Chapter 64 5. Entrust the Eastern Expedition Bureau to handle the tax bureau

After the war, Zeng Guofan gathered his troops in Tianjia Town to rest.The first thing to do is to report victory to the imperial court, ask for rewards for the generals who contributed the most, and ask for sympathy for the generals who died in battle.For ordinary Xiangyong, Zeng Guofan also attached great importance to the arrangements for his funeral.He knew how to sympathize with the dead, which can inspire the living, and built a large-scale ancestral hall in Tianjia Town, named Tianzhen Zhaozhong Ancestral Hall.All the generals above the post chief have a god in the Zhaozhong Temple.Yong Ding below the head of the post also engraved each person's name, place of origin, date of birth and death on the stone tablet.There are eight such steles.

Zeng Guofan also personally wrote a couplet for the Zhaozhong Temple: "The sound of the giant stone swallowing the river, the long-sounding hatred of the heroes of the past and the present; the worship of the temple to honor the achievements of the Huxiang children." On the day the temple was completed, Zeng Guofan led all the battalion officials and staff respectfully Pay homage to the undead who died in Tianzhen. Amidst the cigarette smoke, Zeng Guofan recited the sacrificial text emotionally.While reading, he suddenly burst into tears, which greatly moved all the participants.

The second major event was to arrange for Yang Guodong to accompany Peng Yulin to marry Miss Yang in Huangzhou.In this battle of burning iron locks, Peng Yulin contributed the most.Zeng Guofan relied on him even more, and he can rest assured that the navy will be handed over to this person in the future. A few days later, the soldiers reported that Hunan Governor Luo Bingzhang sent Guo Kuntao, Li Hanzhang and others from the Eastern Expedition Bureau to reward the army.The Eastern Expedition Bureau was a logistics department established in Changsha by Luo Bingzhang at the request of Zeng Guofan to serve Xiangyong, with Guo Kuntao and Li Hanzhang as the head managers.

Li Hanzhang is the eldest son of Li Wen'an, a doctor in the Ministry of punishment and a native of Luzhou, Anhui.Li Wen'an was in the same year of Zeng Guofan's examination, and he admired Zeng Guofan's knowledge very much.In the twenty-fourth year of Daoguang, Li Wen'an ordered his second son Li Hongzhang to come to Beijing to worship Zeng Guofan as his teacher.Li Hongzhang, whose courtesy name is Shaoquan, is the most intelligent and daring person, and he is deeply liked by Zeng Guofan.In the second year, Li Hongzhang entered the Hanlin Academy as a Jinshi.In the third year of Xianfeng, Lu Xianji, the minister of the Ministry of Industry, organized a group training in his hometown in Anhui. Knowing that Li Hongzhang was capable, he invited him to Anhui to do it with him.

The year before last, Li Hanzhang distributed tribute to Hunan.Zeng Guofan believed that this year's family would help him wholeheartedly, so he transferred him to the Eastern Expedition Bureau. When Zeng Guofan heard that Guo and Li had arrived, he was overjoyed and led the crowd to greet him in person. Guo Kuntao met Zeng Guofan with the courtesy of his peers.When Li Hanzhang was about to salute as a junior, Zeng Guofan quickly helped him up with one hand and said, "It doesn't have to be like this."Li Hanzhang was coy for a while, and finally paid homage as a subordinate.Zeng Guofan asked, "How is Shaoquan recently?"

"The second child wrote a letter last month saying that he was very unhappy, and he wanted to join the teacher in Hubei." Zeng Guofan laughed when he heard this.After exchanging pleasantries, Guo Kuntao said: "In the past, Changsha officials and gentry all said that Xiangyong was Xiangyong—a puppet warrior. Now, they all have to admit that he is a real Huxiang warrior." Everyone laughed.Zeng Guofan said sadly: "In order to fight for these three points of water, Xiangyong paid a price of more than a thousand people." In a word, it made everyone feel uncomfortable.After a while, he explained to himself: "There is no reason why people can't die in a war. After all, we fought for this breath and took back the three points of water, and we are worthy of the dead brother."

