helping him to arrange his campaigns in a well-considered manner.
Among these men of worth who were made leaders of divisions of the little force, we find T'a Chi-pu, the hero in the victory at Siangtan. Earlier, he had proved his mettle in fights with bandits and had been sent forward from Yochow to the borders of Hupeh, from which strategic position the danger in Changsha and Siangtan had hastened his recall. A second great leader, who to the hour of his death proved a tower of strength to Tsêng, was Hu Lin-yi. His rise was rapid and he became governor of Hupeh in 1856. Others, some of whom failed to attain high honor because of death, or who only after years of struggle came to prominence, were Lo Tse-nan, who was killed at Wuchang in 1856; Chu Yu-hang, commander of the first flotilla; Yang Tsai-fu and P'eng Yu-ling, both of whom eventually reached high official place; Chow Hung-shan and Kiang Chung-tsi, brother of Kiang Chung-yuan.[1] Tso Tsung-tang was present at the siege of Changsha, but was now employed in some secretarial capacity in the yamen, and was eventually brought out through Tsêng several years later to lead armies in Kiangsi and eventually in Chekiang and Fukien. Li Hung-chang, though well known to Tsêng Kuo-fan in his days at Peking, was not yet prominent in the cause.
T'a Chi-pu, indeed, had already earned special mention and now received the appointment as t'ituh of Hunan, but on the earnest representations of Tsêng Kuo-fan, who found him too valuable to spare, permission was granted that he remain in the Hunan army.[2] Preparations were
- ↑ See Nienp'u, III, 9b; also dispatches announcing victory at Siangtan, defeat at Tsingkong, and recommendations for promotion. The merits of these various officers are set forth at length. Dispatches, III, 51-65a.
- ↑ The request is in a dispatch dated June 3. Dispatches, III, 71. The favorable reply is noted in the Nienp'u, III, 12a.
