The Tianjin Museum collects a silver official seal of the Qing Dynasty. The surface of the seal is a regular square, and there are three calligraphy fonts on the back, namely Manchu seal script, Manchu regular script, and Chinese small seal script. In fact, they all mean the same thing. "Admiral Hubei General Military Officer Seal". This is the official seal of Xiangrong, the commander-in-chief of Hubei Province during the Xianfeng period of the Qing Dynasty. Official seals handed down from the Qing Dynasty are extremely rare, so they are even more precious.
Xiang Rong is not very well-known in history. His most well-known deed is the suppression of the Taiping uprising. In January 1851, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom rebelled in Jintian. Xiang Rong, who was over 60 at the time, was ordered to suppress the uprising in the face of danger. The road to suppressing the rebels was full of twists and turns. Xiang Rong himself encountered the Waterloo of his life. His official position was "reformed three times and restored three times", and even ended up costing him his fortune and life.
Xiang Rong can be said to be the mortal enemy of the Taiping Army. The two armies clashed several times, but Xiang Rong rarely won. Especially in the autumn of 1951, Xiang Rong was ambushed by the Taiping Army. All the ordnance and pots were confiscated, and the entire army was defeated. After the defeat, Xiang Rong reported to the court, and the court sent him and the vice-capital of Guangzhou to encircle Yong'an from north to south. However, the two had different opinions and could not cooperate well at all. Not only did they fail to capture Yong'an for half a year, but they allowed the Taiping Army to successfully break through.
In February 1853, the Taiping Army captured Nanjing. Emperor Xianfeng quickly awarded Xiang Rong the title of Imperial Envoy and ordered him to lead his troops to continue chasing the Taiping Army. Xiang Rong's troops advanced to Xiaoling Guards in the east of Nanjing City, established the Jiangnan Camp, and cooperated with the Jiangbei Camp led by Qishan to besiege Nanjing. In 1856, the Taiping Army supported internal and external forces and marched straight into the Jiangnan camp. Xiangrong retreated steadily and led the remaining troops to retreat to Danyang. In anger, Emperor Xianfeng dismissed Xiang Rong from his position as Hubei Admiral and ordered him to remain as Imperial Envoy and continue to supervise military affairs. Xiang Rong, who was old and sick, thought about his prowess on the battlefield, and then looked at the disastrous defeat in front of him. He thought that his reputation was ruined, so he died in sorrow and anger
Xiang Rong's failure also had Its inevitable reason.
As an imperial minister, Xiang Rong was reprimanded and even scolded by Emperor Xianfeng many times, and he had no authority at all in front of his subordinates. After the subordinates who knew the truth were informed, the majesty of the imperial minister was greatly affected. As a general, he is good at leading troops in battle, but he is really lacking in strategizing. Emperor Xianfeng was extremely dissatisfied with Xiang Rong's failure to suppress the Taiping Army, but he was unable to find a suitable general to replace Xiang Rong, so he had to use both kindness and power, scolding and coaxing. Furthermore, Xiang Rong had not read much since he was a child and could not read a few Chinese characters. Even the emperor's edicts had to be read by others. Some important news about military aircraft will be spread to the Taiping Army barracks, causing the combat plan to be exposed in advance. Faced with the emperor's rebuke, his subordinates' disrespect, and the enemy's prying eyes, Xiang Rong was in a difficult situation. He was besieged on all sides, and his failure was inevitable.