Page:Tseng Kuo Fan and the Taiping Rebellion.djvu/232

Rh some time before, and placed in charge of Li Han-chang, a brother of Li Hung-chang.

Meanwhile, however, it became known that Shi Ta-k'ai was not taking and holding cities, but simply capturing and leaving them. All through Chekiang and Fukien he wandered. While Tsêng was proceeding from Nanchang towards Chekiang he received a mandate countermanding the earlier ones and ordering him to go into Fukien, which was now more troubled by the rebel chieftain than Chekiang. Hastily altering his plan Tsêng selected Yuanshan, a district town at the eastern tip of Kiangsi, as his base.

The successful termination of the long siege of Kian during the eighth moon, 1858, where dogged determination had won out, cleared Kiangsi entirely of rebels and brought no little fame to Tsêng Kuo-ch'üan, younger brother of Kuo-fan. He received promotion to the rank of taot'ai or intendant. It made possible his choice for more important commands. Tsêng Kuo-ch'üan was much younger than his famous brother. As a youth he had studied for some time in his brother's home in Peking (during 1841 and 1842) but annoyed Kuo-fan by his lack of application and refusal to mend his ways. He received his first degree in 1845. When Tsêng's brother, Kuo-hwang, was sent home from Changsha during the trying days after Tsêng's first defeats, Tsêng, it will be recalled, ordered that none of the brothers should come again to the camp. Kuo-ch'üan had sulked over this order and remained in private life until 1856, when Hwang Mien was appointed prefect of Kian and ordered to go and capture it. Hwang Mien, on meeting Kuo-ch'üan, was so