Page:Tseng Kuo Fan and the Taiping Rebellion.djvu/201

Rh. Should Kiukiang be taken, he would consider moving on to one of the interior cities of Kiangsi and hold his fleet and army together until the main fleet was repaired and in commission once more. He now perceived, when it was too late, the blunder he had committed in not having more thoroughly provided for the defence of the Wuhan cities.

Following this plan, T'a Chi-pu was left to besiege Kiukiang, but Tsêng himself went to Nanchang, the capital of Kiangsi, which he reached on March 5, 1855. Lo Tse-nan, with a portion of the army, was detached from the siege of Kiukiang and sent to join the lake flotilla. Hu Lin-yi received appointment as provincial treasurer of Hupeh and was entrusted with the defence of that province. Officers were dispatched to Hunan to recruit additional marines. Several more large vessels were ordered in Kiangsi.

Nevertheless the storm clouds were growing blacker for the imperialists. Proceeding up the Yangtse along both banks and taking town after town as they went, the insurgents arrived at Hankow on February 23, 1855. The Eastern king, Yang Siu-ch'ing, came in person to direct these forces and they proved more than a match for the imperialists. For the third time Wuchang fell to the Taiping armies on April 3, the loyal troops retreating to Kingkow where the larger vessels of the fleet were. In Kiangsi also Tsêng's affairs had been going from bad to worse. The rebels from Huk'ow, traversing the east shores of the Poyang Lake, captured a large number of towns in the prefectures of Kwanghsin and