Page:Tseng Kuo Fan and the Taiping Rebellion.djvu/255

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TSENG KUO-FAN
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diversions under the four wangs (and Shi Ta-k'ai, if he could still be reckoned as of their number), remained unshaken. Tsêng's peculiar gift is shown under these difficulties. He had no brilliant strategy to oppose to the Chungwang, but he did keep his head and refuse to recall the besiegers from Anking, which was steadily weakening as he could see from the desperate attempts to draw its besiegers away. Possession of that place was as necessary for him as its loss was dreaded by the Taipings. He likewise realised that he must defend Kiangsi and the provinces of Hupeh and Hunan behind him — his sources of men, money, and munitions. If we are disposed to complain of the exasperating delays resulting from his stubborn adherence to a few fixed ideas and condemn the relative rigidity of his strategy, we must recall the fact that he did not command the resources of a strong central government, but was the victim of decentralisation and of the apathy or resistance of the established officials to his innovations. He cannot be judged by the standards of some other land or age, but by the conditions as he found them. And by these standards he towers above all the men of his day, imperialist and insurgent alike, in his ability to shoulder responsibility and go forward with

    as it was impossible for the insurgents to occupy any emporium at which we were established without seriously interfering with our commerce, and it was necessary that their movements should be so ordered as not to clash with ours. In this principle he readily acquiesced and said that two of his leaders who had already pushed beyond Hwangchow should be directed to take a northerly or northwesterly course and go towards Ma-ching or Tih-ngan instead of towards Hankow."

    Whether this acquiescence resulted from politeness or from policy is a point capable of dispute. Parkes adds that the Yingwang suggested joint occupation, he taking Hanyang and the British Hankow and Wuchang. Hanyang with its high hill dominates the other two places, at least in modern warfare, and one can scarcely believe that there was much delicacy of feeling with regard to British commerce, though there might have been fear of the British themselves. Life of Sir Harry Parkes, I, 430 ff. (from a letter to his wife).