Chapter 11 The homeless enter Zengfu

In January 1859, with a sad heart, Li Hongzhang, who claimed to be an old alcoholic who had lost his books and swords, was finally favored by the god of fate. Turned a new page. Li Hongzhang was homeless, so he had to pack his simple bags and flee with his wife and children.He came to Nanchang to visit his mother, and with the help of his brother, he met Zeng Guofan in Jianchang.At that time, Zeng Guofan's situation was not good, and he was facing the disastrous defeat of Sanhe.Although the Hunan Army under the leadership of Zeng Guofan has many strong soldiers and looks like a mighty army of the imperial court, there are not many talents available under the Hunan Army.Zeng Guofan urgently needs a capable assistant, a talented, flexible, and able to handle specific affairs.At this time, under Li Hanzhang's arrangement, Zeng Guofan was surprised to find that Li Hongzhang, who was sitting in front of him, spoke and behaved exceptionally well.Zeng Guofan admired his sharpness and profoundness in judging political affairs, the truth-seeking and pragmatism honed in his military career, the courage to face failure, and the ambition to pursue improvement and display his talents.Zeng Guofan knew that the current Li Hongzhang was no longer that frail scholar in Hanyuan in the capital. He had grown a bit more mature, inspired the pride of a young man, and at the same time had the ambition to do a great job.After this meeting, Zeng Guofan decided to keep Li Hongzhang by his side.As a result, Li Hongzhang became Zeng Guofan's staff, and since then began the decades-long teacher-student relationship between them.

In 1853, Zeng Guofan, as a registered servant, was ordered to assist in the training of the Hunan regiment. He saw that poor soldiers were one of the major problems of the Qing Dynasty.In February 1854, he organized and supervised the Hunan Army's land and water armies, and marched northward along the Xiangjiang River to resist the Taiping Army.The Hunan Army was different from the standing army of the Qing Dynasty. It was armed by the Han landlords. It was easy to recruit troops and abolished officers and soldiers. Confucian scholars led farmers and formed their own camps.When Zeng Guofan was an official in Beijing, he took Cheng Zhu as his home, and when he went out to handle regiment training and military affairs, he changed to Shen Han.He adopted the traditional strategic approach under the above-mentioned system, first clearing the two lakes, stabilizing the rear, and then pointing the army forward to Jiangxi and Anhui.In July and August of 1858, Zeng Guofan was ordered to go to Zhejiang and Fujian successively to attack the Taiping Army of Shi Dakai who had split away, abandoned the Jiangxi base, and circled Zhejiang and Fujian.In October, he led his troops to Jianchang, but before entering Fujian, Shi Dakai's troops entered Jiangxi from Fujian and transferred to Hunan, which was a sharp setback.At this time, the military situation in the south of the Yangtze River is gradually loosening, but the situation in the north of the Yangtze River is changing suddenly.Facing the severe situation where the Jiangnan and Jiangbei battalions approached Tianjing, and the Hunan army besieged Anqing and Sanhe, and threatened Luzhou, the two main Taiping armies, Chen Yucheng and Li Xiucheng, joined forces to destroy the Jiangbei camp and remove the threat from the north of Tianjing. In Sanhe, Anhui, more than 6,000 elite Hunan troops under Li Xubin's command were wiped out, and Li Xubin, Zeng Guofan's younger brother Zeng Guohua, and more than 400 civil and military officials were killed.Seeing that the situation was not good, the Hunan army who surrounded Anqing fled in a hurry, and the siege of Anqing was resolved without a fight.Zeng Guofan was terrified by the changing military situation in Jiangbei, howling and mourning!In December, he was ordered to move to aid Anhui.

