g. This
siege had then continued with more or less interruption for seven
years.

Nor did Chung Wang's success stop here. He fought a battle at Tayan
with his old adversary Chang Kwoliang, and defeated him with a loss of
10,000 men. At the height of the engagement Chang Kwoliang was drowned
while crossing a canal, and this decided the battle. Encouraged by
these successes, and with increased forces--for most of the prisoners
he took were incorporated in his army--Chung Wang assumed the
offensive, and after winning no fewer than three regular engagements,
he succeeded in capturing the important city of Soochow, on the Grand
Canal, and this became his chief quarters during the remainder of this
long struggle. By these successes he obtained fresh supplies, and
commanded the great and hitherto little touched resources of the
wealthy province of Kiangsu. It was thus that he was brought into the
neighbourhood of Shanghai, and made those attempts to acquire
possession of the Chinese city which were set forth in the last
chapter, and which were the true cause of the inception of the
foreign, or foreign-trained force, that began with Ward.

After his repulse at Shanghai, Chung Wang was recalled to Nanking. He
went reluctantly, leaving Hoo Wang, "the Protecting King," as his
deputy at Soochow. He found there everything in confusion, and that
Tien Wang, instead of laying in rice for a fresh siege, was absorbed
in his devotion and amusements, while the other chiefs were engaged in
plundering their own subjects. Dissatisfied with what he saw at
Nanking, Chung Wang again took the field, and transferred the scene of
hostilities to the province of Kiangsi, but although he showed great
activity, and marched 800 miles, he gained little, and, indeed, was
defeated on one or two occasions. Nor could he save Ganking, which,
after being besieged for three years, surrendered to Tseng Kwotsiuen,
and thus all hope of succour from the west, or of retreat there, in
the last resort, was removed from the hard-beset garrison of Nanking.
As some set-off to this reverse, Chung Wang captured the ports of
Ningpo and Hangchow, after a gallant defence by a small Manchu
garrison. The Taepings could scarcely now hope for durable success,
but their capacity for inflicting an enormous amount of injury was
evidently not destroyed. Chung Wang's energy and military skill alone
sustained their cause, but the lovers of rapine and turbulence flocked
in their thou