In the late Qing Dynasty, Zeng Guofan was definitely a very important person, and could also be said to be the pioneer of China’s modernization construction; especially after the Taiping Rebellion, Zeng Guofan reached the peak of his life, with hundreds of troops. Wan was in charge of the military and political power of Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Anhui and Zhejiang provinces. With his strength at the time and the corruption of the Qing Dynasty, it would not be difficult to launch a mutiny and proclaim himself emperor! It is said that Zuo Zongtang wrote a letter with bad intentions to persuade Zeng Guofan to proclaim himself emperor. Zeng Guofan only changed "one word" in the letter and refused on the spot. The wonderful change of this word was also greatly appreciated by future generations!
Zeng Guofan (1811-1872) was a statesman, strategist, Neo-Confucian, writer, calligrapher, founder and commander of the Hunan Army in the late Qing Dynasty. During the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement, Zeng Guofan formed the Hunan Army to turn the tide and attack and destroy the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. The rise of Zeng Guofan had a profound impact on the politics, military, culture, economy and other aspects of the Qing Dynasty. Under Zeng Guofan's initiative, China's first ship was built, the first military engineering school was established, the first batch of Western books were printed and translated, and the first batch of students studying in the United States were arranged. It can be said that Zeng Guofan was the pioneer of China's modernization construction. Zeng Guofan and Hu Linyi were collectively called "Zeng Hu", and together with Li Hongzhang, Zuo Zongtang, and Zhang Zhidong, they were called "the four famous ministers of the late Qing Dynasty and the Zhongxing Dynasty". He served as governor of Liangjiang, governor of Zhili, and bachelor of Wuyingdian. He was awarded the first-class title of Yiyong Marquis, with the posthumous title "Wenzheng" and later generations called him "Zeng Wenzheng".
Let’s not talk about whether Zeng Guofan really wanted to proclaim himself emperor in his heart, or whether he was afraid of being infamous for thousands of years if he failed to proclaim emperor. At the peak of his life, many people did persuade Zeng Guofan to proclaim himself emperor; in 1864, the Hunan army captured Tianjing. At that time, Li Yuandu secretly persuaded Zeng Guofan to proclaim himself emperor. After hearing this, Zeng Guofan said angrily: "You only know how to push me into the thorns in exchange for your own fame and wealth." Zeng Guofan's ninth brother Zeng Guoquan was in the process of attacking the Taiping army. In it, Zeng led all the soldiers into Zeng Guofan's military camp and knelt down together, just like the metaphor of the Chenqiao mutiny, implying that Zeng Guofan proclaimed himself emperor. Zeng Guofan only left one sentence: "Whoever dares to mention this matter again in the future will be dealt with by military law"; Hu Linyi, the governor of Hubei Province, even sent a secret letter to Zeng Guofan on his birthday, which read: "The southeastern half of the country is ownerless. What does my father care about?" Zeng Guofan remained unmoved.
However, the most classic one is the letter written by Zuo Zongtang to Zeng Guofan. In fact, the relationship between Zuo Zongtang and Zeng Guofan was not good, but two years before the invasion of Tianjing, Zuo Zongtang, who was the governor of Jiangsu and Zhejiang at the time, Zongtang asked Hu Linyi to deliver a secret letter to Zeng Guofan. The content was: "God relies on virtue. How important is the cauldron? How can I ask?" After reading it, Zeng Guofan smiled lightly and changed "like" to "like". The word "Wei"; "It seems possible to ask" was changed to "Wei can't ask". Although only one word was changed, the meaning was already completely different. Then he asked Hu Linyi to forward the secret letter to Zuo Zongtang. After reading it, Zuo Zongtang sneered and burned the secret letter. Zeng Guofan was indeed a quick thinker. I don’t know what Zuo Zongtang was worried about with this letter, but judging from the final result, Zeng Guofan did not want to proclaim himself emperor, but wanted to be a stable and famous minister of the late Qing Dynasty and the resurgence of the Qing Dynasty.