In the late Qing Dynasty, many people wanted to save the survival, especially the important ministers in the Qing court began the "foreign affairs movement", Zeng Guofan was one of the representative figures, under his strong promotion, built China's first steamship, set up the first military engineering school, printed and translated the first Western books, and arranged the first batch of students to study in the United States. It can be said that he was the initiator and pioneer of the western affairs movement. But in fact, Zeng Guofan took the exam seven times before he won the Xiucai, so how did he step by step become a qing court official?
Juvenile experience
When Zeng Guofan was young, his family was not rich, his ancestors were mainly farmers, but he attached great importance to the education of his children, as the eldest grandson of Zeng Guofan studied with his father who was a private school teacher from a young age, but he was not very smart, if it were not for his father's earnest teaching, he might have dropped out of school because he could not keep up with his studies.
Although Zeng Guofan's mind is not too smart, but he is very hardworking, the Qing court's eight shares of the soldier is very suitable for him such a person who will memorize by rote, so Zeng Guofan ranked seventh when he took the boy exam at the age of 15, and later Zeng Guofan took the county exam seven times to win Xiucai, through this success to Zeng Guofan to build confidence, more efforts to learn knowledge.
In the middle of the lift into the shi
After two years of becoming a showman, Zeng Guofan participated in the first township examination in his life, this time he successfully won the lifting in one fell swoop, when he was 23 years old, he was also considered to be young and famous, and he was inspired to enter Beijing to participate in the examination, wanting to win a meritorious name, and as a result, he failed in both examinations, and he had no choice but to return to Changsha to continue his studies.
Two years later, he came to the capital again to participate in the examination, and finally succeeded in one fell swoop, so he was appreciated by the military minister Mu Zhang'a, became his proud protégé, and in the later palace examination, Zeng Guofan ranked third in the first list, the Daoguang Emperor personally promoted him to the second place, and Zeng Guofan began his career.
Get the job done with dedication
After entering the army, Zeng Guofan was entrusted with a heavy responsibility, although the position was not high, but his work attitude was very serious, which was in stark contrast to the corrupt Qing court officials at that time, so he repeatedly served as an examiner, accumulated a large number of contacts, and became a ceremonial attendant for eight years.
Zeng Guofan was different from other officials with flexible minds, he treated himself very strictly, and he was also careful not to make mistakes when doing things, so that officials who could do practical things were naturally favored by those in power.
Pacify the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom
After the outbreak of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the Qing court wanted to launch a local suppression of rebellion, so it set up regimental training in the local area, and Zeng Guofan, who had a high prestige in Hunan, relied on complex interpersonal relations such as teachers and apprentices, relatives, and friends to establish a local regimental training, and this disciplined Xiang army unit was much more powerful than the corrupt Qing court officers and soldiers at that time.
Zeng Guofan in order to defeat the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom absorbed a large number of intellectuals into the army, improve the tactical quality of the troops, but the new army was not an opponent of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom at the beginning, Zeng Guofan led the army to several times in water battles, almost captured by the Taiping Army, and later he relied on the style of steady and steady fighting, and finally recovered the lost land step by step, and took advantage of the Taiping Heavenly Chaos to suppress Shi Dakai, and made great military achievements. Later, he attacked the capital of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and eliminated the uprising in one fell swoop. Zeng Guofan thus became a member of the famous zhen side.
brief summary
The main reason why Zeng Guofan was able to have such great achievements was that he had the spirit of perseverance, was able to endure what ordinary people could not tolerate, and did difficult things that ordinary people would give up, so he achieved final success and became one of the "four ministers of the late Qing Dynasty".