Zeng Guofan did three major things in his life, one was to quell the Hong Yang Rebellion, the second was to engage in the foreign affairs movement, and the third was to cultivate a large number of talents for the country.
Zeng Guofan believes that talent is the key to the rise and fall of the world: "The strength of the country is strong, and the people are strong." All his life, he devoted himself to cultivating "righteous people" as "seeds" to save the world from decline. "Quote a group of upright people, cultivate a few good officials to think of seeds", "have great effects in the future".
The place where Zeng Guofan cultivated talents was his shogunate. Zeng Guofan's shogunate was large in scale, bringing together almost all kinds of outstanding talents of the Qing Dynasty. According to statistics, Zeng Guofan's staff totaled as many as 497 people.
The shogunate of Zeng Guofan is like a school, and Zeng Guofan is the principal of this school.
Li Yuandu was an early disciple of Zeng Guofan, and his entry qualifications were second only to Zeng Guofan's friends Guo Songtao and Liu Rong. He entered the shogunate of Zeng Guofan three times, and was in the same boat with Zeng Guofan, born into death, and forged a deep friendship. He was impeached by Zeng Guofan three times, and his master and apprentice turned against him. In his later years, he shook hands and made peace, and after his death, he was accompanied by the teacher from the ancestral hall of Zeng Wenzheng.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="6">01</h1>
Li Yuandu (李元度), courtesy name Ciqing, is a native of Pingjiang County, Hunan Province. He was known as the "Talented Son of Pingjiang" and was brilliant in literature, and Zeng Guofan called him "a thousand words and a thorough organization". However, such extraordinary writing did not help him to go too far on the road of the imperial examination, and he failed in several attempts since the twenty-three years of Daoguang. In the 30th year of Daoguang, when he was serving as a cabinet secretary (from Qipin) in Beijing, he met Zeng Guofan, who was already a member of the Erpin Clan, through his hometown relations. At this time, the relationship between the two should be between the same village teacher and friend.
Li Yuandu inkblot "Dedication to Chenzha"
In the third year of Xianfeng, Zeng Guofan held a regiment training in Changsha as a registered waiter. One day, I received a long letter signed "Luo Jiang Buyi". The letter stated the military strategy and said, "I am willing to carry out stirrups to drive." After Zeng Guofan read it, he smiled and said, "This must be Li Yuandu's pen."
A few days later, the two met and talked happily. Zeng Guofan then retained Li Yuandu as his assistant, not wanting Li Yuandu to "say nothing but not believing", and under the pretext of going home to settle his family, there was no news when he went.
But not long after, Zeng Guofan fell out with the entire official field in Changsha because of the military training, and he slipped back to Hengzhou alone. "The crowd is suspicious" and is in urgent need of help. Therefore, Zeng Guofan wrote a letter to Li Yuandu:
After months of separation, acacia is hungry and thirsty. With the fist of the servant on the left and right, you know that your excellency will not forget your affection for the servant. Induction theosophical principle, since ancient times, there is no or cool also.
...... Your Excellency's previous articles on several things, entrusted to Luo Jiang's words, Yun is willing to carry the stirrups to drive away, and does not think about the empty talk on paper, and stays out of the matter. The servants laughed at each other calmly, and thought that your excellency would not bear to betray the invisible alliance.
At the sincere invitation of Zeng Guofan, Li Yuandu officially joined Zeng Mu in the first month of the fourth year of Xianfeng and became an important strategist of Zeng Guofan. The tribulation between the two began to build.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="6">02</h1>
Li Yuandu handled the copywriting for Zeng Guofan because of his literary excellence. A few months later, Zeng Guofan's "blood sincerity" conquered him.
He did not expect that there were still officials in the world who were so dedicated to the country as Zeng Guofan, nor did he expect that Zeng Guofan treated his subordinates like a division commander, practicing what he preached, teaching carefully, and doing his best to create development opportunities for them.
He was determined to repay the favor and planned everything for Zeng Guofan.
In April of the fourth year of Xianfeng, Zeng Guofan defeated Jinggang. Zeng Guofan committed suicide by throwing himself into the water, and his aide Zhang Shoulin rescued him. This is Li Yuandu's expectation that if the army is defeated, Zeng Guofan will commit suicide and martyrdom, and earlier arranged for Zhang Shoulin to follow him around to prevent accidents. This was the first time Li Yuandu had saved Zeng Guofan.
