Smart people always think about maximizing profits, always thinking about speculation, too concerned about the gains and losses of interests, lack of persistence in doing things, lack of madness, and it is difficult to achieve final success; And fools may not speculate and maximize their interests, but they have the madness and persistence of not hitting the south wall and not looking back, and hitting the south wall and still not looking back, often to the end.

Thinking of Qin Hui, Zhao Pu couldn't help but think of Li Hongzhang.

Li Hongzhang's goal in life is to be a pastemaker, and the pursuit is to stabilize the peace, even if it is the stability of the papier-mâché paste and the false peace. In fact, he also succeeded. Because of his existence, the Qing government's state lasted for more than twenty years; Without his presence, the Qing government would have collapsed twenty or thirty years earlier.

In his comments, Japanese Prime Minister Ito Hirobumi regarded him as "the only person in the Qing Empire who had the ability to compete with the world powers", and the Empress Dowager Cixi regarded him as "the person who recreated Xuanhuang", one of the four famous ministers of Zhongxing in the late Qing Dynasty, and was called "the three great men of the world in the nineteenth century" and "Bismarck of the East" along with Bismarck and Grant

However, in China, especially modern people, he has a very poor evaluation, saying that he is a traitor, which is equivalent to Qin Hui. Li Hongzhang has been infamous as a traitor all his life. During the Great Leap Forward, Li Hongzhang's grave was dug up, and Li Hongzhang's body in a yellow coat was originally well preserved, but it was hung by the masses behind the tractor and paraded through the streets until the bones were scattered.

Praise mostly comes from foreign countries, enemy countries; And the infamy mostly comes from China.

Foreign countries praise him for his hard work and hard work; The people of the country insulted him, and what they saw was his sins.

Foreigners praise him for being sensible, resourceful, and able to make the right choices; The Chinese people abused him because he lacked backbone and blood.

Actually, smart people, sane people. It is often a lack of blood and a lack of backbone.

Throughout Li Hongzhang's life, he is a smart person who can make the most correct and rational choices. The world always said that he avoided war, because he knew that the Qing army was corrupt, its strength was not good, and it was bound to lose the war; And he always signed a humiliating treaty, because he knew that signing it was in the best interest of the Qing Dynasty. Whether it was the establishment of foreign affairs, the preparation of the navy, or the later avoidance of war, the signing of humiliating treaties. He kept his sanity and made the right choice.

In Zhao Pu's view, Qin Hui of the Song Dynasty and Li Hongzhang of the late Qing Dynasty are essentially the same kind of people. The biggest advantage is that they are smart and rational, but this makes them lack blood. Lack of backbone. Lack of hard work, lack of ruthlessness, lack of madness, lack of persistence. If this kind of person is born in a peaceful and prosperous era, he is definitely a generation of famous ministers; I was just born in troubled times, in times of national crisis. is definitely a traitor, a traitor.

And Zuo Zongtang at the end of the Qing Dynasty was a little crazy in doing things, and he didn't care about the consequences. In many cases, emotions are more than reason, and many times do not know how to maximize benefits, and in order to win, they can fight a lose-lose battle, or even a must-lose. When recovering Xinjiang, in the face of the European military police, he was resolute and generous in the decisive battle, and he had the taste of desperate Saburo; Later, the Sino-French War was even more crazy.

If he lived until the First Sino-Japanese War, he would definitely be a hardcore anti-Japanese faction, and he would not negotiate peace because of the defeat on the front, nor would he negotiate peace because the soldiers' combat effectiveness was not good.

If you lose Shandong and Liaodong, you will move the capital and fight again, and you will never sign a shameful treaty.

In terms of talent, wisdom, etc., Li Hongzhang is much higher than Zuo Zongtang, but in the overall evaluation, Li Hongzhang is disfigured, and he is better than glory; And Zuo Zongtang has more merit than fault, or even no fault.

"As a minister of a country, intelligence, wisdom, and reason are extremely important, but you can't lose your blood and backbone." Zhao Pu sighed, "No bones and no standing, no blood and no life." It's a pity. Qin Hui was originally a great talent of the country, but unfortunately he had no blood and no backbone! ”

Bloodiness is the source of courage; Backbone is the source of justice.

If you are a governor of a state or a county, even if you have no blood and no backbone, it is not a big deal. But as an emperor, as a prime minister, and a person at the level of a leader, if he doesn't even have blood and backbone, it will be a disaster for the country.

This is the first time Zhao Pu has met Qin Hui, and it can be regarded as an interview.

For Qin Hui, Zhao Pu is more regretful. If it is in a peaceful and prosperous era, even if he is a first-class official of the prime minister, it is okay; This is a troubled time, and what is needed in troubled times is not wisdom and cunning, but iron and blood. As Bismarck said: the vast majority of today's problems need to be solved with iron and blood.

