 October 1864 around 12,000 pro-Taiping forces commanded by the Shi King Li Shixian captured Zhangzhou.They held the city for several months until surrendering in the next summer.Li, and his remaining force of 40,000, came back to eastern Guangdong province, the Guangdong had been home to many Taiping forces of the first generation before they were driven out of their homeland during the first Battle of Nanking.