After the defeat of the Jinggang army, the imperial court removed Zeng Guofan from the post of attendant of the ceremonial department, asking him to lead the army with guilt, and at the same time depriving him of the right to perform a single fold. Provincial officials scolded Zeng Guofan and refused to let him return to the city. Many of his staff friends also left him. Only when Li Yuandu did not abandon him and was gentle and enlightened, Zeng Guofan dispelled the idea of continuing to seek death.
At the time of Zeng Guofan's rebellion, this rare support made Zeng Guofan feel extremely warm. "In the setback of Jinggang, everyone scattered, and the second qing chased after me and never left my side." The two are inseparable and talk about everything.
In the winter of the same year, the Xiang army suffered another fiasco at the mouth of the lake, and the water division that Zeng Guofan had painstakingly created was destroyed. Zeng Guofan tried to commit suicide again, and it was Li Yuandu who forcibly dragged Zeng Guofan across the river, saving Zeng Guofan for the second time.
After five years in Xianfeng, Zeng Guofan was trapped in Jiangxi. Li Yuandu returned to his hometown to recruit brave soldiers, called "Pingjiang Yong", specifically to protect the safety of Zeng Guofan.
In March of the sixth year of Xianfeng, the Xiang general Zhou Fengshan was defeated by the Taiping Army in Jiangxi. At this time, zeng guofan no longer had a capable army around him, and in the absence of troops to adjust, thanks to Li Yuandu's leadership of Jiang Yong to support it bitterly, Zeng Guofan even said: "The only one who hopes to save the overall situation at present is Li Yuandu's army." ”
Since then, Li Yuandu, a weak scholar, has become a general.
In the past six or seven years, the two have suffered together and taken care of each other.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="6">03</h1>
Although Li Yuandu was loyal and bloody, he was only a scholar, and it was not his strength to lead troops to fight, and Zeng Guofan believed that his most suitable position was secretary.
But Li Yuandu considered himself an all-rounder in literature and martial arts. He felt that he was in the barracks, only engaged in secretarial work, and did not have much work. "I also want to make a name for myself, and I am not happy to see myself in articles."
Zeng Guofan had twelve criteria for selecting literati to lead soldiers: "Integrity, no officialdom, more organization, less big words." And Li Yuandu is a person who likes to "speak big" and has a bit of "official spirit". Therefore, Zeng Guofan thought that he was not suitable for leading soldiers, only suitable for copywriting.
So why did Zeng Guofan let Li Yuandu lead the troops?
First, Zeng Guofan believes that talents are "mostly tempered by barely tempering." Before Li Hongzhang followed Zeng Guofan, he had never fought a victorious battle. After entering the scenes of Zeng, under the meticulous pottery of Zeng Guofan, he corrected the problems and shortcomings, and later became independent and finally took over the teacher's salary. Zeng Guofan gave Li Yuandu a face-to-face and taught him to fight, hoping to cultivate him into a general talent.
Second, the two had a deep affection, and Zeng Guofan also wanted to bring Li Yuandu together as soon as possible through military merit.
Third, there is no way to find better talents.
At the beginning of the battlefield, Li Yuandu was still able to follow the operational principles formulated by Zeng Guofan and also achieved many achievements. In the seventh year of Xianfeng, he resisted the attack of the Taiping Army of 20,000 people with a strength of 700 troops and defended Yushan. He stood on the city wall to direct the battle, was shot in the left side of the face by gunshots, and did not go down the line of fire. The tunnels dug by the Taiping Army were also broken by Li Yuandu's digging ditches. The Taiping Army attacked for two days and nights, and there was nothing they could do but retreat. Li Yuandu took advantage of the victory to pursue, regain several cities, and achieve a big victory.
Seeing Li Yuandu's growth, Zeng Guofan was very pleased: "This military affair, such as Yang, Peng, Er Li, and the second young generation, are all tempered. ”
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="6">04</h1>
Although Li Yuandu led the "Pingjiang Yong" to fight many victorious battles on the border of Jiangxi in Zhejiang, Zeng Guofan transferred Li Yuandu back to the Xiang army camp after his second departure from the mountains.
Zeng Guofan always believed that the position of secretary was more suitable for Li Yuandu. He hoped that Li Yuandu could be like Li Hanzhang, "the curtain is a good official".
