Chapter 18 On the eve of the march to the north, a homework schedule was set for the women in the family

It turned out that Seng Gelinqin's troops were ambushed by the Nian Army in Caozhou, Shandong, and the entire army was wiped out. He himself was beheaded by the Nian Army.The bad news shook the government and the public, and the empress dowagers of the two palaces ordered to stop the court for three days to mourn the death of the superstar in the eyes of the Manchurian relatives. Seng Gelinqin and Zeng Guofan were both leading troops to fight against the Taiping Army. They were supposed to work together and fight against the enemy together, but in fact they were like fire and water, and they were at odds with each other.

Seng Gelinqin thought he was great and looked down on the Hunan Army.When the Hunan army took down Jinling, he was jealous and refused to admit defeat: How can the dignified relatives of the Qing Dynasty and the prince of Mongolia be inferior to Han scholars?He vowed to suppress the Nian Army active in Anhui, Henan, and Shandong within two years, hoping to overwhelm the meritorious reputation of the Han people in the south of the Yangtze River.Eager to win, Seng Gelinqin drove the horse team to chase after the Nian army day and night. Nian is the northerner's name for social organizations.Twisting is kneading, kneading scattered forces to form a force.There are certain procedures and ceremonies for entering the kui, and its members are people from the bottom of society, such as poor farmers, boatmen, fishermen, hungry people, jobless people, small handicraft workers, bankrupt and unemployed people, etc.The struggle of the Nian people is manifested in fighting against food and poverty with united forces, eating big households, escorting smuggled salt dealers, and sometimes going out to rob property, focusing on the economic aspect.Later, during the Taiping Rebellion, the struggle to attract Nian people gradually turned to politics, and they got in touch with the Taiping Army.

In the fifth year of Xianfeng, more than a hundred leaders of the Nian army gathered in Zhiheji, Mengcheng County, Anhui. The meeting decided to form an alliance, promote Zhang Le as the leader of the alliance, known as the Yongwang of the Han Dynasty, and set up military advisers, Sima, pioneers, etc. to worship the world, and announced that the purpose of overthrowing the Qing Dynasty was to cause riots in Anhui, Henan, Shandong and other places. Yes, give the Taiping Army strong support.Later, Tianjing was captured by the Hunan Army, the Taiping Army was over, and the Nian Army also suffered great setbacks.Zun Wang Lai Wenguang, Fu Wang Chen Decai, Shou Wang Fan Ruzeng and other Taiping Army generals led some people to form a unit with the Nian Army, and reorganized and reorganized the Nian Army, using the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's year name, calendar, title and seal letter, with the aim of revitalizing the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom own fighting goals.The main leaders of this new Nian army are Zun Wang Lai Wenguang, Liang Wang Zhang Zongyu, Lu Wang Ren Huabang and Jing Wang Niu Hong.The four kings discussed together and worked out a strategy to lure Seng Gelinqin's team into the encirclement of Gaolouzhai in Caozhou, Shandong, where they wiped out all the monks and wrote a glorious page in the history of the Nian Army.

Zeng Guofan had expected the end of Seng Gelinqin's downfall.He has always hated this arrogant and tyrannical prince.Not long after the capture of Jinling, Seng Gelinqin's subordinates were besieged in Hubei. The imperial court urgently dispatched Zeng Guofan to rescue at the junction of Hubei and Anhui, but Zeng Guofan refused to go. Later, the imperial court ordered the Hunan Army to send troops to Henan to accept Seng Gelinqin's dispatch, but he also refused to send them with excuses.He wants to sit back and watch the failure of this vain prince.Now, Seng Gelinqin really failed, and the defeat was so terribly, Zeng Guofan really felt a little bit of natural justice and retribution when he heard the news.But soon he realized that this was actually not good for him, because once Seng Gelinqin died, he would probably be the coach who fought against Nian.

