In the late Qing Dynasty, Hong Xiuquan and others established a large-scale Taiping Heavenly Kingdom regime under the noses of the Qing Dynasty with the slogan of "One Family in the World, Share the Taiping".
Within this regime, there was public ownership, and all property had to be handed over and distributed fairly from above, and it was forbidden to possess property privately, and the property that was handed over was sent to a great treasury known as the "Holy Treasury".
However, when Tianjing fell, Zeng Guoquan, a famous general of the Qing Dynasty and the leader of the Hunan army, led his army to attack, and when he excitedly led people to crash open the gate of the "Holy Treasury", the scene in front of him surprised him, and he couldn't help shouting: "My life is over!" ”
The Qing Dynasty hated the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom to the core, and Zeng Guoquan was ordered to crusade and finally invaded Tianjing, which was enough for him to enjoy rewards and rewards. Yet, when he opened the door to the treasury, why did he suddenly cry out and cry out and be troubled?
It turned out that Zeng Guoquan felt a great responsibility, and he understood that only by having both wisdom and courage could he truly deal with the situation of foreign difficulties in the late Qing Dynasty. During this period, the Qing Dynasty was corrupt and incompetent, the external powers were eyeing each other, the internal Taiping Heavenly Kingdom peasant uprisings were continuous, internal and external troubles, and the situation was grim.
If it weren't for the support of capable ministers such as Zeng Guofan, Zuo Zongtang, and Li Hongzhang, the Qing Dynasty would have perished long ago. At that time, the people in the country were suffering from the turmoil, and the leaders of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom responded to the call of the people, and developed rapidly and increased their power greatly.
Zeng Guoquan knows that only by having both wisdom and courage can we truly meet the challenges of this era.
Fearing the threat of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Emperor Xianfeng ordered Zeng Guofan to go to Hunan to train his army. However, Zeng Guofan found that the internal problems of the army were complex, that it would take a long time to make a complete change, and that it would not be easy to lead, so he decided to create a new army and train himself to build an elite army.
Zeng Guofan applied to the emperor to recruit soldiers in the area, thus creating the famous Hunan Army, which was later led mainly by his younger brother Zeng Guoquan. Tsang Kwok-tsuen was a controversial legend who was praised as a teenager for his pride and standout.
At the age of sixteen, he began to study with his brother Zeng Guofan, and during the Daoguang period, he entered the county school with the first score in the government examination, and was hired as a tribute student in the second year of Xianfeng, showing profound talent.
Zeng Guoquan learned that his brother had created the Hunan Army, and he always had ambitions in his heart. So, he decisively put down the pen in his hand, joined the army, joined the Hunan army, followed his brother to manage the regimental training, and vowed to exterminate the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
To Zeng's relief, his younger brother was indeed talented, and the Hunan army began to fight the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in the sixth year of Xianfeng, during which Zeng Guoquan showed great courage and resourcefulness, and repeatedly defeated the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's spirit.
In the sixth year of Xianfeng, Shi Dakai, the winged king of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, led an army to attack Jiangxi, and Zeng Guofan commanded resistance, but it was still difficult to resist Shi Dakai's offensive, and the situation was very critical.
When Zeng Guoquan learned the news, he immediately recruited people to support. However, he did not choose to go directly to the rescue, but adopted the strategy of "encircling Wei to save Zhao", which made it impossible for the Taiping army to attack Zeng Guofan with all his strength, and finally successfully resolved the crisis.
In the confrontation with the Taiping Army, Zeng Guoquan was known as the "Iron Bucket General" for his unique encirclement tactics of digging trenches, laying mines, and bombing with explosives.
Among them, the battle of Anqing City is the most famous. In the tenth year of Xianfeng, he led the army to attack Anqing City, this city is easy to defend and difficult to attack, the defenders in the city resolutely resisted, and the Hunan army suffered heavy losses in the process of attacking the city, but it was never able to break the city.
Zeng Guoquan realized that if the defenders inside the city made contact with the Taiping Tian** team outside the city, the situation would be even more unfavorable. Therefore, he decided to take tough measures and ordered three wide and long trenches to be dug in the northeast, west, and south of Anqing City to cut off the food supply and communication between the defenders in the city and the outside world.
This trick really worked, and the army in the city gradually fell into difficulties, and Chen Yucheng, the British king of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, also led troops to attack Zeng Guoquan many times, hoping to save Anqing City.