In the spring of the Xianfeng Decade, the Jiangnan camp collapsed. After the Taiping Army lifted the siege of Nanjing, it launched an all-out attack, and Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, and other places were in a hurry. At this time, Zeng Guofan was already the governor of Liangjiang, controlling more territory, and the strength and talent of his troops became scarce.
In August of the 10th year of Xianfeng, the Taiping Army attacked the strategically important huizhou. Huizhou was the barrier of the Qimen Xiang Army battalion, and its gains and losses were of great importance.
At that time, the main force of the Xiang army was besieging Anqing with all its might, and the staff of the large battalion were all literati, and only Li Yuandu had experience in leading troops. Although Zeng Guofan knew that Li Yuandu was not an excellent general, but no one was available, Li Yuandu made meritorious contributions, weighed it again and again, or let Li Yuandu defend Huizhou.
Before leaving, Zeng Guofan repeatedly warned Li Yuandu that if the Taiping Army attacked Huizhou, it should only hold firm, not take up battle, "Hold on for six days, and reinforcements from the thunder battalion will arrive."
He also made a five-chapter covenant with him: abstaining from impetuousness, abstaining from excessive modesty, abstaining from excessive rewards, abstaining from repetition, and abstaining from quoting private individuals.
Li Yuandu patted his chest: long hair shakes the mountain easily, and it is difficult to shake the Pingjiang River. With Pingjiang Yong there, Huizhou City will never lack a corner!
As soon as Li Yuandu arrived in Huizhou, he disobeyed Zeng Guofan's instructions to "stick to the wall" and divided his troops to engage the Taiping Army. After Zeng Guofan knew about it, he wrote letters one after another to reprimand and advise him, and he did not care about it, bent on fighting a beautiful battle. As a result, in less than ten days, Huizhou City was lost.
Huizhou was lost, the anhui gate was wide opened, and the Xiang army camp in Qimen became the front line. The Taiping army surrounded the Camp of the Xiang Army in Qimen for a month, when Zeng Guofan had only 2,000 Xiang troops around him, he thought that he would undoubtedly die, and wrote down his will again.
Zeng Guofan believes that among the hardships he has experienced in his life, Jinggang, Hukou and Qimen are the most important. The first two times it was Li Yuandu who saved him, and the last time it was Li Yuandu who put himself to death.
Hearing the news of the loss of Huizhou, Zeng Guofan's first reaction was to be sad. He thought that Li Yuandu would be martyred, but he killed his old friend, "Mourn this man! I use it against my talents too! ”
On the sixth day of the first month of September, Zeng Guofan tried his best to excuse Li Yuandu and weaken Li Yuandu's criminal responsibility for losing Huizhou, so later the imperial court did not pursue Li Yuandu's responsibility.
On the night that Zeng Guofan sent out the fold, Zeng Guofan actually received a letter from Li Yuandu:
Yuan Du knew that he could not be controlled, and led his own horse to escape from the Ziyang Gate.
Seeing this, Zeng Guofan sighed and told his staff that Li Shi "will have difficulty in standing on his own after that."
Li Yuandu wandered outside for more than twenty days before returning to the Camp of the Xiang Army in Qimen. Zeng Guofan went out to greet him, and Li Yuandu grinned widely and was not ashamed. The previous letter was overly embellished, and this meeting will never admit the responsibility for his failure.
Li Yuandu's performance surprised Zeng Guofan, is this still the reader who took up his post as a righteous person in the past?
Zeng Guofan took "loyalty and bloodiness" as the basis for leading the army, and Li Yuandu abandoned the city and fled, and the big festival had already been lost. He did not harshly accuse Li Yuandu of not being able to face death directly, but Zeng Guofan, who had always pretended to be "sincere" in his life, could not accept that Li Yuandu was not "sincere".
