Chapter 38 Section 38 Consequences of Stealing Credit

A month later, Ding Richang left Kunshan and came to meet Li Hongzhang happily.Li Hongzhang inevitably praised him again. The next day, Li Hongzhang began to draft a memorial to report to the imperial court the process of dismissing the ever-victorious army, and requested to reward a group of foreign generals below Gordon to comfort the Westerners.The imperial decree soon came to the Governor's Yamen in Jiangsu. The imperial decree first approved Li Hongzhang's request one by one, and then ordered Li Hongzhang to dispatch powerful troops and powerful artillery teams to Jinling to help suppress the Taiping Army.After sending off the decree officer, Li Hongzhang locked himself in his study, pondered for a moment, and wrote "Partition and Suppression of Huzhou and Advance to Changxing", and then attached "Please Assist in the Attack on Jinling after Huzhou is Recovered".

"Partition and Suppression of Huzhou and Advance to Changxing" is to report the military situation to the imperial court, and Li Hongzhang's article is written in the attached film.The attached sheet first states that after conquering Changzhou, the reason for not sending troops to Jinling in time was that the whole army did not have a good rest due to successive years of fighting; it also said that Zeng Guoquan once wrote to him, saying that the recovery of Jinling would be paid and not sent.Then he began to talk about his own difficulties: first, Jiangsu was newly restored, and there were remnants of the Taiping Army everywhere; after the Ever Victory Army was disbanded, the British did not allow Huai Yong to leave Shanghai; The artillery team under his command has not yet mastered the skill of firing cannons.

Li Hongzhang wrote at the end of the film: "At present, the artillery team left by the Changsheng Army has not been trained yet. The artillery team left by Cheng Xueqi has gone to Changxing. Liu Mingchuan is near Jurong. It is also planned to add artillery positions. The drill will take two months. Attack and suppression. In addition to the ministers supervising and ordering all the troops to quickly practice, while making more bombs, stockpiling attack equipment, and waiting for deployment, it is proposed to ask the Hu County to be restored, and the Soviet defenses to be loosened, and then cooperate to attack Jinling in order to help. Still consult Zeng Guofan and Zeng Guoquan at any time to handle it at their discretion."

In a word, Huaiyong can't divide his forces now to help suppress the Taiping Army in Jinling City. After the release of the folding and film worship, Li Hongzhang rode fast horses to summon Zhang Shusheng, Liu Mingchuan and others who were stationed in various states, counties, and Haikou to the governor's office. Wait for the ministers to discuss the matter together. After all the personnel arrived, Li Hongzhang said slowly: "The Ministry summoned all the adults into the governor's office today to inform one thing. Now, the bandits and bandits have basically been wiped out in all prefectures, counties and cities in Jiangsu, and only Jinling is still recovering." In Jinling, Zeng Jiushuai sits in the town, and success is only in the blink of an eye. Our Huaiyong battalions have gone through several months of hard fighting, and the casualties are quite large. They urgently need to be supplemented. These, the headquarters have a account in their hearts. The headquarters will leave the governor's office tomorrow. Take a trip to Anqing, and then return home to visit my mother and two children. It will probably take a month or two. During the absence of the headquarters, Qiao Fangbo will take care of the governor and guard. If there is something to do in the camp, please feel free to Discuss with Mr. Qiao about it. But there is one sentence, the headquarters should speak first, Jinling, no matter how urgent the imperial court or Anqing urges, it is not allowed to dispatch a single soldier."

The impatient Zhang Shusheng couldn't help but ask at this moment: "Marshal, can you speak more thoroughly? I don't quite understand." Li Hongzhang smiled mysteriously, and replied: "Don't ask Mr. Zhang, after all, just don't send troops there. As for the foreigners, especially that Pachari, if there is any entanglement, Ding Dao can come forward to deal with them. But However, there must be no delay in allocating the salaries to the Jinling Jizi Camp. The Nine Marshals have sent letters several times, stating repeatedly that Jinling is surrounded by salaries and not soldiers. As long as we allocate the salaries on schedule, it will be a great achievement. How many times stronger than sending a few battalions over there!"

