In 1856, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom ushered in a "great harvest", the main forces of the Xiang Army in Jiangxi, the Eight Banners of the South, and the Green Camp were all crippled by the Taiping Army, and the Qing army general Xiang Rong was killed. At this time, Hong Xiuquan was full of confidence, believing that the unification of the Central Plains was just around the corner, and he was expected to become the second ming taizu Zhu Yuanzhang. Who knows, only eight years later, the "Jizi Battalion" under the command of the Ninth Marshal Zeng Guoquan invaded Tianjing, destroyed the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and continued to live for the Qing Dynasty for decades.
Among the many fierce generals of the Xiang Army, Zeng Guoquan won the first merit of "conquering Jinling" and achieved remarkable results. Interestingly, almost all the fierce generals of the Xiang Army "looked down" on Zeng Guoquan and were full of complaints about him, and Peng Yulin and others even wrote to Zeng Guofan three times in a row, hoping that he would emulate the Duke of Zhou and destroy his relatives in righteousness. Then, the Ninth Marshal Zeng Guoquan had great military achievements and strong abilities, why was the interpersonal relationship so bad, and there were many contradictions with many generals of the Xiang Army?
Wang Minyun, a native of Changsha Province, Hunan Province, was a "maverick" intellectual in the late Qing Dynasty who served as a think tank in the shogunate of Zeng Guofan, but he was too individualistic and Zeng Guofan did not promote him. After the fall of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Zeng Guoquan, in order to show his outstanding military achievements, took out a lot of money to hire Wang Minyun and let him write the "XiangJun Chronicle" as a souvenir. Who knows, Wang Minyun truthfully depicted the truth, did not praise the Zeng brothers, Zeng Guoquan was very dissatisfied.
The publication of the book "Xiang Junzhi" was really not a good thing for Zeng Guoquan. To this end, Zeng Guoquan once again took out a heavy amount of money to hire Wang Ding'an and let him compile the "Record of the Xiang Army" and praise the great achievements of the Xiang Army. From the perspective of historical value, the "XiangJun Zhi" has a higher gold content, which provides material for future generations to study the history of the Xiang Army, the history of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement, and the history of the peasant uprising in the late Qing Dynasty, and has precious historical value.
The Nine Marshals Zeng Guoquan had a bad interpersonal relationship, and the generals "looked down" on him and had many contradictions with each other, and Wang Minyun bluntly said in the "XiangJun Chronicle", "The crowd talks and rejoices, and argues that Zeng Guoquan; the Su generals such as DuoLong'a, Yang Zaifu, Peng Yulin, and Bao Chao want to go away, and people are suspicious of discord with Guoquan."
Duo Long'a, Bao Chao, Yang Zaifu, Peng Yulin, who are also? They were all first-class generals of the Xiang Army, among which Bao Chao's "Thunder Army" was the ace of the Xiang Army in field warfare, and its combat effectiveness was stronger than that of the horse teams of Mongolia and the three eastern provinces. The generals of the Xiang Army discussed matters in the camp and almost unanimously rebuked Zeng Guoquan and rebuked him, "the crowd talked happily, and the people argued that Zeng Guoquan was eye-catching." It can be seen that Zeng Guoquan's interpersonal relations are really bad, and all the generals "look down" on him and are full of complaints about him.
Zeng Guoquan, the younger brother of Zeng Guofan, the "famous minister of Zhongxing", ranked ninth in the family, known as "Nine Shuai". After the destruction of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Zeng Guoquan ranked first among the generals and seized the first merit of "conquering Jinling". However, Zeng Guoquan had too many problems of his own, the generals of the Xiang Army were very disgusted with him, and they also "looked down" on him, and the contradictions within the Xiang Army were very deep, which was also the main reason why Zeng Guofan did not dare to raise the flag against the Qing and claim the title of emperor in the southeast.
Zeng Guoquan's first problem, or "shortcoming", is that his qualifications are too low, and he can play the protagonist by relying on his brother Zeng Guofan. At the beginning of 1856, in order to rescue his brother, Zeng Guoquan recruited soldiers in his hometown, and because the first battle was Ji'an, Jiangxi, his unit was called "Jizi Battalion".
