After Some Bloodshed, Two Imperial
Commissioners Were Sent From Pekin To Restore Order.
The principal
Mohammedan leader formed a plot to murder the commissioners, and on their
arrival he rushed into their presence and slew one of them with his own
hand.
His co-religionists deplored the rash act, and voluntarily seized
and surrendered him for the purpose of undergoing a cruel death. But
although he was torn to pieces, that fact did not satisfy the outraged
dignity of the emperor. A command was issued in Tungche's name to the
effect that all those who persisted in following the creed of Islam should
perish by the sword. From Shensi the outbreak spread into the adjoining
province of Kansuh; and the local garrisons were vanquished in a pitched
battle at Tara Ussu, beyond the regular frontier. The insurgents did not
succeed, however, in taking any of the larger towns of Shensi, and after
threatening with capture the once famous city of Singan, they were
gradually expelled from that province. The Mohammedan rebellion within the
limits of China proper would not, therefore, have possessed more than
local importance but for the fact that it encouraged a similar outbreak in
the country further west, and that it resulted in the severance of the
Central Asian provinces from China for a period of many years.
The uprising of the Mohammedans in the frontier provinces appealed to the
secret fears as well as to the longings of the Tungan settlers and
soldiers in all the towns and military stations between Souchow and
Kashgar. The sense of a common peril, more perhaps than the desire to
attain the same object, led to revolts at Hami, Barkul, Urumtsi, and
Turfan, towns which formed a group of industrious communities half-way
between the prosperous districts of Kansuh on the one side and Kashgar on
the other. The Tungani at these towns revolted under the leading of their
priests, and imitated the example of their co-religionists within the
settled borders of China by murdering all who did not accept their creed.
After a brief interval, which we may attribute to the greatness of the
distance, to the vigilance of the Chinese garrison, or to the apathy of
the population, the movement spread to the three towns immediately west of
Turfan, Karashar, Kucha, and Aksu, where it came into contact with, and
was stopped by, another insurrectionary movement under Mohammedan, but
totally distinct, auspices. West of Aksu the Tungan rebellion never
extended south of the Tian Shan range. The defection of the Tungani, who
had formed a large proportion, if not the majority, of the Chinese
garrisons, paralyzed the strength of the Celestials in Central Asia. Both
in the districts dependent on Ili, and in those ruled from Kashgar and
Yarkand, the Chinese were beset by many great and permanent difficulties.
They were with united strength a minority, and now that they were divided
among themselves almost a hopeless minority. The peoples they governed
were fanatical, false, and fickle. The ruler of Khokand and the refugees
living on his bounty were always on the alert to take the most advantage
of the least slip or act of weakness on the part of the governing classes.
Their machinations had been hitherto baffled, but never before had so
favorable an opportunity presented itself for attaining their wishes as
when it became known that the whole Mohammedan population was up in arms
against the emperor, and that communications were severed between Kashgar
and Pekin. The attempts made at earlier periods on the part of the members
of the old ruling family in Kashgar to regain their own by expelling the
Chinese have been described. In 1857 Wali Khan, one of the sons of
Jehangir, had succeeded in gaining temporary possession of the city of
Kashgar, and seemed for a moment to be likely to capture Yarkand also. He
fell by his vices. The people soon detested the presence of the man to
whom they had accorded a too hasty welcome. After a rule of four months he
fled the country, vanquished in the field by the Chinese garrison, and
followed by the execrations of the population he had come to deliver. The
invasion of Wali Khan further imbittered the relations between the Chinese
and their subjects; and a succession of governors bore heavily on the
Mohammedans. Popular dissatisfaction and the apprehension in the minds of
the governing officials that their lives might be forfeited at any moment
to a popular outbreak added to the dangers of the situation in Kashgar
itself, when the news arrived of the Tungan revolt, and of the many other
complications which hampered the action of the Pekin ruler. We cannot
narrate here the details of the rebellion in Kashgar. Its influence on the
history of China would not sanction such close exactitude. But in the year
1863 the Chinese officials had become so alarmed at their isolated
position that they resolved to adopt the desperate expedient of massacring
all the Mohammedans or Tungani in their own garrisons. The amban and his
officers were divided in council and dilatory in execution. The Tungani
heard of the plot while the governor was summoning the nerve to carry it
out. They resolved to anticipate him. The Mohammedans at Yarkand, the
largest and most important garrison in the country, rose in August, 1863,
and massacred all the Buddhist Chinese. Seven thousand men are computed to
have fallen. A small band fled to the citadel, which they held for a short
time; but at length, overwhelmed by numbers, they preferred death to
dishonor, and destroyed themselves by exploding the fort with the
magazine. The defection of the Tungani thus lost Kashgaria for the
Chinese, as the other garrisons and towns promptly followed the example of
Yarkand; but they could not keep it for themselves. The spectacle of this
internal dissension proved irresistible for the adventurers of Khokand,
and Buzurg, the last surviving son of Jehangir, resolved to make another
bid for power and for the recovery of the position for which his father
and kinsmen had striven in vain.
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