Page:Tseng Kuo Fan and the Taiping Rebellion.djvu/190

168 meanwhile pushed with all speed, extra yards having been set up, and in a short time they were ready to proceed again. During this interval, however, the rebels had scattered out through the districts lying along the western end of the Tungting Lake, capturing Lungyang on the eighth of June, and Changteh on the eleventh. While operations against those who were on the Hupeh shore fell largely to the direction of Kwan Wen, Tartar general of Kingchow, Tsêng managed those in Hunan. T'a Chi-pu was dispatched to Yochow, while Hu Lin-yi and others were sent through Yiyang to Changteh. The rebels attacked the division commanded by Chow Hung-shan at Lungyang and defeated it; thereupon Hu Lin-yi was forced to retire to Yiyang and proceed by another route to Changteh.

Additional sailors were trained to man the new boats which were built. By June 10, 1854, all was in readiness to start once more down the river. Strategic considerations demanded that Hunan be cleared of rebels before proceeding to Hupeh, especially the need of preventing interruptions to the line of communications. Consequently the land and water forces were sent forward in three divisions. The western division under Hu Lin-yi was already at Changteh, entrusted with the task of driving back the rebels and clearing the inlets of the Tungting Lake in that region. The central division of combined land and water forces, under T'a Chi-pu and Chu Yu-hang, went down the Siang River and eventually reached Yochow (which was recaptured on July 25), where it was reinforced by Hu Lin-yi's division after the lake was swept clear of the enemy. The eastern division was sent