Chapter 26 The Secret of Zeng Guofan's Success

Before Zeng Guofan embarks on a new journey, there is one important thing that needs to be explained. Why should Zeng Guofan, a literati, wrestle with fierce men such as Shi Dakai, Li Xiucheng, and Chen Yucheng? Because Zeng Guofan has a high-quality army, this is the secret of his victory. Zeng Guofan is a sensible person, he understands that clinging to the regiment training will only lead to death.To win, a new army model had to be created. Because the Taiping Army is definitely not the White Lotus Sect that was suppressed by regiments. They are an army with faith, and they have their own opinions in terms of politics and economy-"There are fields to cultivate together, food to eat together, clothes to wear together, Money is the same, everywhere is uneven, and no one is full."

Such an army is terrifying!If you want to fight against the Taiping Army, you must return the same way to the other, so you must have a well-trained army with firm beliefs! This problem did not bother Zeng Guofan, and he quickly thought of a solution. Well-trained?Easy to handle.The solution lies in Qi Jiguang, the leader of the Qi family army, the general who fought against the Japanese in the Ming Dynasty.The greatness of Qi Jiguang lies not only in the invincibility of the Qi family army he led in the face of Japanese pirates, but also in his selflessness.Qi Jiguang summed up the time-tested methods and experience of military training and fighting that he created, compiled it into a book, and left it to future generations.Three hundred years after the death of Qi Jiguang, the god of war in the Ming Dynasty, his brilliant works such as "Records of Military Training" and "New Book of Ji Xiao" have become necessary military textbooks for the Hunan Army.

Strong faith?Easy to handle, aren't you Hong Xiuquan anti-Confucian and Mencius, don't you hate successful scholars?I, Zeng Guofan, did the opposite, defending the traditions of Confucius and Mencius, and accepting the hearts of scholars all over the world!You Hong Xiuquan formed an army with religion, and I formed an army with Confucian scholars and scholar-bureaucrats. Where do soldiers come from?This is also easy to handle. I have many relatives, friends, children and disciples in Hunan. Let them go back to their hometowns to recruit soldiers, and only recruit the kind of honest rural farmers. Eat, fight together if there is a fight, it is natural for everyone to play together, the team spirit is quite good!

The soldiers and horses did not move, but the food and grass went first.Here comes the most terrible question, where to get money to support the army?Finding someone to borrow money is not a long-term solution, and Zeng Guofan was stumped by this problem. At this time, his good friend Hu Linyi gave him a golden idea: I have a win-win solution to collect taxes.Although we do not have the right to collect business taxes, the Manchu Governor of Huguang has, so we can cooperate with that Manchu.As long as he promises to help us collect taxes to feed the army, then we promise to put his name at the top of the credit list when reporting to the leader after the victory.Levying more taxes will not make him lose his hair. For him, his political achievements are the most important. He will definitely cooperate with us!

Hu Linyi's opinion is very accurate. Although the governor of Huguang did not pat his chest to give Zeng Guofan a guarantee, he tacitly agreed: as long as you give me the first credit, you can collect taxes with confidence. With me, you will be safe! Everything is complete.An army that will be remembered in the history books was finally born.Because most of the soldiers and generals came from Hunan, Zeng Guofan's powerful private army was called the Hunan Army. Of course, Zeng Guofan's Hunan Army was not without failures. At the beginning, he failed many times, and he failed miserably.

In Jiujiang, Jiangxi, the navy of the Hunan Army was nearly wiped out by Shi Dakai twice, and Zeng Guofan also jumped into the water twice to commit suicide. Fortunately, the younger brothers were brave enough to save him, so he did not succeed in committing suicide. In Sanhe, Anhui, Li Xubin, the elite main force of the Hunan Army, was killed by Chen Yucheng and Li Xiucheng, and the entire army was wiped out. Zeng Guofan was so mournful that he couldn't eat for several days. When writing the battle report, Zeng Guofan encountered difficulties. He had to write it truthfully. Frustration becomes more courageous".When the four words "repeated battles and repeated defeats" were written upside down, the court praised him for his persistence in fighting and ordered him to be rewarded.

Although Zeng Guofan failed again and again, he never got too hot-headed, impatient, made low-level mistakes, and thus exposed his life to the enemy. On the contrary, Zeng Guofan kept learning and summarizing experience and lessons, and put forward higher requirements for himself in terms of self-cultivation, government, employment, and military management, and wrote these experiences into his letters to his family. For more than ten years, later generations compiled his family letters into "Zeng Wenzheng's Family Letters" for the world to read. At the same time, Zeng Guofan also gradually figured out the offensive routines and methods of the Taiping Army. As for the Hunan Army, a unit that had just formed an army, it also gained rare practical experience.

In the tempering of iron and blood, both Zeng Guofan and the Hunan Army became as calm as ice and as tough as bamboo.In the face of such an opponent, the Taiping Army often flinched, often fell into discouragement, and could not generate the confidence of victory. This is the reason why Zeng Guofan won the victory. The Hunan Army is a good example. For nearly a hundred years after that, the troops that came out of Hunan were always particularly tough and tough.