When it comes to Zeng Guofan, people often think of his outstanding achievements in commanding the Hunan army to pacify the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, as well as his reform actions in promoting the Westernization Movement in his later years. However, before becoming famous, this figure, who was later known as the "Outstanding Scholar of Zhongxing", also experienced the humble background of a scholar and the development of a well-behaved career.
Zeng Guofan, who was born in the sixteenth year of Jiaqing, was the son of a cloth family in Changsha, Hunan. Although the family was not wealthy, his grandfather Zeng Dizeng and his father Zeng Yuanji attached great importance to traditional Confucian education, so Zeng Guofan was strictly required to read classics and learn etiquette from an early age. Perhaps it was because of the influence of his ancestors that Zeng Guofan had a good temperament, diligence and studious attitude since he was a child, and he was already well-known in his hometown.
During the reign of the Daoguang Dynasty, Zeng Guofan has always had the ambition of "studying to be an official", and in order to finally gain fame in the scientific field, he tirelessly focused on reading and writing. Finally in the eighteenth year of Daoguang, after twelve years of unremitting efforts, Zeng Guofan took the high school entrance examination and won the honor of "Tongjinshi Origin".
After learning this exciting news, Mu Zhang'a, who was the Minister of Military Aircraft at the time, appreciated Zeng Guofan's literary talent very much, and quickly included him in the ranks of protégés. Soon, under the escort of Mu Zhang'a, Zeng Guofan gradually emerged in the court, and was given by Emperor Daoguang as the Jishi of the Hanlin Academy. Since then, Zeng Guofan has officially entered his official career and started his long journey as an official in the court.
In the following ten years, Zeng Guofan has been entrusted with a fictitious civil service, and has successively served as a reviewer, a reader, a lecturer and other idle positions. It was not until the twenty-seventh year of Daoguang that he was awarded his first substantive position, the rank of Cabinet Scholar and Chamberlain of the Ministry of Rites, and his administrative rank was ranked as the main post of the provincial ministry. In the next few years, he successively served as a squire in the six departments, although his official rank did not improve greatly, but he was also promoted, and was finally promoted to the second rank of the government and the opposition.
seems to be a smooth career development path, but it laid the groundwork for Zeng Guofan's future turbulent career. As the saying goes, "Reading is not only a dream come true, but also the first purpose of being an official." This literati Confucian, who was later posthumously awarded the title of "Wenzheng", since he is determined to take the road of "learning and excelling", he will surely rise all the way to the top and eventually make contributions one day.
The ups and downs before and after the outbreak of the Taiping Rebellion
After becoming famous, Zeng Guofan's career was not all smooth sailing. The outbreak of the Taiping Rebellion during the Xianfeng period brought a huge impact to the government and the opposition at that time, and Zeng Guofan also experienced several ups and downs in his life in this civil war that evolved from a peasant uprising.
In the second year of Xianfeng, the Taiping army attacked Jintian in Guangxi, opening the prelude to civil strife that lasted for nearly 20 years. In the face of the losing imperial army, Zeng Guofan, who was already a Beijing official at that time, was ordered to return to Hunan to train the new army. The following year, Zeng Guofan, relying on his extensive network of relatives and friends in Hunan, finally formed the "Xiangyong" local armed forces with acquaintances as the main body.
However, as soon as he entered the battle with the Taiping army, Xiang Yong was dealt a heavy blow. In July of the fourth year of Xianfeng, Zeng Guofan personally led Xiang Yong to the mountains of Zhejiang to defend against the enemy, but he was caught off guard by the Taiping army, and almost half of Xiang Yong's troops were lost in this battle.
The defeat in this battle made Zeng Guofan highly questioned and suspicious in the government and the opposition. Soon, he was dismissed by the Qing Dynasty authorities, and was revoked from his official positions as a cabinet scholar and a waiter in the Ministry of Rites, and could only "stay" to continue to guard the front line in Hunan. For Zeng Guofan, who has always diligently sought qualification and permission in the scientific field, this is undoubtedly a major setback in his life.
However, Zeng Guofan was not discouraged by this situation. On the contrary, he calmly reflected on and summed up the lessons of this battle, and retrained Xiangyong for rectification. In the months that followed, he personally supervised the recruitment of Confucian children from Hunan and trained them rigorously, in order to make Xiangyong a truly elite militia group.
Indeed, hard work pays off. In October of the fourth year of Xianfeng, Zeng Guofan finally reversed the passive situation in the Battle of Wuhan and defeated the elite troops of the Taiping army. Since then, good news has been spreading, and he has successively conquered Hanyang, Huangzhou and other cities, drawing a perfect end to the previous defeat. In view of these outstanding military exploits, the imperial court finally faced up to Zeng Guofan's military command ability, and successively promoted him to the rank of second-rank topper, acting governor of Hubei, and rewarded him with a yellow coat as encouragement.
