“Those who can endure hardships and stand hard work are honorable people.” Zeng Guofan believed that when appointing people, he specially emphasized that the word “hard work” was indispensable, and asked his subordinates and friends to recommend talents to him. To examine whether they have good qualities of hard work, Zeng Guofan also believed that hard work is the foundation for a person to do things. If a group of hard-working people can be hired, they will be of great use in the future.
When Zeng Guofan hired people, he liked to choose those who could bear hardships and stand hard work. When Zeng Guofan conquered areas that had long been occupied by the Taiping Rebellion, such as Anhui Province, everyone regarded it as a fearful route and avoided it. In this way, Zeng Guofan had to secure a group of people to serve as local officials. At the same time, wherever Zeng Guofan went, he impeached officials who failed to support them and focused on rectifying the administration of officials. Therefore, there were many vacancies left for his staff. In Zhili, a large number of staff were transferred from the south of the Yangtze River to the north to fill the vacancies. There were as many as eleven people at one time. Qian Yingbo, Xue Fucheng, Wu Rulun, Chen Nai, You Zhikai, Zhao Liewen, Fang Zongcheng, etc. were all transferred this time. Later, except for Qian, Xue, Wu and others who returned to Jiangnan with Zeng Guofan, those who stayed in Zhili successively filled up the vacancies, which not only benefited the Zhili officialdom, but also enabled these staff who had been following them for many years to find a way out.
During the war, large rewards and huge profits were not enough to win over people. Zeng Guofan used the shogunate to train and cultivate a large number of talents, entrusted them with important tasks, recommended high-ranking officials, and even "recommended talents all over the world." In this way, recommendation has become Zeng Guofan's main means to attract talents and encourage morale.
Zeng Guofan's recommendations mainly include exchange guarantee, special guarantee, and secret guarantee, which reflect different situations, levels, and treatments. Every time the Hunan Army captured a city, recaptured a territory, or won a battle, Zeng Guofan would handle a case of remittance guarantee. While rewarding those who had made meritorious service in the battle, he would also use their achievements to guarantee a part of the staff who were responsible for the food desk, copywriting, and aftermath matters.
Special protection is usually done by recommending talents. For example, in the eleventh year of Xianfeng (1861), Zeng Guofan used the excuse that Changzhou gentry organized a regiment to defend the city in danger, and specially protected six people including Zhou Tenghu, Liu Hanqing, and Zhao Liewen at one time. . Secret protection cases are specially handled individually for those who have made great achievements or are particularly outstanding. They may be secretly sealed or contain secret documents, such as the secret secrets of Zuo Zongtang, Shen Baozhen, and Li Hongzhang.
Both Huibao and Special Insurance are general insurance cases with a larger number of people and a slightly wider process. They can only guarantee candidates such as standby, candidate, ready-to-use, simple-use, or only one official title, and sometimes Completely accurate; sometimes refuted, or only partially approved. Because the actual shortage is limited and the number of registered and alternate candidates is unlimited, using reports to write blank checks has become the main method used by Zeng Guofan and even all generals to encourage morale during the war. This method was first created by Zeng Guofan, but later became popular throughout the country and became more popular and became a major malpractice in the late Qing Dynasty.
