1
Sai Shang'a, whose courtesy name was Heting, belonged to the Arute clan and came from the Mongol Plain Blue Banner. In Jiaqing 21 (1816) he qualified as a translation-track provincial graduate, received appointment as a copyist at the Court of Colonial Affairs, and served on the Grand Council staff. When the Daoguang Emperor ordered Grand Council ministers to grade their subordinates, Sai Shang'a was placed in the top tier and granted preferential advancement. He rose in steady succession to the rank of director. In Daoguang 11 (1831) he was promoted to Reader in the Grand Secretariat and, together with General Fu Jun, investigated Jilin General Fukejing'a for skimming military pay; the case proved true, and Fukejing'a was impeached and removed. He was given the rank of first-class imperial bodyguard, appointed commissioner at Hami, and then promoted to Grand Secretariat academician. After observing mourning for his father he returned to his banner but stayed in the capital, became vice minister of the Court of Colonial Affairs and concurrent vice banner commander, and was then transferred to the Ministry of Works. He was sent in turn to Mukden, Guangdong, and Chahar on investigative assignments. In the fifteenth year (1835) he was assigned to train in attendance on the Grand Council. He moved to the Ministry of Revenue, was promoted to minister of the Court of Colonial Affairs with concurrent banner command, and was later transferred again to the Ministry of Works.
2
In the twenty-first year (1841), with the coast on war footing, he was ordered to Tianjin and Shanhaiguan to survey and build batteries, and again accompanied Imperial Commissioner Sengge Rinchen in inspecting the river mouths. The next year he was appointed imperial commissioner and sent to Tianjin to organize the defenses. After the peace settlement he stood down the defenses and returned to Beijing. Earlier, when a musket corps was added in the capital, Sai Shang'a and Left Censor-in-Chief En Gui were put in charge of its training. At the imperial review the musket corps alone stood out as perfectly drilled; the emperor praised his leadership and awarded him the peacock feather. In the twenty-fourth year (1844) he was ordered to rehear the case of the Tongzhou woman Lady Kang, who had been convicted of forcing her mother-in-law to death; he cleared her of guilt and punished the ward officials for extorting confessions as the law required. He was made minister of revenue and sent south to inspect Yangtze defenses and post-crisis arrangements. In the thirtieth year (1850) he also took charge of the Metropolitan Gendarmerie and became associate grand secretary. In the first year of Xianfeng (1851) he was made Grand Secretary of the Hall of Literary Glory and put in charge of the Ministry of Revenue.
3
At that time the rebellion in Guangxi was blazing; Governor Zhou Tianjue and Regional Commander Xiang Rong campaigned together but could not contain the rebels; Lin Zexu was brought back into service but died on the journey before he arrived. Li Xingyuan took command of the campaign, but the generals would not obey him and the effort likewise came to nothing. Emperor Wenzong was deeply alarmed; because Sai Shang'a was a trusted intimate, he was made imperial commissioner to go to Hunan and block the rebels, intending him to replace Xingyuan; he was specially given the ceremonial Yebilong saber and two million taels from the treasury for military expenses. Vice commanders Ba Qingde and Da Hong'a led capital troops with him, while Yao Ying and Yan Zhengji served on his military staff; Jiang Zhongyuan, a Hunan county magistrate serving at home on leave, was also called to join the camp. Before long Xingyuan died in camp; Sai Shang'a was urgently ordered to hurry forward and take command, and was appointed an inner minister. In the sixth month he reached Guangxi and memorialized on five measures—culling ineffective troops, enforcing discipline, hiring spies, breaking up coerced followers, and severing rebel supply lines—and the court praised his grasp of the overall strategy.
4
Because Zhou Tianjue and Xiang Rong could not work together, Zhou was dismissed and Zou Minghe was appointed governor in his stead. He also reported on rebel strength, writing in summary: "Guangxi is overrun with rebel bands; Feng Yunshan, Hong Xiuquan, Ling Shiba, and others all profess Catholicism and are the fiercest of the lot, operating between Jintian, Dongxiang, Miaowang, and Zhongping while government troops look on from the walls, unable to do anything about it. The army should first concentrate all its strength on the main rebel concentrations; once those are broken, forces can be divided for mop-up operations and the government will not be caught attending to one front while losing another. Because the provincial capital has too few troops, I shall remain there to direct operations for the time being and dispatch Ba Qingde and Da Hong'a on the offensive." Thereupon Xiang Rong won successive victories over the rebels at Zhongping and at Guiping's new market town. Wulantai set an ambush and killed a great many rebels. The rebels withdrew to Zijing Mountain, with the new market and Shuangji Pass as their gateways. Da Hong'a and Wulantai attacked Shuangji and destroyed the rebel base; the rebels burned the new market themselves and escaped. The government forces were defeated and Yong'an fell; Sai Shang'a was blamed for missing his chance and was demoted four ranks while kept in post.
