Lai Wenguang born in Meizhou

Meizhou

-Administration:The municipal government, Intermediate Court and CPC and PSB bureaux are housed in the district of Jiangnan , on the right bank of Meijiang River.A second district of Meizhou is Jiangbei , on the left bank...

, Guangdong

Guangdong

Guangdong is a province on the South China Sea coast of the People's Republic of China. The province was previously often written with the alternative English name Kwangtung Province...

, and later worked in Guangxi

Guangxi

Guangxi, formerly romanized Kwangsi, is a province of southern China along its border with Vietnam. In 1958, it became the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China, a region with special privileges created specifically for the Zhuang people.Guangxi's location, in...

, was an eminent military leader of the Taiping Rebellion

Taiping Rebellion

The Taiping Rebellion was a widespread civil war in southern China from 1850 to 1864, led by heterodox Christian convert Hong Xiuquan, who, having received visions, maintained that he was the younger brother of Jesus Christ, against the ruling Manchu-led Qing Dynasty...

 and Nien Rebellion

Nien Rebellion

The Nien Rebellion was an armed uprising that took place in northern China from 1851 to 1868, contemporaneously with Taiping Rebellion in South China...

, and known during his military tenure as the King of Zun (遵王) ("believe God"). He served under Hong Xiuquan

Hong Xiuquan

Hong Xiuquan , born Hong Renkun, style name Huoxiu , was a Hakka Chinese who led the Taiping Rebellion against the Qing Dynasty, establishing the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom over varying portions of southern China, with himself as the "Heavenly King" and self-proclaimed brother of Jesus Christ.-Early...

's Taiping Administration, and was Hong Xiuquan's wife young brother. He led Taiping forces to many military victories. In June 1865, he commanded Nien cavalry

Cavalry

Cavalry or horsemen were soldiers or warriors who fought mounted on horseback. Cavalry were historically the third oldest and the most mobile of the combat arms...

 forces of 90,000 in surrounding and attacking the capital Beijing

Beijing

Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...

, nearly successfully. He was executed by Li Hongzhang

Li Hongzhang

Li Hongzhang or Li Hung-chang , Marquis Suyi of the First Class , GCVO, was a leading statesman of the late Qing Empire...

 after interrogation in February 1868.

Lai Wenguang attracted many northern Chinese to unite fighting against the Qing government because people believed the Aisin Gioro

Aisin Gioro

Aisin Gioro was the family name of the Manchu emperors of the Qing Dynasty. The House of Aisin Gioro ruled China until the Xinhai Revolution of 1911, which established a republican government in its place. The word aisin means gold in the Manchu language, and "gioro" is the name of the place in...

 had a secret agenda to stage a coup against Empress Dowager Cixi

Empress Dowager Cixi

Empress Dowager Cixi1 , of the Manchu Yehenara clan, was a powerful and charismatic figure who became the de facto ruler of the Manchu Qing Dynasty in China for 47 years from 1861 to her death in 1908....

.

His elder brother Lai Hanying was the Taiping Rebellion's king early on, and one of the few of kings still alive after the civil war ended in 1870. As a child, future revolutionary Sun Yat-sen

Sun Yat-sen

Sun Yat-sen was a Chinese doctor, revolutionary and political leader. As the foremost pioneer of Nationalist China, Sun is frequently referred to as the "Father of the Nation" , a view agreed upon by both the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China...

 often heard the story of the Taiping Rebellion.

When Mao Zedong

Mao Zedong

Mao Zedong, also transliterated as Mao Tse-tung , and commonly referred to as Chairman Mao , was a Chinese Communist revolutionary, guerrilla warfare strategist, Marxist political philosopher, and leader of the Chinese Revolution...

 occupied Beijing in 1949, he commissioned Lai first Beijing Military Region commander, to commemorate him.