Chapter 17 Soaring to the post of Su Fu

Seventeen days after Li Hongzhang arrived in Shanghai, the Qing government formally appointed him as the acting governor of Jiangsu on April 25. Only seven months later, he was actually appointed as the governor of Jiangsu by acting.From then on, he went straight up and almost confronted his mentor Zeng Guofan Shuangfeng. The main reason why Li Hongzhang was able to resend the territory suddenly from a lack of Taoism was because he held a large army and was recommended by Zeng Guofan.The Qing government not only wanted to use Li Hongzhang's Huai army to strangle the Taiping army in southern Jiangsu, but also relied on Zeng Guofan's group to preserve the overall situation in the southeast.As early as December 26, 1861, Zeng Guofan accused Xue Huan, the governor of Jiangsu, of stealing a corner of peace in his "Investigation of Jiangsu and Zhejiang Fuchen and Jin Anqing's Participation Documents", and that the theory of things was flourishing and could not be up to the important task. The attached piece of memorial protects Li Hongzhang's energy and introversion, and he is very careful. If he is entrusted with the grace of the Holy Grace, he will be promoted to the governor of Jiangsu, and the minister will allocate it to the army, and he will be able to go downstream to defend one side.The Qing government naturally understood Zeng's intentions, and Li Hongzhang was also very aware of the mystery, so he wrote to Zeng Guofan saying:

On October 25th (December 16th, 1862) Xu engraved received the letter from the imperial court, and on the 12th (December 3rd) was decreed to grant Su Fu, a reward of kindness, not to be favored Rong.There is no place for self-care.All of these have been trained and planted by my Zhongtang master over the years, and cut according to the situation, so that I can govern the army and govern the government, cultivate myself and govern the people, so I can be slightly confused and subverted quickly. I really don’t know why it is a reward. Cong Gui.At that time, the Qing government appointed Xue Huan as the minister of trade and commerce, specializing in negotiation matters.But only two months later, the Qing government transferred Xue Huan to Beijing to wait for Jianhou, and ordered Li Hongzhang to act as the minister of trade and commerce.In this way, Li Hongzhang became a powerful figure in Jiangsu with a heavy army in his hands and important positions as governor and minister of trade and commerce.

Li Hongzhang, who was middle-aged, was now a big official in the frontier with military power, political power and financial power in his hands. His official career has been booming since then, and he began his 40-year political career in the political arena in the late Qing Dynasty. To achieve this, issues such as military affairs, official administration, payment and foreign affairs must be properly resolved.So he made up his mind to break through the dangers and difficulties, broke through a new situation, and tried his best to stifle the peasant uprising as soon as possible. When Li Hongzhang first arrived in Shanghai, he faced the Taiping Army's second attack on Shanghai.Li Hongzhang knew that without Shanghai, everything he had would be nothing.Li Hongzhang also knew that there were too many eyes on him, so he didn't dare to slack off at all.He proposed to himself the six-character policy of not wanting money and not being afraid of death, reminding and urging himself all the time.Since most of the Huai army were farmers, when they first arrived in Shanghai, the officials, business gentry and foreigners in Shanghai could not help but see this rustic team wearing sandals, cloth handkerchiefs and baotou. laughing out loud.They doubt whether such a team can take on the important task of defending Shanghai.For his own sake and for the future destiny of this newly established team, Li Hongzhang has always strictly managed the Huai Army, increased training intensity, and rectified military discipline.

The content of the training mainly includes formation drills and setting up camps.The Huai army does defensive work around the barracks every day, building high walls and digging deep trenches.The wall they built was eight feet high and one foot thick, with soil clods and straw bags on the outside and solid soil inside.There is also a four-foot-high sub-wall on the wall with bullet holes on it, and soldiers guard the sub-wall.Ditches have been built outside the wall, with obstacles such as tripping posts, plum blossom pits, and barbed wire.In addition, the Huai army also had strict physical training. For example, soldiers were required to jump up a ten-foot-high house, cross a one-foot-wide trench, throw a fireball twenty feet away, and walk a hundred miles a day with sandbags on their legs.

