The relationship between people and people is very complicated, many people call you brothers and brothers today, tomorrow may be like strangers with you, and even will give you a stumbling block behind your back. This kind of relationship, especially in the official arena, if you are not good at handling, either let you do nothing for a lifetime, or let you always be controlled by others.
As we mentioned earlier, after Zeng Guofan became the minister of training in the Hunan Regiment, because he was bent on building a large regiment, the pace of his work was very large, and he became famous in "suppressing bandits" and rectifying social order. However, it also caused him trouble.
According to Zeng Guofan's idea, he trained troops in Changsha, and he could also practice the poorly disciplined Green Battalion by the way.
The Green Camp was a regular army of the imperial court, the barracks were corrupt and absurd, and they often picked quarrels and provoked trouble in Changsha City, which made the people of the whole city hate it very much. Zeng Guofan knew very well that the Xianfeng Emperor had asked various localities to form regimental training teams, and it was because the Green Camp had no combat effectiveness that he had to make this decision. Therefore, when he was training troops in Changsha City, he also ordered the Green Battalion to come and practice together. Zeng Guofan said in a letter to a friend:
Summoned the (green) battalion soldiers to perform together, but also ordered the Ben Committee to come and listen to my teachings.
Zeng Guofan's approach was originally a good thing, after all, whether it was the green camp or the regimental training team, it was all to serve the imperial court and defend the Qing Dynasty. However, not every official had the consciousness of Zeng Guofan, and his behavior of overstepping his bounds aroused the anger of the officers and men of the Green Battalion.
As we mentioned in the previous chapters, Zeng Guofan served as a regimental training minister as Ding Youshilang, and according to the official system of the Qing Dynasty, although he retained the rank of a Erpin official, he did not have any power in his hands, just like a commoner. An official who does not have any real power in his hands will naturally not be afraid. The first official to be dissatisfied with Zeng Guofan was Qing de, the deputy general of Changsha. When the Taiping Army attacked Hunan, Qingde escaped from the battlefield, which became a big joke in Changsha City, but when he faced Zeng Guofan, a scholar, he showed a brave side, not only did not participate in Zeng Guofan's training, but also let other armies not participate.
At this time, Zeng Guofan, like many high-ranking officials, had a sense of superiority. He felt that if he wanted to gain a foothold in Changsha, as long as he subdued Qingde, others would obey his orders.
After weighing the pros and cons, Zeng Guofan gave the Xianfeng Emperor a twist and turn, impeaching Qingde for escaping from the battlefield, believing that he was "sexually comfortable and did not pay attention to camp affairs". In the end, Qingde was dismissed from his post by the Xianfeng Emperor.
This was the first Hunan official to be impeached since Zeng Guofan first came out of the mountains, and he originally wanted to tell the Hunan officialdom in this way: I Zeng Guofan is not a good lord.
In the official arena, although you can overwhelm some people through your own strength, it is definitely not the best way. The impact of Zeng Guofan's participation in Qingde's impeachment was a very disturbing thing for him, because he angered Qingde's direct superior, Bao Qibao, the viceroy of Hunan.
Bao Qibao was already dissatisfied with Zeng Guofan's training troops in Changsha, so he constantly encouraged his own soldiers to clash with the Xiang army, and even wanted to find trouble for Zeng Guofan. At this time, Zhang Liangji had been transferred away from Hunan, and the newly appointed inspector Luo Bingzhang did not take Zeng Guofan in his eyes and ignored him.
Zeng Guofan is Zheng Erpin, and Luo Bingzhang is from Erpin. As an important courtier, how did Zeng Guofan deal with his relationship with Luo Bingzhang and the Hunan officialdom? Zeng Guofan's method allowed him to kill two birds with one stone.
This method includes two points: being a person and doing things.
First, to be a person, we must know how to give in.
Marketing in the official arena is mainly people. If you can get the approval and respect of others, it will be much easier to do things, otherwise it will become very difficult. Moreover, from ancient times to the present, as long as officials do not violate the law, they are all lifelong, so the best way to communicate between officials and officials is harmony, and no one wants to offend others for no reason.
Zeng Guofan's participation in Qingde did not play a role in killing chickens and monkeys. Zeng Guofan, who was good at taming people, immediately adopted a strategy of concessions and decided to leave Changsha and go to the relatively remote Hengyang to train troops.
Is Zeng Guofan weak? As the Xianfeng Emperor's qin-ordered regimental training minister, Hunan officials should naturally support him. Zeng Guofan became the minister of regimental training, and if he wanted to train an army, he would naturally compete with the green camp in Changsha City, and it was bound to increase the local financial burden in Hunan. Such a situation made the entire Hunan official field exclude him. Zeng Guofan can't impeach the entire Hunan officialdom, right?
To be an official is also to be a person, take a step back, give others more satisfaction, and give yourself a way to go.
Zeng Guofan relied on his generosity to avoid direct conflicts with local officials, allowing him more time to create the Xiang Army.
Second, we must know how to hide things.
Do things to know how to hide, so as to give people a sense of mystery, in order to increase the attention of others to you.
After Zeng Guofan arrived in Hengyang, he trained his troops wholeheartedly, and even refused to carry out the orders of the Xianfeng Emperor.
In August of the third year of Xianfeng (1853 AD), the battlefield changed, the Taiping Army's Western Expeditionary Army approached Wuhan, and the Xianfeng Emperor, who had no troops to send, ordered Zeng Guofan to take the men and horses he recruited to support.
At this time, Zeng Guofan was only half trained, even if he was ordered to go to the front, he could only act as cannon fodder, for this reason, Zeng Guofan adopted a "drag" strategy, found various reasons to shirk, and refused to send troops.
In a letter to a friend, Zeng Guofan revealed his true thoughts:
The sword is unfavorable and cannot be cut; the hairy feathers are not abundant, and they cannot fly high. If the emperor is out of a hurry, compared to Liaodong's self-proclaimed feng, and the same as the master of ba shang'er's play, it will be laughed at in vain. It is necessary to practice a hundred gold and strong pawns, make a very strong weapon, and fight for several years, and once have no ambition, but can come out and try.
With the determination not to train good soldiers and never to fight, Zeng Guofan refused the orders of the Xianfeng Emperor four times in a row, making his Xiang army mysterious.
Some people may ask, why did the Xianfeng Emperor not cure Zeng Guofan of the crime of resisting the will? This is the marketing effect of mystery.
For Zeng Guofan, a literati leading troops, the imperial court and the local government did not have much hope. However, Zeng Guofan was a man who was good at reporting to the imperial court, and he wrote in his note to the Xianfeng Emperor:
Set up a large regiment in the provincial city, choose the strong and simple people of the villagers to recruit to the province, practice one person to reap the benefits of one person, and practice in January to have the effect of january.
Although the rulers of the Manchu Qing Dynasty were afraid of the Han people's military power, in order to resist the needs of the Taiping Army, there were still some changes, and they also wanted to see what the characteristics of Zeng Guofan, a "big regiment", really were.
It was Zeng Guofan who was good at hiding things, which added a lot of mystery to the outside world, so that the Xianfeng Emperor did not want to be too embarrassed by him, so that he had more room for development.
To be a person who knows how to give in is to leave a way back for yourself, to know how to hide things, in order to create a sense of mystery and attract the attention of others. Zeng Guofan's marketing method was different after his Xiang army turned out to be different.