What is history: it is the echo of the past to the future, the reflection of the future on the past. - Hugo
On the issue of dealing with the surrender of the Taiping Army, both Zeng Guofan and Li Hongzhang adopted an extremely cautious attitude, and of course they hoped to completely annihilate the Taiping Army and make great contributions, but as long as there was a war, there would be surrender, and the Xiang Army was often unable to defeat the Taiping Army in the confrontation with the Taiping Army, so it was also an important means to attract the surrender of the Taiping Army.
However, in order to give themselves less trouble, usually, the Qing army will kill the ring, Zeng Guofan people said that Zeng shaved his head, the knife was quite fierce, often killed and surrendered, in 1861 Zeng Guofan's brother Zeng Guoquan led the Xiang army to conquer some Taiping army camps in Anqing, eight thousand Taiping army surrendered after running out of food, Zeng Guoquan first surrendered his weapons, and then killed all eight thousand Xiang troops.
Since Zeng Guoquan could not sleep at night, Zeng Guofan wrote a letter to comfort him, saying, "Since he has already led the troops and thinks that he is committed to killing thieves, why should he regret killing more people?" It is said that after Zeng Guoquan attacked Tianjing, he killed more than 100,000 people in three days, and the Qinhuai River was stained red.
Compared with Zeng Guofan's Xiang army, the apprentice Li Hongzhang was also deeply impressed by zeng guofan's true legend, Li Hongzhang after besieging Suzhou, successfully plotted against the senior generals of the Taiping Army in Suzhou, and finally caused the 30,000 Taiping Army to surrender, when Li Hongzhang promised that as long as the Taiping Army surrendered, it would not be prosecuted, and as a result, two days after the surrender, the 30,000 Taiping Army was slaughtered by Li Hongzhang's Huai Army.
After receiving the news of Li Hongzhang's killing and surrender, Zeng Guofan said very happily, "In the recent events here, only Li Shaoquan's killing of eight people in Suzhou is the fastest."
Zeng Guofan and Li Hongzhang actually had complicated reasons for killing the surrendered troops, first of all, as Han Chen, their own power was limited, and the promises of some high-ranking officials Houlu were themselves fraudulent; secondly, they hoped to get the approval of the Rulers of the Qing Dynasty through this method and seek high-ranking officials houlu for themselves; finally, when the army surrendered and rebelled, they generally held the responsibility of those who surrendered.
Therefore, the Qing army generally did not like to surrender, even if it was a surrender, it could not be killed in the early stage, so they let them take the lead in the next war as cannon fodder, and the later stage was basically killing and descending.
However, there were several accidents, one of which was the younger brother of Wei Changhui, the commander of the Taiping Army, Wei Jun, because Wei Changhui died in the Tianjing Incident, and was also a senior general of the Taiping Army who surrendered to the Qing court in the early days, and the Qing court wanted to use him as a signboard, so it did not kill him, and finally died well.
Compared with Wei Jun's special status, Ding Ruchang's resume is more legendary, he is just a low-level officer of the ordinary Taiping Army, after surrendering to the Qing army, not only was he not killed, but later became a senior general of the Huai Army, before the Sino-Japanese War, he served as a naval admiral, rewarded with the title of Shangshu, and became the actual person in charge of the Beiyang Marine Division, which is really lamentable.
Why did Ding Ruchang's resume of the Taiping Army not have a negative impact on him, and later he was able to fly yellow and tengda and be reused by the Qing court?
Ding Ruchang is a native of Lujiang, Anhui, when the Taiping Army hit Lujiang, Ding Ruchang enlisted to join the Taiping Army, under Cheng Xueqi's troops, to say that making a revolution must also be related to the right people, Ding Ruchang was later able to fly Huang Tengda and this Cheng Xueqi has a lot to do with this Cheng Xueqi, in 1861 when the situation of the Taiping Army took a sharp turn for the worse, Cheng Xueqi led the troops to surrender, Ding Ruchang was also among the surrenders, originally Cheng Xueqi only had more than three hundred people, and there was no influence, Zeng Guoquan was not very at ease with Cheng Xueqi, when fighting, let Cheng Xueqi be the vanguard, In fact, it is to be cannon fodder, because when Cheng Xueqi surrendered, the Taiping Army killed his family and was very hateful to the Taiping Army, so the battle was quite brave, so Zeng Guoquan wanted to squeeze Cheng Xueqi again, and he was not embarrassed to die.
