Page:Tseng Kuo Fan and the Taiping Rebellion.djvu/301

278 forces for the aid of Huichow. During the third moon (April 18-May 17) Tso was appointed viceroy of Minche and acting governor of Chekiang. In a later dispatch Tsêng Kuo-ch'üan was designated as titular governor of the latter province. The forces of Pao Ch'ao and those supplied by Tso Tsung-tang gave strength enough to the loyalists outside Huichow, who drove away the rebels there on May 12.

Other victories were reported in the direction of Chekiang in the territories of Huichow and Hsiuning. But in the north trouble again broke out when Miao P'ei-lin, a former rebel who had come over and seemed to prove his loyalty by surrendering the Yingwang, again revolted at Shouchow. Tsêng had for some time been watching him, and now laid siege to the region where he was strong in Shouchow and Ch'ichow. To add to the danger and confusion in that direction, the Nienfei effected a junction with the Taipings in spite of imperial watchfulness, and arrived before Luanchow, north of Anking on May 11.

These activities in widely separated areas were so similar to the tactics employed by the Chungwang and the Yingwang during the critical days of the siege of Anking, that Tsêng believed they were again trying to induce him to draw away men from the siege of Nanking. As on the former occasion, he realised the possibility of serious danger at some of these outlying points, but as on the former occasion, he was unwilling to withdraw men for use in Hupeh lest he weaken himself too much at the chief goal of all his efforts and shatter his whole campaign. To stand on the defensive at these places and prevent Taiping successes until Tso Tsung-tang should capture Fuyang and bring the conquest of