Early autumn, 1852 AD.

The autumn tiger in Hunan has not left yet. The weather is the kind of humid and hot weather unique to the southern inland. The sun is shining and the heat is steaming, making people just want to stay in the shade and take a rest.

In a large house with blue bricks and black tiles in Baiyangping Village, Heyetang Township, Xiangxiang County, Shafu, Hunan Province, a middle-aged man in his forties, fierce-looking and cold, with a bald head and no hat, was leaning on a bamboo On the recliner he made, he was leisurely reciting sutras...reciting "Anti-Sutras"! There was also a coffee table next to him, and on the table was a pot of new tea that had just been made. The tea was fragrant and made people feel very comfortable. .

This middle-aged man has a pair of very ugly triangular eyes. He is short and thin, has prominent trembling bones, and has very thick eyebrows and beard. With this appearance, he looks like an "innate rebel body" at first glance. In addition, he is holding a copy of "Rebellion". I'm watching it carefully...I don't know if I'm ready to climb up and shout?

With a creaking sound, the middle-aged man quickly put down his book, turned to look at the courtyard door outside the house, and saw two middle-aged men in their thirties wearing green cloth robes walking in.

One of them looked very similar to the middle-aged man who was lying on a bamboo chair "reciting sutras". He had a white cloth tied around his waist. He was obviously paying filial piety to his relatives. I heard him say: "Brother, Xiangyin Guo Yunxian is here. ." The middle-aged man who was called "Guo Yunxian" was fair and fat, with a goatee. He raised his fist towards the person on the bamboo chair from a distance: "Di Zhang, Song Tao is chatting again. .”

"Songtao" is the name of "Guo Yunxian". His name is Guo Songtao, and "Yunxian" is his surname. He was a Jinshi in the 27th year of Daoguang Dynasty. Unfortunately, he just won the Jinshi not long ago and has not had time to spend money to buy Without him, his parents died one after another. According to the rules of the Qing Dynasty officialdom, if an official's parents died, he had to go home and observe filial piety as a filial son. It lasted three years for the father and three years for the mother. Usually, the cap was six years, but there were also Nine years...if there are more parents!

Guo Songtao's parents died one after another, and he had to survive one by one to make up for the six years of the cap. So he was a Jinshi in the 27th year of Daoguang. This year is the second year of Xianfeng, and five years have passed. I haven't kept my filial piety yet... It's so filial!

The middle-aged man in his forties whom he called "Di Zhang" was named Zeng, and "Di Zhang" was his honorific. His name was Di Sheng, his given name was Guofan, and his courtesy name was Boyan. Zeng Guofan is also a filial son now. His mother had just passed away, and according to the rules, the period of filial piety was three years, and he had to observe it until the fifth year of Xianfeng. If he really kept it for that long, then he could continue to observe his father's filial piety after the Chinese New Year.

It's a pity that Xianfeng didn't allow him to be so filial, so Zeng Guofan went home to observe filial piety. The imperial edict for him to seize his love and resume team training came later, but Zeng Guofan was unwilling to go out, preferring to stay at home and recite sutras (reverse sutras) to keep filial piety. Guo Songtao, on the other hand, He was tired of being a dutiful son, so he wandered out from his hometown in Xiangyin by himself and went to Changsha, the provincial capital, to find an opportunity to organize a regiment to train the Taiping Army.

This time, under the entrustment of Changsha Shilin, I went to Xiangxiang for the second time to persuade Zeng Guofan to stop being "filial" and to go out to fight the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom!

"Yunxian, please stop trying to persuade me to resurrect my love." Zeng Guofan seemed to be very determined to be a filial son. Before Guo Songtao could mention the matter of stealing his love, he made his position clear, "I just lost my love." , everything is in chaos, how can you still think about team training? It would be unsightly if you missed the important national affairs."

Guo Songtao shook his head and said: "My father-in-law, you don't know something. This group of rebellious Cantonese bandits are no better than those from the White Lotus Sect. They can really accomplish some shocking things..." As he spoke, he took out a book of "Rebellion" Book 3 of the Sutra, offer it with both hands.

The middle-aged He who accompanied Guo Songtao just now looked very similar to Zeng Guofan. He looked like a compatriot from the same mother. He took the "Anti-Jing" from Guo Songtao with both hands, and then passed it to his eldest brother.