Qiao Songnian whispered at this time: "Master Futai, do you want to bring a few battalions of soldiers to accompany you when you go out this time?" Li Hongzhang said: "It is enough to have a personal barracks to accompany you. After you go to the headquarters, you will have to worry about your old brother here." Qiao Songnian suddenly put his mouth next to Li Hongzhang's ear and said, "Si Li understands why your lord is rushing back home. If Si Li's guess is right, your lord is going to go home to get married, right?" Li Hongzhang smiled, and said in a low voice: "Keep your voice down. Jiaoer's mother's three-year term expires, if I don't take advantage of this time to finish things, when Rong Chunfu buys the machine back, can I still spare time? After I leave, ask someone to clean up the upper room at the back. When I come back this time, I want to bring my mother and two children over."

Qiao Songnian sighed while nodding: "Your Excellency should have a family long ago. If you continue to suffer like this for a few more years, your long hair will collapse, and your Excellency will also collapse!" After the crowd dispersed, Li Hongzhang immediately explained to Qiao Songnian and gave Ding Richang a few words, then he packed his luggage, took his personal battalion with him, boarded the ship specially assigned by Huangyi Shengshui Division battalion, and left Suzhou for Anqing . After Li Hongzhang had been away for a long time, the generals of the Huai Army were still discussing Li Hongzhang's refusal to send troops to Jinling to assist in the suppression, and they were very puzzled.

As we all know, Li Hongzhang is the favorite student of Zeng Guofan, governor of Liangjiang, and Zeng Guoquan, the commander who besieged Jinling, is also Zeng Guofan's younger brother.No matter from which aspect, Li Hongzhang has no reason to sit idly by.Why did Li Hongzhang do this?In fact, he has his own reasons. Sanpin Ding Dai Shi was awarded Zeng Guoquan, the inspector of Zhejiang Province, and led the Jizi Camp to besiege Jinling for two years. Even Ke Zhongshan and other key passes were approaching the city wall. Repulsed, had to turn elsewhere. Jinling City was besieged for two years, and the food and grass stored in the city had long been exhausted. The soldiers of the Taiping Army who guarded the city were relying on wild vegetables to satisfy their hunger every day.After digging out the wild vegetables, the king of heaven began to drink the dew again after asking for instructions.The dew is the rain.If it does not rain, drink the dew from the ground, which is the water of the river.

Heavenly King Hong Xiuquan has been sick for a long time, and his life is dying. He may go to see his heavenly father, the Lord, the Emperor God at any time.Under such circumstances, the imperial court knew that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was about to end, and it would only be sooner or later that Jinling would be conquered. This once-in-a-lifetime feat would soon be accomplished by the Zeng brothers, which made many ministers blush and heartbeat.Many Manchu ministers didn't want to let the Zeng brothers enjoy this great achievement, so they went up one after another and asked their superiors to add troops to help the suppression. In fact, they wanted the Zeng brothers to give up some of the credit, so as not to overwhelm the master and endanger the country. Sheji.

Naturally, the Empress Dowager also wanted to conquer Jinling one day earlier, so she pushed the boat along the way. In addition to ordering Li Hongzhang to send troops at his discretion, Zuo Zongtang also sent several battalions of Chu Yong to Jinling. Zuo Zongtang, the governor of Fujian and Zhejiang and the governor of Zhejiang, was already dissatisfied with Zeng Guoquan's two-year siege of Jinling and failed to succeed. The artillery team of Chang Jie Army was also transferred to Jinling. Zuo Zongtang was determined to help Zeng Laojiu break through Jinling and fulfill the imperial court's wish as soon as possible.

