In the late Qing Dynasty, corruption among officials and the prevalence of running for office and selling official positions are well known historical facts. In order to raise military expenses, the imperial court opened the door to donations, and the high officials who held the power of guaranteeing the favor widely accepted bribes, and even some scriveners who parasitized above power also went up and down their hands and plucked their hair, and in the process of handling, they maximized their power. Li Xingrui, who had long been in the shogunate of Zeng Guofan, recorded in his diary in detail his experience of "running for office" in the capital, vividly reflecting the political ecology of the late Qing Dynasty.
When the Taiping army rushed north and attacked Changsha, the local gang zhengyitang in Liuyang heard the wind and caused trouble, and Li Xingrui gathered the townspeople to set up a regiment to practice to protect himself, and later assisted Jiang Zhongyuan, who came to encircle and suppress it. The Taiping army marched west from Shanggao and Wanzai Counties in Jiangxi to Hunan in an attempt to plot Changsha, and he led the regiment to train and assist the officers sent by Luo Bingzhang, the governor of Hunan, to fight against the Taiping army and block the Taiping army east of Liuyang. His actions were learned by Zeng Guofan, who was thirsty for talent, and after Zeng Guofan led the Xiang army into Jiangxi, he wrote a letter to solicit Li Xingrui. Li Xingrui joined Zeng Guofan's shogunate during the dark years when zeng guofan was trapped in Jiangxi and repeatedly tug-of-war with the Taiping army, and then followed Zeng Guofan for more than ten years and became one of his most trusted staff.
In the eighth year of Tongzhi (1869), Zeng Guofan was transferred from the Viceroy of Liangjiang to the Viceroy of Zhili, and brought Li Xingrui to Baoding. In terms of merit and reward, Zeng Guofan naturally wanted to find a way for this staff member who had made great contributions, so Shangquan sponsored Li Xingrui to fill the vacancy of the prefect of the Daimyo Province.
At that time, Zeng Guofan was highly powerful and had nine words, and his Baoju imperial court generally complied, so Li Xingrui was appointed as the prefect of the Daimyo Province. However, before he officially took office, he was first sent by Zeng Guofan to run an emergency mission - to directly subordinate the disaster relief in the southern disaster area, and then returned to Baoding to prepare to go to Beijing to introduce him. What is "introduction"? That is, those who have just served or baoju prefectures and county officials, unless the Holy Decree orders "no introduction" and go directly to the post, are generally to advance to the capital, and the officials will take them to meet the emperor and be lectured by the emperor. This shows that the emperor attaches great importance to local administration, and only when the summoned government and county officials can officially take over the indian administration.
Beijing is a strange city for Li Xingrui, who came from Xiucai. He was no better than Zeng Guofan's other aides, Li Hongzhang, Mei Qizhao, and Pang Jiyun, all of whom had passed the entrance examination and entered the Hanlin Academy for several years, and were familiar with the road in the capital. And Li Xingrui, who has two black eyes, has adopted two simple and effective methods to dredge the way: one is to use money to open the road, and the other is to visit fellow villagers and friends.
On the evening of May 15, 1870 (June 13, 1870) of the ninth year of Tongzhi, Li Xingrui entered Beijing from The Zhangyi Gate (Guang'an Gate). According to the itinerary of the next day in the Diary of Li Xingrui:
Early to the official's direct subordinate unit master Guan Guan Xiangfen (Zi Xinzhi, Zhejiang, Shaoren) home, entrusted to handle the introduction matters, a total of the ministry fee: fu one hundred and sixty gold, and the case introduction, Dao plus hundred gold, but there is no more words to entangle. He is a correction in the book office. Xuan also paid homage to Zeng Jie gang hubu, Xu Xianping edited, and Qian Qiaofu visited Lian. It's sunny.
Li Xingrui and this Shaoxing master are both people who understand, clearly mark prices, and are not ambiguous with each other. What Master Guan promised was: if he was finally appointed with the title of prefect, he would pay one hundred and sixty taels of silver and be introduced in batches with other officials; if he was highly matched, that is, he would be appointed as the prefect with the title of Daoist (the Daoist was zhengsipin and the prefect was congsipin), then another hundred and two pieces of silver would be added. Moreover, Master Guan told him not to talk much when the emperor received him, and to go through the motions.
