Page:Tseng Kuo Fan and the Taiping Rebellion.djvu/213

Rh outcome of victory for the imperialists and the destruction of the Kwangsi cause.

It happened just at this time that the Eastern King was assassinated, an event that was surely ordained by heaven. Had General Heang-yung not been defeated, but still held on to Hsiao-ling-wei, he might have availed himself of the disturbances in the capital and captured it, as it could not possibly have held out at that time. But it so happened that Heang-yung was de- feated before the trouble at home, a conclusive evidence of the inscrutable ways of providence which man is not permitted to fathom. The insurrection in the city commenced in the sixth year. The Tungwang was first murdered, then the Peiwang and after that the Yiwang forced by the Ngan and Foo Princes to flee from the city.

The Chungwang also indicates that another method was open to the imperialists in these days of crisis, namely, the offering of liberal terms to the leaders who might easily have been brought over. For at the moment there was no commanding personage in the city, no one could agree with anyone else, and the T'ienwang was suspicious of all but the members of his immediate family.

There was a unanimous desire at that time to separate, but fears were entertained that they would only be decapitated, as they had learnt that the Imperialists spared no Kwangsi men that fell into their hands; so instead of dispersing they united more closely together. Had the Imperialist dynasty been willing to spare Kwangsi men a breakup would have taken place long ago.

Thus, partly through weakness at a critical moment and partly because of a failure to be conciliatory at the proper moment — possibly through ignorance of the opportunity offered, or lack of a far-sighted statesman at