Chapter 49 Section 49 Exceptional Rewards

On the road, Li Hongzhang met Dongmei in dreams for several nights in a row. After waking up, either the pillow was wet with tears, or he was smiling. He wrote eight quatrains in memory of Dongmei: "Dream of pink in the lotus chamber, dream of Jinghua, where do the soldiers and horses go home? There is no such piece of paper about Jiangcheng, and the plum blossoms will be sung the next year." "The poet is lonely and wants to go back to farming, and he is in the league of Dingqiao and Qingzhuli. He regrets five years of asceticism as a monk, and it is still sentimental after being stained with mud."

"Liuying returns to Qizhi Mountain Villa, and the quiet night will be restored. Looking back at the road beside the Canglang Pavilion, the green moss and autumn grass are darkening the setting sun." "Floating home thousands of miles away from Jimen, the westerly wind at the corner of the city is beating and mourning. The charming girl supports the group to move north, and the poor and hard-working thieves are here." "Yuan Jiang's small gathering is speechless, and the door is coldly closed in the empty room of fallen leaves. Who would have thought that the eternal farewell will be in a hurry, and the old cry marks will remain on the green shirt."

"The autumn wind of the round fan is willing to abandon the donation, and the parting will eventually miss Chanjuan. It is expected that the fossil will have the same heart as yesterday, and will not cross the other boat with the pipa." "Born in the west of Hunan and buried in the north of Han, there is always a karma for a short-lived flower in the pan. There should be no way for the soul to return to the Chu River, and the night spring mountain is called Rhododendron." "Eunuch's love is lonely like a nesting swallow, and his thoughts are like a cicada hugging a tree. I am ashamed that Huainan Dan is not yet ripe, and the chickens and dogs in the old days have already ascended to heaven."

When Li Hongzhang came to Xingyuan, the imperial envoy in Xuzhou, he put aside the personal feelings of his children in his heart. After some deliberation, Li Hongzhang decided to use the methods he used to deal with Lai Wenguang to suppress Nian this time. He built villages, fortified walls and cleared fields, and dug moors along the river, so that the Nian army had nowhere to hide. Li Hongzhang reported his ideas to the court for approval. Li Hongzhang then raised his army to the north and stationed the imperial envoy outside the city of Dezhou. He urged people from all walks of life to try to intercept Zhang Zongyu. He also laid a big pocket in Huaiqing and Weihui. And annihilate it.

Ding Baozhen, governor of Shandong Province, was impressed by Li Hongzhang's recommendation, and refused to stand idly by. He even led his own military battalion to Hejian to handle the defense of the nearby river area. Quick success. During Li Hongzhang's second campaign against the Twisted Twister, the imperial court made some adjustments to the governors of various places: Zeng Guofan, the governor of Liangjiang, was transferred to Zhili to serve as the governor of Zhili. Governor Ma Xinyibu, governor of Fujian and Zhejiang provinces, was appointed governor; Ding Richang, envoy of salt transportation in Huaihe River and Huaihe River, was promoted to governor of Jiangsu province; Governor Guo Songtao of Guangdong province was dismissed and returned to his hometown because of his discord with Ruilin, governor of Guangdong and Guangxi.

Li Hongzhang's conquest of Zhang Zongyu's Xi Nian army went very smoothly this time.This is because of the support of Wen, the governor of the Zhili Office, and the support and suppression of the three ministers of trade, Chong Hou, and the participation of the foreign gun team under his command.Furthermore, because Ding Richang became the governor of Jiangsu, the guns and ammunition produced by the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau were used for other purposes, and Ding Baozhen and other local governors were no longer restrained.There is one more thing that must be mentioned, that is, Zuo Zongtang, governor of Shaanxi and Gansu, led his army to chase to Zhili, which not only blocked Zhang Zongyu's way to the capital of the West Nian army, but also increased its strength.This makes the campaign more effective.

