Zuo Zongtang was very disgusted with corrupt officials, which was probably due to the fact that the first forty years of his life were all grassroots. Some people are born in the grassroots, but they have forgotten their roots since they became high-ranking officials and dignitaries. The valuable thing about Zuo Zongtang is that he does not forget his original intention. Whether it is the grassroots or the rich, they are people. As long as they are people, they will be exploited by corrupt officials, so whether the people are rich or powerful, they are actually rejected by corrupt officials.
It's just that some people, because they have status, love glory and wealth and go a crooked road. But Zuo Zongtang is not such a person, born in the grassroots, died in the grassroots thinking. Just like Hai Rui: when you are born, you are light, and when you die, you are light. Some people may think that this kind of person is stupid, but that is their way of life.
(1) Zuo Zongtang believes that the serious corruption of the late Qing Dynasty is mainly due to four factors
Zuo Zongtang believes that the problem of the late Qing Dynasty, Zuo Zongtang's original words are very simple, and everyone today can understand: The chaos under the world is due to the fact that the officials do not repair; the officials do not repair, because the talents do not come out; the talents do not come out, because the people's hearts are not right.
Therefore, Zuo Zongtang believes that the main problem of the rule of the world's officials is four points:
First: the official whitewash is too peaceful, and the maladministration is long and does not correct it. Reform is too difficult, and there are too many vested interests.
Second: It is difficult to raise troops and raise salaries.
Third: Donations are prevalent. Regardless of the central and local governments, many people donate to the government, and most people donate to the government with the intention of making money. Most of the money donated to officials was borrowed and pooled, and many people even borrowed usurious loans, so after becoming officials, they desperately took advantage of it.
Fourth: Local government affairs are abandoned, and the local administrative and judicial education system is confused. Some people only know how to look upwards – engage in foreign affairs, look forward – and learn from the West. The same reformist, Zuo Zongtang also engaged in foreign affairs and also learned from the West, but the difference is that he wore pants, and while engaging in foreign affairs and learning from the West, he did a good job in people's livelihood.
It can be seen that everywhere Zuo Zongtang went, he had to plant trees and raise silkworms, build embankments and dams, and at the same time do a good job in the three rural problems, open all kinds of foreign affairs enterprises, support the development of private enterprises, and at the same time learn from the West about the manufacture of various weapons.
These are the basis for ensuring the existence of a political power and a country, and the people will not starve to death and will not make trouble. Those who understand it will also care about it. Foreign affairs and learning from the West are methods of self-improvement. The former is the foundation, and the latter is the key to victory.
Some people say that planting land and planting trees is not simple. hehe. Not necessarily. If it were simple, there would not have been so many peasant uprisings in history. Why, if we do a good job in the three rural issues, we will encounter more traditional forces. Therefore, anti-corruption requires more courage. Zuo Zongtang is a man of courage. You must know that there was only one person in the late Qing dynasty officialdom who was killed purely because of corruption, that is, Zhou Dongxing, the commander-in-chief of the Erpin Army.
What's going on?
The reason why we say that Zuo Zongtang is a national hero. His main argument was that he had restored peace to Qinghai in northwestern Shaanxi, Gansu, Ningxia, and regained Xinjiang. In the seventy years of anti-aggression struggle in the late Qing Dynasty, only Zuo Zongtang won such a comprehensive victory.
(2) Quell the civil unrest in the northwest and oppose Tsarist Russia
Beginning in 1862, national uprisings broke out in today's Shaanxi, Gansu, Ningxia, Qinghai and other places, and the four provinces were in chaos. Zuo Zongtang led the Xiang Army to the northwest in 1868 after pacifying the remnants of the Taiping Army in Fujian and other places. Prior to this, in 1865, when the general Agubai of the Central Asian State of Kokand invaded Xinjiang, China, Zuo Zongtang paid attention to the problem of Shaanxi and Gansu in the northwest on the one hand, and also paid great attention to the Xinjiang issue on the other hand.
Zuo Zongtang believes that it is actually very easy to solve the Xinjiang problem, the key is the problem of grain and grass transportation, there must be a stable rear area, and the northwest Shaanxi and Gansu are what must be done before recovering Xinjiang. It is necessary to stabilize Shaanxi and Gansu, and the people have food to eat. When Zuo Zongtang came to the garrison of the Governor's Palace in Lanzhou, the State of Kokand was already under the control of Tsarist Russia, and in this case, the enemy that China had to face was no longer the State of Kokand but the Tsarist Russia.
In the face of such a powerful opponent, Zuo Zongtang believed that as long as the Shaanxi-Gansu issue was solved, it was also possible to deal with Tsarist Russia.
