On this day, a 100,000-angry imperial court message suddenly arrived. Zeng Guofan took apart the edict and looked at it, and it turned out to be the Xianfeng Emperor's edict asking him to quickly rejuvenate the King of Qin. In the edict, the Xianfeng Emperor yan ordered Zeng Guofan to immediately dispatch Bao Chao to lead 3,000 elites "concurrently to advance, Ke Ri to Beijing, and Hand over Sheng Bao to dispatch." “
What is the urgent need for the Commander of the Xiang Army in the south, Xingshi Qinwang?
The Xianfeng Decade was the year of the great catastrophe of the Xianfeng Emperor, Britain and France provoked the Second Opium War, the British and French allied forces armed with strong ships and cannons went all the way north, destroyed the decay, and in just a few months they came to the city of Beijing, frightening the Xianfeng Emperor to flee from Chengde, and the xianfeng emperor fled to the palace, and he was terrified and trembling, and he could only paralyze himself with drunken dreams.
The emperor has difficulties, and the generals of the world will rejuvenate the king, which is the custom of successive dynasties, but the intention of this edict sent to Zeng Guofan is by no means so simple.
If we simply ask Zeng Guofan to rejuvenate the army and serve the king, it should be led by Zeng Guofan or by the generals designated by Zeng Guofan, and should not be named as the head of the Xiang army, Bao Chao, as strictly ordered in the edict, and must be dispatched by the red man Shengbao who is around Xianfeng.
Without much thought, he could find out that there was Katsuho's calculation of Zeng Guofan hidden in this edict, what was he calculating?
In the name of King Qin, he dug up the deadly wall of Zeng Guofan and took away the Xiang army generals he relied on.
Of course, Zeng Guofan could see all this clearly, but who dared not obey the orders of the Qin King?
Disobedience is disloyalty and unrighteousness, and Zeng Guofan, who is "loyal and righteous," simply cannot bear such a crime.
But gladly obeyed, Zeng Guofan felt that it was extremely inappropriate. Katsuho's calculations aside, the key is that this is a move that is not beneficial to the north, but only to the loss of the south's two defeats.
How do you say that?
Zeng Guofan had a thorough understanding of the situation at that time, it was only a matter of time before the Anglo-French coalition army captured Beijing, and the dispatch of more than a few thousand people could not change the overall situation at all. At this time, there was only one "he" word that could serve the king, and the word "war" could not save the imperial court and the emperor at all.
It was a defeat.
Another defeat, the dispatch of Bao Chao's strong troops to the north, the situation faced by Zeng Guofan collapsed in an instant. As soon as Bao Chao left, Anqing was bound to withdraw from the siege, and once Anqing withdrew, the great cause of encircling and suppressing the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was very likely to fall short.
While futile efforts, at the same time, it is not a two-defeat fate!
However, at that time, the Qing court still had authority, and did not reach the part of Cixi's westward flight during the Gengzi period, when Li Hongzhang dared to use "chaotic life" to refuse to obey orders, but Zeng Guofan of the Xianfeng Dynasty did not dare to do so.
Neither psychological or physical conditions he possesses.
Fortunately, when Zeng Guofan was hesitating and making a decision, Li Hongzhang offered him a very clever plan to get out of trouble.
History is sometimes quite interesting, and the protagonists behind the two famous anti-"Qin King's Order" in the late Qing Dynasty were actually Li Hongzhang. In the year of Gengzi's resistance to Cixi's Qin Wang's order, Li Hongzhang sacrificed "chaotic orders and did not obey"; this time against Xianfeng's Qin Wang's orders, he sacrificed "wasted life can be delayed".
In fact, they are all cleverly judging the hour and sizing up the situation.
Those who can't see through the overall situation will never dare to play like this.
Li Hongzhang analyzed Zeng Guofan that this life seemed to be threatening, but it was actually a waste of life. Within ten days, the capital would be captured by foreigners. Foreigners intend to make profits, not to clean up the country. Prince Gong of Jinghuihe was bound to be a libido in order to maintain the community. Since this is the case, the peace talks between the two sides will be quick, and it is expected that it will only take twenty or thirty days.
