Later in his life, he invited an aging Wei Yuan to live in his home and was known to hold counsel with the famous scholar.

Army Group Jiangnan (江南大營) of the Qing empire had encircled the Taiping capital of Nanjing twice, laying siege in an attempt to end the war.

The second siege consisted of nearly 200,000 Qing soldiers by March 1858, but they were routed when Li Shixian's Taiping force broke out of the capital in May 1860.

[citation needed] October 1864 around 12,000 pro-Taiping forces commanded by the Shi King Li Shixian captured Zhangzhou.

Zuo Zongtang ordered six major generals to lead 70,000 soldiers of the Qing army, staging them for an invasion in Jiaoling County.