At This Period One Of The Most Brilliant Military Exploits Of The Taepings
Was Performed, And As It Served To
Introduce the real hero of the whole
movement, it may be described in more detail than the other operations,
which
Were conducted in a desultory manner, and which were unredeemed by
any exhibition of courage or military capacity. The government had
succeeded in placing two considerable armies in the field. One numbering
40,000 men, under the command of Hochun and the ex-Triad Chang Kwoliang,
watched Nankin, while the other, commanded by a Manchu general, laid close
siege to Chankiang, which seemed on the point of surrender. The Taepings
at Nankin determined to effect its relief, and a large force was placed
under the orders of an officer named Li, but whom it will be more
convenient to designate by the title subsequently conferred on him of
Chung Wang, or the Faithful King. His energy and courage had already
attracted favorable notice, and the manner in which he executed the
difficult operation intrusted to him fully established his reputation. By
a concerted movement with the Taeping commandant of Chankiang, he attacked
the imperialist lines at the same time as the garrison made a sortie, and
the result was a decisive victory. Sixteen stockades were carried by
assault, and the Manchu army was driven away from the town which seemed to
lie at its mercy. But this success promised only to be momentary, for the
imperialist forces, collecting from all sides, barred the way back to
Nankin, while the other Manchu army drew nearer to that city, and its
general seemed to meditate attacking Tien Wang in his capital. An
imperative summons was sent to Chung Wang to return to Nankin. As the
imperialist forces were for the most part on the southern side of the
river, Chung Wang crossed to the northern bank and began his march to
Nankin. He had not proceeded far when he found that the imperialists had
also crossed over to meet him, and that his progress was arrested by their
main army under Chang Kwoliang. With characteristic decision and rapidity
he then regained the southern bank, and falling on the weakened
imperialists gained so considerable a victory that the Manchu commander
felt bound to commit suicide. After some further fighting he made good his
way back to Nankin. But when he arrived there the tyrant Tung Wang refused
to admit him into the city until he had driven away the main imperialist
army, which had been placed under the command of Hienfung's generalissimo,
Heang Yung, and which had actually seized one of the gates of the city.
Although Chung Wang's troops were exhausted they attacked the government
troops with great spirit, and drove them back as far as Tanyang, where,
however, they succeeded in holding their ground, notwithstanding his
repeated efforts to dislodge them. Heang Yung, taking his misfortune too
deeply to heart, committed suicide, and thus deprived the emperor of at
least a brave officer. But with this success the Taeping tide of victory
reached its end, for Chang Kwoliang arriving with the other imperialist
army, the whole force fell upon Chung Wang and drove him back into the
city with the loss of 700 of his best men, so that the result left of
Chung Wang's campaign was the relief of Chankiang and the return to the
status quo at Nankin. It was immediately after these events that Tung Wang
was assassinated, and scenes of blood followed which resulted in the
massacre of 20,000 persons and the disappearance of all, except one, of
the Wangs whom Tien Wang had created on the eve of his enterprise. Chung
Wang seems to have had no part in these intrigues and massacres, and there
is little doubt that if the imperialist commanders had taken prompt
advantage of them the Taepings might have been crushed at that moment, or
ten years earlier than proved to be the case.
While the main Taeping force was thus causing serious danger to the
existing government of China, its offshoots or imitators were emulating
its example in the principal treaty ports, which brought the rebels into
contact with the Europeans. The Chinese officials, without any military
power on which they could rely, had endeavored to maintain order among the
turbulent classes of the population by declaring that the English were the
allies of the emperor, and that they would come to his aid with their
formidable engines of war if there were any necessity. Undoubtedly this
threat served its turn and kept the turbulent quiet for a certain period;
but when it could no longer be concealed that the English were determined
to take no part in the struggle, the position of the government was
weakened by the oft-repeated declaration that they mainly relied on the
support of the foreigners. The first outbreak occurred at Amoy in May,
1853, when some thousand marauders, under an individual named Magay,
seized the town and held it until the following November. The imperialists
returned in sufficient force in that month and regained possession of the
town, when, unfortunately for their reputation, they avenged their
expulsion in a particularly cruel and indiscriminating fashion Many
thousand citizens were executed without any form of trial, and the arrest
of the slaughter was entirely due to the intervention of the English naval
officer at Amoy. The rising at Shanghai was of a more serious character,
and took a much longer time to suppress. As the European settlement there
was threatened with a far more imminent danger than anywhere else,
preparations to defend it began in April, 1853, and under the auspices of
the consul, Mr. Rutherford Alcock, the residents were formed into a
volunteer corps, and the men-of-war drawn up so as to effectually cover
the whole settlement. These precautions were taken in good time, for
nothing happened to disturb the peace until the following September. The
Triads were undoubtedly the sole instigators of the rising, and the
Taepings of Nankin were in no sense responsible for, or participators in
it.
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Page 114 of 188
Words from 115315 to 116332
of 191255