Zeng Guoquan only began to lead troops to fight in 1856 and fight with the Taiping Army, which naturally could not be compared with "predecessors" such as DuoLong'a, Bao Chao, Peng Yulin, and Yang Zaifu. Dolonga, the Daur clan, Xiao Yong was good at war, and the Solon soldiers under his command were the aces of the aces, and they made great achievements in suppressing the Northern Expedition of the Taiping Army. Not to mention Peng Yulin, Yang Zaifu, and so on, Zeng Guofan began to train the Xiang army, and they commanded the water division; Zeng Guofan repeatedly "escaped from danger from the tiger's mouth", all of which were the credit of Peng Yulin and Yang Zaifu. Bao Chao was more qualified, and in 1850 he followed Xiang Rong, a fellow sichuan, into Guangxi to suppress the Heaven and Earth Society and the Taiping Army.
Duo Long'a, Bao Chao, Peng Yulin, Yang Zaifu and other "predecessors", they are not only old, but also very strong in ability, even a grade stronger than Zeng Guoquan, but Zeng Guofan favored his younger brother, Zeng Guoquan had the opportunity to act as a commander. The "seniors" were strong in ability, and naturally did not want to be subordinate to Zeng Guoquan. At this time, if Zeng Guoquan is a low-key person and appropriately "takes care of" the feelings of these "predecessors", they can also be at peace with each other.
The problem was that Zeng Guoquan was of low seniority, arrogant, and had no one in sight, and often appropriated his own military achievements that did not belong to him, and these "predecessors" were naturally annoyed. Duolong'a, under the command of Solon's bravery, was invincible, zeng Guoquan was able to capture Anqing, and was not maimed by Chen Yucheng, mainly because the Duolong Ama team was too powerful. The reinforcements of the Taiping Army were all crippled by Duolong'a and failed to reach the city of Anqing, and the "Jizi Battalion" escaped the disaster.
Duolong'a's military achievements are outstanding, but unfortunately, his direct superior Hu Linyi died prematurely, and Zeng Guofan put his younger brother Zeng Guoquan in the first place when he reported his military achievements, and Duolong'a was almost ignored. In this way, Duolong'a was very dissatisfied, and when Zeng Guofan invaded Jinling in the east, he asked Duolong Ama's team for assistance in attacking the Taiping Army in Jiangbei. As a result, Doronga refused, and then ran to the northwest to fight, where he was killed by the rebel guns.
Can't afford to hide, Duolong'a thinks so, but Peng Yulin and Yang Zaifu are different, not only reprimanding Zeng Guoquan in person, but also asking Zeng Guofan to kill his brother and kill his relatives. Wang Minyun's "XiangJun Zhi" records: "The sound and color are strong, and the suspicion is deep. "I almost met each other."
Peng Yulin and Yang Zaifu were furious and fierce, while Zeng Guofan openly favored his younger brother and asked them not to "deceive people too much." Zeng Guofan said bluntly: "Brother She has no signs of rebellion and rebellion, I don't know why I should be punished, I don't know where Brother She's sinned against Your Excellency, I regret it." In this way, the generals were naturally dissatisfied, Zeng Guofan favored his brother, Zeng Guofan had no fear, and even more "despised" the generals, and the contradictions between them became sharper.
To sum up, Zeng Guoquan won the first merit of "conquering Jinling", but at the bottom of his qualifications, he was too arrogant. Zeng Guoquan relied on his brother Zeng Guofan, ignored the demands of Peng Yulin, Yang Zaifu, Duo Long'a, Bao Chao, and other "predecessors", and often took the battle achievements that did not belong to him as his own, and the crowd would naturally be annoyed and "look down" on him. Zeng Guoquan's interpersonal relations were too poor, after the fall of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the government and the opposition were impeached continuously, and Zeng Guofan simply let his younger brother Zeng Guoquan resign and go home to "recuperate" and avoid the limelight in order to protect himself.
Bibliography: Xiang Junzhi, History of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom