Zeng Dashuai, who exterminated the bandits seven years ago, is now in his twilight, and he has long lost his former vigor, but is seriously ill. In order to prevent him from becoming the second Guoxing, the imperial court took advantage of his failure to suppress the twist, and even coaxed and deceived him to get him to Zhili. Zeng Guofan's heart was not depressed, when he refused to divide the world into three parts of the world, he had expected that there would be today, and he would exchange his honor and disgrace for China's peace, and he would not suffer. But after all, he is an old man, he is already sixty years old, he can look at the world with an open mind, but he can't escape the disease.

Zeng Guofan in Baoding City, has been unable to eat donkey meat burned, Shen Zhen new disease at the same time, liver disease is serious and spleen and stomach weakness, the right eye is blind, and accompanied by vertigo, in and out need someone to support, otherwise a fall will have the possibility of half of the body. Zeng Guofan is a generation of famous ministers, he is not a person who is afraid of difficulties and retreats, and he has benefited the life and death of the country, so he will not avoid it because of misfortune and fortune. Don't say that Tianjin is a big pit, even if it is a mountain of swords and a sea of fire, Zeng Guofan will not hesitate to jump down. But his illness is really serious, and he really can't withstand this long-distance toss, and he doesn't have the energy to intrigue with foreign devils. But there is really no one in the imperial court, Yi Xin can't leave the center, and the others are either not enough or unbearable. Li Hongzhang is in the southwest, Zuo Zongtang is in the northwest, except for Zeng Guofan, the imperial court is really no one to send.

The edict of the Empress Dowager of the two palaces was full of "Zeng Guofan's spirit can be supported", which gave Zeng Dashuai enough face, and now Zeng Guofan had to go to Tianjin to "thoroughly investigate and handle it impartially". There is also an object that arrives with the holy decree, that is, Zeng Guofan is his own coffin from Jiangxi* - Jianchang flower board, which can not help but make Zeng Guofan feel related, and he will go to Tianjin to be more auspicious. Zeng Guofan did not scold "really fucking unlucky" like Guo Xing'a, but calmly explained his future affairs. First, this time I went to Tianjin and brought the coffin with me. Second, if the body dies, the coffin should return to his hometown Hunan for burial, and he will not receive gifts; Third, the articles and writings of his life should be left for future generations to enjoy, but they should not be published in a rigid manner in the world.

Zeng Guofan also left a letter to his sons Zeng Jize and Zeng Jihong: "Yu went to Tianjin a few days ago to investigate the case of beating foreign officials and burning down churches. Foreign countries have fierce temperaments, and the people of Tianjin have arrogant habits, and it is difficult to reconcile. In the future, it is feared that it will lead to great changes. The rest of the trip was repeatedly planned, but there was no good plan. Yu since Xianfeng three years of recruitment, that is, self-sworn to serve the field, now the old age is sick, in times of crisis, will not hesitate to die, in order to conceit its original intention. "Zuo Zongtang carried the coffin to fight in Xinjiang, and his old enemy Zeng Guofan also carried the coffin in the mainland, but Zeng Guofan's battle was much more difficult to fight.

It would take a few days for Zeng Guofan to pack up his things, but he knew that Tianjin couldn't wait, so he first sent a letter to Chonghou and put forward a proposal to deal with the compromise: Even if Qu is in the foreigners, and foreign countries have killed many lives, our generation should also implicit it, so that there is a place where there is a place to turn, and I will not lose the way of being soft and far. pointed out that the truth of the rumors is actually the "pivot of this case". At the same time, Zeng Guofan stated that he was only a role in the meeting, and he was willing to assist Chonghou, and he "shared the same calamity, and shared the same slander, and did not dare to blame him". In addition, before going to Tianjin, Zeng Guofan also sent letters to Li Hongzhang, Ding Richang and others, hoping that these Xinjiang officials, who usually negotiate a lot with foreigners, would give them ideas.

