Why are more than half of Zeng Guofan's Xiang army and senior generals scholars?

Lead: More than half of the senior generals in Zeng Guofan's Xiang Army are scholars. They joined the army, defected to Zeng Guofan, and jointly formed the Xiang Army.

From the day when Xiang army formed its own army, it became the sworn enemy of Taiping Army. After several years of bloody battles, these literati headed by Zeng Guofan finally conquered Nanjing and wiped out the vigorous Taiping Heavenly Kingdom movement.

Then, why did these scholars join the army and fight to the death with the powerful and brave Guangxi Taiping Army?

I think the reason is:

1. Hong Xiuquan engaged in a nondescript religion of worshipping gods, which was hated by scholars trained by China's traditional thought.

Moreover, Hong Xiuquan hated traditional Confucian culture because of his repeated failures in the imperial examination. He blindly smashed the Confucius Temple and burned Confucian books, which caused great damage to the traditional culture of China.

Traditional intellectuals in China regard Confucius as a saint, and Confucian cultural classics are sacred books in the eyes of scholars. Hong Xiuquan's practice has aroused the indignation of scholars all over the world.

Therefore, Hunan officials, led by Zeng Guofan and Hu Linyi, indicated that they would stand up and form a Xiang Yong to fight Hong Xiuquan, a "cult", with swords and guns on the battlefield, in order to safeguard the traditional famous religion.

2. Xiang Army, as its name implies, is an army composed of Hunan people. Zeng Guofan, Hu Linyi, Zuo and others are all outstanding scholars in Hunan.

Hunan people have a strong sense of hometown. Because the Taiping Army tried to capture Hunan several times, Zeng Guofan and others could never tolerate this army of heretical religious thoughts trampling on their own land of mulberry.

Seeing that green camp and the Eight Banners of the Qing army were vulnerable to the violent military offensive of Taiping Army, Hunan officials headed by Zeng Guofan and Hu Linyi thought it necessary to form a new army to defend their hometown as soon as possible. At the same time, we rushed out of the Hunan border and fought against the Taiping rebels outside Sang Zi, striving to destroy the Taiping rebels on our own.

(Hu Linyi, a big housekeeper, is no less prestigious than Zeng Guofan)

When Zeng Guofan and Hu Linyi recruited Xiang Yong, they used the relationship between teachers and students to attract a large number of soldiers who were interested in joining the army to kill the enemy and protect education, and trained them to become excellent generals. For example, Peng Yulin and Li Hongzhang are all students of Zeng Guofan; Later, the Li brothers, who were famous for their bravery and fighting skills, were also scholars.

(Uprightfully trained a powerful Xiang Navy)

It seems like a joke for scholars to join the army, but once they joined the war, scholars, Li and others became an instant hit, and their strong fighting style shocked the soldiers of Taiping Army. Since then, Xiang has become the sworn enemy of Taiping Army. Their fighting capacity is far stronger than that of decadent green camp, and they are regarded as enemies by the Taiping Army, calling them hard bones.

Li is a scholar and is famous for his bravery. )

Since the Qing Dynasty was founded more than 200 years ago, its foundation has long been consolidated. On the other hand, scholars are full of loyalty to the monarch and patriotism. They regarded the Qing court as orthodox and the object of their loyalty.

(Luo Zenan, the founder of Xiang Army and a great scholar, died at the gates of Wuchang)

Therefore, these scholars saw that the country was so chaotic, and naturally shared the responsibility for the court and the emperor to solve the problem.

This is the idea of "loyalty to the monarch" advocated by feudal society, which has played a great role in these literati, making these storytellers walk out of the comfortable study, put down their pens, pick up their swords and guns, and set foot on the cruel battlefield to "complete what's going on in the world" for their loyal Qing emperor and continue to safeguard the rule of the Qing Dynasty.

4. Due to the corruption of the officialdom and the close-knit network, the minister of Manchu held the power of state affairs. Except Zeng Guofan and Hu Linyi get along well in their official careers, most other Hunan scholars don't get along well.

And after the outbreak of jintian uprising, these people who were born scholars but didn't get along well in officialdom were keenly aware that this was a godsend and a great opportunity for them to make contributions!