On The Removal Of His Dead Body For
Sepulture To Kashgar His Eldest Son, Kuli Beg, Murdered His Younger
Brother Over Their Father's Bier.
It was then that Hakim Khan came
prominently forward as a rival to Kuli Beg, and that the Mohammedans, weak
and numerically few as they were, divided themselves into two hostile
parties.
While the Chinese were recruiting their troops and repairing
their losses, the enemy were exhausting themselves in vain and useless
struggles. In June, 1877, Hakim Khan was signally defeated and compelled
to flee into Russian territory, whence on a later occasion he returned for
a short time in a vain attempt to disturb the tranquillity of Chinese
rule. When, therefore, the Chinese resumed their advance much of their
work had been done for them. They had only to complete the overthrow of an
enemy whom they had already vanquished, and who was now exhausted by his
own disunion. The Chinese army made no forward movement from Toksoun until
the end of August, 1877. Liu Kintang, to whom the command of the advance
had been given, did not leave until one month later; and when he arrayed
his forces he found them to number about 15,000 men. It had been decided
that the first advance should not be made in greater force, as the chief
difficulty was to feed the army, not to defeat the enemy.
The resistance encountered was very slight, and the country was found to
be almost uninhabited. Both Karashar and Korla were occupied by a Chinese
garrison, and the district around them was intrusted to the administration
of a local chief. Information that the rebel force was stationed at the
next town, Kucha, which is as far beyond Korla as that place is from
Toksoun, induced Liu Kintang to renew his march and to continue it still
more rapidly. A battle was fought outside Kucha in which the Chinese were
victorious, but not until they had overcome stubborn resistance. However,
the Chinese success was complete, and with Kucha in their power they had
simplified the process of attacking Kashgar itself. A further halt was
made at this town to enable the men to recover from their fatigue, to
allow fresh troops to come up, and measures to be taken for insuring the
security of communications with the places in the rear. At Kucha also the
work of civil administration was intrusted to some of the local notables.
The deliberation of the Chinese movements, far from weakening their
effect, invested their proceedings with the aspect of being irresistible.
The advance was shortly resumed. Aksu, a once flourishing city within the
limits of the old kingdom of Kashgar, surrendered at the end of October.
Ush Turfan yielded a few days later. The Chinese had now got within
striking distance of the capital of the state. They had only to provide
the means of making the blow as fatal and decisive as possible. In
December they seized Maralbashi, an important position on the Kashgar
Darya, commanding the principal roads to both Yarkand and Kashgar. Yarkand
was the chief object of attack. It surrendered without a blow on December
21. A second Chinese army had been sent from Maralbashi to Kashgar, which
was defended by a force of several thousand men. It had been besieged nine
days, when Liu Kintang arrived with his troops from Yarkand. A battle
ensued, in which the Mohammedans were vanquished, and the city with the
citadel outside captured. Several rebel leaders and some eleven hundred
men were said to have been executed; but Kuli Beg escaped into Russian
territory. The city of Kashgar was taken on December 26, and one week
later the town of Khoten, famous from a remote period for its jade
ornaments, passed into the hands of the race who best appreciated their
beauty and value. The Chinese thus brought to a triumphant conclusion the
campaigns undertaken for the reassertion of their authority over the
Mohammedan populations which had revolted. They had conquered in this war
by the superiority of their weapons and their organization, and not by an
overwhelming display of numbers. Although large bodies of troops were
stationed at many places, it does not seem that the army which seized the
cities of Yarkand and Kashgar numbered more than twenty thousand men.
Having vanquished their enemy in the field, the Celestials devoted all
their attention to the reorganization of what was called the New Dominion,
the capital of which after much deliberation was fixed at Urumtsi. Their
rule has been described by a Mussulman as being both very fair and very
just.
Having conquered Eastern Turkestan, the Chinese next took steps for the
recovery of Ili. Without the metropolitan province the undertaking of Tso
Tsung Tang would lack completeness, while indeed many political and
military dangers would attend the situation in Central Asia. But this was
evidently a matter to be effected in the first place by negotiation, and
not by violence and force of arms. Russia had always been a friendly and
indeed a sympathetic neighbor. In this very matter of Ili she had
originally acted with the most considerate attention for China's rights,
when it seemed that they had permanently lost all definite meaning, for
she had declared that she would surrender it on China sending a sufficient
force to take possession, and now this had been done. It was, therefore,
by diplomatic representations on the part of the Tsungli Yamen to the
Russian Minister at Pekin that the recovery of Ili was expected in the
first place to be achieved. At about the same time the Russian authorities
at Tashkent came to the conclusion that the matter must rest with the
Czar, and the Chinese official world perceived that they would have to
depute a Minister Plenipotentiary to St. Petersburg.
The official selected for the difficult and, as it proved, dangerous task
of negotiating at St. Petersburg, was that same Chung How who had been
sent to Paris after the Tientsin massacre.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 169 of 188
Words from 171270 to 172270
of 191255