Page:Tseng Kuo Fan and the Taiping Rebellion.djvu/32

14 Grade Title English equivalent Command Number of men

5 a Shoupei Captain or lieutenant ying

6 a Ch'ientsung Lieutenant shao half a ying

7 a Patsung Sergeant or ensign shao half a ying or ssu 8 a Wai-wei ch'ientsung)

Second Sergeant Corporal

shao half a ying shao half a ying or ssu fifty to 100 men

shao half a ying or ssu

Wai-wei patsung

9 b Er-wai wai-wei Lance corporal

Narrowing our consideration to the provinces of Kwangtung and Kwangsi, where the Taiping rebellion arose, we find that there was an establishment of fourteen divisions, distributed in 142 encampments with a total complement of 3,688 cavalry, 30,330 infantry, and 55,421 garrison troops; but with so many divisions and encampments as to give an average of less than 240 cavalry and infantry and 390 garrison soldiers to each. If these small ying, each of less than 650 men all told, were scattered about throughout the two provinces — practically an immobile force, scarcely more than a constabulary — what wonder that the rebels had a chance to multiply and grow strong amongst the hills and mountains?

Its defects were chiefly revealed when emergencies required large bodies of men. Then the officials were unwilling to part with their feeble apportionment of the forces, while their superiors were anxious to avoid, if possible, the extreme outlays of money necessary to engage auxiliary troops, or fill up the complement even of men supposed to be enrolled. Each magistrate, whose tenure of office at best was precarious, would try, either by concealing the seriousness of a rising in his district, by buying off the bandits, or in some way by persuading them to move to some other district, to avoid reporting to the governor any such uprising till it was fairly out of hand. Similarly, the governor, hoping against hope that in some way it might be crushed or driven outside the