5
The court rebuked the armies and ordered a combined assault; Shuidou was Yong'an's critical pass, and once Wulantai stormed and took it the encirclement was complete. Xiang Rong took the northern sector and Wulantai the southern. Yong'an was small but strongly fortified; after four months of siege it still had not fallen, and stern edicts pressed for action. In the first month of the second year (1852) Sai Shang'a went in person to direct operations; following Xiang Rong's plan, he left one stretch of the north wall unguarded, let the rebels break out, and then attacked them. Wulantai objected but could not prevail; he had long been at odds with Xiang Rong, and now their hostility became outright. In the second month the rebels broke out exactly by that route; government troops could not stop them, capturing only Hong Daquan and sending him to the capital in a cage while reporting Yong'an as recovered; but the rebels at once threatened Guilin; Xiang Rong slipped into the city by a side road to organize the defense; Wulantai pursued to Jiangjun Bridge, was struck down by artillery, and died in camp; brigade generals Chang Rui, Chang Shou, Dong Guangjia, and Shao Heling also fell in battle. Sai Shang'a asked to be punished; the court rebuked him but let him keep his post to make amends and ordered Governor-General Xu Guangjin of the two Guang provinces to bring troops to the rescue.
6
賊見桂林守具已完，援師漸集，解圍北竄，連陷興安、全州。 賽尚阿始入駐省城，遣提督餘萬清、總兵劉長清進攻全州。 江忠源破賊於蓑衣渡，斃悍賊馮雲山。 賊遂入湖南，連陷道州、江華、永明、嘉禾、藍山、桂陽，賽尚阿尾之，抵衡陽。 賊由郴州分竄醴陵、攸縣，尋犯長沙，勢益鴟張。 湖南巡撫羅繞典以聞，文宗震怒，詔斥賽尚阿調度無方，號令不明，賞罰失當，以致勞師糜餉，日久無功，褫職逮京治罪。 命大學士等會鞫，賽尚阿伏地流涕，自言不忍殺人辜負聖恩，論大辟，籍其家，三子並褫職。 未幾，釋出獄，發往直隸，交訥爾經額差遣，調京隨辦巡防。 五年，遣戍軍台，尋釋之，命練察哈爾蒙古兵。 十年，回京，總統左翼巡城事宜，予侍郎銜，授正紅旗蒙古副都統。 以病免。 光緒元年，卒。 子崇綺，自有傳。
Seeing Guilin's defenses in order and relief forces gathering, the rebels broke off the siege and fled north, taking Xing'an and Quanzhou in succession. Only then did Sai Shang'a move into the provincial capital and send Regional Commander Yu Wanqing and Brigade General Liu Changqing to attack Quanzhou. Jiang Zhongyuan routed the rebels at Suoyi Ford and killed the formidable rebel leader Feng Yunshan. The rebels then pushed into Hunan, taking Daozhou, Jianghua, Yongming, Jiahe, Lanshan, and Guiyang in succession; Sai Shang'a followed in their wake as far as Hengyang. From Chenzhou they fanned out into Liling and Youxian, then threatened Changsha, and their power swelled ever more menacingly. When Hunan Governor Luo Raodian reported the situation, Emperor Wenzong was furious; an edict denounced Sai Shang'a for confused command, muddled orders, and skewed rewards and punishments that had worn out the army, wasted funds, and produced nothing over months; he was stripped of office and sent to the capital for trial. Grand secretaries and others were ordered to try him jointly; Sai Shang'a prostrated himself in tears and said he could not bring himself to kill and had betrayed the emperor's trust; he was sentenced to death, his property was confiscated, and all three of his sons were dismissed from office. Before long he was released from prison, sent to Zhili under Ne'erjing'e's command, and recalled to the capital to help with patrol defense. In the fifth year (1855) he was banished to the military colonies; he was soon released and ordered to train the Chahar Mongol troops. In the tenth year (1860) he returned to Beijing, took charge of left-wing city patrols, was given vice-ministerial rank, and was appointed vice commander of the Mongol Plain Red Banner. He resigned on grounds of illness. He died in the first year of Guangxu (1875). His son Chongqi has his own biography.
