Zeng Guofan cherished his feathers too much, although he was called a half-saint, but he did not finish what he had to do.
Zuo Zongtang didn't have so many scruples, he was a genius who had only been born in hundreds of years, and he had only begun to develop in middle age, so naturally he had to toss and turn before he was willing to give up.
Therefore, there is still an essential difference between these two people, and from the perspective of the merits of the final establishment, I personally believe that Zuo Zongtang is better than Zeng Guofan.
First, Zeng Guofan gave up his military power and could not do anything.
Zeng Guofan started by pacifying the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and at this time Zeng Guofan was full of vigor, although he fought many defeats, but by perseverance, he finally survived the infighting in the Taiping Army, survived until Shi Da drove away, survived until Hong Xiuquan died, and only survived to the day when the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was destroyed.
It can be said that the most important and brilliant day in Zeng Guofan's life was the day of leading troops in the south. But after the end of the war, why did Zeng Guofan go?
Zeng Guofan did not say a word, and took the initiative to disband the Xiang army, which made the old empress dowager Cixi happy and bad, thinking that Zeng Guofan was a great loyal subject. But Cixi was still not at ease, why? Because All of Zeng Guofan's subordinates serve in the Yangtze River area, you let him be the governor of Liangjiang, which is not to hand over the south of the Yangtze River to Zeng Guofan!
After Zeng Guofan disbanded the Xiang army, he went to the north to pacify the Twist army, but failed all the way. Good guys, the original strength, now all gone.
In 1868, Cixi transferred Zeng Guofan to be the governor of Zhili, the first of the six viceroys of the Qing Dynasty. Although it seems that he has been promoted, Zeng Guofan has left his old nest.
After Zeng Guofan left his troops, he couldn't do anything well. When dealing with the Tianjin teaching case, Zeng Guofan submitted to France, executed 8 Qing Dynasty people, and lost 460,000 yuan to foreigners. This matter can throw away Zeng Guofan's old face.
After Zeng Guofan went north, Cixi transferred Ma Xinyi to be the governor of Liangjiang, and as a result, this elder brother was assassinated not long after, which is still a mystery. Most likely, zeng guofan's gang did it, why? They want the old leader to come back!
Cixi had no choice but to get Zeng Guofan back to be the governor of Liangjiang, but unfortunately Zeng Guofan had no more merits since he went north.
Second, Zuo Zongtang can realize his self-worth regardless of what others say.
Zuo Zongtang was too powerful, before the age of 40, Zuo Zongtang taught, farmed, and lived in seclusion, in short, there was nothing big to do. By the age of 48, Zuo Zongtang was still only an aide to the Inspector of Hunan. However, since he began to pacify the Taiping Army, Zuo Zongtang's promotion path was very fast!
At the age of 52, Zuo Zongtang led his troops to capture Zhejiang, and was promoted to the governor of Fujian and Zhejiang. It took only 4 years, from a penniless cloth to a feudal official, and you have to be impressed.
After the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was destroyed, the Xiang army was disbanded one after another, which was Zeng Guofan's act of self-preservation. However, Zuo Zongtang knew that the Qing Dynasty was in danger, this time was not yet the time to retire, and there were still many things that he needed to do, so he did not disband the Chu army in his hands. Then he did the following:
First, the Fujian Shipping Administration was established.
He first went to Fujian to establish the Fujian Shipping Administration, intending to build its own shipyard and naval base for the Qing Dynasty here. Unfortunately, as soon as the foundation was laid, Zuo Zongtang was transferred to the north to quell the rebellion of the Twister Army.
Second, the Queding Twister Rebellion and the Shaanxi-Gansu Uprising.
At that time, Zeng Guofan could not handle the Twist Army, so Zuo Zongtang and Li Hongzhang were one in the west and the other in the east, respectively, to quell the Twist army rebellion. As soon as this was done, Zuo Zongtang was constantly responsible for quelling the uprising in the Shaanxi-Gansu region.
You say, if he had chosen to pick a fight and not do it, just to keep his good reputation, wouldn't the world be in chaos again?
Third, recover Xinjiang.
