The relationship between Zuo Zongtang, Zeng Guofan and Li Hongzhang

Zeng Guofan, Zuo Zongtang, and Li Hongzhang are all famous ministers of Zhongxing, important ministers of Westernization, and officials of the late Qing Dynasty. They are the three most important political forces in the Han Dynasty in the late Qing Dynasty. people. The three people have been intertwined with countless entanglements throughout their lives, admiring each other, admiring, hating, betraying, and tumbling, ups and downs. Let me talk about the relationship between Zeng Guofan, Zuo Zongtang, and Li Hongzhang.

1. Zuo Zongtang and Zeng Guofan

Zeng Guofan's life is elegant and intelligent, open-minded, able to understand and employ people, regardless of previous suspicions, the overall situation, and no revenge. It is recognized as a perfection in Chinese history. The saint is known as the last spiritual leader. Zuo Zongtang is arrogant, arrogant, narrow-minded, and domineering. Although he promoted Zeng Guofan, he stood on his own right after he gained power, and made trouble with Zeng Guofan. The two of them were both ministers of the Qing court. They had been in conflict for many years but they were sympathetic to each other.

Zeng Zuo is a fellow from Hunan. Zeng was one year older than Zuo. The imperial examination was smooth and his official career was open. However, Zuo Huaicai was disappointed. He would fail three tests and gave up the imperial examination and returned to his hometown to teach. However, Zuo Zongtang's talents have long been known, and local officials are willing to make friends with him. Liangjiang Governor Tao Shu asked Zuo Zongtang as a tutor and married Zuo Zongtang as relatives. In this way, Zuo Zongtang entered the political circle. Hu Linyi was the son-in-law of the Tao family. Through the Tao family, Zuo Zongtang and Hu Linyi met. Through Hu Linyi, Zuo Zongtang became the chief aide of the two governors of Hunan.

During this period, in the second year of Xianfeng, Zeng Zuo met. It was the most difficult period of eradicating the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and Hu Linyi had always recommended Zuo Zongtang to Zeng Guofan. In the four years of Xianfeng, Zeng Guofan recommended Zuo Zongtang to be an exceptional prefect to the court. He said, "If you really put a blue top on the scalpel, I will go into the mountain and vowed to never come back." He meant that I would come out with such a ruined official, I might as well return to the forest. So the matter was shelved.

Until 1860 in the tenth year of Xianfeng, the situation of the Taiping Army was imminent, Zeng Guofan finally used Zuo Zongtang, and Zuo Zongtang's military can be fully utilized since then. Zeng Guofan didn't doubt about employing people. Once it was activated, he would let Zuo Zongtang stand alone, and put a part of the Hunan army under Zuo Zongtang's full control, and Zuo Zongtang quickly rose. After conquering Hangzhou, Zuo Zongtang served as governor of Zhejiang through the recommendation of Zeng Guofan.

After the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was annihilated, the two Zeng Zuo began to guilty. The cause of the incident was about the whereabouts of Hong Xiuquan's youngest son Hong Tianguifu. After the fall of Tianjing, Zeng Guofan reported that Hong Tiangui had died in the chaos and reported to the court. But at this time, Zuo Zongtang was not kind. He stood up and said that Hong Tianguifu was at large, and attacked Zeng Guofan for deceiving the emperor. There was a personal moral problem. You know that deceiving the king is a big crime.

Zeng Guofan is the most important word-of-mouth reputation for being honest and complete in his life, and he hates others for saying that he has problems with integrity and morality. So the two couldn't argue for a while. (Later it proved that the news reported by his subordinates to Zeng Guofan was false, and Zeng Guofan misbehaved and reported it. However, because Zeng Guofan was selfless in this matter, the court did not hold it accountable.)

Later until his later years, Zuo Zongtang Still reluctant to accept death and admit his mistakes, saying that Zeng Guofan was the main fault of this affair, and that he was only a small fault, because he was too careful.

Since then, the two have no correspondence, and basically never met. Zuo Zongtang's predecessors scolded Zeng Guofan all his life, and attacked him every other time.

Take Zeng Guofan’s wisdom to cultivate, never care, focus on the overall situation, and unfairly revenge. Zuo Zongtang was able to set down two great achievements in pacifying Shaanxi and Gansu and bringing a coffin to pacify Xinjiang in his later years, mainly relying on the strong support of Zeng Guofan. Zeng Guofan not only gave the Songshan old camp of the Hunan Army to Zuo Zongtang, but also tried his best to raise food and payment in the rear. And Zuo Zongtang's return was insults from the predecessors and later, attacking him if he had nothing to do. He didn't even let go of his own in-laws, and made black hands behind his back.

