Page:Tseng Kuo Fan and the Taiping Rebellion.djvu/171

151 by another sinister throng, the great numbers of deserting soldiers who had turned vagabond, since they were without funds to return to their homes and without camps where they might reënlist. And of course the perennial source of vagabondage, poverty, had swelled the number of wanderers during the recent upheaval. The ideal way to deal with these various disturbing groups would be to go with the entire force to each district, remaining there until it had been reduced to order, and moving on to the next. In this way a tranquillised Hunan could be left behind. Under the circumstances he was dealing with the problem by setting up a court for examining and awarding the necessary punishments to them according to the gravity of the offence committed by such bandits as were captured. The comment of the emperor in reply to this memorial was to recognise the need for dealing thoroughly with local bandits until they were exterminated. Tsêng's court did actually bring to justice a large number of these offenders, in addition to those visited with punishment in the out-districts affected.

Meanwhile, as will be recalled, Kiang Chung-yuan had been sent with his force down the river and had gone to Nanchang to help drive out the Taipings from that back door to Huan. He took occasion on the way to write to Tsêng, insisting that in his opinion there was but one certain way of defeating the rebels, namely, by uniting the provinces of Kiangsi, Hupeh, Hunan, and Anhui in the task of building hundreds of boats to be manned by several thousand men from Kwangtung and Fukien. After these had succeeded in pacifying the Yangtse River regions, Nanking could be attacked, together with Yangchow and Chinkiang, and the rebellion quickly put down. This was good advice, for had there been an adequate