Page:Eminent Chinese Of The Ch’ing Period - Hummel - 1943 - Vol. 2.pdf/162

 set out for Peking. But a letter from Hu Lin-i intercepted him at Hsiang-yang, Hupeh, with the result that he went instead to Tsêng Kuo-fan's headquarters at Su-sung, Anhwei. His abilities as a soldier were brought to the attention of the throne from various sources, and as the pressure of the Taipings was becoming increasingly menacing, he was finally ordered to raise, in Hunan, a volunteer corps of five thousand men for service in Kiangsi and Anhwei. Upon his return to Changsha in June he raised his army and began training it in July. On September 22, 1860 he led his men from Changsha toward Nanchang, Kiangsi. His small force made a good showing, taking Wu-yüan (Anhwei) in December. The rebels then fled toward Chekiang. By October 1861 he had engaged them in more than twenty battles. On December 27, he was appointed commander-in-chief of the government forces in Chekiang. Two days later Hangchow fell into the hands of the Taipings for the second time. On January 23, 1862 he was appointed governor of Chekiang, at a time when virtually the entire province was in the hands of the enemy. But step by step he battled his way into the province to take over the administration. He recovered Ch'ü-chou and Yen-chou in 1862 and, by early 1863, Chin-hua and Shaohsing. On May 5, 1863 he was promoted to governor-general of Fukien and Chekiang. The siege of Hangchow began in the autumn of 1863 and by April 1, 1864 his forces entered that city. With the recovery of Hangchow the tranquilization of Chekiang was complete and Tso was rewarded with the rank of Junior Guardian of the Heir Apparent, with the coveted Yellow Jacket, and a little later with an earldom of the first rank and the designation Ko-ching (恪靖伯). Then he proceeded to Fukien. By February 1866 the last remnants of the rebels were pursued to Chia-ying chou, Kwangtung, and there they were annihilated (see under Hung Jên-kan). This campaign ended the Taiping régime and Tso was given the double-eyed peacock feather. His exploits in Chekiang are recounted in the work, 平浙紀略 P'ing-Chê chi-lüeh, 16 chüan, compiled by Ch'in Hsiang-yeh (see under ) and Ch'ên Chung-ying 陳鍾英. The preface is dated 1874.

Tso Tsung-t'ang was also an able administrator. In both Chekiang and Fukien he accomplished a great deal for the rehabilitation and reorganization of those provinces—paying special attention to education and to the storage of grain. In Foochow he established a bureau for sericulture and cotton and also a printing office named Cheng-i t'ang Shu-chü 正誼堂書局. Aroused by recurring international difficulties, he paid especial attention to naval matters and in 1864 when he was in Hangchow, he experimented with small steam-boats on West Lake. In Foochow he selected Ma-wei shan 馬尾山 as the site of a small navy yard which was later managed by. But as China was still harassed by troubles in the North, which called for his military skill, his peaceful rehabilitation of the South was unavoidably cut short.

On September 25, 1866 Tso Tsung-t'ang was appointed governor-general of Shensi and Kansu, a portion of the empire then harassed by a serious Mohammedan uprising. He left Foochow in December 1866, arrived at Hankow toward the end of January 1867, and there made preparations for his northwestern campaign. But on his way to Shensi he received an imperial order commanding him first to fight the Nien-fei, or mounted bandits (see under and ) who since 1851 had spread carnage in the provinces of Honan, Anhwei, Hupeh, Shantung and Chihli. These bandits, being mounted, were very mobile; and, unlike the Taipings, made no attempt to settle in one place or to establish a government. Though Tsêng Kuo-fan and had in turn been made responsible for their suppression, one group of Nien-fei under Chang Tsung-yü (see under ) began in 1867 a westward movement which caused the government to fear that they might join the Mohammedans. Late in the same year Chang's forces ravaged Shansi, Honan, and Chihli, and even endangered the Metropolitan area of Peking. For their failure to suppress them Tso Tsung-t'ang, Li Hung-chang and others were deprived of their ranks. In 1868 Tso moved his army to Wu-ch'iao, Chihli, and in the summer the Nien-fei were surrounded and annihilated at Ch'ih-p'ing, Shantung, by combined government forces. Tso's rank was restored to him and he was ordered to Peking for audiences with the Emperor (September 25, 30, 1868). By November 26 he was in Sian, the capital of Shensi, and there began to take measures for the suppression of the Mohammedan uprising.

For some eighty years following the northwestern campaign of Emperor Kao-tsung (see under ) the Mohammedans in China except during the early Tao-kuang period (see under ), were fairly peaceful. Then, 764