Chapter 22 Miedong's reward is too low

After the Hunan Army captured Tianjing, the relationship between Zeng Guofan and the Qing government suddenly became tense.The Qing government deeply felt that the biggest threat to its rule was not the aftermath of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, but Zeng Guofan, who had a large army and a wide range of power.At that time, Zeng Guofan was the governor of Liangjiang, supervising the military affairs of the four provinces of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui and Jiangxi.The Hunan Army he created has grown to 300,000, and the Hunan Army under his direct command, including his direct descendant Zeng Guoquan, has as many as 120,000 people.He also controlled the lijin of Anhui, Jiangxi and other provinces and the copays of several provinces.Because he has been employed for too long, his military handle is too heavy, and his power is too wide, those who choose him are shocked, and those who are close are suspicious.The conflict between Zuo Zongtang and Li Hongzhang, who were far below the Zeng family, and the Qing government was relegated to a secondary position.In order to prevent Zeng Guofan's power from continuing to expand and fight against itself, the Qing government adopted a divide and conquer strategy of suppressing Zeng Guofan's brothers and supporting Zuo, Li and others to contend with them.On November 6, 1864, that is, less than four months after the Hunan Army captured Tianjing, the Qing government suddenly ordered Zeng Guofan to go to the border between Anhui and Hubei to supervise the troops and suppress the bandits. Instead, Li Hongzhang was reassigned to act as Governor Jiang.Zhao Liewen, Zeng's aide, exclaimed strangely about this, and Zeng Guofan himself was very unimpressed.Although it was less than January before the Qing government withdrew its order, it was an obvious move to promote Li Yizeng.

Zeng Guofan is too good at power and politics, and he is also well versed in officialdom.At this time, Zeng Guofan, as the governor of Liangjiang, supervised the military affairs of the four provinces of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, and Jiangxi. The Hunan army under his command had reached more than 300,000, and the number of Hunan troops under his personal command was 120,000.In addition, he also controlled the lijin and grain rates of the four provinces.With such a huge power concentrated on him alone, how could the Qing government not be suspicious!The four words "Gong Gao Zhen Zhu" struck Zeng Guofan's heart from time to time.He couldn't help thinking about the way out.

Zeng Guofan began to take the initiative to abolish the Hunan Army in order to keep the Qing government's trust in him.He also hoped to retain Li Hongzhang's Huai army as a weight of balance between himself and the Qing government.Zeng Guofan distributed the 120,000 people in his hands to Zuo Zongtang and Shen Baozhen. Zeng Guofan also abolished a large number of Zeng Guofan's direct line troops (that is, his younger brother Zeng Guoquan's troops) who were most worried about the court, and arranged for Zeng Guoquan to be ill. An excuse to go back to my hometown for recuperation.

In May 1865, Seng Gelinqin, the commander in chief of the suppression of the Qing government, was wiped out in Heze, Shandong.Seng Gelinqin died at the hands of a teenage boy soldier Zhang Pigeng, and the scene was truly astonishing.The Qing government immediately appointed Zeng Guofan, who was the governor of Liangjiang at that time, as the imperial envoy to the north, and Li Hongzhang was appointed as the governor of Jiangsu to act as the governor of Liangjiang.This means that Li Hongzhang is about to take control of the military power and political power in Liangjiang.Li Hongzhang supported Zeng Guofan's anti-twisting activities in all aspects.First of all, in terms of military strength, the Hunan Army has almost been abolished, and Li Hongzhang was transferred to the Huai Army of Zeng Guofan's 33rd Battalion.Li Hongzhang sent another ten battalions of elite troops to sail to Tianjin and then moved to Jingzhou and Dezhou.Li Hongzhang also gave Zeng Guofan a lot of support in terms of food and salary.He knew that in the face of the great plan to suppress Nian, the Hunan Army and the Huai Army must be united.

