Page:Tseng Kuo Fan and the Taiping Rebellion.djvu/67

Rh fore the rebels gave up and set out for Hunan and the Yangtse River cities beyond. They were no longer a handful of t'ufei or banditti, but a nation on a pilgrimage to their distant home.

During the siege at Kweilin, when the imperialists had sent out hurried and frenzied calls for help, Kiang Chung-yuan came with a private following of 1,200 men whom he had raised in Hunan, also Liu Chang-yu with a similar army with which he had put down the bandit, Li Yuan-hwa. These two men were so successful in their skirmishes with the rebels east of the city that the reputation which the Hunan 'territorials' were to win during this titanic struggle was already beginning to be deserved.