Recently, I heard some history fans have this view. Then, we ask history, why did Zeng Guofan not raise the banner of anti-Qing until his death?
Let's take a look at Zeng Guofan's strength at that time.
First, military strength.
After Zeng Guofan wiped out the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the Xiang army had more than 400,000 troops, accounting for more than 50% of the total strength of the Qing army. The fighting capacity of Xiang Army is far superior to that of the Eight Banners Army, which was already a group of waste in the late Qing Dynasty, and ten soldiers could not compete with A Xiang Army.
Second, financial strength.
After Zeng Guofan wiped out the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the Xiang army held the taxes of Hubei, Hunan and An Wei provinces, and was rich in financial resources.
Third, talent strength.
Zeng Guofan's Xiang army almost included all the famous soldiers in the late Qing Dynasty. The whole Xiang army system 15, the governor 14. There are countless other civil and military officials.
Excellent talents from all over the country joined Zeng Guofan, including a group of outstanding engineers and scientists (such as Li, Xu Shou,). At that time, he had as many as three or four hundred employees.
Zeng Guofan's men are Zuo, Li, Li, Guo Songtao, Li Hongzhang, Liu Kunyi, Zeng, Jiang Zhongji, Hu Linyi, Yang Yuebin, Liu Changyou, Li Xuyi, Liu Rong, Cheng Xueqi (Taiping Army), Ding Ruchang (Taiping Army), Jiang Yifeng and Liu Wei. It can be described as an elite gathering and a strong lineup.
At that time, Xiang only obeyed Zeng Guofan's orders from top to bottom. After the death of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, it seems easy for him to give an order to destroy the Qing Dynasty.
When Ceng Guoquan, the ninth brother, attacked Tianjing, all people of insight, including Zeng Guofan, knew the fact that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was going to die!
Then the problem is coming. After this war, where did the two brothers go? Is asking, left asking, Hu Linyi asking, asking, including Zeng Guofan himself, 300,000 Xiang soldiers are also asking themselves, so an undercurrent of late Qing politics began to surge.
Zeng, Zuo, Hu and Peng were called "four ministers of Zhongxing in the late Qing Dynasty" by later generations. Faced with this problem, the latter three all gave Zeng Guofan a test-in a word, to do or not to do?
First of all, Zuo, who knows a little about modern history, knows the name Zuo.
This senior was unlucky in the examination room, and his study was inferior to Zeng Guofan's, but he refused to accept it and compared himself to Zhuge Liang.
This Zeng Guofan is more stupid than himself. Why can he be a high official and generous? At the age of forty, I barely got a Jinshi and made a county magistrate's inquiry!
Shouting every day, I refuse to accept! Lao tze refuses to accept! I always say, "You were born in Sri Lanka, why were you born in Sri Lanka?" .
So he always had a hard time with Zeng Guofan. Zeng Guofan was not as eloquent as he was. When he quarreled, he always hit people when they were down, so Zeng Guofan also regarded Zuo as a nemesis.
Although he is arrogant, people are really good at fighting and swearing. What a great achievement it is to recover Xinjiang! Later, there was a saying:
"The country can't live without Hunan for a day, and Hunan can't live without the Left", which shows its great influence.
Now this Nemesis has sent a secret letter to herself. The content of the letter is the title of Ding Shanlian written by crane:
"God's will depends on virtue. The weight of the tripod seems to be asking! "
Especially in the second part, Zeng Guofan was shocked to read the sentence "The tripod is as heavy as asking questions". Because winning is equal to winning the Central Plains and winning the world.
Boy, the meaning of left is very clear-
How's it going, boss? The general trend of the world is clear. Seeing that the Taiping Army won't last long, we should make long-term plans. Do you want to fight against Manchu and win the world? !
Although I usually like to compete with you, if you want to fight with me, I will still follow you and treat you as my big brother!
It is said that Zeng Guofan looked heavy and hesitated for a long time after reading the secret letter. After a long time, I took a pen and changed a word on these eight words, and then passed it on to the left.
It is said that after reading Zeng Guofan's reply, Zuo sneered and said nothing, and lit the secret letter that only changed one word.
So, which word did Zeng Guofan change? It's the word "like" He changed the word "like" to "not like", so this sentence became-
"The weight of the tripod can't be asked!"
The meaning is also very clear: brother, I have not been the boss for many years! Don't be infatuated with me, I am just a legend! We will never do such a rebellious thing!
Followed by Hu Linyi. Zuo's secret letter was handed over by Hu Linyi. He handed it back with his own words.
Call: "one seems to be one, I don't care!" "
Explain that he, like Zuo, also wants to persuade Zeng Guofan to rebel, indicating that Zeng Guofan has nothing to say after he changed his mouth to show no objection.
But even if have nothing to say, Hu Linyi also don't lose heart, he later wrote a secret letter to zeng guofan, the letter only one sentence:
"The southeast half has no owner. Do I care? "
In other words, even if we don't take the world, at least we Xiang army can monopolize the southeast and rule the great river. As long as you are interested, Xiang will follow each other! But Zeng Guofan remained unmoved.
