with eight thousand Hunaņese and fourteen thousand Anhui men, but ten days later he had arranged to take nine thousand Hunanese and twenty-two thousand Anhui troops.[1] Upon receiving the imperial confirmation of his orders, which conferred on him supreme command in the provinces of Shantung, Chihli, and Honan, he set out on June 18, reaching his chief base at Hsuchow on September 23.
He now divided his forces among four chief centers. Chining became the center for operations in Shantung, under P'an Ting-sing; Hsuchow for Kiangsu, under Chang Shu-sheng.[2] For Honan, Chowkiak'ow, and for Anhui, Linghwai, under Liu Min-ch'üan and Liu Sung-shan, served as bases. A whole year was consumed in effecting an organisation large enough and sufficiently distributed to draw a net about the elusive rebels. Generals who achieved fame in the Taiping rebellion were recalled to Tsêng's side, among them Pao Ch'ao and Kuo Sung-lin, with their veterans. In 1866 Tsêng Kuo-ch'üan was summoned from his retirement, first with a commission as governor of Shensi, but afterwards designated to Hupeh. Thus the two brothers and Li Hung-chang, governor of Kiangsu and acting viceroy in Tsêng's absence, were able to coöperate once more.[3] In spite of all they could do, however, the rebels continued to elude them, moving as they desired between the Grand Canal and the boundaries of Shensi, now massing in Hupeh under all four leaders, and again separating into two bands to operate in the east and west. Early in 1867 Tsêng wrote to his brother: "We have fifty thousand men in our various armies without counting the men under
