In the fifth year of Xianfeng (1855), Zeng Guofan, the founder of the Hunan Army, was besieged in Nanchang by the Taiping Army, and there was a tendency to be killed by the Taiping Army. Zeng Guofan had a headache, and his senior staff member Zhou Tenghu recommended Zhao Liewen to Zeng Guofan. Zhao Liewen, the word Huifu, a native of Yanghu (now Changzhou, Jiangsu), is a fellow villager with Zhou Tenghu, who was admitted to Xiucai in his early years, proficient in the astronomical calendar, military books and war strategies, and was born with a proud backbone. In December of the same year, Zhao Liewen entered the Hunan army, Zeng Guofan saw that Zhao Liewen had a lot of personality, decided to kill his arrogance, and took him to inspect the land and water battalions of the Hunan army, intending to deter this young man.
Unexpectedly, Zhao Liewen was not shocked by the momentum of the Hunan army at all, but saw the weakness of the Hunan army, and proposed rectification measures to Zeng Guofan. Soon after, the Hunan army was indeed defeated at Zhangshu, and Zeng Guofan was completely impressed by Zhao Liewen's talent, so he took him as a confidant and obeyed his words. Zhao Liewen formulated a series of strategies and tactics for Zeng Guofan to defeat the Taiping army, and finally, with the assistance of Zhao Liewen, the Hunan army captured the Taiping capital Tianjing (present-day Nanjing) in the third year of Tongzhi (1864), ending the 14-year Taiping Rebellion.
Zeng Guofan and Zhao Liewen formed a deep friendship in the battle, and the two became bosom friends who talked about everything. On June 20, the sixth year of Tongzhi (1867), at this time, the Qing court entered the so-called "Tongguang Zhongxing" era, but Zeng Guofan knew that there was still "a place of chicken feathers" under the prosperity. There was no one to tell about the sorrow in his heart, so he had to seek the answers of his friend and confidant Zhao Liewen, and the two began a famous conversation in the history of the late Qing Dynasty. Zhao Liewen came up and "magnified the move", saying that the life of the Qing court would be 50 years at most, and predicted that there would be chaos of warlord secession after the fall of the Qing court.
"The world's public security, unified for a long time, is bound to be tamed to the division, but the lord is powerful, the demeanor is not open, if it is not a bad heart, then the collapse of the situation will not be completed. With Lie (Zhao Liewen), the disaster of the different day must be fundamentally reversed first, and then there is no owner in the rear state, and people are in charge of their own affairs, and they will not die for 50 years. ”
After Zeng Guofan heard this, he was shocked into a cold sweat, and hurriedly asked whether the Qing court would have a situation like the Eastern Jin Dynasty and the Southern Song Dynasty (in fact, it was to divide half of the country and survive for a while), Zhao Liewen once again said that it was impossible.
"Junde is right, and the country is strong, and the food report is no longer unkind. It is too easy to start a business at the beginning of the country, and the punishment is too heavy, so it is too clever to have the world. Heaven is hard to know. Good and evil do not hide each other, and the virtue of the queen is not enough. ”
In July of the 7th year of Tongzhi (1868), Zeng Guofan was appointed governor of Zhili, and was able to "observe" the Empress Dowager Cixi, the Tongzhi Emperor, Prince Gong Yi, Wenxiang, Baojun and other highest-ranking figures of the Qing court. In May of the eighth year of Tongzhi (1869), Zeng Guofan and Zhao Liewen, who had just come to the Baoding Zhili Governor's Palace, confessed that the Qing court was terminally ill and could not be cured ("very worrying"). In 1911, the Xinhai Revolution broke out and the Qing Dynasty fell, exactly 44 years after Zhao Liewen's political discussion. After the fall of the Qing Dynasty, the emerging Republic of China did not unify the whole country, but fell into a long-term warlord chaos situation. Zhao Liewen can be described as a prophet, not only predicted the "death period" of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, but also predicted the troubled times of the Republic of China, and he can be described as a genius in the world.