What was Zuo Zongtang's situation after the recovery of Xinjiang? Unable to buy a house, he was repeatedly suppressed, bowing down and dying with hatred

What was Zuo Zongtang's situation after the recovery of Xinjiang? Unable to buy a house, he was repeatedly suppressed, bowing down and dying with hatred

On the seventh day of July in the sixth year of Guangxu, the Qing court issued an edict to transfer Zuo Zongtang, who was far away in Hami, Xinjiang, to return to Beijing on the grounds that "ministers who are old in military affairs should be prepared as advisers to the imperial court".

The reason why the Qing court summoned Zuo Zongtang back to Beijing at this time was due to both internal and external reasons. Externally, the Qing court did not have the courage to decide the male and female in the first world war against Tsarist Russia, and the lords and factions were worried that Zuo Zongtang, the eagle, would be too tough and attack Czarist Russia without authorization, so they decided to draw salaries from the bottom of the pot to pave the way for peace; internally, Qingliu thought that the situation was difficult and dangerous, and urgently needed a heavy minister like Zuo Zongtang to join the Privy Council and preside over the overall situation. Save today's urgency, Shouzong Temple Society".

Receiving such an edict, Zuo Zongtang inevitably had some ambitions that were not rewarded, but it was difficult to violate his orders, so he had to obey his orders.

In the face of this great river and mountain in Xinjiang, before returning to Beijing, Zuo Zongtang showed his bold loyalty, first wrote to the prime minister Yamen, asking the imperial court to make a decision between peace and war, even if the lord and the lord should not show weakness to insult. Then, he summoned Liu Jintang, the successor of northwest affairs and military affairs in Xinjiang, and personally handed over the guan defense of the minister of Chincha.

I think that in that year, Zuo Zongtang divided his soldiers into three roads for the great cause of the northwest, carried the coffin out on the expedition, and in the blink of an eye, more than ten years of spring and autumn had passed, and on the day when he really wanted to leave, the elderly Zuo Zongtang deeply knew that this trip was doomed to be gone forever.

There was a feeling of unsemblance in his heart.

This is especially true of the people of the Northwest.

The "Annals of Zuo Zongtang" has such a record: in every town in the northwest, even in the most remote villages, in those days, Zuo Zongtang's departure became the only topic of discussion. Everyone was upset about his departure, because only by his presence would people feel that life was safe and secure.

On the day that Zuo Zongtang left Lanzhou, all the shops were closed, and this person who made them learn to trust, fear, and respect won the respect and farewell of the people of the whole city. The people spontaneously lined up in a long line of more than a hundred miles, and as he passed, everyone knelt on the ground and bowed their heads reverently to him.

This scene made Zuo Zongtang burst into tears...

For such a departure, Zuo Zongtang actually had anticipated it long ago, and he also made arrangements for his destination after leaving. In June of that year, Zuo Zongtang wrote a letter to his friend Xu Yongyi in the capital, in which he talked about his specific plans after leaving the northwest.

"Thinking of how difficult it is to steal the current affairs, when the righteous should raise the Jingyu, you can't beg to return to the house as a self-help, and after your majesty sees it, you are willing to open the cabinet and lack, so as to idle and stay in the Beijing Division, and be a little at ease in your heart." You must not stay in Beijing without a house, and you have sent a letter to Yoshida Lian to visit and Yan Xuan Fang Bo to set aside 2,000 taels of money under lian to pay for a house. After arriving in Beijing, I will bring my children and grandchildren to the north with my relatives, and I will serve and take care of the nearest class. Can be like the Beijing official residential section, you can be at peace, but there must be a gap next to the house can be vegetables, shu has fun, fortunately pay attention to Yan. ”

Zuo Zongtang said that after coming to Beijing, he probably could not return to his hometown and return to Hunan to spend his old age, so he could only buy a house in the capital for the elderly. With such a house, he can take all his family members and live together, and his children and grandchildren can also take the exam in the nearest class. As for the location and scale of the house, there is no need to follow the standard of a large member of the first product, as long as it is similar to that of an ordinary Beijing official, and the only special requirement is that the house is best to bring a piece of open land so that it can be used to grow vegetables.

To this end, Zuo Zongtang sent Xu Yongyi two thousand taels of silver to buy a house in the capital.

