Text/Kingdom Building
Zeng Guofan was ordered to form the Xiangyong Regiment in the early stage of training, and around the issue of the command of the Xiang Army and the issue of grain and salary, he launched a fight with Luo Bingzhang, the then governor of Hunan. The old and spicy Luo Bingzhang made a little trick, which made Zeng Guofan jump like a thunderbolt, and finally had to bow his noble head in front of reality. After Zeng Guofan became famous, he held hundreds of thousands of male soldiers in his hands and did not dare to rebel, and he was also related to Luo Bingzhang and others.
01, the boss of the Xiang Army is the Governor of Hunan or Zeng Guofan
When Zeng Guofan was instructed to establish the Hunan Regiment, the Governor of Hunan was Zhang Liangji, a good friend of Zeng Guofan. Zeng Guofan sacrificed himself to serve the country, Zhang Liangji threw peach in return for Li, and the two sang and reconciled, making it sound and colorful. However, Zhang Liangji's unprincipled support for Zeng Guofan not only annoyed the generals of the Green Camp, but also laid a huge hidden danger for Zeng Guofan's later development.
In April 1852, Luo Bingzhang took over as the Governor of Hunan. Due to the tight war, Inspector Luo was carrying huge political pressure, and how to dispatch troops to guard Xiangtu became a major difficulty. Luo Bingzhang, a scholar, was not good at marching and fighting, and always relied on the guidance of the generals of the Green Battalion under him. However, Zeng Guofan, the minister of regimental training, was very dissatisfied with these Green Camp generals, unwilling to obey the command of the Green Camp generals, and wanted to form an army independently, which made Luo Bingzhang very annoyed. Judging by their nature, the Green Battalion soldiers are the regular army of the state, and the regiment training Xiangyong is a militia reserve; from the perspective of the political system and subordination relationship, the regiment training Xiangyong is an auxiliary unit that assists the Green Battalion Army in combat, and naturally obeys the command of the green battalion generals, which is beyond doubt. Zeng Guofan wanted to be different and wanted to destroy the imperial court system, but there was no door. Whether it is the Green Battalion soldiers or Xiang Yong, as long as they are in Hunan Territory, they all belong to the Hunan Patrol Management. Zeng Guofan wanted to form an army independently, Luo Bingzhang naturally did not agree, the two stumbled and hit the court to the governor of Huguang, Yamen and the imperial court, and finally the Xianfeng Emperor ruled that Zeng Guofan's regiment, Xiang Yong, must obey the command and dispatch of the local governor, which was a conclusion to the dispute between the two sides.
02. Whether the regimental training should be consistent with the grain and salary of the green battalion soldiers
In the early days of Zeng Guofan's creation of the Xiangyong Regiment, grain and salary mainly relied on their own fundraising, and some of his old friends Zhang Liangji, who were not enough, helped a little, and they were barely able to survive. But after a long time, it is not enough to make ends meet, and eating has become a problem.
After Luo Bingzhang became the governor of Hunan, because of frequent battles with the Taiping Army, the domain treasury was empty, and it was difficult to supply the Green Camp Army, so there was surplus grain for Zeng Guofan. Xiang Yong, who was partial to Zeng Guofan, was not angry, and even if he had just gone out on a campaign, he would even lose the battle, not to mention that he wanted grain and pay, but he wanted a few pieces of shroud, and Luo Bingzhang did not bother to give it. At that time, Zeng Guofan did not have the mind and courage of his old age, and several major officials in Hunan were scolded by him for being a dog and bloody head, and the more the relations between the two sides became more and more stalemate, they almost set up a posture to fight a war. Hu Linyi, the governor of Hubei, had a good personal relationship with Zeng Guofan and Luo Bingzhang, and after his persuasion and coordination, Luo Bingzhang finally agreed to give zeng guofan a message, but it was only half of the Green Camp army, and it was not guaranteed to arrive on time. It is precisely for this reason that after the Xiang army later won the battle, it plundered the occupied city and replenished the grain and wages, but it is not known how many rare treasures fell into the pocket of the leader of the Xiang army.
After 1862, because of its military achievements and the imperial court's dependence on the Xiang Army, the grain and salary of the Xiang Army were already consistent with those of the Green Camp Army, but the plundering habits developed over the years could not be changed. The Xiang army still implemented the Three Lights Policy on the occupied cities, so Zeng Guofan's close friends Liu Rong and Guo Songtao wrote letters to persuade him to stop it, and Zeng Guofan said that he wanted to stop it, but in fact let it go.