#pgc-card .pgc-card-href { text-decoration: none; outline: none; display: block; width: 100%; height: 100%; } #pgc-card .pgc-card-href:hover { text-decoration: none; } /*pc 样式*/ .pgc-card { box-sizing: border-box; height: 164px; border: 1px solid #e8e8e8; position: relative; padding: 20px 94px 12px 180px; overflow: hidden; } .pgc-card::after { content: " "; display: block; border-left: 1px solid #e8e8e8; height: 120px; position: absolute; right: 76px; top: 20px; } .pgc-cover { position: absolute; width: 162px; height: 162px; top: 0; left: 0; background-size: cover; } .pgc-content { overflow: hidden; position: relative; top: 50%; -webkit-transform: translateY(-50%); transform: translateY(-50%); } .pgc-content-title { font-size: 18px; color: #222; line-height: 1; font-weight: bold; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap; } .pgc-content-desc { font-size: 14px; color: #444; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; padding-top: 9px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 1.2em; display: -webkit-inline-box; -webkit-line-clamp: 2; -webkit-box-orient: vertical; } .pgc-content-price { font-size: 22px; color: #f85959; padding-top: 18px; line-height: 1em; } .pgc-card-buy { width: 75px; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 50px; color: #406599; font-size: 14px; text-align: center; } .pgc-buy-text { padding-top: 10px; } .pgc-icon-buy { height: 23px; width: 20px; display: inline-block; background: url(https://lf6-cdn-tos.bytescm.com/obj/cdn-static-resource/pgc/v2/pgc_tpl/static/image/commodity_buy_f2b4d1a.png); }
【Boji Heavenly Scroll】Zeng Guofan's front and side all three volumes ¥89.7 Purchase
According to the Great Qing Law Calendar, Li Yuandu was beheaded as a prisoner. If such a thing is not held accountable, how can other Generals of the Xiang Army be given a discipline program?
Although Li Yuandu was his savior and his own hardcore confidant, Zeng Guofan still decided to join Li Yuandu.
Zeng Guofan's move was fried in Zengmu, and was collectively opposed by his staff, believing that he was ungrateful. Li Hongzhang was the most fierce, claiming that he would never draft a draft for Zeng Guofan. Zeng Guofan said that I personally wrote that Li Hongzhang "indignantly begged to go" and that Zeng Guofan "immediately dispatched him."
In the end, Zeng Guofan personally wrote the recital, but after the staff member Chen Nai repeatedly wan chen, Zeng Guofan deleted a few sentences from the original manuscript, and the only words related to Li Yuandu in the compromise were not too painful words such as "restless and disturbing advice".
The board that Zeng Guofan held high finally fell gently.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="6">05</h1>
At the beginning of October, when he received the edict "Li Yuandu of Southern Anhui Province cannot stick to waiting for help, and immediately dismiss him from his post and ask questions", Li Yuandu has not quit and returned to his hometown of Pingjiang.
Li Yuandu's surface was light and breezy, and he did nothing. However, his heart was full of sorrow and indignation, and how he was proud of how he was willing to write the image of a general of the defeated army into the history of Youth.
At this moment, Wang Youling, the governor of Zhejiang, handed him an olive branch. He was invited to recruit an army to fight in Zhejiang, and the advantage was to "be exempted from the crime of Huizhou and promoted to be an envoy according to the inspection."
This Li Yuandu did not know whether he was anxious to be ashamed or Li Lingzhi, but he agreed in a vague way.
Wang Youling was a confidant of He Guiqing, the former governor of Liangjiang, while the Xiangjun clique and the He Guiqing clique had a deep hatred and were inseparable.
Wang Youling's move was also to lure Li Yuandu to betray shimen and divide the Xiang army.
After Hu Linyi learned the news, he wrote a letter to dissuade Li Yuandu. But Li Yuandu, who was anxious to make a comeback, could not listen to the persuasion of Hu Linyi and others. He recruited 8,000 men in Pingjiang, named the "An Yue Army", and marched to Zhejiang.
Hulin Wing
For Li Yuandu's behavior of "changing the court", people within the Xiang Army were very disappointed, of course, the most chilling thing was Zeng Guofan. He believes that Li "ignores the righteousness of the festival and does not ask", and quotes the story of Yu Rang in the Spring and Autumn Period, saying that he "treats the contemptible people with the Middle Bank, and treats the Zhejiang Shuai with wisdom".
What sustains unity within the Xiang Army is loyalty between individuals. Li Yuandu's move shook the foundation of the Xiangjun clique, and if it is not stopped, it will trigger a chain reaction. Zeng Guofan looked for an opportunity to deal Li Yuandu a heavy blow.
The "An Yue Army" traveled from Hunan to Zhejiang via Jiangxi, and although it was known as "a triumphant song all the way", it did not help Wang Youling. On December 29, 111, the city of Hangzhou was destroyed, and Wang Youling committed suicide and was martyred.
