With this we may regard the Taiping rebellion as practically suppressed. Some of the rebels did, however, operate for a time in Kwangtung and Fukien. From Kiayinchow, which they captured in Kwangtung, they continued their depredations in connection with those who had gone into Fukien, ravaging the prefectures of T'ingchow and Changchow. This necessitated the return of Tso Tsung-tang to Chuchow (Chekiang), whence he dispatched forces into Fukien to oppose them. These rebels were apparently under the command of the Shiwang, Li Shi-hsien, brother of the Chungwang. Early in 1865 Tso led his army in person and captured Changchow about May 25.[1] Although the Shiwang escaped from his clutches at this time and fled into the mountains, he presently emerged from his retirement and committed suicide.[2] On his way to join the Shiwang, Burgevine also met his end.[3]
This victory at Changchow and another not far away cleared Fukien of rebels. Those who remained of the Kwangsi and Kwangtung men escaped over the border to Kwangtung.[4]
- ↑ Nienp'u, IX, 42b, 44b.
- ↑ Unofficial History of the Taiping T'ien Kuo, XIII, 23.
- ↑ Ibid., XVIII, 6. Morse, II, 88, states that Burgevine was captured at the fall of this city.
- ↑ Nienp'u, X, 10b. Moule, Personal Recollections of the T'ai-ping Rebellion, p. 1, says that about 100,000 of them settled in the southwest of China, where they were quiet enough if unmolested but showed fight if interfered with. He adds that these last remnants were finally driven out into Tongking, where they became the main force of the Black Flags. A grandson of Tsêng Kuo-fan informs the writer that numbers of them emigrated to America and worked on the railways there.
