Page:Tseng Kuo Fan and the Taiping Rebellion.djvu/149

Rh your heavenly Father and celestial elder Brother? To which they all replied, We know our heavenly Father and celestial elder Brother. The heavenly Father then said, Do you know your Lord, and truly? To which they all replied, We know our Lord right well. The heavenly Father said, I have sent your Lord down into the world to become the celestial King; you must not dare to act disorderly, nor to be disrespectful. If you do not regard your Lord and King every one of you will be involved in difficulty."

Prior to this Yang had served as generalissimo; from this date until after the siege of Changsha the decrees were issued by Hung, who was both co-sovereign and active head of the revolution, T'ienteh being the emperor and remaining in the background. This arrangement was in effect till the end of the siege at Changsha, after which all the important proclamations were issued by Yang, the Eastern king, or jointly by him and Hsiao, the Western king, though the latter was actually deceased.