By the middle of March the last places in the north valley had been relieved, but the rebels still held the fortress of To-Pa, the honour of reducing which was left to General Uei, a task he and his soldiers (15,000) proved quite unable to accomplish. He was at length superseded by General Teng, who was ordered back to Sining from the district where he had been very successful. His return was followed by many of the worst of the rebels leaving the country, and by the fall of To-Pa, when the execution of ringleaders was recommenced, and went on without cessation for many days, about sixteen being brought in daily for justice.
After this, there was one more outbreak in the south-east; about 400 rebels were killed in a fight, the Chinese losing about a hundred. This was on the 10th of June, some fifteen months after the disturbance at Hsiun-Hua-Ting, and was the last of the regular fighting that occurred.
Law and order was gradually restored; business became brisk, but for a long time disease, especially diphtheria, was rampant, and the stench in the streets was appalling. By the time we passed through Sining, towards the end of October, all signs of the rebellion had passed away from within the city walls, but outside was ample testimony to the severity of the struggle, nor could it be otherwise when one reflects that 10,000 rebels were reported to have fled to the north-west, 10,000 more, chiefly old men, women, and children, to have died of cold and starvation on the mountains, and 18,000, almost entirely women and children, to have submitted. Excepting the 10,000 who got away to the north-west, all the able-bodied young men had been simply wiped out.
Such bloody disturbances affected the homes of other people as well, for the rebels who fled north-west over the districts in the neighbourhood of the Koko Nor, spread a feeling of the greatest consternation amongst the inhabitants through whose land they passed. The Mohammedans were fleeing for their lives, and being without the necessaries of life hesitated at no deeds of plunder whenever a chance occurred. On the other hand, the poor Mongols, being of a more peaceful nature, and possessing but inferior arms, had no resource left but abandoning their homes to seek safety in flight until the hungry wave had rolled on.
These cruel acts of devastation naturally caused some anxiety to the Chinese officials residing in Chinese Turkistan, so much so, that they deemed it expedient to make appeals to the Russians for help in case it might be required. It must not be lost sight of that the Mohammedans of Chinese Turkistan might have become contaminated and followed the example of their co-religionists in the east. Had that been the case, the results might have been extremely serious.
As soon as the rebellion had been completely quelled, there remained in the recently disturbed districts thousands of idle soldiers who had received their arms for the occasion. These men, although they had been marched up from Shantong and other provinces, were disbanded in Kansu, many hundreds of miles away from their homes, and, having spent all the pay they had received, they started a system of highway robbery, and in other ways became a source of danger to all. This was to some extent carried on with impunity, as there was a scarcity of men of the district, for in addition to the 40,000 Chinese who had been slain, there were some 5,000 more who had died from diseases contracted through the overcrowding and filthiness of the streets.
Before the soldiers had squandered their money, trade, in spite of the high prices demanded, was brisk.
The difference in the prices of food before and after the rebellion, will give some idea of the privations undergone by the poorer classes, more especially by the women and children:—
| Before the Rebellion. | After. | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wheat, rose from | 700 | cash. | 1700 | cash. | ||
| Oats, rose from | 450 | cash. | 1250 | cash. | ||
| Barley, rose from | 400 | cash. | 1000 | cash. | ||
| Peas, rose from | 600 | cash. | 1250 | cash. | ||
| Bran, rose from | 150 | cash. | 550 | cash. | ||
| Salt, rose from | 1200 | cash. | 2500 | cash. | ||
| Chickens, each | 60 | cash. | 140 to 160 | cash. | ||
| Pheasants, each | 80 | cash. | 125 to 150 | cash. | ||
| Oil, per pound | 43 | cash. | 110 | cash. | ||
| Coals, per pound | 2 | ½ | cash. | 4 | ½ | cash. |
| Pork, per pound | 80 | cash. | 140 | cash. | ||
| Mutton, per pound | 35 | cash. | 60 | cash. | ||
Winter pears from 6 to 15 to 25 to 50 cash each; vegetables in the same proportion.