Page:Tseng Kuo Fan and the Taiping Rebellion.djvu/255

Rh diversions under the four wangs (and Shi Ta-k'ai, if he could still be reckoned as of their number), remained unshaken. Tsêng's peculiar gift is shown under these difficulties. He had no brilliant strategy to oppose to the Chungwang, but he did keep his head and refuse to recall the besiegers from Anking, which was steadily weakening as he could see from the desperate attempts to draw its besiegers away. Possession of that place was as necessary for him as its loss was dreaded by the Taipings. He likewise realised that he must defend Kiangsi and the provinces of Hupeh and Hunan behind him — his sources of men, money, and munitions. If we are disposed to complain of the exasperating delays resulting from his stubborn adherence to a few fixed ideas and condemn the relative rigidity of his strategy, we must recall the fact that he did not command the resources of a strong central government, but was the victim of decentralisation and of the apathy or resistance of the established officials to his innovations. He cannot be judged by the standards of some other land or age, but by the conditions as he found them. And by these standards he towers above all the men of his day, imperialist and insurgent alike, in his ability to shoulder responsibility and go forward with