Page:Tseng Kuo Fan and the Taiping Rebellion.djvu/99

Rh only a mile from the city walls with the rebels between, them and the city. Neither the defenders nor the army of Hsiang seemed willing to come to blows with the rebels, and the winter rains afforded them excuses for inactivity. The Taipings were therefore left free to undermine the wall. The explosion took place at dawn on January 13. The governor fought bravely to hold the city, but, together with the other higher officials of the province, he was overpowered and fell.

Saishanga had been cashiered and replaced by Hsü Kwang-tsin; but the latter arrived at Changsha only after the rebels had left, and was at Yochow when they captured Wuchang. He was dismissed in disgrace and Hsiang Yung received appointment as imperial commissioner.

The fall of the great Wuhan cities, practically without a struggle, aroused the Peking government anew. Kishen (Ch'ishan), who, it may be recalled, succeeded Lin Tsehsii as imperial commissioner during the crisis in Canton in 1840, was now brought out of retirement and ordered to the defence of Honan with picked forces of cavalry and infantry from Chihli, Shensi, and Heilungkiang, for they expected that a dash would be made for Peking. With his new honors Hsiang Yung now displayed an activity that might have saved Wuchang if he had been moved to it earlier. The Taipings did not feel strong enough to hold the city indefinitely, so they seized thousands of boats, on which they launched forth on February 8, 1853, to sail down the Yangtse River. At this time they were said to number half a million souls, men, women, and children. They must have presented a sight to Hsiang as he allowed them thus to spread their sails—more than