Chapter 86 Section 19 Discussion on Famous Generals

Wang Yi woke up from a coma on horseback, looked at the corpses of officers and soldiers trampled to pieces along the way, and saw that his subordinates were killing his own people in order to protect him, but he was powerless to stop him, so he couldn't help crying.When we arrived at the bank of Hushui, the scene was even more tragic. The wide Hushui had been filled with tens of thousands of corpses of officers and soldiers, and the river stopped flowing.From a "good" point of view, this just happened to fulfill Wang Yi, even the boats were saved, and the riders used the dead bodies as a bridge, trampled all the way, crossed the river, and continued to escape.

For a general, failure is not terrible, what is terrible is a crushing defeat, with no pants left.Regarding the retreat after failure, Clausewitz made an ingenious metaphor in his famous book "On War": "The retreat of a great commander and an army that has been tempered by war is often like a wounded lion. Why doesn't Wang Yi want to organize an effective retreat, while maintaining a deterrent to the pursuing Han army, while preserving his own strength to the greatest extent.However, the command system of the officers and soldiers has long since failed, and everyone is in an inexplicable panic. Even without the help of the Han army, they have already begun cruel self-destruction.However, as the commander in chief, he could only watch this terrible destruction with his own eyes, and he was powerless at all.

People in the world are eager for utilitarianism, and often talk about the past and the present with the viewpoint of "the winner is the king, and the loser is the bandit". Therefore, they only know that there are famous generals who are good at winning, but they don't know that there are also famous generals who are good at losing. Good victories are not easy, and good defeats are equally rare.Even after consecutive defeats, they were still able to avoid injuries, minimize losses, and after a short rest, they were able to make a quick comeback. This undoubtedly tested the cohesion within the army and the general's control over the army.

Legend has it that in the past Zeng Guofan fought against the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and suffered repeated defeats at the beginning. When his staff drafted the memorial to the emperor, there was a sentence "the minister has repeatedly fought and failed repeatedly". Zeng Guofan was quite dissatisfied and changed it to "the minister repeatedly defeated Repeated defeats."As a result, because of this change, the Qing court not only did not blame Zeng Guofan, but instead encouraged him. When discussing this matter, later generations are all amazed at Zeng Guofan's brilliant word game - repeated battles and repeated defeats, waste;There is nothing wrong with such an explanation, but in the end because of not being familiar with the art of war, the knowledge is still superficial.

Repeated defeats and repeated battles are easier said than done!Every defeat is a huge consumption of troops and a heavy blow to morale. If it is an ordinary general, it will be a problem to keep the troops from being scattered, let alone quickly regroup and continue to fight? Tracing back to the source, we must start with Zeng Guofan's origin.When Zeng Guofan established the Hunan Army, he established two major policies: One is the area of ​​recruitment, which is strictly locked in Hunan, especially his hometown Xiangxiang.The second is that all officers, large and small, are appointed by him personally.

It is these two principles that have greatly consolidated and strengthened the two emotional bonds that maintain the stability of the army: The first is the soldier's affection for his leader.Zeng Guofan monopolizes power, and the entire army only obeys him. Within the Hunan Army, he has a lofty status and supreme authority. He has the dual identities of monarch and father, and the soldiers can naturally obey orders and die loyally . The second is the soldiers' feelings for their companions.Soldiers are from the same village, have the same language, and similar habits. It is easy to get acquainted with each other and trust each other. To not abandon, not to give up.

Only the Hunan Army with such a stable emotional structure can be defeated and fought repeatedly. In Zeng Guofan's own words, that is "breathing and caring, pain and itching, going to the fire together, going through the fire and going together, and winning a toast to make merit If you lose, you will use all your strength to save each other." It is precisely this kind of Hunan Army that can be described by Hemingway's famous saying: They can be destroyed, but they cannot be defeated. It is precisely this kind of Hunan army that allows Zeng Guofan to be firm and prudent, rather late than hasty, without ingenuity, and gradually advance from Wuhan to Jiujiang to Anqing, go east along the river, conquer Jinling, and reap the final victory.

Today people always use the Hunan Army as a theory, boasting that the Hunan people are brave and brave, and they are unable to save it, and thus fall into regional disputes.Throughout the dynasties and dynasties, almost all places in China have produced powerful troops, but where did this start?Where are people not good at fighting!The special thing is to make good use of it.If you use it properly, you can make soldiers by picking beans and picking grass; you can hurt people by flying flowers and picking leaves.It's not because of the region!