Chapter 45 Firefighter Zuo Zongtang

While Mr. Li Er was busy with foreign affairs, his old comrade-in-arms Zuo Zongtang was also busy.What is Zuo Zongtang busy with?Be a firefighter. Where is the Qing Dynasty on fire again? In 1862, the Hui people in Shaanxi and Gansu rebelled. Not to mention the reasons for rebellion, the reasons for every peasant rebellion in history are similar-the imperial court is corrupt, the officials are brutal, and the people are living in dire straits, so they have to rebel.But this time it was different from the previous rebellion, and it turned into revenge and killing of the Hui people against the Han people.

By 1866, although the Hui rebel army still adopted the old routine of shooting a gun to change a place, they were basically able to attack and defend with the Qing army. At this time, the rest of the Nian Army, which broke through the encirclement of the Qing army in blood, also fled to Shaanxi.The two troops who were also "destroyed people from the end of the world" formed a united front, which made the Qing army lose sight of the other and panic. Under such circumstances, in 1867, Zuo Zongtang, the governor of Fujian and Zhejiang, who had just stopped to take a breather after the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was wiped out, left the Fuzhou Shipping Bureau (a new shipyard) under construction and was ordered to go to Ganshan to put out the fire and encircle and suppress the Two rebel troops in Shaanxi and Gansu made their careers more and more active.

During the years from 1867 to 1873, Zuo Zongtang's main task was to get rid of these two rebel forces.Fortunately, Zuo Zongtang lived up to his high expectations. After six years of hard work, the Shaanxi-Gansu area has returned to its previous "peace". Although the official history rarely describes Lao Zuo's work experience in the past six years, it is not difficult to guess that the scene should be very bloody, which is not suitable for children.In addition to the fact that the Nian Army was basically wiped out, there are also historical materials that Zuo Zongtang changed the number of Hui people in Shaanxi from 1.75 million to 150,000 (Lu Weidong, "Population Changes of the Hui People in Shaanxi in the Qing Dynasty ").Therefore, many people still think that Zuo Zongtang is the great enemy of the Hui people.

But no matter what, Zuo Zongtang is definitely a loyal minister to Cixi's mother and son.No, Zuo Zongtang has another title—co-organizing bachelor, enjoying the treatment of deputy prime minister. In 1873, Zuo Zongtang was transferred back to the imperial court. Although Lao Zuo has excellent skills and is a general who wins in business, his skills in dealing with people are not flattering.He is unrestrained and unrestrained, supercilious, he likes to talk nonsense regardless of the occasion or other people's feelings, and he can offend people very much.After all his troubles, there are only two kinds of people around him—those who are afraid of him and those who hate him.

In 1872, Zeng Guofan, who had a great kindness to Zuo Zongtang, died, and he was given the posthumous title "Wenzheng".Zuo Zongtang said: Zeng Guofan can have the posthumous title "Wenzheng", so will my posthumous title be "Wuxie" in the future ("Nanting Notes")?After these words came out, many people thought that Zuo Zongtang's behavior was very unqualified.From this point of view, Zuo Zongtang is an idiot in officialdom. A person like Zuo Zongtang who is unwilling to be ordinary, must have something happen wherever he goes.Sure enough, just as his firefighting work came to an end, he became the protagonist of the biggest war of words in the history of the late Qing Dynasty.

As for the cause of this war of words, we have to introduce a key character, and the key supporting role, Yagubo, will be invited to play below.