Battle of Sanhe

Part of the Taiping Rebellion

Date	November 7, 1858 – November 18, 1858
Location	Sanhe Town, Anhui, China
Result	Taiping rebel victory, due to Green Standard Army delay

Belligerents

Qing Dynasty

Taiping Heavenly Kingdom

Commanders and leaders

Li Xubin †

Chen Yucheng
Li Xiucheng
Zhang Lexing
Wu Dinggui (吴定规)
Chen Kunshu

Strength

6,000

100,000+(included Nien Rebellion 40,000 troops)

Casualties and losses

6,000

several thousands

The Battle of Sanhe (三河, literally meaning Three Rivers) was a major engagement of the Taiping Rebellion, occurring in 1858. During this battle, the crack troops of Zeng Guofan’s Xiang Army were lost, along with one of its most capable commanders, Li Xubin.

In August 1858 the Taiping Army took Luzhou (庐州), in modern-day Hefei, Anhui, and the Imperial governor of Hunan-Guangdong Guanwen (官文) ordered Li Xubin to counterattack by taking the cities and towns of Tongcheng, Shucheng, and Taihu (太湖). Imperial Jiangning General Duxing’a (都兴阿) and Li Xubin consequently led over 10,000 troops and attacked Anhui from Hubei. On September 22 imperial troops took Taihu (太湖). Afterwards, Li Xubin led 8,000 troops to continue the attack northward. On September 27 Li Xubin’s imperial army took Qianshan. On October 13 they took Tongcheng, and on October 24 Shucheng. On November 3, after leaving behind 2,000 soldiers to guard the newly conquered towns, Li Xubin led the remaining 6,000 imperial troops to the outskirts of Sanhe Town (三河镇, literally means Three Rivers Town), around 25 km southeast of Shucheng.

Sanhe Town was located on the western shore of Lake Chao and was an important barrier of Luzhou and also an important transportation hub to supply provisions for both Luzhou and Nanjing. The city lacked a wall, so the Taiping Army constructed a new wall and, in addition, built a total of nine forts outside the newly built wall. The Taiping commander in charge of defending Sanhe Town was Wu Dinggui (吴定规). On October 24 Chen Yucheng had just succeeded in taking Liuhe (六合) and received the news that Sanhe Town was being besieged by imperial troops. Realizing the importance of the town, Chen Yucheng decided to reinforce Sanhe and asked Hong Xiuquan to send Li Xiucheng to strengthen the Taiping forces. Chen’s request was granted. The nearby Nien Rebellion also sent 40,000 troops to strengthen the Taiping forces.

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Wikipedia