Daoguang Emperor is a thrifty emperor, from his 30 years of reign, it seems that there is no other bright spot except for "saving money and cutting the door", the original mediocre Qualifications of the Daoguang Emperor, but the luck is not good, he did not become a shoucheng king like his father Emperor Jiaqing, but encountered a major change that the feudal empire did not encounter. A mediocre emperor and a group of mediocre ministers made the Qing Dynasty a "painless world" during the thirty years.
In the Daoguang Dynasty, the three influential heavyweights were Cao Zhenyong, Mu Zhang'a and Pan Shi'en. In the early daoguang period, Cao Zhenyong was deeply favored and favored, and in the end, his personality was very similar to that of the Daoguang Emperor. Cao Zhengyong was conservative and cautious, and as the chief military minister, he did every day to deal with the mud, holding the attitude of turning big things into small things between the emperor and his subordinates.
Throughout his life, Cao Zhenyong adhered to the principle of "prostrating more and talking less", influencing the officials of the Six Ministries and eighteen provinces of the Qing Dynasty. However, this Cao Gong was also regarded as an official, who did not leave any greedy names in his life, and spent his life in the most important position, and finally received the supreme honor of the nickname "Wenzheng".
Pan Shien, a native of Suzhou, was the leader of the Fifty-Eighth Year of Qianlong (1793). It is said that such a proud son of heaven should have done something great, from the Qianlong Dynasty all the way to the Xianfeng Dynasty, Pan Shien's career has always been smooth, but unfortunately, even if Pan Shien has great ambitions, he cannot change the status quo at that time with the strength of one person, not to mention that Pan Shien and his people do not have the heart, and only want to be his own official in peace and security.
Compared with the two mentioned above, Mu Zhang'a, a person with a blue flag, is quite sharp, at least he cannot be described as "no pain, no itch" and "mediocrity", because Mu Zhang'a's life does have many "bright spots".
Compared with the Qianlong Dynasty's He yan, Mu Zhang'a also reached the peak of power, but Mu Zhang'a was not a good lord like He Yan, for him, power is the greatest temptation, but it must become a tool for accumulating wealth. Mu Zhang'a is passionate about power, but when he has power, he does not want to make a difference, but instead uses power to hinder the progress of others, and Lin Zexu is a typical example.
Mu Zhang'a's partner Pan Shi'en wanted to be open, he only wanted to be a Taiping prime minister, a taiping wanted to grasp power, anyone who tried to change the status quo would be hit by their joint blows, and the top-down reform of the Qing Dynasty could not be discussed, so the floods and droughts everywhere, the people rioted, through the layers of official documents system, were turned into big things and small things. Whatever the emperor commanded, he only promised, did not make any arguments, and avoided complicating the situation.
In the late Daoguang Dynasty, from the capital to the provinces, all the characters who could be called out were basically from the "Mu Party". His power was much greater than that of Cao Zhenyong and Pan Shien, and he could be said to be full of protégés and officials. After Xianfeng ascended the throne, Mu Zhang'a was dismissed, but there were still many protégés occupying important positions in various departments. Zeng Guofan is the most typical representative of this.
In the twenty-seventh year of Daoguang, under the operation of Mu Zhang'a, Zeng Guofan was promoted from a bachelor of Hanlin Academy (from Sipin) to a cabinet bachelor and a ceremonial attendant (正二品), rising to five consecutive levels, so that Zeng Guofan lamented that "there is no one in this dynasty who has been from thirty-seven to two products in Hunan". When it comes to Mu Zhang'a's merits, I am afraid that this is the only one, that is, inadvertently promoting a famous minister who "recreated the Great Qing".
In the seventh year of Tongzhi, Mu Zhang'a had been dead for more than ten years, and Zeng Guofan had become a "famous minister of Zhongxing", when he entered the capital, because of the outstanding merits in suppressing the Taiping Army, various commendation celebrations made him overwhelmed, but in this case, Zeng Guofan also took a special trip to inquire about the descendants of mu who had fallen in the family road, and gave huge sums of money to repay Mu Zhang'a's kindness.
Throughout the Daoguang Dynasty, with Cao Zhenyong, Pan Shien, and Mu Zhang'a in charge of the military aircraft department, the entire government of the dynasty can be described in one sentence: "The Son of Heaven has nothing to do, the world has nothing to do, you have nothing to do, I have nothing to do, everyone is fine." "A mediocre emperor plus a group of mediocre vassals, the Qing Dynasty is doomed to escape decay."