However, Zuo Zongtang did not understand the real estate market in the capital at that time, and he could not buy a decent house near the Forbidden City for just two thousand taels of silver. After Zuo Zongtang learned of this situation, because he could no longer take out the excess silver two, he finally had to dispel the idea of buying a house in the capital and became the "North Drift" of the late Qing Dynasty.

How could the meritorious servants of the Tang Dynasty and the feudal officials be trapped to such a point?

This is related to Zuo Zongtang's ethics.

Zuo Zongtang was not like Li Hongzhang, who was not greedy, never filled his own pockets, on the contrary, he took out Feng Lu to subsidize the military and donate to his friends for many years, and when he left the northwest, he had carefully calculated an account with Shen Yingkui, a Taoist member of the Xi'an Military Quartermaster Bureau who was in charge of the military salaries of the Western Division: All his savings were only thirty thousand taels of silver, Hu Xueyan's money for buying mines and torpedoes, the one thousand hundred taels of fire silver donated to Lanshan Academy, and wu Liutang's thousands of taels of family silver had to be paid out of these thirty thousand taels, in addition, there were thousands of taels of debt to be repaid in his hometown in Hunan. The northbound Panchuan also needs two or three thousand taels, and the rest can only barely cope with the use of staying in Beijing, and then even the public opinion may have to be cut off.

On the twenty-sixth day of the first month of the seventh year of Guangxu, after more than two months of long journey, Zuo Zongtang finally arrived in the capital. On this day, the Sino-Russian re-treaty negotiations, which lasted for half a year, also came to an end. Although Zeng Jize, the son of Zeng Guofan, won back some rights and interests for the country through the revised Sino-Russian Ili Treaty, when it comes to substance, the revised treaty is still an unequal treaty of land cession and reparations.

The triumph class master, but he could not afford to buy a house in the capital.

The Northwest fought for thirteen years, but in the end it was still humiliating and peaceful.

On the day Zuo Zongtang arrived in Beijing, the inner anger could be imagined.

And that's just the beginning.

It is reasonable to say that when Zuo Zongtang triumphantly arrived in Beijing after creating such an immortal achievement, the imperial court should give him considerable glory and considerable courtesy. But the reality is a different scene of indifference, corruption, and depravity.

When Zuo Zongtang arrived at Chongwen Gate, he was actually stopped by the eunuch who guarded the gate.

The eunuch who guarded the gate told Zuo Zongtang that according to the imperial court practice, all feudal officials who were sent back to Beijing at the end of their term of office were required to pay a sum of silver at Chongwen Gate.

Zuo Zongtang asked, how much do you want me to pay?

The gatekeeper eunuch said, forty thousand two.

Hearing this, Zuo Zongtang was furious, and he asked the eunuch who was guarding the door, I was summoned to Beijing to see the emperor, what was the reason for asking me to pay the money? If you don't want this silver, it should also be paid by the current emperor.

The gatekeeper eunuch smiled coldly and immediately started a cold war with Zuo Zongtang.

It is said that outside the Chongwen Gate, Zuo Zongtang was blocked by the eunuch who guarded the gate for five days, and finally Prince Gong Yishi secretly paid eight thousand taels of silver into the door, and the storm was able to subside, and Zuo Zongtang was able to pass through the Chongwen Gate and enter the capital.

On the surface, the gatekeeper eunuch used Cixi's authority to commit a crime, but in fact, it was a certain force in the court who gave Zuo Zongtang a way to lay down his power.

Zuo Zongtang was such a clever man, and he naturally understood this famous name.

Therefore, when he entered the city, he said to the people around him quite depressedly, the triumph was jealous, and the capital was difficult!

After entering the city, the next day, Empress Dowager Ci'an of the Eastern Palace summoned Zuo Zongtang, and Empress Dowager Cixi of the West was absent due to illness.

The history books record that seeing Zuo Zongtang, who had been blown by the northwest wind and sand for thirteen years, Empress Dowager Ci'an showed extremely deep concern, and Zuo Zongtang was troubled by this, and finally lost his composure and burst into tears.

At that moment, Empress Dowager Ci'an understood Zuo Zongtang, since the conquest, this iron-blooded tough man had endured too much criticism, blame, hardship, and difficulty, and he needed too much care, too much understanding, too much need for relief.

