Zeng Guofan, the governor of Liangjiang, reported the excerpt of Jiangning Kefu, and sent it to the capital on the ninth day of the fifth month of the second year of Tongzhi.

"Say hello to the prince!" The Minister of Military Aircraft was within the value of Lu, Cao Yuying said to King Gong who was full of spring breeze.

It's really worth thanking. Although there are still many Taiping troops in various places, but the pseudo-capital is overcome, it will not be difficult for the remnants to be calmed down, and the day when they will reap all the benefits is not far off.

Cao Yuying's Daoxi, there is another layer of meaning, that is, to compliment the king of the council, since the fall of Sushun, ignoring some noises in the court, still insisting on relying on the reuse of Zeng Guofan, so that today's achievements have been achieved.

"Happy to everyone!" King Gong was in a very good mood, and he smiled and congratulated several ministers of military aircraft. After all, this is the largest expedition since the founding of the People's Republic of China, and it is even better than the pacification of the three feudatories of Emperor Kangxi. Now that he is in his own hands, he can leave his name in history.

This is evidence-based, and the ministers of military aircraft have long done their work. The rebellion of the three feudatories ravaged the twelve provinces, and only more than 300 large and small cities fell. In the rebellion of the Cantonese bandits, the war disaster spread to 16 provinces, and more than 600 cities were captured.

However, this statement is somewhat whitewashing the imperial court - it is precisely because the Eight Banners are useless, the Green Camp is corrupt, and Emperor Wenzong Xianfeng is at a loss for command that it has led to such a consequence and made this chaos so big. Otherwise, at the beginning of the Hongyang Change, it would have been leveled, how could there be a rebellion in the next ten years?

This layer, naturally, was omitted, and soon the two palaces came to call. The ministers of the military aircraft were led by King Gong to the Palace of Nourishing Hearts and entered the palace. Everyone holds a jade Ruyi. Respectfully placed on the royal case in turn.

When there is a great joy in the country. The courtier's dedication is to express the meaning of congratulating the king - all the best, good omen. With such respect, the Queen Mother of the Two Palaces naturally accepted it, and said something with a smile on her face, saying that this was the result of the military aircraft's clothes and food at night, and the dispatch was well-organized.

"Alas, it's not easy." The Empress Dowager Ci'an suddenly felt something. The eye circles are tidal, "How many years, in the end I have a consummation." ”

It's embarrassment again, it's perfection again, it's really perfect. Cixi was naturally overjoyed, but in her heart, she faintly felt that there was still a little bit of regret, because there was another person's name that she had never seen in the excerpt.

"Zeng Guoquan played extremely well, that's for sure." She pretended not to care. "I don't know how other armies are fighting."

It seems to be an unintentional sentence. reminded the Empress Dowager Ci'an, and asked with a smile: "By the way, why didn't you see Guan Zhuofan's name?" His flag camp has been in Jiangning for a few days, and I don't know if there is any credit for breaking the city this time. ”

"Naturally there is merit!" King Gong said loudly, "His Xuan army has arrived in Jiangning, this is the credit." ”

This is a tacit matter between the government and the opposition - Jiang Ning is close to the left, there is only such a general, how can it be said that there is no merit? It doesn't matter if you participate in the destruction of the city or not, not to mention-

"The sailors of the Xuan army bombarded Jiangning with huge cannons, killing and injuring a lot of people, and intimidating the enemy, this is what has been said before." After King Gong finished speaking, he added: "No less than the first achievement." “

This is another deliberate attempt to hold the flag man up. The merit of breaking the city, the first to ascend the heaviest, Zeng Guofan's excerpt, listed the "first nine generals", with Zhu Hongzhang as the first. Now that King Gong said this, it is equivalent to becoming the first ten generals, think about the long-sleeved robe of the Guan Domain, the glory of the top, and the appearance of desperately climbing to the city from the mouth, what kind of situation is that?

The Queen Mother of the two palaces laughed. Saying that Xuan Jun did not make the first achievement, it is not that Guan Zhuofan's merit stops there, but that this merit can be added to his previous merits, and we will discuss the merits and rewards together.

The great chaos and peace, naturally when it came to the time to reward meritorious deeds, but Zeng Guofan's excerpt was just an excerpt for the first time to "report the news", and it was written very briefly.

"Zeng Guofan's excerpt was sent from Anqing, and he just got the letter, so he first reported good news to the emperor and the two queen mothers." King Gong analyzed, "In the excerpt, he only talked about the situation of breaking the outer city and Hong Xiuquan's suicide by taking poison, and the next things had to wait for him to rush to Jiangning and see it on the spot before counting." ”

"That's what I said, but I always feel that his excerpt is written vaguely," the Empress Dowager Cixi, who has the clearest path, has doubts about some of the contents of the excerpt, "It's always a little ...... It's kind of ......."

