Page:Tseng Kuo Fan and the Taiping Rebellion.djvu/238

Rh be taken to prevent the Siang army from melting away completely. Equally disturbed were the officials of the province, who feared that their resourceful adversary would retreat into Ssuch'uan as he threatened to do, and there carve out an empire for himself, detaching it from the rest of China. With the Nien rebels north of them and the Taipings in the provinces to the east they feared that the Hukwang viceroyalty would be hemmed in if Shi Ta-k'ai should take Ssuch'uan. Kwan Wen, the viceroy, therefore memorialised the emperor to send Tsêng up to K'weichow-fu, just beyond the gorges, to prevent their entering Ssuch'uan.

When the mandate ordering Tsêng to proceed to Ssuch'uan reached him, it did not appeal to him as a reasonable proposition. He replied that a great and rich province like Ssuch'uan ought to be able to raise its own forces and defend its own boundaries, also calling attention to the small following at his disposal. Mandate after mandate came, however, four of them in succession, which made it necessary for something to be done. Tsêng therefore obeyed the suggestion of these repeated orders to the extent of consulting with Kwan Wen and Hu Lin-yi, going to Hupeh for this purpose, but without moving his men away from Kiangsi.

While he was on his way to Wuchang (having stopped at Hwangchow to consult with Hu Lin-yi), he received another mandate countermanding the instruction to go to Ssuch'uan. Nevertheless, he held his consultation with the viceroy and they came to the conclusion that Shi Ta-k'ai was not apt to go from Kweichow direct to Ssuch'uan, because of the difficulty of supporting so large a force in the mountains and of the great distance