Page:Tseng Kuo Fan and the Taiping Rebellion.djvu/181

 CHAPTER VIII

THE FIRST CAMPAIGNS OF THE HUNAN RECRUITS

expedition prepared by Tsêng Kuo-fan was ready to start down the river early in 1854. It was first used against the Taiping rebels who had come up the river into Siangyin and Ningsiang. In March minor victories were won, victories which drove the rebels back on Yochow, whither Tsêng and his entire water force together with about four thousand of his militia hastened. The boats were scattered out to patrol the Tungting Lake near the mouths of the rivers which flow from Hunan.

Urgent appeals came one after another to hasten to the rescue of Hupeh where Wuchang was in danger, the Eastern king having come at the head of his troops in order to capture it and thus command the upper river. Similar appeals were urging relief for Anhui which was being overrun by the Taiping armies. Tsêng was happy in the thought that now at last he was on the way to fulfill the emperor's desire.

Disappointment, however, awaited him. On the fourth of April twenty-four of the new fleet were sunk and several dozen injured by a severe storm that swept across the lake, causing the loss of many persons through drowning. At the same time Wang Hsin, with whom Tsêng had