Zeng Guofan and Zeng Guoquan in the film and television drama "Taiping Heavenly Kingdom"
Speaking of the Xiang Army, we all know that the two brothers Zeng Guofan and Zeng Guoquan are its leaders. Needless to say, Zeng Guofan was the leader of the Xiang Army, and his younger brother Zeng Guoquan was the most elite commander of the "Jizi Battalion" of the Xiang Army. The two complemented each other, and finally commanded the Xiang Army to destroy the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and create a unique Xiang Army group that shocked the world.
In the late Qing Dynasty, Zeng Guoquan was still a famous general. After all, there are so many examples of battles commanded, and there are many successful battles. However, Zeng Guoquan's military thinking was quite influenced by the core leaders of the Xiang Army such as Zeng Guofan and Luo Zenan, especially his brother Zeng Guofan. The central idea of its use of soldiers is six words:"
Tough villages, fight stupid battles
”。 Of course, it also attaches great importance to strategy, such as refining water divisions and strictly grasping logistics.
Therefore, Zeng Guoquan fought a war with the courage of the Hunan people, and it was also a "hard village, fighting a stupid battle." We can see that Zeng Guoquan started from the Battle of Chushan - the Battle of Ji'an, to the Battle of Anqing, and then to the Battle of Jinling and a series of battles, Zeng Guoquan was basically a military routine, that is, first besieging and then attacking the stronghold, and finally breaking the city. So let's call it a siege battle. He also got a nickname for this: Zeng Iron Barrel. Good at iron barrel closure. Every martial artist has a killer skill, just like Li Kui also has a three-plate axe.
The Xiang army led by Brother Zeng was indeed very dull, but it was very effective in front of the Taiping Army, the opponent at that time. The Taiping Army was good at field warfare, guerrilla warfare, and mobile warfare; in the middle and late period, the Taiping Army lacked stable logistical supplies, let alone a perfect logistics system, the upper center lacked strategic foresight, abandoned the marine division, the army was still relatively scattered, and the spirit of effective military cooperation between the various departments was lacking... Once besieged by the Xiang army, he will undoubtedly die in the end.
The Xiang Army has precisely the advantage in this regard, with stable logistical support, such as grain and salary and a gold system, a great Qing Dynasty in the north, its own elite water division in the Yangtze River Valley, and the upper leaders Zeng Guofan and Hu Linyi also have a strategic vision, step by step. Therefore, Zeng Guoquan's battle was to take advantage of the inferiority of the other side, give full play to his own advantages, and not play a field movement war with the Taiping Army, but concentrate on encircling the key cities that the Taiping Army must defend, and then digging deep trenches on the outskirts of the city, layer after layer of trenches, completely cutting off the connection between the Taiping Army in the city and the outside world, and then consuming the Taiping Army in the city to death. The Xiang Army itself had the water division to send food and ammunition, and the efficiency was leveraged, and the water division could also assist in attacking the reinforcements of the Taiping Army, and do artillery support or cover when attacking the city.
In the Battle of Anqing, after a year of such a waste, the 20,000 Taiping troops in Anqing City were starving to death, not to mention rats, the grass in the city was eaten, and some Taiping troops could only nibble on wood to fill their hunger, the time was finally ripe, and Zeng Guoquan naturally attacked the city.
The Taiping Army could not afford to consume, but the Xiang Army could afford to consume, and this was the crux of the matter.
The Taiping Army had not been able to crack Zeng Guoquan's iron barrel encirclement tactics, and when attacking Nanjing, Zeng Guoquan repeated the same trick and consumed the Taiping Army in Tianjing City.
Therefore, Zeng Guoquan's military ability was very good among the generals of the Xiang Army and the Generals of the Qing Army, but in the entire modern history, I am afraid that it is of a medium level, and the strange tricks of using troops alone are not as good as Yang Xiuqing, Shi Dakai, Li Xiucheng, Chen Yucheng, Lai Wenguang and others in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
Some people may say that Lai Wenguang is also a good general and a military cattleman? Don't believe it, Lai Wenguang galloped across the northern plains,
High-rise cottages
In the battle, the elite of the famous late Qing general Monk Greenqin was completely annihilated, and the monk Greenqin was also killed by him. From November 1866 to February 1867, Lai Wenguang led the Taiping Army on the East Road to hang Zeng Guofan in Hubei, and within three months, he defeated Liu Mingchuan, Guo Songlin, Zhang Shushan, the general of the Huai Army, and Peng Yutang, the general of the Xiang Army.
It's just that Lai Wenguang is difficult to support alone, and he died too quickly, and the brilliant light disappeared instantly, so his popularity in the future generations is relatively low.
The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was defeated by the Xiang army not because of the lack of excellent military generals.
Of course, these are only Yongxuan's personal views, and different opinions are welcome and discussed together.
The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom general Lamentation: The commander of the 80,000 Zeng Guofan went north, and beheaded two members Lai Wenguang to dominate
Ji'an Offensive Battle: Zeng Guoquan came out of the mountain, and the "Jizi Battalion" rose, laying the position of commander of the Zeng Xiang Army