In terms of discipline rectification, there is roll call at noon and evening every day, and soldiers are not allowed to leave the camp without authorization.No opium is allowed.Li Hongzhang also kept trying to boost morale. The soldiers were in good spirits, and they all looked forward to the battle soon so that they could try their skills. When Li Xiucheng led an army of 100,000 to besiege Shanghai for the second time, the British and French allied forces in Shanghai repeatedly asked the Huai army to fight together. Li Hongzhang ignored them and wanted to lead the Huai army to fight independently. In June 1862, The plague was prevalent in Shanghai, and many people in the Taiping Army were infected with the disease. Li Xiucheng decided to evacuate Shanghai.Before retreating, Li Xiucheng besieged Cheng Xueqi's department in Hongqiao.Li Hongzhang led the team to rescue.

This was the first battle between the Huai Army and the Taiping Army. At that time, Li Hongzhang brought Shuzi Battalion and Chunzi Battalion.Chunziying soon couldn't resist and fled to the bridge. Li Hongzhang was sitting at the head of the Hongqiao bridge to supervise the battle.He grabbed Zhang Yuchun, the leader of the team, and ordered the soldiers: Take a knife and cut off his head!Zhang Yuchun had no choice but to lead his men back again.Zhang Yuchun was Li Hongzhang's old department, and he was a person whom Li Hongzhang trusted very much.But when the enemy was present, Li Hongzhang showed no mercy.After three battles at Hongqiao, Beixinjing, and Sijiangkou, Li Hongzhang led the Huai army to defend Shanghai, making those who initially ridiculed the Huai army as beggar soldiers start to look at the Huai army with admiration.

After gaining a foothold, Li Hongzhang began to rectify the administration of officials in Jiangsu Province, and recruited talents in many ways.Li Hongzhang believes that Jiangsu, like other provinces, is extremely corrupt in official circles, and Shanghai is particularly prominent. Its characteristic is that officials don't know what courtesy, justice, integrity and shame are.In order to make money, they did not hesitate to fawn on the food delivery rights and enrich their own pockets; in order to satisfy their own selfish desires, they colluded with each other, took plunder, and disregarded the laws of the country.Subjectively, although Li Hongzhang really wanted to reverse the corruption in official circles in Jiangsu Province, especially in Shanghai, objectively, he had more than he could do.Because when he first arrived in Shanghai, it was difficult for a strong dragon to fight against a local snake, but in order to survive the Huai army, he adopted a method of selective punishment and rectified the administration of officials to the best of his ability.At the same time, Li Hongzhang also employed a group of pragmatic and capable talents, such as Guo Songtao, Ding Richang and others.At the same time, Li Hongzhang began to establish his own shogunate, and a large number of capable talents of all kinds were quickly assembled in the shogunate.Among them are scientists who are proficient in mathematics, astronomy, and machine manufacturing; economic talents who understand accounting and money and grain;Li Hongzhang's employment is based on actual needs, and he can make the best use of his talents, and maximize the enthusiasm and ability of his staff.Li Hongzhang is also good at discovering talents. Qian Dingming in Shanghai was also taken under Li Hongzhang's banner and asked him to handle camp affairs for the Huai army.These people were gathered together by Li Hongzhang to work together to do well the affairs of Jiangsu, the affairs of the Huai Army, and the tasks assigned by Li Hongzhang.

Another important thing Li Hongzhang did was to collect military pay. Zeng Guofan strongly recommended Li Hongzhang to aid Shanghai. In addition to purely military and political purposes, there was also a plan to support the Hunan Army with Shanghai tax revenue.Since the five-port trade opening in Shanghai, the industry and commerce have become more and more prosperous under the stimulation of foreign goods, and the customs revenue has increased day by day, but it is still beyond the means, which is far behind the needs.In order to solve this problem, Li Hongzhang decisively adopted the policy of customs taxation and taxation.

