Page:Tseng Kuo Fan and the Taiping Rebellion.djvu/257

234 aid the insurgents received from the foreign steamers which were now coming regularly up the river. By the eighth of July the outer defences of the city had all been reduced, whilst Tso Tsung-tang in Kiangsi, Pao Ch'ao to the south, and Hu Lin-yi to the west, were barring the way to the forces of the Shiwang, the Chungwang, and the Yingwang.

An imperial mandate, in answer to appeals from Chekiang, ordered Tso Tsung-tang to Chekiang, but Tsêng ventured to disregard it, arguing that the rebels from Chekiang who had returned to the Poyang region of Kiangsi were being held in check by General Tso alone. At this critical stage in the siege of Anking, Tso's removal would destroy the most vital point in the structure of defence. He could not spare men because he and Chang Yun-lan were left alone to take responsibility for the whole area from Jaochow eastward through Keemun to Huichow, Anhui, and southeastward to Kwanghsin. The moment he parted with any of his all too meager forces he would lack the strength to defend this supremely strategic area. On the same day, for similar reasons he set aside another mandate calling for the transfer of P'eng Yu-ling to Kwangtung as provincial judge.

In a last desperate effort to save Anking the Chungwang marched to Nanchang, hoping to draw men away from Anking through fear of losing Kiangsi's capital. One of the complacent censors now gave the Chungwang aid by reciting the points of danger in Kiangsi, actual or threatened, and urging that Tsêng be compelled to take suitable steps to defend that province. It became necessary for Tsêng to send in a counter memorial in which he detailed the various rebel invasions and the steps he had taken to counter them. The censorship had