After the invasion of Tianjing City in 1864, the Xiang Army general Zeng Guoquan (Zeng Guofan's brother) not only plundered the treasures of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, but also allowed soldiers to roam freely in the city for three days, almost all the men left behind in Nanjing were killed, most of the women were raped, and all the houses were dug up by the scattered soldiers. At that time, the literati recorded the glorious deeds of the Xiang Army: Zeng Guoquan transported more than 20 ships of treasure back to his hometown in Hunan; zeng's family bought more than half of the land near Changsha City; a Xiang military officer visited his relatives in Beijing and spent 5,000 taels of silver to buy a house at a time, shocking the city of Beijing.
In 1865, Empress Dowager Cixi traced the use of military expenses of the Xiang army and the whereabouts of the treasures of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and Zeng Guofan claimed that he had been set on fire by Li Xiucheng. At that time, Li Xiucheng was killed on the way to escort, and the Xiang army occupied half of the country, and Even if Empress Dowager Cixi was not willing, she had to beat her teeth and swallow blood.
03. Zeng Guofan reached out to the imperial court for an official and was deposed
In February 1857, Zeng Linshu, Zeng Guofan's father, died of illness, and the imperial court specially approved a two-month vacation for their brothers to return to their hometown for funerals.
After his father's funeral, Zeng Guofan consulted with several brothers, believing that the local governor was making it difficult for Xiang Yong and not asking the imperial court for a real post as an inspector, and the future of the Xiang army was bleak. Zeng Guofan said that he would do it, and wrote a copy to the sick Xianfeng Emperor, complaining bitterly about how The Governor of Huguang, Guan Wen, and the Governor of Hunan, Luo Bingzhang, had bullied themselves, and how difficult it was for the Xiang army under his command. In the more than two hundred years since the Manchu Qing Dynasty entered the customs, no minister has dared to threaten the emperor to ask for the post of feudal official. The imperial court consulted Luo Bingzhang, who bluntly said that Zeng Guofan was shameful. The Xianfeng Emperor stripped Zeng Guofan of his post and made him think about it at home for a full year and a half.
In July 1858, the imperial court reactivated Zeng Guofan as a deputy to zhejiang military affairs. This time, Zeng Guofan, who was well-behaved, did not dare to make any more complaints, and ran to his post. Before leaving Hunan, he ran all over the world to write couplet inscriptions for the rich squires, and he earned a million taels of silver. Later, these Qian Zeng Guofan expanded his army to help a lot.
04. Zeng Guofan conceded defeat and shook hands with Luo Bingzhang
In March 1857, Zeng Guofan sat on a cold bench at home, and Luo Bingzhang was credited with this matter.
In July 1858, the imperial court reactivated Zeng Guofan and asked him to lead troops to Zhejiang to fight the fire. Zeng Guofan guang pole commander one, people and money are empty, what to take to Zhejiang to fight? People under the eaves had to bow their heads, and if they wanted money, they had to find Luo Bingzhang, and if they wanted to find Luo Bingzhang, they had to pass the pass of Zuo Zongtang. Zeng Guofan changed his normal behavior, smiled and took Zuo Zongtang's hand: "Zuo Zi don't come unharmed?" It made Zuo Zongtang cry and laugh, because at that time in the whole of Hunan Province, the most fierce and fierce person who scolded Zeng Guofan was him. Seeing Inspector Luo, Zeng Guofan no longer dared to put up his stinky shelf of Erpin Waiter and honestly listened to Inspector Luo's instructions.
Zeng Guofan admitted to losing, Luo Bingzhang borrowed a donkey, asked people to give people, asked for money, and soon a 7,000-strong Xiang army team was formed to fight with Zeng Guofan.
After the fall of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the Zeng Guofan brothers held hundreds of thousands of soldiers in their hands, and they had the potential to compete with the Manchu Qing court. At that time, Luo Bingzhang was the governor of Sichuan, and he also had tens of thousands of soldiers and horses under his command, and in order to prevent the Zeng brothers from rebelling, the imperial court also handed over the personnel power of Shaanxi and Gansu provinces to Luo Bingzhang, which was a sharp blade hanging behind Zeng Guofan. Zeng Guofan recognized junjie as the current affairs official, took the initiative to dismiss 100,000 Xiang troops, and returned the command of the remaining Xiang troops to the imperial court, spending his old age in peace and stability.