Page:Tseng Kuo Fan and the Taiping Rebellion.djvu/309

286 were regular. From Kwangtung only 90,000 taels had come during the year, the Kiangsu revenues from likin had fallen to 30,000 taels, and nothing whatever had been forwarded from Ssuch'uan and Hupeh (Hupeh was pledged to furnish 50,000 taels per month, Hunan 25,000, Ssuch'uan 50,000, Kiangsi 30,000, and the other two provinces indefinite sums). Tsêng was greatly embarrassed by these failures.

In Kiangsu the "Ever Victorious Army" brought its career to an honorable end by aiding in the capture of Ch'angchow, May 11. Tanyang thus became untenable and was evacuated on May 18, leaving nothing between Li Hung-chang's forces and Nanking. The defeated rebels escaped into Kiangsi. During June strong imperialist forces were operating in that province under such leaders as Yang Yoh-ping and Pao Ch'ao, chiefly in the region of Shuichow, in order to prevent a consolidation of all the retreating Taipings.

Throughout the winter and spring the spectacular successes of Li Hung-chang and Tso Tsung-tang, contrasted with his own lack of results at Nanking, had preyed on the mind of the younger Tsêng. The elder brother was placed in an impossible situation as well. On the one hand, General Tsêng seemed to be jealously apprehensive lest he lose the glory of capturing Nanking; while on the other, Tsêng Kuo-fan feared that his own honor and that of his family would be tarnished if he did not bring the strength of Li Hung-chang and Tso Tsung-tang to bear on Nanking so as to expedite its capture. He was so worried over the matter that early in February he informed his brother that he had sent for General Ch'en Hsueh-chi