After thinking about it for a long time, Zeng Guofan still made up his mind and wrote a letter to Guoxinga in Changchun. In recent years, the chaos of the Qing Dynasty has gradually subsided, and the Westernization movement has also done well, but the strength is still very weak. But now a group of unfamiliar talents in China are fighting endlessly, and the French are threatening to go to war at every turn. Although Zeng Guofan was ready to retreat, he still needed Guoxing's help, and only Northern Manchu standing by the side of the Qing Dynasty was enough to deter the French. Guo Xing'a has always respected the imperial court, and he has long said that he will not allow any country to invade the Qing Dynasty by force, Zeng Guofan believes that Guo Xing'a will still sell his face.

Before Zeng Guofan's preparations stopped, two days later, the imperial court issued another decree, ordering Chonghou to be the minister of the envoy to France. This means that the conference office has been upgraded to the general office, and the heavy responsibility of teaching the plan is completely on the shoulders of Zeng Yi. In Zeng Guofan's heart, from Baoding to Tianjin, although the road is all the way to the east, and the official road is all the way to the west, this candle in the wind may be extinguished in Tianjin Gate at any time. Zeng Guofan also understood that if he compromised with France, the public opinion of the government and the opposition would definitely not be able to spare him, and his reputation would be ruined. However, he could not help but give up his name, the Qing Dynasty was at the time of development, and no matter what, he could not go to war, he must proceed from the overall situation, rather than caring about personal gains and losses.

With all kinds of ominous premonitions, Zeng Guofan, the governor of Zhili, traveled all the way from Baoding to Tianjin, and was stopped by hundreds of squires and people before entering the city. The people knelt down in front of the sedan chair and presented it, claiming that the occurrence of the lesson plan was caused by Chonghou's partiality towards foreigners, and demanded that the Tianjin lesson plan be clearly decided. Zeng Guofan's mood was even more gloomy, he not only wanted to offend the scholars this time, but he was afraid that even the popularity of the people would be lost, so he could only get out of the sedan chair and hastily comfort him, and then leave with tears.

The French side also continued to exert pressure, Zeng Guofan had just entered Tianjin, and the French minister Luo Shuya and Bishop Fan Guoliang also arrived in Tianjin. Directly went to the Sankou Trade Yamen to meet with Zeng Guofan and Chonghou, and Luo Shuya put forward four conditions in a strong tone: compensate for the church, funeral consul, punish officials, and investigate the "murderer". Three days later, Luo Shuya sent another note to Zeng Guofan, threatening Zeng Guofan that if Zeng Guofan did not execute Zhang Guangzao, Liu Jie, and Chen Guorui, the governor of Tianjin, the French admiral would lead a military ship to Tianjin and completely raze the city of Tianjin to the ground. Chonghou also went to the concession to meet with Luo Shuya and the new French consul in Tianjin, De Vilia, and asked for accommodation and spare Zhang Guangzao and others, but Luo Shuya did not give face at all. Ma Shenwu, the new prefect of Tianjin, brought the representatives of the gentry to Luo Shuya to intercede, but Luo Shuya also sank like water and ignored it.

Zeng Guofan could only issue a notice to tell the people to investigate the murderers and repair the church. At the same time, under several persuasions from Chonghou, Zeng reluctantly agreed to remove Zhou Jiaxun from Tianjin Province, and the prefect Zhang Guangzao and the county magistrate Liu Jie were immediately dismissed, and they were handed over to the Criminal Department for punishment as a punishment. In this way, in addition to Chonghou, Tianjin's leading group was swept to the end and all of them were dismissed. According to Zeng Guofan's original intention, Zhang and Liu are usually fair and honest, and they are good officials, so it is really insulting to show goodwill to foreigners in the way of scapegoats. Moreover, if one by one is really held accountable, there is no doubt that the highest person responsible for the teaching plan at that time is Chonghou, and it is by no means an official at the provincial, prefectural, or county levels. However, Chonghou has the umbrella of Prince Gong on his head, and he shoulders the order to go to France, Zeng Guofan has nothing to do with him, only the dumb eats Coptis chinensis and sulks silently.

