Another version of the fall of Tali-fu narrates that the Mahommedans invited the Chinese to a conference at one of the gates, having previously mined the ground. The Chinese came in force, but, struck with a sudden suspicion of doubt, retreated just before the explosion of the mine, which destroyed the gate and part of the wall. The Chinese then returned and stormed the city, but the citadel was too strong for them, and held out till surrendered as above described. The Mahommedans claimed in their version to have been successful in their stratagem, and to have destroyed great numbers of the enemy, of whom many panic-stricken rushed into the lake, and perished there. The fort or position of Hsia-kwan was stated by the Chinese to have been stormed by a night attack, headed by the Tartar general in person, who led the way over rocky heights supposed to be inaccessible. At all events, it is certain that Tali-fu fell in August 1872, and on the New Year of 1873 the governor-general of Yunnan sent forward letters to the king of Burma announcing the fact, and requesting the king to assist in the reopening of trade, as the rebellion was at an end; but, to use the words of Sir Thomas Wade, “the rebellion died hard,” for Momien and Woosaw still held out.
The governor of the former place had been visited by a high Panthay official, who was secretly a traitor to the cause, and advised surrender; whereupon the governor invited him into his Yamen, and promptly beheaded him. In February three officers arrived from Momien at Bhamô with letters addressed to the Chief Commissioner of Burma, and were forwarded to Rangoon. The town was finally captured in May, the strong south-western gate described in page 192 having been successfully mined; but the victors found no one in the city. The governor had succeeded in bribing the officer in command of the troops to the north of the town, who had been a former adherent of his own, and suffered his few remaining co-religionists to escape by night, much to the disappointment of the Chinese, who could not consider the country tranquillised while so brave and able a leader was at large. In June a proclamation was posted throughout the Shan valleys, announcing the marriage of the emperor and the fall of Momien, and inviting all the people to return to their homes and cultivate their lands.
The ex-governor was heard of from time to time as lurking in the mountains with a few faithful followers, and orders were issued from the king of Burma that he should be seized if found on Burmese territory, and surrendered to the Chinese. This order was issued in compliance with a request sent by an envoy from the viceroy of Yunnan to the king; but he managed to elude both Chinese and Burmese, and succeeded in entering Hoothaw or Woosaw, the last remaining stronghold of his party.
This place, three days’ march north-west of Momien, is described as a town of one thousand houses, surrounded by a stone wall twenty feet high, and defended on one side by a deep stream, and altogether stronger and more flourishing than Momien. Its position must be at a high elevation, as in winter the swamps are frozen hard enough to bear men on the ice. Communication is carried on between this place and Lay-myo, one hundred miles north of Bhamô, on the Namthabet, an affluent of the Irawady, by which route the officers from Momien reached Bhamô.
Woosaw was captured at the end of May 1874, but the ex-tah-sa-kon and the principal officers succeeded in escaping to Chang-see, a town south-west of Woosaw, and eight days distant from Talo, on the Irawady, while his sons were at Tseedai assisting the tsawbwa in a fight with the Wacheoon chief.
The Panthays, in their turn, had become dacoits, as they had formerly termed Li-sieh-tai’s troops, and from their lurking-places on the hills near Nantin attacked the caravans going to Momien; while the last news of the ex-tah-sa-kon, who for a time was supposed to be dead, were that he had joined the Shan rebel Tsan-hai, who was committing acts of brigandage in the Burmese Shan state of Namkan, on the left bank of the Shuaylee.
Thus in the middle of 1874 the Chinese authority had been thoroughly re-established. As early as August 1873, an imperial proclamation had been issued in the Pekin Gazette, in which the emperor congratulated himself on the termination of the war, which had lasted eighteen years, and in which the half of the prefectural and district cities had been taken by the rebels. All arrears of taxes due up to 1872 were remitted, and the le-kin, or special war tax, was declared to be no longer required. Li-sieh-tai was appointed commissioner of the Koshanpyi or Shan states; and Sie-ta-lin, the newly invested Chinese governor of Momien, and the officials of the other strong towns, set themselves to restore trade and resettle the country, which had been deserted and left desolate for years. It can be well imagined that no little hatred of the Panthays, not unmixed with fear, animated all the border Chinese, and the constant rumours that the rebels were collecting for a new attack combined with the actual robberies committed to keep all the Chinese officials on the qui vive.
It has been already mentioned how the trade between Burma and China increased from 1872, as soon as the head of the Mahommedan revolt was crushed at Tali-fu. It is a significant fact that in 1873 the Chinese governor of Muanglong, situated to the south-west of Momien, sent orders to his feudatory, the tsawbwa of Sehfan, to open trade to Bhamô at any risk; and the chief, in announcing the intended departure of a large caravan, requested the Resident at Bhamô to send a deputy to meet him at Hotha.
The routes were regularly open, and large quantities of cotton, &c., exported, both by Bhamô and Theinnee, although disorders still existed, and straggling dacoits and lawless Kakhyens frequently attacked the caravans. Under these circumstances, the Chief Commissioner of British Burma, the Hon. Ashley Eden, conceived that the time had come for renewing, under more favourable conditions, the opening of the overland trade route to British commerce. In this he was strongly seconded by the commercial community at Rangoon. The question of the establishment of a British Consul at Tali-fu was also discussed. The first point to be attained was to secure a safe transit from Burma into China. The passage of a peaceful British expedition, which would on its journey thoroughly examine the capabilities of the country beyond Momien, and perhaps discover an easier and better route from Bhamô to Yunnan, was still regarded as the direct method of preparing the way.
In 1874, Lord Salisbury, the Secretary of State for India, decided to send a second expedition to penetrate China from Burma, and pass through, if practicable, to Shanghai. To avoid possible misunderstandings, and to make it plain to the Western Chinese mandarins that the foreign visitors were of the same nation as the English who lived and traded in the treaty ports, her Majesty’s Minister at Pekin was instructed to send a consular official, duly furnished with imperial passports, to meet the mission on the frontiers of China. Having secured the full permission of the Pekin government, Sir T. Wade selected Mr. Margary, a young but most promising member of the consular service, thoroughly versed in Chinese language and etiquette, to proceed from Shanghai to Momien. A plan had been at first proposed of despatching a party by way of the Theinnee route from Mandalay, but had been negatived by the king of Burma, on the ground of a rebellion then existing in a Burmese Shan state on the road. Consequently there was no other alternative but to proceed by one or other of the routes from Bhamô. The consent of the king was secured to this measure, although at first his Majesty objected to an armed escort, as he was quite willing to send a sufficient force to convoy the mission to the Chinese frontier; but when he understood that the armed escort would only consist of fifteen Sikhs, he withdrew his objection, and promised his full support and assistance. A considerable quantity of valuable presents were prepared for distribution among the chiefs and officials en route. These included a supply of edible birds’ nests, jewellery, binoculars, musical-boxes, and silver-mounted revolvers. Two valuable horses, one a magnificent Australian or Waler, and the other an Arab, were destined as presents to the viceroy of Yunnan, and a pair of large Australian kangaroo dogs were added to the convoy.