Chapter 18 Taking care of the overall situation, Tianjing gave way

The Hunan army has been attacking Tianjing for a long time, but there has been no result.The Qing government saw that the Huai army was fighting effectively, so it sent Li Hongzhang's troops to assist.After disbanding the Changsheng Army, Li Hongzhang could have gone all out to attack Tianjing, but at that time the general of the Hunan Army who led the attack on Tianjing was Zeng Shuai's younger brother Zeng Guoquan. The Liu Shiqi Artillery Team of the Huai Army and Liu Mingchuan and other battalions attacked Tianjing, but he himself and the main force of the Huai Army were stationed around Tianjing.Speaking of Zeng Guoquan, he and Li Hongzhang still have a little feud.

As early as when Li Hongzhang first defected to Zeng Guofan, Zeng Guofan sent Li Hongzhang to Zeng Guoquan's office to handle camp affairs.In order to show respect for the teacher's younger brother, Li Hongzhang took out a paper fan and asked Zeng Guoquan to inscribe it as a souvenir.Zeng Guoquan actually complacently wrote fourteen characters in the article Zhongzi, who is a general in charge of security, Guo Linggong, and the font is not good and crooked.After Li Hongzhang saw it, he sneered, thinking that you are just a scholar, how dare you compare yourself to Guo Ziyi!What a shame.So he left after a few days.

After Li Hongzhang arrived in Shanghai, Zeng Guoquan repeatedly urged Li Hongzhang for food and payment, which annoyed Li Hongzhang.In addition, he disagreed with the Zeng Guofan brothers on several occasions of mobilizing talents, and Li Hongzhang and them were not very happy.Zeng Guoquan, who has always been very happy with his achievements, was anxious because of these few things.On the one hand, he was worried that Li Hongzhang would take credit with him when he came to attack Tianjing, which he could not allow; on the other hand, he also knew that the strength of the Huai army was not what it used to be, and Tianjing might be regained soon.In this way, wouldn't my two years of hard work be in vain?As everyone knows, at this time Li Hongzhang did not want to offend the Zeng brothers.Therefore, Li Hongzhang pretended to be sick, stood still in Suzhou and Changzhou, and wrote letters urging Zeng Guoquan to act quickly.He also said that he was going to turn around and go south to attack Zhejiang.As a result, this angered Zuo Zongtang, governor of Fujian and Zhejiang.Zuo Zongtang thought that Li Hongzhang was deliberately crossing the border to grab credit for himself, and thus, conflicts arose between Zuo and Li.

Li Hongzhang couldn't resist the Qing government's repeated urging, so he wrote to the Qing government to report his siege date, and then told Zeng Guofan to let them act earlier, and he continued to wait and see.Li Hongzhang's generals didn't know what he was thinking, and they were all gearing up for a big fight.General Liu Mingchuan told Li Hongzhang that as long as our Huai army's cannons are fired, Tianjing will definitely be captured in less than three to five days! On July 19, 1864, the day before Li Hongzhang sent troops, Zeng Guoquan's department planted explosives in tunnels, blasted down the city walls, and conquered Tianjing in one fell swoop.Zeng Guoquan finally got his coveted first victory.Afterwards, Zeng Guofan took Li Hongzhang's hand and said: My brother's face was saved by you, and we have to thank you.

Although Li Hongzhang did not know how to attack Tianjing, he played an important role in the capture of Tianjing by the Hunan Army.Afterwards, the Qing government rewarded Li Hongzhang as the first-class Earl Yi in terms of meritorious deeds, and rewarded him with double-eyed feathers.So far, Li Hongzhang has been squeezed into the core of the feudal ruling group of the Qing Dynasty from a Confucian scholar with no talent, a staff member with no soldiers and no power, and finally squeezed into the core of the feudal ruling group of the Qing Dynasty, becoming an important figure who impressed the government and the public.

It can be seen from this that Li Hongzhang is very principled in his work. He is unwilling to destroy a certain order or relationship that already exists in order to compete for small interests in front of him. This also shows his foresight and general bearing.In this way, the once vigorous Taiping Heavenly Kingdom peasant movement was finally suppressed by the Qing government.However, internal problems have not been eliminated.The remnants of the Taiping Army in the south, the Nian Army in the north, and the minority uprisings in the northwest are still going on.