Chapter 75 Do things decisively

In terms of the means of doing things, Li Hongzhang is even more vicious than his teacher Zeng Guofan.This is why Zeng Guofan likes him. Li Hongzhang was born with a ruthless spirit, which can be seen from a small incident when he was a child: When Li Hongzhang was eleven years old, his family raised a tank of goldfish. It was lively, lovely, and very beautiful, and the whole family liked it very much.One day, his father, Li Wen'an, was chatting with his family and said that this year the goldfish gave birth to more offspring, and many of them will be admitted as scholars.Unexpectedly, the next day, all the goldfish died.After careful questioning, it turned out that Li Hongzhang did it.Li Wen'an asked him why he killed the goldfish, and Li Hongzhang raised his head and said, "There are so many people who have passed the exam, why is it that I am the only one, and this fish cannot be kept."

It can be seen from this incident that Li Hongzhang has a high spirit and his methods are vicious enough.In his later military career and official career, the strong and resolute character he cultivated since childhood was fully reflected. In the first year of Tongzhi (1862), Li Xiucheng gathered 100,000 Taiping troops to attack Shanghai. The Huai army under Zhang Yuchun and Liu Yulin was defeated, and Liu Yulin was killed in battle.Soon, Li Xiucheng sent his beloved general Tan Shaoguang to lead a 30,000 Taiping army to fight fiercely with Cheng Xueqi, Guo Songlin, Zhou Shengbo, Zhang Shushan and other Huai troops.General Han Zhengguo of the Huai Army was injured, and the rest of the Huai Army suffered heavy losses.Subsequently, in the three battles of Taicang, Jiading, and Qingpu, the Huai army was defeated one after another.

But the situation at that time was still unfavorable to the Taiping Army, because the strongholds in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River were lost one after another, and Tianjing was also besieged by the Hunan Army for a long time. Under Hong Xiuquan's repeated urging, Li Xiucheng led the troops back to Nanjing in October of this year.Taking advantage of the emptiness of the Taiping Army's defense in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, the Huai Army joined forces with the Changsheng Army to capture Jiading and threaten Kunshan and Taicang.The Taiping armies such as Tan Shaoguang and Chen Bingwen, who stayed behind in Suzhou and Hangzhou, adopted an active defense policy and used offense as defense. Starting from Kuntai and Qingpu respectively, they would attack Jiading and Nanxiang and encircle the Sijiangkou.

Li Hongzhang took advantage of the Hunan Army's opportunity to contain Li Xiucheng on the western front, and deployed troops on the eastern front to attack the city and land, while recruiting surrender and rebellion. In June of the second year of Tongzhi (1863), Li Hongzhang coordinated the overall situation and decided to divide the Huai army into three groups and attack the Sufu provincial base that the Taiping army had operated for many years. In late November, the Huai army and the Changsheng army launched a fierce attack outside Loumen in Suzhou.Surrounded the city of Suzhou. In order to save the defeat, Li Xiucheng rushed back from the Tianjing front on the eve of the encirclement of the Huai army.But after arriving, relying on his rich fighting experience, he found that Gao Yongkuan and others had his heart.Knowing that the situation was not good, he wept farewell to Tan Shaoguang and left Suzhou late at night.

Among these generals, the eight guards headed by Na Wang Gao Yongkuan, Bi Wang Wu Guiwen, Kang Wang Wang Anjun, and Ning Wang Zhou Wenjia already had different ambitions, but they were afraid of the power of the Zhong Wang and dared not attack.Only Tan Shaoguang is loyal, but his power is weak and he can't do anything alone.Since Gao Yongkuan and Zheng Guokui, who had already become the deputy general of the Huai Army, had once worshiped the commander, Cheng Xueqi instructed Zheng Guokui to step up his rebellion.Zheng Guokui was originally from Hefei, and was born as a salt owl in Chaohu Lake. He killed the patriarch because he violated the clan rules, and was exiled to southern Jiangsu, where he became the leader of the Taihu boat-robbing banditry.He once joined the Taiping Army, and then joined the Huai Army.After his matchmaking, Cheng Xueqi, accompanied by Gordon, secretly met with Gao Yongkuan and Wang Anjun on a small boat in Yangcheng Lake in the northeast of Suzhou one late night. They can be named second-rank military officers.The two sides, with Gordon as a witness, turned their arrows into an alliance.Cheng Xueqi also exchanged birthday posts with Gao Yongkuan, and they became friends and brothers to show their sincerity.

