Xiang Rong (; 18019August 1856) was a Chinese military general and politician. He was born in

Wuxi County Wuxi County () is a county of Chongqing Municipality, People's Republic of China, bordering Shaanxi to the north and Hubei to the northeast and east. Sitting at the upper reaches of Daning River and the southern slopes of the central Daba Mountai ...

, Chongqing, and was promoted from the rank of a foot soldier during the later years of the

Qing dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speak ...

(16361912). He was involved in early military operations against the

Taiping Rebellion The Taiping Rebellion, also known as the Taiping Civil War or the Taiping Revolution, was a massive rebellion and civil war that was waged in China between the Manchu-led Qing dynasty and the Han, Hakka-led Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. It lasted fr ...

Henan Henan (; or ; ; alternatively Honan) is a landlocked province of China, in the central part of the country. Henan is often referred to as Zhongyuan or Zhongzhou (), which literally means "central plain" or "midland", although the name is al ...

from 1850 onwards. From then he was a Senior Colonel, after one year the military promoted him be the ''

tidu The provincial military commander () was a high military official in the Chinese provinces of the Qing dynasty (1644–1911). There was one in each province, ranked 1b. Under the jurisdiction of the provincial governor (巡撫 ''xúnfǔ'') and somet ...

'' (提督) of Guangxi, even though he failed, he made the Taiping believers flee Guangxi. Continuing after Guangxi, Xiang Rong never gave up and tracked the Taiping rebels across three

province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''Roman province, provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire ...

Jiangnan Jiangnan or Jiang Nan (; formerly romanized Kiang-nan, literally "South of the River" meaning "South of the Yangtze") is a geographic area in China referring to lands immediately to the south of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, incl ...

in southern China. His Jiangnan Battalion (part of the

Green Standard Army The Green Standard Army (; Manchu: ''niowanggiyan turun i kūwaran'') was the name of a category of military units under the control of Qing dynasty in China. It was made up mostly of ethnic Han soldiers and operated concurrently with the Manchu ...

) was constantly defeated by the Taiping rebel army outside

Nanking Nanjing (; , Mandarin pronunciation: ), alternately romanized as Nanking, is the capital of Jiangsu province of the People's Republic of China. It is a sub-provincial city, a megacity, and the second largest city in the East China region. T ...

. The Taiping rebel army broke through his various encirclements and occupied

Wuhan Wuhan (, ; ; ) is the capital of Hubei, Hubei Province in the China, People's Republic of China. It is the largest city in Hubei and the most populous city in Central China, with a population of over eleven million, the List of cities in China ...

and Nanking, giving rise to a huge civil war.

Wounded

He and his vice commander

Zhang Guoliang Zhang Guoliang (; 1810 – April 1860), born in Guangdong, was a Field Marshal for the Qing dynasty. He was born in Gaoyao, Zhaoqing, Guangdong, China, although Qing state that he is from Meixian, Guangdong. He was originally a bandit in Guangxi ...

commanded a 90,000 man force together from April 1853. In 1856, Xiang Rong's army fought against

Qin Rigang Qin Rigang (秦日綱, 1821 – 1856), né Qin Richang (秦日昌), was a Hakka people, Hakka military leader of the Taiping Rebellion, known during his military tenure as the King of Yen (燕王). He served under Hong Xiuquan's Taiping Administr ...

for one month and was defeated by Qin Rigang's

militia A militia () is generally an army or some other fighting organization of non-professional soldiers, citizens of a country, or subjects of a state, who may perform military service during a time of need, as opposed to a professional force of r ...

, Xiang Rong was wounded and died after several days in

Danyang City Danyang () is a county-level city located on the southwest (right) bank of the Yangtze River, and is under the administration of Zhenjiang, Jiangsu province, China. It is noted for the production of optical lenses used in sunglasses and eyeglasses. ...

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Xiang, Rong 1810 births 1856 deaths Generals from Chongqing Qing dynasty politicians from Chongqing Qing dynasty tidus Qing military personnel killed in action