fence, and repulsed the
Taepings, who at once abandoned the siege in accordance with their
usual custom, and resumed their march. They succeeded in crossing the
Yellow River under the eyes of the Kaifong garrison, and they then
attacked Hwaiking, an important prefectural town, where they
encountered a stout resistance. They besieged it for two months, and
then had to give up the attempt. Forces were gathering from different
directions, and it became necessary to baffle their opponents. They
marched westwards for some distance along the southern bank of the
Hwangho, turned suddenly north at Yuenking, and on reaching Pingyang
they again turned in an easterly direction, and secured the Lin
Limming Pass which leads into the Metropolitan province of Pechihli.
The whole of the autumn of 1853 was taken up with these manoeuvres,
and it was on 30th September that the Taepings first appeared in the
province containing the capital. They met with little or no
opposition. They had mystified their pursuers, and surprised the
inhabitants of the districts through which they passed. Having forced
the Limming Pass, the Taepings found no difficulty in occupying the
towns on the south-west border of Pechihli. The defeat of the Manchu
garrison in a pass that was considered almost impregnable gave the
Taepings the prestige of victory, and the towns opened their gates one
after another. They crossed the Hootoo River on a bridge of boats
which they constructed themselves, and then occupied the town of
Shinchow; on 21st October they reached Tsing, about twenty miles south
of Tientsin and only one hundred from Peking; but beyond this point
neither then nor at any other time did the rebels succeed in getting.

The forcing of the Limming Pass produced great confusion at Peking. It
was no longer a question of suffering subjects and disturbed
provinces. The capital of the Empire, the very person of the Emperor,
was in imminent danger of destruction at the hands of a ruthless foe.
The city was denuded of troops. Levies were hastily summoned from
Manchuria in order to defend the line of the Peiho and the approaches
to the capital. Had the Taepings shown better generalship there is no
saying but that they would have succeeded in capturing it, as the
Imperialists had left quite unguarded the approach by Chingting and
Paoting, and the capture of Peking would have sounded the knell of the
Manchu dynasty. But the Taepings did not seize the chance--if it we