ABSTRACT
The study of military history is an inquiry into military art which requires knowledge of military science and, even more important, should be undertaken by someone practiced in revolutionary warfare. Thus when someone like author attempts this type of research there are bound to be errors. Seventeen years ago in the title of this pamphlet the author used the name "Nien Army" to refer to the new Taiping army which, after the loss of the Heavenly Capital, had reorganized the local rebels of Meng and Po under the leadership of the Taiping general Lai Wen-kuang. This was a rather serious error of objectivism which ignored the people's viewpoint. Today Chinese academic circles still refer to this force as the Nien Army, an error which the author was the first to commit. This is a rather complicated issue. The Taipings and the Nien were two different organizations, two different revolutionary forces.
