Zeng Guofan is one of the more controversial figures in Wanqing, and many people recognize his ability. Zeng Guofan single-handedly established his own armed force, the Xiang Army, and confronted the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom for a long time, and finally won victory, Zeng Guofan's life is truly legendary. As for Zeng Guofan, some people wonder why when he destroyed the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and became a great subject, he did not rebel to overthrow the Manchu Qing regime. The author is also very curious about this question, the author did not study this in depth, but accidentally found a past story between Zeng Guofan and Li Xiucheng, but it has reference significance for this issue.
After the fall of Tianjing, the capital of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Li Xiucheng was captured by the Xiang army. Li Xiucheng was a high-ranking general of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and the Xiang Army attached great importance to him. Zeng Guofan personally sent his younger brother Zeng Guoquan to interrogate Li Xiucheng, Zeng Guoquan was a temperamental general, and the Xiang army suffered a lot of losses under Li Xiucheng, and Zeng Guoquan's interrogation of Li Xiucheng was a severe beating from the beginning, so as to vent the long-standing grudge. Li Xiucheng, on the other hand, has no fear, he laughs at Zeng Guoquan, saying that the two are their own masters, where is the deep hatred. Zeng Guoquan also felt reasonable, plus he was tired, so he stopped and began the formal interrogation.
Later, Zeng Guofan rushed to the front line and interrogated Li Xiucheng again. The two interrogations of Zeng Guofan and Zeng Guoquan were closed to the public, and the people present were the close associates of the Zeng brothers, and no interrogation records were left. Strangely, on the night after Zeng Guofan's trial, the brothers had a deep conversation. Zeng Guoquan asked Zeng Guofan a question: "The southeast half of the wall has no owner, do I have any intentions?" Zeng Guofan was shocked at first, and then fell into contemplation. Zeng Guoquan's words were really bold, but why Zeng Guoquan said such a rebellious thing at this time is worth pondering.
The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom swept through half of the Qing Dynasty, Zeng Guofan quelled the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom rebellion, took over the territory of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom with full authority, and the Xiang army had more than 200,000 people, and more importantly, although the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was dead, Li Xiucheng was in the hands of Zeng Guofan, as long as Li Xiucheng raised his arms, he could gather 100,000 Taiping troops in an instant. Thinking about it a little more, Zeng Guoquan first contacted Li Xiucheng, and suddenly came up with this idea, was it not instigated by Li Xiucheng. Thinking of this, Zeng Guofan couldn't help but sweat upside down. Capturing Li Xiucheng alive is naturally a great achievement, but it is always a scourge for this person to stay.
Li Xiucheng was a repeat offender of the imperial court, and Zeng Guofan should be handed over to the imperial court for trial, but Zeng Guofan believed that if Li Xiucheng was given to the imperial court for trial, Li Xiucheng would say the idea of assisting Zeng Guofan in rebellion, and even if Zeng Guofan denied it, the imperial court would have a grudge against him. Therefore, Zeng Guofan was fierce and immediately executed Li Xiucheng. At that time, Zeng Guofan was fully capable of confronting the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and Li Xiucheng threw out an olive branch, as long as Zeng Guofan nodded, the Great Qing Society was in danger. However, Zeng Guofan did not do this, which shows that he did not covet the ambitions of the world, just like when he trained the townspeople to resist the Taiping Army, but to defend the private property of the Zeng family in his hometown, his starting point was not so great, and such a person is estimated to have no intention of rebellion.