For 2,000 years after this first incident connected with the city we hear nothing of more than mere parochial interest. No event in the annals of Changsha, no personage connected with her. rose to national rank. Suddenly, Changsha came to her own. With the rise of the Taiping rebellion came the opponents and the final victors over the rebels, and these victors in an amazing proportion were Hunanese. It was in 1850 that the first news of rebellion became known; it started in the neighbouring province of Kuangsi. Imperial troops were hastily summoned and placed under the command of the most distinguished men of the day; but disaster dogged their footsteps and success awaited only their foes.
Two young Hunanese, realizing the great military truth that the best defence is attack, called together bands of soldiers with whom they carried on a successful campaign in all but one respect: they prevented the rebels from gaining the capital of Kuangsi, but they al: lowed them to slip away into th" very province they were attempting to defend.
The rebels paid dearly for a foo!- ish self-confidence; imagining that in crossing the borders of Hunan they had got away from their conquerors, they rested for three full days—days of unprecedented flood, which might have carried them swiftly down to the gates of the "unexpectant capital. The rest was rudely interrupted when the wrathful Hunanese once more appeared and fell with merciless onslaught on their victims,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.