Since the outbreak of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement in full swing, the Xianfeng Emperor has been busy every day.
At this time, he not only criticized the folds day and night, but also sacrificed the time to accompany the harem to deal with political affairs, but unfortunately, his time was still insufficient, and the results were getting lower and lower. The fold of the front line is nothing more than that this place has been attacked, and there has been a gunfight in that place. Over time, Emperor Xianfeng's heart was very devastated, and he could not believe that he could defeat the Taiping Army, until Zeng Guofan gave him enough confidence.
Zeng Guofan was born into an ordinary farming family, diligent and studious since childhood, and entered the school at the age of 6. At the age of 8, he can read four books and recite the Five Classics, and at the age of 14, he can read the "Zhou Li" and "Historical Records" anthology. In the eighteenth year of Daoguang (1838), he entered the Hanlin Academy and was a protégé of mu zhang'a, the minister of military aircraft. The Cabinet of Ministers, the Ceremonial Attendant, the Officer, the Engineer, the Criminal, and the Bureaucratic Attendant. He was close friends with the university scholar Wu Ren and Huining Dao He Guizhen, and worked hard with "practical learning".
During the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement, Zeng Guofan formed the Xiang Army to turn the tide, and after years of war, he destroyed the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. Throughout his life, he pursued the principle of "being patient with the government" and advocated that "everything should be diligent and thrifty, and should not be proud of officials." He cultivated himself and disciplined himself, sought officials with virtue, ruled by etiquette first, and sought government with loyalty, and in the end, he achieved great success in the official arena.
With the victories of Xiangtan, Yuezhou, and Chenglingji, the Xianfeng Emperor was very happy. After all, the country has been "unlucky" for several years, and finally has the opportunity to "turn over". However, how could there be only one official, Zeng Guofan, among whom, including Zeng Guofan, there were as many as forty-five people, but only Zeng Guofan had a good look, and the others either gave up halfway or disappeared.
Zeng Guofan became the "king bomb" of the Xianfeng Emperor, and the emperor vaguely remembered that when Zeng Guofan was in Beijing that year, he tried his best to make the above table, thanks to the fact that he left a backhand at that time and reused him. Facts have proved that Zeng Guofan is a rare talent.
Although Zeng Guofan had already made a "greeting" to the emperor when he took office, and did not make him a marquis during the period of filial piety, the Xianfeng Emperor, in order to show his pity, granted him the post of acting governor of Hubei and rewarded him with a top flower plume. The reason why he is "acting" is to consider that he is in the period of filial piety, and once the period expires, it will make him "regular". However, only seven days later, the Xianfeng Emperor "regretted" it, and he immediately withdrew his appointment.
The reason for this is that a dialogue between the Xianfeng Emperor and the military aircraft Zhang Jingpeng Yunzhang completely changed the xianfeng Emperor's thinking.
The military aircraft Zhang Jing is not the military aircraft minister, he is just a clerk of the military aircraft department, and his duty is to help the military aircraft ministers copy the copy, for example: in the case of Wang Ding, the person who sent a message to Mu Zhang'a was the military aircraft Zhang Jing Chen Fuen. However, because the military aircraft Zhang Jing was directly involved in confidential work, this position was also called "small military aircraft".
Peng Yunzhang is a very talented person, he has written countless works in his life, if stacked one by one, it is even higher than a person. However, although this person is a talented man, he is very stubborn, and even, in government affairs, he is somewhat "pedantic" and is a "paper soldier" person. When the Xianfeng Emperor chatted with him, at first he only wanted to "share" the good news ahead, and did not expect to hear any "good words" from him.
However, when the Xianfeng Emperor asked Peng Yunzhang how he viewed the nerd Zeng Guofan's repeated qigong, he did not expect that Peng Yunzhang actually rose to his jealousy. He replied: "Zeng Guofan is just an ordinary person, he can respond to a hundred responses in the army, and there are tens of thousands of people to follow, presumably it is not a blessing for the country!" As soon as these words came out, the Xianfeng Emperor's face changed drastically in an instant, and he was silent for a long time.
In fact, many people attribute the Xianfeng Emperor's "defense" against Zeng Guofan to the fact that he was a Han citizen.
The Qing Dynasty did not want Han Min to hold too important official positions, which was its long-standing national policy. However, zeng guofan, as a Han official, could actually respond to every call and hold important military power, which was certainly not a good thing. In fact, there is still a precedent for the Qing Dynasty to use Han Min to command the army, he is a famous general who spanned the three dynasties of Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong - Yue Zhongqi, and this is definitely a special case.
From the time Yongzheng appointed Yue Zhongqi, he was subjected to gossip, and the emperor could receive a large number of "report letters" every day, saying: "He is a descendant of Yue Fei and cannot be reused..." However, Yongzheng never paid attention to it, and he believed that the reuse of talents did not ask about origin. Peng Yunzhang's words were a "reminder" to the Xianfeng Emperor, among which the emperor also grasped two main points.
At this time, the Xianfeng Emperor was really afraid of turmoil, afraid that there would be another "Hong Xiuquan" within the country, and the emperor had always attached importance to the strategic position of Hubei, so he did not want to entrust this heavy responsibility to "outsiders" in his bones.
In addition, in the eyes of the Xianfeng Emperor, although Zeng Guofan and Jiang Zhongyuan were both Xiang troops, their positions were different. Jiang Zhongyuan's duty was to fight, but Zeng Guofan had the ability to command one side. When he was preparing for the Xiang Army, although it had the name of "Hunan Gang Training Minister", in fact, he still fought the world with his bare hands, and in the end, one person did a piece of heaven.
Therefore, if Zeng Guofan has been stationed in Hubei, then who can guarantee that he will not become the next "Hong Xiuquan"?
It should be known that the Xianfeng Emperor was very "sensitive" at this time, especially in the context of frequent outbreaks of civil unrest, and many people wanted to set up another mountain to be emperors. These people did not necessarily emerge from anywhere, making you invincible, and people's hearts were the most difficult to understand, so the Xianfeng Emperor began to "have a grudge" for Zeng Guofan, so that it was difficult to eliminate for a long time after that.
In the end, the much-thought-out Xianfeng Emperor decided to withdraw his order and replace Zeng Guofan with the post of Military Attendant, specializing in military affairs. Moreover, now is the time to fight a war, even if you are asked to be the inspector of Hubei, don't you have no time? However, how could things be as simple as the Xianfeng Emperor imagined, the scheming Zeng Guofan did not think so, and the emperor's "temporary intentions" made him even more suspicious.
The ancients said: "Companions are like companions of tigers', beware of them at all times. "The emperors of ancient China, it can be said, were mostly very suspicious, so they would never have a state of complete belief in any one person, which was also determined by their position at that time. Later, after Zeng Guofan learned the truth of the matter from certain channels, his view of the Xianfeng Emperor also underwent a complete change.
As the saying goes, "Doubtful people are not used, employing people is not doubtful", the Xianfeng Emperor valued Zeng Guofan's talents, but could not give him more trust, which was really the helplessness of the emperor and the heartache of being a courtier.
Resources:
["Zeng Guofan Family Letter", "Zeng Wenzheng Gong Jiayan Banknote", "Bitter Destiny Heavenly Son: Xianfeng Emperor Yixuan"]