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.
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