Li Hongzhang used tariffs to pay the expenses of the Changsheng Army, the Defense Bureau of China and Foreign Countries, and the Zhenjiang Green Battalion, and used Lijin to bear the military expenses of the Hunan Army and the Huai Army.At that time, the lijin collection in Shanghai was the highest in the country.The tax amount of lijin is charged as a percentage of the commodity price, and the value is one hundredth, and one percent is one percent.Li Hongzhang believed that collecting more money from merchants was better than collecting taxes from farmers.The use of lijin is to take it from the people and use it to the people, which is more convenient than collecting taxes from the people.Under Li Hongzhang's multi-party financing, a large amount of lijin entered the bank coffers of the Hunan Army and the Huai Army, so that the army's salary was specially allocated, and the source of salary was more actively and effectively controlled.Not only basically solved the problem of the Huai Army's salary and needs, but also supported the Hunan Army's operations on the Western Front with a large amount of money and materials.

However, Zeng Guofan was not satisfied and hoped that Li Hongzhang could raise more military pay.Li Hongzhang has always been grateful for Zeng Guofan's recommendation, so he devoted himself to the tasks assigned by Zeng Guofan, and did not abandon Zeng Guofan just because he gained power.On the contrary, he is more obedient to Zeng Guofan than when he was an aide, which reflects the consistent behavior of taking the overall situation into consideration.During half a year in Shanghai, Li Hongzhang raised 90,000 taels of military pay for Zeng Guofan.In addition, he also sent a large number of weapons to the Zeng brothers to support their military equipment.