A few days later, Gao Yongkuan and eight others took advantage of Tan Shaoguang's military meeting to launch a sudden attack, assassinate the famous general of the kingdom of heaven, and opened the city gate to welcome Cheng Xueqi's troops in.However, Gao Yongkuan and others were also wary of the Huai army. At that time, there were more than 100,000 Taiping troops in the city, old, weak and strong. They gave up half of the city to the Huai army, and concentrated in the other half. Take it apart, and if it is to be reorganized into the Huai Army in an organic way, at least 20 battalions must be formed.

Cheng Xueqi saw that the situation was not good, so he went out of the city that night to Li Hongzhang's secret merchant camp, thinking that the eight generals were unreliable and should be killed as soon as possible.Li Hongzhang hesitated and said: Since ancient times, killing and surrendering is an unlucky thing. Doing so will make the Taiping Army in Changzhou and Jiaxing desperately defend, and it will be much more difficult for us to fight down. Cheng Xueqi argued angrily: These people are all long-standing thugs from Guangdong and Guangxi, and the number of troops is several times larger than ours. Although they surrendered on the surface, they are not convinced in their hearts.If we don't kill their culprits and allow them to live with us in the same city with their troops, if something happens, the consequences will be unforeseen.At that time, I lost my head and I don't know why?After speaking, he walked away.

Li Hongzhang hurriedly chased him out, took his hand and said, "Brother Fang Zhong, don't be angry, I can't listen to you."So the Huai army outside the city was arranged to ambush outside the four gates overnight. The next morning, Li Hongzhang came to Cheng Xueqi's barracks in the city, summoned the eight Jiang kings, and said that he would reward them as generals and deputy generals on the spot.Li Hongzhang had already set up a banquet, and pretended to read the list of rewards, so he invited them to the table.At the beginning of the banquet, an urgent official document was suddenly sent by the school, and Li Hongzhang took advantage of the situation and left.After a while, when Bajiang Wang was drinking, eight Wubians came in. Each of them held a set of official uniforms of the Qing army. Standing up quickly, he untied the yellow cloth on his head with his hands. At this moment, eight Qing soldiers took out sharp daggers from under their uniforms, and eight bloody heads fell on Wu Bian. Ben's hands.

After Cheng Xueqi killed the Eight Subduing Kings, he immediately sent troops into Suzhou. They broke through every door, searched everywhere, and no one flew to the sky. He killed 30,000 Taiping soldiers in the courtyard of the Shuangta Temple in the city. The blood of the soldiers stained the crown on his head red. In his letter to Zeng Guofan, Li Hongzhang said: Although the Wu family is restored, the streets are flooded with refugees and bones are everywhere, and it will take a year for hair to grow.However, in order to deal with the number of surrendered enemies that were several times larger than his own, he used the method of cutting first and then playing, and cutting the mess quickly.Even Zeng Guofan, who has the title of Zeng Shaved his head, sighed.