Zeng Guofan mobilized 60,000 Huai troops successively for this campaign against Nian.These Huai troops are all equipped with foreign guns and cannons, as well as a complete independent artillery team.However, Zeng Guofan was not very smart when commanding the Huai army, because the Huai army only obeyed Li Hongzhang's dispatch, and he was not ignorant of this.Even if Zeng Guofan had some resentment and complaints in his heart, he could only sigh in vain.His biggest sigh at the moment is that the grand occasion of the Hunan Army has gone to Zeng Guofan's suppression of Nian, which is not satisfactory. In September 1866, the Nian Army broke through the front of the Hunan Army near Kaifeng.After Zeng Guofan learned about it, he was very worried and fell ill all of a sudden.Zeng Guofan wrote an apology to the court and called Li Hongzhang to his side to help.However, the Qing government issued an imperial decree to let Zeng Guofan return to the post of governor of Liangjiang, and Li Hongzhang was appointed as the new imperial envoy to take over the important task of suppressing Nian.Zeng Guofan's face turned purple with anger, it was really embarrassing.In order to balance his mentality, he repeatedly asked to stay to maintain the morale of the army, but the Qing government asked him to return to Liangjiang as soon as possible.

On December 12, 1866, the Qing government actually appointed Li Hongzhang as the imperial envoy to deal with matters related to the suppression of twisters, and Li Hongzhang became the head coach of the suppression of twisters. Li Hongzhang sent someone to Zeng Guofan to get the seal. Zeng Guofan was already sick, so he was very sad and lonely seeing this scene.He said helplessly, took it away so soon?I thought there was going to be a handover ceremony! After Li Hongzhang took over, he was so complacent that he didn't pay attention to the Nian Army at all.Before long, he had a bitter taste of four defeats in a row.These four times were in Luojiaji, Daoshuwan, Yinlonghe, and Liushengang respectively.After the Nian Army broke through Zeng Guofan's river defense, it was divided into two parts in October 1866: Lai Wenguang and Ren Huabang led the Eastern Nian Army to operate in Henan, and Zhang Zongyu led the Western Nian Army to attack Shaanxi.

The Nian Army was different from the Taiping Army in that they had fewer numbers, no bases, flexible operations, and guerrilla tactics.The Xianghuai Army has a large number of people, and it is very difficult to mobilize. They are often led by the nose by the Nian Army, exhausted.Lai Wenguang, the general of the Eastern Nien Army who fought against Li Hongzhang, was resourceful, and Ren Huabang was brave and good at fighting, and the two cooperated quite tacitly.The commanders of each battalion of the Huai Army acted independently, eager to strive for success, and did not help each other.Therefore, Li Hongzhang suffered a lot.Li Hongzhang learned his lesson and reorganized his team.He reorganized the Huai Army into four elite troops, namely Ming, Wuyi, Ding, and Xun Battalions.In addition, Li Hongzhang also increased the strength of the cavalry and trained them strictly.Because the Nian army was accustomed to riding horses on the northern plains, they came and went without a trace and erratically, so the cavalry of the Huai army could not catch up with them.

In order to train the cavalry as soon as possible, Liu Mingchuan adopted a method.He hung a gold ingot at the gate of the camp and lit a stick of incense.It was ordered that within the time of one stick of incense, they would ride horses around the camp three times, and whoever arrived first would be given this piece of gold.This method was very effective, and the cavalry practiced bravely.Three months later, the fastest runner was able to run three times around the fourteen camps within the time of a stick of incense. In terms of strategy against the Nian Army, Li Hongzhang adopted the method of defending the river transport. His intention was: the Nian Army had already broken through the canal defense line and entered Shandong in the summer of 1867. Li Hongzhang decided to defend the west line of the canal and prevent the Nian Army from returning division.Determined, Li Hongzhang moved the battalion to Jining regardless of the dissatisfaction of Shandong governor Ding Baozhen.In this way, Shandong has become the main battlefield.Li Hongzhang also adopted the policy of entering Jiaolai.The Jiaolai River is located in the middle of the Shandong Peninsula. It was a canal in the Yuan Dynasty and was used to communicate with the East China Sea and the Bohai Sea.At that time, the Nian Army had already entered Dengzhou and Laizhou.Li Hongzhang ordered all parts of the Huai army to guard the Jiaolai River.The Nian Army saw through Li Hongzhang's intentions and counterattacked various places along the Jiaolai River many times. In August, they broke through the defense line of the Eastern Army's Wang Xin'an Department.Li Hongzhang had no choice but to continue to defend the canal defense line.However, the canal defenses were breached repeatedly.Zeng Guofan lost confidence in his trick and advised Li Hongzhang to find another way.However, Li Hongzhang was unmoved.He said to Zeng Guofan, I believe that if you persevere to the end, you will surely win.Later, the Nian Army tried to go through the canal many times but failed, so they had to go to guerrilla warfare in southern Shandong and northern Jiangsu instead.Liu Mingchuan bribed a small leader of Ren Huabang and shot Ren Huabang to death, and the Nian army was in chaos.In the end, Lai Wenguang also died heroically.

