Page:Tseng Kuo Fan and the Taiping Rebellion.djvu/256

Rh unflinching determination and stubborn will to final victory.

He even increased the danger in which he stood, when, late in April, he ordered Pao Ch'ao to hasten to the relief of Tolunga in the region of T'ungch'en and Hwaining, outposts of Anking. Early in May he set out with a few hundred guards for the outskirts of Anking, leaving behind him Chang Yun-lan to attack Hsiuning, and Chu P'in-lung to guard Keemun. While he was with Pao Ch'ao's army at Tungliu, the Yingwang made an attack on the imperialists outside Anking, but was repulsed by Yang Tsai-fu from the river, Tolunga in the outposts, and Tsêng Kuo-ch'üan outside the city walls.

At the same time Tso Tsung-tang, advancing from Kingtechen, had driven the rebels under the command of the Shiwang through Kwanghsin into Chekiang, where they captured Kinhwa, an important prefectural city almost due south from Hangchow. To offset this the Chungwang, early in June, started from his base at Juichow, ravished a number of districts in Kiangsi and went on over the border into Hupeh, where he carried destruction over the countryside in the districts of Hsingkuo, Tayeh, Tungshan, and Ts'ungyang, whither the governor, Hu Lin-yi, was compelled to send a force against him. Other activities of the rebels were easily checked.

All the efforts of the Taiping wangs to divert the imperialists from the siege of Anking failed, and Tsêng Kuo-ch'üan persistently increased the severity of the pressure on them. He knew through intercepted letters that the plight of the defenders was serious. They were almost out of provisions, and a final struggle must soon take place unless swift relief should come to them. The siege might have ended earlier, had it not been for the