Chapter 114 Empress Dowager Cixi's power tactics

Letting Zeng Guofan be responsible for settling the new twists that added chaos to the empire proved the empress dowager Cixi's extraordinary vision. You know, after the city of Nanjing was captured and the Hunan Army went through crazy looting and massacres, Zeng Guofan immediately set out to disband this brutal military force.Basically, all those who can be sent home have been sent home, and there are not many people left, such as Bao Chao, the number one general of the Hunan Army, who have not had time to be dismissed.Moreover, this army has become particularly dangerous now. According to Zeng Guofan's diary alone, Bao Chao's troops had at least three records of robbery, murder and mutiny.

Although Bao Chao's men are still there, Mrs. Zeng has not many men under his command.And the Empress Dowager Cixi was right on Master Zeng's point.Your Hunan Army is gone, right?It's easy, so let's bring Li Hongzhang's Huai army along. Empress Dowager Cixi's move is exquisite and unparalleled, and has won the essence of power politics. The main general used Mr. Zeng, but the troops used Li Hongzhang's Huai army, which took away Li Hongzhang's military power without revealing anything, and made Mr. Zeng unable to use other people's troops to do his own private work-such as ascending the throne and calling himself emperor. some type of.

It's not easy to use other people's army! I believe Master Zeng must have looked up to the sky and sighed like this when he dreamed back at midnight. After sighing, the master embarked on the difficult journey of exterminating Xin Nianzi. Before going to war, one must first formulate a strategy and think about how to quickly wipe out the mischievous new twisters.To formulate a suitable strategy, we must first study the combat characteristics of the new twist. The behavior pattern of Xinianzi is actually very simple, that is, it runs around everywhere and has no fixed place to live.

The reason why they run around everywhere and live without a fixed place is because the new Nianzi is no different from the old Nianzi. They are all strong men with fierce dragons and tigers. They are born fighters and they are full of energy when they kill and set fire. , except that they cannot do constructive work, which is the most painful labor for them. That is to say, Xin Nianzi still upholds the style of traditional warriors, whose destructive ability is frighteningly high, but does not have the slightest awareness and ability of construction.They will not allocate social resources to create more wealth. The only thing they will do is to kill people, rob everything, and eat up food.Without production capacity, they can only rely on robbery for a living. Every time they rob a place and destroy the local productivity, Nianzi quickly moves to other places to find the next victim.

In short, Nioru is extremely mobile and runs fast, so it is not easy to catch up with them. After meticulously studying the activity rules of the new twister, the next step is to study the combat characteristics of the new twister.After researching, Zeng Guofan submitted his research report to the imperial court, which stated: From my point of view, there are four main skills of thieves: one is that the foot thief has a long pole, and rushes in with smoke in the rain of guns; the other is that the horse thief wraps around quickly and evenly; When the officers and soldiers came to him, he didn't look for the officers and soldiers first, but he got the secret of the first battle of the Cantonese bandits; he walked quickly for four days, sometimes for thousands of miles, and sometimes whirling around.There are also three disadvantages of twisting: first, there are no firearms, and they are not good at attacking fortifications. As long as the officials can guard the city and the villagers can guard the fortress, the thieves will have no food to capture; Those who take advantage of the night to rob them, and those who threaten them are the most likely to escape and collapse; the third is that there are so many women, mules and donkeys in the luggage.This is what I have experienced.

Xin Nianzi has no base, lacks sharp firearms, and is not good at siege, which determines that they cannot get supplies in time and get rest.In order to solve the army's supplies, it is bound to continue to plunder, which is doomed to its distinctive characteristics of mobile warfare.Grasping this characteristic, Zeng Guofan proposed a solution of static braking: trap the Nianzi between the four rivers of Shahe, Jialu, Yellow and the canal.The officers and soldiers strictly guard the city, and the village braves strictly guard the villages, restricting the mobility of the Nianzi, so that the Nianzi can't eat or drink.

