Text Editor: Dragon Gate Array
Modern China has internal and external troubles, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is in full swing, the Western powers are greedy and invaded, the court is corrupt, the people are not happy, and the crisis is everywhere. In this context, in order to save the defeat, the Qing court had to allow the local government to organize its own group exercises to suppress the Taiping Rebellion, and many talented officials emerged at that time, Luo Bingzhang was one of them.
He came from a humble background, through the imperial examination road to the official career, through the Daoguang, Xianfeng, Tongzhi three dynasties, the official to the governor of Hunan, the governor of Sichuan, the co-organizer of the university, the people of the time and the late Qing Dynasty Zhongxing famous minister Zeng Guofan called"The east and west look at each other, and the world relies on it", he was incorruptible all his life and was known as"The first Qing official of the late Qing Dynasty", he rectified the rule of officials, benefited the people, and was supported by the people. At the same time, he is also a very controversial historical figure, who worked hard for the Manchu Qing Dynasty all his life, and was dyed red for killing his compatriots.
Today, let's go through the fog of history to find a real Luo Bingzhang.
Old photos of Guangzhou in the late Qing Dynasty.
Luo Bingzhang, formerly known as Jun, the word Humen, the number Ruzhai, was born in Huaxian County, Guangdong Province (now Huadu District, Guangzhou City) in the 58th year of Qianlong in the Qing Dynasty. His family originally lived in Luo Village, Huaxian County, Guangdong, his grandfather died early, his grandmother was forced by life, and took Luo Bingzhang's father Luo Chengzhai to remarry to Tongtou Village, a suburb of Foshan Town, so Luo Bingzhang was studying in Foshan when he was a child, he was talented since he was a child, and he participated in the Nanhai County County Examination when he was more than ten years old, and won the first place.
However, the candidates saw that the first place on the list was Luo Jun (Luo Bingzhang's original name), and there was no surname Luo in Nanhai County at that time, thinking that Luo Jun was not from Nanhai and could not take the exam, they asked the examiner to check and verify, and indeed there was no surname Luo in Nanhai, so the examiner denied Luo Bingzhang's results and asked him to return to his hometown to take the exam.
Luo Bingzhang went home and asked his mother about his hometown, and his mother told him about his hometown in Huaxian and the reason for moving to Foshan. So Luo Bingzhang rushed back to Luo Village to recognize his relatives, hoping to take the exam in his hometown of Huaxian County. Who would have expected that Luo Hongzhang, the principal of the Luocun clan at that time, did not recognize him as a Luocun native because Luo Bingzhang's grandmother had remarried.
Luo Bingzhang had no choice but to return to Foshan Town. When passing through the big whirlpool, he learned that there were many surnames Luo in the nearby villages, and got the sympathy and help of a villager with the same surname, and asked him to go to Luo Bingxing, a native of Hualing Village, to intercede with his father and take him in. Sure enough, he obtained Luo Bingxing's promise and support, recognized Luo Bingzhang as his brother, and asked Luo Bingzhang to worship a woman surnamed He in Hualing Village as his stepmother.
Later, Bingzhang participated in the Huaxian exam, reported to Guanhualing, and won the first place in the exam, and then tried to raise people in the provincial capital high school.
In the twentieth year of Daoguang (1832), Luo Bingzhang was also a jinshi, and he was a scholar of the Hanlin Academy, awarded the editor, and was in charge of the notes. Although this official is not big, he has a lot of "oil and water".
As soon as he took office, he abolished bad rules and strictly managed, so he was slandered by some ** filthy officials, who spoke ill of him everywhere in an attempt to drive him away. But the imperial court still reused him, and his officials became bigger and bigger: to Shizhong, Honglu Temple Shaoqing, Fengtianfu Cheng and Xuezheng.
In the twenty-third year of Daoguang, the deficit of the treasury occurred, and Luo Bingzhang was implicated in the crime of negligence and was dismissed. Fortunately, Emperor Daoguang knew Luo Bingzhang's personality and knew that he was fair and selfless on weekdays, so he issued a decree to appoint him as a concubine. Later, he was ordered to go to Shandong, Henan, Jiangsu and other provinces to inspect. Later, he was promoted to a bachelor's degree, a Hubei envoy, a political envoy in Guizhou, and a political envoy in Yunnan.