On June 20th in the seventh year of Tongzhi (AD 1868), Li Hongzhang led various armies. After half a year of fighting and intercepting, he finally surrounded the Xiniian Army under Zhang Zongyu's troops in the trap of Tuhai River on the Grand Canal. Li Hongzhang immediately ordered all walks of life to gradually narrow the encirclement and intercept them layer by layer, making the Nian crowd less and less. Finally, Zhang Zongyu was cornered and had no choice but to throw himself into the water. The Western Nian Army was finally wiped out.On the eighth day of the seventh month of the same year, an imperial envoy Xingyuan worshiped a red flag report, and it was quickly delivered to the capital.

A month later, the oracle of rewards was sent to the imperial envoy of Dezhou by a fast-riding 800-mile horse: "Li Hongzhang first rewarded the double-eyed feathers, the yellow mandarin jacket, and the first-class cavalry captain's post. , and work to find out Kaifu... Li Hongzhang, Yinghan, Ding Baozhen, etc. all reported to the purge and waited for the decree. Liu Songshan, Guo Baochang, Guo Yunchang, Song Qing, Zhang Yao, and Shanqing who have contributed most to suppressing bandits repeatedly . The former admiral and Lai Geni were hard-working and outstanding. This time they led the team to suppress the ugly class, which is also a meritorious service. The capital commander, admiral, etc., as well as the contributing personnel of the horse and infantry teams, the ministers, governors, etc. Quickly find out, verify and ask for rewards, and reward them with Zhaomao, and the rest of the contributors will be rewarded together, and you are not allowed to be indiscriminate. I respect this."

Just after Li Hongzhang led the crowd to thank you, the second decree came again: "Li Hongzhang rewarded the crown prince with the title of Taibao, co-organized the bachelor, the minister of the Ministry of war, and the right capital of the Metropolitan Procuratorate to confer the governor of Huguang. I hereby." Li Hongzhang was stunned, he did not expect that the imperial court would reward him in such an extraordinary way.According to the Daqing official system, Taishi, Taifu, and Taibao rank among the three princes. Although they are false titles, it is difficult for those who have not made great contributions to obtain them; In addition to the bachelor degree, but also dignified Xie Kui.At that time, there were four bachelors in total, half of them were Manchu and half of them were Han, and they were named as Diange.There are two co-organizers, one man and one Han.Including co-organizers, there are a total of six bachelors.They are: University Officers’ Official Letters (full), Woren (full), Jia Zhi (Han members), Zeng Guofan (Han members); co-organizers of the University Shi Ruichang (full members), Zhu Fengbiao (Han members).Jia Zhi became an official due to illness at the beginning of the year, and Zhu Fengbiao made up for it in order, which happened to be a vacant seat for a co-organizer.

There were more than tens of millions of officials in the Qing Dynasty. After the rise of the army, there were as many as 300 governors and ministers in Beijing who were rewarded with the second rank!And Li Hongzhang squeezed into the ranks of six great scholars among the three hundred people!Not only friends and officials were greatly surprised, but even Li Hongzhang himself did not expect it. Li Hongzhang was forty-five years old. Since the founding of the Qing Dynasty, he was only one of the three princes at the age of forty-five and made up for Xiekui. Sending off the officials who passed the decree, a group of military leaders gave a big gift for the second time to congratulate Li Hongzhang on his success.

Li Hongzhang was full of joy, and he personally stepped down to help each other, and even called "the same joy and the same joy". That night, Li Hongzhang drafted the "Invitation to the Audience Film" according to the law, and proposed to the imperial court to go north to ask for training.This is also in accordance with the usual practice. Li Hongzhang copied the film with his master, and when he was packaging it, he suddenly remembered what his teacher Zeng Guofan once said, "you can't enjoy the merits alone", so he spread the paper and drew up an article "Please add grace to supervise the work of the ministers in the past". , I asked Jia En to show the mighty grace of the emperor, such as Gelinqin, Zeng Guofan, Guanwen, Zuo Zongtang and others who supervised the military affairs in the past. This film, together with the previous film, was packaged and delivered to the capital by the imperial envoy's Liubaili Kuaiqi. One month later, under the imperial decree, Li Hongzhang was allowed to enter Beijing for a pilgrimage as requested.Not long after Li Hongzhang received the order, he packed up his luggage, took the imperial envoy to Guanfang, and a few personal soldiers, and faced the dense fog in early autumn, he embarked on the road to the capital.