One day in August of the fifty-sixth year of Qianlong (1791), the elderly Qianlong Emperor went to the Mulan Paddock for the last time in his life to hold a hunt, accompanied by many of Qianlong's princes and grandchildren. During a hunting trip, the 10-year-old Emperor Sun Minning held a bow and arrow, and an arrow hit a sika deer, and the Qianlong Emperor was very happy, praised the emperor, and rewarded him with a yellow coat and a flower plume on the spot.
One day in September of the eighteenth year of Jiaqing, the Tianli Sect held a peasant uprising in the capital, and all the people and horses even entered the Forbidden City with knives and guns. Due to the haste of the change, no one in the hundreds of years since the founding of the Qing Dynasty dared to attack the Forbidden City in broad daylight, and the guards and eunuchs in the palace were in a mess. Several rebels rushed to the outside of the Yangxin Temple, trying to climb the wall and jump into the courtyard. Or this crown prince Min Ning, who was not in danger, calm and composed, took a shot at the bird and killed two rebels on the spot, and the rest fled into the wilderness, and Min Ning's courage was praised.
All indications confirm that this Min Ning is a rising star of the Qing imperial family, and the future can be expected, if he becomes the emperor of the Qing Dynasty, he is likely to do a great cause like Kangxi Qianlong and others. However, what is jaw-dropping is that the ancient adage of "it is not necessarily better to be big after an hour" has once again come into play, and Min Ning later became the Daoguang Emperor, but during his reign, he caused the Qing Dynasty to suffer heavy setbacks such as the defeat of the Opium War, and led the Qing Dynasty headlong into the abyss of destruction.
The reason why the Daoguang Emperor changed from a wise and decisive young talent with strong intentions to a dimwitted and confused prince had a lot to do with his inferior way of employing people. During Daoguang's reign, the most appreciated minister was named Mu Zhang'a. It was under Daoguang's hands that Mu Zhang'a rose from a household attendant to a high-ranking position, successively serving as the minister in charge of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the governor of Caoyun, the minister of military aircraft, the prince Taibao, the scholar of Wuyingdian University, the scholar of Wenhuadian University, and other important positions, controlling the power of the Qing Dynasty for more than twenty years, and was the premier minister under Daoguang.
And what kind of person is this Muzhanga? The Xianfeng Emperor's evaluation of this person can be described as a sharp point: "Protecting the throne and greedy, hindering the virtuous and sick country." Xiao Zhong, xiao xin, feminine to sell his adultery; pseudo-learning and pseudo-talent, speculation to meet ideas. To be outdivated, to be hated." Before and after the Opium War, the Daoguang Emperor deliberately reused Lin Zexu, who was extremely loyal and talented, but Mu Zhang'a was jealous of Xian's ability, fearing that Lin Zexu would surpass him in the future, and did everything he could to squeeze out and make false accusations, and did everything to the extreme, causing Lin Zexu to lose his official post and be sent to the frontier. It can be said that Mu Zhang'a was the culprit who framed Lin Zexu.
But the strange thing is that another famous Qing Dynasty minister, Zeng Guofan, is grateful to this Mu Zhang'a all his life. After Mu Zhang'a was removed from his post by the Xianfeng Emperor, the court snubbed the car, and Zeng Guofan continued to visit. After Mu Zhang'a's death, Zeng Guofan took care of Mu Zhang'a's son in many ways, and seemed to have a lot of friendship. Why would the righteous Zeng Guofan get involved with this traitor that everyone hated?
It turned out that on the road of Zeng Guofan's development, Mu Zhang'a had helped him a lot, and it can be said that he was a nobleman in Zeng Guofan's life. The Meilu Cong Dialect records that when Zeng Guofan first served in Hanlin, he was unknown and traveled from many directions to the powerful minister Mu Zhang'a, hoping to get his support and care. Mu Zhang'a took the money and wealth to help people, so he often chanted Zeng Guofan in front of Daoguang, saying that "Zeng was careful when something happened, but it can be of great use."
Mu Zhang'a's words worked, and one day, Daoguang summoned Zeng Guofan to the palace. After entering the palace, the eunuch took him into a side hall, where many calligraphy and paintings were hung on the walls and made him wait. Zeng Guofan waited until noon before the eunuch came to tell him that the emperor was not coming and asked him to come back tomorrow.
Zeng Guofan was confused and went to Mu Zhang'a for advice. Mu Zhang'a sighed for a long time and asked Zeng Guofan, "Is there a banner of characters hanging between the walls of Rumi?" Zeng Guofan said that he did not pay attention to it. Mu Zhang'a immediately found a servant, handed him 400 taels of silver, and asked him to enter the palace to find a eunuch who was familiar with him, and copied all the contents of the inscriptions on the wall of the side hall where Zeng Guofan stayed during the day.
After the servants brought the contents of the banner back to the palace, Mu Zhang'a told Zeng Guofan, "Hanging between the walls, the hadiths of the previous dynasties", the contents of the banners are the last words of the Qing Emperors, the Daoguang Emperor made Zeng Guofan wait here for a long time, it is likely that tomorrow he will ask him about the contents of the hadiths, so that Zeng Guofan can read and memorize the hadiths all night long.
The next day, Zeng Guofan entered the palace again and met the Daoguang Emperor. The Daoguang Emperor did indeed talk to Zeng Guofan about the contents of the ancestors' hadiths, and wanted to examine whether he was "attentive when things happened" as Mu Zhang'a said. Zeng Guofan had already made preparations, and immediately answered like a stream, and was deeply appreciated by Daoguang, which enabled him to come to the turning point of his career and soar step by step. Therefore, although Mu Zhang'a was of inferior character, he was the Bole and Confidant of Zeng Guofan, so Zeng Guofan was grateful to him all his life.
References: "Meilu Cong Dialect", "Draft History of the Qing Dynasty"