Secret security is the easiest way to obtain a real position. According to usual practice, the governors of each province conduct secret assessments of department, road, prefecture, and county officials at the end of each year, and issue practical assessment terms "in preparation for the imperial court to depose Zhi at its discretion." Therefore, the Qing government attached great importance to this, and "the wording was occasionally vague. "Immediately change the order", which was used as the basis for the promotion and removal of officials. During the war, the Qing government basically still used this method. Although there were many indiscriminate guarantees for alternate officials, the supplementary appointment of officials who were in short supply was not an actual testimonial issued by the local governor. No. Because these testimonials are secret and no one is allowed to leak them, so. This assessment method and its language are called secret examinations. According to this law, the officials who protect the records are called secret guards. It is precisely because of this that Huibao can generally only obtain candidates, candidates, ready to use, and selected, while only secret security can obtain officials who are in vacancy. Therefore, if Zeng Guofan wants to protect officials who are in short supply, he can only obtain secret security. In the 11th year of Xianfeng's reign, the eight-character testimonials of Zuo Zongtang, Shen Baozhen, Li Hongzhang and others were very powerful. He said that Li Hongzhang was "talented and careful, and his energy was restrained", while Zuo Zongtang "reached a far-reaching position and had little ability to judge". In Zuo Zongtang's comments, he also added "talent alone", and Shen Baozhen "knows the tools and talents, which are of great use, and is rare in the eyes of ministers." The Qing government soon approved the announcement. Zuo Zongtang was appointed governor of Zhejiang, Shen Baozhen was appointed governor of Jiangxi, and Li Hongzhang was appointed governor of Jiangsu. This shows the great role of secret security. Therefore, Zeng Guofan said in the memorial: "I was a little lenient in the case of remittance to the military camp. As for the secret security personnel, I was very cautious and did not dare to say anything. In the memorial last year, it was said that 'Zhu Xi is in Henan, and the soldiers' hearts are attached to them. "He has a majestic spirit, profound and stable talents, and can help in difficult times. Although I can't believe it, it will be tested in a few years and decades." The methods can be divided into three types: direct guaranty, entrusted guaranty and interactive guaranty. A direct memorial means that the memorial is made by the person himself. This method is the most convenient and accounts for the largest proportion of insured staff, but it is sometimes inconvenient. For example, Liu Rong and Guo Songtao were the two people who had followed him for the longest time, made great contributions, and were talented enough for their respective fields. Zeng Guofan had long wanted them to be promoted to high positions. However, due to the in-laws of the children, the case should be avoided, and I could not perform it myself, so I had to entrust someone to do it for me. For the first time, Zeng Guofan planned to send Liu Rong to Hubei to be preserved by Hu Linyi, but it was not possible for some reason. Later, Luo Bingzhang came to Sichuan and asked to take Zuo Zongtang with him. Zeng Guofan stayed in Zuo and recommended Liu. Finally, he achieved his goal, and Liu Rong was promoted to four levels in two years, and he was promoted from an alternate prefect to the governor of Shaanxi. Guo Songtao was first guaranteed by Li Hongzhang to be the salt transport envoy to the Huaihe River, and then asked Mao Hongbin, the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, to protect the governor of Guangdong. Sometimes, due to temporary separation due to business reasons, it is inconvenient to submit a guarantee, so someone is asked to handle it on his behalf. In the fourth year of Tongzhi's reign, when Zeng Guofan went north to suppress the rebellion, he only took some secretaries with him, and entrusted the staff who stayed in the governor's office of Liangjiang one by one to Li Hongzhang, the acting governor of Jiang, and asked him to give a guarantee. Interactive guarantees are also an expedient measure adopted when encountering certain inconveniences.
For example, after Zeng Guofan became the governor of Liangjiang, he wanted to rectify the civil service in northern Anhui, but he was afraid of being blocked by Weng Tongshu, the governor of Anhui who had direct jurisdiction over this area, so he sent a letter to Hu Linyi, the governor of Hubei who was friendly to Weng Youen, asking Anhui and Hubei to appoint several officials. , exchanged petitions for guarantees, and the concubines "retired from the transaction" and each got what he wanted. Weng was inconvenient to refuse because of Hu's face, so Zeng got what he wanted.
