Why is Ceng Guoquan called "General Iron Barrel"?

Xiang army was at the end of Qing dynasty, and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom movement rose, so the regular army of Qing dynasty could not resist and had to use local armed forces. The Xiang army led by Zeng Guofan developed at this time.

Taiping rebellion

In the second year of Xianfeng, Zeng Guofan was ordered to help the minister of Hunan and brought him and his youngest brother out. Ceng Guoquan is a senior officer in Big Brother's camp, helping to deal with military affairs. Ceng Guoquan is very military-minded. He gave Zeng Guofan a lot of military advice, most of which were adopted.

Iron drum general Ceng Guoquan

Later, after working as a military assistant for a year, Ceng Guoquan was sent to lead the army. At this time, his talent for leading troops began to appear. Xianfeng entered Jiangxi in October, recovered Anfu County in November, and repeatedly defeated Taiping Army. In September of the seventh year of Xianfeng, he returned to the battlefield in mourning. Later, he led the troops to recover Xiajiang, Jishui, Taihe, Longquan, Wan 'an and other counties. In August of the eighth year of Xianfeng, Ji 'an Prefecture was captured, and then Jingdezhen and Fuliang were recovered by the orders of the eldest brother. At this time, Ceng Guoquan and Hu Linyi made plans to restore Anhui, and Ceng Guoquan bore the heaviest burden-besieging Anqing, the capital of Anhui. Anqing Shoujiang Liu Canglin and Ye are extremely loyal and brave Taiping soldiers. Ceng Guoquan met her strongest opponent since her debut. His strategy is to clear all the fortresses built outside Anqing, then dig deep ditches, surround Anqing, bury explosives in it, blow up the city walls and rush in.

Charge and smash enemy positions

Because of the brute force around Anqing, Ceng Guoquan is called "Zeng Tietong", and a bird can't fly out, so it can't escape. Since then, Tietong's reputation has spread all over the world.

In April of the first year, Ceng Guoquan made an earth-shattering decision: with more than 20,000 people in his auspicious camp, he captured Nanjing, the lair of Taiping Army. Everyone thinks this is a big joke. The walls of Nanjing are tall and majestic, stretching for dozens of miles. It's an idiotic dream that just 20,000 people captured Nanjing. Even Zeng Guofan, his eldest brother who appreciates and supports him the most, is not optimistic. He wrote to him and told him not to be impulsive and to learn from him. No one could stop Ceng Guoquan's stubbornness, so he really withdrew his troops and camped outside Yuhuatai. Instead of attacking the city immediately, he tried to dig trenches and build walls and fortresses. No sooner had the fortifications been built than the muskets and cannons came to kill him, scaring Zeng Guofan into a cold sweat and writing letters to recruit Ceng Guoquan back. Ceng Guoquan refused, but in desperation, he had to send more troops to Ceng Guoquan, up to 50,000 at most, but the troops besieged Nanjing were still too weak.

Station more troops.

Taiping Army failed to attack Ceng Guoquan camp many times and began to send more troops. The cruelest thing happened between August and September of the first year of Tongzhi. First, Li Xiucheng, a loyal soldier, led an army of 300,000 troops, starting from Fangshan in the east and Banqiao in the west, eyeing up hundreds of battalions in an attempt to annex Ceng Guoquan's troops. Zeng Guofan sleepless, immediately ordered Laojiu to withdraw. Laojiu insisted on not withdrawing, took the lead and personally commanded at the front. The shell hit his left face, bleeding profusely. He is still standing in the forefront, and the supreme commander is brave and not afraid of death. Which foot soldier dares to retreat? This lasted for half a month, and Li Xiucheng finally fell apart.

However, the Taiping Army stormed and the war was not over. At the beginning of September, Li Xiucheng's cousin Li Shixian transferred troops from Zhejiang to help Li Xiucheng. The two armies claimed to be 800,000, and once again surrounded Auspicious Camp. The Taiping forward is only 60 meters away from the Xiang army camp. The Taiping Army and the Xiang Army fought fiercely every day, and the artillery fire kept on day and night, playing countless battles, large and small. Finally, the auspicious word camp forced the Taiping Army to retreat.

Taiping army increased its strength.

The war lasted for 46 days, with more than 50,000 people killed in Taiping Army and more than 5,000 people killed in Jizi Camp. Since the founding of the army, there has never been such a protracted war, which Guo Songtao called "a fierce battle between ancient and modern times." He said that no war can surpass this fierce battle. After this fierce battle, the auspicious word camp stood firm outside Tianjing.

Fight head-on with the enemy

Then Ceng Guoquan continued to dig deep ditches, dig long trenches, dig tunnels, bury explosives, and blow up the city walls in the same way as he did in Anqing. On June 16th, the third year of Tongzhi, Ceng Guoquan, on his own, blasted the gap next to the emergency exit and led the auspicious word camp to capture Nanjing, ranking first in the world.

Win the first prize

Xiang army is not a regular army, but belongs to local armed forces, so the soldiers, weapons and expenses should be prepared by themselves. Weapons and expenses are easy to say, but it is difficult to replenish troops. Hunan is so big, manpower supplement is limited, and it can't afford mass casualties. Therefore, Zeng Guofan and his aides had to formulate a strategic phalanx of "hard camp and slow battle" to effectively kill the enemy and reduce their own losses through an anti-customer-oriented approach. However, it completely implemented the strategic policy of "hard camp and slow battle", focusing on besieging the enemy, and finally won the title of "General of Iron Barrel", which was a great success in the world!