After paying the money, he was not at ease, so he immediately went to meet three people who were close to him. Zeng Jiegang was Zeng Jize, the eldest son of Zeng Guofan, and at this time he was serving as a household member, and Li Xingrui and Zeng Guofan were two princes who were closely related and loved brothers. Xu Xianping, also known as Xu Zhenyi, was a new person in Jiangxi, who served in the shogunate of Zeng Guofan with Li Xingrui during the Xianfeng period, and also won the trust of the Zeng clan; in the second year of Tongzhi's entry into the Beijing Association, he was appointed as an editor of the Hanlin Academy; Qian Dingming, a native of Taicang, Jiangsu, had been entrusted by the Shanghai Daotai to go to Anqing to beg Zeng Guofan to send troops to Shanghai to block the Taiping Army, and became famous in one fell swoop, and formed a "combat friendship" with Li Xingrui, and was appointed as an envoy at this time.
I believe that these three brothers must be suitable for Li Xingrui to teach the machine in person, and even issue a list of the pier. For more than a month, Li Xingrui's main activity in Beijing was to visit fellow villagers and friends in the official field and invite guests to dinner.
Sure enough, it was fire to the head of the pig, and money to business. On June 25 (July 23 in the Western calendar), Li Xingrui was summoned by the emperor and empress dowager, and he wrote in his diary:
At the beginning of the afternoon, the officials led nine rows of fourteen members, and Yu and Ma Wenmeng, the prefect of Anhui, were the fifth row, entered the Qianqing Gate together, and knelt down at the foot of the steps: Li Xingrui, who was forty years old. Rise, come out. Heavenly face, heroic and majestic. The two palaces sit inside the curtains and are not allowed to look up. Xuan Fengzhi: Li Xingrui was allowed to make up the prefect of the Daimyo Prefecture and appoint him as a Daoist officer.
In order to fulfill his wish, Li Xingrui was appointed as a prefect with the rank of Daoist and had to give an additional one hundred taels of silver to Guan Shiye. How much did it cost to run for office in Beijing?
Borrowing as much as a thousand taels of public funds alone, plus his own savings and private loans, cost a huge amount of money a year in Baoding and Beijing, and even Zeng Guofan was surprised. But what can be done otherwise?
However, Li Xingrui did not go to the Daming Mansion to perform his duties, because the "Tianjin Teaching Case" broke out, and Zeng Guofan was ordered to fight the fire, so he summoned Li Xingrui to Tianjin to assist him in handling the world's first tricky matter. Li Xingrui and Ding Richang became Zeng Guofan's right and left arms in handling the "Tianjin Teaching Case", and he and Zeng Guofan tasted all the bitterness together. Zeng Guofan was slandered by the world for this reason, making him not a person inside and outside, and his name fell to the ground. Later, his protégé Li Hongzhang replaced him as the governor of Zhili, and Zeng Guofan returned to serve as the governor of Liangjiang, so he consulted Li Xingrui and asked if he would return to Jinling with him.
Of course, Li Xingrui was anxious, the benefactor Zeng Guofan was no longer directly subordinate to the governor, and although the new governor Li Hongzhang was a deceased person, after all, it was separated by one layer, and the daimyo at the junction of the three provinces was as rich as Jiangnan. Therefore, Zeng Guofan went to the imperial court on his behalf, on the grounds that Li Xingrui's old mother was ill and lived in Jinling permanently, and he had to return to Jinling to serve and raise him, and asked if he could arrange a suitable post in the nearby Liangjiang area.
The anger of the officials can be imagined, and they are not willing to let the personnel power be encroached upon by the ministers, so they replied that if they want to return to Jinling to adopt their mother, they can open vacancies - that is, resign from the official. Arrange another job, no door. But Zeng Guofan had a way, and the Liangjiang jurisdiction could find many errands for Li Xingrui to do. After Li Suizeng returned to Jinling, Zeng Guofan immediately entrusted him with inspecting the prefectural officials, the marine and land camps, the Lika, and the official factories in Shanghai in liangjiang. This power was so great that Li was regarded as a "little Chincha" by the military attaché of Liangjiang, and some people sent money along the way—of course, his diary was mostly recorded as "polite refusal".
In February of the eleventh year of Tongzhi, a few days before Zeng Guofan's death, he sent Li Xingrui to Shanghai to manage the Machine Manufacturing Bureau. Three years later, Li Xingrui was officially appointed as the general office of the Shanghai Machinery Manufacturing Bureau. Shanghai became the best stage for Li Xingrui to develop later, and he not only gained a lot of money, but also accumulated rich experience in dealing with foreigners. This is rare in the ranks of Qing officials. In addition, he lived to the age of 78, so he was born in various lives, did not bring soldiers, and was able to serve as a feudal official.
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