Zeng Guofan has two famous sayings: "Forbearance" is enough to ward off disaster stars; to be a hero, knock out teeth and swallow blood.
This sentence made me think deeply.
Zeng Guofan also has a famous saying, which is a vernacular saying that is extremely inconsistent with the status of a great scholar, but he attached great importance to it: to be a good man, he will knock out his teeth and swallow his blood. The image of this sentence is enough for one to imagine the miserable situation in which he said it.
In Zeng Guofan's life, there were two major humiliations:
The first was the humiliation of Changsha. When he first arrived in Changsha to train for bravery, he was full of enthusiasm to reorganize the world and maintain social order with heavy codes, even though he had to bear the infamy of "having had his head shaved"; he went beyond his duties and worked tirelessly to train the regular army's green battalion in an attempt to improve the combat effectiveness of the army. It can be said that he is dedicated to serving the country. But as soon as the work started, the governor of Hunan was replaced by Luo Bingzhang, who did not support him. Seeing that Zeng Guofan had lost his backing, Luying started to cause trouble and openly attacked Zeng Guofan's yamen. If he hadn't run fast, he would have died. Luo Bingzhang, the governor of Hunan who originally came to watch the excitement, had to come forward to "justice" because Zeng Guofan fled to his yamen (next door to Zeng Guofan). However, instead of holding Green Camp accountable, he instead attributed all the responsibilities to Zeng Guofan, who acted impartially. Li ignored the frustrated Zeng Guofan behind him and walked away. Since then, Zeng Guofan has become a joke in Changsha official circles. He could no longer maintain a foothold in Changsha and retreated to Hengyang in embarrassment.
The second humiliation of local power in Jiangxi. At that time, the Hunan Yong (not yet called the Hunan Army) was the only small-scale army that could barely compete with the Taiping Army, and was desperately defending Jiangxi on Xianfeng's orders. However, the Jiangxi government enjoyed protection but refused to provide food and salary, causing Xiangyong to fall into a desperate situation. Zeng Guofan was so angry that he took advantage of his father's death and went home with his son. He threatened Xianfeng and demanded local rights in Jiangxi, otherwise he would not leave the mountain. But Zeng Guofan's bad luck coincided with the internal strife of the Taiping Army. Shi Dakai, the contemporary god of war, withdrew his troops back to Tianjing to quell the rebellion. The pressure on Jiangxi dropped sharply. Xianfeng simply dismissed Zeng Guofan from his post without any scruples and took away his military power! Zeng Guofan was idle at home for a whole year and almost lost the Hunan Army he had worked so hard to create!
In the face of "humiliation", we have three choices: 1. Draw your sword in anger, fight to the death knowing that you are defeated, and fight for a breath; 2. Suffer the anger and accept the situation, and you will be fine if you get used to it; 3. .Be patient and cultivate your strength in order to "win" later.
Neither "drawing your sword in anger" nor "suffering" can solve the problem. The result of the former is "death", because since the other party "humiliates" you, it is because you can't defeat him; the result of the latter is The other party becomes more unscrupulous and will suffer endless "humiliation" in the future.
To solve a problem, you can only find the root cause. The reason for being humiliated is that you are not strong enough and the other party has no scruples. The only way to solve the problem is to cultivate your strength and surpass the other party! But this not only requires effort and opportunity, it is also a long process, and the process itself is a humiliating "suffering" process. Therefore, it’s not that ordinary people can’t bear it.
But how did Zeng Guofan do it?
