In 1860, two Wolong chicks, who were not willing to be subordinated, each began to form an army. One is Li Hongzhang and the other is Zuo Zongtang.
The British said to Li Hongzhang: "Hey, take some money, we will teach you how to fight, your previous fighting style is really bad." So there was a foreign gun team led by Wahl and Gordon to help Li Hongzhang fight.
The French said to Zuo Zongtang: "The newly established army will not play, right?" We French can teach you how to fight, as long as you have enough money. Unlike Li Hongzhang, Zuo Zongtang said: "Teach me, but we have to sign an agreement, which things I have the final say and which things are up to you."
Don't underestimate this, Zuo Zongtang actually knows foreigners better than Li Hongzhang. Don't look at these guys who look horizontal, but still quite obedient. Because Li Hongzhang did not sign an agreement with foreigners, there were many troubles later.
In particular, the Suzhou killing incident, because it was Gordon to the Taiping Army to bear the protection, the Taiping Army surrendered, but did not expect that these people were all killed by Li Hongzhang, so that Gordon, the face of the British gentleman, there was really no place to put it, so once angrily picked up the Colt revolver, shouted in the barracks, had to find Li Hongzhang desperately, and then everyone tried to persuade each other, so that they could say that they gave 200,000 taels of silver to resolve the matter.
Not only did Gordon almost turn his face to Li Hongzhang, but also Gordon's predecessor, Hua'er's successor Bai Qiwen, also because of the battle over the right to command, and Li Hongzhang quarreled with you to death, and in the last anger, he even directly defected to the Taiping Army, sold his life for Li Xiucheng, the king of loyalty, and sang a confrontation with Li Hongzhang.
And Zuo Zongtang signed an agreement with the French, so the two sides cooperated very well, has been polite, happy and harmonious, until the recovery of Xinjiang, finally terminated the contract, which many people do not know.
Do you know who LeBorough is? The French commander of the Left Army, died in Shangyu in 1862. Tafty. morality. Maider, the second French commander of the Left Army, was killed in Battle in Hangzhou. Paul. Decobe, the third French commander, married three wives and four concubines in China until his retirement. Therefore, the Left Army is a thoroughly Western-style army, in addition to these people mentioned above, there are more than three hundred French officers and soldiers, who have long been loyal to Zuo Zongtang.
Zuo Zongtang was not admitted to the examination at first, but he just happened to expand the recruitment in that session, and he happened to be on the waiting, and finally had a meritorious name. Since you have such good luck, then you should study hard and strive to be admitted to the jinshi, right?! No, he specialized in geography, learned to draw maps, and wrote a local theory, which was simply unprofessional in the eyes of people at that time.
And he also likes to study what military, and he can read aviation knowledge and weapons magazines. After the outbreak of the Opium War, he even wrote a thesis on how to defeat the British, and wanted to send it to the Daoguang Emperor to make others think that he had a nervous problem.
In this way, the east hammer and the west stick were mixed to almost 50 years old, and finally became a staff member under the account of Luo Bingzhang, the inspector of Hunan. Because Luo Bingzhang stayed up late, it was inevitable that he could not get out of bed in the morning, so he often handed over official affairs to Zuo Zongtang to deal with, and as a result, he did better than Luo Bingzhang.
In the official arena, the favorite words are only seven points, and the remaining three points are the most critical to play dumb puzzles with you, so that you can understand it yourself, so that you can make yourself well-founded and not fall into the handle.
But Zuo Zongtang is a very annoying person, and he has to explain it one hundred percent, if you don't explain it clearly, he will continue to entangle himself to the end.
Not only to make things clear, but also to do things clearly, there are many unspoken rules in the official field, many things, and it is okay to get by on the face, but Zuo Zongtang can't do it, and he has to get by in the middle of it.
This makes many people feel that Zuo Zongtang is a person with poor cultivation, poor character, and cannot control his temper.
