Putting the characters in the historical environment and the background of the times at that time, Zeng Guofan's bitter course, persistent belief, defending tradition, brutal killing, hypocrisy and many flaws are understandable.
However, it is necessary to understand that Zeng Guofan, a Hao Ming in Tang Dynasty, is a novel, which can be artistically processed, with the author's emotional color and position. It cannot be completely regarded as history, and there is no need to be too harsh.
From Zeng Guofan's loss of his mother to his father, he organized Ying Yong in Hunan to form the Xiang Army, then took the Xiang Army out of Hunan, recovered Wuchang, and went down the Yangtze River to fight in Jiangxi.
Hao Ming in Tang Dynasty put Zeng Guofan directly on the stage of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement, not in the chronological order of biographies of ordinary people, and described his early imperial examinations and his experience as an official in Beijing, which was more attractive in the plot.
This experience is the most bumpy and difficult period in Zeng Guofan's life:
First, the officialdom crowd out.
Because of his honest and frank personality, he hated evil and became the target of public criticism in Hunan officialdom. Xiang Yong, who had worked so hard to get up, was pushed out by Changsha green camp Army, and many head-on conflicts broke out, and his stronghold was destroyed by green camp foot soldiers. Had to pull the troops to Hengyang, away from officialdom.
Second, the scholar led the troops and drove the ducks to the shelves.
Zeng Guofan was born in the imperial examination. He was an imperial envoy in Beijing for ten years. At most, he has read a few books about Sun Tzu's Art of War. Even riding a horse is difficult. He initially aspired to be a politician, a saint and a master of science. Who wants to meet troubled times and be ordered to go home for a funeral?
Moreover, he did not have the talent of Confucian generals in history, and he was laughing and devastated. Later, battlefield practice proved that he would lose every battle. Anyone who leads troops to fight in person is miserable. On his first expedition, he lost half of his hard-won naval division and was forced to jump into the river twice.
But he has three things that people can't do:
(1) Decide or resign.
No one can change what has been decided.
I have kept a diary all my life, every word and deed and even every thought every day, reflecting on whether it conforms to the way of saints and recording all the violations.
During the training in Hengyang, the Taiping Army had swept through Hubei and marched into Anhui and Jiangxi, threatening the security of the imperial court. The Eight Banners and green camp collapsed in World War I, and Emperor Xianfeng wrote several times urging him to reinforce. He delayed on the grounds of incomplete armament and waited until all the guns in reserve were loaded on warships before marching north.
(2) knowing people and employing people.
This is very much like Sun Quan in the Three Kingdoms. He is very self-aware and knows that he is not good at fighting. He selected many generals with military talents, such as Taqibu, Li, Bao Chao, younger brother, and so on. Most of them are scholars like him, and they will become omnipotent Athens and local governors in the future.
(3) Be good at running the army and be slow and steady.
Step by step, no surprises, no tricks, fight hard, fight hard. Wherever you go, you must camp in deep trenches and high bases, and you can attack and defend.
Especially around Anqing and Nanjing, the army can't stay at the gates for a long time, and it's in no hurry to attack the city. First, dig trenches outside the city and build strong fortresses. Surrounded by the cloud of the art of war, the Xiang army dared to besiege the city with weak soldiers and fight a protracted war, gradually cutting off the foreign aid of the Taiping Army and eating each other alive.
Third, the teacher is unknown.
The imperial court decreed that governance should last forever. Why do you say the teacher is unknown?
Xiang's position was very embarrassing for a long time. This is the nature of Yingyong's militia. It was built to defend Hunan, but it should take the initiative to attack Hunan, and all military food and grass should be supplied by Hunan. What's more, it may give people an excuse to support themselves from the center of gravity. The court has never been granted birthright, and it can always call itself Xiang Yong.
If we only responded to the call of the imperial court and set up an Ying Yong to defend Hunan, there would be no such thing.