7
訥爾經額，字近堂，費莫氏，滿洲正白旗人。 嘉慶八年繙譯進士，授妃園寢禮部主事，調工部，洊升郎中。 道光元年，出為山東兗沂曹道，遷湖南按察使，丁憂去職。 三年，起署山東按察使，尋實授。 承鞫教匪馬進忠獄得實，賜花翎，就遷布政使。 六年，擢漕運總督。 九年，調山東巡撫。 十二年，擢湖廣總督。 十六年，湖南新寧瑤生藍正樽習教傳徒，聚眾數千，攻武岡州城，為官兵擊退。 捕獲黨羽，而正樽逃逸，詔責訥爾經額嚴緝，久不獲，革職留任。 十七年，京察考績，詔斥訥爾經額玩洩無能，降湖南巡撫，限一年捕正樽。 尋以正樽已被鄉勇毆斃，奏下繼任總督林則徐確查虛實，則徐疏言鄉勇毆斃三賊，有正樽在內，以衣物為證，詔斥衣物出於事後呈驗，不足信，褫訥爾經額職，予三等侍衛，充駐藏辦事大臣。 逾年，晉頭等侍衛，調西寧辦事大臣。 二十年，擢熱河都統。 俄授陝甘總督，未之任，命署直隸總督，尋實授。
Ne'erjing'e, whose courtesy name was Jintang, belonged to the Feimo clan and came from the Manchu Plain White Banner. In Jiaqing 8 (1803) he qualified as a translation-track metropolitan graduate, served in the Ministry of Rites for the imperial consorts' tombs, moved to the Ministry of Works, and rose in steady succession to director. In the first year of Daoguang (1821) he became intendant of the Yan-Yi-Cao circuit in Shandong, was transferred to Hunan surveillance commissioner, and left office to observe mourning. In the third year (1823) he was recalled to serve as acting Shandong surveillance commissioner and soon received a substantive appointment. He took charge of the trial of the sect rebel Ma Jinzhong, proved the case, was awarded the peacock feather, and was promoted on the spot to provincial administration commissioner. In the sixth year (1826) he was promoted to Governor-General of Grain Transport. In the ninth year (1829) he was made governor of Shandong. In the twelfth year (1832) he was promoted to Governor-General of Huguang. In the sixteenth year (1836) Lan Zhengzun, a Yao from Xinning in Hunan who practiced the sect and gathered followers, mustered several thousand men and attacked Wugang but was driven back by government troops. His followers were captured but Zhengzun escaped; the court rebuked Ne'erjing'e for failing to hunt him down vigorously; after a long failure to capture him, he was stripped of rank but kept in post. In the seventeenth year (1837), at the capital performance review, an edict denounced Ne'erjing'e for slack incompetence, demoted him to governor of Hunan, and gave him one year to capture Zhengzun. Soon word came that local militia had beaten Zhengzun to death; the report was sent to his successor Lin Zexu for verification; Lin wrote that militia had killed three rebels, Zhengzun among them, citing clothing as evidence; the court rejected this, saying the clothing had been produced only afterward and was not credible; Ne'erjing'e was dismissed, given third-class bodyguard rank, and appointed commissioner in Tibet. A year later he was promoted to first-class bodyguard and transferred to commissioner at Xining. In the twentieth year (1840) he was promoted to commander at Rehe. He was soon appointed Governor-General of Shaanxi-Gansu but never took up the post; instead he was made acting Governor-General of Zhili and soon received a substantive appointment.