In the thirtieth year of Daoguang (1850), Emperor Xianfeng ordered Luo Bingzhang to serve as the governor of Hunan. During his tenure in Xiangfu, Luo Bingzhang supported Zeng Guofan's regimental training and the establishment of the Hunan army. Zeng Guofan fought against the Taiping army, and Luo Bingzhang was "paid with all his strength." He also extended Xiangyin to raise Zuo Zongtang as a staff member, recruited cronies, and trained soldiers. Troops were sent into Hubei, Guangdong, and Jiangxi to attack the Taiping army many times. After 1854, he sent troops to defeat the Hunan Tiandihui uprising and assisted in suppressing the Miao people in Guizhou.
It was also at this time that Hong Xiuquan, a native of Huaxian County, Guangdong, led the Taiping Army to patrol from Guangxi to Hunan.
At that time, his fellow countryman Hong Xiuquan was leading the Taiping army from Guangxi into Hunan. In order to wipe out the Taiping army in Hunan territory, the imperial court urgently ordered Cheng Cai, the governor of Huguang, to take command in Hunan, and assisted in the defense with Luo Bingzhang, the governor of Hunan, and Yu Wanqing, the governor of Hunan. Although Luo Bingzhang was busy with military affairs, he still offended Sai Shang'a, a bachelor who was a minister of the Imperial Mission.
Wild history records: Luo Bingzhang and Hong Xiuquan studied in the same private school when they were young, and Hong Xiuquan often said, I must rebel when I grow up. Luo Bingzhang said: "If you rebel, I will put down your rebellion!" Hong Xiuquan despised Luo Bingzhang and said, "You don't have the ability to level me!" Luo Bingzhang said: "Even if I can't calm you, I have to recommend a powerful person to calm you on my behalf!" —Grand View of the History of the Qing Dynasty
At that time, Sai Shang Ah Zheng supervised the Hunan border, and saw that Luo Bingzhang ** was not rich enough, thinking that it was disrespectful to him, so he secretly played to the imperial court on the grounds that Hunan was more abolished, and asked for Luo Bingzhang to be punished. The newly appointed Emperor Xianfeng issued an edict asking Luo Bingzhang to go to Beijing with a vacancy.
At this time, the Taiping army had entered Hunan, the Qing army was in chaos, and Cheng Cai, the governor of Huguang, retreated from Hengzhou to Changsha; Yu Wanqing lost Daozhou, Guiyang, Chenzhou and other places, and was arrested by the imperial court, and Luo Bingzhang was also removed from his post for failing to prevent it.
Xiao Chaogui, the western king of the Taiping army, led the Taiping army directly to the city of Changsha, and the new governor Zhang Liangji was not yet in place, Luo Bingzhang had to be ordered to hold Changsha, and led the Qing army to fire artillery at the Taiping army's position, and Xiao Chaogui was killed in the artillery.
The Taiping army continued to attack the city, but due to Luo Bingzhang's proper defense, coupled with the arrival of a large number of Qing troops such as Xiang Rong, He Chun, and Zhang Guoliang to reinforce the city, the Taiping army had to withdraw from Changsha and advance north to attack Yueyang.
Seshana and Cheng Cai were dismissed for missing the plane. Luo Bingzhang was exempted from discussion because of his meritorious service in defending the city, and was summoned to Beijing. In 1857, Luo Bingzhang imitated the example of Yangzhou's donation, in Hunan "pumped salt and gold", and raised millions of dollars for the Hunan army, in 1859, the Taiping Army Shi Dakai entered Hunan from Jiangxi to attack Baoqing, Luo Bingzhang sent reinforcements in many ways, so that Shi Dakai attacked the city in February.
In October 1859, Li Yonghe and Lan Chaoding moved from Zhaotong Cowhide Village in Yunnan Province and entered Sichuan, besieged Xuzhou, occupied Jian (Wei) Le (Mountain) and Zigong Salt Farm, met Niu Fodu, galloped through more than 40 prefectures and counties, invincible, and then forced Chengdu. The people of all ethnic groups in Sichuan responded with a wave of momentum. The governor of Sichuan Youfeng, the successor governor Zeng Wangyan was repeatedly defeated and at a loss.
The Qing court was extremely frightened, and in October 1860, Luo Bingzhang urgently instructed Luo Bingzhang to supervise the military affairs of Sichuan and lead the Hunan army into Sichuan. In the spring of the following year, Luo Bingzhang waited for his troops to move after arriving in Shashi, forcing the governor of Sichuan, Chongshi, to promise to take the largest tax in Sichuan at that time, Kui tariff silver, as the salary of the Hunan army, and on May 26, he led more than 5,000 people from Huang Chunxi's department of the Hunan army to arrive in Wanxian on the Shuojiang River.