She wanted to use an idiom to express her meaning, but the word seemed to float on her lips, and she couldn't catch it.

"The Empress Dowager Qiyu is 'unknown'." Bao Jun respectfully reminded. However, after saying this sentence, I regretted it - if it was passed out, wouldn't it be equivalent to saying that Zeng Guofan was "vague"?

"That's right! It's just vague. Cixi didn't think so much, and followed her own train of thought and said, "Hong Xiuquan is dead, but his son has no real whereabouts, and only says that 'or clouds are burned in the fire'." As for Li Xiucheng, he hasn't found the body yet, but he only said that 'He Yun died in the chaos'. The left one is a 'or cloud' and the right one is a 'or cloud', all of which make people dizzy, and there is no accurate word, which is really anxious. ”

King Gong and others all took her words for granted, but on a happy day, they couldn't be as straightforward as she said. As soon as Hong Xiuquan died, the pseudo-young master Hong Fuyu became the No. 1 prisoner in Tianzi, and he had to have a whereabouts no matter what. In the past, those characters such as "Third Prince Zhu" and "Fifth Prince Zhu" have made several generations of imperial courts suffer enough, if there are hidden dangers now, and there will be a "Third Prince Hong" in the future, how can I get it?

However, in the hearts of the monarchs and ministers, they all know that in the final analysis, Hong Fuyu is just a child, and he can't make any waves for a while, and there is only one person who really has a big trouble in his heart, and that is Li Xiucheng! If he escaped, single-handedly recruited hundreds of thousands of long-haired remnants from the north and south of the river, and then erected a big banner, or even merged with the twister, it was not impossible for the situation to be overturned.

Because of this layer of worry, it can't help but dilute the festive atmosphere a little. And another big thing. No one wants to mention it.

This is a big deal. It is the aftermath of Jiangning. The once rich Jinling area. After a long war, this siege was another protracted and vicious battle, and the army was gathered, and the place must have been beaten to pieces. Now that the war is over, the money to be spent on the aftermath is not a small amount.

Everyone knows that the household department has no money, even if it is hard to squeeze out a little. It is also extremely limited. And Jiangsu's Lijin and Shanghai's Guanyin, raising a Xuan army and a Huai army, is already a fortunate thing to invite heaven, and you can't expect too much, not to mention that on the Jiangsu Domain, Zeng Guofan is also paid 60,000 silver every month.

For this problem, King Gong and the military plane did not scratch their heads, because there was an established way, that is, to take Jiangning City. And the silver that the long hair gathers is to be used for the aftermath of the land. Changmao has been operating in Jiangning for many years. After being surrounded, the goods cannot be transported, and it must be a huge amount of money to be able to meet, which is enough to use. What I didn't expect was that this beautiful wish was shattered by a sentence in Zeng Guofan's excerpt.

That sentence is: "Over the years, it has been rumored that the wealth of the traitor, the gold and silver are like the sea, and the old nest is restored, and the wealth is gone, and it is beyond expectations." Or the words of the clouds are mostly nonsense, or the clouds are burned in the fire of the pseudo-heavenly king's palace. ”

It's "or cloud" again, King Gong and the ministers of military aircraft can only smile bitterly. How can there be a reason that Jiangning is an empty city? If not, how can the silver and gold, which are like the sea, be consumed by fire?

On the day of great joy, don't mention these things! King Gong thought for a while and said: "Zeng Guofan should have arrived in Jiangning at this moment, presumably within a day or two, he will come to the excerpt for details, you might as well wait a little longer." ”

Then just wait. However, after two days of waiting, there was no news. So the two palaces and the military plane, when they were summoned, felt that they might as well discuss the matter of the reward first. Because although the excerpt of the narrative has not yet come up, the overall situation has been decided, and the credit of several key figures cannot be escaped.

The first is naturally Zeng Guofan, a well-deserved father. However, before discussing his reward, everyone had a thought in their hearts - there was a rumor that Emperor Wenzong Xianfeng once said that whoever can destroy the long hair will not hesitate to take a "king" as a reward.

I have heard this rumor, but no one has heard Xianfeng say it himself, so they are just thinking about it in their hearts, and they can't use it as a basis for rewarding. Those who can be used as rewards are dukes, marquis, uncles, sons, and men, which are "fifth-class seals".

In the Qing Dynasty, there were roughly two kinds of people who received the title, one was the clan, and the other was the military general, because the original intention of the title was to reward military merits. Among the civil ministers, it is extremely rare to obtain a knighthood, and it is also an unwritten practice that the Han civil ministers are not included in the title of the prince and the marquis. Like Zhang Tingyu, an important minister of the Yongzheng Dynasty, he was awarded the title of third-class diligent Xuanbo, which is a great outlier. As for Zheng Chenggong's grandson, Zheng Kexuan, who was awarded the first-class Haicheng Gong, everyone knew that it was just a fictitious title for the king, and it could not be counted.

