Chapter 19 Chapter 16 Entrepreneurship and Succession Qing

In terms of people, the Hunan Army and the Huai Army recruited farmers from the countryside. They came from their own townships and did not recruit outsiders.These people have made military merits, can be promoted because of military merits, and can get financial support in combat, which is equivalent to a kind of mercenary.The Hunan Army and the Huai Army were small in number but had a strong fighting spirit, which was very different from the fighting spirit of ordinary recruits who were recruited by general conscription.Their chief, Zeng Guofan, organized the army for his own ideals, while his subordinates joined the army for their feelings and to protect their hometown. After becoming mercenaries, they also joined the army for their own fame and fortune.Therefore, this kind of troops is not large in number and not professional enough, but they can train themselves in war and become a pretty good elite soldier.

From his career fighting the Taiping Army, Zeng Guofan learned how to use these resources to maintain a large-scale long-term military, and this experience extended to a more important stage in his career.After the Taiping Army finished fighting and the Nian Army was pacified, Zeng Guofan, Zuo Zongtang, and Li Hongzhang started another task: the modernization of China's military and national defense.Thus, Zeng Guofan and others brought China into the path of modernization. In the middle of the 19th century, time and time again, China was helpless in the face of foreign guns and cannons on the battlefield.Among the generals fighting the Taiping Army, the first minister who had a deep feeling for the guns and ships of the foreigners was Hu Linyi.Hu Linyi was a friend and supporter of Zeng Guofan. When Zeng Guofan was fighting at the front, Hu Linyi was in charge of supporting the rear.On the bank of the Yangtze River, Hu Linyi saw a foreigner's ship sailing against the current, running as fast as a galloping horse. The speed and load capacity were not comparable to those of Chinese wooden ships. He was greatly stimulated on the spot. And in the violation of external force.Zeng Guofan gained experience in the battle, and also learned that he must use foreign guns and cannons in order to win the war.Therefore, the Hunan Army tried to obtain foreign weapons as much as possible, and even hired foreign mercenaries.The British soldier Gordon and the American soldier Ward both participated in the Battle of Shanghai and later participated in other battles.The combat methods and guns used by these foreign mercenaries impressed the generals of the Hunan Army.Therefore, when they reorganized their troops step by step, they all imitated the military exercises of foreigners and bought foreign weapons.

After the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and the Nian Army were put down, Zeng Guofan became the governor of Zhili, and his main task was to negotiate with foreigners.He received a lot of criticism for the country in the Tianjin religious case at that time, but he would rather be wronged than provoke a war.Because he felt that China did not have the strength to fight against foreigners at that time, so he would rather lose more money and be wronged.Since he was deeply stimulated by doing diplomacy at that time, he even believed that China must do foreign affairs in order to become self-reliant. Li Hongzhang was trained by Zeng Guofan. He worked under Zeng Guofan's shogunate and studied with Zeng Guofan. It was not until he was asked to recruit troops by himself that he established the Huai Army.Zeng Guofan and Li Hongzhang tried their best to modernize several important provinces in China: Zhili in the north, Liangjiang in the south, and Guangdong and Guangxi in the south.In these three areas, after the Taiping Army was pacified, defense industries were established by Zeng, Li and their colleagues. There was Jiangnan Shipbuilding Bureau in Shanghai, the Naval Academy in Nanjing, Mawei Shipyard in Fujian, and Beiyang with modern equipment. Army, Hubei also has a new army with modern equipment, these are new undertakings in national defense work.They run shipping, arsenals, steel factories, telegraph offices, electric lamp factories, coal mines, and iron mines. From Zeng Guofan to Zhang Zhidong, this group of people from different regions all share the same ideal and must do a good job. Modern work.

