names; 10. trampling on customs.

At that time, tens of thousands of wealthy gentry and ordinary people from Zhuji, Shaoxing, Xiaoshan, Fuyang, Jinhua, Yiwu and other neighboring counties and counties, supporting the elderly and the young, took refuge in Bao Village.

A small village in a small area was openly in confrontation with the Kingdom of Heaven. To this end, the top leaders of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom transferred Ningbo to the east, Hangzhou to the west, and Jinhua to the south, and gathered more than 100,000 Taiping troops to conquer Bao Village.

The five kings, Shi Wang Li Shixian, Dai Wang Huang Chengzhong, Ti Wang Lian Yekun, First King Fan Ruzeng, and Lai Wang Lu Shunde, personally led the army to conquer. The army camped for more than 60 miles from Diankou to Gaohu, vowing to "not break the bag".

If the village is not returned, the battle of Baocun officially begins.

For a time, the Taiping Army camp was hundreds of miles away, with people shouting and horses neighing!

Groups of Taiping Army soldiers rushed towards the front line of Baocun, with gunshots and killing shouts coming one after another.

Here, the elite divisions of the Taiping Army stationed in Zhejiang were gathered, surrounding the small village with at least four or five floors, so that even mosquitoes could not fly out.

In the coach's tent, the generals listened to the battle report from the front-line attacking soldiers with livid faces. They were so angry that they slammed the table. The small Bao Village had not been captured after fighting for so long and losing soldiers and generals.

In the end, Bao Village was besieged for eight months and ran out of ammunition and food. In addition, there was no rain from May to July due to natural disasters, so that the villagers "analyzed the chaff into rice and drank the blood."

Next comes the plague.

At the turn of Xian and Tong, a great plague was prevalent in the south of the Yangtze River. In addition, Bao Village was small and densely populated, and the living environment deteriorated. Ten or two people died from the epidemic.