Page:Tseng Kuo Fan and the Taiping Rebellion.djvu/314

Rh For some time the young T'ienwang eluded the imperialists who were trying to capture him. In the hour of disaster he was mounted on a poor animal but received the good horse of the Chungwang, thus being able to escape while the abler but less fortunate Chungwang was captured. The Chungwang records of him: "The new Sovereign was but a youth, unacquainted with state matters and with no intellectual genius sufficient to cope with difficulties." "After my defeat at the Taiping gate I returned to the Palace gate, where the Young King, together with the other two sons of the Tien-wang, came to me and asked what was to be done. I was at this time in a great dilemma and really at a loss to proceed, and was obliged to discard attention to all save the Young King. To him I gave my war horse (pony), as he was without one, and rode myself a weak and useless animal. ... Though the Tien-wang's days had been fulfilled, the nation injured through others baffling and deceiving him, and the state lost, still, as I had received his favours, I could not do otherwise than evince my faithfulness by endeavouring to save his son." After one or two frustrated efforts they sallied out at one in the morning; though they succeeded in penetrating the lines of the imperialists, a hue and cry was set up and they were pursued. They scattered, and the Chungwang never knew what became of his master whom he would not abandon.

On the arrival of Tsêng Kuo-fan (July 28) careful inquiries were made into the condition of affairs in the city. The Chungwang, Li Siu-ch'eng, and the brother of the late T'ienwang, Hung Jen-tah, were brought before the two Tsêngs and some other generals, and were condemned to death, despite the fact that the edict of the emperor had called for their transport to Peking. It was at this time that the autobiography was composed, which