Where does the financial resources for modernization come from?The government has no money, and after several indemnities, the government is already quite impoverished, and likin alone is not enough.Customs duties are not in China's hands. Since the Gengzi Rebellion, China's customs duties have been collected by foreigners.Under such circumstances, how can these costly foreign affairs be managed well?The method of these foreign affairs ministers is to collect private shares, mobilize private resources, and use the name of the government-supervised business office to launch a business by the public, which is run by local gentlemen and businessmen.Of course, this kind of transaction will not lose money.In the beginning, the method of the Qing Dynasty was to buy foreign guns and cannons to equip the army. These foreign affairs ministers wanted to be self-sufficient. In addition to weapons, they set up manufacturing, mining, transportation, transportation, communication...all supporting facilities one by one.Most of these supporting equipment are related to the people's livelihood industry, and there are considerable profits, so it is actually not difficult to recruit private stocks.

From Zeng Guofan to Li Hongzhang, to the last Sheng Xuanhuai, most of their Westernization promotion work in Southeast, South China, and Central China used the model of government supervision and business management.Of course, from today's point of view, the scale of those enterprises is not large, but at the beginning of their establishment, they could not be considered small.It is difficult to create something from nothing, but it is easier to grow from small to large.It is indeed not easy for Zeng, Zuo, Li, Sheng and others to carry out the undertakings created by them without charters, precedents to follow, and market structure.To mobilize private resources, there must be a considerable method. On the one hand, businessmen are willing to participate in the operation because they expect future profits. On the other hand, gentry businessmen who recruit shares can also be rewarded by the government. The vanity of the meritorious.

Westernization work, in fact, was created out of nothing, building China's modern industry and commerce step by step.Compared with Germany, Japan, Russia and other countries that are committed to modernization, China's investment in human and financial resources is not large enough. This is a shortcoming in China's modern history.But on the whole, this is the beginning of China's modernization, and this significance is quite memorable. Next, let's talk about Zeng Guofan's work spirit.One thing Zeng Guofan deserves to be praised is his perseverance and indomitable "tightness".He himself said that he has a strong spirit in doing things. To be strong means to persevere and persevere.Has he been tested?Is it possible to survive?Once when fighting the Taiping Army in Anhui, he was defeated due to a strategic error, lost troops and lost his generals, and his friends were also killed.Zeng Guofan was angry with himself and committed suicide by throwing himself into the water. It seems that his stamina was not fully realized.After being rescued from the water, he vowed to persevere from now on, no matter how hard it is, no matter how difficult it is, and the future is bleak, he will endure it.Those who do great things must have firm determination and must not stop halfway.Once it stops halfway, all the previous efforts will be wiped out.

Another advantage of Zeng Guofan is that he is not greedy for money.Zuo Zongtang is not greedy for money.Li Hongzhang did have some wealth, but compared with the wealth he handled, it was not outrageous.Li Hongzhang also mobilized his own strength in the investment, so he got a lot of profits.He did not sell his official position or take the state's public funds into his own pocket.Sheng Xuanhuai, on the other hand, sought personal gain for himself.As far as Zeng and Zuo are concerned, they are both quite clean, because they are both very good Confucian scholars.Although Li Hongzhang reads well, he is an official.Sheng Xuanhuai is not a scholar.For a person who is truly a scholar, his conscience acquired through learning should be an important factor in keeping him from corruption.

Another advantage of Zeng Guofan is that he is willing to find a successor, and he is not in love with others.He once said: To do big things, the first thing to think about is to find a substitute; when I can't do things, who will take over for me.This concept of finding a substitute is very important.A lot of big people always feel that they are better than me, and they will continue to do it after reaching an age.These big men always have plausible arguments: No one will take over, so they have to do it themselves.This kind of thinking is a kind of self-expectation, conceit, and selfishness.The sin of such a character is that he has not trained others to take over.Zeng Guofan paid great attention to training talents. When he recruited talents to work as a staff officer in the shogunate, he always observed and trained them.Zuo Zongtang, his earliest partner, was a talent he recruited and trained.Zuo Zongtang was only a scholar in terms of fame, but he was very talented, and later helped Bin Zhang do things.When the Hunan Army had a large scale, Zeng Guofan asked Zuo Zongtang to organize an army in Zhejiang to attack the Taiping Army from the south.Zuo Zongtang was an important assistant promoted by Zeng Guofan, and another promoted talent was Li Hongzhang.Li Hongzhang was originally a young scholar with no special reputation in Zeng Guofan's shogunate. However, Zeng Guofan saw that this man was bold, careful, and courageous. Zeng Guofan specially trained Li Hongzhang, and later sent him to organize a Huai army.Li Hongzhang finally succeeded Zeng Guofan's work and supported the overall situation in the late Qing Dynasty.