But Ci'an didn't show this, she just asked softly, are your eyes bad?

Zuo Zongtang said, yes, lao chen's eyes are not good, and the wind and sand stimulate it along the way, so he can't help but cry.

Ci'an listened and asked the eunuch to take a pair of sunglasses worn by the Xianfeng Emperor and reward it to Zuo Zongtang.

Because of this pair of sunglasses, Zuo Zongtang was deeply grateful to Empress Dowager Ci'an, but invisibly, he also offended Empress Dowager Cixi, who was really in power.

After the end of this call, two days later, the imperial court officially appointed Zuo Zongtang as the minister of military aircraft and the prime minister of state affairs, and managed the affairs of the military department, directly participating in the central decision-making.

Zuo Zongtang had originally wanted to make a difference when he joined the military plane, but the sinister politics of the court and the exclusion of the ruling parties were still greatly unexpected by him.

Just a few days after Zuo Zongtang was first summoned, bad news suddenly came out of the palace, and the empress dowager died. At that time, because Cixi was seriously ill, at first everyone thought that it was Cixi who died, but when the exact news came out, saying that Ci'an had died, everyone was surprised.

When Zuo Zongtang learned of this news, unlike the silence of the crowd, according to the historical records, he shouted on the spot, and this morning I also saw Empress Dowager Ci'an go to the court, speaking the same as peacetime, clear and powerful. There must be something wrong with the sudden death of the empress dowager!

After shouting, Zuo Zongtang began to walk back and forth angrily in the courtyard, as if a male lion was protesting. Prince Gong saw that the situation was not good, and hurried to pull, which took a lot of effort, and finally let Zuo Zongtang calm down.

The news soon reached Cixi's ears.

For Zuo Zongtang, Cixi originally appreciated and supported, but with this public questioning, Cixi had to re-examine, this person is a hero who is roughly true, but so blunt, arrogant and uncontrollable, leaving him in the center, I am afraid that it will only add contradictions and troubles, and can not really share worries for himself.

In short, this man is the eagle of the state, and it is impossible to be Cixi's personal eagle dog.

Cixi was the actual ruler of the dynasty, and when Zuo Zongtang entered the center, she still had such a vigilant view, and as for those in power in the dynasty, it was naturally even more so.

In fact, when Zuo Zongtang entered Beijing, it was the time when Li Hongzhang was as powerful as the sun and the sky were in the sky. At the beginning, this powerful minister had launched a huge dispute between coastal defense and Cypriot defense, and asserted that it would be impossible for the imperial court to send troops to the northwest to win, and it was necessary to abandon Xinjiang when the time came.

During that period, Li Hongzhang not only poured cold water on saifang, but also did everything he could to restrain zuo Zongtang after he led his army on the expedition. But even so, Li Hongzhang did not wait for Zuo Zongtang's defeat, on the contrary, Zuo Zongtang let him see how Xinjiang was successfully recovered.

Now that Zuo Zongtang has returned majestically, Li Hongzhang and the like certainly know that if they cannot suppress Zuo Zongtang's upward momentum, the next thing that greets them will be more than just embarrassment.

In order to suppress Zuo Zongtang, they seized on the "shortcomings" of his lonely personality and played a trick of wanton ugliness with one hand.

Let's take a look at how Li Hongzhang's confidant Xue Fucheng scandalized Zuo Zongtang.

Xue Fucheng said to the outside world--

When Zuo Zongtang entered the cabinet, he was arrogant and arrogant, and he could not turn to him. At the right time, there was a meeting of cabinet members, and every line read on the left side was chen Qiping's achievements in returning to Xinjiang, and Yu Zeli denigrated Wen Zheng (Zeng Guofan) more than once. If it is for several months, and if it is not half read, those who are in the same column are tired of it, and they will hide it.

At that time, as soon as such ugly words spread, Li Hongzhang and his ilk had a reason to insult and attack, and Zuo Zongtang was in such a difficult situation, not to mention making a difference, even if he gained a foothold in the military plane, it was becoming more and more difficult.

Helplessly, in the following months, Zuo Zongtang had to do sesame practical things such as repairing the Zhili River, but even so, on the sixth day of September in the seventh year of Guangxu, the imperial court still expelled him from the center and sent him out to Liangjiang.