Sure enough, less than ten days after Seng Gelinqin's death, Zeng Guofan received an order ordering him to go out of the province at night to supervise the suppression in Shandong.The imperial edict also ordered Li Hongzhang to act as the governor of Liangjiang temporarily, and Liu Yunjiao to take care of the governor of Jiangsu temporarily. Zeng Guofan was extremely reluctant to go to the battlefield again.The Army Division of the Hunan Army has almost been abolished, the famous generals have been scattered, and the number of personnel has dropped sharply.There are only 5,000 people in Jinling, in addition to the Liu Songshan Department in Ningguo and the Zhang Shiri Department in Taiping, the total is no more than 8,000.The Nian Army has a strong cavalry, but the Hunan Army has no cavalry.The Yangtze River Navy cannot go north to defend the Yellow River.These three basic conditions determined that the Hunan Army could not fight against the Nian Army, at least they could not go out of the province at night.He was dissatisfied with the court's strict urging knowing these circumstances.In addition, the scope of the Nian Army's activities covered the five provinces of Hubei, Henan, Anhui, Shandong, and Jiangsu. It was not easy to cooperate with the governors of the five provinces to deal with the Nian Army in such a vast area.What's more, Master Jie Hang's words of "the heyday of his life is over" and "don't think about breaking the sky and exposing the earth, but settle down in a place where the wind and waves are calm" also had a profound impact on Zeng Guofan.So he played the empress dowager and the emperor: "The minister's energy is declining day by day. Don't take on the hardships. The longer you do things, the less timid you are. I beg you to let the senior officers of the army supervise the military affairs of the North Road. I will relax the responsibility of the minister. I should still be an idler." Effective between the lines."

Zeng Guofan knew that the imperial court was most concerned about the safety of the capital and the settlement of the remnants of Seng Gelinqin. After discussing with Li Hongzhang, he decided to transfer Pan Dingxin to lead 5,000 Huai troops to Tianjin to defend Jifu, and Liu Mingchuan to lead his troops to Jining to stabilize the Jining monks. The military spirit of the old battalion.Li Hongzhang likes to do things the most. He has seen that the strength of the Hunan army is exhausted, and the Huai army must be suppressed. It's better than blue.Li Hongzhang repeated the spirit of the Huai army going to Shanghai in the past, and transported 5,000 people from Pan Dingxin's troops to Tianjin by sea, and ordered Liu Mingchuan to lead the troops to Jining as soon as possible.

Not only was Zeng Guofan's petition not approved by the imperial court, but he was given the power to control the Qilv camps and local civil and military personnel in the three provinces of Zhili, Shandong, and Henan.On the one hand, Zeng Guofan dismissed the order to control the three provinces, but on the other hand he knew that the king's order could not be disobeyed, so he began to dispatch troops and generals, preparing to go north and stay in Jinling. For those who did not want to go north, Zeng Guofan allowed them to return to their hometowns and ordered Zhang Shiri to return to Hunan Recruit again.Bao Chao had recently won the honor of first-class viscount, and he was full of energy. He took the initiative to invite Ying. Zeng Guofan asked him to recruit another 4,000 people, expanding the army to 8,000 people.He also transferred Zhang Shusheng and Zhou Shengbo of the Huai Army.Considering that the Huai army was the army of Li Hongzhang's brothers, he asked Li Hezhang of Ganliang Road to handle the camp affairs, and Li Hongzhang sent his younger brother Li Zhaoqing to the camp.This time when he crossed the river to fight against the Nian army, Zeng Guofan always felt that it was more or less ominous. He remembered that he was fifty-five years old and his body was getting weaker and weaker. He might die in this battle. arranged.

When it comes to family affairs, Mrs. Ouyang's first concern is the marriage of the remaining one son and two daughters.The second son, Ji Hong, turned eighteen this year and was not yet married. She asked her husband to hold the wedding before he left Jiangning.Zeng Guofan does not advocate early marriage, he himself did not get married until he was twenty-three.When Nian Ze got married, he originally disagreed, as it was too early, but he couldn't resist his father's order, so he had to do so.Now that the wife has cited the precedent, he himself has become a pure old man mentality, hoping that his children will get married as soon as possible, and he can have more grandchildren, so he readily agrees.When Ji Hong just turned one year old, Zeng Guofan married Guo Peilin, a colleague of Hanyuan.The eldest daughter of the Guo family, Ji Hong, is three years old. It is said that she has grown into a quiet, elegant, and well-versed lady.Guo Peilin died in the ninth year of Xianfeng, and her daughter lived with her mother in her hometown in Huangzhou Prefecture, Hubei.A month ago, the Guo family sent a letter saying that their daughter was already 21 years old, and hoped that the Zeng family could set a wedding date sooner.Zeng Guofan chose an auspicious day, and Jize came forward to represent the man's family by boat to Guo's mansion to welcome his relatives.

