太平天国时期的周庄镇

周庄镇以陶煦家族为核心，组织团练与太平天国对抗，又由费秀元出面，接受太平天国的封号，实行骑墙的“两边办”，两面三刀，纵横捭阖，但其根本立场始终是站在清朝政府一边的。周庄有关人员对太平天国进行颠覆活动，充当清军的乡导，为清军办理后勤，给太平天国造成重大损失。可以说，陶煦之类地方势力的存在，是太平天国终归失败的原因之一。

ZHOUZHUANG IN THE PERIOD OF THE TAIPIN HEAVENLY KINGDOM

The town of Zhouzhuang with the family of Tao Xu as its core organized civil corps to resist the army of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and at the same time Fei Xiuyuan, an influential figure of the town, accepted the title conferred upon him by the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. In this manner, they adopted a policy of sitting on the fence. However, from the outset their fundamental standpoint was to side with the Qing government. They conducted subversive activities against the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, acted as guides of and provided logistic services for the Qing army, thus caused great losses to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. It can also be said that the existence of local power such as Tao Xu was one of the causes of the ultimate failure of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.