thrown back by General Tsêng's army. Strong forces were holding all the important cities towards Chekiang and northeastern Kiangsi.[1]
Nevertheless, with the pressure from Li Hung-chang and Tso Tsung-tang aided by their "devil soldiers," the Taiping hold on places west of Soochow became so precarious that a constant melting away of their armies into Kiangsi became unavoidable. The Shiwang, Li Shi-hsien, failing to get his cousin to join him, went independently to Kiangsi, passing through Ningkuohsien on February 14, 1864. The imperialists were not strong enough to bar his way, though they were able to prevent his forces from doing any mischief as they went along. Tsêng's chief cause of anxiety now was lest the thousands of rebels in Huchow and other towns in Kiangsu and Chekiang might make a sudden dash for Kiangsi when their positions became untenable. The beheading of the wangs at Soochow had apparently convinced the rebels that their only recourse was in scattering out to meet at some distant rendezvous.
By way of precaution Hsi Pao-t'ien was sent to the prefectures of Fukien and Kienchang (Kiangsi), and Pao Ch'ao in the direction of Huchow, directly across the lake from Soochow, while the emperor was asked to command the provinces of Fukien, Kwangtung, Kwangsi, Hupeh, and Hunan to devise measures for their own defence.[2] But not a man was removed from Nanking, where at most fifty thousand held a line of about thirty miles encircling that vast city, within which supplies were rapidly giving out. A sortie was expected at any moment.[3]
