Zeng Guofan, a famous minister of the late Qing Dynasty, promoted many people in his lifetime, and this person was not grateful to him.
This person is Shen Baozhen.
Shen Baozhen was a major minister of the late Qing Dynasty, and later became the Governor of Liangjiang and the Minister of Nanyang. Shen Baozhen was Lin Zexu's son-in-law, and he participated in many examinations and finally passed the entrance examination, but without the support of Zeng Guofan, he could not have become a heavy minister of the late Qing Dynasty.
So, what kind of person is Shen Baozhen? After Zeng Guofan single-handedly promoted him, why would he take revenge and embarrass Zeng Guofan everywhere?
From the perspective of personal feelings, Shen Baozhen was promoted by Zeng Guofan to be the inspector of Jiangxi, and judging from his actions of withholding the salaries of the Xiang army and embarrassing zeng Guofan, he was an ungrateful person.
But even so, Zeng Guofan still had a high evaluation of him.
Let's first understand how Zeng Guofan promoted Shen Baozhen.
Shen Baozhen was a concubine of Zeng Guofan, who had entered the shogunate of Zeng Guofan and was deeply appreciated, and later, Shen Baozhen was promoted by Zeng Guofan to be a Taoist for his meritorious service in guarding Guangxin.
In May of the 10th year of Xianfeng (1860 AD), after Zeng Guofan was appointed governor of Liangjiang by the imperial court, the first word to the imperial court was to ask Shen Baozhen to come to his Anqing camp to assist him in military affairs.
In the recital to the imperial court, Zeng Guofan spoke highly of Shen Baozhen, believing that Shen Baozhen was "a man of great skill, a great use, and a rare match in the eyes of his subjects."
This means that Shen Baozhen has the courage and knowledge to be of great use, and such a person is rare.
It was precisely because Zeng Guofan was particularly appreciative of Shen Baozhen that Shen Baozhen arrived in the second year of Zeng Guofan's camp, and was promoted by Zeng Guofan to be the inspector of Jiangxi and became a feudal official.
This was very rare in the Qing Dynasty at that time.
First of all, Shen Baozhen was only a Daoist member and had not experienced in the office of a senior member such as an envoy; secondly, Shen Baozhen had never acted as an inspector and had no experience at all.
It is conceivable that without the support of Zeng Guofan, Shen Baozhen could not have become the inspector of Jiangxi.
However, after Shen Baozhen arrived in Jiangxi, he fell into a well and began to embarrass Zeng Guofan.
At that time, Zeng Guofan ordered his younger brother Zeng Guoquan to form a siege of Jinling, which was the most critical moment to attack Jinling. But Shen Baozhen was not only indifferent, but also withheld the salary of the Xiang Army.
Shen Baozhen deducted a total of two times.
For the first time, he withheld the 40,000 taels of water supplied to the Xiang army every month and no longer allocated it to the Xiang army. At this time, the Xiang army was very difficult, and although Zeng Guofan was a little unhappy in his heart, he did not embarrass Shen Baozhen, but said it very generously.
The second time, after Shen Baozhen saw that Zeng Guofan did not have any reaction, he had to inch forward and directly withheld the 200,000 taels of gold supplied to the Xiang Army every month, and did not give Zeng Guofan one or two pieces of silver.
Zeng Guofan had not paid the generals of the Xiang Army for eleven months, and he had no choice but to play to the imperial court, believing that Shen Baozhen's move was very dangerous and might lead to a mutiny among the generals of the Xiang Army, resulting in a failure in the attack on Jinling.
Later, under the mediation of the imperial court, Shen Baozhen gave half of the gold in Jiangxi to Zeng Guofan.
For Shen Baozhen's behavior of withholding military salaries and embarrassing his benefactor Zeng Guofan, many generals of the Xiang Army were dissatisfied and demanded that Zeng Guofan impeach this ungrateful person. Zeng Guofan seemed very indifferent, advising the generals of the Xiang Army not to embarrass Shen Baozhen, after all, he withheld military salaries not for the sake of enriching himself, but for the development of Jiangxi.
Zeng Guofan's generosity is indeed very impressive. Without the magnanimity of Zeng Guofan, Shen Baozhen would not have been able to become a late Qing dynasty official.
Zeng Guofan is good at recognizing people and knowing people, and judging from the example of his promotion of Shen Baozhen, Zeng Guofan is not for himself at all, but for the sake of the Great Qing Dynasty, and this kind of mind, even today, I am afraid that few people can reach.