When Cixi was no less than any emperor of the Qing Dynasty, and when Zuo Zongtang was sent to the post of governor of Liangjiang and minister of trade affairs in Nanyang, Cixi first said in a dignified voice: "If it is difficult to discuss public affairs, liangjiang is not several times more than this, and Er has always been serious and prestigious, and has to be sent here again." "The implication is that this time when you go to Liangjiang, it is not that you have been ostracized, nor that I want to drive you away, but that it is not up to an old minister like you to sit in charge of the Liangjiang Land."

After talking about this, Cixi also said that you have not been easy in these years, you have no savings at hand, the two rivers are a rich land, and you can live two good days when you go there.

In this last farewell sentence, Cixi said very bluntly, I know your credit, when you get to Liangjiang, you can get some money, and after a few days of good life, the imperial court will not interfere.

Hearing Cixi say this, Zuo Zongtang could not say much, nor could he complain, and finally could only smile bitterly.

This has been the case throughout the ages, and people who have gone through vicissitudes and have a sad state of mind often miss their hometown. This time, the two rivers were released, and Zuo Zongtang was like this. On October 14, 707, Zuo Zongtang left Beijing to the south, but he did not immediately go to his post, but asked the imperial court for leave and returned to his hometown in Hunan to save a tomb.

In his hometown of Xiangyin, Zuo Zongtang stayed for seven days, and then went to Jinling to become the governor of Liangjiang.

This time, Zuo Zongtang thought that without the restraint of the DPRK and the middle, he could let go and do some things, but when he arrived at the land of Jinling, he found that Li Hongzhang had already made arrangements up and down, and the "upside down" forces did not allow him to show his prestige at all.

Compared with the previous public opinion scandal, the masses rose up to attack it, and this time "turned left", Li Hongzhang put his foothold on attacking and suppressing Zuo Zongtang's subordinates, so he handed over, with the intention of cutting off Zuo Zongtang's wings and causing a situation in which his general trend had gone.

The first to bear the brunt of the disaster was Zuo Zongtang's most powerful arm, Hu Xueyan, a red-top merchant in the late Qing Dynasty. In that year, when Hu Xueyan raised a loan for Zuo Zongtang's Xinjiang military, he had an agreement with HSBC Foreign Bank that in the case that the customs could not pay the principal and interest of the loan for the Xinjiang Campaign on time, Hu Xueyan's Fukang Qianzhuang must be paid in advance as a guarantee. After Li Hongzhang's confidant Sheng Xuanhuai discovered through the telegraph system under his control that Hu Xueyan's huge amount of funds were accumulated on silk, Li Hongzhang immediately instructed Shao Youlian of Shanghai Dao to suppress 800,000 taels of silver that should have been transferred to Hu Xueyan. At this time, although Hu Xueyan's position was tight, in order to abide by the contract, he finally used all his strength to mobilize 800,000 taels of silver from Fukang Qianzhuang all over the country and handed it over to the foreigners first. When Li Hongzhang received this news, he immediately launched a run frenzy against Fukang through large households. Poor Hu Xueyan, the former rich business empire collapsed overnight, and he himself died with hatred.

At that time, in addition to Hu Xueyan becoming a victim of Li Hongzhang's "inverted left", many of Zuo Zongtang's old subordinates also followed the mold.

Zhou Chongfu, who followed Zuo Zongtang in the northwest as a Zhendi Daoist, because of his simple and incorruptible style, the three meals a day usually only had cooking cakes and cold water, and the local people called him "Cooking Cake Daoist". After Zuo Zongtang became the governor of Liangjiang, he specially transferred Zhou Chongfu to rectify the salt affairs of Liangjiang. After Zhou Chongfu took office, he eliminated all kinds of maladministration, cracked down on corrupt officials and corrupt officials, and paid more than two million taels of salt tax a year. However, it was such a clean and capable official who did not make money on the fat difference and only knew how to work hard to govern, but in the end he was squeezed out by Li Hongzhang's people to the point where he could not fit himself and had to leave his post and go home.

