The picture shows the ruins of Dacheng State Palace

On August 19, 1861, the main force of the Dacheng Rebellion Army was severely defeated.

From June 1854 (the fourth year of Xianfeng of the Qing Dynasty) to May 1864 (the third year of Tongzhi of the Qing Dynasty), the Tiandi Society of Guangdong and Guangxi led an armed uprising against the feudal rule of the Qing Dynasty.

In the Opium War, with the increasingly acute ethnic and class contradictions, more and more poor farmers and handicraftsmen, small traders, boat people, and unemployed people in Guangdong and Guangxi joined the Heaven and Earth Association and embarked on the road of anti-Qing struggle. Inspired by the victory of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, from June 1854, He Liu, Chen Kai, Li Wenmao and other leaders of the Guangzhou area of the Heaven and Earth Congregation revolted one after another. The storm of uprising quickly swept through Guangdong Province, and within a few months, dozens of Fuzhou counties were conquered, and the team grew to hundreds of thousands. With the political slogan of anti-Qing Restoration as a political slogan, the uprising army called on people with lofty ideals across the country to raise the banner of righteousness and overthrow the Qing government.

However, the various rebel armies did not have a solid military alliance, nor did they form a unified leadership core. Coupled with a lack of combat experience, the uprising was soon broken by the Qing army. Only the uprising army led by Chen Kai and Li Wenmao, in the face of the long-term attack on Guangzhou and the bloody suppression of the uprising armies in various places, resolutely implemented a strategic shift, and went up the Xijiang River in late May 1855, marching towards Guangxi, where the ruling power of the Qing Dynasty was relatively weak. On September 27, they captured the capital city of Xunzhou (now Guiping) in Guangxi, established the "Dacheng Kingdom", changed the Yuan "Hongde", changed the Xunzhou Prefecture to Xiujing, and issued regulations, set up separate officials, opened the furnace and cast money, and actively carried out political construction. After that, Dacheng became the center of the uprising of the Guangxi Heaven and Earth Society. In view of the lack of food for the Guangxi soldiers, the governor of Guangxi, Lao Chongguang, had to passively defend, and the insurgent army took advantage of the opportunity to develop. In early October, Li Wenmao and Liang Peiyou led their troops to capture Gui County (now Guigang City), and the local insurgent leaders Huang Quanyi and Huang Dingfenghe, who were active in Hengzhou (now Hengxian County) and Yongchun (now Langcheng City), led their troops to participate in the Dachengguo Insurgent Army. By October 1856, the insurgent army had conquered Wuxuan, Pingnan and other places, and initially opened up a base area with Xunzhou as the center. In the same month, Chen Kai was named the kings: Li Wenmao was the king of Pingjing and the manager of the land route, Liang Peiyou was the king of Pingdong and the director of the waterway, District Run was the king of Pingxi, and Liang Chang was the king Chen Kai called himself King of Zhennan, and later changed his name to King Pingxun.

Later, Li Wenmao led his troops to attack Liuzhou in the north, Liang Peiyou led his troops to attack Wuzhou in the east, and Qu Run and Liang Chang led his troops to develop westward, further expanding the base area. In November, Li Wenmao led his troops to attack Liuzhou from Xiangzhou north. On the 12th, he occupied the key pass outside the city and completed the siege of Liuzhou City. Lao Chongguang hurriedly mobilized troops to reinforce them. While blocking aid, the rebels stepped up the siege. Liuzhou was captured on March 15, 1857. Then they connected Liucheng, Luocheng, Qingyuan (now Yishan), and Rongxian (now Rongshui), controlling the prefectures and counties of Liuzhou and Qingyuan prefectures, and opened up a channel to communicate with the Miao uprising army in Guizhou. At the same time, Liang Chang, Qu Run and others led their troops westward. In February of the same year, they conquered Yongchun, Yuhengzhou in April, and along the Yongjiang River to attack Nanning in May. The garrison abandoned the city and fled, but the rebels gained the city without fighting. Liang Peiyou planned to eliminate the Pingnan Regiment and then attack Wuzhou eastward. Unfortunately, the Chinese artillery was killed on April 3. His troops were personally led by Chen Kai and continued to advance eastward. On June 22, they completed the siege of Wuzhou. On July 28, the Guangdong Navy of the Qing army reinforcing Wuzhou was completely wiped out in the capital of Guangdong (now Yunan), severely injuring the 5000 Green Camp soldiers who came to assist, leaving the Wuzhou garrison in desperate straits. On September 27, the uprising army captured Wuzhou City. At this point, the Dacheng State Uprising Army grew to hundreds of thousands of people, and successively captured 7 prefectures and more than 30 prefectures and counties including Xunzhou, Wuzhou, Liuzhou, Nanning, Qingyuan, Sien, and Pingle, and controlled most of Guangxi.