After Anqing was broken, Cheng Xueqi was promoted to guerrilla and served as a battalion officer of the Kaizi battalion (more than 500 people in a battalion in the Qing Dynasty), and Ding Ruchang was promoted to qianzong and served as a sentinel officer of the Kaizi battalion.
To say that people's lives are good, Ding Ruchang is also lucky to arrive home, shortly after the surrender of the Xiang Army, the shanghai war is urgent, the gentry in Shanghai are worried about the Taiping Army entering Shanghai, asked Zeng Guofan for support, but Zeng Guofan wanted to fight from the west to Nanjing, unwilling to go to Shanghai to divide the troops, so he let his student Li Hongzhang form the Huai Army, and then support Shanghai.
Since the Kaizi camp was mostly Anhui people, and Cheng Xueqi and Ding Ruchang were also anhui people, Zeng Guofan had long seen that this Taiping Army was not pleasing to the eye, and simply made a Shunshui favor and gave it to Li Hongzhang as the family foundation for forming the Huai Army.
In fact, Zeng Guofan was quite far-sighted, at that time Shanghai was full of concessions, wanted money and money, and wanted cannons and cannons, and after Li Hongzhang brought the Huai army to Shanghai, and then with the help of Gordon's Changsheng army, he really fought several victorious battles, and the Huai army was able to develop rapidly, as the bottom of the Huai army, the backbone, Li Hongzhang's compatriots, Cheng Xueqi and others were deeply valued by Li Hongzhang, Cheng Xueqi was simply Li Hongzhang's confidant, and Li obeyed his words.
Originally, Ding Ruchang was mixed with Cheng Xueqi, but Cheng Xueqi died in the war to suppress the Taiping Army, but Ding Ruchang was gradually reused, and after the Pacification of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Zeng Guofan was jealous of the imperial court, cut his wings himself, and greatly reduced the Xiang army, but Li Hongzhang did not care about the voice of the imperial court, not only did not decrease, but expanded the Huai army.
After the Twister Army rebelled, the Xiang Army became the five scum of the war, Zeng Guofan led the team to return to the battlefield, and finally Li Hongzhang took the Huai Army to save the field, and Ding Ruchang was awarded the title of Chief Soldier and added the title of Governor for his merits after destroying the Twist Army.
Of course, if we want to say whether the status of the Taiping Army's demotion has an impact on Ding Ruchang's career, there must also be some.
After the Twist army was suppressed, the Qing government decided to abolish the Huai army as well, and there were not many troops to be withdrawn, but Ding Ruchang's troops were impressively listed, and because of Ding Ruchang's protests, his superior Liu Mingchuan wanted to kill Ding Ruchang, and Ding Ruchang learned of this and rushed back to his hometown to take refuge.
Ding Ruchang should be able to fight, and when the Huai Army needed him to promote him during the war, but after the war, the first one was kicked away, and Ding Ruchang was therefore idle at home for a few years.
After the death of Zeng Guofan, Li Hongzhang, who was directly subordinate to the viceroy and minister of Beiyang, had actually become the most influential Han chancellor in the Qing court, and when Li Hongzhang was preparing to create the Beiyang Naval Division, he thought of Ding Ruchang, who was idle at home, and decided to promote Ding Ruchang to the Beiyang naval system with his "talent and courage".
At that time, Zuo Zongtang was on a western expedition, and when he learned of Ding Ruchang's comeback, he also planned to ask Ding Ruchang to go to the northwest battlefield, but Li Hongzhang broke up with Zuo Zongtang and did not agree, leaving him in Tianjin.
After that, he was mainly engaged in the purchase of ships and naval training for the Beiyang Naval Army, and when the Beiyang Naval Division was formed, Ding Ruchang served as the admiral of the Navy and was responsible for the construction of the entire Beiyang Navy.
It can be seen that Ding Ruchang was heavily used, to a large extent, because he had some skills of his own, and because of his geographical relations in Anhui, he was appreciated by Li Hongzhang, and finally he hitched a ride on the east wind of the rise of the Huai Army.