ABSTRACT
Lian Liwen had tried to persuade the Taiping leadership to rescind the "massacre order". The massacre at Quanzhou had been a great shock to him, as well. The approaching Taipings had forged a massive military force of several tens of thousands of troops, while the government regulars in Quanzhou, even counting the reinforcements, numbered barely a thousand. The immense army of the Taipings then flooded into the city in a great surging mass. The massacre was carried out. The Taipings, so clearly a religious band till this point, seemed transformed into a pack of wild beasts. Among the rows of troops pulling out of Quanzhou was a sedan chair built much larger than the ordinary size, being borne on the shoulders of eight men. Feng Yunshan was inside on his back. Severely wounded, he had nonetheless seen the fall of Quanzhou city, though not the massacre that ensued.
