Page:Tseng Kuo Fan and the Taiping Rebellion.djvu/262

Rh and went on to Hangchow, the capital, which fell before them on December 29, 1861. Their armies also went to the important city of Ningkuo, which they held for a time until they were driven back to Chekiang early in 1862. Tso Tsung-tang received the definitive appointment as governor of Chekiang, but the emperor still insisted that Tsêng should accept the control of the four provinces, which, however, Tsêng was very unwilling to do because of the jealousies that would undoubtedly be engendered by so great a departure from the general practice.

On the civil side Tsêng gave himself to the pleasant task of repairing the provincial academy and restoring the examinations. He also reorganised the provincial revenues by reassessing the fields, separating those of poorer grade from the others, and levying a war tax of 400 cash per mow on the better grades. He also set up a factory for manufacturing munitions of war.

The officials and gentry of Shanghai were considering the employment of foreign soldiers to help recover interior points. Tsêng, on being questioned, first by the gentry and then by the imperial court, expressed his view that justification might be found for employing foreigners at Shanghai and Ningpo, since these were treaty ports where foreigners might be regarded in a sense as defending their own interests. At Soochow, Ch'angchow, and Nanking, interior cities, the case was different. If in those