Throughout the ages, the people who can leave their names in the long river of history are not idle people. And people with outstanding ability will be more or less proud, and it is relatively rare for people who can truly achieve goodness like water and are willing to be under people and benefit everything. Therefore, such a group of people working together and not inferior to each other will inevitably produce contradictions of one kind or another.
In the late Qing Dynasty, there were several comparable talents, Peng Yulin and Li Hongzhang, as well as the leaders of the Xiang Army, Zeng Guofan and Zuo Zongtang.
Peng Yulin and Li Hongzhang can really be regarded as rivals, Li Hongzhang wants to buy ironclad ships and build railways, Peng Yulin opposes; in the face of foreign invasion, Li Hongzhang advocates compromise, and Peng Yulin also opposes... Because they said that "Anhui people will not fight" the two almost fisted and kicked each other, although this matter did not make a big fuss, but it became one of the fuses for Peng Yulin and Zuo Zongtang to fight with Li Hongzhang for more than thirty years.
As the saying goes, "It's not that the wrongdoers don't get together, it's not that friends don't stay together", among these people, the relationship between Zeng Guofan and Zuo Zongtang is not ordinary. Zeng Guofan can be said to be Zuo Zongtang's Bole of a thousand-mile horse, and he has the grace of knowing Zuo Zongtang. Under the promotion of Zeng Guofan, Zuo Zongtang stepped into the official field of the late Qing Dynasty and became one of the most important officials in the imperial court at that time!
The young and vigorous Zuo Zongtang also enjoyed a high reputation at that time, he was gifted, and he had the reputation of "the first talent" in Huxiang. With such an outstanding talent, in fact, he was not very impressed with his teacher Zeng Guofan. However, Zeng Guofan was a late-blooming person, and when he was young, he was not smart, even a little stupid, but his perseverance was very amazing.
It is recorded that when he was in school, in order to memorize an article and read it at night, a hair thief hid on the beam of his house, ready to steal after he rested and fell asleep. However, after waiting all night, Zeng Guofan could not memorize the text, and the thief saw that the sky was white, and the theft could not be done, and he was furious, jumped off the beam of the room, snatched the book from Zeng Guofan's hand, and memorized the text from beginning to end in front of Zeng Guofan.
Then, he taunted Zeng Guofan and said, "You have read it all night, and you still can't memorize it, but I listened to it all night, but you memorized it, you are so stupid that you don't have to read it again!" Then, he dropped the textbook and walked away. Everything is afraid of encountering a persistent person, and Zeng Guofan is such a person. In the battle against the Taiping Rebellion, he was repeatedly defeated, but he never flinched.
In addition, Zeng Guofan was also a very dignified person, he was very appreciative of Zuo Zongtang, more than once recommended Zuo Zongtang to the emperor, and praised: "Zuo Zongtang is hard-working and hard-working, and he is handy in handling military affairs, and if the imperial court entrusts him with heavy responsibilities, he is bound to serve the dogs and horses." ”
Even if Zuo Zongtang, who was full of arrogance, often bumped into him, he also treated him indifferently.
Unlike Zeng Guofan, his disciple Zuo Zongtang had eyes above the top. In his eyes, except for Lin Zexu and his teacher Zeng Guofan, no one is worth mentioning, and even so, he once had a bad relationship with his teacher. Even after the suppression of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, there was no contact with Zeng Guofan.
The direct trigger for the two men's feud was the suppression of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement over the death of Hong Xiuquan's son. After the defeat of the rebel army of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, hong tianguifu's whereabouts were unknown, and Zeng Guofan's subordinates reported to the marshal in order to ask for merit: Hong Tianguifu had died in the rebellion. Therefore, Zeng Guofan, believing that it was true, told the imperial court that Jinling City had been recovered, and that Hong Tianguifu had died in the rebellion.
However, at this time, Zuo Zongtang received a secret report, not only knowing that Hong Tianguifu was not dead, but also knowing his exact whereabouts. However, in order to keep it a secret, Zuo Zongtang did not report to Zeng Guofan in time, but reported the matter to the imperial court. The imperial court was difficult to distinguish for a while, so it asked both sides to explain. Zeng Guofan was a loyal man, and he didn't care about other things, but he absolutely could not bear this kind of accusation of deception.
Therefore, he believes that the so-called fact that Hong Tianguifu did not die is just that the remnants of the Taiping Army want to make trouble again under the guise of a name.
However, this incident was heard by Zuo Zongtang, who believed that Zeng Guofan had sarcastically suspected that he had deliberately asked for credit. How could he bear such an insult, so he wrote to defend himself, and the two sides came and went back and forth for a while, tit-for-tat. After Zeng Guofan suppressed the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the momentum and power reached an unprecedented height, and the imperial court hoped that someone would jump out and suppress Zeng Guofan.
Later, it was confirmed that Zuo Zongtang's words were not false, and in order to weaken Zeng Guofan's power, the imperial court even hyped up Zuo Zongtang's brightness and righteousness, and deliberately belittled Zeng Guofan, and since then, the two masters and apprentices have no intersection. For Zeng Guofan, he did not hate his disciples too much, although there was no correspondence after the intercourse, but as Zuo Zongtang's immediate superior, he never gave Zuo Zongtang a stumbling block.
At that time, Zuo Zongtang was serving as the inspector of Gansu, while Zeng Guofan was in charge of his grain and grass, as long as Zeng Guofan wanted to deliberately stop his grain and grass for a few days, Zuo Zongtang had no choice. Zuo Zongtang was once worried about this matter, but Zeng Guofan never took advantage of his position to deliberately embarrass Zuo Zongtang. Not only that, when Zuo Zongtang went out to Xinjiang, Zeng Guofan also tried his best to prepare grain and grass and military salaries for him, and also lent his own powerful generals.
It can be said that without the full help of Zeng Guofan, Zuo Zongtang's expedition would not have been so easy to achieve victory. At the same time, Zeng Guofan never hid his appreciation for Zuo Zongtang, even after the confrontation.
In this regard, Zeng Guofan once said: "In terms of military affairs, I am not as good as Zuo Zongtang, and the country can be stable thanks to Zuo Zongtang!" "Such a temperament and mind, which was unbeatable at the time, was really admirable!" Later Zuo Zongtang was also quite remorseful, but he refused to bow to his teacher and apologize to his teacher regardless of his identity.
After Zeng Guofan's death, he specially wrote a couplet to express his respect for Zeng Guofan and endless apologies:
Knowing the wisdom of the people, seeking the loyalty of the country, ashamed of being inferior to Yuanfu;
If the same heart is like gold, the attack is like a stone, and the deception is not negative.
This pair of pull-ins is enough to make people cry, in other words, it is a rare opportunity to know oneself, and it is also an incomparable honor to meet an opponent who is equal to oneself in the official arena.
Resources:
[The Book of Zeng Guofan's Family", "Draft History of the Qing Dynasty, Biography of Zuo Zongtang", "Biography of the History of the State"]