At this time, the rebel army Zhang Dicai besieged Shunqing (now Nanchong), and Luo Zhang sent Huang Chunxi to lead the Guoyi army to suppress it. Who knew that the rebel army skillfully set up an ambush, captured and killed Huang Chunxi in Tongchuan Erlang Field, and severely damaged the Hunan army.
Luo Bingzhang was hit by this, and his face was quite unbearable, but he didn't expect Li Lan's army to be so powerful, so he began to stand still again.
On July 8, the army arrived in Shunqing, cleaned up the remnants, and recruited a lot of villagers, and the momentum was much bigger.
Based on the experience of confronting the Taiping Army in Hunan, Luo Jianzhang began to judge the situation, repeatedly familiarized himself, and finally discovered some rules of Li Lan's army. Second, although Li Lan's army is very cunning, because its combat effectiveness is not strong, the rebel army is not the strongest, and the rebel army has different reasons, each has its own consideration, and it is not monolithic. It's not as tough as the Taiping Army.
At present, it should be noted that the whereabouts of these contingents that have risen into trouble are scattered and scattered, and this is the trouble and the most difficult place to deal with, so it is necessary to take measures to "lure Li Lanyi's army into one place" to encircle and annihilate it, and at the same time order all prefectures and counties to raise salaries on the spot, organize regimental training, guard the border and assist in suppression, and "free up the strength of the province's defense army and battalion system to appease the enemy," so as to free up the predicament of the Qing army being exhausted and exhausted.
After the rebel army joined forces from Niufodu, Li Yonghe guarded Qingshen and fought Meizhou, Lan Chaoding besieged Mianzhou, shaking northern Sichuan, Sichuan Governor Zhantai was defeated and awarded, and Tang Jiong, the governor of Mianzhou, was poor and poor. In order to suppress the rebel army as soon as possible, the Qing court had to appoint Luo Bingzhang as the governor of Sichuan on August 25, 1861, and still supervise the military affairs of Sichuan.
Luo Daquan was full of ambition in his hand, played the imperial court, and advocated that "the Li Party is the most, and the Blue Party is the most fierce", advocating attacking the first rebellion and smashing its lair, so he entered Tongchuan and deployed to encircle and suppress the Blue Rebel Army.
He also asked Jiang Yulong, the governor of Sichuan, to contain Li Yonghe in Meizhou, prevent him from rushing north to help, and transferred Hu Zhonghe, Xiao Qinggao, and He Shengbi, the commanders of the Guoyi battalion of the Hunan army, to lead their troops to attack the camp of the Dongyue Temple Righteous Army in three ways, and the rest of the Qing army cooperated with the flanking attack and deployed defenses to intercept them.
On September 5, Luo mobilized all Qing troops and launched a general attack on the position of the Ding army of the Blue Dynasty.
On October 16, 1861, Luo Bingzhang entered the position of governor of Chengdu, and as soon as he took the position, he immediately rectified the camp affairs and removed the political envoy of Sichuan and the deputy general of the Chinese army from his post for investigation.
In the following month, he mobilized the army again to attack Li Yonghe's troops, drove Li Yonghe to Qingshen, and then quickly gathered all his forces, and set out to attack Danling, which was defended by Lan Chaoding, and Lan Chaoding was defeated and killed.
After Luo Bingzhang defeated Lan Chaoding, he once again concentrated his forces and attacked Qingshen. Li Yonghe led his troops to retreat to Qianwei Iron Mountain, rotated Zhanchuan South Tianyangping and Bajiao Village, and retreated to Qianwei Longkong Field in September 1862.
Luo Bingzhang ordered the newly appointed political envoy Liu Rong to personally go to Longkongchang to supervise the battle, mobilize tens of thousands of Qing troops, build nine roads in the wooden city, surround them layer by layer, and divert the river to flood Longkongchang.
The rebel army was in a desperate situation. In October, Li Yonghe and Mao Dexing were defeated and captured. Luo Bingzhang sentenced the two to death, and the remaining 4,000 people were "handed over to various battalions" and "beheaded together"; I saw that the execution site was "a mountain of corpses and bones, and a river of blood", which was miserable.
That is, in the spring of the same year, Luo Bingzhang's old opponent Taiping Army Shi Dakai broke into Sichuan in Lichuan, Hubei, conquered the stone pillar, and entered the siege of Fuzhou.
