·太平軍北伐

清咸豐三年 (1853)三月五日，太平天國北伐軍到達揚州。咸豐皇帝令山東巡撫李德“添兵防剿”,令納爾經(jīng)額于天津水陸交通處嚴密布置，隨時查緝奸細； 但是仍然阻擋不了太平軍北伐的鋒芒。七月，太平軍逼近直隸，令少數(shù)人先行，到天津以南地區(qū)秘密扎下小營盤，進行攻打天津的準備活動。
九月二十七日，太平軍攻克靜海縣城。知縣江安瀾逃走，后被人砍傷，投水而死。太平天國天官副丞相林鳳祥坐鎮(zhèn)縣城，太平軍兵力已達4萬多人。二十八日，地官正丞相李開芳率部分人馬繼續(xù)北上，攻克獨流、楊柳青及附近20余村，前鋒抵達天津城西稍直口。
太平軍不斷用 “仇官而不害民” 的主張宣傳百姓： “只殺文武兵勇，不害百姓，照舊生理，平買平賣”。天津一帶流傳著這樣的歌謠： “爭天下，打天下，窮爺們兒天不怕來地不怕。殺到楊柳青，天子嚇得發(fā)了昏。殺到天津衛(wèi)，朝廷快讓位” 。
天津是京都的門戶，太平軍一旦攻破天津，清朝廷就會岌岌可危。于是清廷調(diào)集了大批人馬，由欽差大臣勝保率領，與天津的清軍團練一起，同太平軍進行激戰(zhàn)。從九月二十九日至十月二日，大戰(zhàn)5日，太平軍失利，先鋒將領 “開山王”顏三禿子及士兵500余人戰(zhàn)死，余眾敗回楊柳青和津南梁王莊一帶。
十月三日，咸豐皇帝又令文謙督率天津鎮(zhèn)道文武員弁，嚴密防守大沽海口，以防太平軍由水路入海南撤； 并令重兵防守津門潞河 (北運河),暫緩支搭浮橋。十月六日，清廷參贊大臣僧格林沁也率大軍趕到，將大營扎在王慶坨，由北向南堵截太平軍，與勝保軍共14萬人。
十月七日，勝保會同天津兵勇進攻楊柳青。李開芳主動撤出，專守獨流鎮(zhèn)與靜?？h城一帶。一方面派人去天京 (南京)求援； 一方面在獨流鎮(zhèn)，運取木石，構筑堅固城池，挖掘了深寬各7尺的護城河。并在獨流與靜?？h城之間的村莊，建立聯(lián)絡小營10余座，互為依托。從十月初到十一月中旬，清軍同太平軍進行了多次交戰(zhàn)，卻久攻不下，咸豐皇帝十分惱怒，嚴令勝保、僧格林沁務須 “剿戮凈盡” 。
十一月二十三日，勝保坐拖床到獨流西北的子牙河查看地勢，太平軍偵知，三路出擊，清軍3萬人，急忙迎戰(zhàn)。雙方混戰(zhàn)至黃昏，太平軍佯敗，清軍副都統(tǒng)佟鑒追擊，被太平軍用槍刺死； 天津知縣謝子澄帶衙役、團練來救，也被太平軍刺死。清軍大敗退走。此戰(zhàn)，是太平軍北伐天津以來的最大勝利。咸豐皇帝大為震怒，將勝保等人降4級留用，有的將領被查封家產(chǎn)，革職留用。
太平軍孤軍奮戰(zhàn)，長期消耗，人員大減，糧草彈藥困難，戰(zhàn)士沒有冬裝，在冰天雪地多被凍傷。從十一月下旬，開始準備突圍。至咸豐四年(1854)正月初八，靜?？h城和獨流的太平軍終于突圍成功，會合一起，馳向文安、大城一帶。隨后，又突破清軍多次包圍，四月九日，由阜城突圍至東光縣之連鎮(zhèn)。
咸豐五年(1855)正月二十一日，連鎮(zhèn)被清軍攻破，太平軍首領林鳳祥被捕，在北京就義。至此，太平軍北伐失敗。
On March 5th,1853 (The third year of EmperorXianfeng),Taiping rebels (army) reached Yang Zhou.Emperor Xianfeng ordered Li De,governor of ShanDong province,to suppress. Na Erjinge was orderedto organize defenses at water-land converge in Tianjinand to arrest spies. Both of them failed to block Taipingarmy. In July,the rebels (Taiping army) pressed ontowards Beijing,with few ahead to encamp secretly inthe south Tianjin,preparing to attack Tianjin city. OnSeptember 6th,the emperor ordered Wen Qian to trainsoldiers and to block the rebellion.