After Zeng Guofan's death, Zuo Zongtang presented a pair of elegiac couplets: the loyalty and self-ashamed of knowing the people are not as good as Yuanfu; if the same heart is the same as the gold, if the stone is wrong, the stone will live without loss. A sentence of being ashamed of it, can be regarded as an end to the struggle of their lives.

Zeng Guofan once lamented, "I'm not as good as Zuo Zongtang when it comes to military warfare." Zuo Ping's military talent is indeed superior to Zeng. But both are the ministers of Tongzhi Zhongxing, Zeng Guofan does not matterBoth reputation status and comprehensive contribution far surpass Zuo Zongtang. With Zuo Zongtang's character, if it wasn't Zeng Guofan, he would have been killed long ago. Zuo Zongtang's momentary success was due to Zeng Guofan's appreciation and promotion and his selfless support regardless of the predecessors. After Zeng Guofan's death, Zuo Zongtang also began to flourish and decline.

Second, Zeng Guofan and Li Hongzhang

The relationship between Zeng Guofan and Li Hongzhang is quite different. Li Hongzhang was a student of Zeng Guofan all his life, admired Zeng Guofan and inherited the mantle of Zeng Guofan.

Zeng Guofan and Li Hongzhang's father, Li Wenan, were scholars in the same year, so they were in the same generation as Zeng Guofan and Li Hongzhang. After the imperial examination, Li Hongzhang went to Zeng Guofan as an assistant. The two had the same feelings as the father and son. Li Hongzhang went straight up under the guidance of Zeng Guofan.

Li Hongzhang is extremely clever and talented. He bowed and died in order to save the Qing Dynasty. In terms of personality, he is also from all sides, exquisite students all over the world, unlike Zuo Zongtang's arrogant and domineering. But there were conflicts between him and his teacher Zeng Guofan.

In 1860, Zeng Guofan moved the camp to Qimen, Anhui. Li Hongzhang thought it was inappropriate and disagreed. Then Zeng Guofan's impeachment of Li Yuandu added fuel to the fire. Li Yuandu is an old subordinate of Zeng Guofan, but his actions made Zeng Guofan intolerable and decided to impeach and sanction. Li Hongzhang resolutely opposed and threatened that if you impeach Li Yuandu, then I won't do it. As a result, Zeng Guofan was really impeached, and Li Hongzhang really left.

But Zeng and Li are all together. Later, Zeng Guofan found that the students were right and moved the camp; Li Hongzhang also found that he could not leave Zeng Guofan, and returned. He eventually inherited Zeng Guofan's mantle, developed from Zeng Guofan, and became the first minister after Zeng Guofan in the late Qing Dynasty.

3. Li Hongzhang and Zuo Zongtang

Zuo Zongtang and Li Hongzhang were both promoted and developed by Zeng Guofan, and later became officials of the border, and became the Westernization faction that Empress Dowager Cixi relied heavily on, but between them There is no relationship between master and apprentice, so they have a fierce quarrel.

Zuo Zongtang looked down on Li Hongzhang very much, thinking that he would not lead soldiers to fight, and was too weak against the powers. Li Hongzhang didn't like Zuo Zongtang either. He gave Zuo Zongtang the nickname "Breakthrough Xianggong", and satirized him for being a minister of military affairs because of his low level of fame.

At the end of 1874, there were many officials involved in the battle between "Fortification Defense" and "Sea Defense". Zuo Zongtang and Li Hongzhang became leaders of the two factions. Later, the Qing court settled their affairs, both fortress and coastal defense. Zuo Zongtang then took the coffin to the west at the age of 65, and Li Hongzhang was able to prepare for the establishment of the Northern Navy. As a result, Zuo Zongtang saved Xinjiang for the Qing Dynasty, while the Beiyang Navy, whom Li Hongzhang worked hard for 20 years, was wiped out in the Sino-Japanese War of Jiawu for various objective reasons.

As a student of Zeng Guofan, Li Hongzhang was not as polite to Zuo Zongtang in the two-person fight. Zuo Zongtang was under the wind in the confrontation with Li Hongzhang. There was no such thing as Zeng Guofan and Zuo Zongtang. It began to turn from prosperity to decline, and ended dismal.

It is worth mentioning that Hu Xueyan and Sheng Xuanhuai, the two great merchants in the late Qing Dynasty, supported Zuo Zongtang and Li Hongzhang respectively, but Hu Xueyan chose the wrong team. In the battle between Zuo and Li, Hu Xueyan ended dismal as a backing tool, and Sheng Xuanhuai’s Industrial power remained prosperous until the Republic of China.