Zuo Zongtang was a famous politician in the late Qing Dynasty who made important contributions to the great cause of the reunification of the motherland. As one of the four famous ministers of the late Qing Dynasty, Zuo Zongtang had a very human vision, and as early as his youth, Zuo Zongtang had already emerged.
Zuo Zongtang had four Bole in his lifetime, in addition to the famous late Qing dynasty minister Zeng Guofan, the other three were Lin Zexu, Hu Linyi and He Changling. He Changling had served as the governor of Yungui and the governor of Yunnan in the Qing Dynasty, and was a provincial and ministerial official of the Qing Dynasty, and he Changling had already discovered his talents when Zuo Zongtang fell. He Changling once taught at the Yuelu Academy in Changsha, where He Changling discovered Zuo Zongtang's talents and praised him.
Although Zuo Zongtang was familiar with the Confucian classics, he repeatedly failed to do well in the imperial examination, and in desperation, Zuo Zongtang had to give up the scientific examination. The failure of the scientific expedition did not affect Zuo Zongtang's pursuit of learning, and soon he became a famous scholar in Changsha. Zuo Zongtang has dabbled in many books, including literature, history, politics, geography, water conservancy and other aspects, because of his deep academic achievements, so many people also have a lot of respect for it.
Zuo Zongtang had served as Tao Shu's personal teacher in the early days, and he had read almost all the books in the Tao Mansion, and later, Tao Shu introduced him to Lin Zexu, who discovered Zuo Zongtang's talents and identified him as a prodigy of the world.
Lin Zexu's vision was indeed not wrong, and soon, Zuo Zongtang was promoted. After the Taiping Rebellion, Zuo Zongtang was promoted by Guo Songtao, one of the founders of the Xiang Army, and on the recommendation of Guo Songtao, Zuo Zongtang became an aide to Zhang Liangji, the governor of Hunan, who assisted Zhang Liangji in dealing with the Taiping Army and made great contributions.
Zuo Zongtang served as an aide to Zhang Liangji for six years, and then transferred to Luo Bingzhang's command, and later, Hu Linyi heard of his reputation and recommended him to serve as a soldier, so Zuo Zongtang became a feudal official of the Qing Dynasty.
The friendship between Zuo Zongtang and Hu Linyi was quite deep, and Hu Linyi admired Zuo Zongtang's talents very much, so he constantly recommended Zuo Zongtang to the imperial court, and later, Luo Bingzhang, Sushun and others also recommended Zuo Zongtang to Emperor Xianfeng, who then transferred Zuo Zongtang as the governor of Zhejiang and was responsible for suppressing the Taiping Army.
During Zuo Zongtang's tenure as the Governor of Zhejiang, he met the fourth Bole in his life, who was Zeng Guofan. Belonging to the same Hunan leader, Zuo Zongtang has great admiration for Zeng Guofan, and Zeng Guofan also has great trust in Zuo Zongtang.
In order to mention the combat effectiveness of the Xiang army, Zeng Guofan once appointed Zuo Zongtang as his staff, so the two joined forces, and the Xiang army became famous for a while. Zuo Zongtang was the vanguard of Zeng Guofan's pacification of the Taiping Rebellion, and in the later period of Zeng Guofan, he also specially sent Zuo Zongtang to create the Chu Army, and the army created by Zuo Zongtang later attached itself to the Xiang Army, which played a great role in the Suppression of the Taiping Rebellion by the Qing Dynasty.
After the suppression of the Taiping Rebellion, there was another upheaval in Xinjiang, when the Kokand Khanate, supported by Tsarist Russia, invaded Xinjiang, and the Kokand general Agubai also occupied Xinjiang without authorization. Faced with the situation of internal and external troubles, Zuo Zongtang tried his best to turn the tide, he denounced the war stop faction, and finally led the army to recover Xinjiang in China.
In addition to recovering Xinjiang and safeguarding the reunification of the motherland, Zuo Zongtang was also the first person to propose the establishment of Xinjiang and Taiwan as provinces. As soon as the Xinjiang campaign ended, Zuo Zongtang put forward the idea of establishing a province in Xinjiang, and he tried his best to defy public opinion and finally persuaded the Qing government to divide the province in Xinjiang. In addition, Zuo Zongtang persuaded the Qing government to establish a province in Taiwan.
In the 1870s, France, Japan and other invading armies continued to invade Taiwan in our country, at that time, Taiwan belonged to the jurisdiction of Fujian, because Fujian and Taiwan were separated by the sea, so the Fujian governor usually could not manage Taiwan's internal affairs, in this case, Zuo Zongtang put forward the idea of establishing a province, with the consent of the Qing government, Taiwan eventually succeeded in establishing a province, and Zuo Zongtang and Li Hongzhang recommended the famous General Liu Mingchuan of the Huai Army to become the first inspector of Taiwan.