Chapter 65 Chapter 3 Confucius Can't Shoot Foreign Guns

Zeng Guofan's shogunate can be said to be a horrible "lunatic asylum". Why do you say that?Looking at Zeng Guofan's diary, we can know that his shogunate gathered the strangest group of people in the world at that time, including scientists, technical experts, masters, some who could write calligraphy, and those who were proficient in Chinese studies. All kinds of strange people were there Get together.He had an aide named Xiang Bochang, who had worked there for several years, and finally got kidney disease, which made him unable to urinate, so he had to hold back.Guess what Zeng Guofan did?He gathered all these strange people, held a horrible meeting, and found a very evil way to make Xiang Bochang alive.After making it alive, the monsters worked together and continued to torture the poor Xiang Bochang, tortured Xiang Bochang all night and then tortured Xiang Bochang to death.

These stories are all recorded in his diary, and when you read them, you will feel creepy. You can imagine what kind of horror scene it would be like a group of strange old men with white beards tormenting a person back and forth.Of course, this can also be said to be a kind of exploration of Zeng Guofan on the road of science, but it is too outrageous. Li Hongzhang came to such a place, and he formed his unshakable dominant position as soon as he came.Why?He understands war. In six years, he was able to escape from the pursuit and crushing of the Taiping Army, which ranged from 100,000 to 400,000 to 500,000. How could it be possible for ordinary people to do it?Not only did he understand military affairs, but he himself was also a master of Confucianism, so Zeng Guofan took a high look at Li Hongzhang.

But the cooperation between the two was not so pleasant.During the confrontation between Zeng Guofan's Hunan Army and the Taiping Army, there was a secret meeting attended by the four heroes of ZTE: Hu Linyi, Zeng Guofan, Zuo Zongtang, and Li Hongzhang.They discussed that they would conquer the world in one battle and completely wipe out the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. According to this plan, the camp of the Hunan Army would be moved to a place like Qimen.At that time, Qimen was a very dangerous place, because if the Hunan army camped here, it would cut the Taiping army in two, so the Taiping army would definitely attack this place frantically.

Li Hongzhang was quite dissatisfied with this strategic deployment. Li Hongzhang said that the location of Qimen was like a pot bottom, and we would be finished if they turned it over.But Zeng Guofan refused to change, just this place. So Li Hongzhang thought of leaving Zeng Guofan's shogunate, but he had to find an excuse to leave.It just so happened that Zeng Guofan had a capable subordinate named Li Ciqing, who followed Zeng Guofan from beginning to end, but he was not a general in charge of the army, and his eyes were highly myopic, but when there were no generals available, this highly myopic eye was also sent out.The result of his appearance was that Li Ciqing was defeated by the Taiping Army.After losing the battle, Zeng Guofan was very annoyed and wanted to impeach Li Ciqing with a memorial.Now Li Hongzhang finally seized the opportunity to make trouble and opposed the impeachment. The reason was that if Li Ciqing was impeached this time, he would impeach himself next time.What Li Hongzhang really meant was to make trouble and escape from this dangerous place.

Later, he really ran away. After he had a big fight with Zeng Guofan, he left the stall and left, no matter what! Zeng Guofan was left there alone in fear.Until several Hunan troops completely cut off the Taiping Army (first eliminated Chen Yucheng, and then took down Li Xiucheng), and at the final decisive battle, one of the most outstanding leaders must go far Shanghai, cut off the Taiping Army from Shanghai.Who can undertake this mission?Only Li Hongzhang.So when Li Hongzhang came back, Zeng Guofan didn't dare to blame him at all, because he was capable, and he was bound to inherit Zeng Guofan's mantle, Zeng Guofan had to smile at him.

So Li Hongzhang was ordered by Zeng Guofan to return to Anhui first to form the Huai Army.The Huai army, if you trace their origins, are actually the captured Nian army, but when they followed Li Hongzhang, their political life started again.Such a Huai army hired foreign ships, crossed the territory occupied by the Taiping army, went straight to Shanghai, and then took Suzhou city.Moreover, Li Hongzhang was the first person to cooperate with foreigners to form a mercenary army. He hired Gordon and formed a foreign gun team. He was the first person to eat crabs. But it is not only Li Hongzhang who eats crabs, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom also eats them.Li Hongzhang's foreign gun team is Gordon, and the Taiping Army also has a foreign gun team, the leader is Bai Qiwen.But this Bai Qiwen's ability was worse than Gordon's, and the reason why Bai Qiwen went to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was because his ability was too poor, Zeng Guofan and the others also dismissed him, so he quit in a fit of anger.In other words, this battle is no longer a duel of nations, it has become a war between knights.

In the end, with the cooperation of Zeng and Li, Hong Xiuquan's Tianjing was heavily besieged and finally conquered. At this time, the imperial court or Cixi announced that Zeng Guofan would enter Beijing, and Li Hongzhang officially replaced Zeng Guofan.Since then, Li Hongzhang has become one of the most important figures in the empire. After Li Hongzhang went to Germany to meet Bismarck, he went to an artillery exhibition and bought back all the artillery used by Germany in the Franco-Prussian War. These artillery were still fired and used until the Republic of China. Just say there are no more shells.When Li Hongzhang inspected the general situation in the world, he once said a word, that is, "Confucius can't shoot foreign guns, so he is not afraid."Many people don't understand what this means. The translated meaning is: times have changed, the world has changed, and Confucianism must also change.

There is another sentence, which was also said by Li Hongzhang when examining the general situation of the world: "A great change unseen in three thousand years, a powerful enemy unseen in thousands of years." What is "a change unseen in three thousand years"?For three thousand years, the Chinese Empire has always been a power system, but Li Hongzhang said that China must change now. It has not changed in the past three thousand years, so China has fallen behind, and now it must change.What about "a powerful enemy unseen in thousands of years"?In the past thousands of years, the enemy has always been the fooled and ruled people, but not now, the rulers are faced with the threat of new technologies, and if they want to save themselves, they must learn these things.So he launched the Westernization Movement, and this Westernization Movement also won the support of Empress Dowager Cixi.When we describe Li Hongzhang's abilities and deeds, we actually outline the strength of the Empress Dowager Cixi.