Zhao Erxun commented on Zeng Guofan in the "Qing History Manuscript":
The merits of the national domain are based on learning, and they are good at etiquette. The heart of sincerity is especially good. In administering the army, it is necessary to be realistic. All the planning of the world's affairs, for a long time without experience, the world is called it, to the Han Zhuge Liang, the Tang Dynasty Pei Du, the Ming King Shouren, there is no way to pass, how prosperous!This passage compares Zeng Guofan to Zhuge Liang of the Three Kingdoms, Pei Du of Zhongxing Tang Dynasty, and Wang Yangming, who is both civil and military, which is not a low evaluation.
In the eyes of the rulers of the Qing Dynasty, Zeng Guofan is indeed worthy of this evaluation, and his exploits in pacifying the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and saving the Qing Dynasty from the fall of the country are really Zhongxing's ministers.
However, in the process of pacifying the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, in order to be able to attack the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom with the greatest force, Zeng Guofan's methods were cruel, and the slaughter of cities and killings were not uncommon, and they were also criticized by the world.
For example: in the Great War of Xingguo, 130 prisoners were captured, and Zeng Guofan ordered "Ling Chi after gouging out all his eyes";Twelve people were caught outside Jiujiang City, and they immediately "beheaded Ling Chi to show the public", and later thirteen people were caught and "gouged out their eyes on the spot".The Taiping army outside Wuchang City collapsed quickly because they were all new soldiers, so they caught more than 700 young soldiers and "beheaded them all".
If these records seem cruel, what happens after them is even more bloody.
When Zeng Guofan besieged Anqing, Zeng Guoquan led his troops to build a fortress under the city of Anqing and dug several trenches for a long-term siege. Chen Yucheng led the rescue army to station in Tongcheng and constantly sent reinforcements to Tongcheng. The connection between Anqing and Tongcheng is particularly important, and there is an important place called Chigangling between the two cities. Only by occupying this place can the Hunan army cut off the connection between Tongcheng and Anqing and completely encircle Anqing.
In such an important place, Chen Yucheng arranged 4,000 people to guard here, although the number of defenders is not large, but they are all veterans who have followed Chen Yucheng for many years, and their combat effectiveness is very strong.
Zeng Guofan sent heavy troops to launch a continuous attack on this, and under the bloody battle, the Taiping army began to waver, with a total of 3,000 people surrendering in the third base, but Liu Xuanlin's first base swore not to surrender.
These 3,000 people are too important, and if they are not handled well, they will cause chaos. Zeng Guofan immediately instructed Zeng Guoquan to ** them all, and anxiously waited for Zeng Guoquan's news.
I didn't answer my brother's letter today, I don't know what happened to Liu Xuanlin's first base, and whether the third base that has been lowered has been killedKnowing that all the surrendered troops had been killed, Zeng Guofan wrote in his diary:
Bao and Cheng'er towns surrounded the four thieves of Chigangling, and they did not close the team for eight days. On the 29th, three bases were dropped and all of them were killed.At this time, there were 18 Taiping army camps on the north bank of Linghu Lake outside Anqing City, and these Taiping troops had run out of food, and their fighting spirit had begun to waver. The 8,000 Taiping army had to face the attack of the Hunan army and the danger of lack of food, and finally chose to surrender. For these 8,000 captives, of course, Zeng Guoxuan will not stay.
Zeng Guofan's staff Zhao Liewen said in "Diary of a Neng Jing Jushi":
All the thieves outside the city were killed, and 8,000 were killed.After the occupation of Anqing, the Hunan army carried out a brutal massacre of Anqing, and no one was spared.
At the beginning of the first year, Anqing was restored, and the city thieves were killed, and none of them escaped the net, which was unsatisfactory.Some of the corpses in Anqing were discarded into the river, blocking the river so that the steamers could not sail.
* It didn't start in Anqing, Jiujiang before Anqing was already very miserable.