The fourth daughter, Ji Chun, had already been appointed Guo Songtao's second son, Guo Gangji.At present, Guo Songtao is the governor of Guangdong, and he has sent several letters to urge his wife to come through the door. He will send a steamer to pick him up and go to Guangzhou by sea.Zeng Guofan disagreed with this plan.He thought Jiali could be as peaceful and moderate as possible, so why take the risk of the ocean's storm, it would be better to choose Xiangyin, Guo's hometown.Since last year Guo Songtao could marry a daughter in Xiangyin, hosted by Guo Kuntao, why can't he marry a wife this year?Guo Songtao meant that it would be better to stay in Guangzhou, and then his father could personally preside over the wedding, and the marriage would be more grand.

Guo Songtao had offended the squires in Guangzhou in the past few years, and was not on good terms with Governor Mao Hongbin. He was not in a good mood, and wanted to resign and return home.Last year, Guo Songtao pointed out to Zuo Zongtang as an old friend that Zeng Guoquan should not be blamed for the incident of Hong Tianguifu. He also said that Zeng Guofan had been kind to him in his most difficult time, and hoped that he would take the initiative to reconcile with Zeng Guofan as before.Unexpectedly, Zuo Zongtang was furious instead.He absolutely disagreed with Guo Songtao's statement that public and private were mixed up, and he couldn't blame his younger brother for letting Hong Tianguifu go because of Zeng Guofan's kindness.In terms of kindness, Zuo Zongtang said that his kindness to Zeng Guofan was even greater, so he listed several items: first, Zeng Guofan came out of the mountain because of the recommendation of the governor; The bullying was protected by the governor; third, the defeat of Jinggang was because the governor urged Zeng Guofan not to commit suicide; fourth, from the sixth to eighth years of Xianfeng, when Zeng Guofan was in Jiangxi, the governor provided the Hunan Army with 291 Five thousand taels.Zuo Zongtang said angrily that Zeng Guofan did not mention these great benevolences after his success. Instead, he said that the governor should not blame Lao Jiu. The governor will ignore him for life."

