My name is Sasha. Let me answer.

In a sense, Fan Wenlan is right.

Mr. Sun Yat-sen, the first Prime Minister, once said a famous saying: The general trend of the world is great, and those who follow it will perish.

Zeng Guofan was a man who went against the times.

Zeng Guofan's greatest achievement in his life was actually the civil war and the suppression of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

It is true that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was not a good bird, but the Manchus were not a good bird either.

The defeat of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom for the sake of the Qing Dynasty was nothing more than an artificial delay in the corrupt rule of the Qing Dynasty.

In fact, just ten years after the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and the Nian Army were eliminated, the Sino-French War ended with the surrender of the Qing Dynasty. A year later, the Sino-Japanese War of 1884-1894 completely defeated the false prosperity and power of the Qing Dynasty.

Facing the small country of Japan, the decadent feudal dynasty was unable to cope. Not only did they compensate Japan 200 million taels of silver equivalent to several years of fiscal revenue, they also lost Taiwan Province and almost lost the Liaodong Peninsula.

What does this mean?

Rotten wood cannot be carved.

It is true that Zeng Guofan initially established the Hunan Army, perhaps just to protect his family and country. But later, to put it bluntly, it was political speculation, not only against ourselves, but also against the Hunan Army.

Because the Hunan Army destroyed the Taiping Army, they are all Hunan Army officers from the middle and lower classes of society, and most of them are named (if they are not dead). Even Hunan Army soldiers can get a lot of military pay to support their families.

The Hunan Army Group accumulated a large amount of wealth through a series of robberies during the war. It is generally believed that after the fall of Nanjing, the Hunan army stole as much as 10 million taels of silver.

With Zeng Guofan’s wisdom and understanding of officialdom, it is impossible not to know that the mud of the Qing Dynasty cannot hold up the wall.

To put it bluntly, their support of the Manchus was just the biggest boast of realizing the interests of a small group, and they gained wealth and power by eliminating the Taiping Army and the Nian Army.

As for ethnicity, that is not what they consider.

Surviving for a decadent feudal dynasty is not a national hero in any way.