One of Zeng Guofan's great advantages lies in the strategic pattern. Either he doesn't start his career. Since he joined the army, he will build Julian Waghann to pacify the world, and at the same time, he will not arouse the suspicion of the imperial court, and he will also win the hearts and minds of his own army.
The Taiping Army was deeply supported by the poor, but it preached Christianity and totally denied the traditional Confucian ethics. Zeng Guofan took the eradication of heresy as the banner and won the support of scholars and scholars.
Fourth, there is no source of military expenditure.
Xiang Yong belongs to the local Yingyong. Without the establishment of a regular army, he could not get any assistance from the imperial court.
In order to ensure the quality of soldiers, Zeng Guofan used Qi Jiguang's concept of conscription in Ming Dynasty for reference, and demanded that only rural farmers should be recruited, be honest and obedient, and not opportunistic.
But the peasant brothers are more realistic, and it is difficult to persuade them to risk their lives and go through fire and water to be loyal to the monarch and patriotic. Zeng Guofan had to use his reputation to mobilize local squires to donate money and materials door to door.
Fifth, the court has doubts.
The Manchu dynasty has always been wary of Han Chinese officials. Since the Wu Sangui Rebellion, almost no Han people have been heavily armed.
Under the situation that the Eight Banners green camp was defeated in World War I, the Taiping Army was invincible. After Zeng Guofan led his troops to capture Wuchang, he had made outstanding contributions. However, the imperial court almost didn't have any substantial rewards. Instead, it stepped up its vigilance, making everything under control, raising its own military expenses, and fighting alone without assistance. The defeated officialdom colleagues are cynical.
This situation continued until the Xiang army captured Anqing, and the Qing army's Jiangnan Jiangbei camp was completely annihilated. The court had no choice but to rely on the item.
Therefore, Blood Sacrifice is basically about Zeng Guofan's difficult second pioneering history after joining the army. He thinks that his mother's funeral is the beginning of the preparations for the Xiang army, and his father's funeral has come to an end when he left the battlefield in Jiangxi.
The endless grass on the plain comes and goes with the seasons. Wildfire never completely devours them, but they grow taller in the spring breeze. Wherever the war goes, life is ruined and nothing grows, repeating the script of historical rise and fall, and those burned weeds are suffering.
This film is about the difficult stalemate and life-and-death struggle between Xiang Army and Taiping Army. After the infighting in Tianjing, the Xiang army began to gain the upper hand. With the help of Zuo and Li Hongzhang, it finally broke Jinling and settled the world.
However, why does the author divide Zeng Guofan's return to his hometown into filial piety to his father? The reason is that Zeng Guofan's thoughts have changed a lot during his stay at home.
Returning to his hometown of Lotus Pond in Xiangxiang, Zeng Guofan calmed down and reflected on the experience of the past few decades. He finally found the answer in Laozi's thought and sought a way out. Everything in the world is yin and yang, which complement each other. If it is too rigid, it will be broken. If it is too soft, it is easy to combine rigidity with softness.
The timeline of the wildfire and the infighting of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom were greatly destroyed. Zeng Guofan and Xiang Jun took a long breath, and the balance of history began to tilt towards the Qing Dynasty. In spite of this, Li Xiucheng and Chen Yucheng, whom Hong Xiuquan boldly promoted and appointed, are also rebellious heroes and wizards all over the world, using strange tricks. Zeng Guofan and Xiang Xiang went through hardships and paid a heavy price for every step forward.
In the Three Rivers Change, Xiang led six thousand people, including expert Li and Zeng Guofan's sixth brother, which were mighty. They went deep into Li Xiucheng's elaborate encirclement and were completely annihilated. Li committed suicide and disappeared. The plot of Ceng Guohua's narrow escape in the novel is based on unofficial history's fiction.
Anqing is the gateway to Tianjing. It is very dangerous to win Anqing Tianjing! Xiang and Taiping Army were well aware of the success or failure of the war in this city, so they launched a tug-of-war here. First, Xiang was hungry. After the peripheral passage of Anqing was cut off, the Taiping Army in the city began to starve, eating weeds, bark, rats and human flesh. This is a hell on earth. People in the besieged city want to go out, while people outside the city want to come in.
