Page:Tseng Kuo Fan and the Taiping Rebellion.djvu/77

Rh cupied Yung-ngan-chau, which we called our court, all our officers memorialized us respecting the affairs of state. A calendar was issued under the direction of Yáng in which no intercalary month was inserted; but in this matter I was not a party.

Now when it happened that the ingress into the city was stopped, and rice, gunpowder, and other ammunition were beginning to fail, we reflected that the members of our association in Kwáng-tung and in the department of Wu-chau were formerly very numerous, and plucked up heart to make the attempt to get out of our hole.

On the 7th of April we rallied our spirits and attempted the sortie, dividing the forces into three bands. About 8 p.m. Wei-ching sallied out with six thousand men under him, followed by Yáng and Fung-Yun-shan with five or six thousand men, about 10 p.m., to cut their way through; these took Hung-Siú-tsuen and his women with them, thirty or more persons, with horses, sedans and all. About 2 a.m., having more than a thousand men with us, I and Siú went out, being distant from Hung-Siú-tsuen about a league, and were attacked by Government troops, and pursued. Siú would not attend to my orders or signals, and our force was routed, more than a thousand men losing their lives, and I was taken prisoner. It was our intention to have gone by way of a place called Kú-chuh to Chau-ping-hien (in the department of Ping-lo), and then to Wú-chau-fú, and thus get into Kwáng-tung.

The firing of the east fort when we sallied out was my act, and I also directed putting fire in the city, so as to facilitate our sortie.

My original surname is not Hung; but it is only since I contracted a brotherhood relation with Hung-Siú-tsuen, that I changed it to Hung Tai-tsuen. I wore embroidered clothes and a yellow cap; the four kings had red-bordered caps like it; the rest of the high officers wore yellow embroidered aprons when they went into action, and carried yellow flags. In the Yamun I wore a yellow robe; and I did not of my own will desire to sit on the King's throne.

This confession is true.