As a result, Zeng Guofan officially turned around and became the main commander of the Qing Dynasty in the pacification of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. In the smoke of war, he gradually became known, and his status and prestige began to increase day by day. It can be said that it was this period of twists and turns that really started Zeng Guofan's new journey to the pinnacle of life.
Impressive achievements during the Taiping Rebellion
The battle of Wuhan was undoubtedly an important turning point for Zeng Guofan to reach the peak of his life. Since then, he has made a name for himself in one fell swoop with his outstanding military command skills and excellent command skills, and has become an outstanding meritorious member of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement.
In the tenth year of Xianfeng, under the counterattack of the Hunan army for many years, Zeng Guofan finally conquered Tianjing, the base of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. This major victory marked the end of the Taiping Rebellion, which had lasted for nearly two decades. As the commander-in-chief of this decisive battle, Zeng Guofan was of course highly respected by the government and the opposition. Soon, he was appointed by the imperial court with important responsibilities, and at the same time acted as the governor of Liangjiang and concurrently led the military department, with the same authority as the current vice chairman of the Military Commission and minister of national defense.
In the following years, Zeng Guofan successively defeated the remnants of the Taiping Army and cleared the base areas in the south and north of the Yangtze River. With these outstanding military exploits, his status and prestige also grew. In the eleventh year of Xianfeng, he was not only given the title of prince and prince, but also became a dignitary of the court and the opposition; He was also entrusted with the important task of supervising the military affairs of Jiangsu, Anhui, Zhejiang, and Jiangxi provinces, and his authority was equivalent to that of the current theater commander.
It is worth mentioning that in order to reward Zeng Guofan's outstanding contribution to the pacification of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement, the current emperor Empress Dowager Cixi also issued a decree to posthumously seal his family lineage and bestowed the honorary title of hereditary baron. What is even more commendable is that Zeng Guofan's relatives and friends and protégés have also received favorable favors from the imperial court because of his influence, and the relatives of the seventh generation of ancestors can be blessed with money sacrifices. This was an unprecedented special kind of care at the time.
During the Tongzhi period, due to his outstanding military achievements, Zeng Guofan's military rank and official titles were promoted one after another. He was successively awarded important titles such as "Governor of Pacification", "Minister of the Imperial Mission", and "Imperial History of the Right Capital of the Metropolitan Procuratorate", and his status is equivalent to that of today's ministerial-level senior officials and theater commanders. In the ninth year of Tongzhi, the imperial court even promoted him to the commander of the pro-army capital, commanding all the active regular armies of the Qing army, which can be said to be the supreme commander who controls military power.
All this is thanks to Zeng Guofan's long-term stationing on the front line, personally commanding operations, and always maintaining a real-time understanding and judgment of both sides of the enemy. He can not only mobilize the vanguard forces of the Hunan army at any time to carry out emergency divisions and surprise attacks on key targets; It is better at quickly planning tactics and strategies according to battlefield information, and directing troops to carry out powerful attacks and outflanking at the best time. It is precisely by virtue of this outstanding military demeanor that Zeng Guofan was able to advance all the way in this turbulent and protracted civil war and establish immortal feats.
Dominate the Westernization Movement and control the military affairs of the country
After the pacification of the Taiping Rebellion, Zeng Guofan was not satisfied with his existing military achievements. He realized that in order to avoid a recurrence of similar upheavals, the Qing Dynasty must advance the self-improvement movement of Westernization and modernization as soon as possible. Therefore, in his later years, he devoted himself to the Westernization Movement, led a series of navy, army and industrial modernization, and contributed outstanding strength to the reform and revitalization of the late Qing Dynasty.
In the ninth year of Tongzhi, Zeng Guofan was ordered to supervise the military affairs of the coastal provinces south of the Yangtze River. With his rich experience in the battlefield and his outstanding strategic vision, he quickly formulated a complete set of plans for the establishment of a modern army structure, which pointed out the direction for the construction of the Qing army in these provinces. In the following years, he personally supervised and promoted the training of the new army in Jiangsu, Anhui, Zhejiang, Jiangxi and other places, as well as the modernization of firearms and ships.
In the thirteenth year of Tongzhi, in order to further intensify the Westernization Movement, Zeng Guofan was entrusted with greater powers and was officially appointed by the imperial court as "Prime Minister and Minister of Westernization". From then on, he became the supreme leader and decision-maker of the Westernization Movement at that time, responsible for the overall planning and leadership of the nationwide military modernization.
Under the direct leadership of Zeng Guofan, the Qing court successively established a number of important modern military facilities in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, such as the North China Mabu Battalion, the Fuzhou Naval Division Battalion, and the Jiangnan Machinery Bureau. These facilities not only introduced a large number of advanced arms and weapons, but more importantly, cultivated and brought up a large number of modern talents who later became famous military strategists, laying a solid foundation for the military strength of the late Qing Dynasty.