But what is unexpected is that the arrival of the Chu army not only did not make Zeng Guofan happy, but also caused great dissatisfaction with the siege commander Zeng Guoquan and the resistance of many Hunan generals. Li Hongzhang saw this, and he didn't want to be infamous for his contributions.He first dismissed the most powerful ever-victorious army, hoping to find an excuse for his inability to assist the suppression; after receiving the imperial edict to assist the suppression, he expressed his compliance with the order, but on the other hand, he made many excuses that he could not send troops in time. The reason is that Xu and the imperial court have committed a crime... In order to further express his heart, he did not hesitate to leave the governor's office and went to Anqing to ask his teacher for leave. Li Hongzhang is an extremely intelligent person, and Zeng Guofan is also a rare genius.Li Hongzhang knew very well in his heart that what he did so painstakingly could deceive many people and the court, but he could not deceive Zeng Guofan.Li Hongzhang wanted the Zeng brothers to be grateful to him for the rest of his life. When the ship berthed in Anqing, Li Hongzhang went ashore and got on the green woolen sedan chair that had been prepared. Li Hongzhang met Zeng Guofan in the signing room of the Governor's Yamen. Li Hongzhang knelt in front of Zeng Guofan and performed the great gift of his disciples to meet their teacher. Zeng Guofan helped Li Hongzhang up, first squinted his eyes and looked Li Hongzhang up and down, then suddenly stretched out his right hand, touched Li Hongzhang's temple very carefully, and then pulled out a white hair with a sudden force: "Sir. Tsuen, you are getting old too!" Li Hongzhang's eyes became hot, and he replied in a trembling voice: "Men, your gray hair has also increased in the past few years." Zeng Guofan sighed, turned around and sat down, and said casually: "Shaoquan, you can sit too. Have you received the imperial edict?" Li Hongzhang stood up and said: "Just sit down, my disciple likes to stand and listen to his teacher. The disciple did receive an imperial edict before he left, and the disciple rushed here from Suzhou just to explain something clearly to his teacher. The teacher knows that Chang Sheng After the disarmament, the remaining artillery generals were all inexperienced, and they had to practice for two or three months before they could go to battle. However, after several years of hard work, Huaiyong suffered heavy casualties, and he could not meet the enemy unless he raised his generals for a while. Before leaving, I have already stated the above facts. The disciples are here, one is to visit the teacher, and the other is to ask the teacher for a few days off, please allow the teacher to grant." Zeng Guofan was taken aback for a moment, and then said: "Shaoquan, it's reasonable for you to follow the order, otherwise the superiors will blame you. Have you brought the manuscript for the imperial court?" Li Hongzhang hurriedly took out the draft of the notebook from his sleeve, handed it to Zeng Guofan with both hands, and said, "Please have a look at it, teacher." Zeng Guofan took the draft of the notebook, put it back on the desk, and said, "Shaoquan, is there something going on at home?" Li Hongzhang replied: "The mentor is very generous. When the student was in Anhui, he fell ill and died. Soon, the mother decided to order a marriage for the student. These mentors know about it." Zeng Guofan nodded and said, "You told me that the woman's family name seems to be Zhao, and she is in the tea business, right?" Li Hongzhang replied: "Master has such a good memory. He still remembers these things. After the student led the courage to Shanghai according to the instruction of the teacher, my brother rushed to Shanghai according to the order of the mother and urged the student to get married. The student did not agree, because after all, my wife and I were married. She gave birth to a disciple and gave birth to two daughters. No matter how you say it, the disciple should guard her for three years, so as not to be in vain as a husband and wife." When Li Hongzhang said this, he suddenly remembered many past events, and his eyes turned red. . Zeng Guofan nodded and said: "This is what it should be. Shaoquan, you have suffered a lot in the past few years. Well, the old man will give you two months' leave, and the marriage will be done in a beautiful manner. The child has a mother." , you have been taken care of, and Lingtang will not have to worry about it day and night. First, the old man will draw up a leave note for you to the court, and we will send it out together. You go down and have a rest first, and call you when dinner is served. You submit the note to the court , the old man will take a look first. You go down." Li Hongzhang saluted and withdrew.