After receiving this letter, Guo Songtao couldn't laugh or cry.I thought to myself: If I hadn't asked Pan Zuyin and others in the capital to intercede for you Zuo Zongtang, your head would have been gone long ago. How could you still have the air of "Bendu" and "Bendu" today?As an old friend and savior, I would like to advise you, you put on airs like this, let alone others!Even if you Zuo Zongtang are really Zhuge Liang today, I won't associate with you anymore.Guo Songtao was so angry that he broke up with Zuo Zongtang from then on, and everyone said that Zuo Zongtang was ungrateful, arrogant and not a gentleman.As a result, he believed even more that his close friends and in-laws had been hurt, and he was greatly aggrieved.He understood Zeng Guofan's reluctance to send his daughter to Guangzhou, and agreed to the plan that the daughter's family would send her three thousand miles away and the man's family welcome two thousand miles away. The ceremony was scheduled to be held at his hometown in Xiangyin this winter.The marriage of the four daughters is settled. As for Mannu's marriage, he decided to postpone it for a while.Zeng Guofan was not very satisfied with the three married sons-in-law, especially after what happened to Luo Zhaosheng, he was even more annoyed: If it wasn't for this playboy, how could he be coerced by Yu Qi?This matter will spread out sooner or later, and it will definitely be the burden of Shengde in his life.He called his daughter and son-in-law to him and told them to get ready to return to Xiangxiang.Ji Chen didn't want to leave his mother, because her mother-in-law was tough, she was a little afraid.Luo Zhaosheng was eager to leave Jiangning, he was frightened that time, he was afraid that one day he would be dumped in the wilderness for no apparent reason. Perhaps out of the parents' love for Manchu, Zeng Guofan especially liked this Manchu girl. Seeing Mannv's generous and peaceful face, he felt even more cautious in choosing a promising and reliable husband-in-law for her to make up for her lack of paternal love almost from birth. Zeng Guofan also personally ordered a homework list for his wife and daughters, which was divided into four tasks.One food job: cooking side dishes, snacks, wine sauce, etc. after breakfast; two clothing jobs: engraving at noon, spinning flowers or hemp; three fine work: after lunch, doing needlework embroidery and the like; four rough work: making shoes after unitary engraving Or sewing, until the second watch is over.He was afraid that his daughters-in-law would not be able to implement it after he left home, so he wrote a paragraph after his homework: The men in my family are indispensable for reading, writing and writing, and the women are indispensable for the thickness and thickness of food and clothing.I have been teaching for several years, but I have not made certain rules.I am about to go north to suppress Nian, and I have designated this day's class. I ask my wife to supervise me and test my skills in person.Food is inspected once a day, clothing is inspected once every three days, and rough work is inspected once a month. One pair of men's shoes and one women's shoe must be made every month.After I returned to Jiangning, I took it as a general inspection.If you work hard at home, you will thrive, and if you work hard, you will be healthy.Diligent and healthy, never poor. There is still one big thing left unfinished. After Lao Jiu returned to his hometown, Zeng Guofan encouraged him to study again after returning from all battles. However, he was not interested in reading since he was a child. As a big brother, he naturally knew this.Although Lao Jiu is in a disadvantaged situation at the moment, he has made great contributions after all, and he has opened up a vacancy with the high position of governor, and he is in the prime of life.The eldest brother who was born in Hanlin has the responsibility to help his brother improve his knowledge and articles.In the past six months, Zeng Guofan has selected seventeen pieces by Kuang Heng, Jia Yi, Liu Xiang, Zhuge Liang, Lu Zhi, Su Shi, Zhu Xi, Wang Shouren, etc. from the famous memorials of the previous generation, and imitated the form of the sutra banquet official to give lectures to the emperor. From the content to the writing, I give detailed comments, and finally give a general comment, and explain the way of writing a paragraph for this article.Zeng Guofan is confident that in today's world, there are not many people who can analyze the famous memorials of the past dynasties so profoundly and meticulously.He was happy to do it from the bottom of his heart.He wants to use this as a gift to reward Jiu Di. Fourteen years have passed since Xianfeng set up a group training in Changsha for three years.Fourteen years of war career has made him deeply understand that he is actually not good at war, not to mention galloping horses and taking the lead on the battlefield, he, a frail scholar, is beyond the reach of him.This point, of course, cannot be exacted on the commander-in-chief who leads the troops, but if he has it, like Yue Fei and Qi Jiguang, he can have more prestige among the soldiers, let alone.The most important qualities that a commander should have are military reading, insight into the overall situation, knowing oneself and the enemy, being resourceful and decisive, knowing astronomy, geography, judging the situation, winning by surprise, etc. The previous failures have repeatedly proved that he either does not have it, or is still lacking.In the past in the Hanlin Academy, I often felt that I could be a figure like Zhuge Liang and Li Mi, but now it seems that I am really a literati Meng Lang.Just like Li Taibai.The rhetoric in the poems swept everything away, and heroes of all ages and moderns were not in his eyes. In fact, he did not have the ability to deal with world affairs, so that he was involved in the vortex of Yongwang's rebellion and almost lost his life.Zeng Guofan often thought that if he had the talents of commanders like Zhuge Liang, Li Mi, Pei Du, and Wang Shouren, Jinling would have been captured long ago, and Changmao would have been pacified long ago, so there is no need to wait for Tongzhi for three years.If I want to say that I still have some strengths in this area, it is that I still have self-knowledge, pay attention to recruiting