However, now it is different, not only are most of the Han people who fight, but also most of the literati, which is really the only thing that has been seen in all dynasties, so the old rules can only be broken, but it is still the precedent that there has never been a civil servant in this dynasty, and the title given to Zeng Guofan is set at the first class marquis.

followed by Zeng Guoquan, after years of hard fighting, first broke Anqing, and then Kejinling, it is worth taking a first-class uncle to reward him.

Next, it's Guan Zhuofan's turn. However, for Guan Zhuofan's reward, King Gong has had the experience of the first two times, so he refused to speak first this time, wanting to see what the Empress Dowager Cixi meant first. However, Cixi was reluctant to speak first, and wanted to wait for King Gong to bring it up first, so for a while, no one spoke.

It's an interesting thing, but there must be no silence between kings and ministers. Fortunately, the Empress Dowager Ci'an didn't have so many scheming, so she had something to say: "How can you get an earl?" ”

The matter was decided by this sentence, so Guan Zhuofan's qualifications were slightly inferior to Zeng Guoquan's, and he was appointed as a second-class uncle. The Empress Dowager Cixi's heart was happy, and she couldn't help but have gold on her face, and her tone was slightly proud.

"With such a high reward, you have to count his credit, don't let the outside gossip and think that we are biased towards the flag people." She smiled and said, "Fight Li Xiucheng in Shanghai, Tan Shaoguang in Suzhou, Tang Zhengcai in Taihu, Chen Kunshu in Changzhou, and now in Jiangning, all five things are added together, which is enough for one earl." Isn't it? ”

"What the Queen Mother said is very true." King Gong also smiled and said, "The twenty-four-year-old earl is also an outlier. This is of course the reward of the emperor and the queen mother, but in the end, he must be willing to make progress to get to where he is today. ”

Further down, it was Li Hongzhang's turn, and he also set a third-class earl title.

"Originally, it was not impossible to reward him with a second-class uncle as an incentive." The Empress Dowager Cixi said slowly, "But he is in Changzhou and does not advance the troops, isn't this not a matter of inappropriate edict?" didn't go to fight Jiangning, but went to fight Zhejiang, which was really enough to defend his 'ninth uncle'. ”

That's true, but it's not appropriate to say more in the temple. King Gong hurriedly said: "Yes, but after all, he is also fighting." ”

"The sixth master is right! As long as he is willing to work hard, the court will naturally reward him in the future. Cixi also realized that at such a time, it was not appropriate to be too picky, and said with a smile, "But he and Guan Zhuofan, what is the matter in Jiangsu?" ”

This is a problem that everyone can understand. The three titles of Duke and Earl, in terms of rank, are super grades, which means higher than the first grade, and in terms of actual positions, Guan Zhuofan will be promoted to governor, and it is impossible to continue to be a vassal secretary no matter what. To be the governor, it is naturally the best in Jiangsu, so he and Li Hongzhang, who will stay in Jiangsu, is quite intriguing.

King Gong is still the old way - look at the meaning of Zeng Guofan.

For the Empress Dowager Cixi, this is a helpless thing, thinking in her heart: Zeng Guofan naturally wants to leave that Li Hongzhang in Jiangsu, do you need to say?

Thinking about it like this, I couldn't help but feel insufficient, so I refused to agree.

"Let's ...... first"

As soon as he said this, he heard the sound of hurried footsteps outside the Heart Cultivation Palace, and then heard An Dehai's excited voice.

"Empress Dowager Qiqi, there is an excerpt from Jiang Ning, six hundred miles to step up!"

"Xiao Anzi, why are you on an errand!" King Gong lowered his face, and scolded him through the door first, "Next time, it's so undignified, watch me clean you up!" Take it in. ”

However, everyone's mind is not on An Dehai - this excerpt, of course, is the official excerpt of Zeng Guofan, and he has been waiting for several days! The reward for half a day was proposed just now, and in the end, I still have to use this excerpt as a basis.

When the envelope was taken out of the yellow box and put it on the imperial case, the Empress Dowager Ci'an and the ministers of military aircraft were stunned, but Cixi was unconsciously smiling.

On the envelope, of course, it is stamped with the purple seal of the governor of Liangjiang, but the person who occupies the leading position is actually Guan Zhuofan, the secretary of the Jiangsu domain.

*

(The 4,000-word chapter is offered.) Another: Xiexie's new helmsman is the Morning Star. ）

*(To be continued......)