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Tsêng Kuo-fan had been already employed in high offices, when, in 1853, he was first ordered to take up arms against the T`ai-p`ings. After some reverses, he entered upon a long course of victories by which the rebels were driven from most of their strongholds; and in 1859, he submitted a plan for an advance on Nanking, which was approved and ultimately carried out.
An American adventurer, named Ward, a man of considerable military ability, organized a small force of foreigners, which he led to such purpose against the T`ai-p`ings, that he rapidly gathered into its ranks a large if motley crowd of foreigners and Chinese, all equally bent on plunder, and with that end in view submitting to the discipline necessary to success.
A long run of victories gained for this force the title of the Ever Victorious Army; until at length Ward was killed in battle. He was buried at Sungkiang, near Shanghai, a city which he had retaken from the T`ai-p`ings, and there a shrine was erected to his memory, and for a long time perhaps even now offerings were made to his departed spirit.
Meanwhile, the comparative ease with which the T`ai-p`ings had set the Manchus at defiance, and continued to hold their own, encouraged various outbreaks in other parts of the empire; until at length more systematic efforts were made to put a stop to the present impossible condition of affairs.
This prince escaped with the new king, a boy of sixteen, who had just succeeded his father; but he was soon caught and executed, having first been allowed time to write a short history of the movement from the T`ai-p`ing point of view. The boy shared his fate.
Among other acts of desolation, the large and beautiful city of Soochow was burnt and looted, an outrage for which the T`ai-p`ings were held responsible, and regarding which there is a pathetic tale told by an eye-witness of the ruins; in this instance, however, if indeed in no others, the acts of vandalism in question were committed by Imperialist soldiers.
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