Zeng Guofan and Zuo Zongtang were both hunan natives, and they were also the four famous ministers of the late Qing Dynasty, both of whom emerged in the war to suppress the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and became the feudal officials of the Qing Dynasty. Logically, the relationship between the two should be very good. In fact, at the beginning, the personal relationship between the two was indeed very good, and Zeng Guofan could even be said to have a lot of recommendation and promotion for Zuo Zongtang.
However, when the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was destroyed, the two suddenly fell in love with each other, and even died and did not interact with each other afterwards.
What's going on in between? Today we will talk about it.
In June of the third year of Tongzhi, Zeng Guoquan restored Jinling, the capital of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and established the Geshi Qigong, zeng Guofan as the commander of the Xiang army, and this heavenly merit was naturally indispensable to his share. Afterwards, Zeng Guofan gave the imperial court a recital about Jinling Kefu.
In the fold, Zeng Guofan exaggerates Zeng Guoquan's battle exploits, saying that Hong Xiuquan committed suicide by taking poison as early as January because he was besieged by the Xiang army. As for Hong Xiuquan's son, the young king Hong Tianguifu, he set himself on fire after the city was destroyed. The remaining thieves of the Taiping Army, such as Li Xiucheng the Prince of Zhong, and Hong Xiuquan's brother Hong Renda the Prince of Fu, were captured.
Receiving the fold from Zeng Guofan, the imperial court was overjoyed. In the Central Plains, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, which had been raging for fourteen years, was finally about to be completely destroyed. In order to reward the great merits of the Zeng family brothers, the imperial court decided: reward Zeng Guofan with the title of Prince Taibao and give him the title of Marquis of Yiyong of the First Rank; reward Prince Shaobao of the Zeng Dynasty and give him the title of Wei Yibo of the First Rank.
Soon, however, the imperial court discovered that Zeng Guofan had committed the crime of deceiving the king.
On the sixth day of the first month of July, Zuo Zongtang, the governor of Fujian and Zhejiang, wrote a seal and mentioned that the young heavenly king Hong Tianguifu had escaped from Tianjing City and was not yet captured.
At the moment when Jinling was just laid, it may not be clear whether Hong Tianguifu escaped from Tianjing City. However, as the commander of the front line, zuo Zongtang could know something, he had no reason not to know, in fact, in the notes he gave to the imperial court later, he mentioned that Liu Songshan, Yang Changlin and others had written to tell him that Hong Tianguifu had fled.
On June 16, Zeng Guoquan restored Jinling, on June 23, Zeng Guofan reported the merit fold, and on the sixth day of July, Zuo Zongtang folded. In the intervening twenty days, Zeng Guofan had time to explain to the imperial court that Hong Tianguifu had fled, and that he had misjudged the situation.
However, he did nothing. It was not until July 15 that he received an edict from the imperial court sternly reprimanding him for lying about military information because of his greed for merit, and asking him to quickly find Hong Tianguifu and find out how many Taiping Heavenly Kingdom rogues had escaped from Tianjing City.
In fact, Zeng Guofan's deception is not only this one. For example, Hong Xiuquan did not die at all because he sat in a distressed city and took poison for fear of sin, he died of long-term malnutrition and excessive indulgence. In addition, after Li Xiucheng was captured, the imperial court explicitly ordered that Li Xiucheng be sent to Jingshi for interrogation and then questioned in public, but Zeng Guofan took it upon himself to secretly execute him in his own territory.
Why did Zeng Guofan dare to do this? Of course, the imperial court still needs himself, and he also needs the Xiang Army, and he would rather bear the charge of disrespect to the imperial court than trade Li Xiu out and ruin his own big thing.
Because of Zuo Zongtang, Zeng Guofan was reprimanded by the imperial court. This scholar who was famous for his self-cultivation in later generations finally began to show his hypocritical side.
A few days later, Zeng Guofan played "Re-Chen Cuts Xiang Yong and Visits Zha Hong FuYao's Unprovoked Whereabouts".