In February of the third year of Tongzhi, Zeng Guofan made a concert and impeached Li Yuandu, who had been actually appointed as an envoy to Zhejiang. Impeach him for "returning home without waiting for the end of the interrogation"; for taking advantage of merits to seek rewards; "before he was a negative subject, and later he was also a king with age", and so on. He requested that Li Yuandu be dismissed from his post and that the "An Yue Army" be dismissed. However, in the end, he still gave Li Yuandu a chance to stay in Zuo Zongtang, who was supervising the military affairs of Zhejiang, and dai sin and make meritorious contributions.
Two months later, Zeng Guofan seemed to have an old hatred that had not disappeared, and when impeaching Chen Youli and Zheng Kuishi, he tied up Li Yuandu, who was also a different thought. Li Yuandu was dismissed from his post and returned home.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="6">06</h1>
This is really success and xiao he, defeat is also xiao he! Ten years of bloody war, not only failed to achieve fame, but also discredited, lonely and returned to the country.
On the way back to his hometown, passing through Eagle Pond, his friend invited him to drink wine and admire the moon. Drinking and drinking, he came from sorrow and improvised poetry:
I don't know how many Mid-Autumn Festivals have I had since opened up? And I don't know when the golden uyu rabbit will take a break? Ask every day without words, ask the moon and the moon. There were thousands of generations before, and I was born like a sea of millet floating like a sea. The Yangtze River is rolling and it is difficult to wash away the sorrows of the present and the past!
After a long time, his grief and indignation gradually subsided. During his spare time, he compiled the "Chronicle of Pingjiang County" and "Chronicle of Hunan Province", and also created the only comprehensive large-scale biography of the Qing Dynasty, "The Strategy of the First Zheng of the State Dynasty".
Pingjiang Tianyue Academy
The Xiang army conquered Tianjing, and after he heard the news, he was extremely excited and emotional. He finally broke the silence for several years and wrote a long letter of three thousand words to Zeng Guofan.
After Zeng Guofan received the letter, he was very moved.
Zeng Guofan's principle of being a man is that ning people bear me, and I do not bear people. Throughout his life, he felt that the person he couldn't stand the most was Li Yuandu. He repeatedly expressed his guilt for Li Yuandu in private and public occasions:
In the case of the second youth, the contemptible people are most guilty. In the army for ten years, at the turn of the tribulations, he was alone in this situation.
Among the rest of his life and friends, there are very few negative people, but the negative sub-qing is very real.
In the past, the sufferings and hardships were the longest, but Your Excellency (Peng Xueqin) and The Friendship with The Second Youth was the most sincere. Now I have not been fortunate enough to have made my first wish, and I have received this honor, and those who have lost it are only ashamed of the second youth.
In order to make up for his years of regret, he specially wrote a letter to the imperial court, asking for merit for Li Yuandu, revoking the original punishment and restoring his reputation.
At that time, Zeng Guofan Shengzhenglong thought that his small request would be approved, but he did not expect Zuo Zongtang to come forward to refute it, almost letting Li Yuandu get a new crime.
But Li Yuandu did not complain to Zeng Guofan in the slightest, and he felt that Zeng Guofan's affirmation of him was the real "historical conclusion" and the real restoration of his reputation.
Since then, the teachers and students have released their previous suspicions and reconciled.
【Dangdang】Zeng Guofan Biography (Zhang Hongjie's new work) ¥48.96 purchase
After Zeng Guofan died of illness, Li Yuandu's liver and intestines were cut off, and he wrote twelve songs of "Crying Taifu Zeng Wenzheng", reviewing the bits and pieces of interaction with the teacher.
Recorded in the Yuan Rong curtain, Wu Xi and Anhui East. Follow the Day of Sorrow, life and death laugh. At the end of the road, there are many reasons, and in the early stages, I am responsible. Thunder and rain and dew, one example is the spring wind.
He not only acknowledged the mistakes he had made, but also regarded the thunderous impeachment as a harmonious spring breeze.
In the thirteenth year of Guangxu, Li Yuandu died at the age of sixty-seven. The following year, after consultation with Zeng Guofan's relatives, three people, Li Yuandu, Liu Rong, and Guo Kuntao, who were the most benevolent to him, were selected from among Zeng Guofan's deceased friends and subordinates as the followers of Zeng Wenzheng's ancestral hall.
"The Cheng Gate is now closed, and Li Xue will regenerate." Li Yuandu did not have to wait for the next life, he was accompanied by the teacher for a long time.
Reference: Zhang Hongjie's Biography of Zeng Guofan
Zhang Hongjie, "The Grace and Resentment of Zeng Guofan and Li Yuandu"