however, the Europeans placed themselves on the
side of the Manchus. Not out of any belief that the T'ai P'ing movement
was without justification, but because they had concluded treaties with
the Manchu government and given loans to it, of which nothing would
have remained if the Manchus had fallen; because they preferred the weak
Manchu government to a strong T'ai P'ing government; and because they
disliked the socialistic element in many of the measured adopted by the
Tai P'ing.

At first it seemed as if the Manchus would be able to cope unaided with
the T'ai P'ing, but the same thing happened as at the end of the Mongol
rule: the imperial armies, consisting of the "banners" of the Manchus,
the Mongols, and some Chinese, had lost their military skill in the long
years of peace; they had lost their old fighting spirit and were glad to
be able to live in peace on their state pensions. Now three men came to
the fore--a Mongol named Seng-ko-lin-ch'in, a man of great personal
bravery, who defended the interests of the Manchu rulers; and two
Chinese, Tseng Kuo-fan (1811-1892) and Li Hung-chang (1823-1901), who
were in the service of the Manchus but used their position simply to
further the interests of the gentry. The Mongol saved Peking from
capture by the T'ai P'ing. The two Chinese were living in central China,
and there they recruited, Li at his own expense and Tseng out of the
resources at his disposal as a provincial governor, a sort of militia,
consisting of peasants out to protect their homes from destruction by
the peasants of the T'ai P'ing. Thus the peasants of central China, all
suffering from impoverishment, were divided into two groups, one
following the T'ai P'ing, the other following Tseng Kuo-fan. Tseng's
army, too, might be described as a "national" army, because Tseng was
not fighting for the interests of the Manchus. Thus the peasants, all
anti-Manchu, could choose between two sides, between the T'ai P'ing and
Tseng Kuo-fan. Although Tseng represented the gentry and was thus
against the simple common people, peasants fought in masses on his side,
for he paid better, and especially more regularly. Tseng, being a good
strategist, won successes and gained adherents. Thus by 1856 the T'ai
P'ing were pressed back on Nanking and some of the towns round it; in
1864 Nanking was captured.

While in the central provinces the T'ai P'ing rebellion was raging,
China was suffering grave setbacks owing to the Lorcha W