It is precisely because the thoughts of right and wrong are constantly fighting in his heart, and as soon as the twist is issued, Zeng Guofan regrets it. He complained to his staff: "Chonghou has been stationed in Tianjin for nearly ten years, mediating between the people and religions, and people are quite ridiculed. After the incident, Chonggong was dissolved, and it was strictly forbidden to gather people to make trouble, so there were many complaints." And his heart softened, and he promised to deal with the local officials, but his words were too partial, and there were many people, and he would be ridiculed by the Qing Council in the future. As expected, the Qingliu of the DPRK and China really began to spray Zeng Guofan, hating him for not being able to be tough and completely refusing the request of a legal person. The voice of criticism was loud, and the emblem of 'traitor' also fell on Zeng Guofan's head. The Hunan townsmen of Jingshi are especially ashamed of the villagers, and the plaques of the officials of the Zeng State Domain hanging in the hall are all destroyed by the villagers who originally regarded them as objects of honor. There seems to be no greater irony that the man who cherishes his feathers the most should do the things that most easily tarnish his reputation. If it weren't for the sake of the country and the overall situation, Zeng Guofan would really rather commit suicide than do this dirty thing.

Even if Zeng Guofan regretted it, he didn't delay him from doing his business, and he didn't forget to inquire about the actual case while regretting it. Zeng Guofan got hundreds of leaders who made trouble at the beginning, and asked what is the evidence for gouging out their eyes and dissecting their hearts? As a result, no one could say one, two, or three. He also interrogated more than 150 Chinese parishioners in the church one by one, and all of them said that they had been practicing teaching for a long time, and that their families had been sent to the church to raise them, and that there were no cases of abduction. In the more than ten days since Zeng Guofan arrived in Tianjin, he has not reported any of the missing children. Therefore, Zeng Dashuai came to the conclusion that the abduction of children for medicine was "all rumors" and "no evidence". He immediately set the principle of "hoping for a quick outcome of peace, regardless of whether the crime should be punished or not", and this principle is appropriate in both sense and reason, but unfortunately this is very different from public opinion.

After ascertaining the facts, Zeng Guofan asked Chonghou to jointly sign a fold - "Finding Out the Approximate Situation of the Tianjin Teaching Plan", which carefully analyzed the reasons why the five Tianjin scholars were suspicious and angry. The church is closed all day long, and there is no way to peep at it, and it is suspicious; The people of China go to the Hall of Mercy for treatment, but they cannot stay for a long time, and they are suspicious. The dead corpse of the Hall of Mercy has the matter of washing the corpse and sealing the eyes, and it is suspicious of the third; The Church of Mercy is therefore not allowed to see the sick people, including relatives, and the suspicious ones are four; The dead were buried in the hall, and there was a coffin and two or three corpses, and five were suspicious. "The people accumulated these five doubts, and the anger of the people was unstoppable." Therefore, Zeng Guofan hoped that the imperial court would issue an edict and announce this situation to the world, so as to relieve the injustice of the people and relieve everyone's confusion. However, I don't know whether Prince Gong and others deliberately deleted it, or whether Chonghou secretly did it, when the court made it public, these five suspicious points were completely omitted, so Zeng Guofan's recital was speaking for foreigners throughout the book, and public opinion was in an uproar for a while. Zeng Guofan is naturally difficult to argue, and he can only be ashamed of his opinions and feel guilty.

The statement that the foreigners of Zeng Guofan had actually done nothing was dismissed as a fallacy by the Beijing Division and the provinces, and they refused to believe it. For a time, public opinion was in an uproar, accusing Zeng Guofan of "betraying the country to seek glory" and "flattering foreigners", and even to the point of "slandering and ridiculing the whole country and wanting to kill". Zeng Guofan, who was once a hero of the Han people, suddenly became the target of public criticism, and the reputation he had saved in his life was lost in less than ten days.