As the insurgent army was developing victoriously, the Qing army was also preparing for a large-scale counteroffensive. In June 1857, Governor Luo Bingzhang of Hunan sent his candidate prefect, Jiang Yili, and others to lead more than 3,600 Hunan troops into Guangxi, and arrived in Guilin in September. The Guangdong authorities added warships, hired Zhuang Yong, and drew up a new reinforcements plan. In October of that year, Nanning was captured by the local regiment, and District Run and Liang Chang led their troops to retreat to Lingshan. After the infighting broke out, Liang was captured by the regiment, and District was killed by his subordinates. The main leaders of Dacheng State lacked a clear understanding of the above-mentioned changes in the situation. Instead of being ready to fight the large-scale attack of the Qing army, they decided that Chen Kai would be the east road, Li Wenmao would be the west road, and Zhang Gaoyou and Huang Liangji in the northwest of Guangxi would attack Gu In the spring of 1858, Li Wenmao led his troops north from Liuzhou to Suqiao, an important town in the southwest of Guilin. Chen Kai led his troops north from Wuzhou to Gui Fish Pond at the junction of Lingui and Yangshuo, where they were intercepted by the Hunan army. Chen and Li's two forwards were close to each other, but they failed to meet. In May, Wuzhou was violently attacked by the Cantonese army, and Chen Kai was forced to lead his troops back to aid. Li Wenmao was defeated by the Hunan army's concentrated attack and retreated to Liuzhou. From then on, the situation took a sharp turn for the worse, and the rebel army began to turn from attack to defense.

On the 30th, Guangdong Admiral Kunshou commanded the Cantonese army to capture Wuzhou City. The Hunan army on the northern line went south and captured Liuzhou on June 24. A few months later, Li Wenmao died in the Huaiyuan Mountains. In November of the same year, the main force of the Hunan army of Jiang Yili's army attacked the Chen Jingang rebellion army of He County. Chen Kai took advantage of the emptiness of Liuzhou's army and recovered Liuzhou, Liucheng, Rong County and other places in one fell swoop, and took in Li Wenmao's old army. However, Chen Kai failed to support Chen Jingang's army eastward in time, resulting in the failure of the Allied forces and the isolation of the Dacheng rebellion army. In the autumn of 1859, Shi Dakai led more than 200,000 Taiping troops into Guangxi, and captured Qingyuan in October, which brought an opportunity for Dacheng to turn the tide of the war. However, in order to fight for leadership, Chen Kai did not cooperate with the Taiping Army, resulting in the destruction of the Qing army. In January 1860, Liuzhou fell again. On August 19, 1861, after the battle of Dongdanzhu in Pingnan City, the elite of the uprising army was lost. On the 21st, Xunzhou fell. After Chen Kai withdrew from Xunzhou, he was captured in Hengzhou and later rose up in Xunzhou. The rest of the uprising army was led by Huang Dingfeng, Duke of Long, and continued to fight against the Qing until May 1864, when he was defeated in Xiaoping Tianzhai, Guxian County.

Comment: The Dacheng State Uprising occupied most of Guangxi and persisted in the anti-Qing struggle for 10 years. It was the largest of all the Tiandihui Uprisings and the heaviest blow to the Qing Dynasty.