Zuo Zongtang was transferred to the governor of Shaanxi and Gansu in September 1866, and after sorting out and handing over the military and political affairs of Fujian, Zhejiang and other places, as well as the Software of the Chinese Navy, the Mawei Ship Political Bureau Construction Plan, the Cradle of Talents. In the first month of 1867, Zuo Zongtang put forward the military proposition that "if you want to sleep in the west, you must first clear the hinterland". After carefully reviewing the relevant materials of the Shaanxi-Gansu people's uprising, Zuo Zongtang put forward in may of the lunar calendar: First pacify the Twister Army and then pacify the Northwest People's Change, and first deal with the Shaanxi People's Change and then deal with the Gansu People's Change. At that time, Gansu was relatively large, equivalent to parts of ningxia, Gansu and Qinghai today.
In September of the lunar calendar, Zuo Zongtang held a military conference, and after drawing troops and discussing various grain and salary issues, he led his army north.
In 1868, after the Twist army was pacified, Zuo Zongtang came to Beijing in August of the lunar calendar and issued a military order to Empress Dowager Cixi to solve the northwest civil unrest in 5 years. At the end of that year, Zuo Zongtang officially faced the problem of civil unrest in the northwest.
By 1872, the fourth year after Zuo Zongtang arrived in the northwest, in fact, the civil unrest in the northwest had been basically solved.
In 1873, Zuo Zongtang formally proposed to recover most of Xinjiang occupied by Agubai and the Ili region occupied by Tsarist Russia. He said, "If you want to harvest Ili, you must first conquer Urumqi."
Before recovering Xinjiang, Zuo Zongtang based on the map of Xinjiang given to him by Lin Zexu before his death in 1850 and the strategy for the use of troops in previous dynasties, and concluded that the use of troops in Xinjiang was difficult to use in grain and grass. To this end, as soon as Zuo Zongtang came to the northwest, he focused on building a stable rear base, and to build a solid one, he needed the support of the people. Therefore, Zuo Zongtang treated the Hui people and the Han people equally.
But in this case, Zuo Zongtang encountered a big case - almost ruined Zuo Zongtang's plan.
(3) Corrupt officials who almost broke a big deal
On November 11, 1871, in the ninth year of Tongzhi (January 1, 1871), Zuo Zongtang was full of anger and the pen in his hand was trembling. At the same time, he has a strong sense of self-blame. After the hi-sound, Zuo Zongtang wrote a note with a pen to the effect that:
Participating in the Gansu General Soldier (the official rank is Erpin, but because the impeached person has the title of Viceroy can be determined as Congyipin) and also runs the grain committee (that is, we say when we listen to the commentaries and watch film and television dramas) Zhou Dongxing, embezzled and transported grain and grass smuggling, please order (the rank of the governor of Shaanxi and Gansu is Erpin, and after the title of Shang Shu is congyi pin). Therefore, the governor cannot directly dispose of the general soldiers, but in the work the governor is responsible for supervising the jurisdiction of the governor and the chief soldiers) to deal with the questions strictly, and the law has been corrected.
Last winter (December 1869), I sent Zhou Dongxing, the gansu general of Gansu, to Zhongwei County to take charge of disaster relief and grain and grass. Soon after, however, many people in Zhongwei County went to the military camp to complain that Zhou Dongxing had embezzled all kinds of money. I immediately ordered someone to investigate. In the end, Huang Guangnao of Zhixian county played the results of the investigation:
When Zhou Dongxing bought military grain, he set up a clever name and forced the rich to buy grain at a low price. In just 27 days, he bought 880 stones of grain and embezzled 10,000 taels from it.
I ordered Zhou Dongxing to open a porridge factory to relieve the disaster, and he used low-priced grain to impersonate high-priced grain to report the account. When Zhou Dongxing reimbursed the money, he said that he used rice and white noodles to eat three meals a day, but the people of Zhongwei County said that the bowl of huangzi bean noodles was all thin porridge a day. Moreover, the number of people who provide disaster relief every day is also inflated.
Linjin took concubines, married Du in Zhongwei County, raised the Zhou clan, and had an affair with the Zhang clan.
I was because he was from Gansu and was familiar with the staff when he was doing things in Gansu, but I didn't want this person to have a bad conscience. I ordered him to return to the camp to report that this man had dared to delay for several months for various reasons. After returning to the camp, he only admitted to embezzling more than 1,000 taels, and he used his official position and official title to argue recklessly. Therefore, I ask for Zhou Dongxing's dismissal and interrogation in order to be imprisoned by torture. Even the two things he admitted to embezzling more than 1,000 taels and selling grain fraudulently were serious corruption crimes. Therefore, I request that he be dismissed from his post and questioned, so as to set an example to deter corrupt officials.
Eight days later, the Military Aircraft Department agreed to Zuo Zongtang's request to bring Zhou Dongxing to justice in front of the army.