The Viceroy at Nanking submits an application for the bestowal of posthumous {honours upon a Commander-in-Chief who was one of the most distinguished leaders jou the Imperialist side during the Taiping rebellion. The deceased warrior, Hsiao Fu-ssu, was a native of the Hsiang-hsiang district in Hunan and joined as a mere boy Tseng Kuo-fan's army at the very beginning of the war and fought till its close, rising gradually from the ranks until he was rewarded for his great bravery by receiving the appointment of Commander-in-Chief
fourth class. His military exploits, the and a title of hereditary nobility of the bare recit 1 of which covers several pages of the G te, closed with the capture of in. which he took a leading part. In April, 1864, the whole circuit of the city which was 140 li round was closely invested by the Inperialists, with the exception of a few lion the northern side, By a skilful manceuvre the deceased General succeeded in bringing his troops close to the T'ai-ping gate and_so rendering not only the siege complete, but cutting off the supplies of the rebels, He and a few others constructed forts under a perfect shower of bullets from the enemy, within a few yards of the city walls, and, piling up a mound of reeds and sand, proclaimed that they were going to scale the walls, while in reality they were digging a mine underneath, in which 60,000 catties of owder were deposited, with a case attached rom the outside, The feint succeeded and a little after noon on the 19th July, 1864, the explosion took place, demolishing over 20 chang of the wall. Ili the rush which took place to scale the breach, the rebels outed a heavy fire on the Lnperialists and the latter, losing some scores of men, fell back for a inoment disheartened, Tt was not until General Hsiao drew his sword and cut down several of his men that the breach was mounted and the city entered. The Ch'ao-yang and Hung-wit gates were both seized and in a very short time the whole nine gates of the city were jin possession of the Imperialists.
The so-styled Chung Wang Li Hsin-cheng out of the city by the Ch'ing-liang Hill and hid himself in a peasant'scottage, where he was traced and captured by General Hsiao, as was also his elder brother, the soi distant Prince, Hung Jen-ta. 'This' was the crowning exploit of the deceased's military career, and for it honours were heaped upon him, including a hereditary title of nobility and his appointment Commander-in-Chief of Fukten. This appointment, however, he never took up, and for the last 20 years of his life hell in complete retirement on his few acres of an ancestral farm, where he died in 1886, The last years of his life were spent in poverty and obscurity, and those who met him could never have' suspected from his retiring disposition and his reticence about his own career that he had played such an important part during a great crisis in the history of his country. "The Viceroy who was his companion during those troublous years cannot help feeling ashamwhen "he contrasts his own. position with the fate of his comrade, who never held his substantive appointment for a single day and died forlorn and neglected. His son, who inherited his father's title, has searcely the wherewithal to obtain food and clothing and is quite unable to maintain
The Viceroy concludes by suggesting that the position betting his rook in life Posthumous honours should be accorded to the deceased on the scale usual in the case of a Commander-in-Chief who dies after service in the field, that temples should be erected to his memory at the scenes of his famous exploits in Kiangnan, and that materials should be furnished' to the State Historiographer for the compilation of
a posthumous appellation he does not his biography. "As regards the bestowal of presume to offer any opinion, and is content to leave the matter to' the gracious consideration of His Majesty.—Decree previously published.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.