Page:Tseng Kuo Fan and the Taiping Rebellion.djvu/93



a fruitless siege of thirty-one days, the rebels left Kweilin and set out for Hunan, pursued by seven thousand men under Ho Chun. They captured Hsingan (May 22), and Ch'üanchow (June 3). Kiang Chung-yuan, believing that the rebels would go from Ch'üanchow straight down the river to Changsha, hastened to Soh-yi Ferry, a point not far from Ch'üanchow, where the river was narrow and the banks well wooded. With trees instead of earthworks he determined to prevent the rebels from passing. As he anticipated, the Taipings descended the river in small boats; but when they reached this point they were compelled to measure their strength with Kiang and his small force of braves. For two days and nights the battle raged, a thousand of the rebels falling, among them Fêng Yun-shan. Their boats having all been burned by the brave imperial leader, the rebels were compelled to take up the overland march which led them to Yungchow and Taochow, which they captured on June 12.

While they lingered at Taochow for more than a month, the rebels received thousand s of adherents who brought new life into their enterprise. But this acces-