generals, and let them do it.In the early stage, they relied on Taqibu, Luo Zenan, Li Xubin, and Hu Linyi, and in the later stage, they relied on Peng Yulin, Yang Yuebin, Bao Chao, Zuo Zongtang, Li Hongzhang, and Zeng Guoquan. Especially the one who contributed a lot is his younger brother Lao Jiu!He is really grateful to his parents for giving him such a good brother!It is precisely because of Lao Jiu's indelible feats that he, the commander, maintains his due dignity in front of the world.Out of gratitude, after Wang Haiyang and other remnants were wiped out, when the imperial court asked Zeng Guofan to report the resume of another son for Yin Feng, he did not report to Ji Hong, but reported to Zeng Guoquan's eldest son Ji Rui.It is also out of gratitude that he wants to tutor his younger brother in reading and composition.In the past six months, no matter how many things he had to do and how much energy he had, Zeng Guofan never slack off about it. He originally wanted to criticize memorials first, then ancient prose, and then poetry, and he even wanted to criticize some novels for the ninth brother.Most of the generals who led troops at that time liked to read it. Zeng Guofan hated this book. He thought the wars in the book were pure nonsense.What he values ​​is harmony.In particular, the penetrating writing of human relationships and the state of the world often makes him overwhelmed. He knew that Cao Zhan was the son of Cao Shun, the former Jiangnan weaving company, so he went to the Jiangning Weaving Bureau to carefully inspect the garden in the bureau, looking for the old traces of the Grand View Garden, and asked Zhizao Chunnian about the past of Cao's family and five times with great interest. The grand occasion of the drive.Regarding these three books, Zeng Guofan has a lot of thoughts, and he also wants to talk with his brother in writing.Now it's time to go on an expedition again, so I have to put it aside.In order to show that he attached great importance to this matter, he asked Jize to transcribe the commented part of the completed memorabilia in lower case respectfully, and ordered someone to send it back to Heyetang. Zeng Guofan was not very satisfied with his son's academic articles, but what satisfied him was his son's calligraphy.Jize has been good at writing since he was a child, so he intends to guide him in this regard. When he left Beijing at the age of fourteen, Jize had already laid a solid foundation.In the next few years, although he couldn't point out one by one in person, Zeng Guofan often patiently taught his son the key to writing in letters from home, and often asked his son to send letters for him to approve.His son's handwriting is as impressive as that of the second king, and it is graceful and elegant. Few of the sons of high-ranking officials can write such good handwriting.It's just that his writing skills are insufficient, and his elegance lacks vigor, just like his personality, which probably comes from his mother's nature.this point.Zeng Guofan knew that he couldn't change it.Therefore, he did not want his son to become a high-ranking official in the future, especially not to be involved in military affairs. If he could be selected as a scholar in the Hanlin Academy and find a leisurely job as a school secretary, he would be satisfied as a father.After ten days of hard copying day and night, Jize finished copying his father's achievements in the past six months, and carefully bound them into a volume. "Father, my son learned a lot by copying and learning. The son thought, this manuscript is not only very useful to Uncle Jiu, but also very enlightening to future generations of scholars. It can be written into a book by itself. Why don't you just give it to him? Give me a name!" Jize solemnly suggested to his father when he delivered the manuscript. "Wow!" Zeng Guofan flipped through his son's manuscript, and was very happy to see that the words were handsome and the pages were clear.He looked at his son and asked, "What name should I choose?" "It's up to the father to decide. How dare the son make unreasonable opinions." Brother Ji Ze always respected his father like a god and feared him like a tiger. He was overjoyed that the suggestion just now was accepted by his father, and he didn't dare to look forward to Shu. "Okay, you go back to the study, I'll think about it." Zeng Guofan paced back and forth in the room a few times with his hands behind his back, then sat at the desk, rubbed ink and pen, and inscribed a few lines on the title page of the manuscript: "Tangdi" is the work of the Yan brothers, and "Xiaowan" is a poem about brothers taking precautions to avoid disasters, and they are all inspired by the ridge.Gaiji Ling is the most anxious, and his emotion is the first. Therefore, "Tangdi" is a metaphor for friendship in emergency, while "Xiaowan" is a metaphor for enthusiasm for hard work.Yu Jiu was trapped in the army, and Wen Fu and Yuanfu's two younger brothers joined the army, both of them came because of emergency at the beginning.Yuanfu was persevering and determined, and he achieved great success, and Yu Yong was saved from violence.Because he and his younger brother Yuan often admonished each other with leisure time, they hoped that they would sleep soundly at night and be born without embarrassment.Yuan took the purpose of the two poems, named the hall Mingyuantang, and named Si's manuscript "The Papers of Mingyuantang".Records of Zeng Guofan. "My lord, Li Zhongcheng has come to Jiangning and is now living in Miaoxiang Nunnery. He is waiting for your lord's reception." Kong Xunzuo opened the door and came in to report. "He's in such a hurry, so he came to pick up the seal?" Zeng Guofan felt uncomfortable suddenly, he waved to Kong Xunpu and said, "Got it, you go out!" Treating his favorite student, governor of Jiangsu, and first-class Su Yibo Li Hongzhang with this attitude made Kong Xun a big surprise.He didn't dare to ask any more questions, and quietly retreated. As soon as he went out, Zeng Guofan called back: "Go to Miaoxiang Temple and tell Li Zhongcheng that I will visit him this afternoon." The sudden change in the blink of an eye made Kong Xunzhu even more confused.With a promise, he galloped out of the governor's office.How did Kong Xunzu know, in that instant, Zeng Guofan had a lot of thoughts in his mind.