Luo Bingzhang was shocked when he heard the news, and urgently dispatched Liu Yuezhao's troops of the Hunan army from Hubei to Sichuan, sent the general soldier Tang Yougeng and others to the land route to block and suppress, sent sailors and gunboats to block the river, and "flew to retreat the ships along the Hezhou County." Shi Dakai could not cross the river and turned to the southern part of the war, at this time, Li Lan's uprising in Sichuan had failed, and Luo Bingzhang did his best to deal with Shi Dakai.
In January 1863, after Shi Dakai and the Qing army lost the battle at Hengjiang, he retreated to Yunnan, crossed the Jinsha River from Miliangba (now Qiaojia, Yunnan) to the north, and arrived at Zidadi in the south of Dadu River on May 14, preparing to cross the river and head to Chengdu. In order to reduce the resistance to the march, Shi Dakai also gave gifts to Tusi Wang Yingyuan to buy roads.
After Luo Bingzhang heard the report, he immediately dispatched troops and deployed troops on the north bank of the Dadu River: Admiral Hu Zhonghe guarded the upper reaches of the Luding Bridge, the general Tang Fageng and others were stationed in the area of Anqing Dam on the opposite bank of Zidadi, and the deputy general Xie Guotai occupied the northwest line of the Songlin River and surrounded and intercepted Shi Dakai from the north and west.
Qing Dynasty Yi armed forces.
Then he used his means to persuade and lure the Tusi King Yingyuan, and sent ** 1,000 taels, promising that "after the thief is broken, all the assets will be listened to and collected". and bribed the Yi Tusiling Chengen, making them treacherous and turning against Shi Dakai.
Under the deployment of Luo Bingzhang, the Qing army and the Tusi armed forces pressed Shi Dakai step by step, Shi Dakai led the soldiers to fight fiercely for nearly a month, ** miserable, failed to cross the river, ran out of ammunition and food, sent a letter to Luo Bingzhang in grief and despair, willing to "sacrifice his life to the whole three armies", on June 13, he was deceived by the Qing army and threw himself into the camp of Maguqing.
On June 25, the Qing army sent Shi Dakai prisoner to Chengdu, and Luo Bingzhang and Chengdu general Chongshi were promoted to the hall for trial. Shi Dakai also regretted his easy surrender at this time, and he held his head high and refused to bend his knees. Chongshi was in tears when he asked.
Luo Bingzhang gritted his teeth and asked, "It's worth it for you to kill you today." Since your incident, you have ravaged several provinces, and our feudal officials have died in the hands of your Shi Dakai, and today you are dead, what else is there to hate? ”
Shi Da laughed and said: "If you kill me in this life, who knows that I won't kill you in the next life?"
Luo Bingzhang was annoyed and angry, and ordered Shi Dakai to be sentenced to Ling Chi to death. For the more than 2,000 soldiers under Shi Dakai, Luo Bingzhang also besieged and killed them all on the evening of June 19 with the idea that "the remnants of the party will be wiped out, and the future troubles will be lost".
In the process of encircling and suppressing Shi Dakai, although Luo Bingzhang did not directly march to participate in the encirclement and suppression, he coordinated the overall situation, arranged the troops, dispatched troops, and contacted Wang Yingyuan, Tusi Cen Chengen, etc., who worked together to encircle and suppress, forcing Shi Dakai to have no way to escape, and finally defeated the Dadu River, so he was rewarded by the Qing **. During his time in charge of Sichuan, Luo Bingzhang suppressed the Lan Ding Dynasty and Li Yonghe's uprising in less than two years. In less than a year, Shi Dakai was quickly pacified.
Therefore, Luo Bingzhang was once again rewarded as "Prince Shaobao" and said that he eliminated the great confusion accumulated by the imperial court, annihilated it with one blow, and made proper scheduling, and he was worthy of being a feudal minister.
Although Luo Bingzhang was famous for killing Shi Dakai, he killed him and more than 2,000 people in his department in a cruel way, and the methods were too cruel.
After that, Luo Chengzhang sent troops to suppress the Songpan and Nanping Tibetan and Qiang ethnic uprisings.
In 1865, he sent Zhou Dawu to defeat the remnants of the Northwest Taiping Army, and Liang Chengfu was in Jiezhou, Gansu (now Wudu).
In 1866, Song Shangjie, the leader of the Yi people in Mabian, was strangled.
However, the surging peasant struggle in Sichuan forced Luo Bingzhang to admit: "The thieves are becoming more and more arrogant, the places are ravaged, and there is almost no land and no thieves.
Portrait of Luo Bingzhang.