Shortly thereafter, Zeng Guofan's navy coach Peng Yulin also sent a secret letter to Zeng Guofan, saying:
"The southeast half has no owner. Does the teacher care? "
Only changed Hu Linyi's words into two words, which shows that there is a tacit understanding between Zuo, Hu and Peng, which still makes Zeng Guofan very rebellious.
Because the tide is gone, what Hu and Peng mean is that even if we don't try our best to cross the river into Beijing, according to our strength, we will occupy half of the southeast, and the Qing court can't help it.
Zeng Guofan received Peng Yulin's counter-imperial proposal on his handsome ship. According to the governor Ni, who was closely related to him at that time, Zeng Guofan repeatedly said after reading this letter:
"Chenghua, Chenghua, Xueqin (Peng Yulin's word) just try me! Damn, damn! "
After that, I rubbed the letter, opened my mouth, stuffed it into my mouth and chewed it. At that time, I swallowed this letter of persuasion.
Anyway, no matter whether you are a brother or a comrade-in-arms, no matter how hard you try and persuade me, I always don't object, never!
I think there are at least the following reasons for not objecting.
First, I don't want to violate it, which is determined by Zeng Guofan's character.
Zeng Guofan is a traditional disciple of Confucianism, which emphasizes loyalty to the monarch. Zeng Guofan has been educated by Confucianism for a long time, so it is difficult for him to do anything rebellious.
Zeng Guofan pursued seeking officials by virtue, putting courtesy first and seeking politics by loyalty all his life. The concept of "loyalty to the monarch" is deeply rooted in his heart, and he has no desire to resist at all.
Second, if we can't oppose it, there will be problems with the composition of the Xiang army.
The generals in the Xiang army are not all southerners, but some are Manchu generals sent by the Qing court. In other words, the Qing court did not fully trust Zeng Guofan, so it sent many people to contain it.
From the early days of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the Xiang army began to struggle repeatedly. After 10 years of fighting, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was finally pacified.
After that, the officers and men of Xiang army gained a lot of wealth. Out of the traditional thinking of officers and men at that time, their first reaction was to use these treasures to build houses and buy land in their hometown in Hunan and become rich.
If Zeng Guofan asked the officers and men to continue fighting at this time, and it was against the Qing army, the Xiang army might defect.
Third, there is no chance, and I have taken precautions.
Zeng Guofan was not anti-Qing, but for national and political reasons, the Qing Dynasty was more careful with him.
At that time, the Empress Dowager and Prince Gong discussed many times with one heart and were wary of Zeng Guofan's Xiang army.
They were also worried about whether Zeng Guofan would split the country after the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was pacified. Therefore, the Qing Dynasty retained the final control over the army.
Although the Xiang Army was founded by Zeng Guofan, this army also needed logistical supplies from the imperial court. Even at the end of the war, it is no exception. The Qing court did this only to prevent accidents.
Therefore, from this point of view, if the Xiang army has an abnormal situation, the Qing court will definitely cut off the logistics supply to the Xiang army. Moreover, when Zeng Guofan's Xiang army besieged Nanjing, the ministries of the northern Qing army were also ready, and the Qing court made all preparations. Once Zeng Guofan really did something, the Qing court had countermeasures in both soft and hard aspects.
Fourth, I dare not object. I'm talking about the situation.
The team dealing with the Taiping Army is not only a project, but also Li Hongzhang's Huai Army and the left Chu Army. If Zeng Guofan is disloyal, he needs to unite Li Hongzhang and Zuo Tang Zong first.
The problem is that these three people are not San Francisco in those days, and there are many contradictions between them. If Zeng Guofan really has that idea, he will be attacked by Li Hongzhang and Zuo in the first place. In particular, a great god like Zuo has always despises Zeng Guofan.
Five, can't reverse, even the flag can't stand.
In the early days of establishing Xiang Army, Zeng Guofan emphasized that the principle of establishing Xiang Army was to support the emperor and safeguard Chinese tradition. In Zeng Guofan's view, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom messed up the civilization handed down for thousands of years, and it was natural that everything would be fine if it was pacified by itself.
After the death of Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Xiang Army was dissolved immediately, and Zeng Guofan's military power was also decomposed. Li Hongzhang and Zuo Jian set up their own homes, and the monolithic structure of the Xiang army was broken by the Qing court. Zeng Guofan could not resist the Qing Dynasty even if he betrayed.
It is precisely because of this series of reasons that Zeng Guofan could not overthrow the rule of the Qing Dynasty, even the separatist regime in the south of the Yangtze River. This was caused by the objective facts at that time. Without this strength, Zeng Guofan did not have this opportunity.
So, in the final analysis, in a word, because I don't want to object, plus I can't object, I dare not, and the final result is that I can't object.
Zeng Guofan was so clever that he didn't rebel at all. The Qing court also fulfilled his name of loyalty, filial piety and righteousness.
Zeng Guofan later became the governor of Liangjiang and won various awards. After Zeng Guofan died, he was deified by Confucianism, even comparable to Wang Yangming.