Li Hongzhang and Weng Tonghe's father Weng Xincun once met. When Weng Xincun saw Li Hongzhang, he asserted at the first sight that "this man is above our generation", which should be the greatest praise and encouragement for the younger generation. Li Hongzhang was really happy after listening to Weng Xincun's words, but because it was in public and his teacher Sun was present, he was only polite and modest, and did not have much communication with Weng Xincun.
Weng Xincun never dreamed that the man he admired would bring great disaster to Weng's family in the future.
It wasn't long before Li Hongzhang was admitted to Jinshi, and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom movement became more and more developed. Zeng Guofan, a Chinese minister who has been left out in the cold, has been reused. The court ordered him to quickly organize the local government to surround the Taiping Army forever. Before long, a strong team of Xiang troops was trained, and Zeng Guofan's reputation among ministers was getting higher and higher.
Li Hongzhang deeply understands that if he wants to make a name for himself, he must stand up when the court is in urgent need of force. But at that time, he was just a literary official, and there was only one way to choose: contact with Zeng Guofan.
Soon after, Li Hongzhang came to Zeng Guofan, hoping to worship him as a teacher. Zeng Guofan had long heard of Li Hongzhang, and Weng Xincun's praise in public made him convinced of Li Hongzhang's talent. As a result, Zeng Guofan and Li Hongzhang hit it off and immediately determined the relationship between teachers and students.
Just as Zeng Guofan's encirclement and suppression of the Taiping Army showed its superiority, something happened, and he was caught in a dilemma.
Due to the improper handling of Weng, the son of Weng Xincun, the local armed Miao who had surrendered to the court chose to defect. The imperial court was already exhausted in the face of the Taiping rebels' huge offensive, and then a Miao thousand nine hundred jumped out to add fuel to the fire. In this way, the item led by Zeng Guofan fell into a passive quagmire, and Zeng Guofan's younger brother died.
From public to private, Zeng Guofan should participate in a book with Weng, but because Weng Xincun is behind this book, Zeng Guofan is very worried. Just when he was at a loss, Li Hongzhang personally sent a memorial, and Zeng Guofan adopted most of the contents, that is, the memorial of more than 600 words, which was called "the first memorial in the late Qing Dynasty" by many scholars.
After some research, the author found that there are three places in this memorial that can best reflect Li Hongzhang's alertness and wisdom. Let's be specific.
First of all, in the first part of the memorial, Li Hongzhang directly pointed out that "Liangyuan fell and retreated to Dingyuan; Wei did not take over for a long time, but he was able to shirk it, but he was stationed for one year. "
The meaning of this sentence is that after Liangyuan fell, Weng Shu Tong directly retreated to Dingyuan. If he just took office, he didn't have to bear the main responsibility, but he managed the local government for more than a year and fled to Dingyuan without fighting the enemy. He is guilty of both failure and political laziness.
It is common for military strategists to win or lose, and everyone must understand this truth. If Li Hongzhang only said that he was responsible for the defeat, Weng Shu Tong could defend himself with the ever-changing situation on the battlefield. However, Li Hongzhang directly pointed out that Weng was defeated after operating in the local area for more than a year, indicating that Weng's political ability was problematic, thus tracing the accidental failure to the inevitable reasons, and Weng Xincun could not be excused.
Secondly, in the middle part of the memorial, Li Hongzhang wrote, "Miao captured the city and killed it miserably. When he occupied Japan, Weng could not be martyred, but he had the strength to protect Miao from rebellion."
At the beginning of the Miao uprising, Weng proposed to the court to adopt a tolerant policy, because the main enemy of the court at that time was the Taiping Army. If you completely turn against Miao at this time, it will only make Qing set up more enemies, which will undoubtedly make the originally grim situation more tense.
From a rational point of view, Weng Shu Tong's approach is reasonable. But when he got to Li Hongzhang, it was not like this. He pointed out bluntly that Miao killed people when they rebelled and seized the city, which aroused the indignation of the whole world. Moreover, he constantly expanded his sphere of influence, indicating that he had long had the idea of replacing the Qing emperor.
Therefore, the court should not give in to such anti-thieves. Weng Shu Tong not only failed to fight against thieves, but also watered down his advice to Empress Dowager Cixi, which was suspected of harboring rebellion.
After what Li Hongzhang said, even though Weng Shu Tong was originally considered by the imperial court, he became an unfaithful minister in others' eyes. The role of language is really awesome!
Finally, at the end of the memorial, Li Hongzhang deliberately added: "Where is the official position, the unjust case should be corrected, and I dare not accommodate it because of the prosperity of Weng Shu's family."
Although this sentence is few words, it can be said to be the most witty and sharp, and a simple sentence expresses three meanings!
First, this sentence relieved Zeng Guofan's inner worries. It is an indisputable fact that Weng Shu Tong was at fault on the battlefield. However, because he has his father Weng Xincun as a refuge, it is difficult for Zeng Guofan to win him. In ancient times, it was not easy to present the throne of impeaching others to the emperor. If the impeachment is successful, it will be a credit. If the impeachment is unsuccessful, the other party will retaliate and accuse the emperor of framing the court loyalist.
Li Hongzhang wrote these words and expressed Zeng Guofan's inner worries. After seeing it, Cixi will certainly sympathize with the difficulties of being a courtier. Even if the impeachment fails, Zeng Guofan will not be severely punished.
Secondly, Li Hongzhang's words are actually playing a trick on Cixi: If you read my letter and didn't punish Weng, it's because you care about Weng's family, which is really a cover-up. Is it chilling for courtiers? With this sentence, even Cixi had to listen!
Finally, as the development momentum of Taiping Army was contained step by step, Zeng Guofan's armed forces became stronger, and it was inevitable that courtiers would gossip in the DPRK, which made the emperor suspicious of Zeng Guofan.
At the end of the paper, Li Hongzhang pointed out that Zeng Guofan was loyal to the court. Even if he offended Weng Xincun, he did not hesitate to participate in a book with Weng. For the sake of the whole Qing Dynasty, his loyalty to the monarch floated on paper. In this way, Cixi's doubts about him were dispelled.
Shortly after the paper was presented, Weng was sentenced to death and later exiled to the frontier. Weng Xincun suffered a mental shock and was in poor health. He died soon.
The power of words is enormous, and the 600-word memorial written by Li Hongzhang contains pitfalls, which is definitely called "the first memorial of yat sen villa".