Parkes to arrange for the opening of treaty ports conceded in 1860, and stopped at Nanking, where they interviewed some of the chiefs and secured a promise from the T'ienwang that Shanghai should be unmolested for a year.[1] Their report of conditions in the interior and in Nanking was not flattering to either side, but it particularly condemned the Taipings, in whose cities they discovered the utmost misery, whilst those of the imperialists were somewhat better off.[2] Whatever other factors contributed to the decision to aid the imperialists, this trip up to Hankow must be set down as one of the most important.
No longer bound by the T'ienwang's promise of the year before, the Taipings once more resolved to attempt the capture of Shanghai in 1862. After securing Hangchow they intimated that a move on Shanghai would follow, and plots were discovered both in the city and the settlement for helping them. Foreigners also lent aid by smuggling arms, ammunition, and opium. Just as the consuls of Western powers had hitherto failed to put down Ward and his type of adventurers who helped the imperialists, so now they failed to prevent foreign aid from reaching the Taipings.[3] The rebels passed Woosung on January 13, thirty thousand strong; another group attacked Ward at Sungkiang.[4] After defeating the latter at Sungkiang, Ward brought his seven hundred Chinese to Shanghai, where he gave aid to Admiral Hope, who led about the same number of French and British sailors and marines, and defeated the Taiping army at Kaochiao, across the river between Shanghai and Woosung.[5] In this and other operations around
