s"--it was working, and that was the main thing.

Gordon saw to it that his men were well armed, well paid, well dressed,
and well fed. Always he had the horrible example of the Crimean
campaign before his eyes, and he was resolved that never again, if he
could help it, should such conditions recur. He was thus one of the
first of our generals to meet the need of a modern army in a modern
way. As he wrote, at the destruction of Sebastopol, "The old army is
dead."

After Gordon had got his new army in readiness--and not until then--he
launched his systematic campaign against the rebels. First he moved
against Quinsan, an important stronghold. It was a large city, some
four or five miles in circumference, and clustered about a commanding
hill. This city and its approaches were held by a force of about
twelve thousand. Against them Gordon brought a force of two thousand
infantry and six hundred artillery.

On the east side of the city was a considerable body of water, Lake
Yansing, and on the other side of the lake, the village of Soochow,
also occupied by the rebels. Gordon brought up his fleet of small
ships and one steamboat on which he had placed guns, and, running in
between the two towns, cut the enemy in two, throwing them into such
confusion that both towns were soon taken by assault.

Gordon wrote home an amusing account of this battle. It seems that the
rebels inland were unused to steamboats, and when this vessel charged
up with whistle going, they thought it some sort of wrathful god or
demon.

"The horror of the rebels at the steamer is very great. When she
whistles they cannot make it out," he says; and adds that because of
this victory he has been given the rank of Tsung-ping, or Red Button
Mandarin--about equivalent to brigadier general.

These engagements were but the forerunner of many similar ones. His
army took town after town until order was once more restored, and
"broke the back of the rebellion."

The grateful Chinese Government showered him with titles. He was made
a "Ti-tu," which gave him the highest rank in the Chinese army. The
Emperor himself commanded that he should be rewarded with "a yellow
riding jacket, to be worn on his person, and a peacock's feather to be
carried on his cap; also, that there be bestowed on him four suits of
the uniform proper to his rank of Ti-tu, in token of our favor and
desire to do him honor."

It must not be inferred that Gordon came into hi