In addition to military construction, Zeng Guofan also paid attention to the development of national industry. He vigorously set up a number of non-governmental machinery iron factories and spinning and weaving machine bureaus in the southern provinces, which promoted the development of national capitalism in the Qing Dynasty. Against this background, the national bourgeois industry and commerce in Shanghai, Guangzhou, Tianjin and other places were able to gradually rise, laying the foundation for the rise of modern Chinese industry.
In the year of the setting sun, although he was over seventy years old, Zeng Guofan still insisted on supervising the war and personally conquering the army. In the thirteenth year of Tongzhi, he personally led the army to join forces with the foreign army that was ordered to suppress the twist, and led the coalition army to attack the base of Sunjiagou, the leader of the twisting army. In the heat of battle, he was unfortunately wounded. Despite this, he continued to command the battle, and finally captured the stronghold of Sunjiagou, winning a decisive victory in the battle. With this unparalleled commanding talent, Zeng Guofan not only won the honorific title of "veteran general" from the Twist Army, but also promoted him to the rank of commander of the pro-army capital, becoming the de facto supreme commander who controlled the military power of the whole country at that time.
It was during this period that Zeng Guofan reached the highest peak of his life. He not only single-handedly promoted the Westernization Movement, but also contributed to the revitalization of national strength in the late Qing Dynasty; It was the highest military position under the command of the pro-army, and controlled the most powerful military strength at that time. There is no doubt that this literati Confucian, who was born in cloth clothes, has been galloping on the battlefield for many years, and has long been reduced to a battle-hardened general.
A notoriety evening in the midst of power struggles
Power is often a double-edged sword. Although Zeng Guofan was given the title of commander of the pro-army in his later years, he can be called half a ruler; But in the following years, he fell into the power entanglement of his fellow eunuchs, and even was quite embarrassed for a while. During this period, he was criticized and blamed, and almost became the target of the Manchu civil and military forces.
The matter originated in the thirteenth year of Tongzhi, and Zeng Guofan was ordered to go out to suppress the twist. However, due to the ineffective combat of his generals and a large number of casualties, the final battle situation fell into a stalemate. At that time, the government and the opposition also criticized Zeng Guofan's command.
Taking advantage of this opportunity, Wang Xifeng, An Ge and other eunuchs who wanted to expand their power made statements to the Empress Dowager Cixi, criticizing Zeng Guofan for being "arrogant and mediocre" and "greedy". The Empress Dowager Cixi was also deeply affected by this, and became more and more uneasy about Zeng Guofan. Subsequently, she not only revoked Zeng Guofan's authority to supervise Zhili, Shandong, Shanxi and other provinces, but also ordered his original military power and military salary to be transferred to other senior officials.
This is undoubtedly a great humiliation and blow to Zeng Guofan. As the commander of the pro-army, he now has no authority over even a single soldier, which is really an unprecedented absurd scene. The government and the opposition were naturally in an uproar, and the praise was overwhelming, and they all satirized Zeng Guofan's embarrassing predicament with "actually called a martial artist and a Confucian".
However, at the same time that Zeng Guofan's reputation was discredited, his capable generals showed the courage and backbone of "soldiers can't help but obey". Ma Jiaying and other generals publicly supported the old commander Zeng Guofan, saying that they were "willing to die but unwilling to accept the surrender of the generals". This kind of blatant confrontation with the imperial court is naturally a serious crime that deserves death. But in the end, it also forced the Empress Dowager Cixi to reconsider the issue of Zeng Guofan's military power.
After a power struggle, although his status declined, Zeng Guofan still retained the real power of the prime minister's military affairs in various provinces. It can be seen that even in his twilight years, his prestige and prestige are still deeply rooted in the army. However, in the struggle for power, he also paid the price of painstaking efforts and halving military power.
Until the second year of Guangxu, Zeng Guofan was over seventy years old, and his physical strength was gradually declining. For his outstanding merits, the Empress Dowager Cixi gave him permission to "retire for life" and return home. After returning to his hometown of Hunan, he never got involved in the power struggle between the government and the opposition, but only devoted himself to the management of family affairs and education.
Despite this, his outstanding exploits as a military strategist and reformer, as well as his contributions to promoting the revitalization of national strength and establishing a modern military industry in the Westernization Movement, still made him one of the three famous ministers of the late Qing Dynasty. and finally won the honorific title of "Wenzheng". This is not only the highest praise for his civil and martial arts and outstanding contributions to the country, but also once again confirms that this descendant of Confucianism who was born in cloth clothes has achieved extraordinary titles and awards in his career as a eunuch.