After the outbreak of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement, without Zeng Guofan, it is difficult to imagine what the Qing Dynasty would be like. But this famous minister, who is known as the rebuilder, like thousands of ordinary people, has only one life. In Zeng Guofan's life, self-seeking short-sightedness was not once or twice, when he was only one step away from death, a small person appeared, he was Zhang Shoulin, and it was this small person's leap that indirectly extended the life of the Qing Dynasty for more than 50 years.
Zeng Guofan's process of fighting with the Taiping Army was arduous and long, in the early days he was also repeatedly defeated, in the Xiangtan War, the Xiang Army's water division was surrounded by the Taiping Army, and in an anxious mood, Zeng Guofan pulled out his sword from his waist, planted the ling flag on the warship, and stood by the flag and shouted: "Cut the flag."
However, in the face of the Taiping Army's fierce offensive, the Xiang Army had long lost its military spirit, no one obeyed Zeng Guofan's orders, and everyone did not feel afraid, but instead smiled hippie and smiled, bypassing him and continuing to escape. As the commander-in-chief, Zeng Guofan personally experienced the embarrassment of not being a soldier and not being a general. Indignant in his heart, he lost his mind for a while, jumped into the rolling Xiang River.
The soldiers in the same boat found that the commander fell into the water and quickly jumped into the river to rescue, but Zeng Guofan's strange temper flared up again, and his eyes were an angry scolding, and the soldiers were very obedient this time, did not dare to disobey the military orders, and watched Zeng Guofan spit bubbles in the river. Seeing that the manager was about to sink, his staff member Zhang Shoulin suddenly rushed out of the rear cabin and plunged into the Xiang River.
Zeng Guofan, who only had half a breath, saw Zhang Shoulin come to the rescue, and he also had a resolute attitude and a heart of death. Fortunately, Zhang Shoulin's brain was flexible, so he quickly went ashore and had a good news to report, saying that the Xiangtan side had won the battle, and the vanguard troops immediately rushed to the rescue. Zeng Guofan believed it to be true, so he gave up the act of taking his life lightly and went ashore with Zhang Shoulin.
However, after landing on the shore, Zeng Guofan learned that he had been deceived and wanted to jump into the Xiang River again, but this time the soldiers had a precaution, and their desire for death failed to achieve their wishes. As the saying goes, if you don't die, you will have a blessing, and soon after, the good news of Xiangtan finally came, and the Xiang army not only won, but also immediately returned to Changsha, so that Zeng Guofan had a reason to convince himself not to die, which made him sigh a sentence of "life and death have a fate", and completely forgot about the matter of seeking death.
Later, Zeng Guofan finally achieved great achievements, and it was said that at this time he should remember Zhang Shoulin's life-saving grace, and should be given a rich reward, at least to the imperial court to recommend the official to the knighthood. However, he never gave any care to Zhang Shoulin. Perhaps Zhang Shoulin and his people are useless, or perhaps Zeng Guofan felt that he was biased ashore in the first place, in short, in the eyes of Zeng Guofan, Zhang Shoulin is an unknown little person, not worth lifting, in the end, Zhang Shoulin did the county order for more than twenty years, until he returned to his hometown.
Zhang Shoulin is a person with strength and is also very open-minded, but someone still complains for him. A person who was also a staff member of Zeng Guofan wrote zhang Shoulin's words "no words, no words, no blessings" in the "Inscription", which comes from the story of the Spring and Autumn Period, which means that the lord is weak and widowed, and forgets the former merits and feelings of his comrades-in-arms.
His words had a certain market at that time, but Zuo Zongtang denied this view. Zuo Zongtang believed that Zeng Guofan had already put life and death aside, not to mention that his life and death could not affect the overall situation at all, because after the death of a Zeng Guofan, naturally there were people who were better than Zeng Guofan to come out and administer justice, which meant that he himself could completely preside over the overall situation.
Zhang Shoulin jumped into the Xiang River to rescue Zeng Guofan, although he did not get anything in return, but for the Qing Dynasty, it was of great significance. If zeng guofan and his Xiang army had not fought hard against the Taiping army, then the Great Qing would most likely perish, or at least retreat to guanwai. History is so legendary, often some small people inadvertently move, will change the fate, change history.