Zeng Guofan's concept of training substitutes was fully confirmed by Li Hongzhang.A person who can train a substitute can leave at any time.After Zeng Guofan put down the Taiping Army, he immediately disbanded his army and prevented himself from becoming a general with a private army. None of the subsequent warlords could catch up with such a broad mind.And when he returned to the central government, and when he was the governor of Zhili, he always paid attention to a certain project in private. If there is one person who can take over the work, the project will not be terminated because of his departure. .Zeng Guofan did not covet his monopoly in this respect, making himself an indispensable figure.

Relatively speaking, Li Hongzhang is not as good as him.Li Hongzhang also cultivated talents, such as Sheng Xuanhuai.Regardless of Sheng Xuanhuai's character, there are still many controversies today, but Sheng Xuanhuai is a capable person.Li Hongzhang trained Sheng Xuanhuai as his successor, which enabled many Westernization work to be further developed.From Zeng Guofan, Li Hongzhang to Sheng Xuanhuai, there has always been a group of so-called technocrats in China.The number of this group of people is increasing, from the year of Westernization, to the Resource Committee before the Anti-Japanese War, the American Aid Association during the Anti-Japanese War, and later changed from the American Aid Association to the "OECD" and "Agricultural Restoration Association" in Taiwan. , "Economic and Construction Association" until now, there are these technical bureaucrats, that is, people with professional knowledge are doing things.China's financial industry, industry, and transportation industry are basically achieved by generations of people.From generation to generation, the number of people has increased, and they have become more and more specialized.Tracing back to the source, the roots of these talents are all developed from Zeng Guofan's concept of looking for a replacement.

Those who have the idea of ​​​​cultivating successors will not fall in love with the stack, and will not think that "I have to do it" and keep doing it.A leader who doesn't know how to train successors usually ends his career and leaves an unmanageable mess, because no one knows how to clean it up, and no one knows how to continue.This is really an unfortunate phenomenon.Many large companies in the world often make this mistake. The entrepreneurs of many large companies do not train real successors for themselves. Some people train their relatives or descendants, but they are not successful; , I don't want these people to take over my work, and in the end the company collapses, leaving only the pity of others. From the Qin and Han Dynasties to the Ming and Qing Dynasties, in this long series of dynasties, we use Zeng Guofan as a palace guard to illustrate what a famous official can do for the country and what important influence they left behind.Zeng Guofan can grasp the resources that the predecessors could not grasp and mobilize the resources that the predecessors could not mobilize. He can not only see where the resources are, but also use these resources to open up new businesses and open up a new perspective for China. .Taking the corporate world as an example, Zeng Guofan changed from the original scope of production to a completely different business scope, a completely different market, using completely different resources, and a completely different structure, to create a very remarkable achievement.There are certain conditions for Zeng and Li's generation to be able to achieve this feat, because at that time the central government was weak and the local area was strong, so they could develop their power.At the same time, because of the foundation they left behind, China's southeast, central, and southern China had a decisive force, and the revolution was able to start and succeed in these places, and the imperial dynasty that had lasted for thousands of years was finally transformed into the Republic of China. The group of people like Zeng Guofan created a completely new situation. This situation is called Westernization, but in fact it is not just imitating the West.The significance of this movement is that localities have found their own power within the scope beyond the control of the central government; using this new power, they have formed new structures (new military organizations, new economic structures, new powers) structure), so that the original dynasty had to be replaced by this new structure.The establishment of the Republic of China, in fact, only inherited the structure left by Zeng Guofan and Li Hongzhang.