The famous ministers Of the late Qing Dynasty, Zeng Guofan and Zuo Zongtang, can be described as the two proud of the generation, both of whom are talented and have outstanding merits. But what is less known is that the two are intolerable and mortal opponents. Let's take a closer look at the grievances between them.
Zuo Zongtang was brilliant, and it was reported that many officials in the official arena were "shocked at first sight." When Tao Shu, the governor of Liangjiang, met Zuo Zongtang, who was in his 20s, he immediately thought that he was a rare talent and took the initiative to betroth his children and daughters. The governor of Yungui, Lin Zexu, was also "overwhelmed at first sight and surprised to be a world-class wizard".
Zuo Zongtang was 1 year younger than Zeng Guofan, but he was 2 years ahead of Zeng Guofan. However, just when he was full of confidence in the list of the imperial examination, he encountered the first blow - the imperial examination would only be shortlisted for the "middle place", and at the same time, the quota in Hunan was full at that time, and finally he fell behind Sun Shan.
After encountering a blow, Zuo Zongtang regained his spirits and decided to retake the examination. Three years later, however, he fell off the list again. At this time, Zeng Guofan was admitted.
Frustrated twice in succession, Zuo Zongtang was disappointed and vowed not to take the imperial examination again. Sure enough, after that, Zuo Zongtangzhi returned to his hometown to study and teach and educate people.
Zuo Zongtang was experiencing a hard journey in life, but Zeng Guofan soared, he rose to the top in the official arena, his status and power were getting better and better every year, and it took only ten years to achieve the second rank of the second rank of the ceremonial attendant from a small official in the dynasty. Later, Zeng Guofan took advantage of the Taiping Army's ravaging of Hunan to create the Xiang Army, and made the Xiang Army a powerful army to suppress the Taiping Army's uprising in the late Qing Dynasty. Since then, Zeng Guofan has become the most bullish minister in the late Qing court, and under his leadership, Han officials have also begun to rise.
During this period, Zuo Zongtang, who was "a late bloomer", also came and went, successfully entering the Shogunate of the Xiang Army of Zhang Liangji and Luo Bingzhang, and his eight-year shogunate career made him famous, because of his outstanding performance, his talent was slowly recognized by the imperial court. Surprisingly, when the imperial court wanted him to become an official, he refused, for the simple reason that he was grumpy about the repeated failures of the imperial examination in that year.
Later, Zeng Guofan strongly recommended Zuo Zongtang to the imperial court, and the Qing court appointed Zuo Zongtang as the governor of Zhejiang. After that, Zuo Zongtang began to develop and gradually became a major courtier.
In addition to Zeng Guofan's favor to Zuo Zongtang, he also had two great favors.
The first is the grace of "saving lives". When Zuo Zongtang was still serving as an aide, he was jealous and hateful, and he once insulted the imperial court officials, and as a result, he was sent to the DPRK to "make a small report", and if this matter was big, Zuo Zongtang would lose his head. Fortunately, Zeng Guofan ran around for him and asked people to intercede in front of the emperor for him, so that he was safe and sound.
The second is the grace of "help". Zuo Zongtang's Chu army was also successfully formed with the help of Zeng Guofan.
It is reasonable to say that Zuo Zongtang should thank Zeng Guofan, but Zuo Zongtang looks down on Zeng Guofan very much. Zuo Zongtang always believed that Zeng Guofan was only lucky against the sky and was successful in the official arena. In terms of talent, he was a hundred times stronger than Zeng Guofan.
It is precisely because of this that Zuo Zongtang, instead of being grateful to Zeng Guofan, also stabbed Zeng Guofan's knife in the back. Once, Zeng Guofan took advantage of his father's illness and issued a resignation report, which "blocked the son" to coerce the Xianfeng Emperor to give him real power to supervise, but he ended up with "idle position and light weight". In this way, Zuo Zongtang, instead of sympathizing with and comforting him, sprinkled salt on his wounds and said bad things about Zeng Guofan everywhere.
In this regard, Zeng Guofan did not care, and later when Zeng Guofan was running and re-emerged from the mountain, he still tried his best to show favor to Zuo Zongtang, but Zuo Zongtang still blackmailed him.
Later, after more than 10 years of fighting, the Xiang army led by Zeng Guofan attacked tianjing city and pacified the Taiping army, but did not capture Hong Xiuquan's young lord.
In this regard, when Zeng Guofan went to the imperial court, he lied that the young lord had been burned to death. As a result, Zuo Zongtang immediately jumped out to expose him and expanded the harm of the young lord's escape.
As a result, the imperial court gave "severe" criticism to Zeng Guofan's actions, and he was very jealous of his hard work. Later, Zeng Guofan had no choice but to take the initiative to remove the Xiang army and resign as the governor of Liangjiang, so that he could save his life.
After this time, Zeng Guofan also completely broke with Zuo Zongtang, and the two became political enemies of the court. In fact, the reason why Zeng Guofan "turned his face" was not that his strength was not enough, but that he deliberately did it, he made a play for the imperial court to see, and he knew that the emperor was most taboo against the group. Only Zuo Zongtang could save his hat and his life.
And Zuo Zongtang really shined in his later years, in 1873 AD, Suzhou City was attacked for a long time, and the 62-year-old Zuo Zongtang was patriotic, he disregarded his physical discomfort, set off from Lanzhou with illness, went to Suzhou to supervise the war, and quickly clarified the whole of Gansu. After that, Zuo Zongtang decided to retake Xinjiang. Zuo Zongtang was supported by the military minister Wen Xiang and others, and the Qing government finally made a difficult decision to send troops to Xinjiang and recover the lost land. Zuo Zongtang was appointed minister of Chincha, supervising military affairs in Xinjiang, and also granting him the power to raise troops and command the army.
After that, Zuo Zongtang moved to Suzhou and began his journey to the west. By 1878, Zuo Zongtang had recovered all of Xinjiang except Ili. In 1880, Zuo Zongtang, who was already a rare age, led the guards to Xinjiang carrying a coffin painted black, and was determined to fight a war with Tsarist Russia. Just when he arrived in Hami, Xinjiang, and set up a camp on the spot, Zuo Zongtang suddenly received a holy will in Hami, 2 words: return to Beijing.
At the age of seventy, he carried the coffin to the west, but he was not allowed to fight, and Zuo Zongtang could only return with tears.
However, Zuo Zongtang had always been unconvinced of Zeng Guofan, so the preface to the painting "Old Picture of Tongguan Sense" that he composed in his later years showed what he had in mind, and he believed that when Zeng Guofan committed suicide in Jinggang due to a major defeat and surrendered to the river, he would still be saved if the world left him; because there was still zuo Zongtang. The implication is that if Zeng Guofan stands in his way, if he kills the world's number one meritorious name, it will be his.
In 1885, Zuo Zongtang died of illness in Fuzhou, Fujian Province, at the age of 73. After Zuo Zongtang's death, the imperial court posthumously gave Taifu the title of "Wenxiang" and incorporated it into the Ancestral Hall of Zhaozhong and the Ancestral Hall of Xianliang. However, the highest rank of civil officials in the Qing Dynasty was "Wenzheng". In the nearly 300 years of the Qing Dynasty, only 8 civilian officials received the title of "Wenzheng", and Zeng Guofan was one of them. Zuo Zongtang's "Wenxiang" nickname ranked twenty-third among the Qing Dynasty civil officials, and from this point of view alone, Zeng Guofan and Zuo Zongtang had already divided the victory and defeat.