"Light wealth is enough to gather people, self-interest is enough to convince others, leniency is enough to win people, and being first is enough to lead people. Zeng Guofan, as one of the four famous ministers of the late Qing Dynasty, his officialdom experience can be described as tortuous. When he first entered the career, due to his lack of understanding of the 'insider' of officialdom and his lack of 'filial piety' to his superiors, he was ostracized by a group of Qing Dynasty colleagues who regarded themselves as 'corrupt and corrupt Xi'.
It wasn't until he suppressed the 'Taiping Civil Strife', was promoted to the 'Governor of Liangguang', and was 'exposed to it' in the high-level circles, that he gradually understood the Qing Dynasty's 'way of being an official'. However, when Zeng Guofan was the 'Governor of Liangguang', he only received more than 100 taels of taels a year, but he spent several million taels**.
How exactly does this work?
There is only one answer to this question, and that is corruption. As the saying goes, "the upper beam is not right and the lower beam is crooked", the corruption problem in the officialdom of the late Qing Dynasty was serious to a certain extent, and it was also due to the acquiescence and connivance of the leaders at that time. Cixi, as the de facto ruler of the late Qing regime, lived a life of extreme luxury. Her rouge is made of millions of roses, tens of thousands of catties of fresh fruits are placed in the palace every year, and there are more than 60,000 sets of clothes in the exclusive imperial wardrobe, and the fabrics are all the highest grade satin.
Every meal is full of Han people, and the rest is thrown away. Even under the impact of the war of aggression, she openly called for the promotion of "frugality", but behind the scenes, she still lived a luxurious life.
Where did Cixi's huge expenses come from?In addition to ostensibly looting the treasury for various reasons, there is also a 'gift' to the **, which is reflected in her 'special expenditure system'. She withdraws as much as 160,000 taels from the state treasury every year, and on this basis, she has added 'special expenses', and later it is no longer even managed by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, but directly handled by the Ministry of Households.
In order to gain her favor, the high-level leaders in Beijing have looted gold and silver treasures everywhere, and even did not hesitate to embezzle military funds to repair the palace for her.
Zeng Guofan, as a Han Chinese, was in the officialdom of the Manchurian people, and he was already facing many difficulties.
The shackles of rules have made him, a person who advocates thrift and duty, repeatedly hit a wall in officialdom. It is difficult for the grassroots to cope with the problems of people's livelihood, and the additional costs of the upper class are beyond their reach.
Zeng Guofan lived a frugal life, and he was reluctant to change his official uniform when it was torn, and the servants in the family changed jobs one after another due to low salaries. However, this incorruptible and noble quality did not win him the appreciation of officialdom, and his political achievements were not demonstrated. Until the outbreak of the 'Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement', when no one was available, Zeng Guofan put aside his prejudices and actively formed the 'Hunan Army', and after achieving outstanding achievements, he was appointed as the new governor of Liangjiang.
During his tenure as the governor of Liangjiang, Zeng Guofan unexpectedly discovered that the high-level ** was more than ten times that of the grass-roots **, and the important ministers in Beijing could also charge additional fees such as 'fees' and 'maintenance of incorruptible silver'.
This allows them to get an extra tens of thousands of taels per year**. This is not counting the worst corruption of the 'gray income', the Qing Dynasty ** obtained millions of taels of wealth through various means.
For example, they will put fakes and antiques in the store and let people with good intentions buy them at ***, which is called 'elegant bribery'. In order to strengthen the military power of the 'Hunan army', Zeng Guofan began to collect bribes, and even acquiesced in the banditry of the Hunan army to the villages and towns along the way.
After the death of Zeng Guofan, the Qing Dynasty experienced the Sino-French War, the Beiyang Naval Division was completely annihilated, and the 'Westernization Movement' went bankrupt. Zeng Guofan's contribution was not only manifested in the pacification of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, but also in the promotion of the Westernization Movement, the introduction of Western technology to China, and the profound impact on modern China.
However, the feudal mentality made corruption deeply rooted in Qing officialdom. Even after many defeats, they were still unwilling to give up their luxurious lives and allowed corruption to flourish, resulting in the failure of self-rescue operations.