Twenty or thirty days later, the peace bureau has been decided, and it is not chaotic to add swords and soldiers.
It can be said that this is the most golden moment in Li Hongzhang's career, and this insight is really like a knife.
It is said that Zeng Guofan's attainments should also be able to see through this, but how can he be loyal and virtuous with too heavy baggage.
Once people are entangled, the position is often unbearable.
After Li Hongzhang's sharp knife solution, Zeng Guofan instantly walked out of difficulty and hesitation. Therefore, he slowly returned a twist to the imperial court on the ninth day of the first month of September of that year.
The essence of this recitation is only one word, "drag.".
Zeng Guofan said in the recital that Bao Chao's rank was too low, and that King Qin was a major event, and asked the imperial court to choose one between him and Hu Linyi to lead the army into Beijing.
When Zeng Guofan said this, he actually wanted to delay the time again and again.
Sure enough, Xianfeng's new Edict to King Qin had not yet been issued, and Prince Gong Yixuan had already made peace with the foreigners.
In this way, the previous 100,000 fiery imperial court edicts indeed became the abolition of Li Hongzhang's words. On the fourth day of October, Zeng Guofan received a new edict from the imperial court, saying that there was no need to go north.
In the history of Zeng Guofan, this passage is very famous, but in these twenty or thirty days, another thrilling thing that happened was rarely known.
The reason why few people know is because once this matter was leaked out at that time, Zeng Guofan's entire family was afraid of being wiped out.
The person who caused this sinister storm was Zeng Guofan's ninth brother, Zeng Guoquan, who was in charge of besieging Anqing at the time.
The plot staged in real history is far less simple than that of later generations, and it often tells only the big outline, rather than the whole vivid and concrete person.
Zeng Guofan is a person who seeks everything to be complete and impeccable.
At that time, although he thought that Li Hongzhang's decision was correct, who could guarantee him 100 percent? What if the peace talks are not twenty or thirty days but dozens of days? At that time, what if Xian Feng really ordered him to lead his troops north?
Therefore, in addition to Li Hongzhang's clever plan, Zeng Guofan also had a contingency plan at that time, that is, in case of miscalculation, he planned to let Zeng Guoquan command the army to go north with him.
To this end, Zeng Guofan immediately wrote a letter to Zeng Guoquan after he sent the letter of dragging the word. The gist of the letter is that if the Emperor sends me north, you'd better go with me. Brothers work together to serve the king, but it is also the ancestral affair of Guangzong Yao. Now you need to make a plan in advance, if you want to go north, who to smoke, quickly open a list for me. If the Emperor gives another order, we shall set out at once.
What Zeng Guofan did not expect was that Zeng Guoquan directly exploded after receiving this letter, and then gave Zeng Guofan a fierce letter that was enough to destroy the nine clans of the Zeng clan.
Why did Zeng Guoquan come to this point?
All because he was biting AnQing dead at this time.
Zeng Guoquan's personality is extremely stubborn, belonging to the type of prey that will never let go, and whoever wants to let him loose, he can desperately bite whom.
Who did he tear up?
Xianfeng, and in an unscrupulous way.
It is a pity that this "big happy" letter was destroyed on the spot after Zeng Guofan read it. But fortunately, through Zeng Guofan's family letter, the content of this letter can still be basically restored.
What did Zeng Guoquan say in his letter?
The basic answer is in a private family letter from Zeng Guofan to Zeng Guofan, which was not published until the 1980s, and the tone is so severe that it is unprecedented in Zeng Guofan's family book.
The letter received by the disciple on the night of the first nine days was full of arrogance and arrogance, and there were many paradoxical words. There are many things in the world, righteousness is deep, human feelings are difficult to know, and the way of heaven is unpredictable, and my brother has covered the heavens with one hand, arrogant and nonsensical words, and I don't know what the result is?