In this situation, Li Hongzhang rushed to Jianchang to visit Zeng Guofan.Li Hanzhang was the person who combined Zeng Guofan and Li Hongzhang to build a bridge. Li Hanzhang was admitted to the Zeng family under the Bagong Dynasty in 1849. In 1853, he served as the county magistrate of Shanhua, Hunan. Assisted in running the grain platform, and in case of battle, he also supervised the team to command.Zeng Guofan praised him for being upright on the inside and smooth on the outside, and he is solid and thorough in his work, which is very capable.In January 1857, the Liangtai of the Hunan Army was abolished and merged into the Jiangxi Provincial Bureau. Hanzhang returned to his hometown to serve as his father, and the Anhui Governor Fu Jizuo stayed to handle the regiment defense donation.In 1858, Zeng Guofan ordered Hanzhang to go to Jiangxi Prime Minister Liangtai to reimburse him, so Hanzhang lived with his mother.Zeng Guofan valued Hanzhang very much, and Hanzhang also relied on Zeng Guofan as his backer.Hanzhang not only often informed Zeng Guofan of Hongzhang's situation in Anhui, and sometimes even referred his brother's family letters to Zeng Guofan for review;Hanzhang played the role of communicating emotions and enhancing understanding between his younger brother and Zeng Guofan.When Hongzhang was visiting his mother in Nanchang, Zeng Guofan took the opportunity to invite Hongzhang to meet him through Hanzhang.In December 1858, Zeng Guofan sent a letter to his friends, saying: Xiaoquan's family was burned and looted by bandits, and he brought his family to Nanchang. He will come to the camp within a few days, and Shaoquan will also come here for a talk.Zeng Guofan and Li Hongzhang had long formed a teacher-student friendship. Zeng Guofan praised his disciples as great tools, and Li Hongzhang admired his teachers as sacred.They both had similar pursuits: put out the flames of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, maintain the rule of the Qing Dynasty in order to enshrine Hou Yinzi, and glorify the ancestors; they also needed to use each other.

Zeng Guofan had known about Li Hongzhang's talents for a long time, but thought he was unstable and arrogant, so he deliberately ignored him.More than a month later, Li Hongzhang asked someone to intercede again. Zeng Guofan said: Li Hongzhang is also an imperial scholar, with high ambitions and high talents. My situation here is narrow and narrow, just a shallow ditch, which can't accommodate his big boat. Why doesn't he return to Beijing to serve?After repeated intercession, Li Hongzhang finally joined Zeng Guofan in January 1859 and became Zeng's aide.In fact, it's not that Zeng Guofan doesn't want him, but just wants to beat his arrogance and make him more restrained and steady.

In Zeng Guofan's tent, Li Hongzhang handled writing, reviewing official documents, drafting letters and memorials.Zeng Guofan's most famous ginseng "San Weng Tong Shu Piece" was written by Li Hongzhang.Weng Tongshu, the governor of Anhui Province, was the teacher of Emperor Xianfeng and Prince Gong.This Dao Shenzhe accused Weng Tongshu of improper actions, ineffective defense of the city, and abandonment of the city, and should be severely punished.With the power of the Weng family, it is not easy to bring it down, so Zeng Guofan attaches great importance to it and asks the copy room to prepare a few more drafts for backup.Among several drafts, he chose Li Hongzhang's draft.There are only less than 600 words for such an important fold, and every word is very important, and every sentence is full of blood.This chapter lists Weng Tongshu's crimes of not distinguishing loyalty from traitors, misusing villains, mishandling, coveting life and fearing death, and losing two cities in a row. There is no room for further justification.At the end of this book, it is written: How can Weng Tongshu get away with such behavior?In response to the decree, Weng Tongshu was about to be dismissed and questioned, and the minister of the king, Jiuqing, will discuss the crime with the Ministry of Criminal Justice, so as to abolish military discipline and admonish him.The position of the minister should be rectified and participated in, and he dare not look forward to the prosperity of Weng Tongshu's family.It is really old-fashioned to dare not look forward to accommodating because of the prosperity of Weng Tongshu's family, and to seal off the way for the imperial court to look forward to accommodating and lightly punish because of the prosperity of Weng Tongshu's family.The imperial court had no choice but to sentence Weng Tongshu to be executed in prison according to regulations.Therefore, Zeng Guofan praised and said: "Shaoquan's talent is the closest to the official documents, and the letters and approvals he has planned are all superior to others. It is unknown whether he will make extraordinary achievements in the future, or whether he will succeed in the blue."And Li Hongzhang also told people that he had assisted other generals before, but he had nowhere to go, and it was like knowing the compass when he entered Zengmu, and he benefited a lot.

