Chapter 23 Chapter 4 The first group training, a troubled time must use heavy scriptures

Close to Yutangkou of the governor's yamen, a new yamen was opened, with the five characters "Hunan Case Trial Bureau" written on the signboard.Zeng Guofan has been working in this yamen, and has been an assistant regimental minister whose main responsibility is to protect the environment and protect the people for two months. I remember the day when he entered Changsha, when he, Guo Songtao, Guobao, and Kang Fu came to Datuopu, Jiang Zhongyuan brought a hundred Chuyongs to wait in the town and personally accompanied them into the city.When he came to Xinkaipu, Zuo Zongtang brought a group of Changsha squires and former teachers and friends, such as Huang Mian, Sun Guanchen, Chen Jimu, Ding Shanqing, the head of Yuelu Academy, and Ding Fuchen, the head of Chengnan Academy, to welcome him.Arriving at the gate of the governor's office in another village, the middle door was wide open. Zhang Liangji led a group of senior officials including the former Efuluo Raodian, the chief envoy Pan Duo, the inspector Yue Xing'a, Yandao, and Liangdao. wait there.That night, Zhang Liangji held a banquet in the Governor's Yamen to wash away Zeng Guofan's dust.Zeng Guofan was deeply moved by Zhang Liangji's grand and sincere welcome.For several days, Zhang Liangji and Zeng Guofan talked in secret.Both of them hated the lax government and banditry in Hunan.Zeng Guofan believed that heavy codes must be used in troubled times, and the officialdom should be strictly rectified, especially bandits should be severely suppressed.Zhang Liangji fully agrees.Zhang Liangji also appreciates Zeng Guofan's strategy of "it is better to be strict than to be lenient".Zeng Guofan also proposed to build a large regiment in the provincial capital, select the best of the village braves who have been trained in each county, recruit them to the province, train them strictly, and use this regiment to defend the safety of the provincial capital and suppress bandits in various places.Zhang Liangji personally agrees.It's just that this is a big matter, and Zeng Guofan's relatives are required to give a memorial to the emperor.In the end, Zhang Liangji clasped Zeng Guofan's hands tightly, and said: "From now on, I will entrust all matters related to the protection of the environment and the people in Hunan to my brother, and it will all depend on the talents. Hunan is my brother's hometown, and my love for Hunan is definitely not in Liangji. Under the circumstances, don't have any thoughts of avoiding suspicion, just let go of your hands and feet, and use the art of mending the sky, so that Father Sanxiang will be at peace early."

These words made Zeng Guofan's blood boil, he hated meeting Zhang Liangji too late, and was quite ashamed of the previous refusal. The next day, Zeng Guofan presented a memorial to the court.Zeng Guofan wanted to build a large regiment in the provincial capital, of course, not just to defend the provincial capital and suppress bandits.His main intention was to create a new army.His idea is: first recruit a small number of people, and train them strictly so that one can take on ten; then use this group of people as the backbone, and then recruit ten or twenty times as many people, and immediately become a strong team. Go out of the province to compete with the Taiping Army.The Manchus have always guarded against the Han people very strictly, and the military power is firmly controlled by the imperial court. They never worry about letting the Han people lead more troops, let alone allow anyone to build the "Qi Family Army" like Qi Jiguang in the Ming Dynasty.Maybe Zeng Guofan's memorial was written vaguely, maybe it was because the current situation was critical, Emperor Xianfeng knew that the green battalion was not enough to rely on, and hoped for a new military force to appear, or maybe there was the full guarantee of King Gong, Sushun and Tang Jian, which made Emperor Xianfeng special. Believe Zeng Guofan, he personally approved it very quickly: "Handle it with care, so as to prevent and suppress."

