Was Li Hongzhang defeated in the Sino-Japanese War because he offended Weng Tonghe?
When besieged by the enemy and dying, Li Hongzhang rode on the horse given to him by his servant to get rid of the moral dilemma. From then on, Li Hongzhang experienced the pain of losing his father, was chased by Chen Yucheng, and even his ancestral home was burned down. Li Hongzhang, who is nearly forty years old, failed again and again in his second venture. His eyes were dark and he could not see the future at all.
Serious mistakes in self-positioning made Li Hongzhang lose opportunities again and again. He can only pin all his hopes on his teacher Zeng Guofan, hoping that Zeng Guofan can provide him with a platform for the apprentice.
Zeng Guofan, like Li Hongzhang's family, was born in a family of farmers and students, and his family was even poorer than Li Hongzhang's. From Zeng Guofan's self-report, we can know that he faced serious economic difficulties from beginning to end after he entered the imperial examination and became an official in the DPRK. He owes a lot of money every year because of the heavy housework.
Before returning to his hometown to train the Xiang army, Zeng Guofan had only one topic in his life: how to get enough money, of course, within legal and reasonable limits.
Li Hongzhang
In order to make money, Zeng Guofan did many incredible things. He contracted the Hunan Guild Hall, and he acted as a master of ceremonies at other people's weddings, which made him understand the basic operating rules of the world better than all officials in the DPRK, handle things better than others, grasp the sense of proportion, and be best at making things out of nothing.
Unfortunately, Zeng Guofan's talent was discovered by the emperor, so the emperor whipped the fast cow and made Zeng Guofan an assistant minister in the Ministry of Justice. Later, he became an assistant minister in the Ministry of War, the Ministry of Industry and the official department. This is tantamount to letting Zeng Guofan grasp all the work of the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of National Defense, the Ministry of Construction and the Personnel Organization Department, but only give Zeng Guofan the meager salary of assistant minister, which makes Zeng Guofan miserable.
So Zeng Guofan's family financial deficit snowballed, which made Zeng Guofan overwhelmed. He hoped that the emperor would let him go or give him a position where he could earn some money. But the emperor rarely found such capable employees and refused to pay attention to them. The feeling be nasty under, zeng guofan collapsed, he angrily on hydrophobic, reprimanded the emperor not sensible.
Emperor Xianfeng was furious and decided to severely punish Zeng Guofan. How can I punish him is the most Japanese? Got it! Emperor Xianfeng decreed that Zeng Guofan be the most bitter and busy assistant minister of punishments.
The imperial court has six departments: the Ministry of Rites, the Ministry of Industry, the Ministry of War, the Ministry of Official Affairs, the Ministry of Punishment and the Ministry of Household Affairs. Except for one thing, the work of other ministries in the imperial court was lost to Zeng Guofan, who was so busy that he wanted to cry.
In this way, it lasted for a while. Finally, one day, Emperor Xianfeng was kind enough to give Zeng Guofan an excellent job and let him go to Jiangxi for invigilation. The invigilator can appropriately collect the filial piety of the candidates. In fact, Emperor Xianfeng acquiesced in Zeng Guofan to take some money to make up for the huge financial deficit at home. However, Zeng Guofan was doomed to have no chance with corrupt officials. As soon as he left Beijing, Hong Xiuquan called. So Emperor Xianfeng quickly sent a message to Zeng Guofan not to rush back to Beijing for the time being, and to eliminate Hong Xiuquan first.
Emperor Xianfeng, including Zeng Guofan, sent 43 ministers out of Beijing to try to eliminate Hong Xiuquan. But this way, only Zeng Guofan knows. What Zeng Guofan knows best is that Hongyang Group can be separated by armed forces precisely because this horrible and violent army happens to be the nemesis of the decadent Qing military system. If you want to restrain Hongyang Group, you must kick off the old military system, start a new stove and rebuild the team.
Zeng Guofan not only did it himself, but also told everyone such as Li Hongzhang about the plan and received a letter from Zeng Guofan. These methods and skills, which Zeng Guofan explored in practice after suffering, are the most valuable wisdom and experience. Unexpectedly, even Li Hongzhang turned a deaf ear to this, let alone others.
Everyone wants to take a shortcut and find the simplest and most worry-free way. I don't know that the simplest method is often the most ineffective because the foundation is not solid. The farthest road is the real shortcut, because few people take this road. Zeng Guofan became a saint only because he did stupid things that others refused to do.