Although Li Hongzhang's suggestion of killing surrender was not put forward by Li Hongzhang, he accepted Cheng Xueqi's proposal after all. Although he thought it was too unrighteous afterwards, considering the overall situation, he did not regret it.In his letter to his mother, he said frankly: After the men conquered Kunshan and Taicang, the Shanghai Navy conquered the counties of Wujiang and Jiangyin, and conquered all the cards along Taihu Lake, and then they joined forces to advance to Suzhou.Li Xiucheng tried his best to break the siege of Suzhou, but our army attacked bravely and captured Hushu Pass again.Li thief knew that there was nothing he could do, so he entered the city and washed with Tan Nishao, but he couldn't hold out.Our army bombarded the stone barriers outside the city, and all the stone barriers were destroyed.It was suitable for Hong thief Xiuquan to be rescued imminently, so he stayed in Shaoxi to guard the city and fled by night.In our army, Cheng Xueqi and others attacked the city day and night.Because the deputy general Zheng Guokui gave money to Xueqi, Yunguan and others from the Ministry of Pseudo-Na Wang stabbed Shao Xi to death, and opened the door to ask for surrender.The man entered the city to caress.Xue Qichu and Yunguan were brothers, fearing that the people would rebel, so he urged Yu Nan to kill Yunguan and other eight puppet kings, as well as hundreds of members of their party.Although this matter is too inhumane, it is related to the overall situation and has to be done.

This was not the case for Cheng Xueqi, because he himself was a surrendered general of the Taiping Army, but it was absolutely unjustifiable for him to do such a trick to Gao Yongkuan, who was also a surrendered general of the Taiping Army.So even though he has repeatedly advertised himself: killing and subjugating the alliance, being selfless for the country, this heart can challenge ghosts and gods.But never allowed others to mention the matter of killing and surrendering in front of him. Once, Li Hongzhang joked with him after drinking, saying: You are also a person who surrendered, how can you be so cruel to your kind.Cheng Xueqi was furious, and returned to the barracks to gather a group of soldiers, trying to find Li Hongzhang desperately.Li Hongzhang had no choice but to go to the door to apologize in person under the escort of other Huai army generals, so that the situation calmed down. Soon, Cheng Xueqi was shot in the brain by a stray bullet during the battle against Jiaxing, and died of serious injuries.Some notes record that before he died, he kept muttering to himself, repeating Li Hongzhang's reproach to him. However, Li Hongzhang still had a very high opinion of Cheng Xueqi. He said in a letter to his fourth brother Li Zhaoqing: Master Disheng ordered Cheng Xueqi from Huaining to serve his brother.Conquer the enemy wherever you go, be courageous and advance first, and be a rare talent in the country.After Cheng Xueqi's death, he wrote to the imperial court, stating that Cheng Xueqi recaptured more than a dozen famous cities in Jiangsu and Zhejiang in two years, among which the capture of Suzhou was the number one military exploit in the southeast, and he asked for a gift.Approved by the imperial court, a special edict granted him a shirt, and praised him for his wisdom and bravery. He was awarded the title of Prince Taibao and an altar for sacrifice. Ancestral halls were specially built for him in Anqing, Suzhou, and Jiaxing. He was awarded the position of the hereditary third-class captain of light vehicles by Garn, who was combined with the title of third-class baron. Zeng Guofan was very satisfied with this, and said in a letter to Zeng Guoquan: "I have been ashamed of my younger brother for more than a year, but I only sent a general Cheng Xueqi to the detriment of my younger brother."However, it is detrimental to the family and beneficial to the country. The younger brother is not too depressed, and the elder brother does not need to regret it.Seeing that Shaoquan asked Cheng Xueqi for a sympathy, he made a statement of fairness. Zeng Guofan is also an expert in killing and surrendering. Many generals who surrendered from the Taiping Army did not end well.In this regard, Li Hongzhang can be said to be better than blue. Zeng Guofan was very happy with Li Hongzhang's clean handling of the eight surrendered generals and the recovery of Suzhou City.In his letter to his younger brother Zeng Guoyan, he said: In recent events, only Li Shaoquan killed the eight kings in Suzhou the most satisfactory.In the diary on November 23rd in the second year of Tongzhi (1863), it is also said: Reading today's documents, I saw that Li Shaoquan killed eight people in Suzhou and submitted a letter to him, which is very sharp.