At first it seemed as if the Manchus would be able to cope unaided with the T’ai P’ing, but the same thing happened as at the end of the Mongol rule:  the imperial armies, consisting of the “banners” of the Manchus, the Mongols, and some Chinese, had lost their military skill in the long years of peace; they had lost their old fighting spirit and were glad to be able to live in peace on their state pensions.  Now three men came to the fore—­a Mongol named Seng-ko-lin-ch’in, a man of great personal bravery, who defended the interests of the Manchu rulers; and two Chinese, Tseng Kuo-fan (1811-1892) and Li Hung-chang (1823-1901), who were in the service of the Manchus but used their position simply to further the interests of the gentry.  The Mongol saved Peking from capture by the T’ai P’ing.  The two Chinese were living in central China, and there they recruited, Li at his own expense and Tseng out of the resources at his disposal as a provincial governor, a sort of militia, consisting of peasants out to protect their homes from destruction by the peasants of the T’ai P’ing.  Thus the peasants of central China, all suffering from impoverishment, were divided into two groups, one following the T’ai P’ing, the other following Tseng Kuo-fan.  Tseng’s army, too, might be described as a “national” army, because Tseng was not fighting for the interests of the Manchus.  Thus the peasants, all anti-Manchu, could choose between two sides, between the T’ai P’ing and Tseng Kuo-fan.  Although Tseng represented the gentry and was thus against the simple common people, peasants fought in masses on his side, for he paid better, and especially more regularly.  Tseng, being a good strategist, won successes and gained adherents.  Thus by 1856 the T’ai P’ing were pressed back on Nanking and some of the towns round it; in 1864 Nanking was captured.

While in the central provinces the T’ai P’ing rebellion was raging, China was suffering grave setbacks owing to the Lorcha War of 1856; and there were also great and serious risings in other parts of the country.  In 1855 the Yellow River had changed its course, entering the sea once more at Tientsin, to the great loss of the regions of Honan and Anhui.  In these two central provinces the peasant rising of the so-called “Nien Fei” had begun, but it only became formidable after 1855, owing to the increasing misery of the peasants.  This purely peasant revolt was not suppressed by the Manchu government until 1868, after many collisions.  Then, however, there began the so-called “Mohammedan risings”.  Here there are, in all, five movements to distinguish:  (1) the Mohammedan rising in Kansu (1864-5); (2) the Salar movement in Shensi; (3) the Mohammedan revolt in Yuennan (1855-1873); (4) the rising in Kansu (1895); (5) the rebellion of Yakub Beg in Turkestan (from 1866 onward).