General Tso Tsungtang was a major military
leader during China's greatest civil war, the 14-year-long Taiping Rebellion
from 1850 to 1864 which claimed millions of lives. The Taiping
Rebellion was the greatest upheaval in 19th century China. It caused massive
displacements and shifts in population. Hundreds of thousands of people fled
or emigrated, many to America, where they worked building the
transcontinental railroad, which was completed in 1869.
Tsomashed the Taiping rebels in four provinces, put down an unrelated revolt
called the Nian Rebellion, then marched west and reconquered Chinese
Turkestan from Muslim rebels. Tso was allegedly the model for Flash Gordon's
"Ming, the Merciless," possibly because of his execution of rebellion
leaders with the proverbial "death of 10,000 cuts."
|
|