There were more people who had offended, and naturally someone secretly made a small report to the emperor. Saying that Luo Bingzhang has now become a puppet, Zuo Zongtang manipulates the situation with a cloth cloth, which is very dangerous.
However, he did not know that the Xianfeng Emperor had bad ears, or that there was a problem with his ability to understand, he thought that Zuo Zongtang had made Hunan so good, it seemed to be very worth reusing, how could he still let him be a cloth coat? Since then, Zuo Zongtang has finally come out.
Tso
In 1860, Zuo Zongtang finally had his own army. During more than six years of war against the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, he recovered parts of Zhejiang, Fujian, Jiangxi, and Guangdong, second only to Zeng Guofan and Li Hongzhang.
Moreover, the reason why the Great Qing Dynasty did not change the dynasty was, in a sense, all thanks to Zuo Zongtang.
After Zeng Guoquan captured Tianjing, he said that he had captured Hong Xiuquan's young son, but Zuo Zongtang was very real, not to say that the person was impersonating.
So Zeng Guofan decided to defend his brother and wrote a sonata, emphasizing that the man was Hong Xiuquan's son and could do DNA identification.
But Zuo Zongtang wrote a longer article, saying that Zeng Guofan's DNA was contaminated and had to be resampled and experimented on a fair basis. Later, he captured Hong Xiuquan's real son in Jiangxi, and only then did the matter come to an end.
According to ye shi records, after the capture of Tianjing, Zeng Guoquan said to Zeng Guofan: "Big brother, how heavy do you say these nine dings are?" When Zeng Guofan heard this, he was frightened into a cold sweat and hurriedly signaled him not to say anything.
Zeng Guoquan saw the situation and said: "The army that can fight in the world is in our hands, ask how heavy Ding is, is it worth being so panicked?" ”
Zeng Guofan replied, "Ninth brother, if you think about it carefully, the army that can fight in the world is not all in our hands, but is divided into three places, and we only rely on one of them, li Hongzhang is deeply hidden, but most of them will not oppose us." And Zuo Zongtang, for a son of Hong Xiuquan, quarreled with us to the death, acting as a staff member for others, and he was actually able to turn against the guest. Someone as crazy as he is, do you think he will be subordinate to us? ”
Therefore, when the northwest rebellion became more and more serious, the first person Empress Dowager Cixi thought of was Zuo Zongtang, why?
Because Zeng Guofan and Li Hongzhang, in the eyes of the people at that time, were completely wearing a pair of pants, they destroyed the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and now they are the main force in suppressing the Twist Army, if they are allowed to go to the northwest again, then the armies of the world are concentrated in their hands.
Only a foolish emperor would concentrate the world's military power in the hands of one person. There are many examples like this in history. One opponent that must be set up for Zeng Li, the best candidate is Zuo Zongtang.
But as soon as Cixi and Zuo Zongtang met, they almost made Cixi faint, and she finally realized why Zuo Zongtang was not popular.
In the Forbidden City in Beijing, Cixi solemnly received Zuo Zongtang and allowed him to ride through the Forbidden City on horseback.
After giving this heroic reward to one of the heroes who destroyed the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, after giving the imperial coat and making him a count, Empress Dowager Cixi asked Zuo Zongtang:
"The Wai family can't sleep at night now, may I ask Lord Zuo, can we calm the Northwest Rebellion in two years?"
The surrounding ministers all felt that Cixi was too lenient with Zuo Zongtang, and that year, Duolong'a, in less than a year, almost calmed the northwest, but it was bad luck, and he was actually hit by a stray bullet, otherwise there would be so many things behind him.
However, Zuo Zongtang closed his mouth and did not answer, but just looked directly at the curtain, as if he was speculating about Cixi behind him, and his appearance could be scored a few points.
Cixi felt a little embarrassed, so she cleared her throat and said, "If two years is short, three years is feasible?" ”
Zuo Zongtang replied flatly: "The fastest five years, this is the bottom line of discounting." ”
Before Cixi could speak, the ministers around them had already made humming noises, feeling disdainful of Zuo Zongtang.
