rote, it would have been all right with them. After this Gordon
waited to allow of his wound being thoroughly cured, and on 6th April
he again appeared before Waisso. A large Imperial force also enveloped
the place on all sides but one, which had been left apparently open
and unguarded in the hope that the garrison would use it as a means of
reaching a place of safety. The Imperialists had, however, broken all
the bridges along this route, so that the Taepings would soon
encounter serious difficulties to their progress, and admit of their
being taken at a great disadvantage. Gordon approached the place with
much caution, and he found it so strongly fortified on the south side,
opposite his line of approach, that he moved round to the north in
search of a more favourable point of attack. This simple manoeuvre so
disconcerted the Taepings that they abandoned several of their
stockades, which Gordon promptly seized; and finding that these in
turn commanded others, he succeeded in carrying the whole of a most
formidable position with little or no loss. The Taeping garrison fled
in confusion and suffered heavily at the hands of the Imperial troops.
It rallied on the camp before Kongyin, and the day after this success
Gordon marched from Waisso to attack them. The Taepings were
thoroughly disorganised, and apparently amazed at the number of their
opponents, for the whole of the population rose against them in
revenge for the outrages they had perpetrated. There was only one
action, and that of an insignificant description, when the whole
Taeping force before Kongyin broke into a rout. The Imperialist plan
for retarding their retreat succeeded to admiration, and of more than
10,000 men not a tenth escaped from the sword of their pursuers.

In a letter written at this time to his mother, Gordon, who, at the
end of February had been raised to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel in
the army for distinguished conduct in the field, gave a graphic
account of the condition of the region in which he was operating:--

"The rebels are very much pressed, and three months should finish
them. During the pursuit from Kongyin the Imperialists and
villagers killed in one village 3000. I will say this much--the
Imperialists did not kill the coolies and boys. The villagers
followed up and stripped the fugitives stark naked, so that all
over the country there were naked men lying down in the grass.
The cruelties th