Through Unknown Tibet

by M. S. Wellby

On the 2nd of January, 1896, about twelve horse soldiers arrived and demanded admission to the city, saying that they had come from Lancheo, that General Li, Commander-in-Chief of the Kansu forces, was a few miles behind, and that a Colonel T'ang, from Lancheo, was also following. However, they had no official documents, and admission was refused until the Commander-in-Chief himself should arrive. Meanwhile the excitement in the city at the prospect of the siege shortly coming to an end was intense, an excitement which was increased by the non-arrival of the Commander-in-Chief, and by a very large body of men, apparently soldiers, being seen to pass into the rebel quarters in the suburb. Next day the excitement increased, if possible. Colonel T'ang arrived, and was admitted; but it was reported that General Li was afraid to come into the city, lest the people should attack him. However, the next day he arrived, the rebels apparently making no efforts to prevent his entry.

As soon as the Commander-in-Chief had been received officially by the city dignitaries, he was intercepted by a deputation of the gentry, who presented him with a memorandum they had prepared, showing the places which had been destroyed, and a list of the 40,000 people slain. The General then explained that the rebels had submitted to him at Ping-Chong-i, and that through want of ammunition, and having already suffered two defeats, he had been compelled to accept their submission, instead of being able to punish them.[12] The procession then wound its way to the principal yamen. The streets were crowded with people, all begging and beseeching the Commander-in-Chief on no account to make terms with the enemy, but to avenge the deaths of those they had lost. This must have been a most affecting sight, especially when one remembers that there can have been few, if any, in all that crowd, who had not lost a husband, a wife, a brother, a sister, or some other near relative, in those terrible months of civil war. But there were not yet sufficient troops in Sining to enable the Chinese to take the offensive.

On the 7th of January the first news of the outer world since the 24th of July reached the missionaries in Sining, as a small party of soldiers brought them up a quantity of letters from Lancheo. All danger was now at an end; there were plenty of troops near at hand, and communication with the east had been established. The final relief was effected on the 14th of the same month, when the first batch of troops, 2,000 in number, arrived amid general rejoicing, especially as their leader was General Ho, a native of the district, in whom the people had far greater confidence than they had in the Commander-in-Chief.

The work of retribution now began. The submission accepted by Commander-in-Chief Li was set aside, and the Chinese gave full play to their lust for vengeance. First the south suburb was absolutely wrecked, the rebels' houses were gutted, and their mosque razed to the ground. About thirty of them who were hiding in cupboards and other places were promptly killed. Some notices were put up in the city the same evening, saying that, as the people had submitted to the Commander-in-Chief their property was to be respected. The only answer from the infuriated mob was to tear down the notices, smash up the notice boards, and drag the responsible officials from their houses into the streets, where they were mercilessly beaten, and but for the prompt action of General Teng, to whom alone the people looked for orders, they would certainly have been killed. Had the Commander-in-Chief been in the city at the time he would have fared no better, and possibly worse.

For the next month Generals Ho and Teng were occupied driving the rebels out of the villages and strongholds they had captured, and restoring order in the district, the method employed being the somewhat drastic one of putting to death without question every Mohammedan who fell into their hands; thus at Shen-Chong, a village twenty miles up the south valley, 600 to 700 were slaughtered, while many set fire to their houses and were burnt to death.

This cleared the south valley and opened the road to T'ah-rï-sï, where the festival of the Chinese New Year was held as usual, on the 12th February. The north valley and the east suburb still had to be dealt with.

On the 15th February a number of Chinese went up the north valley to worship at the graves of their ancestors, some soldiers having preceded them the day before. While engaged in their devotions, and thinking little of danger, 200 rebels wearing Chinese uniforms suddenly swept down upon them from the west, and finding them defenceless, cut them down right and left; fortunately, some cavalry from the city came to the rescue promptly and so saved many lives, but fifty had already been killed and numbers wounded. One boy was brought into Sining with twenty-four wounds, another with seventeen, and a third with sixteen. How these ever recovered is a marvel, but recover they did, thanks to the missionaries. Can one wonder after this that the Chinese soldiers refused to spare any, even when ordered to do so by their officers.

Village after village now fell into the hands of the two generals, who, on the 19th February, were reinforced by ten battalions (5000 men) from the south, under General Uei-Kuang-Tao, commander-in-chief of the Hunan troops. These troops were quartered in the east suburb, and on their arrival Commander-in-Chief Li took the earliest opportunity to leave a city where he was so cordially disliked, and where his safety was very doubtful. With a view to getting away, he summoned those leaders who had tendered their submission at Ping Chong Island, handed them and their affairs over to General Teng, and left for Lancheo with thirty or forty followers.

Commander-in-Chief Li's departure was the signal for a general slaughter to commence, and the quicker we pass over this painful subject the better. Suffice it to say that the name of every rebel of any importance was extracted from these leaders, those in the suburb were called out, any refusing to come were killed on the spot, and the remainder murdered after a semblance of a trial; the only thing we can say is that torture, so common a feature of Chinese justice, was never resorted to—retribution was sure and swift. For many days this continued, as rebels were brought in from the villages to be dealt with in the city, the heads of important men being hung up in cages just inside the west gate.

Meanwhile the Hunan soldiers under General Uei were not distinguishing themselves; they were worsted in nearly every engagement, and Generals Ho and Teng constantly had to come to their assistance. One little incident rather tended to dim their fame in the eyes of those who had been so long besieged. Eight battalions went to retake a small village called Su-kia-pu. For four days they bombarded it steadily without a shot being fired in reply, but fearing some deep-laid plot, they dared not attempt an assault; on the fourth day General Ho came to their assistance. Encouraged by these reinforcements, the Hunan troops rushed to take the stronghold by storm. They had just got to the gate when they were met by an old woman, who meekly inquired why they had been firing so long, for besides herself there were only two old women in the village; she herself was lame and the other two blind, for which reasons they had stayed when every one else had run away.