On September 27th,Taiping army occupied JingHai County. The magistrate,Jiang Anlan,ran away andwas later wounded and drowned himself in a river. LinFengxiang,the vice prime minister of Tianguan positionTaiping rebels (army),stationed over 40,000 soldiersin the county. On 28th,Li Kaifang,prime minister ofDiguan,led his army northwards to attack 20 villagesincluding Du Liu and Yang Liuqing. His vanguardarrived at Shao Zhikou in west Tianjin.
Taiping rebels (army) always publicized that theyonly fought against the government,not the commonpeople,which was to kill the government soldiers,toprotect the people,and to maintain normal life and fairbusiness. Such sayings in Tianjin went,"to strugglefor land,to fight for land,Taiping army fear nothing toexpel the emperor and the government".
The imperial government would be in imminentdanger if Tianjin,the gateway to Beijing,was occupiedby the rebels. Under such circumstances,the governmentassembled an army. Leading by Sheng Bao,the imperialenvoy,this army,together with the civil corps in Tianjn,fought against the rebellion army. The war went on for5 days since September 29th and the rebellion lost. 500soldiers led by vanguard Yan were killed and the restfled to Yang Liuqing and Liang Wang village in thesouth area.
On October 3rd,the emperor ordered Wen Qian toguard Da Gu seaport in case Taiping rebellion withdrawsouthwards by sea; heavy troops were assembled atthe North Canal and bridge building was postponed .On October 6th,Zeng Gelinqin,the imperial counselorencamped his army at Wang Qingtuo. Together withSheng Bao`s men,the totaled of 140,000 soldiers armywent to intercept the rebellious army.
On October 7th,Sheng Bao,jointly with Tianjinlocal troops,attacked Yang Liuqing. Li Kaifangwithdrew to defend Du Liu County and Jinghai County,while asking Nanjing for help. He ordered woods andstones to be fetched to build solid walls and a city moatof 7 chi deep and 7 chi wide was dug. Li built 10 campsto contact between Du Liu and other counties. The twobelligerent parties were at deadlock. The emperor was soangry that he ordered Sheng Bao and Zeng Gelinqin toexterminate the rebels.
On November 23rd,Sheng Bao inspected Zi YaRiver to the northwest of Du Liu. It was detected byTaiping rebels (army) who in three directions attackedthe government army of 30,000. The battle lasted tillthe dusk that the rebellion pretended to flee. TongJian,vice commander of the government army,led hismen to go after the fleeing army and was killed. XieZicheng,Tianjin magistrate,with his yamen runners andsoldiers,came to their rescue and were also killed. Thatthe government army was utterly defeated marked thegreatest victory ever achieved by Taiping rebellious armysince its northern expedition in Tianjin. The emperor gotfurious that the 4 servants including Sheng Bao weredemoted; other generals were either confiscated property or dismissed.
Taiping rebels (army) fought in isolation for a longtime with energy consumed depleted,and food as wellas weapons reduced. Lacking of winter clothing,most ofthe soldiers were frostbitten. They started to break out ofencirclement since the last period of November. In 1854(the 4th year of Emperor Xianfeng),the Taiping armyin Jinghai County and Duliu successfully joined andmarched toward Wen`an and Dacheng. Soon after,theymore than once broke out Qing army`s encirclement.In April 9th,they broke out from Fu City and reachedDongguang County.
On the lunar January 21st,1855 (the 5th year ofEmperor Xianfeng),the government army occupied Lianvillage. Lin Fengxiang was captured and was executedin Beijing. Thus the northern expedition of Taiping Revolution failed.

·太平軍北伐激戰(zhàn)天津