It Was Then Determined To Attack Kahding,
Tsingpu, Nanjao, And Cholin, At Which Places The Taepings Were Known To
Have Mustered In Considerable Strength.
The first place was taken with little resistance, and its capture was
followed by preparations for the attack on Tsingpu, which were hastened
rather than delayed by a desperate attempt to set fire to Shanghai.
The
plot was fortunately discovered in time, and the culprits captured and
summarily executed to the number of two hundred. Early in May a strong
force was assembled at Sunkiang, and proceeded by boat, on account of the
difficulties of locomotion, to Tsingpu. The fire of the guns, in which the
expedition was exceptionally strong, proved most destructive, and two
breaches being pronounced practicable the place was carried by assault.
The rebels fought well and up to the last, when they found flight
impossible. The Chinese troops slew every man found in the place with arms
in his hands. A few days later Nanjao was captured, but in the attack the
French commander, Admiral Protet, a gallant officer who had been to the
front during the whole of these operations, was shot dead. The rebels,
disheartened by these successive defeats, rallied at Cholin, where they
prepared to make a final stand. The allied force attacked Cholin on May
20, and an English detachment carried it almost at the point of the
bayonet. With this achievement the operations of the English troops came
for the moment to an end, for a disaster to the imperial arms in their
rear necessitated their turning their attention to a different quarter.
The troops summoned from Ganking had at last arrived to the number of five
or six thousand men; and the Futai Sieh, who was on the point of being
superseded to make room for Li Hung Chang, thought to employ them before
his departure on some enterprise which should redound to his credit and
restore his sinking fortunes. The operation was as hazardous as it was
ambitious. The resolution he came to was to attack the city and forts of
Taitsan, a place northwest of Shanghai, and not very far distant from
Chung Wang's headquarters at Soochow. The imperialist force reached
Taitsan on May 12, but less than two days later Chung Wang arrived in
person at the head of 10,000 chosen troops to relieve the garrison. A
battle ensued on the day following, when, notwithstanding their great
superiority in numbers, the Taepings failed to obtain any success. In this
extremity Chung Wang resorted to a stratagem. Two thousand of his men
shaved their heads and pretended to desert to the imperialists. When the
battle was renewed at sunrise on the following morning this band threw
aside their assumed character and turned upon the imperialists. A dreadful
slaughter ensued. Of the 7,000 Honan braves and the Tartars from Shanghai,
5,000 fell on the field. The consequences of this disaster were to undo
most of the good accomplished by General Staveley and his force.
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Words from 140398 to 140899
of 191255