The staff followed the leader, made plans, and were born and died. Zeng Guofan naturally rewarded them with benefits. This is what Zhao Liewen meant by "gathering everyone's private interests into one person's public affairs." Zeng Guofan's recommendation to protect his staff was conditional, that is, they must work for him, not afraid of difficulties, and not make any conditions, otherwise, he would not recommend them. Liu Hanqing’s example best illustrates the problem. Liu was a member of Jiangsu Wu Dynasty. He was originally an aide to Hu Linyi, the governor of Hubei Province. He was responsible for drafting the memorial and was highly regarded by Hu. In April of the seventh year of Xianfeng (1857), the Taiping Army swept through Su and Chang. Hu Linyi's condition became increasingly critical. Liu Hanqing resigned and returned to his hometown when he was the leader of the palace and the situation was critical, which aroused dissatisfaction among Hu and Zeng. Hu Linyi petitioned to guarantee sixteen people in June of the same year, Liu Hanqing was not among them. In the first year of Tongzhi (1862), Liu Hanqing entered the Zeng Guofan shogunate, and later followed Zeng north to suppress the Nian army. But when he was transferred to Zhili, Liu hesitated and refused to accompany him. In Zeng Guofan's eyes, Liu was someone who could not handle difficult tasks, so although he respected his talent, he did not recommend him. In addition, there are three types of people who Zeng Guofan is unwilling to keep: one is a person with high talent but a poor reputation, the other is a person with mediocre talent and virtue who was promoted too quickly, and the other is a person who personally does not want to be an official.
The first type of people, such as Zhou Tenghu, Jin Anqing, etc., often defend the case and are impeached immediately. They want to love them, but actually harm them. Zhou Tenghu was impeached as soon as he received the memorial, and he died of depression, which made Zeng Guofan very sad. Zeng Guofan later learned a lesson. When Jin Anqing, who had been impeached many times and had a very bad reputation, was working for him behind the scenes, he tried to arrange meetings and insisted on using only his strategies and not his people. The second type of people, such as Yun Shilin, Guo Songtao, etc., were directly and indirectly guaranteed by Zeng Guofan. Within two years, they were promoted three levels in a row and were promoted to governor by Taoist officials. They were impeached and demoted because of their poor reputation and promotion too quickly. . Zeng Guofan also learned a lesson from this. In September of the fourth year of Tongzhi (1865), when the Qing government wanted to ask Ding Richang to act as governor of Jiangsu and asked Zeng Guofan for his opinion, Zeng Guofan expressed his opinion directly, thinking that Ding Richang would be unable to take up the role and put forward his own reasons. As a result, , the Qing government accepted Zeng Guofan's opinion and immediately withdrew the proposal. As for the third type of person, he does not want to be an official or be favored by others. After being protected, he did not feel the favor and instead turned into enmity, which made Zeng Guofan sad.
As he gradually gained real power and expanded his family, especially after he became the Governor of Liangjiang and the Imperial Envoy, Zeng Guofan not only had territory but also relied heavily on the Qing court. Even if there is a shortage, everything will be allowed. During this period, Zeng Guofan had unprecedented numbers of petitioners and high official positions. At this time, the Qing government almost responded to the requests of Zeng Guofan and others. In the five years from the 11th year of Xianfeng to the 4th year of Tongzhi, five Taoist priests who had been Zeng Guofan's staff were all promoted to Jiangxi, Jiangxi and Tongzhi. Governor of Jiangsu, Guangdong, Hunan and other provinces. Li Hongzhang, Shen Baozhen, and Zuo Zongtang were not qualified in terms of qualifications. Shen and Li were directly promoted from Taoist priests to governors, which was an extremely rare example of promotion since the rise of the military. Zuo Zongtang was just a scholar by birth. Before the three of them were appointed as officials in the border areas, most of them were aides. Yun Shilin moved here twice a year, and Guo Songtao and Li Hongzhang were promoted three levels in a row in two years, from Taoist priest to governor. After the Hunan army captured Tianjing in June of the third year of Tongzhi, the Qing government began to slightly restrict the power of local governors. The Ministry of Civil Affairs has issued a new regulation that stipulates that personnel recommended by various provinces will not be allowed to be promoted or stay in the province for compensation based on their ordinary performance. He was particularly picky about the food security case, which forced Zeng Guofan to change his tactics to avoid being discussed by the ministry. Later, Zeng Guofan's memorials to protect his staff were mostly about rectifying the administration of officials and recommending talents. Especially before and after he went north to fight the Nian Army and moved to Zhili, he promised to ensure that a large number of staff were promoted to positions that were in short supply.