Zeng Guofan lived a very regular life. He got up very early every day to check the camp, and then had breakfast with his staff at dawn, or talked about the day's work schedule or chatted casually.When he first arrived at Zeng Guofan's tent, the relatively lazy Li Hongzhang couldn't adapt to this regular and rigid life, and felt bitter.One morning, he wanted to sleep more in the name of a headache, but Zeng Guofan knew that he was pretending to be sick and slept more, so he sent someone to ask Li Hongzhang to get up and eat together several times, and finally told Li Hongzhang that all the staff members were present before starting the meal. Li Hongzhang hurriedly put on his clothes Staggered to go.Zeng Guofan didn't say a word during the meal, and after the meal he seriously taught him: "Shaoquan, since he entered my court, I have something to say, and the only word here is honesty."After saying that, he walked away angrily, and Li Hongzhang was terrified.Zeng Guofan knew that Li Hongzhang's talent was uninhibited, so he was extremely strict with him, trying his best to refine, cultivate his temperament, and cultivate his morality.Many years later, Li Hongzhang recalled to others: When I was in the camp, my teacher always waited for everyone of my generation to eat at the same time; Practical words.A meal is better than a class.

Less than ten days after Li Hongzhang entered the curtain, Zeng Guofan decided to ask him to preside over the compilation and training of the northern Anhui cavalry and attach it to the Hunan Army.The act of organizing and training the cavalry team began with Zuo Zongtang's proposal.Zuo Zongtang (styled Ji Gao) was a native of Xiangyin, Hunan. He was born in Juren. He first joined Luo Bingzhang, the governor of Hunan, and later became one of the leaders of the Hunan Army.Zeng Guofan negotiated with Hu Linyi on Zuo's proposal.Hu Linyi (named Kuangsheng, nicknamed Runzhi, Daoguang Jinshi) was the governor of Hubei at the time and the second leader of the Hunan Army.The Hu family supported the formation and training of the cavalry, and Zeng Guofan immediately went to the Qing government to make a generous statement.The reason why Zeng Guofan worked hard to organize and train the northern Anhui cavalry was because the Taiping Army and the Nian Army had many and fierce cavalry, and it would be difficult for the Hunan Army to win without the cooperation of the cavalry.He informed Zuo Zongtang: Your Excellency asked my younger brother to pay attention to the cavalry team last year, and my younger brother used Hal's horses to train the brave men in Huainan.He originally planned to investigate 3,000 Hal horses, and ordered Li Hongzhang to recruit thousands of brave men who were good at horses in Bozhou.The Qing government took a positive attitude towards Zeng Guofan's training team, but ordered the purchase of horses as appropriate.According to the order of the imperial court, Zeng Guofan revised his plan of recruiting brave men, and decided to recruit 500 first, try out drills, and if available, he would continue to recruit 3,000.Although Li Hongzhang admitted that the preparation and training of the cavalry team was indeed a top priority, he deeply felt that the matter was heavy, lack of experience, and victory or defeat was uncertain.Li Hongzhang made a special trip to Nanchang to discuss with his brother.Li Hanzhang agreed with his brother's opinion and wrote to Zeng Guofan to thank him on his behalf.Zeng Guofan insisted on the established policy, and wrote a letter to urge the Li brothers not to worry about the difficulties of the past.Having said so much, Li Hongzhang had no choice but to obey his orders and send a special person to Huaishang to recruit Ma Yong.However, at that time, the Taiping Army and the Nian Army in the Huaihe River and Huaihe region fought together, and the momentum was strong, and the Qing army was in a passive position.The turbulent situation and the dissatisfaction of people's hearts forced those who recruited brave people to return empty-handed.In this way, Zeng Guofan's plan to establish a cavalry team was aborted.