At that time, the administration of officials in Jiangsu was particularly bad, among which Wang Youling (the governor of Zhejiang at that time) was the chief culprit.Several cadres promoted by Wang Youling, such as Su Song Taidao Wu Xi, Suzhou prefect Wu Yun, Su Song Liangdao Yangfang, etc., were all corrupt elements.After doing some in-depth investigation, Li Hongzhang began to take action.He asked Wu Xi to manage the tariffs, and the lijin previously managed by Wu Xi was changed to the management of his staff Xue Shuchang.Then Wu Xi was asked to make clear and regular reports on the accounts, so Wu Xi had no choice but to start making fake accounts in order to get away with it. One day, after drinking, Li Hongzhang came to Wu Xi's house.Said to Wu Xi: Some people say that your accounts are not clear, and now the Prime Minister's Office is going to check you.You tell me the truth, are there any problems with your accounts?If you really have a problem, then I will find a way to help you find someone to clear it up.Seeing that Li Hongzhang had drunk too much, Wu Xi didn't have any doubts in his heart, took out the account book and handed it to Li Hongzhang and said, you can take a look.Li Hongzhang looked at it for a while and said, I have a headache from drinking today, and I can't see clearly.How about I go back and check the account for you?In this way, Wu Xi handed over his criminal evidence to Li Hongzhang.After Li Hongzhang went back, he immediately found a few staff who were proficient in accounting to review carefully, and found many problems in the accounts.The next day, Li Hongzhang easily cleaned up Wu Xi, and reassigned Huang Fang and Liu Yunjiao to be in charge of the customs and the chief envoy.Liu Xunjiao had a good reputation when he was the county magistrate in Shanghai, and was called Liu Qingtian by the people.He was the same year as Li Hongzhang, and Li Hongzhang knew him better.Seeing that Li Hongzhang took care of Wu Xi, Yang Fang was so frightened that he voluntarily resigned from Su Song Liangdao's position.Li Hongzhang handed over this position to his old classmate Guo Songtao. Although Li Hongzhang used some people he called gentlemen to manage financial institutions, out of strategic needs, he also appointed some notorious figures such as Jin Hongbao to help him do things, because Jin Hongbao had all kinds of dignitaries in the local area. extensive relationships.Li Hongzhang needed to use these relationships to maintain and strengthen his power in Jiangsu.At this time, as the chief executive of the local administration, Li Hongzhang noticed a problem, that is, the problem of local economic construction.Due to successive years of wars, the people live in poverty, and there are still a large number of homeless refugees.Li Hongzhang first restored the agricultural economy in the post-war areas, reduced or exempted land taxes, distributed cattle and seeds to farmers, and distributed rice money to hungry people.In areas not directly affected by the war, new taxes were collected from landowners and gentry, and these taxes were used to subsidize expenditure on agricultural expenses. Li Hongzhang also proposed measures to the court, pointing out that the difference in tax rates between large households and small households must be corrected, and suggested canceling some preferential policies for large households.In terms of financial management, Li Hongzhang has always tended to obtain money from businessmen, landlords, and gentry.These measures of his have somewhat reduced the burden on the local people, and the living conditions of the people have improved.However, in the overall economic construction, many problems still appeared.For example, big households resisted taxes, some corrupt officials took the opportunity to extort money, and many people who could not get protection were still living in displacement. Li Hongzhang also reinvigorated the imperial examination system, increasing the number of places in the provincial examinations in Shanghai and adjacent areas, and establishing a new department in Suzhou.He also rebuilt two academies in Suzhou.After 1861, Li Hongzhang, who was busy with political and military affairs, seldom wrote poems and gave up his hobby of collecting calligraphy works. Instead, he devoted more energy to practical work, which seemed to never be finished. matter.During the later period of the Westernization Movement, Li Hongzhang said in a letter to the court that Chinese scholar-bureaucrats indulged in the words and sentences of articles and practiced writing lower-case characters every day, while most generals were vulgar and stupid people.It can be seen from this that Li Hongzhang in this period has already seen that a nation that always puts its energy on practicing writing small characters cannot become strong. In diplomacy, Li Hongzhang tried his best to use the influence of foreigners as his own.When the Huai army arrived in Shanghai, the Taiping army was unstoppable. Li Xiucheng's troops surrounded Qingpu near Shanghai and advanced to Hongqiao, only 20 kilometers away from Shanghai. The situation in Shanghai was once in a critical situation. Li Hongzhang decided to take advantage of the fact that the Taiping Army had not yet established its foundation. In mid-June 1862, he personally supervised the Chunzi and Shuzi battalions of the Huai Army and fought hard in Hongqiao, Xujiahui and other places. As a result, more than 300 soldiers of the Taiping Army were captured and killed.Subsequently, Li Hongzhang led his troops to occupy Sijing, forcing the