Once the plan is made, all that remains is to execute it.Zeng Guofan was busy in full swing, when suddenly a letter came from the court, which said: Mrs. Zeng, the sooner this monster like Nianzi can be eradicated, the better. See how we do this, and call Li Hongzhang. You Zeng and Li will join forces. , have a big fight.Also, that big traitor, Ding Richang, is a very capable man. He trapped the British Minister in Shanghai, Pacharley, in the embassy. For a capable traitor like Ding Richang, let Ding Richang be the governor of Jiangsu.Please give me your opinions and views, my dear, thank you.

After reading this letter, Zeng Guofan took a deep breath and began to pace around the room thinking: What do you mean?What does the court mean? Are you testing me? No!On the contrary, this is not the imperial court trying to test me, but the Empress Dowager who has just seized power. This little girl has a hero worship complex for the old man. She really trusts me, so she discussed with me the most critical personnel arrangements of the imperial court.But if this matter is found out by others, wouldn't it be another commotion? After figuring out this level of joints, Zeng Guofan went up and said: The generals in the temple are dismissed, and the officials are rewarded and punished. The relationship between the emperor and the left and right ministers is in charge, and the ministers outside the room should not interfere...It means, Queen Mother, why are you so careless? Son, don't let others know about the two of us, please.

When Cixi saw the play, she laughed and said: "Master, this old man is really fun. You are loyal to the country." This secret matter between Mrs. Zeng and the little Empress Dowager Cixi was quietly suppressed, and all officials in the court did not know about it for the time being.But just as Mr. Zeng was concerned, at this time, his contributions were too great and his reputation was too famous. Many officials in the court were biting their pens, thinking hard, thinking about giving the master eye drops. Soon, an unknown censor named Zhu Xuejia discovered loopholes in Master Zeng's strategy.Four Rivers defense, the battle line is so long, and Xin Nianzi escapes very fast, sooner or later he will break through the defense line and escape.In fact, Zhu Xuejia also knew in his heart that the so-called Four Rivers defense did not mean that it could be effective at first, but that through this method, the maneuvering advantage of the new twister would be eliminated.It doesn't matter if you run away, I'll just trap you again. After all, you don't have the slightest ability to produce and construct. Just trap you a few times like this, and you will die.

But what Zhu Xuejia thought in his heart was that despite this strategy, if I point out that Xin Nianzi will break through the encirclement and escape sooner or later, it will prove that my little Zhu is more intelligent than Zeng Guofan, and I will be famous in the future. It's easier to mix up. Then he went to the Shu and slammed Master Zeng's strategy as untimely, pointing out that Xin Nianzi would break out of the encirclement sooner or later.And sneered with harsh words: Zeng Guofan is the pillar of the country, the hood of Li Shu, Hui Lie is written in Qichang, and his reputation is more important than that of mountains. Not superficial.

These words, without a single curse word, humiliated Zeng Guofan to his heart's content.At this time, the Empress Dowager Cixi began to show her political power, and hurriedly sent the memorial of Zhu Xuejia scolding Master Zeng to the Master: Master, look, someone is scolding you, you should be careful. When the master saw the letter, he couldn't sleep at night.Internal worries about life, external worries about state affairs, wandering around the house, tears flooding the river... The following eight characters "wandering around the house, weeping up the river" appear very frequently in Zeng Guofan's diary.In short, poor Zeng Guofan, a saint is not easy to be a saint, and is often bullied to the point of crying all day long. While weeping and flooding the river, he suddenly received a report that the naughty Nianzi had broken through the Jialu River, broke out of the siege of officers and soldiers, and fled. When the master received the report, he fainted on the spot, woke up in a short time, and immediately wrote at the desk, asking for a vacancy, and requesting to go through the retirement procedures.Also, the master requested in the memorial, please cancel his first-class marquis title. Master won't play with you anymore, you're too tired.