Throughout his life, he advocated thrift and was not proud of being an official. He cultivated self-discipline, sought officials by virtue, put courtesy first, and sought politics by loyalty, and achieved great success in officialdom. The rise of Zeng Guofan had a far-reaching impact on the politics, military affairs, culture and economy of the Qing Dynasty. At Zeng Guofan's initiative, he built the first ship in China, founded the first ordnance school, printed and translated the first batch of western language books, and arranged the first batch of students studying in the United States. It can be said that Zeng Guofan was the pioneer of China's modernization. Zeng Guofan and Hu Linyi were called "Zeng Hu", while Li Hongzhang, Zuo and Zhang Zhidong were called "four famous ministers of ZTE in the late Qing Dynasty". Official to the governor of Liangjiang, the governor of Zhili, the university student of Wuyingdian, the first-class Yi, posthumous title "Zheng Wen", later called "Ceng Wenzheng".
The success of Xiang Army can be summed up in two words, "clumsy" and "sincere".
"Stupid" is stupid, sincere and serious. I think it means "believe foolishly and work foolishly". China Song and Ming Neo-Confucians called it "nothing without sincerity". Zeng Guofan's most trusted practice method is Zhu's method, that is, you have to sit up every day, you have to learn something, and you have to take life seriously.
"Using fools" means "choosing scholars and leading Shan Nong". Others like to choose Beowulf when fighting, and they like to choose people with strong combat experience. Zeng Guofan is not. He selected a group of scholars. A very important lieutenant is Luo Zenan, an old Confucian scholar and scholar. He is four years older than Zeng Guofan and was born in poverty. "Small studious, poor family, don't turn on the light at night, reading under the moon, tired or sleeping. Mother and three brothers died of hunger; At the age of 29, there was no food in the drought and all three sons starved to death. Participated in seven imperial examinations and was admitted to the scholar at the age of 30. After forty, I still make a living by teaching, and I still have no rice to prepare for disaster. This thin, weak and old Confucian scholar has a characteristic, that is, no matter how poor he is, he never worries about personal poverty, but specializes in psychology, aiming at practicality, and firmly believes that he can achieve great things.
After the Taiping Rebellion, he became a direct subordinate of Zeng Guofan. Although he had never been exposed to weapons before, his troops fought effectively. After four years of fighting in dozens of cities and more than 200 games, he was called the God of War in the Xiang Army.
First, be brave. Ancient Confucian scholars studied Neo-Confucianism, which is the study of life and death, that is, you can participate in life and death. Don't Confucian scholars study every day and give their lives for righteousness? Now the opportunity to sacrifice one's life for righteousness has come, and the battlefield is the best time to train. This is the best way for a person to really study Neo-Confucianism and apply what he has learned.
Second, pragmatic, has been committed to useful learning. Once a person has the habit of reading, he will continue to learn. Therefore, Confucian scholars who lead troops to fight will use their brains. Wherever he goes, he will survey the terrain, understand the local conditions and customs, and see where the enemy's weaknesses are. He is much smarter than the average Beowulf.
Third, it is because Neo-Confucianism is deep in kung fu, cool-headed and accurate in analyzing the situation.
Luo Zenan once told others why you always win the war. Luo Zenan replied with a particularly classic sentence, "No one else". He said in Chinese at the university, "Zhi Zhi will decide later, then he can be quiet, then he can be quiet, then he can be safe, then he can think about it, and then he can get it." All Luo Zenan's art of war, just a few words.
Luo Zenan preached at dusk. At that time, many people passed by Xiang's military camp and heard Lang Lang's reading. These people in a military camp study during the day, fight during the day and teach them to read at night. In this way, let these people become more idealistic and let people know more about why they are fighting.
Zeng Guofan has four selection criteria, which are called "morality, bureaucracy, multi-organization, and less talking."
"With integrity, this person has a bottom line and a life principle that he cherishes; What is bureaucracy without bureaucracy? Bureaucracy is like putting on airs, and bureaucracy is about ostentation and extravagance; Multi-organized, as long as you let him do a small thing, you will know whether he is organized and whether this person's way of thinking is logical; Then, finally, talk less and don't brag. Zeng Guofan doesn't want anyone to brag. He is very happy. These are the four criteria for selecting scholars.
"Leading Shan Nong" and leading Shan Nong to war. Because Shan Nong is not as selfish as those soldiers, he just wants to live and defend his country. Then deal with internal and internal contradictions. Zeng Guofan's principle is called "sincerity". Handle internal relations with sincerity.
What is Xie Yingzhai? When the Xiang army marched, they were not in a hurry to leave every day. They can walk for four hours at most. After four hours to get to a place, they spent a lot of time digging ditches. After camping every day, no matter how tired the army is, it is necessary to surround the camp and dig two deep ditches first. Build two more high walls along this ditch to protect yourself. There are clear requirements for the width and depth of trenches and the height and thickness of camp walls. "The way to make a ditch is to reset the outside and the inside. Six feet wide outside, eight feet deep, and half inside. " That is, the outer ditch is two meters wide and three meters deep, and the size of the inner one is halved. "If the wall is like a city, it is seven feet high", and seven feet is more than two meters high. Then, such a big project will take about four or five hours to complete. You rest at ease, divide the troops into three shifts every night and take turns to stand guard. This is called "swing grass".
When Zeng Guofan started fighting, he almost died several times and even wanted to jump into the river to commit suicide. Later, Zeng Guofan slowly understood that it is very important not to say that he can win, but not to lose.
So is our business. Don't talk about doing business. You can go public in three years, and you can live for three years first. Make sure you can survive without financing. This is the so-called "Jehad Village".
Therefore, the main reason of Zeng Guofan's "hard tie and hard fight" strategy is not greedy for small profits, not scheming, and distinguishing between subject and object. Today, a large number of enterprises are eager to be fast, that is, they hope to become the world's top 500 in 10 years. This method of "building a hard camp and fighting a dark war" has great inspiration for our entrepreneurship today. This is the embodiment of Zeng Guofan's "clumsy" and "sincere" characters.
The materials in this chapter mainly come from Fan Deng's reading of Zeng Guofan's front and side.
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