Wang Jiamin, who had served as a grain station in Zhejiang, Fujian, Zhejiang, and Shaanxi-Gansu-Houlu in Hubei, was a person whom Zuo Zongtang trusted very much, and in terms of ethics and ability, he was a rare figure in the official field at that time. However, Zuo Zongtang twice recommended him as a Taoist official during his tenure as the governor of Liangjiang, and on the official title, Wang Jiamin was a political envoy, which was already a high-ranking and low-level use, and the result was rejected by the officials. Zuo Zongtang was indignant, but repeatedly fought, and the Qing court reluctantly agreed to Wang Jiamin's agency for the post, but stressed that this situation was not an example.

Liu Xuan, an old subordinate of Zuo Zongtang, was later charged with fabrication, and together with his son, he was assigned to Ninguta, and was eventually persecuted to death.

These acts of suppression that Li Hongzhang secretly manipulated had a rather bad impact on Zuo Zongtang. For the three masters of the late Qing Dynasty, Zeng Guofan, Zuo Zongtang, and Li Hongzhang, whether at that time or in later generations, everyone had a criterion for judging how many supervisors and how many towns they had under them. In this regard, Zeng Guofan's protégés are all over the world, Li Hongzhangqing is better than blue out of blue, only Zuo Zongtang is a lonely one, for this reason everyone says that Zuo Zongtang has a tyrannical personality, does not tolerate subordinates, and only knows himself as an official all his life, and is unwilling to cultivate and promote subordinates. In fact, this is an illusion formed by the "inverted left" of the officialdom, not that Zuo Zongtang does not love talent at all costs, but that he disdains to run the officialdom and does not want to fall into the dark and dirty official struggle. If you change the angle, a sentence can return Zuo Zongtang a justice, Zuo Gong did not have many feudal officials around him, but the historical merits created by his unknown subordinates are not worse than those of Zeng and Li, how should this account be calculated?

Because the official situation in Liangjiang was still very difficult, during Zuo Zongtang's tenure, major events were still difficult to do, but Zuo Zongtang had the stubborn character and practical spirit of a mule, according to the "Complete Works of Zuo Zongtang", "Since the incident, it has been a lesson to control water and practice salt, and the spirit is focused on coastal defense." ”

On the temple of the late Qing Dynasty, on the hardness of the spine, on the grandeur of the vision, on the breadth of the mind, Zuo Zongtang was the first person. In the past, he was an advocate of Serbian defense, but this did not prevent him from paying real attention to coastal defense, he was not interested in power struggles, and at this time and time, he always obeyed the needs of the country's national defense strategy.

During Zuo Zongtang's tenure in The Two Rivers and Nanyang, due to the invasion of French colonists, the situation in the southwestern frontier became increasingly tense, and the ports in Nanyang were also in danger, at that time, Zuo Zongtang's health was already very bad, his left eye was completely blind, and his right eye was full of juice, but even so, he still constantly inspected the ports and forts of the Yangtze River and tried to arrange defenses.

At the mouth of Baimaosha, the gateway to the Yangtze River, Zuo Zongtang once said to the soldiers: "If you can break the guns of other ships and plots, your old life is not enough, or the evil qi of more than forty years will be vomited." Since then, the fierce will has been frustrated, and he does not dare to hold the demands hostage at every turn, but he wishes to do so. ”

Peng Yulin, who was accompanied by the bingbu Shangshu and Peng Yulin, who was ordered to patrol the Yangtze River Water Division, was greatly moved when he heard this, and also said on the spot: "It is worth it to ruin the old life like this." ”

On April 13, 1999, Liu Yongfu led the Black Flag Army to fight the French colonists at paper bridge near Hanoi, and the French commander Li Weili was beheaded, and the situation in the southwest frontier was suddenly tightened.

Seeing that the situation was urgent, the Qing court immediately issued an edict ordering Li Hongzhang, who had returned to his hometown to bury his mother, to quickly go to Guangdong to "supervise vietnam affairs" and restrain the defense forces of Guangdong, Guangxi, and Yunnan provinces. However, Because Li Hongzhang had the desire for peace in his heart, he openly refused to rush to the former enemy.

In sharp contrast, Zuo Zongtang immediately said that he would personally lead a large army to "go to the country for tens of hundreds of years in the southwest, in order to fulfill the post of minister of Nanyang", and even said that "the rest of his life will end with a desperate bet, and he will also wish." ”

After saying this bold remark, Zuo Zongtang immediately ordered the general Wang Debang to return to Hunan to recruit soldiers and form the Kejing Ding Border Army and go to Vietnam.