Zeng Guofan obeyed the imperial decree and immediately transferred Luo Zenan and several of his disciples to Changsha.His one thousand regiments, after selection, brought eight hundred.These regiments were organized into two battalions, each with 360 men, Luo Zenan led one battalion, and Wang Chi led another battalion; 80 elite regiments were drawn from them to form a personal army, led by Zeng Guobao.Zeng Guofan passed the assessment and comparison himself, and selected six of the eighty soldiers, including Peng Yuju and Xiao Qingyan, to be trained by Kang Fu and act as his personal bodyguards.These six people are all relatives or Shiyi of Zeng Guofan.Zeng Guofan believes that the big and small leaders in the training group must have a relationship of friendship. This is the bond that connects the training group into a strong whole, so that they can share prosperity and failure with each other, and life and death are related.Zeng Guofan asked Luo Zenan and Wang Chi to practice bravery with all their strength, and invited several committee members to handle daily cases.As soon as I heard that the newly established Yamen of the Judgment Bureau needed committee members to handle affairs, many officials and gentlemen immediately came to recommend people.Zeng Guofan originally wanted to find someone by himself, but he was not recommended, but firstly, it was difficult to find the right person, and secondly, when he was just doing something, he was too sympathetic, so he selected more than ten of those recommended, and entrusted his classmates and friends from Yuelu Academy to register Jiangsu alternate magistrate Huang Tingzan is in charge.

Just after the Spring Festival, He Jiangou, the leader of the Daozhou Tiandi Association, based in Yantou Village, Changning Five Caves, Guiyang Baishui Cave, and Ningyuan Laizi Mountain as bases, issued licenses and expanded the organization, and the congregation grew to four to five thousand people. , Distributed in more than ten states and counties, encouraged by the victories of the Taiping Army, announced an uprising, proclaimed himself the King of Punan, besieged the county town, and killed General Xu Delu and Dianshi Wu Shichang.Zeng Guofan quickly sent Liu Changyou and Li Chaofu with Chu Yong 400, and Wang Qi with Xiangyong 400 to suppress them.Not long after he set off, Liu Jihou of Hengshan Grass Market started another incident.Zeng Guofan hurriedly sent someone to inform Wang Chi, telling him to go to Caoshi first, and then to Daozhou.A few days later, the Lantian Chuanzihui in Anhua announced another uprising, and Liu Hongyi's rebel army from Shangyou in Jiangxi entered East Guangxi, killed the Qing general Lu Zhizhang, and the gentleman Huang Dasan, and entered Shatian.There are also the Red and Black Society in Youxian County, the Banbianqian Society in Guiyang, and the Yichuanxiang Society in Yongzhou. They are all actively developing their congregations and preparing for riots.What made Zeng Guofan even more headache was that in the past few months, a new group of bandits had emerged.There are mainly three kinds of bandits in this group: one is soldiers who escaped from Yuezhou, Wuchang, Hanyang and other cities. During the fighting between the Qing soldiers, the people whose houses were burned and became homeless, the weak became beggars, and the strong gathered together to make troubles; Home, so tossed and wandered, making troubles everywhere.Most of these bandits wandered around the market and were very destructive.

Zeng Guofan instructed the Judicial Bureau to impose severe punishments on all unscrupulous elements who endanger social order.In order to encourage the members of the regiment, he stipulated that every gangster caught would be rewarded with five taels of silver.Under the heavy reward, all the members of the group were enthusiastic, and some even caught a few and sent them over one day.Whether it's bandits, bandits, king robbers, thieves or other troublemakers, catch one and kill one.No matter who intercedes, Zeng Guofan will not forgive.He often told the committee members that to suppress bandits and riots, you must be ruthless and not benevolent, and you must use the methods of Shen, Han, and Shang Yang to handle cases, and don't be afraid of the end of the car in the future.In order to achieve the effect of killing one to warn others, Zeng Guofan ordered people to make ten wooden cages, which were named standing cages.The standing cage is about one person high. The prisoner's head is stuck in the wooden shackles, and his limbs are bound, standing in the cage.During the day, it is pulled by a car and paraded around the city.At night, put it in the open air and send troops to guard it.Without food or drink, the prisoner died tragically in the cage within three or four days.These ten cages were filled with criminals every day, and they patrolled the city of Changsha every day, making the people of the whole city terrified.The gentry and gentry demanded the abolition of the certificate of benevolent government in the cage, and they flew to the governor's signing room like snowflakes. Several soft-hearted committee members also went to Zhang Liangji to file a complaint and threatened to resign.Zhang Liangji ignored all this, and instead praised Zeng Guofan for his courage, insight, strength and ability.Zeng Guofan saw that the group training was effective, and the number of bandits and police reports was decreasing day by day. He felt that everything was going well, and he was very proud.

