Shanghai, Public Concession, Xing Mansion.

It has been several months since Prince Gong took the foreigner's steamer to the south, and since then this Xing Mansion has become a small golden house for Xing wine, meat and Biluo.

But on this day, the Xing Mansion became solemn again.

Of course, this kind of atmosphere is not visible to others.

The location of the Xing Mansion is already remote, and occasionally a few rickshaws pass by, and the coolies and passengers in the cars will not take a second look at this ordinary small western-style building.

No one realized that the two key figures who could decide the fate of the late Qing Dynasty were speaking inside at this time.

……

"Brother Ji Gao, Su Song, it's been five years!"

"Shaoquan's complexion is getting better and better, it must be a foreigner's Citi ginseng, right?"

"Brother Ji, Brother Ji, you still have this stinky temper, those foreigners, especially Citigroup, also have merits......"

The two people who spoke were Li Hongzhang, the governor of Jiangsu in the Qing Dynasty, and Zuo Zongtang, the governor of Fujian and Zhejiang in the Qing Dynasty.

Unlike Li Hongzhang, who is sleek and long-sleeved and good at dancing, although Zuo Zongtang is ten years older, his personality is much stronger.

He sat on the chair with a golden sword, drank tea, looked at the Western objects everywhere in the room, and snorted coldly: "You still remember the incident of Su Song, and I still forgot about it." ”

Li Hongzhang pretended to be surprised and said: "Why did Brother Ji Gao say this, you didn't receive the edict that day and left, Zeng Shuai, Wen Zhonggong, and the foolish brother all gathered in Susong to run for my brother!" ”

The Wen Zhonggong that Li Hongzhang refers to naturally does not refer to himself.

As one of the top nicknames of the Qing Dynasty, "Wenzhong" is second only to Zeng Guofan's "Wenzheng".

But there is more than one person who has won this honor.

Sony, Lin Zexu and others were all awarded the title of "Wenzhong" after their deaths, and decades later, Lao Li drove the crane west by himself, and the nickname was also "Wenzhong".

The "Duke Wen Zhong" that Li Hongzhang refers to here is Hu Linyi Hu Gongbao, who passed away just 4 years ago.

Speaking of the four names of the late Qing Dynasty, the common saying is "Zeng, Li, Zuo, Zhang", but in fact, when Zhang Zhidong was not famous in the early days, the four ministers actually said "Zeng, Zuo, Li, Hu".

In terms of fame at this time, Hu Linyi is ranked before Zeng, Zuo, and Li.

Moreover, Hu Linyi is one of the few great people who is respected by both the faculty and President Chang.

It's just that the former mainly values his national integrity, and the latter mainly values his officialdom.

The word "Runzhi" of the instructor is taken from Hu Linyi's "Runzhi", which shows the weight in his heart.

By 1860, the Han Chinese landlord forces had taken full control of the Yangtze River valley, which aroused suspicion in the Qing court.

Taking advantage of the "Fan Xie Incident", Emperor Xianfeng issued an edict demanding that Zuo Zongtang "correct the law on the spot".

Zuo Zongtang's six years of hard work in Hunan, in the words of Pan Zuyin, "this is seen in the world", and when the imperial court saw the sparse piece of paper in the official document, it issued an edict to "correct the law on the spot", which really chilled the Han people.

At this life-and-death moment, Zeng Guofan, Hu Linyi, Li Hongzhang and others showed the same side of the three armies of Hunan, Huai, and Chu, and the three of them came to Susong, Anhui together, and openly accepted the fugitive Zuo Zongtang, so as to finally force Xianfeng to give in.

They stayed in Susong for more than 20 days, purging outsiders and discussing some unspeakable things day and night.

It can be said that this is the closest to opening a new chapter in the modern history of the Chinese nation.

According to the "Biography of Zuo Zongtang" written by Zuo Jingyi, a descendant of Zuo Zongtang, what these people discussed at that time was about changing the day.

And the first speaker is Hu Linyi, the governor of Hubei.

He said bluntly: "The world is rotten, how can you sit in peace and be polite? Let me be the slander of the world!"

Zuo Zongtang also believes that today's Manchurian rule has become rotten, and the Cantonese bandits are no longer afraid after the civil strife in Hongyang.

In fact, there is a rumor that cannot be verified in books such as Jian Youwen's "The Complete History of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom", Xiao Yishan's "General History of the Qing Dynasty", Zhang Jiasheng's "Zuo Zongtang: The Implementer of the Modern Land Defense and Coastal Defense Strategy", and Inaba Junshanyuan's "The Complete History of the Qing Dynasty".

As early as the beginning of the Hongyang Rebellion, when the Taiping army conquered Changsha, Zuo Zongtang believed that "today's state affairs have been extremely corrupt, the court is blind, there is no distinction between the virtuous and the treacherous, the external surrender is on the knee, the internal corruption is corrupt, and the foreign enemy is invading." ”

Zuo Zongtang tried to defect to the Taiping Army, "I advise you not to advocate God's religion, not to destroy Confucianism, so as to win people's hearts...... didn't listen, Zuo Nai left, and died to serve the Qing court. ”

·

Hearing Li Hongzhang talk about the old things of Susong, Zuo Zongtang picked up the teacup and drank the cow, and then sighed a breath......

Shaoquan, have you been to that Citigroup, and there are really rumbling machines and strong ships and cannons everywhere? ”

Li Hongzhang heard the sadness in his words, so he had to persuade him: "Wen Zhonggong is not only your life-saving father, but also my Bole, in the past, he saw foreign ships on the river as fast as the wind, and vomited blood in anger...... World! ”

"Huh?"

Zuo Zongtang raised his eyebrows, and heard a hint of extraneous voice, "Why, you don't think you are a protégé of the Zeng Saint, but now you want to inherit Runzhi's legacy?" ”

As we all know, in the original history, Zuo Zongtang and Li Hongzhang fought for half their lives, and he was also a senior "Zeng Hei".

So much so that when Zeng Guofan died, Zeng's family did not dare to accept Zuo Zongtang's elegiac couplet, worried about what kind of bad words it was.

On the contrary, the only thing Zuo Zongtang admired in his life was Hu Linyi, who was cited as a confidant.

On the same day, Hu Linyi proposed a plan, Zuo Zongtang strongly responded, Li Hongzhang was ambiguous, and Zeng Guofan wanted to be his apologetic saint and tried his best to oppose such rebellious words.

Zeng Guo is the strongest of the four and has the absolute right to speak, so this matter can only be put on hold for the time being.

In the following year, foreign soldiers entered Beijing, Xianfeng returned to heaven, and Zaichun succeeded to the throne, Zuo Zongtang felt that the time was ripe, and wrote to Zeng Guofan: "God relied on it, and it will be in De; The weight of the tripod seems to be questionable? ”

Hu Linyi even persuaded Zeng Guofan: "Use thunderbolt means to show the heart of the Bodhisattva", and Zeng's beloved general Peng Yulin also persuaded him to call the emperor in the southeast, and the children of Xianghuai must work hard to supplement.

However, Zeng Guofan made up his mind to suppress everyone's persuasion one by one, and did not punish or obey, just treat it as if nothing happened.

In Zuo Zongtang's view, "Zeng's life was determined by loyalty to the monarch and the Tao, and I misunderstood the plan of the Han people for a hundred years!" ”

Since then, he and Zeng Guofan have begun to have a bad relationship, and by the way, it is not pleasing to see Zeng Guofan's protégé Li Hongzhang.

However, today, Zuo Zongtang seems to smell an unusual smell.