Jiujiang was a fortress painstakingly managed by the Taiping Army, and it was also the target of Zeng Guofan. The two sides fought in Jiujiang for 17 months, and finally broke through the city defense. The city suffered an unprecedented **, and Zeng Guofan's order was not to let anyone slip through the net, and finally 1All 70,000 Taiping troops were killed, and none of the people in the city were spared.
Zeng Guofan said in a letter to Zeng Guoquan:
Jiujiang is recovered, and Fuzhou has also been recovered, Jianchang wants to recover within a few days, and the thief has no way out, and the merit should be in the autumn, although it is as late as the winter to recover, it can also be unhindered, just ask for the whole city to be slaughtered, so that no one will miss the net.After learning that the massacre was completed, Zeng Guofan wrote excitedly in his diary:
After taking over the book, knowing Jiujiang Kefu, he was overjoyed. The slaughter was wiped out, and the officials, gentlemen, and people of the three provinces were all happy.A city was all **, and the officials and gentlemen of the three provinces were all happy, so who should cry bitterly?
In 1864, Tianjing City was broken, and the Hunan army slaughtered the city again, killing 100,000 people in just three days.
Raids and killings were carried out in stages, and more than 100,000 thieves were killed in three days. Qinhuai is a long river, and the corpse is like hemp.The killing was so horrific that the sky was filled with a mist of blood:
Three out of ten thieves are burned, and seven out of ten are burned by soldiers. Dozens of smoke rises, and the air does not disperse, like a mountain, purple and purple.This kind of **, regardless of age or age, men and women, even.
Two and three-year-old children are not spared, according to Zhao Liewen's record in "Nengjing Living Diary":
The 19 dead bodies along the street were all old men, and their young children were not yet young.In this tragic burning and plundering commanded by Zeng Guoquan, the whole city of Tianjing was full of blood, and the fire was lit and candles, and the prosperous Tianjing in the past was suddenly purgatory.Those who are two or three years old are also killed for play.
And to treat his captives of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the methods are even more cruel.
A British** person once described the actual situation of the captives of the Hunan Army **Taiping Army: "This group of captives included men and women, old and young, from newborn babies to 80-year-old toddlers, from pregnant women to girls between 10 and 18 years old. The Qing army handed over these women and girls to a group of hooligans, and then dragged them back and put them to death. Some of the girls were turned over by the executioner, turned face to the sky, torn off their clothes, and then cut straight into their chests with knives.
These executioners did the caesarean section, and they were able to do it without injuring the internal organs, and reached into their chests and pulled out a steaming heart, and the victims stared straight at them as they did such a cruel and inhumane thing. There are also many ** babies who have also been taken from their mother's arms by caesarean section. Many strong male captives were not only disemboweled, but also had to be tortured.
Zeng Guofan killed people like hemp, did he think that future generations would be infamous through the ages?Of course he had thought of it, but he didn't mind, he said:
In order to exterminate the bandits, he did not dare to give up the name of cruelty and cruelty.He also said that since he chose to lead the troops, he should not regret many people, and if he wants to completely destroy the enemy, he must not regret killing too many people
Since he has already led the troops, he thinks that he is determined to kill thieves, so why should he regret killing more people?Even if you plan to destroy, there is no reason to regret killing more.Such remarks can be described as shocking, and it is not an exaggeration to call them murderous maniacs.
For such a large **, it is difficult to look at it directly, and some people are also reflecting, Zeng Guofan's subordinates described the day when the Hunan army broke through Tianjing:
Since the rise of the army, there has never been such a cool person!On the day of the collection of the city, the five drums fell, and when the killing reached Tatsumi, the city was dim, and the road still had to use candles, and the miserable atmosphere was still condensed, and the corpse was rotten and smelly, and it was impossible to turn around. Whew!Who really caused the boundless catastrophe?It was not painful or sad to hear it, but it was unbearable to feel the noise in the chest.The brutal killing lasted from morning to night, and the city was filled with blood and mist, and the gloomy atmosphere lingered.
Whew!Who caused the boundless catastrophe?
The purpose of recording all this is to hope that history will not repeat itself!