LIN Fêng-hsiang 林鳳祥, d. 1855, age about thirty (sui), the general who led the northern expedition in the Taiping Rebellion, was born in the province of Kwangsi. When the rebels organized their government at Yung-an (1851), Kwangsi, Lin was made chief of the imperial guard of the Celestial King, Hung Hsiu-ch'üan [q. v.]. Later he followed the King of the West, Hsiao Ch'ao-kuei (see under Hung Hsiu-ch'üan), in the attack on Changsha (September 11, 1852), capital of Hunan. While there he was made a general. After taking Yochow (December 13, 1852), he was promoted to be commander, and after winning Hanyang, Hupeh (December 22), a supervisor. The detachment he led was one of the first to enter the city of Wuchang (January 12, 1853) and also the first to enter Nanking (March 19). He was then elevated to a Minister of State. His victorious soldiers marched on from Nanking and took Chinkiang (March 30) and Yangchow (April 1), and thereupon he was made marquis with the designation Ching-hou 靖侯.
Thereafter Lin Fêng-hsiang was ordered by Yang Hsiu-ch'ing [q. v.] to launch a northern expedition with a view to the conquest of Peking. He marched, in command of a strong contingent, northwestward from Yangchow along the line of the present Tientsin-Pukow Railway. Presently he reached Ch'u-chou (May 16, 1853), Lin-huai-kuan (May 18) and Fêng-yang (May 28), all cities in Anhwei. However, he was pursued by government troops and his advance was opposed by government defenses at Su-chou. He was thus forced to proceed in a westerly direction through Honan to Peking instead of going north through Shantung. He took Pochou, Anhwei, on June 10. There he joined forces with another detachment of Taipings for the northern expedition under Li Kai-fang 李開芳 (also called 李來芳, d. 1855), a native of Kwangsi. Before Li set out on this campaign he was made a marquis with the designation Ting-hou 定侯. He left Pukow on May 13, 1853, and joined Lin Fêng-hsiang at Po-chou from where both contingents went to Honan.
In Honan the forces of Lin Fêng-hsiang and Li Kai-fang took Kuei-tê (June 13) and continued their march to Kaifeng, the provincial capital (June 19). Though their numbers were increased by local bandit recruits from Anhwei and Honan, they failed to take Kaifeng owing to a heavy rain in which their gunpowder became wet. After ineffective assaults for four days they abandoned the attack and moved to Chung mou (June 22). There they divided into two groups: one crossed the Yellow River northward (June 27) to occupy Wên-hsien (July 2); the other, a smaller contingent, moved southward along the route of the present Peking-Hankow Railway to Hsin-chêng (July 9) and Huang-an, Hupeh (August 1) and finally to T'ai-hu, Anhwei (August 11). This southward movement was probably designed to prevent a government force from pursuing the northern expedition and so frustrate the main objective. In the meantime the larger contingent proceeded to Huai-ch'ing which it besieged from July 8 to September 1.
The imperial government at Peking was now threatened by the Taiping expedition, and troops were summoned from various provinces in North China to harass the rebels and resist their advance. Nevertheless the Taipings fiercely attacked the city of Huai-ch'ing despite stubborn resistance within the city and heavy concentrations of government troops in their rear. They sprang mines under the wall and dug trenches on their flanks to protect themselves against the assaults of the imperial forces. After long and fruitless combat they abandoned Huai-ch'ing and entered Shansi province with their forces reduced to scarcely more than 20,000 men. In Shansi the Taipings fought their way through Yüan-ch'ü (September 4, 1853), Ch'ü-wo (September 7), and Pring-yang (September 12). In the last-mentioned city they were surrounded by government troops under the command of the Manchu general, Shêng-pao 勝保 (T. 克齋, d. 1863). The latter, a chü-jên of 1840 was made Imperial Commissioner for military affairs when he pursued the Taipings from Yangchow to Shansi. The Taipings appealed to Nanking for help and then fled from P'ing-yang to Hung-tung (September 14). From there they passed on to the province of Chihli which was their objective. They reached Lin-ming-kuan in western Chihli on September 28, 1853, and then forced their way to Shên-chou (October 9), only 600 li from Peking. The Court became alarmed, and methods for the defense of Peking were discussed. Shêng-pao was punished for his negligence by being lowered two grades in rank. High generals like Sêng-ko-lin-ch'in [q. v.] and others were sent to Paoting to stem the rebel advance. After camping fourteen days at Shên-chou, the Taipings were compelled to leave (October 22). They made for Tientsin whose suburbs they reached on October 30. But since Tientsin was defended by a newly organized militia equipped with rifles and guns, and since the advance of the
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