However, Luo Bingzhang has made great contributions to the management of Sichuan, especially in the rectification of the administration of officials, and he has severely punished generals who do not abide by military discipline and those who are not brave in battle, and he has done a good job in dismissing and investigating and prosecuting those who are disorderly.
In addition, after Luo Bingzhang took office, he also continued to recommend capable talents. After several years of rectification, a large number of elite soldiers and strong generals were trained, which changed the situation of unscrupulous generals in Sichuan at that time. For example, Xi Baotian, Zhou Dawu, Liu Yuezhao, Tang Yougeng, Hu Zhonghe and others, under the supervision of Luo Bingzhang, after several years of training, successively became the feudal officials, and were promoted to the governors of Yunnan, admirals, Guizhou, and Shaanxi.
The Qing court also attached great importance to Luo Bingzhang's protégé, and even gave him the right to procure Hunan soldiers from other provinces. Under Luo Bingzhang's sponsorship, these people were able to give full play to their talents and make great achievements, which made Luo Bingzhang's official career reach its peak, and his reputation was prominent and powerful.
At the time of quelling the rebellion in the province, Luo Bingzhang also paid attention to solving the problem of heavy taxes on the peasants, and in view of the phenomenon of excessive collection and numerous tax items in Sichuan, Luo Bingzhang drew up a register to prevent officials from raising taxes privately, and at the same time sent honest and honest gentry to supervise them, and severely punished non-judges when they were discovered.
When Luo Bingzhang took office, there was already a serious crisis in the salt industry in Sichuan, and in particular, he continued to assist other provinces in paying military salaries, which caused Sichuan's finances to be increasingly depleted.
Because Luo Bingzhang has done an excellent job in governing Sichuan, ensuring the stability of Sichuan, and stabilizing the southwest region of China, he has received many rewards from the Qing Dynasty. In the three years of the Qing Dynasty's performance appraisal of local government, Luo Bingzhang received a lot of praise.
In 1864, the Hunan army captured Tianjing, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement was extinguished, the Qing court was rewarded, and Luo Bingzhang was rewarded with the rank of first-class light car lieutenant, and was rewarded with dazzling eyes. Later, he was promoted to co-organizer of the Fellowship.
In the sixth year of Tongzhi, Luo Bingzhang died in Sichuan. The Qing court "gave the edict of mercy, calling it "loyal and bright, honest and diligent", presented the prince and the prince, enshrined in the Xian Liang Temple, and built special shrines in Sichuan and Hunan. Give his son Tianbao as Langzhong, Tianzhi as a lifter, and his grandsons as officials, Mi Wenzhong.
Statue of Luo Bingzhang. Luo Bingzhang has been the governor of Sichuan for ten years and the governor of Sichuan for seven years, loyal and patriotic, and conscientious. As a feudal official, his style of work is honest, upright, and uninhibited, and he has won the praise of the imperial court and the praise of his colleagues.
He was born in troubled times, in an eventful autumn, and he was dedicated to making meritorious contributions, and in his sixteen-year career as a Beijing official, he can be said to be smooth sailing, or he can be said to be doing nothing.
He really began to display his talents when he was the governor of Hunan and continued until his death.
Luo Bingzhang is keen on fame, but he is not an official for the convenience of money, but to make a difference. Throughout his life as an official, he has always shown hard work and dedication, and he can even use "foolish loyalty" to describe Luo Bingzhang.
He does not have the amazing talent of Zeng, Zuo, Li, Hu and others to save the country, but he knows how to use his own strengths, learn from the strengths of others, and make up for his own shortcomings. Able to be courteous and virtuous, select talents without sticking to one pattern, so that his surroundings are full of talents.
However, in the late Qing Dynasty, the government was corrupt and the country was in decline, and it was always impossible to change the overall situation with the power of only a few so-called Zhongxing famous ministers. Luo Bingzhang was blindly loyal to the monarch and brutally suppressed the peasant ** movement, reflecting his personal ** side.
Despite this, whether Luo Bingzhang served as the governor of Hunan or the governor of Sichuan, after all, he was still able to do things honestly, serve the people with sincerity, and fulfill his duties, attach importance to the rule of officials, do not seek personal gain, be honest and honest, and did a lot of practical things, which was praised by the people of Hunan and Sichuan, which reflected the valuable side of Luo Bingzhang's personality.
References:Xie Fang: Luo Bingzhang.
Chang Hong: Late Qing Dynasty Governor Fu Luo Bingzhang.
Li Yuan: Luo Bingzhang's three ups and downs in officialdom.
Li Juhong, Huang Xinhua: Luo Bingzhang's family history and others.