Page:Tseng Kuo Fan and the Taiping Rebellion.djvu/200

178 missiles, thereby destroying several of Tsêng's vessels and even capturing his flagship, on which were many valuable papers and some recently conferred gifts from the emperor. Tsêng himself barely escaped capture in a small boat.

These reverses robbed the Hunan forces of their fighting spirit. The problem of the commissariat also became serious. Moreover, to add to Tsêng's difficulty, many of his own crews, in a mutinous spirit, withdrew above Wusueh. Only the persuasion of his close friends, Lo Tse-nan and others, prevented Tsêng's ending his life by mounting a horse and riding into the midst of his adversaries. In a dispatch of February 16 he begged the emperor to punish him for his defeats, but in view of his previous victories he was excused. The end of his misfortunes had not yet come, for a storm now wrecked twenty-two of his ch'ang-lung and sampan vessels and badly damaged twenty-four more; those that were able to move sailed up to Kingkow above Hankow and the plan for an advance to Nanking was indefinitely postponed.

Tsêng recommended setting up a boat-yard at Sint'i, not far from Yochow, under supervision of Li Mung-ch'un and P'eng Yu-ling, supported financially by the Hukwang viceroy and the governor of Hunan. What remained of the fleet was to coöperate with Hu Lin-yi in opposing the rebels who were advancing towards Wuchang, whilst Tsêng himself, with a view to fostering the fighting spirit of his men, was to remain at Kiukiang and keep in touch with the fleet imprisoned within the lake. To proceed with all his army to Nanchang, whither a portion of the rebels had gone, was unthinkable as long as his line of communication was in so precarious a