The reinforcements sent by Chen Yucheng are also in a desperate situation. Six thousand people laid down their arms and surrendered, all of whom were killed by Ceng Guoquan. One hundred people were taken into the camp and beheaded all day, leaving only one general to be dismembered in public at the gate. Zeng Guofan wrote a letter to comfort his younger brother, "Show the heart of the Bodhisattva with lightning speed." After the destruction of Anqing City, all adult men were killed and women became the private property of Xiang Army.
Tianjing did the same thing, besieging the city, aiding and blocking the export. With Zuo recovering Hangzhou and Li Hongzhang recovering Suzhou, Tianjing became an isolated city, and it was only a matter of time before it was breached. During this period, the plague spread in Ceng Guoquan, and many people fell down every day. Zeng Guofan's younger brother Zeng Guo was full of praise for his illness.
After Tianjing was destroyed, it was still burning and looting, and the bodies piled up into mountains. In the war, the so-called moral benevolence and righteousness disappeared, and the most extreme side of human nature was fully demonstrated.
This part mainly talks about Zeng Guofan's series of experiences after the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement. From its peak to sunset, it was also Zeng Guofan's experience of reviving his dream to abolish the Xiang army, serve as the governor of the two rivers, set up westernization, go out of the mountain and handle the Tianjin religious plan.
After the movement to pacify the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in Jinling was broken, Zeng Guofan's reputation was at its zenith, and he held hundreds of valiant soldiers in Xiang army, just like the first armed force in the world. At the same time, he faced the biggest crisis in his life. The historical bloody case of a dead rabbit cooking a bird and hiding a corpse has become a lingering nightmare. Many people around him advised him to follow the example of Song Taizu's yellow robe, overthrow the decadent Manchu court and restore the mountains and rivers of the Han people, otherwise it is likely to suffer genocide.
Zeng Guofan, who was immersed in the Confucian patriotism since childhood, never accepted that he had embarked on the road of rebellion, so he decided to cut off his wings and abolish most of the Xiang army to reassure the court. For Zeng Guofan's loyalty and outstanding achievements, the court also gave unprecedented trust and awards, sealed Hou, and officially worshipped him as the governor of Liangjiang, which is the highest among the upper Han people in history of qing dynasty.
Finally, he has the real power of a local governor and is the richest place in China. Zeng Guofan could freely realize his ambition of ZTE, resume the imperial examination, punish corruption, preside over the construction of modern ships and new weapons, and send the first batch of foreign students from China to study in Europe and America, including Zhan Tianyou and others who later spread the fire of western science and culture.
If Wei Yuan was the first person in China to see the world, then Zeng Guofan was the first person in China to go to the world.
However, the Nian Army rebellion disrupted his plan and Sangolin Qin died. No one in the imperial court was available, so Zeng Guofan had to be re-enabled. After disarmament, Zeng Guofan had no good soldiers and no heavy soldiers available, so he had to bite the bullet and move forward. In vain, student Li Hongzhang cleaned up the mess.
The failure to conquer the Nian Army has already seen his decline, and the handling of the Tianjin religious plan has made him lose his integrity, ruined his reputation and branded the court as a traitor.
He is a living human being with worldly desires. He was the son of a farmer since he was a child, and his qualifications were average. Half hard work, half luck, he climbed one bigger platform after another. At the same time, he struggled with the weakness of human nature all his life, constantly freed himself, renewed himself, and finally achieved something.
Why have we been so keen on studying Zeng Guofan? His family letters, diaries and letters are not much, but many of them are rambling details. Whether you are a son, a brother, a friend or a courtier, it's all simple truths, such as diligence, persistence, sincerity, reading and getting up early. Ordinary people can learn from them, but most people can't be as extreme as him.