Page:Tseng Kuo Fan and the Taiping Rebellion.djvu/185

Rh Ts'ung-yang and T'ungch'eng, but their commanders, T'a Chi-pu and Hu Lin-yi, were also recalled to Changsha. Thus the entire force that had set out a short four weeks before was now back in Changsha.

On their part the insurgents divided their forces at Tsingkong, about twenty miles below Changsha. A portion of them went by land to Siangtan, which they took on April 24. There they erected supplementary defences outside the walls and, seizing several hundred boats, prepared to hold this place against their enemies. Up to that time Siangtan had been a city of great importance, at the head of overland trade with Canton, through which much of the tea — oonams and oopacks — and other exports reached the coast. T'a Chi-pu was sent there April 25 to attempt the recapture of the city; the following day five ying of the water force advanced to take part in the attempt. Four days of hard fighting followed in which several thousand of the rebels were killed. On the twenty-seventh a combined attack from the land and river forces resulted in the destruction of the major part of the insurgent fleet and the utter demolition of the land fortifications. The fighting spirit of the new army may be said to have been first aroused in these battles. On the twenty-ninth the rebels were again badly defeated and on May 1 Siangtan was brilliantly recaptured.

These sweeping victories were almost neutralised when, on April 28, Tsêng in person led a force of forty boats and eight hundred soldiers to Tsingkong, only to meet with defeat. A strong south wind was blowing at the time and a swift current running, which combined to make the boats unmanageable. The rebels captured or burned most of them. So mortified was Tsêng at this second failure so soon after his enforced retreat from