In the third year of Tongzhi (1864), Hong Xiuquan, king of Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, died in Tianjing at the age of 50. Hong Xiuquan, formerly known as Huo Xiu, also known as Ren Kun, is a native of Hua County, Guangdong Province. At the age of seven, he entered school. At the age of sixteen, he dropped out of school because of poverty. He lives by farming with his father and brother. At the age of eighteen, he worked as a teacher in his own village. I have been to guangzhou fu four times since the eighth year of Daoguang (1828). In the twenty-third year of Daoguang (1843), Hong Xiuquan absorbed Christian teachings from the article "Persuade the World" and founded a shrine. Later, jintian uprising was launched, and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was established, calling itself the King of Heaven. After the capital was Tianjing, Hong Xiuquan became increasingly mired in religious mud, lived frugally, enjoyed luxury and neglected political affairs, and the contradiction with Dong Wangyang, who mastered the actual leadership of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, became increasingly serious. After Tianjing Incident and Shi Dakai's resignation, Hong Xiuquan used Chen Yucheng, Li Xiucheng, Yang Puqing and Li Shixian as the main military backbones, and appointed his brother Hong Rengan as the prime minister of Wang Gan in Xianfeng nine years, which was quite frank and achieved a series of military victories. However, after the Second Opium War, the Qing court stepped up its collaboration with foreign invaders to jointly suppress the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. Anqing, Suzhou, Hangzhou and other places fell one after another, and Tianjing was besieged. Hong Xiuquan abused the title of Lord, superstitious about "King of Heaven", refused to adopt the idea of "keeping the city from going", and finally died on the eve of the fall of Tianjing.

The establishment of HSBC

HSBC, also known as "HSBC", was founded by ten British, American and German businessmen in foreign firms in China, including Swire, Sassoon, Qicheng and Chen Chen. Tongzhi set up its head office in Hong Kong in the third year (1864) and started business the following year. At the same time, we set up branches in Shanghai, and successively set up branches in Yokohama, Kobe, China and Hankou. With the expansion of its business scale, its assets and administrative power are increasingly concentrated in the hands of British businessmen, and combined with other British businessmen in China, it has gradually become the representative of British economic rights and interests in China, with the "HSBC London Supreme Council" as its highest decision-making body. The business scope of HSBC in China mainly includes the following aspects: 1. Deal in foreign exchange. Give financial assistance and support to foreign enterprises in China, such as exchange, import and export bills, packaged loans and credit overdrafts. Before World War I, the foreign exchange it handled often accounted for 60% to 70% of the effectiveness of the Shanghai foreign exchange market, thus manipulating the price of the China foreign exchange market. 2. Absorb the deposits of China people and issue paper money. In the four years of Tongzhi, * * * absorbed more than 3 million Hong Kong dollars, and in the three years of the Republic of China (19 14), it has increased to 330 million yuan. There are two kinds of paper money: one is one yuan, five yuan, ten yuan, fifty yuan and one hundred yuan, and the other is five-tael, twelve-tael, fifty-tael and one hundred-tael silver notes, which are mostly distributed in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Guangzhou. Third, control the financial and economic lifeline of China with loans. From the 13th year of Tongzhi (1874) to the 20th year of Guangxu (1894) during the Sino-Japanese War, * * * made 17 loans to the Qing government, totaling 28.972 million kuping silver, accounting for 63% of foreign loans to China in the same period. From the 21st year of Guangxu to the 3rd year of Xuantong (1895-1911), there were 29 loans to China, amounting to more than 200 million yuan, accounting for more than 27% of foreign loans to China. Through the loan, HSBC also gained the right to collect and deposit customs duties and salt taxes in China. With the expansion of business scope and scale, its capital has increased dramatically. When it was first established, the rated capital was HK$ 5 million and the paid-in capital was HK$ 2.5 million. By the 25th year of the Republic of China (1936), the capital in China alone had reached more than10.50 billion US dollars, accounting for 44% of the total assets of the bank. After liberation, all branches in China closed down except the Shanghai branch designated by the China government to handle foreign exchange business.