What Li Hongzhang thinks is that the difficult things are left to the teacher Zeng Guofan, and I will take advantage of the teacher's ass and eat ready-made.
/kloc-in the winter of 0/858, Li Hongzhang went to his mentor Zeng Guofan. As soon as I entered the shogunate, I found the mistake of life orientation.
Li Hongzhang went to Zeng Guofan's shogunate and did several things in succession, which made him a pivotal figure in the shogunate and finally made him realize his irreplaceable value.
First of all, his talent in government affairs is revealed, and he is best at writing down the throne with a stroke of a pen. And now the paper he wrote is even more perfect. Zeng Guofan was very satisfied with this and reported it to the court word for word. The court was also very satisfied and immediately called. So Zeng Guofan hurried to play and begged the court to allow Li Hongzhang to participate in the discussion of confidential matters. This made Li Hongzhang suddenly realize that he was a minister. No wonder no one could recommend him. It turns out that sparrows know the ambition of swans. How does an ordinary official discover his superior talents?
The second thing, Li Hongzhang's macro thinking has been revealed. Zeng Guofan took Li Hongzhang to Susong to see Hu Linyi, who is also the leader of ZTE. The two sides had a dispute because of their different views on the strategic layout. The more Li Hongzhang listened, the more excited he became. He couldn't help shouting: isn't this simple? How noisy like this, you listen to me ... Zeng Guofan listened to his strategic analysis and said nothing, but Hu Linyi was shocked. He immediately realized that Li Hongzhang was a rare strategic talent and urged Zeng Guofan to give Li Hongzhang a chance quickly, which made Zeng Guofan very uncomfortable, as if he had suppressed Li Hongzhang.
The third thing is that Li Hongzhang's strategic talent has been revealed. At that time, Weng Shu Tong, the son of Weng Xincun, the teacher of Emperor Xianfeng, became the governor of Anhui Province. Because of improper handling, he provoked a rebellion and abandoned the city before it was broken. This is the responsibility of provincial officials to defend their homeland. Zeng Guofan decided to deal with this matter. Weng Xincun, on the other hand, was deeply trusted by Emperor Xianfeng because of his moral articles. His disciples are all over the court. How can we use words to make Emperor Xianfeng severely punish the teacher without mercy, and at the same time make the DPRK minister unable to intercede?
This paper is not easy to write. Zeng Guofan first asked the experts in the shogunate to draft it. After writing it, he took it and found it failed. So Zeng Guofan personally went into battle and wrote it over and over again, but he never understood it. Finally, he had no choice but to call Li Hongzhang: Shao Quanlin, write it too.
Li Hongzhang picked up a pen and wrote: Where is the official position? The example should be corrected, and I dare not look back, because Weng Shu Tong's family is rich. ...
When this statement came out, it was awe-inspiring and implied a faint murder, which not only made Xianfeng Emperor unable to seek personal protection, but also blocked all officials' mouths first, making them afraid to intercede for Weng Shu Tong.
As soon as this discount came out, Weng was immediately questioned by the court. He was first designated as a prisoner, then reduced or exempted, and was taken to Xinjiang to die of old age.
This is the first time that the tactician Li Hongzhang made a move. A small staff, just a few words, ended the career and even life of the son of the most distinguished royal teacher. This shows that Li Hongzhang's cunning tactics can be seen.
Li Hongzhang's action this time has brought a formidable enemy to his life. Since then, Weng Tonghe, the younger brother of Weng Shu Tong, has been fighting against Li Hongzhang everywhere after discovering this incident. Because Weng Tonghe's strategy and wisdom were weaker than Li Hongzhang's, in desperation, Weng Tonghe simply took Li Hongzhang's elaborate Beiyang Navy and cut off beiyang fleet's pay and arms, which led to a great defeat in the Sino-Japanese War.
It was more than a hundred years before we remembered that it was too late to persuade Li Hongzhang not to take power lightly. You know, China's royal totalitarianism cultivated the imperial scheming with the characteristics of oriental court conspiracy. For example, Emperor Xianfeng of North Korea was born in the palace and grew up in the hands of women. What he saw and raised his hand were all conspiracy theories with obvious feminine characteristics. The politics of this conspiracy theory is exactly the opposite pole to the openness and transparency of modern politics and the emphasis on rules. Its characteristic is to kill each other by treachery. What is considered is not how to solve the problem, not to seek a win-win result, but to kill each other by hook or by crook. As for who the other party is, this is the second.