8
In the twenty-first year (1841) British warships appeared off Qinhuang Island; Ne'erjing'e was ordered to move to Tianjin to organize the defenses and was made Grand Guardian of the Heir Apparent. Troubles were mounting and finances were strained, yet frontier governors still clung to peacetime routines and shrank from reform. When the court debated military colonies and waterworks around the capital, Ne'erjing'e memorialized: "Military colonies cannot be implemented in the metropolitan region; previous dynasties tried waterworks repeatedly, starting and abandoning them again and again. This was truly because north and south differ in suitability and the people found it largely inconvenient." The proposal was shelved. Officials also proposed bringing the Changlu suspended-bank salt quota under direct government operation, as in Henan and Shandong. Ne'erjing'e said: "The suspended banks arise from private filling that blocks the salt certificates; if only smugglers are curbed, private merchants can also endure, and the licensed merchants will come without being summoned. There is no need to pursue the empty name of government operation and merely change the system to no practical benefit." In Xianfeng 2 (1852) he became associate grand secretary while remaining Governor-General of Zhili, and soon was made Grand Secretary of the Hall of Literary Depth while keeping the governorship.
9
三年，粵匪既踞江寧，分黨由安徽入河南，歸德、睢州、寧陵、蘭封相繼陷，河南巡撫陸應穀敗績。 賊窺開封，命訥爾經額防守大名，遏賊北竄。 令總兵花里雅遜布屯延津防河，雙祿守彰德為後繼，而賊酋林鳳祥、李開芳已自汜水渡河，陷溫縣，犯懷慶。 訥爾經額檄總兵董占元赴援，自駐臨洺關，請增調盛京、吉林步騎。 詔授訥爾經額為欽差大臣，節制河南、北諸軍。 賊圍懷慶久，知府余炳燾率紳民固守，賊周樹木柵為久困計。 援軍四集，惟都統勝保、將軍托明阿軍戰最力，花里雅遜布、董占元等隔丹水駐軍，畏賊不敢進。 勝保屢以為言，詔促訥爾經額進師夾擊，並防賊竄入山西，乃進駐清化鎮。 八月，諸軍五路合擊，破賊柵，賊大潰，圍乃解。 文宗大悅，賜訥爾經額雙眼花翎、黃馬褂，賚擢諸將有差。
In the third year (1853), with the Taiping holding Nanjing, a rebel column entered Henan from Anhui; Guide, Suizhou, Ningling, and Lanfeng fell in succession, and Henan Governor Lu Yinggu was defeated. As the rebels threatened Kaifeng, Ne'erjing'e was ordered to hold Daming and block any northward breakout. Brigade General Hualiyaxunbu was posted at Yanjin to guard the river and Shuang Lu at Zhangde as reserve, but rebel chiefs Lin Fengxiang and Li Kaifang had already crossed at Sishui, taken Wen County, and were threatening Huaiqing. Ne'erjing'e ordered Brigade General Dong Zhanyuan to the relief, took post himself at Linzhang Pass, and requested reinforcements of infantry and cavalry from Mukden and Jilin. He was appointed imperial commissioner with authority over the armies of Henan and the northern front. The rebels besieged Huaiqing for months; Prefect Yu Bingtao led local gentry and townspeople in a stubborn defense while the rebels ringed the city with wooden palisades for a long siege. Relief forces gathered from all sides; only Banner Commander Sheng Bao and General Tuoming'a fought with real vigor, while Hualiyaxunbu, Dong Zhanyuan, and others camped across the Dan River and, fearing the rebels, would not advance. Sheng Bao complained repeatedly; the court ordered Ne'erjing'e to advance for a pincer attack and guard against a rebel breakout into Shanxi, and he then moved forward to Qinghua Town. In the eighth month the armies struck in five columns, broke the rebel palisades, routed the rebels completely, and lifted the siege. Emperor Wenzong was delighted, gave Ne'erjing'e double-eyed peacock feathers and a yellow riding jacket, and rewarded and promoted the generals to varying degrees.