Iron is a powerful armament industry and a powerful military system; Blood is the spirit of not being afraid of sacrifice and heroically defending the country. Only by combining the two can we truly strengthen the country.

Historically, when Li Hongzhang visited Bismarck, he said, I am Bismarck of the East; And Bismarck laughed and said, I am not the Li Hongzhang of the West.

In short, Li Gang can't be a prime minister, because he exaggerates and ignores reality; Qin Hui is also incompatible, because he lacks backbone and blood.

The general tone has already determined the strength, and then it will be easy to seal the official, and finally Qin Hui got the official position of the secretary of the Ministry of Rites.

The Ministry of Rites began in the Northern and Southern Dynasties, the Sui and Tang Dynasties were one of the six departments, and the chief was the Shangshu of the Ministry of Rites. The Ministry of Rites Shangshu was the minister in charge of etiquette, sacrifices, banquets, schools, imperial examinations and foreign affairs activities in the imperial court, and in the Song Dynasty, it was equivalent to the second grade, equivalent to the current head of the Central Propaganda Department and the minister of foreign affairs, education and culture.

The official position is not low, and he can be regarded as an important minister of the imperial court.

If it is in the peaceful years, this position is extremely important; It's just that now in the war period, the most important thing is the military department, the household department, and the engineering department, which are the popular yamen and belong to the attention; And the Ministry of Officials, the Ministry of Punishment, and the Ministry of Rites just belong to the Leng Yamen. Sometimes when things are urgent, they are simply set aside by the emperor.

For example, the Wubei Academy, it stands to reason that it should be under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Rites, but in fact, it is directly under the jurisdiction of the emperor.

At this time, the Qin juniper belongs to the idle state.

………………

Nanyang City is referred to as "Wan", located in the southwest of Henan Province, Henan, Hubei and Shaanxi provinces junction, is a basin surrounded by mountains on three sides and opened in the south, because it is located in the south of Funiu Mountain and north of Hanshui.

Nanyang is also known as "Southern Capital" and "Imperial Township". Historically, Nanyang was one of the sources of the ancient Silk Road; During the Han Dynasty, Nanyang was the largest iron-smelting center in the country, and there are Wancheng iron-smelting sites; During the Eastern Han Dynasty, it was used as a companion capital. Historical celebrities such as "Kesheng" Zhang Heng, "Shangsheng" Fan Li, "Zhisheng" Zhuge Liang, "Medical Saint" Zhang Zhongjing, and "Mousheng" Jiang Ziya are mostly from or originated here; Therefore, the place is the place where Liu Xiu, the Guangwu Emperor of the Eastern Han Dynasty, made his career, so Nanyang is also known as "the southern capital" and "the emperor's hometown...... [1]

And at this moment, there has been a bloody battle in Nanyang.

Nanyang is the gate of Xiangyang, after the loss of Nanyang, the gate of Xiangyang will be opened, then the road to Xiangyang, will be the plain, invasion of Xiangyang will enter the land of no man. Therefore, Nanyang must be defended, and at this moment Nanyang is having a bloody battle, fierce fighting, is continuing, the Jin army is desperately attacking the city, and the Song army is desperately defending the city.

The battle on the battlefield was extremely fierce, and the corpses were like cut wheat, lying on the ground at will.

At this moment, it is gradually spring, the weather is warmer, and if the corpse is not handled properly, it is very easy to cause a plague.

At this moment, Wang De, the guard general of Nanyang, looked at the battle on the battlefield and breathed a sigh of relief, Nanyang seemed to be able to hold it, at least for three months.

In the Great Song Dynasty, being an official requires a doorway, and being a civil official requires the imperial examination, and there is a splendid view in the chest; And the military generals are mostly hereditary, Lao Tzu is a military general, and so is his son, which has been passed down from generation to generation. And Wang De is just a petty officer in the Xiangjun, if there is no accident, he will be a mess in this life until he dies.

Fortunately, the war came, the Jin army went south, and the opportunity came!

When he was in Hedong, he took refuge in the emperor's eight-character army, which can be regarded as a descendant army. In the emperor's pro-army, there is no faction difference, and the emperor does not allow factions in the pro-army. The promotion and appointment of generals in the army are mostly based on talent and military merit. And because the Bazi Army is under the emperor's nose, the so-called presumptuous military skills do not exist at all, as long as you have the ability and dare to fight, you will have the possibility of promotion.

Without a lot of constraints, Wang De was like a fish in water, and he repeatedly established meritorious services in the eight-character army, and in just one year, there was a petty official who was not in the grade, and he became a five-grade military attaché.

At this moment, it is even more reckless with an army of 40,000 to guard Nanyang and take charge of the gate of Xiangyang. (To be continued......)