The Chinese Had
Been Subjected To A Long And Bitter Lesson.
They had at last learned the
virtue of submitting to necessity; but although they have profited to some
extent both in peace and war by their experience, it requires some
assurance to declare that they have even now accepted the inevitable.
That
remains the problem of the future; but in 1860 Prince Kung came to the
sensible conclusion that for that period, and until China had recovered
from her internal confusion, there was nothing to be gained and much to be
lost by protracted resistance to the peoples of the West. Whatever could
be retained by tact and finesse were to form part of the natural rights of
China; but the privileges only to be asserted in face of Armstrong guns
and rifles were to be abandoned with as good a grace as the injured
feeling of a nation can ever display.
CHAPTER XX
THE TAEPING REBELLION
We left the Taepings supreme at Nankin, but maintaining themselves there
with some difficulty against two imperial armies raised by the loyal
efforts of the inhabitants of the central provinces. This was at the
beginning of 1857; and there is no doubt that if the government had
avoided a conflict with the Europeans, and concentrated its efforts and
power on the contest with the Taeping rebels, they would have speedily
annihilated the tottering fabric of Tien Wang's authority. But the respite
of four years secured by the attention of the central government being
monopolized by the foreign question enabled the Taepings to consolidate
their position, augment their fighting forces, and present a more
formidable front to the imperial authorities. When Prince Kung learned
from Lord Elgin the full extent of the success of the Taepings on the
Yangtse, of which the officials at Pekin seemed to possess a very
imperfect and inaccurate knowledge, the Manchu authorities realized that
it was a vital question for them to reassert their authority without
further delay, but on beginning to put their new resolve into practice
they soon experienced that the position of the Taepings in 1861 differed
materially from what it was in 1857.
The course of events during that period must be briefly summarized. In
1858 the imperialists under Tseng Kwofan and Chang Kwoliang renewed the
siege of Nankin, but as the city was well supplied with provisions, and as
the imperialists were well known to have no intention of delivering an
assault, the Taepings did not feel any apprehension. After the investment
had continued for nearly a year, Chung Wang, who had now risen to the
supreme place among the rebels, insisted on quitting the city before it
was completely surrounded, with the object of beating up levies and
generally relieving the pressure caused by the besiegers. In this endeavor
he more than once experienced the unkindness of fortune, for when he had
collected 5,000 good troops he was defeated in a vigorous attempt to cut
his way through a far larger imperial force.
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