Guo Kuntao went on to say: "That's exactly what he said. Sanxiang fathers and elders gathered 100,000 taels of silver, plus 60,000 from Sichuan and 40,000 from Guangdong, making a total of 200,000 taels to celebrate the achievements of the brothers." .” Hearing that he brought so much money, Zeng Guofan was very happy.In the past two months, he has been troubled by the matter of military pay.At first, they thought that they would get a sum of money after the capture of Wuhan. Unexpectedly, Xiangyong, from the battalion officer to Yongding, was almost full of private pockets, but Daying didn't get a few taels of silver.He asked the imperial court to order Wang Qingyun, governor of Shaanxi, to release 140,000 yuan in silver, and Chen Qimai, governor of Jiangxi Province, to release 80,000 yuan in silver.Especially Chen Qimai made Zeng Guofan even more angry.Isn't it for Jiangxi to lead the division to the east?He can actually ignore the existence of this team!

"Chen Qimai has gone too far." Guo Kuntao said, "However, it is really difficult to raise wages. The people are poor, and the money of rich people would rather be robbed by bandits than donate. The hundred thousand taels of silver is thanks to Ji Gao Brother's painstaking efforts." "The common people are indeed poor." Guo Kuntao sighed.After a while, he suddenly asked everyone: "Have you heard of Mr. Lei collecting taxes from merchants in Yangzhou to pay for the army?" Some people said they had heard of it, some said they hadn't.Guo Kuntao said: "At the end of last year, Lei Yijian, the censor of Zuodu, went to the North Camp of Zuojiang, Yangzhou. You can get 70,000 to 80,000 silver, and Jiangbei Daying has never been short of money since then."

"President Lei implements the Lijin business, and I have heard about it." Liu Rong, who had been sitting next to him, said, "I heard that there are many checkpoints in northern Jiangsu, and the people are full of complaints. Extortion is actually not a draw of ten coins, but three draws and four draws. Such a draw, how can merchants bear it! Our Hunan is a barren area, and it is not an area where the government and merchants converge. The wealth is no match for a large county in Jiangsu. That’s all. If Hunan follows the example of northern Jiangsu and sets up customs and card checkpoints, the fear is that merchants will be slowed down and the people will have no means of living.”

"What Meng Rong said is indeed reasonable." Guo Kuntao took over Liu Rong's words, "Lijin in northern Jiangsu is harmful to merchants and common people, and it's not easy to operate. We can learn from the past and make things better." "Xiao Quan, do you think Hunan can run a tax bureau?" Zeng Guofan asked Li Hanzhang. "Responding to the teacher's words, Mr. Lei is in Yangzhou to handle Lijin affairs, and he also heard about it in his late life." Although Li Hanzhang did not directly worship Zeng Guofan as his teacher, but like his second brother, he kept claiming that Zeng Guofan was his teacher. He had been coveting Ban Lijin for a long time, and because he was not old enough, he did not dare to mention it abruptly.He said in a steady tone, "I have long thought about carrying out the matter of lijin in Hunan, but because people speak lightly, they dare not speak up. Wansheng thought, since the army's salary is so scarce, in order to cut off the great cause of long hair, this is an expedient measure for the time being." It’s not impossible to plan, the key is to employ people properly and the rules must be strict.”

This remark was in Zeng Guofan's arms, he nodded and said: "Xiao Quan's words make sense. Things have to happen, I think this is the only way to do it. Yicheng (Guo Kuntao's word) went back and talked to Luo Zhongcheng, and the Dongzheng Bureau came forward. Try it out in Changsha, Xiangtan, Yiyang, Changde, Yuezhou, and Hengzhou first, and pay close attention to the fact that you must use sincere people and never allow private individuals to embezzle this batch of money. Otherwise, we will not be able to Confess to the elders of Sanxiang, and I am ashamed of the future generations.” Guo Kuntao and Li Hanzhang were overjoyed and immediately agreed.While everyone was talking, Jing Qi came over and whispered into Zeng Guofan's ear, "Kang Fu is back." Zeng Guofan stood up, cupped his hands and said: "You guys continue to talk, I have something important to do, excuse me."