The Embarrassment Of Ma
Julung And The Yunnan Officials, Already Sufficiently Acute, Was At This
Conjuncture Further Aggravated By An Outbreak In Their Rear Among The
Miaotze And Some Other Mountain Tribes In The Province Of Kweichow.
To the
difficulty of coping with a strongly placed enemy in front was thus added
that of maintaining communications
Through a hostile and difficult region.
A third independent party had also come into existence in Yunnan, where an
ex-Chinese official named Liang Shihmei had set up his own authority at
Linan, mainly, it was said, through jealousy of the Mohammedans taken into
the service of the government. The greatest difficulty of all was to
reconcile the pretensions of the different commanders, for the Chinese
officials, and the Futai Tsen Yuying in particular, regarded Ma Julung
with no friendly eye. With the year 1867, both sides having collected
their strength, more active operations were commenced, and Ma Julung
proceeded in person, at the head of the best troops he could collect, to
engage Tu Wensiu. It was at this time that the imperialists adopted the
red flag as their standard in contradistinction to the white flag of the
insurgents. A desultory campaign ensued, but although Ma Julung evinced
both courage and capacity, the result was on the whole unfavorable to him;
and he had to retreat to the capital, where events of some importance had
occurred during his absence in the field. The viceroy, who had been
stanchly attached to Ma Julung, died suddenly and under such circumstances
as to suggest a suspicion of foul play; and Tsen Yuying had by virtue of
his rank of Futai assumed the temporary discharge of his duties.
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Page 578 of 704
Words from 156834 to 157114
of 191255