Zeng Guoquan skillfully used the trench to defend against Chen Yucheng's army, making the Taiping army's bravery null and void here. Chen Yucheng lamented that he had encountered an opponent who was difficult to deal with. Zeng Guoquan took advantage of the terrain and successfully trapped the Taiping army in Anqing City for a year.
The morale of the Taiping army in the city gradually dispersed, and the morale was low. Due to food shortages, many soldiers were incapacitated. Zeng Guoquan seized the opportunity, blew up the city wall with mines, successfully attacked, and successfully occupied Anqing City.
The imperial court rewarded him with a head for his wisdom and bravery. Zeng Guoquan relied on his outstanding wisdom and courage to go deep into Tianjing alone in the first year of Tongzhi. Because of his exploits in the war against the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, he was reused by the imperial court, and was appointed as a political envoy in Jiangsu, and was ordered to continue to lead troops to fight.
In the spring of the same year, Zeng Guofan deployed troops to attack Tianjing, the capital of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. The fall of the city would mean the end of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, which was of great significance to Zeng.
It goes without saying what a feat it would be to help clear up the rebellion in the country.
Zeng Guofan handed over the main attack task to Zeng Guoquan, the younger brother of Zhiyong Shuangquan. However, Zeng's actions frightened the always steady Tsang. His actions can be summed up in four words: the artist is bold and alone.
Tsang once praised his younger brother as the most capable brother, and this was perfectly confirmed by his actions. After getting the main attack mission, Zeng Guoquan's heart was full of determination, he knew the habits of the enemy army, and knew that he couldn't give them a chance to breathe at this moment.
Therefore, he decided to lead the army in one fell swoop and attack directly.
Although Zeng Guoquan's decision-making seemed a little reckless in the eyes of others, he led the army to successfully break the original plan with his accurate judgment, which caught the Taiping army by surprise and occupied important locations such as Hanshan, Hezhou, and Jiangning Town in one go, showing his ambition to go straight to Tianjing.
In May of the same year, Zeng Guoquan's army arrived at Yuhuatai outside Tianjing City, and although the enemy's capital was already within easy reach, this left his army in a dangerous situation of isolation.
His elder brother Zeng Guofan, who learned of this, was very worried and immediately sent a letter to him, suggesting that he temporarily retreat, join up with other Qing troops, gradually clear the Taiping army along the way, and finally besiege Tianjing City.
Zeng Guoquan refused reinforcements and firmly launched an attack on the Taiping army. He believes that only by going deep into the enemy's nest can he truly defeat them. So, he led 20,000 soldiers, using his "iron bucket" tactics, to build fortifications, and take advantage of the geographical advantage to engage in a fierce confrontation with the Taiping army.
Despite the many large-scale attacks of the Taiping army, numbering as many as 200,000 people, and epidemics, he never wavered. He resolutely held his position and finally succeeded in attacking Tianjing City, forcing the enemy to death.
His determination and courage earned him the respect of all.
Zeng Guofan's Hunan army assembled outside Tianjing and besieged Tianjing with Li Hongzhang. By July, chaos began to arise within the Taiping army, and people were panicked. Li Hongzhang saw the opportunity and ordered the gunpowder buried under the city wall to be ignited.
In an instant, the roar was like thunder, the sky collapsed and the earth cracked, the city walls were broken, and the army was overwhelmed! Zeng Guofan led the Hunan army to rush into Tianjing like a flood of fierce beasts, looting treasures, killing people and setting fires.
The reason why Li Hongzhang's troops are so powerful lies in one word - ruthless! Without Li Hongzhang's decisive siege, Zeng Guofan's troops could not successfully disintegrate the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
With the power of one person, he caused the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom to perish several years ahead of schedule.
Zeng Guoquan, a decisive and brave general. He was convinced that an army was like a beast and needed to be fed flesh and blood to keep it sharp. As a result, his troops performed many miracles.
However, his most cherished treasure was not gold and silver treasures, but the legendary sacred treasury of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. When his troops opened the gates of the treasury, they saw nothing of gold or silver.
He couldn't help but exclaim, "My life is at a loss!" "The name of the Sacred Treasury is empty and cannot satisfy his desire for wealth.
So what's the point, one might ask? Even if Zeng Guoquan won a great victory in the battle to capture Tianjing, he could still be richly rewarded if he did not find the treasure.
However, he cried out "My life is at rest", why is that? The reason is that if the treasure cannot be found, Zeng Guoquan will face serious problems.