In June, Zeng Guofan, who had already moved to Fuzhou, was worried that Zhang Yunlan's troops in the Hunan Army would not be able to support him in view of the Taiping Army's fierce attack on Jingdezhen.Zeng Guoquan (word Yuanpu) is the younger brother of Zeng Guofan, and his subordinate is Zeng Guofan's direct line.Li Hongzhang was full of enthusiasm and hoped to unite the army alone, and he didn't want to send him under the fence. He was depressed and wanted him to go.Zeng Guofan appreciated Li Hongzhang's talent but was dissatisfied with his arrogance, so he borrowed the sword above to block his way, and said: "Li Hongzhang has been in the army for a long time, and he has both civil and military resources, so he can stay in the camp to assist him; on the other hand, he knows him well." The reason is to lure it to profit, saying that you are talented and far-sighted, and it is a tool to help the princes. If you are seeking for the princes of the four directions according to the map, if you don’t go to Guangdong in the south, you will go to Wu in the east and Qiyu in the north.Li Hongzhang did not dare to resist the order, but also appreciated the kindness of his teacher's recommendation and assistance, so he decided to go.

At this time, Huguang Governor Guanwen's proposal to order Zeng Guofan to enter Sichuan to prevent the Taiping Army from Shidakai from advancing into Sichuan based on Hu Linyi's request was approved by the Qing government.Originally, Hu Linyi planned to use this to obtain the post of governor of Sichuan for Zeng Guofan and ensure the source of salary in Hubei.Unexpectedly, the Qing government only ordered Zeng's family to aid Sichuan, but refused to grant local real power.Zeng Guofan naturally didn't want to go, because his troops were too limited to enter Shu, and Jingzhen was not conquered, so he couldn't make any moves.Li Hongzhang supported Zeng Guofan and asked Zhang Fu to supervise the military affairs in southern Anhui to stay with Zeng Guofan to guard Jiangxi.In March, due to the urging of the Qing government, Zeng Guofan had to lead Li Hongzhang and other staff to plan to enter Sichuan via Hubei, and when they traveled to Wuxue, they received an official notice that they had played an invitation to suppress the Anhui bandits.It turned out that Hu Linyi said that since Zeng Guofan did not get the post of governor of Sichuan and Shi Dakai's army had already pointed south, and there was nothing wrong in Sichuan, he said that Zeng's entry into Sichuan would be postponed and he would do his best to plan for Anhui.In September, Zeng and Li first went to Huangzhou to meet with Hu Linyi, and then arrived in Wuchang to meet with the official documents, discuss their actions, and decided on a plan to march into Anhui in four directions, and their central goal was to capture Anqing.Zeng Guofan was in charge of advancing from Susong and Shipai all the way to Anqing.In November, Li Hongzhang was ordered to grant the Taoism of Shao Yu Que in Yanjian, Fujian.Zeng Guofan saw that Li Hongzhang was newly released to Fujian Province. Chen Yucheng's Taiping Army confronted each other.

The strategic decision of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom to attack from top to bottom, and a joint attack from the north and the south caused the Qing government a headache.At the beginning of 1860, the Qing government ordered the Jiangnan Daying Army and the Hunan Army to besiege Tianjing and attack Anqing respectively according to the current war.The Taiping Army adopted the policy of rescuing Tianjing first and then securing the celebration.In May of that year, the coalition forces of Li Xiucheng and Chen Yucheng defeated the Jiangnan camp in one fell swoop, and then swung their troops eastward to advance into Suzhou and Hangzhou.The Jiangnan North Camp was originally the product of the contradiction between Xianfeng and Zeng Guofan.Emperor Xianfeng's wishful thinking was: to rely on Zeng Guofan to fight against the Taiping Army, but also refused to give him real military and political power.Xianfeng's plan is that the Hunan army will contribute, and the north and south of the Yangtze River will make great achievements.The successive destruction of the northern and southern camps made Xianfeng's illusions come to nothing.Xianfeng had to fully rely on Zeng Guofan to support the crisis. In early June, he was given the title of minister of the Ministry of War and the real military and political power to act as the governor of Liangjiang.In August, he was awarded the governor of Liangjiang.During this period, Zeng Guofan once protected Li Hongzhang as the envoy of salt transportation between Huaihe and Huaihe Rivers, and Huang Yi was promoted to the commander-in-chief of Huaiyang Town to organize the Huaiyang Navy.For Zeng Guofan's petition, the Qing government did not approve all of it. It only appointed Huang Yisheng as the commander-in-chief of Huaiyang Town, and did not grant Li Hongzhang the post of salt transport envoy between the two Huaihe Rivers.Li Hongzhang took a sap, depressed and unhappy, and sighed secretly, so he had to stay in Zeng's tent.