Through Unknown Tibet

by M. S. Wellby

General Teng left Sining for the disturbed district about the end of April, and was absent about two months, defeating the rebels in two battles, and taking the city of Hsiun-Hua-Ting. Soon after his return, however, disquieting rumours were heard of further risings at Ho-Cheo and other places.

Ho-Cheo is the principal Mohammedan city in Kansu. Their chief colleges are there, and it is one of the few places where Arabic is well known. An outbreak there was almost certain to ensure the rebellion becoming general, and no longer remaining confined to the "white-capped" sect.

Since the last rebellion, which ended some twenty-three years ago, no Mohammedans have been allowed to reside inside the cities, but have been compelled to reside in the suburbs, and seeing that in 1895 nearly every town of importance in Kansu had a Mohammedan suburb, the seriousness of a general outbreak can be imagined.

On the 11th July, General Teng again left Sining for the seat of war, and in a very few days he inflicted a severe defeat on the rebels, killing 700, with but slight loss to his own side; but the tide of rebellion was now too strong to be checked, and the death of a few hundreds made no appreciable difference. Sining was gradually being closed in, and was now almost shut off from the seat of war. To add to the trouble, a rumour got about that 10,000 Mohammedans in the east suburb of Sining itself were on the eve of rebelling, a danger which would be rendered even more serious by the absence of the general with every available soldier from the garrison.

Towards the end of July the enemy gradually closed in on the city, burning villages, and murdering men, women, and children; in Sin-Tien-Pu, a city to the west, about 2,000 people were killed. To-Pa, a walled town, was able to hold its own, but in most places the inhabitants were powerless to defend themselves, greatly owing to want of able and determined leaders. Sining itself was little better, but happily for all within the walls General Teng suddenly returned.

Shortly after his arrival it became known that certain influential people in the city had made a plot, which would, they hoped, result in his degradation, thereby removing the greatest obstacle in the way of Mohammedan success. A certain gentleman of the name of Chu, backed up by three other men of position, had drawn up a petition, which he had presented to the Taitai general, with a request that it might be forwarded to Lancheo. The petition was to the effect that after his last big fight, General Teng had ruthlessly butchered 700 harmless individuals, and that he ought to be disgraced. It seems incredible that even Chinamen could be so lost to any sense of patriotism, that they could accept Mohammedan silver as a reward for bringing about the downfall of the one man on whom the safety of their fellow-countrymen depended. The news of this plot soon spread among the people, and retribution swiftly followed. Mr. Chu was caught in the streets, and paid the penalty for his treachery with his life, while his three colleagues narrowly escaped. Their houses were wrecked, and every stick of property was destroyed by the infuriated mob.

The villages in the immediate vicinity of Sining were the next to suffer, and on the 26th July a large number of wounded people, mostly women and children, arrived in the city. The Temple of the God of Literature was turned into a temporary hospital, and the missionaries were begged to go and see what they could do for the sufferers. Needless to say, they lost not a moment in answering this appeal, and from that time on their hands were full, from early morning to late at night.

How some of the wounded ever managed to struggle as far as the city is more than the missionaries could tell us. One old woman, sixty-four years of age, had fourteen lance thrusts and a sword cut on her body, while a six-months-old child had three sword cuts on its face alone, and yet both these and many others in similar cases had travelled a distance of seventeen English miles before they could get any aid. So badly wounded were some of them, that they had taken three and four days on the road, and yet they had lived through it all.

All August the enemy ravaged the country, burning and pillaging, and a few small engagements took place. On the 16th August two rebels were caught and brought into the city. They said that there were 9,000 rebels in the valley to the north of Sining, that they were going to block the road from Lancheo, under Han-Uen-Sheo, the chief insurrectionary leader, and that Sining itself was to be surrounded on the 15th of the seventh moon—i.e., on the 3rd September.

A curious story came in about this time from Sin Ch'eng, whether true or not I cannot say; but the story goes that the rebels had succeeded in cutting the people off from the river, their only water supply. Death stared them in the face, for to surrender meant death without mercy; but Providence was on their side, for the rats in the town had worked a way to the river bed, and through this the water trickled into the city, slowly at first, but gradually increasing in volume until the supply was sufficient for man and beast.