CHAPTER X
THE ADVANCE TO ANHUI
The year 1858 was a turning point in the war. Kiangsi was being steadily conquered and the Hunan armies could soon look forward to an advance on Anking and possibly, if the outposts could be captured, to a resumption of the interrupted siege at Nanking.
Had there not been a shake-up at the Celestial Capital certain defeat would have overtaken the Taiping cause. There was no immediate sign of that defeat; their generals were practically all in the field, scattered with their hosts over Anhui, Kiangsi, and Fukien. Nevertheless their organisation and the quality of leadership in Nanking was deteriorating. Providentially there were a number of able men in subordinate positions, foremost among whom was Li Siu-ch'eng (the Chungwang), one of the men who had joined the Taiping rebellion in Kwangsi as a private, but who through sheer ability rose to the highest position in the state and became its prop at the end. He differed from Yang, the Eastern king, in that he did not share the religious delusions of that leader, depending upon good generalship and hard fighting rather than on divine inspiration. If his autobiography is to be depended on, he was singularly fearless and outspoken. At this time he came to the fore as one of the leaders of the cause.
In the first moon (February 14-March 14) 1858, the
