The reason why "Sam Weng Tong Shu" is known as the "first fold of the late Qing Dynasty" is because both the parties involved in the impeachment and the impeachment are powerful figures who are famous for a while, one side is the Weng Xincun (father of Weng Tongshu and Weng Tonggong) family of "two generations of emperors, father and son Shangshu", while the other side is the emerging Zeng Guofan Xiangjun clique that relied on military merit. The twenty-four big characters of "Where the duties of the subjects are, they should be corrected, and they do not dare to accommodate because of the peak of the door of The Weng Tongshu", which directly blocked the way of Weng Tongshu's life, and the deliberations of Zeng Guofan and Li Hongzhang's masters and apprentices can be imagined.
Li Hongzhang stills
In the end, the incident ended with the defeat of the Weng family, Weng died of anxiety, and Weng Tongshu was exiled to the frontier. Zeng Guofan and Li Hongzhang overthrew the powerful Weng family in one fell swoop, and the time was full of fame, especially Li Hongzhang, as the drafter of the "Sam Weng Tong Shu Piece", has since formed a bond with Weng Tonggong, and the enmity between the two has continued until the period of the Sino-Japanese War.
So why did Zeng Guofan and Li Hongzhang have to kill Weng Tongshu? In fact, Weng Tongshu is not as unbearable as the average people think, and it turns out that Weng Tongshu is still quite talented, so is there zeng Guofan's own small calculation behind the seemingly impartial law enforcement? Today, let us explore through the appearance of history those past events that have been overlooked in the corners of history.
Stills of Zeng Guofan
Weng Tongshu, Zi Zu Geng, Jiangsu Changshu, the eldest son of Emperor Shi University Scholar Weng Xincun, Weng Xincun had been in the study for more than twenty years, xianfeng emperor, prince Gong and other princes of the Daoguang Emperor were his students, in addition, Weng Xincun also successively served as the ministry of works, officials, punishment department, military department and many other key departments, and had an influence in the Qing court that could not be ignored.
Weng Xin had three sons, the eldest son Weng Tongshu, that is, the protagonist of the "Sam Weng Tongshu Piece", the second son Weng Tongjue, the official to Hubei Inspector, the third son Weng Tonggong, that is, the guangxu emperor's teacher, the late Qing Dynasty was also a prominent figure who influenced national policies. The Weng family can be said to be the most prominent official eunuch family in the history of the late Qing Dynasty, and history calls the Weng family "father and son emperors, father and son university scholars, one door three inspectors, one four scholars, protégés and former officials all over the world."
Weng Xin has a portrait
Weng Tongshu as the eldest son of Weng Xincun, in fact, he is not as unbearable as people have long been remembered, on the contrary, I think Weng Tongshu is a very talented and capable person, Weng Tongshu is actually very similar to the rise process of Zeng Guofan and Li Hongzhang, they all started with military merit as literati! Weng Tongshu debuted very early, as early as the third year of Xianfeng (1853 AD), he followed Qi Shan to fight against the Taiping Army in the Jiangnan camp, and then the commander of the Jiangnan camp changed again and again, Qi Shan was followed by Tominga, and after Tomina was Dexing'a, during which Weng Tongshu had been in the army to assist in military affairs, and the history said that "Dexing Alian fu Yangzhou, Pukou, into Guazhou, Zhenjiang, military days have improved, more than the same book praise paintings." Kegua Chau, ordered to be a waiter, gave the yellow coat"!
In contrast, Weng Tongshu is actually much better than his younger brother Weng Tonggong, because he is a person who is willing to do things, but unfortunately, "advantages sometimes turn into shortcomings", and Weng Tongshu's shrewdness and strongness have become the main reason for his tragic fate.
Stills of Weng Tonggong
As I said just now, Weng Tongshu has been deputy in the Jiangnan camp, the so-called Jiangnan camp, which is the main battle regiment formed by the Qing Dynasty to mobilize elite green battalion soldiers from all over the country, so the Jiangnan camp is actually one of the two major field armies controlled by the Manchu Qing central government, and the other unit is the Manchu and Mongolian iron horses led by the Mongolian prince Senggelinqin. Therefore, the successive commanders of the Jiangnan camp are Manchus, such as Hechun, Qishan, Toming'a, Dexing'a, just from the name can be seen, they are all flag people, although Weng Tongshu is Han, but the Weng family has long been in the center, in fact, they represent the interest groups of the Manchu Qing central government.
This is fundamentally different from Zeng Guofan, Li Hongzhang, Zuo Zongtang, and other local powerful Hanchens, and there is actually a very deep contradiction between the two! For the Qing government, on the one hand, it was necessary to rely on local powerful factions such as Zeng Guofan to suppress the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and on the other hand, it had to always guard against these Han chens who held real power, after all, any ruler understood a truth: "If it is not my race, its heart will be different."
For the local powerful factions such as Zeng Guofan, their feelings for the Manchu rulers are also complicated, on the one hand, they belong to the same vested interest class as the Manchu rulers, on the other hand, the Han people have never been willing to be ruled by foreign races, so the "Zeng Guofans" always want to challenge the authority of the Qing court!
In view of this, the two sides could not avoid various covert confrontations, such as the "Yang Naiwu and Xiao Cabbage Case" that occurred in the twelfth year of Tongzhi, which was the result of the confrontation between the two sides, of course, this case was indeed an unjust case, but the Qing court wasted no time in taking advantage of this incident to directly depose more than a hundred officials of the Xiang military system, including Zhejiang Inspector Yang Changmao!
Zeng Guofan wrote to impeach Weng Tongshu for the same purpose, the reason is very simple, Zeng Guofan's identity at that time was to supervise the military affairs of Jiangsu, Anhui, Zhejiang, jiangxi four provinces, nominally inspectors, Tizhen below the subordination of Zeng Guofan, but the actual situation is not the case, Zhejiang Inspector Zuo Zongtang, Jiangxi Inspector Shen Baozhen are Zeng Guofan's own people, but Jiangsu Inspector Xue Huan, Anhui Inspector Weng Tongshu are all members of the imperial court, they and Zeng Guofan are not the same interest group, Therefore, Zeng Guofan's struggle for these two black gauze hats is also beyond reproach, and later events have proved that this is indeed the case!
Xianghuai generals
In 1861, after Weng Tongshu was deposed, he was succeeded by Li Xuyi, the younger brother of the Xiang army general Li Xubin. A year later, the Inspector of Jiangsu was also given a hand by Zeng Guofan's disciple Li Hongzhang, who successfully completed all the layouts, although he did not create a rebellion against the Great Qing, but at this point, the Qing court basically did not pose any threat to Zeng Guofan!
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