Then He Wished His
Khokandian Allies Back Again; But He Still Resolved To Make As Good A
Fight As He Could For The Throne He Had Acquired; And When The Chinese
General Chang Marched On Kashgar, Jehangir Took Up His Position At
Yangabad And Accepted Battle.
He was totally defeated; the capture of
Kashgar followed, and Jehangir himself fell into the hands of the victors.
The Khoja was sent to Pekin, where, after many indignities, he was
executed and quartered as a traitor.
The Chinese punished all open rebels
with death, and as a precaution against the recurrence of rebellion they
removed 12,000 Mohammedan families from Kashgar to Ili, where they became
known as the Tarantchis, or toilers. They also took the very wise step of
prohibiting all intercourse with Khokand, and if they had adhered to this
resolution they would have saved themselves much serious trouble. But
Mahomed Ali was determined to make an effort to retain so valuable a
perquisite as his trade relations with Kashgar, and as soon as the Chinese
had withdrawn the main portion of their force he hastened to assail
Kashgar at the head of his army, and put forward Yusuf as a successor to
Jehangir. Only desultory fighting ensued, but his operations were so far
successful that the Chinese agreed to resort to the previous arrangement,
and Mahomed Ali promised to restrain the Khojas. Fourteen years of peace
and prosperity followed this new convention.
Serious disorders also broke out in the islands of Formosa and Hainan. In
the former the rebellion was only put down by a judicious manipulation of
the divisions of the insurgent tribes; but the settlement attained must be
pronounced so far satisfactory that the peace of the island was assured.
In Hainan, an island of extraordinary fertility and natural wealth, which
must some day be developed, the aboriginal tribes revolted against Chinese
authority, and massacred many of the Chinese settlers, who had begun to
encroach on the possessions of the natives. Troops had to be sent from
Canton before the disorders were suppressed, and then Hainan reverted to
its tranquil state, from which only the threat of a French occupation
during the Tonquin war roused it. These disorders in different parts of
the empire were matched by troubles of a more domestic character within
the palace. In 1831 Taoukwang's only son, a young man of twenty, whose
character was not of the best, gave him some cause of offense, and he
struck him. The young prince died of the blow, and the emperor was left
for the moment without a child. His grief was soon assuaged by the news
that two of his favorite concubines had borne him sons, one of whom became
long afterward the Emperor Hienfung. At this critical moment Taoukwang was
seized with a severe illness, and his elder brother, Hwuy Wang, whose
pretensions had threatened the succession, thinking his chance had at last
come, took steps to seize the throne. But Taoukwang recovered, and those
who had made premature arrangements in filling the throne were severely
punished.
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