100 Historical Stories That Unlock Teenage Wisdom

Chapter 34 5 Zuo Zongtang's First Battle Stands Firm

Chapter 45 Zuo Zongtang's first battle to gain a firm foothold

——Prove everything with grades Many people in life feel that they are underappreciated, frowning and complaining all day long. In fact, instead of complaining about not being appreciated and promoted, it is better to be down-to-earth and use grades to prove their abilities step by step.

The key point in the life of General Zuo Zongtang of the Hunan Army was the fierce battle with the Taiping Army in Jiangxi in 1861.At that time, the Taiping Army defeated Zeng Guofan in the vicinity of Poyang Lake, forcing Zeng Guofan to almost commit suicide. Fortunately, Zuo Zongtang was outnumbered and fought the Taiping Army to save the defeat.From then on, Zeng Guofan relied heavily on him and asked the court to ask for credit for him.Since then, Zuo Zongtang has been valued by the Qing court, which laid the foundation for his future success.

At the beginning, Zeng Guofan appointed Zuo Zongtang to manage the Chu army.In the tenth year of Xianfeng (1860), when he worked hard to form the Chu army to a certain scale, the strategic trend of the Taiping army also changed, which made the Qing government struggling to deal with it. In Sichuan, if you occupy this fortified place, it will not be easy to eradicate it.So the Qing court planned to dispatch Zuo Zongtang to supervise the military affairs of Sichuan, and led the Chu army to enter Sichuan from Hunan.

After Zeng Guofan learned of this situation, he was deeply afraid that Zuo Zongtang would go to the high position of "supervisor" and would not be able to "assist" with him in military affairs, thus weakening the Hunan Army's offensive against Anqing and even Nanjing.In fact, Zuo Zongtang did not want to go to Sichuan to fight, but concentrated on dealing with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's Soviet and Anhui bases.He said to Zeng Guofan and Hu Linyi: "I am interested in Wu, not in Shu." Therefore, the Qing court had to send Luo Bingzhang, the governor of Hunan, to supervise Sichuan's military affairs.Zuo Zongtang led the Chu army to march towards Jiangxi.

Before and after Zuo Zongtang entered Jiangxi, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom carried out the Eastern and Western Expeditions successively after annihilating the Jiangnan camp of the Qing army, and soon succeeded in successive battles in southern Jiangsu and southern Anhui.In August and September of the tenth year of Xianfeng (1860), Li Shixian, Yang Fuqing and other troops of the Taiping Army successively captured Ningguo, Jixi, Huizhou, Xiuning and other places, and approached Zeng Guofan's camp on the east line of Qimen.Zeng Guofan transferred Zuo Zongtang's army from Nanchang to the east to help, and Zuo Zongtang led the Chu army to Jingdezhen in the northeast of Jiangxi.

After Zuo Zongtang garrisoned Jingdezhen, he took the initiative to attack in early November of that year, capturing Dexing and Wuyuan, and returned to the army because the Taiping Army attacked Jingdezhen.In Zuo Zongtang's view, Jingdezhen "is the front door of Jiangxi Province and the back door of Digong Qimen. If there is any negligence, it will be unimaginable."Similarly, when the Taiping Army marched into northern Jiangxi, its intention was to control this area, so as to cut off the channels of external communication and food supply for Zeng Guofan's Hunan army in southern Anhui.As a result, the two sides launched a fierce battle in the Jingdezhen area.

Huang Wenjin and Li Yuan led the Taiping Army to attack Jingdezhen and Fuliang County in five ways.Zuo Zongtang deployed defenses in Jingdezhen to repel the Taiping Army.At this time, Zeng Guofan dispatched Bao Chao from southern Anhui to northern Jiangxi to reinforce Zuo Zongtang.Zuo Zongtang and Bao Chao launched a counterattack against the Taiping Army. Huang Wenjin couldn't resist, and retreated to Pengze and Jiande in southern Anhui the next day.Zuo Zongtang sent the Chu army to assist Bao Chaojun to step up the pursuit and conquer Pengze and Jiande.Huang Wenjin suffered heavy losses and had to retreat to Wuhu.Soon after Huang Wenjin's first attack on Jingdezhen was defeated, Li Shixian's Taiping army captured Wuyuan from Xiuning, and divided troops to attack Fuliang and Jingdezhen.Zuo Zongtang sent Wang Kailin to lead the "Old Xiangying" out of Jingdezhen to resist.The Taiping Army failed in the first battle, and then Li Shixian personally led the army to advance westward, and Wang Kailin was defeated and retreated to Jingdezhen.Zeng Guofan urgently transferred the commander-in-chief of Wannan Town from Jiande to defend Jingdezhen, and Zuo Zongtang led the army to attack Poyang.Li Shixian launched a fierce attack on Jingdezhen, wiped out Chen Dafu's army, and the Taiping Army successfully captured Jingdezhen.Zuo Zongtang was afraid of being wiped out by the Taiping army and fled to Leping.Li Shixian returned to southern Anhui, preparing to attack Qimen again.

Jingdezhen fell into the hands of the Taiping Army, which cut off the food supply of Zeng Guofan's Qimen Camp.Zeng Guofan personally led the Hunan Army from Qimen to Xiuning, trying to capture Huizhou and open the payment road to Zhejiang, but was defeated by the Taiping Army and fled back to Qimen.In desperation, Zeng Guofan wrote a will to explain his funeral, and sat there waiting to die.Just at this moment, Zuo Zongtang defeated the Taiping Army in Leping, and Zeng Guofan survived from desperation.Li Shixian, who was marching towards Qimen, heard the news of Zuo Zongtang's comeback, and transferred his troops to attack Leping.Zuo Zongtang took advantage of Leping's favorable terrain with the mountains behind and the river in front of him, and the three army commanders defeated the Taiping Army on the next day, and even repelled Li Shixian's army, which was known as one hundred thousand, with six or seven thousand people.Li Shixian was forced to retreat eastward, entering western Zhejiang from northern Jiangxi.Zuo Zongtang took advantage of the momentum to occupy Jingdezhen and other places.Qimen's back road was consolidated again, and Zeng Guofan was overjoyed. He praised Zuo Zongtang to the Qing court, "with thousands of new collections, we can defeat ten times the fierce thieves. It is really a profound general strategy, and the time is more wise."Zeng Guofan also said in his family letter: "All the roads behind Qimen will be wiped out. Yu Fang is very happy, thinking that he can sleep in peace."

According to Zeng Guofan's request, the Qing court changed Zuo Zongtang from assisting in military affairs to assisting in military affairs, and then granted Zuo Zongtang the title of Minister of Taichang Temple, the official residence of the third grade.Since then, Zuo Zongtang can be said to have gained a firm foothold in the Qing court, and his future development will be very smooth.

Wisdom Interpretation:

When people praise a person, they often say compliments such as "good job" and "really capable". If we pay a little attention, we will find that these praises are inseparable from a person's achievements.Only by working hard can you be appreciated. When you need Bole's appreciation, you must first be a Maxima.

Instead of using a hundred reasons to prove that you are capable, it is a sad thing that you are unwilling to prove it with a simple result.

(End of this chapter)