Unfortunately, because the Qing court lacked the determination to fight, and the local generals were mostly greedy and afraid of death, in the Vietnamese battlefield, although the Black Flag Army and the Kejing Ding Border Army fought bravely against the enemy, they were ultimately alone in the absence of effective support and limited troops.

Hearing that the war situation had deteriorated sharply, Zuo Zongtang's eye disease was even worse, and the whole person fell ill. In order to eliminate Zuo Zongtang's main battle, the Korean lords and factions seized the opportunity to approve a four-month leave, and Zeng Guoquan, the ninth brother of Zeng Guofan, acted as the governor of Liangjiang.

History is full of drama.

On the same day that Zuo Zongtang officially handed over the seal to Zeng Guoquan, Empress Dowager Cixi suddenly launched a "coup" in the capital, Prince Gong Yishu was dismissed, and Prince Yizhen of Alcohol took the throne and presided over the overall situation of the DPRK, and the history of this coup was called "Jiashen Yishu".

Prince Yizhen was ostensibly the main battle faction, but in fact, the main battle was just a means for him to secretly fight Prince Gong. After ascending to the throne, he immediately sacrificed his two hands to Fengyuan, on the one hand, he instructed Li Hongzhang to continue to make peace with the French colonists, on the other hand, he transferred Zuo Zongtang to the capital again.

When Zuo Zongtang re-entered Beijing, on the surface, the main battle faction raised its head in the DPRK, but in fact, this was another draw from the bottom of the cauldron. As soon as Zuo Zongtang left, the Kejing Dingbian army suddenly lost the support of the two rivers, and the situation was even more difficult.

Helplessly, when Zuo Zongtang was heading north, he urgently arranged for Huang Shaochun, the former governor of Zhejiang, who was in Hunan at the time, to recruit five battalions of soldiers in his hometown and go to Guangxi to reinforce Wang Debang.

On May 20 of the tenth year of Guangxu, Zuo Zongtang arrived in Beijing, and the Qing court ordered: "Zuo Zongtang is still walking on the military aircraft minister. He also said: "The university scholar has outstanding merits, more than seventy years old, and Gwen has not been hired by Chang Chuan." In the event of an emergency, prepare for consultation, and manage the affairs of the Divine Machine Battalion. “

Re-entering the military plane, Zuo Zongtang is still a consistent style, arrogant and tough, domineering and leaking, during which he repeatedly wrote to the book and shouted loudly, "China cannot always submit to foreigners, instead of paying compensation, it is better to take the compensation for combat costs."

On the one hand, when the situation deteriorated to a certain extent, the imperial court needed a main war faction like Zuo Zongtang to increase confidence; on the other hand, the main warlord was the main undercurrent in the DPRK, so the people in power were worried that Zuo Zongtang would become the promoter of the deterioration of the situation.

These two kinds of psychology are intertwined, and the results presented are quite subtle.

According to shen chuanjing and Liu Yangyang's "Biography of Zuo Zongtang," it is revealed that after re-entering the military aircraft, in just two months, Zuo Zongtang was reprimanded and punished three times.

The first time was when Zuo Zongtang mobilized Huang Shaochun. The imperial court first reprimanded Zuo Zongtang for improper measures, then ordered him to return the seal and deprived him of the dispatch and command of the old Huang Shaochun army, effectively isolating him from the Vietnamese battlefield.

The political flavor that pervaded the second time was gloomy. Zeng Guofan's son Zeng Jize was suppressed after returning to China, and Zuo Zongtang was not accustomed to it, so he stood up for Zeng Jize and asked the imperial court to reuse Zeng's talents, as a result, the imperial court not only rejected Zuo Zongtang's recommendation, but also unceremoniously made a statement.