After all these things were done, Zuo Zongtang was already 63 years old. Do you think he can retire at this time? Of course not, he has one more important thing to do, and that is to recover Xinjiang.
At that time, the great powers saw that the Qing Dynasty was busy dealing with things in the east, so they supported a man named Agubai and let him occupy the territory of Xinjiang alone.
Xinjiang is China's inherent territory, and it has been a part of us since the Han Dynasty, so why should it be usurped at this time? Therefore, Hu Zuo Zongtang took the initiative to write a letter to lead the army to recover Xinjiang.
Empress Dowager Cixi was very embarrassed, because Li Hongzhang demanded that Xinjiang be abandoned and the money be spent on the establishment of the navy. The dispute between coastal defense and Sai defense thus began, and in the end Cixi made a decision, both things had to be done, but where did the money come from?
Obviously, Cixi was partial to Li Hongzhang, because the money was basically given to Li Hongzhang to form the Beiyang Marine Division, and as for Zuo Zongtang's recovery of Xinjiang, Cixi only gave 5 million taels of silver. The remaining nearly 20 million taels of silver were borrowed by Zuo Zongtang from foreign banks through Hu Xueyan's connections.
After that, Zuo Zongtang, who was nearly seventy years old, carried a coffin into Xinjiang, first recovering northern Xinjiang, then southern Xinjiang, and then taking Ili, completing the feat of recovering Xinjiang. During this period, Zuo Zongtang's wife and son died one after another, and Zuo Zongtang did not have time to go home to see it. After all, the seven-foot body has already been Xu Guo, and it is difficult to xu Qing. Later generations have poems praising Zuo Zongtang's recovery of Xinjiang:
The general has not yet returned the edge, and the huxiang disciples are full of heavenly mountains. The newly planted willows are three thousand miles, attracting the spring wind to the jade pass.
Third, Zuo Zongtang's Yu Wei made foreigners realize that Chinese not good at bullying.
Compared with Zeng Guofan Mingzhe's attitude of protecting himself, Zuo Zongtang was too dare to do things. He was not afraid of the arguments of those in power, nor did he care what others said, he knew that he had many unfulfilled obligations when he came to this world.
After recovering Xinjiang, Zuo Zongtang wrote five times, finally enabling the Qing Dynasty to set up a province in Xinjiang, ensuring that Xinjiang would never leave the embrace of the Chinese nation again.
After that, he served as the Minister of Military Aircraft, responsible for the affairs of the Military Department, mainly managing military training, water control, smoking ban and other related matters. Unfortunately, his temper was too straight, causing colleagues to think that he was too domineering, and in desperation, Zuo Zongtang had to go south again and serve as the governor of Liangjiang.
In 1883, Zuo Zongtang was already 72 years old. At this time, China and France resumed war in Vietnam, and Zuo Zongtang took the initiative to request to go to supervise the battle. At that time, Zuo Zongtang's eyes were already unclear, but he still planned to go to the front line to direct the battle.
In 1885, at the strong suggestion of Zuo Zongtang, the Qing court finally established the Prime Minister's Naval Affairs Yamen, and changed the Fujian Inspectorate to the Inspector of Taiwan, and established Taiwan as a province, at the age of 74.
The 74-year-old Zuo Zongtang is still worried about state affairs, and since he came out of the mountains at the age of 48, he has never forgotten why he came to this world because of the slander of others, and he is worthy of being a national hero.
Summary: The foreigners are afraid of Zuo Zongtang, that is what he played!
When the mighty General Zuo Da came to Shanghai to inspect the concession, foreigners from all over the world trembled and trembled, and one by one they removed their own flags and raised the Yellow Dragon Flag of the Qing Dynasty. Because he was afraid of Zuo Zongtang.
Zuo Zongtang was dismissive of this, Chinese territory, of course, we must raise our Chinese our own banner! As for the reason why the foreigners are afraid of him, he also confessed: it was played!
If there are a few more Chinese like Zuo Zongtang in this world, then how can we be bullied by foreigners in the last years of the Qing Dynasty? So do you think Zeng Guofan is strong or Zuo Zongtangqiang now?