When the news reached Beijing, the ruling and opposition parties rejoiced.Zeng Guofan also followed the Huai army.A group of people will all be rewarded for their merits.At Li Hongzhang's order, all the 80,000 Hunan and Huai troops gathered in Jining to celebrate Li Hongzhang's destruction of the East Road Nian Army. At the end of the sixth year of Tongzhi, Li Hongzhang's troops from all walks of life returned to Jining to celebrate the new year, and carnival every day.On December 27th, the imperial court issued an imperial decree on meritorious deeds and deeds, but it was like a basin of cold water, extinguishing the joyous atmosphere of the Hunan and Huai armies.First of all, Liu Mingchuan, the admiral of Zhili, has been fighting in the north for more than two years, and has made many meritorious deeds.The other generals are just fourth-rank cavalry captains or fifth-rank captain Yunqi.The one who suffered the most was Li Zhaoqing, because Li Hongzhang ordered him to go to Jinling City to raise his salary and meet with Zeng Guofan.When he hurried back to the front line, just after the battle, Lai Wenguang was captured.The luck was bad, Li Zhaoqing worked for more than two years, but in the end he didn't get any Spyker.

When Li Hongzhang summoned all the generals to read the imperial decree, Liu Mingchuan jumped up as soon as he finished reading the award to Liu Mingchuan, his pockmarked face turned red and bright with anxiety.He shouted: Let it go (Hefei dialect), what's the point of this!We have fought east and west for more than two years, and now we have wiped out Dong Nian in one fell swoop. I didn't expect the court to be so disrespectful.Give me a light car captain, or third class.I want to go to my hometown in Hefei to take the children!Save this life and go back to your hometown to enjoy the happiness!As he said that, he was about to leave on the spot. When he looked up and saw Li Hongzhang staring at him, he lowered his head and stood still.

Before this, Guo Songlin had been conferred the title of Chief Soldier of Fushan Town, Jiangsu Province, and this time he only got a fourth-rank cavalry captain.He scolded on the spot: As long as Mr. Li nods his head, I will walk to the Forbidden City to argue with Empress Dowager Cixi.Why does she only give us brothers such a low reward?It's not dry anymore! Zhou Shengbo grumbled: "The queen mother and the emperor are really outrageous this time.The Hunan and Huai armies made such a great achievement, annihilating 50,000 troops, but the rewards were too stingy to swallow.I still have to play western twisting, so what can I do if I play western twisting? Li Hongzhang also felt in his heart that the imperial court did not reward much this time.But right now, these generals are too out of line, not only full of complaints, but also openly cursing their mothers.If these cursing words are spread, it is not a joke.So, he beat the case and gave a lecture to all the generals who complained.Seeing that everyone was silent, he said calmly: I thought why the imperial court gave such a low reward this time?Because although we have flattened the Nian bandits on the East Road, there is still a large group of Nian bandits on the West Road.The Nian bandits on the West Road are still unresolved, so it is not considered a full effort.The imperial court rewarded all of you to the top at once, do you still have the energy to fight the Nian bandits on the West Road? After Li Hongzhang said this, the generals seemed to react.I thought that the court might really think so.So, everyone put all their energy into the battle to wipe out Xiyan.But Xi Nian was still in the area of ​​Jiyuan, Henan at that time, and Zuo Zongtang sent a group of troops to block and chase after him. The Nian army on the west route was defeated by the entire army on the east route.During the New Year, many generals in the Huai Army wanted to go back to their hometowns.Li Hongzhang granted Liu Mingchuan, Zhou Shengbo and others a one-month vacation, and strictly restricted them from returning to the front line on time. Liu Mingchuan and Zhou Shengbo each took fifty soldiers to return to their hometown in Feifei.Li Hongzhang and his generals celebrated the New Year in Jining City.It so happened that Qian Dingming came to Jining to celebrate the New Year with Li Hongzhang and his staff.Qian Dingming has been nominated as a chief minister and Taoist, and he is in charge of the Huai Army's Grain, Grass, and Armament Transfer Bureau in Qingjiangpu.Liu Bingzhang also had the title of Chief Minister of Shanxi. He left the camp and handed over his troops to Wu Changqing to lead him.For a while, Li Hongzhang's Jining camp was full of civil and military equipment, very prosperous and inspiring.