The third time was the worst, which showed Zuo Zongtang's difficult situation in the center. On the birthday of the Guangxu Emperor, the imperial court officials xian went to the Qianqing Palace to congratulate him, and Zuo Zongtang did not go to the shrine because of his old illness and mobility difficulties. The people who were leaning toward the center seized on this "ridiculous" handle and attacked it en masse, first putting a great disrespect on Zuo Zongtang, and then greatly degrading Zuo Zongtang's life. This incident aroused the anger of many people, but the Qing court eventually "handed over the matter to the ministry for discussion". The next day, the results of the ministerial discussion were released, and Zuo Zongtang was punished for one year.

However, when Zuo Zongtang was repeatedly attacked, the development of the situation in the southwest repeatedly proved Zuo Zongtang's strategic judgment that foreigners were greedy and cunning, and only a war was a journey.

It is said that with the French colonists invading Mawei, Zuo Zongtang once again shouted the famous and powerful words in the court: "China cannot always submit to foreigners, rather than paying reparations, it is better to take reparations for combat costs", Cixi listened, and finally tearfully agreed with Zuo Zongtang's opinion, and formally declared war on France on the sixth day of July in the tenth year of Guangxu.

In view of the situation in Fujian in the Sino-French War, the Fujian Marine Division and the Fujian Shipping Administration were severely damaged, and on July 18, 1000, the Qing court issued an edict: "Zuo Zongtang, a scholar of the university, was appointed minister of Chincha and supervised the military affairs of Fujian; the general Ofu Shan of Fuzhou and the governor of Caoyun, Yang Changjun, were all deputy in handling military affairs." ”

At this time, Zuo Zongtang was already a seventy-three-year-old man, but his prestige did not diminish that year. Some witnesses recalled: "When he entered the city, the wind was majestic, but in front of him he saw the flag flying, the big book 'Kejing Hou Zuo', and in the middle, the line was arranged in two rows, each shoulder carrying foreign guns, and the pace was neat." ”

However, after all, the imperial court of the late Qing Dynasty had no backbone and no strength, and the princes of Cixi and Shuo sent Zuo Zongtang to Fujian, in the final analysis, they only wanted to use Zuo Zongtang's prestige to stabilize the hearts of the local people in Fujian, and the actual operation of war and peace was still in the hands of Li Hongzhang's faction.

In Fujian, seeing that the Fuzhou shipping administration that he had painstakingly managed in the past had been destroyed, and seeing the erosion of the war situation, the seventy-three-year-old Zuo Zongtang was very bitter in his heart, but he could not do anything.

In the last period of his life, he wrote down a batch of recitals with all his strength, all about ship administration and coastal defense.

On July 25, the eleventh year of Guangxu, Zuo Zongtang died of a hateful illness in Fuzhou, and before he died, he left an intriguing legacy for the Qing court to future generations.

"Fu Nianchen was born as a scholar, the emperor of Mengwen Zongxian, the knowledge of The Great, repeatedly served the three dynasties, burdened and resented, internal counselor, external master, although Ma Ge wrapped the body, but also what hate! And the Vietnamese affairs and war, China's strength and weakness are also a major key. The minister and the overseer went south, and so far they did not extend the tart, Zhang Guowei, hated his life, and could not look at it! Empress Dowager Womon, the Emperor's Grace Of Long, bowed to the Court, and for a year, there was no reason to look at Tianyan again, and the reward of the dog and the horse was waiting for the next life. Birds of prey, mourning will die!

Fang is now in the western region of Chu'an, the East is thinking of the future, and the European countries are looking around. If you don't make up for it, seek love in advance, and then there is a gap, the weaker it is, the more difficult it is to be excited, and it is impossible to get it today! May the Empress Dowager and the Emperor agree with the navy among the courtiers to quickly grant a decision. Where railways, mines, ships and artillery are in charge, they should be held as soon as possible to ensure the effectiveness of prosperity and strength.

However, the intention is the foundation of all things, and I especially hope that the emperor will be diligent and diligent, not slack, and accept the arguments. The expenses that are not in a hurry are used to replenish the food of the army; the money that is useful is saved to help the times and difficulties. Work together and seek truth from facts. Although the day of death, the year of Judah's birth. “

It is said that on the day of Zuo Zongtang's death, it rained heavily in Fuzhou, and after a thunderclap sounded, the city wall in the southeast corner was suddenly torn apart by a large opening several inches wide, but the people under the city were safe and sound, and no one died. Witnessing this scene, the local people all sighed with grief, this is Providence, destroying my Great Wall...