Taiping Army of Li Xiucheng's department to retreat to the Guangfulin Army, and the siege of Songjiang was relieved.This battle was Li Hongzhang's first victory in Shanghai without the assistance of foreign soldiers. It not only stabilized the Qing government's ruling order in Shanghai, but also improved Li Hongzhang's confidence in leading the newly established Huai Army. Winning face in front of foreigners. In October 1862, when Zeng Guofan's troops were besieging Nanjing and Li Xiucheng was ordered to lead his Taiping Army back from Suzhou, Li Hongzhang, in collaboration with the British and French invaders and the Changsheng Army, attacked Jiading and won.Soon, Li Hongzhang went to the front again to mobilize the Changsheng Army and the Huai Army to fight fiercely with the Taiping Army at Sijingkou, forcing Tan Shaoguang and other troops of the Taiping Army to retreat back to Suzhou again. Through this battle, the Huai army further consolidated its dominance around Shanghai.At the same time, Li Hongzhang stepped up his efforts to disintegrate the Taiping Army on the Eastern Front.In 1862, Li Hongzhang used Xu Peiyuan and others who had long been cooperating with the scum of the Taiping Army to conspire and deliberately create civil strife in the Taiping Army.Tan Shaoguang, a Taiping general, discovered the discrepancy and arrested Xu Peiyuan, but Luo Guozhong rebelled in January 1863.At this time, Li Xiucheng returned to Suzhou from Tianjing.In response to this situation, Li Hongzhang adopted the tactics of attacking everywhere, ordering Luo Guozhong to stick to Changshu while attacking Taicang, and captured Taicang in May.After the fall of Taicang, Li Xiucheng's troops were forced to abandon their original plan to go north and south, and rushed back to rescue Suzhou.In June 1863, Li Hongzhang decided to adopt the strategy of dividing the army into the north, the south, and the middle, using suppression as a barrier, planning to gain a long-term trend, cutting off the branches and leaves of Suzhou, and then drawing up its fundamental strategy. After this strategic plan was approved by the Qing government, all parties launched an offensive to encircle Suzhou in an all-round way.As for the Taiping Army, Li Xiucheng rushed back to Suzhou from Tianjing and formulated a plan to attack Shanghai, Kunshan, Changshu, and Jiangyin in four directions. Passive defense, passive response to the situation. In July 1863, the land route between Suzhou and Hangzhou was cut off by the Changsheng Army and the Cheng Xueqi Department of the Huai Army; in September, Jiangyin was captured by the Huai Army's Li Hezhang and Liu Mingchuan's Department.In late November, Huai armies from all walks of life cooperated with the Changsheng army to storm Loumen in Suzhou, but they could not attack for a long time, so Li Hongzhang instigated the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Na Wang Gao Yongkuan to launch a rebellion in December, killing Tan Shaoguang and thousands of his soldiers. Gao Yongkuan and others openly embraced Li Hongzhang.However, at that time, the Huai army's morale was unstable, and there were still 100,000 Taiping troops in Suzhou city vowing to fight to the death. Li Hongzhang broke his promise and killed Gao Yongkuan and other loyal soldiers.At this time, Li Hongzhang was awarded the title of Prince Shaobao by the Qing government for his meritorious service. Later, after the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom regime lost Suzhou, the last strong military stronghold on the outskirts, the Qing army was able to concentrate its forces to besiege Tianjing.The Heavenly King Hong Xiuquan miscalculated the situation and decided to stick to Yingcheng and fight the Qing army to the end.In May 1864, Li Hongzhang took the initiative in strategic deployment and captured Changzhou.Afterwards, Li Hongzhang felt that the defeat of the Taiping Army was certain, so except for the elite of the Ever-Victorious Army as his own, he dismissed the rest. During Li Hongzhang's stay in Sufu, he also entered into a marriage with the Zhao family, completing the lifelong event of remarriage.His original wife, Mrs. Zhou, had two daughters named Jingrong and Qiongzhi. Because they had no children, his younger brother Zhaoqing adopted Jingfang (the son of Li Zhaoqing) to him.In the summer of 1861, when Li Hongzhang returned to Zengmu and passed Wannian (Raozhou Prefecture, Jiangxi Province), he wrote a poem to express his thoughts, which said: It is easy to lose half of your life to join the army, but it is difficult to travel all over the world for your family. Only Jiao Chi children, when Mochiyuelei can do it. Grandpa took off his military uniform in the future and sat around the lamp asking questions. The angel poet, Woquanshi, teaches Taoism and wins talent. With vivid brushstrokes, he expresses his emotions of joining the army, the bumpy road ahead and the flesh and blood of missing his daughter. The voice of the heart is sincere and touching.Unexpectedly, in September of that year, Mrs. Zhou died, the two daughters lost their mothers, his beloved wife passed away, and the sweet girl was orphaned. The sudden blow made Li Hongzhang very sad and sad.In the following two years, Li Hongzhang had no time to take care of his personal marriage due to the embarrassment of the army.In December 1863, after Li Hongzhang captured and moved to Suzhou, he believed that the war in southern Jiangsu was about to end successfully and the time had come to rebuild the family, so he married Zhao as his successor in January 1864.