10
賊之敗竄也，諸軍以久戰疲罷，未能力追； 山西兵多調援，設防不密。 賊遂由濟源入太行山，連陷垣曲、陽城、曲沃，犯平陽府，擾及洪洞，並失守。 追軍皆落後，惟勝保先進，戰於平陽，挫之。 繞前扼賊北路，賊乃東趨。 訥爾經額回駐臨洺關，素不知兵，束手無措。 或告潞城、黎城間有孔道，循太行東出武安，密邇臨洺，然險隘可扼。 訥爾經額以非直隸轄境，諮山西巡撫守禦。 既而賊果破黎、潞，猶謂賊不能遽至。 忽有冒欽差大臣旗幟責州縣供張者，蓋賊之前驅已出山矣。 俄而麕至，官軍出不意，驚潰，訥爾經額以數十人走保廣平府城，關防、令箭、軍書、資械委棄皆盡。 事聞，褫職，留於直隸隨同辦理軍務。 賊遂大熾，畿輔半被蹂躪，京師震動。 命惠親王綿愉為大將軍，科爾沁郡王僧格林沁副之，勝保督師前敵追剿。 於是逮訥爾經額下獄，論斬監候。 逾年始殄賊，先後擒首逆林鳳祥、李開芳伏誅，畿輔肅清。 赦訥爾經額出獄，遣戍軍台。 逾年釋回，予六品頂戴，命守慕陵。 尋以四五品京堂候補。 七年，卒。 子蘊秀、衍秀，並官內閣學士。
When the rebels broke and fled, the armies, exhausted by months of fighting, could not pursue with force; most Shanxi troops had been sent to the relief effort, leaving the defenses thin. The rebels then entered the Taihang Mountains from Jiyuan, took Yuanqu, Yangcheng, and Quwo in succession, threatened Pingyang, and raided as far as Hongtong, all of which fell. The pursuing armies all lagged behind; only Sheng Bao pushed ahead, fought at Pingyang, and checked them. He swung ahead to block their northern route, and the rebels then turned east. Ne'erjing'e fell back to Linzhang Pass; he had never understood warfare and was utterly at a loss. Someone warned that between Lucheng and Licheng a route ran east along the Taihang to Wu'an, very close to Linzhang, though it could be blocked at the narrow passes. Because the route lay outside Zhili, Ne'erjing'e referred the matter to the Shanxi governor for defense. Before long the rebels did break through Li and Lu, yet he still insisted they could not arrive quickly. Suddenly men flying imperial commissioner banners were demanding provisions from local officials—the rebel vanguard had already come out of the mountains. Before long the rebels swarmed in; caught off guard, government troops broke and fled in panic; Ne'erjing'e escaped with only a few dozen men into Guangping city, leaving behind his seals, command arrows, dispatches, supplies, and weapons. When word reached the court he was stripped of office but kept in Zhili to help manage military affairs. The rebels then surged in strength; half the capital region was laid waste and Beijing was shaken. Prince Mianyu of the First Rank was made general-in-chief, with Khorchin Prince Sengge Rinchen as his deputy and Sheng Bao commanding the pursuit at the front. Ne'erjing'e was then arrested and sentenced to death, execution suspended. More than a year passed before the rebels were finally destroyed; chief leaders Lin Fengxiang and Li Kaifang were captured and executed in turn, and the capital region was pacified. He was pardoned, released from prison, and sent into exile at the military colonies. A year later he was released and recalled, given a sixth-rank cap button, and assigned to guard the imperial mausoleum. He was soon placed on the waiting list for fourth- and fifth-rank posts in the capital. He died in the seventh year. His sons Yunxiu and Yanxiu both rose to Grand Secretariat academician.
11
The historian remarks: Following established Qing practice, major military campaigns were entrusted to senior Manchu ministers as commanders-in-chief. Under Qianlong and Jiaqing, men such as Agui, Fukang'an, Lebao, and Eledengbao were all skilled strategists whose achievements were entered in the court's rolls of honor. Since the Daoguang reign only Changling, in pacifying the Western Regions, could be said to carry on that martial tradition. After that, Xi'en's campaign against the Yao and the coastal defense efforts of Yishan and Yijing brought censure through arrogance and extravagance in some cases and failure through rashness in others. When the Taiping rebellion first broke out, Li Xingyuan proved inadequate; Sai Shang'a replaced him but could not control his generals, and the rebels became unmanageable. Ne'erjing'e was no better—mediocre and timid—and when the capital region was thrown into alarm the court at last recognized the flaw in this system. Only Sengge Rinchen still took such commands, by virtue of his battlefield prestige; the court no longer lightly sent Grand Council and ministry officials to lead armies, and even when imperial princes nominally supervised campaigns from afar, they held the title without exercising real command. Talent and circumstance had changed, and the age could no longer be compared with the dynasty's first generations after entering China.