Looking at the name of the fold, Zeng Guofan was preparing to dismantle the Xiang Army. After the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was destroyed, many relatives and friends around Zeng Guofan advised him to ascend to a high place and establish himself as emperor. It seems that Zeng Guofan intended to reject these suggestions and decided to become a loyal minister of the Qing Dynasty for the rest of his life.
Since he wanted to be a loyal vassal, he could not give the imperial court too much of a threat, so he indicated in the fold that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom had been completely destroyed, and the huge Xiang army should also be dismissed, in order to reassure the imperial court.
In addition, Zeng Guofan also retaliated against Zuo Zongtang in the fold. He said that in February this year, Zuo Zongtang led an army to attack Hangzhou, which was occupied by Long Mao, when the thieves Kang Wang Haiyang and Wang Chen Bingwen escaped from 100,000 people, and he did not see anything. Now that Zeng Guoquan has conquered Tianjing City and escaped from hundreds of thieves, he has shouted all over the world to know, saying that my Zeng brothers lied about military information for greed, and I think he is nakedly jealous.
Zuo Zongtang was not willing to show weakness, and immediately put on a "Hangzhou Yu Bandits Sneaking Out of the Situation Film", in this fold, Zuo Zongtang defended that he had not been surrounded on all sides, and there were more than sixty miles between the two cities of Hangzhou and Yuhang, and there were not enough troops to encircle. In addition, as for what Zeng said about escaping from 100,000 bandits, I am ten thousand who disagree, and I did escape some people, but definitely not so many hundred thousand.
For Zeng Guofan, Cixi was still grateful, and it was impossible to really do anything to him because of this matter. As for Zuo Zongtang, there were still more places to rely on in the future, and as soon as Zuo Zongtang defended himself, the imperial court made it clear that it would not pursue it.
The verbal battle between the two of them has come to an end at this point, after all, they were comrades-in-arms who fought side by side at the beginning, and now they are all important ministers of the imperial court, first, they abide by the gentleman's absolute insistence on not making evil friends, and second, they do not want to lose their integrity.
However, the friendship between the two was also broken, and the correspondence that had been insisted on for many years was completely ended.
In the days that followed, the two had contacts on official business, but there was absolutely no half point in personal relations. In the fifth year of Tongzhi, Zuo Zongtang impeached Guo Songtao, who was then the governor of Guangdong. Like Zeng Guofan Zuo Zongtang, Guo Songtao is also a Hunan native, and zeng zuo and the two have good personal relations, and are still the sons and daughters of Zeng Guofan.
Logically, Since Guo Zuo and Guo Zuo were compatriots and friends, Zuo Zongtang should not impeach Guo Songtao under any circumstances, but Zuo Zongtang still did so. Although from the perspective of our hindsight, Guo Songtao's performance at that time was indeed not very good, Zuo Zongtang was really a bit too ruthless. Perhaps, Zuo Zongtang was making it clear to the imperial court that he wanted to break off relations with Zeng Guofan's Xiang clique.
It is worth noting that although the two rarely communicate for the rest of their lives, they rarely denigrate each other behind their backs. Zeng Guofan repeatedly warned his son not to be dissatisfied with Zuo Zongtang, and Zuo Zongtang also wrote to friends that Zeng Guofan could be a model in terms of personal ethics. It shows that in the eyes of Zeng Zuo and the two, the other party still has many advantages.
Perhaps, the original confrontation between the two of them was not known even for the imperial court.
After all, after the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was destroyed, almost all the governors in various places at that time came from Zeng Guofan's Xiang Army group, which was the main reason why so many people would encourage Zeng Guofan to establish himself as emperor. The discord between the two men of Zeng Guofan zuo Zongtang was most likely deliberately performed to the imperial court and to Cixi, in order to dispel the imperial court's wariness of the Hunan clique.
This can also explain the elegy sent by Zuo Zongtang after Zeng Guofan's death:
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 phase period is not negative.
Thanks for reading, stay tuned!
Author: Tianshu