ed, but their inaction was
doubtless doing them much harm. Moreover, the rebel forces were
recruiting rapidly, and all the good work that Gordon had accomplished
appeared likely to be undone. Gordon heard all the excuses that
Governor Li had to offer, and came to the conclusion that Asiatics must
not be judged according to the standard by which Englishmen, with a
higher sense of honour, measure themselves. He therefore made up his
mind to emerge from his retreat, and, stipulating that in the event of
future capitulations nothing should be done without his consent, he
once more took the field with the object of terminating the rebellion.

On the 17th February 1864 he had been promoted to the rank of
lieutenant-colonel by the War Office authorities. This, of course, made
no difference to his position as general in the Chinese army. His
resumption of hostilities was marked by similar tactics to those which
he had previously found so successful. Blows rapidly struck at distant
points appear to have been his aim. Having captured Soo-chow, the next
place of importance was Nankin, the second largest city in China, about
100 miles to the north-west. The rebels were in strong force there, and
the place was too distant to make it practicable to capture it, at
once, as there were several cities _en route_ still in the hands of the
rebels. Gordon decided to take these latter in detail, and he commenced
with Yesing, which fell easily on March 1st. He then proceeded to
Liyang, which yielded even more easily. The horrors witnessed on this
march were awful. Gordon said of the inhabitants:--

"Those who still remained alive had been driven to eat human flesh,
and the unburied bodies of the dead were in a condition which
showed that much of this revolting food had been consumed." "The
scenes I have witnessed of misery are something dreadful; and I
must say that your wish for me to return with the work incomplete
would not be expressed if you saw the state of these poor people.
The horrible furtive looks of the wretched inhabitants hovering
about one's boats haunts me.... I hope to get the Shanghai people
to assist, but they do not see these things: and to read that there
are human beings eating human flesh produces less effect than if
they saw the corpses from which the flesh is cut."

Gordon's fate was to be hampered by the blunders of his friends. On
March 20th he marched on Kintang; but ju