Page:Tseng Kuo Fan and the Taiping Rebellion.djvu/28

10 governor. Occasionally the t'ituh was at the provincial capital, but oftener he was at a large city in another part of the province. These three independent commands, that of the viceroy or governor, that of the Tartar general, and that of the t'ituh, were the three major groups.

But in reality even the t'ituh found his power hampered by the officers below him, the tsungping, or commanders of divisions. Although the latter could communicate to the war department in Peking only through the t'ituh, and in theory accepted the latter's orders, they were actually urged rather than commanded. They formed, in fact, practically independent units, stationed at various places, from which they could be moved with great difficulty. For they were generally associated with civil officials of corresponding rank, the taot'ai, or intendants, and their forces were distributed here and there at strategic centers in the principal cities, towns, and market places. These small forces were of great value for the minor civil officials, but any attempt to collect them together into larger units would leave the regular authorities helpless, exposed to just such difficulties as the bandits raised in Kwangsi from 1847 to 1850. These authorities would be slow, therefore, to allow them to leave the walls of the city where they were stationed.

In the central provinces there were other complications in the army of the Green Standard. The director general of grain transport, controlling the Grand Canal, and the superintendents of the rivers. Yellow and Yangtse, all had soldiers of this force under their command.

Prom the standpoint of K'anghsi this was an ideal system. In practice it could only work out if the various commanders, civil and military, were in complete harmony. But this was contrary to human nature, and the various commands were never able to work together very well. In fact, K'anghsi had ordered it so that they never