Speaking of Zeng Guofan, I have to admit that everyone's evaluation of him is completely two extremes, people who like him think that he is the "first perfect person in ancient and modern times", and people who do not like him bluntly say that he kills too many people, which is a veritable "shaved head". As for who was the first person to say that the "first perfect person in ancient and modern times" was, the source of where the little Buddha has not been found, but the saying "shaved his head" has a source.
Many people believe that the reason why Zeng Guofan is called "Zeng Shaved His Head" is entirely because Zeng Guofan killed too much when he pacified the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, especially in the Battle of Tianjing, the Tianjing City was full of blood, and the houses were burned.
"Three out of ten self-immolators and seven out of ten burned in the palaces of kings."
In fact, the origin of the name "Zeng shaved his head" had nothing to do with the Taiping Army, but was given to Zeng Guofan by the people of Changsha, the capital of Hunan Province in the early years of Xianfeng.
In the early years of Xianfeng at the end of Daoguang, Hong Xiuquan and others revolted in Guangxi, and the Green Camp was overwhelmed, and the Taiping Army sprang out of Guangxi. In the second year of Xianfeng, Zeng Guofan returned to his hometown of Xiangxiang, however, soon after, an edict from the Xianfeng Emperor broke Zeng Guofan's life as a mother. Asked him to assist the Hunan Inspector in raising military expenses to organize regimental training and form a new army to protect the border and the people, Zeng Guofan had to go to Changsha to assist the inspector.
Hunan in the early third year of Xianfeng experienced the entry of the Taiping Army the year before, and after the Taiping Army left, a party uprising broke out in various parts of Hunan, and more bandits took advantage of the fire and looting. Zeng Guofan received Xianfeng's will not only to ask him to run a regiment, but also to suppress bandits. At that time, Zeng Guofan believed that the entire Hunan officialdom was corrupt, and if he used the existing institutions to suppress bandits, he would inevitably be subject to people, so he set up a law enforcement agency called the "Trial Bureau".
The Bureau of Trial was independent of the judicial system in Hunan at that time, and mainly handled cases involving bandits and collaborators (Taiping Army) in the province. Although Zeng Guofan was a confucian disciple, he was a man who practiced "heavy canonization in the chaotic world". In order to show the majesty of the Bureau of Trials, any traitor who has been arrested is immediately brought to justice on the spot, and those who have doubts about the arrested persons are brought back to the court of the Bureau for trial.
In the Trial Bureau, the handling of a case is nothing more than three results: if it is indeed bandits and collaborators with the enemy, then the law is brought to justice on the spot; if it is simply a violation of the laws of the Qing Dynasty and the crime of endangering local public order, then the prisoner is flogged and then taken into custody; if there is really no solid evidence, then directly released and returned home, what should be done.
According to some records, very few people who entered Zeng Guofan's trial bureau could be let go. In this way, many people were killed, and Zeng Guofan said in his report to the Xianfeng Emperor that more than 230 people had been killed in just four months, so the local people in Changsha began to call Zeng Guofan "Zeng Shaved His Head", saying that he had killed many so-called "bandits". The word "so-called" is used very well, indicating that the local people have doubts about the identity of the people killed by Zeng Guofan, and more or less think that some of the people killed by Zeng Guofan have been killed in vain.
Did Zeng Guofan kill the wrong person? The answer is yes. Once Zeng Guofan handed over to Cang Jingtian, the prefect of Changsha, to deal with more than a dozen prisoners arrested by the Trial Bureau, and it took CangJingtian nearly a month to distinguish between those who volunteered to be bandits, those who were coerced, and those who were irrelevant. When he handed the list to Zeng Guofan, Zeng Guofan did not deal with it according to the list at all, but killed the misdemeanor and released the villain. According to CangJingtian's records, the case he handled alone was mistakenly killed by Zeng Guofan by 4 people.
The Trial Bureau was tough in its handling of affairs, offending many officials up and down Hunan, even the Hunan Governor did not support his work, let alone the capable officials who supported him, and the people also hated him for killing people indiscriminately. Later, as the Xiang army became bigger and stronger, killing many Taiping troops, coupled with indiscriminate killing in Tianjing, the nickname "Zeng shaved his head" became more and more widespread.