Zeng Guofan took the "Anti-Jing" from his younger brother Zeng Guohua, looked down, then closed the "Anti-Jing" in his hand with a wry smile and showed it to Guo Songtao: "Luo Luoshan came to visit the day before yesterday and brought me I got two handwritten volumes of "Anti-Jing", saying that they were sent by his student Daozhou Huang Ziying. I thought they were such rare books, but I didn't expect that my brother Yunxian also had them."

Guo Songtao smiled bitterly and said: "My father-in-law, this "Anti-Jing" is not limited to the younger generation. It is spread everywhere among scholars in Changsha. Luo Ruweng is only temporarily serving as the governor of Hunan, and his words are no longer effective. Zhang Shiqing is too lazy to come. In Changsha, the scholar has no choice but to ask his father-in-law to come out of the mountain and give a shout."

Luo Ruweng is Luo Bingzhang, whose name is Jun, and has the same name as Luo Jun, a famous official in the Eastern Wu Dynasty during the Three Kingdoms period. Luo Jun may be the ancestor of Luo Bingzhang, so in order to avoid the taboo of his ancestors, he simply adopted the name "Jun".

The word "Ru Weng" comes from Luo Bingzhang's nickname "Confucianism". Luo Bingzhang was a highly respected veteran who served as Daoguang's lecturer, so Guo Songtao had special respect for him and regarded himself as a junior in his words. "Climb high and call? Zeng Guofan sighed, "It has already been said in the Anti-Jing Dynasty that when we retreat to the countryside, we are no different from ordinary people. When we climb up and shout, tens of thousands of people will follow us. Isn't this the opposite?"

"You can't say that," Guo Songtao shook his head, "Diwen, "Anti-Jing" is a book written by the traitorous Chinese to confuse our minds! We are all loyal and patriotic people who read the books of sages. Is it true that the Anti-Sutra is contrary to what it says?"

Zeng Guofan shook his head and said: "Jun Xiancha... you and I are Han after all! Compared with Li Chahan, Wang Baobao is not as good as him! Supporting tens of thousands of people, occupying the state capital, and dominating one side... is rebellion! Even if you are in the upper position I am still loyal, but what will the people below think? What if Chen Qiao’s dream happens again?”

"This..." Guo Songtao was speechless for a moment.

He also didn't expect that Zeng Guofan's thoughts were so far-reaching. Before he came out of the mountain, he already thought of wearing a yellow robe... I really admire him! Guo Songtao turned his head and looked at Pu Guohua, who had a bad look on his face, and thought to himself: "Aren't you Zhao Guangyi?"

Thinking of this, he suddenly felt that the future was bright, so he changed the direction and persuaded: "Di Wen, after all, you and I are also officials of the Qing Dynasty, local gentry! The rebel Cantonese bandits divided the land in the Daozhou area, attacked the gentry, and rebelled against the name. The religion, which incites poor peasants and miners to worship God, is on the verge of setting off a prairie fire... If it conquers the world, how can we be buried?"

"Want the world? Not, not..." Zeng Guofan shook his head, "The traitors are now limited to one state and several counties. Not to mention the world, they are the province of Hunan, or even the prefecture of Yongzhou. They can't just take it. Yes. I also heard that the rebels were besieging Lianzhou, Guangdong, and they were planning to go south to capture Guangdong. If they couldn’t accomplish anything big, they would only occupy Guangdong and Guangdong... They were similar to Wu Sangui, Shang Zhixin and his ilk.”

After listening to Zeng Guofan's words, I already knew in my heart that this person planned to continue to wait and see. If the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom went south to Guangdong and Guangxi, it would not be appropriate for Zeng Guofan to jump out and organize the Hunan regiment training... Especially the rebels used two volumes of "Anti-Jing" to push the officials , now that the reasons for the gentry’s rebellion have been explained thoroughly!

If the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom doesn't make a big fuss, they, the leaders of the Han regiments who are too eager to jump in, are afraid that they will not be able to make it big, and they will be killed. If the Taiping Army goes north and sweeps across Jingchu, then I have to consider going out to the mountains to climb higher...

If you temporarily stay in the county town of Xiangxiang, it will not be too late to return to your hometown to observe filial piety when the situation calms down a bit."
Chapter completed!