After the humiliation of Changsha, Zeng Guofan retreated to Hengyang. After deep introspection, he realized that what he did in Changsha was completely useless. What he should really do was to build a strong army. It is possible to "reset things". He changed his previous majestic posture, lowered his stature, made friends with officials far below his own rank in Hengyang, and asked his subordinates to do the same, winning the full support of Hengyang official circles. Recruit troops, recruit wise men from all over the world, build more naval forces, and strictly control the quality of soldiers and conduct rigorous training. In the end, an armed force of 17,000 people was established, whose combat effectiveness was far superior to that of the regular army Green Battalion. At this time, the Taiping Army attacked Changsha, and the Green Camp was defeated. Luo Bingzhang repeatedly requested Zeng Guofan to send troops to rescue, and even Xianfeng issued four imperial edicts. Zeng Guofan remained unmoved, stepped up training, and prepared for war urgently. Until he found out the details of the Taiping Army, he believed that When the time came, he sent out his troops to attack, and he became famous in one battle! Xiangtan and Wuchang were recovered one after another. At this time, the Changsha officialdom had been disgraced, and the military power of the Hunan Green Camp Army was directly handed over to Taqibu, the Hunan Army general.
The humiliation of Changsha will naturally disappear.
The humiliation of local power in Jiangxi a few years later was far more serious than the humiliation in Changsha.
The humiliation in Changsha was nothing more than being laughed at and bullied. When the local power in Jiangxi was humiliated, Zeng Guofan almost lost his life! During the year when he was idle at home, Zeng Guofan lived like a year. He was irritable and his mental state was extremely bad. He even stopped writing family mottos for several months (he never gave up during the war!). Exactly a year later, Shi Dakai couldn't bear the persecution of Hong Xiuquan, so he led his troops away in anger and joined the battle in Jiangxi. As a result, the war situation in Jiangxi became tight again. The Qing government could not command the Hunan army, so it had no choice but to ask Zeng Guofan to come out. Although he did not receive any promise from Xianfeng, Zeng Guofan went against the norm and took office calmly. He no longer made any demands and tried his best to overcome all difficulties encountered (such as food and salary issues, which were mainly coordinated by the Hunan Army general Hu Linyi who served as the governor of Hubei). Work hard and regain the lost ground one by one. In this process, the Hunan Army has grown into a powerful force that controls the destiny of the country. Not only is the army's combat effectiveness unmatched, but many local powers are controlled by Hunan Army generals. There are also many local officials recommended by Hunan Army generals such as Zeng Guofan. . Xianfeng even lamented: Only half of Hong Xiuquan left, and another Zeng Guofan came. Zeng Guofan's "strength" is getting stronger and stronger, how can he not get "real power"?
Let’s make a hypothesis: if Zeng Guofan was too angry and could not bear it, he would “draw his sword and attack” in anger, and do that tragic thing: During the humiliation of Changsha, he only had a thousand regiments of bravery, and the governor of Hunan wanted to “take care of the whole world”. Xianfeng would not blame him for sacrificing him for the "overall situation", otherwise Luo Bingzhang would not dare to do that! When Jiangxi local power was humiliated, although Xiangyong was much stronger than Luying, they only had tens of thousands of people. At best, they were just a "good seedling", which was not enough to compete with the entire Taiping Army. Xianfeng took a wait-and-see attitude at that time. , cultivate and guard at the same time. If you dare to disobey, you will be killed without any scruples. Otherwise, how could the governor of Jiangxi dare to refuse to provide food and salary when Xiang Yong defends his territory? This is also morally unacceptable.
The reason why the other party dares to humiliate you is that after evaluating your strength, he thinks he can "kill" you. Otherwise, who would be so stupid as to commit suicide?
If Zeng Guofan had a powerful Hunan army at that time, would Hunan Governor Luo Bingzhang dare to ridicule Zeng Guofan? If Zeng Guofan's Hunan army was strong enough to control the war situation, how dare the Jiangxi governor refuse to provide food and salary? Xianfeng dares to have no scruples?
Teacher Li Bo summed it up rightly: If you are not in a high position, you must first work at a low level; if your reputation is not right, you must do it in advance, and your "fame" will naturally come; if you are not in your position, you must first seek your political affairs, and your "position" will naturally come. Coming.
To sum up: cultivate strength, preserve strength and develop strength.