The fall of Tianjin

Tongzhi for three years (1864), on June 16th, Ceng Guoquan's Xiang army captured Tianjing. First, at the beginning of May of the first year of Tongzhi, the Xiang army besieged Tianjing. Taiping Army tried many times to clear the gap, but all failed. After the fall of Suzhou, Li Xiucheng suggested that Hong Xiuquan "stay in the city" and was rejected. In the first month of the third year of Tongzhi, Li Xiucheng led an army to attack the Daying camp, and Tianbao City was captured by Xiang, and advanced on the emergency exits and gates in the northeast of Tianjin. Tianjing finally encircled and the grain source was cut off. On April 27th, Hong Xiuquan passed away. On May 3rd, Tianguifu Hong, the eldest son of Hong Xiuquan, acceded to the throne as the young king. At the end of the month, the bunker city was also occupied by the Xiang army, shelling Tianjing day and night with condescending power. According to the tunnel, it was bombed with explosives. At this time, there are more than 10,000 Taiping rebels in the city, and less than 4,000 can fight. In the face of the day and night onslaught of more than 50,000 Xiang troops, they fought to the death, killing 3,000 enemy troops, and countless brave and good fighters. On June 16th, the wall of Tianjing was blown down by explosives for more than 20 feet. Xiang troops swarmed in and the city fell. Taiping Army "will gather people to set themselves on fire if they don't surrender, with no regrets". Li Xiucheng, Lin and other young kings broke through and left.

The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement failed.

In the third year of Tongzhi (1864), on June 16th, the Xiang army captured Tianjing. In the third year of Tongzhi (1864), in the first month, Li Xiucheng led his troops to attack Ceng Guoquan Camp, but Tianbao City was captured by Xiang, and then was forced to the emergency exit and toilet gate in the northeast of Tianjing, forming an encirclement of Tianjing, and the food source of Taiping Army was cut off. On April 27th, Hong Xiuquan passed away. On May 3rd, Tianguifu Hong, the eldest son of Hong Xiuquan, acceded to the throne and became a young king. At the end of the month, the bunker city was also occupied by Xiang. Xiang army shelled Tianjing day and night from the commanding heights, and at the same time dug tunnels to prepare to blow up the city with explosives. On June 16, the underground wall of Tianjing was blown down by explosives for more than 20 feet, and the Xiang army swarmed in and Tianjing fell. Li Xiucheng, Lin and others held the young king to break out of the city. Ceng Guoquan commanded the Xiang army to brutally slaughter the people in the city, and "the crying spread four miles away". On June 17, the young king Tianguifu Hong escaped from Tianjin. On September 25th, the young king was captured by the Qing army in the barren hills of Shicheng, Jiangxi Province, and was killed in Nanchang on October 20th. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom originated in Guangxi and developed to the south of the Yangtze River. The Taiping Army won the Western Expedition and reached its peak. After the Tianjing Incident, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom turned from prosperity to decline and fell into a passive situation of strategic defense. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement lasted 14 years and galloped from north to south 10 Yu Sheng. Finally, under the joint strangulation of Chinese and foreign reactionaries, they were defeated again and again and finally perished.

The conclusion of sino-Russian "northwest boundary survey"

In the third year of Tongzhi (1864), on the seventh day of September, the Russian government forced Ming Yi, an imperial envoy of the Qing Dynasty, and others to investigate and deal with the northwest border, and signed the Sino-Russian Northwest Border Treaty with Russian imperial envoys zakharov and Babcov in Tarbahatai (now Tacheng). Together with the Beijing Treaty between China and Russia, * * occupies more than 440,000 square kilometers in the east and south of Lake Balkhash in western China, and in the north and south of Jaisanur.

The young king was killed.

In the third year of Tongzhi (1864), Tianguifu Hong, the young king of Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, was executed in Nanchang at the age of fifteen. The young heavenly king is the eldest son of Hong Xiuquan. His name is Tiangui, and then he added the word Fu. Learn to worship god's scriptures from an early age. Since the tenth year of Xianfeng (1860), imperial edicts have been issued in the name of young owners. Acceded to the throne on the third day of May of the first year of Tongzhi. After the fall of Tianjing, the young heavenly king escaped on June 17 under the escort of loyal Li Xiucheng and others, arrived in Guangde, Anhui Province on June17, and was welcomed into Huzhou by King Huang on the 26th. He plans to meet Li Shixian and Wang Haiyang in Jiangxi, and then return to Guangde in 10. At the end of the month, Cai Jiangqing, Huang and other young kings of the second Taiping Army moved to the border of Anhui and Zhejiang. Huang died in August, and the rest entered Jiangxi. On September 25th, the young king was captured by the Qing army in the barren hills of Shicheng, Jiangxi Province, and was killed in Nanchang on October 20th.