had no existence. In the second place, drill was neglected, making the men actually employed count for very little. Third, the officers used the men in the ranks as menials; they moreover filched from them some of their rightful pay and allowances, thus driving them into league with bandits and robbers. Fourth, they were often recruited from among the vagabonds, a circumstance that had the same effect as depriving them of their pay, or at least helps to account for their worthlessness and incapacity. Once more, many of them, owing to lack of drill, of knowledge of archery, or the use of firearms, or to their general incompetence, were cowards who ran from the enemy.[1] Moreover, substitutes were employed, who had little heart in the task and deserted at the first chance.
Allowing for exaggerations, this picture is gloomy enough. The war against the British had revealed the fatal defect of this force, yet no apparent effort had been made to remedy the evils of the system. Even the supernumeraries called in to augment the forces at Canton in 1839-1842 had been disbanded, and the government had no good troops to oppose to the well-drilled but poorly armed followers of the Taipings. Even when imperial commissioners were hurried to the scene as virtual dictators (but without power to raise revenues and hence deprived of one of the prime essentials of a dictator), or the Tartar general was ordered from Canton to take the field in person, they were without sufficient strength. An entirely new army had to be devised, and this was the work accomplished by Tsêng Kuo-fan.
B. The Civil Government.
If the military establishment thus failed to meet the need in a crisis, the civil government was not a whit
- ↑ In the early stages of the rebellion Chow T'ien-chioh wrote to this effect to the governor of Hupeh. His letter is given in chapter VI.