Prince Gong's sage, I have seen and heard of it many times. However, his demeanor is frivolous, his intelligence is too revealing, and he is resourceful and changeable. If you stay in Beijing for too long, the holy car is far away, and it is difficult to be comfortable with the people's hearts for a long time.
The Mongol tribes led by the monk king fought in Tianjin and Tongzhou, and Gai had already made all-out efforts to fight against the rebels to the death, so why did he still have more than enough to do his best? And did the emperor forbid victory so that he did not do his best? The strength has been exhausted and invincible, and the emperor and the monks are all sighing and can't do anything. And the brother repeatedly wrote letters, all of which said that it was advisable to reuse the monk's residence, and I did not know where the brother received the news, saying that the monk's residence saw that it was light and light, and we did not hear of this consumption.
Divide the troops to the north to aid in response to the edict, which is the division that the courtiers should fulfill. Therefore, my generation has plagiarized false names and been possessed by the people, all by the word loyalty and righteousness. Not forgetting the king is called loyalty; not dishonesty in friends is called righteousness. Now luan public opinion is broadcast, and the courtiers do not pay attention to it, can it be said to be loyal? In case there is any negligence in the capital, Rehe has no silver rice, and it is difficult for the soldiers from the driver to ensure that it will not collapse. If it is fundamentally uprooted, how can the three provinces of Nanfu such as Jiangxi and The Two Lakes support undefeated? Will the common people be willing to run out of food? Wouldn't a business traveler be willing to take a break? Will the generals of the state and county obey the orders? Instead of not entering the aid and ending up together, in just a few months, why should we join the aid and always be loyal and righteous? Even if there is nothing in the hundred, after death, there is no remorse for the Nine Springs, and there is no ridicule in the hundred worlds. The brother must not listen to the students' discussion, and what the brother sees is the pedantic view of the students.
Through this family letter from Zeng Guofan, let's first see what Zeng Guoquan may have said?
Zeng Guoquan is very likely to say such a thing, the siege of Anqing must not be withdrawn, the Great Qing Dynasty will not die in charge of Lao Tzu's bird affairs, and it will be good to die. Without the blind command of the imperial court, perhaps the Xiang army could have destroyed the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom faster. At that time, there was no imperial court, and the Zeng family was the imperial court.
Today's emperor is a "mountain cannon" and will not use people at all. The emperor just didn't want him to make a contribution, so the foreigners killed all the way from Tianjin to the capital. Now that the emperor has run away, it is he who blames himself, and let Lao Tzu spit out the fat meat that will come to his mouth immediately to save him.
Taking a step back, the current emperor's ability is far inferior to Prince Gong's, and now that the emperor has run away, Prince Gong has stayed in Beijing to deal with Chinese and foreign affairs, I don't think it is a bad thing, the emperor had better die in Chengde, Prince Gong is much better than him when he is emperor-
It is conceivable how Zeng Guofan would feel when he saw such a letter!
First of all, Zeng Guofan must have been "afraid and evil" against Zeng Guofan's arrogance plus hearsay, so he warned himself in a stern tone that this disobedient and very arrogant ninth brother must not be spoken again in the future, even if it is a family letter, once it is leaked, the Zeng family will suffer the disaster of extinction.
After harshly speaking bitterly, Zeng Guofan gave his opinion on Zeng Guoquan's arrogant remarks. I have to say that when it comes to loyalty and righteousness, Zeng Guofan is from a lofty height; when it comes to Prince Gong and monk Greenqin, Zeng Guofan is to the point.
In short, everything Zeng Guofan said, from the perspective of a loyal and righteous supporter, is definitely worthy of both wisdom and wisdom.
There is no self-confidence and domineering spirit of the chaotic tyrant to stand up for the world.
No way, this is Zeng Guofan.
Therefore, after the warning and the high discussion, Zeng Guofan finally returned to the old road of the sages, and he prescribed two prescriptions to Zeng Guoquan.
One is to cure the symptoms, that is a sentence of Confucius -
The more you hear and doubt, the more you say the rest, the less.
One is to cure the root cause, that is a heart decision of Zeng Guofan ——
The defeated are always proud.