Page:Tseng Kuo Fan and the Taiping Rebellion.djvu/260

Rh with about twenty thousand men started down the river in the direction of Nanking, but feeling that he was not strong enough to take that great Taiping center, he returned to Anking, where he secured permission to return to Hunan to recruit an additional six thousand men. During his absence on this errand the redoubtable Chungwang again made a raid in Chekiang in October and managed to extend the insurgent power by the capture of the important cities of Shaohsing and Chuchow. The danger of again losing Hangchow was very great. Indeed, this entire region was a source of supplies of grain to the imperial side which they could ill afford to lose and Tsêng was moved at once to send Tso Tsung-tang to Chekiang.

The unchecked ravages of the Chungwang became so alarming to the people of Chekiang and Kiangsu that a delegation from the officials and gentry of Shanghai arrived in Anking by steamer on November 18, 1861, "begging with tears" that the viceroy send them aid. They reasoned that Kiangsu had abundance of man power in their militia, that weapons and boats were available, and that internal communication by the numberless waterways was particularly good. There was imminent danger of losing it all, for at the moment only three important cities in that region were still in imperialist hands, Chinkiang and Shanghai in Kiangsu, and Huchow in northern Chekiang.

Tsêng told them that an immediate campaign was an impossibility there, but that in the spring of 1862 Li Hung-chang, whom he had already recommended as governor of the province of Kiangsu, would be ready with the army he was recruiting and training in Anhui, and would probably be sent to their aid. Through the necessities brought about by these new complications, Tsêng eventually adopted the plan of establishing three military