You must know that the Qing Dynasty at that time was facing a situation of internal and external difficulties, with foreign powers eyeing each other externally and uprisings in various places internally. The imperial regime was undergoing a severe test, the long-term chaos made the treasury empty, and the more chaotic it was, the more necessary it was to train the army to suppress it, and the annual expenditure on military salaries was a huge amount.
For the Qing Dynasty at that time, if a large number of treasures could be found from the "holy treasury", it would undoubtedly bring a respite to the Qing Dynasty's finances.
Before Zeng Guofan invaded Tianjing City, he wrote a letter to his younger brother, emphasizing that if he found a treasure, he must dispose of it properly and hand over his belongings to the imperial court, so as not to leave others to attack him.
As a **, especially a high-ranking ** like them, it is inevitable that there will be political enemies. If this matter is not handled properly, it may anger the emperor and even lose his life.
Therefore, when Zeng Guoquan rushed into the treasure house, he shouted "My life is at rest". He angrily looted in Tianjing City, taking the opportunity to embezzle a lot of property. However, these belongings cannot be compared to the legendary "sacred treasury" treasures.
Where did the treasure go? There are suspicions that it was embezzled. The Taiping Rebellion ultimately failed, and Zeng Guoquan reported to the higher authorities that he had not found the legendary "Sacred Treasury" treasure.
After Zeng Guofan got the news of his younger brother, he felt a great headache. If the treasure is not found, there will definitely be all kinds of gossip, someone will take the opportunity to sow discord, and the emperor will definitely not be happy.
Therefore, he asked Zeng Guoquan to go home to recuperate after saying that he was ill, and he himself took the initiative to hand over his military power, not daring to take the credit for the elimination of the Taiping Army on himself.
Although Emperor Tongzhi was dissatisfied that he did not find his belongings, he understood Zeng Guoquan's exploits in the war and could not easily punish him. He allowed Zeng to return home to recuperate and secretly investigated the veracity of his statement.
All of a sudden, rumors circulated inside and outside the court that Zeng Guoquan had embezzled the treasures of the Holy Treasury. But is this really the case? In my opinion, it is unlikely. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom initially attracted people with the slogan "One Family, Share the Peace", but later signs showed that the regime had become completely "corrupt".
The ruling elite secretly embezzled the funds of the Holy Treasury, and they all knew that this was secretly reducing the assets of the Holy Treasury.
Hong Xiuquan established the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, with great ambition and pride, and a prosperous family business. However, with the expansion of power, his original intention gradually drifted away, indulging in a luxurious life, the crown was made of pure gold, the high-level personnel spent money like dirt, and luxurious mansions rose from the ground.
All this makes one wonder, where does all this wealth come from? If it is really a fair distribution, how can these generals be so profligate? However, the second half of Tsang's life, who is believed to have embezzled treasures, did not live as luxuriously as rumored, but many good records.
This makes one wonder, can power and wealth really bring true happiness?
During his tenure as governor of Shanxi, when the local area suffered from famine, Zeng Guoquan personally did it, ran around, called on all sectors of society to donate money for disaster relief, went all out to treat the victims, advocated reducing forced labor, saving people's expenses, and showed deep concern and compassion for the people.
This is very different from his ruthless image when leading troops into battle, he is resolute to the enemy, but extremely tolerant of the people, and is known as a good official. In his later years, Tsang built a house on a grand scale and magnificent, so some people doubted whether he had used the money he had embezzled.
Zeng Guoquan has been an official in the court for many years, his position is not low, and the wealth he has accumulated in his life is enough to build such a house, and it is reasonable that he will be poor for a while. In addition, if Zeng Guoquan really swallowed it privately"Holy Vault"Treasure, why didn't he take the money and go to a place far away from the emperor to occupy the mountain as the king, why did he live so tired?
You must know that it is very difficult to hide a wealth that everyone knows under the nose of the imperial court.
Zeng Guofan and Zeng Guoquan have been officials for many years, and they know that officialdom is unpredictable, and the slightest carelessness will lead to death, so it is difficult to imagine that Zeng Guoquan would take the risk of embezzling treasures, which does not match his later life trajectory.
Based on the above analysis, I believe that Zeng Guoquan did not embezzle the treasure, otherwise he would not have lived to be 67 years old before he died. However, Tsang's very different attitude towards his enemies and his own people has caused controversy.
And the mystery of his treasure adds a bit of legend to his life, making him a true legend.