Page:Tseng Kuo Fan and the Taiping Rebellion.djvu/174

154 others as well as he could with his small force, and all these things could be managed better from Hengchow. Magnanimously, or his detractors might say prudently, he refrained in his memorial from condemning the regulars or their officers, nor did he mention the attacks made by them.

The rapid spread of the Taiping movement at that time, northward and up the river to Kiangsi and Hupeh, caused the emperor to send mandate after mandate, urging haste in setting out. After receiving several of these, Tsêng drafted a lengthy reply in which he pointed out that he was attempting to create a flotilla. A few vessels had come from Kwangtung, and with these as models, Hengchow builders were trying to make boats capable of carrying cannon weighing a thousand catties. The emperor's reply was practically a reproof, and urged Tsêng to make greater haste because of the peril threatening their cause, particularly since the rebels were overrunning Anhui and ascending the river.

As a result of this impatience in Peking Tsêng again patiently drafted a lengthy memorial, in which he laid bare the great difficulties which prevented his speeding up the work. His defence contains five points. First, owing to the blockade of the road to Kwangtung by bandits at Yunghsing and other places, only eighty-three cannon had arrived. In addition, the building of the required number of new boats and the necessary repairs to the old ones would require about eighty days beyond the New Year. Second, although Anhui and Hupeh were in difficulties, Tsêng could not go down the river without stopping to dislodge the rebels as he went and consolidate his positions. Three thousand Hunan soldiers had