Forbidden Nation: A History of Taiwan by Jonathan Manthorpe

Author:Jonathan Manthorpe [Manthorpe, Jonathan]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, pdf
ISBN: 9781250126412
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Published: 2016-06-21T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

A MODERN PROVINCE

Liu Ming-chuan was undoubtedly clever enough to have taken the classic Chinese scholastic route to advancement, position, and wealth. However, his lowly birth on a small farm in Anhui province and lack of a source of funds from family patronage precluded embarking on the lengthy and expensive progression through the civil service examination process. Anyway, Liu was a young man in a hurry and from the start demonstrated an impatience that was both part of his genius and a political weakness. He chose the other well-worn route to fame and fortune in China: that of the gangster warlord. In his late teens Liu decided the life of a peasant farmer was not for him. He abandoned the family plot of land and set off to seek his fortune in the big city of Luchow, as the Anhui provincial capital was then called. Liu arrived as the provincial governor T’ao Chu was trying to break the power of a small group of merchants who had not only monopolized the salt trade but established hereditary rights over this commerce. T’ao Chu directed that anyone could deal in salt so long as they bought their supplies from the provincial government and paid cash in advance. Liu, then 18 years old, saw an opportunity. He went into business with the help of forged permits allowing the purchase of government salt and the backing of a gang of armed youths he called the Band of Fiery Insurgents, Ming-tzu Chun. Liu’s violent retainers dissuaded competition and within a couple of years the young farm boy controlled the entire salt trade of Luchow and the surrounding countryside.

The outbreak of the Taiping rebellion in 1851 gave Liu the chance to make another leap up his chosen path to advancement. He quickly made the transition from local bandit and warlord to respected and loyal royal servant much as Koxinga’s father, Iquan, had done three centuries before when he changed titles from pirate chieftain to imperial admiral. When the Taiping rebels advanced on Luchow in 1854, it was clear to everyone that the city’s feeble garrison stood little chance of fending off an attack. Liu called on the governor and suggested his Band of Fiery Insurgents be made into a local militia. The governor agreed and over the next seven years, in many campaigns against the rebels, Liu showed himself to be a military leader of great talent. In 1862 Li Hung-chang, who was to become one of the most notable statesmen of the last decades of the Qing empire, was delegated by Beijing to raise an army to drive the remaining Taiping out of Anhui province. Li readily accepted Liu’s offer to amalgamate the Fiery Insurgents militia into his army and from then on the farm boy–turned–gangster rose steadily in the official hierarchy. Liu’s gift for military command was essential to a string of victories over the rebels. Li Hung-chang was a generous patron and overlord. By the time the Taiping rebels had been defeated, Liu he had acquired a multitude of honors and had been appointed a baron of the first class.

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