One Of The Chinese Officers Had The Courage To Write And Tell
The Emperor That "The Outlaws Were Neither Exterminated Nor Made
Prisoners." Notwithstanding The Enormous Expenditure On The War And The
Collection Of A Large Body Of Troops The Imperial Forces Made No Real
Progress In Crushing The Rebels.
Fear or inexperience prevented them from
coming at once to close quarters with the Taepings, when their superior
numbers must have decided the struggle in their favor and nipped a most
formidable rebellion in the bud.
That some of Hienfung's officers realized
the position can be gathered from the following letter, written at this
period by a Chinese mandarin: "The whole country swarms with rebels. Our
funds are nearly at an end, and our troops few; our officers disagree, and
the power is not concentrated. The commander of the forces wants to
extinguish a burning wagonload of fagots with a cupful of water. I fear we
shall hereafter have some serious affair - that the great body will rise
against us, and our own people leave us." The military operations in
Kwangsi languished during two years, although the tide of war declared
itself, on the whole, against the imperialists; but the rebels themselves
were exposed to this danger - that they were exclusively dependent on the
resources of the province, and that these being exhausted, they were in
danger of being compelled to retire into Tonquin. It was at this
exceedingly critical moment that Tien Wang showed himself an able leader
of men by coming to the momentous decision to march out of Kwangsi, and
invade the vast and yet untouched provinces of Central China. If the step
was more the pressure of dire need than the inspiration of genius, it none
the less forms the real turning-point in the rebellion.
Tien Wang announced his decision by issuing a proclamation, in the course
of which he declared that he had received "the Divine commission to
exterminate the Manchus, and to possess the empire as its true sovereign";
and, as it was also at this time that his followers became commonly known
as Taepings, it may be noted that the origin of this name is somewhat
obscure. According to the most plausible explanation it is derived from
the small town of that name, situated in the southwest corner of the
province of Kwangsi, where the rebel movement seems to have commenced.
Another derivation gives it as the style of the dynasty which Tien Wang
hoped to found, and its meaning as "Universal peace." Having called in all
his outlying detachments and proclaimed his five principal lieutenants by
titles which have been rendered as the northern, southern, eastern,
western and assistant kings, Tien Wang began his northern march in April,
1852. At the town of Yungan, on the eastern borders of the province of
Kwangsi, where he seems to have hesitated between an attack on Canton and
the invasion of Hoonan, an event occurred which threatened to break up his
force. The Triad chiefs, who had allied themselves with Tien Wang, were
superior in knowledge and station to the immediate followers of the
Taeping leader, and they took offense at the arrogance of his lieutenants
after they had been elevated to the rank of kings.
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