But soon, the political situation took a major change. Ever since the Taiping Army established its capital in Jiangning and opposed the imperial court, and the rebellion of the San Francisco 180 years ago has recurred, the imperial court has appointed Zeng Guofan as the first assistant regiment training minister, and hastened in Anhui, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Zhizhi The nine provinces of Li, Henan, Shandong, Zhejiang, Guizhou, and Fujian appointed forty-two assistant regimental ministers to assist local civil and military forces in suppressing the raging riots in various places.The prestige of the Taiping Army was greatly enhanced, the mountains and rivers in the southeast were blazing into the sky, and the Yangtze River was thousands of miles away, and warships were like clouds.Xiang Rong and Zhang Guoliang were ordered to lead the green battalion tracked out from Guangxi to pursue along the river, build a Jiangnan camp in the south of Jiangning, and surround Jiangning City.Qishan hurried south with an army, and set up the Jiangbei camp in Yangzhou on the north bank of the Yangtze River, looking at Jiangning as a tiger.The Chinese people, who were already impoverished, weak, and suffering from severe disasters, have since then been caught in the chaos of blood and fire, and their fate has become even more tragic.

The fall of the three towns in Wuhan made Emperor Xianfeng very angry.Xu Guangjin, governor of Huguang, was dismissed and dealt with severely. Zhang Liangji was transferred to Wuchang to take over Xu Guangjin's vacancy.Zhang Liangji regarded Jiang Zhongyuan as his right-hand man, and he brought Jiang Zhongyuan and one thousand Chu Yong to Wuchang. The remaining five hundred Chu Yong formed a battalion, led by Jiang Zhongyuan's cousin Zou Shouzhang and younger brother Jiang Zhongji, as the third member of the big regiment. Battalion under the command of Zeng Guofan.At this time, Guo Songtao also left Changsha and returned to Xiangyin to raise donations.Then Luo Raodian was ordered to be the governor of Jiangxi, Pan Duo was excused due to illness, and Yue Xing'a was promoted to be the governor of Hubei.Luo Bingzhang returned to Hunan to be the governor. He asked the imperial court to transfer Xu Youren, an old bureaucrat, from Yunnan to Changsha to be the chief envoy.For a while, the senior officials in Hunan were replaced with new ones.In Zeng Guofan's view, Luo Bingzhang was mediocre, Xu Youren was mediocre, and Tao Enpei was incompetent, and he looked down on him from the bottom of his heart.Zeng Guofan knew that there would be constraints in the future, but he ignored these and continued to work in his own way like Zhang Liangji did in Changsha.

Recently, there have been small groups of riots in Changsha city, robbery, fights, and mob riots have occurred from time to time.As soon as the regiment left, the perpetrators heard the news and left first, and they were often not caught.Zeng Guofan was very annoyed.In order to warn the troublemakers, and to show the tough attitude of the regiment to suppress in front of the new governor, Zeng Guofan personally drafted the "shoot to kill" notice, printed hundreds of copies, and each was stamped with the words "Imperial Assistant Minister of the regiment, Zeng". The big seal of purple flowers, the streets and alleys, and the city gate wharf are widely posted.An additional regiment was sent to patrol and monitor everywhere, and strict precautions were taken in the city center and major streets.Everyone of the common people lowered their eyebrows and restrained their faces, for fear of getting involved with the rioters.Changsha City seemed to be in terror. For several days, it was completely silent.Seeing that the measures of resolute suppression had achieved results, Zeng Guofan thought: it seems that harsh punishments and strict laws are indeed a difficult way to govern the country and the people.

Unexpectedly, there was no silence for a few days, and a bigger riot broke out in Changsha City.