Page:Tseng Kuo Fan and the Taiping Rebellion.djvu/182

162 had differences of opinion during the months of preparation, had left Yochow leading some two thousand of the land force in the direction of Wuchang. Not far from Yangloussu in the hills, they were attacked on all sides by a vastly superior force. Inexperienced in battle and bewildered, they threw away their impedimenta, scattered out in all directions, and eventually reached Yochow and its sheltering walls. Here, reinforced by two thousand of the regulars and six hundred of the new army under Chu Sen-i, they resisted the advance guard of the rebel force. But the main army soon appeared with their yellow banners and red coats, and threw such terror into the hearts of the imperialists that they again fled from their chosen battle ground outside the city — all except one ying of five hundred men, who valiantly stood their ground, fighting a whole day against several thousand Taipings. The imperialists were driven behind the walls of Yochow, but through a lack of rice and salt were unprepared to sustain a siege, and Tsêng had only sixteen hundred fresh men left as reserves. The boats in front of the city did some damage to the Taipings, but his reverse, following on the loss of so many boats through the storm, the lack of provisions at Yochow, and the march of the rebels towards Changsha, led Tsêng to retreat in order that Changsha might have suitable defence. Tsêng's dispatch, dated April 17, ended as it had begun by asking the emperor to hand him over to the Board of Punishments for his failure.

The other divisions of the land army had gone by other roads and had made better progress in the direction of