Unexpectedly, Zuo Zongtang added another sentence: "Only I can get the northwest in five years, and I can't do it in ten years!" ”
This is the typical left-style style, which makes everyone embarrassed to death and can't chat happily at all. Surprisingly, Cixi actually developed a strong affection for him, and from then on, firmly supported him.
At this time, the city of Xi'an was besieged by Zhang Zongyu of the Twist army, 30 battalions of the Xiang army, more than 10,000 people, all turned into lambs to be slaughtered, the Xiang army admiral, Hanzhong town chief Xiao Deyang and the named admiral Yang Desheng, Xiao Jishan, Xiao Changqing, and so on, a large group of famous generals who destroyed Shi Dakai, all were killed in this battle.
Zuo Zongtang's team of more than 8,000 people was on the way to Shaanxi at this time, this army had hundreds of French mercenaries, and was equipped with the most advanced weapons in the world at that time, including spencer and Henry rifles, and even a few Gatling machine guns, which Zuo Zongtang specially purchased to deal with cavalry.
Considering that the old breech gun was too slow to effectively deal with the cavalry, Zuo Zongtang inquired around whether the foreigners had any new weapons that could effectively deal with the cavalry, and when he learned that the foreigners had invented guns with a longer range and faster rate of fire, he tried his best to buy these weapons. Zuo Zongtang did not count the blood costs for this reason, and specially wrote to his logistics pillar, the red-top businessman Hu Xueyan, asking him to find a way to do it.
Originally, Zuo Zongtang wanted to buy Prussian breech needle-piercing rifles, but at that time Li Hongzhang was dealing with the Dongtuo Army, and he was also fixing these guns, and the stock was all bought by him, so Shanghai was out of stock for a while, although Hu Xueyan tried his best, but there was no way to buy them everywhere.
Because of Zuo Zongtang's urging letter after letter, Hu Xueyan was also anxious to turn around and visit foreign businessmen everywhere, and one day, he ran to the American Qichang Foreign Firm to visit the door and mentioned this matter.
When the Americans heard this, they hurriedly said, "We also have spencer and Henry rifles!" And there's a good thing called the Gatling machine gun, which is better at fighting cavalry than field guns, and we've just finished the civil war, and these are all surplus supplies, and there's just something in the storeroom, or you can see it, and sell it to you cheaply if it's right."
So the two sides hit it off, Hu Xueyan hurriedly found the head of customs at the time, the British Hurd made a guarantee, and then borrowed money from the British foreign company, bought the arms, and then entrusted the American ship to Hankou, solving Zuo Zongtang's urgent need, of course, he also ate a lot of kickbacks.
For this western expedition, Zuo Zongtang also recruited talents everywhere, especially skilled foreigners, according to the records of the British Menis, he opened an arsenal in Wuhan to help Zuo Zongtang repair weapons, Zuo Zongtang admired him very much, so he opened a good price and invited him to go to the western expedition with him.
But the British consul who lived in Hankou told Menis: "There are more than 200,000 rebels in Shaanxi and more than one million in Gansu, and the whole territory of Xinjiang is rebels, there are no Qing troops, and basically all are cavalry." You see he only has more than 8,000 people, don't you think he's going to die? So Menis hesitated and did not go with him.
On the way, Zuo Zongtang heard the news that the twister bandits had entered Shaanxi and defeated Liu Rong, the governor of Shaanxi, at Baqiao.
Then, he actually came to a conclusion that violated common sense, and said to the generals: "The twisters will definitely escape, and we must do our best to block them in Shaanxi." ”
His generals, whether Chinese or French, heard this conclusion and wondered if he hadn't woken up, or had his head been kicked by a donkey?!
Obviously, the Qing army was defeated, and now the twisters should besiege Xi'an, so why should they run? If the twisters were blocked, wouldn't they be more threatening if they were combined with the rebels?
Switched to Romanism.